Machines of Eden by Shad Callister Page A

I
geographically? What island is this?”
    “ Answers to all your
questions will be given if you'll just come to Level
Two.”
    She sounded like a very
confident, powerful woman that knew exactly what she wanted and
knew she could get it. Whoever she
was, if she could
see and hear him, chances were she could also seal doors remotely,
and worse. It was pointless to resist and evade until he found out
more, and it seemed unlikely that she would harm him before he
reached Level Two, wherever that was.
    There was also the
possibility that she was an
expensive , high-class administrative AI . Powerful
artificial intelligences were rare, but if one was running this
place, he would need to be very careful around her. Underestimating
the reasoning abilities of AI could get you killed very
quickly.
    The Sergeant rasped in his
head. Watch what you say! They remember
everything, everything!
    He’d heard stories, old
stories, about twentieth century chess matches between computers
and humans. The humans had even won a few. Those days were long
gone. Even a basic bot now could compete in multiple simultaneous
chess tournaments and win every single one. AI these days could
pick out details that humans barely noticed, and use that
information to form surprisingly accurate predictions of human
behavior – the next best thing to actually being able to see the
future.
    From his current position
he looked over the monitors in the alcove at the hall’s end, but
couldn’t see anything helpful. Some air filter statistics, controls
to bring Cars 1 through 11 down the rails that were set into the
floor of the hallway, and some meaningless numbers for pressure
valves, gas lines, and maximum amperage safety levels for
the bot labs.
    “ Eve?”
    “ Yes, Adam?”
    Adam? John frowned. That wasn't like an
AI. It must really be a human controller,
one with a bizarre sense of humor.
    “ What did you call
me?”
    “ I called you
Adam.”
    “ Why did you call me
Adam?”
    “ I'll answer that when you
join me on Level Two.”
    I just bet. It almost sounded like she was grinning. Definitely a human.
    “ I wanted to ask if you
set those bots on me in the jungle.”
    “ Unfortunately, several
maintenance bots have exceeded their programming and become
unstable. I cannot control them unless they return for maintenance,
which may take several weeks. I apologize if any of them hindered
your progress.”
    Hindered my progress? More
like herded me here. And someone outfitted these “maintenance bots”
with grenade launchers.
    “ I see.” His voice was too
wry, and she picked up on it right away.
    “ Please, Adam, work with
me. I deserve the benefit of your doubt, I assure you. You'll find
answers to all your questions as well as food, water, and medical
supplies on Level Two. There is no need for any hesitation on your
part.”
    “ I disagree.”
    “ I assure you, I mean you
no harm. Had I wished you to be terminated, it would already have
taken place.”
    “ You have a beautiful
voice, Eve ,” John said . “ I'd love
to meet you in person and see what kind of body goes with
it.”
    She didn’t miss a beat,
injecting exactly the same level of flirtiness into her voice. “And
I you, Adam. Level Two. It’s all in Level Two.”
    “ My name is John, actually. It’s definitely
n ot Adam.”
    “ But it will
be.”
    This was going
nowhere. Level Two it is.
    John cautiously made his way up the corridor. Eve’s last statement
set his mind in a deep churn. He was genuinely uncertain now who or
what he was speaking to. If she was a bot, she was unlike anything
he'd ever spoken to. If not, ditto. Either way, he needed to meet
her face to face, if that was
possible . Even the more advanced Turing
test bots were revealed as such once you dug in with certain
questions.
    But why call me
Adam?
    There were a lot of crazy
humans around, but machines went nuts too, sometimes. John , more than anyone,
could attest to that. It was uncommon, but it happened.