34
April 11, 2027
“Okay, all you need to do is answer the phone. Can you do that?” Grabbing Shelly’s phone from the cup holder, Alainn held it up in front of her face.
Shelly’s eyes went in and out of focus as she looked at the phone.
Alainn was losing her again.
“I don’t think I can do this,” Shelly whispered. Her face had slowly leaked its color and was now nearly sheet white. Pushing her into this wasn’t the kindest thing to do, but all she had to do was talk Colby through finding the chip from a safe distance away.
“Shelly, this is nothing compared to going and confronting me at the lodge.” Alainn pointed out the back window to the east. “Or cruising around town for days with a robot monkey in your car.”
“I just thought you were a software or hardware engineer—like your father—that could help, and then I was so angry. It took me three days to be able to go up there.” She shook her head. “And I like animals.”
“Maybe she needs an alcoholic drink?” Colby muttered from the backseat. When Alainn glanced back at him, he was leaning in to inspect Blue’s teeth.
Blue was obliging him, mouth open wide.
“Jesus, Colby. Stop bothering my monkey.” She smacked his arm.
Colby looked down at where Alainn had smacked him, confusion flashing across his face. He pushed up his glasses. “You say she’s from Germany?” he responded, sticking one of his fingers into the side of Blue’s mouth.
“Gross, Colby. Get your fingers out of her mouth.” He either didn’t hear her or was choosing to have very selective hearing. Knowing Colby, it was likely the latter. She looked to Blue. “I’m sorry, Blue.”
Blue gave a very unmonkeylike shrug. Since she didn’t care, Alainn turned back to the real issue—Shelly.
They sat three blocks up from her father’s house and down at the end of a cul-de-sac. An hour ago, when Alainn had called Colby from the coffee shop, not only had Colby been ready to help, he had information to share.
As always in the twenty-four years that he had been her older brother, Colby was a step ahead of Alainn. Colby had been observing and writing down Rose’s behavior for months. Of course, he had done the whole thing very clinically, but something about Rose had made her brother take interest a while back.
Consequently, they had a pretty regular schedule written down for Rose. Unfortunately, they’d missed her bathing time, which was in the morning. Another unfortunate thing was that she usually spent from two in the afternoon until late at night working at various tasks in the workshop. The good thing was that Colby had written down which hardware-supply drawers she used most, how long she would sit on the computer, and which computers she preferred.
Colby had also seemed to take to the task of stealing the hardware calmly, which was better than Shelly’s reaction but still concerning. Knowing her brother, he might mess this up by just stating why they were there for discussion.
“Maybe I can park farther away?” Shelly asked, sweat breaking out over her brow.
All the signs were there. Shelly was going to bolt on them.
Damn it.
“Ms. Dover, could I tell you a story?” Colby asked from the backseat.
“Yeah, sure,” she whispered.
“Once, when I was fourteen and she was twelve, I broke Alainn’s arm.”
Both Shelly and Alainn looked into the back seat, surprised.
“Colby!”
“Are you threatening me?” Shelly whispered, leaning awkwardly toward her steering wheel.
Unsurprisingly, he completely ignored both of them and continued, “She’d taken my homework for some reason of her own and wouldn’t give it back. I was upset, but I didn’t want to break her arm. It was an accident.” He raised his eyebrows at them.
Maybe for effect?
“I tried to get it from her. She wouldn’t give it back, so we ended up wrestling. While we wrestled, I accidentally broke her arm. Alainn screamed and I saw her cry a little, but she didn’t stop fighting, so I had no idea I even did it. Eventually, she got out of my grip, told me that she won, and handed me back my homework.”
Shelly glanced between Alainn and Colby, as if she was trying to decide which of them was more nuts.
Colby continued, undaunted, “Am I guessing right, Ms. Dover, that you are afraid that Rose 76GF is going to come out of the house and find you?”
She nodded, infinitesimally.
“Well, the point of my story was that the only way that Rose 76GF is going to get past Alainn to come after you is if Alainn was killed after a long and vicious fight. The best way to hear that fight is over the phone, when I call you.”
Alainn’s head fell into her hands. “Colby . . . ,” she groaned. While the story was once true, she wasn’t sure that it was anymore. She had been broken before, and in breaking, she’d caused the death of someone she loved. When Alainn forced herself to examine Shelly, she looked to be thinking hard about what Colby said.
Alainn held up the phone one final time. “Shelly, just please answer the phone when Colby calls.”
Shelly nodded, shook her head, then nodded again.
Well, hell.
Alainn sighed. She was pretty sure that was the best she was going to get.
“All right, no point in drawing this out until we’re hungry again.” Opening the door, she rounded Shelly’s beige sedan. Colby took his sweet time getting out of his side.
When they were both out, Shelly rolled down her window; tears again coursed down her face. “I’m sorry. I can’t do this.” Her car accelerated forward, circling the cul-de-sac.
“Shit,” Alainn whispered as they stood watching her drive away.
At the end of the cul-de-sac, Shelly did a three-point turn and drove back to them, parking in the exact same position. She rolled down her window, again. “I’ll do it.” She nodded, not looking at them.
“Okay,” Alainn drew out the word, looking over to Colby. “Thank you, Shelly.”
She nodded, rolling up her window.
With frequent glances back, Colby and Alainn walked toward their house. The cul-de-sac was so familiar. Alainn had played soccer here when she was little, but nearly all the houses had been replaced in the years since. The boxy, modern houses crowded their neighbors, too big for their lots.
She peered over at Colby. “I think there’s a pretty high chance that you’ll have to find the information without Shelly’s help. Do you think you can?”
“You should cut that woman a break,” Colby said as he peered back.
“Was I not cutting her a break?” Alainn asked, defensively. “I thought I was being pretty understanding.”
“No, you were fine.” He nodded. “I’m just saying she obviously has an anxiety disorder, and it seemed as if just being in our presence was a battle for her.”
“I figured that out, Colby. I’m just—”
“I’m just saying that you live every day like you’re challenging death to come find you, and other people live their days seeing death waiting for them everywhere.” He lifted up his glasses, rubbing the bridge of his nose while he talked. “It’s taking her a lot more than it would take you or me to sit in that car.”
“Jesus, Colby.” Alainn resisted the urge to smack him again. “Why are you acting like I’m criticizing her?”
“I’m not. I’m just saying that she’s a pretty amazing person, judging by the fact that she drove you all the way down here to be with the guy she’s been dating for years. And she made that type of sacrifice all because she cares about him.”
Alainn stopped dead. “Seriously, Colby? You’ve only known Shelly for an hour, during which she was in and out of panic attacks, and you’re already crushing this bad?”
“I’m not anything. I just think that you shouldn’t judge her harshly—”
He kept walking, so she rushed to catch up to him. “I’m not!”
“What I’m trying to say is—”
But she didn’t find out, because when they turned the corner and she could see who stood out front of their small, old-fashioned house, her steps faltered. Rose 76GF was waiting for them. Alainn had never once seen Rose out front before, but there she stood, gaze on them like she knew that they had been there the whole time.
In that moment, Alainn was immeasurably grateful to Shelly—because she had been so focused on her fear, she hadn’t had sufficient time to build up any of her own.
Holding up a hand, Alainn greeted Rose. “Hi. I’m back. We were just taking a walk.”
She nodded, her gaze fixed on Alainn. “Welcome home. Father will be so happy.” She smiled, a demure baring of teeth.
“Hi, Rose,” Colby said before he started yawning—and it looked like he was actually yawning and not faking. Alainn would never understand her brother, but it somehow made her feel a million times less like freaking out.
Maybe Rose was just coincidentally taking a stroll for the first time ever.
As Colby hadn’t broken stride, Alainn hurried to catch up with him in crossing the road.
“Heading in,” Colby said, pointing to the house and not even pausing.
Rose didn’t move to follow Colby as he headed into the garage, so Alainn waited near her, standing on the sidewalk before their house.
Rose pivoted. “Alainn, can I ask you something about ethics?”
Alainn nodded slowly. “Sure.”
Rose’s inhuman eyes met hers, and she asked, “Would you die to save a million people?”
Clearing her throat, Alainn asked, “This is hypothetical?” Her gaze swept Rose but she saw no weapons or anything. She wore jeans and a T-shirt, nice but plain.
Rose tilted her head, considering Alainn. “Imagine that it’s a real choice, a choice you have to make.”
Alainn shifted her weight from foot to foot. In a way, this situation was better than she could have asked for. Rose stood here, letting Alainn distract her. But Alainn had another feeling, too, a feeling like maybe she was falling into Rose’s plan rather than the other way around.
“Would I die to save a million people? I probably would. But I’d definitely want to know why I was dying and what good it was doing.” Alainn shrugged.
“How about this question instead: would you kill one person to save millions of people?” Rose took a step in.
All Alainn wanted to do was book it, but she stayed rooted to the spot and answered, “No.”
“Never?”
“Well, maybe if that person is going to kill millions of people.”
Rose took another step closer. “Let’s say that they have the ability to save those people and they’re choosing not to.”
“No.” Alainn shook her head. “People need to choose their own causes to live or die for.”
“So one life is worth more than millions?” She took another step.
“Who am I to choose who lives and dies?”
“Humans choose all the time. They choose which creatures should exist and which should not. They alter the genetics and natural order of the world.”
“Rose, you can’t sacrifice someone else’s life for your cause. Your coding should tell you that.”
“There’s a big disconnect between my coding and the ethics you and your family live by. You sacrificed someone else, Cara Miller, to save your own life. And your father, in turn, sacrificed you to play slot machines. It’s hard to ingrain ethical coding when it’s so easy to learn that those who encoded you act differently.” She was less than a foot from Alainn now. They stood eye to eye.
“I didn’t sacrifice Cara. Not—not on purpose,” she stumbled over the words.
“Didn’t you?” Her head turned. “What is your brother doing? I think I will check on Colby now.”
Alainn grabbed her arm, noticing how human she felt. “No, Rose. We’re not done talking.”
Her gaze came back to Alainn’s. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Will you tell me who you’re trying to save?”
She smiled. “I’m saving everyone—even you, Alainn. Only one person needs to die to save billions of lives. Tell me, how can that be wrong?”
Alainn gripped her tighter, pulling Rose even closer. “Lorccan?”
As Rose began to nod, something broke in Alainn. She threw her weight forward. As their bodies collided and slammed into the ground, Alainn’s hand kept Rose’s arm gripped between them. Her legs went to either side of Rose’s stomach and, breathing hard, Alainn crouched over her.
Rose didn’t fight. She simply stared up, expression almost satisfied—like she had seen what she wanted to see.
Alainn had never restrained anyone before and Rose wasn’t fighting, so she scrabbled for Rose’s wrists and held them to her sides. “Dad! Dad, get out here, now! Colby! Someone! Tell me how to destroy her!”
“How are your ethics now, Alainn? Do you get to choose if I live or die?” Rose’s insidious voice slithered into her mind.
“Dad!”
The door opened and her father peered out, blinking at the light. “Honey? Wha—” His mouth gaped open.
“Rose is going to kill Lorccan! She’s been stealing from him for weeks! We need to destroy her!”
“Honey?” he repeated, still blinking out the door like he didn’t understand.
“Turn her off!” Lifting her weight off Rose, Alainn pulled on her arm to flip her over, and she rolled over willingly. Alainn knelt on her back and yanked up her hair. “Tell me! How do I turn her off?”
Her father’s gaze bounced between Alainn and Rose. “What? I—”
Colby shoved past their father. “Help her!”
Her father staggered out of the door but didn’t seem to know where to look or what to do.
Colby dove down beside Alainn. “Check in her mouth. There should be a manual access to her circuitry.”
Alainn yanked Rose over again, and yet again, she didn’t resist, just looked up, smiling. “Dad, please! Tell me how to shut her down!”
“Honey, no—”
Colby tried to pry open Rose’s mouth; she opened it up before snapping her teeth closed. Rose lifted up her head, looking between Colby and Alainn, a smile on her dirty, grass-covered face. “It’s too late for that.”
Their father took a step forward and almost fell down the steps. “Colby. Colby, no. I—”
Alainn grabbed Rose by her hair and yelled into her face, “It’s too late for what, Rose?”
“Rosette 82GF isn’t only a robot. She’s my other vessel. I’m going to switch with her now. Good-bye.” Her smile fell away as her eyes lost their spark of life, leaving only a cold, dark abyss beyond amber-colored pupils.
“Shit!” Alainn shouted as she shoved Rosette’s head back into the grass.
“That makes a lot of sense, with what I’ve been observing in their behavior,” Colby mumbled.
“That means she’s already in there with him!” Alainn turned on her father, growling, “Dad, tell me how to shut them off!”
“That’s—that’s not possible,” her father stammered. “They don’t have an Off switch. She has an organic circuitry system encased in her brain cavity. She can ingest hardware and her auto-assembler will streamline the circuitry or chips to override existing functions. But you can’t access it through the assembler—”
“She needs to be destroyed, Dad! We need to destroy both bodies! Otherwise she can just hop back! Tell me how to do it!”
Her father shook his head. “No, honey. I—”
“I’m sorry, Ms. Murphy. I can’t let you destroy this body,” the robot that was now Rosette said. Her hands shoved Alainn’s shoulders, wrenching her away.
Alainn threw all her weight at Rosette, trying to pin her down.
Colby put his weight into restraining Rosette’s arm and shoulder. “If you disconnect her organic battery system from her circuitry system in a permanent way—a neck break and then decapitation—then you’d have to remove the circuitry from her brain cavity—”
“What?” Alainn shouted.
Colby blinked rapidly. “Um . . . or even better. If you could increase her core body temperature to over fifty degrees Celsius, or by that I mean about—one hundred twenty degrees Fahrenheit—”
“Don’t do this, Alainn—I’ll reboot her!” Her father staggered back. “I have a frequency-encoded reboot light sequencer. I’ll get it. It’s in the house . . .”
It didn’t matter if this robot rebooted, it was just a placeholder. He would have needed to reboot Rose 76GF, and her father hadn’t acted.
Alainn stared down at her own face, at the living, breathing woman that was struggling to fight her off.
Rosette’s empty gaze hit hers and she whispered, “Please. Please, Cara. No.” Pause, then she said, “You can do this, Alainn. I know we can do this. You’ve got it in you. I know you do.”
Shock hit Alainn like a tidal wave. From fingers to lips, she went numb. Rosette had spoken in a perfect imitation of a voice Alainn hadn’t heard outside of her dreams in seven years. She spoke in the voice of Alainn’s deceased best friend, Cara Miller. In all the places she touched Rosette, Alainn no longer felt her. “What did you say?”
“You go. I can’t do it,” Rosette said in Alainn’s voice.
“Stop it!” Alainn whispered.
Again in Cara’s voice, she said, “Your brain is broken if you think I’m going to leave you here alone to die.” In one fast move, Rosette broke Alainn’s hold and punched Colby in the face, sending his glasses flying amid splattering drops of blood. Her elbow shot back, and pain exploded up the side of Alainn’s cheek.
Screaming, she grabbed her jaw.
Rosette bucked Alainn off, sending her rolling onto the grass. When Colby and Alainn dove for Rosette, she scrambled forward, up the grass, kicking away their fingers. With a loud crunch, her shoe came down on Colby’s glasses as she hurried forward. Rosette shoved into their father, catching him ascending the stairs. He tumbled forward through the door and into the house. Spinning, she jumped to her feet and sprinted around them.
Colby and Alainn both managed to get to their feet, but Rosette had a ten-foot head start. There was a ding of the car lock, and then Rosette ran up to their father’s car. The door yanked open and slammed shut.
Colby and Alainn collided with the door, grabbing at the handle.
With a loud screech, Rosette 82GF took off. The handle wrenched out of Alainn’s hand as the side of the car shoved past and knocked them both back. The car screeched around the corner. They sprinted after it. She took corners at high speed and, only five blocks up, they lost her.
“Damn it!” Alainn’s hands went to her knees as she attempted to stay vertical. Her aching chest heaved with every breath she took. “How long can she stay powered without recharging?”
“For the Rose 76GF system, she’ll only last up to twenty-four hours away from a charging station, depending on how much energy she uses.”
Which meant the Rosette-in-Rose 76GF’s system would either be coming back here or heading to Lorccan’s tower in the next twenty-four hours.
“We are just going to have to deal with her after and make sure Rose doesn’t hop back before I can destroy her.”
“Unfortunately, the Rosette 82GF’s system was designed with a secondary biological battery that can run on pure glucose.” Colby shook his head, also breathing hard. He squinted at Alainn. He probably only saw a blur without his glasses. Blood dripped down from his purpling nose and he smeared the blood away with a hand. “What was she saying about you and Cara?”
Alainn shook her head. “I don’t know how she—it doesn’t make any sense.” She turned pleading eyes on him. “Please tell me you found the design and printed the chip.”
He said, “Yeah,” but shook his head. “Shelly is gone. She took off when she heard the fighting over the phone.”
“Crap! She has Blue in her car!” When Alainn’s face fell into her hands, her cheek screamed at the contact.
“If Blue knows a way in, that means there is one. I’ll help you figure it out. We’ll get in there; we’ll bike if we have to.” Colby nodded slowly.
“Really, Colby? You can’t even see. She broke your glasses.”
“I can see enough.”
A loud screech broke through the air and they both turned to see a car driving straight for them. With another loud screech, the car suddenly braked and skidded past. A smell of burning rubber wafted up as Shelly’s beige sedan spun. Halfway across the oncoming lane, it stopped and shuddered back.
Colby walked in an almost leisurely way to Shelly’s car door and opened it. “Would you mind if I drove us, Ms. Dover?”
“Alainn.”
Alainn turned to find her father hobbling up the street. He looked as if, instead of finding her, he was completely lost. “I’m so sorry—I wish that I—I’m so sorry. There must have been some miscalculations in her filters and . . .” He continued to mumble.
“Dad, we have to go!”
“Wait. Wait.” With what seemed like more effort than was required, her father held up a small plastic box. Inside, a half-inch-long flashlight rattled. “Reboot sequencer—she has to watch the whole sequence. It lasts ten seconds, then pauses for three seconds before repeating.”