Running With Metal

by Farmageddon

John, Sarah and Derek finally accept they will never be able to stop the emergence of AI consciousness. Over the next decade, AI evolution will result from many different lines of computer development all over the world . Hence a new strategy , coalition

3. Chapter 3

June 21 2010

Cameron is holding out one hundred thousand dollars in front of three men . They are in the middle of a warehouse . It is mid- afternoon. She had manoeuvred them into meeting at this time because, as she predicted, it is now sweltering inside the wooden structure and there is little air movement. The heat will slow human reaction times down. The warehouse smells of hot wood and melting tar. The men have asked John to wait in the SUV.

Cameron wants to see the girl before she hands over the money. They take her to a container . They open the door . A seven year old, mixed race girl is asleep on a blanket on the floor. She has dark curling hair. Dirt is streaked with sweat across her face arms and legs. One of her legs below her knee had been amputated in a military field hospital, six weeks previously She is sedated and tied by a length of orange cord to a bracket . One of the men tells Cameron the girl has green eyes. Her family is dead.

Another man was about to ask if Cameron had a buyer, or wanted to keep the little girl herself. Maybe there would be a chance of more business? He never got that chance . A . 9 mm round punched out the back of his skull. He fell on top of one of the other two who were already on the floor.

Cameron snapped string from around the girl's wrist, and picked her up. As she did so the half conscious child wrapped her arms around Cameron's neck and shoulders. For a moment the child pushed back, and waking up wondering where she was.

Then she saw Cameron's face . She hugged her, and whispered in Cameron's ear that she liked being carried by her " angel custodio de la guardia". She didn't mind being "muerto".

"You aren't dead." said Cameron.

"But they are" whispered the girl.

"Forget them, that was like a bad dream. There is a man in the car , a good man. His name is John. He already loves you very much. So do I."

Daniel has already modified many aspects of the state and national database to seamlessly accommodate their new arrival.

The girl will be called Gracia, which in Spanish means" grace."