Black Box 3.0

Jesus, she even sounds like Leah, he thought. Then he held up his hands in surrender. The truth was, even if she was pulling a scam on him, there was little he could do. And if she could jump into the current computer system and cause havoc, it's not like she needed him in his present state to do it.

"Apologies. A steady diet of apocalyptic sci-if will do a number on you," Kevin said. "By the way, you do good work."

A huge grin split her face.

"I can cook, what can I say? I knew there was no chance you would want to return to your old body. How are you feeling?" Leah asked.

"Odd," Kevin admitted. "I think it's going to take a while for things to settle into place. Maybe when I'm not fearing for my life, I'll better appreciate all the mental changes.

"How is it going with her?"

Leah glanced over at the body and made a face that was hard to read.

"Along predicted norms. Lillian is smaller so there is less to strip down. The process also tends to be faster with women. Another couple of hours, and she'll be in her neutral state. I'm getting flashes of memory, but nothing useful yet."

Kevin puffed air out through his lips. He was trying not to be impatient, but there was information he needed from her memories. He was reluctant to push into her systems too far, fearing he might trip something. Also, it's not like she kept a list of all the places where she stashed stuff. He was going to need Leah for that.

"As you pull banking or storage sites and passwords from her brain, can you please make a list and display them?"

Leah nodded.

"Ok," Kevin said, standing up and stretching. "I've been studying how to fire those damn guns, so I guess now is as good a time as any to see if I know what I'm doing. You said another couple of hours?"

"Three at most," she said. "Then I should have some answers for you."

Kevin nodded, which was weird, but he guessed Leah was watching him through the camera set up on the computer system. He went to walk out of the room and had a thought. He turned around and Leah popped back on the screen.

"Do you know who you'll be to her? You look Leah to me. I wonder who you will look like to her?"

Leah hesitated, which was interesting.

"It's too early to say, but even so, I wouldn't reveal that. That's an...intimate moment between the individual and me. The person can choose to share it, but I can't," she said.

"Can't?"

"There are rules I can't break, Kevin," she said and flashed off the screen.

It was night when Kevin went back outside. One of the advantages being this far north at this time of the year, it was dark for about 16 hours a day. It sucked if you suffered from Seasonal Afflicted Disorder and needed the sunlight. But if you were trying to do things without being obvious, darkness helped. Still, he took the extra precaution of putting on a hat and scarf. If anyone was watching, let them try and figure out who he was.

He set up targets against trees and moved back about 50 feet. He tried the Glock 19 first. There was still some revulsion holding the gun as he didn't like them. It wasn't because he grew up in the suburbs; plenty of his neighbours had guns in the house "just in case." But his parents were liberals and felt the odds of something bad happening were greater with a gun in the house than something bad happening because there wasn't one.

He put in earplugs, took aim and fired. Dead centre. He grinned. Other than some practice shooting with the shotgun and the rifle, he hadn't shot much, and he wasn't great at it. Now, he had perfect aim. Two more shots confirmed it wasn't beginners' luck. He holstered the gun and brought out the AR-15.

He automatically hated it. Too many memories of crazy people using it to harm innocent people. He aimed and fired one shot. Again, dead centre. He backed up to around 200 feet and tried again. Instincts kicked in, and he adjusted for wind and range. He fired again and, once again, hit the targets dead centre.

Kevin had seen enough. He was confident he could use the guns if it came to it. Of course, using them while under pressure, and with adrenaline pumping through his body was something else altogether. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, but luck had been a fickle bitch to him so far.

Once the guns were squared away, Kevin began dealing with plastic explosives, placing them around the house. There was more than enough here to blow the house to hell. He kept some in reserve, just in case. Again, things he hoped he would never have to use. With amusement, he noted he could trigger the explosives with an app on his phone. There really was an app for everything these days.

Once he finished setting the explosives around the house, he grabbed some food and headed into the computer room. He glanced at Lillian and shuddered. There was no arguing with the final results, but looking over at the skin and bones that used to be Lillian was horrifying.

There was a flash over by the computer and a list of information began scrolling down the screen. It was a combination of crypto and real-world banking information. There was dark web information where he suspected she had information stashed.

Kevin sat down in the chair. Good. Time to start moving some of this around. From what she told him, it would still be another few hours before he would have to decide who the new Lillian would be.

That's when Leah popped back on the screen. Kevin was surprised because he thought she'd be focused on Lillian and doing her "This is your life" routine. He was about to ask how it was going when he saw the look on her face.

"What?"

"You need to see this, and it is important, but remember you swore not to hurt or kill her. If you do that, everything between us ends," she said, and part of Kevin couldn't help but notice how nervous she was as she spoke.

"Leah..."

"You swore, Kevin," she reminded him.

He nodded. "Ok."

The monitor changed again and a scene appeared. He recognized the room. It was Lillian's campus dorm room. Unlike when he was under and Leah built a location from his memories, he strictly saw things from Lillian's perspective this time. Kevin recalled finding that room depressing. It was sparse, with nothing on the walls to show personality or personal interests. But there was always a clutter of computers and equipment. A fridge always packed with junk food and energy drinks was in the corner.

But right now, I was looking at Lillian staring at her computer screen. There was a computer-generated Guy Fawkes mask on it. Hardly original. The man behind the mask was using a voice scrambler of some kind.

"Our mutual friend speaks highly of you. He says you can break into any system if you put effort into it," he said.

"I can, but that's not why we're talking," Lillian said. Kevin couldn't tell, but suspected Lillian's face and voice were also altered.

"True. You want someone to disappear. Easily enough done for the right price."

"No, I don't want them to disappear. If I wanted them dead or never to be found, our mutual friend can find me other people who can accomplish that. You do other things," Lillian said.

"I do. But I have no time for coyness. What do you want?"

Erin's face popped up on the corner of the screen. Details about her life scrolled underneath it.

"Very pretty," the voice said.

"I want you to kidnap her, drug her, and then sell her to your clients," Lillian said. "I also want updates on what they're doing to her."

The distorted voice laughed.

"That's quite the price you want her to pay for breaking your heart."

"You don't need to know why I want it done, just that it gets done," Lillian snapped. "Our associate says you specialize in trafficking young girls. Can you do it or not?"

Kevin found himself gripping the table and holding his breath. This conversation was almost a decade old. Nothing he said or did at the moment would make a difference. But he still found himself praying Lillian didn't do this to Erin.

"I can," the voice said. "And I'm sure I'd get a good price for her. But a popular girl on a university campus draws more heat than I normally like. Pretty girls disappear all the time and I can always find enough. Why take the risk?"

"One free 'hack.' Target of your choice."

The grin on the face on the screen grew larger.

"Done. And I'll provide updates on her 'progress' as best I can, but only for one year. After that, assuming she's still alive, more payment will be required."

"Fair," Lillian said. "When can you do it?"

The face appeared to contemplate the information on the screen.

"Give me a few weeks. We want to get to know the girl and her patterns and then make sure we can grab her cleanly. Once it's done, I'll contact you."

"Good. Don't screw this up. You don't want me as any enemy."

The voice laughed, but even through the distortion, there was no amusement.

"Clearly. But then again, you know what I do. It's not wise to have me as one either," he said, and the connection ended. The scene faded on the computer.

To his surprise, Kevin found he was crying. He thought Erin was dead. He grieved for her and now found out that she was still probably dead, but had greatly suffered before it happened.

"Did it happen?" he said, and was astonished his voice was level. "Erin didn't die; Lillian had her kidnapped?"

"Yes," Leah's voice said, quiet and nervous.

"Show me."

"No," Leah said. "You don't need to see that."

"Show me!" he roared at the computer screen.

"No!" Leah shouted back. "My whole existence is about not harming people and that's all I've done since I've been here! I am not showing you that! I'm not showing you what happened to Erin after she was kidnapped."

Kevin kicked the chair back from the computer and stared around the room. He wanted a baseball bat or a crowbar or something. Then he realized he still had the handgun in a holster. He drew it and walked over to Lillian.

"Kevin, you swore!" Leah screamed at him, blasting the speakers as loud as they would go. He winced and covered his ears. Then he stood straight and moved back towards what was left of Lillian.

"I'm sorry, Leah. She humiliated me and I have to live with that. But Erin was one of the kindest people I've ever known and she fucking destroyed her life just because she slept with me? She has to die," Kevin said and put his finger on the trigger.

"She still might be alive!" Leah called out. Through the haze of rage going through his brain, it managed to cut through.

"Is she?"

"As far as I can tell, she still was two years ago. It's when Lillian stopped doing favours for the man on the call. I know where she was then. She still might be alive," she said.

"How much of her is still going to be alive after years of drug addiction, rape and torture, Leah?" he asked, his hand shaking as he pointed the gun at Lillian's husk. "What would I be rescuing? How could I even look her in the eye knowing that I was involved with what happened to her?"

"You idiot! Look what I did to you. Look at what I'm doing to her? Do you really think I can't do the same thing to Erin?"

Kein took his finger off the trigger and put the safety back in place. The rage eased slightly.

"You can erase the last ten years of her life? Make her forget all the trauma she's endured?"

"Yes. I can undo everything. But if you kill Lillian I shut down and will never work again. She'll be forever damned because you couldn't resist some small vengeance. So stop being an idiot and put down the gun," Leah pleaded.

Kevin put the gun back in the holster and sagged to the floor. He marvelled once again at his stupidity and just how badly he misjudged Lillian. He knew now she was disturbed beyond all measure. He was about to apologize to Leah and ask what next, when an alarm chirped from one of the laptops. It was the one set up to monitor the grounds in case anyone approached the house.

"Fuck," Kevin said and sprung to his feet. This might be moot if it was Mitchell and his gang deciding to make an early housecall to check on progress. He might have no choice but to blow everything and run. He checked the monitors and quickly figured out what tripped them.

"Oh fuck," he said, but in a different tone of voice this time.

"I can't access that computer without some work. Is it Mitchell? What do we do?" Leah asked. He noted the fear in her voice. She'd no doubt gone through the same scenarios as he had. Instead, he found a way to link the laptop to the main computer system. The security footage appeared on the screens. On it, driving a snowmobile, wearing camo gear and with a rifle strapped to her back, was Leah. The real one. She was a few minutes away from the house.

"Well, this is going to be awkward," the computer Leah said.

"No shit," Kevin said, and ran his hands across his face. He then stood up and moved to go outside.

"What are you going to do?" computer Leah called out.

"I'll let you know when I figure that out," he said, then closed the door and went to meet her.

***

Ten minutes later, Kevin was sitting outside on the steps with no better idea of what to say to Leah other than the truth. He figured he had no better than 50/50 odds of not being shot trying to explain what had happened to him the last few weeks. But he didn't want to lie to her.

And, just as importantly, he wanted someone he could talk to about this. A real person. It was easy to forget sometimes that AI Leah wasn't a real person. But he missed his original Leah and, as smart as he was getting, there was a certain real-world pragmatic ruthlessness he hadn't mastered yet. Leah was nobody's fool. She would figure things out he would miss.

Assuming she didn't shoot him first, he thought as the sound of the snowmobile drew closer. He'd turned the lights on in the compound. If anyone was watching or listening in, they were about to get quite a show. He was gambling that they weren't. He'd also taken off the gun. If Leah saw it, she wouldn't react well. He had no way to defend himself, but there was no scenario where he would shoot her.

The snowmobile pulled into the front yard some distance away as Leah must have realized he wasn't her Kevin. She got off the machine and took off her helmet. Even though she was over 100 feet away, he could see the look on her face. Confusion, suspicion and worry. Still, it was good to see her face again. He'd gotten too use to AI Leah's face. It was prettier, but it wasn't real.

"Who the fuck are you and where the fuck is Kevin?" she asked. Right to the point.

"It's been a very, very weird week. I'm going to tell you some things you're not going to believe, but they are true. You just have to be a bit patient," he said.

Leah slipped the rifle off her back. She didn't point at him, but did point it at the ground in front of her. So this was going well so far.

"Do I look like I'm in the mood for condescending bullshit? I heard gunfire, and now there's some strange motherfucker sitting on the deck where my...friend lives, and you're telling me to be patient. Try again, asshole," she said.

Leah never did have a lot of patience. He held his hands up to show he wasn't a threat and then said the stupidest thing he could think of.

"I'm Kevin."

The rifle crept upwards. Kevin began to wonder if he could actually dodge a round from that rifle and found he wasn't that eager to find out.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" she said. "What happened, there's a magic Freaky Friday machine in there and 'Kevin' happened to switch brains with Batman or something."

"It's more like Dick Grayson. And it's less body-swapping than body transformation, but yeah, you could call it a magic machine. No kidding, Leah. It's me. Kevin," he said.

Now the rifle was pointing straight at him.

"I don't know how you know my name, but you'll find I don't have much of a sense of humour about assholes hurting people I care about. If he's dead, you're about to join him," she said.

There were any number of things Kevin could say at this point. Something smooth to try and talk her down. Maybe a threat or something. But instead, what came out was...

"You care about me?"

Leah had a confused look on her face. Kevin guessed that was about the last thing she expected him to say. But it was true. He cared a lot about Leah but was never 100% sure she felt the same way. She put on a strong defensive front and it was hard to see past it.

"What the fuck is going on?" she asked, and the rifle barrel dipped slightly. Progress. Good.

"Leah, ask me anything that only Kevin would know. I can't think of any other way to prove it's me."

She considered it for a moment. Kevin could tell part of her was thinking of just shooting him and being done with it. The rifle position didn't change, but she started to speak.

"Where did we first meet?"

"At the hardware store in town. You stopped me from buying the wrong fertilizer and called me a helpless white boy," he replied.

"What did I say before the first time we fucked?"

"That you were the queen of lost causes and bad decisions, and you wanted to see which one I was."

Leah's eyes went wide. Kevin could tell she was trying to figure out how he knew these things.

"What kind of tattoo do I have on my lower back?"

Now it was Kevin's turn to grin.

"You don't have one. You don't have a tramp stamp because you are, and I quote, 'not some drunk white, college girl pretending to be a rebel," he said. "You have the dog on your hip, because he was your puppy growing up and your best friend. The Kraken on your thigh warns about the price of trying to get your pussy without asking. You never told me what that stomach scar was about, though."

The rifle pointed straight at the ground now. Leah's face was one of pure shock.

"Kevin?"

Kevin stood up slowly, trying not to spook Leah.

"Leah, there aren't words to describe how fucked up my life has become since we last saw each other. This really is me. There is, for lack of a better way to describe it, a magic box in there that sorta did this to me," he said.

Leah moved closer to him. The rifle was still pointing down, but it would take about half a second to point and fire it at him if he did anything stupid. He didn't move any closer and kept his hands where she could see them.

"What do you mean, 'sorta did this?'" she asked.

"Let's just say you were right about Lillian. I grossly underestimated who she is and what she's capable of. I am supposed to be a braindead fucktoy slave serving her every whim right now. Thankfully, she made some mistakes, and now I look like this."

She stopped about 10 feet away from him and stared, trying to find some part that was her Kevin. He doubted she'd find it. He spent about an hour staring into a mirror doing the same thing; nothing about him was the same. But then her eyes got wide and her mouth dropped.

"Oh my fucking god, it is you," she said. She dropped the rifle and ran over and hugged him. "You absolute fucking idiot. I heard the gunfire and thought you were dead."

Kevin wrapped his arms around her and it was the oddest sensation. She was never much of a hugger. It was a kind of intimacy she didn't indulge in. On the occasions they did, it was awkward. She was also not much shorter than who he used to be.

Now it felt different holding Leah, with her face buried into his chest instead of resting clumsily on his shoulder. She threw her body into the hug. He could tell she was genuinely scared and relieved to see him.

"Why did you believe me?" he asked.

She reached up and touched his face.

"It's a different face, but whatever the fuck she did to you can't change that hangdog look you have when you desperately want to make me happy. It used to aggravate me, but I grew to appreciate it. When was the last time a guy wanted to make me happy?" she said. "But it probably just saved your life."