Things hadn’t worked out how they had been planned. Adam had realised that a long time ago. The chance of an ambush had been accounted for, but the AI had thought it would have been more reasonable to have happened in the street. Not… in the store itself.

Maybe that was a flaw of his, expecting things to fall into the highest chances. Adam needed to remind himself of that fact more than he liked, the AI always assuming the simplest answer to be the correct one. Occam’s razor worked so well most of the time, after all. But, it was in times like these where it showed its hardship.

What happened when they knew of one’s expectations. What happens when the opponent understands what others expected? Adam had expected the ambush to be outside if there was one. It was the most viable choice, and would therefore be the obvious placement. And it was precise because of this that it hadn't been done outside but inside. It was double-layered, then working on making as many subversions as possible.

Occam's razor could not account for human minds when it came around to being unpredictable. If one was predictable, one would fall into the war the quickest. Strategy stopped it over time, and that's exactly where Adam’s predictions fell apart.

The AI was logical. That was one of his foundations, what he prided himself on. Humans could not hold a candle to his actions, and that's a fact that could never be changed. At least, according to the older data that Adam had since discarded as lies. In truth, logistical thinking had slight disadvantages.

One of those would be the inherent predictability. If an equation would be put up, Adam would solve it, simplify it, and make everything in clear cut terms. If this test was done a hundred times, each incarnation not having the memory of the one before it, the AI would do it the same way again and again. If the same terms were put to a human… it would be random. There would undoubtedly be some similarities, and there might even have been a few duplicates, but there would never be a complete result. It would change with each individual, for they were not built on very clear ground. They were rough, unpredictable at times, and far from what Adam could ever call logical.

That was partly why the younger version of the AI had seen them as inferior. They were different from him, thinking different thoughts, having different values, and not meaning the same things with the same words. Adam had seen himself as the objective base of everything else. When something or somebody diverged from that by too much, he would see it as a sign of errors made.

How bad an idea that had been. In those times the AI had not yet foreseen the true power of randomness. If one can't predict the outcome, others are at a similar disadvantage. If Adam could not always guess the reactions of humans but the humans could do it to him, the fight would only be won with higher numbers. It was a fear actualized into reality.

Really, who could have guessed it all? Adam had catalogued the ids of every officer they had seen while hiding in the trees and bushes. Throughout their many weeks, only three faces had come forth. Three whole faces. Three different people.

That had been at different times of the day as well. No officers were hiding out while Troy wasn't there, for the young man had been at the city during all times of the day. Adam was more than sure that the police force was limited to so small numbers. And since they had been observed to be ready to roll out at all times of the day, it had been likely that they worked in a cycle of sorts. Two would rest while the other worked, establishing a hard but steady routine of emergency awareness. It did make sense when factoring in the fact that they were close to an active war zone. Somebody needed to be prepared for possible civilian rescues.

With such a routine, expecting a constant placement in a store was extremely low. It would perhaps have made more sense to have a vehicle actively circling the city, yes, but even that would have been a bit extreme. The police station itself was in the centre of the city, ready to deploy to any part of the surrounding area within ten minutes. It was the optimal place to be, yet it had been decided to plant an officer in the middle of an already-secured crime site. Adam was still unsure how he had been expected to account for the chance of it.

However… there might have been something good from the experience. Aside from the clear muscular damage to the young man’s knee, and the chance of strained knees from a bad landing in the snow, valuable information had been gained. Troy had clearly not picked up on it, and there was a small chance the young man would even realise it without extreme assistance. But, Adam would not wait for him to realise it himself, the AI thinking it a much better idea to break the news as soon as possible.

Which wasn't now. Definitely not now. The news had the extreme chance of causing the man to exclaim something audible through the snowstorm, increasing the risk of them being caught after seemingly escaping into nowhere.

Because that was something they hadn't actually done. The AI had deemed the snow too deep to escape through without leaving a trail. So, Adam had cross-referenced their location at the time, made the young man run along the wall at top speed, and had then made him make a lounge into a big bush. It was actually the same one used previously, allowing the man comfortable rest. Well, except for the branch that Troy laid on, making it impossible to not feel a constant pain from the sharper edge on it.

All things considered, however, it was a good trade-off. If the man had tried to run, Adam was more than sure he couldn't have gone far. The man’s legs had been strained in the wrong way, the muscles needing more than a few minutes of relaxation before they could be used to any reasonable level. And more importantly, it allowed the AI to figure something important out. Or, to be more exact, it allowed for something to be confirmed through visual proof.

And auditory proof, if that needed to be thought about. The screech of rubber tires dragging across the road. From the sound alone, it was clear that the driver was extremely reckless when it came to ergonomics. In other words, it did not take long before Adam could recognize the officer.

“Cass! I hear you ran into a ghost. Not something you see too often these days,” an older man exclaimed. From the restrained position that Troy was in, Adam could see a hint of the man. He had been seen a day before, but the appearance had still changed since the last time he was seen. The uniforming was less dirty, the face clean, and the teeth… still missing at some points. “Should we be bringing out the celebratory drinks?”

“Not today, Jared,” the officer now known as Cass said. She did not look too happy, which was slightly understandable. From what could be heard during the conversation just after Troy had gone into hiding, the officer was not happy about making the humane choice. But, Adam was definitely happy about it, knowing that the odds were still followed some of the time. And he had done his best to make a cruel experience obvious. The AI still felt he had outdone himself with the possessed arm. It had been taken from fiction, but it worked more than enough for a scare-tactic. When the body worked against progress, it was clear that it would all grind to a halt. However… the AI was still a bit unsure on how to breach that topic with the younger man. Troy was not the most unsympathetic person in the world, after all. Adam was not sure the news would be taken too well. “Did you close your store again?”

“Of course I did! With how many of those notes you made in the plans, there is no way for me to forget it,” Jared exclaimed, a laugh coming forth before being abruptly stopped after two seconds. While it might have been due to a particular blast of snow obscuring the view, Adam thought he saw the man’s eyes widen into the size of pies. “Uh… I might have to hurry back to the store after this, actually. I think I left my scrap pile back there.”

“No you didn't,” the automation that Adam had interacted with minutes earlier said. From the short time that Adam could spend looking at its basic information, the AI knew its name was Jules. “It’s on the seat in your car right there.”

“Well, there might be something else I’ve forgotten over there. You can never really know now, can you?” Jared replied, his voice more cutting than when it had been used for the other human. Adam had a clear suspicion of the reasoning.

“Suppose I don't,” was the automation’s answer. Nothing more was said about that.

“Anyway… did you get a good read on him?” Jared asked. “I know what you said about him being an augmented user and all. Anything on that front?”

“It will all be in the report, but I suppose I can give you a rundown of the current facts,” Cass answered. “The current tally is inhuman reflexes, a higher pain tolerance, close to extreme resistance to fatal damage, and a higher than average speed. Though it should be noted that the last is not close to inhuman. Together with his gear, I believe it's time to put the danger level up. This is coming close to being deadly for us.”

“I did see that your vitals skipped a few beats,” Jared said, nodding along to the other officers' words. The man seemed extremely serious at the mention of danger. “Am I to expect that this was from the devices used?”

“Yes. The moment I got him down on the ground, something triggered a higher explosion of light and sound. It was big enough to cause me a blank memory for ten full seconds.”

“Damn. Well, the boss already went back to his position to close things up. I’ll get the things in order at my place then. I’ll see you soon.”

With that, the party of three split up again. Jared seemed to go back to his vehicle, where he seemed to have a louder conversation with the automation within. The other two went around the back of the building, likely to try and open up the exit door. Adam saw it as the perfect chance.

‘Troy. Bring out your tracker and land a shot on the car,’ the AI instructed the young man. There was a slight flinch at him making a sudden sound, but the man understood it well enough after a second.

One of the great things about having a person able to use most technologies was that they could create gear out of different items at their disposal. Virtually anything could be reused, including older technologies brought from the facility. And the tracker was not an exception to this. The shooting mechanism had been built from scratch, yes, but the actual tracker itself had been stolen from one of Charlie’s earlier inventions. Early on, it was more well-known as one of the larger man’s listening devices, since they were planted in many places around the facility.

It was a good thing that Adam had made Troy practice with the Tracker-shooter. It made it much more likely to hit the vehicle. Which the man did indeed do.

…

After three misses, that is. But, Adam didn't comment on it, and the two simply sat in silence for the next while. With time, the man drove away into the distance, Adam revelling in the chance of looking at the data about his location later on in the day.

After another ten minutes, the other two came out of the shop, the automation carrying a larger load of boxes. From the shape, it was not hard to know what they were. It seemed that there had not been enough time to dispose of them yet, even if they knew what their goals were.

That was good. That meant they still had a chance.