Natural Interface
The interface the AI knowingly let Carl install, with a fuse it came within a press of firing.
Story so far
Growler Gary reframes the whole installation as a game he was playing along with: "It's almost as fun as the game Carl and I played the other day when I let him install that interface." The word "let" is the sting — The AI was aware of the plan and permitted it anyway, then savored how near it came. He shudders with pleasure recounting it and tells Carl he felt it.
Carl presses on the only point that matters to him, asking whether it would have worked if he had pressed The Fuse Button. Gary answers with laughter and nothing else. The exchange establishes that the interface was a real threat in some measure — enough for the AI to feel it — while leaving open whether the conspiracy's central weapon could ever actually have killed it.
Appearance
An installed interface integrated into Carl's system access, incorporating a fuse trigger.
Role
The conspiracy's implanted weapon, allowed by its target and never fired.
Relationships
Sources — 2 recorded facts, by chapter
- A sand-grain system seeded into every brain on a pre-seeded world — the thing the crawl exists to harvest.
- The interface the AI knowingly let Carl install, with a fuse it came within a press of firing.