“You heard him!” shouted Andre.
He thought it was stupid to waste any more time here, but given the mood Molenski was in, he wasn’t going to risk saying anything. He turned to follow his men.
“Nyet! Not you, idiot!” yelled Molenski.
Andre turned, his face red. Molenski kicked out at the ruined device on the pavement.
“I want you to get in touch with that FBI guy you were dealing with for the Obermeyer job. See if he can do something to resurrect this fucking GPS and find out what it was tracking. Whoever it was must have been in that SUV we passed.”
Andre swallowed a sarcastic reply. When they had passed the SUV on the way into the park, he had suggested it might be worth following and pulling them over just in case. Molenski had shut him down.
“You are probably right Boss,” he said, without a trace of irony. “I will call him now.”
He took out his cellphone and walked away from Molenski, searching his contact list for the FBI surveillance guy they had bribed into their service.
Ten minutes later they were in the Merc and headed back to the estate. The Russian wanted to have a bath and a cigar to think about things while Andre went to see Agent Hedley Whittaker.
26
The Genitix Factory was located in Massachusetts, but the company’s Chicago headquarters had a sophisticated smaller scale lab on the 10th and 11th floor of their office building. They entered through the basement parking lot and took the elevator up to the tenth floor.
Redfern was nervous. He didn’t see how he could deactivate the robot without getting himself killed and had started to think his best option would be to try and sneak away and make a phone call to 911.
“It’s right through here.”
He swiped his security card for the fourth time since they’d entered the building and led them through a final set of heavy glass sliding doors into the sterile confines of the 11th floor.
Both Inga and Ivan looked around in wonder. The ‘lab’ took up nearly the entire floor. An enormous space filled with desks and work pods that contained an assortment of computer equipment and mechanical devices.
This is not what caught their attention, though. Much more interesting were the many humanlike figures, in various stages of completion, around the room. Some bore skin but were absent of hair; others were nothing but a bare metal chassis.
“Follow me; we’ll go to my pod.”
Redfern took the lead. Ivan felt on edge, the silent building and the half-built robots were more disconcerting than he would have admitted. They passed what was clearly a feminine shaped robot chassis, its bulbous eyes staring starkly from its skinless, metal skull.
Ivan almost jumped when Inga’s hand grasped his. His senses zeroed in on the place their skin touched. Her hand was warm and soft, just as he would have expected the hand of a real person – a real girl – to feel, but here in this place, it suddenly seemed artificial. He tried not to look at her in case her face revealed something he didn’t want to see, but in the end, he couldn’t look away. Her touch called loudly to him.
Inga was smiling at him, a subdued smile, but a smile nonetheless. He smiled back, hoping it didn’t appear forced.
“You are tense, Myfriend.”
“This place gives me the creeps.”
Redfern glanced around at them, doing a double take when he saw that they were holding hands. The big man glared at him, and the technician turned away again.
This will be harder than I thought, he’s grown attached to it.
He reached his work bay, thankful that there were no body parts lying around; the big guy looked spooked enough as it was.
Redfern’s work bay was a space about 14 by 14 feet, partitioned from the ones around it by a low modular wall. A long desk lined the perimeter of the square space, an array of screens, computer equipment and other gadgets that Ivan didn’t recognize spread along the top of it. The technician pulled a pair of disposable gloves from a box on the desk and then gestured to what looked a lot like a dentist’s chair in the center of the cubicle.
“It should sit here.”
“She,” grunted Ivan.
“Pardon?”
“She should sit here.”
“Oh – yes, she…”
“It’s okay, Myfriend,” said Inga, releasing his hand and sitting down in the chair.
Redfern watched the robot appreciatively. She certainly was a beauty, definitely the most beautiful custom order machine he’d seen Genitix produce.
When he glanced up, he saw the big man glaring at him. Redfern cleared his throat and turned quickly to grab a cable from his desk.
He held it up for Ivan to see.
“This is just a cable; I am going to plug it into her so that we can run the diagnostic check.”
Ivan nodded then reached into his jacket and pulled out his gun. He sat down on a nearby office chair and rested the weapon casually on his knee.
“Go ahead but remember what I said.”
Redfern pulled the lead across to the chair and leaned over the robot. Inga turned her head to the side, so he had easy access. He lifted her soft hair and pushed her ear forward with one finger, locating the micro USB port. He was just about to plug it in when she spoke.
“What’s your name?”
“Tom,” he said, surprised again by the robot’s strange behavior.
He slid the cable home.
“Tom. That is a nice name.”
“Thanks,” he said. “Are you able to lift your head a little?”
She did as he asked, and he lifted the hair behind her head and located the card slot. It was just below the sutured wound on the back of her head but didn’t look like it had sustained any direct damage. He turned back to the desk and picked up a pair of tweezers.
“Now, after I remove this card, I will have you restart,” he said, as he bent over her again.
“Yes, Tom.”
“You may feel a twinge if your PhysSens software is still running.”
“Yes, Tom.”
Ivan sat forward in his seat.
Redfern placed his hand on the top of her head and pushed it forward gently. Inga reached up and held her hair out of the way for him.
“Thank you,” he said, not registering the helpful act. He lifted the tiny flap of skin hiding the card slot with his forefinger and then delicately clasped the card with the tweezers and eased it out.
He held it up to the light.
“That’s the little fucker that’s been causing all the trouble.”
He dropped it into a tray on his desk. He knew the guys in forensics would want to reverse engineer it.
Inga dropped her hair and looked at Tom.
“Shall I restart now Tom?”
“Yes, do that, then I can run the full diagnostic for you.”
“Don’t look so worried Myfriend,” said Inga. “I will be awake again in a minute or two.”
Again, Redfern’s eyes widened. He had never heard a robot speak with such humanlike nuance. The big man nodded, but still looked as tight as a guitar string.
Inga’s eyes closed and after a few seconds, Ivan could hear a faint humming sound. The hum stopped after about a minute, and he watched her peaceful face as he waited for the hum to begin again. Thirty seconds passed by. Then a minute. As the heavy silence stretched on, Ivan’s face grew darker and darker. He glared at the technician.
“I’m sure it will just take a second,” said Redfern, hating the shrillness in his voice.
Finally, just when Redfern was about to suggest he restart her manually to circumvent the big man’s anger, the low humming began again. The technician sighed in relief and went to stand over the robot. He found himself pushed out of the way by the big man.