Chapter 27: A Sound Argument

It was long walk. The corridor sang the song of his footsteps as he walked towards its end, towards the light. His chip calmed as if at the presence of a master. There was no aching in his head, only clarity. He could no longer see or hear the voice of his loved ones. His eyes were fixed on the light, and every atom of the hallways pushed him forward. The walk was no longer stretching, he was about to walk inside the room with the red lights.

"Welcome, sir," a figure with a white robe said, turning towards Roger.

"Doctor Barris?" Roger said, surprised. Owinson did not seem to be available. The room had only a pad at the very corner, shielded with metal and seeming to be steaming. At the other side there was a large computer terminal, composed of three set of generators with a gigantic screen. At the other corner, the shape shifting metal from the auction house was whirling in a circle. Doctor Barris nodded, then turning to the steaming pad at the corner. There was a small screen, portraying all vitals with the heartbeat at the background. Doctor had his finger on the screen, nodding in satisfaction.

"How are you supposed to be here?" Roger said, eddying around the room with his hand swabbing the servers, the screen, the shapeshifting metal within the glass cube, and even turning back to the pad.

"A favor. You know how life works, someone does you a favor and you'd have to pay them that favor back. Well, aside from that, I'm just here on family business," Dr. Barris said before he pulled a chair from the back and sat facing the computer, tapping his notes. Roger stepped back, the doctor did not seem to be stopping him at all. Roger took a couple of steps back towards the pad. There was a small glass embedded in the metal shield. Roger noticed water splashing next to someone's bare shoulders before he put both of his hands on the pad. Roger's heart struck, he bristled away, wincing and panting as he leaned on the wall.

"Yeah, he's been like that for a long time," Dr. Barris said, not bothering looking back at the young man. "My poor step-brother didn't make it two days with that chip in his mind. The first day he lost his sight, the second day he lost his whole body."

Owinson was buried deep within the pad. His face was a lot different from how he was portrayed to Roger. The feller had the bones of his face escaping the layers of his skin. His teeth fell one after the other. His eyes were covered with a darkish sauce. He was also bald.

"Then how? How did he talk to me? How did he come to my house the first time I ever saw him?"

"No, that time he used one of his shapeshiting bots. Either that or he must have messed up with your mind. He tells me about it, he told me all about it. You really did things in this city, kid," the doctor said, pulling himself away from the computer before he took a hotdog out of his bag with a beer can in his other hand.

"I did things based on his command. He prepared the playground; he did force me to do it all."

"Sure, but you were free to refuse, weren't you? I mean, for God's sake, what's the importance of a few souls that you loved in comparison with those who died in the gang war and the hacker revolution? I just don't see how you are innocent in this. In fact, no one is," the doctor is, trying to help swallow his mouthful with a sip from the can.

"Listen to me, I can't understand how he could speak to you, and to me, if he is…" Roger said, looking up at the computer as cubic figures assembled into the image of the blind one. "Oh, I see you uploaded your mind to a computer. With your chip still active, you could travel across the network of the world without being tethered to any walls, to breaking down, to a deadline. You really are my father's teacher, aren't you?"

Dr. Barris looked at the two of them before taking another bite of the hotdog. There was a sense of carelessness in him.

"Hello Roger, we finally meet face to face. No illusions, this is the real stuff. Tell me, how does it feel?"

Roger took a step back, careful. He sensed something hot and sharp at the back of his head. He closed his eyes and gasped, cursing under his tongue. Dr. Barris had the muzzle of his laser gun kissing the back of Roger's head. There was no shaking, no hesitation. Roger released himself, sitting on the chair with the gun at the back of his head.

"This mess we've created, it was all because you wanted me to be strong enough for whatever you're planning. So, let me ask you this, what are you planning?"

"Oh, it takes a bit of explanation to that. Go on, transgress your pity dying body and enter my matrix. You have to be in my world, and I don't think you have much of a choice anyway. You're dying, and my little brother holds you at gunpoint. Resistance isn't worth trying at this point, Roger. There is no turning back, no one can stop what's coming," Owinson uttered through the loudspeakers, either that or in Roger's head. Roger looked down in between his feet, looking at his tired hands pillowing his shaky thighs. He could sense the numbness crawling to his fingers. He could no longer twitch his fingers for a minute straight. Craning his neck ached him. He was freezing, he was dying. If only Uncle was there, if only Tamara was there, if only Jeremy was there, if only Bob was there, if only Dad was there, he wished. He could not even imagine them with the simulation of his mind. He was just struck, weathering and watching his leaves falling.

"So? Are you going to keep me waiting?"

Roger closed his eyes; fell on the ground a second later. The next time he opened his eyes he no longer had any sense of his body, but only of his consciousness floating in Owinson's space. The blind one stood facing him, hands behind his back. Before Roger could grasp the full blueness of the simulation, buildings started to rise up from all around them like plants. It was a similar experience to what Roger had seen before, but not with this pace. There was no telling how the chip could control the simulations, Roger tried not to resist. Owinson shielded him while buildings rose like worms from the soil. The lights were varying and unbearable, too bright and difficult to focus on. Flying cars were the clouds themselves, wheels were no longer seen. Advertisements the size of buildings took place and people mindlessly focused on them. Owinson stood behind Roger, looking at the passengers. There were no longer phones, but simultaneous simulations and none had pure skin. Prosthetics were fashion instead of a necessary medical procedure. Skin color was a fashion as well, people could choose whatever color to implant on their genes. Even human size was different from the norm as some people were almost three meters tall while others resembled fantasy dwarves, even smaller than three year olds. Surrounding the borders of the city was a series of explosions that no one ever cared about, they seemed to be dropping like regular fireworks. At the top of the buildings sat a group of pure humans, toasting their victories over those below. As for these, they had whole servers of their own, simulations of their own, tapping into the matrix whenever they needed to execute a heist. The common aspect between every element of Owinson's city was the absence of the soul, of heart, of purity, all of what was once valued just a few centuries before. All of what Roger valued and wished for his whole life. One look at the sky, it was all green and gray. One could see through their holes a darkish and a burning atmosphere above.

"This is our new world, Roger," Carl said, sitting next to Roger in a chair both didn't care if actually existed.

"This is just your simulation. It isn't our new world, no one knows for sure if this bleak vision of the future is true."

"This is not fiction, boy. I spent the last few months in this basement, calculating the possibilities of how tomorrow would turn out, and this is the only possible conclusion out there. The world will be broken to pieces, carried by the fire and people won't care anymore. We'll turn our attentions to cities, try to improve upon the models we created, the models I created. With prosthetics, transcendence and privacy invasion, this is the only possible future. With intense industrialization and the probability of a coming chemical war, the weather will change too. The sky will redden for some reason, probably because of the coming solar flares. How many cities will sink? How many children will not live to see the light of day? You can't possibly imagine the atrocities we'll be prepared to commit once the over-rationality and obedience of the machine is mixed with that of our own," Owinson said, showing images of wars, destruction, failed hopes. Roger would keep silent as he listened to his explanation. He could not feel anything, he was outside his body.

"Why feeling sad? This is the future you sought to create, what Red Tech had always striven for. You should be glad."

"No, I'm not entirely to blame. If it wasn't for Red Tech, it would have been for another company. My role in this story is to fasten the pace, to bring the coming vision, that's all. You think I wanted for hackers to rebel in Garlem, but it was inevitable so I gave them the tools to do it. Whatever I see as inevitable, I just bring forth and encourage, hoping that my attitude to accept the future is a proof to whatever or whoever judges us that I care about the human race, not my own ambition."

"If so, then what is it you want? What do you plan?"

Carl stretched his hand, seeming to be bringing a cluster of data before spreading his fingers, spreading the data across the city. "True, we can't stop the future. But we sure can be part of it."

"Part of it?"

"Yes, Roger, we can part of the future, you and I. In fact, it is a necessity to be so. Let me explain, throughout the course of the last couple of months, you have broken all the walls of your chip, one by one. You have gotten so strong that you could strip a whole city of electricity. You have gotten too far that you could travel from one sattelite to another, playing with world securities like chess at the might of your fingertips. You are truly fascinating, the best thing your father has ever made. This qualifies you, Roger, to lead the world of the future. No system can stop you now."

"This wasn't the point."

"Oh, you'd say that, but we live in a simulation that doesn't care what you think. You are like me now, I too can be omniscient. Nothing can stop me, nothing but my own body. But it differs when it comes to you. You see, before your father created my chip, him and I spoke about the concept of duplicating a sort of external copy of one's consciousness, one that doesn't require the organic brain to function. The idea was difficult at that time, we tried it with me and I ended up a blind and a cripple, buried in a freeze pad. We understood the chip had to live in a fresh mind, and live long enough with its host for it to finally create an independent copy of that host's consciousness. This one is capable of what you would be capable of, carrying your very same memories and biases. The numbers will be mixed with you; you will be rational enough to lead the world."

"What's in it for you?"

"If you choose to do that, our consciousness would have to be mixed. I know the results of this experiment are plainly unpredictable, and you do need me Roger. You won't be able to initiate the duplication of your consciousness without the codes in my system. You'd die and languish beside me there."

"What if that's what I want? To die and languish."

"Oh this can't be what you want, Roger. Just imagine with me, we will be the global system that will regulate the classes, justice, and privacy. We will put boundaries where they should be put. We won't be influenced by biases or emotion, just numbers and what's best. We will even use the shape shifting metal to create millions of robots that only answer to us, our own army. We can't even feel egoistic about it, this is our destiny. You see, this moment right here is the point of everything. Not just your stuggle, or mine, but of everything since the first fire."

Roger chuckled. "I see, you are all the same. Everyone of you, from Louisa to Troddle to you, you just want to impersonate God. You want to be this being of divinity to lead to humanity to the heavens. You're doing this because you want to be the God of the Future, not because you are concerned about the future, but because it's so tempting to guide others, to divert them as you wish."

"Maybe that's our destiny, Roger."

"What if it isn't?"

"What if it is?"

Roger looked back at the city, ignoring Carl.

"Maybe we just have to accept that this is the next step of our evolution, the last step. If it's either the robotic community or the remnants of the human race, we have to guide them because we know the sane and rational, the safe world. They'd only know destruction. Think of the fanatics, of the dictators!"

"Like you?"

"No, they will choose to be because their ambition is unbounded. In my case, this is a responsibility. I am carrying the whole of the human race on my shoulders now, this can't be something a fanatic would think of. Roger, this is what your father meant by using your chip for the betterment of everyone."

"That was not my father, that was just an AI. Since you know, I bet you placed that AI and you created the simulations in my mind. All to reach this end."

"I may have, but look at you now, at the doorstep of divinity. Claim your place, save tomorrow!"

The whole city fell into dust in an eye's blink. The whole of the ashes eddied around Carl's hand as he placed it into Roger's. He gripped both of his hands, clutching them tightly before their foreheads touched. Roger closed his eyes, so did Owinson. Their bodies started turning into mites, turning into smaller and smaller cubes on their way to the atomic level. One cube forward and one cube backward. The whole of their existence spoke as one. Like melting two metals in a single pot, waiting how it would turn out. Even some details of Roger's face started to vanish into Owinson's brown beard and glassy eyes. The whole of the simulation started scratching, bits of it started to either switch color, go fast in the counting or splatter across the virtual realm. With a single crack through the world and through their fusion, Roger found himself somewhere else.

This time instead of numbers, he was in a dark flat. There were no borders, only a dark vastness that kept on stretching much like the dark matter in space. He realized it, he was already inside Owinson. Roger sat down on the floor, legs crossed. He looked up, wondering where the darkness would end.

"As if I didn't know, you imprisoned me here, didn't you?"

"Unfortunately, you are not wise and capable enough to share with me the privilege of dictating the future of the human race. You were but a way, a means to a greater end. I've put you there in fear of what you can share with me. You see, I'm not selfish, I'm just being rational," a voice hallowed the vastness, Carl's.

"But you didn't have to imprison me."

"Nonsense, that was necessary. Look at the bright side, you get to see how I rule humanity and learn from it. Besides, you'd get a free ride into the future. Boys like you would like that, so sit tight and enjoy my hospitality. You know that your core is related to mine, if you try something foolish you'd vanish into oblivion as well."

"Hmm," Roger said, smiling before bits of laughter escaped his mouth. He then put both of his palms on the floor and closed his eyes, letting out the loudest of laughter. He even started bashing the floor with his fists; tears were falling down his cheeks. Whenever he thought of stopping, the very idea in itself would propel him to break down laughing as well.

"What's wrong, lost your mind?"

"Oh, no, you just had me when you talked about your life linked to mine."

"Isn't it true?"

"Oh it is, and this very fact is what makes if funny."

"How is that?"

"You know, everyone in Garlem are just the same. There's been a few exceptions, but the majority are the same. I wanted to leave Garlem because of this very fact. People here don't judge beyond what's given to them the same way you didn't judge me based on who I am, based on what I believed in. By linking your life to mine, you think I'd be fearful. You judged me based on what you believe is pure instinct, installed in everyone else. You thought because it is our instinct to be willing to survive, to stay longer, I'd have to remain your prisoner for the rest of eternity. I guess you're just like them."

"Even if you do, I've sealed you inside. You can't delete your own data."

"Oh, that's what you think. But would it matter if I tell you that every time you visited me, played with my mind, messed with my life, I've gathered my own piece of code about you? These seals you've made, I can decipher them with the snap of my fingers. Here's proof," Roger said, snapping his fingers before the whole of the dark cover started hammering down through an infinity trail of gravity, showing the numbers again. The blue simulation was back again.

"What?" Owinson said, back into the form of a regular body. "You can't…"

Roger clutched Owinson by his suit despite the unreality of it all. "This is what makes us human. To judge beyond the results, to shake the shackles of the algorithm, to choose to rebel against whatever force tries to control us! If you dare take the power to view the world from the third dimension, then I hope it is nature who shall honor me for this sacrifice."

Owinson stood still, taking a step back in thoughtfulness. His eyes were on fire.

"No, I will not let you destroy everything I have been building. You insignificant creature! I will break you, destroy you, make sure you suffer here for all of eternity," Owinson said, trampling the floor with his feet. A couple of straps escaped the ground and were tethered to Roger's hands, a numerical rope tied his head to a topless sky. His feet were starting to sink into the sea of numbers, into their essence. He saw bits of himself spread across different simulations, all of which were sealed and hidden into more simulations.

Damn it! I didn't... How can he do this? I know all his seals.

Back in his real body, veins spread across Owinson's head while he broke Roger and spread him across the simulation. The young man stretched his arm to initiate the return to his body, he couldn't. His body was pale and stiff, his chest no longer moved upwards and downwards. His body perished. Darkness enveloped his world, Owinson locked him in.