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Shuffled footsteps. Sofia stopped knocking, and the door swung open. Marianella stared at her. She looked exhausted, her clothing rumpled and her eyes ringed in dark circles.
“Sofia?” she said in a slurred voice, like she’d been sleeping.
“I need to speak with you.” Sofia didn’t wait for an answer; she pushed past Marianella into the dim bedroom. “It’s about Ignacio Cabrera.”
The door swung shut.
“What about him?” Marianella’s voice had lost the blur of sleep; it was strained now, nervous. “My God, Sofia, what do you know?” She stared at her. “You went to see him, didn’t you? Just now?” She dug her hand into her forehead like she had a headache. “Why? I told you, Alejo and I know how to handle—”
Sofia grabbed both of Marianella’s hands and squeezed them tight. Marianella looked up, her eyes shiny with tears, and the sight of them made Sofia hurt inside.
“He called me over,” Sofia said, “for a meeting. I had to go. That’s the nature of my arrangement. And he—” She wasn’t sure she would be able to say it. Not now, not looking at Marianella straight on.
Marianella always did that to her.
“What?” Marianella cried. “What is it?”
“We have a problem,” Sofia said carefully.
Marianella’s eyes went wide and scared. “He wants you to kill me.”
“Yes.” Sofia squeezed Marianella’s hands.
Marianella sucked in a deep breath, and that act of breathing made Sofia aware of how vulnerable Marianella was, if you knew the right places to stab, to hit, to dismantle.
Which Sofia did.
Silence filled the bedroom, thick and choking. And when Marianella broke it, she said exactly what Sofia didn’t want to hear.
“Did he program you?” Marianella’s voice was flat. Empty.
Sofia closed her eyes. It was a fair question—she was still programmable—and she couldn’t begrudge Marianella asking it. But it hurt anyway, a hurt like coming out of the music.
“No.”
Marianella sighed with relief, a long whoosh of air that hurt Sofia even more.
“He gave me the option of doing it on my own first.”
“Are you going to?”
“No, of course not.”
Marianella closed her eyes, and her lips moved silently, the first lines of the Hail Mary.
“You didn’t think I was going to kill you, did you? I mean, really?” Sofia reached out, tentatively, and pressed her hand against the side of Marianella’s face. Marianella leaned into her touch, sighing, and with that, Sofia stretched her arm around Marianella’s shoulder and drew her close. She wanted to feel the warmth and softness of her body, wanted to feel that blood pumping through Marianella’s veins. It was the strangest sort of comfort.
“I don’t know what I think, Sofia.” Marianella laid her head on Sofia’s shoulder. “I just— How could you do it?” she asked. “How could you work for that—that monster?” She turned her head just enough that her hair brushed across Sofia’s shoulder. “You may not care that he kills humans, but he just asked you to kill a cyborg. And what do you say about that?”
“I had to work with him,” Sofia said. “It’s part of my plan.”
“Your plan, your plan!” Marianella pulled away, whirled to face her. “You’re helping Ignacio Cabrera, the man responsible for starving half of Hope City, just so Araceli can mess around with your programming?”
“I’m helping Cabrera so I can be free.” Sofia’s anger flared. “Which is a concept you don’t understand because you’ve always had it.”
“Freedom?” Marianella took a step backward. “You think I’ve always had freedom?”
“No one can program you.” The heat rose in Sofia’s words. “No one can control you with music and a record player. So yes, I have helped Ignacio Cabrera just so I can be free.”
“I live in fear every day that someone will discover my nature,” Marianella said, her voice low and cold. “The only freedom I have comes from pretending to be human.”
“Which you do so well.” Sofia glared at her. “You pretend to be human because you want to be human. That’s why you built that dome with Alejo Ortiz. You just want to pretend.”
“I’m not pretending anything.” Marianella’s cheeks flushed pink. “I just understand that true freedom comes from self-sufficiency, not from death and terror.”
“I don’t want death.” Sofia laughed. “I just want them gone. They have no business living in this climate. They can’t even go outside! We can. Your dome is just forcing them into something they’re not. I’m saying they should go back to where they’re suited and leave the ice to us.”
She stared at Marianella when she finished, daring her to protest. It was so frustrating how Marianella played at being human. As if being human were the only way to survive in this world.
“Your plan isn’t going to work,” said Marianella. She brushed one hand over her hair. The pink had gone out of her cheeks, and she took a deep breath. “You understand that, right? Independence—that’s how we create a place for robots. A place for robots and humans to live side by side.”
“You don’t really think Alejo’s going to let you do that, do you?”
Marianella ignored the question. “The Independents can negotiate terms in a way you can’t. What’s to stop the mainland from bombing the city once you’ve gotten rid of the humans?”
“The atomic plants. They aren’t that stupid.”
Marianella sighed.
“But we are smarter than them,” Sofia said. “Always one step ahead.”
Marianella laughed sharply. “They’ve got power. They control everything, the city and the icebreakers and—” She stopped.
“You were going to say me, weren’t you? They control me?”
Marianella looked down at her hands.
“It’s all right.” It wasn’t. “You can say it. We both know it’s true. But it won’t be for long.” Sofia reached over and took Marianella’s hand, and Marianella looked up at her. “Once I’m free, I’ll be on equal footing with them. And that’s when it will happen.”
Sofia watched Marianella’s face. She had been designed, long ago, to read human expressions, and Marianella’s expressions were all so human, even when she tried to wear a mask. And Sofia saw doubt flicker across Marianella’s features. Doubt, curiosity. Admiration.
“I’m not going to help you,” Marianella said softly.
That was the end of it. Years of friendship with Marianella told Sofia that much. She reached up and cupped Marianella’s face.
“Fine,” she said. “But I want you to promise me that you won’t leave the park until Ignacio is dealt with. I’ll have the maintenance drones monitor the gates. That’s the safest way.”
“Alejo’s going to pay him off. As soon as he’s struck a deal, I’ll let you know.”
Sofia scowled. “I wouldn’t put all my faith in the goodwill of Ignacio Cabrera. I’m going to keep you safe. Cabrera threatened to program me, but he won’t be able to.” She dropped her hand. “We don’t have all the equipment yet, but Araceli can make do.”
Marianella frowned. “Don’t do anything stupid, Sofia.”
“I’m a robot,” Sofia said. “I’m incapable of doing something stupid.”
* * * *
Sofia left Marianella’s room and went looking for Araceli. She wasn’t in the workshop, but Sofia found her in the little snow cottage she called home, eating a sandwich and tinkering with a maintenance drone that had broken down the day before. The television was tuned to some mainland game show. Araceli glanced up and set down her soldering iron when Sofia walked in.
“You never knock,” she sighed.
Sofia sat down on the sofa beside her and looked at the maintenance drone. “It’s my park.”
Araceli laughed. “I suppose it is.” She switched off the television and drew a plastic tarp over the drone. “So what can I help you with? I’ve been reinforcing the security feeds after—”
“I know. Thank you.” Sofia kept staring at the drone. “It’s not about that. It’s about—it’s about my reprogramming.”
Silence. “We don’t have everything yet.”