The Turing Option

“Bullshit — if you will pardon my French. Aren’t you forgetting that the threat to Brian’s life came about because he hadn’t been killed in the first attack here? His existence threatened the thieves’ future monopoly of artificial intelligence. But now you have tracked down this AI factory and found some damn bug-killer. Big deal! Now that Brian’s AI is ahead of theirs we can make our own bug-killers — better ones too. Am I getting across to you at all?”

“Makes great sense to me!” Brian said. “Instead of all the security and secrecy we should now be telling the world about our new advances in AI. Giving out publicity about how we will go into production soon and all the great changes that our smart new robots will bring about. Keep Bug-Off in business and let’s start manufacturing some AI products here in Megalobe — which I might remind you was why I was hired here in the first place. The monopoly is broken, the secret is out — so what reason do they have for still trying to kill me?”

“You’ve got a point—”

“That is the point. You’re in charge, you can make the decisions.”

“Whoa there, not so fast. I’m only in charge of the investigation of the Megalobe robbery. Security, as you must know, goes through your friend General Schorcht. Anything like this will have to be decided by him.”

“Then get to see him at once, get some freedom for Brian,” Snaresbrook said firmly. “As Brian’s personal physician that is my prescription for his continuing well-being.”

“I’m on your side!” Ben said, raising his hands in surrender. “I’ll get onto him soonest.”

“That’s grand,” Brian said enthusiastically. “But before you rush out — what is the status of the DigitTech investigation?”

“It’s all in this GRAM here, I thought you would want to run through it. But I can sum up. A lot of interesting details have come out. We are pretty sure that DigitTech was the front for the operation and that.Thomsen was the only one in the know about the Megalobe connection. About a year ago DigitTech was bought out for a lot of money, and that’s when Thomsen arrived to manage it. He has a pretty soiled past that was not mentioned to the company. A couple of bankruptcies and even an indictment — dropped for lack of evidence — for insider trading. He was a good businessman, but a little too greedy to keep honest.”

“The perfect guy to use as a front man.”

“Correct. The manufacturing side of the firm wasn’t altered much, personnel changes of course but no more than would be normal in any firm. What did change was on the research side. A new laboratory wing was built and work began on improved Expert Systems. At least that’s what everyone in the lab believes. They use the word AI all right, but none of them knew that their research was based on a stolen AI. Their work was just to build the AI into their bug blaster.’’

“But someone in the research lab had to know,” Snaresbrook said.

“Of course. And that person was a certain Dr. Bociort, who was in charge of the company’s robot research.”

“What was his story?” Brian asked.

“We don’t know yet since he cannot be located. He was an old man, in his seventies or eighties, we were told by the technicians who worked with him. A few months ago he fell ill and was taken away in an ambulance. He never returned. The employees were told that he was in a hospital and very ill. Those who sent flowers or letters were sent thank-you notes by his nurse.”

“Which hospital? Couldn’t they tell from the envelopes where he was?”

“Interesting you should say that. All the hospital mail was apparently addressed to Thomsen. Who opened the letters himself and passed on the contents.”

“Let me tell you what comes next,” Brian said. “No ambulance from any hospital or ambulance service in the area ever picked anyone up at DigitTech. Nor is there any record of the geezer in any hospital or nursing home for a hundred miles in any direction.”

“You’re learning fast, Brian. That’s correct and that’s where we stand now. Dead end again. But we have found your stolen AI. But there may be other AIs out there somewhere so we’ll keep looking.”

“So will I,” Brian said, stamping across the room and grabbing up the GRAM that Ben had put on the table. “Sven is going to work again. He found the AI in the first place — and I’ll bet he tracks down more leads from all the information that you have in here.”

“The holiday,” Dr. Snaresbrook said. “You still want that, want to get away?”

“Sure, Doc, but no big rush. Ben is going to have a big job convincing General Schorcht that I ought to be let out of prison. And while he is doing that I and Sven are going to keep this investigation alive — and solve this crime. They’re still out there, thieves and killers. They did me an injury — and by God I’m going to do one back to them — in spades!”

32 September 19, 2024