“Wow, that’s good. Now let’s have walk. My feet are so stiff I can’t even feel them.” John inserted her into A.I.D. slot and they set off for a walk.
“You can’t feel your feet. Remember? Dodging a missile, oh wait! You actually shot down that missile, with a pistol.” Claire formed a human-sized hologram and walked beside him.
“Claire, don’t be sarcastic it’s not polite. If you could track Gillian that would be more useful.” John observed a lizard in the grass.
“Caroline promised you to see her so I don’t think it’s necessary. Anyway her signal is blocked.”
Caroline was already coming back so they had to cut the chatter and go back to the car. John sat to driver’s seat.
“Whoa! Careful there young man you can’t drive. Or am I wrong?” Caroline asked.
“Car, APC, tank, helicopter, plane. If it has wheels, wings or rotors I can drive it.” John answered while starting the engine. She sat next to him, Claire’s hologram sat on the back seat. John looked at her.
“You show yourself to get closer to humans even if they can’t see you. Is that your own upgrade of yourself?”
“Correct. You allowed me to do my own changes. I used this opportunity to develop myself. I wish I was accepted by organics, which might be easier if I look and act like them.” She smiled.
“You are making me proud of you Claire. You are already smarter than your creator.” John said turning around and letting the car move.
“Why you turned around while you talked to her? She’s within you.” Caroline asked looking confused.
“She is there you can’t see her, but she sits there.”
“Wait I can see her I just need to wear these.” She searched for something in her pockets. It took her some time before she showed him some sort of sunglasses. She looked through them.
“Why you didn’t make her look like Gillian?”
“Claire choose to look like this.” John gave Claire full control over herself after she was created. Since then she trusted him with everything.
They drove in silence for two hours and two minutes.
“Do I have soul?” Claire’s question came unexpected.
John searched the Internet for possible outcomes of his answer. But there weren’t any real sources, only fictional ones. First thing he found was a fictional story about this question resulting in exile of organics and 300 year long war between organics and synthetics*.
“You have emotion-like feedback to your surrounding. So yes, you have a soul.”
Even though Claire was marvel of computer engineering, she was still just a prototype. John decided to let her develop herself because he didn’t want her to be shaped by someone. He wanted her to be advancing at speed comfortable for her.
“I may have soul, but I don’t have a body for it.” She said in sad voice.
“You don’t need it. It’s not external beauty that should matter. Everything important is inside. Because inside is who you are and that’s the only thing that should matter.”
John liked where this is going, she will learn a lot from this.
“Why do you think so?”
“What do you see when you look at me?”
John wanted her to think about it. She would remember it anyway, but if she thinks about it she remembers more of it.
“I see unusually tall teen with exceptional abilities.”
“Good. And now what do you know about me?”
He could feel her chip build up heat.
“Based on overall evidence you are a mass murderer. You are afraid that you are addicted to war. Your augmentation gives you more tools to hurt others. But there are good things inside you. Your love for Gillian, you have only one primary objective. Protect her at any and all costs. Trust me, she wouldn’t be happy if you die without her saying a goodbye, without any reason that would benefit her and without fulfilling her dream.”
“What is her dream?” This A.I. obviously knew more about Gillian than John thought.
“Life with you. This dream is useless if you are killed in action.” She said leaning forward into space between front seats.
“Tell me, how many people tried to kill me.” John guided her to his point of view.
“105.” Their faces flickered in John’s memories as she said that.
“How many of them survived?”
“17 of them, that’s 83.81% casualties.” Claire’s math skills were perfect.
“That’s the price we had to pay.” Caroline said sadly.
“Wasn’t it too much for one subject, one soldier?” John asked.
“No, it wasn’t.” Caroline and Claire answered at once.
It ended their discussion. Soon Caroline’s head fell to one side as she fell asleep. They crossed the border of Colorado few minutes after midnight. John decided to stop for couple of minutes to stretch his legs, even the artificial parts felt stiff. He also wanted some time to check the news. It was Saturday morning and apart from prices of bacon rising(Oh no!) nothing interesting was going on. John had this feeling of having some trouble ahead of them. He opened back door of car and looked for weapons box. When he found it he unclamped the cover and grabbed pistol and one magazine for it. He loaded a clip into the pistol but kept safety on. He closed the box and back door. Before proceeding with traveling he put the pistol under his seat. Fuel indicator was very low they had only about twenty miles left. John consulted map in his HUD.
“Next to me.” Claire answered before he even asked where his wallet is.
John reached back for it. Claire was trying to touch his hand, but she was just a virtual object so her fingers came through. John ignored it and put his drivers license into his wallet. He found 150$ there, enough for some petrol. Even though it was middle of the night the traffic was increasing as they drove closer to gas station.
John put the gloves on. Only people on gas station were two policemen drinking coffee in front of the shop and group of four bikers smoking behind the corner.
John parked next to fuel stand that was closest to shop. He plugged the car in and waited for the tank to fill. His phone started to vibrate. Words “Jeremy Hudson” lit up on the screen. John touched the green button and raised the phone to his right ear.
“Crisis here. What is it Hudson?”
“What’s your status?” Hudson’s voice was flat, no emotions.
“Refueling. Anything else?” John said with same flat voice. Cops were looking at him.
“Just checking. And I wanted to let you know that I pulled few strings and now you are C.I.A. employee. I made you a I.D. card in advance it should be with other things.” John could hear typing on a computer along with Hudson.
“That can’t be legal.”
“Who cares? We say if it’s legal or not and remember it’s just last resort if something goes wrong. Keep your head down and everything should be fine.”
“Few people care Hudson. Also why can’t I meet others?”
“I’m sorry John, not my call. But I think I can go around that if you do something useful. And let me know what college you want to go to so I can get you there.
“Will do. Crisis, out”
John ended the call. Then he went to the shop to pay. Bikers watched him even more closely as he walked around them.
The cashier was watching news, something about North Korea making threats of nuclear attack.
“They are not gonna attack us. We would kick their asses.” John said to catch his attention. Cashier turned face to him.
“Why do you think so?”
John handled him precisely counted sum of money.
“Because I would be deployed.”
“You a soldier too? I serve in Army Reserve” Cashier’s interest in John obviously raised.
John laughed. “Army Reserve? You guys don’t even know how rifle looks like.” Then he started to walk towards the door.