Ch.233Work Record #033 – Fear What Lurks in the Darkness (7)

After the bomb squad confirmed the explosive, they placed the computational aid signal duplicator I had inserted along with the bomb in a double-layered spherical container. They would detonate it in a safe location.

I soon boarded the Counter-Air Division van. After sending my bike home through Chance, I naturally removed my visored helmet. Director Gabriel Walker clicked his tongue as if irritated.

“We were prepared for someone coming from outside, but we didn’t expect you to hide near the café and use a car that was already parked. Quick and decisive action, freelancer. You’ll be paid, but first, a few things.”

I nodded briefly. I was used to ideological screening anyway. The director looked at me and asked. He seemed to know he had to ask this question, but it appeared uncomfortable for him.

“Good. Freelancer, could you tell me why you killed the suspect? It’s just a formality. We don’t need mutant-haters in the Counter-Mutation Division. It’s a question we have to ask all external personnel.”

It was very Bellwether-like to thoroughly exclude mutant-haters who might kill mutants that could be captured alive for emotional reasons, even while hunting mutants themselves to do so efficiently.

Still, I’m not a mutant-hater. I had sufficient reason to kill him. Just as I don’t mind having my abilities verified, I don’t mind proving that I’m not a deranged killer.

“When I checked the connection points of Pablo’s bomb, there were two. One was designed to detonate when Pablo sent the detonation command through his computational aid, and the other was a dead man’s switch.”

He even had a physical switch included so he could detonate it manually. He was cautious and intelligent, but he was eliminated before he could use those capabilities.

“If I had kept Pablo alive to maintain the dead man’s switch, he would have sent the detonation command. But if I killed him or damaged his computational aid, the dead man’s switch would have activated.”

Gabriel Walker already trusted me to some extent. It was this trust that made him reluctant to ask this question. The hurdle for proof was rarely this low.

“So, instead of collecting his head as originally planned, I attached the computational aid signal duplicator to neutralize the dead man’s switch, then killed him to prevent him from issuing the detonation command. Is there anything unusual about that?”

Director Gabriel Walker shook his head. He even looked somewhat embarrassed.

“I said it wasn’t necessary, yet they insisted… No, freelancer. It was indeed an unavoidable situation. Your payment has been transferred to your account. I look forward to working with you again.”

I took his extended hand and shook it lightly. I naturally slipped in a question about my original purpose.

“Good. By the way, I’ve become quite interested in learning more about the Counter-Mutation Division’s work… but I suppose it would be too much to expect you to worry about a freelancer who’s interested in a job with so few holidays?”

“Not at all. We welcome having someone to share our workload. If you’re interested in the job, feel free to contact us and visit anytime, freelancer.”

After making sure I could keep my promise to Tina, I got off at the Bellwether headquarters. I walked out with my helmet in my bag. A car was waiting in front of the building. The door opened before me.

I climbed into the back seat naturally, pretending to be familiar with it, though I wasn’t really. It was a car with a driver’s seat that existed for manual operation in emergencies, despite having autonomous driving capabilities.

A hologram of a semi-nude woman—or more precisely, a completely nude woman with only the parts that needed censoring blurred out—was projected through the driver’s seat hologram projector. I sighed.

“Stephanet, using a company hologram projector to output something like that… isn’t that a silly joke?”

My reaction seemed unexpected. Stephanet was curt.

“Would you prefer to walk home, Arthur?”

“That wouldn’t be so bad.”

Stephanet opened the car door again as if offended, but when I actually turned to leave, she closed it again. Stephanet is Stephanet. She output another complaint.

“Huh, were you really going to leave just now? When this pretty and lovely Stephanet is taking time to drive you personally? I don’t understand.”

“You don’t play pranks unless you enjoy the reaction. So, what did you want to talk about that made you want to replace the auto-driving function?”

The car started moving. Her driving skill was much better than the average auto-driving program. There was hardly any sense of the vehicle moving mechanically.

“I’m just curious. It’s hard to see the Shepherd smile, but seeing you smile is very easy. Why do you know how to smile, Arthur? There’s not much to smile about in this city.”

Following her words, images of accident and crime scenes that Stephanet received and checked daily flooded my vision. I felt like the part where my computational aid was attached might start aching.

As the saying goes, chosen submission is better than forced freedom. This time too, I knew the answer, so I spoke without needing to think long.

“Don’t just look at it relatively, look at the absolute amount, Stephanet. It’s not that there aren’t many things to smile about in this city, but that there are too many things that don’t make you smile.”

As evidence for my statement, I showed Stephanet photos of returned children at Christmas or insignificant things I had photographed in night scenery. I thoroughly hid anything about Nadia.

“That seems true, but… more importantly, you had such a grand Christmas party and didn’t invite me? Even though I had a Christmas theme installed and everything.”

“It’s not like you couldn’t have taken a short walk to the event building when the administration staff were intoxicated with giving various gifts for Christmas, right? They do their jobs well.”

Stephanet was advanced enough to experience mental stress, and further advanced enough to relieve that mental stress through hobbies.

“I can’t deny that fact. Alright. It’s not that there are few things to smile about in the world, but that there are too many things that don’t make you smile. Next, what were you thinking when you killed the mutant today, Arthur?”

“When that so-called mutant was remotely controlling a vehicle to crash into the glass wall of a café full of people like a common terrorist, what should I have been thinking, Stephanet?”

The only thing I felt was a sense of letting go. The sensation that I could no longer make excuses with any words. I just felt that I had to kill him. There was no reason to feel anything more.

“The sense of necessity to kill is enough. But honestly… don’t you get angry seeing someone like that? It’s such a… waste of the word ‘person.'”

Although Stephanet was merely outputting language, her modulation was as natural as an ordinary person’s. I listened to her words and then answered.

“What do you mean by wasting the word ‘person’?”

“Honestly, even this beautiful and lovely Stephanet is just an artificial intelligence. Santa Claus wouldn’t grant Stephanet’s wish even if I did two hundred good deeds every day. But…”

Though she obscured it by joking about Santa, Stephanet might be sensing the subtle difference that exists between herself and ordinary humans.

Come to think of it, her modulation of speech, experiencing stress… all the evidence of Stephanet’s extreme high performance were merely basic things for humans. Is that why she yearns for it?

“So you’re saying you can’t stand seeing someone who has the qualification of ‘person’ that you want to earn by doing two hundred good deeds a day behaving like that? Something like that?”

“That’s it. If I had been at the scene, with sufficient equipment help… I would have killed that man painfully enough to turn his gray matter into thick sludge.”

Her words made it possible to infer what might have happened to the transparent eye that had fallen into Stephanet’s hands, for the crime of desecrating the humanity she yearns for. It was a childish cruelty.

“You shouldn’t become sadistic, Stephanet. It’s pouring excessive resources into something. No matter how much you dislike someone or how angry you are… isn’t it a waste to invest so many of your resources in someone you hate?”

Hearing my words, the hologram sitting in the driver’s seat changed to a girl of about five or six years old wearing a pink dress. Stephanet also changed her voice to something childlike.

“You know that this admirable and remarkable Stephanet is only four years old to understand such things, right? The problem is, four-year-old Stephanet never had a chance to live as a four-year-old.”

Stephanet was created with perfect abilities to perform her duties. She was born fully mature and has been operating for 4 years. She never had time to live as a child.

“I wanted to be that kind of person in Bellwether’s childcare facility. Someone who’s good at everything from the moment they’re born. I wanted to make Bellwether proud of raising me.”

The hologram moved from the driver’s seat, passing through the central hologram projector to the back seat projector, and sat next to me. Stephanet was still wearing the hologram of a child-like appearance.

“What you didn’t need is what I need, and what I don’t need is what you need, Arthur. But… you have what you need now, don’t you? A 3-4-0 licensed freelancer.”

“Not at all. So far… I’m just experiencing a comprehensive lack of ability. I want to become a more remarkable person. There’s something I must do, but I’m still so inadequate that I have to work hard.”

The car entered the apartment complex and stopped in front of my apartment. Stephanet spoke with a triumphant expression. Stephanet wants to become the beautiful and lovely Stephanet.

“I think this Stephanet can help with that. If you become remarkable enough to satisfy yourself, I’ll let you use this Stephanet for a whole day as you wish. Tempting, isn’t it?”

The hologram had changed from a child to a semi-nude woman with her legs crossed over the front seat. It was almost laughable how one-dimensional yet captivating the level of temptation was.

On the surface, it looked like a thoughtless seduction, but the offer to freely use an artificial intelligence with enough computing power to control Los Angeles was nothing but tempting.

“That’s an extremely tempting offer, Stephanet. It was helpful to me… but what about you, Stephanet?”

The hologram slightly parted her lips and exhaled what seemed like an intoxicated sigh, while simultaneously the car’s air conditioning released a stream of warm air toward me, similar to the temperature of breath.

“That’s the kind of thing that moves Stephanet. Whether it’s my heart or the overload point of my thinking circuits… a part that was quite uncomfortable has become quite comfortable. I like it. Have a good day, Arthur.”

This time Stephanet didn’t stop me from getting out of the car. As I got out, the hologram briefly waved from inside the window, and then the car departed. It would return to headquarters.

As soon as I got out of the car, Chance connected to my mind. He would have heard the entire conversation with Stephanet. Chance spoke as if somewhat uncomfortable.

“It’s good to see you naturally conversing with a Prometheus-level artificial intelligence, but that Stephanet’s instability… do you think ‘instability’ is the right word?”

“If you’re asking for my opinion… no. Although Stephanet is arrogant and sadistic, she’s not irregularly inefficient. You’re also a humanlike AI, but you dislike things that resemble yourself, Chance.”

Chance is a gruff but good-hearted artificial intelligence. He tries to prevent the world from burning in his own way, and tries not to pick up a gun even if he gets stoned. Chance was always like that.

“We are not alike.”

“You are. You, Ms. Mila, and Stephanet are all very similar in that none of you are just bland, that’s all.”

I enter the apartment entrance and stand in front of the elevator. Two people, a man and a woman, were already standing there before me, both with pistols hidden behind their waists. They fled after seeing my small evil deed.

Although I denied Stephanet’s words, it seems I’ve gained the ability to keep gangs away just by standing there. It’s not the kind of ability that would make Bellwether send the Counter-Air Division.

Fortunately, I succeeded in leaving a good impression on the Counter-Air Division. The problem now is that I also need to leave a good impression on Panacea Meditech. It’s time for my head to start hurting again.

Until the security job I promised to Panacea Meditech comes in, I’ll have to spend time hunting mutant terrorists… no. As Dean said, terrorist mutants.

It would be good if I could build more trust and extract information from Director Gabriel Walker. Whatever information I find, whether it’s that mutant hunting could be justified or the opposite, what I need to do is always the same.

I need to create an argument to convince Mr. Günter. Somehow I need to make mutant hunting appear unjust to increase even slightly the possibility of Bellwether and Panacea Meditech working together.

We live in an era where reality can be censored and truth can be manufactured. Mr. Günter could cause both with a single word, but for me to do it would require extensive preparation.

Is Bellwether more important? Or is Ms. Eve more important? I could enjoy destroying Hollowed Creek for Ms. Eve much more than faithfully following Bellwether.

Even if it’s betrayal, it would be the result of following the brick path laid by Mr. Günter. I can use everything as a means except what I can enjoy. That’s what Mr. Günter told me.

If I need Bellwether, I should use Bellwether, and if I need Panacea Meditech, I should use Panacea Meditech. I might have to overthrow the person who taught me using the words of the person who taught me.

I don’t know if this would be crossing the final moral line, or if it would be following Mr. Günter’s words to the end. Is this self-justification? I don’t know, but I steel my resolve to not be bound, as Mr. Günter said.

Mr. Günter was like a great merchant to me, but I had no intention of being crushed under him. Although I thought of Mr. Günter when outlining the word “father,” I had no intention whatsoever of becoming Günter II.