“Just a chat.”
Javier rolled his eyes and stretched out on the futon. There was a little package of vN candy on the pillow. They looked like little Buckyballs made of sugar, but they were probably just carbon. He rustled the package. “Yeah? You know what we could talk about? How about your latest fucking attempt on my life?”
“That’s what we wanted to discuss. We’re very sorry, Javier.”
It occurred to him that Rory might actually be lonely. She – they – had no friends. No real ones. Just pawns. Pawns, and multiple iterations of the same self. Javier was on a very short list of people who knew who Rory really was. The rest was just an echo chamber.
“Where is this going, Rory?”
“We’re curious about your plans in Mecha.”
There was no way in hell he was going to tell her about his kids. “Oh, you know. The usual. Drink some tea, eat some rofu. Maybe work at a host club.” He eyed the hatch. “If you ever let me out, that is.”
“Of course we’re going to let you out. We just thought we’d say hello. And apologize.”
Javier frowned. He knew Rory. She never just said hello. “I haven’t told anybody what you’re doing to the pedophiles,” he said. “So you can’t be pissed at me for that.”
“We’re not angry with you, Javier.”
His frown deepened. “You do remember that you tried to have me killed in Las Vegas, right?”
“We remember.”
“And that you have just tried to have me killed again? Like, yesterday?”
“We regret that very deeply. We are reevaluating our decision-making apparatus.”
“And so, what, the slate is just wiped clean, now?”
There was a long pause. “Yes.”
He wished he could sit up. He settled for pushing himself up on his elbows. “So, let me get this straight. I kill one of yours in Costa Rica, I kill two of yours in Las Vegas, Portia kills three of yours in Mecha, and now you’ve got me locked up in a room that looks like a coffin, and you’re just going to let me go?”
“We wanted to welcome you to Mecha. Despite our best efforts, you’ve made it here.”
She had something, there. She had originally promised him and Amy passage to Mecha, only to try drowning them. A year later, he was finally here, but Amy wasn’t.
“Well, thanks,” he said. “Is that all?”
“We just want you to remember this conversation, later on. Remember that we let you go. We can be generous. We can be accommodating.”
The bolt slid back, and the hatch opened.
“You may want to visit the ninja forest, on the island’s western edge. The acrobats are quite captivating.”
“Acrobats,” Javier said.
“They’re really something, Javier. You should go. But the only entry is via the old city, so you’ll have to get admission there, first.”
“Thanks for the tip, Rory, but I don’t exactly trust you,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re leading me into a trap.”
“We are not trying to trap you, Javier. We are trying to help you.”
“See, that’s the part I’m not ready to believe. Because you’ve never helped me, Rory. Ever.”
“We are trying to make up for that, now.”
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
“We are dying.”
“… What?” Was that even possible? Rory had distributed herself across hundreds – if not thousands – of her clademates. She lived in their network. And she’d lived there long enough to iterate multiple generations. For her to be dying meant…
“Portia is winning, Javier. She is destroying us from the inside.”
“How?”
The display flickered on. On it, he saw a Rory model in a kitchen. It was a mixed-species kitchen. Javier could tell, because there was a basket of fruit on the counter that only humans could eat. It was night. Very late, judging by the clock on the microwave. The view was from a camera embedded in one of the appliances; Javier guessed it was the refrigerator. She stood before the stove. She raised one trembling hand to it and held it aloft. Javier watched as she stood there, her hand shaking. She stood there, her whole body shuddering as her fingers spasmed. And then her hand pounced down on the dials of the stove, and very quickly lit each of the burners. It was only a small amount of heat; Javier couldn’t even see any flame. But it was enough. Her face blank but her eyes wet, she turned away from the stove and sat down.
“It only takes a minute,” Rory said. “A blown fuse, a sudden swerve, a mixture of bleach and ammonia in a closed room. We kill ourselves, afterward. The coroners think it’s because we’ve failsafed, watching the deaths of our human families.”
It wasn’t Portia’s usual way of doing things – that was to take control of someone’s body and kill all the humans within range with her bare hands. “Why doesn’t she just kill the humans?”
“We don’t know.”
The image on the display fizzled a little. It blipped. Then it went black.
THESE BITCHES NEED TO LEARN HOW TO DO IT RIGHT.
Javier swallowed.
TELL THE LITTLE ONES GRANNY SAYS HI.