“What is this?! Some kind of hacking?!” Bigga called out shrilly inside the cramped space of the share car.
She’d taken off her isolation unit to contact Totoki, but when she opened the emergency update that was sent to her Your Forma, a bunch of meaningless code started flowing nonstop. The tab read Novae Robotics Inc. Developed Amicus/RF Model/neuromimetic system, all system code.
“Well, one thing’s for sure—a Rig City system got hit.”
Fokine turned the steering wheel and pulled over to the side of the road. Driving even a semiautomatic was dangerous with all this data running in his field of vision. There weren’t many cars on the streets of London this late, but they could see a few other cars making emergency stops in front of them, too. Drunk pedestrians were looking up and shouting incoherently. Bigga opened her car window a crack and heard shouts along the lines of “Someone’s sending me some weird program!” and “What is this, some kind of bug?!”
Time lag aside, it seemed like everyone was getting the same thing.
“Is this an attack from the Alliance?”
“Even if it is, would they target all the Your Forma users in the world just to get to us?” Fokine couldn’t hide his confusion. “This looks like some kind of Novae Robotics Inc. company secret… Bigga, close the window.”
At his urging, she quickly dismissed the window. They’d just seen Investigator Gardener die to the hornet at the London branch, so it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious. They were already trying hard to keep themselves calm in the face of the terror gripping them.
But then they got a call notification.
<Conference call from Ui Totoki>
“Steve, I’m sorry, but I need you to go through some emergency maintenance.”
Novae Robotics Inc.’s technology ward’s Special Development Department—Steve had been brought into the maintenance room and now lay inside the analysis pod. Department Head Angus was working a tablet plugged into the pod, looking very pale and alarmed, for some reason.
After Echika left, Steve had entered the empty warehouse prepared for him in the Novae Robotics Inc.’s technology ward, the same as every night. He’d returned to this room—where he was locked up, now that he was operational—where many devices took in all sorts of data.
The things he’d seen in the Alliance meeting had come as a major shock, so he’d decided to go into sleep mode to sort out his memory. But then Angus came in and ordered him to go to the maintenance room. It was past one AM, a time when Angus would normally be at home in the Amicitia District, which was adjacent to the office.
“When I close the hatch, you’ll automatically go into forced shutdown, all right?”
“Understood.” Steve nodded but was still uncertain. “Did something happen?”
Angus visibly gulped. He was a sincere man, for better or worse, and was terrible at maintaining a poker face—his behavior implied something bad had happened.
Steve thought back to the meeting, where Lexie had played the role of F. Had Echika and Harold visited her already? When had she joined the Alliance? No, this wasn’t of much importance anymore. Either way, if Lexie was involved with the thought manipulation system, she must have known that Taylor had developed it.
How did she feel, then, looking at her “son” locked inside Novae Robotics Inc.’s cage for trying to protect Taylor?
“No, nothing,” Angus answered. “I just remembered I forgot to tune something during your maintenance. It’s a full-blown issue, so I need you in the analysis pod to check…”
“My self-diagnostics say all my functions are operating normally.”
“Steve.”
“I just want to know, Department Head Angus.”
Steve waited for Angus’s reply, but the man kept his mouth shut in a brooding manner, refusing to answer. Just then, he moved his hand to close the hatch. He was trying to lock Steve in, like he was afraid of being attacked by an animal that had gotten caught in a trap.
Steve swiftly stuck out his arm over the edge of the pod, preventing it from closing.
“Stop it!” Angus let out a scream. “I have to shut you down!”
His attitude alone told the whole story. Someone must have told Angus the truth about the RF Models. Steve increased the operation rate of his artificial muscles, forcing the half-closed hatch open. Angus cowered, retreating back against the wall. When Steve got out of the pod, Angus raised his arms in submission but made no sign of running. He wasn’t just sincere; he was also highly responsible.
“Department Head.” Steve got out of the pod unflinchingly. “I have no intention of hurting you. Please, just answer my question.”
“I never knew. I really didn’t—”
“Who told you about the neuromimetic system?”
Angus squeezed his eyes shut in resignation. Three hoarse words escaped his lips, more breath than speech.
“I don’t know.”
He didn’t know?
“It must have been some kind of hack. It was sent through a Your Forma update.” He continued gasping for air. “It included your surface-level system code, the one we always worked on, along with the neuromimetic system… And I know that coding style. It’s Professor Lexie’s. It’s not fake… It even says how you’re connected to the neuromimetic system.”
Most people wouldn’t have been able to read or make sense of it, and yet.
“I think…every Your Forma user is seeing this.”
Steve listened to his explanation impassively. There was no surprise or unrest anymore—no matter the leaker’s motivations, Steve had known that his secret wouldn’t last forever. If anything, it was a miracle it had stayed under wraps this long, given how dangerous it was. Though if it were up to him, he would have liked to see the thought manipulation system disposed of, if only to clean up the messes he’d left behind.
Nevertheless, he’d been prepared for this to eventuality.
“The IAEC called me earlier.” Angus went so pale he looked like a corpse. “They told me to shut down the RF Models and analyze them right away… Steve, maybe you never knew about it at all, and I know what I’m saying here is awful. But right now, you and Harold are something society deems illegal.”
Steve’s absent younger brother cross his mind. Unlike him, Harold still had lingering regrets. He wanted to expose the killer who’d murdered a member of his family. And then there was Echika Hieda, too.
There’s no familial love between us.
He and Harold didn’t have anything that corresponded to the human definition of filial piety. This feeling was simply a consequence of his system projecting onto a unit of the same model as him.
“If you have to shut me down, then shut me down, but leave Harold out of this.”
“I can’t.” Angus shook his head right away. This wasn’t much of a surprise. “We’re looking for him, too. We’ve lost his GPS position, but Novae Robotics Inc. is determined to find him—”
“No deal, then.”
Steve grabbed the cables connected to the pod and tore them off with ease. Angus’s face twisted in terror as he watched Steve pull them along like ropes.