𧚠HOUSEKEEPING:
1. This story is part III. Check out Part I, here.
2. Check out Part II, here
Ximena crushed the tablets into powder, and stirred them into a cup of Earl Grey. She brought the tea to her father, and placed it on the table in front of him.Â
âBe careful, itâs hot,â she said.Â
A week had passed since Luis caught his daughter trespassing into the headquarters of Ruffâ˘ď¸, and since then he had acted even more detached than usual. He was always distant, but somehow his coldness felt even more severe lately.Â
But now he had asked her for a favor â a cup of tea. And Ximena pounced on the opportunity in an attempt to gain some answers and complete her mission.
âIâve been thinking a lot,â said Ximena, âand I just wanted to say thank you.â
Luis put his well-worn book down. She had piqued his interest.Â
âYou could have left me in prison for helping those traitors. Those filthy traitors,â she corrected. âThey tricked me, and Iâm glad theyâll rot.â
Luis smiled faintly, âthereâs no need to talk like that.â
This was as close to an I forgive you the man would ever give.Â
âI do have one question, though,â she said. âAre Ruffâ˘ď¸ dogs operated by AI or humans?â
Luis chuckled before taking a sip of his tea. âWere you raised by me or Maeve?â
Ximena struggled to answer.Â
âAI charts the course,â he said. âbut we still need pilots to smooth out externalities.â
Ximena revealed a slight discomfort at the cold, technocratic word externalities.
Luis furled his brow.
âYou think this is immoral? You think we can free the world to live in hippy-dippy harmony?â Luis asked, like a priest in an inquisition.Â
Ximena was terrible at bluffing, but in order to succeed, she needed to keep a poker face.
âI think Ruffâ˘ď¸ provides the world a service. The joy of companionship. Of connectivity. And Iâd have it no other way.â
***
When the guards came, they made the mistake of imprisoning Ximena and the Raymonds as a group, if only for fifteen minutes. But that was all Raymond Sr. needed to tell Ximena everything.
Raymond Sr. was an elite programmer, who was forced into labor after defaulting on debts from the high cost of running his own servers. He tried to upstart a business that competed with Beanâsâ˘ď¸ social media platform. In response, Agoraâs biggest company tried to buy him, but he arrogantly refused. So their subsidiary jacked up the price of his utilities, and forced him into debt. A crime punishable by forced labor.Â
Luis heard about this programmer who was too smart for his own good, and specifically asked for him to pilot the dog he was going to bring home his daughter. Raymond had no idea why, but when he learned of this from the chatty night-shift guard â he set a plan in action to devise his escape.Â
From his terminal at headquarters, Raymond was able to override Princeâs AI, just enough to give him agency, but not enough to get detected. He conditioned Ximena slowly, until they formed a language together. One bark: yes. Two barks: no. And that was all he needed to set his plan in action.
Ximenaâs feeling of being pulled like a marionette by some invisible, yet calculating wind wasnât wrong. It just came from an unexpected place. She realized now that Raymond Sr. was responsible â leading her to the flyer, to his own son, and eventually to imprisonment.
But the programmer had one last scheme â the choreography of which would be extremely difficult, but if pulled off would mean the freedom of not just himself, but the thousands of other imprisoned âgig workers.â The only problem? It was all up to Ximena.
***
Luis passed out on the couch; the empty cup of tea wobbled to the rhythm of his diaphragm. Prince licked his hand, but the man showed no reflex.
The dog was still a vessel, but this time that vessel was empty. That quintessential spark of cognition was replaced by a dull droning of obedience. Luis went into Princeâs hardware, reconfigured the brain cavity, effectively lobotomizing all trace of Raymond Sr. from the animal. Since the reset, Prince had shown more loyalty to Luis. He was the master now.Â
But she couldnât let that distract her. She had to complete her mission. Ximena took a deep breath. No going back after this.
She scurried to Luisâ workbag, took out his BeanBookâ˘ď¸, and immediately pressed his thumb to the mousepad. The device came to life with a welcoming tone. Â
Ximena opened the application Raymond Sr. said would be there and met another login. It was the Ruffâ˘ď¸ employee portal, and it required a pin and a biometric.Â
She pressed her fatherâs thumb and entered her own birthday.Â
Sorry, thatâs an old pin. Try again.
This closed-door rejection stung more than any insult he could have given. The daughter took a breath, and calmly entered her motherâs birthday.
She was in.
According to Raymond Sr., Ruff employees had a system of communication with the gig workers. It was a simple direct messaging feature that could be used to troubleshoot technical problems, keep a watchful eye, or request medical assistance.Â
She clicked into the direct message interface, and inputted Raymond Sr.âs 15 digit terminal code. She typed in the planned message:
All human wisdom is contained in these two words.
She saw a thought bubble animate on the screen â it gave her dread.Â
Wait and hope.Â
It was him.Â
She quickly shared screenshots of the portal, and waited for instruction. Raymond Sr. responded fast, helping her navigate through pages of source code, and telling her exactly what to tweak. Until there wasnât anything left to do, but wait.Â
Ximena was happy. The malware would go into effect; the gig workers would escape, and their stories would force Ruffâ˘ď¸ to change the way it operated. She beamed with enjoyment, which quickly faded after receiving one last message from Raymond Sr.Â
Run.
The growls revved like a Beamâ˘ď¸ Cloud SXL getting ready for a drag race. She looked up and saw Prince. Snarling. Claws extending. Fur raised. Getting ready to attack. Ximena was petrified, but couldnât move. The dog lunged with its jowls pinned high.
It zoomed past her, and leapt onto her fatherâs body. In a flash of sudden and primitive violence, the dog mauled his face. Blood gushed out. Flesh torn in a frenetic frenzy.
Prince went for the jugular, and Ximena heard the excruciating snap of her fatherâs neck.Â
She ran.Â
Outside the gates of her home, she heard the wailing of sirens â coming from all directions, in different frequencies. It was nauseating.Â
What have I done? She thought.
She saw another body on the sidewalk, mauled and unrecognizable. Next to it was a stroller holding a crying infant, otherwise unharmed.Â
She fell to the ground on the street. A panic attack rendered her immobile. She heard screams coming from the mansions around her. The dogs barked like a chorus of demons.
A Ruffâ˘ď¸ Security van eventually came, and dragged Ximena inside. As they cuffed her and put a black bag over her head, she realized that she had been betrayed. She made a huge mistake going against her father â she could never have guessed Raymond Sr. was capable of this. Just some stupid rich kid. Raymond Sr. hated her. To him, she was filth. Why didnât she see that?
***
Agoraâs pundits claimed that it was an ANTICO hack on Ruffâ˘ď¸. According to a company statement, Ruffâ˘ď¸ âwas doing everything humanly possible to make sure this type of incident never happens again.â
But that didnât stop the stocks from plummeting. It was one of the deadliest days in the history of the Agora. And one of the worst financially. The chryons read: Beloved Ruffâ˘ď¸ dogs, programmed to turn on their masters.
The deaths included a fair share of Agoraâs chief executives, along with their families. It was an unspeakable act of terrorism that disproportionately targeted hard-working job creators. And for this crime, there would have to be swift justice.Â
Agora set up an entire bureau, colloquially called the âdog catchersâ to hunt and kill every escaped gig worker. Even worse, Ruffâ˘ď¸, a beloved institution, had to undergo a complete rebrand.
***
The vibrant blue box greeted Jamie. It was from Howlâ˘ď¸. The boy was so excited he ripped open the beautiful packaging without a thought about its design. The puppy stared at him with big brown eyes. Toothless and declawed. It was kind of ugly, but thatâs how dogs were now.Â
Jamie picked up the animal, and held it to his face. The eyes. He swore there was the faintest spark of knowing.