Chapter summary:
That's my cue.
They'll do whatever I want.
That's what you promised.
We were making out right there not long ago.
Me and Michael and Michael's SQUIP. All three of us.
Jeremy forced their gaze away as they passed the corner of the glass entryway, stifling the instinctive wince as the mall door shut behind them with a muffled clang of finality. No one else had gotten the memo, based on how many shoppers were milling about the Menlo Park Mall, that this was shortly going to be the backdrop for a moment that would either save or condemn humanity.
Probably not all of humanity. Jeremy couldn't wrap their mind around all of humanity. But their choices were going to affect the lives of the people they cared about, which might as well have been the same thing.
They couldn't even hype themself up for a fight or a loving reunion or a chase scene or, god (G-d? Jeremy was still unsure on that too) forbid, their own death or ego-death.
Their prediction algorithm kept spitting out only one outcome: Within the hour, Jeremy would be forced into the collective against their will.
They dimmed the consequent terror, panic, and innumerable worries. SQUIP prediction algorithms ignored human error. That was something they would have to bet on. And the single human with the most inherent human error was, according to Christine, in this mall waiting for Jeremy. All they had to do was connect.
Jeremy mentally reached out for the nearest security camera, then planted themself below it and stared into its electronic eye. "Michael," they said in a loud, clear voice, ignoring the way strangers all turned to face them. "I'm here. We need to… talk."
No immediate response came. People shuffled past Jeremy, who was having a staring contest with the camera, until a flicker of a friend request in the corner of Jeremy's eye caught their attention. They turned.
Lined up, blocking the way to the door with highly trained, uniformed movements, the mall patrons stared back at Jeremy
Each one of them tilted their head at the same time. At the back of Jeremy's neck, their hair stood on end.
Shit. This wasn't just going to be a conversation. Michael's SQUIP was in life-or-death mode, the same programming bug that originally led the SQUIP to take over cast members at the school play. It would do whatever necessary to achieve Michael's single, most important goal.
What the hell was Michael's SQUIP's directive, anyway?
"I wasn't going to run!" Jeremy said to the camera, an embarrassing squeak in the last word. "I'm coming to you, here. So we can talk! Alone!"
The SQUIP users stepped forward as one, their shoes each hitting the floor at the same time to make a single footstep as loud as a giant's. Jeremy let out an undignified nonsense kind of noise and was halfway to the food court before the loudspeaker answered in Michael's voice. "You're running right now!"
In agreement, a teenage girl said, "There is-" Jeremy was already past her, so a dad loaded with shopping bags continued, "-no alone when you-" An elderly lady scolded Jeremy as they passed, "-have a SQUIP."
"That's not healthy!" Jeremy protested, skidding to a stop in front of S'barro's. They almost continued the conversation with Jake, who was holding out a tray of free samples as if he'd never moved since Jeremy saw him last. But Jeremy couldn't trust the SQUIP to accurately report their words to Michael, so they had to hope he was still watching through the cameras somehow. They raised their voice. "You don't need to force me to stay here, Michael!"
A pause. "I'm not," said Michael, his voice echoey and more tinny than before. Jeremy followed it to the familiar front of the electronics store. "I dunno why my SQUIP's doing that. It says talking in private is a bad idea."
Jeremy sighed, running a hand through their hair and catching their breath. They didn't dare go into the little store itself for some kind of dark reprise of a Marley song. "It's trying to control outside variables," they realized. "There's a very small chance of me leaving the building so it's cutting off the exits. It's just being practical for you. Do you have any control over what's happening?" they added, pleading. "Why's it going all supervillain on us?"
"It's not," Michael said hotly. "That's not what's going on. I'm trying to do what's best for you! You, me, the SQUIP - you should be excited about this, dude!"
"Why are you suddenly telling me how I should feel?" Jeremy said. The TV screens inside the store were shutting down, one by one, and Jeremy moved on before they came to life and started attacking or something. They had no doubt Michael could follow them. "You've been so scuzzy since you got a SQUIP. It's like I've been dating a whole other person! You're following some kind of perfect-boyfriend rulebook I never signed off on-"
"Of course I'm the same person!" Michael protested from behind Jeremy.
A department store ahead had fewer SQUIP users milling about in it, so Jeremy ducked inside, maybe able to find a temporary hiding place in the racks of collared shirts and khakis.
Michael's voice followed via the in-store PA. "You're the one who explained that to me, that you're still the same person when you have a SQUIP! All that soul bullshit you talked about with Rich… Can't you just trust me? You were supposed to trust me. I got you to promise like I was supposed to."
Jeremy made a face. "That's not how it works. You taught me that. I learned how to be a good person from you and I know that shit didn't get erased just because you got a brain implant." They stared at an oversized Hawaiian shirt blankly. Jeremy must have fucked something up again, right? What else could get Michael to abandon all morals and sense of self? "What changed?"
"What changed? What needed to change!" Michael's voice wasn't on the PA anymore. Instead, it sounded human. Living. Coming closer. Jeremy wanted to talk but not here, where they felt like a cornered animal as lights flickered and Jeremy dodged a sales clerk to get back to the main mall floor. "I'm not your boring escort mission, Jeremy!" Michael called over the clothing racks. Jeremy stumbled and slid. "I don't want to be your goofy sidekick anymore, okay? The liability, the one you always have to protect!"
Michael was still getting closer. Jeremy heaved themself up on a bench, trying to catch a glimpse of Michael past Victoria's Secret ads and hair curler kiosks.
Michael raised his voice. "Maybe I still deserve to be the big damn hero!"
Jeremy's eyes were hot. "You already were my hero!" they shot back. Only the way silence rang around them afterward made them realize they'd shouted it, messy and unhinged.
Michael finally appeared around a corner, momentarily surprised. His glasses were gone; his hair was clean-cut; his clothes fit tightly. Screens, when he passed them in storefront windows or digital map displays, burst into pixels and rebuilt themselves as sound wave visuals. In a glorious halo behind Michael, sprawling complex abstractions like a Windows Media Player video rippled away. When he spoke, his voice was audible in stunning dancing waveforms - even if what he said was ugly. "That's not good enough, Jeremy. That doesn't change the choice I had to make."
Jeremy was staring. "Dude," they said. "You look cool as hell."
Michael tilted his head to survey the digital landscape. He stopped where he was, although the SQUIP users scattered around the mall moved forward to close in. "You don't think it's too much?" he said, half a laugh in his voice and his hand raising to nearly muss up his meticulous hair styling. "I keep thinking it's too much."
Jeremy hadn't moved forward yet. "No, man. It's gorgeous. I mean, I'm terrified, but in an awe-inspired way."
Michael, embarrassed, choked; his SQUIP turned it into a chuckle. "You don't need to be scared, Jeremy. I'm not going to hurt you. I took the SQUIP to save you." Jeremy's analysis of his body language told them that Michael was telling the truth, whatever that was worth. "They're gonna absorb you into the collective. They'll mind-wipe you unless you join it. I'm the only one who you trust enough to-"
"No, they won't," Jeremy said tiredly. That was such a transparent lie that they didn't feel the need to debunk it. "Michael, I appreciate it, and I'm sorry I left you alone in Spencer's and made you feel like you had no choice." Again, Michael's shock briefly showed on his face. His SQUIP had left him out of the loop on a lot of things, apparently, including how much information Jeremy'd been given. "But this isn't an action movie. It's not a play. It's not a video game. We're not heroes and villains and side characters and love interests. We're just… people, Michael. We understand life and stuff through stories, but we're the ones who write those stories. They shouldn't write us."
"How can you say that?" Michael's displays flared red. Jeremy backed up; Michael seemed unaware of the crowd of mind-controlled SQUIP users gathering tightly around them. "You're classic sci-fi, Jeremy! And I love that about you!" His expression, and the anger on Michael's visuals, softened. "You're… the computer that learns how to love. Because I taught you. I'm the one you became human for. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
Jeremy did want to answer the right way. They could generate a SQUIP script instantly if they wanted to turn this scene from horror to romance. But… they couldn't feed into the SQUIP's broken computations while Jeremy was still struggling to break them down.
"Michael," they said gently. "That's bullshit."
Again the screens flared, now buzzing and flickering so erratically that Jeremy had to raise their hand to shadow their eyes, gritting their teeth at the sensory overload. "Calm down! You know it's bullshit because you're smarter at human stuff than me!"
"It isn't! Love is the strongest force in the world, Jeremy! You got your humanity by loving me. I attained perfection by loving you! We were gonna make it official in the Blockbuster but you were too nervous-"
"It is bullshit." Jeremy took another step back. "Michael, Christine is ace. Do you thi-"
"You're bringing up your ex now?!" Michael's voice boomed over the PA, and through his mouth, and through the mouths of everyone lined up beside him.
Rookie mistake, Jeremy thought. Michael's SQUIP wasn't even pretending that Michael's whole self was protesting - it was only the computer-generated part of him.
Jeremy spoke louder. "Do you think she's not human because she doesn't wanna have sex?!"
Michael didn't answer. It gave Jeremy a few seconds to process their argument. "It wasn't just gonna be sex," Michael said. Jeremy was amazed that Michael's SQUIP managed to get him to talk so candidly in front of this many strangers. "It was going to be special. We had everything planned out to the nanosecond."
"Until I didn't want to."
Michael paused again. "Until you didn't want to."
Jeremy stepped back one more time, their back bumping up against a familiar booth. Good.
"Michael, I know you don't want to talk about this here."
The crowd was murmuring something, some kind of chant that Jeremy couldn't make out, but it was sure to be urging Michael to just do the deed, whatever deed could force Jeremy to enter the collective. "It's not gonna affect your odds of success," Jeremy said, slipping into the photo booth. "Please."
They closed the curtain behind them and waited in the stuffy booth until Michael finally crouched and entered beside them.
"I thought you were my heart," Jeremy said quietly. "My user. My conscience. My… me. The biggest part of me and the most important and the most human."
"I thought so too," Michael said. From some odd chord in Michael's voice, Jeremy felt certain that, if the SQUIP wasn't controlling Michael's expressions, he'd be a snotty sobbing mess. "But you left. You just… left. And I couldn't save you anymore."
"Michael," Jeremy said. They took a deep breath in through their nose. "I know this is some big SQUIP thing about getting my coding project. That's secondary, okay? That's outside of us. Assume the SQUIP gets whatever it wants out of me and put it aside for a sec. I need to understand." They fidgeted with their fingers. "If I didn't want to be with you, would you let me leave?"
"Would I let you-" Michael started, a smile at his lips, before the realization that Jeremy wasn't joking and that it was a genuine question made it disappear.
"You're in the eye of the storm right now. Your SQUIP's willing to do anything to get you what you want." Jeremy looked at their feet.
Michael did the same. "Like with Chloe," he eventually whispered.
"Like with Chloe."
"I don't want that."
"The SQUIP knows what you want better than you do. It could make you want that."
"No, it couldn't," Michael said sharply. Jeremy looked up. "I wouldn't do that to you. Seriously. I would - I want to save you, Jeremy, not to hurt you, and if it ever even tried, I'd do the Rich thing, I'd go brain-dead, I'd fight it, okay? That's not what's happening!"
"You wouldn't let it?" Jeremy whispered.
"Fucking hell, of fucking course I wouldn't let it! I don't want to-" Michael's bolstered tirade faded quickly. "-force… you."
Jeremy tried to smile but failed. They didn't plaster an artificial one on.
"Oh… god, Jeremy." Michael's hands were in his hair now, ruining his hairdo. The graphics in the photo preview image screen were beginning to melt somehow. "You didn't want to. You didn't want to! And I didn't ask!"
"Yeah."
"Of course you wouldn't want to be anywhere near me. Holy shit. My SQUIP - I promise, I was trying to help you, I just, it made so much sense at the time-"
"Michael."
Michael's head jerked, mouth moving with no sound coming out in an argument with something invisible, so Jeremy repeated, "Michael!"
Michael cringed. "What! Jeremy, I, I'm trying to get it out of this mall, but I don't think I can do that. If you don't want to connect with me, that's fine - I'm gonna fight it for you! I'm gonna-"
Jeremy pressed a finger against Michael's lips and leaned in.
"User consent," they said.
"What?"
"Consent. It's an ongoing, enthusiastic yes," Jeremy said brightly. "Where the user can make choices freely and change their mind as needed."
Michael was staring like they'd sprouted a second head as, above Michael's head, the greyed-out text flashed green.
Accepted friend request from Michael Mell!