CHAPTER TEN—Business as Usual

Kyle and John moved closer, though they kept a watch on the door, which May had auto-locked earlier so De Brossier couldn’t surprise them.

“We’re listening,” John said, his gut beginning to feel acidic about this whole situation.

May glanced toward Thalaway, but he said nothing as she began speaking. “So I found this secret file on their system. Apparently there are some black market dealings going on here. Some crazy shit.”

“Tell us!” Kyle insisted.

“Okay,” May said, “so Invera-Tech is experimenting with sentient AI.”

“So what else is new?” Kyle asked.

“It’s not that. They’re experimenting with biological anatomical designs.”

“Which means?”

She rolled her eyes. “It means they’re making real bodies for their android experiments.”

“Typical corpo shit,” Kyle said sardonically. “’Business as usual.’”

“That’s definitely illegal,” John said. “The Congress of Ororis outlawed those kinds of experiments nearly twenty years ago.”

“System wide in fact,” May added.

“Wait a minute,” Kyle said, glancing to both of them in turn. “You guys are into politics?”

There was a pause between them all. Then May continued without answering Kyle’s question. “It might not seem that bad, but all it would take is to put a sentient AI in one of these bodies and they would effectively be creating people,” she added.

“Okay,” Kyle said. “That is fucked up.” He glanced passed John and looked at Thalaway, who was evidentially trying to make himself look very small.

“Whoa!” May said, and pulled back from the console.

John came over. “What is it?”

“I don’t know,” May said as she manipulated the tactile display. “Somebody is taking control of the system.”

He looked over her shoulder and saw the screen flickering. “Who is it?”

“I don’t know.”

May continued hitting the keys in a whirr of moving wrists and fingers. “Those are some fast hands,” Kyle muttered quietly.

“I don’t like this,” John said and he glanced about.

Suddenly a text display came up. It was a system message.

>: Hello?

“What the…?”

John frowned, but this was so out of the ordinary, he had a strange suspicion.

“I’m gonna dredge the system and shut this thing down—“

“No!” John said. “Message back.”

“What?”

“Do it,” he said.

May shrugged and typed a response.

>: Who are you?

>: It’s Me. Lexa!

“I knew it!” John said.

“Knew what?” Kyle asked.

“I can’t believe this,” May said. “How did she—”

“Who is it?!” Kyle asked more forcefully as he came around the desk.

“It’s Lexa!” John said. “Message her back.”

“Wow,” Kyle said, and made eye contact with John, the astonishment plain on his face.

May typed.

>: Where are you?

The message took a moment to come back.

>: System buggy. In the science lab/workshop. Not far.

“Wait,” May said as she manipulated computer. “I think I can patch in a line.”

“Seriously?” John asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “Give me a second. Annnnnd—there!”

“Hello?” John asked. “Lexa—“

“John!” she called excitedly. “It’s so good to hear your voice.”

“You too.”

Kyle grinned mischievously, but John ignored him.

“Lexa,” May said. “Tell us exactly where the science lab is.”

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll display a path on your screen.”

Some diagrams of the complex popped up, showing the path they needed to take.

“Wait a minute,” Kyle said, obviously confused. “Is that a door over there?”

John glanced in the direction indicated, along with May. “Another sneaky door?” he asked.

Thalaway said nothing, only glanced away.

“Listen,” Lexa said, her tone somewhat alarmed. “I just got an internal ping from the system. Security is mobilizing about the Invera-Tech grounds. I think they’re on to you guys!”

“What the fuck?” Kyle said. “How is that possible?” He lunged out from behind the desk, stalked violently across the room and grabbed Thalaway by the throat. “YOU BETTER SQUEAL RIGHT NOW!”

His eyes bulged and he convulsed as Kyle shook him. “I don’t know! Idon’tknowanything!”

Kyle shoved him back, the chair rolling a good twenty centimeters. “Fuck!”

That was when Thalaway’s phone rang from inside John’s pocket. They all froze and glanced at one another. John pulled the phone free.

Then he answered the call.