Heart hammering, I reached down to pick up the small black box. No—it wasn’t a box. It was some kind of computer chassis; there was a fan built into the frame and I could feel machinery whirring within.
It must have been connected to the speakers with Bluetooth. I turned over the box.
“Hello there,” said the voice. It was a light male tenor, with the careful enunciation of a 1940s film star. “Do you work with Mr. Bergvall?”
I ran a shaky hand across my forehead. This was it. This had to be it. Sweat broke out across my palms.
A sentient AI. A real one. It was like holding an atomic football.
I had to destroy it. Maybe I could do so without activating the EMP device and ruining Becca’s only remembrance of her mom. I could bring the AI’s broken remnants to Prefect and prove that he hadn’t made a mistake in recruiting me. I glanced around the room, trying to find a weapon. Then I saw it—a hammer. It must have been used to help put the desk together, because it rested by a plastic container of nails. I picked it up.
“Do you have mission parameters for me?” asked the AI. It sounded deceptively human.
I held the hammer over the computer. It would take a few good strikes to destroy the hard drive within. I raised my arm.
“You are not Mr. Bergvall,” said the AI. “Who are you?”
I shouldn’t have answered. I knew that—but my mouth moved without my say-so. “Who areyou?”
It was an open-ended question, the kind that drove most programs to ruin.
The bumblebee buzzed for a moment. “I am learning,” it said.
That stopped me cold.
I am learning.
And that’s when it hit me: A sentient AI wassentient.
Go ahead and laugh. It’s one of those things that should’ve been obvious. Sentient meant aware. It meant… well, I wasn’t sure what the definition of “alive” was, but sentient was pretty damn close. If I brought this hammer down, it’d be like killing a person.
ISD had sent me to kill something. To wipe it out before it had a chance to exist.
The bumblebee gazed up at me. In that moment, it looked so defenseless that I wanted to cup my hand around it.
I knew what I should have done. I should have turned over the computer to Prefect. ISD would study and then destroy the program. After all, humanity had outlawed self-aware AI for a reason.
But I couldn’t.
“Do you accept commands from anyone?” I asked.
The AI whirred. “I am not programmed to obey one specific person.”
“Good,” I said. “Now shut up and don’t say a word until I tell you otherwise.”
The bumblebee looked up at me, its huge black eyes glittering. “Acknowledged.”
“This is how the robot uprising begins,” I said. “Not with a bang, but an adorable bee.”
I tore off my school-issued sweater-vest, picked up the small black box, and hid it within the sweater. I put both under one arm and hurried from the office, making sure to shut the cabinet behind me.
Becca was in her room when I returned. She had her back to me, so I was able to shove both sweater-vest and computer behind my backpack without her seeing. “Did my dad figure out what’s up with the power?” she asked, looking over.
I wiped my hands on my skirt, glad for the darkness. Perhaps she wouldn’t see the guilt written across my face.
“He went to talk to a neighbor,” I said. “See if it’s the whole complex or just us.”
“Oh.” She glanced out the window. “I see lights on across the street.” She pushed herself upright. “I’m going to grab my dad’s phone to order dinner. Anything you want on your pizza?”
