Gates of Rome

CHAPTER 7

2001, New York

They watched the foetus floating in the protein soup, flexing and twitching tiny fingers and toes in unconscious readiness. A feed pipe was connected to its belly button and rose up to the top of the tube where it met the filtration pump.

The perspex growth tube was lit from the bottom. It glowed softly, filling their back room with a warm, womb-like, muted crimson light.

‘Do you think they think about things when they’re growing in there?’ asked Liam.

‘Probably not,’ said Maddy.

Sal turned to Bob, standing like a freshly built brick wall beside her. ‘Did you, Bob? Do you have any memories of being in a tube?’

He frowned, deep in concentration for a moment. ‘No. My AI software was not loaded at this stage.’

‘But your organic brain?’ cut in Maddy. ‘That must store some memories?’

Bob’s shoulders flexed a casual shrug. ‘If so, it is not data I can retrieve.’

The little foetus kicked a leg out, then tucked it back in.

Maddy chuckled. ‘It’s got some of her attitude already.’

‘Do you think we can upload Becks’s AI?’ asked Sal.

Maddy tapped her teeth with her fingernails. ‘I dunno yet, Sal. That simulation we ran… she seemed pretty flaky.’ On Maddy and Sal’s return, computer-Bob had run the simulation again with exactly the same results.

She turned to look at Liam. ‘I mean… I love you… that can’t be right for a support unit, can it?’

Bob nodded. ‘It did appear that the simulated AI was behaving erratically.’

‘So, maybe these clone fellas can feel something?’ said Liam.

The others looked at him.

‘Well, I’m not so unlovable, am I?’

Sal giggled. ‘I’m sure your mother must’ve loved you.’

‘Point is — ’ Maddy placed a hand on the warm growth tube — ‘I’m pretty sure support units shouldn’t go round professing love for their operative.’

Liam looked uncertain. ‘She definitely was learning to… to feel something, so she was. That’s not so bad, is it?’

Maddy found herself nodding in the gloom. Hadn’t she too thought she’d seen that in Becks? ‘Helps them appear more human, I suppose.’

‘Back in the dinosaur time, she…’ Liam looked at the others sheepishly.

‘She what?’

‘Well, she sort of went to kiss me, so she did.’

Sal made a face. Maddy’s eyes rounded behind her lenses. ‘ Kiss you?’

‘Tried to give me just a little peck, so. On me cheek, that’s all.’

Sal made a face. ‘That’s just weird.’

‘Just a peck… nothing else happened,’ he added defensively. ‘Honest!’

Maddy waved him silent. ‘Doesn’t matter. The fact is maybe that means she did already have… feelings before this damage. Maybe the “I love you” comment was not corrupted data or some sort of malfunction.’ She looked up at Bob. ‘She inherited your code, Bob. Have you ever experienced — you know — feelings for Liam?’

‘I have data files that you could interpret as emotional reflexes.’

‘Would you kiss Liam?’

Bob cocked his head, a frown of confusion rumpling his forehead for a moment before he reluctantly leaned down towards Liam, puckering his horse-lips.

Liam recoiled. ‘Jay-zus, Bob! What’re you — ?’

‘No! Bob! That wasn’t an instruction… that was a question!’

He straightened up. ‘I see.’ His expression settled. ‘I have managed to reprioritize mission parameters for Liam in the past. This could be interpreted as… irrational.’

‘He came to save me from that German prison camp. Didn’t you, Bob?’

‘Is that because you valued Liam more than you valued completing your mission objective?’ asked Maddy.

Bob hesitated, his mind working its files in silence.

‘Because you cared for him?’ she pressed.

Bob finally answered. ‘Affirmative. Liam is my friend.’

Maddy tapped the perspex with her knuckles. ‘There we are, then. That was already there in Becks’s identity. She inherited feelings from Bob.’ She shrugged her shoulders. ‘She cares for you, Liam. Somewhere in all that data she has a file that tells her she “loves” you.’ Maddy smiled. ‘Maybe her AI was just running that file during the emulation.’

‘Does that mean she’s OK, then?’ asked Liam.

‘Bob, if we upload her AI into this body and it turns out she is wonky, can we, I dunno… reboot her or something?’

‘Affirmative. The silicon wafer can be reformatted and the AI software reloaded without any of my or her inherited data.’

‘Right.’ Maddy nodded. ‘I suppose we could give her AI a go and if she’s, like, all flaky on us, then that’s what we’ll have to do.’

‘That’s taking a risk, though, isn’t it?’ said Sal. ‘I mean there are loads of those corrupted red blocks. What if she got funny with us?’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Maddy.

‘I dunno… jealous or something. Jealous of you or me?’

‘Sal is correct,’ said Bob.

Maddy stroked her lip thoughtfully. She’d seen Becks in action. Seen the bodies left behind in her wake. God help them if she took on the role of a lover scorned.

‘Her decision-making may be unpredictable,’ Bob added.

‘Aw, come on! When hasn’t she been unpredictable?’ said Liam.

Maddy nodded. ‘True.’

‘Could we not give her a chance?’

‘We’ll have to watch her very closely,’ said Maddy. ‘The slightest sign she’s going weird and we’ll have to reboot her. I mean it… she even looks at me or Sal in a funny way, we’re going to have to totally wipe her, Liam.’

Sal bit her lip. ‘I don’t want her tearing off my head.’

Liam nodded slowly. ‘She’ll be right as rain, so she will.’ He didn’t sound entirely convincing.

‘OK, right,’ said Maddy, ‘that’s that, then.’ She turned to head for the sliding door leading back out into the main archway. ‘Come on, guys, there’s something else we need to talk about.’

Liam slid the door aside. It rattled noisily and clattered against its runners. ‘What?’

‘This agency of ours… the Pandora stuff?’

Sal and Liam looked at each other.

‘Did Foster tell you something?’ asked Sal.

Maddy nodded. ‘Oh yeah.’