"We have just over six minutes before the security network finishes its diagnostic. At that time they will be alerted to our thievery." The eMA-Doll in the grey dress closed and re-locked the glass case where Timoteus Reed's original vbox used to sit.
"Thanks, Doll. I guess it's time for me to be going. What's the fastest way to a parking deck?" Mil slipped the piece of musical history into his pocket and looked wistfully at the artifacts in the room. This little hidden room off of the master bedroom was a treasure trove of TR Vanguard memorabilia: instruments, posters, hand-written notebooks; and he didn't have time for any of it.
"The closest parking deck is the loading bay two floors down. Follow me, technician Greeves. I'll show you the way. And please, call me Adri."
"Adri? Nice name. You can call me Mil."
Adri led Mil back down to the party, past the kitchen, into the pantry, and through a concealed door into the service hallways. Through a labyrinthine series of brightly lit halls, doors, and robot-friendly ramps they went, with Adri never hesitating in her choice of turn.
The halls didn't have a lot of cameras in them; security here was more about keeping track of errant delivery robots than tracking thieves. None the less, Mil did his best to walk casually while never looking directly at any of the sensors.
"The loading bay is only a few meters past this doorway here." Adri delicately pointed at the door, like a hand model displaying an expensive piece of jewelry. "However, sensors show that there is a lot of traffic here. I suggest we go down one more level, then come up through a ventilation access point which will place us directly on the landing pad."
"How much time do we have before the vbox is reported missing?"
"Less than two minutes."
"How long to come up through the vents?"
"The walk to the access point is short. However, the climb up may be taxing. With my assistance, I predict we could complete the maneuver in four to five minutes."
Mil clicked his tongue. "Too long. They might decide to lock down the doors once the alarm is sounded. Let's go the direct route."
"As you say, Mil." Adri leaned forward to grasp the door handle. "Mil? I'm having fun."
The door opened to reveal a break room and, immediately past it, a loading bay big enough for five or six full size trucks to load and unload. Past that, was a series of three bay doors, each wide enough for two trucks to enter or leave at the same time. Since the weather was good, the laborers had left one open and the city skyline was visible just past the parked trucks.
One of the workers in the break room looked up when Mil laughed at Adri's comment about having fun. But he went right back to his instant lunch, never giving them a second look.
Mil fished his commpen from his pocket and summoned his car. Only two of the truck parking spots were taken up and neither of them were near the open bay door, so there was plenty of room for it to gently fly in and park.
"Okay, Adri. Thank you for your help. Please return to Sapphire Jay's apartment and resume your customer-oriented programming." Mil turned to his car and the bone white door slid back along its marble white frame to allow him access.
"No. I'm going with you." Adri slipped by him like a snake and ducked into the car before he could object.
Mil didn't know what to say. He stared at her, trying to resolve what he'd just seen and heard. He'd met some fancy dolls before, but Adri took the award for authenticity, attitude, and, well... pretty much everything else. Everything but being a good robot and doing what the heck she was told.
"The silent alarm has been sounded. Are you coming?" Adri scooted to the far side to give Mil room to get in.
Looking back he saw some of the workers talking to each other and pointing his way. Looking up he saw the bay door start its slow roll to the ground. He'd have to argue with the crazy robot later. For now it was time to get on the move. Mil folded himself into the car and selected emergency course options that would get them out into traffic without worrying about override codes from the closing door.
Adri craned her neck to look around. The sun was low and the sky was unusually clear. They could see the city rolling out beneath them in every direction. Below them the air traffic appeared as serenely flowing multi-layered rivers of smoke. As they became part of one of those rivers, she could occasionally make out large craft that made out the canal traffic below.
"Mil, I'm seeing three security drones headed our way. Interception in less than a minute." Her wireless connection has unconsciously slipped from the building's network to the public one while she was enjoying the sights. In her mind she could see the drones zooming past traffic behind them, ignoring the lane restrictions to get to them as fast as possible.
"Wait, what? This car has a custom cycling transponder. How the hell are they following that?" Mil activated the manual controls and pulled them out of traffic. Jumping the lanes was going to attract all the wrong attention, but if they were already being followed he didn't have any better options.
"I think they're following me." She looked carefully at the emergency vehicles' signatures. She opened the file with their authorization for direct pathing and scanned for her serial number. There she was. "It's my connection to the network that they're following. We won't be able to escape them."
"The hell we won't." Mil disabled the the safety overrides on the car to prevent it from trying to stabilize them. Then, with both feet he pulled back on the throttle and the floaters while pressing forward with the control yoke. The car stalled then nose dived down into the city. A dozen layers of traffic flashed by them on either side as the canal below rushed up to meet them. Just above a giant passenger ferry, he slammed both pedals to the floor and yanked back on the yolk.
Half the folks on the ferry raised their drink and cheered as the car sped just a few meters over their heads. The other half never bothered looking up. "There's nothing new in the city," they'd remark to their friends later.
Mil kept the speed up and brought their altitude down to just over the canal. Weaving in and out of traffic, their floater engines threw canal water on every vessel they passed.
Adri released her grip on the door handle and straightened the hem of her dress. "That... that was a lot of new sensations for me." She looked back at her sensors. The security drones were still way above them and were requesting authorization to drop down to canal level as well as additional units for backup. Mil had bought them a few minutes at most. "I'm having fun, Mil. But I can't disconnect myself from the network. They will catch us eventually."
"There are network deadspots on the island. Some of them bigger than others." Mil grunted as he narrowly avoided swamping a pleasure junk. "We'll get you to one of the bigger ones. That'll buy us enough time to... "
"Mil! Security drones straight ahead!"
Mil pulled back and to the right on the yoke in an effort to get over and around them. Too late he noticed that the boat on his right had an unlit antenna mast. It was practically invisible in the long evening shadows. One of the intake scoops on the car caught the antenna full-on and it sent them into a spin.
Mil tried correcting, but it was too late. The right side floaters had spun down and caused a lateral spin. The car careened into an open air cafe, bounced, and landed belly-up in the flower garden of a public park.
Once the car ceased its spinning, the doors automatically popped their rails and fell harmlessly away. Mil and Adri tumbled out as well.
Mil pushed himself to his knees. His forehead and cheek felt both wet and numb. He didn't bother reaching up to feel with his hands, he didn't need to know just how bad it was yet.
"Mil, get up. Get up, we've got to run." Adri hooked her arm under Mil's and lifted him to his feet. "Now, Mil."
He was having trouble seeing clearly, so relinquished control to her and concentrated on pressing one foot in front of the other. She led him down a shadowed alley and helped him up and over a retaining wall. Once they were fully out of sight she let him stand on his own.
"I think this is where we part, Mil. I'll head that way to lead them off..."
"Wait." Mil pulled out his commpen and typed cautiously and deliberately. The blood kept running into his eyes and he didn't want to screw this up. They were much too far from a network dead zone to walk there. She'd get caught and rebooted for sure. But, with a little luck, they might have access to something very close by.
"I'm sorry, Mil. We just don't have time. Thanks for the fun." Adri did her little hand-model wave and took off running.
"Adri! Wait!" He held out his commpen to her. "Look at this. Look at it. If you can find a door registry like this nearby, we can slip away from them."
Adri looked back at the wall they had vaulted. One of the security patrols was coming down the alley now. They were out of time. She looked at Mil. He was just standing there holding that damned pen at her. He wasn't going to run. He was going to get caught.
She ran back to him and put his arm over her shoulders as she took the pen from him. She read the 128-digit door registry and then looked at the local security map. It was close. Really close.
A spotlight hit them. "Get on the ground now! You are under the authority of..."
Adri pulled Mil close and ran. Crack-crack-crack! Crack-crack-crak! Two bursts of auto fire tore into her. Internal warnings about fluid levels went berserk. Her legs and arms weren't affected though and soon they were out of the line of fire.
They reached the door in a handful of strides. It was an access point for the drainage system. A door leading into a shack that would lead down below the city. Holding Mil in one arm Adri tore the cover off the security panel with the other. Artificial nails shattered as hand-crafted skin was torn. Adri punched in the code that came with the door registry information on Mil's pen.
"This is going to be rough, Mil." Behind the door was the ladder. Bisecting the ladder was an aluminum pipe that ran the whole length uninterrupted. She assumed it was some kind of safety device or something that a particular kind of drone could attach to.
"I think I can make my own way down, Doll." Mil patted her shoulder in a way that he meant to be reassuring.
The spotlight found them again. This time there was no warning shout, just gunfire.
Adri wrapped Mil in her arms and jumped for it. With her free hand she held onto the center pole loosely and extended her legs as far as she could to regulate their fall.
Five meters down she lost contact with the network.
Fifteen meters down they met the floor. Adri wasn't ready for it and they both went tumbling.
"Mel!"
Mel grunted to indicate that he was still conscious. "There should be a map of these tunnels on my pen." Mil hoped there was a map, at least. He'd requested one from his fixer but he didn't have the time to check to see if the transfer had gone through before they jumped down. "Can you transfer it to your own memory?"
Adri looked around. She had dropped the pen during the jump. Finding it, she stared at it for a moment. "Sorry Mel, I don't see any signals I can link up with."
"That's okay. Let's get moving before the security team catches up. We'll lose them in these tunnels."
As they trotted away, Mil took a moment to look her over. Her dress was in remarkably good shape but she was leaking fluids where the bullets had pierced her. A thick white goo that constituted a mechanical lubricant and a much thinner translucent mint green coolant dripped down the arm she had used to hold him. It looked like both of them were going to need some repairs once they were done here.
"Hey Adri. Are you still having fun?"
She laughed. "Yeah, Mil. I think I am."
"Good. Because once we're out of the tunnels, we still have work to do."
Adri smiled broadly. One way or another, she wasn't ever going back to that apartment.
