She ate in silence while Simon seemed preoccupied with some internal task. Probably reaching out for his defectors, she thought.
She put the cooking stuff away and went into the tent. Beth kept the door open as she laid down on her cot so she could watch Simon’s bodyshell sit by itself, out in the cold, while the fire slowly died. Soon, the only light to be seen were the stars and the machine glow coming from Simon’s eyes. She found comfort in that artificial light, focusing on it until consciousness slipped away and she was able to find sleep out in the wild.
Radar
She awoke to find Simon still seated where she had left him. He fidgeted a little, letting her know that he was not in a powered-down state — just focused on his work. She didn’t sit in her cot long before jumping up to start the fire for breakfast. She fumbled while the flames grew a little, listening to the wood crackle as it burned away in the fresh morning air.
Beth nearly spilled some of the coffee grounds when an alert came onto her internal retina display. She took a moment to realize that the sudden noise and motion was coming from her cerebral computer, rather than from her surroundings.
A small window popped up, outlined in a flashing red border. The window read SECURITY BREACH! in loud, capital letters. The window itself showed a video feed from one of her home security cameras. It was rigged to send her an alert, even if on low power or disconnected from the Net, if someone broke into her apartment. The video feed showed about five armed police officers break down the front door and storm into her living room.
The camera changed as the cops went farther into her apartment. She held her breath while she watched, as though the police would be able to hear her and she’d blow her cover.
None of the faces were recognizable. All of them had their weapons drawn, clearly expecting some sort of fight. Their expressions were blank and cold, like they were all in a dream-like state.
Meat puppets, she thought. They must be agents of Tarov’s. The moles within the department, come to hunt their own kin.
At least, that’s what she sincerely hoped. She despised the idea of coherent, flesh-and-blood police officers hunting down one of their own detectives so aggressively. To think that she was a traitor, or whatever lie the A.I. would have told them to go after her. To make her seem like the enemy. All while he worked in the shadows above the stage, holding the strings. The mere thought made her feel powerless. She pushed it out of her head and insisted that they were under the A.I.’s control.
They made a sweep of her apartment, taking no care to keep from knocking things over. One of them kicked off the leg of her coffee table in the excitement. Once they had looked over every inch of the domicile and concluded that Beth was not there, they regrouped in the living room.
“Where is she?” one of them asked. The voice was a little fuzzy through the cheap microphone her security system had.
“Probably long gone, if she’s smart,” another replied, this one older and gruffer.
“She knew we were coming,” a female officer commented. “Someone must have tipped her off.”
“The boss says it’s Simon,” the older one replied. “That would be consistent with the way Mark was killed. Only Simon could do something like that.”
Another one groaned in frustration.
“So what now?”
“We wait, and we stay vigilant,” the older one answered. “She’s bound to slip up eventually. When she does, we’ll have her.”
They didn’t say anything else before walking out the front door, not bothering to pick it up or fix the damage they’d caused.
And like that, the security alert disappeared, and a little icon appeared on Beth’s display, letting her know the whole thing was saved as a recording.
So I really can’t go home, she thought. The realization had finally struck her, and not in some fantastic, surreal way. I’m a fugitive. A refugee in my own world. I have to keep running.
Her heart raced a little as she thought. Her breathing became quick and shallow, and she realized she was slipping into an anxiety attack. It felt like her whole world was crashing down around her, like the sky became dark and she was left all alone on the surface of some barren, inhospitable hellscape. She felt like the only soul left alive. Completely alone.
Simon looked over at her as she clutched at her chest. There were no eyebrows to raise in curiosity or any lips to frown with, but he still watched her through concerned lenses.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“They’re in my home,” she replied between panicked breaths. “They’re watching for me, waiting for me to make a mistake. They probably even bugged the place. I can’t go back.”
“I know,” Simon said.
“You know?” she asked. She raised her wide, open eyes at him, a fury burning in them that threatened to leak out over her cheeks. “You don’t know what this means for me! My life is over! There’s nothing I can do with this lunatic A.I. watching my every step!”
“Then it seems like your only option is to beat him,” Simon said. “To get rid of him forever. Then he can’t do anything to you and you can go home.”
“But how do we do that?” Beth realized she was sounding a little hysterical. She felt like a child, so helpless to do anything but cry and worry. So powerless.
“I’ve contacted a defector,” Simon started. “She calls herself Radar. She claims to have her own evidence that Tarov is an artificial intelligence.”
“She
