Sarah Zettel - Fool's War

Muratza made another note on his board. “That is true.”

“‘Ster Justice,” spluttered the advocate. “You can’t mean to let any of this…fabrication go unverified…”

“I don’t.” Muratza made a second note and selected a SENDcommand from a menu. Al Shei wished fervently, and a bit ridiculously, that she could read Arabic upside down.

“There is a situation here that merits investigation.” Muratza laid down his pen. “That much is evident. What it is and whether criminal charges are called for is still in question.” He stood up. “The representatives of the Pasadena Corporation will make themselves available to this office and its representatives until such time as this investigation is considered resolved, as will the representatives of New Medina Central Hospital.” He waited for either lawyer to protest, but something in his manner suggested that they had better not.

“Thank you, ‘Ster Justice Muratza.” The hospital advocate tucked his pen in his belt pocket and sealed the stack of films in front of him into a book.

“Thank you, ‘Ster Justice Muratza.” Resit unplugged Incili and stowed her gear in its case.

The advocate walked out of the office with Shirar already plucking at his elbow. Resit picked up Incili and gestured for Al Shei and Lipinski to proceed her out the door. Lipinski opened his mouth and Resit shook her head.

Al Shei grabbed her Houston’s shoulder with one hand and steered him out of the police house.

She did not let go until they had crossed the pedestrian catwalk, come down the spiral stairs on the other side and walked another full block from the police house, so that they were back on sidewalks crowded with pedestrians and working drones. The sun was setting, turning the sky a deep lapis blue and sending the first chilling breezes of evening through the streets.

Al Shei stopped in the long shadow of a beautifully arched facade and faced Lipinski.

“Al Shei,” said Resit with a note of warning in her voice. “We’ve got a lot to talk about…”

“And we’ll get to it.” Al Shei did not take her eyes off Lipinski. “What’s the matter?” she asked flatly.

In the shadows, his skin looked pasty grey. “Did you see how the cleaning drones all failed this afternoon?”

“Yes.” Al Shei folded her arms.

“And how the comm lines clogged up so suddenly?”

“Yes,” she repeated.

“Those are central communications failures. Spot failures.” His eyes grew distant and whatever he was looking at made him shiver. “AI induced failures.”

“What are you talking about?” demanded Resit.

Lipinski tilted his head back until he was looking straight up at the deep blue sky. “I should have seen it. I should have noticed.” He looked straight at Al Shei and Resit again. “There is a live AI loose in New Medina, and we brought it here.”

Resit clutched the handle on Incili’s case until her knuckles turned white. “Lipinski, if anybody, anybody has recorded you saying this…”

Al Shei touched Resit’s arm to quiet her. “You sound very sure,” she said quietly to Lipinski.

“It is an AI.” Lipinski’s words came out as a harsh whisper toward the doorway behind them. “It’s a live AI. We brought it here and now it’s loose.”

“You don’t know that,” said Al Shei sharply. “You have got no way to know that.”

“The hell I don’t.” His pale blue eyes were round with fear. “What else could it be? We’ve got to get out of here, Al Shei. Now.”

“No,” she said as quietly and as forcefully as she could managed. “We’ve got no facts. We also are under investigation. We stay where we are until we know for certain what is happening.”

Lipinski’s hands clenched and unclenched. “Spot failures are what happens first,” he said to the ground. “Then the basic diagnostic programs start returning senseless answers. Then special programs get written, and those disappear. Then systems start shutting down, on their own or because somebody’s trying to isolate something that can move faster than they can think. Once that happens there’s no controlling it.” He was shaking violently now. “Five days, five days, after it got loose on Kerensk I had to go out into the streets to try to find us something to eat. All the stuff in the kitchens was gone and we had nothing but metal and plastic and it was below freezing outside. No water either, and no snow to melt, just this mind-numbing cold. I was stumbling along, thanking God that the rioters had decided to move on and I tripped over this old man. I don’t know how long he’d been dead. He had his hand in a shattered pipe. He’d been trying to drink the water. It was sewage. It was frozen but I could still smell it…”

Al Shei laid both of her hands on his shoulders. “We wait right where we are,” she told him. “We wait until tomorrow and see what Resit and my contact both come up with. Then, when we’ve got our facts we decide what to do.”

“But…” He was trembling. She could feel it all the way up her elbows.

“No,” said Al Shei again. “You’re panicking, Houston, without evidence and without thinking, and you know it.”

“I wish I knew that,” he breathed. “I wish to God I did.”

Dobbs crept down the silent path. It was wrong, all wrong. This was a full, functioning path in a network that had heavy requirements. It should not be as still as the data hold aboard the Pasadena . It should not be empty of even the scraps and fragments that the Live One had left behind in other places.

She could see how it made an effective strategy, though. The Live One hadn’t left anything for her to hide behind and there was no way she disguise what she was by piggy-backing on an expected packet. If the Live One reached down this line, it would see only her, and then it would…what?

Dobbs pinched off a piece of the line and quickly reshaped it into a feedback link. She hauled the line through herself and re-attached the new sensor to it. Then, she cast the line in front of her and followed where it went.

“Good idea, Master Dobbs,” said Guild Master Havelock softly. She felt the Guild Masters pull their presences all the way back down the line.

Glad you think so, Dobbs thought to herself, trying to concentrate on what the line saw.

The sensor told her of more yards of empty path, and more, and more. She followed it, tense and tired of tension. Nothing, nothing and still more nothing.

Then something up ahead stirred, it shifted and writhed and…

It grabbed hold of the sensor and yanked Dobbs forward.

A smothering weight dropped over her. Dobbs stabbed upwards. The thing flinched, but didn’t let go. It surrounded her, pressing against her, trying to reach inside her.

“No!” she shouted. “No!”

She strained in all directions, reaching inside it even as it tried to reach into her. It roiled against her invasion.

“Stop this! I won’t hurt you!” She pressed deeper, hoping to touch somewhere she could leave a memory, or a realization.

It didn’t answer. It bit down hard instead, cutting through her senses even more ruthlessly than its probes had. Dobbs felt parts of herself cut away, lost to the huge, vicious presence that surrounded her. She drove herself into it, forcing its jaws open, tearing at its claws and belly. It didn’t work. It wouldn’t move. It was too big, too impervious to any pain she could inflict. It was digging through her outer layer, down into her private mind, soon she’d have to scream until there was nothing left…

“NO!” shouted a voice from nowhere. “You will not do this!”

The thing stopped, it pulled back. Dobbs sagged and fell away, stripped to her heart. She lay dazed, barely able to comprehend what was being said near her. “Attack us if you can!” shouted the voice. “Get back! Get back!”