The True Master Ch. 11

"The first success was a little over ten years ago back in 2005. You know looking back on it now that time seems so innocent, no cell phones, no social media, no Interfaces," said the man musing.

I looked at him and tried to clear my head, "If you were against development of the Interfaces as you call them why help the Company?"

The formless man shrugged, "They already had the preliminary research from several sources, I wasn't the only one working on it. So they would have succeeded in creating the technology in any case. I figured I had better retain control of it. So for nearly ten years I helped the Company make their idiotic dolls."

"You kidnapped and enslaved thousands, tens of thousands of people!" I said.

"History if full of enslavement, the powerful will always prey on the week. Anyone who thinks that will ever change is fooling themselves," said the man severely.

I glared at him for a moment, "that's not a justification."

"No, but it is an explanation. Do you want me to continue explaining or are we going to have to pause every few moments to suffer your moral grandstanding?"

I raised an eyebrow but shook my head.

"Good. I helped the Company develop its dolls, but around 2010 I made another breakthrough. One I kept to myself and one you've only touched on."

"The integration of personalities and the chips programming?" I asked.

He nodded, "that little step was the key to everything, although the version you've managed is useful it is nothing near the complete potential. You're subjects are in a state somewhere between a doll and a human. The fully realized version would be many times better than a human."

He flicked his hand and another an MRI scan appeared on the wall. It showed two scans, one with a smaller chip embedded in the back of the brain near the limbic system and another with the limbic implant as well as something much smaller in the hippocampus.

"Memory integration and manipulation of complex neurological pathways," said Belial.

I looked at the man stunned for a moment.

He smiled, "Your one of the few who got the implications of that straight away, but then you would."

I stood up and, ignoring the presence of anything that actually resembled a floor I walked over to the image.

"You can implant memories, experiences and skills!"

Belial nodded, "It's more of a transplant. I couldn't write a program with enough complexity to give anyone a skill, but I was able to copy skills and memories from one person and move them to another brain."

"Could you store them?" I asked.

Belial laughed, "Of course, why not? The brain is simply an electro-chemical supercomputer. I'm sure a lot of people would like to postulate that inside it all theirs some intangible soul but then I don't ascribe to that theory, and neither do you."

I didn't say anything.

"I made this development around 2010 and that's when I started to plan how to make sure my technology wouldn't be forever wasted on sex dolls and short sighted Company CEO's with no imagination. I continued to feed the Company small developments over the next few years, actually leading them away from the path of development I had gone down for the memory implantation and copying while I put the finishing touches on my plan."

Belial stood up and another image appeared on the screen, it showed another brain image next to a body in a hospital bed being kept on life support. I felt an unnatural chill run down my spine for some reason.

"Adam Shells, a young man who decided to go motor biking without a helmet. Ended up spraying a good portion of his internal organs across the road, and banged up his head in the process. No family, and no brain activity to speak of, rather expected given the trauma," Belial pointed at the brain scan showing a rather messed up brain.

"He's the base. The blank slate on which the next five years of work were done. It took me a long time to figure out how to mesh memories experiences and skills together well enough so that their were no conflicts. He's got the raw intelligence of a Harvard graduate, the problem solving skills of an engineer, the ruthlessness of a solider, the charisma of a politician, and a much better moral compass than my own," said Belial.

"So you built a perfect person, by harvesting and using memories and experiences from others?" I asked.

"I'm not sure I would use perfect, but certainly an upgrade over me. I wanted someone who I could trust with the Interface technology. What better wat to ensure that than build that person myself?"

He was silent for a moment, and continued to look back at me over the table.

"You're going to say it's me."

Belial chuckled, "You've performed perfectly. I didn't expect you to make it this far without getting caught."

I stared at the mad man for a moment, and my mind tried to reject what he was saying, I reached back into my childhood memories searching for an error or misplaced item. I tried to reason out how whatever was going on in my head was insane, that I wasn't a product of some insane megalomaniacs programming.

"I got some of your memories, didn't I?" I asked.

Belial smiled, "You got a fragmented copy of my own knowledge and coding skill for the Interface."

I nodded, "Which is why I was able to reverse engineer and modify the code on the chips so quickly. Did you put something in place so I would ignore how strange it was that I could do those things so quickly? Program something that should have taken months?"

"No, that was your ego," said Belial.

I glared at the man, and sighed.

"You're not going to argue?" he asked.

"What would be the point, if you're telling the truth it's not like I'm going to change anything I'm trying to do. You might have encoded the morality too well into me, or much more likely this is all a bad dream because I'm getting a chip implanted into my head at this very moment so the Company hacks can interrogate me."

Belial clapped his hands together, "exactly! That's how I prove it. You see I never implanted you with the limbic control system, or as you think of it the V1 of the chips. You have only the V2 enhancement, the implant in the hippocampus which influences memory and thoughts. Your little chip has a special override, you'll get the commands from the implant but you won't have to follow them."

I shrugged, "Alright we'll see then. Can I ask questions then or are we on a schedule?" I asked.

Belial shrugged, "Go ahead."

"Where are you in the real world? If this is all in my head?"

"I'm dead."

I blinked, "what?"

"I'm dead, I knew too much, I might have also been tempted to wrest control away from you and that would defeat the whole premise of building someone better than me to be responsible for the Interface technology. So the plan was after I started your program I'd off myself. I could've changed my mind, like I said this is more of a chat program than anything," he patted his chest.

"So I shouldn't take your word that you're gone,"

"Probably not no."

"Alright then, Kate?"

Belial smiled, "Ah, Kate. She's the companion piece, the complimentary focus for everything you did. I didn't program her, it took five years to create one complete person. So inside the Companies servers I left a few flags and a small subroutine. When the correct match to your morality was found she would be sent to you,"

"Correct match?"

"A man always fights better when he has something to protect, I could have just left you the information, a few backdoors into the Companies servers to investigate them and then get caught, but that's hardly much of a test for your morality."

"So her missing memories?" I asked.

"A byproduct of the necessary subroutines inside her programming. The Interface she has took in the full Company Doll programming, I wrote a program that would let her overcome it and find her way to you. The program also disabled and erased all data related to her as a security measure."

"Are the memories their?" I asked.

Belial shrugged, "I have no idea she wasn't important for the project. You were."

I was around the table in moments his malformed and indistinct shirt in my hands as I lifted him up.

"Not important! You took her life away!" I shouted.

Belial put his hands on mine, "Nice to see the morality is still well ingrained. The Company had already kidnapped her and put the Interface in her. She was going to be a Doll in any case, she just happened to fit the parameters for you."

I dropped Belial and he landed on his feet, I turned away from him.

"What were those parameters?" I asked.

"Ah, well their were quite a few but the most important one was her innate inclination to a relationship with differing amounts of power and control. She truly enjoys being your slave."

I turned around to look at Belial again but I couldn't think of anything more to say.

"How do you know it's not programmed in?" I asked.

"As much programming as I can implement into the human brain, there are still emergent properties just like in any complex system. Some would call that a soul, I wouldn't but the point is that these emergent properties are not ingrained in any particular part of the brain nor are they subject to manipulation without completely destroying the mind they inhabit," said Belial.

"So now what? I'm getting the limbic implant, and if this isn't all some weird dream what do I do next?"

Belial smiled, his teeth an odd whiteness in the haziness of his face, "You take control of this small arm of the Company and move forwards."

"I'm not going to enslave people!" I shouted.

"So you're going to tell the government, tell the press what the Company has been doing?" asked Belial.

I hesitated, "No."

"We have already stolen the fire, we've opened Pandora's Box, and we've become the destroyer of worlds. You can't stop the march of progress and technological progression. My invention, it allows man for the first time to reach into himself and modify, change his very core. If we want to continue evolving we can't remain separate from our technology forever. This is the first step in joining with it," said Belial.

I shook my head in amazement, "You're insane!" I said.

He nodded, "maybe but that's the reason I made you. I need someone who can be trusted to guide this technology. Make sure it's not used by the rich and powerful to sate their more base desires! Make sure it's used for something better!"

"Like what? From what I've seen this technology you invented has done only harm," I said.

Belial scoffed, "You can't be that short sighted, when we first discovered radiation we thought it would only ever cause harm now we use it in daily medical procedures. You could do anything you wanted! The whole reason I made you was to make sure that it was used correctly!"

Belial slammed his hand into the table, "pointless wars, pointless suffering, the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. With this technology you could wrest control from the so called leaders of the world and fix everything!"

I glared at him, "People said the same thing about the nuke, and despite its power we still have wars, we still have inequality because trying to fix the world by threatening it doesn't help anyone! You can't take over the world with just a small bit of technology!"

Belial and I glared at one another and then he sighed, "This is why I made you, to make sure it's used correctly. I can't do that, I'm a sociopath at my core and the power would be too tempting. You will perhaps be the ultimate test to the phrase, ultimate power corrupts absolutely."

"You're just a coward who doesn't want to deal with the consequences of what he's done. You're trying to make this out like your all noble, but you're a fucking coward! You dump this mess off on someone else and expect them to deal with it!?" I shouted.

Belial considered me for a moment and then nodded, "Yep."

He glanced over at the smoky wall where he had been display images, "Also time for you to go. This entire conversation was played out incredibly slowly to keep your brain activity near that of a comatose patient. You've been out for about three days. Remember 'I opened the box in 05' enter that on a company terminal and you'll have full access to my notes as well as root access to everything inside the Doll arm of the Company."

"Wait!"

Belial stood and all around me the world began to fade to black.

--

--

My eyes snapped open, and disturbingly the irises independently began to adapt to the light in the room, the right eye taking slightly longer then the left. A very prominent sign that my brain was at its biological breaking point.

"Stand up."

I felt an odd impulse like a multitude of hands were reaching out and directing my limbs, which quickly directed me to stand next to my bed.

The woman from before, Adams was standing in front of me.

"Everything operating?" she asked.

The man, the scientist from before nodded, "Nothing wrong, he's good to go."

Adams nodded, "Go sit in the chair," she said pointing towards a small chair in the corner of the room.

Once again my limbs moved of their own volition, and I sat.

Reaching around the scientist held out a cable and snapped it to the back of my neck. I now had a port similar to Kate's. When the connector clicked home I felt a small charge, once again both of my eyes went through the odd focusing routine. It felt odd, and following the feeling I realized I could tell what the scientist was doing on the tablet, the entire operational structure of the device was open to me.

For a moment I was stunned, it wasn't so much that I could see but feel. I could feel the data moving from the CPU cache and registers to external RAM, I could feel the operating system making queries through its process trees, the individual threads of the processes. I couldn't understand any of it, but I could feel it.

"Who were you working for?" asked Adams.

Well it was time to test the claim that was either something my brain had produced in a fugue state or perhaps more frighteningly confirm that it had not been something my brain produced.

"Some organization in New York. I never knew which group," I said.

Adams nodded her head, oblivious to my inner turmoil.

"The Russians?" asked Adams turning back to the scientist.

He shrugged, "No idea. They were looking into getting at our research back in 2009 but we haven't heard much from them since."

Adams seemed to consider this for a moment, slowly I tried to figure out what the hell was going on with the Interface.

All Belial had given me was the ability to resist anything fed in through the thing, I couldn't really control computers with my mind apparently. Still leveraged correctly the ability to easily resist a command would afford me an opportunity at some point.

"Did you get any of your contacts names?" asked Adams.

"Belial," I said.

Her face froze and then very slowly began to turn red.

"Belial!" she shouted.

I remained impassive doing my best to act like an automaton.

She rounded and stomped out of the room, hastily setting down the computer tablet I was still attached to the scientist followed after her.

This was my opportunity if there ever was one.

I grabbed the tablet, and brining up a terminal as quickly as I could I entered the code that Belial or the memory of Belial, whatever he had been gave me.

The password worked, and within moments I was redirected to a simple file directory. Glancing at the address for the files I could see that it was a semi mobile encrypted data package that was constantly propagating and bouncing around the Companies servers. With the data inside of it I had access to everything, the data logs and research, the monetary assets, and most importantly the security feeds and the source code for the Interface programming. A cursory glance at the security system showed that it was running facial recognition on everyone in the building.

I smiled, one I had logged into the system the name hovering next to my face was Belial. He had put me into the system it seemed.

Activating one of the more senior functions in the security system I set the building to ignore my movements, and did a quick search for Kate.

A security feed showed a cell that was labeled to be only two floors below me, Kate, Tracy, Helen, Dr. Song, and Jeremy were all inside of it with her. Standing guard just outside the cell door was Beth dressed in the combat armor I had seen on her earlier. Apparently her police training was being put to use.

Reaching up I disengaged the cord from my neck, and strode out of the room.

The phrase is that confidence will get you through most situations, act like you know what you are doing and people will believe you. It's a little hard to be confident when your ass is showing in a medical gown but I apparently had a confident enough aura.

A few people glanced at me as I walked past but no one tried to stop me so I continued, reaching the stairs I padded down the two flights. At the next landing I stepped through the door into what I could only describe as an airlock of sorts, thankfully without any actual guard in it and only a camera.

A handprint scanner and iris scanner were embedded in the wall beside the far door. Even without the security system alerting them to my absence I doubted I had much time before Adams and her cronies noticed my absence.

I stepped up to the scanners, put my hand down and placed my chin on the guard for the eye scan.

Both devices made a happy chirp and the door in front of my slid open.

The mood inside was different, the room upstairs had been clinical and professional. This room was cold and a feeling of defeat hung over it. Looking around I saw men and women sitting in cells, with a disproportion of 3 to 1 of more women then men. This was where the Company kept their raw product.

A few people looked up when I entered, but before they could manage any words I had swept past them towards the other side of the floor where the single solitary difference was Beth standing guard in front of the cell.

As I approached her she turned to look at me her eyes still impassive. I continued forwards, she was linked to the security system of the building and was therefore subject to all of its directives. I was a top level asset in that system now, so anything I told her would be followed.

She didn't move as I approached.

"Master!" shouted Kate.

Everyone in the cell quickly jumped to the bars, "Marcus!" said Dr. Song.

I smiled, "Beth, open the cell," I said.

Beth turned and punched in the code to the cell doors opening the bars.

People all around us were starting to yell, I turned around.

"I know this is fucked up but I can't get everyone out now! I'll be back!" I shouted.

That didn't really calm anyone not that I had expected it too.

"Beth, protect me and call any other Dolls who are security enabled to converge on us, accepting commands from no one else but me. If you're still bouncing around in their I'll get you out in a few hours but for now I need you as is, understand?" I asked.

The impassivity of the Doll's face didn't change but I would like to think I didn't imagine the twinkle in the eyes.

"Alright let's go!" I shouted.

Kate threw herself at me, "Master!" she said.

I smiled, or at least forced one onto my face. She and I were just another part of Belial's program, and even having knowledge of it like I did I wasn't going to deviate. The thought to just grab everyone and run, escape the Company had gone through my head, but like Belial had said they would only continue their work and perhaps improve and make something truly dangerous.