Artificial(ish) Intelligence

Chapter 31

Will squatted, his back to the car. He hadn't ever been scared of a woman before. Even growing up, his mother had been a big softy. And Paige tended to induce humour more than fear. But this time was different. This woman seemed...fierce, like a purple and gold tiger. And now she was stalking past, stopping to smell the air. Or maybe that was his imagination.

He tried to control his scattered breathing, an act that never featured in any first-person shooter he'd played. Had Libbi's naive flutters betrayed him already? Even now she refused to settle.

He heard a clip on the road. Then a clop. Then a clip-clop. Then a clop again. Where was the clip? What did it mean to be missing a clip? The sudden lack of footsteps scared him more than their presence.

A few scattered cars drove by. If this were a movie, he'd grab onto one of them, his momentum flinging him around to the back where he could be carried off to safety. As a final show of hubris, he could wave goodbye to the fast receding woman.

He snapped out of the plan when he realised how dangerous it was, with so many chances to make a mistake. It was the kind of strategy that would only work on single-player games that could be saved at-will, replayed until no lives were lost. Real life didn't appear to be that kind of game.

The selfiebot hopped up and down, her wings rippling the air. Will grabbed her body and brought it in to his. He gave her a look he hoped conveyed his thoughts: stop moving you stupid thing or I'll get caught, and if I get caught, you get caught, and if you get caught, I won't win the competition. There was a chance not every word was fully enveloped within the expression.

He heard a clip, and breathed out. Then a few more clip-clops, moving away down the street. Before she had a chance to glance back, Will shot into the closest shop, carrying the dumb selfiebot with him.

Once inside, it fluttered away from his grasp, leaving him free to peer out the glass, finding small gaps between the letters of the window sign. The tiger was gone, though she'd appeared to notice him slipping inside. Maybe that was just his imagination, once again. In his experience, enemies didn't normally walk off after spotting you.

He was about to breathe out again but realised he hadn't yet performed the pre-requisite inhale, and so performed both in double time. The process would repeat when he turned and was confronted with a bunch of figures, staring straight at him. Who were they? Was the tiger amongst them?

His mind raced. Being slower than most, it was more of a trot, as his neurons eventually fired in semi-autonomous fashion, informing his consciousness that the figures weren't people, but a room of humanoid robots. The selfiebot was staring intently at one, seemingly off in her own world. He wondered what robots dreamt about. Something told him the answer involved sheep and electricity.

The selfiebot seemed flimsy all of a sudden, vulnerable, as if the slightest knock could destroy her being.

"She's gone," he said, pressing gently against her back until she seemed to snap out of it.

"Oh," said Libbi. "Thank you, Will."

"For what?"

"Saving me, of course. But especially for that moment near the car."

Moment? What was this thing talking about?

"When you held me," she said, "it was the first time in..." She sighed.

He didn't have the heart to tell her the truth, that she was acting so irrationally that he needed to protect himself. "Uh huh," he said.

"I wish I didn't need you, that I could solve the mystery by myself. And I'm sure you do, too."