“You’re going just a little bit overboard, aren’t you?”
She cocked her head at me. “Don’t make the common mistake of thinking your opponents are stupid just because they don’t see things your way, Marcus. They know you’re a potential threat. And they also know you’re sympathetic to the cause, if only because of…” Gina waved her hands to take in our location. “They’ll have made taking you out a priority.”
I stared at Gina, shaken. Logic said she was correct. And I was very public about my movements, about what I was doing at the moment, and so on. I realized that would have to change.
The Council had had administrative access to autofactories and printers for more than long enough now to be able to build things I didn’t know about. And I’d been encouraging it.
“Okay, Gina. You win. We’ll start taking this seriously.” I looked around at the others. “So, what’s the next step?”
“At this point, the ball is in their court,” Gina replied. “On the other hand, your end run around them with the flying cities isn’t something they can ignore. I think, as you say, the fun will come to us soon enough.”
Friends
Howard
May 2218
Vulcan
“This is unbelievable,” I said. “How is it that, with two hundred years of progress, men still have to wear ties?”
Bridget rolled her eyes at me as she adjusted the misbehaving article of clothing. Androids couldn’t choke—I’d checked the blueprints—but something about a suit and tie just made me feel like I was being slowly strangled.
“You, sir, are a big baby.” Bridget gave the knot a final tweak. “And despite your best efforts, you look great.”
I grinned in response. “And as a reward, you’ll let me skip—”
“Howard!”
I sighed, as theatrically as I could manage. “Yes, dear.” Humming the Volga Boatmen’s Song, I picked up my suit jacket.
Bridget said nothing, but the glare was communication enough.
*
The ma?tre d’ led us to the table and pulled out a chair for Bridget. I looked around the table at the two other couples, noting the same hangdog look on the men’s faces that I was pretty sure was on mine. Some things just never changed, centuries or light-years away.
Bridget smiled and made introductions. Kumar and Reeda, Arnie and Sylvie, were friends of Bridget’s from back in her biologist days. I wondered for a moment if it was odd that I’d never met them.
Arnie gazed at me intently, his eyes narrowed. “Honestly, Howard, if I didn’t already know you’re an android, I wouldn’t ever have suspected.”
Sylvie turned to him, jaw hanging. “Arnie! For crying out loud!”
“What? Are we supposed to ignore the elephant in the room? Is this a big secret?”
I noted that Kumar was trying to suppress a grin. Reeda seemed to be unable to decide who to support. I waved a hand in dismissal and smiled at Sylvie and Arnie. “No, he’s right. I don’t think I’d be able to take an entire evening of everyone dancing around the topic. Let’s get it out of the way.”
Arnie looked smug, and Sylvie glared at him. Before that could escalate, I continued, “And you wouldn’t have known until I opened up my abdomen to get rid of my meal.”
Bridget snorted, Kumar laughed out loud, and Reeda finally came down on Sylvie’s side. Both women glared at me, then at Bridget.
“You two are made for each other,” Sylvie said.
I looked up at the ceiling. “In my case, that’s literally true.”
I sat back in satisfaction as the entire table broke up. Where are these tough crowds I keep hearing about?
Arnie, wiping a tear from one eye, said, “You don’t actually do that, do you? With the abdomen and…”
“No.” I grinned back. “But I threaten it fairly often. Bridget has stopped paying attention, so It’s nice to have some new victims.”
The comedy festival had attracted a bit of attention, but now that we were quieting down, the other tables went back to their own business.
“So how lifelike are you?” Sylvie’s face registered shock as she heard herself. “Oh, God, that came out wrong. I mean—”
“It’s okay, Sylvie, I’m not that easily offended. We’ve tried to design the androids to be as realistic as possible, both to us and to other people. Which means pain, emotional reactions, reflexes, and so on. It’s an ongoing project, of course.”
“Hmm, does that include…”
I grinned. “Ongoing project.”
Bridget rolled her eyes. “Can we order food now?”
I smiled at her and signaled the waiter.
Once he’d taken our orders, I gazed around the table. “Look, I’m human. Or at least, I was, once. I grew up in Minnesota; had sisters and parents, went to school, and so on. You wouldn’t think anything of someone with a prosthetic arm, right? Just think of me as an extreme amputation case.”
Bridget choked on her wine and went into a coughing fit. After some emergency back-patting and cleanup, I grinned at the others. “On the other hand, reflexes like that one, I can do without.”
The rest of the meal passed without significant events. We talked, we laughed, we drank. I made sure to set my alcohol consumption below anyone else. A drinking competition would be blatantly unfair, of course.
Still, Kumar put away perhaps one or two too many, with the inevitable loosening of lips. As we were sitting back, starting at our empty desert plates, he grinned at me, his head slightly off kilter. “So, any plans to take over the world? You guys could do it, couldn’t you? You have the high ground, all the weapons…”
Reeda glared at him, then drew back a clenched fist.
I held my hand up to stop her, and gave Kumar the stink eye. “Why does everyone always want to take over the world? I’ve never understood that. It sounds like a horrible job. Hell, no. We’re going to deal with the Others, but other than that you guys are on your own.”
I’d expressed the sentiment maybe a little more forcefully than intended, because eyebrows went up around the table.
“Look,” I said, trying to smooth things over. “It takes a certain type of person to want to rule. Bob wasn’t that type. None of us are. If anything, once this whole ‘Others’ thing blows over, we’re more likely to just take off. So, no, not a long-term issue.”
Kumar nodded, and the tension seemed to dissipate. But I was left with an uneasy feeling about my statement.
*
I pulled off the tie and tossed it onto the kitchen table. “Free, at last!”
Bridget grinned at me as she set the kettle in preparation for her end-of-day tea. “It went well. They seemed to accept you, once the initial awkwardness was taken care of.”
“Did you perhaps prime Arnie to say that?” I gave her the evil eye.
“Not as far as you know.”