Recover
"Your new ketchup has arrived."
That was all it said. I did not recognize the server the message originated from. The sender was listed as "CandyBler". Never seen that, either.
It seemed like just a simple notification, but there was a strong message hidden underneath. The number of people who knew I liked ketchup was very small. I could only think of the shopkeeper. It was possible that the group tracking me had found out through the use of the A.I., but…
I knew it was possible that I was still being watched through the surveillance system, and I didn't want to give anybody out there a show, but I just couldn't control my legs.
I immediately stopped a City Carrier car, jumped in and entered my destination. Without the help of my A.I., entering everything myself was more than a little frustrating. It felt like it was taking an eternity to navigate through each screen. Finally, the system confirmed my citizen's ID and began to move forward slowly, almost as if it was trying to urge me to calm down.
I have heard of an instinctive response built into the human psyche known as "fight or flight." It is a mechanism that grants inhuman strength in times of emergency, but these days there are no emergencies. People are no longer backed into corners, so we don't really know what that sensation feels like any more. In today's controlled and carefully managed society, a person could use barely half their natural ability and still live a comfortable life. Scientists even feared that perhaps, in the lap of such luxury, we would lose our ability to cope with disaster, and I understood what they meant. Standing water will eventually grow stagnant.
It turned out, though, that they didn't have anything to worry about after all. At that moment, a power I had never known before was bursting out of me. I was out of breath, but kept running. I had no GPS, but I still somehow managed arrived where I meant to go. I would not have believed myself capable of that the day before, but standing in front of Dolz Shop, I couldn't deny that I had managed to navigate my way from the City Carrier drop point through the maze of District N.
Before I could even catch my breath, I burst through the door of the shop and was met with the familiar, "Oh, hello there!" It felt as though this shop were the only place where time had continued to pass normally.
"You have new ketchup?" I managed to get out between gasps.
"What?" asked the shopkeeper, clearly flustered. "Oh, yes. I was more than a little surprised when I received your order because it wasn't how you usually do things. I'll bet you were too, after making that order!"
After he finished, the shopkeeper gave one of his deep laughs.
"I mean, you must have been! The amount you paid me had five more zeros than it should have had! When I saw it, I was astonished! You mistyped the amount, didn't you? We shouldn't be doing things we aren't used to, don't you think?"
All I could do was smile and nod. An order? Payment? I had no idea what he was talking about.
"Anyway," the shopkeeper continued. "I'm going to return what is yours. Just enter your authorization key here."
Glancing at the amount displayed on the register's screen, I absent-mindedly entered my authorization key. The register gave a small chime and the words "Transaction Complete" were displayed across the screen. It felt like days had passed since everything had happened, but nearly half of the money I had thought lost from investing in the fake 5421A4381 stock had just been transferred back into my account. With this, I would be able to jump right back into the trading game. I wouldn't have to worry about living expenses, either. Just what was going on?
The shopkeeper, his usual grin spreading across his face, placed a bottle of ketchup in a bag and handed it to me.
✦ ✦ ✦
I casually brought up the topic of Alice, but he seemed to know nothing about her. The message I received wasn't from him, either. I'd already guessed as much just from looking at the sender, but I had to be sure. Still a bit confused over what had just happened, I headed home.
The new ketchup I was carrying was an odd yellow color. The shopkeeper explained that it was due to the fact that it was made using a mango base. I wondered if it was okay to call something ketchup when it wasn't even made from tomato.
I didn't have my partner with me to explore the question, though. Since I'd gotten half of my funds back, there was no longer a need for me to be hasty in trying to make more money, but I still had an incredible sense of loss eating at me.
After arriving back in my room, I took another look at the message. Just who the hell had sent it? I decided to access the server the message had originated from. I was presented with a login dialog box requesting an ID and password. I tried a few of my usual combinations, but got nothing but error messages in return. I considered having the A.I. try and analyze it, but I didn't want to spend all the time it would take on the initial setup just then.
That's when I had a thought. I entered "CandyBler" into the ID field. Now what could the password be? Crossing my arms to think, I suddenly noticed the ketchup bottle sitting on the desk. On the label, there was an 18-digit product number that seemed to be calling out to me. I entered it into the password field and pressed the enter key.
SUCCESS
Large blue letters appeared on the display in front of me.
There was only one accessible folder on the server. It read "Alice." I opened the folder and after a few seconds, an enormous list of files appeared. I knew immediately what they were ? Alice's backup files. Every single log file up to the point when Alice disappeared was there. I also knew that this wasn't another trap. The group who'd set me up couldn't possibly gain anything from giving this to me.
As if drawn to it, I selected the video file at the very beginning and started playing it. Judging from the date the file was created, I guessed it was from when I had first activated Alice. Despite it being so many months in the past, I was easily able to recall the day in my memory. It was still vivid as well.
An image of myself appeared in the display. I was wearing the exact same clothes in the video as I was in real life. Then, the world as seen from Alice's point of view began to play.
✦ ✦ ✦
"Nice to meet you, Master. Shall I initiate program C2?"
"Yes, execute program C2."
"Yes, Master."
There was silence for a moment. The image of my face, filled with excitement, was staring right at me through the display.
"The white dress looks a bit plain. You should choose something a little more feminine. Can you do that on your own?"
"Yes, Master."
"You'll need a name, too. You aren't just some mass-produced program, you're my A.I."
Another moment of silence. The image became a little staticky. In the video, I was impatiently tapping my cheek with my right index finger, thinking.
"I think I'll name you Alice," I said. "I'm looking forward to working with you, Alice."
A third moment of silence. The static worsened a bit and then the video went black for a moment. When it returned, it seemed even clearer than it had originally appeared.
"I'm looking forward to working with you as well, Master," said Alice.
The video ended.
✦ ✦ ✦
There didn't appear to be a copy of Alice's actual program on the server. There was only a record of her experiences. It was as if we had recorded all of our memories in a notebook or a scrapbook. Even with our memory loss, if we read this it might be possible to get back past oneself.
I accessed Alice's program on my server and copied it over to the CandyBler server. This was faster than moving all of her "memories" over to my server. Besides, there was the possibility that my system's backdoor was still open.