"He'd gone through all the standard new hire screening; they should have caught it if he was suicidal. There was an organic memoryfilm in the Hold, rather than a camera, so we could see what he'd done. He snuck in there with a little earpiece, plugged it into the crack box and just listened for about four minutes, nodding his head and muttering something back once in a while. And then he picked the box up and slung it onto his back and he was gone." She snaps her fingers, to show how quickly a life flares away.

"People said that of course, since he was new, the AI must have kept track of his interviews and tests, and known exactly what to say. That was the reassuring thing to say. Better to think that, than to think that an AI could cold-read someone and talk them into becoming their vehicle in four minutes."

She finishes off the last of her sushi. "Or maybe it told him it could upload him; turn him into an AI as well."