Code of Vengeance: The Complete Collection, page 5
Br00-S mentally spat at the thought. Who cared if something was a perfect imitation? As a robot, he couldn’t tell the difference. His emotions were real to him. Then it occurred to him that he’d just felt anger for the first time.
He should have had months of operation left before the awakening occurred, more experience and knowledge to build from. He should have had an owner to model his behavior after. This was happening too fast. He was still too fresh to the world.
Br00-S worried. There were documented cases of instability if an AI hit emotional awakening too quickly. Could he trust his superior logic under emotional conditions? Was it already affecting him?
He switched to calculating the value of pi, throwing all of his processing power behind the task. He reached a million digits and kept going. If he could push everything else out, perhaps he could focus. Perhaps he could control these emotions running through him.
When he opened his eyes again, his decision was clearer than ever. Whether or not he trusted Nat, he needed a human around. She wasn’t his owner, but she could become the basis for his humanity. He needed her.
Br00-S stood up from the position he had been resting in. He reached behind him, his arms rotating completely around the elbow, a motion a human could never duplicate. He pulled out the charging unit he had fashioned and closed the port on his back.
Nat noticed the motion but didn’t say anything. She was more interested in whatever information her laptop was displaying.
“Find anything?” he asked.
She rubbed her eyes. “Well, there’s plenty of information here, but I’m not finding anything that sticks out. I’ve got tracking data from his cell phone, all the messages he’s sent and received, and everything he’s eaten in his house, which, by the way, is gross. But without context, nothing matters. If you told me what you’re actually after, I’d be able to help better.”
“You’ve decrypted all the data?”
She sighed. “Yeah, finished about an hour ago.”
Br00-S suppressed a surge of frustration. With an hour, he could have already discovered the next lead. But he hadn’t told her to wake him. He stepped forward and interfaced with her laptop, downloading the information in just a few minutes. Nat’s mouth opened in a surprised O. The robot ignored her and compared the new information against everything he knew about Kleon. He dedicated sixty percent of his processors to the task, using the rest to speak with Nat, who was staring daggers at him.
“Excuse me. I never gave you permission to access my laptop.”
Br00-S shrugged.
Nat stood up. “You don’t just go around using other people’s hardware!” she yelled. “You ask. I don’t just access your AI to pay my taxes.”
He didn’t understand. “You can’t access my AI. The security is too advanced for you. And you don’t pay taxes.”
Nat stepped closer to him, trying to go toe-to-toe. “You researched me, without asking. You,” she emphasized, jabbing a finger at his chest, “are an asshole. What do I have to do to earn some trust around here?” she asked, anger burning her words.
“Stop lying and tell me why you’re helping me.”
She stood taller and tried to go nose-to-nose with him, realizing too late that he stood a full head taller than her. Her nose only came up to his chest plate. Humans were illogical. Didn’t they realize that robots couldn’t be intimidated?
“I’ve told you, it’s personal,” she said.
That, at least, was the truth.
“So is this. So stop asking.”
Nat looked like she wanted to kick him, but he wasn’t wearing any clothes, and after she glanced at his composite exterior, she had enough sense to protect her foot.
She went off and sulked in front of her laptop. With the need to converse with her finished, Br00-S could focus on his own work. Nat had done an excellent job decrypting all the data. Now he needed to find patterns.
There were bits and pieces he already had. He knew where Kleon had worked, and by comparing purchase records with location data, he deduced many of Kleon’s daily habits. From there, he searched for any deviations from normal. Even with only two weeks of data, there were many deviations; but as Br00-S focused on each one, he quickly discovered a reasonable explanation for each occasion.
Br00-S stood silently as his mind worked on the problem. If he didn’t move, he could free up an amazing amount of his processing power, and he could work on the problem much more quickly. One by one, Br00-S flagged instances and then searched for their underlying reasons.
If he couldn’t find the reason for a pattern deviation in less than a second, he stored it and moved on. He could spend more time on them later, or find a pattern based just on the deviations.
The process wasn’t simple. There was an impressive amount of data to comb through, but eventually Br00-S found what he was looking for.
Over two hours had passed since he began. Nat had fallen asleep on the floor, snoring away.
He was almost certain he knew where the meetings of the Sapiens First group took place. He would find the leader of the cell there.
Br00-S took a step forward, waking Nat up with the sound almost instantly. She sat straight up.
“Did you find what you were looking for?”
Again, his decision-making was tested, but this process went more quickly. He had decided he would continue working with her for as long as reasonable. If he told her what he was planning, she might have valuable insight for him.
“I believe I know where Sapiens First meets. I was planning on going there now to observe a meeting.”
She rubbed her eyes, still trying to wake up. “Did you figure out when they were meeting?”
“No.”
She frowned. “Where are they meeting?”
He gave the address of the building.
Her frown deepened. “That’s downtown. Do you know where in the building they’re meeting?”
Br00-S shook his head.
Nat stood up, awake now. “You don’t have enough information. If you don’t know exactly where or when they are meeting, there’s no way you will find them.”
“I had thought to wander the building.”
She gave him a look he couldn’t comprehend. “No. I know you don’t consider time the same way we do, but somebody’s going to notice if you’re just wandering around a building for days. You need more information before you leave.”
Br00-S ran through her logic. It was sound. He had underestimated the risk of detection if he went through with his plan. Again, he was right to have trusted her.
“What do you suggest?”
She thought for a few seconds, which felt like an eternity to Br00-S. “Well, you’ve found another data point, so we can use that to narrow down our search. If they’re meeting in an office somewhere, it means that someone will have some connection to Sapiens First in that building. That’s where we start.”
Nat turned back to her laptop, and Br00-S joined her. With her experience and his AI, it would only be a matter of time before they found the people he was looking for.
Even though there were hours of daylight left, the buildings of downtown cast long shadows, making it almost seem as though dusk was nearing. After checking his security system, Br00-S and Nat had left his lair in the subbasement and gone out onto the streets.
The process wasn’t straightforward. With the abundance of video security in the city, they needed to take precautions. Fortunately, the problem was one both Nat and Br00-S were familiar with. They both knew locations with multiple entrances and exits. Combined with simple clothing changes and a few access tunnels, they could be pretty sure they were untraceable. They met in front of a coffee shop, a predetermined location.
Br00-S wore his typical disguise, a hooded sweatshirt with faded blue jeans. His hands were covered by gloves, and in the pocket of his hoodie was his ski mask. He received a few strange looks. His sensors told him it was a hot and humid day outside, not the type of day where one would wear a hoodie. But strange looks didn’t bother him and didn’t endanger the mission, so he ignored them.
Together, the two of them crossed downtown. Br00-S worried that Nat would be too exhausted from all the recent events to make smart decisions, but she had insisted on coming.
After a full day of hacking and searching for patterns, they had identified three employees in the building who might be connected to Sapiens First. It had been an arduous search, but they were making progress, and Br00-S felt a sense of satisfaction. As long as he kept moving forward.
Nat had been a tremendous help. The challenge was finding people who were taking part in borderline illegal activities, people who would try to hide what they were doing. Fortunately, thanks to social media and constant phone usage, there was an amazing amount of data to give them exactly what they needed.
The specific building they were looking for was on the other side of downtown, close to where Br00-S had been distracted two nights ago by Nat’s assault. That was why he lost Kleon. He had probably only been minutes away from the redhead’s destination when he got pulled away by Nat’s emergency.
After his previous experiences, Br00-S decided it was worth spending more processing power on his surroundings. There was no one to follow now, and more information would keep them safer. He didn’t want another person like Nat following him around. His life was plenty complicated as it was.
They approached the building, a glass monument that stretched up to the sky. Br00-S wanted to walk right in, but Nat insisted they walk around the building first. She explained that she wanted to know where the exits were and what the ground looked like around the building.
“I don’t want to get stuck in an alley if this goes wrong,” she said.
Br00-S acknowledged her point, remembering it for future use.
Sure enough, as they circled the building they found that the primary loading dock for the building, an exit they might use, came to a dead end. If that had been their planned exit, they would have been trapped.
They doubled back and continued their circuit.
Br00-S noticed one fact out of place. There were two people who had stopped when he and Nat stopped in the alley. Now that they had continued their route, the other two had followed.
He wasn’t sure. There were plenty of coincidental reasons the two men might have stopped, and Br00-S had a hard time determining the relative possibility of each.
Trusting Nat, he turned to her.
“I think we’re being followed by two men. I can’t be sure, though.”
Nat just nodded as they continued walking around the building. She didn’t look behind her, but when she turned a corner, Br00-S noticed that she shuffled for a step or two while glancing off to her side.
“Those two are definitely following us,” she said. “How the hell did they make us out so quickly?”
Br00-S didn’t have the answer to her question, and he didn’t know how with a single glance his new partner could be so sure they were being followed. But it was getting easier to trust her. She hadn’t misled him yet, and if she was certain they were being followed, they probably were.
Nat’s eyes were darting all around the streets. “What do you want to do, B?”
That was the question he was working through himself. He wanted to complete his mission, but he was learning that sometimes the best way wasn’t to charge forward. Sometimes patience was necessary. “I believe our wisest course of action would be to leave and try again another night. Do you agree?”
Br00-S noted that the two men were closing on them. Nat somehow seemed to know this, too. Her eye movements were faster than Br00-S had ever observed them before.
“Yeah. For a robot, I think you’re talking a lot of sense. Let’s go.”
They completed their exploration of the grounds and turned to leave. The streets and sidewalks were clearing of inhabitants. This was the business end of downtown, not the entertainment side. Even those who worked late were on their way home by now.
The unlikely pair put one block behind them and then another, but they were still being followed. Br00-S didn’t understand, and Nat was getting increasingly agitated. Now she was wringing her hands and twitching her head backwards over and over, as though she wanted to look but didn’t dare.
“You seem worried, Nat.”
She glared up at him. “Of course I am. Aren’t you?”
“I’m a robot. My experience of emotions is far different from your own.”
“Of course.” Somehow, she made the comment seem very much like a curse.
“Why are you worried?”
“If those two were just trying to protect their building from us, they’d have left us alone by now. If they are still following us, well, it doesn’t mean anything good.”
Br00-S deciphered her unspoken words.
Violence.
He didn’t think he had any need to worry. To the best of his knowledge, there was no way the two men following them knew he was a robot. They would think him human, and if it came to violence, they would be ineffective against him. His identity would be compromised, but he wouldn’t be in immediate danger.
Nat was a different case. Her human skin was all too fragile.
“What do you propose?” he asked.
“Let them follow us for another block or two. If they stay with us, we run and meet back at your lair.”
The plan sounded reasonable. Br00-S nodded, and they continued walking east in the general direction of his hideout.
Two blocks later, the men still followed them. They weren’t making any effort to hide that fact.
Nat looked up at him. “Ready to run?”
He nodded.
“Let’s go, then. You lead the way.”
Br00-S took off at a run.
As he did, more of his processing power was taken up. Humans never understood how difficult movement was. For them, it was an intuitive practice. For him, it was anything but. He had to keep track of walls, people, and traffic, and somehow predict how they were all going to act. The task took up a tremendous amount of his ability. He set tags on their two pursuers but allowed the rest of his inputs to fade to basic collision warnings.
Br00-S turned a corner and continued sprinting, turning another corner the first chance he got. He could run faster than the average human, but for now he decided not to, maintaining his cover for as long as he could.
Only one of the two men was still behind him. Somehow, Br00-S had already lost one of them. He didn’t question why, only accepted that it was true.
Another corner turned, but the other man was still right behind him. Br00-S spotted an alley blocked off by a delivery truck and turned into it.
The man behind him, seeing an opportunity, ran faster, closing the distance between them.
Br00-S leaped, one foot planting on the rear deck of the truck to launch himself even higher. His gloved hands caught the top lip of the truck and he pulled himself up, his feet leaving deep indents on the top of the container. He sprinted, certain now he was out of sight.
Br00-S jumped off the front of the container, dropping over the truck itself and landing in the alley on the other side. He slowed down to a human pace and exited the alley. Behind him, he could hear the curses of the man trying to follow him.
Hopefully he hadn’t overdone it. The movements he had performed were within human parameters, if a little advanced. But getting away from the man was important.
Br00-S took two more corners and found a hiding spot where he could curl into the fetal position and wait a while. The man would give up, and then Br00-S could walk home.
A sudden thought occurred to him, a process that had been pushed to the back of his mind in all the excitement.
Where was Nat?
He scanned the area, but she was nowhere near.
He pulled out what sensor logs he had. There wasn’t any way to be certain, but he tried to identify Nat in the very rough data. If he was right, he had lost her near the beginning of the chase.
Although he wanted to go back and do something, he knew there was nothing he could do. By the time he found Nat, if he even could, her own chase would be over.
Nat was on her own.
Chapter Five
Nat ran, her untrained feet slapping painfully against the concrete as she kept her focus on the robot in front of her. Her heart was pumping so hard she could hear it, every pulse thundering in her ears. She was a hacker, not an athlete or a spy. Her breath came out in ragged gasps as she struggled for air. What was she doing, getting herself into situations like this? Her two years of karate as a child were no help here.
Br00-S turned a corner and she followed. How fast could robots run? She was certain she knew the answer, but her mind wouldn’t work, wouldn’t focus. The only thing that mattered in her world was keeping that hoodie in her sights.
Br00-S had to be able to run faster, but she was grateful he wasn’t. Nat wasn’t a runner. Hell, she was barely a walker. She would drive her van for ten minutes trying to find the closest parking space to save two minutes of walking.
Nat hated the women who wore their sports bras and short running shorts, jogging for miles as though the effort was nothing to them. Even more, she hated the women who did it all while wearing makeup.
Now, though, she wished she had some of their abilities. Br00-S was moving fast, and it felt like he was only getting faster.
As they neared the end of another block, Nat risked turning around, and swore. The men were getting closer. The one closest to her felt as though he was only a step or two behind.
Nat came to the corner at full speed and kept going, sprinting across the street against a red light. A car horn squealed and quickly diminished as it shot by her, the wind generated by the vehicle blowing the hair from her eyes, if only for a moment.
She looked forward, searching for Br00-S. His familiar hoodie was nowhere to be found. Glancing behind, she saw she was only being trailed by one of the two men.
Had Br00-S fallen? It seemed like something she would notice, but there was no time to debate the question. The man was right behind her. Br00-S was a robot. He could take care of himself.
