To his right was a series of pools packed with swimmers. To his left was a small grassy amphitheater where a string and brass trio were playing to a throng the well dressed. Straight ahead were a series of interconnected rooms and lounges made to look like a series of triangles, spheres, and cylinders that had toppled onto one another. Above all of this was a holographic sky that would have been perfectly at home over some tropical island.
Mil straightened his shirt and set about mingling. If Timoteus Reed's old vbox was still here in his ex girlfriend's apartment, he'd need to find out where she was stashing it at. And then he'd need to figure out how he would get it out.
He accepted a glass of white wine from a wandering cocktail girl and proceeded to mingle his way toward the rooms at the far end of the enclave. On his way, he paused to enjoy a few moments of the music in the amphitheater and to unsuccessfully flirt with a particularly cute member of the audience. Shrugging off the rejection, he finished off his glass and handed it off to the same cocktail girl who'd handed to him in the first place.
Wait, no. The girl who gave him his drink was wearing a white tuxedo shirt with a thin red tie. This girl was wearing a white tuxedo shirt with a thin black tie. Mil squinted at her as she walked away. Either there was one girl who had changed her tie really fast or Sapphire Jay had hired twins to run drinks at her party.
Or maybe...
Mil craned his neck around, scanning the crowd. He could still see black tie walking away from him, trading full glasses for empty ones with the audience members at the amphitheater. Red tie was back over on the stony path where guests were steadily streaming into the apartment. And there, over at the pools, were two more; an orange tie and a lavender tie. They all had the same facial features, same haircut, and the same mannerisms. Apparently Sapphire Jay was the owner of some very high end service droids.
He smiled broadly and continued his mingling movements toward the giant beige triangle that was the entrance to the rooms. Once inside he accepted a fresh drink from a blue tie cocktail droid and he wandered, as casually as he could muster. There were lounges and kitchens, game rooms filled with eclectic old novelties, and multiple music rooms where guests demonstrated their skills with whatever instruments were lying around.
In the middle of a long hallway, Mil discovered a wooden spiral staircase that didn't appear to have any traffic on it. A quick glance in either direction revealed guests that were too caught up in their own conversations to see anything unusual. At the top was a small open room with a large set of double doors flanked by flowering trees. A bedroom? He set his glass down next to the potter for one of the trees and fished his universal key out of his pocket.
"Excuse me, but Sapphire asks that guests not dally on this floor." Unlike the others, this droid wasn't wearing a tux shirt and tie. Instead, she wore a slate and ash grey strapless dress. Her mannerisms were a little different, too. More self-confident? Maybe. In any event, she gave off the air of being in charge. Perhaps she was more of a personal servant or maybe she played butler to the rest of the staff.
"Whoops. You caught me. I was trying to find my way back to the kitchen when I got a little curious about those stairs. " Mil moved toward the spiral and started back down. "Say, you're an android, right? A J-Series by SmithWorks, am I right?"
"No, sir. I am a third generation eMA-Doll manufactured by KUKA Robotics. It would be my pleasure to show you back to the kitchens if you would like."
"Yes, I think I'd like that." Mil reached for his commpen and sent a quick message without breaking eye contact with the android. "I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Jay myself. Is she expected to make an appearance tonight?"
"Of course, sir. Sapphire always ends all her parties by playing a new song or two at the amphitheater. It's still early, though. You have at least an hour before she will come out to greet everyone."
"I see." Mil glanced at the return message on his commpen. He didn't bother reading the attached price; it would just be added to his expense report anyway. He just clicked accept and read the attachment.
"Doll...?"
"Yes sir?"
"Yo pinto tejados verdes para el cultivo de algas rojo" Mil pronounced each word as carefully as he could, doing his best to circumvent his island accent.
"Administrator access recognized, technician Greeves. This unit is ready for instruction."
"I need a little help finding something, Doll."
to be continued...
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