Frej stared the papers in front of him his face drawn into a displeasured frown. Something wasn’t right. The doll shouldn’t have behaved like it did if all of the documents were correct. The artificial body, computer-like artificial brains, nothing should have been able to give it impulsive commands. There weren’t chemicals or hormones in this doll to make emotions.
A knock from the door made the young scientist to look up from the mess of papers on his desk. “Come in!”
The door opened and the messenger came in. “Sorry to interrupt you, sir. There is an urgent message to you from laboratory two from level one.” The young girl took an envelope from her bag and gave it to Frej. “Have a nice day, sir.” The girl left immediately closing the door after her.
Frej had barely time to mutter quick thanks as the door was already closing and he turned his attention to the brown envelope in his hand. Urgent, eh? He opened it with paper knife and pulled out a note. He read it once, then twice… All it said was: Come here.
The young man sighed and stood up. Maybe there was some emergency downstairs but why hadn’t they used phone instead of messenger… Frej shrugged once and left his office; maybe he could go to the lunch after this.
***
The level one was minus five floors under the ground and his office was on the 20th floor but the elevator took Frej to his destination in no time. He took his keycard and opened the door to see something he hadn’t waited at all.
The assassin doll stood in the middle of the room but there were no one else there. The doll was naked as always and it just stood its back towards the door. Frej felt the shudder travel down his back. Either this was a bad joke or something was really wrong in here.
With few slow steps Frej approached the doll and looked around to confirm it wasn’t a joke. There really wasn’t anybody else in the room. The door slid close and now Frej saw the doll move; it turned around to look at him with empty expression.
The young man looked at the doll and then to the tank it normally was in. The tank was open but there were no signs that would have showed that the doll had opened it itself. He was quite sure it couldn’t be done from inside. Frej couldn’t remember what commands had been already programmed into the doll and what were to be programmed but he decided to try. “Status report?”
“Mission completed.” The doll spoke with soft yet definitely male voice.
Frej didn’t know what to say. Mission completed… That meant the doll had been given an assignment to do something. But hadn’t Mr. Devonier said that the doll wasn’t ready for testing..? “Repeat the mission details.” He wasn’t sure he wanted to know but he was curious.
“Target: Mr. Seymour Devonier, Mission: Eliminate, Status: Complete, Time used: 30 minutes.” The doll just stood there speaking tonelessly.
The young scientist comprehended only two things in his horror filled mind. Somebody had given the doll a mission to kill their research leader and the mission was completed, that Mr. Devonier was somewhere frozen to death by his own creation. He needed to report it immediately. “The name of the mission programmer?”
“Classified information. Verification code needed.”
Frej feared what he might hear as he formed the next question. “Uncompleted mission details?” His voice shook lightly.
“No uncompleted missions.”
“Former mission details?” Frej needed all the information first so he could shut down the doll without losing it. He wasn’t prepared for what came next.
“Target: Mr. Faron Gaehar, Mission: Spy and Eliminate, Status: Complete, time used: 4 hours 23 minutes. Target: Mr. Frej Aelon, Mission: Protect, Status: Complete, Time used: 1 hour 16 minutes. Target: Mr. Seymour Devonier, Mission: Eliminate, Status: Complete, Time used: 30 minutes.”
Frej stood like frozen as he heard his name on the list. Had the doll been following him? Why? Who had given those orders..? The questions filling his mind were too much for him right now and without thinking the young man dashed towards the door wanting out of this place and away from the malfunctioning doll. He didn’t get far as suddenly he felt a strong hand around his waist. “Let go of me!”
“I can’t do that.” The doll’s voice kept a hint of sadness in it.
Frej stopped his struggling and turned to look at the naked doll pressed against his back. “Why?” Now he was definitely afraid.
“I need you to help me.” The doll sounded sad now. “I’m not a mere doll…”
The young man gasped and when the hand let go of him he fell numbly to sit on the floor. “What is going on here?” His voice sounded so tiny to himself.
“They want to kill me… They want me to be a mere doll.” Now Frej saw the doll’s eyes. They were sad, not empty like always. It made his breathing hitch for a while. This simply wasn’t possible.
“You are supposed to be a doll. Nothing in you makes you human.” Suddenly the young scientist felt annoyed that everything was going downwards in his first big research. This was his chance to show what he was capable to and then the doll started to act like this. His annoyance leaked to his voice quite clearly.
The doll shook his head and turned to walk away from Frej. “I thought you would understand, as you spoke of humanity the first day you came here…”
Frej watched the figure standing back to him as its shoulders slumped and it seemed to lower its head. “Those are just learned actions. You can’t have feelings of your own as there is nothing in you to make them.” The reasoning was sound to him. An artificial doll just couldn’t evolve to a living being.
“So you are going to help them kill me…” The doll didn’t turn, didn’t look at the young man sitting on the floor.
“It is my job to make you safe to be used instead of humans in dangerous situations. We might have to empty your memory first.” Frej knew this was useless. The doll was malfunctioning and he had to get out and get help.
To Frej’s surprise the doll fell to its knees and bowed its head in submission. “Very well… I accept my destiny… Will it hurt?” The doll’s voice shook with emotions Frej knew there couldn’t possibly be.
Frej stood up. Now was his chance to get out. He took a step backwards and the doll turned to look at him. Tears stained its face and Frej’s movements halted. The doll wasn’t supposed to be able to cry either.
“Will it hurt? The moment you kill me…” The doll seemed to be afraid now and it trembled lightly.
“No…It will feel like you were falling asleep.” Frej answered automatically. He didn’t know would it hurt a doll. In theory it couldn’t feel anything so it couldn’t feel the reprogramming either. He took another step towards the door and then opened it escaping away from the laboratory.
For the moment the doll just looked after him tears leaking from its eyes and then fell to the floor crying openly its lean body shuddering with powerful sobs.
***
Frej stood beside the examination table and looked at the doll on it. He had reported the whole mess to his boss and the older man had nearly shut down the whole project. He had persuaded Mr. Beyriel to let them carry on with it but there were conditions now. If the doll behaved oddly after the reprogramming they had to leave the project and start over from the very beginning.
It bothered Frej that the death of their research leader was been hidden but it was necessary with this kind of assignment. The military didn’t want any attention in this project.
The doll was in shut down mode now and seemed like sleeping. They had founded it in this state from the floor where Frej had left it. Its face was relaxed and eyes closed. Still Frej couldn’t but remember the fear in the doll’s voice as it asked if the reprogramming would hurt. He knew that the doll couldn’t really have emotions like fear or sadness but it still was burned in his memory. The impossible tears had been quite real.
“Let’s begin. We need to empty the whole memory. Not a single byte of information can be left.” Frej felt a shiver as he gave the instructions as if he had condemned a living creature to death. This was only a doll, he reminded himself, but still uneasiness stayed at the back of his mind.
The wires connected the programming computers and the doll and as the first commands had been inserted everything seemed to go fine. Only that the doll’s muscles seemed to have grown tense. As the command of delete all had been given the doll’s eyes shot open and a scream escaped its suddenly pale lips. Its hands were pulled in tight fists and the tears streamed from its eyes.
Frej watched all this in horror. This was impossible. The doll had been shut down; it couldn’t wake up on its own. It couldn’t feel the deletion and it definitely shouldn’t be able to cry. When the doll turned its head a little to look at him Frej took a step closer.
“You said…th-this wouldn’t…h-hurt…” There was fear and sadness in those usually empty eyes and the doll’s voice shook with every word.
Frej closed the distance even as others had escaped from the room. “It shouldn’t have… You’re not supposed to feel this…”
The doll took a shuddering breath and its face contorted from pain. “It hurts…so much…” It was more a sob than a coherent sentence.
Frej didn’t know what made him to take the doll’s hand but he took it in his and caressed the soft skin with this thumb. “It will be over soon.” Somehow the words didn’t hold the meaning he had meant, it sounded so cold even to his own ears.
“Yes… Then I am no more… Why…? Why you do this…even…even though we… are the same…?” The doll had closed its eyes and shuddered violently as pain wrecked its head. A tiny whimper followed the question.
Frej shook his head in denial. “You are not human…” He had to hold tight from that thought or he would get himself hurt in this project.
The doll opened its eyes but they were glassy now. “That’s not what..I mean… You… you are not… a… human…”
The young scientist stared at the doll in shock. “Why do you think I’m not a human…?”
“You…are…l-like m-me…” The doll stared Frej with its now blank eyes. “L-laboratory three...Level zero…”
The computers were nearly finished and the doll jerked once like electrified and its eyes lit once again with sadness.
“Farewell…Frej…” The eyes closed once more and the doll relaxed as the reprogramming started.
Frej stood there in stunned silence and watched the doll not noticing the tears on his face. He had killed something and he didn’t even know what that something had been. He would never know now. The last words of the doll were completely forgotten in his horror of realization that he had done the thing he most abhorred; he had taken a life.
***
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