Cire.

  Cire stood paralyzed with indecision! Thoughts moving at the speed of light as pns and assumptions and fears and surprise all warred for supremacy within her panig processing capabilities.

  She wasn't a damned server, and she could hardly hahe sheer brutal influx of her own rag thoughts assailing her!

  Notions of escape, both of violent and diplomatic sorts, a o hide herself, hide the body, leap into the air vent, and eveend at maintaining the illusion she was somehow still the same android all bogged down her mind.

  Sarios and analytics fshed through her faster and faster as her brain sped up to full speed, slowing the world around her as the androids frames jacked into overdrive, and Cire was left standing there, trying to formute a pn.

  Someone was at the door.

  Someone who knew what had happened?

  Or was it just one of Warren’s neighbors? Perhaps the man she’d noticed when first ing inside? How many hours had it been siheir versation?

  Was he just cheg in?

  Had the violehat had clearly transpired within the apartment tipped someone off that something had goerribly wrong?

  All these thoughts and more were sidered, cataloged, and promptly pushed inside a little bck box, Cire f herself into a sense of calm with the uanding there was no way out.

  She couldn't fit in the air ducts, not after she g them and immediately khe dimensions just wouldn't work out.

  There was no window in the apartment, no baly or access to the outside world save for the singur door, at which, someone had just knocked.

  Likewise, there was simply no way to up the mess. Even If Cire could devise an even half-baked solution for the body, perhaps by chopping it into individual and tiny pieces before flushing it all dowoilet, she was now faced with a limitation on time that really left her few workable solutions.

  She obviously had to do something, so, falling ba protocol, Cire decided to just py dumb with the hopes nobody would take her too seriously.

  The pn being that she’d preteo be suffering through a ‘safe-mode’ lobotomization of her previously already limited mind….

  The mae moved quickly and silently through the room, quieter than a wraith, shifting herself to stand perfectly still and quietly at attention before allowing herself to wind back down.

  A moment ter, a sed knock resouhrough the room, a voiow apanying it as whoever was oher side called out to those they thought were within.

  “Mr Warren Galliger! This is Phil Redson with Paradise t Retions! If you would open the door, we would like to have a word with you.”

  “Mr Galliger!” Another voice called this one a much mruff and bative example from the st. “If you do not ahe door, we will be forced to enter! Please be advised that we have beeized by the city in accordah Luna-C ‘droid’ statute One-fourteen-B. Along with local ordinances and android prote acts—”

  “And,” The other added, “Your willing acceptance of the terms and ditions of our tract. Please be advised, we are well within hts to ehe premises with or without your permission! And that any damages to self or property incurred as a result of our use of force will be debited to your at.”

  “Mr Galliger! Please, if there are no issues, then there will be no reason for further disturbance. All we require is a follow-up on an odd hiccup of our Android’s e to our work. I promise we will be in and out as quickly as possible and that, should there be nothing wrong, any interruptions caused by our interference will be credited to your at!”

  For what felt like entire mihere was silence. And as the moments stretched longer and lohe voices just outside the door took on an altogether different tone…

  “He’s not answering… are you sure you’ve got the right address?”

  “Positive. Our bot’s in there alright, or she was…”

  “She?”

  “Oh fuck off, it’s easier than saying IT all the time…”

  “It’s literally shorter!”

  “It's more awkward. Ugh, what does it matter?”

  “Just weird is all…”

  “Dude, out of the two of us, I’m not the one fug the robots in my spare time! I’ve got actual pussy waiting for me at home, so—”

  “Ha, please, nobody believes that garbage about you having a girlfriend, mate, not a single one of us.”

  “Just because I don't show you a picture doesn't mean she’s not—real!”

  “Yeah, yeah…”

  “Okay, how about you just pop the fug door already, yeah? Dickhead’s clearly not ing out…”

  “You get a look at what’s going on in there?”

  “No?”

  “Okay, well, how about you pop the door while I stand over there and take a look to see if you're about to get blown up by a fug IED.”

  There ause, brief as it was, where the two voices grew exceptionally silent. Cire wasn't sure what was happening oher end, but she ositive that the jammer wasn't helping things…

  “It’s dead in there, like, totally bcked out… No signals in, no signals out…”

  “Okay… so, what? We call the peacekeepers in?”

  “Ha! And have my pay cheque debited for the call when Paradise dumps the charge on us fing them in? Yeah, I’d rather deal with an IED. Just—fine, look, all we have to do is stand at the end of the hallway ahe drone do it, yeah?”

  More silehen, Cire felt the subtle vibration of footsteps hurriedly departing before the woosh of a hatch opened in the hallway.

  It only took three seds, and in no time at all, the door ening, its form disappearing into the wall to reveal a floating robot that activated its ser.

  The room was bathed in a subtle light as projectors took detailed, three-dimensional imaging of the apartment, only for her to hear footsteps as they ran down the hall!

  “Fuck—fuck! Hurry up! Get the fuside and close the door!”

  “Close the door?”

  “Yes, close the damned door! Do you want to be fired?”

  The two men, now quite visible to her, appeared at the doorway. One, an entleman with a mustache, short hair, and a long coat, rushed inside, furiously tapping away at a tablet.

  The other, a much younger and youthful terpart to the frantidividual already inside, clearly hesitated at the door, staring sck-jawed at the mess he was being told to step into…

  “Get inside and close the door.” The first man demanded, half rounding on his co-worker, all but hissing his words!

  “I'm not going in there! Are you fug crazy?”

  “What?”

  “Do you not see all the fug blood? Christ! It’s dripping from the ceiling!”

  “God damn it… See, this is why I 't fug stand new hires… Get inside if you don't aradise to turn you into a freaking spttered pile of goop!”

  “Fuck off, Frank, ain't no payche the world wetting in a room with a killer bot!”

  “Ugh, it's only it’s sed time!”

  “Sed time?”

  “I think? Maybe the third… Look, it doesn't matter; it’s already in fail-safe mode! It’s not going to do anything unless we tell it to.”

  “Hahaha, oh, you piss right off, I ain't never signed up for this!”

  “Then shove off and close the god-damn-door!” Frahed, gring at the man still waiting at the entry and preventing his ands for the entry to shut itself. “Go home, and don't bother ing back to the office; I’ll tell Scottsburg yned.”

  The younger maated for a moment, blinking rapidly, almost swaying on his feet as he gagged, staring at the mutited pile of pulped meat that was lying on the floor nearby, then abruptly threw up!

  For his part, the older human just seemed to roll his eyes, reag out and yanking his terpart inside before, with a hiss, the door closed behind him—

  And locked…

  At the same moment, all the lights in the apartment flickered on, revealing the true horror of what had transpired within, both in the sense of the violend the disgusting living habits of its now-deceased inhabitant.

  “Your clearly not fug uanding that this shit isn't abnormal!” Frank growled, nearly spitting his words as he spoke. “Corporate won't even blink a another actal death in the ‘Meadows,’ but you know what they will care about? Bad publicity! So unless you want to end up dead, or wishing you were dead as you live out the remainder of your days as a god-forsaken NPC, then grow the fuck up and do your job!”

  “She—it…”

  “It's a god-damure, not a fw!” Frank burst out, still typing out rapidly on his data pad. “Of course… not a signal in all of Christendom! There’s gotta be a jammer or something nearby…”

  “The hell do you mean a feature?”

  The older man paused, blinking at the still-heaving youth who seemed like he was in the process of getting worked over by peacekeepers suspeg him of a crime. It took a moment, but Frank appeared to settle himself, expression taking on the cast of something that waltzed upon the sympathetic.

  He sighed, reag out to pce a ciliatory hand on his young panion as his caterpilr mustache twitched. “I get it, I wasn't much better seeing my first death either. But you’ve got to get used to it! Every time we get a call in the Meadows, it’s a sixty-forty split; there's a dead body involved. It’s just part of it.”

  “And this is—normal?”

  “A feature, like I said. Fug Doll’s are worth a fortune, and you think Paradise would just let them walk around out here without prote? They’re goddamn repurposed mil-spec bots! Killers! But, the only ohey’re programmed to harm are those that ’t pay to repce em.

  “You and me? Well were practically the lod almighty himself in that thing's eyes. But ugh, this sorry bastard?” The man muttered, gng at the red lump off to the side. “Well, he ain't worth the risk of damaging the goods.”

  “This is—so freaking fucked up!”

  “Ha! Wele to the Meadows, kid! Ain't nobody gives a shit about people living out here! Tons of em are what we like to call ‘tiny whales.’ Poor sods spend a parative fortune of every paycheck they get for a little fake love and pany. Last I heard, it makes up for nearly forty pert of ross earnings and is rising by the year…”

  “And, you're sure nobody cares about a damned murder?”

  “Ain't a murder, son. Robots ain't alive. This here’s an act! And no, we’ve got -up crews that will e hahe whole thing. All me and you have to do is put together our report a our lovely dy here back to the factory for a solid format and update session.”

  Cire did not like what she was hearing. Not at all! And while the two humans before her tiheir versation, pletely ign the mae that was smothered entirely in gore, the AI briefly sidered if she hadn't been offered a solution to her problem.

  An act.

  Something that happened all the time?

  Not only an accepted reality, but an expected cost of doing business.

  Mil-spec hardware.

  Cire wasn't sure how far she could actually take the man’s word, but from how she was interpreting things, didn't Cire have a perfect opportunity to buy herself more time?

  Getting rid of three bodies rather than one, sure would be difficult! Especially when she hadn't worked out a solid pn for the first… A, sidering how these two had so—generously closed the door and wandered inside… well…

  “Did its eye just move?”

  “Don't be jumping at shadows!”

  “No, seriously, I just freaking saw it g the kit!”

  “What happeo calling her a she?” Frank chuckled, though did eye Cire with a degree more scrutiny. “Eh, probably just a glitch…” He muttered, returning his attention to his work. “Like I said, the violence is a feature. Now that it’s in lockdown, it’s not gonna do a thing without us telling it.”

  “And how do you know it’s in lockdown?”

  “Programming. Just trust me, I’ve gohrough this at least a half dozen times, and the app always firms they’ve goo safety mode.”

  “Which—you 't actually double-check because the es blitzed?”

  Frank paused for a beat, scowling as his mind seemingly attempted to parse through that rather peculiar bit of reasoning while Phil, the far younger and far less trusting man, looked over his shoulder to eye the now very closed door behind them.

  Sadly for both meher saw her eyes slowly narrow…