Page 72 of Nolan
A woman strides through the warehouse from a pair of double doors, wearing a billowing lab coat and heels to where Nolan is being unloaded. She regards me with a shrewd, pointed stare.
“It seems my security gate is lacking. I wasn’t notified of anyone coming with Nolan. Who are you?”
“I’m his girlfriend,” I manage to say, suddenly feeling like I’m in the way. “Sorry. I just didn’t want to leave him alone when he’s like this.”
Her gaze softens. “I see.” She climbs into the back of the van, grimacing as she looks over what’s left of him.
I stare at the scientist quietly, wondering who she is as she fusses over Nolan’s body. Her curly black hair is tied up with a blue headscarf, and a pair of thick glasses rests on her nose. She’s not much taller than me.
At last, she remembers I’m there and looks up. “What’s your name?”
“Mia Bennett.” I hesitate, grasping the strap of my purse, trying to anchor myself. “Is there any way I could stay with him?”
“I’m Dr. Taylor. I’m one who made Nolan,” she replies. “Unfortunately, I can’t let you into the lab. But we have a break room for employees with windows to the lab. You can wait there.”
I’m so relieved she’s not going to throw me out, I have to keep myself from crying as I nod. “Thank you.”
“Victor!” she calls. “Let’s get to work.”
A man is already jogging toward us, his white eyes plain as day. He unloads the box from the van and pulls Nolan toward the doors.
He smiles. “He’ll be all right. Don’t worry.”
I follow them in, praying he’s right.
Rebuilding Nolan takes time.
Genevieve Taylor is an angel in a lab coat. I’m grateful that she didn’t judge me or treat me with disdain when I explained my relationship with Nolan. It felt strange, calling myself his girlfriend when we never established labels, and now I’m not sure we’ll have the opportunity. But that’s who I am. It’s how I feel. If Nolan was here now with me, I hope he’d be delighted by my words.
Dr. Taylor grants me a guest pass that allows me to return to BioNex any time I want, so long as I check in at the front desk.
I return every day for three weeks.
For part of the day, I work at Cyber Street just long enough to film content and photograph inventory, then I bring my laptop to BioNex and work in the break room, where I can watch as the bionic engineers completely rebuild him from head to toe, pulling up holographic blueprints, everything that made him an original, remaking him piece by piece.
Genevieve, as Dr. Taylor insists I call her, is a busy woman. But her assistant, Victor—who happens to be the first android ever designed by BioNex—occasionally stops into the break room and offers me coffee or a pastry and asks how I’m doing.
“Won’t you get in trouble if you keep checking up on me and not working?” I ask him one day.
He just grins. “Not at all. Human care is my primary function.”
He also sends updates to my phone when he’s too busy to say hello, helping Genevieve reshape Nolan. She’s a woman possessed; almost a mad scientist, with how ceaseless she is. I can tell she’s passionate about her craft.
We’re working on his circuitry today.
Today, we’re attaching his limbs.
His new exoskeleton is being welded as we speak.
I’ve learned more android terms than I ever thought I would as I visit BioNex each day. I text Apollo with the news while he remains in California, and I keep Jessica up to date as well whenever I go home. That’s been our routine, for the past three weeks.
“How is our hero today?” she asks when I come home on a late Saturday afternoon, just before dinnertime. She’s got the tiniest little baby bump, only now starting to protrude and easily hidden beneath her T-shirt. She’s setting the table and I quickly start pitching in too.
“Today they were fixing his exoskeleton,” I reply. “They haven’t added his synthetics yet, but I think that step will come soon.”
Jessica peers at me, confused. “Synthetics?”
“His hair and skin. Things like that.”
