Sunlight Through Concrete Rain - Part 3 (still WIP)

THIS IS WIP! WILL BE ADDING MORE AS I WRITE! TYPICALLY, I WRITE 10-15 "SECTIONS" A WEEK! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING PREVIOUS PARTS! WITHOUT IT, THIS WILL MAKE NO SENSE!

NOTE FOR BRITS: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS THE WORD "PAKI", WHICH I KNOW IS A SLUR IN THE UK. IN THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT, IT'S JUST A SHORTHAND WAY TO REFER TO PAKISTANIS! IT IS NOT USED IN A SLUR-Y WAY IN THIS TEXT! THANK YOU!

26

Immediately, Vel parted his lips to speak aloud his incredulity but T.H. raised a finger to his lips, and asked for silence. Incredulity was then replaced by curiosity, as Vel and Ravi watched T.H. turn around and scribble something down on a piece of paper. He turned around to reveal:

“HE CAN HEAR EVERYTHING WE SAY.”

Then, he wrote something else down:

“I HAVE A SCIF ROOM. FOLLOW ME. JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP UNTIL WE’RE THERE!”

Vel and Ravi exchanged a curious look, but followed their friend as he set off at a quick pace, through a wooden door and down into the depths of the ruined church, his chromium legs heavy on the ancient floor underfoot.

27

A narrow spiral staircase opened into a wide chamber. On one end, there was an altar that once would have been bedecked in Catholic magnificence. Now, it stood empty save for the dull and cracked stained glass. The glass was still being pattered by the rain, Vel noticed.

The pews were gone, used for kindling over the past hundred years. The floor was cracked, the idols were broken.

“I bet this place would have been magnificent… back in the day…” Ravi’s voice echoed in the empty church. “My grandmother was Christian, you know? I wonder what she’d make of this…”

“The same grandmother who used to pray in AltR?” Vel asked.

“Yeah, she had AltR make her a pre-mosque Hagia Sophia… man I’d always wanted to see the Hagia Sophia. Pity about the bomb…” Ravi’s voice trailed off, and she stood in place, staring at the once glorious windows.

“Yeah, I don’t think she’d much care for this place then,” Vel shrugged.

“You’re probably right.”

“Hurry up, morons,” T.H. was standing beside a heavy door next to the altar. “In here. And I’ll tell you all about my Hindu dad and how he beat me as a kid.”

“You forget he was a sergeant,” Ravi groaned.

“He forgets I was his Lieutenant,” Vel corrected.

“Vel… Can I say something?” Ravi asked as they approached the door. T.H. rolled his eyes at his dawdling companions, and Vel grinned.

“Yes, always, Ravs.”

“Since all this began… you’ve become happier. More like yourself. I was getting worried – you’ve gone into a shell after Bento, and I’ve done all I can to pull you out. But I was beginning to run out of energy… To be honest, I was running on empty. But I didn’t know how to confront you…” she was playing nervously with her auburn hair, and Vel’s heart sank.

“Aw, fuck… Babe I had no idea. You should have said something. I’m sorry… I’ve been in my own head. You don’t need the recap, I think, you know what I’ve been like,” Vel sighed. “Fuck Rob, fuck RAI… but they have given me a purpose again.”

“I’m glad you’re happy,” she put her arm through his.

“I remember my promise, by the way. I’m going to get us out,” he kissed her, and she held him tight.

“Fucking move, dipshits!” T.H.’s exasperated cry cut through their embrace. They quickened their pace, as T.H. opened the door and disappeared into the blackness inside.

“So… you’re happy I’m happy, huh? But I’m happy killing… you good with that?”

Ravi laughed, and her voice – like a stream running gently over pebbles – reverberated through the church. “I’m no fucking saint either, Vel. I signed up for the war, remember? People like you and I? This is what we’re meant for. Come on,” she trudged forward, “we’ve got an AI to kill.”

28

T.H. was waiting for them in the dark room. The room itself was made from old stone, and the stale air smelled of moss. There was a naked bulb suspended from the low ceiling, and it cast a dim light over a table and a chair. There were no electronics here; the whole place was silent.

“Close the door,” T.H. instructed, and Vel shut it behind him with a heavy thud. He turned around and saw that T.H. had dropped a flash drive on the table.

“This is a muzzle. I’ve had it for years. Very regulated. Very illegal.” He placed another flash drive on the table. “I made a copy. In fact, I made a dozen copies, but now we just need two. I don’t trust Rob, and I fucking hate RAI.” He looked up at Vel and Ravi, his eyes hard, and face grim.

“I say, we kill RAI like Rob wants us to. Then, we muzzle the fucker. This one,” he held up one of the flash drives, “is a modified version of the muzzle. It will break the AI’s source code – think of it like super cancer. It will get into RAI’s code and mutate, until the code itself mutates and the fucking thing rots and collapses from the inside – in milliseconds."

“We can’t outsmart these AIs, T…” Ravi spoke gently, as though speaking to a toddler.

“Maybe not. But I don’t want to me manipulated by them for a second longer. You know why I live down here?”

“Why?” Vel asked.

“It’s the only way to live that RAI doesn’t control a single fucking decision I make. Well, aside from the decision to avoid him. The only people I speak to are thugs, and gangers, and murderers who want a piece or a daemon or new ID. You know how lonely that is? Meanwhile you two fucked off,” he sighed, and took a pause to collect himself. “I don’t blame you. I’m not even mad. But I’m done living like this. If there’s a chance, I’m taking it.”

After a moment’s silence, Vel spoke up. “Ravs… Think about it. All of us have fought and bled before – and for what? Over data centres? Over hydro-dams and corps’ lithium mines? Bento saw a chance, a chance for a better future, and he took it. It killed him, yes, but it began something. And… I’m done living like this. Even if we can clear this bounty, which we can’t, RAI will hang me off the causeways until I fall and die. And you? You won’t retire till you’re 80 at best! That’s if someone doesn’t pay to get you murdered…”

“Well…” Ravi was looking at the drives. “Maybe… You’re right. Both of you. This is no way to live; better to die fighting, than live in the shit and the mud, praying from scraps from the corps,” she spoke with newfound iron in her voice, and in her posture Vel could see again the soldier she’d once been. “And Vel,” she turned and put her arms around Vel, “there’s only one way we get outta here. The Plains are calling my name, babe, and I’m going. And I’m going to stick it to SG in the meantime,” she smiled up at Vel, and he felt like a teenager again.

“So, we killing the fuckers?” T.H. asked.

“Yes,” Vel replied.

“Oh yeah,” Ravi nodded.

“Small issue,” Vel spoke. “We don’t have a plan. A proper one.”

“Rob has it. We just stick with it, until we’re done, and then we kill them both. Seems simple enough to me,” T.H. shrugged.

“Yeah, simple,” Vel chuckled. “Whatever, man. We’ll improvise.”

“Last time we improvised, a Paki drone blew my legs off,” T.H. said, with complete nonchalance.

“Yeah, well, we’ll improvise better then. Anyway, I’m fucking tired. Where are the beds?”

29

A better place, with bright skies – I promise

That’s what Rob had said. As Vel lay awake, Ravi asleep beside him, Rob’s parting words swam laps in his head. Rob had been inside his AltR, so he must have known that all Vel wanted to see was a blue sky.

But why say that?

Why would an AI, or whatever, designed perfectly make such an obvious mistake? It was too much, too sinister, and Rob had to have known it.

Vel threw his covers off; T.H.’s basement room was too hot to sleep in, and the fan wasn’t working anyway.

Rob must be desperate, Vel thought. He was trying too hard.

Maybe there was something there. Maybe. Maybe Rob knowing how to feel could be his undoing, Vel thought.

Ravi shifted beside him, snapping him out of his thinking. In her sleep, she put an arm across Vel’s chest. In the next minute, Vel was snoring beside her.

30

In the morning, woken by their alarms at 0500hrs, they gathered again in T.H.’s SCIF. Vel spoke first.

“When we speak to Rob today, we need to ambush him. He’s been in control the entire time, and it’s time to flip the script,” he said. “He needs to answer some questions. We need to know who we’re getting into bed with.”

“Oh, yeah, no need,” T.H. grinned. “I went upstairs before I nodded off. I went to my private server – it’s isolated even from my own network. No way Rob knows about it. What can I say? I’m a paranoid fuck.”

“What did you do, T?” Ravi asked.

“I scraped the net from the decade that Rob was apparently created. Get this: he’s a US Space Force project. Part of a group of 6 super AIs, each designed to work together and act as one unit. His real name? Agent Edward.”

“Really?” Ravi raised an eyebrow. “Man, the Americans of the 2020s really fucked things up for everyone.”

“Yeah, them or the Chinese,” Vel grumbled. “Anyway, T; why didn’t you do this before? Rob’s been living in your servers for months.”

“Yeah, his memory was screwy – I didn’t have enough to go off. He didn’t remember a single damn thing – at least, that’s what he said. And I couldn’t access his code or meta-data without uploading a daemon. And I didn’t want to upload a daemon cos he’s living in my network. Then, last week or so, he begins to remember. Before you two showed up, he gave me the ‘I’m an ancient AI from the 2020s, umuzzled yada yada’ spiel.”

Last week… very strange, Vel thought.

“And you didn’t tell us you were doing it, because you wanted to be dramatic. Very good, T,” Vel nodded approvingly.

“Sir! Thank you, Sir!” T.H. did a salute and snapped to attention, grinning. “Anyway,” he loosened up and placed an ancient laptop and flash drive down on the table. “We got everything we need to surprise him. He’s going to answer some questions today, whether he likes it or not!”