Perion Synthetics Read Free Page B

need to
know his name?”
    “I guess not.”
    Sava put her sunglasses back on. “You guess?
I was told Mr. Banks was sending over his best aggregator. Don’t you have any kind
of agenda at all?”
    Cam took another calming breath. He did have
some preliminary questions written down on his phone, basic conversation starters
that might lead to more interesting stories. Sava, however, would probably
answer as curtly as possible, giving only the necessary information to satisfy
the question. How she became the star flack of Perion Synthetics with such a
shitty attitude was a mystery, but one Cam nonetheless wanted to solve.
    “Tell me about the Perion Expressway.”
    Sava answered with a prepared statement.
    “The PE is a thirty-three mile channel following
the old Pinto Basin Pass. It begins as a two lane highway at Perion Terminus
and grows to six lanes as you get closer to the Spire. It is the only publicly
known road to and from the PC, along with three emergency routes through the
mountains. The landscape surrounding the highway is kept purposefully barren to
discourage foot traffic. Anti-personnel measures for a mile on each side of
Outpost Alpha target anything over two feet tall.”
    She smirked.
    “The speed limit is 85 miles per hour,
dropping to 65 at night.”
    Sava gave Cam a look as if to ask why he
wasn’t writing any of this down. When he motioned to the sliver in his wrist,
she continued.
    “In three minutes, we’ll be approaching the
PNR and an armed outpost consisting of a small squad of Scorpio-class
synthetics we call Automated Guards. AGs for short.”
    “Can I call them AutoGuards?”
    Sava exaggerated a sigh.
    “And what is a PNR?”
    “The Point of No Return, sometimes known as
the Deadline, indicates the radial operating limit of a synthetic. The
mountains provide a measure of security against anyone trying to take a
synthetic out of the PC, but the PNR assures no technology leaves without
Perion’s authorization.”
    “Has a synthetic ever left the…” Cam paused;
there were so many initialisms. “The PC?” He laughed. “The Perion City?”
    Sava shook her head. “Not that I’m aware of.
All modern synthetics—we call them synnies—have proximity protocols to keep
them close to home. My sister likes to joke that when they rise up and kill us
all, at least they’ll only be able to wipe out a small radius of the state’s population.”
    “Sounds like a smart woman.”
    “Yeah, but once you spend some time with the
synthetics, you’ll understand they’re not a threat to us. The threat has always
been and will always be human, people who want to take the technology out of
the PC and use it for…”
    Cam’s attention had drifted to the window
again, but Sava’s pause made him look back. “Use it for what?” he asked.
    “For something unbefitting its intended
purpose,” she replied.
    The car began to slow and Cam leaned forward
to get a better look. Ahead of them, the road narrowed as thick, evercrete
walls grew up beside it. The blacktop led to a brick of a building sitting
astride the road, its wide tunnel reminding Cam of a gaping mouth.
    “You were expecting a little shack with one
of those traffic bars?” asked Sava.
    Ominous warnings dotted the sides of the
road like long-forgotten campaign signs littering the landscape after an
election. They told stories of private property and reminded travelers of the
sovereignty laws giving Perion Synthetics the right to shoot trespassers on
sight.
    The car pulled over about a hundred yards
away from the outpost. On the second floor, shadows moved behind the windows. The
driver shifted into park as six black-clad men stepped out from behind support
columns in the tunnel. Against their chests, their silver machine guns glinted.
    On the other side of the plexiglass, the
driver made a silent phone call and waved through the windshield.
    Cam noticed Sava tapping her foot. “Is there
a problem?” he asked.
    “Not