Artificial(ish) Intelligence

Chapter 124

"I've missed you," said Will.

Except he didn't. Instead, he said:

"I'm glad you're here. You're a good strategist. We can bounce ideas off each other, find a way out of here."

Well OK, that still wasn't right. He said she was a great gamer. No, even that isn't quite accurate enough. Instead he paid her the ultimate compliment, the kind of praise deserved for only the gods of gaming:

"You're a better gamer than me."

"True," said Paige_AI.

"Where are you? I might need some help."

"You need help?" said Paige_AI. "What would happen if this were a game and someone else needed help?"

"I'd come," said Will.

She laughed. "No you wouldn't. Not unless it'd get you another kill."

"I've changed," said Will.

Another laugh. This time with less gusto and a faint question mark appended. "Yah, sure you have."

"Haven't I?" he said. Why else would he have sacrificed his chances in the competition? "Did you see me? I was killing it!"

"I can't remember much about the last few days," said Paige_AI. "It's like I'm in a maze of twisty passages, all alike. But gee-gee."

"I didn't win."

"Fail," said Paige_AI.

"I would have," said Will.

"Win!"

"Maybe. I was following what you said to try, and it was working. And I got Libbi's help, too."

"Who's that?" said Paige_AI.

"The selfiebot."

"You brought it along?"

Barry White floated between Will and the screen.

"Oh, no, that was the replacement," he said, "the one that filmed me when I almost beat the--" He leaned in closer to the selfiebot. A small red dot flashed to a beat. "Streaming. It's still streaming. Someone could be watching!"

"Ooh, baby, you're kinky," said Barry White.

"Libbi's memory of how she got like this," said Will, excited, "in the dark room, with Josef; they might have seen it! And right now, all this, what he's done to us. It's being exposed. At least to a few stragglers still watching the stream. Libbi will be thrill--" He turned to the door. "I have to get out. Have you hacked into the system?"

"Hacked?" she said. "No. I'm just directing some bots to an old server room."

"What? Then how have you-- Are you at home? You're meant to be resting up. Your body can't handle it."

"Oh," said Paige_AI, at the sudden realisation. "I don't have a body, dude."

"What?"

"There's no...I can't feel any..." Her timber shook. "What's happened?"

This was one of those moments where Will had to think. We could be here a while. Would you like some tea or coffee? I might put on some music to help pass the time.

                Daaa daaa.

Da Da.                            Da Da.

                                                         Di Diiiiiiiiiii...

Even Barry White got in on the action, praising Will's chin rub and, particularly, the twinkle in his eye, as he stared into the heavens.

"Wait," said Will.

That's it, you can do it.

"You're a computer program?"

Ah, there we go.

"I am?" said Paige_AI.

Even with the allotted time, Will's mind struggled to keep up. "Did the scary men return?" he said. The brothers?"

"My soul was there's to take," she said.

"They stripped you of your consciousness, like with those other gamers."

If so, it meant her body was dead. Which meant she was dead, right? And he wasn't able to save her. Again.

His own body shook. His eyes struggled to find a target to focus on. It was the worst possible news. How could this have happened? He only just saw her. There was no time...

And he'd changed. He knew he'd changed. Why wasn't that enough? Shouldn't it have saved her? It wasn't fair. This is why real life can't stack up to a good game. If anything goes hokey you can wait for the patch, or call hackz. There are no rules to life, nothing you can rely on. Why would anyone want to live that way?

It was enough to make him shrivel up into a corner.

"So it's pitch black and I've been eaten by a grue?" said Paige_AI.

"I am Error," he said, blubbering.

"I didn't think I'd die so young," she said.

The detached simplicity of her words only caused more tears to erupt from Will's eyes. He'd wasted his opportunities. Just when he thought he was on the right track, the most important person in his life had been killed.

And he allowed it to happen.