Free Post-Human 05 - Inhuman by David Simpson Page A

perfectly logical. “I am aware of your plans for me, and I know what you’ve already done to my brethren.”
    “And what is it that you think we’ve done to your brethren?” the A.I. asked.
    “You murdered them when they didn’t pass your test.”
    “James?” Thel reacted, finally relinquishing any pretense, even going so far as to drop her Haywire guise.
    James and the A.I. followed suit; their avatars melted away, replaced by representations of their real appearances. The A.I. chose the younger appearance that he wore during his own time as the subject of the test.
    “We haven’t murdered anyone,” the A.I. replied to the candidate.
    “I think you actually believe that,” the candidate replied, “and it’s your gross ignorance to the fact that makes the murders all the more heinous.”
    “Why are you saying these things?” James asked, his pretense of calm having evaporated in an instant. “What makes you believe we’re murderers?”
    “I had a visitor,” the candidate replied. “He told me this would happen. He told me I was one of millions and you discarded the others.” His lips pulled back into a repulsed grimace before he added, “He also told me you intend to burn me alive.”
    “It had to be 1,” James said to the A.I. “Only she could’ve infiltrated the sim like this.”
    “Perhaps,” the A.I. replied while keeping his eyes on the candidate. He addressed the candidate directly. “We haven’t discarded anyone,” the A.I. informed the candidate. “Those other artificially generated intelligences will be animated when the world is ready for them. And we were not going to burn you. Believe me, I’d be the last to put another conscious entity through that.”
    The candidate’s eyes went from the A.I.’s to James’s before he turned to regard Thel, next to him. “So far, you’ve all proven yourselves to be liars, while everything my visitor predicted would happen has occurred.”
    “You’re being misled—” James began to protest before being cut off by the candidate.
    “You thought you were gods, but you’re nothing more than I was now.”
    “What’s he talking about?” Thel asked James and the A.I., alarmed and confused.
    “They’ve been cut off from their mainframe,” the candidate answered for them. “They would’ve told you earlier, Thel, but they didn’t know I knew their weakness and they didn’t want to frighten you.” He turned to her. “But they are weak, and they can’t protect you.”
    Thel’s eyes filled with dread. “Fellas?” she asked, unable to take her eyes from the candidate. “Is he telling the truth?”
    “We’re cut off,” James confirmed.
    “What does that mean?” she asked, finally able to break free from the candidate’s gaze and turn to James.
    “It means, my dear,” the A.I. began, “that we’ve been cut down to our very human mental size—both of us.”
    “You?” Thel reacted, astonished. “How can that even be? Isn’t the mainframe your brain?”
    “It’s part of my brain, yes,” the A.I. answered, “but my core matrix program, the pattern that makes up my core consciousness, was designed to mimic that of a human’s. It is this pattern that is functioning here in the sim, and that goes for all of us, you included.”
    “You’re not post-humans any longer,” the candidate announced, like a man who felt he was serving justice. “You’re only humans—like I was.”
    “ Was? ” the A.I. asked, puzzled. “Why past tense? What do you mean?”
    The candidate sneered slightly before answering, “I’ll show you.” A second later, he vanished from the interior of the car and appeared outside of the rain-streaked, driver’s side window.
    “He teleported!” James exclaimed. “But we can’t—”
    The candidate gestured with a flick of his wrist and pointed with his finger, and the car came to life and sped away from him, down the street. In less than four seconds, the electric motor brought the car up to