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Cabrera shifted his weight. “Injured,” he said, “but not by my hand.”
Sofia blinked at him. Her programming whirred behind her eyes, sifting through the fighting programs Araceli had uploaded, the protocols about when to stay and when to run. She thought about her equipment, her payment, waiting in the trunk of that car.
“Don’t you want to hear the story?” Cabrera said.
“What does this have to do with me?” She spoke more sharply than she’d intended, and her question rang out in the cold air. Cabrera stared at her like he’d just uncovered something.
“My God,” he said. “You don’t know.”
“Don’t know what?” She did not like this. Sebastian had his gun out—he never kept his gun out. It had been Sofia’s suggestion to meet on the docks, so she could avoid the record player, but it occurred to her that Cabrera had agreed to the change of terms too quickly. “Just tell me, Mr. Cabrera.”
“Your man shot Diego.”
“My man?”
“Your assistant. Luciano.”
Sofia’s programming did not know how to deal with this new information. Luciano, the butler Luciano—he’d shot someone? Shot Diego?
“That doesn’t make sense,” she said. “When would he have even seen Diego?”
“A week ago,” Cabrera said. “At Marianella Luna’s house.”
Sofia locked on to the mention of Marianella’s name. Was she in danger, Marianella? Had Cabrera learned of her survival yet?
Sofia would kill him if she had to.
“I dispatched Lady Luna last week,” Cabrera said, in the patient, even tones of a schoolteacher. “I sent Diego to her home the night after to search for some documents she’s rumored to have.”
Anger flared in Sofia’s system, but she didn’t allow her body to react. Diego did not have the documents, she knew that. They were tucked safely away in the bowels of the amusement park, guarded by maintenance drones she had programmed herself.
“While Diego was there, your man arrived, with a maintenance robot. He shot at Diego, and Diego fled. Survived, of course, but I’m curious why a robot that I’ve been working with, who has reportedly helped you aboard my icebreakers, would shoot a human he’d seen on more than one occasion. Why? Why would that happen?”
Luciano had shot Diego. No wonder he had refused to come to the meeting. His programming shouldn’t have allowed that. He was designed to serve, to heal, to protect, not to injure.
And he hadn’t mentioned any of this to Sofia. The memory of that night, a week ago, ran uninterrupted in her thoughts. Luciano had returned three hours after leaving the amusement park, with a suitcase full of clean clothes and beauty supplies and Marianella’s documents and the envelope of bills she kept hidden away in her kitchen. He had delivered the suitcase to Marianella’s room in the Ice Palace, and then he’d found Sofia in the operations room and he had not said a word about any of this.
He’d lied to her. He’d potentially ruined everything. And why? For the cheap thrill of firing off a gun at a human being? Why had he even taken a gun with him? He must have found it in the security closet in operations, but what had possessed him to think it was necessary?
Sofia’s mind worked quickly, formulating a lie.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Sofia said, using the sweet, apologetic voice that had worked so often on clients. “Those of us from the amusement park often scavenge the houses of the dead, looking for supplies.” She smiled at Cabrera. “There was a report on Lady Luna’s disappearance on the wireless the other day. We intercepted it.”
Cabrera watched her, listening.
“Luciano didn’t tell me he would be going to her house, but that’s no matter. He doesn’t tell me everything. It’s dangerous work, scavenging. Dangerous for us to leave the park, even robots like Luciano who so closely resemble humans.”
It was impossible to tell if Cabrera believed the story. She couldn’t read him as she could other humans.
“I’ve gone on such trips myself,” Sofia added. “I doubt Luciano saw Diego, or understood that it was him. Most likely he thought it was someone from the city, looking to cull him. Do you know what it is to be culled, Mr. Cabrera?”
“I’ve done it myself,” Cabrera said. “You know that.”
“But you don’t live with the threat of having it happen to you, as I do, as Luciano does. We often take guns to protect ourselves on scavenges. Luciano wasn’t originally designed for espionage. We’re limited by our programming, Mr. Cabrera. And Luciano was never programmed to steal. Or to shoot.” She paused. “He isn’t good at it.”
Cabrera stared at her. Sofia didn’t move; she was lucky, in that her position at the amusement park had required her to lie. Not to obfuscate, of course, but to flatter and cajole. Still, the programming was in place, and she’d just made good use of it.
Sofia knew Cabrera wasn’t like other humans. He could see through deception, being so skilled at it himself. But after a moment’s pause, he nodded, seeming satisfied.
“Isn’t that a shame,” he said, a cold grin playing at the corner of his mouth. “Technological marvels reduced to scavengers.”
Sofia smiled back politely.
“I’m glad to have helped you rise above all that,” he said.
Sofia rankled at the idea that he had helped her. Even though he had. She didn’t want to think that she owed her success to any human.
“Still, I don’t want to see Luciano again.” His face went cold. “If I do, I’ll dismantle him myself. Find someone else if you need assistance.”
Sofia nodded, grateful that she had convinced Cabrera the gunshot was an accident. Luciano might not have been programmed to fire weapons, but that didn’t mean he would make a mistake if he ever did.
“Understandable,” she said.
“You agree?”
“Yes.”
They stood in the cold wind. Cabrera studied her for a second longer, and Sofia was afraid he would change his mind, or that his offer of peace had been some elaborate ruse.
He snapped his fingers and said, “Sebastian. Open the trunk.”
Sofia tensed, no longer convinced the trunk contained her supplies. Sebastian pulled out a banker’s box and set it down at Sofia’s feet. He pulled off the lid.
Inside were the micro-engines, wrapped in cloudy plastic, and a box of vacuum tubes.
“The programming key isn’t here,” Sofia said.
“I’m working on it. You asked for some unusual things.”
Sofia put on her amusement park mask. “They aren’t so unusual to me.” She looked over at Cabrera. “Thank you, sir,” she added. “I appreciate all you’ve done for me.”
“It’s my pleasure, Sofia.” He didn’t sound like it was his pleasure; his voice was cold, hard, like the wind. “But I don’t like to be double-crossed.”
“No one does.” She picked up one of the tubes and held it up to the golden lamplight. It gleamed against the darkness.
“I’m glad you understand that. I take it you don’t need a car to drive you home?”
Sofia replaced the tube and picked up the box. “No. I don’t mind walking.”
“Not many ladies would care to drag a box through the city streets at night.” Another cold smile. Was he threatening her?
“I’m not a lady,” she told him, and then she said good night and went on her way.
* * * *
Sofia was walking back to the amusement park when all the lights on the street guttered like candles.
She frowned. She still didn’t know why this was happening, even if it didn’t affect her plans. The park was on its own generators, something she had made sure of. The maintenance drones claimed they weren’t responsible, but she suspected some of them had developed their own sentience and were trying out the concept of lying.
It made her nervous, this idea of the maintenance drones acting of their own accord. She didn’t like feeling powerless.
When she returned to the amusement park, Sofia carried the box of supplies to Araceli’s cottage. Araceli was asleep, the cottage shut up tight for the night, but Sofia could unlock the door with a burst of energy from her palm. She left the supplies sitting in the foyer and then went to find Luciano.