«I’m not making light of your situation,» Javier said. «I only meant that I can ensure that the general lets you go unharmed. Relax the best you can and trust me. I need you, remember?»
Tyoma imagined attempting what Javier Saenz wished to do and found the idea impossibly difficult. Whatever coding Javier used to build his AI, however brilliant, it wouldn’t be compatible with the type of data Tyoma and his colleagues had been working on for decades. He was afraid to say this to Javier right now, though. Suddenly he wanted to hear the reassuring voice of a friend, so he accessed his contacts list and sent a signal to Kostya. For a minute he thought there would be no answer, but finally it clicked through.
«Tyoma? What’s wrong? I’m just in the car now.»
«I just needed to hear a friendly voice,» Tyoma said. «This has easily been the worst day of my life.»
«I understand. I’m sorry. I’ll pick you up and get you home. We’ll talk it over if you like…or you can draw a nice hot bath and just try to forget about it.»
«Pick me up? Did they call you? They’re letting me go?»
There was silence for a long moment. «Are you okay? I just got off the line with you a few minutes ago, but now you sound like you have no idea we just talked. You gave me your coordinates. What do you think I’m doing in the car?»
Tyoma’s mouth hung open. What the hell? «You…you sure it was me? I’ve been unconscious for some time and just woke up.»
«What? Are you serious?»
«I’m…yeah, I’m staring at the med bot right now while he works on my knee.»
«You said you were in a parking lot. It’s about three kilometers from The Pyramid. I assumed Dr. Saenz had helped you escape, but you acted like you never even heard of him.»
Tyoma shook his head. Am I losing my mind? «What’s going on? I’m still in The Pyramid. I tried to escape but I got shot instead.»
«Shot!? Are you okay? I—»
«Yes, I’m…well, not fine, but I’m as good as I could hope for while still being held prisoner by gangsters.»
«Okay, okay, just a second. Let me think,» said Kostya. «Okay, how about I fly over the location of the coordinates I was given and see if I can notice anything suspicious? After that, I’ll come to The Pyramid and try to negotiate your release.»
«That all sounds dangerous to me,» Tyoma said. «You shouldn’t come here. I don’t trust these people for a moment. And whatever crazy stunt they are pulling mimicking me, that sounds like a trap.»
«Why would they set some kind of trap for me? They have all the leverage they need. When they contacted us earlier they could have just made me come to them. This doesn’t make sense.»
«I know, I know. I don’t know what to say. It just feels wrong.»
«Well…I still want to take a look at the coordinates. After that, I’ll figure out what to do.»
«All right, but be careful. Dr. Saenz says he can keep me safe once the general comes to get me. Says he can get the general to release me.»
«That sounds good, if he can do it. If he’s anything close to as brilliant as he was in life, I wouldn’t be surprised if he can pull it off.»
«Do you think he’s for real? I mean, a fully-realized AI…we considered working on that once, and we put the idea aside as too complicated.»
«It wasn’t what the military needed from us at that time, remember? I think it’s possible. It’s just too much work for us given what our goal was.»
«If he’s truly for real, he could help us in so many ways.»
«True,» Kostya said. «Though what if we can’t help him with what he wants?»
«I was thinking that myself. Hopefully once he’s over his disappointment his natural scientific curiosity will impose itself.»
«We can hope. Look, I’m going to be at the coordinates soon. I’ll call you back once I figure out what to do next.»
«Promise me you’ll be careful, Kostya.»
«I promise. Don’t fret about me. Just let that med bot do its work.»
«Yeah. Talk to you soon.» Tyoma severed the connection. He couldn’t for one moment understand why someone would call Kostya posing as him. And why wouldn’t Kostya’s contacts database know that it wasn’t the real Tyoma?
Moscow
Sunday, June 8, 2138
10:39 p.m. MSK
Tavik scowled at the view screen as the air car rose from the parking lot of the morgue. He had long viewed himself as an energetic man of action, a man of great smiles and expansive gestures. A man with a great future ahead of him. Today he felt like a tremendous failure.
Having to kill his best friend had of course not been a good start to the day, but it had been necessary and it was something his conscious could bear without too much of a twinge. Things had only gotten progressively worse, however. He wasn’t used to encountering resistance. He wasn’t used to being made to look a fool. And all of this had been done by a slip of a girl. In the back of his mind he’d always vaguely assumed he would one day marry Zoya, once he’d had enough fun in his younger years and reached a point where settling down felt more important than partying. He had trouble giving up on these dreams despite having been beaten senseless by his intended, and despite her being the reason he had failed to procure the cards his boss had demanded he retrieve.
Zoya…
He knew what the guys always said. You’d have to be stupid to marry a woman when you have a virtual mate at home. All the good things about women without any of the bad. Yeah, right. No matter how much he tried out setting the virtual mate to mimic Zoya, it just wasn’t the same. It feels real, smells real, tastes real, but it just isn’t the real Zoya.
I need a hot bath, he thought. Then I’ll sleep for a week.
The air car began to pick up speed when something unusual caught Tavik’s eye and he told the car to slow down. Below, not a block away from the morgue, a black air car was hovering on the street near an abandoned building. Several dark figures were climbing into it. Can it truly be her? It seemed a long shot, and yet why would such a nice car be near that wreck of a building? Tavik decided it wouldn’t hurt to follow it for a short time, just to be sure it wasn’t her. The bath can wait.
As the black air car rose up in front of him, Tavik gave instructions to his own car to follow it. “Surreptitiously”, he told the car, proud that he knew such a word. See, I may not have finished school, but I’m not as stupid as Viktor thinks I am.
He didn’t have to follow long. The black car headed straight for The Pyramid’s upper landing platform. Tavik wondered what Zoya was up to. “Go on and land,” he said to his car. If she’s trying to get rid of the cards because of the trouble they’ve caused, she could have just given them to me. If she thinks she can get some kind of revenge for Georgy, well, I’ll just have to stop her.
Finally, Tyoma thought. Took him long enough.
The familiar shape of Kostya’s air car coasted to a stop thirty meters up. It was too dark to see his friend through the view screen, but he felt Kostya’s eyes staring down at him. He’s wondering where I am. Tyoma waved an arm up at the car, which continued to sit there.