Upgrade (Augmented Duology Book 2) by Heather Hayden (the top 100 crime novels of all time .TXT) 📕

AI takes a lot more than a single conversation. Besides, there’s no way an AI could develop sentience without us noticing. There must be another explanation.”

I bet you wouldn’t think that if you had a conversation with Halle. I clasped my hands behind my back to avoid them fisting at my sides.

“What would that be? A mysterious infiltration team you can’t find any trace of, either entry or exit? Or someone working on the inside?” Agent Smith tugged on the brim of his fedora, frowning. “Without proof that humans are involved, we have to consider that the AI might be responsible for both its escape and the stolen cyborgs.”

Chris stopped walking. “If—and that’s a big if—your guess is correct, then we may have a far more serious situation on our hands.”

“You said a human wouldn’t handle those situations well,” Agent Smith said. “If someone was forced to take those tests, how do you think it would affect them?”

“For as prolonged a time as the AI was under testing?” Chris drew in a slow breath. “They’d probably go insane.”

I winced. How long had Talbot suffered like that? How many other AIs were suffering in the same way? There was no way Halle would let them recapture Talbot. Not after hearing about this. I glanced at Agent Smith writing on his clipboard. I’m not letting them capture Halle, either. My fingers squeezed together until they ached, trembling with what I told myself was determination.

Agent Smith spoke as he continued to write. “Then we could very well have a mad AI on our hands, one that’s roaming free in the Cloud even as we speak. Now, what are the specs of this AI? Does it have any abilities that are unique? The previous one I dealt with was capable of manipulating code and other programs, and through that, technology such as a phone or computer.”

Chris shook his head. “No, nothing special. We hadn’t even finished implementing the modules that would allow it to control the cyborgs’ AIs. That’s why it can’t have stolen them. We’d only just started running some initial tests with the two AIs before the issue with 11001 began, and we’ve been focused on correcting that problem for the past couple of months.”

More scribbled notes. “The AI might have progressed enough by the time you started the installation that it was able to complete it.”

“No, there were missing parts of the code. It’s our usual failsafe; we don’t make it live until we’ve tested the integrity of the initial integration.”

Agent Smith looked up from his clipboard. “Could the AI have developed the missing code on its own?”

“The level of intelligence that would require…” Chris paused. “There’s virtually no chance we wouldn’t have detected something was wrong before it got so far. However… If you are correct, it might be able to reconstruct the cyborg coding and activate…” His voice trailed off into a sharp intake of breath.

“Activate what?” Agent Smith pressed.

Somehow, I don’t think we’re going to like the answer. I glanced between the two men—the agent’s expression stern and the scientist’s face growing pale.

“Activate their soldier programming.” Chris absently plucked the pencil from his pocket and began toying with it. “That was dormant, too; we weren’t nearly ready to start field tests yet, it was just preliminary. But these cyborgs would have the capacity to do a lot of damage, even as mindless drones.”

Why would Talbot want soldiers, if it just wants freedom? The hair on my arms crept up in goosebumps. Could Agent Smith and Chris be right after all? I wished I could talk to Halle about this, right now.

“You said that you can’t track the missing cyborgs?” Agent Smith scowled. “What about their power sources, will they run down?”

“No. They can process food just as a human can, although more efficiently. That generates enough power to keep the implants of the body functioning.”

“How much of the body are implants?”

“They’re mostly biological, actually, with key implants for certain functions.”

“I need to see what they look like.” Agent Smith tucked his clipboard under his arm. “How much further to the lab?”

“We’re close.” Chris led the way down the hall, finally stopping in front of one of maybe a dozen identical doors. His card and handprint got us through the door. “Fortunately, the cyborgs all share an almost identical appearance right now. At some point, we plan to make each one look unique, but for speed of production, it’s easier to not worry about hair, eye, or skin color while we experiment with producing different ages.”

“Different ages?” Agent Smith asked as we started walking down another corridor.

“It would be pretty suspicious if all of our operatives were the exact same age.” Chris chuckled. “Might as well give them shirts reading ‘Attack of the Clones’ if we do that.”

“I see.” Agent Smith jotted down a quick note. “I wouldn’t put it past the AI to disguise them in some way.”

Chris nodded. “Here we are.” He stopped at yet another plain white door, this one labeled 406. He swiped his badge and pressed his palm to the scanner, then opened the door.

We walked into a small room with a glass wall opposite the door. Behind the glass was a room filled with what at first looked like rows of people. A second glance revealed that they were too still to be human, and all were standing in the same stiff-backed stance. Each wore the same, plain uniform of a white shirt, white pants, and white slippers.

“These are them?” Agent Smith asked. “Why so many?”

“Multiple studies are being run on them at the moment—we needed enough to ensure that we could all work on them at once. This is their storage room; the head of the lab prefers to keep them in one place. Although, frankly I think it just made it easier