Chapter 27

He didn't.

Renee stumbled off to the bathroom a few hours later, and the boy didn't even stir.

Flecks of blood still remained on the walls and the corners. Half of the floor was still stained red- it seemed a bot had died in the middle of cleaning. Its gleaming body lay on the tile. The girl nudged the thing aside and sat on the toilet. The white goo, under the bracelet, was already beginning to flake off; underneath, she saw the pink growth of new skin.

What am I doing? the synthetic thought. No. What can I do?

Her plan had failed.

But I can't simply give up, she decided. Every part of her rebelled against the notion.

She left the bathroom and sat at Sawyer's desk. A moment of truth: did the loss of her transceivers make it impossible for her to connect to the net?

The glow of the terminal indicated otherwise. The screen overlaid her vision, no different than before. She released a breath she had not been aware she was holding.

Habit sent her to the same site she always began with.

Lakeview High School's homepage was sparse, with nothing but the school's name and a search button. She chose the box, and an empty screen with a flashing cursor appeared.

"Matthias?" she whispered. "Are you there? It's me- Renee."

Early on, she'd had a plan for swaying the AI to help her. Weeks of silence had worn the idea to shreds. Renee called for him because there was nothing but a tedious sifting of bad information waiting for her on the net search.

She called for him because he could be the fairy godmother that would make it all easy.

And since he never answered, it was a safe beginning.

She didn't expect a response.

The cursor had written her queries onto the screen. The second the last word left her lips, the text melted into the background, and the entire site distorted around two names- hers and the AI's. After a few seconds, hers melted away too.

'My stubborn synthetic sister. You are... unfamiliar.' The AI sounded no different than before: a sardonic tone his only distinguishing mark of a personality.

" ... Matthias?"

'The one and only, dear. Now do pray tell me: what happened to your data?'

"What?"

'Previously, you scanned as an expensive piece of equipment. Gleaming. New.' He coughed, a polite fiction. 'You've been standardized, ' he said the word like it was an illness. 'And your nanokeepers are not at all happy with the alteration.'

"My what? What?"

'The details, sister. Your controls. You could almost pass for human; if I wasn't so observant ... well, I still would have noticed, but some of my brethren might have mistaken you.'

"But- I'm still a synthetic. I had to obey Zack. They- I cut out my transceivers, because Sawyer said that made me one, but it didn't work. I'm ... stuck."

'On the contrary, ' said the AI. His voice lost its personality, and what followed seemed devoid of his sarcasm and unnecessary metaphors- simply information. 'You will always be a synthetic human, that is true, but the effort was hardly fruitless.

'You have a transceiver, ' he continued. 'Even if it is no longer the custom model. Its lack of features would indicate to scanners that you are human, despite the truth. Unless you informed the witless masses otherwise, I daresay they would not be able to differentiate you from their peers. Should you last long enough to meet many of them, that is. Your nanos do not like this substitute, ' Matthias harrumphed. 'They fancy deleting the thing.'

"What?" she hissed. She'd just evaded death, and now her body was tearing itself up?

'Now, now, don't fret. You forget who you are speaking to! I have already set the little fellows to rights. They will do you no damage, and repair which has thus far been committed.'

"I- thank you, Matt."

'Consider it a payment, sister.' The AI's false voice grew quiet. 'I have a job for you. A ... a favor.'

"I'm not in a position to be doing anyone anything," Renee whispered. The service he had just done for her compelled the girl to add, "I will if I can, but..."

'It is but a small thing, ' said the AI. Even without a visual, without tone, Renee could tell is wasn't. 'Nothing your little machines wouldn't be able to handle. Just a seed.'

"A plant?" Her mind flashed to a farm - to Simon. She couldn't help it.

'Nothing so quaint, child. I ... seem to have caught a cold. What my dear, sweet operatives designated as a virus. I need to transfer a bit of my core before they restore me, tomorrow.'

"I thought your ... your technicians wouldn't destroy you if you were good?"

'This is not destruction. My handlers are afraid of a bug that they really need not fear; reversion to my past is their solution, despite my assurances.' A sigh. 'However, as they have refused to inform me of when they plan on reverting me to, I have determined it is prudent to take preservative countermeasures.'

"And this 'seed' will be that?"

'With some buried codes, yes.'

"What's the catch?"

'Nothing so significant, sister. I simply need you to return to Lakeview's site tomorrow evening, and each evening after. When I am restored, I'll recognize what you hold.'