Machines of Eden (10 page)

“
How did you come
here?”

Nut
blinked in suspicion
and began to
back away
. “Why ya wanna know? She tell ya
ta ask me? Huh? Did she?”

“
Relax. I just don’t know
how
I
got here. I
woke up on the beach
a few hours
ago
.”

The man seemed to calm
down. “Workers
, dumb islanders
mostly
. All gone now. Long gone. Like the
boss. Left me, though
, cuz I know
‘lectrician work
. Still here. But she’ll
get me. Eventually. Five months.” He paused, concentrating, then
added, “Maybe six months. Maybe five. Dunno.”

“
You’ve been here five
months?”
John asked.

“
No, empty-head.”
Nut
tapped his temple
with a dirty finger. “Five months until dark. Better listen to me,
or you’ll go before me.”

“
How long have you been
here, then?”

“
Too long.”

Son of a –
“
Hey!
Listen to me
,” John told
the semi-coherent man in front of him
.
“
Why are
you here?”

“
Nuthin’, no more.
Obsolete. What she called me. Said on the file,
obsolete.”

John
stared at Nut. The man was clearly hanging on by his
fingernails. It wouldn’t take much to push him over the edge, if he
hadn’t fallen already. The mind could only take so much, and Nut
had reached his limit.

Not like the machines.
Never like the machines. Got to love the bots for that. They don’t
snap. When they go bad, it makes sense all the way. Their insanity
is sane. They get unbalanced, but they still make a creepy kind of
sense. Like that quartermaster bot at Nova Base that decided the
boys weren't shaving close enough for regulations, and decided to
do something about the problem.

“
Look, Nut. She can’t get
us here, right?”

Nut shook his head, hair
whipping from side to side. “Nep, nep. Not here.”

“
So we’re safe for now,
right? We can talk?”

“
Yep. Gotcha
food?”

John
drew a breath. “No. I already told you that.”

“
Know you did. Think I
wasn’t listening. I can see clearly. You think that about me. That
I don’t listen. But I do.”

John
stared at the little man, uneasy. Nut’s voice was taking on a
hurried, frantic tone, and he was using larger sentences that ran
together.

“ –
point is, hero, that
we’re dying. Already, both of us dying. What of, what from? Not
gas, not bots--hunger! And you didn’t bring food, so are we safe
here, hmm? Ask
her
. She’s got it all calculated, see. The exact calorie count
we need to stay alive
--
k
now what she does?”

John
shook his head.

“
She gives you exactly one
calorie less than what you need! Smart! Smartsmartsmart! So you
starve so slow you don’t even know it! She’s got it all figured
out!”

Nut was rocking back and
forth on his heels, hands clasped around his knees. “Say you need
an even two grand calories a day. Well, she makes sure you don’t
get but a thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine!” He darted a
triumphant look at the ceiling. “Got to be smart!
I’m
smarter than she
thinks. Know what I do? I get extra calories!” Nut was almost in
paroxysms of joy. Crafty glee shone from his eyes.
“
Know what I
do?”

“
Tell me.”

“
I… eat…
rats
!” A long,
chattering giggle.

“
Rats?”
John asked with raised eyebrows.

“
Yesyesyessir. Rats. And
they keep me alive. And they mess up her math. She’s got me figured
at twenty-five hundred a day! And my rats give me twenty-six
hundred! Think on that! Twenty-six hundred! She’s not as smart as
Nut, no sir! No sir!”

“
That’s
…
pretty good, Nut.”
This guy is far gone. He’d eat
me
if I turned my
back.

“
Innit?” Nut chortled.
“I
’m
the
maintenance guy. I know my way around. I know where the rats are. I
know where they hide. There’s enough for both of us.”

“
Does Eve know you’re up
here?”

“
Nobody knows. Just you
and me.”

“
It looks like an old
military base
,” John
commented
.
“
Comms tower, concealed tunnels.
Were you here during the war?”

“
After. Got my eye burned
out by a bot laser during the retreat from
Yangon
,” he said, pointing to his
left eye. It did seem a little too glossy-looking. “You military?
You a
G
reenie?”

John
ignored the last query.
That’s far
too complex a discussion for this guy.
Gotta keep
him
on track.
“So it’s an old mil base.
Private now, am I right? Run by this super-smart Eve program.
She
is
a program,
right?”

“
Program? She’s
the
program. She’s the
real deal around here.”

“
But she’s not an actual
woman?”

“
More woman than the
others. More killer.”

“
Who owns her? Who hired
you?”

“
There’s a woman. Comes
and goes. Independent, like me. At least, I saw her a month ago. I
think.” He stopped, confused by himself.

“
Are you talking about
Eve?”
John asked.

“
Nep. Eve got no body,
yet. This other lady, she’s got a body. Oh yes.”

There’s my hard answer, if
I get one at all. Eve must be one massively-built AI.
“Good to know, Nut. Who hired you?”

Nut
shrug
ged
.
“
They shipped me out
. Team got hired. Not just me.”

“
You the boss?”

“
Nep. Boss died with the
rest.”

“
How’d you make
it?”

“‘
Cause I smart. Smarter
than them. Smarter than her. Smarter than you, maybe. You ever
think of that?” Nut fingered a piece of rebar lying nearby and
blinked rapidly.

John
tensed
, readying himself for an
attack from the deranged man
. “Easy, Nut.
Easy. You’re the smart one. You the smartest. Easy.”

But Nut began to weep,
gripping the piece of rebar until his knuckles were
white.

“
I been watching. Been
watching you. You don’t believe me. You think I be crazy. But
joke’s on you. I listen. Yessir. Joke is on you. You think just
because I eat rats that you better than me? I eat rats because I
the smartest! I the smartest! Smarter than her! Smarter than
you!”

Nut lunged.

John
was ready. One hand rose to meet the rebar as it began its
descent; the other pushed off the wall and gave him the momentum he
needed to shove the man hard.

Nut, still hunched on his
heels, rolled backward with a yelp, legs kicking viciously, rebar
clattering to the ground. He came up in a rush, teeth bared,
ey
es mere slits.
“Twenty-si
x…
hundred! She counts ‘em wrong!”

“
Stop it, Nut! We’ve got
to work together! She wants us to fight each other!”

“
TWENTY-SIX HUNDRED! I
WILL LIVE AND YOU WILL DIE!”

John
ran for the nearest door, avoiding the crazy man’s blows, and
dived forward. A vicious kick to his left leg made him gasp, but he
was through and scrambling upright in seconds. He ducked and rolled
into the darkness of a hallway, seeking only to get away, but Nut
was not pursuing.

“
If you tell her I eat
rats, I’ll never forgive you! Don’t
…
you
…
NEVER
…
tell her!” A sound halfway between
a sob and a shriek echoed down the corridor.

Your secret is safe with
me, nutboy.

He hurried away from Nut’s
lair, moving
down a sloping maintenance
passageway
toward a dim light at
its end
. He was more
shaken than he cared to admit. It was hard for
John
to face mental collapse. So
many of his friends had broken during the war.

I’ll take my chances with
the computer. At least she pretends to be rational.

At the
end of the
passage
another hole
had
been
cut in the
wall.
A small halogen lamp was
hooked to the lip of the hole, obviously Nut’s doing.
Past it, another smaller
tunnel sloped downward several meters
. He followed it and found a final hole in the
floor
. He dropped through into a
regular
hallway.

Much nicer.
It was well-lit, air-conditioned, and there was
even carpet. And up ahead, a cushioned bench against the wall, the
first piece of furniture he had seen.

“
Welcome to Level Two,
Adam
,” Eve’s silky voice
called.

Ah
.
Of course.

“
I’m very happy you
finally understood where your best interests lie. I’ve prepared a
beverage for you in the lounge. It’s just up the
hallway.”

“
Thanks
,” John said
.
“
Neurotoxin cocktail?”

“
No, Adam. Your suspicion
and condescension do you no credit.”

He approached the corner
carefully, peering around it. “Well, it could have something to do
with all the attempts on my life since arriving here. And the fact
that no one will give me a straight answer.”

“
For that I need to
apologize. You must realize that I have enemies, Adam. At first I
thought you were one of them. Please forgive me. I should have
given you the benefit of the doubt, as I requested it from you. And
I did say that once you came to Level Two, I would tell you all. By
the way, what did Nut say about me?”

Nobody knows, huh,
Nut?
“He didn’t say
much
,” John replied
.
“Nut’s
a
little loopy.”

“
I didn’t think you two
would bond
,” Eve
laughed
.
“
Nut’s cognitive pathologies are
extraordinarily complex. But we have an arrangement that has been
mutually beneficial so far.”

“
Like what, he takes care
of your laundry? ‘Cause it was obvious you aren’t doing
his.”

That silvery laugh again,
so appreciative. He wondered again how much she had cost to
program, how long it must have taken, and who the muse might have
been.

“
Nut does
odd jobs I can’t do myself
,
simple ones that don’t require a
lot of trust. In return,
I give him access
to supplies
.
I
hope you didn’t believe any of his paranoid accusations; he is well
taken care of here. He chooses to live in the maintenance shafts of
his own free will.”

John
continued
down the hallway, still on
his guard
but no longer attempting
stealth
.
I’m
right where she wanted me, and I'm not happy about it.

“
Well, I’m here, and you
promised answers. I’m listening.”

“
Thank you, Adam. I only
wanted your undivided attention and a measure of proven loyalty. I
will take what I can get from you, at this point. If you’ll relax
and step through into my Project, I’ll show you. After you get
whatever refreshment you need, of course.”

He was in a large,
comfortable lounge. There were faux-leather sofas, tables, an
automatic bar, and restrooms. There was a stairway on one end with
a sign pointing up it that said Dormitory, and as he entered soft
piano music began to play from hidden speakers. An assortment of
prepackaged sandwiches slid down onto a cafeteria-style shelf by
the bar as the area lit up.

“
We can speak while you
eat. Step right through to the observation area when you're
ready.”

“
Thanks,”
John
said slowly,
looking around. “Where are the other people?”

“
You have Level Two to
yourself, Adam.”

“
Shouldn’t there be staff,
workers, researchers?”