Zendyne | Page 3

who was one
of the few people who understood the technical limitations of the data interface. After a
few seconds, the light faded and died. Burnt out, he thought. God knows what she just did,
to transfer so much information so quickly. She was gone from his screen, too, replaced
by the familiar representation of a standard artificial mind. Lilith had left everything neat
and tidy, just like she found it. Lee stared at the new display, almost embarrassed at the
childishness of his design compared to the enormity of what had been there before.
There was an insistent knocking at the bedroom door. "Everything okay in there, Mr. Lee?
Anything we need to know?"
"Yeah, just give me a minute."

The door handle started to turn. Lee yanked the connector free of the doll and thumbed
the power button to OFF. He managed to fumble the ‘deck back into its pouch just as the
senior containment operative poked her head into the room, her gaze scanning from
victim to doll to Lee. "Glad to see you have the situation under control."
He stared at the team leader blankly. He’d worked with the woman before but now her
name had vanished from his head. Was that suspicion in her eyes as she glanced at the
open flap of his nerd pouch? He tore his gaze away, looked at the dead customer instead.
"As okay as it can be, I guess, under the circumstances. I’ve, um, been checking the unit."
"Naturally. Anything we need to know?"
He tried to think of something to tell her, settling for, "Nothing out of the ordinary, as far
as I can see."
She looked at him keenly, then nodded towards the doll’s unfortunate owner. "If this isn’t
out of the ordinary, I’d say Droid Division is neck deep in the brown stuff."
"Well, I can’t be sure—"
"Until we tidy up here and get the evidence back to the lab for analysis. I know the drill."
The woman’s expression was weary. She shook her head and pursed her lips, looking at
the bloodstains on the carpet. "Don’t worry, Mr. Lee, we’re on it."
He pulled himself together and left them to their work: sanitizing the room, packing the
inert doll, and zipping the corpse into a body bag. Kelly, the victim’s security man, was
still waiting at the top of the stairs. He looked surprisingly relaxed, considering what had
just happened to his boss.
"You okay?" Kelly asked. "Your first time?"
Lee wasn’t really okay, but at least he’d put some distance between himself and all the
blood. He nodded weakly. "Yeah. I wasn’t ready for something like that, I guess."
"You never are, no matter how many times you see it." Kelly’s ghoulish grin belied his
words. "So, what happened?"
Lee took a deep breath. "Some kind of weird accident, as far as I can tell. Kinky stuff,
you know? Makes you wonder, the things these rich guys do for kicks."
"Yeah, well, I just did his security. You got to be discreet if you want to get anywhere in
this job. Not that there’s far to go, know what I mean?"
"Of course. You made a smart move, calling us first."
Kelly beamed. "That’s what I figured."
Lee stifled a sigh. His work was supposed to be about the purity of engineering design,

not the sleaze of corporate cover-ups. He did his best to smile. "Our recruitment people
should be here soon. They’ll look after you. Don’t talk to anyone else, okay?"
The rentacop glanced at the bedroom door. "Your colleagues in there already briefed me.
This won’t go anywhere. Not from me."
Two containment operatives emerged, manhandling a zipped-up body bag towards the
stairs. Lee stepped aside, nodding at their burden. "I hope he’s conscientious about
archiving his memories."
The rentacop gave a short laugh. "More like paranoid, if you ask me. Gets himself backed
up every week, rain or shine. I drove him over to the clinic myself, day before yesterday."
"Well, that’s a piece of luck. Sometimes people lose months."
Kelly grinned. "Lucky day all round, I’d say."
"Yeah." The doorbell rang again. "That’ll be our recruitment people. I’ll clear out, let you
get on with the paperwork." He stuck out his hand. "Nice meeting you."
Kelly’s grip was firm. "Thanks for everything."
"Welcome to Zendyne," said Lee.
***
The atmosphere back in the lab was tense. News of the rogue 9400 unit had traveled fast;
it wasn’t long before everyone seemed to know there was a serious problem with one of
Lee’s designs.
Colleagues who’d routinely called at his cubicle with a joke and a technical question
suddenly found that they had important work to get on with, or refused to meet his gaze
when he passed them in the corridor.