Harry Harrison - The Turing Option

She was just as angry as Brian was when Benicoff came in, all gloom and doom and status quo, nothing can be changed until more evidence is found. It was no accident that she sat on the couch next to Brian, aligned herself physically at his side, shaking an angry admonitory finger at Ben.

“That is just not good enough. When there were killers and gunmen out there, all right, I went along with all the security and everything for Brian’s sake. But all that has changed—”

“It hasn’t, Doctor, we still haven’t found the people behind this.”

“Bullshit — if you will pardon my French. Aren’t you forgetting that the threat to Brian’s life came about because he hadn’t been killed in the first attack here? His existence threatened the thieves’ future monopoly of artificial intelligence. But now you have tracked down this AI factory and found some damn bug-killer. Big deal! Now that Brian’s AI is ahead of theirs we can make our own bug-killers — better ones too. Am I getting across to you at all?”

“Makes great sense to me!” Brian said. “Instead of all the security and secrecy we should now be telling the world about our new advances in AI. Giving out publicity about how we will go into production soon and all the great changes that our smart new robots will bring about. Keep Bug-Off in business and let’s start manufacturing some AI products here in Megalobe — which I might remind you was why I was hired here in the first place. The monopoly is broken, the secret is out — so what reason do they have for still trying to kill me?”

“You’ve got a point—”

“That is the point. You’re in charge, you can make the decisions.”

“Whoa there, not so fast. I’m only in charge of the investigation of the Megalobe robbery. Security, as you must know, goes through your friend General Schorcht. Anything like this will have to be decided by him.”

“Then get to see him at once, get some freedom for Brian,” Snaresbrook said firmly. “As Brian’s personal physician that is my prescription for his continuing well-being.”

“I’m on your side!” Ben said, raising his hands in surrender. “I’ll get onto him soonest.”

“That’s grand,” Brian said enthusiastically. “But before you rush out — what is the status of the DigitTech investigation?”

“It’s all in this GRAM here, I thought you would want to run through it. But I can sum up. A lot of interesting details have come out. We are pretty sure that DigitTech was the front for the operation and that.Thomsen was the only one in the know about the Megalobe connection. About a year ago DigitTech was bought out for a lot of money, and that’s when Thomsen arrived to manage it. He has a pretty soiled past that was not mentioned to the company. A couple of bankruptcies and even an indictment — dropped for lack of evidence — for insider trading. He was a good businessman, but a little too greedy to keep honest.”

“The perfect guy to use as a front man.”

“Correct. The manufacturing side of the firm wasn’t altered much, personnel changes of course but no more than would be normal in any firm. What did change was on the research side. A new laboratory wing was built and work began on improved Expert Systems. At least that’s what everyone in the lab believes. They use the word AI all right, but none of them knew that their research was based on a stolen AI. Their work was just to build the AI into their bug blaster.’’

“But someone in the research lab had to know,” Snaresbrook said.

“Of course. And that person was a certain Dr. Bociort, who was in charge of the company’s robot research.”

“What was his story?” Brian asked.

“We don’t know yet since he cannot be located. He was an old man, in his seventies or eighties, we were told by the technicians who worked with him. A few months ago he fell ill and was taken away in an ambulance. He never returned. The employees were told that he was in a hospital and very ill. Those who sent flowers or letters were sent thank-you notes by his nurse.”

“Which hospital? Couldn’t they tell from the envelopes where he was?”

“Interesting you should say that. All the hospital mail was apparently addressed to Thomsen. Who opened the letters himself and passed on the contents.”

“Let me tell you what comes next,” Brian said. “No ambulance from any hospital or ambulance service in the area ever picked anyone up at DigitTech. Nor is there any record of the geezer in any hospital or nursing home for a hundred miles in any direction.”

“You’re learning fast, Brian. That’s correct and that’s where we stand now. Dead end again. But we have found your stolen AI. But there may be other AIs out there somewhere so we’ll keep looking.”

“So will I,” Brian said, stamping across the room and grabbing up the GRAM that Ben had put on the table. “Sven is going to work again. He found the AI in the first place — and I’ll bet he tracks down more leads from all the information that you have in here.”

“The holiday,” Dr. Snaresbrook said. “You still want that, want to get away?”

“Sure, Doc, but no big rush. Ben is going to have a big job convincing General Schorcht that I ought to be let out of prison. And while he is doing that I and Sven are going to keep this investigation alive — and solve this crime. They’re still out there, thieves and killers. They did me an injury — and by God I’m going to do one back to them — in spades!”

Because he wanted to be alone for a while to work his problems out, Brian did not tell Shelly that he was back in the lab. He knew General Schorcht well enough to be sure there would be no action on that front for some time. It didn’t matter, not yet. This was the first opportunity he had found to be alone, to think about the future — his own future. From the moment that bullet had hit his head other people had been running his life for him. It was well past time for him to start thinking for himself. The door closed behind him and he walked the length of the lab.

“Good morning, Brian,” Sven said.

“Good morning? Is the battery dead on your clock?”

“No. I am very sorry. I did not access it. I have been thinking very hard and had not realized it was after twelve. Good afternoon, Brian.”

“And the same to you.”

Brian had noticed that as more new agencies were formed and as more internal connections between them were made, Sven’s mentality was coming to closely resemble human intelligence. Which was pretty obvious by hindsight. One factor that made intelligence “human” was its progressive development, the buildup and change, the adding of layer after layer, some parts helping others with their work, other parts suppressing or exploiting their competitors by altering their perceptions or by redirecting their goals. Certainly Sven had come a long way. Brian wondered if Sven had actually lost track of the time — or was it deliberately simulating human informality in order to put Brian at his ease? Think about that later — now there was work to do.

“I have something I would like to talk to you about, Brian.”

“Fine — but first I would like you to load the data from this GRAM. When you see what it contains you will very quickly understand its importance. Now — what is it you would like to discuss?”

“Could you install a duplicate memory in this body. Inside an armored case? And a second backup battery as well?”

“What made you think of that — the prototype AI we found inside the Bug-Off machine?”

“Of course.” As Brian walked over to the operation console the telerobot turned its eyes to follow him. “However, in Bug-Off’s case, the armored container was to conceal the fact that an AI was operating the machine. For myself, I would like such a device to assure my survival in case of accident or equipment failure. The duplicate memory would always be there for up-to-date replacement.”