I, Robot by Cory Doctorow Read Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Cory Doctorow
have to tell me, and I will think about it, but I won't leave my home and my mother and my job and move to the other side of the world. I won't . I will think about it. You can give me a way to get in touch with you and I'll let you know what I decide. And Ada will come with me."
"No!" Ada said. "I'm going with Mom." She pulled away from him and ran to her mother.
"You don't get a vote, daughter. And neither does she. She gave up her vote 12 years ago, and you're too young to get one."
"I fucking HATE you," Ada screamed, her eyes bulging, her neck standing out in cords. "HATE YOU!"
Natalie gathered her to her bosom, stroked her black curls.
One robot put its arms around Natalie's shoulders and gave her a squeeze. The three of them, robot, wife and daughter, looked like a family for a moment.
"Ada," he said, and held out his hand. He refused to let a note of pleading enter his voice.
Her mother let her go.
"I don't know if I can come back for you," Natalie said. "It's not safe. Social Harmony is using more and more Eurasian technology, they're not as primitive as the military and the police here." She gave Ada a shove, and she came to his arms.
"If you want to contact us, you will," he said.
He didn't want to risk having Ada dig her heels in. He lifted her onto his hip — she was heavy, it had been years since he'd tried this last — and carried her out.
----
It was six months before Ada went missing again. She'd been increasingly moody and sullen, and he'd chalked it up to puberty. She'd cancelled most of their daddy-daughter dates, moreso after his mother died. There had been a few evenings when he'd come home and found her gone, and used the location-bug he'd left in place on her phone to track her down at a friend's house or in a park or hanging out at the Peanut Plaza.
But this time, after two hours had gone by, he tried looking up her bug and found it out of service. He tried to call up its logs, but they ended at her school at 3PM sharp.
He was already in a bad mood from spending the day arresting punk kids selling electronics off of blankets on the city's busy street, often to hoots of disapprobation from the crowds who told him off for wasting the public's dollar on petty crime. The Social Harmony man had instructed him to give little lectures on the interoperability of Eurasian positronics and the insidious dangers thereof, but all Arturo wanted to do was pick up his perps and bring them in. Interacting with yammerheads from the tax-base was a politician's job, not a copper's.
Now his daughter had figured out how to switch off the bug in her phone and had snuck away to get up to who-knew-what kind of trouble. He stewed at the kitchen table, regarding the old tin soldiers he'd brought home as the gift for their daddy-daughter date, then he got out his phone and looked up Liam's bug.
He'd never switched off the kid's phone-bug, and now he was able to haul out the UNATS Robotics computer and dump it all into a log-analysis program along with Ada's logs, see if the two of them had been spending much time in the same place.
They had. They'd been physically meeting up weekly or more frequently, at the Peanut Plaza and in the ravine. Arturo had suspected as much. Now he checked Liam's bug — if the kid wasn't with his daughter, he might know where she was.
It was a Friday night, and the kid was at the movies, at Fairview Mall. He'd sat down in auditorium two half an hours ago, and had gotten up to pee once already. Arturo slipped the toy soldiers into the pocket of his winter parka and pulled on a hat and gloves and set off for the mall.
----
The stink of the smellie movie clogged his nose, a cacophony of blood, gore, perfume and flowers, the only smells that Hollywood ever really perfected. Liam was kissing a girl in the dark, but it wasn't Ada, it was a sad, skinny thing with a lazy eye and skin worse than Liam's. She gawked at Arturo as he hauled Liam out of his seat, but a flash of Arturo's badge
"No!" Ada said. "I'm going with Mom." She pulled away from him and ran to her mother.
"You don't get a vote, daughter. And neither does she. She gave up her vote 12 years ago, and you're too young to get one."
"I fucking HATE you," Ada screamed, her eyes bulging, her neck standing out in cords. "HATE YOU!"
Natalie gathered her to her bosom, stroked her black curls.
One robot put its arms around Natalie's shoulders and gave her a squeeze. The three of them, robot, wife and daughter, looked like a family for a moment.
"Ada," he said, and held out his hand. He refused to let a note of pleading enter his voice.
Her mother let her go.
"I don't know if I can come back for you," Natalie said. "It's not safe. Social Harmony is using more and more Eurasian technology, they're not as primitive as the military and the police here." She gave Ada a shove, and she came to his arms.
"If you want to contact us, you will," he said.
He didn't want to risk having Ada dig her heels in. He lifted her onto his hip — she was heavy, it had been years since he'd tried this last — and carried her out.
----
It was six months before Ada went missing again. She'd been increasingly moody and sullen, and he'd chalked it up to puberty. She'd cancelled most of their daddy-daughter dates, moreso after his mother died. There had been a few evenings when he'd come home and found her gone, and used the location-bug he'd left in place on her phone to track her down at a friend's house or in a park or hanging out at the Peanut Plaza.
But this time, after two hours had gone by, he tried looking up her bug and found it out of service. He tried to call up its logs, but they ended at her school at 3PM sharp.
He was already in a bad mood from spending the day arresting punk kids selling electronics off of blankets on the city's busy street, often to hoots of disapprobation from the crowds who told him off for wasting the public's dollar on petty crime. The Social Harmony man had instructed him to give little lectures on the interoperability of Eurasian positronics and the insidious dangers thereof, but all Arturo wanted to do was pick up his perps and bring them in. Interacting with yammerheads from the tax-base was a politician's job, not a copper's.
Now his daughter had figured out how to switch off the bug in her phone and had snuck away to get up to who-knew-what kind of trouble. He stewed at the kitchen table, regarding the old tin soldiers he'd brought home as the gift for their daddy-daughter date, then he got out his phone and looked up Liam's bug.
He'd never switched off the kid's phone-bug, and now he was able to haul out the UNATS Robotics computer and dump it all into a log-analysis program along with Ada's logs, see if the two of them had been spending much time in the same place.
They had. They'd been physically meeting up weekly or more frequently, at the Peanut Plaza and in the ravine. Arturo had suspected as much. Now he checked Liam's bug — if the kid wasn't with his daughter, he might know where she was.
It was a Friday night, and the kid was at the movies, at Fairview Mall. He'd sat down in auditorium two half an hours ago, and had gotten up to pee once already. Arturo slipped the toy soldiers into the pocket of his winter parka and pulled on a hat and gloves and set off for the mall.
----
The stink of the smellie movie clogged his nose, a cacophony of blood, gore, perfume and flowers, the only smells that Hollywood ever really perfected. Liam was kissing a girl in the dark, but it wasn't Ada, it was a sad, skinny thing with a lazy eye and skin worse than Liam's. She gawked at Arturo as he hauled Liam out of his seat, but a flash of Arturo's badge
Similar Books
The Mad and the MacAbre
Jeff Strand
Socket 1-3 - The Socket Greeny Saga
Tony Bertauski
Rebellion
J. D. Netto
Sheri Cobb South
The Weaver Takes a Wife
Dangerous Intentions
Dori Lavelle
Girl on a Diamond Pedestal
Maisey Yates
God's War: A New History of the Crusades
Christopher Tyerman
No More Brothers (A Serafina Florio Mystery)
Susan Russo Anderson
The Grand Design
John Marco
Her Perfect Gift
Theodora Taylor