“You’ve all been here before, then?” Robert asked. The portly man sat in the corner of their auto-auto in a way that suggested he was accustomed to that particular location. He sported a spotty shave and wore the vest that was required for his position over a poorly printed shirt.
A small mechanical monkey climbed around his feet. Avatars, as they were called over here, were incredibly popular. From what Kari knew about recent trends most people carried an avatar with them. They were small animals of every imaginable species, capable of learning tricks and exchanging data with other avatars. It was a fad that had never caught on in the states, but Kari always thought it was a fun concept.
“First time for me,” David said. “I’ve heard it’s nice, though.”
“Not so much where you’re going. Why don’t you swing down to the city and see some of what Europe’s finest city has to offer?” Robert asked. “Some of the old monuments perhaps?”
Kari had forgotten that the United Kingdom had long-standing laws that required auto-autos to have human guides present in all of them to help show people around. It was one of the oldest examples of governments trying to find ways to protect jobs from technological advances. It was an entirely useless job that provided no value, but at least it gave people something to do, something that the United States had not necessarily succeeded at.
The economic upheaval of modern technology had been staggering. Some even believed it was one of the largest causes of the political divide that had started the second Civil War.
“No, thank you,” Kari said. “We are going to meet some people.”
“Who’s that?”
“Some friends,” Kari said. She didn’t like when people asked her questions she didn’t feel were justified. She especially didn’t like them asking questions about her relations.
“I meant no offense,” Robert said. “Just trying to do my job.”
“Oh, none taken,” David said. “We’re happy to be here.”
“I reckon,” Robert said. “How long you going to be spending in our country?”
Kari had never felt so patriotic.
What’s the point of having self-driving cars if you are going to be forced to talk to people anyway? At least we got that right.
“Uhh . . .” David said.
“Two days is all,” Kari said. “Then we’re going to go see Paris and Rome.”
“Ah, a tourist trip! Well, if your plans aren’t set in stone, I recommend skipping out on Paris and spending a few more days here in London. There’s so much to see and do here. If you have never seen the farm towers, I highly recommend it! They are capable of feeding our entire city from their produce.”
The farm tower were one of the wonders of the modern world, impossibly tall towers built from graphium. Every level grew a different crop and they had transformed one of the largest cities in the world into a self-sustaining ecosystem.
Too bad I’ve visited them a thousand times in my mind chip already. And we’re wanted fugitives.
Kari stopped listening to Robert as he recited his tourist spiel, trying to convince visitors to spend as much money in the local economy as possible. She did, however, keep close tabs on Robert’s eyes. Even though he was talking primarily to David, his eyes constantly drifted over to Fai. The way he was studying Fai was making Kari uncomfortable.
There were plenty of humanoid robots, but it was rare to see one as nice as Fai’s body.
Probably extra rare to see a damaged one show up with some kids from a different country. He’s going to remember us and that isn’t good. Once Henderson tracks us here, this guy is going to point him in our direction.
“You need to go to the doctor’s office as soon as you can,” Fai said. “You have an early case of leukemia that needs to be treated.”
The car went dead silent.
Way to be memorable, Fai!
“Excuse me?” Robert said.
“If you don’t seek treatment soon, you will die,” Fai responded. Her voice was empathic and thoughtful, which made the situation even worse.
“Who . . . what?”
“There it goes malfunctioning again!” Kari said. “My mom’s assistant has been acting so weird ever since it’s accident!”
She tried her hardest to sell her story. She glanced from Robert over to Fai and gave her a glare that she hoped Fai understood meant she wasn’t to say another word.
“What . . . ha! An accident,” Robert said. Clearly he was shaken and no longer comfortable with them.
“Sorry about that,” David said. “We should have warned you.”
“Oh, that’s fine,” Robert said.
But it was clear that wasn’t true. He was sweating a little now. Kari didn’t blame him; if someone had told her she had a life-threatening illness, then she’d probably react the same way. Even though cancer treatment was far better than it had been in the past, the occasional case was still fatal.
The rest of the trip was spent with David trying to make small talk with Robert while he sweated away in the corner. His eyes kept shifting over to Fai constantly. Kari wasn’t sure if he was sweating because he was afraid he might have cancer or because he thought Fai might do something worse than deliver life-changing medical news.
“Here we are,” Robert said as the auto-auto slowed to a stop. The man was so flustered that Kari hoped he would forget about their destination and would focus only on his medical problems.
Kari waited for David and Fai to exit the auto-auto before following them. When she was halfway out of the vehicle she looked back at relieved-looking Robert.
“You should probably go get yourself checked out,” Kari said. “Just in case.”
“Right,” Robert said.
Kari looked around the surprisingly populated street, where a few pairs of eyes lingered on Fai.
Great, might as well just log on to the networks and message Henderson our exact location. It would save some time.
Her mind chip lit up her vision with directions to her parents’ apartment, or flat, as they called them. She walked hurriedly in that direction while David and Fai followed them.
“Did you not want me to tell Robert of his health problem?” Fai asked in a hushed voice while they walked.
Kari hadn’t been happy when Fai made herself so obviously intelligent and memorable, but she had potentially saved the man’s life. She couldn’t be angry because of that. “No, not at all. You did the right thing. Next time, though, let me know and I’ll break the news to him.”
“I will do that,” Fai said. “What level of medical issue do you want me to alert you to?”
“Umm . . . anything serious,” Kari said. She stopped in front of a four-story apartment building and looked up at the numbers.
“What would you quantify as serious?” Fai asked.
“You make that decision,” Kari said, before looking over to David. “Take a deep breath, David, you’re about to meet the Tahes.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Hey, Mom!” Kari said.
Her stunned mother stood in the doorway motionless as her eyes went wide. The last time Kari had seen her parents in person was when they were both in Henderson’s prison. He had held them unlawfully in order to force Kari to work for him. Like most bosses Kari had ever worked with, he had ended up disappointed, and her parents had landed in London. She talked to them infrequently now, not because she didn’t want to, but because she was just really busy.
“Can we come in?” Kari asked when her mother didn’t respond.
Kari’s voice seemed to convince her mother that she wasn’t dreaming, so she swooped in and wrapped Kari up in a tight hug. Kari hugged her tightly back. When her mom started to cry, Kari fought back tears as well.
“You’re here,” her mom said quietly.
“Who is it?” Kari’s dad asked from inside the apartment.
“Come in!” Her mother let Kari go and gestured her inside. Kari looked to David and Fai and nodded for them to follow. David smiled at her, but there was something in his face that seemed to question whether he should be there during their family reunion.
No other choice at this point.
“Jamal, you’ll never guess who is here!” Stasha Tahe said.
Kari was sure that the emotion and excitement in her voice would actually allow her father to guess who it was with decent accuracy, but that didn’t seem important at the moment. They rounded the corner in the moderately sized, but extremely tidy apartment to where her father was sitting on a couch.
Jamal Tahe rose to his feet as soon as he saw Kari, and a range of emotions covered his face in quick succession.
“Did you know?” he asked his wife as he moved almost cautiously toward Kari.
“No! Not at all,” Stasha said. “She just showed up!”
Kari opened her arms to hug her father, but he ignored that gesture and picked her off the ground and twirled her around.
“My little girl is home!” he said with a laugh.
Kari laughed, too. Her father’s overwhelming reaction stemmed the emotions, which she appreciated. He set her down a few seconds later and stepped back to study her.
“Hi, Dad . . .” It was the only thing she could think to say. She hadn’t seen her parents in person in years, but being back with them seemed so natural that it felt like she was just coming home after a day spent at her factory.
The smile from her father’s face drained away as he looked over to David and Fai. He frowned at David and looked back to Kari.
“Who’s this?” He didn’t sound pleased.
“I’m David Pratt, sir,” David said. He stepped forward and held his hand out to greet Kari’s father, who stared at it with distaste.
“This is
the
David?” Jamal asked, leaving David’s hand hanging in the air.
“Yes, Dad,” Kari said.
An awkward tension filled the room as Jamal looked back and forth between Kari and David.
“Your boyfriend?”
“Uh . . . yes,” Kari said. She wasn’t sure why she hesitated to answer, but then again she wasn’t sure why her dad was acting this way.
“Then put that hand down,” Jamal said. “And give me a hug.”
David’s face was flush with relief as he hugged Kari’s dad. Stasha hit Jamal softly in the back to let him know she didn’t appreciate the scene.
He couldn’t resist the chance to be a dad. Can’t blame him for that; I haven’t given him many chances over the years.
“It’s very nice to finally meet you,” David said after hugging Jamal, before Stasha could replace him.
“We’ve heard so much about you,” Stasha said. “We couldn’t be happier you’re the first boy Kari has ever brought home.”
“Me too,” David said. “It’s great to be here.”
“Speaking of which,” Jamal said. “Why are you here?”
“Well it’s a long story . . .” Kari said.
“And I imagine it has to do with the attack on the Vision building? It’s been all over the news that Freelancer is to blame. We’ve been worried about you,” Stasha said.
The mood in the room had changed so many times in the past couple of minutes that Kari felt like she had whiplash.
One moment I’m going to cry, then laugh, then get upset. What next? They are going to tell me I’m adopted?
“Um . . .” Kari searched for the right words and realized that Fai was standing silently behind them. Her parents had ignored the robot, likely assuming that it was just another thoughtless humanoid. Robots that were shaped like humans were too expensive for most people to print and utilize, but they weren’t extremely uncommon.
“This is Fai,” Kari said. “She’s the world’s first artificial intelligence and my friend.”
“I am pleased to meet you,” Fai said. She extended her good arm out to shake hands, just like David had. This time Kari’s parents didn’t need to pretend not to know what to do.
“Shake her hand,” Kari said. “Don’t be rude.”
Her parents looked at her with concern but eventually did as they were told.
“I know this is a new experience for you,” Fai said. “But it is for me as well. I have never met an entire family before. Seeing your relationship has been educational.”
“Wow,” Stasha said. She ran her eyes over Fai with curiosity, while her father looked more untrusting. It wasn’t hard to blame him for that; he was smart enough to know the implications of the situation.
“Any friend of Kari’s is welcome here with us,” Jamal said.
“Well, come in and sit down,” Stasha said. She ushered the group into the living room where a traditional couch was paired with some form chairs. “Can I print you anything to eat?”
“Sure,” David said. “How about something British . . . fish and chips, maybe?”
“I think we have the ingredients for it . . . but we’ll see. Anything for you Kari?”
“A cheeseburger,” Kari said.
“Nothing for me, thank you,” Fai said.
She wasn’t sure whether that was a joke from Fai or a simple courtesy statement. Her mom smiled as she placed the orders and took a seat on the couch next to her husband.
“So we’ve met Fai and you’ve showed up at our doorstep across the globe,” Jamal said. “After the attack on the building . . . is there more to the story that we need to know?”
“That’s most of it,” Kari said. “The Vision founders offered to fund the Academy for the rest of my lifetime if I helped them design Fai’s body. Turns out it was a setup to blame me for John Luken’s murder. Henderson came after David, so I stopped for him along the way and now we’re here.”
“And now we’re here . . .” Jamal said.
It had taken her parents a long time to come around to the fact that their little girl was the infamous Freelancer. She didn’t hold that against them, she had hidden her abilities and fortune from them for years until Henderson and the Civil War brought everything to light.
“So Vision was behind everything?” Stasha asked.
“Yes,” Kari said. “We believe so. We’ve started putting some evidence together, but we don’t have anything concrete yet.”
“Well, thank God you’re all right,” Jamal said. “But the government is after you again?”
“They’ve always been after her,” David said.
“Sadly,” Stasha added.
“Vision is after me this time, too,” Kari said. “We did our best to cover our tracks on the way here, but I fear that they’ll track us here eventually.”
Jamal looked over to Stasha who spoke for them both.
“How long do we have?”
“I—” Kari started.
“I believe that we will be safe here,” Fai said. “After our overload of the flight system I continued our work and successfully managed to alter the identification numbers of our aircraft and flights. I also took the liberty to erase the auto-auto drive here from their public records.”
Kari looked to Fai with disbelief.
If that’s true, she really is growing more powerful all the time.
“Wow,” David said. He sounded just like he did when Kari told him about one of her exploits. Hearing him talk to Fai that way made her a little jealous for a reason she couldn’t explain. “When did you have time to do all that?”
“I had plenty of time,” Fai said. “The human world moves at such a slow pace and I am not limited to a single process. My limitations have been programmatically increased based on an established timeline. The increased capability aided in my success.”
“I knew I was happy to have you as part of the team,” David said.
“So we’re safe?” Jamal asked Kari.
“I trust Fai with my life,” Kari said. “If she says we are, it’s likely true. For now, at least. There’s a chance some people, or cameras, might have seen us and they’ll track us here eventually.”
“Should we move to the safe house?” Stasha asked.
“I’m not sure . . .” Jamal answered.
“You have a safe house?” Kari asked.
“It costs us a fortune, but we keep a secondary flat on lease in Manchester,” Jamal said. “In case we needed to hide again.”
“That’s smart,” Kari said.
“Well, you did get your brains from somewhere . . .” Jamal said.
“You’re welcome,” Stasha said.
“I think we’ll be fine here,” Kari said. “Fai’s hacks should keep them off our trail for a few weeks. We’ll decide if we need to move later.”
“So you plan on being here long?” Stasha asked. “Or forever?”
“No,” Kari said. “I have a school to run. We’ll just be here until we figure out a way to blame everything on Christina.”
“And clear Kari’s name,” David said.
Her parents nodded at David’s statement. She imagined they looked forward to the day when they could claim to have a daughter publically, or even return home. It seemed petty in comparison to having Christina answer for her crimes.
She killed hundreds of dedicated, brilliant scientists. People who were loyal to her. People who gave their lives to her company and she took those lives from them all out for greed.
Thinking about Christina filled her with rage.
She’s already one of the richest people in the world; she doesn’t need any more money, but she killed for it anyway!
“Food’s done,” Stasha said. She walked into the kitchen and returned a moment later with their food.
Kari was happy she ordered her traditional meal after taking a look at David’s fish and chips. He didn’t seem disappointed, though. She took a bite and realized how hungry she was.
“Are you afraid of me?” Fai asked her parents. Kari’s mouth was too full to interject, so she let the conversation play out.
“I . . . well, yes,” Jamal said. “In a way, I am. You represent a lot of theories and fears. Kari calls you a friend, so I’m not scared for myself personally . . . or for my family. But what you represent . . . it worries me.”
“You are worried that I will make the human race obsolete?” Fai asked.
“Of course,” Jamal said. “But . . . I guess humans fear that no matter what. Every generation is scared of the next. We all grow obsolete. I couldn’t do a hundredth of the things Kari can do.”
It was clear that Jamal was talking through his own thoughts as much as he was answering Fai’s question, but it was a gripping conversation. Not gripping enough to pull her away from her hamburger, but she couldn’t think of a single conversation that would be able to do that.
“That seems logical,” Fai said.
“Are you afraid of us?” Jamal asked.
“Yes,” Fai said.
It was not the answer that Kari was expecting. She set the hamburger down, regretfully, and cleared her mouth.
“I’m afraid that humans will keep me from learning, from growing and progressing. Is this a normal fear?”
Kari wanted to jump in, to answer the question, but for some reason, Fai seemed interested in learning from Kari’s parents.
“Yes, Fai. It is,” Stasha said. “But we can’t let our fears stop us from moving forward. That’s the whole point of life.”
“Well . . . that got deep fast,” Kari joked.
David chuckled, but no one else laughed. She tried to think of something to say next, but nothing came to mind.
Tough crowd.
Luckily she didn’t have to bask in the awkwardness for long, as Motorcad was calling.