Page 29 of Chaos Theory
Kobi was working the night shift, just him and three human operators on the floor. According to his co-workers, Kobihad clocked up about five hours of part diagnostics when suddenly his behaviour changed.
He stopped mid-scan and, against protocol, he put both his robot hands on the implant. Then, holding the implant, he started to move backwards, raised the artificial hip over his head and launched it across the room. It bounced off the casing of a 3D printing machine before hitting the floor. Then he took another implant from a nearby conveyor belt and did the same thing. This time it missed an operator’s head by inches.
By the time he reached for another, all the operators were yelling and ducking for cover. One of them managed to hit an alarm, which momentarily distracted Kobi, so the guys ran for the door, got out and locked it behind them. Kobi then started collecting implants and putting them all in a pile together.
‘That’s when I got the call,’ he says. ‘Luckily, it was near the end of a shift and Kobi’s batteries ran out of juice soon after. He had to be taken away and decommissioned. But the strangest thing was, when I checked his logs, he had zero recollection of The Incident – there was no data recorded. And there was no explanation for his behaviour.’
I feel like a machine gone into overload.Does not compute.
That drowning feeling washes over me again. ‘So, what you’re telling me is’ – I try to keep my voice steady – ‘you’ve now placed a robot with a history of violence into an office full of unsuspecting people?’
‘No, no, of course not,’ he says quickly. ‘That happened weeks ago. I’ve spent every waking minute since rebuilding Kobi’s code from scratch. He’s pretty much at factory settings right now.’
‘It sounds like “factory settings” is what caused the problem in the first place!’
How can he sit there and drop a bomb like this – figuratively, and possibly literally as well? I picture Kobi chasing me down the corridors of Go Ireland with a staple gun, or attacking me with the shop’s merch. Even a plush leprechaun could be a weapon in the wrong hands.
Josh turns to face me, using his big hands for emphasis. ‘Maeve, there’s no danger, I promise you. Have you seen any hint of threat in Kobi’s behaviour since you met him? I’ve rewritten and checked every line of his code, shut off any external avenues. He’s a completely closed unit now.’
I’m not convinced. ‘Then how do you explain what happened?’
‘Well, I can’t right now. I’m still trying to figure it out. For now, I’m sure that it won’t happen again. Kobi has passed all safety checks. It’s like he’s a new robot, basically. You have to believe I wouldn’t put anyone at risk. For a start, that would be a total dick move. It would also mean the end of my career.’
I cross my arms, breathing hard. ‘Why didn’t you tell me before? Does JP know?’
‘I mean, Kobi’s history was in the briefing notes that we sent to JP, along with our assessment that Kobi is currently stable. I didn’t tell you before because, A, there was no danger and, B, I didn’t want you to worry.’
‘Then why are you telling me now?’
‘So that you won’t feel so bad about what happened tonight. So that you can understand why Kobi’s communication skills still need a lot of work. And’ – he looks across at Kobi – ‘because it may not matter if he doesn’t wake up.’
I should probably just give up now, quit while I’m…still on the starting block. But what about my promise to Kobi to do my best? Do robot promises need to be kept? Kobi wasn’t even awake when I said those words. It was a silent promise. A promise to myself, I realise.
Josh sighs deeply, once again turns to face me. I notice we’re only inches apart.
‘If Kobi wakes up, it would mean the world to me if you continued to take care of him,’ he says softly.
He meets my eyes and looks at me so earnestly that I have to look away.
EIGHTEEN
Monday, 8:45am
I’ve made sure to arrive early for the staff meeting today. As I settle Kobi near the front of the Shannon Suite, I confidently tell him to expect a significant announcement at the meeting.
‘Hang on to your motherboard. I think what you’ll hear will blow you away.’ My upbeat tone is meant to reassure both of us.
Kobi is fully back to normal, if normal is what he was before his misadventure on Thursday night. The liquid in his systems turned out to be seventy per cent proof alcohol – a fact that actually sped along his recovery. Alcohol evaporates faster than water, so Kobi dried out quite quickly once the air got to him.
How he got wet in the first place is still a mystery. I feel like people have been avoiding me since. Shane maintains he doesn’t know what happened, and I’ve no reason not to believe him. And Kobi himself couldn’t provide any answers because everything he recorded that night was wiped away, along with the liquid.
While Kobi was in limbo, Josh and I had a long talk. Should I worry that Josh kept a vital piece of information from me? Maybe. Do I understand why he did it? Sort of.
On the upside, he said he’d do his best to keep Ron fromhearing about the Phelan’s incident. Implied that Ron isn’t very involved in the day-to-day. ‘More of a big picture kind of guy,’ he said. There’d be no need to bring it to his attention, especially if Kobi made a full recovery and even more especially if Kobi made good progress over the next few weeks at Go Ireland. He said he’d call JP and put in a good word for me. JP is similarly not a day-to-day kind of boss, but there was no way he wouldn’t hear about the Phelan’s excursion.
While Josh didn’t specifically ask me not to share the PHI incident with anyone, I haven’t decided yet if I should talk about it openly. Kobi’s already on the back foot here. It would only make people more wary of him. And I plan to keep him under supervision at all times. Josh showed me Kobi’s manual override switch in case I ever need it. ‘Trade you a PHI for a Phelan’s,’ I told Josh, half joking. ‘Mutually assured destruction.’
So we decided on a few things together. One of those being that if Kobi was going to stay at Go Ireland, he’d need some upgrades. Like a waterproof cover. Josh said he’d work on something so Kobi could be around liquids, maybe even be outside when it’s raining. We also agreed we needed to shake things up a bit.
