531

Wu DaQi parked his bike and stared up at the building where Charity Fulmer was staying. The well-to-do inhabited the building, but the top three levels belonged to Albert Sandus. DaQi pulled the schematics up in his head and reviewed the layout.

It was opulent and lavish; a display of wealth that was sickening. He had libraries and labs built into his home and the roof of the building was his own personal garden, complete with water ponds and an aviary.

People in the Piles scrounged for scraps. People of the Builds spent a fortune trying to get a view of the sun. But people like Sandus hoarded their wealth and hid from the reality of the city.

As he watched, a car pulled up and let out a group of people. They were mostly in their mid-twenties and they were dressed for a night out. Neon flowers lit up short skirts and stripes of color decorated suits. DaQi jumped off his bike and walked over to the group. He smiled as he joined them.

“You’re heading up, right?” he asked.

One of the women smiled back at him. “You know Donovan?”

“Of course,” he answered, pulling up all the files he had on the building owners. There was no one named Donovan on the title for any of them. “Just met him, actually, but he was nice enough to invite me out.”

One of the guys put his arm around the girl and looked him over, from head to toe before he smiled. “I bet he did.”

“Come on,” another girl grabbed the first and pulled her towards the building. DaQi followed them in and let them lead him to a bank of elevators to the back. It wasn’t the right elevators to take him all the way to the top level but it would get him high enough. No one questioned him when the elevator stopped and they were let off into a private apartment. The people that had walked him in separated and as he moved through the party, he reviewed the plans for this section of the building.

There was an emergency chute for the upper levels with staircase access.

DaQi walked through the building, smiling at the people around him. No one cared that they didn’t recognize him. So long as he looked like he belonged there, they believed he did. He scanned the other room and found two heat signatures. He snuck quietly into the master bedroom and ignored the two people in the bed who were far too busy to notice him. The door to the emergency stair was in the master closet and he gratefully closed the closet door behind him to block out the noise. The door to the emergency exit wasn’t locked and DaQi went through into the dark stairwell.

He switched to night vision and wondered once again about the modifications he used. He’d get his answers soon enough.

When he reached Sandus’s level he paused, letting himself into the CEO’s private residence. Like the other level, the emergency door had been built into the master bedroom closet. Thankfully, there was no one in the bed this time.

He switched to his regular vision and scanned for bodies. There were none on that level, but he knew Charity Fulmer was there somewhere. He walked out of the room and into the main section. The place was expensively decorated, but tasteful. Classic art hung on the walls and the room was clear of clutter, with a few meaningful pieces displayed.

To the right side of the living space was an enclosed balcony and stairs that led to Sandus’s rooftop sanctuary. DaQi quietly ascended the stairs and crept out onto the rooftop. The landing had a tented seating area with a couch, chairs, and firepit. Beyond that was a stream that led off to a pond in one direction. In the other, it led to a sand garden that gave way to grass and flowering trees.

Under the tent, Charity Fulmer sat with a wine glass in hand, staring into the burning fire before her. He straightened up and walked towards her.

“Mrs. Fulmer, we need to talk.”

She dropped her wine glass as she scrambled out of her seat and tried to back away. She moved around the couch but she was against the water’s edge already and she had nowhere to go. “Please, don’t hurt me.”

“I just want to talk,” DaQi assured her. “I’m Wu DaQi, from Mann Enterprises.”

“I know who you are. Please, I was just trying to bring him in.” She licked her lips and looked around. “They said they wouldn’t hurt him.”

She was trying to placate him about something he knew nothing about. He had a feeling he knew who this was about though. “Hurt who?”

“Chan Yi. 531.”

Everything seemed to come back to this. Whatever relationship he had with 531 in the past. To whoever he had been in the past. “Who am I, Mrs. Fulmer?”

“What?”

“Who do you think I am?”

He felt the press of a gun to his head and he cursed himself for being so stupid.

“You are a conundrum,” the man behind him said. “I promise not to shoot if you do.”

DaQi turned his head slightly and nodded. The man behind him, Albert Sandus, stepped away but kept his gun up.

“I just want answers.”

“You and I both,” Sandus said. He moved over to Ms. Fulmer and nodded to her once. She sat back down, but she didn’t take her eyes off him.

“Do you know what happened to me three months ago?” he asked.

Sandus signed. “The same thing that has happened ten other times in the last seven years. We erased your memories.”

DaQi frowned. “Why would you do that?”

“What we created in you was something special,” Sandus said. “You and 531 were a breakthrough! Finally, after years of searching for the fine line between obedience and self-thought, we mastered the programming. You followed mission parameters no matter what we asked you to do, but if something went wrong you were able to think for yourselves and complete the mission. It was a miracle. Nothing before you came close. If we gave the other models enough judgment to operate independently, they began to refuse missions. If we didn’t give them that, then our AIs were dead in the water as soon as something went wrong or disrupted communications. You were the ticket to making military AI. And what did you do? You grew a fucking conscience! You emerged.”

He said the word with disgust and DaQi felt it like a punch to the gut. Of all the answers he had contemplated, this was beyond anything he could have thought. Sandus was saying that he … that …

“I’m human,” he demanded.

Sandus stared at him for a moment before a smirk grew across his face. “You usually figure it out a lot quicker.”

“531 isn’t usually involved though, is he?” Ms. Fulmer joined the conversation.

“That can’t be it. Really? This is fascinating. All the reports say that you haven’t remembered him yet but seeing him has still messed with your head.”

“Who am I?’ Wu DaQi asked. “Just say it.”

“AI experiment 532. When you completed your programming and training, you were known as Agent 532, one of two AI covert agents. Something went wrong with the two of you though and we’ve been trying to fix it ever since.”

“And 531?”

Charity Fulmer stood up and smiled. “He couldn’t leave the city. He couldn’t leave the memory of you. We knew where he was and had no reason to bring him in until we perfected your programming.”

DaQi turned as he heard someone climbing the steps behind him. He took a step back as Agent 531 stepped onto the landing. He had his gun raised, but it was pointed at Sandus.

“He was already perfect.”