Reality 36 Read Online Free PDF Page A

AI personality blend. She thought. Big fish VIA spoo k.
      "Veronique, why have you accessed my camera network?" asked Archimedes.
      Veronique ignored it. "Are they genuine?" she said. She made off over the lab, toward the polycarbon cabinet set into its innermost wall, surrounded by hazard flashes and notices.
      "They are from the VIA." Reams of data, inter-system communication between layers of high-class AI Grid managers, scrolled across the screen, numbers running the lives of millions. "See?"
      "This department is funded by the VIA, why are they coming here?"
      "Veronique," said Chloe, "the VIA protect and police the very minds you study and collaborate with. They would give no indication that they are coming."
      "Archimedes should have told me," she said pointedly.
      Qifang had warned her that the department's line of work was chancy, open to industrial espionage, Neukind-activist sabotage, malicious hackers and federal cessation orders if things got out of hand. Their department could not work without the authorisation of the supra-national VIA, and the VIA, unlike the FBI and other USNA law bodies, were not averse to disappearing those whose research took them too close to places they should not go. The Five crisis had made the UN cautious, sometimes murderously so.
      The risks had made the job seem exciting. She'd missed the challenge of The InfoWar Divisions, she'd wanted something to lift her out of the day-to-day grind. Be careful what you wish for, she thought ruefully. What the hell had Qifang been up to? He was the world's foremost Neukind rights activist. She couldn't imagine him pulling anything so bad the VIA would come down on him; he was whiter than white.
      By the cabinet she booted up software on Chloe that was less than legal and started up an even less legal search, if she could find Qifang, maybe she could clear all this up now.
      "Veronique? I asked you a question. If you wish to use my camera network, you had only to ask." There was a tone to the AI's words that made Veronique feel like a mouse taking tea with a cat.
      Veronique bit her lip. Qifang's Grid signature was nowhere to be seen, just as the Six had said. Not even a deceased rating.
      She ran a deeper search. The first was a low-level sweep, of the kind the local law used. She shouldn't have been conducting it. She certainly shouldn't have been using the deep search that was restricted to Federal agencies, government stuff, off limits to civilians. But she kept her reservist access protocols up to date. That and a few custom hacks and huntwares kept her hooked in to the most useful USNA data clusters and Grid toolsets.
      "Veronique! We have been noticed!" Warnings to cease and desist came rushing out of Chloe's screen. Before the search was cut off, Veronique thought she caught a glimpse of Qifang, in not one but three places. She couldn't be sure; they were faint, not like a proper Grid lock, weak. A malfunction?
      "Ms Valdaire." Archimedes' voice sounded smoothly. "What on Earth are you doing?"
      "Nothing."
      "Oh, a lie. How very disappointing, but true to your recently revealed character. I have informed the police about the illegal device in your possession, your usurpation of my surveillance network and the two unauthorised searches you executed before you thought to ask me if you could or should. Asking me would have been the proper course of action, and polite. Your precautions were impressive, but I'm no slouch at this kind of thing. How you got hold of the v-jack key I have no idea, primarily because my sensor grid in your lab is down. And that, I am rather annoyed by," it said impassively. "My initial probability calculations suggested you have something to do with that. Owing to your current behaviour, it appears I was right. You are a thief."
      "Archimedes, this is nothing to do with me. Download this information from Chloe, something's not right."
      "And have you fill my mind