Hidden Knife

"The introduction of machine terrorism woke the world and rocked it to the core. The fear of a revolt from within the machines had been an ever-present concern, but neglected was the human factor. The world burned in an echo of explosions bringing them almost to their knees.

"War pounded through the people's hearts and a crusade against machines and their masters began. New laws drafted banned the thinking computer; the development of AI halted. The fight against the machines continued with great public support. Victory was theirs.”

Herbert Stein, Machine Historian -

Satoru's eyes opened to a bright light, its white penetrated from all sides at his eyes forcing them closed again. He dared another peek into the light, this time he was ready for it, slowly opening his eyes till he could open them fully. The light came from the window where the sun was directly pouring in. The white windows continued to further the illumination till it had been almost blinding for a moment. But he was adjusted now.

Satoru looked around further to see that he was in a bed, a hospital bed from the appearance. The tag on his hand and soft beeping of a life monitor confirmed it. He inspected himself to find bandages around his chest, arms and hands. It seemed like he was entirely wrapped up, but he hoped that he was only exaggerating it. If it was as bad as it looked he feared what else might be wounded. He checked his head as he felt a stabbing pain around his head, there too was a bandage wrapped around. His hands were tense and sore, they would barely flex without feeling slight pain. There were dull needles of pain poking through his body telling him that he was alive even if he didn’t feel like it.

He laid back against the pillow trying to remember what happened, but all he got were fading images. An explosion, not much more than that, simple flashes that he couldn’t piece together. He just wanted to rest. Saturo drifted off to sleep again.

Time faded in and out passing on as he slept. At some point he could hear voices suddenly, but his eyes were too heavy to open. He could barely manage to bring himself out of his sleep. Satoru didn’t even know if he was awake and was just hallucinating the sounds.

"He is still out…" a woman's voice said.

"Yes, he took a nasty bump to the head. It might be some time before he wakes," a man's voice replied.

"That detective keeps asking about him."

"It is no wonder, it is…"

"I wonder when you'll wake…" His mind was awake again, the voice trailed around his ears until his consciousness was pulled out of the water finally. "It has been…already…"

Satoru's eyes opened sharply, startling the woman that was looking at him. He almost jumped out of his bed in surprise as well, but he quickly realized that she was a nurse. The nurse had already leaped backwards against the wall in surprise and was slowly walking back towards him. She approached him, looked at him cautiously, but reassured for some reason.

"You sure scared me," the nurse said, trying to laugh off her embarrassed fright.

"Yeah," Satoru laughed along with her. It felt good to laugh, as though it was lifting weights off his shoulders. Until now there was a pressure over him holding him keeping him tense almost, but it lifted now suddenly. He didn’t understand it, but he felt better now. There was still a lot of pain, obviously, but the tension was gone. "Ow, hurts to laugh."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean… You took a hard fall, it scraped you up bad."

Satoru tried to sit up, but pain shot through his chest bringing renewed stinging sparks everywhere. He ground his teeth together trying to buy out the time for the pain to ease out, but it persisted. His only release was to fall back into the pillow, it was small but enough to make the pain manageable. It continued even after he was back to his original position marching through him uniformly forcing him to tense his hand to break through.

"Careful there." The nurse rushed to him to help him up. She helped him up a little so that he was closer to sitting than lying. "Your wounds have not had enough time to heal. You'll be in some pain for probably another few days. It's amazing that you survive being so close and with so few injuries."

"I guess I am lucky to be alive." Satoru tried to remember what happened. He looked at his bandaged up arm trying to bring his memories into focus. It was still a blur to him. There was more missing, but he couldn’t bring it forward. He pressed his hand up against his head as though to pull out the memories and order them personally. He eased his mind as the pain took him over again forcing him to suppress it.

"Very lucky, not many people survived. The damn traffic…" she said, pausing and turning away so that Satoru couldn’t see her. He could only hear her sniffing as though she was crying. She started to handle a few instruments on the table looking like she was trying to change the subject. Her hands slammed the tools to the table. "If they would have gotten…damn traffic." She ran out suddenly dripping tears from her cheeks as a doctor entered the room.

"Good morning, I am Doctor Kishima, glad to see that you are awake. How are you feeling?" He approached the end of the bed looking down at the monitor with Satoru's paperwork. After verifying the charts he looked over at the monitor with his vitals at the side of the bed.

"Doctor, is she alright?" Satoru didn’t want to simply forget her with someone else in the room. She had left without any reason it seemed. It left him confused and the doctor entered so casually like he was trying to change the subject. Satoru knew he was missing something.

"Oh, Karin? She lost her daughter in the explosion. Made it all the way back to the hospital only to die in her arms. I doubt that there could have been anything that we could have done if they had found her sooner, but Karin disagrees. But she is a parent, so you can understand."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." Satoru looked away from the doctor thinking about the nurse. 'I don't even know what happened with the explosion or the building. How many died then?' There were so many that must have died, but he had lived somehow. He didn’t understand why he had to live only to know that so many had lost loved ones. Their lives were just as important, maybe more so. 'Her daughter…'

"Of course you wouldn't," the doctor said laughing trying to bring the room back to something a little more cheerful atmosphere. "Been asleep for two days."

"Two days!?" Satoru looked back over at the doctor in surprise. He had been in and out of consciousness so much that he didn’t know how long he had been out. It was difficult to imagine that he had been asleep for two days. So much must have happened and changed. It didn’t feel like it for him. It seemed as though it was still the same day with a hazy fog around his mind making it difficult to remember the morning. That explosion was just a wavy image in his mind that was out of focus.

"Yes, I'm afraid so, seems that the concussion that you got was more severe than first thought." The doctor walked back around the bed checking the charts again as though buying himself time. He was just filling the void needing something to be doing.

"Doctor, what has happened since I have been out?"

"More than I can tell I'm afraid." The doctor looked out towards the door as though he was searching for something. There was a painful expression on his face like he was about to do something that he had regrets about. It left Satoru with a strange feeling of anticipation and confusion.

"Why?"

"There is a detective waiting outside to see you. He said not to say much to you yet. Do you mind speaking with him?"

"If I can get some answers, then bring him in now." There was urgency in Satoru's voice, but he was afraid to know as well. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the full impact of what happened. The hospital already seemed to be full of sorrow that some ignorance could be a blessing.

The doctor walked out of view out of the door into the busy hall of the hospital. A minute later the doctor returned with a police officer. He was wearing a gray raincoat, clean-shaven and his hair combed back. There was a serious, matter-of-fact expression on his face. "Morning, I am Detective Maruimura, there are a number of questions I need to ask you." He pulled out a paper pad and pen from his coat, an arcane tool for such sophisticated days.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Satoru said trying to put the conversation in his court rather than being guided through questions. He needed answers to what was happening outside. If that building had been bombed or something there would be more going on now. There were too many questions that he had to ask.

"In time, now sir, what do you remember of the time when you were near the Kamihara Building?"

He was pulled back, unable to rush forward to the end like he wanted. Satoru took a breath trying to think clearly the best he could. He had been trying to remember everything himself still. "It is a little vague, but I was there to meet with someone. I was waiting in the lobby till they arrived. However, they never came and I decided to leave. Then the building exploded."

"I see, what do you remember of the explosion?"

"Like I said, it is a little vague. I don't remember the explosion too well. There are just images in my mind and the feeling of the impact. I…can't remember what else."

"Now, sir, you work at Qintech in software development. Do you not?"

"Yes…" Satoru answered suspiciously. He didn’t understand why his work was being called into question for the explosion. There was no connection with either of them. Satoru tried to pull himself up a little on the bed feeling a little uncomfortable. "Why?"

"How are you familiar with artificial intelligence?"

"Not very, it is banned, so we are only allowed the basics. Why?" His questions remained unanswered and the detective seemed to go on further with his own interrogation in mind.

"With what little you know, do you think you could spot an AI?"

"Well naturally it would depend on the complexity of the programming."

"Do you think you can?"

"I guess if I had time, I might be able to, but AI's advanced to a point before their ban where it could be hard."

"Think carefully, can you recall if someone in the building or someone you saw could be a machine, a robot with artificial intelligence?"

"As I recall, I was in a rush, I didn’t pay close attention to things. My focus was elsewhere. Besides why would I be needing to look for a machine, they're gone…" The line of questions was slowly starting to bring Satoru to a realization. It was a thought that he didn’t like and it scared him. If what he was thinking were true it would mean that things were repeating themselves, again. "…wait a minute…no it can't be."

"I'm afraid that it’s true. Reports from the explosion say that it was of machine origin. The metal and chemicals were too pure. They are almost identical to what was used ten years ago."

"It can't be…" Satoru said, letting the shock set into his mind. It was the confirmation that he needed and the seriousness of the situation became apparent to him. He knew why everyone was in such pain now. It made sense to him. His muscles tightened up suddenly as he could feel his heart tense. The monitor started beeping as his blood pressure increased. The doctor rushed over to Satoru's side letting him lay back again.

"I think you have asked enough questions for today, detective," the doctor said. "I'll let you know if he says anything more."

"Fine…" the detective said grimly. "You inform me of anything."

"Yes, I will." The doctor looked back at Satoru once more. After he was reassured he escorted the detective out of the room leaving Satoru to his thoughts.

Satoru turned his head to look out the window letting his thoughts wash over him. There were too many things coming to him that it made it difficult for him to keep them all straight. 'I can't believe it. They've come again…will this ever end? What are we going to do this time? The machines…the machines…one of the lucky ones? I'm scared to think how lucky I am. It's all happening again…and there is still nothing I can do…' He clenched his fist in anger as his thoughts were interrupted by a news cast on the television in his room. He couldn’t see the TV, but hearing it was enough.

"No clue about how many could still be trapped under the rubble, but firemen and work crews have not given up hope for survivors. The death toll stands at over 14,000 from the current count with about 1,000 unaccounted for still.

"It has been two days since the bombing, but the flames continue to burn preventing workers from reaching the center of the building's grounds. Where many believe there are still more bodies.

"Scientists and firemen say that the fire has remained alive because of a new chemical that seems to be fighting against all their efforts to put it out. It is unlike anything the machines have tried in the past. But considering that it has been ten years since they were thought to be destroyed it is apparent that they have continued to advance their tactics in terrorism.

"Again, I am standing at ground zero almost, the wreckage that was the Kamihara Building stands behind me remains in flames. Machine terrorism has returned with a fury unlike anything seen before. Earliest reports…"

'Machine terrorism…machine terrorism…machine terrorism…' The words of the reporter echoed repeatedly through his mind. Satoru couldn’t get it out of his head as images of the explosion came back to him. The shock burst through his head causing him to shake violently. He could feel his body getting warm and sweaty from the stress. It was so overwhelming that he could hardly breathe anymore. He could feel the heat from the fires engulfing him and screams of people needing help. The building crumbled around him, crushing his chest. 'Machine terrorism…machine terrorism-'

"You should get some rest, you look tired," the doctor said, snapping him out of his delusion and bringing him to rest in his bed.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, you're probably right." He was in his room again, the hospital lying down. Satoru looked around to reaffirm it for himself. He was safe now the voice had disappeared. It left him shaken though. The doctor helped him to lie back in his bed. Satoru gazed at the ceiling hoping to find some peace as he closed his eyes. 'Machine terrorism…it had returned. Why? Why now? What are you going to do?'