Read Ack-Ack Macaque for Free Online Page A

the incoming sea.
    “And besides,” he said to change the subject, “the Duchess and I don’t talk as often as you might think.” In fact, he had as little personal contact as possible with his mother. They didn’t get along at all. He lived in a secure penthouse a short walk from the university, and only travelled to the Élysée Palace for official functions.
    Julie reached over and brushed his fingers with her own.
    “I am sorry, I did not—”
    He brushed a palm across the table’s sticky surface.
    “It doesn’t matter. Now, you were about to tell me about this monkey?”
    She sat back and licked her lower lip.
    “The game is set in a fictionalised World War Two.” Her voice was low and urgent. “Players get points by completing missions, shooting down opponents, and so on. They use the points to upgrade their planes and buy better weapons. In between missions, they hang out and socialise.” With a purple fingernail, she tapped the picture of the monkey. “This is the main guy. Players can fly with him and fight for the Allies or, if they are really good, switch sides and try to take him down. But here is the twist: in this game, you only get one life. If you get shot down and your parachute does not work, you are dead. You cannot log back in for another try.”
    “That sounds a bit rough.”
    “It makes the game more realistic. The players have something to lose. They have to decide how much safety they give up in return for glory.”
    “And the monkey, what happens to him?”
    Julie turned her palms upward.
    “Nobody knows. He has never lost a fight. The game is set up that way. He is nearly impossible to kill.”
    Merovech sat back in his chair and yawned.
    “Is this going somewhere?” He felt uncomfortable with his back to the door. He glanced over his shoulder. The windows were orange from the streetlights. Pedestrians splashed past. The rain looked as if it might turn into sleet.
    Julie tapped the screen again, to get his attention.
    “I want to show you this,” she said.
    He looked down at the monkey beneath her finger.
    “And what is this?”
    Julie’s fingertips circled the monkey’s face. “In my philosophy class, we have been looking at the rights of artificial intelligences, and we suspect Ack-Ack Macaque falls into that category.”
    “The game?”
    “The monkey. The character.”
    “Are you sure?”
    Julie reached over and squeezed his hand.
    “The company made kind of a big deal about it. It is part of the challenge of the game, setting human players up against a sophisticated AI, with a one-shot chance of beating it.”
    Merovech looked at his watch. He’d already heard Julie’s rants about the evils of enslaving sentient beings, no matter their origin, and he’d been hoping for something more romantic. He knew they didn’t have much time. He could already imagine the panic amongst the SO1 agents charged with his protection. The last time he’d done this, they’d had half the city’s police out looking for him, and his mother had been livid.
    “So what?” He let his impatience show. “It’s not like it’s really alive or anything, is it?”
    Julie let go of his hand. She arched her eyebrows, refusing to be drawn.
    “Just watch this.”
    She hit the play button. The monkey stroked its chin in a gesture that would have looked thoughtful on a human. It swilled the rum around in its glass, drained it and reached for the bottle.
    “Do you ever feel like you’re the only real person here,” it asked, “and everyone else is just pretending?”
    The picture jumped and he saw the same scene from another viewpoint. Then another, and another.
    Julie said, “Nearly every player in the bar recorded that scene. The videos are all up on the Web. The chat rooms are going batshit.”
    The film came to an end, frozen on a picture of the monkey’s face.
    Julie said, “Do you see what this means?”
    Merovech didn’t.
    She bent forward excitedly. Her hands fluttered over the