Outside, the feed on the large billboard changed, showing our robot’s performance on the zebra crossing recorded by a passerby.
“Yes!” I grinned, watching what happened next. “It’s on the news. That means Zenkyoza will try to grab it as soon as they can.”
The robot picked up a redhaired woman sitting by herself with a book, and swung her over its shoulder. She shrieked, kicking her legs, and it carried her away, ignoring the security bots’ commands to stop.
The breaking news showed the robot splashing water from the fountain, and then a shot of the smashed jewelry case. And now, the news must have grabbed someone’s livestream, relaying it in real time. I saw the robot carrying away the screaming woman who very clearly didn’t want to be there.
“Yes! It destroyed property and attacked a person,” I said triumphantly, when the robot snatched a rose from the display in front of a florist and put it in its mouth.
It jumped on top of the escalator handrail, still holding the woman, and gently let her down to her feet. She clutched it with fear, obviously terrified of falling off the handrail, and the robot held her close, offering her the rose.
When they reached the top of the stairs, more security was already waiting together with two police officers.
“Let her go and lie down on the ground, now!” an officer barked.
“And phase three,” Dean said softly.
The robot fell down to one knee in front of its captive, and she stared at it, dumbfounded, still holding the rose. The lights in its eyes turned into pink hearts. Someone in the crowd laughed, and the woman blushed.
“Please, step away from the robot!” the officer yelled, making the woman jerk.
She took a step back and was forcefully pulled away by the officer while the security bots tackled our robot to the ground, even though it didn’t resist.
My AR glasses pinged with a notification. It opened across the screen, and I read it automatically.
“It’s strange,” I murmured, trying to look around the notification at the news report, hoping I’d catch the moment someone from Zenkyoza appeared on screen. They were bound to act fast. “It says an accident protocol was sent to the manufacturer, and I’ll get new glasses within a minute. But I didn’t…”
Dean grabbed me, pressing me close to his body, and jumped out through the window, shattering it. We soared through a mist of glittering glass shards when the door behind us burst open. Something popped. Dean jolted from the impact.
I screamed.
Chapter 25
Dean
Bullets showered my back as we fell, but they didn’t pierce my armor. Sera was safe in my arms and that was all that mattered. I hit the ground hard. Something crunched in my ankle, and I turned off the pain sensors indicating I was damaged.
No time for this.
“What happened to your glasses?” I asked, doing too many things at once. I ran, pulling camera feeds from the area, researching how the AR glasses warranty worked, and doing my best to control the stupid collar which freaked out, because I feared for Sera’s life. I deployed the program that blocked it, feeling an instant energy dip. That thing was draining.
“They cracked,” Sera said through teeth chattering from stress. I turned sharply away from an incoming group of six Zenkyoza battle cyborgs.
“Aha. The damage must have triggered an automatic report, and the glasses took a picture as proof. They could have alsorecorded us right after you dropped them. It’s a standard practice that lets them see how the damage was caused. Your face must have been in the picture.”
“But how?! Look out!”
I braced and jumped over a rushing car, then jumped again and swerved, getting to the other side of the busy street. It bought me two precious seconds while the cyborgs slowed down to wade through the traffic.
“Searching for your AR glasses manufacturer…It’s a company seemingly unconnected to Zenkyoza. Hold on.Diving deeper…It’s owned by a cousin of Reina’s husband. That explains the connection. I apologize for not checking better before I picked them.”
I ran down the sidewalk, estimating possible routes. I saw police cars and Zenkyoza cyborgs coming up every side street we passed. People scattered out of our way, with a few stopping to film, either with their phones or through their glasses.
The buildings on this street were too high to get to the roofs. I braced and leapt over cars to get back to the other side of the street, seeing an opening. Sera’s eyes were squeezed shut as she clung to me, trusting me fully.
I turned onto a side street, only to pivot and go back the way I came from. More cyborgs kept coming, and police cars bore down the street, their sirens blaring. One by one, the advertisements in shopping windows and restaurants turned off, then showed a yellow emergency symbol.
“Please, head inside,” a pleasant, female voice spoke from every ad screen. “A rogue robot is in the area. Please, head inside.”
