"She needs to clear the server again," Angus said.

Stacy scowled slightly. "I thought Carmen fixed that."

"She said she did."

Stacy glanced at Mycah's workstation, but he wasn't there. She and Angus were the only two in the lab, a room of white walls full of computer equipment, three workstations, desks and tables all made from a new-age wavy design she didn't like, a coffeemaker, and a single large potted plant which none of them wanted yet somehow stubbornly remained.

Angus didn't sound bothered by the server problem and Mycah was probably in the clean room, so Stacy supposed it was up to her. Again. She clicked on Cynthia's connection and saw a red icon. "She's not available."

"Yeah she is," Angus said. "She just keeps her status that way so people don't bug her too much."

Stacy sighed. "Fine, I'll go see her. I need to ask her about those laptops, anyway. They haven't arrived. I probably won't get an answer though. I'm sure she's been busy." She spoke the last word with mockery.

This finally broke Angus's serenity. He looked up, baffled and irritated. "What is your beef with her?"

"All the little things. She's so...naive."

Angus shook his head and gave a what in the world are you talking about gesture.

"Oh, it's her radiant always-smiling hippy drippy persona," Stacy said. "The way she always has to have her puppy dog with her, like she's Paris Hilton. And that dog park she put in for all the employees' dogs. And that '70s hippy peace-and-love crap music she listens to! It's like she's a child."

Angus turned back to his screen. "Nothin' wrong with peace and love. World needs more of both."

"Not wrapped up in that saccharine shit she listens to. But seriously, that dog park! How much did that cost? How about upping our pay instead of doing stupid shit like that?"

Angus's face broke into a small smile and he chuckled once. "Shows what you know. She paid for that dog park by cutting it out of her own salary." He looked at her. "Your pay didn't suffer a bit."

Stacy felt a bit chastened. "Well...that's something. I didn't know that. But her hippy drippy ways still annoy the crap out of me. She still seems naive."

"She has two black belts and a permit to carry. And she does carry." Angus looked at her meaningfully. "I've known her for almost a decade. Trust me. She's not naive."

"Hmm." Stacy gently swiveled in her chair, scowling. "Well, that's as may be, and maybe I pegged her wrong." She stood. "But her music's still crap."

Angus laughed.

 

Cynthia was available, just as Angus said. Stacy found her alone in her office, listening to her oldies. Stacy gritted her teeth and fought against rolling her eyes at the song currently playing. It was the type of song eight-year-olds would sing around the fire at summer camp.

 

I feel love! Yes I do.
I can feel it. So can you.
It's a rainbow washing rainy skies away,
bringing back another sunny day!

 

Oh! Stacy thought. Kill me now.

"Morning!" Cynthia said brightly. "Whatcha got?"

"Couple things," Stacy said. "First, that server blockage Carmen said she fixed is still happening. I'll talk to Carmen about it, but for now we need it unblocked again."

Cynthia scowled and brought up the server readings on her central screen. "What keeps causing that?" she breathed. "Carmen said nothing should be issuing any holds!"

While Cynthia puzzled her way through the application activity log, Stacy had nothing to do but listen to the song and gaze around Cynthia's office.

 

Love, love, love's the answer, love's the only way.
Sunshine may come and go, but love is here to stay.

 

The spacious office had a lot of floor-to-ceiling windows, letting in sunlight and the sight of the lovely rock garden. Three large monitors spanned Cynthia's glass desk. A huge TV hung on one wall; at the moment it was dark except for the CCCorp logo, slowly and lazily bouncing off the edges. Along the opposite wall were two stylish bookshelves with curved sides, holding books and little pieces of kitcsh art. Between the shelves hung a large clock in the shape of a cartoonish owl whose eyes slowly opened and closed with the passage of time.

And in the corner, on the floor, was a small bed on which lay Cynthia's dog, sleeping peacefully. He was a light brown mutt with floppy ears, just shy of three feet from nose to tail. Stacy couldn't remember his name.

It suddenly occurred to Stacy that Cynthia probably built the dog park just so employees wouldn't complain that she could bring her dog to work but they couldn't.

Although why Cynthia had to bring her dog to work baffled her. Millions of people left their dogs at home every day as they went to work or to school, but Cynthia had to be different. Special.

As if feeling Stacy's eyes on him, the dog looked up, gazed at her, and yawned.

Stacy noticed Cynthia looking at her, so she gave a polite smile. "Cute dog."

"Thanks," Cynthia said with a grin.

A sudden thought struck Stacy. "If you don't mind my asking...is he a support or service dog?"

"No. But he is special to me."

"What's his name?"

"Officially, Benji the 4th, but I just call him B4."

"Benji the 4th? So, a long family connection?"

"Yep. His great-grandparents, Benji and Tiffany, were our dogs when I was little, and Benji was super smart, and super brave. I swore that for the rest of my life, I'd always have a Benji by my side. I've bred three generations to make that happen, and some time in the next few months I'll breed him, too. That's why I haven't had him fixed yet."

Cynthia turned back to her monitor, gave up on the application activity log, and brought up a DOS window.

"That's quite a bit of devotion," Stacy said. "They say our pets save us. Is that what happened to you?"

Typing commands, Cynthia gave a little smile, as if enjoying her own private joke, and said softly, "Oh, you have no idea."

Cynthia gazed at the screen, then said, "Something keeps putting a hold on that folder! I wish I knew what was doing it." She typed a command to release the hold. It was something only she could do because it required tier one admin authority.

Cynthia sat back, looked at Stacy, and said, "Cleared for now. You said you had a couple things. What was the other?"

"Those laptops haven't arrived."

"I'll betcha dollars to donuts they have, and they're still sitting on Alex's desk."

Stacy groaned. "I hope you're wrong, but you're probably right. I'll tell Carmen the hold is still happening. Thanks."

"Thank you," Cynthia said, with that hippy drippy grin Stacy usually found irritating, but for once, didn't mind a bit.

 

Even though Stacy had said she would talk to Carmen, Cynthia still shot Carmen a quick email about the mysterious server hold. Sometimes problems got solved faster when the company owner pointed them out.

The phone rang. Jonathon. She hit speaker and said, "Morning, sunshine!"

"No sunshine," Jonathon said, his voice panicky. "Our contract's in big trouble."

"You always say that." She continued typing as she spoke, multitasking.

"I mean it! Five senators just introduced a bill in California putting a moratorium on all AI development or usage until the industry accepts safety standards."

"They're always doing that, it never gets anywhere."

"This one's got legs."

"We pay lobbyists to kill these things."

"They paid the lobbyists more."

"It'll die in subcommittee."

"No, Cynthia!" Jonathon's voice had an edge she'd never heard. "This is the real deal. I give it a sixty percent chance. So does Erica. It's got all the wrong people behind it."

"The boys in Silicon Valley would never let it happen."

"The boys in Silicon Valley are the ones backing it."

That got her attention. "That doesn't make any sense!"

"They don't care about ethics. They know we've got the jump on them!"

She snorted. "So they'll use legislation to protect their monopoly?"

"Are you surprised?"

"Tell Cyberdyne to open a subsidiary in Arizona. Problem solved."

"I've already thought of that, and that's one of the ideas I'll use to make them feel better. I'm meeting with them this afternoon to soothe their ruffled feathers. I may need you on standby to join us on screen."

"Wait – are they really that worried about all this?"

"They're not gonna spend 500 million dollars on an illegal system! And yeah, they can purchase it in Arizona, but California is where they want to use it."

Cynthia sighed and leaned on her desk. "Jonathon, we can't lose this deal. We just can't. I can't. A real, practical AI has been my dream for twenty years. Please, you've got to make them see that this is the future!"

"Hey, I'm on your side, remember? Always have been. I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve, and a few favors some people owe me. I admit it'll be dicey for a few months, but I promise you – one way or another, we'll get Skynet up and running on time!"