Duplicate Minds

Twenty-Two

The elevator doors opened onto the thirty-fifth floor. Rajeev peeked his head out the elevator doors to confirm the hallway was empty. When he saw that it was, he stepped out and made his way down the deserted hall, his footsteps gently echoing off the bare walls.

He had no idea what took place in any part of the building save for the entertainment lounge, Dev's office, and his own dorm. He was aware that he was taking a significant risk by wandering around aimlessly. Someone could find him, notify Dev, and that would be the end of his extracurricular activities.

As he rounded the corner, a meeting room came into view. Through the windows, he took in a group of five people seated at a table. Unlike the entertainment lounge, the conference room's windows were not floor-to-ceiling. Rajeev bent down to the floor, got on his synthetic belly, and crawled beneath the windows. It was a difficult motion, one he wasn't used to making in his new body, but he managed to make his way to the far end of the room. When he was clear of the windows, he stood and continued down the hall.

He came to a plain steel-gray door with a dull metal doorknob. There was no indication what might be on the other side. He reached out, grasped the doorknob, and turned it.

It didn't budge.

Rajeev was discouraged, but not deterred. In his youth, he'd picked a fair share of locks. As a fifty-something-year-old man—or at least, as an android with the mind of one—he took no pride in the skills he'd acquired in his wild youth. But he was now grateful for them nonetheless.

There was no deadbolt on the door, just a keyhole on the knob. He didn't have any lockpicking tools with him, but he didn't think this lock required such drastic measures. He'd opened dozens of locked doors in his youth with nothing more than a stiff credit card, and he suspected that was all this particular door required.

There was one major problem, of course: He didn't have a credit card. He didn't have anything. He could head back to the conference room, perhaps—wait for the meeting to let out, sneak in and look around for anything that could work. But that would be risky.

It occurred to him that he did have one thing: His body. He identified the stiff plate making up his thigh. He gripped the material firmly and pulled up sharply; it broke off in his hand. He half expected pain to follow, but of course, there wasn't any—one of the perks of being an android.

The edge where he'd broken the material off was jagged, but the other side was flat, perfect for the task at hand. He slid it down the crack between the door and its frame with practiced expertise, then tried turning the knob again. It turned, and the door swung open.

His photosensors instantly adjusted to the low light. As he took in the contents of the small room, disappointment washed over him. A mop bucket sat in the corner. Shelves lined the walls, filled with rubber gloves, rags, sponges.

He had just broken into a janitor's closet. He stood there a moment, shocked and disappointed. But he couldn't let one misstep deter him. He had to keep moving.

Just as he was about to close the door, the sound of approaching footsteps and the murmuring of people talking floated down the hall. He darted into the closet, closing the door part way but leaving it slightly ajar so he could peek out at the passersby.

The voices belonged to a man and a woman. Rajeev thought he recognized them from the conference room. The meeting must have let out.

"Meet me on the sixtieth floor in a half-hour," the woman said.

The man stopped in his tracks and groaned. "I'm supposed to meet with Stacey in an hour. That doesn't give me much time to—"

"Then cancel it, Ian," the woman cut in indignantly. "This is my top priority right now and it should be yours, too."

Ian sighed. "Fine. I'll see you in a half hour."

"Thank you," she said. They continued walking and made their way around the corner, out of sight. "And be discreet, Ian."

Rajeev waited in the closet several moments after they'd left, giving them and the other meeting attendees plenty of time to get as far away as possible. When he was confident the coast was clear, he crept out from behind the door and closed it gently behind him.

He hurried as quietly as possible back to the elevator. He didn't have much time to make it to the sixtieth floor.