Cog by Greg van Eekhout

Author:Greg van Eekhout [Eekhout, Greg van]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0062686070
Amazon: B07H51MJKS
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

LATE AT NIGHT WITH THE moon shining silver into Car, something happens that I never thought possible: I have fully digested Wiener Mountain and am hungry again.

ADA has been quiet for hours. She sits in the driver’s seat, looking straight ahead and checking the mirrors.

“Nathan took me to breakfast once,” she says.

I am happy that ADA has broken the silence, because even though I am not cheesing, my thoughts have been disordered and unpleasant. On the other hand, I am not looking forward to hearing ADA talk about how hungry she is for the next 1,800 miles.

“He led me across the uniMIND campus lawn to what he called a conference center,” she goes on. “Inside was a big room set up with round tables and chairs for some kind of meeting. They were all eating eggs and bacon and bread in a variety of forms. The tables had white cloths over them.”

“Those are tablecloths,” I inform ADA. “They are cloths that cover tables for reasons I’m uncertain of. I think they might be fancy.”

ADA has no reaction to this increase in her cognitive development. She just continues her story. “The people mostly ate breakfast biofuel quietly, while a man at a podium spoke into a microphone. He spoke about money. Profit. Shareholder value. Things I did not understand. Nathan gave me instructions as we stood outside the room. He said I had a mission to accomplish and that achieving the mission was the most important thing.

“I walked to the podium. A few people took notice of me, but it was just some glances, nothing more. I was dressed like the workers who were serving breakfast. As far as everyone was concerned, I was one of them.

“When I reached the podium the man paused in his speech, probably wondering why a girl was standing right in front of him. But nobody tried to stop me. Even when I raised my arm and stretched it out. Even when the hatch opened and I took aim. Even when I fired my missile.

“My aim was perfect and my attack was from close range. The podium was completely destroyed. So was the man.

“I turned and began making my way for the exit, but not before deploying a gas charge. The gas smelled sweet, like candy. It was harmless to me but poisonous to humans. A few of the audience made it as far as the door before collapsing, but most of them succumbed at the tables, falling face-first into their scrambled eggs.

“I returned to Nathan outside the room. He asked me how it went. Targets destroyed. Mission accomplished.”

ADA silently scans the mirrors and the windows for drones.

I am on the edge of cheesing. “Did you know who the man was?”

“Nathan told me later. He was a simple robot. He looked human, but he was not conscious. Not like you or me, or even Car and Trashbot. The people in the audience were the same. Mechanical mannequins. Very basic machines.”

Now we are both silent. She has given me a lot of information, but I don’t know how to process it.

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