“Titan AIs are extremely adept at making quick, sound decisions,” Narain said from the back seat of the eight-seater convertible we’d transferred into and were now using to continue cruising up the coastal highway. “That capability was the main goal when humanity first tried its hand at creating more primitive forms of artificial intelligence, and the technology’s evolved over time to get pretty damn good at it. Presented with a problem in need of a solution or some sort of judgment call, there’s not a person on earth who could go toe-to-toe with a Titan. But on the flip side, if the network isn’t wired to see something as a problem, there’s not much it can do about it. The best way to thwart an unstoppable problem-solver is to make sure it doesn’t sense the problem within a situation in the first place.”
“Right, so Titan would know if we tried to unlock or break out the back door of the truck on our end. ’Cause it collects that type of information,” Lei added, turning around from his seat at the front of the vehicle. “But the floor of the truck bed doesn’t collect anything other than weight data. The network’s not constantly checking to see whether or not there’s a massive hole in it. It’s such a non-concern that it would be just plain inefficient to outfit every single truck with all that tech.”
“So basically, we’re trying to fool the network in ways that won’t leave an electronic footprint,” I said.
“You got it. The more ways we can confuse it, the better. The more decision-making data we can deny it, the hazier its understanding of the situation becomes. We wanna make it do as many loops of logic as possible—put as many twists and turns in its mental path as we can. When you’re on foot and being chased by a car, the best thing to do is get off the road.”
This made sense to me, and I glanced over at the large canvas sacks full of dirt that filled the middle seats—yet another attempt to deceive Titan’s weight sensors by making it think there were more people riding in this car than the group of four it was looking for. And since “driving around in a convertible full of dirt” was a relatively nonsensical premise, chances were the network wouldn’t even consider it, as that would only create a thousand more questions in need of answering. As I watched Lei work on his holofield from over his shoulder, I was reminded these three men knew more about how to manipulate a Titan AI than perhaps anyone in the world. When I first considered the prospect of trying to elude ten of them at once, I thought it would be outright impossible, but with a crack team of specialists like this, we just might make it.
“Don’t get comfortable yet,” Narain said to me. “We’re doing everything we can, but we’re still only buying ourselves a modicum of extra time here. We’re a few little mice facing off against an infinite army of elephants. They’re bigger, faster, and they’ve got a numbers advantage, to boot.”
“Oh, god,” Lei yelped, working his fingers even faster. “They’ve found our trail. Shit, shit, fuck. Boss, I’m sorry, but they’re gonna kill our motor any second now.”
“We’re almost there. You’ve gotta hold out a little longer.”
“How much longer?”
“Half a klick. After that, we can blow the damn thing up, for all I care.”
“Might be able to swing it if I start playing dirty, I guess… Whatever, drastic times!”
Lei’s hands were now moving so fast that I had absolutely no idea what he was thinking or what types of commands he was inputting. But not even ten seconds later, the car began to dramatically decelerate. Lei’s lips curled into a defiant grin.
“C’mon, baby! Turn!” he shouted—and as if obeying his command, the car swerved and drifted into a massive nearby parking lot just before losing all of its remaining momentum. By the time it reached the center of said parking lot, it had come to a complete stop, its electricity having been completely cut off.
“Good job,” said Narain, jumping out over the side of the convertible. “Out. Run.”
The professor, Lei, and I all hurriedly hopped out of the vehicle after him. As we rushed through the parking lot, a large signboard nearby kindly informed me of where we were—an automotive museum. And thanks to a holofield banner spread out across the sky overhead, I also learned that there was currently a classic car show going on, which explained the incredible number of vehicles parked in the lot. They were all extremely old models, some a hundred or even two hundred years old—the types you only saw in period films. Narain cut straight across the venue over to an old gas-powered automobile parked right outside the building’s service entrance. It was a bright red car with the words Civic Type R stamped on the grill.
“I called in a favor to get us a set of wheels they can’t control,” said Narain.
I raised an eyebrow. The car looked like an absolute fossil. “Can this thing even go?”
11
I clung with both hands to the upholstery on the sides of the passenger seat, hanging on for dear life. We were tearing its way across the pavement at an unfathomable speed, weaving in and out of lanes as it overtook all the other cars on the roadway.
“Professor, please! You’re going to kill us!” I begged.
“Oh, pish-posh. I know what I’m doing.” Professor Beckmann’s tone was very even for someone currently yanking the steering wheel from side to side with both hands. I looked over at the speedometer—260 kilometers per hour. If Titan were the one doing the driving, I would have been far less concerned by such a speed, but I didn’t trust any human’s reflexes enough to not fear for my life when one small slip-up could prove instantly fatal. Why, being jerked around like this long enough could prove fatal even if there weren’t any errors on the driver’s part. The professor’s driving was so frenetic that I couldn’t tell if he was a very good driver or a very bad one.
“Relax, Naisho,” said Narain from the back seat, gripping the grab handle hanging from the ceiling. “The professor’s been a hobby driver his entire life.”
Lei, meanwhile, was deathly pale, his mouth hanging halfway open.
“It’s a nice car, I must say,” said the professor. “I’m not even flooring it yet.”
He revved the engine, and I could feel the vibrations coming from the chassis growing ever more violent. As the force of the acceleration pinned my body to the backrest, I looked out the window to see that the pleasant scenery was now a blurred gradient of horizontal lines of color. It was my first time ever riding in a car with an internal combustion engine, and I was shaken to my core. I’d always thought of cars like little private comfort capsules that could take you on a smooth and pleasant cruise to any destination you wished. This felt as comfortable as trying to cling to the back of a bucking bronco.
Still, at least this meant there was little chance of any of the network’s self-driving vehicles catching up to us. And since it was not connected to the network, they also couldn’t remotely force it to shut down on us like the last one had. As Narain told it, this was all part of the plan—just one more tactic for shaking off our pursuers. Even if they did corner us somehow, all we had to do was use illegal means to our advantage.
The job of upholding the law fell entirely to the only enforcement entities in the world, the Titan network’s security forces. But because they also held themselves rigorously to those same laws, they could not take any illegal actions even for the sake of apprehending criminals. Obviously, there were systems in place in case of dire emergency, but even then, their highest priority was ensuring no innocent bystanders were caught in the crossfire or even moderately inconvenienced as a result. Not even speeding ambulances were permitted to force their way through other cars or crowds that happened to be obstructing them. Which meant that as long as we were willing to inconvenience other people—even putting them in danger, if need be—we had far more freedom of movement than the network did.
And so we continued weaving our way through oncoming traffic as we charged forward down the straightaway. I was beginning to grow accustomed to the professor’s reckless driving at this point, so I relaxed my grip slightly, but the fear of imminent death in the event that his hands slipped continued to plague me. I couldn’t believe there’d ever been a time when the average citizen was allowed to own and operate such tools of death and destruction.