ReV by Madeline Ashby

Author:Madeline Ashby
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857668585
Publisher: Watkins Media
Published: 2020-09-01T16:00:00+00:00

7

WAR

“I wanted to bring her back,” the man said. His name was Lee. That was the name he filed on his police report. It was a first name but also a last name, and the form (they still had paper forms, how cute) was faded, so he just put down one name, likely because he had no idea where to put what. Likely the person he brought with him would complain of the same issue, if asked.

“Not for a refund, or anything,” he told the officers, with the seeming hope that this would clarify things. “She’s just, you know, acting up. I don’t feel safe no more.”

The officers behind the desk at Lee’s local police station blinked at him. They looked at her. She was perfect. Porcelain skin. Blue eyes. Red hair. Hourglass figure. She seemed younger than he was, at first. And then, when they looked, much older. Ageless. As though whatever memories were written on the graphene coral nesting inside her titanium skeleton were too much, too heavy.

“I picked her up at a swap meet, anyway,” he said. “Out by Sparkwood and 21? There’s a big swap out there a couple of times a year. I got her when she was just so high.” He gestured with his hand at a region somewhere around his thigh. “Anyway, you know, she’s been different, lately.”

The officers looked at each other, and then at her, and then at him. “In what way has she changed?” one asked, just as the other said, “Has she become violent with you?”

“I don’t know,” Lee said, and then, “No. Not violent. Just… different.”

The vN looked at the floor. It was concrete, made dark and glossy with the weight of shuffling feet and piss and shame. She might have seen herself in it, reflected back from the other side of the shadow, staring up, wondering how the fuck they’d brought themselves to this place.

If she did see herself, the cameras in each corner of the room failed to pick it up. But she stared long enough that it seemed possible.

Lee leaned over the counter. He lowered his voice. The badge-cams barely picked it up. “What I’m saying is that things in the bedroom aren’t what they used to be.”

The on-duty officers again shared a glance. What they did not say was that this sounded like a personal problem. But they were thinking it. You could tell. Anyone could tell.

“But you haven’t been threatened in any way?” one asked.

“Well, no. But it’s a sign, isn’t it? A symptom? Of something bigger?”

Lee cast a nervous look over his shoulder at the woman he’d bought at the swap meet all those years ago. Maybe it wasn’t years. Maybe it was only months. Who had he swapped her for? Why was the swap so necessary? What exactly was he so dissatisfied with, when he went to the swap meet (swap meat) that day?

He continued: “I heard what happened at that theme park, you know. I saw some of the complaints. Folks were saying the robots just, weren’t, you know, interested.

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