Our Lady of the Ice by Clarke Cassandra Rose

Author:Clarke, Cassandra Rose [Clarke, Cassandra Rose]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Saga Press
Published: 2015-10-27T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

SOFIA

Sofia waited on the dock, the wind cold against her bare arms. More parts had arrived, although still not all of them. Sofia cursed the incompetence of humans.

A low dark car crawled over the damp asphalt, white steam pouring out of its exhaust pipe and curling over the choppy water slapping up against the pier. Sofia watched it, waiting. It stopped. She couldn’t see through the glass in the windows, but she knew who was inside. She hated that she had to be here alone, after the encounter with the record player, but Inéz was gone, and Luciano had refused to accompany her, for reasons he wouldn’t reveal. And she did not have the equipment to reactivate any of the broken androids locked away in the park. Yet.

The back door of the car opened and Cabrera stepped out, dressed in a long dark trench coat. Sebastian followed, a gun shining in one hand. She waited for Diego, but he never emerged.

“Sofia,” Cabrera said. “Why would you want to meet out here? It’s so much warmer in my office.”

“I don’t care about warmth.” Sofia walked toward him, her senses alert.

“I can see that.” Cabrera nodded at her bare arms, her bare legs. “This isn’t about our little lesson last time?”

“Lesson?” Sofia stopped. “That wasn’t a lesson.”

“Music, my dear. I was trying to teach you about music—”

“I know what you were trying to do. Don’t pretend with me.”

Cabrera’s mocking smile faded away. “You think you’re such a clever robot.”

Sofia began to walk again, heading toward the trunk of the car. But when she passed Cabrera, he grabbed her by the arm. She stopped and glared at him.

“My payment,” she said. “I want to see it.”

“You will.” Something in his expression unsettled her.

“What is it?” She yanked her arm away. “You’re that upset that you couldn’t force me to dance again?”

“I’ll force you to dance when I want to.”

Sofia felt hollow. She didn’t dare take her eyes off Cabrera. “Excuse me?”

Cabrera smiled at her again, a lazy serpentine smile that activated the programming in charge of self-preservation. Sofia took a step back.

“What are you going to do?” Sofia kept her voice hard. Steely. Cabrera seemed unaffected.

“You’ll notice that one of our usual number is missing this evening.” Cabrera gestured at Sebastian, who shifted his gaze off to the side but didn’t react otherwise. “Mr. Amitrano has elected to stay home.”

“Did you kill him?”

Cabrera tilted his head. “I don’t kill people, Sofia.”

“Yes, you do.”

“I hire others to do it for me. But no, Diego is not dead. He’s injured.”

Antarctic wind swirled over the water. Sofia could taste the ice on it, like shards of broken glass. Cabrera seemed to be waiting for her to respond. She would not play into his game. She said nothing.

Cabrera shifted his weight. “Injured,” he said, “but not by my hand.”

Sofia blinked at him. Her programming whirred behind her eyes, sifting through the fighting programs Araceli had uploaded, the protocols about when to stay and when to run. She thought about her equipment, her payment, waiting in the trunk of that car.

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