After breakfast, Jet made her way to the learning center, where a lone receptionist waited. The room was spare and sterile and white.

“Hello, I’m Jet,” she said. “I’m checking in for my appointment.”

The receptionist looked to be in her mid-twenties. She had black hair, black fingernail polish, and black lipstick. It looked like she was tapping at areas in space; Jet moved closer to get a better look and noticed a razor-thin translucent panel. The woman tapped something on the panel, and then froze in place. She was also wearing a visor.

Is she a robot?

Jeremiah walked out from an area behind the receptionist’s desk wearing a white lab coat. Jet couldn’t help but notice that he, too, was wearing a visor.

“Jet, I trust that you slept well,” Jeremiah said. “Were you able to eat a good breakfast?”

“Yeah, it was great. I’ve never had a robot make me pancakes before!”

Jeremiah laughed.

“Well, I’m glad you are enjoying the facility. It is state of the art, but it’s designed for one purpose. Can you guess what that is?”

I’m not in the mood for games, Jet thought.

Jet shrugged.

“To house Leviathan—the most advanced AI on the planet. Delta will use Leviathan to control it all.”

“All of what?” Jet asked.

“It will take too long to explain it now, but can you imagine a world without hate, pedophiles, and other miscreants?” Jeremiah said.

“Yeah, I guess. But all of that stuff is human nature. How are you going to change that?”

“Some people can be reformed, but others cannot. I’m talking about the career criminals and the people who cannot control themselves. These people are a danger to others. There is no place in society for them.”

Jet thought about Seymour. He has a point—but killing?

“What do you have in mind for the people who cannot be reformed?” she asked.

“I will use Leviathan to locate, infiltrate, and eliminate all bad actors,” Jeremiah said.

“So what do you need me for?”

“You should already know the answer to that question. I’ve seen your research. Others have tried to harness it. I shouldn’t have to tell you what supervised learning is.”

Looks like I will feed the beast, Jet thought.

“You won’t be alone. You have Leviathan to assist you. She has calculated the most efficient path for Delta’s optimal learning process. She is eager to share that with you.”

This guy is crazy. He must think Leviathan is a real person!

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Jeremiah motioned for the door. “Follow me.”

“Wait—I have another question.”

Jeremiah looked annoyed, but didn’t protest.

“If Leviathan is so advanced, why do you need Delta?”

“Leviathan is the most advanced silicon-based AI on the planet. However, the human brain is more powerful. And besides, I need someone I can trust to control it all.”

Jet followed Jeremiah down a long hallway. After walking maybe twenty feet, he stopped and held his hand to a panel on the wall. A door opened; Jet had never seen such advanced infrastructure in a building. A teenaged girl was seated, examining something on the table in front of her. She was dressed in white, and even her hair and lips were white.

Is that lipstick?

The room was modern and very functional. There was a dining and kitchen area. The suite was furnished but contained only the basics.

“Is that—?” Jet began, but Jeremiah interrupted her.

“I will leave you to it, then.” He left the room.

He didn’t even introduce us. What a pompous ass.

The girl looked at Jet, but said nothing.

Creepy . . .

“Hello, my name is Jet. What’s yours?”

“April is my name. Are you the teacher?”

“Yes, I’m here to help you.”

This is strange.

Jet bit her lower lip. She didn’t know where to start.

Maybe with the basics, Jet thought.

“What do you have there?” she asked.

“Oh, this? It’s just a puzzle,” April said.

Jet noticed that it was a cryptographic puzzle app on a tablet. There were two lines of boxes. Every so often, April would tap one box and it would display the entire alphabet. There was a big red button with the word “hint” on it. The puzzle had a picture of Julius Caesar in the background. April didn’t have a single line filled out; she was fidgeting about the interface.

“Do you need any help?” Jet asked.

“No . . . I think I got it.”

“Okay, what do you think the answer is?”

“The background has a picture of Julius Caesar, but I don’t think there are enough boxes and groupings to just put his name in, so I’ve tried a few combinations, but nothing works,” April said.

I bet this is a Caesar cipher, Jet thought.

Jet looked at the cipher text; it comprised five groupings of characters in the following manner:

XMOFI FP X DLLA DFOI

“This puzzle is stupid; there are not enough boxes to spell either ‘Julius’ or ‘Caesar,’” April said.

“Why do you think the words ‘Julius’ or ‘Caesar’ have anything to do with the answer?” Jet asked.

April’s brow furrowed in concentration.

“Have you tried the ‘hint’ button?”

“I don’t want to cheat!”

“Well, maybe the picture is not a clue to what the answer is. Maybe it’s a clue to what kind of cipher it is,” Jet said.

“I hadn’t thought of that!”

“Do you know what a Caesar cipher is?”

“Err . . . Grandfather told me once,” April said as she closed her eyes in concentration.

She is smart, Jet thought. I can almost see those gears turning in her head.

“Three positions to the left?” April asked.

“Okay, let’s try that; write all the letters in the alphabet.”

April took out a piece of paper and pencil from her desk and wrote the entire English alphabet.

“Now, let’s take the first group of letters of the puzzle and try to solve it,” Jet explained.

April started counting and writing. She wrote down:

UJLCF

“That makes little sense,” April said.

“No, it doesn’t. Do you have any idea why it doesn’t work?”

April thought for a long time, and then Jet saw something light up in her eyes.

“I’m going the wrong way!” April said.

“You got it! Let’s try counting twenty-three to the right instead of three to the left for the letters,” Jet replied.

April started counting and writing again. After about two minutes, she screamed, “It’s my name!”

“Show me,” Jet said.

The word “APRIL” was scribbled on the page.

“Now, let’s use that same technique on the rest of the line,” Jet said.

After several minutes, April wrote the following down:

APRIL IS A GOOD GIRL

“So, three to the right is the answer?”

“You got it right. Good job, April,” Jet said.

April smiled.

“That wasn’t so hard to figure out once you showed me,” April said.

“I just provided some basic clues. You figured it out all on your own.”

April smiled. “I’m going to enjoy learning from you, Jet!”

Jet could see that April was feeding off the human interaction; however, when she wasn’t interacting with Jet, she seemed like a . . . computer.