Mind Over Matter

The Powers of 10

"You can't stop me,"

Shadow said. "Just watch me!" I replied. He's running, and I'm running after him. I use my powers and bring him to the ground, and then I arrest him, and let the others take him away. "I have a twin, he'll help me, and you'll never find him unless he wants you to!" he yells.

I sit up in my bed. That dream really happened about 20 years ago. I look at my clock. It's thirty minutes after midnight. I hear a beep. That must have been what woke me up. I go to the door and open it. Carroll's standing there. "I can't sleep," she said. "Well that's understandable," I said, "I mean you just found out that you're a robot so that's pretty weird." "Do I even need to sleep?" she asked. "I assumed not," I said, "But who knows?" "Can I come in?" she asked. "Sure," I replied. She comes in and sits at the table in my room. I sit next to her. She looks upset. "What's the matter?" I asked. "My whole life I thought I was a human, but now I find out that I'm just a robot," she said. "Carroll, you don't even remember half of your life," I said. "Two years ago, when you activated me," she said, "Who did it?" I paused for a moment. "I did," I said, "I was obsessed with you, you were the most amazing machine I had ever seen. I had so much I wanted to ask you when I activated you, but then you didn't remember anything. You didn't even know what you were." "So I was just a machine to you?" she asked. "Until I got to know you," I said, "Then I realized that you're probably more human than any of us." "What do you mean?" she asked. "Well, I don't think being near invincible or unable to die as very human," I replied, "Not to pick on Don or Samson." She giggled. "But I can shoot bullets from my arm," she argued, "And I can fly." "People have guns," I replied, "We have jetpacks. We have grappling hooks." "Grappling hooks?!?" she exclaimed. "Oh, I forgot you haven't used that," I said. She paused. "Did you take me apart?" she asked. I paused. "Yes," I said. "That's a weird feeling," she said. "But," I said, "Do you know what I found where your heart would be if you were human?" "A battery?" she replied. "Nope," I said, "A box." "Wow," she commented sarcastically. "I still don't know how or what exactly the box does, but in it," I say, "Is an entire segment of DNA." "What?" she said. "Purely human DNA," I add, "No mutations or radioactivity, just regular human DNA, and it's directly linked to your neural net." "Wow," she said seriously this time. "So even though you're made of metal, and wires, and processors, and memory banks, you're more human on the inside than most people I know," I said, "Even me."

Carroll seemed to draw comfort from that. She was quiet. I started to think about my dream. A twin. What could he mean? I know Shadow, and he seems to speak in riddles. I think about how familiar Casper seemed. His deviousness. Suddenly I got it. He was devious in the same way Shadow is. Shadow is a copier, an imitator. Maybe he learned to be devious from Casper. Uh oh. You'll never find him unless he wants you to. Why would Casper want us to find him? Maybe he wanted to get something, but what? The CIA facility? There's no reason why he would want to get in there. Maybe he gave us information that would make us do something that we wouldn't do otherwise. He said the FBI didn't approve of our actions... That seems like a good conclusion. He wanted to keep us away from the FBI, but why?