only a few weeks ago that you’d been thinking about throwing yourself under a truck. But that had been from a mixture of shock and self-loathing. To have your life taken from you now by order of a court seems unimaginable.
And Danny—what will this mean for him? You can’t leave him to the tender mercies of people like Principal Hadfield and Sian. Or Tim, for that matter.
“What Renton doesn’t know is that I have a backup,” Tim’s saying.
You turn to him eagerly. “A backup of me?”
He nods. “In my study. Six dedicated servers, with a separate power supply in case of outages. Even if they wipe you, I’ll be able to start again.”
“But that won’t help me, will it?” you say slowly, as what he’s telling you sinks in. “I’ll have been completely erased.”
“True. But the project will live on. And we’ve still got forty-eight hours.” He puts his hand on yours. “We need to use them wisely.”
“Of course,” you say, relieved. “How? Do you have a plan?”
Leaning forward, he says intently, “If there’s anything—anything at all—that might relate to Abbie’s disappearance, you have to tell me now. Even if it makes no sense to you. Then I’ll follow it up after you’re gone.”
You stare at him. You thought he’d meant, Use the time to save you. But he’d simply meant, Use it to find Abbie. To complete the mission.
My God, the monomania of this man. Sometimes he reminds you of Danny, obsessively lining up his engines, unable to think of anything but that one, urgent need.
You gather your thoughts, determined to tell him so, to let all the hurt and resentment flow out—
But once again, you don’t.
Somehow you need to find a way to survive this. And if Tim won’t help you, you’re going to have to figure out a way to do it by yourself.
68
At home there are more TV crews. Paparazzi, too, running forward, holding their cameras up to the car window on motor drive as you pass, flash-flash-flash.
Inside, Tim immediately turns on the news. COURT ORDERS ROGUE ROBOT WIPED is the scroll. On the screen is Alicia Wright, the PR woman Tim hired to replace Katrina.
“It’s the nature of prototypes that they exist to highlight problems. That way, fixes can be found,” she’s saying smugly. “Scott Robotics is pleased to have found a solution to this issue, so we can move one step closer to full production.”
“Will the next generation of cobots have the potential to be violent?” the interviewer asks.
“John Renton’s vision for these machines is that they’ll have the personality of a high-end personal assistant: self-effacing, cheerful, attractive, and obliging. But definitely not volatile. As he said to me only this morning, nobody needs another wife. But a good assistant is very hard to find.” Alicia smiles.
“My life’s work,” Tim says in disgust. “And he’s going to turn them into geishas.”
You shudder inwardly as you think how narrowly you escaped being ordered into Renton’s custody. Can’t rape a robot, am I right? At least you’ve been spared that.
Now Lisa’s lawyer’s on the screen, reading a prepared statement.
“…The Cullen family are not anti-technology,” she’s saying. “We are not anti-progress. This was about honoring my sister Abbie’s memory, and her life. We think it right that Scott Robotics should now pay for the suffering they have caused. But the entire sum will be donated to Haven Farm Ranches, a charity working with those affected by autism.”
Something stirs in your brain. You’ve come across that name recently. But where?
Then it comes to you. Dr. Eliot Laurence’s Wikipedia page. It was on the list of charities he consulted for.
While Tim makes some calls to key staff, you look up Haven Farm Ranches. More smiling faces, more shots of fields with learning-disabled people working in them. But nothing you can see that will help you.
You go to a section marked GALLERY. There are hundreds of pictures—fundraisers, mostly. You scroll through them, not even sure what you’re looking for. Endless shots of gala evenings, ball gowns, half marathons, sponsored skydives…
And then, so sudden you almost miss it and have to go back to check, a face you know.
Mike. Wearing a tuxedo and handing over a check. Dr. Mike Austin, co-founder of Scott Robotics, passes a donation of $18,000 to Dr. Eliot Laurence, founder of Positive Autism.
You click on a menu item headed OUR METHODS.
Here at Haven Farm Ranches we embrace the whole person, not just the disability. Following an approach called Positive Autism, we use good diet, outdoor