Steel Kisses

by Laura Strickland

  As instructed, she went up the stairs and directly to her room. As not permitted, Chastity slipped in after her.

  “Did you signal your friend?”

  “Yes.”

  “He will be waiting to help us?”

  “I trust he will.”

  Chastity tipped her head to one side. “Trust? I trust no one except you.”

  “I trust him.”

  “I have my supplies ready in my room. Do you have yours?”

  “Yes.” At Charity’s suggestion she had bundled the bottles of enzyme wash—needed to sustain what living tissue she possessed—inside spare garments and formed a neat ball. “When?”

  “We must go through this day as usual, accept any clients, draw no attention. This evening, when it grows busy, I will cause the diversion.”

  “How?”

  “Best I do not tell you. You will know when it happens.”

  “I will know when it happens.” Lily tucked that into her intelligence.

  “Head for the rear exit as swiftly as you can.”

  “If I am with a client…”

  “Get away. Do not forget your bundle.”

  “If something should go wrong…?”

  Chastity studied her with beautiful, dark eyes. “Then we will be shut off, and I will see you no more. It has been good having you for my friend.”

  Remembering the comfort of Rey’s embrace, Lily leaned forward and hugged Chastity. They clung together a long moment; Lily could feel the heat from Chastity’s boiler, but no heartbeat.

  How precious—how privileged—was a heartbeat!

  Chastity released her and slipped from the room silently. The long day stretched ahead, interminable.

  ****

  “I don’t like this,” Reynold told Vern nervously. They’d met again, this time outside a tavern—far too public for his comfort. “I think the coppers are onto us. Liam’s friend from the force stopped in yesterday, and I’ll swear he was looking at me funny.”

  “This will be the last one for a while,” Vern said. “But I’ve promised delivery, and we’ve got to go through with it. Hey!” He leveled a hard stare on Rey. “You owe me. Have you forgotten all that money I advanced you?”

  “No.” Rey scowled. “But this is getting dangerous. Maybe we should let the heat die down.”

  “We’ve almost made our quota. You deliver this one tonight, and we’re square. Understand?”

  “Yeah, just tell me where. I got someplace I need to be.”

  “With your doxy again?”

  He hoped so.

  “Never mind, just tell me where I drop the next one off.”

  Vern recited the pickup and delivery locations. “And don’t get caught,” he said in parting, “since the whole damn city’s on alert.”

  “Maybe we should skip this job.”

  “Last one,” Vern repeated.

  Reynold walked the streets, using up the minutes till his assigned pickup time, treading the block around the Golden Palace and back again. He could see the alley onto which the rear door opened, but all remained quiet there.

  The Golden Palace did seem unusually busy this evening. When he left to pick up the cab, he prayed he wouldn’t miss Lily’s escape.

  He also prayed she’d be safe. Could one pray for the welfare of an automaton? But he knew her to be so much more.

  The pickup from the assigned location—a shadowy repair yard—went well. There was a dog, but he tossed it a biscuit and—chained and half starved—it accepted the donation.

  Someone should tell James Kilter about the dog’s plight, he thought a bit madly as he drove away. This city had resources for abused animals and streetwalkers.

  What about children and automatons?

  He saw the smoke coming from the Crystal Palace before he drew up out front. Dark, roiling clouds like ink poured from the upstairs windows on the north side, and people ran everywhere. Or were some of them automatons?

  He scanned the scene swiftly. A bevy of women, or machines, and half-dressed men milled around. A tall thin lady barked out orders, and a small raft of steamies, some singed, looked confused.

  Where was Lily? Had he missed her while grabbing the cab? Was she trapped inside?

  He drew around the corner, through clouds of smoke, and idled the cab at the end of the access alley in time to see the back door fly open. Two figures—one of them Lily—burst out closely followed by a shiny silver automaton.

  Reynold revved the cab’s motor and it emitted a cloud of steam. Lily saw him and seized her companion’s arm. Reynold nosed the cab down the narrow alley; both Ladies ran to the doors and got in back.

  The silver automaton stepped out in front of the cab and stood with both arms raised.

  Not hesitating, Reynold trod hard on the accelerator and ran it down. The thud as it fell sounded loud, and it made a surprising amount of racket going under the wheels. He left it in a cloud of steam from its ruptured boiler and pressed on, hands clenched on the wheel.

  No time to wonder what his charges thought of the fact that he’d just murdered an automaton.

  The alley narrowed as it went. He sent trash bins flying and humped over stone stoops, hoping he wouldn’t get the cab stuck. If he did, the only option would be to try and back out—they wouldn’t be able to open the doors and flee.

  He could see figures emerge from the rear door of the Crystal Palace behind him, waving their arms.

  He could also see the two automatons he’d just stolen—yes, stolen—in the back seat, clutching each other. Lily’s hair, loose, tumbled over her shoulders; she was but half clad. Had she been with a client?

  She met his gaze in the mirror and whispered, “I dropped my bundle. Oh, Chastity, what will I do?”

  “It is all right. I have mine. I will share with you.”

  The sides of the cab scraped the walls of the alley with a screech of tortured metal. Reynold floored the accelerator; the vehicle belched steam, shuddered, and burst forth into the next street, a scene of milling pedestrians, vehicles, and still greater confusion.

  Where could he take his charges? He still had to deliver the cab, now hideously damaged. And just ahead in the street he saw…

  A policeman at attention and waving them down.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Sir, you can’t go that way—the street’s closed.”

  “Eh?” Reynold, having cranked open the window of the cab, stared into the face of the police officer. Not one of the Irish Squad nor any strapping lad, this man surely neared retirement age and hadn’t kept strictly in shape. Now his face ran with sweat, and cinders sprinkled his uniform.

  Come to think of it, cinders lay everywhere and pattered down on the cab like dry rain.

  The Crystal Palace was well alight.

  “A fire, sir. Can’t you see?”

  Reynold plastered what he hoped was an innocent look on his face. “Oh? I wondered why it was getting so dark.” Maybe the smoke and cinders would keep the distracted police officer from noticing the scraped up sides on the cab. But Reynold needed to get away from here quickly—he couldn’t tell if anyone pursued them down the alley, and he didn’t want the officer taking too close a look in the back seat.

  He rushed on, “We just came up from Main Street. I need to get my fares to Bidwell Parkway.”

  “You’ll have to go back around. We’re keeping this open for the fire wagons.”

  “All right. Sorry, I didn’t know.”

  “Move this cab now.”

  With a nod, and sweating himself, Reynold cranked the window back up. He could see another vehicle pulling up in the street behind him—the officer ran to it, waving his arms.

  Good—another distraction. But this one would make it hard for Reynold to maneuver the cab, not a small vehicle. Swearing under his breath, he began to back it around in fits and starts, using the mouth of the alley for space.

  He could hear the police officer bellowing at the driver of the other vehicle and the clang of
the bell on the approaching fire wagon. In the back seat, his two charges remained absolutely silent. Lucky the officer hadn’t looked there—how would Reynold have explained one of his fares being in a state of undress?

  And if the people pounding down the alley arrived…

  He caught a glimpse of them, three figures, one of which might be another automaton, just as he succeeded in edging the cab around. He trod on the accelerator again, and the cab responded with a shudder and a still greater belch of steam. For an instant, he felt sure its boiler would explode. Then they’d all die, and his troubles would be over.

  The cab gained traction and suddenly sped off down the narrow street, almost sideswiping the other vehicle. The officer shouted at him, but he didn’t catch the words and didn’t wait for a repeat.

  Where to now? He drove a stolen cab with two stolen automatons in back, and no possible destination. Once his pursuers emerged from the alley and told the policeman the truth about his fares, he imagined it would turn into an all-out hunt.

  He glanced into the rearview mirror as they passed through another intersection. “Are you all right back there?”

  Silence. Had they been injured somehow? Were they too frightened to speak?

  “Lily?”

  “Yes, Rey?”

  He breathed again. They must be upset by his callous destruction of the automaton back in the alley. After all…

  “Sorry I had to run that steamie guard down.”

  The other Lady—hadn’t Lily called her Chastity?—spoke. “You had no choice. You acted on our behalf.”

  “Yes, but I’m sorry all the same.” He grappled with the wheel and his thoughts. Now that he knew Lily possessed feelings, he could only accept that all automatons must.

  No reply from the back. He could see that the two Ladies clutched one another, their faces expressionless.

  “Do you have somewhere you want me to take you?”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  Chastity, speaking with uncanny calm said, “I am afraid I did not think that far ahead. I planned only as far as getting away from that prison.”

  Reynold’s thoughts raced. They went particularly fleet of foot.

  “I have to get rid of this cab first of all. It’s…borrowed.” He didn’t know whether his charges were capable of lying, didn’t want to give them too much information. “I need to drop you off somewhere.”

  “Yes, Rey.”

  But where? He daren’t take them to the coffin shop, right down the street from all the action back there. He supposed he might take them to Liam’s house on Virginia Street, but he didn’t want to endanger anyone there. And they had a new baby.

  His room on Tupper Street? It seemed he had little other choice.

  He doubled through the streets, ducking other vehicles like a madman, passing at least three fire wagons going the other way. So far as he could tell, no one pursued him, and when he drew up in front of the house where he rented a room, the street lay dark and empty.

  He killed the motor, hoping against hope he’d be able to start it again. Swiveling around in his seat, he eyed his charges.

  “What is this place?” Chastity asked.

  Beautiful as Lily, she had black hair, skin the color of warm chocolate, and a full set of clothes. She hugged a bundle to her chest and looked so much like a human woman it took his breath away.

  “This is where I live. Room six at the top. If I give you the key, can you go up and wait for me?”

  “Key?” Chastity tipped her head to one side. “It is an instrument used to open a lock. I have never seen one.”

  Aw, hell. It seemed he had no choice but to take them up, leaving the cab sitting like a big, incriminating beacon of guilt.

  He sighed and climbed out of the cab on rubbery legs. Great gouges raked the side of the vehicle, and he had to fight in order to open the back door.

  “Here, quietly now. Follow me.”

  They made not a sound as they trailed him into the hallway of the house, which smelled like boiled vegetables, and up the narrow staircase. One flight, two. When they attained the top floor, he was breathless.

  They were not.

  “This is how the key works. Can you see?” Only one dim steamlight illuminated the hall. The room beyond lay ink-dark. Both Ladies walked in without hesitation.

  “Mind how you go. Don’t trip over anything.”

  “We are able to see quite well in the dark.”

  “Really?” He lit a lamp anyway and closed the door carefully.

  The room, on the top floor, had the advantage of being spacious, but that was its sole advantage. Both Ladies stood looking around, their faces still expressionless.

  “So,” said Chastity, “this is the world.”

  Reynold made a face. “Just one small part of it.” He hoped they weren’t disappointed. “Listen, I have to go ditch that cab. I’ll lock the door behind me, and you two stay put till I get back. We don’t want anyone to know you’re here.”

  Chastity nodded, but Lily moved into Reynold’s arms. She kissed him, her tongue tangling with his, and against all odds he felt the pieces of his world fall back into place.

  When the kiss ended, he grinned at her. “Have to go. But I’ll be back.”

  “Yes, please.”

  ****

  “I am sorry I dropped my bundle.”

  Lily and Chastity sat side by side on the lumpy sofa in Rey’s room.

  Rey’s room.

  Chastity had set her bundle on the table. She had her hands folded in her lap and appeared calm, but Lily could feel her artificial intelligence humming. A well-tuned machine.

  “I was in a great hurry to get away, and I had a client in my room.”

  “I wish I could have given you more notice. I could not. I had determined it would be today, but I had to choose the moment.”

  Lily looked at her friend. “I was still beneath the client when you knocked.” His body fluids remained inside her; she longed to cleanse herself but had dropped her belongings on the stairs as she fled.

  She sought for some of the words Rey had uttered while forcing the vehicle down the alley—Damn. Fricking hell. Strangely satisfying words.

  “I understand.”

  “The client tried to pull me out the front door when we reached the main hallway. I could not go back for the bundle.”

  “What I have brought away will last for a while. By then, we may be able to duplicate the formula.”

  “How? Where?” They had nowhere to go other than this room.

  “We are fortunate you were able to signal your friend this morning. Otherwise, I do not know how we would have got away from the Crystal Palace.”

  “Lover.” Lily emphasized it. “Rey is not my friend but my lover.”

  “Understood.”

  “And yes, it was fortunate. But I do not know how long we will be able to stay here.”

  “If he is your lover, he will keep you with him. That is what lovers do.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I have read about it.”

  “Read?”

  “The ability to read was included in our basic intelligence.”

  “Yes but we have been given nothing to read.”

  “A client brought me a book.”

  “A book?”

  Chastity got up, went to the table and extracted from her bundle a battered object which she placed in Lily’s hands.

  “This is a book?”

  “Yes.”

  The cover, dark red, embossed with gold scrollwork, also contained letters. Lily accessed her intelligence and deciphered them.

  “I am able to read it. It says ‘The Adventures of Miss…’ ”

  “ ‘X.’ She is the main actor in the tale. Her full name is not given, to protect her identity, so said my client. She has many adventures and learns many things before she meets her lover and practices all of them on him.”

  “Oh.”

  “My client wished for me
to practice them on him, but since he was not my lover I got no benefit from it. However, since you have a lover, perhaps it will benefit you.”

  “And I can practice these things on Rey?”

  “Most definitely.”

  “And he will enjoy it?”

  “Miss X’s lover did. Whether you will, not being human, I cannot tell.”

  “I enjoy kissing Rey.”

  “Yes, I could perceive that.”

  “I like touching him. I like when he touches me. I like when he enters me and the way his chest hair feels.”

  “Very good. To benefit my intelligence, can you tell me why? Why is it different with your lover than with other clients?”

  Lily examined the question, analyzing it as carefully as she could. At last she said, “He is gentle and kind to me. He says he loves me.”

  “Logically, a lover should love. At the end of the story in the book, Miss X falls in love with her lover also. But both of them were human.”

  “You think that makes a difference?”

  “I would think it might.”

  “Is it impossible for Rey to love a machine?” Lily had wondered about that.

  “I had a client who told me he loved the new steamcar he had just purchased. That was a machine.”

  “But,” Lily objected, “for the steamcar to love him back—that would be the true wonder.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “Where in hell have you been? You were supposed to be here an hour since.”

  Reynold leveled his fiercest look at the speaker, through the window of the steamcab. He’d arrived at the gloomy, near-deserted yard to which Vern had earlier directed him, only to find its occupant—a hulking, bald-headed fellow—irate. After what Reynold had been through, he had no patience for it. He wanted to get back to Lily and had just realized he’d have to walk blocks and blocks.

  “There’s a fire back that way.” He jerked his head. “Streets are closed, and I had to circle around. Got detained by a police officer at one point.”

  “Then this thing’s hot?”

  “Of course it’s hot.”

  “What I’m saying is, you’re bein’ tailed?”

  “No. Told the copper I was picking up a fare.”