Page 85 of Chaos Theory
‘Josh, I have no memory of your apartment,’ says Kobi.
‘What?’ I say. ‘Surely you could have –shouldhave – brought him back here?’
‘And explain to Ron that the multimillion-dollar Kobi project had just gone horribly wrong? The first thing he would’ve done is fire me. The second thing he would’ve done is take Kobi apart. I just wouldn’t…couldn’t…’
He stands, rearranges the tools on the workbench. He continues talking without looking at me.
‘You have to understand, Maeve – Kobi was three years of my life, and counting. Yes, he was going to be important for my career, but it was more than that. I knew, if I just had more time, I could figure out what had gone wrong andfix it. Get him back on track before Ron realised anything was wrong. Of course I’d have to tell Ron what happened, but I figured I could put it off until Kobi was back in good shape. All I needed was time.’
‘All?’ I ask.
‘Okay, you’re right. Time and – once I’d rebuilt his code – I needed him to build up his TIL files again, get him back to where he was before the PHI incident.’
‘Which is where Go Ireland came in?’
‘Which is where Go Ireland came in,’ he repeats. ‘I’ll admit it was a long shot, but I needed him to be around people, in a safe, controlled environment. Low-risk physically, but with enough interaction to ensure his communication skills could quicklydevelop. And there had to be a plausible connection between our two companies.’
He continues straightening each tool on the bench. ‘To be honest, there weren’t that many places that fit the bill. I input a few parameters into Kobi’s system, along with all of Ron’s social profiles and contact lists, which I pulled from RoboTron databases.’
‘So JP’s name came up, thanks to his golf connection with Ron.’Bloody golf.
‘Not just JP. I also discovered that a couple of people at Go Ireland had attended a “Robots in the Workplace” conference. So I knew there must be someone there with an interest in robots, maybe some IT skills.’
I sigh as I’m piecing it all together.
‘You thought Jen would be put in charge of Kobi, didn’t you?’
He nods.
I almost laugh. ‘But then you were stuck with me. I suppose I should be flattered you trusted me with your precious robot. Sorry, Kobi.’
Josh is examining the workbench tools with seemingly great interest.
‘Yes, well. That’s why I had to keep an eye on you.’
‘What do you mean? I only saw you once, maybe twice a week.’
‘Yes, but I also…monitored you…for a little bit.’
My cheeks flush. ‘What does that mean? What did you do?’
‘I…um…hacked your email account. And, um, your phone.’
I feel sick. I shake my head. ‘I don’t believe this. Gross.’
‘I couldn’t be there in person as much as I wanted to. I had to do something to keep an eye on the situation. I tried not to read anything personal, I swear. I just skimmed to try and gauge how well you were handling Kobi. I’m not proud of what I did.’
He looks at me properly for the first time.
‘Listen, Maeve, I really did enjoy getting to know you. And I’m not a bad guy. I’ve just…done some bad things.’
‘That’s literally the definition of a bad guy!’ I can hear my angerrising.
‘I’m so sorry, Maeve. The clock was ticking. I wasn’t thinking too far ahead. You have to believe me when I say I never wanted to hurt you. I wish I would have told you everything from the start. But there was never a right time. I just couldn’t…burst the bubble.’
I think back to the night of the Phelan’s incident. Josh’sconfessionabout Kobi’s meltdown at PHI. ‘You said you’d make sure Ron never heard about what happened to Kobi in Phelan’s. I thought you were so sound, doing me a favour.’
‘Well, technically, that was true. I did keep it from him.’
