Case File 8 - The Boy That Wasn't Missing
Part 3 of 3
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Everything went black. The lights, the controls, the damn countdown. It was so quiet I could hear my pulse throbbing in my head.
“What the hell?”
The inside door banged open. I spun around and flashed my light to Ned’s face. I’d been saved.
“Yo, Flo...Flo yo, Flo yo...”
“Ned, for the last time, please don’t do that,” I chided him, but my heart wasn’t in it. I’d never admit it, but I was grateful to see him. Tension raced out of me.
“What?” Ned looked genuinely surprised. “You don’t like me making rhymes with your name.”
I let out an audible exhale. “That’s right, I don’t like that.”
“Oh, you should’ve said.” Ned came forward and stared out of the window to space. “I guess I got here in the nick of time.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“Susan alerted me to an anomaly in this sector. She shut everything down so I could get here before...” He gestured out the window with his thumb.
“I’ll thank Susan, too,” I said, hoping neither of them mentioned to Chief Thumbold that I’d run off chasing ghosts without back up.
“So, we can now confirm there’s a hunk of rogue AI in this sector.” Ned turned and smiled at me.
I took a deep breath. My near-death experience still loomed so large in my mind it was hard to focus on anything else.
“He’s afraid of being deleted,” I said, grateful that everything was currently turned off. The boy/AI couldn’t be listening.
Ned pursed his lips. “Isn’t that exactly what we’d do?”
“If we went by the book, then probably.” I shone my light up at the currently off camera. “But I know a tech genius who’d probably help find the AI a home.”
“Huh, I took you for a by-the-book kinda cop,” Ned said.
I frowned. “I guess I’m just full of surprises, huh? How about I get you one of your friend’s hotdogs to say thanks for saving my life?”
“I never turn down free food.” He gestured towards the inside door. “Lead the way.”
“So, how do we trap him without either of us being sent out an airlock?” Ned asked between bites of his third hotdog. “Would your tech guy know?”
I leaned back on the bench. “I try to keep my tech guy out of police business.”
“Hmmm,” Ned said.
“How about a trap?” I suggested.
“Sure, how do we build a trap for a sneaky AI?”
“We’d need something to lure him in…” I had no idea but didn’t want to admit it. Then I read the sign on the shop across the way—Jake’s Immersive Gaming.
Jake’s Immersive Gaming was a low-budget version of a control room complete with glitchy neon lights. A slight haze hung in the air as if some of the electronics were failing—it smelled that way too. Since it was early in the day, we were the only customers.
I leaned against the counter and almost sighed when Ned wandered off to a display case just off to the side. Inside, all sorts of tiny beasts raged above their little projectors. I sighed. There was a time when my boys would have loved a place like this.
“So, you want me to render this part of the station?” The young man behind the counter, who wasn’t Jake, frowned at me. He wore a name badge that said ‘Behemoth’, but there was no way I was calling him that.
I nodded. “Susan will provide you with the details.”
“This is highly irregular.” Susan clearly enunciated every syllable as if to highlight her irritation.
“But is it against regulations?” I looked up as if it mattered which direction I looked when I spoke with Susan.
“Negative.” Susan sounded disappointed.
“Then get on with it.”
“Okay, I’ve got the schematics,” the young man said. “Can I add in some orcs or dragons? Otherwise, this is going to be one boring game.”
“Just leave it as is.”
I stood in the control room overlooking Docking Bay 11. People milled around in the space between the doors and the tent. From where I stood, I could hear over-excited children pining for treats and the opportunity to ride an animatronic camel. I smiled before turning towards the door to the breakroom.
A tingle ran up my spine. I wasn’t alone.
“I’m going to find you.” I stepped inside the breakroom.
Laughter sounded from the hallway beyond. I ran down the hallway and into the airlock—like before the door closed behind me.
“Gotcha,” the boy/AI said with glee. “For a second time.”
“You’ve been naughty.” I stared up at the camera.
“I have not. I’m just having a little fun.”
“People could get hurt.” I walked over to the exterior door. Outside was black.
I turned and found the little boy standing in the airlock with me. He wore the standard child’s uniform on Indigo Station—a t-shirt with a cartoon printed on it, this time a cartoon octopus, and dark pants though these had a hole in the right knee. Some sort of food stain ran down his shirt and a couple of splotches marred his pants. His hair was messy, as though his mom had given up trying to control it—something I could relate to all too well.
“Well, hello.” I knelt to his height. “It’s nice to meet you.”
He stomped a foot. “I’m going to blow you into space.”
I raised an eyebrow and looked the boy in the eye. “Young man, you are going to do no such thing.”
“But, but, but…” his words trailed off.
“You can’t be here. I need you to come with me,” I said.
“They’ll—you’ll—delete me.” The boy became frantic, backing away from me until he ran into the wall.
The klaxon sounded, and the countdown began on the panel beside the door.
Nine...
“I promise you won’t be deleted.” I stood.
Eight...
Seven...
“I want to stay here.”
Six...
“I’ll take you somewhere more fun, somewhere you won’t be alone.”
Five...
The boy glared at me. There was no way I was going to back down to this fight.
Four...
Three...
Two...
One…
The outside door slid open.
“Wait, you were supposed to be blown out into space!” The boy said as he balled his fists at his side.
I smiled. “Come with me, I've got something to show you.”
He stomped his foot down. “You just want to trick me again!”
“No. It'll be fun and I promise you won't be deleted.” I held out my hand to him.
He cocked his head. “Why should I trust you?”
“Because I have two boys just like you, and I know what they found fun.”
The boy scrunched up his face as he stared at me. I just waited with my hand outstretched towards him.
He snorted. “Fine, I'll come with you—but only because you promise fun.”
He took my hand and let me lead him through the door. We walked along a black floor with little lights arching overhead. It was a poor approximation of space, but I hadn’t given the guy at the game shop much time.
Beside me, the boy hung his head. “No one has ever promised me fun before.”
I looked down at him. “Really?”
He nodded. “You are the first person who has really noticed I exist.”
“Where did you come from?” I asked.
He shrugged.
Ahead, the big top tent loomed large.
“Where are you taking me?” The boy didn’t pull his hand out of mine.
“I was trying to think why you would stay around Docking Bay 11. And why would you show up when the circus did? Then my partner suggested that maybe you just wanted to go to the circus.”
The boy froze. I stopped and looked down at him.
“I… I… just wanted to see inside,” he said. “The other kids were having so much fun inside.”
“But the circus isn’t wired to the station.”
The boy shook his head. “There was no way in.”
“That must have been frustrating.”
“I tried, and I tried.” He stared down at his feet.
“How about we go to the circus now?”
His face brightened as he looked up at me. “Really? We can?”
“Yep.”
The two of us continued on to the big top.
“I thought some cotton candy was in order,” Ned said as he headed towards us just inside the tent. He held two pink poofs on a stick out in front of himself.
The boy beamed. He took the cotton candy and started eating it. I couldn’t help but smile.
“I got one for you too,” Ned said as he handed me one.
“I haven’t had cotton candy since…” my words trailed off as I accepted the stick.
“Since when?” Ned asked. Even the little boy/AI stood looking up at me, waiting for an answer.
“Since my boys were your age,” I said, meeting the boy’s gaze.
The next morning, I sat at my desk ready to start the day’s paperwork.
“Yo, Flo… ops sorry, I promised not to rhyme.” Ned sat down at the desk across from mine—his desk.
“I’m holding you to that promise,” I said before taking a sip of my third coffee of the day.
“So, where’d you take that boy?” Ned shoved some sort of sugary pastry into his mouth.
“I know a tech guru who keeps a simulated world full of lost AI. The boy will love it there.”
Ned grinned and leaned back in his chair. He put his feet up on the desk—I almost told him not to, then decided maybe I was just a little bit too uptight. Having Ned as my partner might be good for me. I leaned back and put my feet up, too.
“I wonder where the boy came from,” Ned said.
“Hmmm... I guess we'll have to open another case file to investigate.”
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