For Want of a Nail (2 page)

He wasn’t far wrong.When Uncle Georgo had
resigned as Cordelia’s wrangler and accepted a seat on the family
council, it had taken everyone by surprise. He was brilliant with
the AI and they had all expected him to keep that post until his
body succumbed to old age. At twenty-six, Rava had been far younger
than anyone expected when she’d succeeded to the role of Cordelia’s
wrangler. The last thing she wanted was for the family to say it
had been a mistake.

Gritting her teeth, Rava toggled the keyboard
and called Uncle Georgo. His extension rang longer than she was
used to. When he finally toggled in, appearing in her VR glasses as
though he were in the room with them, his eyes were red and puffy,
as if he’d been crying. “Hello?” His voice trembled.

“Uncle Georgo?” Rava leaned forward, dread
needling along her spine. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t . . . I don’t . . .” Behind his VR
glasses, his eyes darted to the left as if searching for someone.
He wet his lips. “Do you know where Cordelia is?”

Rava winced. So much for easing into the
subject. “Yeah, about that. So, it’s like this. She’s fine, but
needs to swap out a part.”

His forehead wrinkled, brows almost meeting in
confusion. “Part?”

“Her transmitter.We think.” If she rushed past
the problem then maybe he’d think she had everything under control.
“Anyway, so the reason I’m calling is to see if you know the type
of cable she needs for an external hardwire.”

He muttered under his breath, tugging on his
ear. “But what about Cordelia? You know where she is?”

“In my room.” She turned her head so that
Cordelia’s chassis would come into frame. “See? Honest, it’s a
matter of swapping out the socket.”

“In your room? Why is she with you? Why do you
have Cordelia?” His voice rose, cracking on the AI’s name. She and
her uncle had disagreed on Cordelia’s maintenance before, but this
was all out of proportion to what was happening. Mostly. “She
should be with me.”

Rava swayed as if her uncle had struck her. He’d
resigned from his post as the AI’s wrangler and of all their
relatives, Rava had been the one Cordelia had chosen to take over.
If the AI didn’t blame Rava for dropping her, then Uncle Georgo had
no room to. “Hey. I’m her wrangler now and I’m capable of dealing
with this. I just need the cable.”

“Where is she? I want to see her.”

Rava had to fight the urge to yank her glasses
off. Clenching her fists so hard her fingers ached, Rava said, “I
told you, she’s in my room.”

“Your room . . . But I don’t understand. Who are
you?”

Rava froze, breath stopped. “What’s that
supposed to mean?”

Her uncle’s eyes widened and then he scowled.
“I’m not talking to you anymore.”

Reaching forward, he wiped off the connection
and his image vanished.

Rava sat on the floor, breath coming in gasps.
Her hands shook. Nothing about that conversation had made any
sense. Her uncle had often been temperamental, but he’d also been
eminently rational. This had been like talking to one of her
nieces. Rava passed a hand over her face, sweating.

Ludoviko smirked. “Mad at you, huh?”

Ignoring her brother, Rava stabbed the redial
and then listened to her uncle’s handy ring.With each tone, another
weird aspect struck her. Uncle Georgo crying. Ring. Uncle Georgo
seeking Cordelia in his glasses. Ring. Uncle Georgo asking her who
she was.

She must have misunderstood that. And yet, there
had been no recognition in his gaze, no sense that he’d been
playing with her. The phone dropped into voicemail and Rava slapped
it off.

Fine. So he was screening her calls now. She’d
grab Cordelia and go to her uncle’s quarters. Not that she was
looking forward to that, but it’d be an improvement over talking to
Ludoviko. “Okay.We’re going to Uncle Georgo’s.”

“Really,” Cordelia smiled, “that’s not
necessary. You and I can solve this together. Take me to the
consignment shop and we can find a matching cable.”

The option to pretend that nothing had happened,
that Uncle Georgo was normal, sat right in front of her, but it was
as illusionary as anything on VR. If it were just the cable, Rava
might have gone for it, but a question had started nagging her. She
nodded at Cordelia. “Okay. Sure. Why don’t you shut down—”

“I don’t fucking believe this.” Ludoviko put his
hands on his hips. “You are unbelievable.”

“You’ve said that.” Rava faced Cordelia again.
“Go to sleep until we get to the consignment shop. There’s no point
in wasting your memory on a trip through the corridors.”

Cordelia’s hesitation was almost invisible as
she looked from Rava to Ludoviko. She nodded. “Good idea.Wake me
there.” Her image flickered and vanished.

Rava waited until the alert light faded before
letting out the breath she’d been holding. She’d been worried that
Cordelia would see through the lie.

Ludoviko dropped into the chair by her table.
“You are quite the piece of work.”

Rava stared at him for a minute until she
remembered that with Cordelia down, the call to Uncle Georgo
wouldn’t have been relayed to her brother. “He didn’t know me.”

“What? Talk sense, Rava. Who didn’t know
you?

“Uncle Georgo. There’s something wrong with him
. . .” Her voice trailed off, the weight of her suspicions too
heavy to be supported by voice. “Will you . . . will you come with
me?”

Ludoviko opened his mouth, lip already curling
with whatever insult he was preparing.

“Please.”

He blinked and let his breath out in a huff.
“Jesus, Rava. This really has you freaked. No one is going to fire
you.”

“Believe it or not, I’m not worried about that.”
She glanced away from Cordelia’s inert cameras. “Would you come
with me?”

“Yeah.Yeah, I’ll come.”

Her brother might drive her mad, but oddly,
having someone who disliked her so much was comforting. It was a
known quantity and that, at the moment, was a welcome thing.

***

Uncle Georgo did not answer when she knocked on
his door. She waited, counting the seconds as people walked past,
until Ludoviko reached past her and pounded on the door, making it
bounce in its tracks. The speaker crackled into life and her
uncle’s voice quavered out. “Who’s there?”

“It’s Rava.”

“And Ludoviko.”

She sighed. “I brought Cordelia.”

The door opened and Uncle Georgo peered out with
obvious distrust. His hair was disheveled and a streak of brown
stained his shirt from chest to navel. His gaze darted to the
corner of his glasses and back to look past Rava. “Where is
she?”

This was not right. Rava cocked her head,
squinting with concentration. She held the chassis out a little way
from her chest. “She’s right here.”

He huffed, running his hand through his hair so
it stood on end. “Don’t see her.”

Ludoviko said, “Didn’t Rava tell you? Cordelia
can’t download her memories because Rava dropped her. She’s
sleeping to save space.”

Nice to know that his willingness to help didn’t
change his pattern of insults.“May I come in?” Rava took a step
toward the door.

Her uncle chewed on his bottom lip, head tilted
to the side in his usual pose, but his eyes darted around searching
for something. In his hesitation, Rava decided to push forward. He
retreated as she crossed the threshold. His quarters were a mess,
clothes and bedding strewn across the room as if he’d pulled all
his belongings out of the drawers. His desk was in the same spot as
hers, so she pushed a wrinkled shirt off and set Cordelia’s chassis
down.

Putting her finger on the wake up button, Rava
pressed, the click vibrating under her finger as a gentle chime
rang.

Before it had faded, Cordelia’s cameras rotated
to her and her head and shoulders appeared above the chassis.
“Success?”

Georgo sobbed, “Cordelia!” He reached past Rava,
fingers trembling.

Rava kept her gaze fixed on Cordelia, whose
image didn’t change. At all. For an AI programmed to act human, she
became awfully rigid. Her face stayed fixed on Georgo, but the
cameras flicked to Rava for a moment, then away. She softened and
her image morphed so the high neck of the Victorian gown sank to
reveal most of her bosom.

Her lashes lengthened and her lips became full
and pouting. “Georgo, honey, what have you done with your room?”
Her voice was sultry.

“I was looking for you.” He held his hands out
to his sides. “Why did you leave me?”

“I needed to get you a present.You like
presents, right?”

He nodded, like a little boy. The confident,
haughty man Rava knew had vanished. She trembled and wrapped her
arms around herself.

“Good. Now, lie down for your nap and I’ll give
you the present later.”

“I don’t want to.”

Ludoviko stepped around Rava and leaned in close
to Cordelia. “What the fuck is going on?”

Years Rava had spent studying Cordelia’s
built-in mannerisms made the AI’s tiny hesitation stand out like a
flag. “I am afraid that is confidential information between me and
one of my users.”

Rava shook her head. She didn’t like Ludoviko’s
manner, but that didn’t change the fact that Cordelia was dodging
questions. She swallowed and put her hand on Cordelia’s interface,
setting her thumb on the print reader. “Authorized report.What is
Uncle Georgo’s status?”

Cordelia lowered her head, biting her lip. “He
has dementia.”

“No.” Ludoviko laughed, breath catching in his
throat. “I talked to him yesterday and he most certainly does not.”
The air purifiers beat in the silence in the room.

“Look, he’d have gone to recycling if he weren’t
productive anymore. It’s the most basic law of conservation of
resources.”

“You’ve been covering for him, haven’t you?”
Rava’s whole body was shaking, but her voice sounded flat and
dead.

“Yes.”

The need to respond pressed her throat shut.
What could she say in the face of this? Cordelia had lied to them,
and lied repeatedly. Dementia.

Ludoviko’s hand fell on Rava’s shoulder, pulling
her out of the way. “How long?”

“I don’t know.” Cordelia’s voice verged on
inaudible.

“Bullshit.” He slapped the table beside her,
jarring her chassis with the impact.

Uncle Georgo jumped forward and grabbed his arm.
“Don’t touch her!”

Enraged, Ludoviko shrugged him off. Uncle Georgo
reached for Cordelia, hands scrabbling. Ludoviko flat-handed him in
the chest, pushing with the full brunt of his strength. The breath
coughed out of Uncle Georgo. He crumpled to the floor with a
cry.

“Ludoviko!” Rava interposed herself between her
brother and her uncle. “What are you doing?”

Ludoviko leveled his finger at Uncle Georgo, who
cowered. “I fucking want to know how long this has been
happening.”

“Leave him alone.” Rava wanted to know too, but
attacking Uncle Georgo, who was clearly out of his mind— she balked
at the thought. If he had dementia, he should have been recycled
long ago.

“Are you paying attention, Rava? Our AI is
breaking the law.” He spun, tendons in his neck standing out in
cords of rage. “How long has he been like this?”

Raising her head, Cordelia glared down her nose
at him. “I do not know. The start date is recorded in my long term
memory.”

“I don’t believe you.” Ludoviko flexed his fists
open and closed as if he were five years old and wanted to hit
something. “You’re lying.”

Cordelia leaned forward, her gentle Victorian
face distorting with rage. “I can’t lie. Mislead, yes, but not lie.
If you don’t want to know the truth, don’t ask me to report with
direct questions.You have no idea. No idea what my existence is
like.”

Though Cordelia’s form was a hologram, Rava
could not shake the feeling that she was about to step off her dais
and slap Ludoviko.

“Was it last month? Was it three months ago? You
must have some clue.”

“I do not know.”

“Ludoviko, what does it matter?”

Sweat dotted his brow. “It matters because if
she’s been covering for our dear uncle, then she’s the one who’s
been keeping me from reproducing.”

The air pump whined as it circulated the air in
the room. “What?”

“You didn’t know Uncle Georgo was on the repro
committee?” He smirked. “Of course not. As a girl, it’s your
biological imperative to reproduce. You have to keep your womb warm
and ready to go. Not me. I have to beg to be allowed to spill my
seed in some test tube on the off-chance someone will want it.”
Ludoviko glared at Cordelia. “My application was denied on grounds
that my personality was unstable. Exactly how unstable would you
like me to be?”

“I have no memory of this.”

He cracked his neck, glaring at her. “That’s
convenient.”

“If you want an answer, I suggest you help your
sister find a cable.”

“Right.” Rava patted her uncle on the shoulder,
trying to soothe the sobbing man. “Cordelia, do whatever it is you
do to make Uncle Georgo seem normal. Then he can tell us where the
inventory is and we can get the cable.”

The bark of laughter that broke from Cordelia
startled Rava with its bitterness.

“Don’t you understand yet? I have been using his
VR glasses to feed him lines every time he speaks. He only knows
what I know and I don’t remember where the inventory is.”

“Why? Why have you been covering for him?
Report.”

Cordelia’s eyes sparked with fury. “My report, O
Wrangler, is that Georgo would go to the recycler if the family
council found him to be without use or purpose. I have kept him
useful.”

“No, I get that. Why keep him out of the
recycler?” Rava struggled to understand. “I don’t want to go
either, but if none of us went, the ship would be overrun and we’d
all starve. I mean, you and Uncle Georgo were two of the people who
taught me the law of conservation. So why break the law?”