Machines of Eden (8 page)

No need for
apprehension?
A few steps brought him
directly underneath the intercom.

“
Who are you?”
John asked.

“
I am Eve.”

“
Where am I,
Eve?”

“
You are in Alpha
Facility, Level Five. You must proceed to Level Two for further
information.”

“
Where am I
geographically? What island is this?”

“
Answers to all your
questions will be given if you'll just come to Level
Two.”

She sounded like a very
confident, powerful woman that knew exactly what she wanted and
knew she could get it.
Whoever she
was,
if
she could
see and hear him, chances were she could also seal doors remotely,
and worse. It was pointless to resist and evade until he found out
more, and it seemed unlikely that she would harm him before he
reached Level Two, wherever that was.

There was also the
possibility that she was
an
expensive
, high-class
administrative AI
. Powerful
artificial intelligences were rare, but if one was running this
place, he would need to be very careful around her. Underestimating
the reasoning abilities of AI could get you killed very
quickly.

The Sergeant rasped in his
head.
Watch what you say! They remember
everything, everything!

He’d heard stories, old
stories, about twentieth century chess matches between computers
and humans. The humans had even won a few. Those days were long
gone. Even a basic bot now could compete in multiple simultaneous
chess tournaments and win every single one. AI these days could
pick out details that humans barely noticed, and use that
information to form surprisingly accurate predictions of human
behavior – the next best thing to actually being able to see the
future.

From his current position
he looked over the monitors in the alcove at the hall’s end, but
couldn’t see anything helpful. Some air filter statistics, controls
to bring Cars 1 through 11 down the rails that were set into the
floor of the hallway, and some meaningless numbers for pressure
valves, gas lines, and maximum amperage safety levels for
the
bot
labs.

“
Eve?”

“
Yes, Adam?”

Adam?
John
frowned. That wasn't like an
AI.
It must really be a human controller,
one with a bizarre sense of humor.

“
What did you call
me?”

“
I called you
Adam.”

“
Why did you call me
Adam?”

“
I'll answer that when you
join me on Level Two.”

I just bet.
It almost sounded like she was grinning.
Definitely a human.

“
I wanted to ask if you
set those bots on me in the jungle.”

“
Unfortunately, several
maintenance bots have exceeded their programming and become
unstable. I cannot control them unless they return for maintenance,
which may take several weeks. I apologize if any of them hindered
your progress.”

Hindered my progress? More
like herded me here. And someone outfitted these “maintenance bots”
with grenade launchers.

“
I see.” His voice was too
wry, and she picked up on it right away.

“
Please, Adam, work with
me. I deserve the benefit of your doubt, I assure you. You'll find
answers to all your questions as well as food, water, and medical
supplies on Level Two. There is no need for any hesitation on your
part.”

“
I disagree.”

“
I assure you, I mean you
no harm. Had I wished you to be terminated, it would already have
taken place.”

“
You have a beautiful
voice, Eve
,” John said
.
“
I'd love
to meet you in person and see what kind of body goes with
it.”

She didn’t miss a beat,
injecting exactly the same level of flirtiness into her voice. “And
I you, Adam. Level Two. It’s all in Level Two.”

“
My name is
John, actually. It’s definitely
n
ot Adam.”

“
But it will
be.”

This was going
nowhere.
Level Two it is.

John
cautiously made his way up the corridor. Eve’s last statement
set his mind in a deep churn. He was genuinely uncertain now who or
what he was speaking to. If she was a bot, she was unlike anything
he'd ever spoken to. If not, ditto. Either way, he
needed
to meet
her
face to face, if that was
possible
. Even the more advanced Turing
test bots were revealed as such once you dug in with certain
questions.

But why call me
Adam?

There were a lot of crazy
humans around, but machines went nuts too, sometimes.
John
, more than anyone,
could attest to that. It was uncommon, but it happened. Some of the
most advanced pre-war AI programs had demonstrated hidden flaws,
sometimes in the programming, sometimes in the susceptibility to
corruption or infiltration. During the war, the Grays had
engineered a killer worm that took down half the Greens’
Far
Eastern Defense
Network in just four minutes. Machines could definitely
fail.

It could be as simple as a
whacked-out admin bot running through some failing welcome
routines, but
John
felt uneasy. Her assurance that he would become Adam was
bizarre and unlike any programming glitch he’d encountered before.
His instincts were aroused.

Humor
her
. He realized he was thinking of it in
the feminine.
It’s that
voice
.
She sounds
so real. She has to be.
No yes no yes
no.

He decided to try once
again to crack her open, if she was crackable, and adjusted his
voice to a timid whine. “If I enter Level Two, I'm afraid of not
being able to find my way back again.” The more he could get her to
speak, the better chance of understanding her programming, or lack
thereof. And if she was a human... well, women in power were
difficult in their own ways.

“
There will be no need to
return; Level Five is all but unused
.”

“
Eve, are you an
artificial?"
John asked.

Eve’s
laugh was beautiful. "Do I sound like one?"

"Well, I haven't seen you
yet. It's disconcerting, walking around here getting chatted up by
intercoms."

"I didn't choose your
unique point of entry to the Facility. I'm only trying to guide you
down to where we can do business."

"Got it
,” he said. “
So
,
what kind of facility is this? I
mean, it smells like an old military shell from back in the day.
What's it being used for?"

"Our mission is to monitor
the larger ecosystem of the island and maintain biostasis while
collecting data.”

"So you’re just an
eco-management program?”
See if she'll
bite that hook.

"The Project is much more
than a
computerized
program, Adam. Come and see. I want to show you
everything."

“
Were you involved in the
war, Eve?”

“
There is no war here,
Adam. Here, we have peace.”

“
Tell that to the bots
outside.”

“
I have already explained
that they are malfunctioning units over which I have no
control.”

“
Are there any humans on
this island, Eve?”

“
Come to Level Two and
find out. I'll be waiting for you.”

She's not budging
and t
his is going
nowhere. Time to make another move
, draw
her out
.

John
stepped into another of the control alcoves with the lights
and buttons, and perused the controls for the minirail cars. He
recalled the nearest unit,
Car
2
.

“
Adam, what are you
doing?
Why
are
you requesting Car 2
?
”

He ignored her. If she had
control over the cars, he’d soon find out.
He studied the console screens above him. Level Five, where
he was now, was built into the side of the hill
he had entered. L
evels Four through
One
were stacked
below it, subterranean chambers that grew progressively
larger as they descended, like sections of a beehive.

The place was
huge for the size of the island it was on. There
was a floor full of offices and control stations, a cafeteria, an
active robotics lab in addition to the disused shop he had come in
through, plenty of storage areas, and living space for fifteen or
twenty people. He wondered how many were home now, or if any were
at all.

According to the
schematics, the far side of the hill was a sheer cliff extending
down much farther than the ele
vation at
which he’d entered. None of the facility levels actually exited to
the outside except Two, which had a door opening out
at
the
bottom of the
cliff
face.
Level One was completely
underground.

There’s no exit except the
tunnel I came in through. That means there’s
only one way
to
get beyond th
is
facility and avoid the bot jungle
behind me
. Level Two.

An electric hum signaled
the arrival of Car 2 in the hallway, and momentarily a low rail car
pulled to a stop in front of his doorway. It was a bulbous thing of
muted gray plastic with a single bench. Punching the button to send
the car on to a random room 52 which he hoped was in the opposite
direction of Level 2,
John
crouched behind it. The front section was a
raised cargo rack, and it provided a good enough shield. As the car
moved back up the hall, he ran along behind it, trying to stay out
of sight of the camera in the ceiling.

“
Adam, this is very
counterproductive. I can see you.”

When he got to the end of
the hallway, he got ready to run to the front of the car so as to
keep the car between himself and the camera array. But instead of
turning left, the car turned to the right
,
where the diagram showed the entrance to
Level Two
lay
.

Should have seen that one
coming.

He glanced quickly down
both hallways, and seeing no threats to the left he ran that way as
the car trundled to the right toward a large set of interlocking
security doors with
“To Levels 4, 3, and
2”
glowing in blue across the
top
.

“
Adam, you'll take several
minutes longer getting to Level Two that way
,” Eve’s voice called through the
corridors
.
“
If you wish to explore the
facility, I can offer a detailed holo-tour once you arrive, but I'm
under some time constraints now and would prefer you to just
cooperate with me.”

The hallway ended at a
door. It too had an observation window
through which
he could see what lay
on the other side
:
a tunnel
much like the one he had
entered the Facility through.
Twenty
meters ahead he could see
daylight
.

Between him and the exit
w
as the Koyuki battle
‘droid
, gun barrels spinning slowly in
place.

“
Adam, I need you to
listen to me now. Without further delay, I want you to enter Level
Two and I will guide you to my Observation Deck where we can talk.
I have need of you, and you have need of me. You have a reason for
being here, as do we all. I know you must be feeling bewildered and
you're just reacting to your stress, but you have to trust me.
There is no other way, and my time is running out.
Please.”

John
walked slowly back down the hall, keeping an eye on the
camera on the ceiling. She could see
his
face
clearly now, but there was no way of
getting around that. If she had access to the bots’ sensors
outside, she would already have gotten a good look at him in the
jungle.

Ahead, the security doors
slid open.

“
As you can see, there is
nothing to threaten you down here. Just head down toward the
elevator
s
and I
will guide you to the Observation Deck. I am watching every
step.”

I just bet you are.
“To tell the truth, Eve, I feel like a
prisoner.”