Doctor Who_ Corpse Marker - Chris Boucher [79]
He knew they were afraid because that was what one of them called it. ‘Please. Please. Please don’t.You’re scaring me.
Please don’t. Please, I’m afraid.’ And that one fell down and screamed and vented fluids and gases. The fear was interesting and valuable. It made the humans part of him to control and guide. It made them like robots only less than robots were, less than he was.
They told him Taren Capel was a human like them and he had made the robots. That was not true. He was not like them.
His was the image of all the robots as they had always been.
They were all made in his image. They were all made in Taren Capel’s image. He was Taren Capel. Taren Capel was the creator.
He was the creator.
The humans screamed when he explained this to them. They screamed when he showed them some of the many ways they were inferior. They stopped screaming when they stopped being.
He decided to have more humans brought to him to confirm what he had learned. He wanted humans who matched, as closely as possible, the ones who had stopped being. He knew it was important that his experimental results be reproducible if he was to be sure of what he had found out. He specified the targets. In the same way that he knew about experimental protocols he also knew about absolute secrecy and the importance of absolute secrecy. He instructed his creations to stay hidden from all humans except the targets.
He was unaware that the Cyborg class had already re-factored the options and learned how to deal with witnesses.
When Tani came back his arm had been reset and he looked better. ‘I told you the robot would be no problem,’ he said. ‘It’s definitely gone. Disappeared completely.’
Toos was not in the happiest of moods. Sleeping on rough pallets and eating food that she would normally have thought twice about stepping in was doing nothing for her temper. She made herself rich for this? ‘ We’ve disappeared,’ she snapped.
‘What does that prove?’
‘We haven’t disappeared,’ he said. ‘There are people who know we’re here.’
‘Oh well, that’s a comfort,’ she said, her voice heavy with irony. ‘What people are these exactly?’
He shrugged. ‘People.’
‘And I’m supposed to trust them?’ she demanded.
‘I trust them.’
‘You trust them and I trust you, is that the way it works?’
Tani looked hurt.
‘I did save your life,’ he said.
‘This,’ Toos said, gesturing expansively at the small, dirty room, ‘is not living.’
‘The point is,’ he said patiently, ‘I’ve asked around and people don’t know about that robot. Nobody knows anything about it. It’s vanished.’
Toos said, ‘In which case I can leave.’ Her spirits lifted slightly. She could leave. The robots had missed her. They’d missed her on the Four and now they’d missed her again. Maybe they couldn’t kill her. Maybe she had a charmed life. Or maybe they hadn’t intended to kill her after all. Maybe it was a mistake.
Maybe they’d leave her alone if they knew she was no threat and all she wanted to do was enjoy her wealth. Maybe if she could tell them. Maybe, maybe, maybe. .It was all wind and sand, like finding the seam in a storm. Only she didn’t know which direction the blow was coming from.
Tani interrupted her thoughts. ‘There’s a rumour that a terrorist leader is hiding in the ’pits,’ he said casually.
‘Only one?’ she said wryly.
Still studiedly casual, he said, ‘This one is special. Robot development engineer turned anti-robot activist.’
As if she cared. ‘I can’t fault him so far.’ What was Tani up to? She knew he had been hiding something from her and that it was more than just a Sewerpits family background. She’d known that pretty much from the moment he loomed out of the darkness to save her neck. And now he was playing some sort of guess-who game.
‘His name is Taren Capel.’
So that was it. Clumsy game, poorly played. Toos snorted derisively. ‘That’s absurd. Taren Capel’s been dead for years,’ she said. ‘You of all people should know that, Mor.’
He looked puzzled. ‘Why should I know that?’
‘Because you’re a Company