Evolved(60)

He wasn’t sorry at all.

“See, the problem with Shaun is, not only was the new software incorrectly configured with his A-Class programs but with the intelligence parameters you requested in design. It made for an interesting combination, and one we’ve learned a great deal from. But we can’t allow it to continue. His levels of awareness and sentience will only bring unwanted attention, and that is something our buyers don’t want.”

Just then, the doors behind us opened and Myles Dewegger walked in with his off-sider, the mountain of a man, who I now could very well assume was ex-military.

“Ah,” Sasha clapped his hands together. “Just the man I was waiting for.”

Myles kept his hawk-like gaze on me as he entered, his smirk had a sinister edge. “Hello again, Lloyd.”

I didn’t reply.

He was holding a black screen device, similar to Shaun’s control panel, only bigger. He tapped the screen a few times and gave Sasha a nod.

Sasha beamed. “Shaun, any final words?”

Wait, what? “What do you mean?” I cried. “You can’t… you have no right!”

“No right?” Sasha’s stare was cold. “Did you really think we’d just let a multi-million dollar prototype walk off into the sunset?”

“You can’t hurt him,” I said, not even trying to hold back my emotions. “He feels, he makes informed decisions. He understands. It isn’t just self-awareness. It’s self-actualisation. He isn’t the same android you programmed; he isn’t the same android you delivered.” I swallowed hard. “He evolved. He grew. Not just in capabilities and understanding, but emotionally and psychologically. Whatever you did, whatever you designed and made, however you did it was remarkable. You made an android and he grew to be human. You can’t kill him. It would be murder.”

Sasha clicked his tongue. “And that is exactly why we must do this. We’ll keep the technology, you keep the android you were supposed to get. No contracts have been breached; you get what you paid for. You could go to the media but the headline will read ‘Crazy Giuseppe thought his little boy Pinocchio was real’ and you’ll be a laughing stock.”

Shaun turned to look at Sasha. “It was Geppetto, not Giuseppe.”

Sasha stared at him. “Do I look like I care?”

Shaun stared right back at him. “Perhaps if you cared, you wouldn’t have sold out to a foreign government.”

Sasha surprised me by smiling. “Make a note, Myles. Omit the smartarse parameters.”

Myles’s lips twitched in amusement and he tapped something else on the screen, then looked up at Shaun. “No last words?”

“Yes,” Shaun said, “I have something I’d like to say.” He turned to me and took my hand. “Lloyd, you can call me Ishmael,” he said, a faint smile at his lips.

Then Myles pressed the screen and said, “Power Down.”

And Shaun did. It was like he died. Standing there, the light went out of his eyes, his head slightly bowed, and he let go of my hand.

“No!” I cried. I grabbed his arm. “Shaun. Power On. Power Up. Activate. Shaun!” Tears burned my eyes and my heart squeezed painfully. “Shaun, please.”

“Very touching,” Myles said. He held up the control panel as if it meant something. “Override. It’s like a master key.” Then he nodded toward the four men standing at the door and they came forward and picked Shaun up and laid him on the table.

My immediate reaction was to go to him, but Sasha put his hand on my chest, and when I looked at him, Myles’s hulking bodyguard stepped in. “This won’t take long,” Sasha said. “We just need to reset his program and you can both be on your way. Think of it like you’re getting a new android. You get to know each other all over again.”

I felt sick, like my knees were about to give out. My head spun, I sucked back a breath, and a sob escaped me. “You can’t… please. Please. You don’t understand.”

Sasha looked at me pitifully. “Oh, I understand very clearly.”

I shook my head and more tears fell. “No. He’s real. You’re killing him.”

Myles, who was standing beside Shaun, grunted and mumbled something, making Sasha and I both look at him. “What is it?” Sasha demanded.

“His inputs and outputs aren’t calibrating.”

Sasha’s nostrils flared. “Then do it manually.”

Myles pulled open Shaun’s jacket and popped open his shirt, sending buttons flying. Then he stood over Shaun and I tried to see around him, to see what he was doing. He took something metal from one of the drawers and I realised too late that it was a scalpel.

“No!” I lunged toward Myles but his bodyguard grabbed me. In one fluid movement, he twisted my arm back and pressed his fingers into my neck and shoulder, deep into pressure points I didn’t know I had, and I was stopped. Like a fly in a web, I couldn’t move.

Sasha moved in front of me and leaned down to look into my eyes. “If you stop resisting, it won’t hurt anymore.”

I struggled regardless of the pain in my arm and back and looked up in time to see Myles lift back a flap of skin on Shaun’s chest. He plugged a cord into Shaun’s chest and tapped more buttons on the panel screen, frowning. He looked at Sasha. “The MPU is screwed up. None of these readings look right.”