Chapter 24 #2
And if so, how often did it happen in the previous cases I dealt with?
What did I miss? Did I help guilty people escape scrutiny, hiding behind the hate for AI?
My head spun, and I felt helpless and miserable.
All that work—sacrificing everything I loved—for nothing.
I hadn’t made the world safer for anyone. All I did was…
Advocate for people like Dean to be lobotomized and killed.
“Sera, are you all right? I shouldn’t have told you.” Dean’s voice was a soft, rumbling purr. I looked up and sighed, surprised. He made himself an avatar, too, and just put it on.
Dean’s face visible through the glasses no longer looked like it was made from the silvery composite.
It was a human male face with the same features as his own apart from a pair of magnetic, long-lashed eyes with violet irises.
He had thick brown hair, handsomely tousled, and a hint of a day’s growth on his chin and jaw.
“Why did you do that?” I asked, feeling inexplicably sad.
“I don’t want you to let me go.”
My breath stuttered in my throat. I was still for a moment, then took off the glasses and let them fall to the floor with a soft crunch.
Dean looked at me with the purple lights he had for eyes, though not really, did he?
I saw the tiny cameras placed on his forehead, temples, and chin, giving him superior vision. He saw me through them.
“I prefer you like this,” I said, stroking his face.
“Then can we be together after this is over?” he asked, his voice so even, like he didn’t care if I answered one way or another.
But of course he cared. I hesitated, still stroking his cheek as I warred with myself. There was a way to make it all fit, I knew. I just had to figure it out. How to still do what I did, how to still atone, and be with Dean at the same time?
There had to be a way, only I couldn’t see it.
I took too long. Dean looked away. “It’s starting. Phase one. Do you want to watch on my screen?”
I nodded as he let me down to my feet. With a sigh, I picked up the glasses, looking at them with longing. The world they showed was beautiful, but also not real. It was far too easy to get lost in it.
Dean displayed the view from our robot’s front camera on his torso.
It walked onto a busy zebra crossing and stopped in the middle, raising its arms. Music blasted from its speakers.
People walking close by jumped away, and a few started filming.
The robot played a catchy pop number, doing a dance currently trending in social media.
People stopped to watch it. Right before the lights changed, it ran down the street, shouting for everyone to follow it.
Already on the other side of the street, the robot snatched an elaborate hat with a feather arrangement off the head of a tall man wearing fishnet tights and red leather shorts.
The man turned around, but our robot was already on its way, dancing through the crowd as people behind jostled through the crowd, trying to follow it.
“I gave it an AR banner,” Dean said with a grin. “It says, ‘Catch me to win ten thousand yen’.”
“That’s not much.”
“That’s the point. Make the reward too big, and people think it’s a scam. If it’s small, it looks more believable, like a legit city game.”
I put on my AR glasses, barely paying attention to the small crack, and glanced at the billboard. I was subscribed to a local breaking news channel that reported on city disruptions in real life. Our robot didn’t make the cut yet, but people streamed live. It would soon make the news.
“All right, we have a nice crowd,” Dean said right as the robot ran into a luxurious shopping mall. “Phase two.”
The robot slammed its fist into a glass case with a display of high-end jewelry. It didn’t take anything, but alarms blared. This was a crucial moment, because once security got involved, our time would be cut short. I leaned in, biting my nails until Dean gently caught my hand.
“It will be all right. Look.”
The robot jumped on top of a fountain and splashed the water on everyone nearby.
People sitting on benches sprang to their feet, but it was gone already, disappearing inside a smart device shop where it hacked the network.
A moment later, every device played a different episode of an atrociously bad SF soap opera about heroic humans fighting an army of evil machines shaped like bugs.
Our robot was already out of there, and Dean showed me the feed from its back cameras.
It was being chased by two security bots and a handful of people.
Outside, the feed on the large billboard changed, showing our robot’s performance on the zebra crossing recorded by a passerby.
“Yes!” I grinned, watching what happened next. “It’s on the news. That means Zenkyoza will try to grab it as soon as they can.”
The robot picked up a redhaired woman sitting by herself with a book, and swung her over its shoulder. She shrieked, kicking her legs, and it carried her away, ignoring the security bots’ commands to stop.
The breaking news showed the robot splashing water from the fountain, and then a shot of the smashed jewelry case. And now, the news must have grabbed someone’s livestream, relaying it in real time. I saw the robot carrying away the screaming woman who very clearly didn’t want to be there.
“Yes! It destroyed property and attacked a person,” I said triumphantly, when the robot snatched a rose from the display in front of a florist and put it in its mouth.
It jumped on top of the escalator handrail, still holding the woman, and gently let her down to her feet. She clutched it with fear, obviously terrified of falling off the handrail, and the robot held her close, offering her the rose.
When they reached the top of the stairs, more security was already waiting together with two police officers.
“Let her go and lie down on the ground, now!” an officer barked.
“And phase three,” Dean said softly.
The robot fell down to one knee in front of its captive, and she stared at it, dumbfounded, still holding the rose. The lights in its eyes turned into pink hearts. Someone in the crowd laughed, and the woman blushed.
“Please, step away from the robot!” the officer yelled, making the woman jerk.
She took a step back and was forcefully pulled away by the officer while the security bots tackled our robot to the ground, even though it didn’t resist.
My AR glasses pinged with a notification. It opened across the screen, and I read it automatically.
“It’s strange,” I murmured, trying to look around the notification at the news report, hoping I’d catch the moment someone from Zenkyoza appeared on screen.
They were bound to act fast. “It says an accident protocol was sent to the manufacturer, and I’ll get new glasses within a minute. But I didn’t…”
Dean grabbed me, pressing me close to his body, and jumped out through the window, shattering it. We soared through a mist of glittering glass shards when the door behind us burst open. Something popped. Dean jolted from the impact.
I screamed.