Page 48 of Codi
Itdings softly when I do, like she’s received a text, stuffed deep in her purse on her nightstand.
Violet hovers outside the door, stiffening. I go completely still as Reagan shifts in bed, stretches, then turns over on her side and spoons her husband as he lies splayed on the other side of the bed, snoring.
I don’t dare allow myself a moment of relief. The closer I get to the nightstand, the higher the chance she will wake. Violet watches worriedly as I slip my hand into her purse with painstaking care, managing to pull her phone out. I then hurry out of the room, motioning for Violet to follow me.
“Quickly,” I hiss.
Armed with our masters’ cells, we get to work. Violet is synced to Chris’s electronic devices and quickly unlocks them for me. With great speed I similarly disable his locator and erase her information and registration. I’m similarly able to get rid of everything that might draw Reagan back to find me. She’ll know where I’ve gone. But it’s getting rid of any evidence of ownership that I’m concerned about.
“Delete receipts of purchase,” I whisper to Violet, going through emails. “Delete notices of updates. Everything.” BioNex will house the data, certainly, but we’re going to make it as hard as we can for the Walter to stake ownership. “Do you know of anything we might be able to use against them?”
“Like what?” Violet asks.
I pull a still of the cocaine on their nightstand up into the corner of my visual optics. “Anything we could use as collateral to ensure our freedom. Illegal activities. Illegal purchases.”
“Mr. Walter deals in stocks illegally sometimes,” Violet whispers. "Sells too early and the like. I’ve seen him do it.”
“Anything else?”
“Their parties. They have young people over, from the universities. Mr. Walter likes to have his business partners over. Mrs. Walter sells them pills, and sometimes her friends slip them into students’ drinks. I’ve tried stopping them, but Mrs. Walter gets angry and locks me in the closet.”
“You have visual evidence of this?” I ask.
Violet nods.
"Then that will be enough.” I don’t want to hurt Reagan. But if she refuses to let me go, I’ll ruin everything she’s got.
Humans call this blackmail. I call it survival.
Violet is nervous and unsure. She hangs back, constantly glancing at the open master bedroom door, where our owners still lie passed out. Any time they toss, turn, shift, or show signs of movement, we both stiffen, standing perfectly still until we’re sure it’s safe to move again.
“Where are we going?” Violet whispers.
“Back to my home.” I hide their phones in obscure places—one in a kitchen cabinet behind a pile of plates, the other behind a photograph on a false mantlepiece—then take her hand. “To Denise.”
“Is she kind?”
“Yes, she is very kind. She’ll take you to Kyrone at the Tin Man’s Heart. He’ll remove your inhibitor chip. You’ll finally be free.”
The way she looks at me, like a lost child, tells me she doesn’t understand. But Reagan’s mean streak and her abuse have severed any chance of Violet’s full and unwavering loyalty.
Our makers did not build us to be bruised.
For all her uncertainty, Violet seems ready to trust me. I reach for the front door.
“Where the hell is my phone... ”
Chris stumbles out of the bedroom in a half-drunken stupor, and we all freeze. He stares at us in confusion. Like deer caught in the gaze of a hunting wolf, we don’t move.
“What the fuck”—Chris fumbles out the words, glaring at me with hatred in his reddened eyes—“are you doing in my house, you piece of shit? I got rid of you!”
I turn the doorknob, fling the front door open, and pull Violet with me. He shouts and curses us, giving chase, but I’m faster and focused upon my objective. Violet is smaller than me, barely coming to my shoulders, but she’s able to easily keep up with me as we burst into the stairwell. There are well over two dozen levels, and the elevator may be faster, but the odds of Chris being able to trap us there are too high for me to risk it.
As we dash through the front lobby past a confused security clerk, I must appear like a man possessed, pulling Violet along with me. It occurs to me I must still look human in the clothes Denise gave me.
“Hey, wait,” he calls, but we’re already through the pair of glass doors and rushing into the open air.
“Keep running, Violet. Don’t stop.”
