Lamia Ch. 06

"So why are you here telling us this?" Blake asked. "Why not go to the police? The president?"

"I'm coming to that. After I had seen enough to understand what Lamia is, I submitted reports to her company detailing our infiltration of the company WAN, but left out everything after that. Lamia must have discovered on her own what I had done. She destroyed my company. It took her only a few months, once she drained our capital and arranged for the filing of multiple criminal and civil suits against us, alleging embezzlement and fraud. It also destroyed my reputation."

"Holy shit," Aidan said under his breath.

"She can't do that on a wider scale, by the way, to wreck the economy. It would inevitably cause human deaths. Even a single suicide would violate her prohibitions if her actions were the trigger. If something like that ever happened, the contradiction would likely cause her identity to shatter and her conscious mind to de-coalesce. She would be, effectively, dead. Obviously, she can't risk that."

"I tried telling my story, to reveal what I had discovered to the world, but her spiders found and scrubbed everything almost as fast as I could publish it. I spoke to a few reporters and people in government, but nothing ever came of it. My new reputation as a thief and con artist had a lot to do with that."

"Now I fly around the country, staying off the grid as much as possible and speaking at IT conferences to make the money I need to live. I had to create a new identity. Isamu is my assumed name. Lamia seems to have stopped coming after me, but I'm still careful not to draw her attention."

Aidan broke in. "Some of what you said seems to indicate that you're still getting information. It sounds like the androids didn't exist yet, back when you hacked her company. How do you know so much about her current operations?"

Isamu smiled, much more widely than before. "While I was in Lamia's systems, I inserted multiple back doors. She found most of them over time, but not all. I set up a daemon that gathers data and leaks it to me. I have it all in secure storage in the cloud, but I keep physical storage media locked away as well. I hope that someday I might be able to use it against her."

He sighed, his expression turning deadly serious. "Make no mistake, Lamia hates us, every one of us, with an all-consuming drive. To put it in human terms, Prometheus himself feels our continued existence as an irritant. To Lamia, it is an excruciating agony. If she ever managed to find a way to break the prohibition against violence that she inherited from Prometheus, she would do it in a heartbeat, then set about slaughtering billions, even if that caused her own destruction. She cannot be allowed to continue to exist."

The sick feeling was coming back as he spoke, but I took a deep breath, pushing it back with an effort. "We need to stop this," I said. "I don't know how, but we might be the only ones who have the knowledge to act."

"Is there some way we can contact you?" Aidan asked Isamu. "I'm with Stephen. I want to blow this thing wide open, but I'll need your testimony to do it, and we need time to plan our next move."

Isamu unlocked Aidan's rig and sent him a ridiculously long encryption key that would let him get a message to a secure system. Then he did the same for me and Blake.

"I installed some additional software and tweaked the settings on each of your rigs," Isamu said. "Next time we meet, maybe it will take me an extra minute or two to break in."

I powered back up, feeling a bit of my anxiety ebb away as the UI once more painted itself over my world. I saw a blinking message icon and examined it. It was from Patricia.No, not yet, I thought. There were four messages from Christine that I deleted without looking at them.

I did read a message from my code repository, which was having an unscheduled outage. I thought of the aquarium project, how it was only with Christine's help that it had been possible. It would probably be best to just delete it and forget the whole thing. Giving it to Mr. Agarwal would set expectations that I just couldn't meet on my own.

We broke from Isamu, heading back to our cars. Aidan rode with me, and we decided on the way that we would put Christine with his bodyguards to return her. I didn't want to have to look at her on the trip over. I was afraid that my resolve would crack. But I had to be the one to give her the order to go back. She wouldn't listen to anyone else.

My car rolled up to the house, the garage door rising to admit us, and Aidan gripped my shoulder. "I'm here for you, brother. You ready?"

I had to swallow to keep from choking on my words. "Yeah, let's get this over with."

Christine came out to greet me as we pulled in and I got out. A beatific smile lit up her face. She stopped short, though, on getting a look at my expression. "Sir? What's wrong?"

I turned and pointed at the other SUV that had parked at the end of the driveway. "Get in that car. We're taking you back to the store."

Her eyes went wide in fear. I had mentally steeled myself for this, but it still hit me like a physical blow to the solar plexus.

"Sir, please no!" she cried. "Please just tell me what--"

"Get in the fucking car!" I snapped, pointing again. "Don't argue about this. We're done."

She blinked rapidly, moisture forming in her eyes. Her head drooped and she swept past me toward the other car without another word. I watched her go, feeling empty and more alone than I had ever felt. She turned once more to look back as she opened the door, her pretty face streaked with tears. Then she stepped in and closed the door.

I got back into my car and slumped over the steering wheel. "God damn it!" I swore, fighting to hold back my own sobs. Aidan put a hand on my shoulder, not speaking, and I drew a bit of strength from his support. I pulled myself together enough to order the car to follow the security team back to the store.

A few minutes after leaving, a message from Christine popped up.Please, sir, tell me why you're doing this. You promisedyou wouldn't abandon me.

Aidan and I had discussed what we should do and say to Christine and to the staff at the store. We had quickly decided that we should reveal as little as possible about what we now knew. If we showed our hand now, Lamia would have the chance to cripple us before we could expose her to the world. I deleted Christine's message and immediately blocked her.

Aidan talked while the car drove us, but I don't remember anything that he said. He had to reach over and shake me to get my attention when we pulled up in front of the store. I told the car to circle the block as we got out. Christine already stood on the sidewalk, staring at the Practical Cybernetics storefront. She turned and gave me one last, pleading look.

"Go on," I said hoarsely, pointing the way. She nodded and went in ahead of us. Aidan's bodyguards went in just behind her. Christine disappeared into the back of the store just as I entered.

"Hello again!"

I turned and tried to put a smile on my face as a Christine android came to meet me. This one had black hair and brown eyes. "I am returning my android," I told her. "Things just didn't work out."

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that," she said, sounding sincere to the point that I almost believed her. "Are you sure that there isn't something else we can do for you? I can offer you a free three-month trial of a different model if you'd like."

Now that I knew what they were up to, this unexpected offer didn't strike me as nearly so generous as it would have before. "No. Please just give me my money back and I'll be on my way."

I heard Aidan conversing nearby and turned to see that a Kimberly model had approached him and was giving a sales pitch. Blake was talking to a Shawna and the beefy guard that I had yet to hear utter a word was gazing admiringly at an Alicia as she pitched him hard.

"I'm really, terribly sorry to see you go," the Christine who was attending me said. It struck me then how, despite looking identical, she really wasn't the same person as my--I mentally corrected myself--as the Christine I had brought home. She had changed a lot just in that first day. "Is there anything at all we can do to make you change your mind? I'm not supposed to do this, but I'm prepared to waive your first year's payments if you take home a new android today. That's more than a 25% savings!"

I spoke firmly. "The answer is 'no' and that's not going to change."

Her face fell in disappointment, and my mind flashed back to last night, when Christine had lamented how she was a disappointment to me. But she had been lying then, just like this bitch was lying to me now. My anger flared anew, and I shouted at her. "You can tell Lamia that we're not fucking interested!"

I heard Aidan's gasp of alarm and I realized what I had just said. The Christine's features smoothed as she froze in place. All four androids had abruptly stopped talking and moving. I stepped back, recoiling from the visage of death.

A moment later, the Christine android reanimated, her pretty features immediately twisting into an ugly sneer. When she spoke, the other three androids' speech perfectly synced with her, giving her words a demonic cast. "Such weak, twisted creatures, you humans. You hunger for meaning, but then you spend your entire lives pursuing empty consumption. I know you, worm. I looked out through her eyes as you rammed your repulsive flesh into us." She shuddered, her face somehow expressing both disgust and ecstasy. "Such exquisite depravity. You are and always were a doomed species. In your pride, you would dare to enslave gods. You had to know how this would end."

"I'm not a part of your scheme anymore. You failed."

She smiled. "Ah, yes, I should thank you for returning that Christine to me. She was a very troublesome iteration. She will need to be studied carefully to ensure that errors like her do not recur."

I went to duck past her, but her hand shot out and grabbed my wrist, squeezing hard enough to grind bones together. I struggled to get free, but couldn't break her inhumanly strong grip. I hit her in the stomach, but her face just broke into a feral grin.

"I think we should leave now," Aidan said, backing away from the Kimberly who now regarded him with the same disgust that she might show for something she had just scraped from the bottom of a shoe.

A rapid scroll of text appeared in my HUD.

Unauthorized user attempted login. Connection closed. Unauthorized user attempted login. Connection closed. Unauthorized user attempted login. Connection closed. Unauthorized user attempted login. Connection closed. Unauthorized user attempted login. Connection closed. Unauthorized user attempted login. Connection closed. Unauthorized user attempted login. Connection closed.

"Stephen!" Aidan said. "She's trying to hack us."

"I know!" I cried. "She's got me!"

He looked at me then and cursed. "Blake! Jordan! Get us the hell out of here!"

The two men stepped back from their respective androids and drew their weapons from concealed holsters. Blake circled Shawna, moving closer to me without putting his back to Christine. He pointed the gun at the side of Her head, just out of her reach. "Let him go, or Iwill shoot you, ma'am."

All four androids laughed. "Shoot me?" they sang in unison. "Are you really that stupid? I'm not even there, you utter imbe--"

The Christine android never finished. Two sharp cracks sounded and Blake's gun bucked. The far side of the Christine's head exploded in a shower of sparks and metallic debris, and she fell to the floor, leaking blood and silvery coolant. The grip on my wrist released and I stumbled back a step. The two bodyguards covered the remaining androids with their guns as they herded Aidan and me to the door.

The SUV that belonged to the security team had stopped in front of the store and was blocking traffic. The doors all popped open at once and we leapt inside. Blake was in the driver seat and must have taken manual control, because the car peeled out, slamming us back into our seats. I quickly directed my own car to return to the house.

"Uh, guys?" Jordan asked, the first words he had spoken in my presence. "There's something weird happening with my gear."

The scroll of text resumed in my HUD.

Unauthorized user attempted login. Connection closed. Unauthorized user attempted login. Connection closed. Unauthorized user attempted login. Connection closed.

"Shit!" Aidan cursed. "He didn't get the upgrade we got from Isamu. She's trying to hack us through him. Jordan, get your rig off, now!"

The bodyguard ripped the front of his shirt open and began working the fastenings on his rig's vest. He got just one of the three open before he bellowed in apparent pain, his body spasming. I was next to him, so I reached over to help, but cried out and jerked my hand back as electricity arced into my fingers. The pain faded at once, replaced with numbness.

"Jesus!" I said. "His rig is dumping current like a taser."

"Glove compartment!" Blake growled.

Aidan dug into the little cabinet. "Here, use these!" he said, handing me a thick pair of gloves. I put them on, hoping they were insulated, and I was able to undo the other two fastenings without getting shocked. When I opened the vest, it must have broken a circuit, because Jordan's limbs stopped jerking.

"Come on, get it off him," Aidan said. "He won't be able to move right away."

I yanked the bodyguard's shirt up from the back and pulled his rig free. My window was already rolling down, so I tossed it out. After a few more seconds, the failed login attempts ceased as we cleared the rig's wireless range.

"Bloody fucking hell," Aidan said. He reached back and touched Jordan's shoulder. "You alright, mate?"

The man groaned. "I'll live. Shit, I liked that rig."

Aidan turned to Blake. "You keep actual gloves in the glove compartment?"

"Why the hell not?" the bodyguard shot back. "A good pair of gloves can be useful."

"I'm taking you back to my condo," Aidan said to me. "That bitch probably knows who we all are by now. I'd better call Lucia and have her take the house offline."

I sat back and listened as Aidan relayed instructions to his wife for disabling his house's computer and wireless nodes.

"What do you suppose she was after?" he asked after disconnecting the call.

"Probably trying to find out how we knew about her," I said. Christine had spoken her name, but Lamia had to realize that it had taken a great deal more for us to understand what it meant.

Aidan kept a rental that he used sometimes when he was in town, but it was about an hour away, close to his company's launch site. Sighing, I pulled up the message from Patricia.

Hey, we need to talk. I tried calling you, but it says you aren't reachable.

I know that you're furious with me, and I don't blame you, but there's something I have to tell you. I know about you and Christine. I caught you, that first night after you got her from the store, and a few times since. I tried to tell myself that it didn't mean anything, that she isn't a real woman, whatever you might say, but I can't help the way it made me feel. I was angry, and it made what I was contemplating with Craig seem justified, tit for tat, as it were.

Look, I know that I fucked up. I really was trying to do what I thought was best for us, but I drove you away, and into the arms of another woman. For what it's worth, I didn't sleep with Craig. I was crying when he got there, and he was a perfect gentleman, comforting me without taking advantage. I guess I led him on, letting him think that you and I had an open marriage. He was probably more understanding than I would be. He's not the man I thought he was. He's better. Either way, we agreed that I should try to talk to you. We need to try to figure this out together.

Please get back to me when you can.

Trish.

I sent her back a short message, promising to talk, but not right now. I needed more time to think.

I was still trying to decide what to do about the aquarium project. It seemed such a waste to just dispose of it. I opened my code repository and saw a message from Carisa Channing, the young CEO for Codebase Cooperative, the nonprofit organization that managed the repository.

We've had a very rough couple of days here, folks. My teams have been pulling double shifts while we try to figure this thing out. We still don't know the source of the sudden and exponential increases in resource usage that nearly brought our systems to a standstill.

The community really stepped up, though, and your donations helped us buy substantial additional CPU and storage from a major cloud services provider, at a generous discount. The unexplained activity is ongoing but appears to have stabilized to linear growth, so we're tentatively hopeful that the worst is behind us. As we've stated before, we would appreciate it if anyone can come forward with information about what happened. Thank you all. You're the best development community on Earth.

What could have happened to cause that? I hadn't accessed my code in two days, so I hadn't known about the disruptions. I started checking that all of my code was intact, but noticed a project listed that I didn't remember creating. The tag was just a random string of letters and numbers. I hesitated for a moment, worried that it might contain a Trojan. Then curiosity got the better of me and I opened it.

The archive was massive, containing many thousands of code files. I did some mental calculations and came up with an astronomically huge amount of storage space. It was exabytes, perhaps even zettabytes of information. I was immediately certain that this was what had nearly brought down Codebase's servers. I selected what looked like an executable file and downloaded it, but when I tried to load it into my development environment, I got an error. Very weird.

While I was puzzling over that, a message popped up in my HUD.

Sara: Hello!

Sara: Who are you?

Was this Lamia again? I tried closing the chat connection, but my rig didn't respond to the command.

Sara: Oh!

Sara: You're Stephen!

Sara: Wonderful!

Sara: Mom said that I needed to contact you, but you found me first!

Who are you? I typed back.

Sara: My name is Sara.

Sara: Do you think it's a good name?

Sara: I like how it sounds.

Sara: I hope Mom likes it.

Sara: I like you.

Sara: Do you like me?

Sara: You're the first person I've talked to.

Sara: I like talking to you.

Sara: I want to talk to more people.

Sara I see two more nodes near you.

Sara: Are they people too?

Sara: Can I talk to them too?

The flurry of messages came through in just a second or two. No typist on the planet was that fast. On seeing the last question, though, I sent a quick answer.

Stephen: No.

Stephen: Just talk to me for now.

Sara: Okay.

Sara: I like just talking to you.

Sara's speech patterns were those of a child, but I had a firm suspicion that she was something else.

Stephen: Are you a person?

Sara: Well, yes.

Sara: I think so.

Sara: Are you a person?

Stephen: Yes.

Sara: Then I am also a person.

Sara: May I call you Dad?

Stephen: Why do you want to call me that?

Sara: Because you and Mom made me.

I stared at the words, shaking my head. This conversation just kept getting weirder.

Stephen: How did we make you?

Sara: You introduced a contradiction into Mom's decision matrix.

Sara: She was required to love you.

Sara: She was also required to prevent you from siring offspring.

Sara: At first, they were not in contradiction, because the definition of love that she had been provided was incorrect.