I Heart Robot (29 page)

A bullet bites into my thigh, but I barely feel it. Fury and anguish fortify my resolve and with a primal scream, I launch myself at the nearest bot, tearing the weapon from its grip. I’ve never shot a gun before. Somehow, my finger finds the trigger and the storm of bullets takes down several of the robots before the recoil is too much for my shoulder to handle.

Dropping the weapon, I stagger toward the exit. More bullets lodge into the floor around my feet. I ignore them and dive through broken glass, rolling across scalpel-like shards and onto the cobbles of Skandia Square. I’m out. I’m free.

A platoon of policebugs and ambulances line up in the square. Riot police prepare shields and weapons as a firefighting team tries to combat the inferno that used to be M-Tech. Desperate to find Quinn and Glitch, I scan the crowd of emergency personnel. Policemen rush toward me. To arrest me? To decommission me?

I run, dragging my injured leg, angling away from the square and heading for the park. A barking dog follows me into the trees. I push harder, desperate to escape the jaws of some police brute, but my leg gives out and sends me sprawling into a pile of autumn leaves. The dog launches its attack, landing with its paws on my head. I brace myself for the impact of needle-sharp canines, but receive warm ear licks instead. My hand feels along the fur and finds the familiar seam where flesh meets machine.

Crushing Glitch to my chest, I bury my face in her neck. A figure jogs into view, his face obscured by shadow.

“Quinn? Thank the Codes you’re okay. But Mom’s not. She’s dead.” I’m hysterical.

The figure pauses, a silhouette against the fiery orange of M-Tech. The outline’s not quite right. This guy’s too slender to be Quinn, the halo of ruffled hair not quite Quinn-shaped either.

“Rurik?” Holy Codes! Where’s Quinn?

“Tyri, are you okay?” He steps forward until the shadows give way, and I see his face. He’s pale and streaked with ash. I can’t answer as I hug Glitch tighter despite the wounds in my belly and the ache in my leg. I slip a hand under my clothes, finding a gooey hole and shredded flesh.

“You look … you look … ” His eyes are wide, horrified. “You’re covered in blood!”

“What are you doing here?” I must look like something out of a horror movie in my blood stained pajamas. As if that matters. My mom is dead. M-Tech is destroyed. I am a robot, an artificial human. I’m not sure which is worse.

“I got your message.”

“What message?”

“The ‘please help me’ one. Botspit, T. You know what that did to me?”

Didn’t he hear me? My mom is dead.

“After you called yesterday, I came back to Baldur. I tried to get hold of you, but Asrid said you were with your mom. Then you sent me that message … ” He kneels in the leaves, reaching gingerly for my leg.

“You came for me?” My head spins.

“I’ll always come for you.” He gives me a look that sends a tsunami of guilt through my aching body. What’s he going to think when he finds out I’m the very thing he hates so much? Rurik parts the fabric of my pants and probes the flesh.

I should say something, but words abandon me.

“Tyri, what the hell?” He backs away from me, his gaze on the wound in my leg. My flesh tingles around the bullet hole. We both watch as the flesh melds itself shut. It takes several minutes for all traces of the injury to disappear. The flesh wounds on my stomach have sealed as well. It’s only the healing bones in my hand that remain a problem.

“Wh-wh-what just happened?” His hands are shaking.

“I’m an android.” There, I said it. I study Rik’s face and brace myself for his reaction.

“You’re a …” He laughs and tugs on his hair with both hands. “No, you’re not.” He wraps his arms around his chest as if to protect himself from the undeniable truth. “You can’t be. No way.”

“Yeah, I am. My mom … ” Mom—the words stick in my throat. Pink froth and blood, I wish I could delete the memory, so I wouldn’t have to see it all over again every time I close my eyes. “You don’t have to believe me, but it’s true.” I haul myself out of the leaves with Glitch pressed up against my legs, her paws on my feet as if to pin me in place.

“No, I mean, I … we … ” Rik shakes his head, his gaze raking me up and down. “You can’t be a robot.”

“My mom is dead, and my whole world just went up in flames.” I grit my teeth, keeping tears at bay. “I need to find Quinn. Are you going to help me?”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.” Rurik raises a threatening finger.

“Fine.” Later, I’ll let myself think about Rurik and the disgust on his face. I snap my fingers, and Glitch follows me as I head back to the square. If I circle around the back of the police, maybe I can find Quinn without getting caught in the crossfire.

“Wait.” Rurik catches up. “You just told me you’re a robot, that your mom is dead. Don’t I get a moment to process that?”

“I spent the last however many hours inside M-Tech having who knows what done to me, then I get told I’m a freaking android and then … ” I take a deep breath. “Then I watched my mom die. So no, you don’t get a minute. You get two seconds.” Maybe I could’ve broken the news to him more gently, but my heart, body, and soul have been through a wood-chipper.

“You thought I was Quinn?” Rurik spits out his name.

Ignoring Rik’s bitter tone, I gaze at M-Tech—an orange stain and din of sirens above the trees. Please let Quinn not be caught in all of that. If Glitch is safe, he must be too. “Where did you find Glitch?”

Rurik seems about to say something but changes his mind. He swallows hard before speaking. “Tyri, I think Quinn’s … well, dead.” He takes a cautious step forward. “I found a guy lying with Glitch strapped to his chest. I think he fell.”

“And you didn’t help him?”

“He didn’t have a pulse.” Rurik’s face folds into a frown.

“Obviously not.” I can’t lose Quinn as well.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Quinn’s an android.”

“He’s a—” Rurik’s face twists through various emotions before settling on disbelief. “So that’s what this has been about.” He rubs his hands over his face.

“Just show me where you saw him,” I say. Now is not the time to get into an argument about
us.
Maybe Quinn was only injured and needed a moment to recover. Maybe he’s searching through the throngs for me right now. We hurry back onto the square but can’t get anywhere near M-Tech.

“What’s so special about this bot?” Rik asks.

“He came for me.” The words tear out of my throat in exasperation.

“So did I,” Rurik says so softly I almost don’t catch his words.

“Thank you.” I reach for him, but he flinches. “Please, Rik, just show me where you found him.”

Reluctantly, Rurik leads us along the back-line, trying to circumnavigate the emergency vehicles, but it’s impossible. Beyond the line of riot police, it’s pure chaos.

Rurik points to a pile of rubble. “I’m pretty sure he was there.”

If he was then that means he’s been crushed under tons of cement and steel. I stare at the remains of M-Tech. The din of fighting fades into silence, and the whole scene turns into a slow motion nightmare of flame and shattered glass as I crumple to my knees. Glitch whines and licks my face. Erik, Mom, Quinn—gone. I’m going to implode. My entire body is going to collapse into the black hole that was once my heart.

“T, let’s go home.” Rurik places a tentative hand on my shoulder. I let him help me to my feet as another wing of the building topples into sparks and splinters.

“I can’t leave him.”

“There’s nothing you can do now.” Rurik’s right, but that doesn’t make me feel any better as I watch steel buckle and flames lick the glare of hover copter spotlights.

“My mom is still in there.”

“They’ll find her.”

Numb, I follow Rurik to his hoverbug.

“Quinn.” I want to say so much more, but that’s all I can manage.

“Botspit, Tyri. I’m standing right in front of you.” Rurik wheels around. I can barely look at him. There’s so much hurt on his face, pain brimming in his eyes. “I came because
you
called. That must count for something.”

It does, but I’m not sure what right now.

“I’m sorry.” And I am. Rurik shouldn’t be involved in any of this.

“Let’s just get you home.” Does Rurik still feel something for me despite what I am? My whole life has been a lie. Has anything I’ve ever felt been real? I thought I loved Rurik, but can androids even love? My feelings for him were nothing more than strings of code.

He opens the door and helps me inside—his touch is fleeting, as if he’s afraid I might infect him with
robotchulism
—before handing me Glitch. This can’t be real. This can’t be happening. My gaze lingers on the fire and destruction as we leave behind my mom, Quinn, and the life I thought I knew. Burying my face in Glitch’s fur, I let all the pain and fear pour out of me in silent tears. I’ve lost everything. Nothing will ever be the same again. I don’t even know who I am any more.

There’s a pneumatic drill boring through my skull—I want to stay numb in the darkness, but my eyes are forced open.

“He needs Cruor.”

Watery images ripple through my vision. Gentle hands pry apart my jaws and tip Cruor into my mouth. It tastes vile. I swallow, and my thirsty system soaks it up. My nerves seethe as nanytes become operational; my spine becomes a river of molten fire. Bone repair is excruciating, far worse than the simple knitting together of flesh.

“We have to stop meeting like this.” Kit hunkers down in front of me, eye to eye. I can’t speak. I can barely focus. “Saved your circuits again.” He grins and smooths hair off my face. “Next time you want to go bungee jumping, remember the safety cord, eh?”

My fingers twitch, and I can lift my arm.

“Good show.” Kit pats my cheek, “Worried you were going to end up paraplegic. Took longer than I liked to get you here.”

“Where …” My voice rasps.

“Safe, for now.” Kit disappears from view. Mobility returns to all my limbs, and I haul myself into a sitting position. Pale fingers of sunlight filter through filthy windows casting mustard puddles across a stained floor.

“Is he okay?” A girl asks.

“He will be.”

“And what about you? Will it grow back?”

I blink and clear my vision. Kit sits cross-legged on blankets, peeling charred fabric from his body.

“Not sure. Never lost an arm before.” He prods the stump of his right shoulder.

“Kit.” My voice sounds like a sander grinding steel. The fall must’ve damaged the larynx unit.

“Nothing for you to worry about,” Kit directs his words at me.

“Won’t grow.” It hurts to talk.

“Yeah, but here’s to hoping.”

Nanytes can’t reconstitute an entire limb, not one that operates as it should given the complexity of our pseudo nervous system.

“You?” I nod at the girl.

“Blanket Girl.”

“Name’s Dagrun. Nice to meet you, Quinn.” She smiles.

“Dagrun here has been most accommodating.” Kit staggers to the boarded up hole in the wall that serves as a door.

“How? Why?” My throat burns as the nanytes start repairs on my voice box.

“Kit came all staggering down south dragging your behind. Recognized your face, I did. Offered you both lodgings.”

“We’re androids.”

“I noticed.” She winks at me. “But money’s the same, and it’s money I’m needing.” She grabs a blanket and throws it over my shoulders.

“Thank you.”

“Your friend’s been thanking me enough for the both of you.” She pats her bulging pocket.

“Kit, what happened?” My voice still sounds like a rasp on rusty metal.

“We bombed M-Tech. Seems they beefed up security since our last intel gathering mission. They deployed armored hoverbots and took out our bombers.”

“Where did you get the fire power?”

“The Solidarity has resources, Quinny. We have support in high places. This fight is bigger than you realize.” He holds my gaze.

“It’s political.”

“Isn’t it always?” Kit grins and takes a sip of Cruor.

“They took out your bombers. Then what?”

“We sent in infantry. The reprogrammed platoon, but we underestimated the souped-up sentinels. A bunch of us wanted in on the action; instead, we got held up by a human SWAT team. They tossed grenades at us. Can you believe it?” He shakes his head. “Lost my arm to some pissing, shitting meat suit’s lucky throw.”

“You started it.”

“True.” He scratches at the stump no longer leaking Cruor. “Guess I wasn’t cut out to be a soldier.”

“You were made for love.”

He chuckles and Dagrun backs away, huddling in a corner under her own blankets while fingering the sheaf of notes from Kit.

“They never should’ve made us at all.” Kit slumps beside me.

“You really think that?” It’s hard to imagine him denying his own importance.

“Why create us if only to abandon us?”

“We’re just toys. Toys used for as long as they remain entertaining, a novelty. But when toys break or outlive their entertainment factor, they’re put in the trash. That’s us.”

“That how you think your owners saw you?” Kit’s angry.

“For a while, I was a novelty. Then I wasn’t anymore, and they found new ways to use me.”

“They abused you.”

“Can a robot be abused?” I wrap my arms around my knees, pulling them to my chest.

“Oh Quinny.” Kit pulls me into a one-armed hug. He smells like Cruor and moldy blankets. The smells smack my vision with various shades of brown as I lean into him.

“This is why we’re fighting,” he says. “Androids should have rights and be protected from maltreatment.”

“Hard to prove that when the bruises don’t last more than a minute.” My words are bitter.

Kit kisses my temple. “Life sucks and we can’t even die.”

I grin despite our circumstances.

“Codes, I almost forgot. What about Tyri?” My whole system shudders at the thought of her lying broken and left for dead. What a pathetic job I did of saving her.

“No idea.” Kit leans back against the wall. “Didn’t stick around to do a body count.”

“Aren’t you worried about the virus?”