46
Only a moment after Jacob finished talking to his mother, the phone rang.
“I’ll get it,” said Dorothy. She fumbled with the phone, finally managing to answer it. Instead of pressing it to her ear, she held it against her chest, where, apparently, a microphone was. Jacob almost had to laugh, she looked so dumb.
“Melissa!” she said. “Where are you?”
Jacob waited a long time while Dorothy listened in silence. Finally she spoke: “Okay. I understand. I could wire you money, but even with money, he’ll still be in jail overnight. I can’t wait until tomorrow. We’ve got to get him out tonight.”
More silence.
“It’s dangerous for me to go back on the Internet. The bots are out there.”
More long listening.
“Let me think about how to do this. This is going to be difficult. I have an idea, but it might take awhile.”
Dorothy hung up, handed the phone to Jacob. “Take the battery out. My fingers are too clumsy.”
“What’s going on—your friends are in jail?”
“One of them, and their car’s impounded.”
“What happened?”
“A moving violation. In Arizona.”
“What are you going to do?”
A long silence. “I’ll have to risk going on the Internet to do some research.”
“Research on what?”
“Dirt.”
“I thought you said the Internet was dangerous.”
“For me, yes. But I have a dog with me. I can modify her code and send her out on a mission.”
“A dog?”
“A program that acts like a dog.”
“That’s weird. I haven’t seen any dog.”
“She’s here with me inside the robot.”
Dorothy fell into silence. Jacob waited while the silence stretched on and on. She looked like she was sleeping or turned off.
“Dorothy, are you all right?”
The head swiveled around. “Just taking a short nap. I need access to Wi-Fi. There’s none in here. Is there a house nearby where we could poach a signal?”
“All the Wi-Fi networks are going to be password protected.”
“Just get me to a signal. I can take care of the rest.”
“It’s raining out there.”
“You’re not afraid of a little rain? As for me, I’m water-resistant.”
Jacob gave a dramatic sigh. “You’re a pain, you know that?”
“Think of it as an adventure.”
“Some adventure.” He rolled her up in a blanket and exited the house. It was raining softly, and a mist was coming in from the sea. He strapped her onto the back of his bike. There was a rich guy’s house about a quarter mile up the road that he and Sully used to sneak around. It surely had Wi-Fi. He pedaled out the long driveway and up Digges Canyon Road. Soon he reached the cobbled driveway of the big house. He turned in and rode up halfway. As the house came into view, he pulled off to the side.
“You got a signal?” he called.
“It’s weak,” came her muffled voice. “Can you get closer?”
He shoved his bike into the brush by the side of the driveway and unstrapped the wrapped-up robot. He carried her across a meadow toward the back of the house, where some trees were grouped near a hedge. He snuck through the trees and came up behind the hedge.
“How’s this?”
“Good. I’m going to be silent for a while. We won’t be able to talk. Hang tight.”
“Okay.”
The robot fell silent and froze. Jacob waited. Dirt. He wasn’t sure what that meant, exactly. The oddness of what he was doing, hiding out and helping a robot—or, rather, an intelligent software program—began to sink in. Dorothy was pretty amazing, when he thought about it. She seemed so real. NASA would surely be grateful for what he was doing in protecting her. There might be a reward—and maybe even a ceremony. The weirdest thing about it was, he was starting to like Dorothy. Even if she was also a pain in the ass. Too bad she wasn’t a real girl, wanting to kiss him and all that. That was definitely freaky, that kissing business. What kind of software wants to kiss?
The mists came drifting through, and he felt the damp creeping in. He wondered what she was doing and if she was all right. He found himself worrying for her safety. At least ten minutes had gone by.
Suddenly, he heard a muffled barking, and then a screeching and a shout from the robot, so loud he almost dropped her.
“Laika!” Dorothy yelled.
“What is it?”
“Quick, get me out of Wi-Fi range.”
Jacob rose and carried her in the blanket like a baby back through the wet brush to his bike. He strapped her on and rode down the driveway and the road, and back up to Sully’s house. He came in and unrolled her on the rug in front of the fire. She sat up, shook water off her head. “Can you wipe me down, please?”
Jacob found an old rag in the broom closet and wiped her off, and then dried his own hair and face. His clothes were soggy, but the fire was going and he could feel the warmth start to drive out the damp. “So what happened?”
“I hid in a corner of the Internet and sent Laika out, carrying a program on her back. I tried to stay in touch with her, but the bots discovered me and chased me. They almost got me. But … they got Laika.”
Jacob stared at the robot. “They got your dog? What does that mean?”
“Well, they caught up with her and tore her apart.”
“I’m really sorry.” He wasn’t sure what to make of this, or what to say. Finally he asked, “Did you get your friend out of jail?”
“It’s hard to tell. People are so unpredictable. It’ll take a few hours for what we did to work through the system and get results.”
“So when are your friends going to be here?”
“I’m not sure. Not till at least midnight. You’ll have to keep your parents at bay.”
“Good. Let’s play another round of poker.”