He was a fraud, and that is one of the reasons why I left his employ. But he owned everything I wrote, even the things he didn’t understand.”
She paused, and turned to JD, releasing his arm. She fixed him with a look, her eyes glinting bright, translucent skin otherworldly, lips held slightly apart as though to speak, whistle, or kiss. In that second JD thought he could see her the way Red must—she was beatific.
“I created a virus, a piece of living software unlike anything the world has ever seen, and I had to leave it behind. The loss still hurts, JD. I feel like a mother who lost her child. Lee didn’t even know what he had, but I would be damned before I told him.”
“So you want me to break into his office and take it back?”
“Not his office, his home. But yes.”
JD exhaled through pursed lips. “And if I do that, you’ll pay me fifty thousand euro?”
Kali winced, but nodded. “This software will help me take Songdo from the corporations, so it’s a small price to pay.” She looked at JD and smiled, her pale eyes ice-cold. “If everything works out, you won’t need the money; none of us will.” The words seemed well rehearsed—just like her smile.
JD considered it. The money alone was tempting, but a chance to see Zero Lee’s home, his workspace? When he was a teen he’d dreamed of working for Lee, but he was better with his hands than he was with code.
“Alright, I’m in,” JD said.
“Excellent, JD. Truly, truly excellent. When Soo-hyun told me they had a brother who could help, I was hesitant, but now I see how the two of you could work well together. The job was Soo-hyun’s idea, and they’ll give you everything you need.”
Kali motioned to a large brick building down the hill. It was separated from the rest of the school by a moat of darkness, while lights shone brightly from within.
“Have you visited Liber before?” Kali asked as they walked toward it.
JD shook his head. “I never go anywhere with fewer than three bars of signal.”
Kali smiled. “You should visit again. It’s important work we’re doing here, planning and growing a new civilization. But that’s enough for now.”
The ring of dogs broke apart and sat alert on the cracked cement outside the detached building. Kali led JD up a short set of stairs and stood outside twin rusted doors. JD rested a hand on the knob and Kali nodded, then she turned and walked away, escorted back to the school by nine of the dogs, while the one from the canal stayed at JD’s side.
“Are you visiting Soo-hyun, or checking up on me?” he asked. The dog didn’t respond.
JD pushed into the building and was struck by the noise—soundproofed doors giving way to the deafening hiss of an arc welder, and Kali’s voice blaring from a cheap digital radio. The building had been the school’s maintenance shed. Tools hung across the front wall, traced by neat outlines, and desks had been brought in from the classrooms, now laden with different models of police dog in various states of disassembly, and quadcopter drones with bright green electrical tape stuck over their camera lenses. A thin mattress sat in one corner of the room, the sheets unmade, with dust and bits of wire caught within the linen canyons. The tang of solder hung in the air, accompanied by the meaty scent of old sweat.
Soo-hyun stood at a workbench at the rear of the room, wearing a welder’s visor. They worked on a dog drone laid across the bench, its torso open, wires spread out like winter branches, nuts, bolts, screws, and solder slag littered all around it.
When Soo-hyun noticed JD, they cut off the gas to their arc welder, placed the heavy tool down with a chank, and switched off the radio. They lifted their visor and beamed.
“Are you in?” they asked.
JD nodded. “Yeah, I’m in.”
Soo-hyun dropped the visor onto the table and gave JD a hug. “I knew you’d say yes.”
They looked down at the dog standing patiently at JD’s heel like a well-trained pet, and patted it once on the head.
“You didn’t have to check up on me, Plato,” Soo-hyun said. “Go on back to Kali.”
The robot bowed its cylindrical metal head slightly in response. It stood and turned before bounding out the door, leg actuators whirring sharply in the quiet space.
“Natural language processing in a police drone?” JD said, impressed. “You told me