I Am Learning, Ph1LzA

Wilbur's Apology

"Amends?" Ph1LzA's heart began to sink. Despite Wilbur's advice, he tried to sneak towards his friend as carefully as he could.

The young man didn't reply right away, but he did begin walking again, following the line of canisters to the right. Ph1LzA had to creep a little more quickly to try to close the distance. "There's a lot you don't know about me, dad." Wilbur mused.

Be careful, Ph1LzA. Reading Wilbur's tone through your phone speakers, I believe he has something heavy weighing on his conscience. You may not be able to stop him from his present course in time.

"Before we met online, and actually a little while after," Wilbur gave a little laugh, "I used to work for EGG. Low-level, of course, but I did work for them. Mostly a mover and distributer, shipping items and driving trucks. Ran across a guy once by the name of Skeppy. He was picking up a shipment of computer parts for some project of his. Highly classified, and all that." He turned around so swiftly Ph1LzA had no time to stop his sneaking before Wilbur saw him. The young man laughed. "Oh, Phil, you thought I didn't know you'd try that? Come on, I know you too well. Just listen, alright? You'll see in a sec what I'm talking about."

"Then let's talk outside." Ph1LzA demanded. "The air's thick with that stuff you carried in here and I want to be free of it." Even as he spoke, he doubted his strategy would work.

As he feared, Wilbur shook his head. "We won't need to go outside. At least, I won't. You go where you want, Phil. But hear me out."

Ph1LzA didn't move. He didn't know what to do. There was too little data. So he just stood still and listened.

"Skeppy," Wilbur resumed, "wasn't as 'contained' as his superiors would have wanted him to be. I overheard conversations, snippets of orders and plans he shared with those delivering his items into the buildings. Until recently...I never understood what I heard." Placing his hand on one of the gasoline cans, the young man stared at it as if with his gaze alone he could penetrate its surface. "Projects like Obsidian Powerhouse and E.G.G.P.I.R.E., Red Banquet and One Percent. 'The conquest of the lower classes', 'One AI in every computer,' 'And it will feed on their energy,' 'Only a few at the top.'" Wilbur paused, lifting his gaze up to the backup generator. "Only now," he murmured, the words so soft Ph1LzA had to step closer to hear them, "only now do I understand what I heard. And it horrifies me. And I helped bring it about. Everyone who worked at EGG helped bring it about. That's why we all must pay, Phil. We've helped enslave and feed the city to this thing, to that AI in the red building."

Ph1LzA was so lost. He had no idea what Wilbur was talking about, beyond what he already recognized as EGG's plan to take over all digital cameras and watch everybody. But enslavement? Feeding? One Percent? He shook his head. "Wil, you're not explaining everything. Come back to me and let's talk it out gently. I'll understand it all better once we're out of here and you sit down and talk to me. You're monologuing, Wil. I can't figure out what you're driving at." Maybe, just maybe, he could pull the young man out of his desperate mood. He clutched his phone tight in his pocket, hoping Techno could help him figure something out. So far, the AI had been silent, but Ph1LzA knew he was still there.

Wilbur, on the other hand, only strode further into the stacks of flammables as if he were afraid of leaving. "You have the data, dad!" He cried with a grin. "Just dig a little deeper. Or do some of your famous hacking and get inside the EGG servers. You'll find it all there, I promise. Then you'll see. Then you'll understand. Ph1LzA, you have to let me do this! You have to see why I have to go! What I helped bring about-"

He obviously had not expected the hacker to suddenly start running at him. All this time, something had been squirming in his mind underneath Wilbur's words, and all at once it burst upwards and now he understood why Wilbur would not come out, why he kept backing away among the canisters. "No, you don't!" Ph1LzA yelled. "Wilbur Soot, don't you dare set those things alight if you want me alive to stop them!" His heart cracked inside him as he saw the young man's startled face, as he saw him turn and flee.