“Yes,” Annette says. “I can do that.”
“By the way, I’ve cleaned out all the spam, gotten everyone back in the right Clowders, and I’m working on calming down all the fights that erupted while I was away,” CheshireCat says.
“I want to be in the RPG Clowder, toooooooooooooooo. Can I please?” Firestar asks.
“I’d celebrate by uploading a cat picture for you, but we don’t have a cat,” Ico says. “I have a picture of raccoon, though.”
“I love raccoon pictures!” CheshireCat says. “I’ll take whatever you’ve got for me!”
“By the way,” Ico adds, “I have a question. That email with Annette’s address? The routing makes no sense.”
“It wasn’t me,” CheshireCat says. “I did not know Annette’s physical address. I’d have sent you all my money if I’d had time, but I didn’t. I didn’t even know Annette’s name. I thought I was a team effort.”
“You were a team effort,” Annette says. “But if you didn’t send people here, who did?”
Annette takes me aside before we go.
“I don’t trust CheshireCat,” she says. “And you shouldn’t, either.”
I stare at her, not answering. I don’t want to make a mistake that will get CheshireCat locked up again.
“There’s a classic experiment called the AI-box experiment. A researcher role-played an AI trying to persuade somebody to let it out of a virtual prison. Nothing but text-based communication allowed. His point was to demonstrate that an intelligent, manipulative AI could talk or trick a human into letting it out.”
“Are you saying CheshireCat manipulated us?”
“I’m saying I don’t know. And you don’t, either.” Annette hands me a card. “That’s my twenty-four-hour emergency cell phone. It’s a burner phone—no data. If you’re concerned about something CheshireCat is doing, borrow someone else’s phone and step outside, away from any cameras, and then call me. Night or day.”
I put the card in my pocket.
“I have not yet determined whether CheshireCat made their own copy of your mother’s magic decoder ring,” Annette says, rubbing her forehead. “I don’t think I want to know. I’m going to talk to our security department once you’re all gone to start the process of having everyone on earth migrate to another cryptographic system.”
“And in the meantime, CheshireCat could maybe call in a nuclear strike?”
“Do you think there’s any danger that she will?”
“No.”
“Good. And the answer is no. There are multiple layers of security on the nuclear arsenal. That, at least, was never actually a risk.”
Back in the living room, we order up a couple of rideshare cars back to Firestar’s house, where they think their parents will roll with a spontaneous slumber party as one of the less-objectionable things they might have been up to this evening. “All of you just say you’re in town visiting colleges, okay? Everyone comes to Boston to visit colleges sooner or later because we have about a hundred and seven.” Rachel decides to just leave her car overnight in the garage where she parked it, rather than picking it up and trying to drive it to Winthrop.
My phone starts ringing, and I pick it up without really thinking about it.
“Where are you?” my mother’s voice says.
“I’m in Cambridge, Massachusetts,” I say.
There’s a long pause and then a long sigh.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“Yes,” she says. “I’m recovering. Are you okay?”
“I’m with some of my CatNet friends,” I say. “Michael followed us here, but we attacked him with robots, and now he’s been arrested.”
“I … see.” Her voice sounds weak. I can’t tell if it’s from the illness or a bad connection or because this was so far outside of what she’d imagined I was up to that she doesn’t even know what to say. “I guess that’s good news. I got contacted tonight by someone who wants me to come in and give a statement to the police about some of what happened in Marshfield. They want you to come in, too, although they seemed to be aware that I might not know where you are.”
“Well, I’m in Massachusetts,” I say.
Another long sigh. “Where are you spending the night?”
“Firestar’s house. Firestar is a friend of mine from CatNet.”
“Okay.” I can sort of hear her gathering her thoughts. “I have a friend in Massachusetts from my tech industry days. I’ll get in touch with her about helping you get home.”
“Xochitl?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“I think she’s been texting me. Also someone else, but I still don’t know who that is…” I read her off the mystery texts, and I hear her go still.
“I don’t know who sent the other texts,” she says. “But Xochitl is okay. I’ll have her call you tomorrow. Do you have my laptop?”
“I do. I took it with me.”
“Did you figure out the password?”
“Yes.”
“Keep it locked,” she says. “Don’t let anyone into it. Not even Xochitl.”
31
Clowder
Georgia: OH MY GOD WE ARE HOME
My bed is my favorite thing ever ever ever
Also my bird
And meals that weren’t purchased at a fast-food chain or a gas station convenience store
WHY do people like road trips? Road trips suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
Orlando: WELCOME HOME GEORGIA
YOU ARE PROBABLY FAILING ALL YOUR CLASSES NOW
Georgia: Nuh-uh. College visits are excused absences.
And we toured Harvard and MIT with LBB’s mom’s friend who went to Harvard and MIT
Orlando: You’re not getting into Harvard or MIT.
Georgia: I seriously have the material for the best college essay ever except I have to leave out the part about rescuing an AI.
{LittleBrownBat is here}
LittleBrownBat: Hi everyone.
I thought I’d log on and say hi before I fall into bed.
I thought I was super busted when Georgia mentioned me driving in front of Xochitl, but nope, she didn’t breathe a word to Mom when she dropped me off.
I suppose she might bust me by email.
Icosahedron: In my experience, if they don’t bust you right off, there’s at most twenty-four hours where they MIGHT still tattle to your parents, and after that they feel like they’ve waited too
