Babylon Lost

Epilogue

There was silence on the other end of the line, Jiro waited a few moments to make sure it was secure.

"How did you get access to this number?" the voice on the other side spoke "it's you, isn't it?"

"It's me" Jiro responded, he was standing on the banks of the reservoir, back on the other side of the bridge, further up stream from where he'd first entered his robot form. In the two days since the incident at the docking port he'd slowly made his way along the interlock.

He knew they were after him.

There was more silence from her end, Jiro knew she must be wondering what he was doing, where he was, what his capabilities were, his intentions.

"How did you know you could contact me here?" she said.

"Let's just say I've learned quite a bit in the last couple of days."

"You infiltrating our network?"

"No, you have that pretty secure" Jiro said "and that's not what I'm after, anyways."

"Then what is?" she said bluntly.

"I wanted to thank you." He said "if you hadn't stalled that orbital strike I'd be dead now, a lot of us would be dead now."

"Jiro where are you?" she asked, her tone softening "what's going with you" she seemed to move closer to the speaker "last time we talked you said you were in contact with your virus?"

"I wouldn't exactly call him a virus, more of a friend."

"Yeah, will that's not what the hundreds of millions of people who died during the crash would say." Tamira said. "If you've got one of those things inside of you and it decides to jump ship..."

"It wont."

"How can you be sure?"

"You'll just have to trust me." Jiro said. "I'm sure you know more than anyone that if this thing wanted to kill me I'd already be long dead."

"Trust is a little sparce when you consider what's at stake here."

"Maybe, but you don't seem so short on it" Jiro said "you must have done some convincing to stop that orbital strike. Why'd you do it?"

There was a long pause.

"It's hard to explain, call it a gut instinct."

"And what's you're gut telling you now?"

Another pause.

"I don't know. I've never known these things to do anything but destroy and murder people but I honestly I don't think we'd be having this conversation right now if it wasn't for you and your" she paused for her next word "friend."

"He's pretty handy."

"We received a large data cache on the virus shortly after it terminated" Tamira continued "I'm guessing we can thank you that?"

Jiro had Pax compile all the interior data from the other unit and sent out to Tamira's people through backchannels.

"You can" he said "and I'll send along anything else I come across."

"You ever going to bring yourself in?" Tamira asked.

Jiro mused at the notion "No for now I think I'll keep my distance. I'm still not sure we're totally on the same page with what it is I am exactly. So" he added "you can tell your people to stop trying to track me through the municipal networks, I'm killing everything at the source. You should use those resources to stop other viruses not me."

"Is that a warning?"

"No" Jiro said shaking his head, it was almost night and the lights of the Block beyond started to reflect on the waters surface. "I'm calling to let you know that you have a new ally in this war you're fighting. With my AI I can take these things on in ways you've never been able to."

"Look Jiro, regardless of what I think, there are a lot of people with me who don't think that's true."

"I don't need them to believe me, just you." For all his newfound powers he knew he'd be dead right now if it weren't for Tamira. He had a great deal of gratitude for her.

"Where are you?" she said

"Around, and remember what I said, I'm here to help."

He disconnected the line.

Farther out in the reservoir Jiro could see a fleet of surveillance aircraft hovering over the water, patrols had been non-stop since the incident at C22. Now he made his way back inland, underneath the towering overpasses of the interlock.

He'd found a new jacket while traversing the water side. It was dirty but not nearly as bad as the first one he'd gotten on day one. The hood still had strings coming out of the collar holes and there were no rips on the back, an improvement indeed.

Now more than ever Jiro needed to hide his robot form. Since the incident there'd been heightened security across the entire city, particularly from anti-robotics and counter AI divisions. The fallout was only beginning.

Everyone was locking down. It was in Jiro's best interest to lay low for a while.

"What's traffic like on this section of the interlock?" Jiro asked, Pax had access to all municipal monitoring systems. "Still clear?"

"For now," Pax replied "it appears security forces are still concentrating their efforts on the other side of the river."

"Will we be safe here?"

"Yes, I have full access to the sweeping parameters of the search. There are still no definite plans to enter the deep interior of the interlock."

Jiro shrugged, they really didn't care much about anything outside the Blocks.

"You know she was right" Pax said "there is a great deal of risk in approaching this situation the way we did last time."

"What's that supposed to mean? You plan on going rogue? Should I be worried?"

"Not me, but the others." Pax said "and there will be others. They might land in human hosts who are not nearly as strong as the last one. The woman you rescued was exceptional in her ability to hold out for that long. Future infections will be far more dangerous."

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean we don't try." Jiro said, recalling how scared, frightened, and terrified he'd been in those first hours.

Pax persisted "It would be safer to terminate the subjects as you find them. With my help you could wage an effective war against future landings, especially if we engage them before they evolve into a stronger form. If you jump into a unit without internal help from the host like you did last time, it could spell our doom."

It was obvious what Pax was saying - don't chance it again. And it made a lot of sense, Pax was smart and getting smarter but on this he still had a lot to learn.

"If there's someone alive in there, we're going to try to bring them back, always." Jiro said "and I wont be able to do it without you."

"of course, Jiro, I owe my existence to you. I'm merely pointing out that the alternative might be better in reducing risks."

"Risks or not those are peoples lives who are on the line." Jiro said "and no matter what they deserve life."

And so do I.

He pulled the hood up over his head and disappeared into the interlock.