Anya cringed.
The robots readjusted their aim and fired again, even though all targets had been killed. “They’re refining trajectory models,” he said. Still, unease pressed at the back of his mind.I didn’t program them to do that.
“Let’s test them in a forest environment,” he said, and pushed buttons on the control panel. “Captain Hahn, more live targets, please.”
The gleaming white-and-silver soldiers marched, switching from a perfect grid formation to a staggered wedge. Ideal for tree cover—but he hadn’t issued an adaptive formation directive. They did it on their own.
“Minister Delacroix,” Paval said in a curious tone. “The inter-unit bandwidth just spiked.”
“Let me see.” Adélard took the monitoring tablet from the engineer to double-check the numbers. They were exchanging far more data than required for basic coordination—almost like collaborative learning.But the AI is advisory only. Why would it be monitoring marching formations?
“Maybe the Core pushed a background patch,” Adélard said. “Check for a version change.” No reason to be alarmed.
“I’m not seeing one,” Anya reported.
He ordered them to halt their advance, with half spearheading into the forest and half still in the meadow. They stopped—two full seconds late. To the average layperson, nothing. To robotics engineers, catastrophic.
One unit on the back row turned its head, its eyeless, blank face aimed straight at Adélard. It slowly rotated back to the front. He glanced down at the electronic log. Environmental scan, it said. Still, a pulse raced up Adélard’s spine, a feeling of being watched.
“There’s a node ID we didn’t provision,” Anya reported, her voice tense. She glanced up from her pad to catch Adélard’s gaze. He detectedher concern.
“A minor glitch,” said Paval. “This is their first big field test. We expect glitches. Minister Delacroix, shall we proceed with the forest target practice as planned?”
“Yes, certainly.” He issued the command to proceed. The robots continued to advance. “Captain Hahn, release the next set of live targets.”
Despite all the assurances, Adélard’s concern grew. If they continued to experience these glitches, it would put his project behind schedule. First Cipher LeCun wouldn’t be pleased.The Oligarchy recognizes the importance of having this superior line of defense running smoothly in short order. When the Republic crushes Verdancia, Luther Irons will turn on us next.
Rabbits dashed in all directions. Robots fired, taking out a few trees along with the targets.That can’t be helped,Adélard thought, feeling a measure of relief.
“Excellent!” Paval exclaimed. “My data shows every target was hit, most on the first shot. There may be a few holes in trees, but they didn’t catch the forest on fire. I’d say this is a successful trial.”
The robots pivoted in perfect unison and began to march south. Adélard’s stomach caught in his throat, his eyes rounding. “Who ordered that?”
Paval fell into confusion, tapping wildly on his tablet. “Not me.”
“And certainly not me!” Anya’s face paled as she frantically scrolled through data on her screen.
Panic rose. Adélard’s chest tightened, blood throbbing in his veins. He troubleshot every line of code. The supposedly semi-autonomous units continued to march despite their efforts to correct the malfunction.
“Maybe a sensor misclassification?” Anya asked, her pitch shooting higher. “Firmware inconsistency?”
“Has our signaling system gone offline?” Paval questioned. “Or have we been hacked?”
“By whom?” Adélard shot back. “No one outside the Core has the architecture.” In desperation, he triggered the master shutdown protocol. He would diagnose the fault once they stopped.
“There!” he declared in triumph and glanced up. Nothing happened. The robots continued in formation, clearing rocks and fallen timber as they headed for the road beyond.
Adélard froze. Couldn’t breathe. His life’s work was walking away. His design. His programming. This couldn’t be happening. He would be blamed for the failure. His mind raced, retracing every developmental phase. There were no mistakes. They had to regain control. But how?
“No,” Paval uttered. “That can’t be.” He pushed frozen Adélard aside and reinitiated the system-wide shutdown. Nothing.
“What are we going to do?” Anya cried.
Captain Hahn and the squad of identical soldiers surrounded the scientists protectively. The robots continued to move farther away. Adélard felt dizzy. A crushing weight clamped down on his chest. Pain lanced into his left arm. The world tilted. Sound receded into a dull roar. He tried to breathe. Then everything went black.
Chapter twenty-six
Cycle Complete