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Chapter 2

I smoothly look over my shoulder, my eyes scanning our surroundings.

“I’ve found some of Ava’s hidden posts, looks like they were wiped from the main systems and scrubbed from the net, almost as soon as they were posted. It’s proving a little tricky to extract and restore the original messages.”

“I can help with that,” Marcus mutters, taking the stick from me as our hands ‘casually’ brush against one another.

“Any word underground?” I ask.

Marcus shakes his head slightly. We enter our building, swiping in quickly with our cards. The guards eye us, the same as they do every day. We can only wait for them to finish scanning our bodies. They seem almost reluctant to let us go when the detectors pick nothing up. It’s just as well they don’t look too closely. Marcus has developed a clever pouch that hides all traces of metal. Both of us have them sewn inside our pockets, aiding when we need to smuggle things in… and out.

The lab guards patrol, one of which holds his gun far too tightly, his fingers, I’m sure, are just itching to pull the trigger. Marcus and I take our place in line, waiting for the retina and fingerprint scan.

Emmy nods at me as we pass through the checkpoint.

“Anything to report on fluctuations in the power output?”

“Nothing much has changed from last week, the levels are holding steady, but it’s nowhere near enough to even power this lab, let alone the city.”

I nod.

“Time to up the input. I’ll get Ro ready.”

She rolls her eyes, the pale blue a sharp contrast against her tanned skin.

“Why do you insist on giving that thing a pet name…” she grumbles. “It isn’t alive.”

I share a brief smile with Marcus as we head towards the parts store.

“We’ll need to update some of its protocols, then we’ll have this morning’s briefing. Make sure everyone’s ready,” I throw over my shoulder.

Marcus checks to be sure no one follows us into the room, also quickly ensuring we continue to escape suspicion. We walk steadily past the shelves filled with various parts, both old and new technologies, to the back where I pull the sheet from Ro.

Marcus’ hand goes to his pocket once more.

“Okay,” he says. “How much are we altering?”

With the audio recording system interrupted, we have a few minutes to iron out our plan.

“It’s time to test out the self-preservation programme.”

“It’s risky.”

I nod and look at our machine. Its lines are sleek and precise, the body perfectly sculpted. The silver somehow manages to stand out against the harsh white of its outer casing.

“I haven’t quite nailed the programme yet, but this should help get us almost there,” Marcus says as he connects Ro’s cables to his tablet. “I’m only enabling the system at its most basic level, we can’t have too many questions if it shows too much autonomy. You’ve got the diagnostics programme ready to go?”

“Loading it now.”

My fingers fly over the terminal’s keyboard as I input the diagnostic coding. I embed it several layers deep into the diagnostic programme where no one should be able to locate it, ready to wipe it at the conclusion of our experiment, and then add a few more layers containing firewalls and error messages should someone try to hack the programme.

“That should do it,” I turn to Marcus to see the system almost ready to go. “One minute.”

A sheen of sweat glistens on Marcus’ forehead; both of us are feeling the pressure. This is highly illegal and, what’s worse, we’re doing it under the noses of the smartest government employees. If this goes south, I can kiss goodbye to everything I’ve worked the last two years for.

“Ten,” I say.

“Marcus pulls the plug, gives me a thumbs up, and wipes his forehead as he releases a deep sigh. Back to the book. They can hear us again.

A metallic knock sounds against the door.

“Yes?”

“Everyone’s ready, meeting in five?”

“Thanks Emmy, just booting up now.”

She closes the door, leaving Marcus and I to inspect our work. I enable the activation sequence. Ro is a quiet unit, designed to be seen and not heard. I think of Ro as a he, though in reality, he doesn’t have a gender. Ro is an AI-based system, his existence granted special permission in order to further our work at the lab. Marcus and I fought hard for a unit license, successfully detailing all the reasons we needed such a unit. Whilst I know we could have done without him, using sequence-controlled machines to build for us, we had argued the importance of efficiency. Besides, how else were we to run our experiments? In the end, they couldn’t refute our logic, and had sought the approval from Director Kim. Thankfully, we hadn’t needed to meet with her in person. The Director runs a special unit tasked with tracking and tracing illegal AI use, as well as the laws surrounding everything AI.

Up to now, this is the riskiest experiment we’ve conducted, and we can only pray that our counter-measures prove successful in covering up what we are about to do.

Ro’s eyes light up as he rouses and comes to life.

“How do you feel Ro?”

As I'm listed as Ro’s primary, and secretly only, user, he obeys everything I ask of him.

“How I feel is irrelevant as I have no feelings.”

“Have you checked the latest update to your system?”

“Running checks now.”

It makes our colleagues feel more at ease having Ro designed to look like a robot. Some of the human-like models have them feeling distrustful. Despite the technological world we’re surrounded in, many fear AI because of the strict rules and harsh punishments should they be caught doing anything illegal. I gave up on that fear a long time ago; I no longer fear for myself.

“You have uploaded a new programme.”

“Correct,” I tell Ro as I check through diagnostics.

Everything looks to be running smoothly.

“Why?”

Ro is a highly intelligent unit, remembering every interaction we’ve ever had since the day he was ‘born’. He knows there are things that are never said aloud, and his new self-preservation programme is currently at the top of the list.

“To aid in the project. Your responses will teach us a lot, and we can make further modifications from there if need be,” Marcus says.

Ro lifts and looks at his hands, clenching and releasing them. To anyone beyond this circle, we look as though we’re casually discussing the imminent alteration of the input for the lab project. But for me, this is far more important. Hidden under layers of seemingly normal conversation, we are able to have entirely different conversations under their noses without suspicion.

“This could be risky, Ro,” I tell him.

His blue-ringed eyes turn quickly to me. Marcus opens the door, ready for the meeting to begin.

“As soon as the process for power alteration is complete, step back and stand down.”

“Understood.”

I follow behind Ro, preparing myself mentally for what is to come.

Marcus addresses our colleagues while I subconsciously drown it out, the various scenarios playing out in my head, over and over again. Yesterday, I had Marcus bug the system so that as soon as any alteration is made to the system it will let out a surge of electrical power, disabling the system, and inducing fear that, in turn, we hope to trigger Ro’s new self-preservation software.

“... Jun has checked over Lia’s calculations, and had them double-checked by supervisor Cassian.”

All eyes turn expectantly to me, snapping me out of my slightly panicked thoughts. Time to focus.

“As Marcus has previously explained, the calculations are solid and everything checks out with our lower level engineers. I have myself run several predictive test runs through our C.O.R.E system and everything seems to be in order. However, whilst we cannot predict every possible outcome, it is best for everyone to wear their full bodysuits to prevent any potential catastrophes. Once everyone is suited and in place, we can begin testing for the next phase and send Ro to install the updated hardware and flick the switch. Any questions?”

I’m met with a room of silence.

“Okay then,” I clap my hands and everyone springs into action.