Out of the Shadows 013
A 5-star machine-augmented MIDNIGHT'S WAR novel
The threat couldn’t have been clearer, for all that it was delicately delivered. Elliott moved to one of the windows, staring out at the darkened garden below. In the moonlight, he could make out several figures moving with predatory grace among the hedges—the security detail, he had assumed. Now he wondered what they truly were.
“I’ll bet that’s why they were so interested in Theranos,” he murmured, more to himself than to Sofia. “Her high-powered board. Holmes must have stumbled onto something similar in her blood analysis. Something that could have exposed them.”
“She did,” Sofia confirmed. “Though unlike you, she never understood the significance of what she’d found. We made certain the technology failed catastrophically before she or anyone else did. Once it was established that she was merely a fraud, there was no further interest in following her path.”
“But she wasn’t a fraud.” Elliott turned back to her, his expression hardening. “She was onto something and you sabotaged her research.”
“We protected ourselves,” Sofia corrected. “As we have done for millennia. As we shall always do.”
“And now you’ll do the same to me.” It wasn’t a question.
“That depends entirely on you, Elliott.” Sofia moved closer, her eyes glittering in the dim light. “You have a choice that Elizabeth Holmes never did.”
“What choice?” he asked bitterly. “Sell out or be destroyed?”
“Join us,” she said simply. “Become one of us. Unlike her, you have real value for us.”
Elliott stared at her, momentarily speechless. “Join… you mean become like you? A vampire?”
“We prefer other names,” she repeated with a hint of wry amusement. “But yes. Live forever. Rejoice in obtaining what you’ve spent your life pursuing through other means.”
“You’re serious.”
“Entirely.”
Elliott laughed, a sharp, incredulous sound. “You expect me to believe that Lorenzo de Medici, Michael Astor, and everyone else sitting at that dinner table are actually centuries-old vampires, and that they want to make me one of them?”
“Not all of them,” Sofia replied. “The women you met tonight are like me. But Romanov is only fifty-three, Beaufort sixty-seven. They serve us, hoping to eventually be granted permission to join our ranks. The transition, the ascendance, is not offered lightly.”
“And yet you’re offering it to me, even though you barely know me.”
“You’ve earned it,” she said. “Few humans in history have come so close to unlocking our secret without guidance. Your work is extraordinary, Elliott. You are extraordinary. And we’ve watched you with interest from the start.”
The implication sent a chill through him. “Watched me?”
“From the moment you began investigating Theranos. We recognized the potential danger immediately.” She paused. “We’ve had someone close to you ever since. Keeping an eye on you, and onitoring your progress.”
A terrible suspicion formed in Elliott’s mind. “Natalie?”
Sofia shook her head, her expression softening at his visible distress. “Nothing quite so obvious, Elliott. Give us some credit for subtlety.”
Elliott felt as if the floor were tilting beneath him. He found himself rapidly thinking through his colleagues, his employees, his friends, his associates. Or, he forced himself to consider, even one of his ex-girlfriends.
“So I’ve been spied on,” he said numbly. “For years!”
“We’ve been protecting you,” Sofia corrected. “There are factions among us who would have eliminated the threat you posed as soon as they became aware of you. Lord Medici, on the other hand, always insisted upon restraint. I think he found your work to be fascinating as well as dangerous. He was the first to suggest bringing you in rather than removing you.”
Elliott moved to the desk, bracing himself against it. “And now you want me to join your… what? What is it? Your secret vampire society? Do you drink blood? Sleep in coffins? Fly around like a bat? Actually, the flying would be pretty cool.”
Sofia laughed, genuinely amused. “The folklore exaggerates, as folklore always does. We don’t transform physically. No bats, no clouds of mist. We need blood, yes, but in modern times, it’s easily acquired through medical channels without any drama. Only a few traditionalist die-hards still contribute to the crime statistics. And we certainly don’t sleep in coffins.”
“But sunlight—”
“Is best avoided,” she finished. “Our skin is sensitive to UV radiation, so we avoid direct sunlight when possible. But it won’t reduce us to ash on contact unless we’re entirely dry. Even so, most of us are entirely nocturnal. It’s easier that way.”
Elliott’s curiosity was definitely aroused. “How does it work? The transformation. Is it a virus? A prion? Some kind of genetic reconfiguration?”
“All of those and more,” Sofia said. “The process is complex. Part biological, part something else. Something science hasn’t fully defined yet.”
“Magic?” he scoffed.
She shrugged elegantly. “Any sufficiently advanced technology, as your Mr. Clarke once said. We’ve had millennia to perfect it.”
“And you’re offering this to me,” Elliott said slowly. “Immortality. In exchange for what? My soul?”
“Your cooperation,” Sofia said simply. “Your expertise. Your discretion. And yes, your loyalty.”
“To Medici?”
“To all of us. To the Council.” She moved closer, her voice dropping to a near-whisper. “Think of what you could accomplish with centuries instead of decades at your disposal, Elliott. Imagine the problems you could solve! The mysteries you could unravel!”
The offer was seductive, he had to admit. Time. It was the one resource he’d always craved more of. The one limitation that had always frustrated him. To have centuries to pursue his research, to see the future unfold, to witness the advancement of human knowledge…
But at what cost?
I bought the ebook and read the whole thing. Machine-augmented it might be, but it's a taut, exciting read and I trust the author to be the type who would definitely have the final say on every word. I have read other non-augmented works by this author and I know he knows how to write and write well, both fiction and non-fiction. The only advantage he gained by using AI in this case is that he was able to produce the book more quickly than if he had done everything himself.
I also use AI, to assess student writing. At the end of the academic year, I have a hundred or so essays to assess each week and give feedback to in a very short time (1 -2 days). AI allows me to give all students highly detailed feedback with specific examples and suggestions using that particular student's writing within the very short timeframe which would be impossible for me to provide otherwise. Because AI makes mistakes, such as pointing out "mistakes" which the student never made or quoting sentences the student never wrote, I must proof-read everything and almost everything requires tweaking or correcting. This also takes a heck of a lot of time, but it's worth it for the level of detail the AI can help me provide to budding academic writers.
Co authored with Claude?