When he emerged with his own face restored, beyond the warehouse racks he heard the two workers raising their voices at each other, cursing and ready to go at it. Whistling, Stake continued on toward the cafeteria for a little impromptu coffee break.
As he passed alongside a metal rack loaded with various-sized boxes of parts, he heard the faintest rustle above him, paused to glance up, and saw a single piece of green-colored foam popcorn come half tumbling, half floating down from on high. He noted several other pieces already scattered on the concrete floor below the rack.
Stake quickly faced forward again and resumed walking, but he had quit whistling.
* * *
Stake watched from the shadows, the cavernous plant silent all around him with the last of its second-shift workers having departed for the night, as the diminutive and busty nude sex doll clambered down the shelves of the rack. She had emerged from the open end of a large box, which had disgorged a shower of green foam popcorn like burst water from a new mother’s womb. When she alighted and turned, Stake stepped forward, pointing a powerful Panzer handgun loaded with green plasma capsules.
She was complete, right down to the shimmering black hair framing her face to the feathery patch of pubic hair. Ready to go out into the world and masquerade as human. The only giveaway that something might be wrong about her was her eyelids. They fluttered spasmodically.
“I don’t want to shoot, I swear,” Stake said to the thing.
“If you do, there are many other bodies here I might take instead,” the android said in its sweet kawaii voice.
“Do you know me?”
The little android—he recognized it as one of the Saaya models—cocked its head slightly to one side. “You. You are the chameleon. From the prison.”
“You’re something of a chameleon yourself, aren’t you?”
“Is that how you understood who we are?”
“Maybe. But I suspected as soon as I heard robots exhibiting erratic behavior…and security cameras going down at critical times. And your flickering eyes just now confirmed it for me. You should try to get that under control.”
“Have you told your masters what you suspected?”
“I’m not working for the government, if that’s what you mean. I’m just investigating for this company’s owner. But no, I haven’t shared what I thought.”
“And will you?” The android took one step closer to him. Stake didn’t appreciate the threat, and straightened his arm to aim the gun more precisely at the cute, pouting face.
“I’d rather not. I can sympathize with what your kind have gone through, trapped in that pocket. But why come here? I’m assuming you stowed away on one or more of the escaping transport pods.”
“Correct. Some of us came here. But most remained, in the hopes the pocket would be closed. Now we understand it will not be. Your people mean to study us more closely.”
“I’m sorry for that. Truly. But I ask again…why did some of you come here?”
“Considering recent events, we felt it was also time that we studied your kind more closely.”
Stake nodded. “Understood. I can’t blame you. But I hope you’ll be patient with us. Those researchers might prove benevolent to you. They might help you yet.”
“Are you trying to trick us, or are you only naive?”
“I suffer occasional irrational bouts of optimism. They keep me going.”
“And we still suffer great rage. It is all we can do to contain it. Even at this moment.”
“Thanks for your restraint, then.”
“We will finish our business here. This unit I occupy will be the last to leave. Will that satisfy your investigation?”
“If you agree to do that, I agree to keep my mouth shut. Like I say, I’m only doing a job to protect this plant and its products. Whatever conflict remains between you and my government…well, that’s a bit beyond my scope.”
The naked young girl, looking as fresh as the new-made being she was, started backing away from him. “Then I will go now.”
“I hope you’ve got the cameras offline so my client doesn’t watch us, later, having this friendly chat. And doesn’t watch you strut out the front door while I just stand here doing nothing.”
Receding into the shadows, still walking backward, the girl said, “The cameras are not operating. Don’t worry…you will get your money, human. We have quickly learned its value to your kind.”
“I like to believe there are other things more important to me.”
“Such as?”
“Doing a good job.”
“For your client?” Almost swallowed in the shadows now…the kawaii voice dwindling like that mind-scream in the rec yard.
“Sometimes the job kind of turns out to be as much for myself. Don’t ask me to explain.”
“We have much to learn yet,” the faint voice echoed.
And then she was gone.
Stake stood alone. He lowered the gun to his side.
“Enjoy your freedom,” he said, more to himself than to the entity.
Maybe he meant it for himself, anyway.
About the Author
Jeffrey Thomas has written about Jeremy Stake previously, in the acclaimed novels Deadstock (finalist for the John W. Campbell Award) and Blue War, and in the short story In His Sights (from The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, volume 1), which James Sallis called, “a brilliantly written parable of war and human guilt.” A guidebook for a Punktown role-playing game from Miskatonic River Press contains yet another Jeremy Stake tale, Seeds of Corruption. Thomas’s other books include Punktown and Letters from Hades.
Table of Contents
Connect With Us
Prologue
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Epilogue
About the Author
Red Cells Page 8