System Break

A million thoughts ran through my mind, but I couldn't focus on any of them. I regressed for a moment before my conditioning took over and I began to breathe slow deep breaths.

Focus. 

I checked the controls. Fuck. They worked like nothing ever happened. I wheeled back and lifted him off me. I felt guilty even though I'd done nothing wrong as the top half of Gan swung from the robotic arm. I let him down gently onto the floor.

I considered briefly getting into an unused pod and discarded the idea instantly as insanely short sighted. I sighed. I resisted panic and a light blinked on my hud and it was Pieter - he was online.

I didn't hesitate and activated a call. The box blinked as it rang him, and it took so long I thought he was going to ignore me. I was about to send him a message when he answered.

"Ben," he said. "Did you miss me, or did they pull the rug from you?"

"From under you is the saying, but no. It's worse, much worse."

"You look scared. I did not think you got scared," he said and chuckled.

I did not smile. "Someone just murdered my only friend here and I'm being set up for it."

"Oh," Pieter said. His tone of voice dropped and he suddenly got  serious. "We need to get you out of there."

"They took control of my robot chair. It could be anyone, even his sister."

"Do you trust me? I can send you a link - I know a little about hacking."

I hesitated for a moment but quick action was required - I had no time to think. "I don't trust anyone at the moment, but I'll take my chances with you."

"Okay, open this link I send and then approve all the prompts. I will take control and lock out any other operators."

"Can you find out who did it?"

"With time I can, hurry. They will find out soon I think."

I clicked on everything and gave control over to Pieter. I didn't trust him, I barely knew him, but I knew this was my only chance. The Huan family were powerful, they wouldn't even need a trial unless they wanted one. I was almost sure to be executed for the murder of their son. 

Even if his father didn't think I was guilty, he'd probably off me for not saving his son. I made up my mind quickly because I didn't have a day to think about it. I would take my chances with the Russian hacker. It sounded crazy.  I felt like a cornered animal with a cage dropped in front of me. I could stay in the corner and wait for an attack or I could run into the cage.

I chose the cage. I didn't want to wait around to see what would happen.

The robot began to move as he controlled it. "I have the layout. I will get you into a Van and off the property." He chuckled. "They have everything automated. Makes it easy for someone like me."

Pieter had been on the property for a week and was by all accounts an expert hacker. As everything went smoothly – too smoothly - I suspected he laid dormant programs while he was here.

I was in the back of a Van and speeding up the road within ten minutes. In the last ten years technology changed at an accelerated rate and like most vehicles in China it was self-driving. It weaved amongst the other automated vehicles like a school of fish. There was no need for traffic lights, no merging slowdowns all the vehicles communicated together, and traffic management was controlled by supposedly infallible AI.

I had no idea where Pieter was located - but he was able to drive me to an airport from the other side of the world without much hassle.

"I must admit I prepared this for you. I did not know there would be a murder, but I thought you would need an extraction from Huan Industries."

I was stunned.

"Ben you're an asset and they use you. When you become a problem or lose value they will dispose of you. I worked this out when we were together."

The robot wheeled itself into a 20ft cargo container it was dark, but the doors remained open.

"Before I close the doors I need to give you information," Peiter said. "I just uploaded documents into your folder. Read those and watch the videos. This container is a faraday cage and once the doors close we will lose communication. But it will stop them tracking you. From this hangar they will not know where you went. When you are safe we'll re-establish contact."

"How long?"

"I cannot say. Watch the videos and read the files."

"Okay do it." I said and I immediately felt regret. I felt like I'd made a mistake. Pieter was well prepared. Too well. He was a Venus flytrap and I was the fucking fly.

The doors closed and I was in total darkness for a moment. Then a few blue lights winked on and slowly brightened.

"Fuck," I said. I cursed being in a wheelchair. I cursed being so helpless. I remembered the proverbs from the Dao De Jing and I breathed.

I let go.

What happened, happened. There was no good or bad. There just was.

It was easier said than done. It was easy to say – hey don't worry. It was much harder to actually pull it off.

I was alone but I felt the need to talk to myself. "What do I have to lose. Nothing. I have nothing to lose. I am dead. I am nobody."

I felt better and began to watch the videos and read his documents.

"Shit." Huan Industries were massive scumbags. Peiter had collected tons of dirt on them. It wasn't industrial espionage, they literally killed people for profit.

There was a journalist, now deceased, who tied them and the other robotic industry companies to the worldwide economic collapse for billions of disenfranchised people.

Sure the wealthy just got richer. Their companies went up by ten percent per year. But the general schmo made less and less comparatively until there was no middle class. 

Why was Pieter showing this to me? I sort of knew already; I just didn't pay much attention. I didn't realise it was this bad. It was so bad governments were desperate for money. They sold off infrastructure, train lines, bridges, road everything. They sold cities!

How long was I out of it? Detroit and Chicago had been sold to private enterprise to run. Under the guise of a PPP the company would pay the state and federal governments money and basically take care of everything.

This was some dystopian shit. 

I had enough. I went back to my recent habit of reading the proverbs and working my qi. One was exercising my mind and the other my spirit. It was like a muscle - if you worked it, it became stronger, more flexible and resilient.

If there was one thing I possessed to get me out of the shit - it was my qi. It was the one thing which made them fight over me and the one thing that could save me.