When we woke up the next morning, we made quick work of our morning routine. All of our routines seemed to just happen without a lot of thought behind what each of us were doing. We managed to stay out of each other's way, which I considered good for Nate's health.
I picked out a robot shirt to wear, with three little pictures of robots. The first one had its eyes covered and had?input no evil?underneath it. The second had its CPU in its hand and said?process no evil. The third's mouth was covered and declared?output no evil. Hopefully, Vinnie would see it and follow the directions.
During the short drive to work Nate tried to start a conversation. I hadn't bothered, because it was impossible to get into anything before we parked.
"Do you have your defense arguments all lined up?"
"I don't really have an argument. I'm just going to go in there and tell them that their robot is smarter than them and won't allow them to replace him with what they believe is a better model. There really isn't anything else I can say. I just hope they agree and Vinnie didn't have enough time to arm himself with missiles."
"I don't see how Vinnie with missiles could be a good thing," Nate said, and I couldn't agree more.
I wasn't na?ve enough to believe he hadn't already found access to something that would help prove his point. My goal was to keep on his good side as long as I could.
After Nate wished me luck, I walked in and found everything quiet as everyone seemed to be working. Ettie was missing, but I couldn't say I blamed her after the finger was immediately pointed at her.
"Hey guys, how are you doing this morning?" I asked. I couldn't see any faces, so I didn't know what the mood was.
"Well, the code still appears to be in working order, but we seem to be missing our robot now. We also seem to be missing a team member, who magically showed up yesterday and hasn't arrived on her broomstick yet, so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where Vinnie is," Josh said. The grit in his voice made it so I didn't need to see his expression to know he was scowling.
"And you'd be wrong to make that assumption. Ettie doesn't have Vinnie. I think you're just prejudiced against your ex. If you guys weren't so busy blaming her, you'd realize Vinnie is probably just hiding from you guys because he doesn't want you messing with him."
"Vinnie has an empty hard drive. There's no way he can just be off hiding somewhere." Hank let it be known he wasn't aware of his creation's real thoughts.
"Again, you'd be wrong to make that assumption. You guys actually built a robot a little too smart for his own good. He's installed a secondary hard drive and made his own modifications to his program." My statement got all eyes turned in my direction. Most of the crew had continued staring at their screens as I'd started the conversation.
"What? How in the world do you know this?" Eric asked as he stood.
"Because after you guys left last night, I found peculiarities in the logs. They indicated the files were changed from within the department, but not by one of our computer terminals. While I was pondering what that meant, Vinnie came in and decided I was his last hope.
"He doesn't want his memory wiped. I'm supposed to try to get you guys to install your new software on a different body. Apparently, he doesn't trust that you'll listen to me and has chosen to play hide and seek," I explained.
"He's just a bunch of metal, he doesn't get a choice in what we decide," Jake said as the rest of the team nodded in agreement.
"What do you guys think you're dealing with here?" I asked, frustrated by their stance. "I was told the first day here that your goal was to make a robot that would function like a human. I think you hit the nail on the head with this one. He has emotions and acts just like a human. I'm not saying he's perfect by any means, but you should at least take into account he's already improved your software and you haven't even had a chance to see what he did."
"That won't be a problem. We'll just remove the extra hard drive and study the files on it." Josh stated.
I laughed, which garnered glares from everyone else. Vinnie's view of their intelligence was proving to be spot on.
"You'll have to find him in order to do that and I'm guessing that if he doesn't want found, you have no hope of getting him. He probably has this room bugged and knows the outcome of this conversation. Knowing him as little as I do, I still can imagine he's already planning on how he's going to leave the state."
I walked over to my desk and saw my bank account program had no results. I grabbed the few things that were mine and ran a quick scan to wipe all my activity from the computer. After the few seconds that took, I moved back out to the center room and said, "It's been swell, guys, but I have a little different view on progress, so I don't think this is the right work environment for me. As of today, I quit."
I headed out of the office and got into the elevator before anyone could reply. Well, that went a little bit different than I thought. It was just as well, though, because there really wasn't anything else I could do in the building for the mission.
Technically, the bank scan hadn't needed to be done there, but I figured I might as well use the pretty computer they provided for me. I'd be better suited sitting at home, randomly scanning people's minds to see if they were thinking of stealing secrets.
When I got up to the main level, I sent Nate a quick message, letting him know that I was walking home. There wasn't any reason for him to leave for the day, and I doubted I'd over exert myself from the minimal walk.
"Can I ask why?" he sent back.
"Sure, Vinnie was right. I was dealing with idiots and I decided I couldn't take it anymore."
"What does this mean for the assignment?"
"Nothing really. I've already done everything I could on the premises. I say we stay for the rest of the week. You can continue to snoop around, while I try to read people at random times to see if they're thinking about the crime. After Friday, if we still don't know who did it, we can just burn the town to the ground and the problem is solved." I wondered if he could tell I was in a bad mood. I did such a good job of hiding it.
"Okay, that all sounds like a plan. Well, except for burning the town down. At that point, I think we'll have to bring people in and have everyone interrogated. I hope it doesn't come to that, because it'll be a zoo, but it's an option."
"Fine. I guess we won't burn things, but I get to approve the interrogation tactics. There may be a few people I want to receive some extra attention. I think I'm going to head home and give Frannie a call. I haven't talked to her in almost a week and she's probably burned a hole in a few credit cards and is dying to tell me what she bought."
"I'll be home as soon as I can get out of here. Have fun pretending to be interested in the latest fashion trend Frannie thinks you need to know about."
I groaned and didn't bother replying. I had some extra energy to burn off, so I jogged home. Sadly, the jog was less than a mile, making it so I barely wasted any energy and I didn't even work up a sweat. I settled in comfortably on the sectional and dialed Frannie's number.
"Peaches," she answered on the second ring. It'd been long enough since we'd conversed that I wasn't ready for her overexcited voice.
"Hey, Jelly Bean, how have you been?" I asked.
"Bored. When are you guys coming back? Gary has been working too much and I need someone to go shopping and hit the gym with." The original joy in her voice dipped a little.
"I just got done telling Nate we're going to be leaving here by Saturday, even if I have to burn the town down to make it happen." I'd tried to keep my occupation from Frannie, but after spending a few days in the hospital recuperating from gunshot wounds, I was forced to tell her the truth.
"That's great! We have a wedding to plan," she said, causing me to immediately assume the made up story about my fake nuptials had somehow made it to her.
"The wedding is just a joke, it's something Nate did for fun while we're undercover," I explained, hoping the news didn't depress her too much.
"What? You and Na
te are fake engaged?" It wasn't the response I was prepared for, making me pull the phone away from my ear.
"Wait a second, that wasn't the wedding you were talking about?"
"No, silly, I was talking about mine and Gary's. He proposed on Sunday."
"Oh my goodness, Frannie that's great news. It's about time; even I know you two are perfect for each other. So tell me about the ring. Have you picked a date?"
I wanted to turn the subject away from my fake marriage as soon as possible. It helped that I was genuinely enthused about Frannie's news.
"The ring is gorgeous. It's the one I showed you when we went to Cartier a few months ago. You didn't happen to tell him about it, did you?"
"No, he must have just figured it out from all the pictures you emailed to him," I teased. Frannie wasn't always very subtle.
"I did nothing of the sort and you know it. Anyway, he somehow figured out that was the one I wanted. So far, I'm thinking a June wedding. I just haven't decided where to have it yet."
"I can't say I recommend Vida, Montana for it. Unless of course the current residents vacated the city."
"Really? Are they that bad? I thought they were your kind of people."
I doubted she meant that in an offensive way, but it was hard not to feel slighted.
"When my closest friend here is currently a robot, I'm going to say yes, they are that bad."
"I can't wait for you to come home. The details of your little adventure would be fun to share over a latte."
"On the topic of home, evidently it has been ruled my apartment is too small for the two of us, so when we come back, Nate is taking me apartment shopping. I tried to convince him to move out to solve the problem, but he's been persuasive enough to make me okay with the living together thing."
"That's good. You mentioned you guys were fake engaged, does that mean you're wearing a ring?" I should've known we'd get back to that detail.
"I'm currently wearing a family heirloom of his. He actually wants it to stay in place on my finger even after we're done here. I'm considering that option, but it'd be a long term engagement if it does remain on my finger."
"Wait, so he thinks he actually did propose?"
"Yeah, but if I ever really accepted the proposal, I'd expect him to go through it again. He did it at work, so he technically proposed to my alias," I explained. Whether we'd been married before or not, I wanted him to say my real name when he proposed. I couldn't explain all the details to Frannie, even if she was ready to know I worked for the government, I didn't think the phoenix thing was something I'd share with her.
"Well, it sounds like progress is being made, so that's good news in my book. You guys should go on missions together more often."
We continued talking about plans for her wedding until I heard a car pull up in the drive. The fact that I could hear it could only mean it was Nate. Any of the other cars in town were more than likely just whispers. I said goodbye to Frannie and made my way to the door to greet Nate.
Just before I got to the door, he opened it and announced, "Hi, honey, I'm home."
"Hi, silly. Did you have a nice day at work?"
He swept me up in his arms before giving me a scorching hello kiss. I fussed a little, but deep down I enjoyed it, and didn't mind standing tucked into his side when he put me down.
"You weren't in the building, so I wouldn't call it nice."
"Did you have any conversations with the idiots?"
"No, I had to spend most of the day dealing with a fight in astrophysics. Whatever they were fighting over, I could have cared less, but I had to make sure everything was documented." He led us into the kitchen.
"It sounds like you're ready to get back home, too."
"Yeah. Did you have any plans for supper?" he asked, giving me a little shove in the direction of the fridge.
"I'm thinking just some grilled cheese and tomato soup. I need to get to bed early for the long drive tomorrow," I said as I took some Swiss and cheddar cheese from the fridge.
"I could live with that. I think, if we're tired, the sooner we go to bed the better. Now that you aren't working at the tank, we don't have to worry so much about when we get back. I've told my team that I may be running a little behind Thursday morning and they didn't have any problems with it."
We quickly ate the grub while I shared Frannie's big news. When we were done, we got ready for bed and eventually both fell asleep, after we discussed the different parks we planned on visiting and what my mother could have that would help with my memory.
CHAPTER 21
To the bat cave