Neon Nights: A Cyberpunk Detective Thriller by Anna Mocikat

Author:Anna Mocikat [Mocikat, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“Thank you,” Siro said as the robot handed him a bottle of water.

His colleagues back in III had always made fun of him because he was the only one who said “please” and “thank you” to robots. He simply thought it was the right thing to do.

Just then, however, he had done it absentmindedly since he had completely different things occupying his thoughts.

That he and Kate had barely escaped an attempt on their lives, for example.

“Take one of those every eight hours for the next forty-eight hours,” the robot said, handing him a pouch filled with pills.

It was one of the models typically used as medics and nurses in hospitals. The humanoid body was metallic, and the rudimentary human-shaped face was genderless and wore a friendly smile. Most robots used among the public were clearly identifiable as such. As it turned out, even after decades of being surrounded by intelligent machines, many people still felt uneasy when confronted with models that were barely distinguishable from humans. The phenomenon known as “the uncanny valley” was the reason why almost all robots seen in public had metallic bodies and only vaguely resembled humans. The only exception was sex bots. Apparently, the uncanny valley wasn’t such a huge issue as soon as sex was involved.

But the AI units swarming the former hotel lobby weren’t designed for sex. They were medics, firefighters, and police officers. Siro was sitting on one of the old, musty couches while the robot tended to him. The machine had taken a blood sample from his finger and analyzed it within seconds to determine if he had suffered smoke poisoning. Luckily he hadn’t, and other than having a headache, he felt fine. The pills the robot gave him were meant to take care of that.

Siro was aware of how incredibly lucky he and Kate had been.

His partner was sitting on a portable chair not far away, where another robot was gluing the cut on her forehead. More units were tending to other inhabitants of the former hotel while police robots were securing the scene and collecting evidence. It seemed almost miraculous that no one had died or been seriously hurt.

The machines would also interrogate all the residents, but Siro highly doubted anyone had seen anything that would help their investigation—or at least they’d pretend not to. In districts like Oldtown, people preferred to keep their mouths shut than risk pissing off the wrong individuals.

Less than five minutes later, Kate approached him.

“Ready. Let’s go.”

She looked a bit pale, but other than that, her usual attitude was back. The cut on her forehead had been sealed with a high-tech healing balm colloquially referred to as glue. It contained enzymes that stimulated the natural healing process—on speed. The cut would be completely gone in less than a week, and not even the slightest scar would remain. Nevertheless, the injury must have been painful.

Siro got up and followed her outside to the car. Looking back, he saw that the hotel’s upper floor was

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