Artificial(ish) Intelligence

Chapter 93

Will ignored the call from Paige. He told himself it was because he needed all his devotion to the competition, but he still felt a bit weird after his attempted...you know; and her...you know. But the game! The game. The game.

His defences were holding, but only just. Persistent attacks to the east by Triangle and from the west by Lord Dunkel meant he was forced to constantly fix the crumbling walls, and split his ranged defenders. All this micro was taking it out of him. While the early walling tactic had provided time for his economy to boom, he had a lot of catching up to do in technology and upgrades, let alone sheer military numbers. The climax of the game was coming a little too fast.

A notification bleeped at him.

"Suggested videos? Who cares! Shouldn't you know I'm in a do-or-die battle, here, with hundreds of thousands of people watching world-wide?"

He shook his head and escorted a new unit toward the Square NPC's temple. He'd already secured a blessing from Triangle, so this was the last task before getting them off his back for good.

The repeated notification grated on him. Without thinking, his eyes darted a peek.

"Libbi?" he said. Why would she be streaming anything?

The heuristics annoyingly considered it important enough to auto-play, filling Will's screen with a dizzying dance of shape and colour. It settled on the view of a laser-toting defencebot.

Will hissed a response and returned his focus. It wasn't easy avoiding the deadly flowers. The lack of early trades with Square may be coming back to haunt him. He kept Lord Dunkel at bay, just, while he micro'd the unit through the pearly gates and into the temple.

He didn't notice anything happen at first. Or even at second. But at third, and fourth and fifth, the military units of both Square and Triangle retreated from his field of view. A quick check of the diplomat screen revealed why: they were both neutral.

"Yes!" screamed Will. He may even have added a few other phrases that'd shock his mother.

A smile formed across his face as he pumped out more military units. This was the turning point. Lord Drunkel was still stronger than him, but his own econ was superior, so at some point he'd outspend the AI on new units. This would be a war of attrition. And one he would win.

Blurred movement emanated from Libbi's stream, where the view displayed only a single colour, as if she was close to a piece of fabric. Now I might be crazy, but that's not something you'd normally find outside an automation company's headquarters. I'm not too sure if Will really noticed this or not, but he certainly saw the image flicker to black, as if the selfiebot had been smacked hard.

The queasiness he felt earlier wasn't due to a new object added to his room, but a missing piece. Suddenly it all felt empty without others in his life, without Paige and, sure, why not, even without Libbi. Surely he didn't need them. He was a strong black independent woman who let people help themselves, as he would expect from others.

He'd planned on giving Paige a call before starting the game, to make sure she was OK, but didn't have time in the end. And now he was wasting it by letting his mind wander.

Will shook his head. He built up his forces on the western front. Wait, am I comparing him to Hitler here? It sounds familiar: a possible alliance with a power to the east, a fight to the death over in the west, but Will hadn't made any fascist grumblings or proclamations of a superior race. Yet. Winky face.

The image from Libbi's stream resumed in a series of still shots, followed by a short harried video filled with digital artefacts. It wasn't at all clear what was going on.

Will grouped his troops with special key bindings and picked a formation. As long as he wasn't completely stupid, he was guaranteed a victory.

The close-up view of fabric returned to the stream before it all fell dead. Black. Nothing. Then a quick burst of shots, as if the network was trying to catch up to real time, before it ended on a freeze frame.

Will's mouth opened in both shock and fear. Agape doesn't even come close to describing it. Double, no triple agape. It was agape city, in the state of agape, a short ride from agapeville.

The low angle shot had frozen on the fierce face of the purple woman. She'd captured Libbi, and was taking her...where?

It didn't matter, he had a game to play. He set some Panzers loose outside the city gates with an escort of infantry. These would work well until the Apache helicopter research completed.

The other screen was still blank. Until it wasn't, sequencing seemingly random grabs from the live video. They were in a car. Heading in a direction Will almost recognised. His latest forays had given him a working knowledge of some of the city's roads.

"Ohhh yeah," said the new selfiebot. "Smoooooth."

"The game," said Will, as a reminder to himself, as a chunk of his forces were laid waste by the enemy's Sherman tanks. He found a high position and rained down his own hellfire. They were slowly forming a battle line, with Triangle and Square not in sight.

His stomach contorted, sending a clear signal to his brain. It wasn't fear of losing, though, or even fear of winning. Libbi was in trouble. She needed help. Whether someone else could do it or not, there was no reason to rely on that.

From the snippets that weren't blocked by the angry woman's purple and gold uniform, they were still in the car, clearly on their way to--

"House of Paschar," he said, standing. His body came to a decision before his mind caught up. When it did, he found himself leaping out the door.

Oh, and the new selfiebot kept up, dutifully.