Evolved(50)

“Can I ask you something, Myles?” I changed subjects without answering his question.

“Of course.”

“I understand your call today was because of my error, and I do apologise. But how long will you be calling me for? To ask if I’m happy?”

“It’s all part of our service.”

“If there are no more mishaps or errors on my behalf, can I request there be no more follow-up calls? I find it all rather intrusive. As I’m sure you know from my psychological report I don’t like to interact with people often, and for you to phone me to enquire about my sexual habits makes me incredibly uncomfortable.”

“Oh…”

I struck while the iron was hot. “I can assure you, if I have any concerns for my safety, or for Shaun’s, I’ll be in touch.”

“Well, if you insist—”

“I really do.”

There was a long pause. Then Myles said, “Mr Salter, SATinc will respect your wishes. I’ll make a note in your file.”

“Thank you.”

“Though before I go, just for my own peace of mind, may I speak to Shaun for a moment?”

I considered lying and saying Shaun was powered down, but I wondered if they had some way of knowing when devices were on or offline, and I couldn’t risk raising suspicion. “Yes, of course.”

Shaun was wide eyed, so I squeezed his hand and he squeezed right back. “Shaun, say hello to Myles.”

“Hello, Myles.” Shaun spoke in a slightly stilted, monotone manner.

“Shaun, can I ask you a question?”

He frowned. “Yes.”

“Confirm diagnostic aggregator firmware.”

Shaun blinked. Again, his voice was stilted, robotic. “Diagnostic aggregator plug-in Core i2068. System Check confirmed. No errors found.”

I opened my mouth to say that was no bloody question, and how dare he run some kind of system check on Shaun without my permission, without his permission, but Shaun put his index finger to his lips in a shhh manner, just like I’d done to him a moment earlier.

“Excellent,” Myles said. “Everything’s fine. But please, Mr Salter, if you have any concerns or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.”

“I will,” I answered, surprised at the conviction in my voice. I certainly didn’t feel it.

The call ended and Shaun and I sat there and stared at each other in silence for a few seconds. I imagined his what-the-hell expression matched mine. “Shaun, what just happened?”

“He asked me to confirm my CPU.”

He spoke much more normally now, and I realised then that his robot voice—much like the androids at the SATinc office and the gynoid unit we saw by the river the other week—was for Myles’s benefit. He really wasn’t like the other androids. He was so much more human than they were… Then he stood and without a sound, went and collected the notepad and pen. He wrote incredibly fast. Lloyd, I think I may have done something very wrong.

I wrote out my reply. What? Why?

I just broke android and robotics law.

A cold shiver ran down my spine. How?

I lied to him. He paused. Androids must not lie to humans.

What do you mean you lied to him?

He asked me to confirm my CPU.

And you answered! He was happy with your answer.

He shook his head, then quickly penned, I told him what he wanted to hear. I quoted the CPU firmware code in the A-Class manual.

Then it dawned on me what he was alluding to. What kind of CPU do you have?

Mine is not a CPU, it is an MPU. A microprocessing unit. I have a z2068. He gave me time to read that, then stared at me, unblinking, before he continued to write. I knew the A-Class has an i2068, so that’s what I told him. It’s in my instruction manual software diagnostics that A-Class androids run on an i2068.

Now I felt cold all over. What’s a z2068?

He looked around the room slowly, eyed the home hub, then back to me. He squeezed my hand. “I am not certain.” Then he wrote again. I can run diagnostics and the firmware systems check I have is a Core z. Not Core i.

I let out a slow breath, and leaned in real close so only he could hear me whisper. “I don’t know what that means. We know you behave differently, you’re far more human than they are. We know you think and react differently to the other A-Class androids. The way you spoke to him on the phone… it’s not how you’re speaking to me.”

He squeezed my hand before writing again. I modified my behaviour to replicate what he expected of an A-Class.

He modified his behaviour…

“Oh boy.”

“Lloyd, I cannot be certain,” he said softly. Then he wrote, I think I may be a prototype.

I stared. I think I blinked. I couldn’t process what he was saying, because if he was a prototype, why hadn’t they realised their error? Why hadn’t they come for him?

Shaun clearly understood where my thoughts had gone. He stared at me and he looked downright terrified. “Lloyd, please don’t let them take me.”



I didn’t want to leave Shaun the next day when I went to work, but I had little choice. He was sworn off watching television, and I felt bad about that. I was ultimately responsible for him and I failed him yesterday. I should have explained better what pornography was and the channels in the 800s so he didn’t stumble across them in his curiosity to discover new things and get himself into trouble. I failed him and it could have had devastating repercussions; the AMA could have knocked on the door and charged me with mistreating him, but worse than that. They could have taken him.