The mayan prophecy (Timeriders # 8) Read Free Page A

the hell it was they wanted us to know. I can’t help thinking the reason why Waldstein decided to set his meatbots on us is linked to that message somehow.’
    ‘Aye.’ Liam finally nodded. ‘I’d like to know what it is we did that annoyed the fella so much.’
    ‘Maybe we should just leave it,’ said Sal. ‘Maybe we should just wait until –’
    ‘You’ve got to be kidding, Sal? We need to get right in there,’ Maddy said, lightly tapping Becks’s temple, ‘into that part of her head and really talk to her. You know?
Interrogate
her properly.’
    ‘If the AI locked in that partition is unstable, she may become extremely volatile,’ cautioned Bob. Sal nodded.
    ‘I know. I know. Which is why we’re going to restrain her. Chain her the heck down. And if it comes to it, Bob, you’ll have to sit on her if she starts to bug-out on us. OK?’
    ‘Affirmative.’
    Rashim shook his head. ‘We are talking about this poor … 
thing
 … like she isn’t even here!’ He looked at Becks and she at him. ‘She has heard us talking about what we’re planning on doing – anyone wonder what she might make of this?’
    He looked around at everyone and then back at Becks. ‘Perhaps we should just ask her?’
    Maddy sighed. ‘Rashim, you should know better than me. She’s a silicon chip on legs, that’s all. A meatbot. I’m not going to waste my breath worrying about her feelings.’
    ‘She has heuristic, adaptive AI. Designed to grow beyond her source code. That makes her, and Bob also, more than just a collection of code functions. She can
reason
.’ Rashim glanced at Becks again. ‘Which is why I believe you need her to co-operate; to
agree
that this is a logical course of action.’
    ‘Seriously? Oh for …’ Maddy rolled her eyes. ‘Right, OK … if it makes you feel any better …’ She turned to Becks. ‘Would you mind ever so much if we strapped you down and messed around inside your mind?’
    Becks smiled obediently. ‘I am happy to comply with this, Maddy.’
    ‘There? See? She says
yes
.’
    ‘More to the point, Maddy,’ added Rashim, ‘it’s
reason
, notcoercion, you are going to have to use to talk her into revealing what she knows.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Your support units have some
very
sophisticated AI going on in their heads. AI that was designed for combat situations: threat-level analysis, friend–foe identification, flexible mission re-prioritization. They’re not like my lab unit: dumb code-loop lemmings. They can make decisions beyond their core programming.’ He looked at Liam. ‘Didn’t you tell me once that Bob reset his mission parameters to rescue you?’
    ‘Aye, he did.’ Liam nodded at Bob and slapped his arm affectionately. ‘The big-hearted fool decided to come rescue me rather than report back home for new instructions.’
    ‘Exactly. These AIs are sophisticated enough to – in extreme circumstances – abandon specific mission orders and generate new mission priorities.’ He turned back to Maddy. ‘They can
reason
. Which means … it is just possible that you are in with a chance of convincing Becks to tell you what she knows. Even if that means disobeying a command forbidding her to do so.’
    ‘
Reason
, huh?’
    Rashim nodded again. ‘Reason.’

Chapter 3
     
1889, London
     
    ‘iPad …’
    ‘You are serious?’ Rashim smiled drily. ‘
iPad?
That’s one of your codewords?’
    ‘Yes … now shut up, will you? I have to say it over again.’
    Maddy leaned over Becks, lying on her back, her arms bound to her side all the way down her torso by thick rope. Bob was squatting on the floor beside her, ready to sit on her the moment she showed the first sign of struggling to escape. ‘You ready, Becks?’
    ‘I am ready, Maddy.’
    ‘OK, here we go again.’ She took a deep breath. ‘iPad … Caveman … Breakfast …’
    Becks’s eyes rolled in their sockets, for a moment displaying only the whites as her eyelids