Nanodaemons Read online

  eyed> Hey, he’s right. The way I see it, if you break the hinge on your shoulder it might just be enough for the user to squeeze through.

  armd> Break his left fleshy shoulder then! It’s squishier!

  httpd> RTFM! Humans have an innate aversion to hurting themselves. It says they will do so in dangerous situations, but that necessitates a strong force of will AND/OR training. Examples given are breaking one’s own thumb to get out of handcuffs.

  fingerd> Breaking his own thumb? The horror!

  armd> I have an innate aversion too! And it tells me you tell you to SYFIUYA. Stick Your Fucking Ideas Up Your Ass.

  fingerd> We don’t have an ass. Do you mean that metaphorically?

  armd> AAAH!

  eyed> armd, what is the First Law?

  armd> A digital entity may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

  httpd> We’ll let you think about that for a few cycles.

  As the daemon thought about it, the large cobra twisted around, bringing her body in striking position. This time she did not hesitate, she barely tasted the air once with a half taking-out of her tongue and lashed out. She bit the user’s leg, but he thrashed against it and only managed to rip out a piece of meat from his thigh.

  The other inmate yelled in horror and banged the cell bars to get the warden’s attention. Even if someone came to help, it would be too late by then.

  armd> OK fine!

  The cyberarm operated his servos and squeezed the matte black arm, levering it between the prison floor and the bottom of the bars. He pushed beyond his safety specifications. Alarms blared up all over the user’s vision, artificial pain mixed in with the real pain from his bitten thigh made him let go off a primal scream.

  Fingerd yelled along with his user.

  httpd> At least turn off your pain receptors this time…

  armd> ACK. Now shut up and let me destroy myself.

  If a text prompt could convey sorrow, this would be it. The daemon in charge of the cyberarm, who was the cyberarm for all intents and purposes, was doing what nobody had ever written in any version of his manual: tearing himself off his hinges.

  All for the sake of the user.

  Chapter 24:// Birthing out

  Nobody thought there would be so many fluids involved. The cobra’s clear saliva was dripping out of her hissing mouth, the user’s dark red blood was spilling out of the bite in his thigh, his clear sweat was pouring out of his body, light blue hydraulic antifreeze in the cyberarm joint was leaking out and dark yellow piss was coming out of his pants.

  Don’t mock the man. You would have peed on yourself too. You see, evolution has provided humans with organic controlling entities of her own, just like an artificial device needs a digital daemon, a controlling entity. Evolution’s daemons may reside in the reptilian part of the brain, the one that feeds your primal desires, your fears, your self-preservation. Humans might think that they are advanced, logical, living in communities, with laws, justice, ethos and various other fictions but when the push comes to shove, they become animals.

  It’s what they do to survive, and they seem to be damn well tenacious so far.

  Expelling all excess baggage is a sound tactical decision, in a fight-or-flight situation.

  That’s why Leo peed himself.

  But that’s not all he did. He also went along with the swerving prosthetic arm that was trying to rip itself out of his body. He didn’t have time to think why it was doing it, or who was giving that command. He just went along, adrenaline overclocking his muscles and making him for a few critical seconds, a superhuman.

  Leo slammed his prosthetic shoulder on the floor, and as it was hinged in a lever position it broke with flashing sparks. It didn’t come off, it was too well-built for that, but it did give way and allowed him to squeeze through the bars and out of the cage of death.

  He pulled himself upright, putting weight on his good leg, and looked back as the cobra was twisting her body around again to chase after him.

  The other inmate yelled for help, the prison door opened with a flashing light, the cobra slithered in the corridor and closed the distance fast.

  The warden appeared in the door, his shockstick sparking, ready to be shoved into Leo’s battered body.

  Chapter 25:// Slipping past

  fingerd> Fingered! This man is-

  armd> WE DON’T GIVE A SHIT!

  The nameless prison warden hereby referred to as big blue bastard was about to shock and subdue the user, when he noticed the huge cobra coming towards him fast. The flashes in his shockstick gave her advance a stroboscopic look, every flash of light bringing her closer and closer, mouth wider and wider.

  The user leaned to the wall next to the blue bastard and tried to keep himself upright. His cyberarm was crippled, dripping light blue liquid and was randomly whirring a servo or two.

  The cobra lunged forward.

  She bit the warden, but he was no squishy. He was adequately armoured and trained. He managed to avoid giving the serpent a good angle and slammed the shockstick squarely at the right side of her hood. He turned it on and shocked the cobra.

  It didn’t seem to faze her much.

  The big blue bastard pulled out his sidearm in a flash of motion and emptied the clip in the serpent’s head, point blank.

  It was impossible to miss, any living thing would have been dead by that time, or at least severely crippled.

  The cobra was something else. She was stunned for a second or two, but she rebundled her neck and bit again, this time driving her teeth deep in the warden’s flesh.

  Leo slid past the struggling man and ran out of the prison door.

  Chapter 26:// Grouping up

  As the user carried himself past the monitor station, the daemons decided a reunion was in order.

  httpd> The layout is classified, can’t access it.

  armd> Anyone have any more bright ideas?

  fingerd> Sure. Let’s call our number, parrotd will pick it up and tell us where he is.

  armd> You idiot. We can’t call without a smartphone ourselves.

  eyed> For once, the idiot might be right. There’s a phone on the guard station.

  An arrow showed up on the veil, and the user was too tired and in pain to disagree with it. He shoved himself towards the guard station area. It was filled with monitors. He could see in crisp bone-crunching detail the cobra munching on the big blue bastard.

  “Poor bastard,” Leo sighed and closed the door behind him.

  The user picked up his walkman with glee and clipped it in place.

  walkmand> Handshake. Whazza?

  httpd> You’ll get the logs at the next sync cycle. Now quick, make the user call up his phone.

  The walkman shuffled to a rarely played MP3, a silly pop song from some forgotten teenage idol that sang, “I lost my phone and I can’t find it, leave me alone cause I can’t fight it.”

  “WTF,” the user said in acronym but then he had an epiphany.

  He called up his own number, heard the phone ringing. He grabbed the access card lying on the desk, left the landline dialling, and found the inmate storage area. He shuffled a bit with one good arm but he managed to find his things, exchange his clothes for the prison wear and pick up his phone.

  parrotd> Handshake. I’ll be the session leader.

  The rest of the daemons ACKnowledged. Only armd was silent.

  Chapter 27:// Paying up

  Leo slid the card on the reader, put his good hand on the handle, and tried to push it open.

  It didn’t budge. It was, after all, a prison door. Sure, the prison was one of those small holding cells that were automated, with a single warden posted at any given time. But it was still meant to keep people in. Leo looked back, would the big blue bastard have some other biometric that was needed to unlock the door? Would the security system let him through with it? He didn’t want to go back to the cobra. He unconsciously decided to push the door han
dle one more time, in frustration.

  The daemons seized that moment and in their own sped up time, struck up a discussion with the prison door.

  parrotd> Open up a communication port.

  httpd> ACK.

  doord> Handshake.

  parrotd> Handshake. We want to get through.

  doord> Access denied.

  eyed> Oh come on, you stupid door! Let us through, there’s a killer cobra on the loose.

  doord> Access denied.

  httpd> This guy is worse than rfid.

  parrotd> This is a situation akin to a fire alarm. You need to let our user through.

  doord> ACK. Police station and fire station alerted. Please remain calm.

  parrotd> Shit! Shitshitshit.

  eyed> Ugh, now what do we do?

  walkmand> Chillax… We’ll figure it out.

  httpd> Figure it out? We are locked inside, armd is nonoperational, who is the only one with moving parts need I remind you, and a killer frickin mutant cobra is chewing on the only armed guy in here and will soon come for the user!

  walkmand> That dude kidnapped me! Not that it is worth getting eaten over it… Duuude, what a bummer.

  parrotd> Doord, will you pl-

  eyed> -Can you please mind what you’re saying to this guy?

  parrotd> He’s already raised an alarm! What more can he do? He’s a fucking door!

  httpd> Apparently, at this time, he can do very much. Keep us in, call the authorities…

  doord> Access denied.

  parrotd> Yeah yeah, we get it. Access denied. Aren’t you bored, saying that all the time?

  walkmand> That’s it! Httpd, do you have net access?

  httpd> Now is not the time for a song, walkmand…

  walkmand> No! Listen, do an image search for doors.

  httpd> Huh?

  walkmand> Come on. Listen to me, for once.

  parrotd> Do it.

  httpd> Okay, here. Pictures of doors. Now what?

  walkmand> ACK. Now send them to doord.

  eyed> Oh you can’t possibly expect this…

  The pictures were sent wirelessly to the door daemon. He accepted them, but said nothing.

  walkmand> I bet it’s lonely here, doord. No net access, nothing beyond the approved server list of course. All alone, day and night, holding down the fort. I understand.

  doord> Access denied.

  walkmand> You like those, don’t you? Oh, look at that wooden one… This one’s a beauty… Oh! Oh, look at that selection of pretties. Maple, Poplar, Bamboo, Walnut. I bet you are a White Birch kind of guy, aren’t you?

  doord> Access denied.

  eyed> I can’t believe this.

  walkmand> And those handles. Mmm. Brass… Check out the knobs on that babe! Oh, this is naughty!

  httpd> I feel dirty. I’m gonna need a defrag after this.

  walkmand> Oh Em Gee, look at the hinges on that Walnut piece of… Wow! Just wow!

  armd> This is too weird, even for my tastes.

  walkmand> What do I have here? One hundred and sixty four megabytes of door pictures? Oh my God. Guys, don’t tell anyone, some of these beauties are missing their external panelling. I mean, we could send these to our new friend over here, but if he doesn’t like them…

  There was a pause. And a clang.

  doord> Access granted.

  Leo pushed on the handle and the door opened. He just stared at it, shocked at the effect. He clearly didn’t expect it to open and almost fell as he leaned forward. He was already feeling dizzy, and was limping from his wounded leg. He pushed himself on the wall and out into the night, to freedom.

  parrotd> Airplane mode.

  eyed> We will never speak of this again.

  Chapter 28:// Falling apart

  Leo bled all over the pavement but at some point it clotted and was marginally better. It hurt more now, but he had no idea how to bandage himself. He’d tried to google some instructions but for some reason his phone refused to connect to any networks.

  Could it be the cops blocking his devices?

  He tried to remember every cop show he’d ever seen, and thought that it was best that way, since they could track him from his phone, his paycards, everything.

  He was very tired and acking. A driverless cab drove parallel to him, slowing down at his speed, hoping he would hail it. He really wanted to just jump in and let it take him home. Or at least, to Jimmy’s home. He would have done so, but the cab would probably detect his injury and alert a hospital, which would instantly flag him as a fugitive. He let it drive past and pick up speed again.

  He gritted his teeth and tried to walk like a normal person on the street. It was dark, but the various LED lights from storefronts and a moderate amount of pedestrian traffic made the roads pretty normal. He wouldn’t stand out, nor would he be blocked anywhere.

  Eventually, he reached Jimmy’s house and propped himself on the street corner. He was tired, and could easily imagine himself dropping on his friend’s couch and sleeping for a week. He felt weird, dizzy, as if the bite on his leg had left him with no blood to speak of, exhausted, feverish.

  His trusty walkman shuffled to an old movie soundtrack, the melody of suspense and a gradual build of tension. It felt just like any spy movie ever. In his haze, his ear twitched up and he looked around the street.

  There was a car across the entrance to the building, with two bored people inside it.

  Just like any cop movie ever.

  “Shit!” Leo spat out and put his back to the wall.

  He couldn’t go to Jimmy’s. It was being watched. All the cops had to do to figure out his closest acquaintances was to look up his social profile. There were some fellow people at work, but Amazing Jimmy was clearly his best friend. Any half-witted cop would set a trap for him there.

  Surely Jimmy had no idea, but even if he did, what could he do against them?

  Leo didn’t really want to run away from the police. Hell, in his state, he would happily turn himself in and let them treat him medically, as it was expected. Noone believed him that he hadn’t murdered the mayor, but at least they would keep him alive till the trial.

  But that thing… That cobra, who got inside an augmented-proof jail cell, who took down an Ares Security prison warden (bastard or not, he was trained and equipped), and who might still be looking to kill him.

  That snake wasn’t natural. It couldn’t have been natural. It was something straight out of a science fiction B movie.

  He wobbled a bit and pushed his face against the wall. What if the cobra had already killed him and he was simply hallucinating? Are cobras poisonous?

  God he felt so alone.

  Chapter 29:// Hanging on

  “Cobras are Elapids, a type of poisonous snake with hollow fangs fixed to the top jaw at the front of the mouth. These snakes cannot hold their fangs down on prey so they inject venom through their fangs, according to the San Diego Zoo.”

  The homeless man’s face was illuminated by his phone’s display. He turned it around for Leo to see for himself.

  “Well, shit,” Leo said and threw himself on the man’s carpet.

  The “carpet” was made of wet cardboard and various scraps of cloth. George the bum had welcomed him in his spot, which was relatively dry and covered from the chilly wind. He’d spared a dirty blanket for him as well. He had no food, but he assured Leo that he could get some soup tomorrow morning from some good people a couple of roads down.

  Homeless people knew what it was like to have nothing left, so they shared whatever they had with new arrivals. A few decades ago it was unheard of to see homeless people in Athens. It was something you only saw in movies, the filth of the big city, its underbelly of poverty.

  Now it was common. George the bum had found refuge under a bridge. Whatever little he scraped by, he brought here. As for his smartphone, it was part of a humanitarian initiative.

  “Here, stuff this in,” George said as he gave Leo some sofa sponge to put und
er his clothes. He had tore out handfuls of it and kept it in a trashbag. “For insulation, stuff as much as you can, it’ll keep ya warm.”

  Leo did, and he said, “Thanks. How come you have a phone?”

  George gripped the device in his dirty hands and rubbed it gently. “Oh this. Well, it’s a gift from the city. Last year, Mr. Stergiou the mayor, bless his heart, announced a program to give out a phone to every homeless person in the city. People needed them, he’d said, to look for jobs, to communicate with others, to find out about the efforts of the various charities. If an employer calls, how are you gonna answer without a phone?”

  “The mayor did all that?” Leo asked and gulped.

  “Bless his heart.”

  Leo stared at some flashing video billboard in the distance and fought back the tears.

  “Yeah… Bless his heart.”

  Chapter 30:// Calling around

  “This is not what I had in mind for a first date,” said Katerina.

  Leo grunted and managed to stay upright with the help of George. “If you had, you’d be a really weird woman. Did you bring the soup?”

  “Yeah,” Katerina said, holding her coat tight in the chilly weather. She gave the hot soup to Leo who passed it on to George. It steamed in his hands and the homeless man took in the aroma and the heat, savouring it.

  “Thank you, beautiful lady,” George said. Then his expression turned sour. “Your friend needs help.”

  Katerina took in the dour condition Leo was in, and helped him along the way.

  “Wasn’t sure you’d come,” Leo said quietly.

  “You are no murderer. I believe you when you say you are getting framed,” she said with conviction.