Willful Machines (37 page)

She rasped out a laugh.

I pulled my chair close to her bed and sat. My stomach had wadded itself up again. “Dr. Singh, there's one more thing I want to talk to you about. Something I didn't tell you earlier. Before I triggered the pulse bomb, Nico told me he was uploading his consciousness to the Supernet. He said his inhibitor wasn't working. Was that your doing too? Did you sabotage the inhibitor?”

“Yes.”

I closed my eyes and took a breath. “I was afraid maybe he was lying to get me to set off the bomb. So you think it's
really possible for a 2B to upload his consciousness like that?”

“I do, theoretically.”

“He said he'd get in touch with me.” I pulled the puck from my jacket pocket. Its black circular screen stared back at me. “But I haven't heard from him since it happened. Not a word.”

“Be patient, Lee. It might take time for him to come back to you. And when he does, he might not be the same. This is uncharted territory.”

I nodded.

“In the meantime,” she continued, her voice a throaty whisper, “you and I, we have important work to do.”

“Like what?”

“Waring's still on the loose, for one thing. But even more than that.” Her eyes shifted to the window, with the light filtering through the heavy curtains. “Big things are coming. The whole definition of life is about to change. We need to stick around and help get the world ready for the future.”

“That sounds like something Charlotte might've said to Nico.”

“I suppose it does.”

“So you're faking it?”

“Of course I am. But that doesn't make what I'm saying less true.” She pointed a finger at me. “So no jumping off a goddamn bridge, do you hear me?”

“I won't if you won't.”

I put out my hand for her to shake. She eyed it a second before taking it in hers. Then she nodded at the puck nestled in my other palm. “Go ahead. Switch it on.”

I did. The puck lit up, chimed, and leaped out of my hand like something alive.

Within the space of one surreal month in 2014, I found out that my novel had sold and that my partner and I were pregnant, via surrogate, with twins. It goes without saying that neither of these things could've come to pass without gigantic amounts of help. In the writing of my book, I owe a big thank-you to Cat Vasko, Meghan Thornton, and Salvatore Zoida for commenting on early drafts. Loads of gratitude also go to Quinlan Lee and Tracey Adams at Adams Literary for believing in and enthusiastically championing my writing.

Michael Strother, my editor at Simon Pulse, has been such a pleasure to work (and gossip about
Project Runway
) with. Your input made
Willful Machines
so much better, and you actually made the editing process fun too. I'm also hugely appreciative to everyone else at Simon & Schuster who helped bring this book to light: publishers Mara Anastas, Jon Anderson, and Mary Marotta; Liesa Abrams, Pulse's editorial director; Lucille Rettino, Carolyn Swerdloff, Teresa Ronquillo, Anthony Parisi, Candace Greene McManus, Betsy Bloom, and Michelle Leo in marketing; Christina Pecorale, Danielle Esposito, and Rio Cortez in sales; and managing editor Katherine Devendorf. A special thanks to Dan Potash and Regina Flath for their amazing cover work.

Most of all, I'm grateful for my family—especially my mom and her fierce, eternal support; my beloved partner, Duncan; and our daughters, Lucy and Ada, who managed to make getting a novel published only the second-coolest thing that happened to me last year.

TIM FLOREEN
majored in English at Yale and earned a master's degree in creative writing at Boston University. He now lives in San Francisco with his partner, their two daughters, and their two cats. This is his first novel. You can find him on the Internet at
timfloreen.com
or on Twitter at
@timfloreen
.

Author photograph by Portraits to the People

Simon Pulse

SIMON & SCHUSTER, NEW YORK

authors.simonandschuster.com/Tim-Floreen

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

SIMON PULSE

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

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www.SimonandSchuster.com

First Simon Pulse hardcover edition October 2015

Text copyright © 2015 by Tim Floreen

Jacket background photographs copyright © 2015 by Thinkstock

Original jacket photograph of raven copyright © 2015 by Joe Halton

Jacket design and photo-illustration and interior design by Dan Potash

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The text of this book was set in Minion Pro.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Floreen, Tim.

Willful machines / Tim Floreen. — First Simon Pulse hardcover edition.

p. cm.

Summary: In a near-future America, a sentient computer program named Charlotte has turned terrorist, but Lee Fisher, the closeted son of an ultraconservative president, is more concerned with keeping his Secret Service detail from finding out about his developing romance with Nico, the new guy at school, but when the spiderlike robots that roam the school halls begin acting even stranger than usual, Lee realizes he is Charlotte's next target.

[1. Computer programs—Fiction. 2. Terrorism—Fiction. 3. Presidents—Family—Fiction. 4. Gays—Fiction. 5. Science fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.1.F59Wi 2015

[Fic]—dc23

2014030181

ISBN 978-1-4814-3277-1 (hc)

ISBN 978-1-4814-3279-5 (eBook)