CHAPTER FOUR—Sentient AI

Vera led Kyle and May into a VIP area and told them to sit down. The room was sumptuous to say the least, with plush white furniture of a sleek design. There were potted plants and holo-commercials playing quietly on the walls.

On the other end of the room was a holo-panel that looked so real, Kyle almost wanted to get up and see if he could walk into the forest beyond where its natural beauty—or unnatural beauty—seemed to spread out into a lush expanse of foliage cut by black roads and high-quality expensive cars and androids.

It was like a corporate paradise meets the modern high-brow man. The sounds were perfect and even a chill breeze came from the enclosure, along with subtle heat waves from the shining sun.

“This is pretty cool,” he said.

May nodded. “I’m surprised you boys don’t have more of this kind of stuff in your place.”

“It’s not real,” Kyle said. Somehow if it’s not real and I know it, it doesn’t have the same effect, no matter how good it looks, sounds of feels.”

May nodded. “I guess I get that.”

They had waited about five minutes more before Kyle started getting antsy.

“Calm down,” May said.

“I am calm.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Hells, yeah!”

She sniffed amusedly. “I wonder what they’re going to try to sell us.”

An android came into the room, this one not nearly as human-looking or acting as Vera, and offered them refreshments. Kyle took his and sipped on the alcohol.

“You know,” May said. “They’re plying you with drink right?”

Kyle glanced down at the alcoholic beverage and put it down. “It’s not like I’m planning on buying anything anyway.”

“Unless it’s to your exact needs, to be sure,” she said.

Kyle frowned, wondering what she meant by that.

Then she continued. “Money is no object as long as we get what we want.” She winked.

Ah, he thought. She’s putting on an act. Surely these douchebags are analyzing our private conversation.

“You’re right,” he said. “I’m not sure about this place, though. Invera-tech seems somewhat… common, if you ask me.”

“Be patient,” May said. “They might surprise us.”

“I guess we can find out.”

A hidden door cracked open with a soft pneumatic hiss and a man in a pristine black business suit stepped out of the rooms within. He was followed by a blonde-haired woman dressed much like Vera, though this one was real.

“Hello, Mr. Wagger,” the man said. “I’m Kylen Thalaway, the head sales representative here at Invera-Tech.”

Kyle got up. “Pleasure.” He shook the man’s hand, then watched May do the same.

“So I hear you would like access to our premium stock and other offerings not listed to the general public?”

“That’s right”

“May I ask what you are looking for in particular?”

Kyle nodded absently at this boring turn of conversation. “Of course,” May said quickly. “We’re looking for something”—she glanced about and rubbed her fingers as if she had touched something dirty—“a little more within our price range. Your products are impressive, but the cost is quite low, to be frank.”

Not bad.

Thalaway chortled. “Most of our customers are actually in the ten figure buying range.”

May smiled in a way that perfectly conveyed her bemused patience with the little man. “Yes,” she said. “And we’re looking for something above those figures.”

The woman with Thalaway glanced at him quickly, then he blinked. But the looks on their faces were wiped away in an instant. “Forgive me for asking, but would you be amenable to a credit scan to verify for us of the price range you are in?”

“Well—“ Kyle began, but May cut him off.

“Absolutely,” she said. She flicked a chip out of her arm sleeve. “Verify away.”

Thalaway’s assistant smiled, took the credit ship and lifted it slightly. A blue light quickly flashed past them.

“Fancy,” Kyle said.

They all chuckled.

A tiny blip sounded and the woman blinked several times as she evidentially checked her retinal display. When Mr. Thalaway looked at her, she nodded very imperceptibly.

With a smile, Thalaway said. “Would you like to accompany us to the special VIP area?”

Where the hells did she get that kind of cash?

“Please lead the way,” May said. She glanced back at Kyle as she started following Mr. Thalaway and his personal assistant.

As her eyes connected with his, Kyle implied a “what-the-fuck” with the look he gave her, but she ignored him completely.

*

John watched the live promotional show happening on stage. There was a man speaking, and standing beside him was a naked women—or android rather. Her waist was thin and her hips curved out perfectly along with her breasts.

Well, John thought with an inward sigh. Sex does sell after all.

The guy on stage was going into detail about the vibrancy of the artificial skin, how it reacted to his touch and further explained the perfectly-real reactions of her visual acuity and how it looked to an outside observer.

“It’s perfect,” he said to the audience. “Absolutely perfect! She moves more realistically than your family members.”

The audience chuckled, but John wondered if his claims were really true. Of course they weren’t. How could something be more real than the real thing it was imitating?

He smiled.

“Now watch this!” the presenter said. “Andromena?”

She smiled. “Yes, Anders?”

“Shall we go out for a bite at the Deluxe?”

“I would like that.” She waved her hand and suddenly a high-skirted red dress with a low neckline and high heels appeared upon her. Also, from her ears dangled little diamond earrings that sparkled in the beams of light hitting the stage.

“Oh!” Anders said. “You look ravishing, love. On second thought, let’s stay in and have a little bit of private time.”

She looked at him indulgently as the crowd chuckled again. Somewhere in the back someone whistled loudly.

“Our new holo-gel emitters,” Anders began, “was previously only available for military-use application, but now that it’s back in the public sector, we can use this to fuel our most exciting creations. Now… for the first time in history, we can give you, our beloved buyers, the ease and satisfaction of simple everyday convenience. There’s no need to wait for Andromena to change, or to put on makeup, or for her to put in her eye-coloring contacts, and gods forbid she makes a mistake. With this newly available technology, life just became that much easier for you and your android companion!”

The crowd applauded, filling the chamber with an excited thunder. With a smile, John tuned around to go find out what Lexa was up to. He had rigged her emitter to move based on where she projected herself. She effectively had free reign.

But when he got back to where he had left her, she wasn’t there.

*

May nodded dutifully as Mr. Thalaway gave them the tour within Invera-Tech’s inner sanctum for the most premium of buyers.

This area was quite VIP in theme. Everything was white or black, sleek in design and decorated with live androids, transparent panels where engineers and scientists worked tirelessly, and of course, holo-displays to heighten the atmospheric mood.

“The bodies are all state of the art—can move perfectly just like a real human being.”

Kyle reached out toward the android in the alcove and pinched the skin on its forearm. “And I thought the ones on the main display felt real.”

“As we advertise, these are ‘perfect’ in design,” Thalaway said as he glanced at the androids self-satisfactorily. “I assure you, even organic skin grafts wouldn’t feel more real.”

“And any hardware we make a decision upon will be suitable for installing our virtual AI into?”

“Uh…”—Thalaway said with a nod—“what is the makeup of the virtual AI you wish to install?”

“She’s a sentient-class AI.”

Thalaway’s eyes widened. “Truly? Where did you find the capital to invest in such an AI?”

Kyle looked at her.

“She’s a proprietary technology,” May said vaguely. “I’m not actually at liberty to tell you.”

“Ah,” Thalaway said. “Very well. But yes, a sentient-class AI will install fine into our androids—of this grade quality.”

“We would want nothing less,” May said. She glanced about, spying some abandoned engineering consoles. But those wouldn’t do for what she had planned.

“You said something before,” Kyle added.

“Yes?”

“You said the dermal layer was perfect, that it couldn’t feel more than organic grafts?”

“Indeed,” he said with a nod.

Where’s he going with this? May wondered as she listened to Kyle ask questions.

“On that note,” Kyle said. “Could you... Graft organic skin, I mean?”

Thalaway looked at him and paused, evidentially having been asked this question very few times in his sales career at Invera-Tech. With a smile, he said, “That’s illegal, Mr. Wagger.”

Kyle grinned. “But you don’t deny it, either.”

The man paused somewhat awkwardly as his assistant glanced at him, a corporate saleswoman-smile plastered to her face. “Having the capability to do something does not imply any actual procedures.”

His demeanor was one of, “If you have the right connections with the people in our organization, we’ll do anything you like.”

“Perhaps you two would like to come into my office and we can speak more on the particulars of your needs?”

Kyle nodded. “That would be preferable,” he said, glancing about.

As Mr. Thalaway gestured in the direction of his suite, May decided she needed to get in there. But without them in the way. “Wait,” she said. “Give us more of a tour first.” She smiled. “There is no hurry, now is there?”

They Strogaus files they had ripped off from the mage’s office shortly after May’s rescue had indicated potential illegalities. Weather Strogaus was directly connected to those illegalities—assuming there even were any—remained to be seen.

They shrugged. “She’s right,” Kyle said. “I would love a further tour. From what I’m hearing, I know we will be purchasing a custom model before the day is out.”

“Excellent,” Mr. Thalaway said. “Please, this way.” Then he turned to his assistant. “Moira, please cancel my other appointments for the rest of the day.”

She smiled and with a nod said, “Yes, Mr. Thalaway.”

As she trailed away, May and Kyle followed the senior sales representative about as he explained various technologies to them. He was beginning to go into the specifics, because anyone with up to nine-billion to spend an on android body would want to know all the particulars.

He gave them each a data tablet for their edification and swiped information onto it as a holo-emitter followed via an above-head track. It flicked, changing from 2d representations to 3d holo-model displays revealing different aspects of the design choices, both aesthetic and practical.

Suddenly May’s wristlet pinged. It was John.

What’s he calling for?

It didn’t matter. This was perfect timing to allow her to get away.

“Oh,” she said. “I’m so sorry. I have a call. Kyle, you go on. It’s business. It’ll only take a minute.”

“Uh—all right,” he said with a nod and smiled. “Don’t take too long, babe.”

She flicked her eyes back at him for a split second. It had been a reflexive reaction. May smiled in apology and nodded quickly as she turned to the side. “John?”

“Hey,” he said. “I can’t find Lexa anywhere.”

“What?”

“I left her alone for five minutes and now she’s gone.”

“Well did you ping her?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Nothing came up.”

“John!” May said, and turned to make sure no one was listening to her. Then in a low hiss she added, “You can’t leave a sentient AI unattended—they’re worth tens of billions of dollars, maybe more.”

“I know,” he said.

“I just told the highest sales representative of Invera-Tech that we have a sentient AI. You should have seen his face!”

“Shit.”

“Listen,” she said, walking further down the hall. “Let me see if I can find something out about it.”

She stalked down the hallway, keeping close contact on her wristlet so as to seem like a VIP buyer who was simply busy on her call.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m about to sneak into the sales representative’s office.”

“On your own? May, what if you get caught?”

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll be fine. Listen”—she lowered her voice even more—“I’m gonna hack into their systems and do an internal information dredge to see if they’re pulling something on us.”

“All right,” he said. “Where are you?”

“In a secret VIP area,” she said. “I’ll ping you the door’s location—but John?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t make a scene unless I ask for backup, all right?”

“All right.”