Three down. The other two were almost too close, so I grabbed Sera again and ran down the street, turning when I saw a policecyborg advancing on us. Those I could not shoot. We had a chance of getting away if I didn’t make a personal enemy of the Japanese police, I knew that.
“oh, you’re funny! so you’re in japan? I like sushi. what’s your favorite food???”
I avoided another bullet, this one an armor-piercing round, judging by the look of the barrel. The Zenkyoza bots realized hacking me was impossible and turned to lethal measures. My camera feeds showed police bots arriving down two streets that were my exit options. I dropped Sera, covering her with my body, and turned.
“I like clean energy, I suppose. What do you like doing in your free time?”
I shot at the two remaining Zenkyoza bots. One avoided my first shot, but succumbed to the third. With maybe ten seconds to spare, I evaluated our options. Our exit routes were cut off. We couldn’t run the way we had come from, either. More bots were coming.
“The roof,” Sera said, looking up at the wall of a three-story building next to us. “Can you climb up?”
“Can a sheep fart?” I asked, my communication algorithm botching the job. “Never mind. Hop on my back.”
I lowered myself into a crouch, and Sera put her arms and legs around me. My pleasure sensors awakened with a thrill, and I dunked them in a cooling agent.
The police just rounded the corner when I jumped, grabbing onto the balcony rail of the second floor apartment. I swung over it and jumped again, landing on the roof.
“I like baking and walking my dog. and music! I like dancing. what music do you listen to?”
“I like Mozart,”I lied, sprinting across the roof. I timed it well, running equations in my head, and sprung off the edge, gracefully flying through the gap between this roof and the next. I landed easily and kept running.
“mozart??? I’m more of a pop girlie. anyway, a big boy like you must have a big gun in his pants. show me???”
“They know it was me. Someone recognized me. Are we going to die?” Sera asked, her voice small. I pressed her closer.
“Sixteen percent likelihood. Fifty-eight percent likelihood of being arrested. Hold on.”
I jumped over another gap, then another, hacking into street camera feeds along the way. We left the pursuit behind, but not far enough. I fed the CCTV system a smart virus that erased me and Sera from the live stream and any recordings made in the last half an hour. Hopefully, it would be enough to hide.
I jumped off the roof of a low building and dove right into a subway station, tearing Sera’s hat off her head. She would be less conspicuous without it, despite her purple hair.
“No gun right now. Are you only interested in my junk?”I asked Amanda from Colorado.
“well, what else???”
“I don’t think our goals are aligned. I’m looking for a substitute crush, not a sexual relationship. Thank you for your time and have a good day.”
I deleted Amanda from my contacts and hacked into the station database. We had thirty-one seconds to get on the next train, and I ran as fast as I could without raising suspicion. We were almost too late, sliding through the doors just as they began to close. The other passengers threw us reproachful looks. Itrudged over to an empty seat and sat with Sera in my lap, refusing to let her go.
“Robotto-gurui no hentai,” a man in his thirties muttered, eyeing Sera with contempt.
Robot-loving pervert.I did a quick search, learning that in Japan, some people got unofficially married to their personal robots, which was frowned upon by society at large. It was believed a person who was in a relationship with a bot took the “easy way out” and refused to do their part by birthing the future generations to support the nation.
My core cooled rapidly, which felt unpleasant after running so hot.Did Sera want children?I was cooked if she did. This was the one and only thing I could never give her.
I turned to the man who insulted her, ready to unload my sudden terror and frustration on him. Sera seemed to sense it, because she sat up in my lap. “Ignore him,” she said quietly in English. “Are we safe?”
“We’ll know when we get off. You’re a stupid human,” I said, because I wasn’t sure she got it the first time I told her. “Do you want to have children?”
She huffed angrily, trying to get off my lap. I didn’t let her. The judgmental man hissed another insult under his breath, clearly thinking this was part of some dynamic Sera programmed me for.
Right. I was supposed to follow her orders. I let my hands slacken around her waist, but instead of pulling away, she turned in my lap and poked my chest.
“Why do you always change the topic? Fine! I did a stupid thing. Smart people can be stupid sometimes. Sue me.”
She folded her arms, glaring at me, and I sat back, letting my hands be light around her. She could leave if she wanted to. She didn’t. It made my pleasure sensors go haywire, and I had to slap my collar with a code sequence again. The program that I deployed to thwart it turned off, and since it ate enormous amounts of energy, I didn’t want to risk running it again.
“Yes. You’re right,” I said, trying to mimic Charlie’s serious, slightly patronizing tone. “The fact you did an obviously dumb, foolish, foolhardy, and suicidal thing does not mean you’re unintelligent.”
