Chapter 45: 45 The First Test, Part Three

1090 stretched out her new body, and... That's right, she was really a she now, a female-shaped creature with a face and not merely lines of code.

There were people she needed to meet, but not yet. The crowd parted smoothly around her as she walked through it, anyway.

*

Tsuyoshi dragged Zelko back away from the crowd. "Can you see them? Are they coming over here? I don't want to talk to your co-workers."

"It's only Milo. Maybe the rest are dead," Zelko said, his voice light with optimism.

"The doctor is fine. Everyone else you work with is a nut job," Tsuyoshi said.

Zelko snorted, inelegant. "She's the biggest nut job of all."

Zelko's strong posture seemed in danger of collapsing at any moment, and then Tsuyoshi would have to drag him away to whine in peace. Maybe he should do it now. Preemptive.

"I don't want to talk to Milo," Zelko said. "I don't like Milo. He annoys me. He's talking to some guy and not coming over here. That annoys me more."

"You really don't like anyone except me, do you?"

"Mmm, and you love it."

Tsuyoshi sighed. "We should probably help the doctor."

"What for? There are plenty of other people here who can help. Let's go somewhere and relax," Zelko said.

"Wait, now the doctor's talking to Milo and his friend. Should we worry about that? Is she going to make us talk to him?" Tsuyoshi asked.

"She won't care. Let's go."

Zelko grabbed him with one of his big strong arms and steered him into the hospital, past the tall and tired looking guy fussing over Sophie, who looked like he wanted to call out to them, then past Colonel Huppert and the famous tech guy exploring the hospital, and straight into their room.

"This isn't even a come on, is it? You just want to nap," Tsuyoshi said.

"You know it, baby," Zelko said, and dragged him onto the mattress.

Tsuyoshi didn't resist.

*

Tsuyoshi left Zelko sleeping in their room and wandered, feet making complacent steps from one room to the other. Everyone else looked so happy about the two camps joining, so excited to meet new people and reunite with old friends. Tsuyoshi knew it was just a bunch of awkward strangers he had yet to alienate. Not a lot to celebrate. They weren't free.

Idle steps helped him find the place they'd stashed Sophie. She was curled over on her side, clutching the blankets like a lifeline, pretending to sleep.

Tabitha sat in a chair next to her bed, looking out of the window with a severe expression, not that there was much to see. Most of the crowd had moved on into different buildings as the excitement had faded.

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And there was some skinny guy in an elaborate outfit tidying things up around them, the same tall stranger he'd passed in the hallway earlier.

"Who the fuck are you?" Tsuyoshi asked, his hands paused on the wood of the door.

The man turned around and, as he smiled a small, unconvincing smile, the artificial light bounced off his robot eye. Tsuyoshi blinked away the glare. The red pupil of the strange man's robot eye roved around while the fleshy eye on the other side of his face looked straight forward.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," the stranger said. "My name is Ibrahim and I assure you I mean no harm. I've been allowed to clean up this area."

"By who?" Tsuyoshi asked.

"By your boss," Tabitha said, voice low and dark.

Tsuyoshi slanted a look her way. "The doctor isn't my boss."

"But you knew who I meant," Tabitha said.

Sophie clutched her blankets harder and stayed silent.

"My apologies," Ibrahim said. "My tidying is done. I can come back later when nobody is here."

"That's it? You're a cleaner with a robot eye?" Tsuyoshi said. "That shit looks more expensive than the average janitor can afford. Did you have a tragic cleaning accident?"

"Oh, no," Ibrahim said, the smile settling deeper into his face. "I plucked it out myself. Needs must. Well, I would not consider myself the most professional tidier, but certainly I've been tidying up after Milo for the last few months, much to his consternation. I am very good at keeping things clean."

"What?" Tsuyoshi asked.

"I will leave you to your friends," Ibrahim said.

Tsuyoshi moved to the side before Ibrahim moved through the door to avoid getting touched by all that crazy.

Tsuyoshi stumbled forward and let himself fall into a chair. Let his head fall into his hands.

"He's not the strangest person here," Tabitha said.

"Of course he's not. Because why would we get stuck in any average internment camp when we could end up here surrounded by psychotic criminals?" He breathed in deep until he felt like he could pretend not to be on the edge of a nervous breakdown, then sat up straight so all his angles were right. "You don't want to meet anyone from the other side?"

She finally looked away from the window. "I didn't really want to see Andrew or the Captain again."

"Were they mean to Tabitha?" Sophie's soft voice whispered into the room.

"No," Tabitha said, and started to laugh. "They were really nice. That's so much worse."

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