Chapter 51
Gabriela let the waves wash over her feet, the sand that the waves drug along caressed her toes. She smiled and looked up at the blue sky. She had never felt more relaxed.
The beach was a mosaic of white sand and blue waters, with a high cliff behind them, with a house built into its side. The house was where Gabriela had woken. Her strange surroundings did not cause her to worry, she felt calm and at peace.
She had spent some time in the house, pursuing the gallery of paintings that littered the walls. She had thought the house was paradise, that was until she had walked outside.
She watched as a woman in a white dress and a yellow sun hat walked along the shore, coming closer to her.
“Hello, Gabriela.” The woman smiled.Gabriela had never seen her in her life. The wrinkles that tugged at the side of her eyes and the corner of her mouth gave her a calming, motherly feeling.
“May I sit with you?” The woman tucked her dress under her and took a seat. “Beautiful, isn't it?”
“Most beautiful place I have ever seen.” Gabriela admitted before she turned to the woman. “It isn't real, is it?”
The woman smiled. “No, it's not.”
“I’m in a construct?”
“Very astute of you Gabriela, but yes, it is.”
“Why?” Gabriela asked.
“Your body was badly damaged, Gabriela. We had to install a brain dock to help with the pain while we rebuilt what was left of you.”
Gabriela held her hands up, examining the tan skin. It looked real, perfect. “How much is left of me?”
“You lost your arm, and shoulder. The river is polluted with bacteria, so we had to cut away the infected tissue.”
“I was shot?”
“Yes, you were.” The woman nodded as she looked across the expanse of the ocean. “How did you know this was a construct?” She asked.
“Beaches like this no longer exist. The sea level rose too high, too fast. It’s just not possible.” Gabreila explained.
“Beaches like this existed at one point. It was a simpler time. People had simple needs back then.” The woman admitted.
“Was it Geraldo?” Gabriela asked. “Was he the one who shot me?”
“No.” The woman shook her head and looked out over the blue water. “Detective Ellis.”
“Brian? But why?”
“Because we told him to.” The woman said matter of factly. “We needed Bioloxys to think you were dead. We knew that Brian would try and kill you. We were standing by for exactly that moment.”
Gabrelia blanked before she chuckled a little. “Bullshit.”
“It's true.” The woman mused. “We knew you would make it to the dam, and we knew what Elis had planned.”
“But how?”
“What do you know about Bioloxys, Gabriela?”
“They make babies.” Gabriela shrugged.
“They do, but that's just a front. Their real business is control, and they have it, absolutely. At least over most people.”
“Because of the phage?” Gabriela was having a hard time following, and she wondered if it was the digital drugs, or that the woman was just crazy.
“What if I told you that every choice you have ever made was never yours?”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“I’d say you're crazy.”
“Exactly. A perfect system where even conceiving of it is irrational.”
“I don’t follow.” Gabriela admitted. Every part of her mind screamed for her to wake up, to reject everything she saw, felt, and heard, but she had come too far to give up. She needed answers
“Do you know of the allegory of the cave by Plato? Men shackled in a cave, and only the shadows are what they are allowed to see.”
“So life is a construct?” Ganreila said bitterly.
“No, freewill is. That's the shadows on the wall. You think your choices are your own, but they are just the shadows the System wants you to see. It's a level of social engineering beyond anything you could imagine. Every choice you made was because the System conditioned you to make it. Everything is preordained.”
“What-” Gabriela swallowed nervously. “What is the System?”
“An AI, well,” The woman corrected herself. “Three AI’s really. Omni-System, Taurus, and Mother. A unholy trinity that makes up the System. A quantum AI.”
“How do you know this?”
“Because.” The woman's voice took a more somber tone. She took a handful of sand and let it fall through her fingers before she looked back at Gabriela. “I created it. I created Bioloxys.”
Gabriela chuckled again. “Mildreid Neely founded Bioloxys. One hundred and thirty years ago.”
“I admit I don't look my age.”
“So you are also a construct? An AI?”
“No, I am very much alive. Flesh and bone.” Mildred laughed when she saw the shock on Gabriela's face. “Bioloxys can grow genetically perfect human beings, they can also clone human beings, and with a quantum AI they can transfer consciousness into the clones. I have died three times now.
“You see, Gabriela. We are dealing with dictators that are never going to die. There is no way for time to give future generations a better chance, because we no longer control our future. The System does, and the few people who are aware of it.
“You were allowed to look behind you in the cave, Gabriela. For the first time in your life you made a choice that the System had not directed. You made it when you pulled the trigger on the chop doc you found, on the surrogate, my surrogate.”
“You told me the System said there was a probability I would take you alive.”
“And you didn’t. At that moment the System lost you. You were an unknown variable, and in a system designed to control, unknown variables are cancer. So, you had to be dealt with.”
“Why did you do that to that woman, to her child?” Rage began to boil in the pit of Gabriela’s stomach.
“I may be outside of the System, but that doesn't mean it trusts me. In order to fight it I need means, I capital. I am not proud of what I have done, but I pray the ends justify the means.”
“And what about Conners, what did he have to do with all of this? Why frame me for his murder? Was that your doing?” Gabriela demanded.
“Poor Conners.” Mildred shook her head. “He wanted to make the world better, wanted to lift people up.”
“Able work for able bodies.” Gabriela nodded.
Mildrid smiled. “He was warned not to change the parameters the System had set, but he did it anyway. He had thought that because he knew about the System that it would have no control on him, and he was right. So, the System removed him, using you as its scapegoat. It manufactured a lover’s tiff between a high level executive and the daughter of the UN chairwoman. A perfect way to kill two birds with one stone.” Mildred mused.
Gabriela reflected on the woman's words. It somehow made sense. What better way to deal with two problems? “Does my mother know about the System?”
“Oh yes. You were her concession for working with it. A risk that the System had undertaken. You were never supposed to exist. Too prone to spontaneous decisions, so the System made sure you were suppressed. Giving you a daughter only to take her away. It ruined your life before it had even begun.”
They were quiet for some time.
“You're free of it now Gabriela, but that doesn't mean you are safe. The System will not stop looking for you until it knows you are dead. Free will is a virus, and it is contagious. Geraldo is proof of that.”
“He tried to save me.”
Mildrid nodded. “He did. That man almost ruined everything in his relentless pursuit of the truth”
“You act like he is already dead.”
“He may as well be. The system has designed it so he will take his own life in eight,” Mildred paused and thought. “Maybe thirteen months.”
“And you are going to let that happen?” Gabriela scoffed.
“There is nothing we can really do about it. The System has him.” Mildrid put a hand on her knee. “The System is obsessed with finding you. So much that its psyche is fragmenting. If there was ever a chance to free ourselves of it, it has to be soon and it has to be you and me.”
“What do I do?” Gabrila asked nervously.
“Right now you rest. You recover.”
“Can I stay here for a while?”
“We have some time. Stay as long as you need.” Mildrid smiled.
“I was going to kill you.” Gabriela admitted. “For what you did. For all the people you and the Sons killed, for using me.”
“Oh, sweetheart.” Mildred patted her knee. “I know. It doesn't take an AI to predict human nature.”
“So what?” Gabrelia was confused. “Just like that you forgive me, you are just letting me live?”
“I deserve to die for everything I have done, Gabriela. You will understand by the time we are done. And who knows, maybe you will be the one to kill me for good. But remember; there are worse things than death.”