Echoes of Family Lost by Clayton Barnett

Author:Clayton Barnett [Barnett, Clayton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: friendship, android, family, nuclear power, catholic, ai, knoxville, huntsville, laws of robotics, dystopia ya
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

The Carell’s froze. Their smiles now just masks. Uh, oh, Lily thought: she’d forgotten about Ai’s family’s lack of subtlety. John seemed to collect himself first.

“That… is an odd word you just said.” He placed his hands slowly onto the table before him. “It didn’t even sound English.”

Lily tapped Fausta’s foot with hers. She turned her head slightly towards Lily.

“Friend?” Lily said. “After that hot bath, the first one I’ve had in years, I feel very lightheaded. Could you help me to our room, please?” Fausta stood at once.

“Of course.”

Lily stood slower, trying to make it look realistic. “Thank you very much for your company, tonight.” She deliberately stumbled as she stepped over the bench. Fausta caught her and scooped her up into her arms.

“We go.”

The three watched them leave. Orloff saw the Carell’s exchange a look. John’s lopsided grin returned. His eyes remained hard.

“I’ll be here at ten thirty. And so will you.” He said. Orloff full well heard the threat.

“Certainly. Good evening.” They all stood and shook hands.

There was a single knock on the door. Orloff entered and sat down on the bed on the right. Across from him sat Lily and Fausta. He stared at the floor. One of the help must have been in earlier to start a fire in the stove.

“Lily tells me that I made a mistake. I am sorry.”

He continued to stare at the floor.

“How bad is it, Orloff?” Lily asked.

“We can’t leave, they made that clear,” he said to the floor. “If they really are installing a reactor here, I’d say there are at least two companies of them; call it 250 to 300 people.” He finally raised his head and looked at Fausta. “They are going to want to know how you knew that.”

“Simple. We, too, have a pair of walkie-talkies. We shall tell them that we overheard them.”

Orloff thought about that. “What frequency did you hear about the reactor?”

“425 MHz.”

He stood. “I’ll be going to the wagon to make sure what we have can reach that. Question, Fausta: what are your reserves right now?”

“Eleven percent.” He shook his head.

“We can’t run; we can’t fight. I suggest we start to think.” The door banged shut behind him.

“I am sorry, Lily.” Fausta said without moving. Lily moved her left arm around her shoulders.

“We’ll be fine. And for once the old man is right: let’s think our way out of this, okay? Now, if they buy the walkie-talkie story, it was them that brought up the reactor, so—”

“Lily! Orloff just called me with the hand-held; they do get that frequency. He said he’s going back to the tavern to find out what he can from the locals.”

“Great! That’s steps one and two! If these people from Knoxville have that many people here, there’s just no way to keep something like that a secret, so that rounds out the rest of our story!” This will work, she thought.

“But,” Fausta said slowly, “having piqued their curiosity, they may demand we tell them everything.”

“Oh, that’s not such a big deal, is it?” Lily asked.

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