“What do you want?” Harold shrugged off her words. “If your offer is for me to let you get away in exchange for removing my emotional engine, I don’t accept.”
“Do you take me for someone who’d say something that petty? I thought you’d know what I’m thinking already.”
“Either way, Investigator Hieda will be taking you into custody.” He intentionally refused. “Maybe you did so before your arrest, but right now, your Mnemosynes aren’t tampered with. We’ll Brain Dive and expose everything.”
“And what if I’m using the Mnemosyne bulwark on myself?”
“Investigator Hieda can break through it. You’ve taken that into account, right?” Harold narrowed his eyes. He thought back to the video of the Alliance meeting. “Why did you lie to your fellow Alliance members and tell them the bulwark was completely impenetrable?”
Echika had been able to resist the Mnemosyne bulwark when she’d Brain Dived into Greg’s Mnemosynes. It was only for a brief moment, but that was enough to allow her to learn about the Alliance meeting. Harold doubted that Lexie hadn’t considered this possibility.
And indeed, the professor curled up her thin lips.
“It’s simple. I lied because I was never on the same side as them.”
“What do you…?”
Suddenly, Lexie half rose to her feet, grabbing the hems of Harold’s coat with her smooth hands. Before he could shake her off, she pulled him closer. Pressing her face close to his, she whispered like she was sharing a secret.
“I need your help, Harold.” Her two night-like eyes looked like they had become one. “Even when you feel like you can’t understand Investigator Hieda, you can’t help but feel fixated on her, right? I know what it feels like to be bound to something. I feel the same way.” Lexie flashed a smile devoid of warmth. “If you help me, I’ll tell you why I joined the Alliance. And I’ll pay you back in other ways, too. I can make it so you’ll perfectly understand everything about Investigator Hieda.”
His processing grew slower, and he struggled to grasp what she was saying. Understand everything about Echika? A terribly unpleasant prediction as to what that might mean flashed in his system.
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of making her cooperate with you by using the thought manipulation system on her?”
“No, that’s not it. There’s a simpler, more thorough way of solving this issue.”
“I refuse.” Harold grabbed Lexie by the wrist. “I can see you have some kind of plan in mind. You can tell me all about it when you’re in our custody.”
“You’re planning on taking me away from here by force? That won’t end well for you.”
Choosing to ignore her, Harold got to his feet while binding her wrist. She’d already said what he needed to hear. All that remained was to take her into custody. But then Lexie took her other hand and dug her nails into the back of Harold’s hand with more force than one would expect from a woman.
“I’ll say it one more time, Harold.” Her expression grew chillingly cold, like emptiness given form. “Help me out. If you refuse, I’ll expose the neuromimetic system to the world.”
What an incoherent threat.
Harold was wordless with disbelief. The reason Lexie had gone to prison in the first place was to defend the RF Models’ secret—the neuromimetic system. She’d testified that Marvin and Steve only became belligerent and attacked people because she’d installed them with code to make them go berserk. She took the blame to end the incident so she could keep the investigation and the IAEC away from the truth.
And now, in spite of all that, she was saying she would expose everything.
“If you’re going to bluff, Professor, you could stand to make your threats more convincing.”
“This isn’t a bluff. It’s your choice to make, and at this point, it’s got nothing to do with me.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. If you expose the secret, your prison term will likely be extended to a life sentence.”
Even if the Alliance could get her off, Lexie would be forever branded a criminal who’d broken International AI Operations Laws. She had nothing to gain and everything to lose from this—on a fundamental level, this was contradictory.
The professor, however, remained composed.
“If the system is exposed, you’ll be locked up in Novae Robotics Inc., where you and Steve will be scrapped. You’ll never see Darya or Investigator Hieda again. Are you sure that’s what you want?”
Was she, too, under the control of the thought manipulation system?
That thought came to mind. If Lexie was in a position similar to Talbot’s, the odds of that were low, but not altogether impossible, and it would explain why she was acting so inconsistently.
“I’m sorry, Professor, but we’ll be taking you into custody to examine your Your Forma.”
“So you think I’m under thought manipulation?” Lexie snickered scornfully. “I guess your observation skills aren’t up to snuff, Harold. You’re becoming more human and incomplete. What made you like this?”
“Say whatever you’d like.”
“This is your final chance. Help me.”
“I refuse.” Harold repeated. “Professor, you’re coming with us.”
“That right? Well, I figured this might happen, but…I’m still disappointed…”
Her nails, which had been stabbed into his hand the whole time, loosened with almost anticlimactic ease. Lexie’s gaze wandered up to the ceiling, like she was gazing up at the stars in the night sky. She stretched out her hand and waved it through the air. Maybe she was working her Your Forma, or perhaps she’d seen some kind of illusion
“I still can’t grasp the concept of gratitude, but even so, I’m ‘grateful’ to you.”
Lexie whispered this to no one in particular, her lips curling into a blissful smile.
A victorious smile.
No.
Something utterly irrational sent a jolt of intuition through Harold’s system—this wasn’t thought manipulation. What was it, then? He knew he was overlooking something, but he couldn’t come up with a logical answer on the spot. But something about that smile gave him a strong sense of déjà vu.
Why?
The next question slipped naturally from Harold’s lips.
“Are you really the professor?”
Her eyes, that starless black, drifted to look at him.
And then, in place of an answer, a vivid gunshot tore through the dark.
A single gunshot shook the visiting room.
Echika, who had been waiting in the hall outside, pushed the door open in a panic. She swiftly drew the automatic pistol holstered on her leg, but before she could take aim, there was another gunshot. The prison guard slid down the dim wall, having shot at his own temple.
Echika looked on, stunned.
What happened here?
“Investigator, call for an ambulance, quick.”
Harold’s voice pulled her out of her shock. The Amicus was kneeling on the floor, with the dim lighting casting a glow over a table covered in blood. Silver-rimmed glasses were sitting on it. Echika approached the desk, pulled in by the sight, and then she saw it.
The person lying under the desk.
Echika gasped. Lexie was lying faceup, unconscious. Her eyes, just barely open but unfocused, stared into the air, and a crimson flower was blooming from her stomach. Harold was desperately pressing his hands against the wound, trying to keep the blood from gushing out.
“The guard shot her from behind all of a sudden.” The Amicus looked like he was focusing on staying calm. “He’s under thought manipulation system. Professor Lexie refused to come along, so I suspect she tried using the guard to kill herself.”
The shock made her woozy, and she nearly pounced on Harold to hit him.
Are you joking? She really went that far just to avoid testifying against the Alliance?
“I’ll call an ambulance.” Echika took off the isolation unit, trying to ignore how fast her heart was beating. Having her whereabouts discovered was a concern, but given the situation, she had to risk it. “Aide Lucraft, are you all right?”
“A stray bullet skimmed me, that’s all. The shot went through the professor’s stomach. If we don’t hurry—”
“I know!”
Echika dialed 999 emergency services in an audio call. They picked up at once, and she gave the location of the penitentiary and the patient’s condition. The person on the other end of the line said it would take the ambulance crew ten minutes to arrive. The guard likely wouldn’t make it, and it was questionable if Lexie would last that long, too. The bleeding was already severe. A chill ran down Echika’s spine as she thought of the worst possible outcome.
She’d completely failed to anticipate that Lexie might attempt suicide, despite the fact that Napolov had tried to do the same.
We can’t afford to lose Lexie here.
“I made the call.” Echika hung up and turned to Harold. “I’ll go outside and wait for the ambulance. You stay here and keep applying pressure to—”
<Urgent update required. Please tap to confirm immediately>
A Your Forma notification popped up in the center of her field of vision. Filled with intense irritation, she tried to dismiss the notification by swiping it away, but it was the kind that wouldn’t close unless inspected.
Oh, just buzz off!
She opened it for lack of choice, and then—suddenly, lines of unfamiliar code filled her eyes. They rushed in, hiding everything from sight. It was so intense, Echika staggered back a step or two. This wasn’t a software update. Was this a virus attack disguised as one, or some kind of hacking? She shuddered, goose bumps washing over her, but it didn’t look like her Your Forma was in any danger of crashing.
Still confused, she read the title of the tab that was outputting this massive packet of code…only for her mind to go blank with shock.
<Novae Robotics Inc. Developed Amicus/RF Model/neuromimetic system, all system code>
What the hell…? This can’t be.
“Investigator?” Harold called out to her, confused. “Did something happen?”
Echika could hardly hear him. If the code had been distributed as an emergency update, was it sent by the Your Forma’s developer, Rig City? But there was no rational reason why Rig City, as an organization, would do this. Had someone hacked them, then? Given the timing, was it the Alliance? For what purpose? Did they know about the secret of the RF Models?
Calm down.
There was no guarantee this was real, after all. The only ones who knew about the RF Models’ neuromimetic system were Lexie and Aidan Farman. The code could very well be fake. If this was sent to rattle her, then losing her nerve now would be a mistake.