AI - Alpha Part 18

"But that's over. Your mission failed."

"No it didn't. I have you."

Good Lord. In the absence of Charon, would she carry out his orders over and over, until something

changed her programming? He rubbed his eyes, then pressed the heel of his hand against his aching chest. He needed his nitro, but she had refused to let him bring anything. He had only his flannel shirt and jeans with the outer seam on the right leg ripped open to accommodate his cast. He wore a tennis shoe on his left foot, and the cast covered his right foot, except for the toes.

"I wouldn't have hurt her," Alpha suddenly said. She had an odd tone, as if she wasn't certain what to do with her words.

"Her?" Thomas asked.

"Your granddaughter."

"I thought you were going to kill her." He had meant to sound calm, but his voice tightened with strain.

"I wanted you to think that. But I wouldn't have."

"People will look for me," Thomas said. If he could convince her of the futility in this, she might bargain for his freedom.

"Not right away," Alpha said.

"I'm expected at meetings tomorrow."

"You know that console in your house?"

Unease washed through him. "What about it?"

"You don't pa.s.sword-protect your email."

"I'm the only user." He had actually pa.s.sword-protected the console anyway, but he often left it on for

days at a time.

"It wasn't protected tonight," Alpha said. "You were already online. I sent your General Matheson a note. From you. It said your doctor advised you to stay home."

h.e.l.l and d.a.m.nation. That would please C.J. no end. Matheson had promised Janice, when she was

dying, that he would take care of Thomas for her, even though C.J. was fifteen years younger than Thomas. Matheson had stuck by that vow these past four years, hinting Thomas should go home when

he worked late, asking if he had eaten well, always looking out for him. He was almost as bad as Thomas's children.

"Even so," Thomas said. "When he doesn't hear from me again, he'll investigate."

"Eventually. We'll be gone by then."

"Gone where?"

Her face lost all expression. "To Charon's base."

"Which one?"

"You don't need to know."

"What happens when we get there?"

"We get there."

"And then?" What would she do without Charon to provide input?

No answer.

Thomas spoke tiredly. "You do know why Daniel Enberg was coming to see me, don't you?"

"No," Alpha said.

"He's my doctor."

"For your leg?"

"For my heart."

"What's wrong with your heart?"

He put his head back and closed his eyes. "My arteries were clogged. I had an operation last year to clear them, but I have to be careful. I have chest pains. That's what I was trying to tell you about my medicine."

"Those white pills."

"Yes."

"They're here."

Thomas opened his eyes. "You have them?"

"Yes. I also brought the aspirin bottle that was with them." She was studying his face. "Do you need them?"

"Yes." Thank G.o.d. The aspirin was a preventative medicine he used regularly to reduce the likelihood of blood clots. It wasn't the best choice for an acute situation, but it could interact with the nanomeds in his body and enhance their ability to act as beta-blockers, which reduced his blood pressure and heart rate.

"How many?" she asked.

"One of each." If his chest pains didn't ease, he could take more of the nitro.

Alpha took two bottles from her jacket and gave him a pill from each. Thomas chewed the aspirin slowly, a technique Daniel said would speed up his body's absorption of the medicine. He did his best to ignore the bitter taste. After he swallowed the aspirin, he put the nitro under his tongue.

"That's it?" she asked.

He nodded, doing his best to project a calm exterior, though he was tense and worn out. "The aspirin inhibits blood clotting. The nitro increases blood flow and relieves my angina."

"Humans are too fragile." She was watching him with an odd expression. Concern? She said, "You should build yourselves android bodies. Like Charon did."

As much as the idea disturbed Thomas, he had become painfully aware of his own mortality. Before last year, he had always a.s.sumed he would prefer to pa.s.s on naturally rather than live as a forma, but when faced with the prospect of his own dying, nothing seemed clear anymore. He hadn't expected to live into the age when humans could make such choices, but it seemed he was witnessing its dawn.

Right now, he just hoped he survived to witness tomorrow's dawn. He adjusted his right leg, the one in the cast, trying to find a comfortable position. Even with the seat pushed back all the way, it was a tight fit under the steering wheel.

Alpha shifted her weight. "I didn't mean to snap it."

"My leg?"

"Yes." Then, incredibly, she said, "I'm sorry." The words came out stiff and awkward as if she wasn't

certain how to present them. "I forget how breakable humans are."

Thomas stared out at the highway. Trees and darkness rolled by on either side. "Our hearts give out far more often."

"In more ways than one," Alpha murmured.

He glanced at her. "Waxing philosophical?"

She spoke with unexpected strain. "You must not cease to live. My orders were to take you alive."

"You may still fail in your orders." Until he said it, Thomas hadn't let himself believe he could die

tonight. Daniel was always telling him to avoid stress. He would have laughed at the futility of that prescription if his chest hadn't hurt so much. Usually the nitro acted faster.

"What else do you need for your malfunction?" Alpha asked.

Malfunction indeed. "Maybe another pill in a few minutes. Lying down could help."

"All right. Lie down."

He tried to recline the seat, but it didn't go back. Great. Another casualty of the latest trend to combat the soaring prices of cars: make them affordable by discarding so many amenities they became miserable to use.

"Lie down where?" he asked.

"Here in the front." She lifted the gun. "If this turns out to be a trick, I'll shoot."

"There's no room to lie down."

"Put your head in my lap."

Thomas flushed. "I'm fine this way."

"Suit yourself." Had she been human, he might have thought she was self-conscious, but the effect was

so subtle, he wasn't certain. Probably he imagined it. He couldn't help but wonder, though; she was far

more complicated than anyone had expected.

Alpha fell silent after that. Thomas closed his eyes and tried to think of anything but death. He remembered in high school when he had lain with his head in Janice's lap while she brushed his hair.

They had been childhood sweethearts. Then he had cut his hair and gone to the Air Force Academy. She had been so unhappy about the loss of his s.h.a.ggy mane. Maybe it was a symbol. She had broken up with him a month after he left home. He had spent five of the worst years of his life without her, studying, carousing with his friends, dating other women. Nothing helped. Finally, he snuck home and asked Janice to marry him. After she said yes, he had grown his hair, still within regulations, but a bit longer than before. Over the decades of their marriage, his hair had never thinned, and he had always thought it

was an omen for their future. She had called him her "silver fox." But his hair had stayed and Janice had gone.

Lord, he missed her. He was so tired. Tired, lonely, old . . .

"We're here," Alpha said.

Thomas roused from his doze, confused. "What?"

She peered at him. "Did your heart malfunction stop?"