Lauren groaned theatrically. Ellie was consulting her phone again. It was a new and expensive model that came with an advanced personal assistant. It had been marketed as ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and Lauren had been very vocal about her insistence that it was more like ‘Artificial Incompetence’. Two weeks into the holiday of a lifetime, and Lauren was thoroughly irritated by FLASH.
‘Please don’t trust that slop.’ Lauren complained. ‘Come on, we’re travelling, we’re supposed to be finding out about different cultures, meeting interesting people, exploring islands and cities! That thing just sucks up the commonest stuff and pukes it out again. Follow its advice and we’ll just end up doing what everyone else does.’
‘FLASH is better than that. It’s not like the other assistants. It’s trained to challenge me, to be an extension of myself. I’ve just uploaded our dietary preferences too. It knows I’m vegan and about your … ’ Ellie ignored Lauren’s eye rolling. ‘It was FLASH’s idea to get the ferry to this island. It’s quieter here.’
Lauren had a different view. ‘Hmm, the place needs more tourists, I reckon someone’s paid FLASH HQ to push people here. It has nothing to do with your personal development you know? You’re just paying a lot of money to be advertised at. Come on, leave that thing at the hotel, let’s just wander.’
Ellie sighed. ‘Just give me a minute …’
She consulted her phone and smiled. ‘Right, I’ll put FLASH away. I promise. But it did recommend a good restaurant in the next village, and it’s ordered a taxi. That’s it, for the day, we’ll do things the old fashioned way for a while. It’s your holiday too.’
Lauren smiled, relieved. She’d been getting worried. The taxi ride was uneventful, and the restaurant was, she admitted, very nice. The food was good too, tasty and plentiful, washed down by a jug of peach flavoured sangria.
At first, she thought she’d just drunk too much, her lips were numb, and she felt pleasantly buzzed. She didn’t start to get worried until her tongue started to swell. ‘What’s in the punch?’ she asked the waiter.
‘Orange juice and peaches, some spices. Nothing on your allergy list. I’ll go and check.’
He came back quickly. ‘I’ve called an ambulance. It’ll be here very soon. The orange juice is fresh, squeezed today, but we got an order an hour ago for pureed strawberries for a special customer. I’m so sorry, there must have been some cross contamination.’ Ellie watched the air ambulance leave. Lauren would be OK, another customer had found her epipen and jabbed her. It hadn’t occurred to Ellie, and when she’d demanded advice from FLASH, it had merely suggested that Lauren should drink some milk. It looked like the holiday was over. She checked her phone. ‘Ideas for the single traveller …’ popped up.