Page 97 of Chaos Theory
Finally, Josh pipes up. ‘Apart from the ethics of it all – it’s never going to work in practice.’
‘Is that so?’ Ron is still looking out the window.
‘Yes,’ says Josh. ‘Kobi and Maeve have formed some kind of special bond, I’ll grant you that. But you’ll never be able to recreate that at scale. There are too many confounding factors. I mean, where would you even start with trying to reproduce it?’ Josh will always be an engineer first.
‘Well…’ Ron goes to his desk to tap at his laptop, then spins the computer around so we can see the screen. ‘How about right here?’
‘What’s that?’ I ask.
White text on a black screen. Lines of code.
Josh jumps up from his chair. ‘No way!’
‘What is it?’ I ask. ‘Someone please tell me what it is.’
‘Why, it’s you, honey,’ says Ron. ‘More or less.’
A cold sweat breaks out across my back. ‘What?’
Ron laughs. ‘I already have everything that Kobi learned while he was with you. He didn’t keep the raw data from Go Ireland, of course, but every night the lessons he learned were assimilated into his neural network, helping it to grow and complexify. So I have Kobi’s pretty sophisticated brain back with us now. And I can make other AI bots, once I copy Kobi’s basic structure. But what I didn’t have – until now – was you, Maeve.’
‘You can’t…’ Josh begins but falters.
I stare silently at Ron, trying to comprehend. I want someone to explain this to me very slowly, and then to explain it again so it all makes sense.
‘Let me elaborate,’ says Ron. ‘A key facet of research is reproducibility. Josh, you know this. This Kobi machine is just a prototype. I need to be able to build an army of Kobis – literally. And I need them primed for human bonding before they ship out to military forces. How will I get these results? Well, I need to train them up, of course, using your methods, Maeve. Your attitude, yourmannerisms, your voice. It’s all part of the Maeve package.’ He gestures towards the laptop with two open hands. ‘Kobi has been recording it – recording you – all week. All I had to do was download the raw data every day before it got turned into TIL files. And now it’s all in here. A digital version of you, if you will.’
A wave of nausea rises from the pit of my stomach. I barely understand what Ron is saying. My voice comes out very small. ‘I…will…not.’
‘Pardon me, I should rephrase that,’ says Ron. ‘You do. Youdid. You already signed over the rights to your digital assets. You might recall that contract you signed on Tuesday morning.’
The nondisclosure agreement. It was fifty pages. Of course I didn’t read all of it. I blink repeatedly. My eyes seem to be malfunctioning. ‘Kobi, help me get out of here.’
My vision is blurring. I reach out my hand for support as the back of my knees turn to jelly. Kobi moves to steady me. I grasp onto him.
‘Okay, you take a little time to let that sink in,’ says Ron. ‘But not too long. Kobi and I have a meeting with the Pentagon on Tuesday. We fly out Monday. Josh, you’re welcome to join us if you want.’
‘That won’t be happening,’ says Josh, opening the door for me and Kobi, ‘because I quit.’
FIFTY-TWO
10:30am
‘This can’t be happening,’ I say for the fourth time as the three of us re-enter the robot bay.
‘He can’t do this,’ Josh says. I think it’s the fifth time he’s said it since we left Ron’s office, but it’s hard to keep track. Ron has pulled the plug on my mind, and everything I thought I knew is now spiralling downwards at speed.
I thought Josh was the only liar in my life. I had just disentangled myself from that mess, and now I learn that Ron has been playing both of us for fools. It’s a ridiculous daisy chain of lies. I taste a bitter irony at the realisation that my success with Kobi is being turned against me. I was actuallyso good, in fact, that Ron wants to keep me at RoboTron – me, or some weird digital version of me.
I stand in front of Kobi, give him a once-over. I think back to our time on the rugged terrain of the Burren. I recall him speeding across the Cliffs of Moher car park without hesitation. And now he’s going to be shipped out, to almost inevitable destruction. It’s not right.
‘You must be in shock too, buddy,’ I say gently. ‘Did you know about any of this?’
‘Please be more specific.’
‘The military application stuff? And – did you know you had a tracking device? And that you were recording me all week?’
‘No. No, but it is unsurprising. And no, but all week I have been storing raw data files instead of deleting them. I did wonder at the reason for this change. Ron has visited me early every morning. I was pleased he was taking such an interest.’
