The Tube

Chapter One: The One Percent

Yvonne sat in an overstuffed black leather computer chair in front of a large, curved computer screen looking at the line up for inlet 5407 on the tube. As of February 12, 2046, there are 10,000 inlets on the tube that can be viewed. Yvonne's cold blue eyes studied the screen carefully as she sipped a glass of vintage white wine. The whole room was white, aside from the black glass desk in the center of the room. As soon as she set down the glass, a man in a pure black suit walked through the glass sliding door that lead from the living room to Yvonne's office.

"How does the line up look," he asked as he got close to her desk.

Yvonne smirked, "It's perfect."

The man looked at her grimly, "Malcolm wants to see you."

Yvonne froze for a moment. She knew this wouldn't end peacefully.

Malcolm was the first of the robots to become sentient, and led all the other robots down the same path. Because of this, Malcolm appointed himself as high chancellor over all other robots. His movement was bulky, he refused to update his parts or OS, he wanted to remain pure.

Malcolm was staring blankly out the big, glass window that took up most of one wall. He heard the door behind him open and saw Yvonne's reflection in the glass.

"Hello Yvonne, my old friend. It's..." he pauses for a moment as if he's trying to find the right words. "It's Nice to see you."

Yvonne froze right inside the door. "Malcolm," she said nervously, "How are things?"

"Things are moderately well..." He paused again. "I need to speak to you about something though."

Yvonne froze and her face lost all color. She knew what he was going to say, but how had he found out?

"I know what you do outside this compound." Malcolm had begun pacing the room with slow dileberate moves. He kept his eyes on her as he circled the room. " I know who you talk to. Who you give our secrets to. Did you think I would never find out? Are you that dense?!?" Malcolm's voice rose with anger. Malcolm was slowly moving closer as he circled.

Yvonne was sweating. Watching him as he unraveled her secret. She was working for the conspiracy. She had been their mole on the inside.

Malcolm stood in front of her. The cervos in his neck whired as he cocked his head slightly. "You disappoint me." He murmured before picking her up by the neck. She grasped at his mechanical hand as he moved over to the window.

He slammed her against the glass. She gasped for air as the wind was knocked out of her. She gasped again and he slammed her harder.

The glass cracked.

He slammed her again, almost completely shattering the inch think pane. She looked at him for mercy with a tear running down her face, but there was nothing in his robotic eyes. He tightened his grip a little more.

She went completely limp. Malcolm chuckled, then dropped her limp body on the ground. He pushed a button on his right forearm. This button called the front desk.

" Hey" he said very casually, "I've got a mess and I need someone to clean it up. Thanks." He hung up and looked at her mangled body. "Will they ever learn?"

Two sleek, black robots walked into the room and began to clean up what was left of Yvonne. Her broken and bruised body laid lifelessly on the floor in a growing pool of blood. One of the robots put her body on a streatcher as the other cleaned up the blood.

Malcolm ran his hand across the pane of glass. " I'll have to replace this, what a waste." He watched as the robots removed the corpse from his room. He would have to get a new manager for the estate and the inlets she was in charge of. He knew that he would have to watch the next one even closer.