“That’s not true,” Maynard said inside Karl’s cranium. “He killed me.”
“You murdered Maynard Batiste,” Karl said to the mutilated man, raising his gun a little.
That seemed to catch Stewart by surprise. His eyes managed to widen more than they normally could due to his mangled eyelids.
“Batiste?” he said. “You know about that?”
“He’s in my head, Stewart!” Karl said. “He’s here right now. Of course I know about the murder. I know everything he knows.”
Stewart bowed his head.
“Certainly,” he said. “I should have realized that. Karl, you have to understand, that was when I was young and naive. It was an accident; a mistake. I never meant to kill Batiste. I just shoved him and—and he fell. That was a past life to me, now. I’m not that man anymore.”
“Why did you do it?” Maynard asked.
Karl echoed the question aloud.
The mangled man sighed. “It was the mindshare process. Back in the early days of installation technology, Batiste wanted to be the first to develop it. He wanted my help making C.C.s compatible with installed intelligences. I couldn’t allow that to happen.”
“So you killed him?”
“I’ve already said I didn’t mean to! We were just having a discussion at his place late one night. An argument, really. He didn’t want to hear my concerns. I didn’t want to shut down his work entirely, but I needed him to understand that mankind wasn’t ready for the mindshare yet. If we opened our minds up before we even truly understood them, we’d be offering up our free will to anyone—or anything—that wanted to take advantage of it.”
“You say all this in the past tense,” Karl said. “You now believe we are ready for the mindshare process?”
“No!” Stewart cried. “That’s why I’ve spent so much time fighting against it in the courts and in the capital. It’s why I’ve grown desperate enough to employ a band of renegades to further my agenda. Can you not see that?”
“So then, that was your plan?” Karl asked. “Murder a few politicians who oppose your bill, bully the others, and pass it to protect humanity?”
Stewart tried to smile, but the result was too horrifying to look at and too painful to bear.
“When you put it that way, it sounds pretty noble. But I assure you, my motivations were reasonably selfish. I wanted to use the inevitable panic over installed intelligence—and the idea of sharing minds with them—to convince people to let me rewrite the I.I. code. I could make it so much more flexible, so malleable, so… controllable. Then I could sell fragments of that control to entities that paid the right price; in fact, I had a few buyers already lined up. I’d be rich and the master of an entire industry.”
“You’d also be a slave-driver,” Karl said, his anger climbing more and more. “Installed intelligences are people.”
“So you keep saying,” Stewart said. “Nonetheless, I don’t think we’ll see if I’m right. At least, I won’t. So what happens now?”
“I still haven’t heard you explain the shootings,” Karl said.
“Haven’t you been listening to a word I’ve said?” Stewart replied. “I had nothing to do with them! I was just as relieved as anyone would be to have not been involved. I’ve been told the same information everyone else has. Until now, I’ve thought you really were behind the massacres. I really thought you might be some psychopathic mastermind. But now I see that that’s not possible. I can see it in your eyes. You wouldn’t have what it takes to make that order. You don’t have it in you. And that’s okay, but it doesn’t mean the blame then falls to me. I’ve confessed to my crimes, but I won’t claim anyone else’s.”
“I’ve had about enough of this,” Maynard said. “What about you?”
I don’t know, Karl thought, I think I might believe him.
“You believe him?” Maynard asked. “This wretch? The one who confessed to killing me? The one who planned to make you the scapegoat for his crimes?”
You’ve heard the same explanations I have, Karl said. I don’t believe that he framed me for the lab and the anti-I.I. protest. His story makes sense.
“He’s a liar!” Maynard said. “He’d tell you anything to make himself seem innocent. Even if it won’t save his life, it will protect his legacy. Maybe he thinks it’ll even keep his vision alive.”
Karl was starting to feel more and more certain as time passed. His previous anger seemed to recede a little, and he felt a bit like Dr. Jekyll waking up to find what Mr. Hyde had done.
No, I don’t believe that at all, Karl thought. He’s telling the truth.
“How are you certain?”
I’m not, but it makes the most sense. Stewart, you, me—we’re all just weaker pieces of a darker game. Someone else is dealing the cards out. The traitor is still out there.
“Karl?” Stewart asked after the silence had grown uncomfortable. “What happens now?”
The psychologist loosened the grip on his gun. He let the weight of the firearm pull his arm down until the gun was no longer pointed at Stewart.
“Now?” Karl said. “Now I’m still a fugitive. Now the traitor is out there, likely plotting another attack. Now I’m lost.”
Stewart took a step back in apprehension, his hands still raised. It was clear by the expression on his face that he didn’t know where Karl was going with this.
“Are you going to kill me?” the mutilated man asked when he couldn’t remain quiet any longer.
“No,” Karl said. He laughed a little. “No, Stewart, I’m not going to kill you. But I do need your help. I need to find the traitor. I need to clear my name, and I can’t do it alone. What do you say?”
Stewart squinted in confusion.
“You want my help?” he asked.
“I don’t want it, Stewart. I need it.”
“But
