Page 11 of The Phoenix Code

  "What?"

  Megan scowled. "It was the only way to make him work. He had no capacity for friendship or love. I had to rewrite huge sections of code."

  "He's not supposed to love. He's a weapon."

  "His personality was a mess. If he had been human, I would have sent him to a shrink."

  He put up his hands. "All right. But I think we do need an expert to look at him, a psychologist or a doctor."

  "I've requested a therapist. We have a candidate, but her security clearance hasn't come through yet."

  Raj glanced at Ander, who had given up glaring at them and lain back down. "He needs a man. A good role model. I'm hardly the best choice for his socializa­tion."

  "Raj, you're fine." She wished she knew how to make him believe that. "To be honest, I doubt he would accept any new people right now."

  "All the more reason to turn him off until we know better how to deal with him."

  "Don't you see? To Ander, that would be a betrayal. If we lose his trust now, we may never regain it."

  "Megan, it's better that we lose his trust than damage him."

  That, of course, was the crux of the matter. She couldn't bear the thought of causing him harm. They needed more time to figure out the best course of action. "Let's ask him. If he agrees, our problem is solved."

  "That might work—if you talk to him alone. I'll go fix the robot arms."

  While Raj headed to the lockers at the back of the lab for parts, Megan returned to the chair. As soon as Ander heard her approach, he sat up. "Don't listen to him," he said. "Please. If you do, I won't survive."

  "Ander—"

  "You have to listen to me!" He took a breath. "You see, I know his secret."

  *10*

  Do No Harm

  "What secret?" Megan asked.

  He motioned at Raj, who was out of earshot, working on a robot arm. "He hates me. He's jealous."

  "Oh, Ander. Why would he be jealous?"

  "Because of you."

  "You think Raj sees you as a rival?"

  "Doesn't he?"

  "I think he wants what's best for you."

  Ander snorted. "Like I don't know myself."

  "Raj wants to help."

  "He wants me gone."

  Where did he get these ideas? "Why would he want that?"

  "So he can have you."

  "He came here to work on you."

  "He loathes me."

  Megan sighed. "Ander, Raj likes you just fine."

  He turned away and stared across the lab with a su­perb simulation of sullen resentment.

  She tried again. "Do you really believe he hates you?"

  After a moment he said, "I don't know." He turned back to her. "Sometimes he speaks up for me even more than you do."

  She hadn't expected that response. Encouraged, she smiled. "Then you see. He does support you."

  "No! Yes. I don't know. You treat him differently than you treat me. He's human. Do I have to be human for you to like me?"

  "Ander, no. Of course not." She laid her hand on his good arm. "What matters to me is that you have the chance to be your best. Whatever that means."

  "I'm losing control." He lifted his broken wrist as if of­fering her evidence. "The more I try to rewrite myself, the worse it gets. I'm having trouble predicting my own be­havior."

  Her voice softened. "That sounds human to me."

  Ander regarded her with his large eyes, his gaze vulner­able. "Can you really operate better if I'm asleep?"

  "Yes." She dreaded the prospect of taking him apart while he watched. "Otherwise, I'll feel as if I'm hurting you."

  "I don't feel pain."

  "I know." She spread her hands apart. "I'm afraid human emotions don't always follow human logic."

  "Then why teach a logical machine to act with emo­tion?"

  Good question. "I've never considered logic and emo­tion as separate. Our ability to think is only fully realized when we have both."

  Ander rubbed his hand over his eyes as if he were tired. "All right. You can put me to sleep."

  Relief washed over her. "Thank you."

  "Should I lie down?" He sounded nervous now. When she nodded, he stretched out on his back.

  "Are you ready?" she asked.

  "Yes. No, wait." He motioned at where Raj was working on the robot arms several meters away. "If he doesn't want to wake me up, ask him about the Phoenix Project."

  "I've never heard of it."

  "I don't know what it is, exactly." He avoided her gaze. "I came across it when, uh, we were browsing the Web. It has to do with another AI project Raj worked on. Maybe it can help me."

  "All right." The way he asked made her suspect he had found it by prowling around where he didn't belong. When this was over, she would have to have a talk with him about electronic laws.

  Ander took a deep breath. "Go ahead, then."

  "Sleep well," she murmured. She could no longer turn him off by voice or wireless input: only the manual option remained. So she either had to open him up or else have BioSyn do it by using the smart-wires it had inserted through his ports.

  She spoke to the air. "BioSyn, deactivate Ander."

  A hum came from the robot arm jacked into the an­droid. He stiffened, staring at Megan as if he were about to drown. Then his eyes closed and his face relaxed.

  "Deactivated," BioSyn said.

  Megan brushed his curls off his forehead, wishing she could have better soothed his unease. Then she looked up. "Raj," she called. "He's asleep."

  Raj made a last adjustment on the arm, then set his tool case on the floor and came over. "How did he take it?"

  "Pretty well." She smiled. "Do you know, he thinks you treat him better than I do sometimes."

  "He has an odd way of showing it."

  She watched Ander sleep. "I wonder what will happen if this project succeeds."

  Raj understood her unspoken thought. "MindSim knows he can't do his job without free will."

  "True free will means he can choose his job." She frowned at Raj. "Without that choice, it's slavery."

  "You think so?" An edge came into his voice. "We all live as our circumstances dictate."

  "You can live however you choose."

  He braced his hands on his console and leaned for­ward. "Why? Because I'm a good person? No. Because I'm rich." His intensity didn't hide the pain behind his words. "What about my great-grandfather who had noth­ing in India and hardly anything more when he immi­grated here? He was a far better man than I. But he had no choices. He worked day and night and endured intol­erance and social isolation, all so he could feed his family. You call that free will?"

  Hearing his anger, Megan wondered if Raj had experi­enced some of the same. All the wealth in the world wouldn't stop prejudice from hurting. "It makes what he accomplished all the more impressive. But he still chose to come here."

  Raj spoke in a quieter voice. "I know you see the po­tential for a better world in Ander. Unfortunately, that dream has a flip side. You want him to have free will. So do I. But suppose he doesn't share our values? We have a responsibility to ensure he does no harm, even if it means limiting his options."

  "If we control him, we trespass on those same values."

  "Megan, you can be terribly idealistic." His face gen­tled. "But don't ever change."

  The unexpected comment warmed her. "Well, you know what they say. Can't teach an old Megan new tricks."

  His grin sparked. "Makes me wonder what old tricks you know."

  "Tell you what. You fill me in on Phoenix and I'll tell you my tricks." Seeing his puzzled look, she added, "The Phoenix Project. Ander thought it might help us."

  "You mean at Arizonix?"

  "Phoenix is their android work?" This could be inter­esting.

  Raj laughed. "Don't be a duck. Yes, Arizonix had a Phoenix Project. I never worked on it. MindSim couldn't have hired me otherwise. It's proprietary information. Even if I knew anything, I couldn't talk about it."
r />   "Do you?"

  "Do I what?"

  "Know anything?"

  "You're incorrigible, you know that? Besides, I never had a chance to do any work on the project. I was only at Arizonix for a few days."

  Oh, well. "Ander wasn't big on details."

  "I'm not surprised." Glancing at the android, he added, "We should get started."

  "Are you sure?" She indicated her console, where the glowing display read 3:14 A.M. "It's late."

  "Do you mind?"

  She felt too wired to sleep. "It's okay."

  With a surgeon's skilled touch, he laid his palm on Ander's arm. "Let's go, then."

  They opened Ander's chest in a seam that split down the middle of his torso. Seeing his bent skeleton made Megan wince. Silvery nanocircuit filaments sheathed his organs in well-organized lattices, though some were ripped by his broken parts.

  While Raj examined Ander's torso, Megan opened his injured limbs. "Arm six, analyze his left leg," she said. "Arm one, do his left arm."

  As the robots scanned Ander, holos of his limbs ap­peared like high-tech ghosts above her console, showing the damaged bones. Data scrolled across the light screens and three-dimensional graphs formed above the holo-screen. Similar displays formed on Raj's console for Ander's torso. New holos appeared showing the bones in the correct positions. When a correct holo merged with one showing damage, the resulting image blurred in places where the individual images were close but not exact. The twisted bones stuck out at odd angles.

  She studied the corrections suggested by BioSyn. "Arm one, rotate the left ulna and radius through eighty-three degrees toward the A-two y-axis."

  The robots moved their long fingers with a delicacy no human surgeon could match, a startling contrast to the massive arms that supported them. With their wireless links to Ander, they received continual updates on his condition as they manipulated his bones. His composite "bones" had both strength and flexibility; they suffered neither the breakage of more brittle materials nor the fa­tigue of metal alloys.

  Megan spent an hour on Ander's arm, adjusting it until the damaged bones came into position. She had more trouble with his leg. Even after she straightened the limb, it had a slight twist. No matter how she untwisted it, an­other part of his leg moved out of alignment. The twist was small, though. She finally decided to leave it and see how Ander managed. If he had trouble, they would re­build that part of his skeleton.

  Whenever she took a breather, she watched Raj oper­ate. He fixed the spine and rib cage first, then worked on the lubricant and sinus reservoirs, repairing torn filaments as he went along. Although she had known he had a gift for this work, she hadn't appreciated the full measure of it until now. Watching him was like seeing a virtuoso play the piano.

  They had to do more than just make Ander work, they also had to ensure his repairs wouldn't give him away. He had to appear human even on close examination. His chest had to rise and fall, his veins had to show a pulse, his seams had to blend into his skin without a trace, and numerous other details had to fit. His disguise wasn't per­fect, but it could convince many detection devices. The operation drained Megan. It took over nine hours. When they finally closed up his body, the display read 12:33 P.M.

  Raj rubbed his eyes, his motions slowed with fatigue. "I think he'll be all right."

  "You work like an artist," Megan said. "It's beauti­ful."

  "Thanks." He paused like a great, prowling cat who had spent his bursting energy on a night-long run across the plains. With unexpected gentleness, he asked, "Are you going back to your room?"

  "Yes, I think so." She felt self-conscious, once again aware of him as a man rather than a colleague.

  "I'll walk you back."

  "Okay." It had been years since a fellow walked her home.

  They did a final check on Ander and the lab, and left the LPs on guard. Then they headed out of the lab, worn out but satisfied with the night's work. As they made their way along the catwalk, Raj put his arm around her shoul­ders. A pleasant flush spread across her face, and she put her arm around his waist. During the operation she had forgotten she was only half-dressed, but with their arms around each other now she became acutely conscious of his body and her own. She could feel the muscles of his torso through the thin cloth of her nightshirt.

  They exited the lab into the creatively named Corridor D of Level Two. On Corridor B, they stopped outside her room, still holding each other. Deja vu swept over Megan as she remembered Ander, and she shivered.

  "Are you cold?" Raj tugged her around to face him, holding her at the waist.

  "I'm warming up," she murmured.

  He stroked her temple, a soft brush of sensation. "Do you know, your eyes are the same color blue as the alter­nate function key on my calculator?"

  Megan smiled. "Ah, Raj. You're such a sweet-talker."

  She wasn't sure which of them initiated the kiss, but they both melted into it, embracing outside her door. The touch of their lips was tender at first but then it grew more intense. She savored the way he held her, as though he had made a new discovery. He paused several times to look at her, his dark-eyed gaze sensuous. It not only aroused her, it also felt fresh, as if the two of them were new-minted coins.

  Eventually they moved into her room. She stopped at the bed, though. "I can't. It's too soon."

  Raj brushed back a tendril of her hair. "It's all right. Just knowing you're here is what matters." He inter­twined his fingers with hers. "At night when I can't sleep, I feel like nothing is here, that I'm a solitary atom wan­dering in an empty underground warren. It's lonely."

  The bleak image unsettled her. "You miss people?"

  He hesitated. "I don't like being with people. Their personalities press on me. It's claustrophobic, not in space but—I don't know how to say it. In emotions? I need to retreat, to recharge. But Megan, I hate loneliness. Insom­nia is even worse when you're alone, staring at the ceiling, unable to escape into your dreams." He paused, as if real­izing he had said too much. "Now you must really think I'm crazy."

  "Raj, no. This world we live in, it can make you think introversion is wrong. But it's not." Still holding his hand, she cupped his cheek with her other hand. "There's noth­ing wrong with your need for privacy. It doesn't detract from your capacity to care for people or your strength of character."

  "Sweet Meg." He pulled her close, one arm around her waist, his other hand sliding from her head down to where her hair ended at her hips. Then he went farther down, caressing her bottom, his fingers tracing the curve through her nightshirt. A ripple of sensation spread through her body.

  "You've incredible hair," he said, his voice husky.

  She tangled her hand into his curls. "You, too." Mis­chief tugged her voice. "But your eyes most certainly aren't the color of the alternate function key on my calcu­lator. It's orange."

  His laugh rumbled. "You imp."

  She held him close, with her head against his shoulder. "I'm so glad you're here."

  "I had no idea you felt that way." He paused. "Of course, I usually have to be hit on the head with clues be­fore I notice something."

  Megan pulled back and tapped him on the head. "Hi. I'm a clue."

  He turned on his devastating grin. Then he kissed her again. When he lifted his head, he said, "I can face the in­somnia better tonight, knowing you're so near."

  She almost invited him to stay. But she doubted she could keep her hands off him if he did, and she wasn't ready to go further. At least, her emotions weren't ready. Her body had other ideas. Then again, she was so tired she might fall asleep regardless of how either her mind or her body felt.

  "Good night, Megan." His hands lingered on her for a moment. Then he let her go and headed for the door.

  "Raj, wait."

  He turned with controlled grace. "Yes?"

  "If you would like to stay—I mean, not anything more, but if you don't want to be alone..." She stopped, feel­ing foolish. Real smart: show a man you like hi
m by invit­ing him not to touch you.

  "You're sure?"

  "Yes." She sat on the bed, trying to relax, and laid her hand on the covers next to her.

  Raj came back to the bed, and the sight of his tall form in her private room made her more aware of his con­tained strength. She found it hard to believe he was here with her.

  Sitting next to her, he drew her into his arms. "Just to sleep," he said, more as if to remind himself than reassure her. "Let's lie down."

  "All right." Then she said, "Lamp off."

  Cleo, her console, recognized the command and turned off the lamp on the nightstand. They lay on the covers, Raj on his back, Megan against his side. He held her close and stroked her hair, then trailed his fingers down her arm, letting the heel of his hand move over her breast. Her nipple hardened in response. With only a thin layer of silk between her body and him, she almost felt naked in his arms. He kissed her forehead, her cheek, her lips, all light touches, questions asking, More?

  Megan sighed and settled against him. She felt a sen­sual comfort in his presence and was glad he had stayed. He moved his hands over her and kissed her deeply, ex­ploring her body as she responded to him. Her arousal was warming from a simmer to a more demanding heat despite her intent to hold back. He pressed his hips against her pelvis in a rhythm as old as the human race, and she felt him through the layers of their clothes. Tin­gles ran down her spine and spread lower.

  Her mind finally released its weary focus on staying awake. In its place came the floating sensation that often preceded sleep, mixed with a tantalizing desire. It would be so easy just to lift her nightshirt and unfasten his clothes. But even as she pressed against Raj, returning his rhythm, her fatigue was winning. Neither of them had slept much in the last forty-eight hours. Their motions slowed as they kissed, languid in the dark, until finally Raj's hand came to a rest on her hip. Then he gave a soft snore.

  With her last waking thought, she hoped the base was safe.

  Megan opened her eyes to see Raj sleeping on his back. She wondered if her presence helped him sleep or if ex­haustion had simply taken its toll. With his jumpsuit zipped only halfway up, she could slide her fingers through the curly black hair on his chest. He stirred under her touch, then submerged into slumber again. The dusky red light in the room erased the lines around his eyes and made him look younger.