CHAPTER 16

2015, Texas

They landed with a wet splash on to a hard tiled oor.

‘Ouch!’ Liam whimpered.

The water sloshed noisily across the oor soaking cardboard boxes of domestic cleaning materials.

‘Jay-zus, why can’t we ever land on something soft …

like a pil ow?’ He grimaced as he let go of his nose and pu ed out the breath he’d taken back in 2001.

‘Insu cient data to identify a soft landing loca–’

Liam raised a hand. ‘It’s al right … I wasn’t after an answer.’ He pul ed a wet shock of dark hair out of his eyes and opened them, instantly wishing he hadn’t.

‘Oh-Mother-of-God!’ He clamped his eyes shut and turned away to look at the storeroom wal .

‘What is wrong?’

‘You could have warned me you were taking those wet things o !’

‘Why?’

‘Because … because …’ He bit his lip. This is so very not right.

‘Because you’re a, ah … you’re a girl now, Bob.’

Liam spot ed some towels on the storeroom shelf and began to dry himself o .

began to dry himself o .

‘You should assign a new ident. to this AI copy. I may be “Bob” now,’ she said, ‘but this AI wil develop new subroutines and characteristics that require a new identifying label.’

Liam nodded. ‘Yes.’ Self-consciously he found himself wrapping the towel round his waist as he hurriedly removed his wet boxers and pul ed the clothes he’d brought with him out of the bag.

‘Four seconds before we were transmit ed, you indicated you had a suitable ident. for me.’

‘Oh yes … so I did.’

She turned to look at him. ‘So, what wil I be cal ed?’

Liam could hear the rustle of clothes being quickly pul ed on behind his back.

Good.

He real y didn’t need to see that … again. He found a pair of neon green three-quarter-length baggy shorts and a navy blue sweatshirt with the word NIKE splayed across it. And, for some reason, a large tick beneath the word. He felt much bet er with some clothes on, even if they looked quite ridiculous.

‘I had a cousin cal ed Rebecca,’ he said. ‘Used to cal her Becks for short.’

‘Becks?’ replied the support unit, her voice rising at the end in a query.

‘That’s right – Becks.’

‘A moment … logging ident….’

‘So, are you decent now? Can I turn round?’

‘So, are you decent now? Can I turn round?’

‘Decent?’

‘You know, got clothes on?’

‘A rmative.’

Liam turned round and found his breath caught momentarily. ‘Blimey!’

Becks cocked her head and looked at him. ‘Are these garments incorrectly deployed?’

His eyes skit ered awkwardly up from the combat boots to the black leggings, to the black lace mini-skirt to a black crop top that displayed a bare midri , up to her … perfect

… face framed by tumbling locks of aming fox-red hair. Quite clearly Sal had decided their support unit needed to look like some sort of gothic valkyrie.

‘Uh. No, you are … you got it about … errrr … right, I suppose … I think.’

Liam felt his mouth go dry and a strange jit ery, lurching sensation in his stomach.

Jay-zus … get a grip, Liam. That’s … that’s … that’s just Bob wearing a girl suit. Al right?

‘Recommendation: you should refer to me as Becks from this point on,’ she said rmly. ‘It wil avoid unnecessary confusion between AI versions.’

He nodded. ‘Al right … uh, OK. So, you’re Becks, then. That’s that set led.’

‘Correct.’ Her smile was faltering and clumsy as always, just like Bob. But on those lips, strangely quite perfect. Liam decided to shift his mind to other things. ‘I suppose we had bet er get a move on and nd this Chan suppose we had bet er get a move on and nd this Chan fel a.’

Becks nodded and blinked, retrieving data from her hard drive. ‘We are located within the institute’s experimental reactor building. The reactor is very close to this location.’

Liam stepped towards the storeroom’s door and cracked it open a sliver. Outside he could see a narrow hal way and, opposite, double doors with a sign on them: AUTHORIZED VISITORS AND STAFF ONLY. Just then he heard mu ed voices from the end of the hal way and glass doors swung inwards to reveal a man in a smart linen suit leading a shu ing gaggle of teenagers.

‘Yes, we’re in the correct place al right,’ whispered Liam. He watched them coming towards them, the man turning to talk to the group, gesturing emphatical y with his hands. Liam gently closed the door until it clicked.

‘They’re just coming up now. We can tag along on the end,’ he whispered.

He waited until the muted sound of the man’s droning voice and the shu e and slap of trainers on the polished linoleum oor passed them by before he cracked the door open again and peeked out. The last kids in the school party were just ahead, three blonde-haired girls deeply involved in a mumbled conversation, clearly too interested in chat ing to each other to even pretend to be listening to the guide up front.

‘Now!’ Liam mouthed, and stepped out behind them, Becks swiftly fol owing.

Becks swiftly fol owing.

He fel in step at the back of the group and when one of the girls casual y glanced back over her shoulder he quickly managed to mimic the laid-back swagger of one of the boys up ahead.

‘Oh,’ said the girl. ‘Thought we were, like, you know, the last.’

Liam shrugged and smiled. ‘Guess, like, not,’ he replied, doing his best to bury the Irish in his voice. Her gaze lingered a moment longer, a ickering smile for him. Then she turned back round and was back to gossiping in a conspiratorial murmur with the other two again.

Liam pu ed out a silent gasp of relief. It looked like they’d jumped the rst hurdle – successful y sneaking on to the back of the tour party and managing to pass themselves o as yet two more kids who might actual y have preferred a trip to Disneyland or Universal Studios than wandering around a bunch of clinical y clean corridors. He grinned at Becks and then almost immediately wished he hadn’t. The smile she returned gave him that weird ip-opping sensation in his stomach again.

Liam, you daft idiot … It’s just Bob in a dress, for crying out loud!

He wished Sal could have found some other clothes for the support unit, something baggy, drab and un at ering. And why a wig with hair like that? Why that colour? He’d always loved that copper red. His rst crush at school, always loved that copper red. His rst crush at school, Mary O’Donnel , she’d had hair that bewitching colour of ery red.

Oh, saints preserve me … she’s just a meat robot, so she is.