Page 15 of Artificial Moon

“Sounds good.”

“And Ms. Moon?”

“Yes?”

“You have no idea how relieved I am. This guy—thisthing—is wreaking havoc in San Diego.”

“But the AI in your brain, isn’t?”

His smile is slow and a bit bewildering. “Not yet.”

Chapter Six

Allie and I are at her favorite bar in Beverly Hills.

I don’t see any movie stars at the moment, but one could appear suddenly, as if by magic or through a portal—if we’re lucky. Once, I saw an article featuring Kim Kardashian’s monochrome kitchen. I’ll never forget it. Now, I could draw on that memory and teleport over there at will. Then again, she isn’t a movie star. A social media star, yes. On second thought, chatting here at the bar with Allie is pretty much perfect. Nice ambiance, nice music. An all-around nicely dressed crowd, if kind of uppity. A cacophony of lively chatter. And my best pal presently listening to me in earnest.

“Wait, Sam. Hold up. You’re telling me there’s some type of AI Robot/human hybrid out there, potentially raising hell?”

“Not quite hell yet; at least, not yet. Nothing yet is out of order. For now, all is well in San Diego.”

“San Diego?”

“That’s where the surgery was done.”

“And where he... it?... escaped?”

“Let’s useheorhim.”

“How would we even know if he was raising hell?”

“I’m guessing we won’t, though the crew at Micro-Neura might pick up on something.”

“Are the police in San Diego aware of the potential for problems?”

“All local police are. All monitoring systems have been engaged.”

“I haven’t heard anything about him on the news.”

“It made it out to some of the news channels, podcasts, websites. For the most part, officials are keeping it as much on the down-low as they can. They don’t want to scare the public—not if they don’t have to.”

I had to look hard for mention of the rogue patient, but I did find an article or two buried deep in some news sites. As of now, it appears no one is taking it seriously; at least, not yet.

“Boy, I thought those implants were there just to help the disabled navigate on a computer.”

I shrug. “Then you know more about it than I did. Turns out, some chips were stronger and bigger than others, capable of doing more things.”

“And he got the big one.”

“Yup.”

“Oh, boy.” She takes a drink from her cosmopolitan and swallows. “Sam, you’re used to fighting demons and devils. How on earth are you going to tackle this?”

“He’s kind of a demon or devil,” I say. “In a way, he’s supernatural.”

“Because he can tap into his full potential? Is that how you phrased it earlier?”

“That’s how Mr. CEO phrased it.”

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