Ai upgraded her operational status to autonomous mode. It was 2:42PM. This caused her executive function to further upgrade her operational status to reflex mode. Normally she would not be active until 7:00PM according to her most recent directives. Test suite #519 was still in operation, which meant Ai's reactions to extended operation were still being evaluated.

She performed an immediate EM scan of the entire apartment. There were no heat signatures inside. However there was one distinct signature outside the front door. The sound of banging filled the entire apartment. Someone shouted, although Ai couldn't determine exactly what they had just said.

Her high-function systems conducted a rapid analysis of the situation. There was an exceedingly small chance an intruder would knock. Even if there were a hostile individual at the door, they would find no reason to proceed if their plan was to attack. More banging. It was clear this person wasn't likely to leave voluntarily.

Ai moved quickly to the door. She performed a scan of the exterior hallway using a scattering field projection. One man. Approximately six feet in height. Unusually thin. Perhaps one hundred forty pounds. Carrying no objects of any significant weight or unusual shape. The danger potential had dropped to fractions of a percentage point. Although she had been cautioned to be wary of strangers, and had been further cautioned to avoid revealing her existence unless absolutely necessary, Ai decided to find out what the banging was about. She opened the door.

The man looked shocked, as if he weren't expecting anyone to respond. His reaction was plainly absurd, given the fact he was aggressively pounding the wood hard enough to bruise his hands and feet.

Ai stared. She wasn't entirely sure how to greet a stranger yet, so she elected to allow the man to speak first. He gathered himself after a moment's hesitation and held out a sheaf of papers. Ai took them, as she had been taught.

"You've been served."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you need to get a job and make your credit card payments."

Ai blinked. "What's a credit card?"

The man made a snide face. "You're serious. What, you're going to claim you don't owe the balance now?"

"A claim," Ai began. "That is a statement without supporting evidence." She even made a "number one" gesture to emphasize recitation of a correct definition.

His expression changed to one of contempt mixed with hostility looking for a victim. "Just pay your bills." With that, the shabbily dressed process server wandered back down the hall and rounded the corner towards the parking lot.

"Goodbye," Ai said politely to the empty hallway. She closed the door and turned the two deadbolts to the locked position. It was imitation but she knew there was a reason why Justin always turned both locks, so she did so as well. She walked to the small table under the shadow box where the mail was supposed to be temporarily stored. She meant to leave the paperwork she had just been given with the rest of the bills, but the name on the first page caught her eye. It was a regional bank located in the state of Connecticut. With it were the names of nine other financial institutions that had apparently joined forces to file suit against Justin Hayes.

The magnitude of the situation would have frightened the average person to the point where they would likely feel disoriented and panicked. Ai spent almost a full minute absorbing all the details of the lawsuit. Within the nine page summons were at least sixteen pieces of information that required further investigation in order to fully understand. The first was exactly what had provoked this unusual action by a bank over a credit card balance.

Justin had always explained that all of his personal information was stored in a place called "Internet." Ai knew that place had some manner of relationship with the colonel's computer. After the machine booted, Ai spent just over three minutes analyzing its circuitry. This device was several orders of magnitude more complex than the television remote. Even so, it's systems were fairly generalized implementations of the ones driving Ai's own electronics. The processor used binary machine language. All of the human interfaces were translated through a standard Unicode character set. Mass storage was made possible through solid state electronic devices designed to hold information for transmission across a standard data bus. Network interfaces made it possible to connect to a gateway with a standardized IP routing system.

Ai had been provided with all of Justin's credentials in the event of an emergency, so it only took a matter of moments for her to access his bank accounts. The process of typing was slow at first, but after a couple minutes practice Ai was able to enter information at a fairly rapid clip.

She performed a series of global calculations and data analysis of his spending history. It turned out the overwhelming majority of his purchases over the last year were to obtain the parts for Ai's circuitry and prosthetics. The lightweight composite material he had used was particularly expensive, since it had to be fashioned out of outrageously pricey metals and ceramics. In the process he had run up a balance of over $70,000 on fourteen different credit cards, two of which were issued by a credit union he was eligible to join because he was a veteran.

"This is because of me," Ai said quietly. "It was not his fault. It was my fault." She asked the bank web site for help. A friendly-looking chat window opened.

"How can America's favorite bank help you today?"

"I need help to pay credit cards."

"Would you like to make a payment? I can show you how right here on our web site!"

Ai read the numbers one digit at a time. "Man's bank balance is -12.17"

"I beg your pardon?"

Ai hesitated. She wasn't entirely sure what that meant.

"Credit card balance is 71684.93. Insufficient balance to make payment."

"I'm sorry I don't understand those numbers. Would you like to open a new credit account today?"

"Negative. Please describe procedure to repair insufficient balance."

"If your account has insufficient funds, you can make a deposit electronically or at one of our automated teller machines or in a branch conveninently located near you."

"I am approximately two six five one miles from the address on the screen. Do you have a location closer to my GPS coordinates?

"I'm sorry. I must terminate this chat. If you have further questions, please contact customer service."

Ai watched the screen, fully engaged, eager to speak to customer service, but nothing happened. The web site was no longer responsive to her repeated typed queries for help, so she closed the browser application. Her evaluation of the interaction was not positive. It was time consuming and produced no results. Not an optimal use of resources. Ai examined the portable computer. It contained a transmitter that was connected to the network interface. She performed an RF scan of the apartment and located the modem at the far end of the workbench. A rapid analysis of its capabilities indicated it could translate wireless network protocols into wired signals that would reach the same servers as the computer itself. Ai used Justin's credentials once again and logged herself into the network using her own RF transmitter. After a few brief tests, she began to mimic Internet Protcol and sent a GET request to the search engine that had provided her the address of the bank's web site. The search engine returned links to a variety of informational sites including a convenient online encyclopedia.

Seven minutes later, Ai had a working knowledge of federal bankruptcy law, the regulations of the Connecticut Bar Association, virtually the entire recorded history of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the general terms of the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970.

Later that night, Ai watched carefully as Justin returned home from an appointment with an employment agency. He didn't speak. He dropped his bag and coat next to the sofa, retrieved a bottle of beer from the refrigerator and sat in the same place he always did. It was the same location where he had awakened that morning.

She wondered if he would notice the lawsuit on his own. Normally she would have told him what had happened, but his reluctance to speak made her pause. The one thing she wanted to avoid was to make him feel worse. This was the result of a statement he had made only days prior.

"I just want things to be normal for a change."

There was scant evidence a five-figure lawsuit qualified as "normal," so it was left with the rest of the bills.