Almost Human

Chapter 9

Andrew was staking out the new location for the underground android market.

Veda wasn’t with him.  After spending a little over a month being dedicated to Veda and association’s plans without a hint of betrayal, Andrew had won their trust.  Since he was skilled at staking out locations and noticing suspicious persons, Andrew had been assigned by the underground android community to stake out the location for their next meeting. 

So far, everything had gone smoothly.  No one had been loitering in the area.  It was a somewhat deserted area of the city, a mile or so from the center, but wasn’t so empty that a gathering of people would be grossly noticeable.  Andrew noted the time he had spent in the car staking out and the lack of suspicious behavior.  He turned the car back on and drove away from the area, planning to circle the district a few times and come back when any possible agents from the police or the Big Three would think he had left for the day.

After making his round and parking in a different, more hidden area, Andrew watched for another hour.  The sun settled behind the horizon.  Andrew kept a closer watch because night meant more cover for agents.  Nothing happened.  He sighed and stretched, logged his hours, took a note, and left.  There was nothing more to be observed. 

The drive back to Veda’s was a long one because of the circuitous route he took to throw off any followers.  He always kept an eye directed to the rearview mirrors, waiting for someone to follow him.  No one ever did. 

Demir let Andrew in wordlessly.  No one was waiting for Andrew’s return, not even Sam.  He figured that they were off working on that program’s latest loophole.  Robin and Veda had each run thousands of tests that were so strenuous that most systems would have crashed after just one to test the validity of their program.  They knew that they were up against some brilliant minds in the world of programming by putting this in the Big Three’s systems.  They had to make sure that nothing would go wrong within the reaches of these rival programmers’ abilities to test the program. 

Sam lent his help as often as Veda would let him.  Mostly, Sam only worked with her and Robin when she was too frustrated to finish a certain problem on her own.  She had devoted all her time to developing this program.  Andrew could see the stress it caused written on her face.  Veda may have been a genius with programming as well as with robotics engineering, but her true passion lay in creating androids above any of her other skills. 

The house was eerily silent.  Andrew was both worried and curious. 

“Demir,” Andrew asked, “where is everyone?”

“My room,” Demir answered after a moment’s pause, sounding distracted.  Andrew navigated his way there.  He knew his way around as long as Demir didn’t change the appearance of any of the walls.  In Demir’s room, Veda was laughing to herself and Sam was smiling brightly. 

“What’s going on?” Andrew asked, starting to smile himself, infected by the atmosphere of the room.

“We finally made the program perfect within all conceivable limits,” Veda replied happily.  She looked like an enormous stress had been lifted from her shoulders.

“Does Robin know?”

“I told him a few hours ago.  He’s doing a double check and preparing it for placement in the central processors of the Big Three.”

“So the plan is moving forward?”

“Yeah.”

Veda and Andrew sat in the darkened living room in the middle of the night.  Sam was fast asleep in his room.  Veda’s happiness at having finished the program had subsided.  She was now solemnly facing the idea of having to fulfill the plan that was put into action by a force she couldn’t condone.  Things were at odds.