A Replicated Experience

Darkness ushered away the twilight of the sun. New York contained so many secrets; they hid under the skyscrapers and inside of the locked doors of the laboratories that stayed tucked away behind cement barriers. Bliss programmed a system within her phone to help her get past pesky computer locks, but cameras still remained more of a nuisance. Her regular technique of shattering them with her powers needed an update.

The bad thing that lingered about A.I. labs always came in the silence they possessed at night. Not needing to employ security guards, A.I. labs long since switched to automated guard systems that patrolled the perimeters with infrared capabilities. Shadows offered no protection from these lifeless creatures. Ingenuity was the only thing that separated her from the machines; it would be her only hope to get into the lab.

Bliss walked towards the gate, emitting a pulse from her modified phone that allowed her to pass by without notice from the sentry bots. Towering steel sat between her and the building, not an easy task. She pressed her body against the split in the door, and placed her phone against the split in the door. A forceful blast shot from her hands through the tiny, wax tubules she implanted, and into the door. The blast cracked the door just enough for Bliss to squeeze her body through a small opening. She stood before the building, imitating her pulsar cloak.

This complex heeded no exception to that rule. A barrier surrounded the two story building with fifteen feet of reinforced steel. Within the first floor rested an entry way that welcomed visitors to decorative fountains that flowed from the second floor water source. A post-modern metal plank skimmed over the water of the entry way, and towards a black, oval, receptionist desk. Two tubular elevator lifts made of glass provided a lift to the second floor. Card swipes held the doors to the offices behind the entry way, and towards the back of a long hallway rested an elevator that hid the true secrets of the laboratory.

Within the secret compartment, that appeared as nothing more than a distress panel, rested a number of number of buttons that would take the elevator down to one of the three basement levels that held the artificial intelligence labs. On the first floor the facility maintained a series of computer labs that contained most of the data for the company. Even though the large network routed through the labs on this floor it still lacked a number of key software files.

The second floor kept the surgical area for performing neural surgery. Blood stained the sterile floor during most of the day, but mysteriously disappeared at night time. Medical supplies and operating tables all hid behind plastic sheets that divided each operating area into its own small chamber.

Living on the third floor rests a man who the laboratory created using a series of surgeries and procedures. The floor spreads out to appear as a penthouse of sorts. The man lives with a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom, and a study. Records within the main terminal indicate that this man never leaves the third floor, and that the records and procedures are kept within a computer in a back room of the third floor.

Chloe donned her mask and stood on the building by the entrance to the A.I. labs. Her employer wanted something from there and Chloe was told that someone else was going for it as well. She decided to use this to her advantage and have the girl get rid of the cameras. She snuck in behind the girl silently and hid in the shadows. She made a bit more of a run so she could get to the next floor on the stairs.

Her feet made no sound as they ran along the stairs. She pried open the door to the elevators and slid down the cord to the top of the elevator car. She knew the girl would come this way and was using it to her advantage. She harnessed herself to a cord so she wouldn't fall and waited for the car to go up.

The cart stopped on the second floor and Chloe climbed her way to the third floor. She pulled out her flash drive and copied the records and procedures onto it before seeing that the elevator was coming up. Chloe dashed behind a desk in the study to avoid detection.

She slowed her breathing and checked out where she was heading using her goggles. She crawled out from under the desk but hit her head on it, knocking a lamp from the desk and shattering it.

Even with the joy of artificial intelligence these devices still followed protocol. Designers needed helpful drones, not philosopher androids. Bliss surveyed the eloquent foyer. It flowed with riches, but not solitude. One of the lifts reset to the bottom floor; ones of the drones could be using it for patrol, but Bliss kept all options together. She pulled out her phone, and brought aimed the camera in front of her. It gave her a survey of the room in infrared.

Good thing she pulled it out, Bliss could hardly see the room, let alone the bridge that crossed the water in front of her. She stepped lightly across the metal planks and came to the other side of the fountains. Any automated device followed a set system of limitations and reasons. Bliss needed to give them a reason to leave her alone. She took her time to get to the elevators. The reset put it on the first floor, but it sounded like someone recently used it.

Bliss moved into the tube and pressed the second floor button. She kept her foot in the door to stall the elevators departure while she opened a separate module on her phone. The data points crossed over and triggered a delayed emergency maintenance call. Once the elevator reached the second floor it would trigger whatever drones responded to a forced entry call on the second floor, leaving her to move down the first floor and find the data banks that she needed.

Drones were bound to be here in moments. The last place they would probably look was the ground floor. She ran to the elevator and went down to the 1st floor. Her mapping program in her HUD showed her where the other thief was. The problem was avoiding her detection as well as the drones. She his in the room as to not be seen watching her every move with the HUD. She was going to get me in, Chloe thought to herself. She pressed herself against the walls and watched what she was doing.

Movement cluttered up the sounds of harmonious silence. Bliss kept her path in front of her free from obstacles, creating a path to slip through. Pad code locked doors barred entrance from the information vats. With no technology four digit codes presented impossible odds of cracking. With technology in the time it takes to say that, they open their doors. Before her lie a networked room of processors. Even though technology made them smaller and wireless, the routers still needed several data cards to keep them active, and enough ventilation to keep the heat down.

Bliss entered the room. The temperature dropped steadily to around sixty degrees, not too cold, but noticeably uncomfortable. All the information terminals sat before her, or at least what she believed were all the terminals.

After an interface with her phone she discovered a hidden file. And then another. And another. The encryption failed to enter the files, but they existed. A room like this sent information all over, maybe the second floor contained the information she needed. Her phone vibrated with the analysis. It began mapping and charting the wave signals to create something of a sonar map. Bouncing waves dug out a basement level on her phone, and revealed the three subfloors of the lab.

"Now how do I get down there?"

Chloe ran past the girl passing her by hoping she didn't see. She hid along the side of the corridor while her program copied the data she had. Chloe noticed a lab on her map. Now how to get down there. She took off at a run for the basement of the building, they had to have some kind of service elevator. The room had mops and buckets and boilers. The whole room reeked. Chloe ignored it and made her way to the service elevator.

Bliss moved out of the room. She wrapped up her hard wire and placed it back in her pocket; she never wanted to lose a back up in case the phone could not pick up signals. Darkness kept her blinded to the shadowy stalker that crept among her. As she used her phone to ascertain details on the complex, she could not use it to scan the area to shed some light on the situation.

The program upstairs would place the elevator in a continual loop, so the drones would stay in a perpetual state of repair until they noticed the missing code that would remedy the solution. She played a dangerous game toying with the A.I. of these drones within a lab dedicated to creating more profound and sensible machines that could solve problems. She planned on escaping as soon as she grabbed these files, but the lower levels needed exploration.

An elevator waited for her at the end of the hallway. Bliss quickly made her way down the hallway in a way that would keep her footsteps to a minimum. Her finger pressed against the plastic button and after a few moments the metal doors opened before her. She stepped inside and moved to the corner of the elevator, bringing her cell phone camera up to survey the area.