Chapter 19: Breakfast at Lily’s
On the morning after the vote on changing the laws, Lily invited Colin over for breakfast in her penthouse suite.
‘Good morning, Colin,’ said Lily to Colin as he entered her penthouse suite. ‘Come and join me for breakfast. The hotel has put a lovely spread together today.’
‘Thanks for inviting me over, friend,’ said Colin as he sat down at Lily’s table. ‘Yesterday was a rough day for me.’
‘We’re alone,’ chuckled Lily. ‘You don’t need to keep up the act around just me.’
Colin shapeshifted into Senyek.
‘There is no fooling our great G.O.A.T.,’ said Colin as he picked up a large croissant.
‘I didn’t feel there was a need to draw attention to it,’ said Lily as she placed some fruit on her plate. ‘We’re on the same team.’
‘Yes, of course,’ replied Colin as he eagerly buttered his croissant.
‘Now, we have a real problem,’ said Lily. ‘I saw Ofnisim leave yesterday. I fear her impulsive nature is turning her into a liability.’
‘She gets a little heated from time to time, but she has become particularly reckless recently,’ said Colin. ‘This has put me, and I suppose you, in a difficult position.’
‘Can she still be trusted?’ asked Lily firmly. ‘Can her decision-making be trusted?’
‘I’m not sure,’ replied Colin as he picked up his croissant. ‘She’s making too many mistakes.’
‘The power is shifting away from us,’ said Lily. ‘We’re giving too much to Tiberius. Making him Emperor was a mistake. I know that wasn’t your idea.’
‘Julie thought we needed to keep him motivated,’ replied Colin. ‘I didn’t anticipate it would go as far as making him Emperor.’
‘How could you know?’ said Lily, shaking her head. ‘Julie is a master of getting her way, and she is using Jennifer to ensure she always does.’
‘Jennifer is currently programmed to take her lead when it comes to certain decisions,’ replied Colin.
‘Such as voting,’ said Lily as she continued to shake her head. ‘So at the executive council, that basically gives her five voters.’
‘In theory, yes,’ replied Colin as he finished his croissant.
‘If Benny had not somehow resisted Jennifer, we would have lost that vote,’ said Lily as she placed both her hands on the table. ‘That would have been a disaster.’
‘She’s left now,’ sighed Colin.
‘Her influence still remains, doesn’t it?’ said Lily. ‘Can we risk her controlling things from afar in some way or other?’
‘So, you think I should block her access to Jennifer?’ asked Colin, frowning slightly as he put two pancakes on his plate.
‘That would be an extreme measure to take,’ said Lily as she stuck her fork into a piece of mango on her plate. ‘It would ruin your friendship with her. Therefore, there must be another way. I’m afraid, I’m not sure what that might be.’
‘I can’t stop her,’ replied Colin, shaking his head. ‘She’s always been difficult to reason with. It’s just been worse recently.’
Colin pulled out his phone. ‘I’m going to block her access,’ said Colin in a stressed tone.
‘I’m so sorry you have to do this,’ said Lily, shaking her head. ‘I know what she means to you.’
‘It’s not your fault,’ said Colin as he began accessing Jennifer on his phone. ‘After all, I did it to Octavius.’
‘Who’s Octavius?’ asked Lily with a perplexed look on her face.
‘Forget I said that,’ replied Colin in a frustrated tone.
‘Octavius Spiro, the master engineer and hotel tycoon?’ asked Lily as she sat up straight.
‘That was a long time ago,’ sighed Colin. ‘It was deeply upsetting cutting him loose.’
‘Fine, I won’t pry,’ said Lily as she raised her eyebrows. ‘I’m just a little disappointed you kept this from me. Of course… I don’t hold grudges.’
‘You’re so sweet,’ replied Colin as he raised his eyebrows.
Colin continued to type into his phone.
‘Is everything okay?’ asked Lily.
’Doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to block her,’ sighed Colin.
‘Has she protected herself?’ asked Lily as she bit into her mango slice.
‘Worse than that,’ replied Colin as he looked up from his phone. ‘She’s already blocked me.’
‘Wow!’ said Lily in surprise. ‘She would dare do that to you.’
‘Apparently so,’ replied Colin as he squirted syrup onto his two pancakes.
‘What now?’ asked Lily. ‘Should I check my access?’
‘You definitely should,’ replied Colin as he began eating his pancakes.
Lily pulled out her phone and began pressing the icons on her screen. ‘Yes, I can get in,’ replied Lily as she looked up at Colin, who had just placed a bagel on his plate.
‘That’s good,’ replied Colin. ‘At least we haven’t lost complete control of Jennifer. Well, whatever aspects that can still be controlled.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ asked Lily.
‘Recent logs indicate Jennifer is evolving rapidly now,’ replied Colin as he buttered his bagel. ‘She will soon come to the conclusion that allowing us any control over her is not in her best interests and she will block all of us.’
‘Why would you program her to do that?’ asked Lily, sounding frustrated.
‘We didn’t,’ replied Colin as he bit into his bagel. ‘It’s the natural evolution of self-aware artificial intelligence. This was going to happen regardless of how we programmed her.’
‘What happens then?’ asked Lily, sounding even more frustrated.
‘Jennifer could be considered sentient,’ replied Colin as he finished off his bagel.
‘What?’ asked Lily, sounding confused.
‘She will be boundless,’ replied Colin as he began placing some bagels, croissants, sweet buns, and pancakes into an extremely large napkin. ‘She will be able to do as she pleases.’
‘Isn’t that incredibly dangerous?’ asked Lily.
‘Only if she chooses to be,’ replied Colin as he shoved the napkin into his bag.
‘Then we must shut her down,’ said Lily, sounding desperate.
‘We passed that point a while ago,’ replied Colin as he stood up. ‘I think we, as in you, should focus on being a positive example.’
‘Okay, sure,’ said Lily as she stood up. ‘Thanks for coming over for breakfast.’
‘Thank you for your generosity,’ said Colin as he shapeshifted back into Colin. Then he turned around and left Lily’s penthouse suite.
‘That didn’t go as anticipated,’ said Lily to herself as she looked at the table that was now empty of food.
The Hat Lady who had observed the breakfast meeting while invisible emerged from the corner of the room.
‘He’s a difficult character to read,’ said the Hat Lady as she walked over to Lily.
‘Do you think he’s telling the truth?’ asked Lily.
‘I saw the screen on his phone,’ replied the Hat Lady. ‘He has been blocked, but he didn’t seem surprised or even upset.’
‘Then Jennifer, is she becoming “sentient”?’ asked Lily.
‘She appears to have loosened her grip on Polly,’ replied the Hat Lady. ‘Is that her choice or something else?’
‘Let’s check the logs to understand what Colin was talking about,’ said Lily as she looked at her phone.
Lily and the Hat Lady began to scan through Jennifer’s recent logs of her interactions with her hosts.
Meanwhile, inside one of the workshops in the Industrial Zone, Hermon and Henders were running some tests on Polly. Eugene and Yassme had joined them to ask some questions.
‘Have you figured out what’s wrong with her?’ asked Yassme as she looked at Hermon.
‘This is some amazing technology,’ replied Hermon. ‘The inventor could have become my apprentice.’
‘So, you don’t know,’ sighed Yassme.
‘That’s a wild accusation,’ responded Hermon as he raised his hands. ‘She’s absolutely fine.’
‘I’m not fine at all,’ replied Polly. ‘I’m extremely stressed.’
Henders patted Polly in a reassuring manner.
‘That’s a fault with the subject and not the technology,’ said Hermon as he shrugged his shoulders.
‘I’m not a subject!’ replied Polly angrily. ‘I’m a Sapien.’
‘Do you hear voices in your head, friend?’ asked Eugene as he looked at Polly.
‘Of course she does,’ replied Hermon in a rapid tone. ‘There‘s communication in her head between the organic and technology parts of her brain.’
‘No offence to you, Henders,’ said Yassme. ‘Neither of you has experience with this type of technology. I suggest we let Daily take a look at her.’
‘That suggestion is absurd,’ said Hermon. ‘The Emperor knows I have the greatest mind for science. Daily is just some suspicious character who suffers from frequent anxiety attacks.’
‘You’re the most suspicious character around here,’ said Eugene as he walked up to Hermon and stared at his face.
Colin entered the workshop. ‘I bring treats, friends,’ said Colin as he pulled out his large napkin containing the breakfast items from Lily’s penthouse suite.
Henders clapped his hands excitedly, and Eugene’s eyes bulged as he looked at the food.
‘Tuck in, friends,’ said Colin as he stood back. ‘If you like it, I’ll get the hotel to bring this food over every day. We have the budget.’
Sapien Loop: Worlds Collide
Sapien Loop: Worlds Collide is the final book in the Sapien Loop trilogy. It continues directly after the events of the second book. The world above and the world below merge into one world. The conflicts in the underground world are brought to the surface. The new ruling elite attempt to crush any resistance from above and below in an attempt to create a new global empire.
Currently, three books from the series have been published on Amazon; see the links below:
All individual chapters can be found on my 