Evolved(39)

“Actually I do have one concern,” I said with a smile. “How am I supposed to go to work this week when all I want to do is stay home with you?”

Shaun visibly relaxed when he realised I was joking. He smiled, and I lay down against him, settling back on his chest, and together we finished reading Moby Dick. Then he stroked my hair and we talked about Ishmael and Ahab, and Shaun told me his interpretation of the religious symbolism. This went beyond android behaviour. Far, far beyond it. He wasn’t reading some footnotes from an internet essay. He was telling me how it made him feel, how he saw existential religious correlations, and how interpretation is subjective to one’s spiritual beliefs.

Did I have any concerns regarding my A-Class unit?

God yes, I did. But not the concerns Myles might assume. Oh, no. My concerns weren’t that Shaun’s behaviour might be outside his parameters. My concern was what they’d do if they found out.

I stared at the home hub.

Were they listening? Were they watching? Did they have direct access to his CPU?

“Lloyd?” Shaun whispered. “You are distracted. Is anything the matter?”

“No, nothing.” I stood up and held out my hand. “I’m tired. Let’s go to bed.”

I stared at the home hub as I walked past it, and although it was completely futile, I closed my bedroom door behind us. When we were in bed, instead of falling asleep in his arms, I pulled him into mine. He laid his head on my chest and I found his weight soothing. I stroked his hair, as I knew he liked. I relished the silence, the no loud breathing, the no snoring, his warmth, his clean smell. I stared at the ceiling and wondered how on earth I’d ever lived without him before I knew him—and if it ever came down to it, how on earth I’d live without him now—until I fell asleep.



When I sat in my usual seat at lunch, I waited for Jae to join me. He was a few minutes late, which was nothing new. He did have to walk further from the IT department than I did, but I smiled when he walked in.

He was wearing his usual all-brown attire, carrying a mandarin, he had soup and a rye bread roll. Predictable, predictable, predictable. It was comforting.

He sat down and arranged his tray neatly, then looked up at me and smiled. “How was your weekend?”

“Good. And yours?”

“Yes, the DCC was on all weekend.”

“The DCC?”

He looked at me like I was daft. “Digital Chess Championships.”

“Oh right.”

“Live coverage feeds from all around the world. It was awesome.”

I wasn’t entirely sure watching computers versus each other playing chess would be riveting. “Sounds it.”

He smiled, knowing I thought it was anything but that, and he silently finished his lunch. I watched him as he ate, my finished lunch wrapping neatly folded on my tray. “Jae, may I ask you a question?”

His eyes widened a fraction behind his thick-rimmed glasses. “Sure.”

“It’s about the home hub unit,” I started, not even sure what I was trying to ask. “Information can stream in, yes. But can information be taken?”

He tilted his head. “You mean uploaded? With or without your permission?”

I glanced quickly around us to make sure no one was paying any attention to us. “Without.”

He stared at me for a long, uncomfortable moment. “Home hubs are a unidirectional network, also referred to as a unidirectional security gateway. They’re a network device allowing data to travel only in one direction, guaranteeing information security. They’re government approved,” he said slowly. Then he sat back in his seat and whispered, his lips barely moving, as if he wasn’t speaking at all. “Do you think the government is watching?”

“Not the government.”

“But someone.”

I nodded. “I have… concerns.”

He swallowed visibly and looked at someone as they walked to empty their rubbish into the bin. No one could hear us, but his unease worried me. “The unidirectional network is monitored. They might claim it’s not, but it has to be.”

“Who’s they?”

He looked at me like I wasn’t following. “The government.”

“Why did you say it has to be?”

“Our entire lives are digital. Everything. Since the Russians first shot satellites into space a hundred years ago, there’s been a war for information. It’s one thing to have satellite imagery of our enemies’ military bases, but of our allies too. But guess what happens when every government knows civilian information?” He leaned forward and whispered, “They own us. Financial information, health records, GPS locations in your watch, your phone.”

Okay, wow. He was a conspiracy theorist. And I thought I knew him…

He just kept going. “And if that’s not bad enough, everything in our homes is connected to and run by the home hub. Did you think the government putting an information gateway in every house in the country was for our benefit?” He shook his head. “So it’s one thing that they know you transfer some money, or where you buy all your porn online, what kind of coffee you drink, or that you’re getting treatment for an STI. But it also means you can’t watch television, search anything on the internet, boil your kettle, or leave your apartment without them knowing.”