Crashland by Sean Williams

paying attention.
    Applying a second layer of conditioner to her hair and tying it up in a temporary knot, she ignored the embarrassment of talking in the shower to a boy she hardly knew and opened a chat.
    â€œSo what if the PKs want something from me?” she said. “So do you.”
    â€œAt least I’m being honest about it.”
    â€œHow do you know they haven’t been?”
    â€œBecause I know them. Prove me wrong.”
    She had to admit that he wasn’t. But she didn’t see the harm in what he was suggesting. She wasn’t being entirely honest with the PKs, either. They made her feel safer, but if they stood between her and what she needed to do, she would escape without a moment’s hesitation and get on with it her way.
    â€œThey’re after the same thing as you, aren’t they?” she went on. “It’s all about finding Q, even though they’re pretending it isn’t. That’s what Wallace wanted. That’s what you want.”
    â€œI don’t want her,” he said. “I want to know what she is , with a view to containing her. And I know you don’t want to hear that, but . . . Look, do you know why we don’t have smart AIs running the world?”
    â€œSure, Turner Goldsmith told me. Because—”
    â€œBecause AIs are either too big and spread too thin or too small to be good at more than one thing. Yes? Well, your friend in WHOLE was lying. Real AIs can be anything they want, which is why they’re so dangerous. They’re not impossible at all. We don’t have them because they’re banned .”
    Clair mulled this over for a moment.
    â€œQ isn’t dangerous,” she said. “She’s just a kid . . . a kid version of an AI, whatever that’s called. She helped me, and she helped everyone harmed by Improvement.”
    â€œSure, but how did she do it? By hacking into systems that were supposed to be utterly secure and destroying the oversight capacity of the entire VIA network. She almost wiped VIA HQ right off the surface of the Earth just to get you back. Imagine what she could do when she grows up! Creating something like her and losing control of it was Wallace’s real crime, Clair. You have to understand the gravity of the situation.”
    â€œWell, she’s not talking to me any longer, so if you think I’m going to betray her or talk her into turning herself in, you can forget it. I couldn’t do it even if I wanted to.”
    â€œWe’ll see,” he said. “She’s not talking to us, either, and we’ve tried hard to get her attention. Maybe you can help us find her, wherever she’s gone to ground.”
    â€œIs that what you think she’s done?”
    â€œEither that or she’s done us all a favor and erased herself for good.”
    Clair gasped. Q had followed her lead on more than one occasion. What if she had done so in the worst possible way?
    Distantly, she heard the sound of Devin’s shower clicking off two cubicles along. The chat stayed open.
    â€œWhat was that you said earlier?” he asked. “You could hear something, back in the booth?”
    â€œYeah, did you hear it too? Like a private chat bleeding into my feed. Whispering.”
    â€œNo, nothing like that,” he said. “You sure you didn’t get any of that poisoned shrapnel in you?”
    â€œWhether I did or not, Devin, I was hearing things before that happened.”
    â€œAh. Well, then it’s just ordinary everyday hallucinations. Watch out for those. Reality can be such a letdown when it kicks back in.”
    She ended the chat, not liking being made fun of and figuring it was time she got out of the shower too.
    She finished rinsing out the conditioner, wrapped her hair in a towel and reached through the curtain for her new clothes. They were the perfect size, made to the measurements in her profile, and consisted of a sleek