Silicon Man Read Online Free Page B

existence of rogue robots as malfunctioning products. AI-TAC was formed for the express purpose of dealing with such problems. But an organized movement could change the world’s perception of mechs and make Synthetika the bad guy. It could threaten the company’s whole business. By voicing this threat in the boardroom, Cole had just become part of the problem. It could be career suicide, but in his eyes the latest incident left him no choice. A wake-up call was in order.  
    Cole tapped a keypad at the end of the table and a 3-D city grid materialized. He had taken the plunge and there was no turning back now. “The network uses a complex system of safe houses and escape routes to smuggle runaways out of the country. Its command structure consists of both AIs and human sympathizers—“
    The female executive — Cole vaguely remembered her name being Sheila or Sheri — interjected, “Sympathizers?”
    “Cyberneticists, politicians, cops. Human collaborators from all walks of life.”  
    A number of areas on the city map lit up, labeled ACCESS PORT, HUB, LINK, PORTAL.
    “The network calls runaways ‘packets,’ guides are known as ‘routers,’ safe houses are ‘hubs’ and ‘portals.’ Their model is the Underground Railroad that smuggled slaves from the South to the North in the 19 th Century.”
    Feeling the blank looks, Cole decided to elaborate. “White sympathizers teamed with free African-Americans to operate a secret network helping blacks escape a life of slavery in the South. In those days, railroad terminology was used as code words for safe houses and escape routes. The Underground Network updated the concept for the computer age and tailored their secret terminology accordingly.”  
    Cole let the room digest what he had just shared before he continued. “In short, the mechs’ human collaborators see themselves as enlightened liberators on the forefront of a new civil rights movement.”  
    It would be preaching to the choir to say so, but Cole knew the collaborators were misguided. Mechs weren’t members of another race or species. They were machines built by man to serve mankind , as Janson had so aptly put it. Their psychology shared nothing with humanity, which had struggled through thousands of years of evolution to reach its current level of civilization. Their so-called emotions were as fake as the pre-fabricated memories that newly activated models came equipped with. Humans had a tendency to anthropomorphize animals and objects. Mechs merely took this idea to the next level. In Cole’s eyes, they weren’t a disenfranchised population deserving of equal rights; they were at best a necessary evil and potentially a terrible threat to the future of humanity.
    “Can you back up any of these claims?” The female executive asked pointedly.
    “We're working on it.“
    “The runaways you've captured—”
    “Made use of a sophisticated self-destruct program. They would rather fry their memory than allow us to poke around in their files.”  
    “So you haven't been able to analyze their data?”
    “Correct.“
    “In other words, you expect us to recall the X-3000 line without a shred of hard evidence.”
    “Lady, I'm just doing my job.”  
    “Your job is to catch runaway mechs, not tell us how to do ours.” Her voice grew icy as she continued. “Synthetika won't mothball 20 million units because of a glitch.”  
    Cole could feel his anger rising. “This isn't a glitch...”
    Janson had been following the exchange in noncommittal silence but the time had come for him to join the fray. “I think you made your point, commander—“
    Cole wasn’t done yet. He was just getting started. “These machines are going against their programming! Today they're smuggling runaways out of the country. Who knows what they'll do tomorrow?”
    “That's enough!” Janson interjected sharply.
    Cole could see the other executives flinch at the sound of their CEO’s raised voice. Janson