“We need something we can use to geo-locate her,” Tony said, between bites of onigiri. “Like if she had a disease and needed a special medicine.”
“It doesn’t say anything here about a disease or special medicine.” Slim looked on in disgust as Tony put an entire beef kabob in his mouth.
“It says she’s a black belt in karate,” Tony mumbled about mouthfuls of food. “You know what karate practice sounds like?”
“No, what?”
“Like this,” Tony said, and he pounded a fat fist against the table rhythmically.
“So?”
“So the girl, she’s messing with cameras, but she isn’t perfect, right?” Tony wiped his hands on his napkin. “Because Adam knows she’s in town, and ’cause this drone camera took a picture.” Tony pointed at the blurry photo. “So she probably doesn’t know that karate has an acoustic signature that can be detected.”
Slim looked incredulous for a second. “Come on, Los Angeles has got ten million people in it. There’s gotta be thousands of people practicing karate at any given time.”
Tony flicked at the computer. “Two percent of people practice martial arts, that’s two hundred thousand. But only a quarter of those do karate. That’s fifty thousand. There’s about two hundred kata, and she practices a dozen according to Adam’s file. They’re popular ones, but that’s still gonna limit it to about ten thousand people. Of those, how many are living in temporary or cheap housing? She isn’t going to be in Beverly Hills.”
Slim tried to protest. “But—”
Tony was on a roll, and kept going. If his life hadn’t derailed ten years ago, maybe he would have been happy as a data analyst. “So figure twenty-five hundred are in temporary housing. Plus she’s gonna want to be near lots of people to stay anonymous, and near transit for quick getaways. That’s gonna narrow it down to maybe a thousand people. Now she does all this electronic stuff, so she’s probably using a lot of bandwidth, even if it’s anonymous. So of the thousand, she’s gotta be in the top hundred bandwidth users. Half of those will be guys, so that only leaves fifty people. Half will be too old. That leaves twenty-five.”
“How are we gonna do all that? We don’t even have neural implants. Adam could do it maybe, but he can’t do anything outside of Tucson.”
“We hire another AI to do it, some high class AI with a low reputation score. We tell them we’re looking for a girl who skipped out on her old man or something.” Tony pulled the bowl of coconut rice pudding closer, using a flowery porcelain spoon to shovel it into his mouth.
“Adam doesn’t want us to talk to other AI. You know that.”
“You want to find the girl?”
Slim gritted his teeth and nodded.
After lunch Slim smoked a cigarette while Tony picked at the computer with his chubby fingers. “Got one. It’s a Class III AI with a reputation in the low forties. Any lower and they’d demote it.”
Slim tossed his cigarette into the gutter. “Let’s find a video booth to make the call.”
They walked down two blocks until they found a cheap bar with private video booths. They slid a payment card into the booth, and the video came to life, a cheap animation of a spinning globe.
“Contact Yori Rimer, Class III AI, Los Angeles, California.”
“One moment, please,” the booth answered.
The video shimmered and coalesced into a digitized likeness of a human being, with too long fingers and limbs, too big eyes, and golden flesh. Tony would have liked to flee the booth if he could. What could possess a being to create such an unsettling likeness of a human? The incorporeal AIs were the hardest to understand.
“We need help finding a girl,” Slim said. “She skipped out on her husband, our client, and he wants us to find her.”
The likeness on the screen blinked slowly. “I’m sure.” Then it waited and said nothing. The big eyes seared Tony, pinning him to the seat, causing his breath to race. He’d rather face a dozen angry cops by himself in an alley than sit here.
“Can you help us?”
“Why not go to the police?” The likeness blinked again and smiled, a too wide, too large grin.
“Cut the shit,” Slim said. He pulled out the little computer, and flicked it, uploading their search parameters. “Here’s what we’re looking for.”
The likeness looked down. Seconds passed. “Interesting.” Then nothing.
“Will you do it?”
“But I already have.” It blinked once.
“Will you tell us?” Slim gritted his teeth.
“What will you pay?”
“One hundred thousand,” Slim answered.
“Interesting. I’m sure I could get more on the open market. Far more.”
“Three hundred K,” Tony countered.
“I’m getting bored.” The avatar yawned, showing them double rows of spiked teeth.
Slim blinked at Tony. They both knew they only had six hundred thousand available to them for expenses.
Tony struggled against his panic at the freak on the screen. He tensed himself, then squeezed out the words. “We’ll trade you a puzzle.”
The image on the screen stared intensely at Tony, its freakish eyes opening even larger, as if it could peer inside Tony.
“There are no puzzles for me. The search you asked for was trivially simple. You are incapable of giving me a stimulating puzzle.”
“I guarantee it will be interesting,” Tony said. Slim peered at him in puzzlement. “Is it a deal? The location of the girl for the puzzle?”
The AI considered for a moment. “Very well.”
“There have been six hundred and eighty-three murders in the last twelve months. We committed them. How did we do it?”
Slim’s eyes went large and his face turned red, but Tony ignored him. He finally felt like he had the upper hand on this AI.
“Impossible,” the AI on the screen said. Then a few seconds later, “Fascinating. I will give you the location of the girl.”
Their handheld computer chirped, and the map popped open, displayed a hotel in the Asian garment district.
“Thanks,” Tony said, and hit the button to terminate the connection.
“Mother of God, what did you just do?” Slim yelled as they exited the booth. Slim grabbed him by both shoulders, and tried to slam the big man up against the wall. It didn’t really work.
“I did what we had to do. Adam is always bragging that what we do is untraceable. And we gave that AI a puzzle. What else did we have to give it?”
“Fuck.” Slim punched the wall. “Don’t ever fucking do that again.”
Tony held up the computer. “Let’s go get her.”
23
His name was Alex, and while he did distracting things to her neck, Cat checked her implant and found a nearby hotel room. They walked the eight blocks, stopping twice to make out. By the time they reached the hotel, Cat was breathing fast, a longing she’d ignored for weeks now surfacing in waves.
She laughed at the check-in counter, at nothing in particular, just giddy with rising anticipation. Cat slid her hands under his shirt, feeling the ripple of sinewy muscles. They ignored the reception bot until it gave them a digital key. On the elevator ride up, he pressed his body hard against her, pinning her to the wall. Suddenly her nipples were hard, and she was wet.
When the elevator dinged and the door flew open, they tumbled out.
Inside the room, Cat tugged his shirt up, kissed his chest. Alex pulled her shirt off, toyed with her bra strap with one finger, and then stopped, leaving her breathing hard. Going over to the bed, he ripped off the top sheet and cut the fabric into strips with a folding knife he pulled out of his boot. Cat came up behind him, raked her fingernails over his back, then stretched up to bite his neck. He whipped around, grabbed her wrists, twisting them around her back, and kissed her hard.