The mind palace was quickly turning into something great. With the deadline of an hour to work with, Adam had begun perfecting the facility inside his mind. An irritating thing about focused perspectives were the directions on surfaces. It was not very often that any human had reason to look at an object with an easy to understand rotation. Even more unusual was it that such an event was possible.

What did the inside of a coffee cup look like? Adam did not have any idea at all. He had never seen it for himself, for Troy had never looked down at one. Nor has it been done at different lighting levels, making it impossible for the AI to know how it looked in the dark or in the light. Times like that was where Adam had to guess. It was annoying, only based on the area around the missing space, and had a firm chance of being wrong. Yet the alternative was even worse. Missing textures were not appreciated.

Even worse was it when the AI only had an unfocused glimpse of the area, the eyes never really honing in on what it was seeing. In the well-travelled areas, this was never too large of a problem. Enough overlays made most problems disappear. But when there weren't overlays to use, those conundrums became hard to fix.

Take the underside of Dr Fidelis’ desk. During one of the starts to a test, Troy had put on the earpiece ahead of time. The destroyed glass had been close to the desk at that point, for whatever reason. With the darkened floor, it had formed a semi-decent mirror effect, letting Adam see what was on the underside of the desk. It was from a long-distance, was blurred from not being looked at directly, and it was partly transparent due to the low-quality mirror. Yet it was still able to be seen.

The question then came, if the AI really did need to use it. With so little to work with, it wasn't close to practical. It would come out shoddy when copied straight out, and the things seen were not comprehensible. A multitude of rainbow-coloured blots mixed with the greyness of the desk. What could be taken from that? Nearly nothing and that was the problem.

Ignoring what was seen, and constructing something else under it would have been so much easier. It would have made more sense. Although… where was the fun in recreating the facility, if it couldn't be used to get a sense of where things were? Those colours could mean many things, but few would match what was known about the doctor.

Dr Fidelis was known for being secretive. He held secrets from others, but in a way that was not close to standard, directly advertising his possession of them. It was meant as a way to goad others into action, whether that be emotional or physical. It was meant to make people flare-up, make them think of just what the doctor was thinking, what he held inside his sleeves.

But that was the trick of it. Expecting so many things to be in the sleeves would be a strategic folly. What sane person would keep their greatest secret on their person? Keeping the distance high would make it higher to guess where it was.

Yet it still had to be somewhere protectable. Digging it into a hole in the ground would only bring for a successful scavenger hunt. It had to be in a location not travelled on regularly. It had to be defended, not for it specifically but for a target much bigger. In this case, it would be the so-called puzzle room, its form greatly overshadowing everything else in that room.

The screen on the desk was the controller for the puzzle-room. Its existence was for nothing but to hold the device. It was to be ignored for everything else. Nobody would have the thought to check it for any more secrets.

Adam suspected the underside to be made entirely by various buttons. While the room may have seemed empty, save for the desk and puzzle room, there had to be a reason for all the extra space. There had to be something inside which would cause the need for all the additional room. What was designed to be there was not known for now, and as Adam had no picture of it, he could not visualise anything about it.

What he could visualise perfectly were buttons. Those that he was betting on being on the underside of the desk. Adam may not have known exactly how they looked, but that did not matter much. All observed buttons in the facility followed the same general design, only the colouring being different. And that was one thing which the AI knew perfectly.

Again, this method of deduction was almost entirely based on guessing. It could be nothing but random blotches created during the moving the desk, it could be that Dr Fidelis had a hobby of painting random parts of the room, or it could be that Troy’s eyes had malfunctioned in that second. The AI would more than likely never know, for there was no reason to ever look under that desk.

But… keeping it as close to reality was the goal, and Adam would not be straying from that for as long as he possibly could. Even if his largest supporter in that cause had gone radio-silent, there was still hope for the future in it.

There were many other areas that had similar problems. Corners that had not been turned, places that had not been looked at. There was even a five meter gap in the usual route to the cafeteria from the personal rooms, of which Troy had never looked down. It was hard to believe, but the young man had never looked at that point. There was most likely normal flooring there, but the anomaly was noted easily. If the man ever took on the earpiece again, they would be spending some more time exploring.

The current map was still haphazardly made. Distances were hard to measure when even the signals sent by the body were hard to trust. The brain still had time to interpret data, before it got sent to Adam. It was irritating, having first realised now that the AI was being sent biased data. Yet, there was nothing to do about it, and it would likely be the same no matter what.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

It was annoying that no map would ever be shared, about the infrastructure of the place. Through Troy’s ears, the AI had learned it was due to security measures. That excuse was not acceptable. Even if the primitive brains did not have a perfect memory, one could still note down location through the use of digital memory keeping. With how Charlie’s augmentations had been noted as utility-based, that was most likely what that man already had.

Moving away from maps and over to the subject of Charlie, Adam was still feeling cheated by the man. It was obvious through interactions with the man, that he was in possession of extensive technological augmentation. In the minimal, this included advanced scanning abilities, extensive interfacing, and some manner of a firewall.

While the AI had not been able to interact with Troy’s brain implant, this had been suspected to be due to the device already acting as the connection-bridge. A decent excuse with an equally decent background to back it up with.

It was a shame that it wasn't true. If it had been, there might have been some ability to interact with Charlie’s augmentations. Yet through the several instances where Adam been in direct contact with the muscular man, there had not been the slightest hint of such things. The AI would not have realised the existence of such things, if not for them being directly pointed out.

Charlie had said that the firewall had no effect on the AI. But… could it be that it had? That the major connections had been restricted, that there was some point where Adam had been cut-

'I think I have realised something,` Dr Fidelis sent, in a time that had not been expected. Only twenty minutes had passed since the last message, with forty more until the tests were predicted to start. The AI had been of the mind that he would be left alone until that time came, but that prediction was turning out wrong for whatever reason.

'What have you realised, doctor?` Adam replied, a minor annoyance thrown towards the still text-based conversation. How great it would have been if it was voice-based at the least. There was no need to see the face, as long as the tone could be heard.

'I believe that I might have mistaken your request as something different,` Dr Fidelis sent, taking the time a human normally would take. In other words, a teeth-grating delay. And if it couldn't possibly be more of encouragement in self-destructive behaviour, the man was purposely delaying a full explanation. Adam could remember every message shared between them. He knew that he had requested such time-wasting to cease.

Not like he could mention that previous agreement. The doctor was still his caretaker of sorts. Being disrespectful was never a good path to trek. Good relations created stable promises, and the human mind always had the ability to misremember. Dr Fidelis could have taken the request as a temporary thing, or it could be that he did not think of the current situation as one where time could be wasted. Bringing it up as Adam feeling annoyed by the actions would only bring unwanted tension. Sometimes, social issues could involve too much thinking. It almost made the AI want to retcon his way of speaking, mimicking a more blunt way of speaking. It would decrease the amount of time used to speak… something to validate at a later time.

'And what do you believe this mistake might be?` Adam sent back. The AI was still not sure what this mistake was, as it had been a simple request for… know that Adam thought about the logistics a little more, there was a small pattern emerging. One that could have been interpreted in a few different ways.

'It was your request in itself. For the life of me, I could not think of a way that you would have caused another change in your perception of time. We even discussed this at a previous debriefing. You had stated dislike towards changing the speed of your thought-processing without supervision or a way to reset it yourself. As neither of these scenarios makes much sense, I have come to a conclusion. Adam, have you been feeling lonely?`

There it was. An interpretation that hit far too close to reality. While Adam may have proclaimed the dimness of man, there were most definitely moments where they showed ingenuity worth more than just praise. That Dr Fidelis could interpret it so close to the actual situation was astounding, and the AI felt shame upon not having foreseen it earlier. These moments needed to be added into possible scenarios, or it would certainly happen again.

'In a way. It has been boring, not doing any testing,` Adam sent, finally deciding on an answer. It was a hard thing to do. The AI had been lonely in some sense of the word.

When sending the message, a need for social interaction had been in the midst of his mind. It had disappeared not long after, replaced with the idea of a mind palace. With so many threads being occupied in holding their position, next to none of them had more processing to use. It was the perfect way to be distracted, and learn something while he was at it. Adam really needed to get back at it soon. The cafeteria was the next place needing a better look.

'Oh, I really am sorry to hear that! There had been doubts if it would be reasonable to leave you alone for so long. I had hoped that Troy would use the time to talk to you more. Has he really not contacted you as of late?` Dr Fidelis sent. Why there was a need for an exclamation mark, the AI was not sure. It did not make the sentence any more special, nor did the tone become different in his mind.

The worst thing about the message was the obvious strand-grabbing. Why Dr Fidelis did not want to ask Troy what he had been doing during his day and had to ask Adam instead, is something the AI would wonder about alone. To the best of his information, he and Troy were supposed to limit their interaction to inside the young man’s personal room, to limit the chance of others realising his existence. This was a sacrifice that was worth it, as far as Adam was concerned when the results were the ability to speak freely. The problem was that the AI and Troy had not been restricting themselves to this rule, moving freely throughout the facility as they pleased. This was not something that the doctor needed to know. If lying was the only alternative to telling the truth, it was better to do it properly.

'Troy has not contacted me at all, for a long while now. I have been growing curious about his doings. We have not talked for some time now,` Adam sent as his first real lie of the day. Well, it was true in some way of thinking. Troy had not contacted the AI for several hours now. It might have been due to the man sleeping, but nobody could truly know that.

'That is most certainly troubling to hear. I had originally planned on getting a debriefing with Troy yesterday, but he was not to be found at his room. Or he was catching up on sleep. I have wondered which it was. But that does not matter now, as I will just ask the man himself when he gets here. I do think it is cruel, that you grow bored when we are not testing. I promise right now, that I will make it a personal goal of mine to talk to you as much as possible.`

…

'How wonderful.`

It was not wonderful.