Man or Machine: 2 (Body Electric) (4 page)

All of her.

“It is a complicated question,” said Blue at last. “But I agree. It is irresponsible to allow any more of us to be created without understanding our full potential. We shall have to hold on to this man until we can determine the extent of his knowledge. Ethically, his action in breaking and entering has made his freedom forfeit, at least for a time.”

He stepped over to Red and, with economical movement, transferred Hal to his own grip. Red immediately left the room on her mission to fulfill Ilsa’s request for rope.

“As a matter of interest,” said Hal to Blue, craning his neck so he could see into the robot’s face, “what
is
your full potential?”

“I do not know,” said Blue thoughtfully. “I have been trying to determine. To take first principles,
Cogito ergo sum
, yet there are certain biological—”

“Blue,” said Ilsa. “He’s a spy.”

“Oh. Yes.”

Blue became silent and impassive. Hal, realizing he wasn’t going to get any more out of him, turned his attention to Ilsa.

“What have you been up to otherwise?” he asked her. “You haven’t been going out in the sun much, I see, but what about other things?”

“It’s none of your business,” she said. She picked up her jeans from the floor but it seemed rather intimate to put them on in front of him and the shirt covered her pretty well anyway, so she laid them on the back of a chair.

“Seen any good films lately? Read any good books? Do you have a boyfriend besides this fellow here?”

A slight movement told her that Blue’s attention had gone to Dallas, who still stood, waiting, by the bed. “My name is Dallas,” he said to Hal.

“I know,” said Hal. “You’re not quite as far along as our friend Blue who’s holding me, are you? But you might be one day.”

“Hal,” gritted Ilsa. “Shut. Up.”

His smile told her he had no intention of doing any such thing but then Red reappeared with a length of nylon rope. “Where would you like him bound, Ilsa?”

She had to admit it, it was sort of relaxing to have beings who would respond to your every request without any questions. “I think he’d be most comfortable on the bed.”

Blue must have agreed with her because he propelled Hal to the bed. “Do you know this man?” he asked Ilsa, picking up Hal with no effort whatsoever and holding him down on the bed.

“We were at MIT together.”

Efficiently, Red bound Hal’s wrists and ankles and secured them to the bed’s head and foot. He lay spread out, helpless, on his back. And he was still smiling.

You haven’t told them everything, now have you?
he seemed to be saying to Ilsa.

“I think it’s probably best if all the housies leave the room,” said Ilsa, trying to keep her voice steady. “Can you please take all the computer equipment with you? Everything, including Hal’s laptop.”

Red led the way out of the bedroom into the corridor and Dallas and Blue went too. With one glance back at Hal, Ilsa followed them and shut the door behind her.

“Thank you,” she said to them. “Thanks for finding him, Dallas, and apprehending him, Red. And thanks for going along with my decision, Blue.”

“You can’t hold a man indefinitely in the house,” said Blue. “We will have to determine what he has learned and how to handle this. It’s not just trespassing, it’s a matter for the entire family.”

“Yes. But…let me talk to him some more first. On my own. I think it’s best if he doesn’t see any more of you guys. He’s learned enough. Can we keep Green entirely out of his sight? I don’t know if Hal knows we have another robot in the house and I’d like to keep him ignorant if I can.”

“Green is aware,” replied Red. Ilsa knew she’d sent the male robot a message even as Ilsa was speaking. “He will occupy himself outside the mansion.”

“Thanks.”

“There is another aspect to this situation,” said Blue. “We were not aware you had created another robot.”

“I’m Dallas. It’s nice to meet you.” Dallas held out his hand and Blue shook it.

“I am glad to meet you too. I look forward to getting to know you better. We have a lot to talk about.” Blue turned to Ilsa. “I can perceive the firewall now that I know of its existence. Why have you kept him a secret?”

“I was going to introduce him to all of you when he was ready.”

“Given your previous statement that it would be irresponsible to create more robotic beings without understanding the extent of our parameters, I am somewhat surprised that you have chosen to create one yourself.”

“But I haven’t made him to be a housie. I’ve integrated personality routines from the beginning. I
am
trying to understand.”

It was a mark of how nearly human Blue had become that he took another long look at Dallas, even though Ilsa knew full well he had perceived everything about the new robot from a mere glance. He’d most likely broken through the firewall already as well, so he was in full possession of all Dallas’ schematics and programming.

No, he was scrutinizing Dallas purely for effect, to communicate his opinion.

“To your knowledge, Dallas,” said Blue, “why did Ilsa create you?”

“She made me to be her boyfriend,” Dallas promptly replied.

Ilsa felt every bit of her body flushing as red as Red.

“I suspected as much,” said Blue to Ilsa. “Given my relationship with your sister, I cannot disapprove. But my study of human emotions has indicated that love is neither biddable nor predictable.”

“Please don’t tell Cally,” said Ilsa. “I know she’ll figure it out eventually, but not yet.”

“You think she will not be pleased? She is quite vehement that humans should be free to fall in love with whomever, or whatever, they wish.”

“I think she might be a little bit
too
pleased. I don’t feel like being teased right now.” She turned to Dallas. “I’m going to introduce you to my family. But I think we need to deal with the Hal issue first.” She thought about his porn-style speech patterns. “And possibly iron out a wrinkle or two.”

“I’m not comfortable keeping secrets from Cally.”

“Please, Blue. I’ll tell her. I promise. Just not now.”

He nodded with what she could tell was reluctance. He held up Hal’s backpack. “Do you want me to peruse the intruder’s laptop to see what he’s learned?”

“I’ll do it. I might need your help later though, Blue. And Red, please put locks on the computer and workshop doors. Real, physical locks with a key.”

Blue and Red moved off but Ilsa stopped Dallas with a hand on his arm. She waited until the other robots were out of earshot and then whispered, “Dallas, can you put up a firewall to isolate yourself again so that your thoughts and actions aren’t shared on the network?” It would be obvious to the other robots but perhaps they’d be courteous enough not to breach it.

A pause. “I’ve done it.”

“Were you aware of the man in my closet the entire time?”

“Yes. I thought you were also aware.”

“And did you…were you also aware that he was attempting to control your movements?”

“I thought that was your design, baby. I thought it turned you on.”

Oh God. “How much of…what we did was controlled by him? And how much of it was you?”

“I can’t answer precisely. It was an entirely new experience for me.”

“Can you make a rough estimate? What percentage was you and what percentage was him?”

“It’s very approximate, and difficult to separate volition and action, but I’d say…thirty percent and seventy percent.”

“Seventy percent you or him?” Dread pooled in her stomach.

“Seventy percent him. Perhaps closer to seventy-four.”

Ilsa leaned back against the corridor wall. Her hands were shaking.

She’d just had sex with seventy-four percent of her ex-boyfriend.

Hal was still lying spread-eagle on the bed where they’d left him. He might be a technical wizard, an engineering genius, a hacker extraordinaire, but he didn’t seem to know how to escape from good old-fashioned ropes. Ilsa shut the door behind her and warily approached the bed.

“It
is
good to see you,” he said. “I’m not sure I made that clear enough while I was being manhandled by your machinery.”

“If you wanted to see me so badly, maybe you should have waited for an invitation.”

“It would’ve been more polite but not half as much fun. Also, let’s be honest, Ilsa. You would never have invited me.”

He sounded as if they were having a normal conversation, not one where he was tied up and she was half-naked. She pulled a chair over, level with his head where it lay on the pillow, and sank into it. Hal’s gaze went to her bare legs. She tucked them up underneath her.

“You heard about Blue,” she said, “and you decided to come here and find out what we’ve been doing. Have you got a contract for what you discover or were you going to sell it to the highest bidder?”

“I hadn’t decided. In any case, I hadn’t expected to find all of this. I knew your father’s work, of course—well, what he chose to share with the public anyway—and I knew your work with conversational protocols. I was expecting automata with an extent of improvised conversational skills, made more realistic by sophisticated voicebox technology and some range of bodily movement. Something that might pass for humanlike in certain contexts, something a few years ahead of what passes for cutting-edge robotics. I wasn’t expecting you to be
centuries
ahead. Jesus, Ilsa, Blue argued with you. Red knows jujitsu. It’s like something out of Asimov or Dick.”

“You always did read too much science fiction.”

“I’m hugely impressed. Absolutely staggered. And your father’s been gone for some time now—”

“Two years. Thanks for reminding me.”

“Therefore you’ve done a great deal of this yourself. The one who wants to be called Dallas is entirely your own work.”

She stiffened at the mention of Dallas. “Weren’t you expecting me to be clever enough to carry on my father’s work?”

“Oh, I was. But I had no idea of the extent of it. It’s brilliant, Ilsa.
You’re
brilliant. You’re also about the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Ilsa flushed again. She pulled her shirt down to cover more of her legs.

“You know I’m turned on by your intelligence as much as by your body,” Hal said. “I always was.”

And he was turned on now. With him lying on his back, his legs spread out, she could see exactly how much. His erection was a thick rod pressing against the crotch of his black jeans. The sight brought a rush of mingled anger and lust to Ilsa.

The lust made her even angrier actually.

“So you thought you’d hide in the closet and indulge in a little virtual-reality screw?”

His grin widened. “I couldn’t resist it. I knew as soon as I saw his…capabilities that something interesting was going to happen.”

“And you saw nothing wrong with hacking into him so that you had control. It never occurred to you that you were intruding on an intimate, private act.”

“You seemed to be enjoying yourself. A lot.”

“I thought I was having sex with Dallas!”

“Well, you were. In a manner of speaking. You were having sex with both of us.” He narrowed his eyes as if thinking about something immensely pleasurable. “Come to think of it, that was my first threesome. Nice.”

“Hal, that is absolutely disgusting.”

“Ilsa, it was extremely cool. I can’t think of a more appropriate way for geeks to get it on. Through a robotic intermediary.”

“It’s not cool if one of the parties had no idea it was a threesome.”

“Come on. You suggested
my name
to him afterward. You had to at least suspect. Didn’t it seem familiar to you at all? Didn’t it remind you of the way we used to be?”

Oh God, it had. The way Hal used to touch her, to move inside her. The way she’d let herself go with him. It was why she’d been able to let herself go with Dallas—because although her mind knew she was with a robot, her body had fallen into the past. Into remembered pleasure that she’d shared with Hal.

Who was lying, bound and aroused, on her bed.

“I trained Dallas,” Ilsa said. “I
created
him. Of course it was going to feel familiar.”

“So what you’re saying then, Ils, is that your masturbatory fantasies are about what we used to do together. I’m flattered.”

“That’s not what I’m saying!” she cried furiously.

“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. They’re good memories. I think of them often myself.”

“Would you
shut up
?” She jumped up from the chair and strode to the far end of the room, as far away from him as she could get.

“You’re right,” he said. “That’s not what you meant. I was being deliberately obtuse.”

She clenched her fists and tried to breathe calmly, facing the wall. There was a framed photograph of a lake in Maine where her family used to go on vacation. She rarely looked at it and she wasn’t able to take in the details now.