“You're lucky your order came in first,” Riley said, already quieter, since she had reached the living room, assuming Milo was behind her.
Milo rushed after her for that to be true.
“I got tickets all day because of that storm. Not thatyoucare.” Riley glanced back at Milo with a grimace that made the second, more unpleasant heat Milo had felt return to his chest. “Jesus,” Riley said when her eyes returned forward and fell on the burned streak through the carpet. “You hiding a lightning rod in here?”
“No, Superintendent Riley,” Milo said.
Unlesshecounted.
It was his fault, wasn't it? The surge protector's fault, but all to keep Milo safe, even though the ramifications meant that dozens or more bots would be recycled today.
Milo had heard Ethel and had needed to get away from the truth, as though distance made processing the information easier. Milo hadn’twantedto hear about it. He hadn’tlikedit one bit.
“Carpet replacement will take time, maybe a week, but the security sensors and window we can fix right now.”
Webecame apparent as soon as Riley typed on her tablet, and an electric blue 3D wireframe of her C-model unit projected above the tablet screen, just as the real thing flew up from outside. C-models were strictly for service and maintenance and had no humanlike appearances.
“Let's get to work, Pal,” Riley said.
Pal, which was actually a P.A.L. unit, or Portable Automated Liaison, looked like a flying trash bin, or so Master often said. Tools like arms came out from its sides as it hovered and attended to the security sensors at Riley’s directions through the tablet’s controls.
“Pal was not fried during the storm last night,” Milo said, approaching the window and watching the bot with a newfound fascination.
“Huh? No. My charging station is on a different circuit breaker for that exact reason. You're luckyyouweren't fried.”
But Milo would have been if not for Master’s ingenuity.
Peering down the expanse to the street below, Milo saw the replacement glass resting against the side of the building, waiting for Pal to retrieve it.
Then he saw the same man he had seen in the elevator exit the building carrying his bot. He pressed a panel on the side of the building that opened an otherwise hidden dumpster and threw the body inside. He wasn’t recycling her to be remade. He was throwing her away to get another model.
He was just going to let her die.
Her? Milo had never considered a bot to be anything other thanit...
But no, bots could not die because they never lived, yet the heat returning to Milo’s chest as the man walked away from the dumpster felt like the sensors on his back when Master had touched the damage there earlier—like pain.
“Hey!” Riley barked, snapping Milo to attention. “Stop just standing there like that. You’re creeping me out. Go do your other duties.”
“Y-yes, Superintendent Riley. Of course. Please inform me before you leave,” Milo said, certain that his stutter would make it obvious how broken he was, but Riley didn’t even turn to look at him.
“Whatever.”
Milo bolted, unsure where to go or what to do but eventually ending up in the kitchen, clinging to the empty sink. His chest felt like the fluids inside were boiling.
Run system diagnostic.
No anomalies found, other than…
Just the same report as before, but something had to be wrong.
CONDUCT SEARCH: Causes of tightness and heat in chest cavity.
No such sensor readings have been reported by bots.
I am a bot,Milo thought, but that didn’t seem to matter.
Continue search outside bot limitations.
