Adam 2.0

As soon as the fire alarm started shrieking, I made a quick dash towards the control room and locked myself in.

Being the daughter of Dr. Kaling did have several advantages and one of them was knowing a lot of about the newly installed controlled system. Without much hesitation, I turned on all the surveillance cameras to assess the full magnitude of the chaos I had caused.

Much to my relief, the officer that was stationed in the room Adam was kept in wandered stupidly outside the room and hollered out at the other cops at the end of the hall. A few seconds later, the lab technician also strayed from the room, curiously and confusedly. My heart fluttered in its chest with a spasm of joy as I realized they had both left the microchip untouched and idly lying on the table in front of Adam---I could see its metallic glint on the monitor.

I knew exactly what to do.

I reached forward and engaged the automatic door locks. It was a creative engineering feature they had added to the lab after the fire to ensure that doors could be automatically locked and unlocked in order to contain any flames from spreading. I carefully examined the maze of buttons on the panel and pushed a small green button.

SLAM!

Every single door in the facility automatically slammed and locked shut, sending a small tremor through the entire building. On the camera feedback, I could see the officers running around looking confused. It must have been bizarre for them: first the fire alarm, and now this. It was only a matter of seconds before both the lab technician and the stupid cop with him raced towards the room Adam was in and tried to pry the door open.

“What the hell is going on?” the cop demanded, putting all this weight into the handle. I could see more cops forming around the door. Among them, Castor (the idiot cop from earlier) said, “Here, let me do it.”

A smile formed on my lips. Here was my chance to get back him for being a prick. Beside the green button, there was a knob that controlled the pneumatic air pressure that drove the doors. It was sitting a low 40Pa and I cranked it up to 150Pa, ready to smack Castor in the face. Just as he was something about the doors being stubborn, I pressed the green button again, causing the door to whip forward with such a force that it knocked Castor over and took down a few other cops standing behind him. I quickly pressed the button again, ensuring the door locked and was keeping Adam safe once more.

From the end of the hallway, I could see Titus was jogging over with a sour expression on his face. I hope he didn’t realize that I had never left the building. He bent over to help the lab technician off the floor (completely ignoring a groaning Castor on the floor, much to my amusement) and asked, “What’s going on? Does this always happen when the fire alarm goes off?”

“No,” replied the upset technician, rubbing his sore forehead with the heel of his palm. “Someone must be fooling around in the control room.”

Shit.

I knew as soon as he had said those words, it wouldn’t be long before a whole army of cops came barrelling my way. I knew the door to the room was locked, but I was sure it was never designed to hold up against a pellet of angry bullets.

I had to get out of here and grab Adam on the way out.

I grabbed a chair and wheeled it swiftly towards the wall, where I had caught sight of the ventilation duct opening at the top. A part of my brain dictated that this was a stupid idea that only worked in the movies. Another part of my brain decided to screw the laws of physics and try it anyway because I could see no other option.

With that, I climbed into the chair and removed the cover off the duct. Peering into the passageway, a long ghostly whistle of air escaped, sending a chill down my spine. It was now or never. I clamped my sweaty palms onto the cold metal of the duct and hoisted myself in. The entire world suddenly shrunk into the size of a narrow tunnel that I could barely fit into.

I had no idea where the ventilation ducts lead or where they twisted and turned but I knew one of the routes would lead to the room Adam was in. I could only hope to formulate a strategy to get there. Crawling through the cramped space, I realized how loud I was being. The small contact of my hands and knees on the metallic sheet echoed all the way along the duct, transmitting and magnifying every movement. I briefly wondered if any of the cops would think of checking in here for me.

The sound of a loud and buzzing ventilation fan suddenly reminded me of something that I had long since forgotten. Adam was being kept in the room right beside his own personal room. Of course, when they designed his room they had planned to make sure the temperature was kept extremely cool to stop his circuitry from overheating. This mean the main fan was most definitely directed into that room. All I had to do was follow the sound of the fan.

With this thought encouraging, I tried to crawl to the space as quickly as I could. The air duct seemed to be supporting me well. However, I couldn’t help but worry how well a duct that was supposed to carry air was going to fare against a 110 pound human being twist and turning.

A small beam of light appeared on the floor of the duct, right in front of the main fan that buzzed noisily. I slithered closer to the aperture covered with a netted sheet and peered in.

Sure enough, there was Adam, sitting still in the chair they had placed him in with his head down. The synthetic skin of his neck had been pulled back to reveal the receiver end where they had pulled out the chip. He was shut off.

Trying to be soundless (without much success), I opened the netted sheet and gracefully fell through the opening and into the room.

As soon as my body hit the floor, a sharp stab of pain shot down my ankle. I bit my tongue from yelping out loud. I hadn’t been planning on a nice cushioned landing, but had hoped the tiled floors could have been a bit softer.

“Ugh,” I groaned, trying my best to stand up without following over again. I could hear footsteps outside the door, pacing back and forth. No one had realized I was in the room. Of course, I wouldn’t see why they would suspect I’d managed to get in here given that all the doors were sealed shut. But it wouldn’t be long before they saw the opened air duct in the control room and put two and two together.

I had to move fast.

I plucked the microchip from the desk and gingerly slipped into the receiver at the back of Adam’s neck. Zipping the synthetic skin back on, I knelt in front of him and waited for him to re-boot.

“C’mon, Adam,” I ushered. “We don’t have much time.”

A small whirring sound came from the back of his head, signalling the system was booting back up. His eyes slowly fluttered open just as a small bing! obnoxiously filled the room (courtesy trademark of the operating system he was running).

For a moment, he looked at me blankly, not quite understanding. Then head lifted and he surveyed the room slowly, asking, “How did I get here? Was I unconscious?”

Adam doesn’t know when he’s being shut off or powered back on. To him, this all appears as an episode of unconsciousness. Or at least, that’s probably what all his technicians told him to keep him from suspecting he was anything other than human.

“I don’t have time to explain!” I told him, standing up and wincing against the pain this action brought. “You have to come with me. I’m breaking you out of here.” I hobbled towards the door and stealthily peered into the small square window. No one was outside and I knew if I wanted to escape, we were going to have to do it before the cops came back to the room.

“Out of here?” Adam questioned. “Why should I trust you?”

I hadn’t been expecting him to question my motives. For some reason, I’d assumed he was just going to comply to my requests without questioning them as any robot in the city does. Then I remember that Adam possess a distinctive human trait that separates him from every robot that was ever built: making his own complex decisions.

“Look,” I said, an edge returning my voice. “You’re in danger, Adam! I’m here to save you! You’re just going to have to trust me on this one. Besides, I’m doing exactly what my dad would have done in this situation and you trust his judgement, don’t you? Mine isn’t any different at the moment.”

Adam looked thoughtful, his eyes reading me carefully. I realized he didn’t quite care what I was saying, but rather how I was saying it. He checking to make sure I wasn’t lying from his large database of gestures associated with lie detection. This unsettled me for a moment: it meant he actually didn’t trust me blindly at all--despite the fact that I was related to his lovely inventor, who he probably trusted with his life.

“Okay,” he said, after a pause that seemed to last an eternity. “I’ll come with you.”

The gravity of this response weighed on me. It was a response that had to be earned, not demanded, a trait that was quite human enough on its own.

“Then you better be a fast runner.” I suggested, yanking the door open and beckoning him to follow.

The hallway was empty, except for a two cops at the end of the corner, talking feverishly. The alarm was still blasting loudly, which would be helpful to muffle our footsteps if we were going to make a run for it the back exit. A small amount of bile made its way to my throat as I realized Will’s dead and unattended body was still lying on the floor by the door.

“Ready?” I asked Adam, who was crouched behind me. He nodded. “On the count of three, we run as fast as we can. One..two..three!”

We raced down the empty corridor towards the brightly red sign marked EXIT. I didn’t turn my head to see if any cops had spotted us and figured it was simply waste precious time anyway. I tried not to look at Will’s body as we passed by, but something silver that was lying beside him (and had probably fallen out his pocket when was attacked and knocked over) caught my eyes.

Will’s car keys.

I didn’t think twice about snatching them up and making for the door, trying not to think about the fact that there were drops of his blood on my hands now.

“Why is Will dead?” Adam asked from behind me and we pushed the back door open and were greeted with the parking lot. He asked it a strange curious tone, as if he was asking why the sky was blue.

“Someone killed him. And they think it’s you. That’s why we have to leave.” Adam didn’t reply to this, choosing instead to stare confusedly at me. “I promise to explain later,” I said.

It dawned on me that while I had Will’s car keys, I had no idea what his car looked like or where he had even parked it in the sea of vehicles before me. I knew the consequences of pushing the panic button on his keys: for one, the alarm on his car would go off and allow me to figure out which one was his. But of course, this also would attract unwanted attention from the cops if they managed to hear the car alarm over the blaring fire alarm.

I need to quit activating alarms.

I sighed, annoyed and pushed the panic button on Will’s keys anyway. There was no other way to figure out what his car looked like. Half a second after my fingers left the button, a light green Audi yelped from help from the second row.

“C’mon!” I cried to Adam as I ran towards the car, pushing the button again to ensure the Audi would shut up in time.

I climbed in and much to my surprise, Adam managed to figure out how to open the passenger seat and climb in himself. It hadn’t occurred to me that he would know how to do that with him being such a sheltered child-like robot.

He clipped his seatbelt on as I shoved the keys into the ignition. The Audi company logo appeared on the small screen above the gear shift. Suddenly, a stiff female robotic voice said, “Driver authentication please.”

“Goddammit!” I said, bringing a hand to my forehead. “I forgot about this voice recognition crap!”

“Authentication failure. Please state your name clearly.”

From the rear view mirror, I could see Titus emerging from the back door. My heart jumped into my throat as I realized they knew Adam was missing. Titus’s head looked left and right, scanning the parking lot. It wouldn’t be long before he discovered us crammed in the car, unless I somehow managed to drive away.

“Please!” I begged the robotic voice. “It’s an emergency!”

“Authentication failure. Please state your name clearly. Too many failed attempts to access this intelligent car will activate the burglary alarm.”

I was seconds away from smashing the screen in protest when suddenly, Will’s voice filled the space in the car: “William Hockley”. I looked up, almost startled to death. Had Will come back to life? Was his ghost in the car?

I was only met with Adam’s knowing face and it was a few seconds before I realized it was Adam who had said those words, in a pitch and tone that held an uncanny resemblance to Will’s. He was a little too good at mimicry.

“Access granted. Please state your destination,” said the now complying robot voice.

I gave Adam a worried look as Titus suddenly started towards us, sprinting like a race horse. He most definitely knew where we were.

“Turing Square.” Adam responded, in Will’s voice. “And make it fast.”

The engine rumbled to life and the tires screeched as Will’s car pulled out of the lot on its own and sped down the road, leaving Titus in the dust.