Code of Vengeance: The Complete Collection, page 23
She trusted Bryce, but old habits die hard. “Why are you doing this?”
He shrugged and turned away. “Figured I’d risked my career to save your life. I didn’t want the investment to go to waste.” His voice was gruff, but Nat heard the concern underneath.
Speaking to no one in particular, he continued. “There’s an arrest record that mentions this place. The last inhabitants were a small drug-dealing group. You’ll want to clear those as well. All the cases are long cold.”
Nat looked over at Br00-S. “What do you think?”
“Better than the van.”
That was no small understatement. The van had been their home since Felix’s arrest, but it was never designed for two. They were ready to choke each other at the slightest provocation.
It was funny, she thought, how soon life returned to a sense of normalcy. It had only been two weeks since she was kidnapped and Felix arrested, but it felt like a lifetime ago.
One of their first orders of business had been to get Nat examined. She had told Bryce about the nanobots in her bloodstream, and he pulled a few strings to get her checked out by the best, all on the public dollar.
The results came back negative. Her blood was as normal as it had ever been. Their best guess was that Felix had injected her with a saline solution and lied. Nat hoped it was true.
Felix would definitely go to prison, but not for what they wanted him to go for. All the evidence Nat and Br00-S had collected was inadmissible. But he shot a police officer, so he would still be in prison for years. It wasn’t enough, but it was what they had. Their only consolation was that he was reportedly having trouble rehabbing his arms.
Nat looked around again. In situations like these, Br00-S deferred to her. His needs were simpler than hers. “I guess we’ll take it, Detective.”
Bryce gave her a thin grin. “Good.” He turned to leave them.
“That’s it?” Nat asked. “You’re just going to leave?”
He didn’t turn around. “All that I ask is that you two make good use of this second chance. Whatever you decide, don’t make me regret the decision I made.”
With that, the detective was gone, his light fading down the tunnel.
Nat ran the weak light from her cellphone over the cave walls. She shrugged and looked at Br00-S, who gave her a knowing grin. She laughed. It was a bit of a fixer-upper, but the idea of having a true home, even if it was underground, was tempting.
“Well,” she said, “let’s get to work.”
Chapter One
The robot looked out over the city, the city he now considered his. Not in the sense that he possessed it, but that he was a part of it, as responsible for its safety and wellbeing as any police officer or politician. He could visualize the connections that tied them all together in a web of interdependence from which there was no escape. That realization, that his actions had effects far beyond those that were immediately calculable, had changed him.
Br00-S wondered how many people living in the city agreed with his realization. On the surface, Minneapolis ran much the same as it had the day before. People went to work, the homeless and the hungry stood on corners asking for food and money, and the glass skyscrapers watched the entire drama dispassionately.
But there was an undercurrent, a movement below the level of most people’s awareness. Unrest was growing, building underneath the city like a fault line ready to snap with earth-shattering force. There were clues, if one was willing to look hard enough. There was the rise of violence in the streets, most often attributed in the newspapers to muggings, but that was a comfortable lie—even the journalists were satisfied with a story less than the entire truth. Then there was the graffiti, more common than even a few months ago. Stick figures, drawn the way a five-year-old would, hid menace behind every smile.
The humans were uncomfortable. If one asked them, they wouldn’t be able to explain their feelings; but their discomfort was constant, always lurking behind their gazes. People hustled quickly between cars and buildings, and many peeked over their shoulders as though they felt they were being followed.
Their problem, in short, was artificial intelligence. Humans had created their final true invention, and they didn’t know how to react or control the effects of their creation. They didn’t see the web of causality they were bound so tightly within.
Mostly, they were scared. While thousands of jobs had been created thanks to the development of robots, millions of jobs had been lost. Robots, and the AIs that ran them, were smarter, faster, and stronger than their creators.
A political movement had seized the moment, growing in influence as the people they claimed to serve suffered. They were known as Sapiens, and they believed that humanity was the pinnacle of evolution, that the creation of AI was humanity’s greatest mistake. They fought against attempts to further the technology.
There was a dark underbelly of the movement, and although the politicians disavowed and distanced themselves loudly and daily in public, Sapiens was tied to a terrorist organization known as Sapiens First. For Br00-S, fighting against the group was personal. The two journalists who had originally purchased him had been killed by Sapiens First, for reasons the robot still didn’t fully understand. They had been working on a story the terrorists didn’t want getting out. That story had cost Alex and Roger, his owners, their lives.
Br00-S had found justice of sorts. He dismantled what he suspected was a substantial portion of the organized Sapiens First group in his city, ending with the arrest of Felix Benham, a man driven mad by the relentless march of progress.
He wasn’t sure what he had thought was going to happen after that dramatic night. Back then, he thought the movement would just die out without a believer like Felix to lead them.
But the movement turned out to be more than its leader, and even though the central structure of the organization had been ripped out, there were still plenty of people who felt strongly about AI and its advance in society. People who were willing to kill. People who were willing to lead others down a path of violence.
The evidence was right below him, in the alleys between the buildings whose rooftops he traversed. Stick-figure graffiti was everywhere, silent and unblinking support of the Sapiens First movement.
Br00-S leaped from one rooftop to another, his lightweight muscle fibers easily absorbing the impact.
Nat’s voice came into his head, the voice of his closest friend, and one of only two people who knew about his existence. “There’s a disturbance a few blocks west of you. Sounds like a beating about to happen.”
Since the incident with Sapiens First, both of them had changed. For Br00-S, the change had felt more natural. At the time, he had been a young robot, activated just weeks before. His learning curve was steep, though, and he surpassed humans in most abilities now. The destruction of the terrorist leadership had simply been part of his growing pains.
For Nat, the story was different. Originally driven to prove that robots could slip the bounds of their constraints and kill humans, the young woman was now someone else. She had joined forces with Br00-S. Her skills with computers had led them down a twisted, winding path, deeper into the heart of both their city and Sapiens First. After months of painstaking work, she now had regular access to both the police systems and citywide surveillance systems. It was that ability that allowed her to coordinate with Br00-S and offer him advice on his nightly patrols.
The truth was, he didn’t actually need her. Once she gave him her access, he could process the information faster than her. The only time she was truly useful was when he was in action, moving quickly. Movement took most of his processing power, and she kept an eye on factors he couldn’t, like incoming police.
There were also times, like today, when he was grateful for the chance to simply allow his focus to fade. He knew she would warn him should anything of importance come up, just as she had.
With a simple processing flick, he focused on the information Nat had acquired. It was in an alley between buildings, as it always was in this area. There wasn’t any video there yet, but one of the microphones down the street had picked up the sounds of a “mugging” in progress.
His mapping software found the optimal route. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a convenient rooftop path, so he would have to take the streets. He stood up and stepped forward into empty air, falling three stories before landing in the alley below.
Br00-S walked towards the disturbance as quickly as he could while remaining incognito. It was a freezing cold evening, with winter in full force, and there weren’t many people on the streets. The cover of the crowds he often relied on was difficult to come by. Instead, he bunched his shoulders up and hunched his head down, acting as though he was just another man trying to get somewhere warm. His pace ranged somewhere between a fast walk and a slow jog. Other pedestrians, focused on keeping their own balance on the icy sidewalks, paid him no mind.
The journey took two minutes and three seconds. The entire time, the robot kept part of his attention focused on the audio feed streaming from the microphone near the alley. The thugs, whether or not they were actually members of Sapiens First, had taken the victim’s valuables, but that was just a feint. Their real purpose was darker.
“Come on, mod,” he heard one voice mock, using the derogatory term used to describe someone who had modified their body with electronic enhancements. “Why don’t you show us some of those special abilities you have? Show us just how much better you are.”
Br00-S didn’t have to speak, but he sent his voice toward Nat. “Do you know what kind of enhancements he has?”
“Nope. All I’ve got is the audio live feed, same as you.”
The knowledge might have been useful, but the robot wasn’t concerned. From the audio, he could discern the sounds of four assailants. Even if they were armed, they shouldn’t be much of a problem. Still, he didn’t seek out unnecessary challenges. The more he knew about any situation he walked into, the more comfortable he was.
Br00-S heard the sound of booted feet thudding into the victim and increased his pace. If he was too late, the assault might morph into something worse.
When he arrived at the alley, he first walked past it, taking the few steps to use his visual sensors to gather as much information as possible. The more data about the environment he could store in his memory, the easier it would be for him to move and fight within it.
As he had determined, there were four assailants, all young men. They were kicking, punching, and spitting on a man who was older than they were, probably about thirty. The victim was curled up in a ball to protect himself. Br00-S couldn’t make out what enhancements he possessed.
The assailants were armed with nothing more than knives. He had nothing to fear.
Br00-S turned around and stepped into the alley. “Leave him alone.”
His entrance drew the attention of all four youths. One of them, who had just enough sway in his step that Br00-S assumed he was drunk, lurched forward.
“Yeah? You a mod-lover too, huh? We’ve got something for you too, then.” He drew a knife from his pocket and waved it around menacingly. Br00-S saw that it was a self-defense model. The blade curved like a snake, with a sharply serrated edge that ended with a small hook. That blade would slice skin, muscle, and sinew straight down to the bone. It wouldn’t even scratch Br00-S.
For the robot, it was all just information. He saw the way the youth swayed, his balance shifting slightly as he waved the knife around. The young man’s eyes blinked rapidly as they struggled to focus against the influence of the alcohol he’d consumed.
Br00-S had been through this type of confrontation dozens of times, but he still felt the barely noticeable but familiar tug of his seed code, reminding him he wasn’t supposed to harm humans. He brushed it away. He would not kill, but he would harm. Although he’d prefer to avoid even that, if possible. “I’ll give you one last chance to leave here with your dignity.”
He realized with a start that he was trying to antagonize the young man. His processors heated up as he considered that perhaps he wanted to fight. The idea frightened him a bit, but he shifted his processing to the task at hand. Philosophy could come after he had saved the enhanced victim.
He might as well have been talking to a wall for all the good his warning had. The young man, who Br00-S imagined had styled himself as the leader of this gang, half-stumbled, half-lunged forward.
Br00-S knocked the knife from the thug’s hand with his right hand, then stepped forward and drove his left into the young man’s face, palm forward. He heard the crunch of cartilage as the nose collapsed.
The wound would be painful, and impossible to hide, but Br00-S saw no reason to give the young man any chance to retaliate. The robot took one more step, grabbing the lapels of the thug’s leather jacket and throwing him into the wall of the alley. The assailant slammed into the bricks and dropped unconscious, blood staining the snow red beneath him.
The exchange happened in less than two seconds, and the man’s companions were shocked. He wouldn’t give them the time to regain their composure. In three steps he was in the heart of the group, his metal fists pounding the wind out of two of them in a quick one-two combination.
The final young man realized what was happening and looked for a way out. His eyes darted around, searching desperately for an exit that wasn’t there. “You’re him, aren’t you?”
Br00-S didn’t respond, but he did watch the thug closely. Suddenly, the light in the man’s eyes changed. His posture tightened up, and the young man reached for something in one of his jacket pockets. There was nothing more dangerous than a cornered foe.
At first, Br00-S thought the man was reaching for a gun. He stepped forward quickly, surprised when something else came out of the pocket. It wasn’t a gun. Br00-S thought it might be a stun gun, but his sensors didn’t agree. The dimensions didn’t fit any of the weapons he had in his database.
The crackle of electricity echoed loudly in the tight confines of the alley. The young man lunged forward, and Br00-S twisted so that the lunge carried the young man past him. The robot almost tripped the man, but he was still concerned by conflicting information.
The not-stun-gun was heating up, quickly. His sensors, operating in a range much wider than humans experienced, saw the weapon start to glow in the infrared spectrum.
Whatever modifications had been made to the weapon, they had either been done poorly or were too much for the weapon to handle. The battery was overloading.
“Turn it off!” Br00-S shouted.
The man misunderstood, thinking that his opponent was trying to get him to discard the weapon. That wasn’t the worry at all, though. With the adrenaline surging through the young man, Br00-S guessed that he didn’t even feel the warmth of the gun.
The assailant lunged again, and Br00-S reached out and yanked his arm back, twisting the wrist and forcing the man to release the weapon. He caught it as it dropped, and ran through possibilities.
Br00-S looked up and threw the gun straight into the air. As he did, he covered the man with his own body. A second later, the gun exploded, debris raining down on his armored back.
The young man looked astounded. He looked at Br00-S, eyes wide. “You saved—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish his thought. The robot drove his metal hand into the soft stomach of the fool, bending him over in half.
A few moments later, the four thugs were zip-tied together. As soon as he was done, Nat would make an anonymous call and tell the police she had witnessed a mugging.
The young men wouldn’t go to jail, at least not for long. Most likely they would be back home shortly, but that didn’t bug Br00-S. The goal wasn’t to fill the prisons, but to make the streets safe for everybody.
To that point, he walked back toward the mouth of the alley, where the enhanced victim was gaining his bearings. The robot knelt next to him. “Are you okay?”
The man looked himself over, and Br00-S saw the modifications for the first time. They were cochlear implants, designed to aid in hearing. A harmless modification. He felt the anger welling up in him, but forced it down.
“Yes, I think so,” the victim said. He seemed to be in a daze, but he fingered his implants gently. “I’m an audio editor. These allow me to do my work better.”
Br00-S didn’t have anything to say to the man. Sapiens First had their own internal logic, but they somehow didn’t realize that having modifications didn’t make you any less human.
Nat’s voice came into his head. “I didn’t call them, but that stun gun explosion must have set off an alarm somewhere. Police are on the way, about two minutes out.”
He silently acknowledged and studied the victim. He wanted to make sure the man hadn’t suffered any physical damage that would harm him. The man’s pulse was strong, if fast. Breathing was shallow but consistent. He wasn’t a doctor, but the man seemed fine, just a little worse for wear.
Br00-S stood up and started walking away.
He didn’t respond when the man yelled after him.
“Thank you!”
He was nowhere to be found when the police arrived.
Chapter Two
Nat watched the fight on her monitors. As Br00-S’ partner, she considered it her responsibility to ensure he stayed safe. Not that he really needed help. The last time she had doubted him was months ago.
Since then he’d been learning, his mental and physical abilities growing at an exponential rate. Besides that, they had never approached any conflicts nearly as complex as the one Felix had been organizing. Sapiens First was still very much a problem, but she wasn’t sure if it was a viable organization anymore, at least not in this city.
Br00-S disabled two of the assholes with two punches, and Nat stifled a yawn. She loved the cold nights of winter, and right now she had an incredibly strong desire to leave the cave they called home and go for a walk. She imagined a slow stroll through the park, the snow muffling the surrounding sounds. People didn’t go out much in winter, making cold evenings some of the best times for quiet, pensive journeys.
