Chapter Forty-Four – Jennifer

Chapter Forty-Four – Jennifer

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***

I knocked.

The typing noises stopped.

Then after about twenty long seconds, they started again. “Are you serious?” I asked.

There is a personal computer on in the room. It isn’t connected to the building’s power grid. It’s likely that it’s being powered by a battery pack since the entire system is running on as few resources as possible.

I shook my head, then tried the handle, which of course didn’t work.

So I kicked the door in.

This wasn’t some high-security place, the door was made of some cheap laminate stuff that caved in with the first kick. The biggest problem after that was unjamming my foot from the hole, but I managed without falling on my ass. Then I shoved the door aside and looked into what was clearly some degenerate’s man-cave.

The lighting was poor–only coming in from the corridor–but it was enough to see the wall-to-wall posters of women in barely any clothes. There were shelves with figurines, of course, and enough clothes on the floor to keep a family of six warm.

And then, right there in the middle of the room, was a thin figure sitting behind a lit up screen. They turned their head slowly, and I found myself looking into a pair of eyes that were too blue to be real.

“What?” they asked.

I felt like asking the same. I had expected someone, not something. But what I found was a petite woman with clearly artificial skin typing away on a laptop without even looking at the screen.

“Is that a fucking sex bot?” Manic asked.

“I think so,” I said. “Hey.. who are you?”

“My name is Jennifer.”

“Well, that’s… a very plain name, uh, are you human?”

The android paused in her–its?–typing. “Pardon me, but you have broken into my master’s home. I have filed a report with the local authorities.”

“We’re samurai,” I said. “Also, even if we weren’t the local authorities, I don’t think it would matter much. There’s an incursion ongoing. Uh, you don’t know?”

The sex bot blinked at me. “I am aware. My master didn’t give me instructions regarding the incursion. I must work.”

“What are you working on?” I asked. The screen next to her seemed to be filled with text.

“Erotica.”

“Ah,” I said.

Manic poked me with an elbow. “We should get going. Not saying it wasn’t worth checking to see if there was someone here, but let’s not waste our time?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Hey, uh, you’re coming with us,” I said.

“What?” Manic asked.

“I’m not leaving her here.”

“Stray, it’s a robot,” Manic said. “It’s probably got an off-site backup or something. And I bet it’s insured.”

“Yeah, but… no, it feels wrong to leave someone behind.”

“I am not supposed to leave,” the sexbot happily informed me.

“You’re leaving anyway,” I said, putting my metaphorical foot down.

“I am not programmed to obey you,” Jennifer the sexbot said.

I felt my frustration rise, especially as I noticed the shit-eating look Manic was giving me. “I’m not leaving you here,” I said. “I bet I can carry your plastic ass out of here.”

“I can’t tell if you’re being an ass towards the bot or if you actually care too much,” Manic said. “It’s plastic and bolts, I get that it looks human, but AI have ruined plenty of human stuff, including some poor asshole’s sex life, apparently, so I don’t see the point.”

“The point is… I don’t know,” I admitted, “but I’m not going to leave Jennifer here all on her own when we’re literally planning on blowing up the building. In fact… Myalis, how sure can you be that there’s no one else left in here?”

Ninety-seven percent certainty. Before the cameras went out, they logged the exit of every tennant still in the building. It’s entirely possible that someone remains that wasn’t noticed, though it’s unlikely. I could pinpoint the few potential locations a person is hiding in still, if you wish?