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“You’re upset,” Luciano said.
“What?” Marianella blinked. “Oh, no. I mean—” She shook her head. He was programmed to notice, so it was silly trying to deny it. “Yes, I am. The last few hours have been difficult.”
Luciano turned toward her slightly. “Because of the explosion?”
“Yes.”
“Sofia told me it was the maintenance drones. That some of them are starting to evolve, the way we evolved.”
Marianella looked at him. “She told me that too.”
“You thought she programmed them to do it.”
Marianella didn’t answer.
“She wouldn’t program them to kill anyone.”
“Wouldn’t she?” Marianella looked at Luciano. “She offered to kill Ignacio Cabrera for me. When she’s done using him, of course.”
Marianella felt queasy saying that out loud. Not simply because of what it implied about Sofia, but because of what it implied about Marianella, that for half a second she had considered it as a possibility. Kill Cabrera, and all her problems would go away. Except she knew they wouldn’t. There would be the guilt, for one.
“Cabrera is a different matter,” Luciano said. “She would not program the maintenance drones to kill people in the city.”
Marianella sighed, slumping against the bench. Maybe there was truth to that. If all Sofia wanted was to kill humans, she just had to program the maintenance drones to turn off the electricity. That would be the end of humanity. But she was far cleverer than that. If Sofia killed the entire city, she risked the mainland dropping bombs on the domes.
Marianella closed her eyes. The overgrown tangle of the garden felt claustrophobic, despite the expanse of the lake only a few paces away.
“Her plans are more complex than that,” Luciano said. “Surely you know—”
“Complex?” Marianella said. “She wants the same thing the city officials want, really, just in reverse. A place for robots instead of humans.”
“It would be a place for people such as yourself, too,” Luciano said softly.
Marianella fell quiet. He was doing the same thing Sofia always did, including her in those plans for the future. But Marianella didn’t want to be included in their revolution. She had designed and built an agricultural dome, meant to sustain human life. That was to be her legacy. Not a smoldering pile of ash in the warehouse district, not the souls of twenty-six people severed violently from their bodies.
She would handle Ignacio in her own way, in the civilized way. She would not kill him.
Luciano picked up his book and reopened it. His head tilted down over the pages. Marianella gazed up at the white dome overhead. Maybe the Midwinter Ball was a frivolous thing in the wake of everything that had happened. But it was a reminder of the work she had done. Alejo wanted her there for financial reasons, but she understood now that she was going to go for personal ones, for moral ones.
She wasn’t a robot. She wasn’t like Sofia.
Attending that silly ball would be her proof.
CHAPTER TWENTY
ELIANA
Eliana paced back and forth across her office, smoking. A week had passed since she’d seen the explosion at the warehouse. She had followed the story, listening to all the different theories—Independent terrorists to computer error to human error. An electrical fire.
The whole thing u
The bell on her door clanged. Mr. Gonzalez walked in. Took off his coat, his hat. His golden eyes stared at her from across the room.
“Mr. Gonzalez!” She forced out a bright smile. “I wasn’t expecting you until later.”
“Yes, well, my morning meeting was canceled. You said on the phone that you had everything ready.”
“That I do.” Eliana finished her cigarette and immediately lit another one, hoping Mr. Gonzalez wouldn’t see her hand shaking. Despite the explosion, Maria had come through with the fake schematics. The promise of ten easy bucks had managed to transcend any anxiety from near-death experiences. Actually, she’d told Eliana when she’d dropped off the schematics, the explosion had made it easier. “Everyone’s in a tizzy down at the city offices.” She’d laughed, although the laugh had been forced. “No one noticed me using the mimeograph machine.”
Mr. Gonzalez walked across the office. His footsteps echoed against the wooden floors. Eliana stopped pacing and stood beside the window, nervously ru
He sat down in the visitor’s chair.
“It’s sitting on the edge of the desk there.” Eliana gestured with her cigarette.
He gave her a quick smile, then opened the file and read through it. Eliana watched him. Her spine seemed to vibrate inside her skin. She sucked hard on her cigarette. She trusted Maria to do a good job, but she didn’t trust Mr. Gonzalez not to recognize a forgery.
He set the file down on the desk, and Eliana’s chest tightened.
“Excellent work, Miss Gomez. I’ll admit I had my doubts, but I do think this information is far more useful than any observations you could have found at the park.”
He reached into his coat and extracted a thick envelope. He dropped it onto the desk. Eliana stared at it for a moment. She had smoked her cigarette almost down to the filter, but she knew she couldn’t light another without giving anything away.
“What I owe you,” he said.
Eliana stared down at the money, dizzy. It wasn’t just money. It was a way off Antarctica. Her way off Antarctica.
She dropped her cigarette into the ashtray, picked up the cash, and thumbed through it. She’d never held so much before, not even when she’d broken into people’s houses as a teenager. That had been for kicks, mostly. And now here she was, taking so much money for a forgery.
Eliana was pretty sure this was the most dishonest thing she’d ever done. At least with stealing, the mark knew what had happened.
“Do you need anything else?” She hoped he would say no.
Mr. Gonzalez considered her question. He was still flipping through the faked documents. “As I said, this is far more useful than I was expecting.” He nodded. “I should be able to work with this, yes.”
Eliana didn’t answer. She thought about her gun, shoved away in her desk drawer. Second to top, beneath the drawer with the money.
Mr. Gonzalez stuck one hand out over the desk, sideways. She stared at it for a few seconds before realizing he wanted to shake.
She reached over, grabbed his hand. His palm was cool and dry. Unflappable.
“It was enjoyable working with you, Ms. Gomez. I’ll be in touch if it turns out I need anything else.”
Eliana found her voice and gave as flirtatious a smile as she could muster. “Promise you won’t go to the big downtown agencies?”
Mr. Gonzalez smiled back, the cold empty smile of a businessman. “You’ve certainly impressed me, Ms. Gomez.”
He turned and walked out of her office. She hoped out of her life, too.
When the door slammed shut, Eliana sat very still, staring down at the envelope of cash. Her blood felt cold, as icy as the northern winds howling outside the dome. She could buy a visa. Just a few cases more, and she’d have the ship ticket too, plus a bit more to start her new life. Mr. Vasquez had told her that she could call him, if she ever found her way to the mainland. He’d probably be able to give her a job. It wouldn’t take long. Soon, she’d be able to leave everything behind—