Soft Robots: A.I. Dystopian Thriller (MIM*X Book 1) by Scott Nicholson

Author:Scott Nicholson [Nicholson, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: robots
Publisher: Haunted Computer Books, Inc.
Published: 2018-02-15T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

He regained consciousness in the living room of the Bells’ apartment, his temples throbbing with each surge of his pulse. He lay on the couch, his head propped on a pillow. He stifled a groan as the room came into focus.

Laura sat on the chair across from him, playing with one of her father’s tech toys. “I didn’t mean to hit you so hard.”

“Maybe you knocked some of those MIM*X seeds out of my head.”

Lee Xiulan entered the room, carrying a steaming tea cup. She handed it to Carmichael. “This will bring you back.”

Carmichael sat up, wincing against the red rush of pain that pushed at his eyeballs. “What’s in it?”

“Secret herbal nonsense.”

“What do I have to lose?” Carmichael sipped at the sweet, tangy liquid. He noticed Laura no longer sported her laser. Xiulan shuffled back to the kitchen where she was tending some kind of seafood stew.

“So you believe us?” she said. “About MIM*X?”

“I don’t know what to believe. I’m still alive, so you must want something from me.”

“All we want is for you to accept the truth,” Laura said. “After that, it’s up to you.”

“One thing I don’t understand. There are four duplicate copies of you running around out there. If your father and Oni Zanamwe aren’t capable of producing them, then where did the other three come from?”

“We smuggled the first one out of the lab in Cornell. We were going to deconstruct it and learn how it worked so we could find a way to hack or crack neuromesh, or at least find a way to neutralize the tech by interrupting the signals between robot and host.”

The tea was helping. Carmichael no longer felt like vomiting from dizziness. “I saw the lab. The security is so tight that there’s no way you could get out of there without an army of LAWS burning you to a crisp.”

“Two things. First, Evan Lord is such a fanatic about secrecy that Athena’s not tapped into the security system, and so there are holes to exploit. Second, Evan probably wanted me to get away with the robot. I suspect he wants to see which direction we’ll take the technology. He owns the patent so we couldn’t do anything on the open market, and if we try to use it illegally, well…then he can bring down the hammer.”

“But you were with him during the development phase,” Carmichael said. “You should know plenty about neuromesh.”

“Evan wouldn’t let anyone too close to the project. We were all specialists, and he was the only one with a comprehensive understanding.”

“How could he handle such a complicated task without Athena’s help?”

“Because he was working directly with AI. He was the original guinea pig, and he is linked to the first prototypes just like you were. They’re not installed in bodies. They’re basically just quantum computers that provide real-time interaction. So he’s probably the smartest man alive, as well as the richest and most powerful.”

“And these computers are at Cornell?”

“Unless he’s created portable models of them. But when he started building duplicate noids, he put all his focus there.

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