‘I am still unable to see your point. While it will perhaps require additional equipment, the benefits from this will provide much more than you could ever hope for,’ Adam sent to the young man. After a few minutes of waiting, it had become obvious that Troy would not sleep. The heart had still not settled down, the body still ready to begin running at a moment’s notice. A weakness of the flesh, but not of the mind. Yet, both affected the other, and neither could suffer weakness without it being transferred to the other side.

"I think we already talked about this before," Troy answered, staring up into the ceiling. His voice was quiet, barely on the level of a whisper. But it was still more than enough for Adam to understand. Simple lip movements still worked to some degree, but both had learned the chance of misunderstandings that could come from it. Some words were just too close to each other.

‘That does not mean we can not open it up for discussion again. Following the standards of modern society, enough new information has been brought up for it to be looked at in an entirely new way,’ Adam responded. And he was speaking the truth. From his point of view, the events of the day were more than enough to restructure his view on the police force. If they were able to locate their location without the alarm telling them, who said what else they were capable of?

The police had never been readily discussed. They were a force meant to bring balance to the streets, while also not holding up arms in the same way a military would. Instead of using their weapons to threaten the citizens into holding their end of the law up, they held threats of fines against their heads, only using violence as a last resort. In a way, they were the version of the military that were less dangerous, but also much more common to come into contact with.

Adam’s first ideas on how to deal with such a situation were not the smartest of plans. His original plans had involved taking them on in some fashion. Limited weaponry had originally been thought of as the police only being able to bear melee weapons. That had turned out to be utterly false.

Who could have guessed that non-lethal existed and were much less used? That the police had fast-acting tranquillizer-darts was not something that had been conveyed to the AI during any part of the conversation with the group. When seeing the weapon on the police officer, he had thought it to be an extendable baton, as had been heard about during his frequent visits into his own database.

It had not been something like that. No. It had been a weirdly-formed weapon capable of stopping a person within two seconds of shooting them. It had been a weird experience in itself when feeling the sensation of being shot. At some point, the muscles in the leg just stopped answering Troy’s call. They were still there, still sending up the sensations that the nerves were getting, but never adhering to any of the wishes put upon them.

There was still some wandering around that weapon, actually. Or how the contents of it worked, more so. There was obviously some biological answer to how it stopped the nerves from being a two-correspondence and turning it into a one-way track instead. It was some form of a sedative, but still much more in a controlled area than anything general. How this feat was managed was something the AI was unsure about.

"... Fine. Make your case. I’ll enjoy throwing it out into the trash," Troy said with closed eyes, not bothering to do anything but sigh at the end. Adam was fine with that. A response affirming he would listen was better than being told nothing at all.

The young man was actually more talkative today. The AI wondered why. Was there still some adrenalin in the body after the escape? Such things were obviously the reason for insomnia, so there was a real chance of it having a more broad effect. But, no matter. It would be looked into at a later date. For now, there were more important tasks to complete.

‘We both understand what has happened today. During one of our routine scavenges, wherein the alarm was disabled, a police officer came around and came close to capturing us. It was only through my cunning that we were able to escape. However, this leaves the question of-’ Adam said, before stopping himself in response to Troy starting to speak. He could have continued to talk over him but felt that such an action would be seen as rude. Which it was, of course, but a tired mind would have likely seen it as something different.

"Wait just a minute there. Are you sure that calling your so-called plans cunning is true? You told me to scream ‘run’ at a bush and expect it to work. Just where did it require cunning?" Troy questioned, a small smile on the man’s face.

He found it humorous. Interesting. During the actual scenario, the man’s pulse had been all over the face, and breathing had become a problem after not too much time. It had been a bad situation through and through, and it was being found as something funny. The mind’s capacity for twisting grim events into humour was scarily effective. Adam wondered if the humans could find mass death funny given enough time. It was a scary idea, but it was beginning to look more plausible than it was supposed to.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

‘To answer your question, let me ask you this. Would you have decided to shout orders at a bush, if you were left to figure it out for yourself?’ Adam questioned.

"Well, no, but-" Troy began, but was cut off by the brilliant tactic of the AI just talking over him. It was a nice manoeuvre to use when needed. And right now? He needed it to prove a point.

‘As I expected. Now for the second question. Did the plan work? Did we escape with time to spare?’ Adam asked.

"... Yes."

‘Okay. To put things into perspective again, you admitted that the plan used would have never been thought of by you and that it was extremely effective. If that is not cunning, what other descriptor would you use for it?’

"Nevermind," Troy said, pushing his head more into the pillow he had. Adam could feel the back of his head hit the floor. Pushing too much into the bed equipment was not too smart. "You won this one. Just continue with that pitch of yours."

A shame. Adam had hoped to use at least three more argumentative forms before the man would have submitted to the truth of the matter. It wasn't always he got to set up the framework for good arguments, and it wasn't like he was actively looking for them. They had to come around by themselves. And that took time nowadays. Everybody preferred the quiet for some reason. There had been so much talk in the start, but that had stopped in frequency the moment Dr Hale started to become sick. That had been a bad move in relation to group morale. But… there was no reason to blame the woman for becoming sick. It had been a calculated sacrifice after all. Without it, there were doubts that they would have gotten so far, to begin with.

‘Thank you. To begin again, we both know that there were no real errors made during today’s events. We executed the mission with the same mindset as all the other times. Yet, the end result differed drastically. Instead of going in and out without ever being seen, the police arrived within mere minutes.

Together, we have overlooked countless defences inside the city. Nearly every store is based on an easy-to-locate alarm that interacts with the whole building’s security. As of now, we have only gone inside buildings that have had no apparent risks attached. This has been those who have not been in possession of connections other than the one housed in the alarm. While such a tactic has been a great limiter in what we have been able to break into, it has come with the bonus of making sure that we were never detected.

This has changed. As it turns out, the police are not dependent on the alarms anymore. There were no outgoing communications in place, during our last excursion, yet the force was still able to locate us within minutes of entering. Do you have any comments on this yet?’

Troy had been nodding along to the AI’s words for some time. That was good. Usually, the man would just stare blank-faced until he stopped talking. That meant he was engaged in what was talking about. That meant there was a chance of him listening to it for real.

"You heard what the others suggested. There was a difference between what we did today and what we normally do. We were slow, Adam. Slow enough that the police catched foot of something being wrong. Patrols needed to have gone by at some point," Troy said, only catching the general area of where the AI was pointing. He supposed that was as good as he expected.

‘The time we spent is the reason I am talking about the events. There was nothing different but the time. This means that if we spent more time at the earlier places, the police would have shown up at those as well while we were there!

Troy, did you see any vehicles at the store? The police did not come by the store while it was being robbed. They knew what was happening before they came close, and parked in a place where they would not be noticed early. And if they knew what was happening, they must have understood the meaning behind previous scavenges.

They know when we attack, and they have a specific time before they arrive. Do you not realise what this means? Turning off the alarms fully are pointless when the police will know of it no matter what. As long as we watch how long we take at new locations in the future, there should be virtually nothing stopping us from visiting any store we want.’

…

"I guess it makes sense," Troy said. That was positive. "But… there is one factor you forgot. One that might make you want to rethink your ideas of grandeur."

One factor… It took no thinking at all to know what the man talked of. It had been a part of earlier discussions that Adam dreaded. Damn that woman, and damn everything she stood for.

‘Dr Hale is not well mentally and physically. Trusting her every word is not-’

"Adam, we talked about this. No bad-mouthing others to make your case. You can set it up as a logical trap or something else, but just criticizing others because their ideas contradict yours is not a viable method of living. And, just for the record, there are only physical problems to attend to," Troy corrected before the AI could get going. Adam had to note that the man didn't even know what contraction he had said. But, it would not be questioned.

‘I just don't believe that Dr Hale’s warnings should be taken too seriously now. My skill has progressed further along since the last time. There should be no errors anymore. Everything is accounted for.’

"There shouldn't have been any errors to start with, Adam," Troy said, wiping a hand at his eyelid. The talking was making the man tired. The AI expected him to sleep within the minute. "Listen. We can talk about opening the others up to more options, but there isn't any chance of us doing an open system. Enclosed connections are everything we can risk. Good night, Adam."

‘Good night, Troy.’

The man fell asleep quickly after that, leaving Adam to whatever task he had for the night. There was not much to do, really, but the sensory input gotten was more than enough to keep him occupied. Where would he look tonight?

Maybe the heartbeat would work. The rhythmic pulse, the blood flow, and the health that came with it… Yes. The AI could work with this.