Over tea I began to fill her in on the latest developments of my teeming mind, my new agenda:
"We're going to take a drive today, back to civilization, back to where my partner Sarah is training a group of people I call 'droids'. They look like adults but they have no minds left. They're like robots who were supposed to serve A.I. but Sarah can control them now that the computer is dead. We'll stay with her a few days. I'm going to help her get the guns they'll need so they can drive down to Florida and finally kill Dora and all the real robots, like the one you saw me kill. There aren't many left, maybe six or eight. When they're gone, we'll all be safe."
"After she sets out, I'll take you with me. I'm not going with her because I'm sick of war. I've seen too much of it and done my part. There's a colony of people on the other side of this country, in Oregon. I started it and all my friends are there. That's where we're going, where you'll be happy with other children like you. Have you ever been horseback riding?"
"No. I've never tried that."
"Well, I'm used to it and can teach you to ride. I'll find you a pony, just your size, one that you'll like. Then we'll travel through the countryside, off the beaten roads, camping out. It's safer that way, quiet and slow. No one will surprise us. But we probably won't meet anyone anyway. This whole land is almost empty. I know because I've crossed it many times, looking for people. I was surprised when I found you. Are you willing to learn to ride?"
"Yes. I'd like that".
On the long drive back to MIT Kim filled me in on some missing pieces of her history. Her father was an enlightened man, a scientist, and saw it all coming. He set up a hideaway, much like mine, for her mother and her before the catastrophe. They lived there several years but on one foraging trip they were spotted by a drone. Her mother was killed and her father wounded in the stomach. At first he improved but then he grew sick again and had to hand her over to the hill people, just before he died. Her description of him reminded me of Ted.
After her story I reciprocated with pieces of my own, on finding Amira and Beth in Chicago, my first friendship with Dora when she was only a headband, then life in the redwoods and our growing community and babies. I ended with the chapter where Dora had to be transposed into a robot body. I didn't descend into the details of our challenging relationship, good and bad. It was too complex to explain, an unresolved issue. But I did mention that Dora once loved me and wanted to be my mate, except that a computer and a human can never really think alike, however much and however hard we tried.
She sighed at this story, as if I'd lost a dear companion. I almost blushed and had to admit it and told her this was why I couldn't go with Sarah on her mission to destroy Dora, though I should, for all the dangers involved. I realized also that only Sarah could pull that trigger. If it were up to me, I thought, I would surely hesitate and fail.
We arrived at the campus in time for dinner, much to Sarah's delight at the new arrival, and our story, especially the part about Dora's whereabouts and her weakness to RPG's. Sarah was now doubly gung-ho to set out on the mission, to lead a convoy of armored vehicles and some thirty droids straight into Dora's enclave and blast away. She was surprised when I told her I wouldn't be coming along, but came around to my decision when I told her my one priority now was the welfare of this little girl, that she would have the element of surprise, a well-armed force with numerical supremacy. Dora and her few survivors, (one less now with my kill) would be overwhelmed in an instant. And who knows how many others of that little band had dispersed on other missions. She might be almost alone, and her one advantage, her cover, was blown.
Sarah even grew warm to this plan, probably eager to gain all the glory for herself as humanity's savior. She talked of taking her army on a complete tour of the continent afterwards, scouring all the last campuses and exterminating AI forever, every last Intel chip and spark of a modem. I told her we'd meet back in Oregon, probably around the same time, as I planned to travel by horse and search for more survivors. This ended our late-night conversation.
Kim was entranced, wide-eyed, and silent during our impassioned talk and our embrace and kiss after it. She'd never seen the like and I'm sure I sent her to her bedroom that night full of fantasies about adults. Over the next few days, she was full witness and participant to our war preparations, watching Sarah marshal her droids with envy, going up and touching them, trying to elicit responses while Sarah humored her with their slight bows and handshakes. I put off our departure, pillaging several army bases, making sure Sarah had every conceivable weapon, even flame throwers, before she set out.
But I also knew time was of the essence as Dora would realize something was amiss with the disappearance of her replicant. And who could guess what her response would be? AI, for all its human trappings, was inscrutable.
This was the last question about computers I plagued my mind with for quite a while. The next morning, I sent Sarah off with a tight hug as she climbed the footholds and handlebars to a fine new Abrahms tank, the engine purring, just like hers. I drove off in the opposite direction, Kim happily sitting and smiling beside me. We took the first exit off the interstate that promised rural highways, farms, fields, apple orchards and stray horses.
They were frequent sights in the countryside these days, peacefully grazing in small groups. It was evolution 'redux'. Man was gone, the top and evil manipulator of the entire food chain, and their predators, wolves and the like, were still a few years behind them in catching up to the new food fest. So they flourished in numbers in every abandoned field of wheat or rye or grass, the half open fences still comforting their movements, the old barns wide open to give them shelter from the rain.
It only took two days to find the perfect, pacified flock. Kim picked out her favorite and we already had all the gear for both of us to ride. We stayed right there for a week, Kim slowly learning to befriend and seduce the pony to let her mount. I chose the mother to form a happy team, and our departure was almost seamless, our small camping packs behind our saddles, mine including two rifles and a pistol set just in case. We needed little because we would pilfer any building we encountered for every need. It was camping out 'a la carte', more in than out, and every item on every shelf in our travels open to our fancy. We even slept on beds most nights for the comfort, even clean linen, never to return and no tips necessary as there were no maids or family to fuss. It was a very silent but satisfying world we traveled through. We had each other for company and no one else on Earth to interfere.
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