Inception - Ascension Paradox, Book 1
Copyright© 2023 by L.R. Thornton
Chapter 33
“Do you really think that could be the answer, Professor?”
Daniel sighed and thumped his desk, looking at the program before him. “It may be our only option.”
“You know, if we do something like, that we may be opening Pandora’s Box.”
He scoffed. “Jillian opened Pandora’s box long before we had this idea, Mark.”
Daniel leaned back. There really wasn’t any other option. He’d spent the past two days absorbed in the treasure trove that was C. A. D. I. He’d canceled classes and waylaid the Dean’s orders to give him a timeframe to announce their acquisition of C. A. D. I. He’d worked on a few hours of sleep, only to tackle the problem again.
They simply couldn’t reverse engineer C. A. D. I.
He lips spluttered. “I think it’s the only thing we can do, Mark. Else, we’ll be here for years.”
A strange sense of urgency came over him. He had the premonition that time was of the essence although he didn’t know why.
“Well, if you think we should do it that way, then I guess—”
Karlo entered the laboratory again his hands carrying some pop and a bag of chip. His pink triangle glasses glinted. “This is strange.”
“What is?” Daniel asked.
“Fraulein did not come back here.”
Alarm skittered down Daniel’s back. “You have to be joking. She left with you, Herr Braun.”
Jackson had risen up, his silver hair messy and in spikes. “She’s not with you?”
“Nein, “ Karlo answered. “I waited for her by the rest room but she did not come out. Then, I, very carefully, opened the door and called her name. She didn’t respond. I thought perhaps she’d come back here. That maybe I missed her.”
His eyes traveled around the room. “But she is not here.”
Amy hopped off the table in the corner of the room. “There’s no way Jillian could be anywhere but here on the campus.”
“Then where is she, fraulein?”
Karlo’s question hung in the air like a dark cloud. Daniel knew then that conventional understanding of this situation, no matter how they looked at it, would not be the answer. Somehow, those forces which had lurked in the background all this time, forces that he tried to ignore, had some sort of hand in her disappearance.
“I can go look for her,” Ray said, standing up.”
“No,” Daniel said slowly, “I think it’s a little too late for that.”
Mark met his eyes, an unspoken question in them. Daniel nodded.
“We have to find her.”
“Dino has a wireless connection to the security system.” He got up and went over to where the ape-like robot sat in the corner.
Everyone crowded around him. Their tension was a palpable thing, like a thick film in the air. He could cut it with a knife.
Should he have been prepared for something like this? Daniel didn’t know what to think along those lines. C. A. D. I. wasn’t just a new vacuum cleaner. She was an android. A remarkable piece of machinery that no one could duplicate.