Artificial(ish) Intelligence

Chapter 7

Will opened his mouth. Then closed it. He forgot to make a sound.

"Double-ewe bee me," said Paige.

"You're back!" said Will. It's hard to tell, but there might even have been an additional exclamation mark.

"Yeppers," she said.

The selfiebot's assertion had hit him like an anvil falling from the stratosphere after it was flung with great power from a seasaw. The strike scraped away his pride in the process.

"You have to help."

She giggled. "Do I?"

"You missed everything. I was tanking, building up my economy, and my tech was level with Dunkel's. But the selfiebot kept interrupting me, getting in my way."

"Well gosh, I'm just so surprised," said Paige.

"I was on the verge of winning. Before..."

He stared at the selfiebot, hovering to his side.

"Before the en-pee-cee's nuked you," said Paige.

"How did you know!?"

"They always do," said Paige.

"But they shouldn't. The developers said--"

"Don't trust the people who make aye-eye," said Paige. "They're all out to get you."

The selfiebot hovered behind him. "Will, I'm not a developer. I'm not lying to you."

"Why?" said Will, ignoring the selfiebot. "Shouldn't they be helping?"

He started a new game.

"Helping you win the comp?" said Paige. "Ha!"

"What about you?" said Will.

"What about me?" said Paige.

Will began a new game, sending his scout to remove the fog of war immediately surrounding his town centre.

"What did you learn?" he said. "In your practice games."

"Not a lot," said Paige.

"But you must have," said Will.

"Can you hear me?" said the selfiebot.

"Something with the cloaking, I reckon," said Paige.

"Yeah, I did that," said Will, queuing up more workers.

"This isn't a joke," said the selfiebot, before flying off.

"See what I mean about that thing?" said Paige.

Will peered to the side until he was sure it was far enough away, then then leaned in closer, whispering. "It's gone a bit weird. It thinks it's...I don't know."

"You make no sense," said Paige. "Make sense."

"The..." He nodded conspicuously to the flying machine. "The ess ee eff--"

"Ell eff," corrected Paige.

"That thing!"

"It's refurb'd," said Paige. "Sometimes they don't wipe 'em properly. Old mems might be turning-in-a-clockwise-fashion with it. Hey, that wasn't a swear word!"

I think that last part was directed at me.

"But it knows my name," said Will.

Paige squinted at her screen. The selfiebot was out of shot, but appeared to be paying attention to their conversation. A little too much attention. The kind you get wearing a backpack and walking into a shop in school uniform.