Being held in jail was stressful enough on its own, especially with the deafening silence of isolation pulling on his brain, but being host to an angry I.I. made the misery exponential. The digital voice in his head fumed 24/7, making even the act of catching a quiet moment near impossible.
Oddly enough, neither the arresting officer, his defense, or the courts had made any reference to Maynard. If they were unaware that he’d undergone the mindshare process, he wasn’t keen to help them figure it out. For the time being, it was the only ace he had left up his sleeves. He just feared that, when the moment came to lay down the Maynard card, the world would be playing a different game already. One that aces couldn’t win.
“Those sons-of-bitches are all on his payroll, I bet,” Maynard said.
His tone indicated he was thinking aloud more than trying to get feedback. Karl wasn’t planning to provide any anyway; he preferred to tune the I.I. out. To him, it was a form of meditation. He started to think he could achieve true zen only once the voice in his head was mute.
“How many resources does the traitor have, anyway? Don’t you have any leads floating around in that head of yours?” Maynard asked.
Until now, the I.I. had been just white noise. Now that he was demanding a response, Karl felt the resentment growing.
“Nope,” he said. “Just you.”
“Have you been thinking about it at all?”
“Not really.”
“Why not?”
“What’d be the point?”
“Potential freedom, that’s what!” Maynard yelled. He gave an indignant sigh. “Don’t you wanna get outta here?”
“We’re not getting out of here.”
“Not with that attitude, we aren’t!”
“Look, the deck is stacked against us,” Karl said. He liked the sound of his voice in the midst of so much silence. “Whoever wanted to get us into trouble did a remarkable job. They’ve got the evidence, they’ve got fake motives, and they have alibis from anyone else. The case against us is rock solid, even if it is built on false notions. We’ll be going to prison for the rest of our lives. If we’re lucky.”
For a moment, Karl thought he heard a noise come from down the block. Maybe the other alleged criminals had heard him talking aloud to himself. Maybe it’d help keep him safe if everyone thought he was just insane.
“How can you talk like that? Have you given up? Do you forget that, despite their case against us, we’re still innocent?”
“We wouldn’t be the first people to never see the light of day again in spite of our innocence,” Karl said. “It happens all the time. Why should we be any different?”
“Because we’re smarter than that!” Maynard retorted.
“Or maybe too dumb to quit,” Karl said.
“Quit?!” Maynard echoed. “Why on Earth would we quit? We know there’s a traitor, and the list of possible candidates is so much shorter than you’d think. Why would we give up when we are so close to the truth?”
“Close?” Karl asked. “Ten inches might as well be ten miles with how they’ve got us locked up. What wiggle room do you imagine we have?”
“That’s why we have to start thinking of ways out of this!” Maynard said.
What do you wanna do, burrow through the walls? Karl thought, his voice tired from speaking. The only way out is through an honest defense.
“Well, like you said, the deck is stacked,” Maynard replied. “What do you imagine the odds are that we’ll actually be given an ‘honest’ defense?”
I know! Karl thought. That’s why I’m trying to come up with something. Some piece of evidence that the prosecution missed. Something that exonerates us that no court could refute.
“And where is this magic piece of evidence, Karl? I don’t see it anywhere in this small cell with us!”
Well, if you could just shut your face for a few moments, I might have some peace to think!
“While you’re busy doing your meditation, the window of opportunity is closing on us. You’re wasting your energy on the defense. Our only hope now is escape.”
If you don’t shut up, I’m going to turn you off, Karl threatened. I’ll put you right to sleep and you can stay there, quiet and alone, until I decide to let you sense again. Got it?
“Oh nice,” Maynard said. “Real nice. While you’re making dumb threats at me, the traitor is out there enjoying OUR freedom. Who knows what he’ll end up doing with it? Do you imagine the lab was his only target in jail—that his plan has already ended? Don’t you think more people out there are in danger? More people that he can order gunned down, because each time he does it, he gets a new patsy and walks free? How much blood do you want on your hands—”
And with that, Karl disabled the communications function in his cerebral computer.
Karl returned to his cell in shock. He knew that the case against him was bad, but he’d had no idea the extent of evidence implicating him. The door was sealed electronically once he was inside. Without putting much thought into it, he reactivated the portion of his C.C. that Maynard lived in.
In less than a minute, Karl was able to convey the entire trial to the I.I. with a sequence of thoughts. The information apparently overwhelmed Maynard, who remained silent for over twenty minutes.
“How did they get those logs?” he asked, startling the inmate.
“I don’t know,” Karl said.
“They said you were badged in over twelve times in less than ten minutes, right when the gunmen made their entrance.”
Yes, Karl thought sourly.
“How could they have done that? Had you misplaced your RFID badge?”
“No,” Karl said aloud. “I had it with me all week.”
“What about before then?”
“They didn’t take
