The robot stopped once more. Its sensors apparently scanned in all directions. He retreated a step. It resumed, the hatch sliding open as it approached. There was barely an inch of clearance on all sides. He would have to wait for it to get all the way through before he could enter …
The door snapped shut the moment it was inside.
“Buggeration and fuckery!” Eddie growled. He poked at the hatch, but it was almost flush with the wall, giving him nothing to grip. And attempting to force it open would definitely attract attention. He would have to find another robot and try again. Trying to look purposeful, he headed down one of the corridors.
It didn’t take long for him to spot a telltale polished trail on the floor. He followed it, quickly catching up with another machine. It was heading away from the hatch, though; no telling how long it might take to do its rounds. If he delayed too long, Stikes might leave. How could he force it to speed things up?
The rear of the robot, he noticed, had a large flap on its top and a vertical row of little blue LEDs, the uppermost one of which was unlit. Above them was the symbol of a stylized wave. An indicator of how much water the automated cleaner had in its tank …
“Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,” he said as he strode up to the machine, which halted. He lifted the flap to find a dustbin-sized water tank, about three-quarters full. The robot spoke, but he ignored it, circling to look for controls. There was a small panel of touch-sensitive buttons on one side. One of them, he guessed from the symbol, was its main power switch.
A plan was forming, but he needed somewhere private to carry it out. He looked at the doors along the corridor. One was a restroom. Perfect.
He retreated, letting the robot continue along its route until it was level with the restroom door—then caught up and, as it asked him to move, jabbed at the power button. The machine fell silent, its lights going out. Glancing about to make sure nobody was coming, he grabbed it and, with considerable effort, pushed it to the door. “Can’t believe I’m mugging Artoo-Detoo,” he muttered as he manhandled it into the room.
The bathroom was large and had a tiled floor, both of these facts being good; it would give him space to work, and the people on the level below wouldn’t be immediately alerted by gallons of water coming through the ceiling. He strained to tip the robot on its side. The flap burst open as it thumped down, water sluicing out. He pulled the now considerably lighter machine back upright and checked that the corridor was still clear before hauling it outside.
Eddie clambered into the empty tank. He leaned over the side and pushed the power button again, then curled himself into a ball in the confined space and lowered the lid.
Nothing happened for several seconds. He was starting to worry that he had damaged the machine when it completed its self-test routine and abruptly turned to head back the way it had come. As he’d hoped, the robot had registered that its water supply was drained—and was going for a refill.
He raised his head, pushing the lid up just enough to risk a peek. Someone walked past, but far enough away not to trip the machine’s sensors—the office workers were clearly so used to the robots that they ignored them.
A turn, and the machine rolled toward the service door. Eddie hunched down again and waited. He heard the hatch open. The robot started through it, hesitated as if belatedly becoming aware of the stowaway …
Then went through. The hatch closed. Eddie looked out again, but found only darkness. Robots didn’t need light to see. He had a small torch in one pocket, but there wasn’t enough room for him to fumble it out. All he could do was go along for the ride until he reached the forty-fourth floor’s maintenance hub—and hope he could climb out before the water tank was refilled.
He heard the rumble of other machinery over the robot’s electric whine. It made its way through the dark, then bumped over a threshold. A pause, then Eddie felt a different kind of movement. He was in an elevator, going up.
The ascent soon stopped and the robot reversed out of the elevator on a new floor. Eddie lifted the