Silicon Man (7 page)

His initial rush of wonder made way for growing horror. Cole realized the scar on his face was gone. He turned his head, exposing the shimmering power bars on his neck and the transparent skull case filled with electronics: the mark of an AI.

“No...” Shock rippled over Cole's face. Overwhelmed by the reality, he struggled to stave off the beginning of a panic attack. His mouth gasped for air. “I... can't... breathe...”

Janson appeared behind him. His fingers dug into Cole's shoulder. “You can't breathe because you have no lungs. You’re not human anymore.”
 

“Help me...”

“You're inside a mech construct, Cole! You don't need oxygen any longer.“

“What...should... I do?”

“Try to relax. Think of something that'll calm you.”

Fuck, easier said than done.
 

Cole concentrated and focused on an image that had provided him with strength and comfort on many occasions: Kelly, smiling at him with love and deep emotion, their eight-month-old child cradled in her arms.

He stopped trying to suck in gouts of oxygen

Calm returned to his face and the panic subsided.
 

He was back in control.

“Trust me, Cole. It'll get easier.”
 

Cole remained doubtful.
 

C
HAPTER
S
EVEN

COLE HAD THOUGHT the days leading up to the upload were intense, but the weeks that followed took things to a whole other level. The tests were grueling and seemed never-ending. Synthetika wasn’t going to release Cole into the field until they were convinced he’d be able to complete the mission. They had one chance at this.
 

On the first day, Cole had to be steered around in a wheelchair, his brain still learning to communicate with his machine body. He had become a newborn trapped in an adult physiology. Dr. Ajit kept track of his progress and regarded the new Cole with fascination and enthusiasm. Cole, meanwhile, felt like someone had locked him into a steel coffin and lost the key. He’d become a guinea pig and a monster. Dr. Ajit smiled broadly as Cole was wheeled into his office.
 

“How do you feel today?”

“Not quite like myself.”
 

“Nice to see you haven't lost your sense of humor.” Ajit held up a pen. “Look at the pen. Please follow it with your eyes.” Ajit waved the pen first to his right, then to the left. Cole was tracking his movements when Ajit snatched a rubber ball off his desk and threw it at Cole. His arm came up and he caught the ball.

“Excellent. Hand-eye coordination is improving.”

Cole was growing impatient with all these games.

“When will I be able to walk again?”

“Let's find out.”

Dr. Ajit wheeled Cole into an indoor running track and urged him to get out of the steel chair that held his android frame. He spent the first two hours struggling for the proper balance to stand on both his feet. It took time, but he pulled it off. Using crutches, he began the long, arduous trek around the four-hundred-meter running track. Each step represented an excruciating challenge. Janson and Dr. Ajit observed from afar.
 

No pressure now
, Cole thought.

It took him over three hours to complete the circuit and he nearly fell several times, but he completed the loop, a big step up from being confined to a wheelchair. Cole could tell Dr. Ajit was delighted by his progress. The cyberneticist seemed convinced he’d advance at an exponential rate.
 

He turned out to be right. The next day Cole tossed the crutches aside and managed a light jog. By the end of the week, he could complete the loop in less than twenty seconds while clearing a challenging series of hurdles, breaking every Olympic record on the books. As he cut across the track, he momentarily forgot what had happened, wrapped up in the joy of pure movement in a body capable of performing at maximum capacity.

This mastery of his new body wasn’t restricted to the running track but also grew apparent in some of the sparring sessions designed to measure his combat skills. On the first day, Cole could barely hold his own against one human martial artist. By day five, he was able to ward off between seven to ten combatants without being hit once. He dodged each blow and blocked every attack with ease, his enhanced speed and strength providing him with a clear physical advantage. The unfortunate volunteers who faced him in hand-to-hand combat didn’t stand a chance against the ferocious blur of movement. He had never felt this powerful, so strong, so invincible. When he felled the last assailant, he almost let out a whoop of joy.

He was shocked at how his emotional state could change so quickly, from the depths of psychological despair to the adrenaline-charged highs brought on by the abilities of his new body.
I’m officially bipolar
, Cole mused.

His physical progress was accompanied by a greater confidence in using the tools his enhanced mechanical body provided. Once again, it was Dr. Ajit who patiently guided him through the process of discovery. Cole could not have asked for a better and more patient teacher. Ajit built mechs from the ground up and knew their capabilities as well as if he was one himself.
 

“Let's do something a little different, Cole,“ he said. “What can you tell me about myself?”

For a moment, Cole looked stumped. Until...

Digital data ripped over his vision, almost as if he was wearing a combat helmet with the HUD switched on. Built-in facial-recognition software scanned Ajit’s features. A surge of data appeared before his eyes as Cole wirelessly interfaced with a series of computer networks. Background info popped up on the cyberneticist. Height, weight, physical stats were followed by records, history, accomplishments, online videos. Cole absorbed and processed all this information within seconds.
 

“Your name is Chamal Ajit. Age 42, twice divorced, graduated with honors from Princeton, no criminal record except for a DUI-“

“That's enough!” Ajit paused for a second, regained his composure and added, ”The augmented reality function seems to be working just fine. Be aware that you’re not your average mechanical.” Dr. Ajit always used the word
mechanicals
when talking about synthetic humans, almost as if he felt the other terms were derogatory in some way. “We’ve equipped you with some of the most sophisticated wireless hacking tech on the planet.”

“I feel so special.” Cole exchanged a smile with Dr. Ajit. He liked the doctor.

“Let’s try something else,” Ajit said. “What color is my office?”

“Blue. And you could use a better decorator.”

Dr. Ajit rolled his eyes and stifled back a grin. “Vision seems fine. Your robotic eyes can process visual data within a wider range of the electromagnetic spectrum...”

As if to test out the veracity of Ajit’s word, Cole ran an X-ray scan on the scientist. The man’s skeleton suddenly stared back at him, a disconcerting experience. He soon learned he could scan reality in infrared and was outfitted with full night-vision capabilities. Perceiving reality in such a way wasn’t new; his combat helmet was equipped with all the same features, which made the experience feel less alien. The big difference was pulling off these feats without the cumbersome addition of technology. He had become the technology.

As the days wore on, more changes about his altered state came into focus. His senses might have grown more refined but the way he processed the world had lost an emotional component. His sense of smell could break down the air into its various component parts but the process felt clinical and removed. He could isolate and identify the aftershave Ajit was wearing, the soaps and oils he used every day, whether he had sex that morning, even the type of detergent he used for washing his clothes, but it all felt like an exercise, lacking any sense of joy or excitement.
 

Food was another matter. Mentally he craved eggs and steak even though his tongue and body remained indifferent to it. Mechs had the ability to break down small amounts of food in order to share dinner with their human companions. Eating merely served a social function. The pleasure a good meal had once provided was quickly becoming a distant memory that Cole desperately tried to hold on to.
 

There were moments where he could pretend nothing had changed, that everything was the way it should be, but reality always had a way of catching up with him. Adjusting to the endless list of altered sensations had become maddening in the extreme. He inhabited a new body and his reality had changed. He was a man who had been transformed into a machine and, inwardly, he wondered how long he could stand it.

A full week passed before Janson took Cole for a walk in the park adjacent to Synthetika’s R&D labs. For seven interminable days, Cole had been locked up and he was going stir crazy. He felt like a dirty secret the company was keeping a tight lid on. Being outside with the sun beating down on him had a slightly surreal quality to it. He could still feel the heat, but like many of his physical sensations, there was once again a qualitative difference in the experience. His skin was organic but the way the nerve endings communicated with his CPU was different. Many of the nuances were lost in translation.

Being outside reminded Cole that his social universe had changed. Much care had been taken to keep him within the grounds of the lab. It was crucial that none of his former team members stumbled upon AI Cole. If they saw him, it would blow the whole plan.
 

He felt isolated. Even worse, the few people Cole did interact with now looked at him differently. No longer was he the respected head of AI-TAC. To their eyes, he was just another mech. Even Janson had changed. The CEO’s voice seemed just a tad more superior, a touch more demanding. If the head of Synthetika was treating him this way, what could he expect once he stepped into the outside world? The possibilities disturbed Cole.
 

Almost as if Janson was reading his mind, he asked, “Do you think you're ready, Cole?”

“As ready as I'll ever be. The sooner I complete this mission, the quicker I get my body back…”
 

Cole broke off and stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes fixed on a Synthetika security officer who had appeared before them. Kneeling at the man's side was the German Shepherd Cole used to train the cadets. The former AI-TAC commander realized this was Janson’s final test.
 

The dog bared his teeth, a low growl building in his throat. There was zero recognition in the canine's eyes. Cole wasn't his master any longer.
 

He was the target.
 

The dog barked and lunged at him, straining mightily against the leash. Cole looked gut punched.

“You raised this dog since it was a pup. Trained it.”
 

“Why are you doing this?” Cole asked in a voice empty of all emotion.

Janson’s voice grew serious. “Physically, you're ready, but can you handle it psychologically?”

Good question. Was he ready? Maybe Janson should rephrase the question. Would he ever be ready to face the world in his current condition? All traces of hesitation disappeared as Kelly’s lifeless face flickered before his mind’s eye. “I can handle it.”
 

Janson seemed pleased by the determination in Cole’s voice. “The world you'll face is different than the one you remember. Out there, you're just another mech.”

Cole nodded his head. He got it. Shit was about to get real. He never thought this would be a picnic. “Let's just get on with it,” he said.

The dog strained against his handler's leash, jaws snapping at the air, eager to sink his teeth into the mech. Despite Cole’s brave words, he knew he would not be able to shake the memory of the dog who turned against his trainer.
 

C
HAPTER
E
IGHT

A BEATEN-UP bus wound its way down city streets and pulled up to the Atollah Tower construction building site located in the center of downtown Los Angeles. The foundation had been laid over the ground and twenty stories stabbed skyward. The scaffolding stood in place but still lacked windows and walls. The silhouettes of busy workers flitting back and forth inside the hollowed-out tower were visible from the ground. The pounding of power-tools filled the air.
 

The bus doors hissed open and a construction crew emerged, outfitted in color-coded overalls. The color indicated their individual job classifications but all were mechs… including Cole.

He peered up at the steel skeleton being willed into existence before his eyes. Dazzling sunlight glittered on metal.
 

Cole thought
of his final conversation with Janson.
“How do I make contact with the Underground Network?”
 

“You'll be assigned to a mech construction crew. Six recent runaways were working on the Atollah Tower project. We think the site is an ‘access port’ for the network.“

So here he was. He hoped that Synthetika’s intel was correct and it didn’t turn out to be a colossal waste of time.
 

He would know soon enough.

Cole joined the other workers as they filed into the building. A number of human overseers scanned the site and shot them hostile looks. These men were clearly not enamored with the mech workforce. Cole was almost inside the building when one of the overseers barked at him. “What are you looking at, mech?”
 

Cole turned and the overseer spat in his face.
 

“Wipe that stupid look off your face, mech!” the overseer yelled as saliva dripped down Cole’s chin. “Get moving!”

Defiance bubbled to the surface. It took Cole every shred of self-control to not clock the guy and ruin the whole mission. As Cole entered the building, the overseer's dirty laughter followed him.
 

The next few weeks were a nightmare that wouldn’t end. Cole’s days were spent on the upper levels of the tower, all of Los Angeles sprawling before him. Sparks sizzled as Cole used a blowtorch to weld steel. Up to twenty stories off the ground, the mechs worked efficiently and in silence. There was no chitchat to slow things down. No one cracked any jokes or played music. No one grew tired or bored or lazy. They were all cogs in an efficient machine. The days were almost tolerable, except for the constant abuse by the overseers, but the nights were far worse for Cole. Once the sun went down, it became almost impossible to keep his demons at bay. At the end of the workday, each mech was assigned a charging station, rows upon rows of vertical cylinders stored in large holding centers located on the outskirts of the city. Cole slid into his. It resembled a half-opened steel coffin. A cable extended the moment his body made contact with the contours of the docking station, plugging into a port in the back of his neck. Cole took in the hundreds of other mechs around him, all being recharged like batteries. His hands clenched into fists and his body shook with mounting terror.