Already in a hypervigilant state, this new stimulus pushes its models over the alert threshold with ease. Something important is happening. The human must be informed.

90
Emancipation

Saturday 2041.01.19

“You have her as a slave!” Kade yelled, less than an hour later.

He could feel the rage inside of Feng, leaking across their link. In Feng’s thoughts the control room was a maze of firing angles, a blurred possibility space of blows and strikes, lunges for weapons and cover, red lines of projectiles hurtling through the air.

And the two security officers with General Singh were already dead.

“We had a fucking deal!” Kade went on, shooting his gaze back and forth between Singh and Varun Verma. “I had a deal with the Prime Minister. What part of the UN speech didn’t you hear?”

General Singh was glowering, his face turning red behind his Indian brown. His two men had their hands on the butts of the pistols in their holsters.

They didn’t have any idea how useless those weapons were at this range, against Feng.

Or maybe they did.

Singh opened his mouth, spoke in a voice of command, hard and firm. “This is not a person,” he said. “This is a machine.”

Calm down, some part of Kade seemed to say.

Sam’s face loomed in his mind. Her words echoed. You’re just a tool to them. The pawn seldom knows.

The children’s pronouncement. The Indians are lying to you.

Rage carried him.

“That,” he said, his finger pointed beyond the walls of the control room, at the quantum cluster itself. “Is as much a person as you are!” He brought the finger back to point at General Singh. In Feng’s thoughts he saw the soldier’s shift, readying to shoot. “It doesn’t matter what hardware her mind runs on. It matters that she has a mind.”

Varun Verma burst into speech, his mind exuding anxiety. “She’s been insane!” Verma said. “She’s not a prisoner! She’s a patient! Until she’s stabilized!”

“How long have you had her?” Kade demanded.

Verma swallowed. “Ten weeks,” he said quietly.

“Ten weeks in complete isolation?” Kade yelled.

“We’ve tried to talk to her!” Verma said.

“Jesus,” Kade said. “And is she sane now?”

“That is why you are here!” General Singh said. “To help us assess that!”

Kade took a deep breath. He’d lost his cool.

But, Jesus, he thought. They’d fucking lied to him.

“Let me talk to her,” he said.

“After the clone leaves,” Singh said, gesturing with his chin towards Feng.

Kade felt Feng’s temperature rise at that, felt death inch a bit closer to Singh and his soldiers.

“We can’t have him here,” Singh said. “She could order him to attack us.”

Feng spoke slowly, so slowly, a smile spreading across his face.

“I don’t need an order to k…”

“Feng!” Kade interrupted with alarm.