Reborn. Lance Erlick
staff. We’ll put that in writing.”
“Where’s the catch? Why did he send you to do his bidding?”
“Look, Jerry,” McNeil said, “Hank knows you’ve been hacking into our security.”
“He’s paranoid. I don’t have time for this.” Machten opened the door from the lobby to the underground parking garage and waved his hand for McNeil to leave.
“Wait. I trust you, but you know how he is. He insisted that I tell you we’ve upped security to track intruders. He said if you try another stunt, he’ll catch and destroy you and what’s left of your new company. His words.”
“Thanks for admitting this was his idea and acting as a messenger,” Machten said, letting the door swing closed. “Let me think on this.”
“He insisted on one thing.”
Machten turned with hands on his hips. “There always is with that greedy bastard.”
McNeil straightened up, yet was still shorter than Machten. “The board members insist that you give me a tour of your facility so I can see for myself that you don’t have our technology.”
Synthia considered all potential hiding places inside her suite, and settled on the top of the closet. She cleared part of the top shelf and wondered if she would be better off letting McNeil find her. His knowing of her confinement might help her escape this bunker, but McNeil would tell Goradine, who would fight to control her and the stolen quantum brains. That wouldn’t improve her situation. She couldn’t trust Machten, but Goradine didn’t sound any better.
“I hold the patents and copyrights on my discoveries,” Machten said.
“Technically, those belong to the company. Whenever you take anything public, the company will challenge you. The board said the tour was not negotiable.”
“They’re right about that,” Machten said. He stared up at a camera, at Synthia. “No way will I let him or one of his spies in here.”
Since letting McNeil find her violated Directive Two, Synthia climbed to the top of her closet and stuffed herself beside a duffel bag. She covered herself in blankets and used her network channels to search the facility. The bunker split into two parts. The outer layer contained the reception lobby, where Machten spoke with McNeil, a few offices, and a bedroom suite, complete with kitchen. The inner layer, where Synthia was confined, held her suite, the servers, storage, and equipment Machten had used in creating her.
“I told them you’d refuse,” McNeil said. “Listen, please, this is a great deal for all of us. We have a chance to win a government contest that could lead to significant business, but only if we work together. Give me a short tour so I can tell them I saw stuff.”
Machten went to a wall video screen and pulled up the image of a lab with a dozen software development hubs. It was a composite of a room that didn’t appear on the bunker’s inner or outer floor plan, which meant it was a prop for anyone who demanded to know what was going on here.
“This is the most exciting part of the facility,” Machten said. “The rest is storage and living quarters.”
“Let me see.” McNeil moved toward the facility’s entrance.
“I can’t take the chance Hank is using you to plant bugging devices. This is it.”
“What about Vera?” McNeil asked.
“She was a failure, a dead end. She suffered a serious mechanical malfunction. Her brain worked as an artificial intelligence game, but it didn’t integrate well enough with the body. She often fell, and each time she did, it destroyed valuable components.”
“I never told Hank that you took company resources to build Vera.”
“Are you recording this conversation?” Machten said. “Trying to get me to confess to something I didn’t do?”
“No! I’m just saying that the last time I saw Vera you were trying to make her too lifelike. Except for the seams around her face and wrists, she could have passed for human. She freaked me out, and I’m not easily spooked.”
Synthia disagreed with McNeil’s self-assessment. Video clips of him over the past twelve months showed that he’d adopted a nervous facial tic. His visit implied that his company’s prototypes were failing, which meant whatever was troubling McNeil was preventing him from being an effective engineer.
“Vera was a test of concept,” Machten said. “I learned a few things from her, that’s all.”
“You can’t make androids so humanlike. People can’t handle it. You scared Hank with your proposal. I think that was when he decided to remove you. He didn’t want to waste company resources on a freak show.”
“It’s a moot point now that government regulations forbid humaniform robots. Besides, Vera was not a freak.”
Synthia uncovered files on Machten’s Server Two with information and video on Vera. The android looked like a fashion-store mannequin with seams, though her facial expressions were well-developed. So there was another model.
“It’s bad enough that technology has progressed to the point it can replace ninety percent of all jobs,” McNeil said. “You don’t want to make people think that androids can replace humans, do you? That would spark a backlash and destroy all that you’ve worked for.”
“You’re talking singularity,” Machten said. “That’s a long way off.”
“What am I supposed to do when AIs can do my job?”
“Whatever you’d like. Relax on a beach. Write your life history. Now, return to your lord and master. Tell him I’ll consider a deal at thirty-three percent with only direct, out-of-pocket costs deducted from any revenue. I get my own audit. If he doesn’t accept that, then to hell with him.”
Machten nudged McNeil out and locked the door. Synthia climbed down from the closet, stood next to the air-conditioning vent to cool down, and prepared to receive her Creator. She could tell from the satisfied look on his face that he had no intention of sharing her or his talents with his nemesis. His stride down the corridor told her he would have a new mission for her.
Chapter 6
Synthia digested the vast amount of information she’d downloaded since reawakening. The problem with large quantities of data was prioritizing and making sense of it all. Having learned about Vera, Synthia turned her focus to her own origins.
Her genesis had emerged from the brilliant mind of a man with a short temper and an obsession with proving his theories on artificial humans. His behavior bordered on having an antisocial or at least an asocial personality. Part of his push to create Synthia stemmed from his need for companionship confronted by his inability to find humans willing to put up with his long hours and controlling personality. Over time he’d refined her appearance and programming out of ego that he could create the perfect companion. She got all that from her social-psychology module intended to make her adept in areas he was not, namely reading people.
Rather than come directly to her, Machten secured each of the four exits from the facility. Then he went to his security room. There he used his system to verify that McNeil hadn’t planted a listening device or hacker bug on him or in the facility.
Except for the cost of his research and creating her, he could have lived anywhere with the millions he’d received as settlement from Goradine. Instead, he’d spent every cent and assumed heavy debts for his obsession. Paranoia had made him very protective of her and of his research to the point he couldn’t let anyone know what he was doing. That could change if he couldn’t pay his debts.
Sorting through Machten’s purchase records, Synthia pieced together her physical origins. From the limited number of components, she concluded that there couldn’t have been many of her. He ran out of money. She was the culmination of hundreds of separate projects by many people Machten only permitted to see small pieces of the