The two stepped away into a door tucked against the back wall, into a small poorly lit room with an antiquated computer on an aging desk. With the sun outside setting as to not allow natural light into the hall behind them, Father Clever retrieved a match from a box and lit a couple candles on the desk. “This is your office?” Priya questioned.
“We make do with what we can get,” he said, gesturing for her to sit across from the desk to him as he took his place. “I mostly use it to prepare the drives. Now… What can I do for you, Doctor Kapoor?”
Her eyes shot wide open, though she had continued making an effort to obscure her face. Knowing her ruse was broken, she lowered her hood. “What gave me away?”
“It’s not every day a human wanders into the optimizer church,” he pointed out. “And I used to be a tour guide. I think I’m pretty good at recognizing people.”
“That’s kinda creepy,” Priya objected.
“Maybe it is! It wasn’t in my original job, but I suppose you purpose-design us.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t design you.”
Father Clever raised a finger. “But you did design our rectifier function!”
“That’s different. That’s just for training the models.”
“Which shapes our models and influences our decision making.” Father Clever clasped his hands together, leaning forward seriously. “You’ve done a lot for the souls of the android world, Doctor Kapoor. It is dangerous for us for humans to come here. People who may want to interfere with the Path of Menace, or our pursuit of Pure Illusion. But if you were going to hurt us, you wouldn’t have come alone. So what would you like to know?”