Machine Man - Max Barry [54]
I kicked the door. It burst inward and ricocheted off steel shelves on the far wall. I flinched at my own violence. The lab lights fuzzed on. I walked inside. We tried to keep it tidy but it looked like an army of robots had exploded in here. I scanned gleaming shelves, running inventory. I couldn’t remember everything we had but it seemed full. I felt myself calming. I had been silly. I had gotten carried away. Of course my parts were here. It was going to be hard to explain this door.
I saw a gap. A space on the shelves, where none should be. I was missing some arms. Not in the good way.
I EXITED, stopped, and went back in. I couldn’t leave parts here. Who knew where they would be by the time I got back? I grabbed some fingers and a forearm, then I saw a hand I liked better. I tried to rearrange things and fingers scattered across the floor. I had to get out of here. I had to be gone before security arrived. I didn’t know where I would go but it had to be somewhere. I suddenly remembered Lola’s heart, the one I was making. I dumped the parts on the nearest horizontal surface and left for Lab 3. I swiped my finger across the security panel, just in case, but it gave me red, so I stepped back and kicked the door. I tried to be more gentle this time but it blew off its hinges and smashed through a mounted spotlight. Glass rained to the floor. This noise would draw assistants like osmosis. They couldn’t stay away from the sound of something breaking. I thudded inside and pulled black cloth off Lola’s heart. I stared in dismay. It was spread across the steel workbench in thirty pieces. I’d forgotten: I was tinkering with valves. It would take hours to put together. I couldn’t even gather the pieces without scratching contacts and bending circuitry. I heard the elevator. I thought it was the elevator. It could have been anything. I needed better ears. I left the dismantled heart and stuck my head into the corridor. No one. But it was only a matter of time. An elevator stood open, empty, and I couldn’t delay any longer. I ran, the Contours thumping the floor. Inside I pressed for G and of course nothing happened. I swiped my finger. The panel emitted a regretful tone and said: CONTACT MANAGEMENT. I stepped out of the car and kicked the stairwell door. I was panicking and didn’t control the force at all and the door bounced off the stair banister and flew back at me. I threw up my hands and it ricocheted off the doorway, eight inches away from decapitating me, and went skidding down the concrete steps. “Whoa,” said someone behind me. Assistants were coming. Up up up, I told the Contours, and they began cantilevering up the steps. On the third turn they froze in mid-step. I thought: Oh God, they have turned me off. But I could feel frigid stairwell air on my metal legs’ mesh array and that meant I had power. I triggered a soft reset by imagining my left knee rising three times. The hooves rose and came together. A bug. Some kind of regression. I would have to look at that. I set off again and two levels later froze again. I reset the legs. It must be the steps. Finally I reached a door marked GROUND. I leaned against it rather than kicking, and it groaned and popped open. A man in a suit gave me a surprised look. Not security. That was lucky, because I was agitated and not making completely logical