Artificial(ish) Intelligence

Chapter 16

Fivven felt the force of the cramped air chute pulling him up to the fourth floor. Being a deliverybot, he'd quickly passed the security sensor at the service entrance. Why is that important? It's almost like I'm telling you this for a reason. Probably not, though. We'll see.

With pride at yet another job almost completed, he triumphantly rolled through the delivery flap and into unit 451. But the place was empty. Or seemed to be.

Fivven checked the time. He wasn't the fastest model, that was true, but who won the race, the tortoise or the hare? Most importantly, the delivery remained piping hot.

He took in the studio apartment, taking note of the assortment of clothes strewn seemingly at random, the empty delivery containers mostly covering the crumpled and stiff anime themed bed cover, the matching Mario and princess bedside lamps, and began investigating every nook of the twenty two square metres. Ten seconds later he concluded that his earlier assessment was correct: the customer was missing.

Younger deliverybots in this predicament would happily throw off the delivery without any regard for the hu(person) recipient, but Fivven prided himself on old-fashioned service, determined to stand by until Mr Will Lurner could snatch the instant noodles directly from his cannister.

He received a ping from Base, requesting a status update, and sent back 501 - Unexpected delay.

While waiting, he checked the delivery logs at the entrance to the chute. The last deliverybot exited seventeen minutes and twenty two seconds ago to House of Paschar, securing the OK by a hu(person). This meant Mr Will Lurner may have been gone for almost that long. If he could get in contact with deliverybot DH11400-7B, it might lead him to the whereabouts of Mr Will Lurner, and the safe delivery of his piping hot noodles.

Fivven readjusted his destination and slipped out the chute.