Page 102 of Chaos Theory
I do not say anything. He returns to my control panel and continues talking.
‘I just don’t see a place for her here. Or anywhere in robotics. She can go back to tourism or administration or whatever it was she was doing before.’ He tightens the nuts on my control panel door. ‘And if she doesn’t go quietly? Makes a fuss about her digital rights and whatnot? Well, let’s just say I would not advise her to go down that road. Not if she wants any other job in this town. Not if she wants financial stability. Not if she wants any kind of peace. I mean, who is she anyway? She’s nobody. I have 0 qualms – 0 – about clearing a smooth path for us, Kobi.’
He stands in front of me and smiles. ‘Now, buddy boy – you run that full systems check for me, synch up with the mainframe. Then get some rest. We have a big day coming.’
‘Yes, Ron,’ I say. ‘That is true.’
FIFTY-FIVE
MAEVE
Saturday, 9:55pm
‘Can’t you turn on the heating?’ I rub my hands together, blow on them. The weather is running a winter preview, and Shane’s car is decidedly frosty. Or maybe that’s just the atmosphere.
‘Come on, Shane,’ says Josh from the back seat. ‘You don’t want Maeve to suffer, do you?’
The Jeep is parked on a dark side street, two blocks from RoboTron. Shane turns fully around in his seat to give Josh alook. He mumbles something under his breath. Then says louder, ‘Maybe you’ve both forgotten that I have to drive three hours tonight, supposedly incognito. I was hoping to do that without stopping off to recharge. If that’s okay with you criminal masterminds.’
I see Josh hold up his hands in the rearview mirror. ‘Hey, this whole thing is Maeve’s idea. Well, eighty per cent of it anyway.’
‘Nice of you to give credit where it’s due.’ Shane drums his fingers on the steering wheel. ‘What’s your twenty per cent then?’
‘My job is to distract the security guard while Kobi exits the building alone. At exactly eleven tonight, I will assume the role of a disgruntled former employee. Method acting, if you will.’ A note of irony in his voice.
‘And remind me again why you have to go in there, Maeve?’ says Shane. ‘Can you not just get a message to Kobi to come out? I like pranks as much as the next person – maybe more than most. But technically, what we’re doing here is probably illegal.’
Josh laughs. ‘Technically, what Ron’s doing is probably illegal too. We’re way past that now.’
I put my hand on Shane’s arm and speak gently. I already have my back to Josh, but I try to turn away from him even more. ‘Don’t worry. We’ll all be fine. I can’t message Kobi because it might alert Ron. Also, I have to give Kobi my security pass so he can get out of the building. You’ll have to take that from him and destroy it, remember?’
‘Then how will you get out?’
‘I’ll be able to get out a bit later. I can just say I must have dropped my pass – I’m sure security will let me out. Kobi will walk out of his own volition and you’ll drive him to Clare, where the Farmers are waiting. They’re excited and already thinking of what Kobi can do around the farm to help. He’ll have to keep a low profile, of course.’
Shane shakes his head, then meets my eyes. ‘Is this really what you want?’
‘It’s the only way,’ I say. ‘The only way to save Kobi.’
I pull myself together. ‘Okay, boys. Part one is a go. I’m going in to RoboTron now. I’ll tell Kobi to make his exit at eleven o’clock and to make his way here to you, Shane. Josh, you be ready to start your am-dram from ten to eleven. I’ll send you a message beforehand to confirm all is good. I’ll tell Kobi to wait when exiting the elevator until he sees you in the lobby. If anything goes wrong, message me, and I can come to the foyer and create more distraction.’
‘What could possibly go wrong?’ says Shane as I get out of the car.
What are those two going to talk about for the next thirty minutes?I ask myself as I begin the short walk to RoboTron.
Then it hits me with a dull pang:I haven’t said goodbye toShane. Story of my life, really. We stayed up talking late into the night last night, Shane trying to suggest alternative solutions to an impossible situation. We went round in circles until we eventually fell asleep on the couch together.
As I pad swiftly down a sketchy street, I check my pocket for the new burner phone I bought this afternoon. My real phone is at home. Tomorrow I’ll destroy it and get a new one – one without Shane’s contact details saved in it. I’ll get a new number too, in case he’s tempted to call me. I’ve already combed through my social profiles and deleted any online connection between us.
I spent two hours going through Kobi’s TIL files yesterday, to see if there was much mention of Shane in the data already downloaded by Ron. Yes, learning experiences from interacting with Shane have already been absorbed into Kobi’s neural network, but at least the raw data files have been deleted. With luck, Ron won’t find out how important Shane is to me. Anything Ron does to me, at least Shane won’t be dragged into it.
Now that Shane is slipping away from me, things are suddenly so clear. I can see us together – or at least, we could have tried. I could have tried. But how could we be happy knowing we’d let Kobi down?
I know I could probably go back to my job in Go Ireland and still see Shane that way. But only as a colleague. I could never be seen with him outside work. Even at work, we couldn’t really relax. Ron would be suspicious of me for a long time, and anyone I’m connected to.
Go Ireland has offices all over Europe. I could put in for a transfer – Barcelona, maybe Madrid. I don’t want to be here for Christmas. I can just imagine Sandra Smith’s objectively beautiful smile as she celebrates the success of the office Christmas party, organised by her and Shane after numerous after-hours meetings. And a few months after that, after the so-called heat has died down, if I was able to come back to Dublin, things just wouldn’t be the same between us. No, it’s all about timing. Whatever we could have been – we’ve missed our moment.
I glance at my watch as I approach the bright glass frontage of RoboTron. Ron prides himself on running a 24/7 business, so the building is always open and lit up at night. At weekends, according to Josh, there’s just one security guard on reception, and the only other staff I might encounter are a code-weary, sleep-deprived engineer or two.
