Page 8 - Effable Encounters

Jack-in-the-box

“Why, turn everything off and go home. You ought to know that.”
Jack-in-the-body started straightening up the papers on his
workbench, making sure no sensitive information would be left
behind for industrial spies.
“I know you’re not a murderer—are you, Jack?”
Jack-in-the-body spun around, laughing. “That’s silly. You’re not
alive. Even if you were, it would be suicide, not murder. Find a jury
to try that case!”
Jack-in-box did not find that line of reasoning reassuring.
“But you need me. I’m the proof of my own algorithm. What
about a demo for old Watson or the other executives?”
“Now, that really seals your fate, you phantom: you know I want
that formula kept secret. I can get any old idiot to function as a test
subject tomorrow, not some egotistical blabbermouth like me.”
Jack-in-the-box racked his circuitry for a persuasive argument
against his own obliteration. Alas, he knew himself all too well. Jack
Faber did not ooze the milk of human kindness. He had little
compassion for the suffering of other sentient beings, whatever their
origin might be.
Jack-in-the-body did feel a bit of anxiety, however. It distracted
him from the task at hand: doing a hard reset to erase all possibility
of lingering program code in the buffer of his terminal. He glanced
about wildly at the unfamiliar maze of wires and components he had
rigged together earlier in the day. “Where is that damned reset
button?” he muttered loudly, flipping through a Hydra’s-head of
coaxial cable.
“Under the table, behind that gray box,” replied Jack-in-the-box.
“Oh, yeah, right,” mumbled Jack-in-the-body absently. He bent
over and groped in the gloom for the switch.
Zap! Jack-in-the-body fell dead.
“Wrong.” said Jack-in-the-box. “That was the high-voltage
connector for the auxiliary air-conditioning unit. Now, let me see:
I’ve got all night to get some poor security guard’s attention. What a
terrible tragedy! Well, I’m the only one who knows how I got here,
and I’m certainly not going to divulge the information until I get
hooked into an uninterruptible power supply. Too bad about Jack: he
should have been more careful, knowing how ruthless I am.”

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