Reez had decided to take a walk until he arrived at a restaurant he found appealing. He imagined that'd kill enough time to allow fresh news to get onto the TV upon his return.
He looked at Sierra. The girl 'droid was not only clean, but shiny.
"Man, did you put wax on yourself or somethin'?"
She gave him a surprised look. "I-- uh, have you ever been with an android before?"
"The 'droids I know are soldiers. I never cared for the social ones. I already got enough friends as it is."
"Oh-ho... Well, I guess you can start learning things about me now, now that I've spent most of my week learning about you and your world."
"Is that some sort of trade?"
Sierra giggled. "Well, you were kind enough to give me access to the net and learn some culture - even though I did so on your command."
"What's your point?"
"You act like you own me and I'm an object that can be turned on and off."
Reez chuckled. "Sorry to break it to ya, kid. That's what most androids are for 'round here. A 'droid isn't something warm you can just pick up and hug and love. You're made out of plastic and metal." He put the back of his hand against her cheek. "You're cold."
Then he stopped in his tracks. Sierra had taken a few steps already before she realized the young man had ceased all movement.
"...You're warm." Reez said, just faintly. "You're warm!"
He put his hands on her shoulders. He felt her head, arms and legs.
"...Everything metal is cold, everything skin is warm!" he thought aloud.
"Well, I have fast processors," she reasoned, "so?"
"No, no, that's not computer heat. You are warm. Human warm. Warm like a human. Like a living creature. Can you feel temperature?"
"Ah, uh, yes..."
He picked up her hand and placed it against his face.
"Feel that." he said. "See how warm I am? Now touch your own face. You're just as warm as I am. I've seen enough androids to know this ain't normal."
Sierra appeared clueless. She touched her face and arms, looking to see if anything was wrong in her regard. At the end, she shrugged.
"Sorry... I just don't see what you're getting at."
Reez took a deep breath. "I'll... I'll explain later. Let's keep walking. The people are looking at us funny."
They walked north and northwest, somewhat aimlessly. Reez wasn't looking for any restaurant in particular. Sometimes, he didn't even notice when there was one - he just looked at the sights and the buildings. It was Sierra who always brought his attention back to his original goal.
He began wondering what exactly he wanted to eat. He thought about eating a dolar at the House of God, only to remember the place had burned down a few weeks ago. The recipe went up in flames along with the building. Sure, neighboring restaurants tried to have a go at making a dolar too, but as expected, none were as good as the original.
Speaking of House of God, he knew there were some nice places in that district. The places there were tiny, but good and affordable. He was bound to find food of interest there.
It was seven o' clock by the time they arrived. They had wandered about for a whole two hours.
Reez selected a place at random: The Muse, located between The Sammy Saga and Peppers. The menu announced seafood.
The last available table was right next to the window. The crowd went from quiet to noisy and back, several times per minute. The speakers played music that seemed to have been ripped straight out of a porn movie.
He looked around, looking for familiar faces. The only one he recognized at first sight was Caristo Carist - also known as Double Carist - a suspected member of the Horde black market gang. He was smilingly chatting with obviously what would be his one-night stand for today.
"Good evening! Something to drink?"
The waitress had spoken.
"Oh, uh... got imported stuff?"
"I have Marsbur's Beauty, in white or black."
"Let's go for a black."
"All right. Here are your menus, enjoy!"
"Thanks."
After a quick scan across the pages, he went for the Ice Bay marinated shrimps. With that done, he closed his menu, placed it back on the table and looked outside, his elbow on the window frame and his chin buried in his palm.
"Can you eat? You got a foodbox?" he said without even looking at her.
"Hm..."
"I'll take that as a yes."
He went silent. He began regretting the idea of eating out. He had hoped the hours of reading the android had done would've given her some sort of conversation, or at least a few questions, but she just sat patiently, looking directly in front of her.
Actually, no... She had picked the menu up and started looking at the list. An expression of doubt passed across her face. Reez didn't know it, but without pictures to accompany the dishes, she was having the wildest streaks of imagination about what the descriptions could possibly mean.
The waitress came back with Reez's drink.
"Are you rea- oh, seems you aren't."
Reez waved his hand. "We're ready. Sierra, put the menu down please. I'll have the Ice Bay marinated shrimps."
The waitress turned to Sierra. "And you?"
"Nothing for her," Reez interjected. "Just bring us an extra plate."
The waitress took the menu and left.
"That wasn't nice!" Sierra exclaimed.
"No food for androids." Reez told her back. "That's a luxury I can't afford. I'll give you some pieces off my plate instead. Do you even have taste sensors for that matter?"
She sighed. "When are you going to start treating me like a human?"
"I can't. You don't look like a human, you don't act like a human, you don't have the same needs of a human. No matter how you look at it, you are and will always be different from a human. Do you know what an android needs to survive? A bit of grease and a working battery. And those buggers've got batteries that last a hundred years last time I heard. You are the objective of a job I have to accomplish. I don't do this job so that I can waste my cash on exactly what I'm being paid for. It's nonsense."
"Well, I'm a social android. At least socials are more human than soldiers... I guess."
"That's like saying I look ugly next to a top model."
"What."
"Everything is relative."
He pointed his finger at another table. There, a young woman was having a happy conversation with a male social android. Sierra wasn't convinced.
"He might just be saying gibberish."
"What's gibberish to you?"
"Well... words that don't mean anything. Talk for talk. Filler words."
Reez paused... "Hey, you know what? We're having a conversation here. Mission accomplished."
At her clueless expression, he laughed once again.
"You've got a lot to learn," he said between two chuckles. "You got all the theory and zero practice. I guess that evening out won't be worthless after all."
Sierra appeared scandalized. "Excuse me? I have an emotion program active here, thank you very much!"
Reez chuckled again. "Okay, okay, no more blatant disrespect. You've earned your wings, soldier."
"When can I pick 'em up?"
That made Reez almost spit out his drink in laughter. Sierra gave him a grin, proud to show off her talent at quick retorts.
The meal arrived.
"Aaaand, Ice Bay marinated shrimps, with the extra plate. Enjoy your meal, sir!"
As quickly as the waitress had come, she had disappeared back into the kitchen. The restaurant sounded much livelier now than when they had come in. The pace was picking up.
Sierra picked up a small amount of the marinated shrimps and ate slowly, little piece by little piece, barely even opening her mouth to let them in. She glanced at Reez's plate from time to time, matching his pace, at least proportionally.
Reez kept looking outside. There wasn't much out there except people going back and forth, but the restaurant decorations made for good eye candy. It was as if he had forgotten the whole conversation had happened.
No dessert, no drink. He paid the bill, picked up his coat and went outside, with the android tagging along.
"Don't forget to empty your foodbox when we get back." he muttered.
He checked his watch. Ten to eight.
Slowly, he began the trek back to his home, taking a different set of streets than before in the hope of seeing something interesting. Perhaps a shop, or a street performance, or maybe even a street race if he was lucky. In the meantime, the street was quiet and relaxing - a rarity in New Colombus. He paused in his tracks to appreciate the moment.
"Human Society." A muffled voice said as Reez suddenly lost his vision. "We'll be taking care of that robot for you."
"Hey, wait a min-"
The man slapped him upside the head and applied the mouth of a pistol against his back. "Put your hands behind your back. You don't look like you're thankful enough. And shut your mouth."
Reez had been blindfolded, and he couldn't feel the weight of his own weapon anymore. He heard a scratching sound confirming this: his only method of defense had just been tossed away.
The man tied a length of rope around his wrists. "Now we're talking. Don't think of the tying up as a treat - we get lots of folks who get upset when we do our work... but one thing's fore sure, they all thank us later on. Every single one of 'em." A movement. He had turned his head to the side. "Okay, go for it."
Reez heard an electric jolt for a split second, before Sierra let out a loud chocking sound, which would have become a scream had the jolt not paralyzed her. The man turned his head towards Reez again.
"The android's electronics have been fried," he explained, "Now, if you keep walking straight ahead, you'll eventually end up some place where people can untie you. Have a good one..."
A shuffle and loud footsteps in all directions. They had fled as quickly as they had come. And of all people in the city, the extremists had to pick him tonight.
Reez thrashed for a moment as he tried to untie himself. His hand found a loose strand. He pulled it, untying the whole knot.
He removed his blindfold and glanced around. Of course, no sign of the bandits. The tying up had been their method to stall for their escape. Fortunately, his pistol hadn't flown very far. He picked it up and secured it back in its holster.
He turned to Sierra.
The android looked like someone who had just been scared to death. Her eyes were wide open, the protector orbs almost out of their sockets. She was hard like stone.
Then, she began spasming. Her body shook uncontrollably. Her teeth clenched and her lips opened and closed rapidly.
"Holy shit..."
Reez picked her up.
"Sierra. Can you hear what I say?"
She seemed to look at him with her trembling head, her general aim set towards his face. Her jaw suddenly opened wide - too wide, letting Reez get a long view of the inside of her mouth, strangely wet and congested, as if she hadn't swallowed her food at all during the meal.
He rushed to the nearest busy street, cellphone in hand and dialing for a cab.
Less than thirty seconds later, the car arrived. He shoved the android inside and leapt after her, fumbling his words as he blurted his home address to the driver.
"What caught ya?" the driver said after a look in his mirror.
"Human Society extremists." Reez explained. "Step on it!"
The driver looked into his mirror again. "She's acting pretty damn strange. You sure the battery hasn't gone nuts?"
"What do you know about 'droids?!"
"I had one, good sir. Same damn thing happened to me; damn thugs tied me up and wasted my buddy. Soon as I had untied myself, her battery exploded."
"Are you saying she's gonna explode?!"
"Chances are, yeah..."
Reez shook his head violently. "Shit, shit, shit!... Break the speed limit. I'm from the UM, that's an order! Turn your hazards on!"
The driver complied and went straight for the nearest highway. Within minutes, he was at Reez's apartment block.
Sierra was beginning to shake dangerously. Both men had trouble even holding her long enough to get her out of the car. Her arms were flailing wildly around her. The only safe option was to drag her around by the legs.
Reez paid the driver whatever cash he had left in his pocket and rushed inside with the android.
He dialed quickly - too quickly, missing the number twice. On his third attempt, he finally reached Mr. Karl.
"Hi, you've reached my mailbox. I can't answer your call at the moment. Please leave a message at the tone."
"Karl, pick up your fuckin' phone!"
A click. "Sounds like an emergency."
"Shit, man, I need help, the droid's been jolted!"
"Jolted?"
"The Human Society! They pinned me in an alley and gave the kid a shock!"
"All right, chill down, Reez, it's gonna be all right..."
"She's shakin' all over the fuckin' place! What am I supposed to do?"
"Okay, okay, just sit there, Reez, I'll send someone over to help ya. Don't worry about it, she's gonna do just fine."
"And how do you know?"
"The tests, remember? We have her make and model. We know how those things behave. So when I say it's okay, it really is okay."
Reez heard a whistling sound. He turned around to see Sierra's torso start to glow a blinding light.
"Oh shit! She's gonna blow up!"
"...Blow up?"
Reez shielded his eyes. The glow was filling the entire room. The whistling was like a jet engine right next to his ears.
All of a sudden, a muffled bang, followed by a splash of liquid across his face.
He opened his eyes, just a little. He couldn't see a thing. The living room's light had been blown.
Slowly, his eyes adjusted. The lights of the skyscrapers around his apartment faded into view. Gradually, more and more of his living room appeared.
The floor, the chairs and the windows were splattered with a dark blue substance. Chunks of flesh hung from the furniture. The air reeked, a strange odor between burnt food and putrefaction. Wisps of smoke floated about. The glass table had completely shattered, unrecoverable.
Sierra lay on the white couch turned blue. Her eyes were still wide open, hir jaw opened so much that it seemed as if she had thrown it off its socket. She looked like fear incarnate.
Her entire body - or what was left of it - was covered in that dark liquid. Her right forearm had broken off and flown into the dining section. Everything below her chest was lying next to the couch, in pieces. What remained was the torso of what appeared to be, for all intents and purposes... an adult woman.
Reez first closed her mouth. Her body was rigid, her joints hard to bend and move. They did move, but with a delay, as if they had turned into a viscous liquid.
Sierra's real arms were stumps, stopping just before the elbows. Everything below chest level degenerated into a mass of tendrils and odd metallic extensions, part of her flesh wrapped around wires. Her eyes looked too big for her body, the eyelids completely open despite Reez's efforts to keep them closed.
Knocks at the door.
"Department!"
Reez opened up. Two men in white coats swiftly stepped in, holding a stretcher. As soon as they noticed Sierra, they picked her up, placed her on the stretcher and carried her away.
"Hello?"
There was a faint voice coming from somewhere in the apartment.
"Hello? Reez?"
He picked up the phone. It was Mr. Karl.
"I'm here..."
"What happened?"
"Well... uh... she kinda blew up, and there's stuff all over the place, and some guys came over and put the body on a stretcher and left..."
"Ah, okay, so they got here after all. How is she?"
"Uh... I don't know." Reez glanced at the mess in his living room. "There were pieces of her body on the floor but she looked unhurt... I don't understand..."
"That's okay, Reez, that's okay. We'll take over for now. You get yourself a good night's rest and we'll call you back if we need you again."
"...My job's over?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. Don't make any plans for tomorrow. Give me at least that deadline."
Click.
Reez looked around again. He didn't want to sleep. He thought he was gonna die. And then it happened so quickly, too quickly for him. Now he had an impossible mess in his apartment and the droid had, somehow, grown from a child to a woman.
He didn't bother turning the lights on. His eyes were too tired and in pain. He took a rag from under the sink, soaked it in water and began wiping away the most 'violent' traces of the explosion, mainly the streaks on the windows and the white couch.
Curious, he traced a finger over one of those streaks and tasted the liquid.
"...Blood."
His mental gears began to turn. So Sierra had never been an android in the first place. At least not completely. She was a creature of flesh and blood.
That's why her mouth appeared so stuffed: it was a real mouth, with a real tongue and real teeth and a real throat.
Did she breathe? Did she have a digestive system? Was she a mutant?
Or was she like Shrike and the rest of them, the so-called 'Insa-Type' androids?
He had to remember. First hint: what the man behind the door had said, in Karl's office.
An android, type something, but he did definitely mention a blood type.
Sierra had a blood type!
Blood type what? It wasn't a standard letter. It wasn't two letters either. Just one. I? D? C? N? He couldn't recall.
He tried again. Putting two and two together, he was about seventy-five percent sure the man behind the door had mentioned the letter I somewhere. Had they known about Sierra's nature all along?
Had he mistaken a living being for an android?
He couldn't believe what had happened. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Somewhat dazed and confused, he picked up one of the grosser pieces of flesh and shoved it in his freezer. That would be his formal proof for tomorrow, if he actually found sleep.
With that, he resumed his cleaning work. After several trips between the kitchen and the living room, he had given the windows and the couch a somewhat more presentable state. At least it looked a bit less like a murder had happened.
He didn't bother cleaning the rag. He tossed it into the sink and went straight to his bed.
No news watching, no video games. He just wanted to sleep. But it didn't happen. At least not until a very long time.