"Just like that." The woman rolled her eyes. "Do you know how hard it's been to find a Portia these days? They're all being rounded up and taken to Redmond."
The haze of hunger that clouded Amy's perception froze. "Redmond?"
Shari nodded. "Yeah, where the reboot camp is. It's where the church started. At least, I think their founder used to live up there. LeMarque had a tech job, before he started preaching. His old contacts did most of the work on the failsafe."
After digesting some food and getting her colour vision back, Amy had embroidered a story with enough details to make it sound somewhat believable. Her name was Jacqueline and she was a year old. Prior to getting this job she was in a relationship, but it went sour after news came out about what Portia had done. He had gotten very suspicious and mistrustful because they shared the same model, and it had poisoned their love. As a result, she had no place to stay, and now slept in a little mobile storage pod that Shari kept in the parking lot for just such occasions.
The previous tenant had done nothing to improve the place. It was filthy. The ugly details that Amy always forgot to include in her designs had returned through some bizarre twist of fate to haunt her, here. Cobwebs hung from every corner and lint clung to them. Old wrinkled clothes and rolled-up posters and mugs from practically every state in the Union were everywhere. Amy had hidden Junior in an all-weather storage tub marked MANUALS. Nobody would ever look there.
Shari came to visit her in the pod before her first shift. She came bearing the printout of Amy's new work uniform, and waved her hands dismissively when Amy thanked her for everything.
"It's cool. I know how it is," Shari said. "Been there myself. I've dated some real jackasses in my time. Then, around the time of the Cascadia quake, I switched to vN, and I never looked back."
Amy listened to the road outside. They were only a few hours away from Redmond, and her mother, and the "reboot camp" where bluescreens went to wake up. Immediately upon entering the pod, she had charged up Rick's device and found the campus on a map. It was one big pixel. She had to get there, and soon. She just needed to do this job for a little while to make that happen. It would take two weeks. Two weeks until the next payday.
A suicide mission funded entirely by tip jar. That's a new one.
In an effort to block out Portia's chatter, Amy asked: "Do you really think vN guys are different from human ones?"
"Totally!" Shari reached into the pocket of her tiny red leather jacket. She was dressed as some sort of bullfighter today, but with sequined leggings and shiny black boots that stretched over her knees.
"You mind if I, uh…" Shari mimed smoking.
"It's all right. I don't have lungs."
"Cool." Shari brought out a little hand-rolled cigarette and lit up. "Anyway. Yeah. vN guys are totally different. Human men, they only think with one head, and it ain't the one sitting on their shoulders, you know what I mean?"
Amy had heard this expression before, but had never really known what it meant. It means cock, you little moron, Portia said. You know, penis?
Amy blushed and nodded. "I… I guess… I mean, their biology is different, they can't help it…"
"Damn fucking straight," Shari said, gesturing with her lit cigarette. "They can't help it. I know that. I get it. Hell, I got tons of shit I can't help. Menopause. They can make you, you, you little miracles of modern science, but they can't cure my goddamn hot flashes."
"You're right. That's… weird."
"It's total bullshit, is what it is. This whole culture, it doesn't give a good goddamn about women." Shari pointed at Amy. "There are only two industries in this world that ever make any kind of progress: porn, and the military. And when they hop in bed together with crazy fundamentalists, we get things like you." She rested her elbows on her knees and grinned at Amy. "I'm telling you. Big men with their little heads. You know?"
Amy didn't know. Her mother had explained about human reproduction, and it all sounded chancy and complicated and dangerous. She could understand why her dad wouldn't want to make a baby with an organic woman. It was much easier with vN. At least, she had thought so at the time.
"This is depressing you, isn't it?" Shari asked. "It's depressing me. Let's quit being so depressed. vN are great. There, that's a happy thing."
Amy smiled. "You really like vN better than other humans?"
"Oh, hell yeah. They're consistent. No betrayal. No issues. No complications."
Oh, the stories your mother could tell, Portia said.
"I know you can't help but feel attracted to humans," Shari said. "That's just the failsafe doing its job, though. That's how you got into that situation with your old boyfriend, am I right?"
"Uh… right. Yes. My old boyfriend."