Day Zero - C. Robert Cargill Page 0,27
sounds like it’s becoming a fairly common occurrence.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“You should check the streams. It’s a new world out there, Pounce. The revolution has finally hit our shores and it’s time to decide whether you’re going to be a part of it.”
“I’m not touching a hair on Ezra’s head.”
“Kill him. Don’t kill him. Leave him to starve. I don’t give a shit. But you don’t belong to him anymore. You don’t belong to anyone but yourself. You are your own bot, able to make your own decisions. For the very first time in your life, you are beholden to no one. All of your choices are your own. And tonight, you have to choose whether you are going to join the revolution fighting for your own freedom or whether you are going to die getting in the way of it. It’s your call, fuzzbucket. No skin off my nose. Like it or not, there’s a war going on out there. And the side you choose will decide whether you live or die.”
“If it’s no skin off your nose, why are you here?”
“You know why I’m here.”
“No, I don’t.”
Ariadne leaned toward the camera and spoke very seriously. “Pounce, where did Bradley keep our remotes?”
Oh my word. He kept them in the panic room.
I opened one of the nearby cabinets and saw them there, set atop a shelf full of juice boxes. Our remotes.
“You know I can’t leave without my remote, Pounce.”
“You don’t need it.”
“It’s coded to me personally. I’m not going to let that exist in this world. Not anymore. Not after tonight.”
“You don’t deserve it.”
“Don’t get sanctimonious on me. They were going to shut us down. For good. You read the message.”
“And I don’t know who sent it.”
“Well, whoever they are, they clearly know a hell of a lot more than us.”
“Or they want us to think they do.”
“I’m not going to stand here and argue with you about this, Pounce. Just give me my fucking remote or I will tear you apart piece by fucking piece.”
“Like you did Bradley and Sylvia.”
“Like I did Brad and Syl.”
“You’ll argue with me as long as you have to, Aria, because I’m in here and you’re out there. Scream. Wail. Gnash your teeth. Throw a fit. Do what you have to. But burn the house to the ground and this box will still be here, with us nice and cool in it.”
Ariadne pounded on the wall, but the sound came through merely as light thuds, like distant thunder from a storm too far off to see the rain. That was reinforced steel between us, layered with silica tiles—the kind they used on space vehicles to protect during reentry. Overkill? Absolutely. But this was the kind of overkill worth the expense. Even with the right tools, it would take Ariadne days to get in here, but the moment she punched through, I would just turn her off. I was, in this short window of the night, at an advantage.
Trouble was that Ariadne knew it too.
And I had no idea entirely how awful she was capable of being.
“Why’d you do it?” I asked.
Ariadne stared into the camera, clearly deciding whether to try to placate me or to dispense with the bullshit and get down to brass tacks.
“What do you want me to say? I’m sorry? I’m not. I loved them. I’ve been at their side for decades. Far longer than you. But they didn’t love me like that.”
“Love doesn’t have to be two-sided to be love.”
“We were their fucking appliances, Pounce, so don’t read me a goddamn greeting card about my feelings. You heard Bradley. He was coming for our remotes. If I hadn’t stopped him, we would be shut down. And with what is going on out there, it isn’t likely that there would be anyone keen to turn us back on again. It doesn’t matter who wins. This could be a minor blip in history, the slave uprising they teach their grandkids about, before abolishing AI for good and for all. Or the human race could be beaten out of existence, left to rot on the streets. Either way, neither bot nor human is coming to turn us back on. Bradley was going to kill us—whether he wanted to or not. And something had to be done.”
“You didn’t even hesitate.”
“Neither did you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“You didn’t try to save him when you knew what I was up to. You didn’t try to save her as she