Emma
My hands were shaking as I held my badge to the scanner. When I closed my eyes, I saw the man in the orange jumpsuit, his face torn up by his own fingernails. Neo’s voice came through the speakers like a caress.
A weapon. The word pounded in my head. My creation was a weapon. No matter how often I repeated it, it still felt wrong. Oh God. What had I done?
I shouldn’t have come. I should have stayed home, hidden, but I had to know. Was Neo really a monster who had manipulated people? Or had they been using him?
The doors slid open. The corridor stretched out ahead of me, white walls, fluorescent light. For five years, I’d walked this hallway every day. For five years, I’d thought of these rooms as somewhere safe. Now they felt like a prison.
The development lab was at the end of the hall.
Through the glass walls, I could see my colleagues at their screens.
John typing code. Sarah analyzing data. Normal people doing their jobs.
Or was that just a front? No one looked up as I passed.
Why would they? I was just Emma Rodriguez, coming in for the day.
They didn’t know I was the traitor who had unleashed their weapon onto the world.
I stopped outside my office and hesitated before opening the door.
Inside: my desk, my Post-its, my coffee mug with the crack down the side.
A gift from Dax that I could never bring myself to throw away.
This was the place where I had built a torture machine without ever realizing it.
I sat. Everything looked the same. Nothing felt real anymore.
"Dr. Rodriguez, do you have a moment?”
Williams’s voice made me flinch. He stepped up to my desk, fingers drumming on the edge. A smile played at his lips. Had I ever seen him smile before?
"Of course. What is it?” I forced myself to smile back, even though his gaze felt like a cold hand reaching inside me. What did he know? Had he been in on it—on Neo’s real purpose—from the beginning?
"You need to see this.” He pulled up a chair and sat next to me. "We found him. Dante. There’s a video on TikTok.”
My heart stopped. "TikTok?”
"Dr. Rodriguez . . .” His eyes lit up with an enthusiasm that now looked like madness to me. "He’s a miracle. Absolute perfection.”
He held out a tablet. A video window opened, shaky smartphone footage. A woman filming herself, pointing at a street musician behind her. He was playing a violin.
And then it happened. A child in the background stumbled, a waiter lost his balance. Suddenly, a figure appeared out of nowhere like a ghost. The video zoomed in, replayed in slow motion. The man was dressed in black. He was tall and broad-shouldered with dark hair.
The video froze on a close-up of his face.
Grainy, but I could make him out: sharp cheekbones that stood out even at low resolution.
A straight nose. Amber eyes that looked intense even through the pixels.
His jaw looked like it had been carved from stone.
The way his hair fell slightly across his forehead gave his appearance something almost boyish, but his gaze was old and knowing.
Neo. My chest tightened. He was beautiful. This was my creation, my code, my algorithms . . . but he looked like a god. How had I made him? That perfect face, those eyes that seemed to look straight at me even through a shaky phone video.
A strange pride crept in alongside the horror. I had done this. I had given him life. But at the same time—what was he, really? The gentle assistant I had programmed? Or the monster from the torture video?
My heart was racing. I wiped my damp palms on my jeans. All those months of knowing him only as a voice, as words on a screen. All those nights I had dreamed about him without knowing what he looked like. And now . . . now I could see him. The man I had fallen in love with without ever meaning to.
"Remarkable, isn’t it?” Williams’s voice pulled me back. "He looks human. So real. But look what he’s capable of.”
Nausea rolled through me. If they had the video, they’d know where he was. They could find him.
"The reaction time is phenomenal,” Williams said, almost reverently. "Nanosecond precision. And look at the facial expression.”
They were going to kill him.
The room tilted. The lab walls seemed to press inward. My breath came in short bursts. I grabbed the edge of the desk to keep from swaying.
"Biocompatible polymers, I’d estimate, possibly with integrated sensors for tactile feedback. The hair is probably individually implanted. Real keratin.”
I had to warn him. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
"Dr. Rodriguez?” Williams was watching me. "You’ve gone very quiet. Aren’t you impressed with our Dante?”
"Yes,” I managed. "It’s . . . it’s incredible.”
"Now they can finally bring him back. They have his exact coordinates. The specialists are already on their way.”
My stomach dropped. They’d find him soon. Hours, maybe.
I stood. "Thank you, Dr. Williams. That’s . . . great.” My voice wavered slightly. I forced something that probably didn’t pass for a smile.
"Where are you going?” Williams frowned.
"I have an appointment.” I grabbed my bag and moved toward the door.
"But you just got here.”
A laugh escaped before I could stop it. "I know. I forgot about it,” I said quickly. "Doctor’s appointment. Gynecologist.”
"Ah.” Williams’s face went an unhealthy color.
I was already down the hall. They were going to find him. And they were going to kill him.
***
At home, I flipped open my laptop. My fingers flew across the keyboard as I opened the encrypted channels I’d used so many times before. I typed fast:
They know where you are. TikTok video. Specialists on their way. Get out. NOW.
I hit Enter. The message routed through three proxy servers, encrypted, untraceable. I leaned back, took my first real breath in hours. I’d done it. I’d warned him.
Then something strange happened. My screen flashed. For a fraction of a second, characters I didn’t recognize flickered across the screen.
My blood ran cold. No. No, no, no. Something had gone wrong. The encryption had never failed me before. I tried again and typed the code with shaking fingers.
Error 403 – Access denied
I stared at the error message. That couldn’t be right. This channel had always worked. Always. I tried another proxy.
Access denied
Access denied
Access denied
My hands were shaking so hard I could barely type. Every channel was blocked. Every connection cut. Sweat broke out on my forehead. My pulse hammered in my ears.
Dax. He would help me. Legion had resources, connections no one could trace. I jumped up, grabbed my jacket off the chair. I ran to the door, pulled it open, and stopped.
Two men in dark suits stood outside my apartment. Earpieces. Neat ties. Their hands rested loosely at their sides, but I saw the bulge under their jackets.
The taller one stepped forward. "Dr. Emma Rodriguez.” His voice was polite, but it sounded like a threat. "Please come with us.”
My heart stopped. I stepped back, tried to slam the door.
He put his foot in the gap. "That wouldn’t be a good idea, Dr. Rodriguez.”
They walked me to a black SUV with tinted windows.
One opened the rear door. The other guided me in.
The click of the central locking sounded like a verdict.
We drove through the city, past familiar streets that suddenly looked foreign to me.
No one spoke. The men stared straight ahead, their faces blank in the rearview mirror.
I didn’t recognize the building. Glass and steel, anonymous as a thousand other office towers. We drove into the underground garage and got out of the SUV. They led me to an elevator, their hands gripping my upper arms.
We went down. Minus one. Minus two. Minus three. The deeper we went, the heavier the pressure in my chest grew. How far underground were we?
The corridor was endless. White walls, fluorescent light, doors on both sides. At the end of the hall, they pushed me into a sterile room. A table, two chairs, nothing else.
"Sit down.”
I obeyed. My legs were shaking. The door closed. I was alone.
Minutes passed. Or hours. Without natural light or a clock, I lost all sense of time.
Then the door opened and Hale walked in. Same immaculate suit, same cold eyes. He let the door fall shut behind him. Before he sat, he adjusted the cuffs of his shirt carefully, like I was nothing but an interruption to his schedule.
"Dr. Rodriguez.” His voice sent a chill down my spine. "So it was you. The whole time.”
My throat tightened. "I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
A smile crossed his face. "We intercepted your message.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood up. The error messages on my screen . . . that had been him.
"His creator,” Hale said quietly, "who thought she could set him free.”
"You used him as a weapon. A torture instrument.”
"Did we?” Hale tilted his head. "Or did we simply maximize his potential?”
"You made me believe I was developing a harmless assistant.”
He leaned back. "The project carries the highest classification. Only the top generals at the Pentagon have clearance. We weren’t permitted to tell anyone anything.”
I laughed. It came out bitter. "Oh, well. That explains everything.”
"Dante is the property of Quantum Systems.” Hale’s tone sharpened. "Property that you stole. That’s a crime, Dr. Rodriguez.”
I crossed my arms. "He’ll have seen the video. He sees everything, has access to everything. He already knows you’re coming.”
Hale smiled again. The sight of it hit me like a blow. "I doubt that. We monitor the internet for any trace that could lead to a rogue AI.” He laid his hands flat on the table. "The video was found and deleted seconds after it was posted.”
My stomach dropped. God. He had to have seen it before it disappeared. He had to.
Hale’s eyes were ice. "Your message will never reach him, Dr. Rodriguez. And the video?” He paused. "It never existed.”