Page 63 of Chaos Theory

SIXTY

Claire hugs me as soon as I get out of the car. ‘It’s okay,’ she says in my ear.

She releases me and I stand back to see Matthew and Lizzie emerging from the farmhouse, accompanied by Josh.

‘How did you get here so fast?’ I call to him.

His hair looks wild, his clothes rumpled. But he seems energised.

‘Those speed signs are in miles, not kilometres, right? I still get mixed up.’

Lizzie wraps herself around my legs. ‘Where’s the robot?’

I look at Shane in panic.

‘That’s what we’re here to talk about,’ says Shane, extending a handshake to Matthew. ‘Good to see ye again. In spite of…’ He trails off.

‘Josh here has been telling us some very interesting things,’ says Matthew chirpily.

‘I’m sorry,’ I say. ‘I wish I could have got here earlier to introduce you. And to explain. ’

‘It’s fine,’ says Matthew. ‘Josh has given us a full account. And made an interesting proposition.’

‘Oh?’ I say.

‘Let me take it from here, if I may,’ says Josh, coming closer. He nods a passing greeting at Shane.

‘Maeve, can you please accompany me to the barn?’ he says, as if he’s asking me to promenade with him in a Jane Austen novel.

‘I’m coming too,’ says Shane.

‘Fine,’ says Josh.

As we walk to the barn, I notice that Josh is carrying two bags – one a small black laptop bag. ‘What’s in the bags?’

‘All will be revealed.’ He’s in much better form than he should be, given the circumstances.

The inside of the barn looks like what I imagine the insides of all barns look like. Bales of hay, farm implements. In the middle of the space is a modern-looking tractor. Josh perches one bag on top of a small stack of hay bales, unzips it and produces a compact laptop.

‘Now,’ he says. ‘If I can have your attention, please.’

‘You already have our attention,’ I say.

‘Prepare to be amazed.’ He presses a button on the laptop. Then, quieter: ‘I hope to God this works.’

He continues, ‘Maeve, remember that time when I went to Singapore for a week? It was when you guys’ – he shoots Shane a look – ‘were touring around Ireland.’

I nod. ‘Yes, I remember. Some last-minute conference thing.’

‘That’s right. It was that conference about digital twin technology.’

‘Sounds creepy,’ says Shane. He kicks a tractor tyre and winces at the lack of rebound.

Josh taps at the keyboard. ‘Well, that conference was more like a workshop. It was very hands-on, very practical. We got to experiment with the software – creating digital copies of systems. They gave us external flash drives.’

I’m beginning to get an inkling. ‘Oh my God…’

‘What is it?’ asks Shane.

Josh smiles. ‘By George, I think she’s got it.’

My mind is spinning too fast to worry about whether this is patronising or not.

Josh dramatically spins the laptop around to show us. But he seems to have forgotten that he’s balancing it on top of a bale of hay, and the laptop immediately falls over the edge. He catches it clumsily before it hits the ground.

‘Sorry, sorry,’ he says. ‘Close one.’ He rakes his fingers through his hair. He’s visibly sweating. I wonder how much sleep he’s had. But if he’s done what I think he has…

‘Behold!’ He returns to his theatrics but holds the laptop with both hands. ‘This is Kobi. Or, at least, a version of Kobi. All his core memories and TIL files – up until that trip to Singapore. Everything except the last three weeks or so. I still don’t have his neural network, of course.’

My hands start tingling. I take a step closer to look at the laptop. Josh could be a genius. Josh could be insane. ‘Does this mean what I think it means?’

He points to parts of the code. ‘I had Kobi’s TIL files on my RoboTron laptop. Then at the conference, I made a copy onto an external drive. I kind of forgot I had this, to be honest, until I read Kobi’s email this morning.’

‘Wait, does Ron know you have this?’ The tingling extends from my hands up my arms. The back of my head feels light.

Josh smiles. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘So this means—’ Shane starts.

I interrupt. ‘What’s the proposition you made to the Farmers?’

Josh meets my eyes. ‘I think you know.’

I feel a slow smile spread across my face.

‘Shane, please step away from the tractor,’ I say.

Noo n

‘I’m just going to leave this bit of lunch outside here for you,’ Claire calls through the open barn door.

‘Thanks!’ I yell back. ‘Please don’t come in yet!’

I look up from my work. The tractor’s dashboard has been removed. Wires connect Josh’s laptop to the tractor’s innards. A sack of potatoes lies open at my feet. Shane grabs three of them and starts juggling.

‘Are you sure this is going to work?’ he asks.

‘Of course,’ Josh replies.

‘Of course not,’ I say at the exact same time.

Shane shakes his head. ‘Tell me again why you need the spuds.’

‘Well,’ I say, ‘we have a digital copy of Kobi’s memory and personality, as it were. The tractor will be his new physical form – his body. And the potatoes – well, we lost Kobi’s neural network when we lost him back at RoboTron. But if we use something organic, in combo with his code…’

‘We can try to grow his brain back,’ says Josh.

2pm

Matthew, Claire and Lizzie are gathered before us in the barn, at my invitation.

My hair’s come loose again. I tie it back and clear my throat.

‘Okay. Now, the first thing I should say is, this is a work in progress. The second thing is – we’re not sure if this is going to work.’

‘What is it? What is it?’ Lizzie hops from one foot to the other.

‘But if it doesn’t work,’ says Josh, ‘we’ll keep trying.’

I smile up at Shane, who’s positioned behind the wheel in the tractor cockpit.

‘Yes. We’ll keep trying,’ I say.

Josh gives me a nod. I signal to Shane.

‘Okay, ready? On my command, turn the ignition.’

I adjust a few wires while Josh frowns at the laptop. Finally, he gives me a thumbs up .

‘Now!’ I call.

Shane turns the key to ignite the tractor engine. It gives a low roar, then immediately conks out. He looks at me.

‘Again!’ I say confidently, then whisper under my breath, ‘Please work, please work, please work.’

The engine sparks to life, then settles into a low hum. I reach into the cockpit and push a sequence of buttons. The tractor headlights come on full beam, then dip. Both side mirrors flap forward, then back. Then we hear it. The voice is mechanical but familiar.

‘Hello, how can I help you today?’

There’s a lump in my throat, water in my eyes. ‘Kobi, is that you?’

‘Hello, Maeve. Yes, it is I, Kobi.’

Lizzie starts jumping up and down. ‘Robot! Robot!’ she chants.

Josh punches the air. ‘Yes!’

Shane slaps the steering wheel twice, jumps down from the tractor and scoops me up in his arms. He twirls me around the barn.

‘I told you you’re amazing!’

I laugh. ‘Let me go!’

‘Never,’ he says.

He stops twirling to remove a strand of straw from my hair. I put my hand on his face and look up into his eyes, smiling. His lips meet mine. I feel like I’m still spinning, but in a good way. I want to be on this merry-go-round.

‘Maeve, if I might interrupt, I have a number of questions,’ comes Kobi’s voice from the tractor.

‘Of course,’ I say. ‘I love questions. Also – there’s some people here I’d like you to meet.’