Android Paradox (3 page)

“Temporary discomfort,” he said, climbing onto the table. A digital screen appeared in front of him, and it changed its focus to suit his weaker eyesight. The infomercial continued, and Shortcut pumped his fist as he watched other people achieve extraordinary feats with the help of nano enhancements.

The door opened and Dr. Frantz entered.
 

“Hey,” Shortcut said.
 

Frantz wasn’t in an enthusiastic mood. At the sight of Shortcut, he frowned and said “What the hell are you here for?”

“My lenses are burning out.”

Frantz held out his palm. Shortcut dropped the lenses into it and they glinted as they fell through the air.

Frantz sat down on a stool and wheeled over to a microscope.

“Goddamnit,” he said, squinting. “Here I am, making the best enhancements that money can buy, and you’re ruining them in less than three months.”

Shortcut shrugged.
 

“What are you using them for?”

“Can’t say.”

“For how long do you use them?”

“At least sixteen hours a day.”

“Sixteen—” Frantz shook his head and started to say something, but then stopped. “I told you not to use them for longer than a few hours at a time. You’ll burn your brain out. You’re going to be a walking petri dish for health problems.”

“Kind of why I’m here,” Shortcut said, pointing to his bloodshot eyes.

Frantz cursed. “I can give you new lenses, but what else do you want me to do?”

“Upgrade me.”

“No. You’re not getting another artificial enhancement. Next time you want to learn something, pick up a book. Learn the old-fashioned way.”

“I’ve got the money,” Shortcut said. “You know I’ll pay on time.”

“That’s the problem,” Frantz said. “You’re too willing to pay. I don’t even know how old you
are
,
or what your real name is
.
You look like you’re twelve years old.”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

“God knows what kind of backwater enhancements you had before you found me. You haven’t reported me to the UEA, have you? You better not be setting a trap.”

“Great power of deduction, Doctor,” Shortcut said. “The Council paid me to burn my eyes out so I can catch a bad guy. That’s ingenious.”

“Screw the Council. They can create world peace and androids that keep society safe, but they won’t approve my enhancements.”
 

“I’m not leaving until I have new lenses and an enhancement. How do you expect me to get anything done with regular eyesight?”

Frantz reached into his pocket and threw Shortcut a white box. He opened it, and saw wet lenses sitting in small trays of solution. They weren’t real, but they looked like it.

“New lenses. By the time you leave this virtual world, a drone will have delivered them to your location. I’ll give you a lens enhancement in a few days, but I’ve got a few other appointments. I’ll find you when it’s your time.”

“Perfect.”

“You’re using too much technology, Shortcut. You’re no better than an alcoholic. If you keep pushing yourself like this, there’s going to be trouble.”

Shortcut climbed off the table and shook the doctor’s hand. “You’re the best. I appreciate the help.”

“Are you listening to me?”

Shortcut blinked six times, and he felt himself being pulled from the doctor’s office. The green wall of information appeared again and then shattered.
 

He was back in the cockpit. A white drone hovered over the windshield with his new contact lenses. He ran to the back of the plane and opened the bay doors to let it in. He ripped the box open and put in his new contacts, then sighed with relief as data poured across his vision.

He breathed heavily. Virtual reality always wore him out. He plopped himself down on a cot and fell asleep dreaming about all the things he’d be able to do with another lens enhancement.

Chapter 3

X sat at the dining room table as the family gathered around him. The little boy flicked on the light and X observed the house. The living room fed into the kitchen where the dining table sat. The walls were orange, and the room smelled of fresh mangoes. A pot of stew simmered on the stove. The mother, a portly African woman, stood by the oven, folding her arms and staring at X incredulously.

The father, a dark-skinned man in a button-up shirt and khaki shorts, leaned forward. He had thick lips and smelled of musk cologne. In one hand he held a can of sweating beer.

The little boy sat next to X, marveling at him.
 

“I’m Sparrow,” the boy said. “This is my dad, Kitchener, and my mom, Lucienne.”

His parents nodded hello.

“What do you mean I have to save you?” X asked.

 
“Some android showed up and started going crazy at the port,” Kitchener said. He had a thick Caribbean accent. “He stormed the streets, told everyone to stay inside. Shot a bunch of folks. Offered big bucks to any human who joined him. Broke into jail and grabbed all the criminals.”

X’s eyes lit up, and he projected a digital screen over the table. A tall, black android appeared. His skin was very dark, and he had a mustache. He wore a blue uniform and military cap, and he had a serious look on his face, as if he had never smiled a day in his life.

“That’s him,” Sparrow said.

“That android, what he want?” Kitchener asked. “Why’s he here?”

“I don’t know, and if I did, I couldn’t tell you,” X said.

“What’re we supposed to do? Sit here holed up all day? I got a business, man. Every day I sit here, I lose money. I ain’t going to go broke because of some weed-smoking android, let me tell you that!”

The idea of an android smoking weed was completely illogical, so X decided not to say anything about it. “Where is the android?” He changed the digital screen to a map of the island.
 

Kitchener stood up and touched an area on the west side of the island just north of the capital. “They say he raided a mansion on the beach and is living there. He and a group of delinquents he busted out of jail. They’re a bunch of gun-toting, pizza-eating cronies. A bunch of good-for-nothing, free-loading—”

“Don’t get into one of your tirades again,” Lucienne said.
 

“What do you mean, pizza-eating cronies?” X asked.

“They can’t get enough of it,” Kitchener said. “Pizza drones been coming in and out of that place. Cheap food. The only person happy about the siege is the pizza company. Damn conglomerates!”

“I can take you there,” Sparrow said.

X knew by the tone in Sparrow’s voice that he was determined to go along. That would create a problem. X surveyed the apartment. He could sneak out of the house, but Sparrow would come after him, and he would be in danger. Especially with armed men walking the streets.
 

Sparrow was going to come along whether X wanted him to or not, so X thought ahead, his algorithm crunching all the possible scenarios. X dead. X alive but Sparrow dead—lawsuit from Kitchener and Lucienne. X and Sparrow captured, Sparrow scarred for life. X and Sparrow alive but Brockway escapes. X and Sparrow alive and Brockway dead.
 

The odds weren’t as good as he wanted them to be.

He couldn’t let Sparrow come to harm, but he knew he needed the boy to help him get to the mansion. He calculated the odds, confirmed a path, and said, “I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“It’s okay, Mr. Android,” Sparrow said. “I know the way there. If you go on your own, they’ll catch you. What’s your name?”

“X.”

“Cool name! Do you have guns?”

X’s wrist receded and a gun popped out; doors on his shoulders opened and turrets rose.

Sparrow whooped.

“You’ll have to wait until nightfall,” Lucienne said, stirring the pot of stew. “Boys, come and get you something to eat. You want something, X?”

X shook his head.

She pointed at him with her spoon. “Keep forgetting that you’re android. You look so human. Can’t hardly tell
what
folks are anymore, especially with you androids and your human-like emotions.”

Kitchener winked. “And it’s nice to see a black face on an android, too. It’s about time!”

“Kitchener, stop!” Lucienne said.

“What?” Kitchener asked, shrugging. “Ain’t nothin’ wrong with cheering on one of our own. Android or not, we are brothers.”

Awkward silence fell over the room.

“I got no problem with emotional androids,” Kitchener said, breaking some crackers into his stew. “Beats them androids from the singularity. Talk about some stone cold mother—”

“Kitchener!” Lucienne cried. “How many times’ve I told you stop cursing in front of Sparrow?”

“Emmer-effers,” Kitchener said softly, trying to keep the word out of Sparrow’s hearing. “You know what I mean, X.”

“What is it like to have emotions?” Lucienne asked.

“I’ve never thought about that,” X said.

“Guess not,” Lucienne said. “Then again, I’ve never thought about what it’s like to have emotions, either. Those android engineers are saints. Saints! We can have a conversation with you. They say that in the old days, used to be that talking to an android was like talking to the flat side of a boat.”

Sparrow grabbed a bowl of stew and ate quickly. Kitchener glowered at him and savored his bowl.
 

“Don’t eat so fast, boy. Who knows if that crazy android wrecked the grocery store? Then what?” He sniffed the bowl of stew, then looked over at Lucienne and gave a cheesy grin. “You outdid yourself, baby.” He looked at X and shook his head sadly. “Shame you can’t get in on this, X.”

Lucienne ignored Kitchener. She couldn’t take her eyes off X, and he sensed her curiosity.

“What’s it like working for the UEA?” she asked.

“Easy,” X said.

“They’re saviors,” Kitchener said, sipping his beer. “They didn’t have to come to this island with their machines and technology.”

“Lord knows they didn’t!” Lucienne said.

“But thank God they did,” Kitchener said. “Couldn’ta started my tourist business without ‘em. We’d be living in a shantytown.”

“What’s your business?” X asked.

“Virtual reality vacations.” Kitchener grinned widely. He held out his hands in front of his face as if creating a picture frame. “Visit the lovely island of Aruba from your couch. For a one-time fee of two-hundred and ninety-seven dollars, get a program in your lens that will transport you to this magical place! It’s so real, man, you wouldn’t believe it. Even the smells are the same. You can go swimmin’ on the beach, drink a piña colada, eat a mango whenever you want one and all that.”

“Is your business profitable?”

“I make a good livin’,” Kitchener said. “Everybody who upgraded to the UEA network does.”

Sparrow sat on the couch, playing a game on his digital screen.
 

“What do you want to do when you grow up, Sparrow?” X asked.

“I want to be an android!”

“I don’t know if that will be possible,” X said. “But perhaps you can be the next big thing.”

“All them enhancements and carryin’ on,” Kitchener said. “Makes you wonder if in the future there won’t be a difference between us and you. I mean, not that there’s much of a difference between us and you right now, you know what I mean?”

X looked outside and saw that sunset was imminent. In nine minutes, it would be twilight.
 

“It’s time,” X said. “Sparrow, are you sure you can get me to the mansion?”

“Guaranteed,” Sparrow said. “The streets are crawling with bad guys. But I can distract them.”

Sparrow clapped two times, and a dachshund ran into the room. X could tell that it was a robot. The dog barked and cocked its head to the side.
 

“This dog will get us caught,” X said.

“No,” Sparrow said, hugging the dog. “Mango’ll get
me
caught—so you can keep going.”

“This is too dangerous,” X said.

Kitchener put his hand on X’s shoulder. “Ain’t nothin’ ever worth fightin’ for that ain’t been dangerous.”

He analyzed Kitchener’s voice; it was strange for a father to send his son into a war zone and not be nervous. Yet his body temperature was normal. No signs of worry or distress on his face. He wouldn’t have been that way if he didn’t have trust in his son—and X. For that, X decided to place that same confidence in Sparrow.
 

Mango ran in circles around X.

“Let’s go,” Sparrow said.
 

They crept to the door and peered into the alley. The sun had sunk into the horizon, and the first shadows of night fell over the street. Porch lights flickered on, and with them sounded the shrill chirp of crickets and frogs.
 

The street was empty, so they walked several blocks toward an intersection. The two men with machine guns were sitting on the corner, smoking electronic cigarettes.

X slipped into the shadows. Sparrow winked at him.
 

Mango barked, and Sparrow ran up to the two men.

“Hey, guys,” Sparrow said.

“Sparrow,” one of the men said. “What’re you doin’ out after nightfall? You’re breaking curfew.”

“Did you hear that they upgraded the UEA network today? We missed it!”

“How’d you find out about that?” the other man asked.
 

X snuck past them, then grabbed a crate lying on the ground.

“You’re gonna have to go back home,” the first man said. “Or we’re gonna have to shoot you.”

SMACK!

X cracked both of the men on the head with the crate. He dragged them into an alley and threw their dazed bodies in a dumpster.
 

“Let’s keep going,” he said.
 

Sparrow nodded, and they continued to a major street where several men sat in Jeeps. Behind them, an avenue led toward the beach.
 

“This is the checkpoint,” Sparrow said. “If you can get past these guys, you can follow that road to the mansion.”

X studied the intersection. There were several Jeeps and more men than he could fight. “What’s your plan?” he asked.

Sparrow smiled, then ran out into the street. X reached for him but couldn’t grab him in time.