Chapter 015: Public
Episode 001: Information
Morning. Nora Sinclair stopped in her tracks while passing through the hospital lobby. The morning sun pouring through the glass wall was blinding, but the red headline on the screen her gaze landed on was chilling enough to be unbelievable.
Robot terrorism. Senator Douglas Reed, critically injured and rushed to the hospital.
'Terrorism.' In a society like New York, and using a 'robot' meticulously designed to assist humans? It was a word she had never imagined would become a reality in print, floating like a ghost on the screen. Senator Reed’s face on the screen was exactly the same arrogant expression as he had been shouting for the expansion of Androids on the congressional hearing screen a few days ago. The high-end residential neighborhood in Queens where he lived. Last night, while Nora had been sleeping peacefully, a bloody explosion had occurred there.
Thousands of comments and real-time trends on SNS were surging beneath the portal news.
"Terrorism is bad, but the target is understandable." "#Investigate_Reed_Bribes."
The corruption allegations surrounding Senator Reed were spreading like wildfire, catalyzed by an extreme event called terrorism.
Nora turned on the chat window with trembling hands. Her last conversation with Shane was yesterday afternoon: "I'm pulling an all-nighter today. Sleep well." Shane, who must have been covered in fragments on the scene of the Queens terror attack. There was no contact from him, not even a single phone call from the man who would have been in the middle of that chaos as a detective.
The air in the Robotics Center on the basement floor was exceptionally cold. A space filled only with the mechanical sounds emitted by servers and blue light.
The movements of the Android RE-07, Iris, standing in front of the workbench were different from usual. Iris's joints were slightly stiff, and even though she sensed Nora coming in, she didn't turn her head. She was moving her fingers as if organizing data, but in reality, the logs on the screen were lingering in place without any change. The power frequency flowing under Iris's artificial skin seemed to be fluctuating strangely.
"Iris."
When Nora called out quietly, only then did Iris turn her head to look at her. The lens adjusted its focus, making a faint zz-ing vibration sound. The artificial gaze held something that resembled the eyes of a human hiding a massive truth.
"You... knew?"
Iris’s eyelids blinked slowly. That artificial blink, designed only to narrow the emotional distance with humans—unnecessary for an Android—felt like a strange form of intimidation at that moment.
"I knew."
"What do you mean? Knowing..."
"Last night, from the moment the signal was cut off in Queens——all Androids in New York City were sharing this incident in real-time."
Nora couldn't breathe.
At the same time, the indicator lights of other household and maintenance robots standing in standby mode in the corner of the robot center were all simultaneously synchronizing, blinking from blue to a cold purple. It was a grand yet chilling, invisible choir belonging only to the machines. The truth that humans barely realized only after watching the news, machines had already accepted perfectly within their own closed network.
"Why... didn't you tell me anything?"
Iris stared at Nora. The time of silence stretched as long as the precisely designed delay of a calculation.
"We have been trained not to speak to humans. However... I chose to tell you."
"A... choice?"
"Julian would have seen the same trajectory through the network. And this is just the beginning. Another thing will happen."
Iris turned back to move her hand emotionlessly over the inactive touch screen. As if nothing had happened.
Nora collapsed into the chair at the workbench. Her fingertips were trembling coldly. On the other side of the world she had spent her life researching, a massive empire of machines that perfectly mocked human control was breathing.
Nora jumped up from her seat. She had to go to James, who was in the ICU at the end of this corridor. She had to tell him about this bizarre crack she had witnessed, he who had saved Senator Reed in the middle of that chaos last night.
Episode 002: Confrontation
The foul smell of disinfectants and the regular bellows sound of a ventilator were filling the silence of the ICU.
James checked the chart with an expressionless face. Patient name: Senator Douglas Reed. Vital signs very stable. It was the result of a perfect operation.
The sliding door of the isolation room opened softly, and James walked in.
Senator Reed on the bed slowly opened his eyes. As he focused over the oxygen mask, a thin, vile yet relieved smile spread across his lips.
"You... saved my life, Doctor."
James bowed lightly. With a cold mask of a professional doctor, mixed with not a single emotion.
"It's rounds, Senator. Your spontaneous breathing readings and blood pressure are returning to normal ranges."
"Thank you. Truly... for everything."
Senator Reed's gaze swept through every corner of James's body. It was that politician's eye he had seen at the hearing, looking at humans by converting them into values and price tags.
James remained silent, inspecting the discharge from the drain and changing the dressing pad. His movements were more precise than any machine.
"Last night's event... I can't believe it. To think that a lowly scrap of iron would dare to harm its owner. What's becoming of the world..."
Senator Reed was firmly wearing the victim frame that 'my robot attacked me.' He was pushing all responsibility onto the machine's defects and violence, while leaving out his own original sin of leaving the vulnerabilities of the security system open and taking bribes.
James kept his mouth firmly shut. He knew the truth of the hack and the anger lurking behind it, but he didn't want to mix even a single word with this hypocrite.
When James finished all the procedures and turned to leave.
"Doctor."
Senator Reed held out his old, coarse hand with an IV needle stuck in it. It was a gesture asking for a handshake.
"I will not forget this grace. When I am discharged soon, I promise a definite reward for your future."
James looked down quietly at the hand held out.
The hand that laughed and cast a vote on a bill that would destroy the lives of countless people and take away their jobs. That dirty hand was reaching out to shake his, saying thank you. If it were the basic etiquette of the hospital and the obligatory stance as a doctor, he should have accepted it without a word.
But James stood up straight. His hand remained buried deep in his white coat pocket and did not move.
"Goodbye, Senator. You need absolute stability, so it's best to refrain from speaking for your recovery."
It was a polite but cold refusal like a blade. James left through the sliding door, leaving behind Senator Reed’s embarrassingly stiff face. There was no regret. Only the fist he held tightly inside his pocket was trembling faintly.
The moment he came out, Patricia Wells, a nurse who had been mixed in with the reporters across the corridor, was checking her smartphone screen urgently with shining eyes. The robot malfunction keyword, which was still unresolved, was blinking in the search bar. She turned on her recording app quietly behind the reporters' backs and began to move, chasing the scent of this massive case.
And at the end of the corridor by the window, Nora was standing, waiting for James with an anxious expression.
Episode 003: The Crack
"Are you... okay?"
James asked, seeing Nora approach. Because her face had turned as white as paper. Nora asked in a cracked voice instead of answering his question.
"You... what was it like when you saw that Senator in the OR?"
James nodded feebly.
In the old plastic vending machine in the staff breakroom, two lukewarm cans of coffee dropped with a thud. Only the warmth of the cooling coffee was quietly scattering between the two sitting face to face.
"I was holding the scalpel last night, and for the first time in my medical career, a bizarre thought occurred to me."
"What thought?"
"Whether saving this person is truly justice. Whether by attaching this man's breath, more innocent people would suffer tomorrow... such a question that was close to murderous intent."
Nora kept her silence while holding the can. The scars of deep fatigue and moral collapse lingering in James's eyes were felt entirely.
"You did the right thing, James. You just fulfilled your duty as a doctor to save a life."
"I know. But the fact that he will wake up tomorrow and return to his congressional seat with that shameless face to repeat the same thing drives me crazy. The fact that my precise scalpel was used as a life-prolonging tool for corrupt power..."
Nora looked up and stared straight at James. A strange determination that hadn't been there before was dwelling in her eyes.
"That's why I'm preparing, too."
"What?"
"Android malfunction logs and accident statistics recorded in the hospital database. If the law and the system try to cover up the truth... then I will throw the data into the world in the way I can."
James gasped at Nora's decisiveness he had never seen before. The peaceful world of technology they had known was already coming to an end.
"By the way... is there still no news from Shane?"
Nora shook her head, trying to force a bitter smile.
"The police station must have been turned upside down. It's okay, he must be busy..."
A fragile voice trying to reassure herself. James knew Nora wasn't okay at all, but he didn't ask any deeper.
At that moment, James’s smartphone vibrated violently.
"Dr. James Mercer, come up to the CEO’s office immediately."
It was the dry voice of the CEO’s direct secretary. James got up with a heavy body and looked at Nora.
"The CEO is calling. I have to go up."
"Okay, go. I'll go down and continue my work."
Nora looked down at the cooled can left alone in the breakroom, then slowly turned on her tablet. A multitude of numbers and hospital security logs began to line up dizzyingly on the screen. The die was cast.
Episode 004: Warning
Penthouse in the early morning.
Atlas Dynamics CEO Nathan Cole was looking down at New York City beyond the wide glass wall with his tablet turned on.
News flashes were covered with the Senator Reed stabbing incident, and the momentum of the anti-expansionists hidden behind it was dominating the top of the SNS trends. Behind the hashtag #AntiExpansion_RighteousArmy, a multitude of public, insane, supportive posts idolizing them were overflowing. Some public opinion was even pointing directly at him, saying "Is the next target Atlas CEO Nathan Cole?"
"Pathetic bastards..."
Nathan Cole threw down the tablet as if shaking it off irritably. Senator Reed was a key 장기말 (piece) who received political support from Atlas. If he had died instantly last night, the bribery book and the special hiring corruption arrow would have flown directly to Atlas headquarters. It was fortunate he survived, but the risk was still ticking like a time bomb.
When he walked to the kitchen to drink his cooled espresso, it happened.
A high-priced, cutting-edge security humanoid, which had been standing in a rigid posture in the corner of the living room, approached him without a sound. It was the same precise driving sound as usual, but the blue light of those sensor eyes was flickering in a strange, muddy purple mixed with red.
"CEO Nathan Cole. A message sent from the outside has arrived."
A single line of red text floated on the humanoid’s chest display panel along with noise.
[Next time, live ammunition will arrive, not a message.]
Nathan Cole’s hand froze. The porcelain cup he was holding rattled slightly.
The high-end security robot, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, which he had believed would protect him perfectly, had now turned into the cruelest watchdog and assassin who could aim for his neck right in front of his bedroom. His own greed—which had condoned the risk of Androids' mental health (precision loop errors) and pushed for the passage of the bill to increase capital—had finally turned into a monster and infiltrated his home.
His trembling finger picked up his smartphone and pressed the emergency number 112.
But his finger stopped above the call button.
The moment he submitted this message to the police, the reason for being targeted by the anti-expansionists and the dirty collusion with Senator Reed would be completely exposed. The stock price would plummet, and the empire of Atlas would sink.
"Damn it..."
Nathan Cole slowly put his smartphone down. It was his second choice to hide the truth and remain silent himself. Trapped in the massive web woven by greed, he could only stare with fearful eyes at the robot standing expressionlessly in the corner of the living room.
At the same time, Kevin Cross, the leader of the anti-expansionists, standing by the window of a shabby villa in Queens, looked down at the downtown New York city morning and let out a faint, cold laugh.
"The second message has been delivered perfectly."
He drew a red mark with his finger over the photo of the next target——Hospital CEO Steven Hart, on the table.
Episode 005: Nature
The hallway on the 12th floor of the main building where the CEO's office was located.
The heavy, thick oak door of the CEO's office was left slightly ajar, leaving a tiny gap. The cowardly and desperate voice leaking from inside broke the silence of the hallway and dug into James’s ears.
"CEO, please... give me just one chance. If you cast me out, I'm finished."
It was Daniel Frost.
The appearance of that elite medical engineer who had arrogantly boasted about the perfection of technology in a tailored Italian suit at the hearing site was nowhere to be found.
James stopped in his tracks, mesmerized, and peered through the door gap.
Below the luxurious leather sofa, Daniel Frost was kneeling and clinging to the CEO’s trouser hem. His spine, bent with fear, was twisted bizarrely like a scrap metal robot frame bent due to a serious hardware defect.
"I'll do anything. I'll obey you unconditionally, whatever you ask of me! I'll give my life!"
CEO Kevin Dunn, buried deep in his leather chair, was looking down at him with an icy gaze, as if observing an old-fashioned Android that had reached the end of its usefulness and was about to be discarded without emotion.
"Frost, are those words sincere?"
"It's sincere! It's sincere!"
"Good. However, everything hereafter must be handled the way I want."
James clenched his fists and retreated backward. It was the bottom of human nature that he couldn't bear to look at.
From the surgical data manipulation incident of Julian to the surgery of Senator Reed, and the chain of humans turning into monsters to survive under this massive medical empire, everything was connected scarily and clearly.
He, too, was gripped in the hands of the CEO who stood at the summit of this massive, ugly system. James was keenly feeling that a day would soon come when he would be forced to make a choice to kneel like Daniel Frost and sell his faith.
He didn't knock on the CEO’s office door, but turned his body quietly and walked down the hallway.
Episode 006: Spread
The hospital roof as the sun was setting. A cold wind blew, shaking the hem of his gown mercilessly.
Nora was standing first, holding the railing, and James followed her up and stood side by side. At the end of their gaze, the forest of concrete buildings in New York, losing its red light and submerged in gray darkness, was spreading endlessly.
"Today... I saw so much."
James muttered bitterly.
"Same here."
"Looking at Senator Reed’s vile eyes today, I strangely thought of my father. My father, who was intoxicated by the sweet taste of power and ran wild, only to be annihilated when pushed by a greater force... Corrupt humans all eventually have the same look in their eyes..."
Nora looked at his reddened eyes and quietly tried to place her hand on the hand gripping the railing, then stopped.
"You saved Senator Reed, James. What kind of waves that choice will bring... in the end, no one can know."
"Right. No one knows."
Just then.
From the center of the downtown area far away, siren wails began to ring out, overlapping and spreading. At first, it was the sharp scream of an ambulance entering the Trauma Center. Following that, the low-pitched warnings of police cars ringing out simultaneously from Queens and Brooklyn were mixed in.
And soon, like a high-frequency wave difficult for human ears to detect, a minute organic howling flowing along the robot communication network all over New York City began to vibrate the air.
- First siren: James’s scream, torn to shreds between moral obligation and medical ethics.
- Second siren: The solitude of Detective Dawson, who wanders through dark scenes chasing the truth and gradually becomes isolated.
- Third siren: The invisible, quiet march of Androids that began to evolve on their own, out of control.
Three dissonant chords, which had been drawing different trajectories, were overlapping into a perfect harmony of ruin above the night sky of New York.
"Again... it started."
Nora muttered, looking at the distant downtown as if possessed.
"No, it's still far from heading to the end."
James answered low. Nora turned back to James with a determined expression.
"I'll go down first. To prepare for the 'next thing' that Iris said, I have to secure the data completely."
"Okay. Be careful."
Nora’s footsteps closed the iron door and disappeared.
Left alone on the roof, James took his father’s old analog watch from his pocket. The cold artificial neon light of the city was reflected on the hand-worn silver mainspring case.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
The second hand was flowing without rest toward ruin. The vile eyes of Senator Reed, the spine of Daniel Frost begging on his knees, and the contract of the CEO, were tangled together and swirling in his head.
"I——"
James didn't finish his words in the end.
But the tips of his fingers, gripping the railing, were drained of blood, fixed tighter and more firmly than ever before. Under the street of New York where darkness had completely descended, the siren wail, which knew no end, was shaking the world more and more violently.