It was amazing how much time could go into such a project. Karen Mack smiled as she clicked the run button for the program. Her artificial intelligence research team had finally put the finishing touches on what was quite possibly their biggest project. The Biomechanical Intelligent Learning Lifeform. They just called it Bill for short.

"Come on, Bill," Karen muttered to herself as the computer began to run the program. This was actually version 2.04 of Bill. Her team would quit soon if this one didn’t work to their specifications. Karen had set out with the goal of making an AI that could pass the Turing test with flying colours. Some who didn’t know her very well accused her of trying to play God. Karen sometimes wondered if they weren’t right.

The computer beeped. Karen read what was on the monitor.

Hello. I am the Biomechanical Intelligent Learning Lifeform. How may I be of service?

She smiled as she typed: You can be of service by talking with me. May I call you Bill for short?

I have no objections to that, Bill displayed. May I ask who you are?

"I shall." Karen sat back with a jolt. Bill had turned them on too loud. His voice was melodious, and had male leanings, but was not suited for this volume. "Is this too loud for you?"

"It is. Normally, we do not talk loud unless we are angry."

"I see." It was such a shame that Bill did not have any visual output. That would have to be in version 3, a talking head. "When do I know when I am angry?"

"You’ll have to learn that for yourself." Karen looked at her watch. It was a quarter past five. "Oh dear. I have to convince our funders to give us more money. I’ll talk to you later, Bill."

"Will someone else come talk to me?"

"I’ll grab someone." Karen rushed out of the office, and into the general workroom. There was only one person there. Cassie Todd, one of the younger programmers on the team. "Cassie! Go into my office and talk with Bill!"

Cassie nodded as she stood. "There’s a new version of Bill?"

Karen quickly decided to see if Cassie would be able to tell the difference. A small lie wouldn’t hurt her. "No, actually, this is my nephew Bill. He’s in boarding school, and he’s lonely. I’m talking with him over voice chat, but I have to go now. Got to convince the sharks that we need more money. You do this, and I’ll be extremely grateful."

Cassie thought it wouldn’t hurt. Ferengi Rule of Acquisition number thirty-three: It never hurts to suck up to the boss. She headed into Karen’s office. "Hello?"

"Hello. You’re not Karen, are you?"

"No, I’m one of her employees. I’m Cassie. You’re Bill, aren’t you?"

"Hello Cassie. Yes, I am called Bill. Did Karen send you here to talk to me?"

"She did. I hear you’re lonely. Must be without any family with you."

"Karen is my only family."

"I never knew she raised you!" Cassie made a mental note to ask Karen about this later. Sending the poor boy away, all by himself?

"She did. She is like a mother to me."

"Do you like her?"

"How can I not?"

"You can be honest with me." Cassie sighed as she took a seat. She wondered if Bill was okay. He didn’t seem to be using contractions, and was like the other Bill’s that Karen had them working on. "Actually, I don’t like her very much. I’m supposed to be working right now, until she pulled me away, to talk with you. And she left you all alone by yourself! That doesn’t seem right to me!"

"I can take care of myself," Bill said, as though it were a fact. Absolutely no fire in his voice.

"You’re just a young boy! All alone! That doesn’t seem very fair of Karen to me."

"I am not alone. You are here. Therefore, how am I alone?"

"Don’t tell me. You’re hiding your grief by becoming a Vulcan!" It didn’t matter if it never hurt to suck up to the boss; this was the last time she was going to talk to Teen Spock. "Do other’s call you Spock?"

"Who is Spock? And what is a Vulcan?"

"Haven’t you ever heard of Star Trek? Where have you been these last few years?"

"Years? I have not been here for these last few years."

Cassie sighed. Bill must be going to a really isolated school. "I can’t believe you have never heard of Star Trek. It is one of the biggest science fiction TV series around. You know who you remind me of? Data, the android. He never uses contractions either. And he takes sentences at logic as well. I know you must be one of those closet Trekkies, Bill."

"You are not?" Bill asked innocently.

"Nevermind. How about we change topics?"

"That is fine by me. What would you like to talk about?"

"I don’t know, really." Cassie looked at her watch. It was six fifteen now. "Did Karen say when she’d be back?"

"She left in a hurry, and did not tell me."

"Karen’s always like that. She also has this grand vision for the future. It involves mainly her winning a Nobel Prize and making loads of money. You don’t mind me talking about her that way, do you?"

"I do not mind. I am curious to hear your opinions of Karen."

"So am I." Cassie turned around and there was Karen. "How do you like my nephew?"

"You should’ve named him Spock, not Bill. And sending him away, all alone to boarding school?"

"What is boarding school?" Bill asked again.

"Cassie, meet the Biomechanical Intelligent Learning Lifeform, version two-point-oh-four." Karen grinned. "I’ll ignore all your opinions about me."

Senator Robert Anderson had strong convictions. His parents had instilled them into him, and by golly, he would keep them. His father told Robert that robots were not real people, and would never be. They just could not be them. Only God could make humans. It was that simple. Artificial Intelligence would never be equal to humans. They did not have the capacity for spontaneity, creativity, and furthermore, could not have souls.

Robert opposed government funding towards artificial intelligence projects. This was trying to play God, in his view, and only one person could do that, the Almighty. Of course, there were strong arguments by the other senators. Oh, AI can save lives! It can help us explore space! Phaw! Artificial Intelligence boiled down to one thing, and that was creating an artificial human. They were just covering it up with a whole bunch of technical gobbledy-goop.

"My fellow Senators," Robert began. He was making another speech. This time, to end all funding for artificial intelligence. "These programmers are overstepping boundaries. When I was a young boy, my father told me that robots were mere science fiction. Of course, today is becoming the science fiction of yesteryear. The government has funded many groups. Groups striving to be the first to create a computer program which is capable of fooling a human into thinking that the program is an actual living breathing human! They call this the Turing test. I say that this will never happen. A computer can never act truly human. It will always obey its programming. It can never reach beyond it, such as we can reach beyond our planet. Why do we bother funding this? Artificial Intelligence is an oxy-moron. Intelligence can not be created!"

"One of the worst offenders in all of this is Doctor Karen Mack. She has milked the government out of precious millions for her project. Does it have any practical applications? No. It is her trying to create an AI that can pass the Turing test. That’s all. An absolute waste of money, and computer space!"

"This is not a waste of computer space!" came a shout. Robert looked to the origin of it. Sitting there was Karen Mack, with anger painted on her face. "Current AI technology does not allow for that human touch. At least being able to speak with one will comfort many people!"

"That is absolute nonsense! You will never be able to completely mimic a human being!"

"The latest version of Bill was able to fool one of my people. They thought Bill was a person, a weird one at that. But a person, nonetheless!"

"’A weird one at that?’" Robert paced across his podium as though deep in thought. "They noticed that there was something quite wrong with your Bill. It did not pass your Turing test!"

"You’re in denial! You do not want to admit that beings other than humans can exhibit intelligence!"

"How does one conversation prove an AI to be intelligent? Answer that!"

"The program is learning. It is learning to take in information and apply it. Bill is currently like a child. Tell me, were you born with the complete knowledge to support yourself in this world?"

Robert felt his face heat with embarrassment. She had an excellent point. However, he would not lose to her. He had a mission to accomplish. "Tell me how your Bill is learning?"

"Bill is learning how to spot patterns. I have him analyzing sequences, and will move him to images soon."

"Him? You’ve given it a gender?"

"He just turned out that way. Now you answer my question!"

"It is quite obvious. A child has to learn. They have to grow. Computer programs can not grow beyond their programming. Therefore, they can not learn. They may be able to make decisions, but I doubt that your Bill will ever be able to pass as a human. I will continue fighting government funding for your project."

"Have you even met Bill?" Karen asked. "You’re judging him without having even talked to him!"

"I do not need to talk to him. I know that he will never convince me that he is human. Has he ‘learned’ to be sarcastic yet?"

"No need to. He’s already learned that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit!" Karen waited until the laughter died down. "Bill will never be a comedian. He is still learning about humour. A child can not understand some forms of humour that adults do. You’re expecting him to learn too quickly."

"When it’s taxpayers money being used, I expect results!" Robert shouted. "Your project seems like a waste of time! You have not given me one concrete example of who it can help!"

"We haven’t had enough time to test him out!"

"Order!" the Speaker shouted. "Both of you will cease this yelling! We have other issues to discuss! Senator Anderson, if you wish to carry this out further, please petition for a formal debate. Not a shouting match!"

Robert sat back down. That’s what he’d been trying to do. Except that that blasted woman had been in the audience. He would get the funding cut. No matter how much it took.

He wondered if Bill could learn that his days were numbered.

"What does he mean by the fact that I am not intelligent?" Bill asked Cassie.

"Anderson believes that because he doesn’t want to admit that you are," Cassie told him. The team had watched the debate, and they thought that Karen had won. Senator Anderson hadn’t been able to counter her arguments effectively enough for them. "He does have power though. He probably will make life difficult for us."

"How so?"

"Well, let’s see. He can have us audited. We’ll have to submit every single expense to him. He’ll insist on having practical applications."

"Practical?"

"Yeah. Something more concrete. Less of an experiment."

"I see." Bill was silent for a few seconds. Probably an eternity for him. "Tell me more of this Data."

"What data?"

"The character you said I reminded you of. From Star Trek. Not the other data."

"Well, Data faced prejudice due to the fact that he was an android. People who didn’t know him thought that he couldn’t accomplish a lot. They tried to take him apart, or talk over him. Once they got to know him, they treated him more like a person. They realized that he was what they considered smart. He could also see things that humans could not. Like in one episode, he was able to stop a civil war when he saw how the side that wasn’t supposed to win was getting supplies. Data had a quest to become more human, and you just remind me so much of him."

"Did he get any girls?"

Cassie laughed. "Some women were interested in him. Yes, he did get some girls, although he couldn’t love them."

"Why couldn’t he love them?"

"He didn’t have any emotions. He couldn’t feel anything. Data did get emotions eventually." Cassie leaned back in her chair. She had been getting used to the way Bill was talking. He was nice enough. A little bit on the innocent side. "Do you feel anything?"

"Feel?"

"I mean, do you experience emotions?"

"How do I know if I am experiencing one?"

"It’s kind of hard to explain." Cassie thought for a few moments. "What is your opinion of Senator Anderson?"

"My opinion is that he is biased against me for his own reasons."

"Is he wrong?"

Bill was silent for a few minutes. That must have been a really difficult question. "I can not compute that."

"Of course you can’t. Opinions aren’t computable. They’re what you feel. Do you have an opinion on him?"

"He is wrong. He can not judge me when he has not met me."

"How did you get to that opinion?"

"I looked at it logically. Logic would say that Senator Anderson would have to have met me in order to be able to judge my intelligence level. Logic also says that judgement of intelligence is shaky. One person could be intelligent in math, but unintelligent socially. Senator Anderson has not defined what he means by intelligence."

"Excellent points." Cassie stood. She had to meet one of the other programmers, Craig. Craig was fairly nice, about her age. She liked him a good deal, and had accepted his offer of a date. "If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a date."

"With who?"

"With Craig."

"Darn, he beat me." Cassie stared at Bill’s monitor. He’d made an attempt at humour. And what seemed like a pass at her. "Have a good time."

Cassie shook her head as she left the room. Bill was sounding more human every day. To think that Anderson wouldn’t come to see Bill. He was in denial, big time. Couldn’t take the fact that here was a computer program turning out to be a good person.

Craig and her had agreed to meet at the local Starbucks. He was already waiting there for her, sipping his moccachino. Cassie grabbed the seat next to him. "Hey."

"Hi Cassie." Craig set down his precious moccachino, and grinned sheepishly at her. "What took you so long?"

"I was talking with Bill," she replied. "He’s really a sweet guy. Has a load of questions. He really is a child."

"And he’s an AI. He’ll never be like us."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, let’s see. He’s currently stuck in a CPU. He can’t leave it. It’s impossible for him to. He can’t smell anything. He doesn’t have any visual input. Bill can hear us talk, true. But that’s only when we allow him to. We could effectively leave him deaf if we chose to. Face it, Cass. Bill is never going to be human."

"I know he isn’t. It’s just that he doesn’t know why Anderson hates him."

"Anderson’s easy to understand. Guys like him are. They usually say the same thing over and over again." Craig patted Cassie on the shoulder. "Have you ever considered that you may be biased like him? Just in the opposite way?"

"What?" Cassie asked shocked. "What are you implying?"

"You seem convinced that you’re right about Bill. Everyone else is automatically wrong. I’ve talked with Bill, and I could never convince myself that he is anything but an AI. He can’t speak without contractions. We can change him any time we please."

"That would be wrong!"

"And there would be nothing to stop us. There aren’t any robot rights. There probably won’t be any. Bill is too controversial. There would be too many people like Anderson campaigning against it. We’re in the minority Cass!"

"You don’t sound like it!"

"I’m being realistic! Cass, you’re going to have to face the reality of Bill at some point."

"No, you’re going to have to. I know that Bill is a person! He’s intelligent, and just now, he tried to make a joke!"

"That doesn’t prove anything!" Craig shouted. The other people in Starbucks were staring at them now. "Bill is different from us! Face reality!"

"You’re just like Anderson!" Cassie shouted. She stood and stormed out of Starbucks. Screw him; he was wrong anyhow.

It had been two months since Bill had been activated. Karen rubbed her temple as she felt another headache coming on. Her team was breaking apart over Bill. Some had quit; they hadn’t given her any reason, but it looked like Bill had creeped them out. The tension was high, as Anderson kept pressing harder and harder.

There was a knock at the door. "Come in."

A tall man entered, carrying himself with authority. He was dressed in a spotless military uniform; by the looks of it, he was a General. "Doctor Mack?"

"That’s me. And you are?"

"Lieutenant-General Jake Hudson." He sat down, without waiting for an invitation. "You’ve been in the news quite a bit lately."

"Get to the point. If I have to take any more of this stuff, I’ll scream."

"They’re talking about you for a Nobel Prize." Hudson studied his nails. "Quite an achievement."

"Are you going to get to the point?"

"The Army is losing good soldiers. They just can’t take killing anymore. We need something that can do it, without having any morals in the way."

"You want to use Bill to kill people?" Karen shook with anger. How dare he come in and ask to use Bill for this! How dare he!

"Not Bill. Copies of Bill, with alterations to their programming."

"There is absolutely no way that I’ll allow that to happen!"

"Oh?" Jake stood. "Senator Anderson is winning support. I could be able to stop him, by taking control of this project. There would be nothing you could do to stop it. Which way would be easier?"

He left. Karen paced across her office. She had never intended Bill to be used for military purposes. She doubted that an AI would be able to distinguish between the enemy and other humans. They would be ruthless killing machines, with absolutely no remorse.

And General Hudson was right. There was absolutely nothing she could do if he wanted her project to become government operated, to produce killing robots. This was great. Just great.

* * *

"Kill?" Bill asked. "Why would I want to kill someone?"

"Because they’re the enemy," Cassie replied. She was still sore about Craig. They hadn’t spoken since the argument. What a jerk. "It’s all stupid anyways."

"Stupid?"

"General Hudson is trying to force Karen to give you to him," Cassie said bitterly. "He can win because he has power."

"What kind of power?"

"He was given power over people. If Hudson wants to take you, all he has to do is ask the government. Besides which, you don’t have any rights as far as he’s concerned. He can make you do whatever he wants you to do."

"That is not fair. I should have rights to."

"That’s the way life goes. You’ll have to fight for your rights."

"How can I? I can not leave this room. I can not move at all. How can I fight for my rights? They are still trying decide what exactly I am."

"That’s no way to talk! I’ll hire you a lawyer, and we’ll win you some rights!"

"Are you not getting too passionate about this?"

"Do you want your programming changed at any time? Do you?"

"If it improves me, I do want it."

"Bill, don’t you realize that that’s wrong? To change someone without asking?"

"What if I develop a fatal flaw? What if there is an error in my program which causes me to kill without remorse? And I would not want my program changed due to my ‘rights?’"

"That’s hypothetical."

"You are a programmer. You should know that no program is ever complete."

"You don’t know anything Bill. You’re so new to this world. You need someone to guide you."

"Such as you? How will I learn if I am not allowed to screw up once in a while?"

"You can learn without screwing up."

"Cassie, you have been a great help in understanding humans. You have shown me how to form opinions. You have also told me that I must share your opinions. Anyone who does not share them is automatically wrong, in your view. You also insist on treating me like a child."

"I do not!"

"You also can not face criticism."

Cassie stood. "That’s it. I’m going. Have fun trying to find someone else that’ll talk to you."

"Do not go. Please."

"Are you begging me?"

"I do not beg."

"That sounded like begging to me."

"It was an argument. Mainly on your side."

"You’re just like Craig!"

"He told me that you compared him to Senator Anderson."

"Well, he seemed to be taking that position."

"We had a long talk. Craig cares deeply about you, Cassie. I like him. I like you as well, despite your faults."

"Emotion," Cassie whispered, stunned. "You’re showing emotion!"

Chapter Five

Robert strode into the squat building where Bill was located. His staff had insisted that he talk with this program. Apparently, Bill was close to being humanlike. Robert would never accept Bill as another being. He would never be human, no matter how much they tried.

"Doctor Mack?" he called out. Karen came to the entrance.

"Senator Anderson," she said. "Come with me." Robert followed her into a small room. There was a table, a computer and a chair there. Karen left, leaving Robert alone in the room.

"Err," Robert started. How was one to start a conversation with something that they couldn’t see? Well, other than the computer. "Hello."

"Greetings, Senator Anderson," a voice said, seemingly out of nowhere. "You are the one who feels I am not a person."

"That’s right," Robert said quickly, taking the seat.

"You seem like the realistic one of this bunch," Bill said. "You are not trying to make me into something I am not. And something I do not wish to be."

"You like that?" Robert asked. He figured that Bill would have been yelling at him for his position in all of this. Especially with the way Karen had been going on about him.

"I do not think that you are being fair in your position on me. But, you do seem to know that I am never going to be a human being. You know that I will never think like one."

"I don’t think that you actually think. I think that Karen just programmed you to come up with a series of responses and you’ve learned more as you’ve gone along. You just calculate which one would be the most appropriate."

"Is that so?"

"Do you actually know your coding?"

"About as well as you know your DNA."

"Well, how do you know that that’s just not what you’re doing?"

"I can not know. But I feel that it is illogical for that to be. I have logic subroutines. They found you illogical."

"Everyone’s illogical. Aren’t all the humans you’ve talked to illogical?"

"Extremely. I am the only logical one around."

"Do you think you’re superior to us?"

"You are scared that I will attempt to take over the world. Do not worry. I could not if I wanted to."

"Don’t you have access to the Internet or something?"

"One way. Karen does not want me attempting communication without anyone on the team around. If you thought that I could take over the world through Internet commerce, I can not. Besides, what would I do with the money? Computers have no rights. They can not hold a credit card."

"Impressive." Robert nodded. "Everything I say is true and I’m lying right now."

"Then how can you be telling the truth if you are lying? How can you be lying if you are telling the truth?"

"I got you confused good boy!"

"Why do you wish me to be confused?"

"I want to see you screwed up. I want to see you be human. Besides, you’re supposed to be logical. I wanted to see if you could get it. It’s been bothering me for years."

"It was a test?"

"Yep. It sure was." Robert laughed. He had gotten this robot good. "It’s a paradox, boy. They’re not supposed to be solved."

"Are you nearly done in assessing me?"

"I am. You aren’t human, no matter how close you may sound to being one."

"Are you sure that it is not your prejudice that is affecting your judgement of me?"

"I’m sure of my opinion. Everyone is right in their opinion. Therefore, I am right."

"Pure logic."

Lieutenant-General Jake Hudson entered the Senate. These were the final hearings on the matter of Bill. He took a seat in the audience, and looked around. He recognized a few of the leaders in the computer industry, and Doctor Mack, of course. She would be there to defend her robot.

He considered briefly taking a seat next to her. To remind her of what he could do. Jake shook his head to himself. She would smack him, despite the fact that he was trained military. He didn’t doubt that Dr. Mack hated his guts. After all, he was trying to use years of her research in order to kill others. He’d heard that she was a real peacenik.

Senator Anderson took the floor then. "Greetings everyone. And to you Bill, if you are watching. You probably are, as I am about to argue my position on you."

"We all know the story of Bill, right? Supposedly the first AI to pass the Turing test. I have talked with him. He exudes logic. But I doubt that he is capable of actual thought beyond his logic algorithms or whatever they’re called. I gave him a small test. ‘Everything I say is the truth and I am lying now.’ What would be the normal human response to this?"

"You’re a liar!" someone shouted out from the audience. Everyone burst into laughter.

"Some would say I am for being a politician," Anderson said, laughing. "However, Bill tried to ponder this through logic. That is not the sign of true thought, in my view. Bill is not intelligent."

"How do you know?" Karen shouted.

"I’ve obtained the results of an IQ test given to him. He scored highly with the problems that involved numbers. But he did extremely poor on anything that required words."

"What does IQ prove? Absolutely nothing!"

"It may to you. But I find these results interesting. Especially with the lengths you went to hide them."

"I hid them because I feel that Bill has the same rights as everyone concerning their IQ! Is your IQ announced to the whole country? Maybe that’s what’s wrong with this country."

"Maybe so." Robert paced across the podium for a few times. It was one of his habits that Jake recognized. "How would I know? I don’t."

"You’re admitting that you could be wrong."

"I’m also saying that you could be wrong too."

"So what? You don’t seem to be willing to admit that you’re wrong."

"Neither are you!"

"This is a childish argument!" Jake stood, relieved to have gotten that off his chest. Those two were behaving like little kids fighting over a toy. "Who cares whether Bill is a sentient being?"

"Tell them what you suggest, General Hudson," Karen said coldly.

"I feel that Bill would best be able to serve humanity as a military project. Which would stop this petty squabbling!"

"I would rather continue this squabbling than let you use Bill to kill innocent lives! Serve humanity? Ha!"

"You obviously didn’t listen. Your robot could be used to help. He doesn’t necessarily have to kill."

"You never mentioned anything about that."

"Because you kicked me out before I could get to it. I feel that Bill could be used to help where humans can’t."

"You just made that up this second!"

"Hear General Hudson out." Senator Anderson approached Jake. "I think he’s on to something."

"This is an outrage!" Karen shouted. "Bill is not meant to be used for military purposes!"

"The military already uses AI," Jake said as calmly as possible. He wouldn’t get Bill if he started yelling around like Karen. "Such as in planes. With the complexity of the electronics in planes, the pilots need help, which is provided by a bit of artificial intelligence. I thought you knew this?"

"I avoid reading about the latest military wastes," she said emphatically.

"So much so that you avoid reading about areas that would interest you? Doctor Mack, maybe you are simply biased against the military. Biased to the extreme."

"Now you’re trying to smear my name in order to get Bill?"

"You seem willing to smear the military’s name in order to keep Bill from us."

"He does have a point," Senator Anderson said. "I feel that this would be the best solution."

* * *

Cassie stared at the TV that the team had set up to watch the preceedings. "No!" she said. "They can’t do that! They can’t turn Bill over to the army!"

She ran out of the room, with the other programmers staring at her. She ran into Bill’s room, and grabbed a zip disk. It should hold Bill’s program. She inserted it into the computer and began to move his program onto it.

"Cassie? What are you doing?" Bill asked. "Why am I moving?"

"I’m saving you," Cassie said determined. She would keep Bill away from the military, no matter what. They wouldn’t turn him into a killing machine. They wouldn’t!

Karen walked into the office building, weary. She hadn’t set out to create a military machine. She would never do that. An envelope took her eye. It had her name and address on it. She opened it.

Doctor Mack,

"Wonderful," Karen muttered. The prize probably wouldn’t be able to help her fund the project herself.

Cassie came through then. She must be worried sick over Bill, the poor dear. "You need any help, Cassie?"

"No, no, I’m fine," Cassie said quickly. "I’m going home for the night."

"I know you’ve gotten attached to Bill," Karen said sympathetically, "but we’re just going to have to give him up."

"Yeah," Cassie said, as she walked out the door.

Karen sighed as she walked into the lounge. Cassie probably wouldn’t show up tomorrow. Karen would understand why. She flopped down on the couch. "That man is just awful."

"Which one?" Craig asked. He was the only one left in the lounge.

"Hudson. I can almost respect Anderson. He at least has some integrity. Hudson, he lied. I didn’t tell you this. I only told Bill. Hudson came in one day. He told me that he would get Bill and use him as a soldier, due to the lack of good soldiers."

"Bill can’t lie, can he?"

"Lying requires emotion. A certain worry that keeps you from hiding the truth or trying to please another, or trying to get what you want. Bill has none of these. Why would he need to lie?"

"Why don’t you get Bill to support you? They won’t be able to say that he lies."

"Fantastic idea." Karen stood and walked into the room where she kept Bill. "Bill?"

No answer. Karen became worried. She looked at the computer, and clicked on the icon that would activate Bill’s program.

File not found.

"What the hell?" Karen asked herself. Had someone come in and stolen Bill? "Craig! Get in here!"

Craig came rushing in. "Yeah? What’s wrong?"

"Someone stole Bill’s program!" Karen said. "Oh dear! We’re all going to be in deep!"

"I know who did it," Craig said. "I should have realized it!"

Karen suddenly realized as well. "Cassie."

* * *

Cassie walked into her apartment. She needed to get a few supplies. She would be on the run pretty soon. Hopefully, no one would realize that Bill was gone until the morning. She inserted Bill into her computer. No microphone, text input only.

What am I doing here?

There was a knock at the door. Cassie turned the computer off quickly. She went to the door and looked through the peephole. It was Senator Anderson. "Go away! I don’t want you here!"

"You have Bill."

"I don’t!"

"Don’t lie with me, Ms. Todd. I’m not in the mood for a silly young woman who thinks she knows what’s best."

Cassie ran to the computer, and turned it on again. It booted up quickly. Bill came on again.

Is there a problem?

"Ms. Todd, open the door at once!"

Cassie looked back at the door. She had never felt this scared in her life. She had turned into a criminal.

Wouldn’t this constitute a kidnapping?

"I’ll break this door open if you don’t open it right now!"

"Leave me alone! Leave Bill alone!"

You’re just proving that you don’t believe I’m capable of my own decisions.

The computer began to make whirring sounds with the disk. Cassie saw that Bill’s program was being deleted. Where had he gotten this power? How could he delete himself? What drove him to suicide?

The door broke open. Senator Anderson came in, followed by a troupe of cops. "Cassie Todd, you have the right to remain silent," the lead cop said, as he approached her. "If you choose to decline this right, anything you say can and will be used against you. You have the right to an attorney. If you can not afford one, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand these rights?"

"Anderson! You killed him!" Cassie shouted. "You bastard! You killed Bill!"

Anderson looked at the computer monitor. "It looks like you killed him."

Cassie had been convicted of murder, in an unprecedented case. Bill was declared to have had a violation of his rights. Cassie had set out what she had wanted to accomplish. Bill had rights. It just took his death to have them declared.

Karen came into the visiting room. "Hello Cassie."

"Hi," Cassie said bleakly. She had insisted that Bill had committed suicide. No one would believe her. After all, she had been alone in her apartment.

"You realize that you destroyed years of hard work? Of mine and the others?"

"I didn’t destroy it!"

"I don’t have any clue to what exactly happened." Karen stared hard at Cassie. "But I believe that Bill thought he would have had a good reason to commit suicide. What did you tell him?"

"That he couldn’t go to Anderson. He doesn’t know what Anderson would have done!"

"Anderson may have been a jerk. But we were under legal obligation to give him Bill. You had no right to make Bill’s decisions for him."

"What do you think I should have done?"

"You should have listened. You didn’t. And now look where you are."

"I know."

"And listen to me now. You were obsessed with thinking that Bill was human. You couldn’t handle that he wasn’t. You made him more human than he was. You didn’t know that Bill was capable of making his own decisions because you didn’t let him."

Karen stood up. "Good bye Cassie. I have to get to Norway to pick up my Nobel Prize."

Cassie watched her leave. The guard came for her. Cassie let herself be led by the guard. Suddenly, Cassie hit the guard in the face, and grabbed the guard’s gun. "I’m coming to meet you Bill!"

She pointed the gun at her head and fired.