Glitches

Chapter 7 - A face in the crowd

A couple of minutes went, and the white-coated people were finally done setting stuff up and getting ready. A man looking in the middle thirties took a step forward out of the group.

He looked like everybody else, but what caught my eye wasn't his clothe. It was what he was holding in his hands. He was glancing down at a folder in his hands, making sure to keep it close to his chest. But even though he was doing his best to hide the content, I made out a glimpse of what the folder contained.

Pictures.

Pictures of me.

Pictures of me on normal days, doing normal things.

Playing video games.

Eating dinner.

Hanging out with Eve.

And a picture of me at the coffee shop.

Every photo had a small text under it, but I was too far away to be able to read it.

I knew someone had been watching me at that coffee place.

I felt a shiver run down my spine, a knot forming in my chest, and I clenched my jaw. This man could only be trouble, I knew that.

He clicked on a button on the computer, making a picture pop up on the white wall. There wasn't much on the picture. The only thing it showed was three big letters saying: RTI RoboTec Industry, the last part standing in a parenthesis. I gulped, and I couldn't shake feeling of knowing these three letters off. As if I had seen them before.

The man coughed, making everyone in the room focus on him.

"Hello there, and welcome to RoboTec Industry," he said with false enthusiasm, like an adult trying to speak like a teen, while showing his arm to the wall with the letters on. "I am surprised to see that so many of you have decided to show up today, and of course you will get what you came here for..." He paused and smiled, "answers."

Even if I had only known this man for 10 seconds, I didn't like him. He seemed fake with his dazzlingly white coat, and his small glasses, which made his eyes big like an owl's. It didn't help that he had information and pictures of me in his little folder. It only fed my dislike against him.

Next, the man clicked the computer again, showing another picture on the wall. It was a picture of the human body, but the guts and veins were replaced with pipes, wires and other mechanically things. I recognised a lot of the parts, but there was also stuff I had never seen or heard of.

"Let me start off by telling you who I am," the man started.

"My name is Dr. Alan Brown, but you can call me Mr. Brown or Dr. Brown. I am the founder of RoboTec Industry, shortened RTI. My dream is to make functionally human machines, capable of independent thoughts, so they can help our community grow stronger, by taking jobs humans don't want, or other places where it is needed. Like in factories, public institutions, or as hackers for SIS."

He paused and looked around, letting the information sink in. Before anyone could open their mouth or ask questions, he continued.

"You guys are a part of what we call Group Alpha. You are the first independent humanoid machines, who managed to pass the Turing test. And you were built by my crew of engineers."

He took a step to the right, showing the other people in white coats.

And when he did, all hell broke loose.

People talked confused to each other, some began to yell, and someone even tried to run up to one of the white-coated people. But they immediately got stopped by some other persons in the same clothes as the guards at the entrance. I didn't attend to the chaos around me. I was paralysed.