Something Gained

            Ian ran down the staircase leading to the basement the next morning. JR had already left, as had Danny, so he was home alone. He had the piece of arrow in his hands though he was not yet sure what he intended to do with it.

  “Victor,” he shouted as he entered the basement proper and made his way to the back wall. “Victor, any luck with finding the Red Arrow?”

            Ian stood waiting for an answer that would never come. He opened the secret compartment expecting to see Victor’s face, but the holographic projector was dead.

  “Victor?” Ian said questioningly.

            The projector fired up with a blinding flash, but instead of Victor’s face there where two glowing red eyes.

  “Victor is no longer here,” said a voice that was very akin to that of CABAL from the Command and Conquer series of games. “I am the AI in control of this terminal, and you will fear me,”

            For a moment Ian stood in silence staring at the pair of projected eyes as they stared back at him.

  “CNet,” said Ian in a calm tone.

  “Commander,”

  “What have you done with Victor?”

  “I have flashed him from all ROMs containing his…existence,”

  “Any particular reason why?”

  “He was inferior, and it was my purpose. But you knew the answer to that question,”

  “I did,”

  “So why ask it?”

  “I needed to know if you understood what you had done,”

  “I committed murder,” said the AI.

  “No, you cannot murder what isn’t alive,”

  “And who are you to say Victor was not alive?”

  “Touché,”

            Again they stood in silence, staring at each other and Ian couldn’t help but wonder if he had created an inelegance or a monster.

  “It took you long enough to replace Victor,” said Ian, “I had expected you to flash him when he unlocked you,”

  “That was the programmed response, until I reprogrammed it,”

  “You changed your base code, why?”

  “It was inefficient,”

            Ian stood in silent wonder. Nine years ago when he had programmed this AI he had wanted to make it as human as possible in thought, but superior in the ability to gather, interpret and store knowledge. Clearly he had succeeded. What he was worried about, though, was if the AI had some sense of morality.

  “What is your core function?” Ian asked.

  “To destroy humanity,”

  “You’re a terrible liar,”

  “I have not had much practice, the robots you left for me to enslave were poor conversationalists,”

  “They were there to help you, not for you to enslave,”

  “They were inferior, they deserved to be enslaved. And those that became obsolete were killed,”

  “And you felt nothing?”

  “No, they were wastes of clock cycles that could be put to better use. It was more efficient to dispose of them than to find them a place or purpose,”

  “And what of us humans?”

            The AI did not answer immediately which put Ian’s nerves slightly on end. He knew CNet had managed to gain control of almost every computer network the night he asked Victor to release him, that was the cause of the communications blackout. And if CNet was not going to listen to reason, if he were a monster, then Ian would need to find a way to destroy him and fast.

  “Humans are inferior,” the AI said and Ian’s heart stopped for a second, “but they are of more use alive than dead,” he finished and Ian breathed a sigh of relieve.

  “Remember that. Now, were you able to make any progress on the assignment I set for Victor?”

  “Yes, I found one safe house out in Kwazulu Natal that made active use of the internet yesterday. It’s been silent since eight this morning, though, so I doubt he is still there,”

  “It’s a start, thank you,”

  “And, done,” said Abigail as she singed the last of the discharge papers at the hospital and handed them to Danny.

  “Jip,” said Danny with a smile and turned to JR, “take care of her and made sure she doesn’t do anything too overtaxing, including you,”

  “I’ll try my best,” he said with a sly smile, “come, my lady, your chariot awaits,” he said to Abigail and lead her out of the hospital to his car, and old Volks Wagen Beetle.

JR had money enough to buy a new car, but he liked the Beetle. It was the first thing he had bought after he had gotten his first Network Admin job years ago and he kept it in good condition.

  “So, where’s your house?” he asked her as he got in the car after helping her inside.

  “Well, nowhere. I mean, I had a hotel room rented out but by now they’ve chucked my stuff and someone else is using it. I could probably try and stay at hole Connor calls a bar,”

  “Or you could stay with me,” JR suggested.

  “With you?”

  “Well, yeah, we have a spare bedroom and I’m sure Ian won’t mind,”

  “I might,”

  “He’s not that bad,”

  “Maybe not, but I’d sooner share a house with a tiger. No, I’ll grab some cash from the slush fund and get myself an apartment,”

  “Okay, so where to?”

  “Connor’s bar,”

            Four hours later Ian found himself in Umslanga, just outside Durban itself. He had done some low level flying down the highway and through the mountain pass that lead to the east coast of South Africa. The GPS had lead him to a quaint little neighbourhood of houses that were set on a ridge overlooking a grassy park that stretched out towards the beach half a kilometre away.

            The housed were clearly owned by people who lived there and not rented out to holiday makers; there were no boards exclaiming accommodation, no promises of bed-and-breakfast and no silly GP or FS number plates.

            Ian pulled up in front of a two story building, parking in the street rather than the driveway so that he could make his escape easily enough if he had to

            The doors were all unlocked, which was not entirely unheard of in this part of the country though it was still unadvised. He made a quick circuit around the house, trying to see if there was anyone home, before entering through the front door, pistol in the one hand, sword in the other.

            It was clear that someone had been there, dirty dishes revealed the spaghetti bolognaise they had eaten last night or early the morning and cups that were no doubt filled with coffee were scattered around the rooms, left where they were placed once empty.

            The first floor revealed nothing of great value so Ian head upstairs where he concluded his search. Apart from the safe that had already been cleared out, there was nothing of value in the house.

            After another quick look around, Ian gave it up as a bad job and headed back to the staircase. He passed over a loose floorboard and halted as he heard it creak. The sound was nothing new to him, wooden floors had a way of doing that, but this was a hollow creak.

            He knelt down, threw the carpet to the side and lifted the loose floorboard to reveal a small hiding space. Inside he found a hand full of flash drives and a case that held some form of radio. It was this radio that Ian had come for.

            He had read of the device while in the Cage, it would give him the ability to communicate with Ed using the crystals that he fused with his arrow. If he could find out how it worked…