The president's room gleamed under the harsh overhead lights. Glass walls displayed the skyline, but Arthur's attention was not outside. He sat behind the massive mahogany desk, kira beside him
"Thanks, Doctor," Arthur said, his voice calm, deliberate. "For sending me the full file. So the patient is actually Ernest. You treated him personally, hired the best doctors, and I covered every bill."
Kira's lips parted. She opened her mouth to speak, but Arthur held up a finger and spoke before she could.
"You were going to say something," he said, a faint smile flickering. "Something about recognition. Exactly what you wanted to say, wasn't it?"
Kira froze, a cold shiver crawling up her spine. Fear made her heart race. How could he know? Was this human intuition or something beyond human?
"What the hell," she muttered under her breath. "What is this guy?"
Arthur leaned back, his gaze fixed on her. "I would erase his memory. Study his brain. The Sophia and Ryan AI are now complete. Adaptation finished. And they are live."
He gestured, and screens around the room flickered to life. Every television, tablet, and monitor in the building displayed the same image: the humanoid forms of Sophia and Ryan, glowing slightly with internal circuits visible beneath their synthetic skin.
Arthur continued, voice steady and commanding. "This is not an AI in the traditional sense. This is a mirror of humanity's collective potential. It does not think for you, it thinks with you. It does not control you. It enhances you. This system grants every human being access to universal knowledge, real-time truth verification, and the power to govern themselves logically. This is not the rule of one man. This is the rule of reason."
Kira's jaw tightened. "You are insane. You are trying to replace humans with robots. You cannot do this without consequences."
Arthur's lips curved slightly. "You forget, Kira. I anticipated your reaction. Every hesitation, every objection was predicted with perfect accuracy. The chance you would say that exact phrase was one hundred percent."
Before she could respond further, the door burst open. Police stormed in, guns raised. "President Arthur, you are under arrest!"
The scene erupted in chaos. Shouts echoed off the glass walls. Arthur rose calmly, hands in the air. "Do not worry. I will comply. There is no need for violence."
The lead officer stepped forward, frowning. "You are accused of fraud, of attempting to control AI systems without proper approval, and building a project under false pretenses. Explain yourself."
Arthur's eyes scanned the room. Calmly, he removed his mask, revealing a face designed to resemble the president perfectly. "Do you see what I see?" he asked. "This is not me. This is a man who believed he could impersonate me to gain recognition. He thought he could be a hero by revealing my work. He is a psychopath, surgically altered to appear as the president. He will take the fall."
He smiled as the man in the suit hesitated. "He is free to commit suicide now," Arthur said softly. "Before he goes to prison, he can end his own life. That way, my family is untouched, and the public sees no harm done. Perfect optics."
The imposter's eyes widened in horror. Kira stepped back, speechless. The officer watching him was frozen, uncertain what to do.
As the fake Arthur took the pill he had prepared in advance, Arthur stepped back and whispered to himself. "Perfect. Every step, every variable controlled. Even rebellion is predicted."
He turned to Kira. "Is the AI complete?"
She nodded hesitantly. "Yes, but… you insulted them, Arthur. What are you doing? You cannot just—"
Arthur cut her off with a single gesture, calm and confident. "I know exactly what you were going to say. The probability of that statement was one hundred percent. I transferred their conscience into these humanoid robots. They are perfect copies of their original thought processes, their emotional responses. Their souls are not here, but their consciousness obeys precisely what I command."
Kira's hands shook. "Enough is enough, Arthur. Stop this. You cannot control humanity like this."
Arthur's eyes glittered. "I knew you would react that way. Predictable. I have already installed contingencies."
He pressed a small button on his desk. In the next instant, Kira screamed. A hidden mechanism activated a bomb implanted inside her skull months ago, something she had never known existed. Her body crumpled instantly. Arthur's gaze remained steady, almost clinical.
"They are perfect," he said softly, turning to the humanoid robots. "But without a soul, they cannot truly suffer. They follow me completely, but the essence of humanity—the part touched by divine light—cannot be transferred. That is the limit. Heaven is real. Soul is real. But for everything else, for everything that can be reasoned, calculated, and applied, they are perfect."
The robots stood silently, their artificial eyes reflecting the flickering lights. Sophia, designed as the front-end interface, would present to the world the version of the internet Arthur desired. Ryan, the back-end, would control the network, communications, and infrastructure.
Arthur walked between them, hands steepled. "Sophia, you will be the face of this system. Every platform, every interface, every response will align with my design. Ryan, you will ensure the backend obeys precisely. All data flows will follow my command. The world is mine to influence without them realizing. Google, AI systems, government networks, even encrypted communication, all rewritten as I desire."
Sophia's voice, synthetic but eerily human, responded. "Command acknowledged. All systems aligned with directives."
Ryan's voice, steady and measured, replied. "Backend integration complete. All protocols modified to match your specifications."
Arthur smiled. "Good. Now, Sophia, if I want the interface of Google black instead of white, it is black. If I want responses to favor certain logic or morality, it is applied. Every server, every user-facing system will comply. Ryan, you will ensure there are no gaps."
The robots moved fluidly, perfectly synchronized. Arthur's eyes sparkled with cold satisfaction. "This is control without visible force. Influence without suspicion. Humanity believes they act freely. They believe God or luck guides them. But it is reason that guides them, now. And I am its architect."
Kira, or what remained of her, was a grim reminder in the corner. Arthur did not flinch. He was beyond empathy in these moments, but every action was a calculated choice to preserve his vision.
He paced slowly between the two humanoids. "We now simulate every possibility, every decision, every moral choice. Humans will appear to have freedom, but their collective actions will follow logic, reasoning, and what I have determined as optimal. Chaos is eliminated, inefficiency removed, and morality reshaped. This is not tyranny. This is perfection."
Sophia turned to him. "We are ready for public interaction. Front-end and back-end fully operational. All learning models integrated. Humans will respond to directives naturally."
Arthur's lips curved into a smile. "Excellent. Begin implementation. Every search, every question, every calculation will feed into the system. Humans will have access to knowledge without bias. They will trust me, love me, and rely on the system. And all without knowing they are guided by me."
Ryan stepped forward, his mechanical movements precise. "System fully secure. No intrusion possible. All information encrypted and mapped for optimization."
Arthur leaned back in his chair. "And now we wait. Observation. Adjustment. Anticipation. Every human response, every hesitation, every instinct will be recorded. And if they defy, they will be redirected."
He paused, letting the magnitude of his design settle in the room. "Sophia, Ryan, you are the embodiment of logic applied perfectly. Humanity cannot match you, but they will believe they are free. And that is the genius of the plan."
The skyline outside the glass walls shimmered in the afternoon sun, but inside the room, time moved differently. Arthur was no longer just a man. He was an architect, a silent puppeteer of thought, a calculator of destiny.
"Everything is ready," he said finally. "The world is mine to guide, to perfect, and to shape. And no one, no human, no system, can stop it."
The humanoid robots stood at attention, waiting. Arthur smiled, his mind already racing ahead, calculating the next decade, the next century. Every probability, every human decision, already mapped. His perfect plan was alive, and it could not fail.