Artificial(ish) Intelligence

Chapter 121

It was a little strange, but not wholly without precedent. He'd always had his brother's voice in his ear, but this was different, and reminded Zerro more of his childhood dissecting rodent limbs. He'd never possessed a strong desire to perform unsolicited surgery on live animals, yet at some point his brain told him to do it. But it wasn't really his brain, or at least didn't seem that way, the voice almost originating from a separate consciousness.

This new voice belonged to a computer program -- or was it a real consciousness trapped inside a computer? He tried asking the engineer how it worked, but the man had whacked him and run off, the selfiebot in tow. It was a perplexing set of events.

Zerro rubbed his nose, the blood still drying.

To catch up to the bot once more, the friendly voice had told him to turn left at the end of the corridor. So he turned left at the end of the corridor. It had told him to stop when he reached the door. So he stopped when he reached the door. It told him the selfiebot was inside the closet. So he had asked it to come out. It didn't come out. And now, the closet was empty. Well, close enough.

Still, it was a fun game. Exx had huffed and puffed when told to follow the woman's words, while he was just happy to be apart from his brother, away from the little digs, the way he pulled rank just because he was nine and a half minutes older. But he didn't like being in the basement. Even now he heard metallic scraping noises from above. It all reminded him of those childhood moments Exx had pressed down on him, holding a squeaking rodent to his face.

"How did that get there?" said a gruff voice from behind.

Zerro didn't need to turn to know who it was. "You're meant to be looking for the engineer," he said.

"I am," said Exx. "That's why I'm here."

"But that isn't the engineer," said Zerro, pointing at Diya's body, partially covered by a few mops.

"You let them escape?" said Exx.

"Me? I did not. You scared them off."

Exx swallowed his rage down. "You were here first."

"Yes, I was," said Zerro. "I beat you. You lost. Again."

Exx shoved his brother's chest. Hard. The thud echoed deep inside Zerro, heading straight for his sense of manhood. He did the only logical thing and shoved Exx back. Harder.

In a flash they were on the ground, fingers gouging eyes, hands around necks, ribs exposed to punches, groins perched precariously close to knees. It wasn't a clean fight, or anything like a choreographed scene from a movie, degenerating into dog-eat-dog, with both brothers doing anything to gain the upper hand.

Behind their horseplay and shenanigans, the door to the closet creaked close, but not before an eye, staring dimly out into nothing, blinked.