Inga didn’t answer immediately. Her face was blank, her mouth poised to answer but it appeared his question had stumped her.
“Come! You think too much,” he said, holding out his hand. “You need to feel.”
“Myfriend instructed me to wait here.”
“I know, but I want to show you my birds. Come, they are just through that doorway. He said to wait with me, didn’t he?”
Again, she froze momentarily, processing the logic of the request, and after a few seconds took his hand and stood up, allowing him to lead her through a large doorway into the dining area of his restaurant. Considering the bland exterior of the building, it was a grand room with rich furnishings and a spacious feel.
“Here they are!” he said, proudly, leading her to a large wire cage in the front corner of the room.
The cage was home to two peach faced Lovebirds, their colors vibrant even in the filtered afternoon light. They began to tweet and sing as Mateo and Inga approached. The Croatian gestured to them.
“This is Max, and this is Maxine,” he said, introducing the birds one at a time.
Inga bent over for a better look, her forehead bumping the cage gently, causing it to rock back and forth. She reeled in surprise when the startled birds took flight and fluttered around the cage.
“Shhh, shhh,” soothed a laughing Babic.
Inga watched intently as the birds found their way back to the perch.
“What do you think of my babies?”
“Babies: Newborn, Infant, bundle of joy…”
“Birds! My dear, I mean what do you think of my birds?”
“They are… nice.”
The old man chortled.
“So, you do like them?”
“Like. To regard with favor; have a kindly or friendly feeling for; to find attractive…” she looked at him, her eyes wide. “Yes, I like your birds.”
“Here,” said Mateo, reaching for the door of the cage.
Inga watched, fascinated, as he reached into the cage and began making a soft clicking noise with his tongue. One of the birds fluttered to his finger, and he carefully extracted his arm and held out the bird to her.
Inga reached out to grab it.
“No!” said Mateo, and her hand froze inches from the bird.
“Don’t grab him. Just hold out your finger as I am. They’re very delicate.”
She obeyed him and held out her finger. Her eyes widened as the bird hopped from the old man’s finger to her own.
“Pretty boy Max wants a kiss,” said Mateo.
“A kiss?” she asked. “Kiss. A touch or caress with the lips as a sign of love, sexual desire, or greeting… but the pretty boy has no lips.”
Again, the old man laughed delightedly.
“That’s alright, just do this with your lips.” The old man demonstrated how to purse lips. “You do that and let him peck you.”
Neither of them noticed Ivan in the doorway, his mouth open as he watched the strange interaction. Inga raised her hand slowly until the bird was just an inch or two from her pursed lips. The bird hopped to the end of her finger and began to gently nibble her lower lip.
“Ha-ha!” she cried in delighted surprise.
The startled bird took flight. It had flown barely four inches before Inga’s hand snatched it out of the air, a single peach colored feather floating on eddies of air stirred by her quick movement, the only evidence it had been there a second before.
“What have you done?!” Mateo cried, attempting to grab Inga’s arm. She snatched his wrist with her free hand as quickly as she had snatched the bird. She didn’t release him as she reached into the cage.
“No!” called Babic, assuming she would grab the other bird.
“Inga!” said Ivan from behind them, crossing the room quickly.
The robot ignored him, focusing on the task at hand. The old man struggled futilely against her iron-like grip, only ceasing his struggles when Inga opened her hand, and the unharmed Max flew to his perch, rejoining Maxine and preening himself as if nothing had happened.
Inga released the Croat’s wrist and turned to look at the two men. The restaurant owner’s face was pale. Ivan was frowning.
“I like birds,” she said simply.
Mateo rubbed his wrist and smiled back uncertainly.
“Are you all right?” Ivan asked him.
“Yes, I’m fine – she just took me by surprise… did you see how fast she is? Amazing.”
“Yes – I saw, sorry if she gave you a fright. Dr. Vlad said I could take her to him in an hour. Will you order the passports?”
“Yes, I’ll call now. Did you tell the doctor that she is…” he paused, aware the girl was watching him.
“Yes, apparently he has worked on them before. He sounded excited. Are we able to stay here the night when we’re done?”
“Yes, of course, you can stay upstairs. It’s only me here at the moment. Viktoria is in Croatia visiting family. Chef is already preparing in back and after I make a call to the documents man I will bring you both something to eat.”
Ivan looked at him, a small smile curling the corner of his lips. Mateo looked puzzled for a second and then slapped himself on the forehead again.
“I mean, I’ll bring you something to eat. Sorry, my slow old mind just cannot process that she is an it!”
He led them through the kitchen, Mateo briefly introducing them to the chef as his friends before leading them outside and up external stairs to the small apartment he shared with his wife. It was much as Ivan remembered from his years in Babic’s employ. Clean but dated.
“I’m sorry I don’t have a bed to offer you tonight Ivan, but you’ll find the sofa comfortable.”
“The sofa will be fine.”
“What about…?” the old man nodded to Inga.
“She has sleep mode.”
“Yes, I will stand in the corner. May I go into standby mode and run a diagnostic scan?”
“You won’t restart?”
“No Myfriend, a diagnostic scan is similar to a virus scan on a computer, it is not necessary to shut down.”
“All right, as long as it doesn’t take too long, we have to leave shortly.”
“Yes, Myfriend.”
Both men watched her walk to the far corner of the room. Blood from the wound on her back had seeped through the white jacket Ivan had picked for her. She turned to face them and smiled, her clear blue eyes regarding them for a moment before closing.
“Amazing,” Mateo whispered again, shaking his head. “I must go downstairs; the doors open in twenty minutes. Help yourself to anything you need. Perhaps you should pick a new jacket for your friend. Help yourself to Viktoria’s wardrobe and there is a first aid kit in the bathroom.”
After Mateo had left, Ivan sunk into the sofa and looked at Inga. He didn’t know why she had begun deferring to him; it was as if she had forgotten that Molenski was her primary user. Somehow the damage she had taken had messed with the adaptive technology that Marina mentioned. Whatever it was, he liked the change, not to mention the fact that if it hadn’t happened, he would be nothing but a cooling piece of meat back at Molenski’s mansion.
Far from sleepy, he closed his eyes and began to work through everything that could go wrong in the next 24 hours.
21
Tom Redfern tried to sleep, but it was difficult to sleep when you couldn’t breathe. He tried to roll over, but the heavy weight on top of him was too much to push away. Rachel?
Slowly – reluctantly – he began to wake.
The memory of what had happened rushed over him. He opened his eyes and looked straight into the staring eyes of the man who had been trying to strangle him, the slack, gray face slightly distorted by the bullet that had so recently traveled through the skull behind it.