Collateral

“So,” Linda says, as she taps the device on her arm twice. “this is an AI guardian. It is an advanced artificial intelligence. It detects any moment I am in danger, and tells me the action I need to take to save myself.”

“Any time you are in danger?” Rose asks.

“Yes, any moment. Anything that could harm me. It sees everything. It is only very short term tho. Only immediate danger.”

Rose shrugs. “I have never seen AGI that actually works.”

Linda smiles. “Well, does it seem to work so far?”

“I can’t argue with that. Although it seems to cause more trouble than it solves. The device is what ultimately put you in danger.”

The phone in the room starts ringing. At the same time, Linda’s arm starts buzzing, and a red light fills the room.

“Pick up the phone,” Linda says.

“Trust me. Pick up the phone.”

“Trust the AI you mean?”

“Just pick it up!” Linda yells, starting to panic.

“Fine, fine.” Rose picked up the phone. “Who is this.”

“Hello. Rose. My name is Officer Kramer. I am a hostage negotiator for the Seattle Police Force.”

“Hostage negotiator?”

“We have heard you are holding up in your hotel room with one hostage, is that correct?”

“She isn’t my hostage.”

“Please, we don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

Rose sighs. “Wait, I’ll put you on speaker.”

“Just let the hostage walk out unharmed.”

Linda looks at the phone. “Hostage?”

“Who is this second voice.”

“My name is Linda.”

Rose facepalms. “Don’t tell him your name.”

“What are your demands?”

The implant starts flashing red again, and Linda gestures to Rose to be silent.

“I want to speak to Mr Winchester,” Linda says.

Rose mutes the phone. “What the hell. Why do you wanna speak to him?”

“I don’t know,” Linda says. “I don’t even know who it is. The AI guardian told me to say this.”

Rose facepalms. “You put an awful lot of trust in your device.”

Linda shakes her head. “What do you expect me to do? I am very new to this. I am not a hardened criminal like you!”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh, get over yourself, you very much extrude the fixer look. You are obviously an edge runner.”

Rose sighs and unmutes the phone again.

“I’ll tell you my demands. I want you to send in a ripper doc, and remove the device from my hostage’s arm. I am only after the device, if you do so, I will let her go.”

“We have a doctor right here, can we send him in instead? Is that ok too?”

Linda checks her device, and it is still green, and she nods.

“You can send him in.”

The door opens, and a man walks in.

Linda’s implant buzzes again. She looks at the man and closes the door behind him.

“I know you have a hidden gun strapped to your boot. Please hand it over.”

The man doesn’t hesitate and slowly hands her the gun. Linda grabs it and gestures at him to go sit on the bed, next to Rose.

“Okay, I need you to remove this device.” she points at her arm. “And implant it to Rose’s arm.”

“Wait what?” Rose asks. “No. I don’t want you to implant it into my arm. I just want to deliver it back to the company.”

The implant buzzes again.

“No, Rose, the implant says it has to be installed on your arm.”

“Is that you talking, or the implant?”

“The implant. It is never wrong tho.”

“I won’t allow you to implant a device on me.”

Linda waves around her gun. “Too bad. I am the person with the gun here.”

Rose stands up, “I am not afraid of you!” She has to hold the standing lamp to not fall over.

“Ma’am, are you ok?” the doctor asks.

“I am fine, I fell down the stairs earlier. Nothing I can’t walk off.”

The room starts spinning faster and faster, and Rose falls over, on the carpet. The voices of Linda and the doctor sound warped and damped.

“Ma’am, are you ok?”

The doctor is shining a light in her eyes.

“I think I am.” Rose tries to get up, but the doctor stops her.

“Don’t move Ma’am.” the doctor opens the zipper of her coat and sighs.

“Your blouse is drenched in blood. There is probably an open wound somewhere.”

He looks up at Linda. “We have to call an ambulance.”

The device buzzes again. “First install the device on her. Then you can call an ambulance.”

“At least let me stop the bleeding.”

Linda looks at the device, that is emitting a constant green light.”

“The device says ‘okay’ ”

The doctor rolls Rose carefully on her side and presses some form of cloth against her back. She assumes it is a bandage but it could be anything. Pain surges through her back.

“Ma’am, please stay still. That is a very nasty wound you have. I am surprised you were still able to walk around with this.”

He keeps applying pressure to the wound.

“What is your name?” The doctor asks.

“Rose.”

“Nice to meet you Rose, my name is Leonard.”

Rose moans in pain.

“Now, I am gonna keep applying pressure here, but you need to go to a hospital asap.”

Linda aims her gun at the doctor’s head. “Transplant the device from me to Rose, and then she can go to a hospital.”

“I am afraid I can’t do that. Rose has lost so much blood already, implanting a complex device like that might kill her. She is not healthy enough.”

The device buzzes again, and the red light hurts Rose’s eyes.

Linda sits on the bed and puts the gun to the doctor’s head. “Do it, or I shoot your brains out, right here and now.”

The doctor looks confused, more than scared. Rose tilts her head and watches the doctor in the eyes. “Do it.”

“What?”

“Do it. Implant the device.”

“Are you sure?”

“The longer you wait, the more chance I die.”

“The doctor sighs. I have some local anaesthetic if you want.”

“So what do have to.”

Rose feels a string in her back near the wound, and the room spins faster. Then everything goes black.