“You’re a son of an android,” Jazzlyn said to the taxi driver as she sat back down in the backseat.
“That’s the nicest thing I’ve heard all day,” the driver said, pulling into a circular drive in front of an urban hotel that looked somewhat respectable and well-maintained among all the broken buildings. Two American flags flapped above the entrance, and a chandelier hung in the lobby, gold and sparkling through the revolving glass door.
“Welcome to the Sterling Circuit Hotel,” the taxi driver said. “Now get the hell out.”
The moment they climbed out, the taxi driver took off and left them standing at the curb.
Jazzlyn sighed with relief at the sight of the hotel. “Time to get some rest.”
X blocked her path, his arms folded. “Why did you pay those gang members? We could have taken them.”
Jazzlyn shook her head. “You might not believe this, but their gang leader is an old friend of mine. Unless things here have gotten really bad, we’ll be okay. They’ll keep their word.”
“Funny you didn’t mention that earlier,” X said.
“You didn’t ask,” Jazzlyn said. “And I don’t have to tell you everything. You two are on a need-to-know basis, unless you want to get us killed.”
“So we just keep paying every scumbag that asks us for money?” X asked.
“Yes,” Jazzlyn said. The answer took X off guard. “You’ve got unlimited money, so quit complaining.”
“If we keep sprouting money, they’re going to notice,” X said.
“As long as we keep moving, we’ll be fine. The gangs here are a bunch of Neanderthals—they don’t communicate as well as you think.”
“I don’t agree with your strategy,” X said.
“I don’t care if you agree,” Jazzlyn said. “You’re going to do what I say, or Jeanette Crenshaw is going to blow this whole planet to smithereens. You can’t draw attention to yourself here, X. You’re an android. You should be smart enough to sense people’s disdain. Why do I have to keep repeating myself?”
“What would you have done if you were here by yourself?” X asked. “Pay, pay, and pay some more?”
“First off,” Jazzlyn said, “I wouldn’t take the transit here. I’m smarter than that. But I would never risk bringing you two on my secret path. You would get us caught. Second, I would never put myself in a position where I would get caught. And third, I would have totally destroyed all of them and left them piled up in that alley if it weren’t for the fact that I have to keep a low profile because of you two idiots.”
X and Jazzlyn stared at each other, neither moving out of the other’s way. Shortcut, sensing the tension, yawned and stretched his arms.
“This place is a dump, but hopefully the beds are comfortable.”
Chapter 2
The hotel lobby was carpeted and crowded with standing LCD panels. The walls were covered with fleurs-de-lis wallpaper, and while the hotel looked clean enough, it had a musty smell.
Despite being in a run-down area, it reminded X of the UEA. At the front desk, lights pulsed behind the wall and news played on a screen recessed inside the counter.
The innkeeper was a plain-looking man in a khaki shirt. He had curly black hair, a square jaw and hairy arms, and his shirt was unbuttoned to the middle of his chest. His lens lit up as he said hello, and he looked too happy to see them. X’s algorithm chip didn’t buzz, but he got a weird feeling about the man.
“Welcome, welcome, welcome!” he said, carefully not looking at the stickers on their chests. “I am so happy you are here. What brings you to the badlands?”
“Just passing through,” Jazzlyn said.
The innkeeper studied X and Shortcut, lingering on them for a moment, and then smiled at Jazzlyn. “Of course. Wherever your travels take you, your stay here will be sterling, indeed!” He handed them key cards. “The sleeping quarters are down the hall.”
“He was a little too happy to see us,” Shortcut said as they made their way down the dark hallway.
“I doubt he gets many visitors,” X said. “This place is in the middle of all the ruins.”
“No,” Jazzlyn said. “Once again, you guys prove why you need me. The innkeeper is the one in charge of the racket.”
“What?” X asked. He looked back at the front desk. “We’re leaving.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Jazzlyn said. “This is the only hotel at the center of town, and I’ve got business here. So shut up and listen to me for a change.”
X shook his head. “I’m not going to—”
“Think about it. Why would a gang of hoods shake us down to stay at a hotel? A hotel! He pays them a commission to shake his guests down and scare them a little, and then he treats the guests real nice. Makes them feel safe and welcome. You didn’t see how he kept not looking at our stickers, as if this big red circle were invisible? It’s the oldest badlands trick out there, guys.”
“Great,” Shortcut said. “If I would have known that, I would have sided with X when we were ambushed.”
Jazzlyn wagged her finger. “Rule number one about the badlands—you can’t trust anyone. But that doesn’t mean that everyone is bad. They’re driven by circumstance and situation, not character.”
“So you’re saying that the innkeeper is a saint?” X asked, frowning.
“No. But he’s not the devil, either. It’s the only way to survive, X. Things aren’t black and white here like they are in the UEA. How long is it going to take your algorithm chip to understand that?”
They entered a room full of sleeping cubes. The cubes were wooden with a shiny finish and stood eight feet tall. Each had a window with blinds, and a few were lit up here and there, video screens glowing against the drawn shades.
Jazzlyn inserted her key card into her cube and her door opened with a whooshing sound, exposing a bunk bed with LCD screens at the foot of each bed, a safe, and a power outlet. She drew her blinds. “Finally, some privacy.”
Shortcut inspected his cube and gave a look of disgust. “This place is too small,” he said. “I can’t sleep in this.”
Jazzlyn sighed. “Aren’t you from the badlands? What did you expect, a five star hotel?”
Shortcut peeked into Jazzlyn’s cube. “Hey, yours is bigger!”
Jazzlyn pushed him away. “I don’t share. You sleep with X.”
Shortcut climbed inside his cube and plopped down on the bed. “So what do we do now? How do we—”
“Shut up!” Jazzlyn said, suddenly appearing at the entrance to Shortcut’s cube. She pulled X inside the cube with her and shut the door, then pulled the shades and put her ear to the door. After a moment, she flashed an angry look at Shortcut.
“Anyone could be listening!”
Shortcut rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed. “Oh yeah. Sorry.”
“So what is the plan?” X whispered.
“It’s going to get dark soon, so there’s not much else you guys can do,” Jazzlyn said.
“What do you mean ‘you guys’?” X asked.
“I have some work to do.”
“You’re not going anywhere without us,” X said.
“Trust me,” Jazzlyn said. “I’m going to meet with the leader of the gang that cornered us.”
“So you can ask him to kill us,” Shortcut said, folding his arms.
Jazzlyn ignored him. “Lax and I used to work together in another gang. He still owes me a favor. He might be able to help us look for Crenshaw.”
“It’s too dangerous,” X said. “I’m going with you.”
“You can’t, X. Remember how they hate androids? Well, Lax is a Class A android hunter. Like me. The moment his gang finds out you’re an android, we’re going to have trouble. We’re lucky his guys weren’t paying attention to you earlier. We won’t have that luxury much longer if I don’t talk to him first.”
“How can we trust you?” Shortcut asked.
Jazzlyn held up her leg and pointed to the ankle monitor. “I signed a deal,
remember?”
“Your word is as worthless as this inn,” Shortcut said.
“Which is still worth more than you,” Jazzlyn said. “Do you want my help or not? Besides, if I even try to remove this thing, it’ll shoot traceable nanos into my bloodstream and you’ll be able to find me right away. What do you possibly have to lose?”
X nodded. “You can go. But if you try anything, it’s your own life you’re risking.”
Jazzlyn saluted X. “Don’t remind me.”
She slipped out of the cube and was gone.
“I still don’t trust her,” Shortcut said.
“We don’t have a choice,” X said. “She is right. If we had come on our own, we would have run into trouble.”
X climbed out of the cube.
“Where are you going?” Shortcut asked.
X put his hands to his temples and massaged them. “For a walk. I’ve got to process everything I’ve seen so far.”
“Be careful. Remember what Jazzlyn said.”
X nodded and left Shortcut lying on the bed, propped up on his elbows and staring after him.
Chapter 3
X wandered around a courtyard at the back of the hotel, dodging overgrown weeds and wildflowers, stepping around cracked cement and almost stumbling into an empty swimming pool. The setting sun lit up the horizon with fiery pink and orange ribbons. Dust and smoke hung in the air, remnants of a nearby fire that had finished its course. The skyline of ruined buildings glowed in the sunset. He wondered who and what was inside the buildings.
He had tried to cycle through his memory chip while he was on the train, but the constant threats of danger prevented him from getting very far. He had expected danger, but not so much of it. Not so many unpredictable scenarios.
It was easy to forget that he had his memories back at all, something he had fought hard for. Finally he had the time to process them. But now that he could, he didn’t know the best way to do it.
Humans had it easy. They accumulated memories from birth onward, so it wasn’t hard for them to recall the most important ones. The human mind had a way of always choosing the most meaningful memories and discarding the rest.
But he wasn’t so lucky. With an android mind, all he had to do was insert a memory stick, and suddenly he had more data than he knew what to do with—millions and millions of data points to be explored. Dr. Crenshaw had programmed him to look for associations. He was trained to find the most important memories first, link them together, and process the rest of the memories while performing operations.
But everything on his memory chip seemed relevant. Every memory had Dr. Crenshaw, Jeanette, or both, and he wasn’t sure where to begin.
He processed his earliest memories with Jeanette. Though it seemed incompatible with her current actions, he remembered her kindness and how well she had treated him. He remembered feeling such an intense loyalty to her that he would have done anything for her. The loyalty was almost as strong as his bond with Dr. Crenshaw.
In an instant, he understood Jeanette’s gang of androids and why they were so crazy about her.
But he couldn’t figure Jeanette out. No, her turn to evil was completely unexpected, and not even the best algorithms in the world could have predicted that she would become a villain.
He continued cycling through the memories, and paused on one that seemed relevant. He was in Dr. Crenshaw’s laboratory watching Dr. Crenshaw and Jeanette. An android lay on the table, a door on her skull open and her parts exposed. She was black, bald, and wore a green blouse and jeans. Jeanette paced around the room in a lab coat, rubbing her hands. X stood in the corner of the room with his hands folded, studying them.
“Daddy, I’m so nervous!”
Dr. Crenshaw sat on a floating stool, inspecting the android’s circuit work through an eye loupe. “It’s okay, baby. This is how you learn.”
“But I’ve never built an android on my own before. I’ve always had your help.”
“There was a time when I had never built my first android, too,” he said, grinning. He ran his hands along the android’s chest. “Didn’t know a thing about knowing a thing. But I got by.”
Jeanette hugged him. “You won’t think badly of me, will you?”
“Of course not,” Dr. Crenshaw said, laughing. He wiped a curly strand of hair away from her eyes and said, “You really are nervous, aren’t you?”
Jeanette let go and paced the room. “Okay. Go ahead and turn her on.”
Dr. Crenshaw looked at X slyly. “We’re going to see what I’ve been teaching my daughter all these years. Did she pay attention, X?”
X pondered the question, even though it was a memory.
“I … I don’t know,” X said.
“I don’t think anybody knows,” Dr. Crenshaw said in a singsong rhythm.
“Daddy, quit teasing me!”
“All right. Let’s fire her up.”
Dr. Crenshaw shut the door on the android’s skull and disconnected the wires to her body. Jeanette pulled up a digital screen and entered some commands. The android opened her eyes, and Jeanette smiled. She keyed in some more commands, and the android sat up and looked at her.
“Remember what I told you?” Dr. Crenshaw asked.
Jeanette nodded. “Aretha Antoinette Crenshaw,” she said. “I have created you to be … intelligent, social, and—erhm … a protector of all that is good. No one will define you. You define yourself. No one can take away the supremacy of your mind. Be royal. But best of all, be real.”
The android looked at her quizzically.
“That’s not supposed to happen,” Dr. Crenshaw whispered to X behind his palm. X’s eyebrows rose.
“Do you understand me?” Jeanette asked.
“Como?” the android asked.
“Co-what?”
“Que me dijo?” the android asked.
Dr. Crenshaw burst into laughter and doubled over, slapping his knees.
“What’s so funny?” Jeanette asked.
“You set the wrong language code, girl!”
Dr. Crenshaw grabbed his keyboard and took control of the android. He scrolled through thousands of lines of code and changed a setting.
“Yes, I understand you,” the android said, finally.
Jeanette held out her hands. “Then come to Mama!”
The android stepped forward, arms outreached.
“You turned out so great,” Jeanette said, hugging the android. She squeezed so hard that the android’s arms fell off, sparks flying from her elbows. Jeanette stepped back, her eyes widening.
The android looked at her in shock, then stumbled backward and tripped over the table. She hit her head on the floor, and it disconnected from her body, rolling across the lab until it stopped at X’s foot.
Jeanette was dumbstruck.
“Well,” Dr. Crenshaw said, putting his arm around Jeanette, “we’ve got to teach you a thing or two about soldering and machining, too.”
“But, but—”
Dr. Crenshaw shrugged. “Look on the bright side, baby. At least you got the proportions right this time.”
Jeanette burst into tears and ran out of the room. “You always tease me!”
Dr. Crenshaw called after her. “Oh, come on, baby. Come back!” When Jeanette slammed the door behind her, he sighed and looked at X. “We got to have a laugh or two in this profession, don’t we, brother?”
The memory faded. X tried to re-scan it for something that might be relevant to the mission, but he didn’t find anything. As he continued through the courtyard, he noticed a couple seated in a shaded alcove staring at him. He stopped and nodded to them.
“You’re an android,” the man said. He wore a bandana, a faded white t-shirt, and ripped shorts. “Never seen one like you.”
“How’d they get you to look so human?” the woman asked. She wore a bonnet and a long white dress.
“It’s standard android technology,” X said. “How did you know I was an android?”
&nbs
p; The man chuckled. “The way you were walking around the courtyard in perfect circles with a far-gone gaze on your face—honest guess.”
“We haven’t seen androids of your kind around here,” the woman said.
“Do you both live here?”
“We’re from the west coast,” the woman said. “But we came to visit the city. It was ground zero in the singularity. We had to come see the damage for ourselves.”
“Is the west coast as bad as here?” X asked.
“Not as bad,” the man said. “But bad enough. Speaking of bad, you probably shouldn’t be walking around here. You’re asking for trouble.”
X activated his guns, and his shoulders opened up, exposing turrets. The man jumped back.
“I can handle trouble,” X said.
“Yikes,” the man said. “I guess you can.”
“What are you here for?” the woman asked.
“A surveying project,” X said cautiously. “We’re mapping this area for a museum. The UEA is interested in preserving this place.”
The man stroked his chin. “Ah. Pretty smart. I think we can all agree it’s an important part of history. Well, see you.”
The man and the woman left, holding hands.
X deactivated his guns, thinking about the encounter. Badlanders. They were different, but not as different as he’d expected. He’d expected everyone to be hoods, but these people were tourists. They could have just as easily been a part of the UEA. He wondered what they would have done in the presence of the hoods at the train station. Would they have kept walking?
Probably. He remembered what Jazzlyn said: “You can’t trust anyone. But that doesn’t mean that everyone is bad. They’re driven by circumstance and situation, not character.”
He left the courtyard and entered the street outside the hotel. He stayed out of the street lights as he paced down the sidewalk.
What was the couple’s situation? What was stopping them from crossing the border into the UEA where they could live in peace, without fear of hoodlums and bandits? What was wrong with electricity and technology and all the accoutrements of everyday living?
Whoever they were, maybe they were right about him walking around, alone and exposed. As he processed their conversation again, he decided that being out on the streets at night was an unfavorable scenario.
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