The Singularity Race (25 page)

Tears welled in her eyes. “Yes. When my husband found out I was pregnant, he was furious. He demanded I get an abortion. If not, he would tell the authorities and the law would be enforced. If Peter were brought to term, well, I told you how he would live as a second-class citizen. No, not even as a second-class citizen.” She looked out over the field.

Peter and Josh were taking turns at bat. Peter got a good hit and ran to first base. Josh trailed behind.

“You programmed a power surge?” Mullins asked.

“Yes. We had some keypads for access to restricted areas, not unlike what Brentwood installed. I activated the program when I knew he would be the next person to code in. Afterwards, I immediately deleted any trace. The accident was attributed to a faulty power supply.”

“And how did Brentwood and Farino discover it?”

“Brentwood was looking for any way he could pressure me. He got the DNA match and then examined the dates like you did. He was smart enough to envision the method I used and he had the advantage of testing his hypothesis through Apollo. During his first visit to California, he accused me and I broke down. I would lose Peter and be convicted of murder.”

“A most intelligent murder,” Mullins muttered to himself.

“What?”

“When murder doesn't look like murder. And it doesn't look like murder to me. There's a boy on that field under a Washington Nationals cap that wouldn't be there if his mother hadn't protected him.”

He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “That's all I need to know about you.”

The game on the field continued. And right then, their seats were the best in the world.

Acknowledgments

The quest for Artificial Intelligence is an area of scientific exploration making headlines. Prophets of unparalleled wonders and prophets of unprecedented doom agree on the undeniable fact that a self-aware, thinking machine will transform our world. The genie could soon be out of the bottle and this genie is of our own making. It could also be beyond our control.

Although the premise of a conscious-subconscious computer mind is my fictional creation, I am indebted to numerous articles documenting the progress of AI development, especially the MIT Technology Review. Special thanks to Mark Ethridge for sharing his research into the AI story, and, of course, I'm grateful for the imaginative vision of Isaac Asimov, whose robot novels first captivated me years ago.

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for sending Rusty Mullins on another mission, and to my editor, Barbara Peters, for keeping the story on track. Hank Hester introduced me to the Esperanto language in of all places, Matanzas, Cuba. Dankon, Hank.

One thing that AI machines might not ever know is the love of family. I'm grateful to my wife, Linda; daughters Melissa and Lindsay; son-in-law, Pete; and grandson, Charlie, for their love, something I hope will always keep us human.

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