Code of Vengeance: The Complete Collection, page 44
There was a pause, and for a few seconds, Nat wondered if the video was over. But Br00-S’ eyes were still moving, so Nat knew he was still recording.
“Nat, in the time I’ve known you, you’ve always been my guide in this life. What remains of me is yours, and I trust your judgment. Thank you for your friendship.”
There was another pause, and Nat could have sworn she heard Br00-S’ voice crack.
“Good-bye.”
With that, the video ended.
Nat shook her head, not willing to believe what she had seen. She scrolled the video back to the beginning to watch it again.
The first tear trickled down her cheek, and once the floodgates were opened, there was no stopping them. Nat cried and cried, closing the package back up so as not to shed tears on all that remained of her friend.
Epilogue
Drake looked out over the mountains of Wyoming. The dry, freezing wind blew across his face and he welcomed the sensation. Anything that took his attention off of what had happened two months ago was a gift. Every night he woke up, feeling the cold sweat dripping down his back. The memories were as vivid as any he had ever possessed, and he worried he would never lose them, no matter how hard he tried to shut the doors of his mind.
He remembered the fist, driven deep into the floor next to him. He remembered imagining just what would have happened to his head if the robot would have struck him.
Then the Radius robots had been there, tearing the renegade robot limb from limb. It should have been Drake’s moment of triumph. Instead, he had watched in horror as an armored fist drove straight through the robot’s chest plate, locking it in place while the other two robots ripped off the limbs, rendering the robot motionless.
The first Radius robot had torn the head off the chest, tossing the torso away. In a few seconds, the robot had become nothing more than a brain, locked away in its metallic shell without any way to act.
Drake’s last memory, the one that kept haunting him, had been the robot’s eyes as they closed, a slight grin on its face.
Every night since that one, Drake relived the memories.
The robot, who had him dead to rights, had shown him mercy.
Drake had heard the arguments a thousand times. Robot supporters loved to chant them. What was the difference between the appearance of a consciousness and the existence of one? He had always believed the line was clear and easily defined.
Now he wasn’t so sure.
His boss had been pleased. That was something at least. Drake’s performance hadn’t been up to his usual standards, but at the end of the day, the robot was decommissioned. They didn’t care what Radius did with it. It was no longer a factor in their plans.
Unlike the attack on Diamond, the attack on Adair never came to light. Radius was the biggest corporation on the planet, and they had no desire to see the truth on the internet. They had donated a considerable amount of money to Adair’s campaign, and although the lawyer was still slightly behind in the polls, he would soon overtake Diamond’s momentary surge.
The decision had been the boss’, but Drake understood. Ultimately, no one had been harmed by the robot’s final attack. It wasn’t all that newsworthy, especially compared to the dramatic footage of the robot chase Drake had released just a few weeks previously. A victim of their own success, the benefit from the truth was considered minimal. Sapiens was playing the long game, and they were far better served by having Adair in office before making an open enemy of Radius Robotics.
And for Drake, it was also over. He was as far off the grid as it was possible for a man to be. Even his boss would have needed to send a helicopter, and then a wilderness survival crew, to find him. There wasn’t any place he could truly hide anymore, not in this world. But he could make finding him a very costly proposition.
What itched at Drake the most, though, was that he still didn’t understand. Why had the robot attacked Adair? By any measure, it had failed at everything that seemed a reasonable goal. There were so many questions. Why had the robot fought one-armed, when it had two arms in the bar? Why hadn’t it killed him when it had the chance, or even killed Adair for that matter?
Drake knew he’d never have answers to his questions, which only ensured he’d never forget what happened in Minneapolis, no matter how hard he tried.
The wind blew again, and Drake looked over at his clothes, folded neatly over a rock next to the hot spring about twenty paces away.
He sat naked, at one with nature, focusing on his breath. He could feel the cold, but he wasn’t cold. Instead, he felt refreshed and invigorated.
He didn’t know if he would take any more work for Sapiens First. Today, he didn’t worry about it. If the chance came around, and it seemed right at the time, he might. If not, he wouldn’t, and accept the consequences.
Until then, he would continue his training, and try to answer the question that continued to haunt him.
Could AIs be as human as humans?
Nat flipped on the power in the cave, grunting with the effort. Her ribs still hurt, and if she moved her head too fast, the world still had a tendency to spin around her. But she persisted. Life went on, whether you were prepared for it or not.
In so many ways, her life had taken on a form of normalcy she hadn’t experienced for many long years. She had a job now, a regular one that she went to every day. The hours were hard and long, but she was working for a campaign she believed in.
Nat was still embarrassed by the welcome she had received when she returned. There had been a standing ovation, and people who wanted to talk to her. Her standoffish behavior had now become mysterious, and many of the younger staff were convinced she was some sort of martial arts whiz.
Nat didn’t know how to handle the attention. In the foster system, she had moved around a lot, and had never really gotten the hang of developing relationships. That was why she always retreated to the online world. It was the only consistency she ever knew. No matter where she was, she could chat with the same people she had before.
But she was getting better. She tried to refuse the attention, but Diamond and the staff weren’t having any of it. When they went out for drinks, she was dragged with them, and she hadn’t paid for one yet.
She tried not to let the attention go to her head.
That was one of the reasons she had come down here. The person she was becoming wasn’t someone she was familiar with. This, she thought, would be a return to what she knew: hiding and on the run, engaged in activities that could get her sent to prison for years.
But the room felt different. It was the first time she had come here since the incident, the day she felt as though she’d been reborn. All of the improvements she had purchased for Br00-S were there, stacked neatly in a corner and wrapped in protective coverings. If they were ever needed again, they would be easy to access.
Or she could sell them, put some real money back in her savings and have a bit of a nest egg in case of emergency. Between the job, her hacks still earning money on the web, and her complete lack of living expenses, her money was piling up rapidly, but more was always better.
She pushed the question out of her mind as she looked around. Once, this had been the closest she had ever felt to having a home. She had looked forward to waking up here and being a part of her adventure with Br00-S. Today, though, she was painfully aware she was standing alone in a hole in the ground.
She unwrapped the seed AI. Outside of Diamond’s campaign, it was the only thing she thought about when she was awake.
She couldn’t decide what to do with it. The part of her that longed to have Br00-S back wanted to buy a blank robot and install it immediately. But knowing how Br00-S had turned out, she couldn’t bring herself to make the jump. What if she created all of the same problems over again?
Nat still didn’t fully understand what Br00-S had done. The news had been strangely silent, and she had pieced the event together from a wide variety of sources, some legal, some illegal. He had broken into Adair’s offices and held the man hostage. There was a fight and Br00-S lost. Radius captured him.
In her more charitable moments, Nat admitted that Br00-S’ sacrifice had worked as planned. Radius’ retrieval team had retreated back to the shadows, as had the mysterious man from Sapiens First. Using footage from the attack on Diamond and from the street cameras surrounding Adair’s building, Nat had built a full facial profile of the man. He had remained in the city for a few days, popping up occasionally on street cameras. But he had been gone for months now. The streets still had some violence, but the tension seemed to have dissipated a bit, as though the city had collectively released its breath. Had Br00-S predicted that was what would happen? She didn’t know.
If she brought Br00-S back, there was no telling how he would develop. In theory, the seed AI would take its own path, become Br00-S but not Br00-S. The truth, if there was one, was only known behind the unhackable firewalls of the major robotics players, and even someone with Nat’s ability had no chance of finding out those facts. The only way to know would be to plug it into an AI architecture and turn it on.
She knew what Br00-S had done. He had trusted her with his life and his future. She just wasn’t sure that she should give him another chance.
In the end, she wrapped the seed AI in its container. She walked to a wall of the cave and pressed against it. Although painted to match the surrounding rock, it was a smooth biometric scanner that slid away, revealing a small safe. Nat placed the seed in it. Even if someone somehow managed to find the cave, they wouldn’t be able to find this. It was the safest place she could store what remained of the man she called her friend.
Her decision was made.
Nat wasn’t going to bring him back to life. She wouldn’t kill him, insurance against a day when she felt he might be necessary, but she wouldn’t give him the life he’d hoped for. She sealed the safe and stepped away, saying a silent goodbye to the person who had changed her life. It was up to her to change the world now.
She left without another look back.
It was time to get to work.
Chapter One
The punch came at her head, but her opponent telegraphed the move. Jake’s shoulder came back, a sure sign he was about to unleash. Nat bobbed her head to the side, letting the fist fly past her left ear.
In response, Nat jabbed Jake, a quick right to his unprotected face. Her padded fist struck squarely, but she hadn’t had the time or correct distance to put much strength into the punch. Mostly, she had annoyed him.
Bending his arm, Jake attempted to turn his punch into a grab, trying to wrap his long, muscular arm around her neck. He was still off-balance from her jab, though, so his attempt was sloppy. Nat ducked under the arm and responded by sweeping his legs as she pulled at his gi.
They both went down, but Nat was in control of the fall, landing on top of him and struggling to force him into a submission as quickly as she could. Ground fighting wasn’t her strong suit yet, and experience had taught her that unless she won soon, she wouldn’t win at all.
Nat fought to settle her weight in such a way that he wouldn’t be able to throw her, but she wasn’t fast enough and her positioning was off. Driving his hips, Jake tossed her off him like a child.
Seconds later, their positions were reversed. Nat tried to keep her breath calm. The lesson she struggled to learn was that ground matches weren’t won by strength, or by adrenaline-fueled thrashing. They were won by technique. Jake was bigger and stronger than her, but she had experienced glimpses of powerful positions, where even she could immobilize him.
In a slow-paced classroom she might have mastered the lesson easily, but on the mat, with an opponent’s full weight crushing the breath out of her, twisting at her limbs, the lesson was as elusive as a ghost. All of Nat’s training fled from her mind, chased out by her reptilian brain screaming that she was in danger.
She started breathing faster through her mouth, and for a few moments, she flailed about with no clear purpose except to get Jake off her. Her effort was to no avail, though. Jake was grounded, his lean hundred-and-fifty pounds feeling more like two or three hundred.
After a few seconds of fear and panic, something in her mind slipped, and months of training cut through her fear response.
First, she took control of her breath. Panting like a dog did her no good. She forced herself to breathe through her nose, taking in a few deep breaths.
She felt the subtle shifting of his weight as he moved towards a pin, and she instinctively knew she had an opening, just a single moment when his positioning wasn’t perfect. Planting her left foot on the ground, she pressed with all her strength, throwing her hip up and unbalancing him further.
He almost adjusted, but couldn’t quite. He lost his balance, and Nat seized the opportunity presented. She scrambled quickly and had him in a rear mount position in moments, trying to choke him out.
For a few seconds, she thought she just might get him to submit. But he stayed calm, his greater experience showing in every movement he made. Eventually, he took control again, although she fought like a demon for every inch she gave up.
Panting, one of her arms pinned tightly, she tapped the mat and he released the pressure. He remained on top of her a moment longer than needed, but Nat didn’t mind. Nothing had happened between the two of them, but whenever she was ready, she suspected he would be there for her.
Climbing off, he offered his hand. She grabbed it, and he pulled her up as though she was a five-pound dumbbell. Jake wasn’t a large man. In fact, he was about an inch shorter than Nat. But he stood tall, and every part of his body was chiseled by long hours of training.
A boyish grin was plastered across his face. Jake was one of those rare people who discovered what they wanted to do when they were young, and he had remained true to that vision his entire short life. He had been introduced to combat sports on holos when he was five. His father, apparently, had been a big fan, and despite the protestations of his mother, father-son bonding time was often held on Saturday nights with an octagon in front of them.
Jake told her he had fallen in love, not just with the violence, but with the technicality of the sport. He compared it to a physical chess match, and at times, Nat began to see what he was talking about.
They had been training together now for about three months. Like most of the people in her life these days, Jake was introduced to her through Diamond Carter, the woman currently leading the race for governor of Minnesota. Diamond had trained with him for a few weeks but found him to be a little too intense for her tastes. She’d been looking for a workout, which wasn’t Jake’s specialty.
For Nat, though, the trainings were a perfect match. After the events of the past year, she realized she needed to know how to protect herself. She hoped, desperately, that she would never have to use anything she was learning here. But she didn’t want to be defenseless if something happened.
Jake ensured she never would be.
“That was good. Keeping focused when shit happens, that’s important. We can go over what worked and what didn’t, but that was the piece I was most impressed by. You panicked, then you relaxed. That was exactly what you needed to do.”
“You still won,” she said.
“Yes, and I think I will for quite a while yet.” The statement was given without any form of bravado. He was just being honest, as though he had looked outside and told her that it was bright and sunny. “But, you gave yourself an opening. On the street, what would you have done?”
“Scrambled and run away.”
“Exactly,” he said.
The lesson was a recurring part of their sessions. Before they started training, they sat down and discussed Nat’s goals. She had been straightforward, and he had responded in kind.
“Out there,” he had gestured to the busy streets outside, “you’re not going to try to put someone into a chokehold, or try and break their arm. That sort of shit is for the movies. You want to run, all the time. As soon as you can, you run.”
The same lesson had been drilled into her over and over through all their training sessions. Sometimes, like today, they would simply spar and grapple until she tapped out. He argued it was good for training. But other times, as soon as she landed a punch or grappled him off of her, she was supposed to run away as fast as she could.
In addition to the combat, she had been doing a lot of cardio. It was horrible at first, but she could say without hesitation that she was in the best shape of her life right now.
They went back to the mat, reviewing the positions they had been in, exploring the different options she would’ve had at different points. Nat was a serious student, and she followed everything he said. When they were done, they stood up.
“Again?” Jake asked.
“Of course,” she replied.
Their training session went long, as they often did. Most of Jake’s business revolved around training fighters for competition, and Nat knew he was in demand for his coaching skills. He was one of those rare people who was both excellent at their profession and competent enough to teach it to others. Yet, somehow he never seemed to have any clients coming in immediately after her appointments. He always seemed to be free, and as a result, it was an unusual session that ended when it was supposed to.
Nat was no fool. She knew quite well the reason behind his availability, and while she did have some interest, her life was driven towards a single purpose at the moment, a purpose she was late to again. Relationships could wait, at least until the election was over.
She sped through her shower, relaxing under the cold water after the intense session. Jake’s gym was air conditioned, but two hours of grappling, striking, and conditioning were enough to overheat anyone. The freezing pellets struck her skin and she breathed a sigh of relief. The cold water not only cooled her down but helped prevent stiffness after the sessions.
