Chapter 44
I work very hard throughout the day, trying to make up for lost time.
My mind is constantly on earlier this morning, when Lincoln fucked the ever-loving soul out of me. For the better part of the morning I had to pretend that I was okay and fight hard not to double over and clutch my womb, because the truth is I was in so much pain that there was a period when I thought I was going to have to go to the emergency room.
Lincoln's penis stabbed me over and over again and utterly destroyed my insides. When I had cleaned myself up back at the house, I had seen a little bit of blood. I also had to put a little bit of makeup on to hide any potential marks that he left on me; my throat, my face, my wrists.
I have no idea what got into him this morning and why he was even angry at me. Even when I pass by his floor, I notice that he glares at me and completely ignores me. Even when I hand him something directly, he never allows his eyes to linger for more than half a second, as if I'm indistinguishable from the robot.
They all seem very busy. Time definitely moves quickly because it's already time to clock out.
But before I can leave, a woman's voice calls out to me.
Turning around, I see Sarah trotting up.
“Hey. I know things are hectic. We appreciate everything that you're doing,” she says sweetly. A littletoosweetly.
Honestly, I didn't want to acknowledge any of the past or what happened New Year's with this woman because it's quite frankly embarrassing and weird. But then again, I chalk it up to just alcohol.
“Quick question. Are you free tomorrow? Like, at all?” Sarah asks, causing me to look at her with a wary eye.
“Tomorrow’s Saturday. My day off. Why?”
Sarah leans in, lowering her voice, and I lean back a bit. “Do you think you can come in tomorrow? I know it's your weekend but… it would be ahugefavor for the department. Like, potentially save-our-weekend huge.”
I give her a cautious smile. “Sarah, it's Friday. My weekend starts in 15 minutes,” I tell her, looking at my phone and feeling bored.
“I know, I know. That’s why it’s perfect timing. We’re hitting a wall with how the robot handles cluttered rooms when a person is moving through them. The team's been running the same few people for weeks, so it's starting to predict our movements instead of reacting fresh. At least that’s a theory. We need someone the system hasn't 'learned' yet. You have access, you're not tied to a station like the engineers, and… honestly, the real reason is, you're the only one I can ask on short notice without filling out a million forms.”
“Me?” I ask, unsure, not knowing how I feel about being anywhere near that robot.
Sarah nods enthusiastically with that stupid smile that she's been donning lately that feels like a snake wearing human teeth.
“Exactly. Thirty minutes tops. You can bring the cat.”
“I mean I would have to bring himanyway. It's my job to watch him.”
“Well there you go,” Sarah pipes up.
“...So… I don't know anything about these robots,” I stammer, trying to get out of this.
She shrugs lightly.
“No tech knowledge needed. Just you beingyou, moving naturally through the mock room and shifting stuff around. We've been testing with the same small group for weeks, so my thinking is, maybe, Auralis has started predicting our movements instead of reacting fresh.”
“I'm no expert when it comes to this stuff but… isn't that what you want?” I ask.
“What?”
“For it to get used to the people it's going to be around?”
“Not right this minute when we're trying to reproduce the bug. People's movements that it has learned… I mean technically the bug still shows up but just not as often as we need it to unless we wipe that database or do a whole bunch of reprogramming.It hides how bad the bug really is in cluttered spaces. But like I said, you're the only one I can pull on short notice with access and a flexible schedule.”
“Shouldn’t Voss or someone official ask for this? Overtime stuff?” I ask dubiously.
Sarah waves a conspiratorial hand.
“It’s not official overtime, yet. We’re keeping it quiet until we confirm the fix. If it works, we log it as a quick validation run, no forms.”
