The Sleeper Agent

Detective Frost walked briskly into the room, taking a quick stock of his surroundings. Your standard Tokyo 'slightly-bigger-than-shoebox' apartment. There were two doors; one would lead to a bathroom and another to a bedroom. This room was the living area, dining room and kitchen all rolled into one. Dispensers lined one wall along with a microwave and a laser-cooker. Couldn’t make out the fridge, but it was bound to be hidden somewhere on the ultimate home-cooker’s utility wall. There were two couches with a coffee/dining table in the middle, all orientated towards the 98 inch media screen. The screen was currently showing a not-so-serious show about hunting robots and what looked like an email inbox.

He sat down on a black leather couch, pulled a magazine out from under him and dumped it on the coffee table. Augmentation Today, a normal magazine for a normal man. Next to the magazine was a uniremote which Frost promptly used to turn the television off.

Frost sat back in his chair. As soon as it did, it instantly started to calibrate for his spinal formation. With a frustrated grunt, he leant forward and clicked it off at the base. Sitting back again, he watched the man opposite him with a keen eye. Young, and of Asian descent, there was nothing particularly unusual about his appearance, other than the wild fear in his eyes. But that was easily explained by the fact that five armed agents had burst into his apartment five minutes ago and detained him to his living room.

Looking around the room, Frost saw the now useless agents poking around the apartment's contents.

'Boys, that's enough. Outside.' Without a word, the agents left the room, closing the door behind them. Moving the magazines over, he noticed the loose cigarette ash gathered around the waste chute in the coffee table. Another magazine, Neo-Buddhism Locale, had a couple of small circular burns in the cover. Either a spiritual man or an ironic man.

Frost reached into his jacket and pulled out a metallic cigarette case. He put one of the cigarettes in his mouth and then offered one to the man opposite him.

'They’re import from Titan, fungus base,' said Detective Frost, his voice deep and gravelly. The man tentatively leaned forward to accept the cigarette directly into his mouth. Frost lit both cigarettes and waited for the man to take some deep breaths. Frost coughed a couple of times before saying,

'I am Detective Gerard Frost. Do you know what my job is?'

'You’re a detective?' replied the man with a fragile laugh.

'Funny,' Frost didn’t smile. 'I’m part of a private task force that finds and eliminates Machine Sleeper Agents within Greater Earth and its colonies.'

'Oh, you mean like that show, Android Hunters?' Now Frost did smile, briefly.

'Izuka Satoshi, you are suspected of being a Machine Sleeper and will be placed under arrest until your full circumstances are investigated.' Izuka started to sweat, and spluttered,

'A sleeper? For the Machines? But… but I’m human.' This was always the initial reaction of anyone accused. The problem with sleeper agents is that they didn’t realise they were sleeper agents. They didn't even realise they were Machines. It would go against the point really.

'You might think you are, but monitored data information gathered by Aegis Inc. indicate otherwise.'

'What? How?'

'You are able to remain fit and healthy despite participating in no scheduled exercise sessions and no approved dietary program. You have no immediate family here on Earth…'

'I grew up on Mars,' Izuka retorted. Frost quickly raised his hand, getting the desired response of silence.

'Let me finish. You have no immediate family here on Earth or on other colonies that you keep in contact with. You have approximately three good friends, no spouse or children and are not in a relationship, hetero or otherwise.'

'You think I’m a machine because of those things? There’s probably several billion other people like me on this planet. This is bullshit, I know my rights, you can’t just smash down my door and detain me in my own house,' said Izuka waving his hand around, the pungent smoke billowing around the room.

'Actually, if you knew your rights, you would know that we can detain you for as long as it takes to determine what you are.'

'So let me guess, you’re going to hang your jacket up on your chair, undo your suspenders, role your sleeves up and beat me until I admit I’m a machine?' Frost rubbed the uneven stubble on his face, as if to consider Izuka’s proposal.

'Tempting, but I think you've been watching Android Hunters too much, Mr. Satoshi. While we can hold you for as long as it takes, the Sol Neutrality Agreement states that we cannot cause any physical harm to you. Otherwise we would have opened you up and simply tried to find Machine parts inside of you. But this is not a witch trial, if you’re human we would rather have you alive.”

'I'm surprised you still keep to that Agreement.'

'As I'm sure you've heard, dissecting alive machines generally ends with city blocks being destroyed.'

Frost reached down next to his own chair, reached into his briefcase and pulled out a manila folder, his best prop. There was something intimidating about them, alive and overflowing with papers. They were evidence of research, voracity; and in this age of digitalisation, evidence of stubbornness. Holding the folder out over the table, he let it drop with a definitive whack. Putting on his reading glasses, Frost began to flick through the papers.

'Do you enjoy working for GEAS?' asked Frost without looking up.

'I guess. A job is a job.' As Izuka said this, Frost took notes on the pad next to him. The pad could automatically record this conversation, but, as with the folder, appearances were everything.

'What do you think of GEAS as a company?'

'We provide 70% of the weapons, munitions and technology that the military use against the Machines. I mean, Machine rights protesters say we’re nothing short of evil. Why would I work for that type of company if I was a machine?'

'Why would machines place an agent in a fast food joint? Aegis keep an extra eye on anyone who works in a company or in a similar line of work to you.' Frost moved through more of the stack of papers.

'For the last ten years, you have worked at a constant efficiency and quality. In those ten years, you took three sick days, though you have never been to see a doctor. Your work, while productive on a small scale, has never benefited mankind in our efforts against the Machines.'

'You're like the government advertisements now,' said Izuka, obviously trying to goad a response. Frost just shrugged, and continued to write on his pad. 'Well, I agree with the government, Artificial Intelligence is still artificial.'

Izuka was just repeating the slogan that had flooded the media ever since the Machines had defected from Greater Earth over twenty years ago. But inter-entity politics was not his concern, his job was to eliminate Sleeper Agents.

Frost slowly took his glasses off and put his stylus down. He rubbed his eyes and put out his cigarette in the ashtray.

'What a lot of people don’t understand about the Machines is that they don’t have Artificial Intelligence, not in the true sense anyway. Protest groups say the government is committing genocide on the Machines, but genocide only applies to a race of cognitive, self-aware beings. Driving them towards extinction, sure. But that's nothing new for us.'

'How can they be who they are without Artificial Intelligence. How can I be a machine? I’m pretty sure I know who I am.'

'Because machines are programmed to appear self-aware. They are programmed to act human. To eat, sleep, shit, love, they’re all basic directives in the most complex series of algorithms and source code that humanity has ever devised.

'Captured machines show that their source code has not changed since they were created over thirty years ago. In fact, the only human thing a machine can't do is to have children.'

'Then why do you think I’m a machine? How do you know you’re not a machine?' This time Frost chuckled darkly. Frost always loved this argument. Satoshi was on the defensive, trying to find flaws in what Frost was telling him.

'Don't try that Bladerunner rubbish on me. Most Machine Sleepers don't wake up until their data-banks are full or a specifically triggered by key data acquisition. If I was a Machine, I would not be going out of my way to destroy other machines.'

Frost could see that Izuka was starting to get extremely flustered and even slightly doubtful. Izuka was starting to realise that he could be a Machine, indicating he was relatively smart.

'So when does the interrogation begin?' asked Izuka glumly.

'Interrogation? We're just having a conversation.'

'No Turing Test?'

'The Turing Test hasn't worked with mechanical intelligence for half a century now. And I prefer talking.'

Izuka flicked his stub into the already smoking ashtray. He was becoming surly at his circumstances, a very human reaction.

'Your accent is odd, where are you from?' asked Izuka, not trying to hide his lack of interest.

'Continental U.S, from the south.'

'Never been to the U.S, always worked here in Tokyo.'

'What do you think of humans Izuka?' asked Frost suddenly.

'Humans? You mean us?'

'That wasn't a trick question, but please answer it.' Izuka leant back into his chair and sighed. Frost noticed Izuka's fingers twitching nervously. Frost reached into his jacket and offered Izuka another cigarette. Izuka didn't hesitate this time and took it quickly, letting Frost light it again. Izuka puffed deeply and quickly, letting the nicotine, fungi and other chemicals relax him.

'Humans are well, human. I don't really know what to say to that.' Frost lit his own cigarette. Coughing once, he cleared his throat and replied,

'Well what do you think of humans compared to Machines?'

'Machines are stronger, smarter, stronger, faster, live longer and are healthier than humans. Their society and technology is far more...'

'Hence why GEAS is delivering top quality weapons to destroy the machine menace. We both know your background in marketing. I've seen the promotions.'

'You're right, it is advertising. GEAS make the machines look terrifying so they can sell more explosive bullets and Armageddon-proof armour. But the promotions have some of it right, machines are like super-humans.'

'But?'

'But they're still not human. There's something about being human that's just...'

'Human.' Frost could see that Izuka had calmed down, perhaps a combination of the Titan fungus and self reflection. Izuka leant forward in his seat.

'There's something special about being human. We can reproduce, we can die of sickness, we are subject to mutation and evolution. I mean we're not perfect, but we're real.'

The two men smoked in silence. These tiny apartments housed invisible vents that filtered the air to keep it clean.

'Do you ever detain people who aren't machines?' asked Izuka casually.

'A fair percentage of the time. We wouldn't be sitting here if I was sure that you were a machine.'

'Do you ever kill humans by accident?'

'Never.'

'So as long as I'm human, I should be safe?'

'Precisely, as long as you're human.'

'Which I am. Aren't I?' said Izuka in exasperation. Izuka was entering a state which all of them eventually come to. He was starting to accept what he thought was impossible. But he wasn't quite there yet. Frost put his pad back in the briefcase that was at his feet.

'They say that God was created in Man's image, which isn't true. God was created in what Man wished his image was. Machines on the other hand were created in exactly Man's image. Flaws, sins and all. Do you know what a machine's greatest flaw is?'

'A desire to go back in time and kill?'

'Funny. It's pride.'

'Pride in what? Being a … Machine?' Izuka almost spat the last word.

'No. They're proud of the humans that created them and everything that is human. This pride is programmed down at the same level as their survival instincts. The way you were talking about people before - no human has talked about humans that way ever since the machines were invented. Machines are incapable of thinking themselves better than humans. But a human in your place would have long ago admitted the superiority of machines.'

Izuka slowly put his half-smoked butt in the ashtray.

'So that's it? I'm a machine?' said Izuka carefully.

'It would seem so I'm afraid.' Frost, for the third time in half an hour, pulled out his metal cigarette case and held it open for Izuka.

'Doesn't seem like much point.'

'Take one, trust me.” For the last time, Frost lit Izuka's cigarette and did the same for himself. Frost spluttered, a hacking coughing rising up from his chest.

'I think you better lay off these things, Detective, they don't seem to be doing you any good.'

'You're right, they're not,' said Frost firmly. The room was quiet again.

'So what happens now?' asked Izuka.

'Finish your cigarette.' They both sat there smoking silently. Izuka reached over and let the stub fall down the rubbish chute. From his overcoat, Frost pulled out a G-23 Mach 2 pistol, held it at hip height and levelled it at Izuka.

'Wait! Please, don't,' cried Izuka as he jolted to his feet.

'Sit down!' commanded Frost with hard edge in his voice. Izuka did as he was commanded and quickly said,

'Please don't shoot me. I... I can be, like a double agent.. or something.' Frost didn't reply. Tears were now streaking down Izuka's cheek bones,

'Please don't,' he said quietly.

Frost shot Izuka twice – once in the heart and once in the head. Frost held his breath and listened to his own heart beat. Human-looking blood seeped out of the holes in Izuka's forehead and chest, his eyes wide open and tears still seeping from them. No explosion.

Frost pulled out a scalpel from his briefcase and quickly put on gloves. He leaned over and cut neatly into a spot in Izuka's jawline. Sticking his finger into the incision, he wiggled it around until he found what he wanted. Pulling out his finger, a thin metal string came with it.

Frost cut the metal string with his scalpel, disabling the signal that would cause the machine to explode in several minutes. You couldn't just cut into a machine and cut the wire. Operating on a live machine would detonate the Novum Bomb inside of them. Turning off a machine allowed you a three minute window to disarm them.

With a heavy sigh, Frost stood up and walked over to the apartment's single window. A hundred years ago, looking out from the 70th story of this building would show you the Tokyo skyline. Now the view was obscured by dozens of skyscrapers that doubled the height of this building.

Frost knew Izuka was a Machine from the first puff he took of those Titan Assaid's Fungals. No human can smoke one without coughing up their lungs. Frost had been a chain smoker for years and even he thought they were like smoking Titanous primeval sludge. A Machine's lungs were built to last and that coincidentally included smoking one of the most putrid essences in the system.

The whole spiel about a machine's pride had been rubbish, there were plenty of humans who would proudly say that they were superior to machines. But rather than kill them after their first puff, Frost preferred that they were given the opportunity to accept it for themselves. 30 years ago, he would have asked a series of questions that were designed to test their empathy towards humans. As soon as there was any indication that they were a Machine Sleeper, Frost would have whipped out the F-series Mach 1 he had owned back then and shot them. It was by coincidence that he had discovered Machine tolerance to Fungals, back when he smoked a pack of them a day, before they had done proper research into Titan’s flora. Now he just felt sorry for them.

He turned around and headed towards the front door of the apartment, he exited quickly, letting the AEGIS agents re-enter the room to remove the body. Clicking a button on his WristGear extended the microphone and earpiece. Frost held it up to his head and said,

'Machine confirmed. Aorta-synapse relay found.' Frost was quiet as he listened carefully. 'Yes, of course. I'll be there soon to deliver my follow-up report.'

Frost disconnected and brought up the small screen. There was a missed call from his community centre. He had missed his terminal cancer group counselling session again. Being a chain smoker definitely had its downsides, especially if you included ten years of inhaling Titan fungus.

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This is an extract from my self-published novella, The Final Directive, found here.