Chapter 32
“YOU KNOW WHAT? I CAN tell you’ve been here before,” says Atti.
I grunt sourly, keeping the cloth of my T-shirt over my nose and mouth as we climb the stairs past the remains of Jasa’s devastated aquarium.
The ventilation’s done its best but even so, the smell of rancid fish was like a physical barrier as soon as we walked in.
It probably hasn’t helped that Fish Boy’s corpse is still lying in there somewhere.
The air clears significantly once we reach the next floor, enough so that I feel comfortable in lowering my temporary mask. “Alright. Loop work’s underway?”
“Should be done in a few minutes.” The moment we arrived, I had Atti retask the repair drones to un-repair a large chunk of the end of the tunnel.
I doubt it’ll stop the Dupe—as soon as it finds I removed the DNA lock on the Themis end, it’ll know I’m planning something bad for it on this one—but the impact might slow it down a bit.
“You’re sure you don’t want to keep it operational?
What if it doesn’t come in that way? Escape plans are good, you know. ”
“Atti, if this doesn’t work, I’m not sure there’ll be anywhere to escape to. And you said yourself that another Loop pod launched ten minutes after ours.”
“I didn’t say anyone was on board though.” I can hear her doubt. “What about the aquarium intake you told me about?”
“If the Dupe’s not on that shuttle, I’ll Mark the intake with my cogs again. Promise.” I stretch. “But I won’t need to.”
“You can’t know that; it might be insane, but that’s not the same as reckless. I mean—it sent a canary last time, Azure.”
“The Keres sent the canary.” I pause to look down through the glass floor at the sad, bedraggled wreckage below.
Most of the aquarium will still be functioning; there are multiple sections, and the tunnels leading to this one would have sealed as soon I smashed the glass.
“Psycho-me doesn’t have time to be subtle. ”
“Why not?”
“Because the Keres will be looking for it, and more than a little keen to bring it in.” I throw myself into a chair in front of a terminal; a few taps later and I’ve confirmed there have been no flags on the property sensors over the past twenty-four hours.
“They just ran an unsanctioned in-city op with it, Atti, and the result was that Sanctum blew up. And even after that, even after risking exposure to DeGov, the Dupe came after me. I mean, it really came after me. You saw it. It’s off the leash. ”
“Hm.” Atti’s doubtful voice. “That’s what we AIs call low probability, Azure. It’s still a bio. There have to be controls built in.”
“For a normal bio, sure. But this one can talk. It gets emotional. Who the hell knows how much autonomy they’ve given it.
” I make a face to indicate my distaste at the idea, though she can’t see it.
“I mean, come on—formal analysis. If the Keres really had it under control, would it have turned up at the lab?”
“No.” Almost instantaneous. “While we’re talking about formal analysis. Any chance you want me to turn it on for all conversational—”
“Hell no.” I shut that idea down quickly. “You remember how many times you nearly got me killed, early on, because we tried that?”
“ ‘Nearly got you killed,’ ” grumbles Atti. “It was once.”
“It was at least three times. If I need the cold percentages, I’ll ask.
” Plenty of neurals have the ability to dissect scenarios and run the numbers on probable outcomes, and they can do it almost as well as Atti.
Most of them can, actually. The problem is that once you start choosing the “best” option every time, you become machine-predictable.
“I need you in my ear because I need someone to bounce ideas off. I don’t need you second-guessing all of them because the hard data says they’re bad. ”
“Well, I don’t really need hard data to know—”
“Yeah, yeah.” I tap off the terminal and stand. “You’re just going to have to trust me on this one. Faux-zure’s angry, and coming, and coming alone. I’m sure of it.” Almost mostly entirely.
“Fine. Let’s say you’re right. Let’s say it’s coming, by itself, via the Loop. It survives the surprise at the end because unless it’s much worse at this than you, it’s not a surprise. There’s still the very real issue of it being stronger than you.”
“Which is exactly why we’re here,” I remind her cheerfully, heading for the door. “Time to get a little help from my friends.”