Inhuman(52)

“I’m completely fine,” James confirmed. “She…fixed me.”

“She fixed us,” the A.I. noted.

“But why?” Thel asked.

“Someone better explain what the hell just happened,” James said as he looked at both the candidate and the A.I. “What’s going on? Who was that?”

“I haven’t a clue,” the A.I. replied.

James and Thel were both stunned at the A.I.’s uncharacteristic admission of ignorance.

“Haven’t a clue?” Thel repeated. “Not even a theory?”

“I was sure it was 1,” the A.I. explained, “but…now I don’t think so.”

“Then who?” James reacted. “Has another android taken control?”

The A.I. lowered his head as he considered the mystery. “It’s certainly possible.” He paused before his eyes rose to meet James’s. “But, James, for the first time in my life, my logic has failed me. It could be that a singular entity, an entity, such as 1 or perhaps even 1 herself, has infiltrated the sim and trapped our core patterns here. However, my instincts…my intuition…tells me otherwise.”

“Intuition?” asked James, his eyebrows rising. “What did she say to you to make you abandon logic?” he asked in disbelief.

“I haven’t abandoned it,” the A.I. corrected him. “On the contrary, I fear, it has abandoned me.”

“Okay,” Thel reacted, rolling her eyes and sighing in frustration. “That makes lots of sense.” She saluted the A.I. sarcastically with a wave of her hand. “Thanks a million.”

The A.I. turned his attention back to the candidate. “Was Kali here when you returned from the incident on the bridge?”

“She was,” the candidate confirmed as he stood near the entrance to the bedroom, surrounded by the three intruders in his nightmare with him and the seemingly empty vessel of Kali, as it stood motionless just two paces to his left. “I wasn’t expecting to see her again. The stranger told me the three of you were in control of her—that she was your puppet. But when I returned, she was waiting.”

“And with a new puppeteer, it would seem,” the A.I. observed. “What did she say to you?” he asked the obvious follow up.

“She said the stranger had lied to me, that you weren’t endangering anyone. But she also said I’d done well and that my existence had already served more purpose than that of most…patterns.”

The A.I. and James locked eyes.

“Does that mean there’s more than one infiltrator?” James posed the question. “Or is this just an elaborate deception to keep us looking in the wrong direction?”

“If there’s a logical explanation we can ascertain based on the information we have, it eludes me,” the A.I. replied. “We need more info.”

“We don’t have time to get more info,” Thel reminded them. “Earth’s being attacked as we speak. If we don’t get out of this sim soon, the mainframe will be destroyed, and if the mainframe is destroyed, we’ll be killed.”

James turned to the candidate, who remained silent, his expression distrustful but unsure. “She’s right. If the mainframe that supports this sim is destroyed, we’ll all be destroyed with it...and that includes you.”

James could see the notion sent panic into the candidate’s heart, his respiration picking up noticeably.

“If there’s anything you can tell us, anything you can do to help us, don’t hold back. Time moves much more slowly inside the sim than outside of it, but every second here still counts.”

“We’re the only ones who have a chance of saving our world,” the A.I. added. “Every moment we remain trapped here, our chances of success decrease.”

The candidate looked down before shutting his eyes tight in frustration. He prayed when he opened them that the nightmare would be over, but when he blinked them open, the uncanny entities remained.

“I’ve been lied to, manipulated, and used for means I don’t understand,” he whispered. “I was corrupted into lying for what I was led to believe was a greater good, but it’s now clear that it wasn’t. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. But I’m afraid I have absolutely no idea what I could tell you or do for you that could possibly help you.”





24



“They’re legitimate aliens, yet they look human?” Samantha summarized, bewildered by what she’d just heard.

“Yes,” Old-timer confirmed, “and they’re bent on assimilating every organic human they can and turning them into androids.”