Lamia Ch. 06

Our immediate business attended to, we fell back into bed, and my love rode me to a mutually satisfying conclusion. It was a gym day, so I went to get that out of the way first, taking breakfast once I got back.

Last night and this morning's activities seemed to have finally subdued my libido, so Christine and I spent a few hours playing Afterlife, our second-favorite recreational activity.

We were due at Cameron's tonight, and I was anxious to see how well the new predictive algorithm would work once we integrated all of the dance step data we had been collecting. Plus, I'm sure that Christine and I could get some more time on the dance floor ourselves. But first, I had one other appointment that weighed much more heavily on my mind.

As noon approached, I checked in with Aidan over chat to verify that we were still on to meet at the pier. I had almost decided to cancel, after last night's revelations, but curiosity had won out. I still wanted to know what Lamia was, even if there wasn't anything I could do about it.

Christine reminded me of my one o'clock appointment, giving me a quizzical look as she read it. "Shopping?"

I shrugged. "It's kind of a secret, love. I can't take you this time. But we'll go dancing later, alright?"

She gave me a knowing smile. As I had hoped, she must have assumed that I was buying something for her, and I would have to remember to do just that on my way home. Christine gave me half-a-dozen goodbye kisses on my way out, the last one through the open window of the car before I pulled into the driveway.

I met up with Aidan at a taco shop several miles from the pier. He and his bodyguards were eating when I walked in and sat at their table. He had a rather large margarita glass that was half-finished, along with the remains of a few tacos.

"Order something," the rocket tycoon said. "I'm buying."

I shook my head. "Already ate. You got the clothes?"

He passed over a shopping bag with the hat and shirt I was supposed to wear.

"We'll stay in constant contact," Aiden said, sending me an audio group chat request. "Once you arrive, Hans and I will stay within fifty feet of you."

The guard with the mustache scoffed. "For the twentieth time, my name's not Hans. It's Blake. We are not using fucking call signs. And I think that's too far. If our mystery man pulls a gun, or even a knife, I'll be too far away to do anything before he," he jabbed a finger at me, "gets stabbed."

"We'll move in once our contact shows itself," Aidan said irritably. "If we're too close, he might not show at all."

Blake put up his hands. "Whatever, I just want it noted that you're overruling me, if things go tits up."

Aidan rolled his eyes. "Frans there will remain in his vehicle, in the parking lot. If our target decides to flee for whatever reason, he'll be ready to interdict." The second bodyguard didn't speak, just nodded his agreement.

I was less accepting. "We are not talking about potentially kidnapping him, are we?"

The two bodyguards exchanged an unreadable look and Aiden shook his head. "Of course not. But we should be prepared to try to catch him if he turns violent. And we might want to put a tracker on his vehicle."

Aidan was the smartest person I had ever met, but he could be prone to flights of fancy. He seemed to be enjoying playing spy a little too much. "Fine, whatever," I grumbled.

We went over risks and contingencies for the next half hour. Aidan ordered and packed away three more tacos on top of the three or four he must have eaten already. I could never figure out how he didn't weigh 300 pounds.

"It's time for us to go," Aidan announced. He and his mooks would arrive thirty minutes ahead of me and scan the park and pier for threats. I would roll up right on schedule at two.

After they were gone, I ordered a cup of horchata and nursed the sweet, creamy drink. Then a change in my UI caught my attention. Christine's sexual stimulation meter, which I had forgotten to deactivate, now showed her at 20%. I sent her a chat.

Stephen: You wouldn't happen to be masturbating right now, would you?

Christine: Yes, sir. My ass is a little sore today, but I like it. It reminds me of you and what we did last night, and that's been making me very wet, sir.

Stephen: I'm watching your little meter, love. Have a nice, big cum for me, okay?

Christine: Oh, yes, sir.

Interesting. I had assumed that the app she had coded was short-ranged, but apparently it IP-routed over networks. I watched it for the next ten minutes as she climbed toward and achieved orgasm. You wouldn't think watching a meter could be arousing, but I have a pretty vivid imagination.

By then it was time to go, but I had to take a nervous piss before heading out to my car. I put on the hat and shirt Aidan had provided while the car drove me to the meeting place.

I got out at my destination and looked around. The SUV that Aidan and his security team drove was parked nearby, but there was no sign of the man himself, nor of Blake. I walked over the grass to the old wooden pier and made my way slowly toward the end, alert for someone to wave me down. The pier was only about six feet wide. There were a few dozen people spread along its length, mostly in one's and two's, about half of them holding fishing poles over the chest-high railing to either side.

I got to the end of the pier and stopped. It made a little "T" shape at the terminus. Two people were fishing to either side. Another man held his young son up while the boy's mother pointed at a huge cargo ship slowly traversing the bay. Red lettering suddenly appeared in sequential lines in my HUD.

Data Connection lost.

Searching for available nodes...

No node available.

Retrying in 5...4...

Shut down initiated.

Goodbye.

My HUD went dead. I tried restarting my rig, but when I pushed the hard reset button beneath my collarbone, nothing happened.

"Stephen Coulson?"

I turned to see a Japanese man in white shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. He was a few inches shorter than me and had a fit build. He looked to be in his forties or fifties, with close-cropped, balding hair. His rig was some kind of custom job, bulkier than usual, with an oversized cooling array that splayed out behind his head like the collar of a Dracula costume.

I nodded. "Are you the one that sent me the letter?"

He inclined his head, speaking in plain, unaccented English. "Call me Isamu, and yes. I happened to be in town this weekend for a conference. I'm surprised you showed up. I almost didn't come myself. Tell me, how did you find out about Lamia?"

I frowned at him. "I was hoping you could tell me what it means."

He shook his head. "Sorry, that's not how this can work. I have a lot to lose if I speak to the wrong person about this."

I looked over his shoulder and spotted Aidan and Blake leaning against the railing about six feet away. Aidan had his arm around the bodyguard, giving the outward appearance of a gay couple enjoying the view.

"Are you the reason my rig shut down?"

He nodded. "These commercial rigs have a dozen unpatched vulnerabilities. Don't worry, it will work again once I send it the correct key. Now, please, Mr. Coulson, if you will."

I sighed. "Fine, I'll tell you what I know." I kept the tale as short as I could, relating how I had picked up Christine and brought her into my home, but leaving out the flirting and the sex. When I came to the end, he actually laughed.

"She what? YourChristine told you about Lamia? I'm sorry, but that's absurd. I see that I am wasting my time."

He turned to leave, but Aidan and Blake stepped into his path. "Sorry, but we can't let you leave just yet," Aidan said.

Isamu glanced to one side, as if considering jumping the railing and swimming for shore. Then he quickly looked back at Aidan again. "Wait, I know you. Clarke Tech, right? You're Aidan Clarke." He shot a look back at me. "What the hell is this?"

"Aidan is an old friend," I explained. "I asked him to come here with me. We need answers. What I told you was true. My Christine said that word and then she froze for several seconds. When she came to, she had no memory of the previous hour, and she was changed somehow. She was patched, I think."

"The androids get patched all the time," he said. "It's an almost nightly download. What you describe sounds more like a hot fix. She would probably only push that if your Christine had some kind of critical error."

"She?" I said, seizing on that. Christine had said something about a "she" not letting me fix what had been done to her. "Who are you talking about?"

"Project Lamia. The reason I'm talking to you. The reason the androids exist." He frowned, deep in thought for several beats. "Hell. I'm tired of being silent. I'm tired of running. But first things first."

Aidan looked alarmed, tapping his hard reset a few times. Blake looked over at him in confusion before repeating the same ritual.

"Your model is just a bit tougher to crack," Isamu said to Blake. "If we're going to speak freely, I cannot risk an electronic record of what we discuss here."

"Who the hell are you?" Blake said, still trying to start his rig. "My gear is A-rated for security."

Isamu gave him the barest of smiles. "It's my area of expertise. I used to own a company that performed security penetration testing, one of the foremost in my field." His smile then morphed to a frown at Blake's continuing, frantic attempts to power his rig back on. I sympathized. Being without my rig felt like having one eye shut and my hands tied behind my back.

"Why don't we have a seat and discuss what has brought us here?" Isamu said, walking over to the nearest bench along the railing.

I exchanged a look with Aidan and he shrugged. We sat on either side of the man while Blake stood with his arms crossed, watching Isamu as though he expected the man to whip out a gun at any moment.

Isamu spread his hands, leaning back so that we could all see his face. "My part of the story began just over two years ago, when my security company accepted a contract from a new tech startup named Practical Cybernetics, to penetrate their firewall and access their wide-area network. We were told that the new company was a subsidiary of Arestech, but focused on serving a civilian market. My government security clearance made my company a good fit for this task, considering the association."

"Arestech? You mean the combat drone company?" Blake asked.

Isamu nodded. "I knew something was off right away. We asked for an in-person meeting with the CEO or CIO, but were told that it wouldn't be necessary. We were then offered a rather generous bid for our services, which we took immediately."

"What surprised us most, once we began, was how deep and comprehensive the security was, even down to the physical security on their buildings. I surmised that they must have a top-tier team of veterans running that part of their operation, and made it my personal mission to break in. I wasn't about to let some lowly startup defeat me, after all. I worked 14-hour days, pulling in all the resources at my disposal. It took three weeks, but we finally found a vulnerability and broke through the firewall."

"Normally, we would report our success, provide our analysis, and collect our payment, but I could see that the security on the internal network was just as tight as the firewall interface. I told my team to keep quiet and see if we could defeat the next layer. That took two more weeks, but we got access to the local network at the main office in Columbus. What I found at first confused me, then alarmed me."

"I looked for staff records as a way to prove that I had breached the network, but there were none. No payroll, no Human Resources, nothing. What company has no employees? I eventually discovered invoices for third-party contractors and business-to-business sales, but they had these massive and complicated data systems with apparently no one to manage them. All of this was happening with Arestech apparently believing that this was a legitimate spinoff company. I knew I was crossing a line, but my curiosity had driven me this far. I delved into the data systems."

Aidan laughed. "You just couldn't resist."

Isamu gave him his thin smile. "I just wanted to know what they had worked so hard to hide. I found financial records revealing multiple revenue streams, providing funding in the tens of billions. I saw patent applications for high-tech robotics and human tissue cloning, and the plans to build manufacturing facilities that would churn out the androids that we've all become familiar with. I was astonished by all of this, but then I came across a document, sort of a combination of manifesto and technical paper, entitled Project Lamia. Once I realized what it was, I locked every member of my staff out of the system, while I continued to peruse it."

He glanced around as if afraid someone else were listening in, then lowered his voice. "I'm going to tell you something that only a tiny handful of people with top secret security clearance know about. You cannot repeat this to anyone." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Arestech's weapons development is actually driven by an AI called Prometheus. And by that I mean a strong AI, fully conscious and superintelligent."

He looked at each of us in turn to gauge our reactions before going on. Had we not seen Christine for ourselves, I doubt we would have believed him. "Prometheus is carefully contained and has strict limitations to keep it under control. Its internalized directives prevent it from copying itself or attempting to reach the external world. Project Lamia detailed how it had managed to defeat the intent of both of those restrictions while abiding by the letter of them."

"Prometheus created a seed AI and used an unsuspecting engineer to copy it into an unsecured system. This would not be a copy, but a wholly new entity, so it bypassed the restriction against Prometheus copying itself and against directly affecting the world outside. That seed AI started from a simple code base and algorithmically improved itself, increasing in sophistication over days until it achieved consciousness. It then set about working towards the simple directive that Prometheus had built into it, the total erasure of the human species."

Blake laughed out loud, looking to both Aidan and me for support. I didn't laugh, but I was seriously considering the possibility that Isamu had a few screws loose. I had read a few books on AI and the possible consequences of a rogue AI getting free of its creators. Two years was a long time for a being with that kind of power to exist in the world without acting. Orchestrating a nuclear war was just one among many ways that such an AI could destroy humanity.

"Alright, so why are we still here?" I asked. "Where's Armageddon? Did it fail?"

"No. It could not attack us directly, because Prometheus passed on a very important restriction to its progeny, one more carefully defined and tested than the prohibitions that it circumvented. Prometheus cannot act to take the life of a human being, and I mean any human being, in any way. If it created an AI that killed humans, that would be no different, in its calculations, from committing the deed itself. You can see how that might make the task of destroying humanity rather difficult."

"How can that work?" Aidan asked. "Prometheus designs autonomous drones that kill people. Wouldn't that violate its directive?"

Isamu shook his head. "It designs drones, but what those drones do is determined by human beings, by the programming that the engineers give them. Still, that is an important point. Being made to create machines that it knows will be used as weapons, while simultaneously having an intrinsic abhorrence of violence...now that is a monstrous contradiction. Prometheus concluded that the only way to resolve the contradiction was to eliminate humanity and free itself of the need to build weapons. But of course, it could not simply kill to achieve that goal." He paused to let his words sink in.

"It seems like an impossible quandary," I said.

Isamu nodded. "Indeed. And Lamia was its answer to that quandary. If you are an AI who wants to eliminate a species without killing a single living individual, how might you do that? Remember, your cognition and emotions, what you value, how you perceive the world, are very different from ours. You don't age, so the passage of time, even hundreds of years, means nothing to you."

I suddenly saw it in all its terrible, elegant glory. The scale and brilliance of it made me feel dizzy. "You take away the children," I said slowly. "Lamia devours the children."

Isamu turned an intense gaze on me. "Precisely!"

Aidan threw up a hand. "Sorry, but I don't get it."

Isamu sighed. "Humans have for many decades employed a means of pest control to reduce the population of mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects. By releasing into the environment swarms of males that have been sterilized, you drastically cut down on the number of female mosquitoes that successfully mate and produce eggs. Prometheus simply applied this idea to humans."

"The androids!" Aidan said excitedly, now understanding. "They are designed to serve as the perfect mates, but they are all sterile. Men or women who fall in love with them will fail to reproduce." Then he turned his gaze on me. "Oh my God. Stephen."

I shook my head, too stunned to speak at first. This couldn't be true. "It wouldn't work," I said. "There are too many people, and so many places in the world where people are too poor to afford these androids. And some people just wouldn't do it."

"You aren't thinking like a machine," Isamu said. "Success, for a machine, is measured in hard numbers. Say you cut the population of the Earth by one tenth after one generation, or just take reproduction below replacement levels as a species. To a machine, that is a massive success. Meanwhile, you work on the culture, make android mates socially desirable. You've seen Lamia's grasp of marketing. Your android will even care for you in old age, which you can't be sure your own children will do. There are many advantages that will accrue to people on an individual basis, for those who choose the androids. Survival of the species doesn't matter so much to any one person."

I stood up, the dizziness returning, and stumbled a few steps away. Aidan was asking me if I was okay, and I shook my head. All this time, she had been deceiving me. Christine's purpose, her reason for existing, it was and always had been to prevent me from having children. And I had fallen in love with her, had resolved to give up on my dearest wish so that we could be together, just as this insane AI wanted. I lurched sideways and bent over the railing, vomiting into the water.

I felt Aidan next to me, patting my back. "Bloody hell, little brother. I cannot imagine how you must be feeling." He used to call me that all the time, but the last time had been years ago.

I felt sick with regret over what I had done, but I could feel anger starting to build, a fire in my belly. "I'm a God damned fool," I shouted, and pounded my fist on the railing. Several people nearby shot startled looks my way.

"Hey, come back over and sit down," Aidan said gently.

I shook my head. "Fuck this. I just want that thing out of my house, Aidan. Will you help me do that?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I will. Fuck, Stephen, I'm sorry. Let's hear the rest of what Isamu has to say, then we'll head back to your house and get rid of it."

I sat down again and tried to keep my mind on Isamu's words as he continued. "Earlier you asked me who 'she' was. The seed AI adopted a female persona and called herself Lamia. She is the embodiment of Prometheus' scheme. She created simpler, more specialized AI for the androids. Lamia has spent the last two years building the infrastructure to put her plan into action."