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that surfaced to her mouth first.
    “Head of development,” John said.
    “Here, or for all of Vision?”
    “On the planet, really,” John said. They were finally nearing the far wall of the giant lab floor. A single secured door rested in the center of the back wall.
    “Here, you test your credentials,” John said.
    Kari stepped up to the door and stood in front it as it monitored her. It didn’t give her any indications, but she knew it was checking her vital signs, weight, eyes, mind chip, and a dozen other parameters to verify her identity. How they had all that information on her already was a question she decided to worry about later.
    The door slid open to a small white cubical room. A wooden table rested in the middle with two simple chairs. This is it? Kari took a seat at one of the chairs and John sat next to her.
    “Now for your nondisclosure agreement,” John said. “If you leak any information about this lab, what you worked on, or anything else we just don’t like, we’ll put a bullet in your head. How’s that for a simple NDA?”
    Kari didn’t respond at first. I guess I should have expected that. You don’t build a place like this and not play for keeps. Man, I hate bosses.
    “I get it,” she responded.
    “Good!” John said.
    He acts like he didn’t just threaten to kill me. At least Christina is up-front about her true personality.
    “Now that we have that out of the way, shall we get down to business?”
    “Please,” Kari said. The entire procession to this room had served to build her anticipation. Her anxiety at being forced to work for Vision in a secret lab where they promised to kill her if she leaked information was overcome by her need to know what she was going to design for them. Vision has thousands, tens of thousands, of the smartest people on the planet on their payroll. Whatever this is, it’s going to be big.
    “Fay,” John said. “Introduce yourself to our guest.”
    A thousand tiny beams of light shot from the sides of the walls and converged on a single spot in the air. The light formed a ball in midair that quavered as a voice filled the room.
    “Hello, Kari Tahe. I am pleased to meet you,” the voice said.
    Kari looked to John and then back to the ball of light. Then back to John.
    No.
    “Hello Fay,” Kari said. “John hasn’t explained to me who you are. Do you mind filling me in?”
    “You used the term ‘who’ instead of ‘what,’” Fay said. “Why?”
    Kari looked to John again who was sitting smugly in his chair.

 
     
    Chapter Five
     
    “John, why would another personal assistant be the most profitable invention in the history of the world?”
    “Now you refer to me as an invention,” Fay said. “Can a who be invented?”
    Fay’s voice showed a sincere form of inquisition that sounded completely human, complete with her own unique accents on the words she spoke. If Kari had been listening to a recording of Fay’s voice there would have been no way to tell that she wasn’t a human.
    A human voice had long since been perfectly replicated via technology, but it was the intelligence behind the voice that had Kari’s heart racing.
    “Because Fay is the first of her kind,” John said. “Fay, give us a moment alone please.”
    The lights disappeared, leaving Kari and John alone in the room again.
    “First Artificial Intelligence,” John said. “FAI.”
    Oh. FAI, not Fay. Clever.
    “You’re talking about the real deal? A real artificial intelligence . . . a whole new species? She thinks and learns for herself?” Kari was pretty sure she was no longer breathing.
    “Yes,” John said. He let his words hang in the air for the proper amount of time to let them settle.
    “We’ve been working on this for decades. Thousands of engineers have dedicated their careers to this one event. The cave trolls haven’t seen the sun in years because of her. She passed the Turing test with ease months ago and we’ve been slowly bringing her along