The computer program

15. Evening birds

We walked hand in hand through a part of the university where I had never been, reserved for the institutions of economy and law. My Tobirama-free hand was clasping one strap of my backpack as if my life depended on it which, in a way, it did because it held my computer with the recordings of everything Hashirama had said. Tobirama walked silently beside me, and I wondered what he was thinking about. I got the feeling he wanted to tell me something, that he knew something, but he didn't, and I respected that. I squeezed his hand, showing him I was fine, that he was fine, that we were fine.

Maybe, it had something to do with what he'd left to do. After Hashirama had ran out of the lab in a panic, Tobirama had asked if he could go do an errand before we went to the ethics board. I had accepted, not feeling the need to ask him where he would go as I trusted him. As he had come back, he had looked shattered, as if he'd been too late for something, seen something terrible.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I had asked simply.

He had shook his head.

But he had been sullen since.

We entered the big building where the ethics board had their office, talked to the receptionist. When we gave her the gist, without revealing what and who Tobirama truly was, she led us to their meeting room immediately. The room was big, containing an oval table in the middle with a splendid view through the glass wall covering one side. As the receptionist came in, every member of the board who sat at the table looked up and frowned; they were not used to being interrupted.

"I'm sorry", the receptionist said efficiently. "It's urgent."

She stepped aside so they saw us. We had, at least, let go of each other's hands, not wanting to make the situation complicated, but I still felt a bit strange in this room filled with ladies and gentlemen in suits.

The receptionist left, and we stood there silently, me feeling very out of place.

"Won't you come in?" a woman, who didn't have quite the same irritated look on her face that the rest did, said.

We stepped in. I suddenly longed for Tobirama's hand, but I felt a wind of comfort radiate from him to me at least, just like that first evening when the wind had caressed him, then me, making sure atoms from him touched atoms on me.

I suddenly felt my throat constrain; I didn't like speaking in groups, and I wondered what this board could really do. My mind whirred in a panic trying to figure out what was the appropriate thing to say, but I was unable to. My throat was becoming dryer and dryer, when...

When Tobirama spoke.

With a strong and clear voice, he explained everything. In just enough detail, he explained everything just the way it was, leaving out one detail; that he was the AI. He told them that Hermes' will was fake, gave them a paper as evidence which they sent between them as they continued to listen to him. Finally, he pointed to my backpack, spoke of the rest of the evidence we had.

The ethics board, who of course already knew the gist of Hashirama's experiment, looked more and more disbelieving at the magnitude of Hashirama's crimes, but then, as Tobirama kept explaining, the general look of the ethics board became more and more angry.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted him", a middle-aged man said, and I felt my knees go weak; they believed us.

"May we have your laptop?" the kind woman asked.

"Of course", I said, taking it out of my backpack and handing it to her along with a note where I had written my password.

"And..." She looked at us sternly. "Where is the body of this AI?"