Chapter 60: 60 Participate In Your Manipulation, Part One

Angharad had laughed all the way back to her building the night before. Maria and Mnemosyne were so nice and so funny! Sometimes they called each other by first names and sometimes they called each other O'Connor and Keating, which was probably supposed to be some kind of dig to all that war stuff that Angharad didn't get, but it seemed weirdly playful, anyway. They had an interesting rhythm to the way they played off each other, and Angharad had tried so hard to be subtle about observing them but, well, they were observing her, too. As they'd walked away from her building last night she'd watched the way they walked together, the way Mnemosyne leaned in toward Maria when they were saying something quiet, then pulled up straight to laugh.

She could definitely see why Dr Yeoh had said she might find them interesting. No, it was Irene... Angharad was allowed to know the doctor's first name, now.

She flushed, thinking about it.

But it was already afternoon of the next day and in the cafeteria Mac hung off Angharad's shoulder, her voice as sleepy rough as ever.

"Eleanor won't hang out with me, today. She wants to hang out with her girlfriend," Mac said, the last word drawn out, like they were six year olds on the playground.

"Oh, please, and so she should. If I had a hot girlfriend I'd hang out with her, like, all the time," Angharad said.

"Are you going to get one and abandon us? You were hanging out with the old ladies over there last night," Mac said.

Angharad looked over the cafeteria to where Mnemosyne and Maria were talking about something very seriously with the Colonel. She strained her ears to catch anything, hearing only the vaguest words about Spark wanting to toy with something.

"Well, they are interesting, intelligent, tall... You know, maybe I'll run off with them both." Angharad laughed. "I can dream."

"You've been hanging out with Jin's friend, and Gemma has a boyfriend, and I am all alone," Mac complained.

"Jin's friend, Freya? I mean, she is sweet. And I... Wait, Gemma has a boyfriend now? Okay, no, I am going to get that gossip later, and you are going to tell Gemma that she and her new boyfriend are invited to my birthday if, I mean, we don't get rescued first, which I still hold out hope of. It could happen." Mac didn't look like she believed. "What? It could. Someone has to hold out hope or we're all just going to be miserable here, and I refuse."

Mac stood back. "Okay. I'm willing to follow your lead."

Angharad looked around again, when Mac left. Her robot friends were stiff over the counter. Maria, Mnemosyne and Colonel Huppert were still talking in hushed voices, something about not letting 'him' have one... Their voices went silent and Angharad realised Rod Spark had entered the room, sat himself down at a centre table, and started to eat.

Perfect.

She took the seat across from him and waited for him to look up. He smirked, shiny fingers flexing as he ate what looked like freeze dried chunks of apricot, but could be anything as far as she knew. The food in Zapville was too weird and gross to truly understand.

"Wow, you've already updated your prosthetics in the entire weeks since I last saw you, and those were updates from the last time you were in the papers. Your body is like the ship of Theseus," she said.

"And what's your opinion on whether that makes me the same soul I was before?" Rod Spark asked.

"I didn't know you before, so I don't care. You better not have stolen your parts from my friends over there," she said, and nodded in the direction of the kitchen robots.

"Someone else gutted your friends for their most interesting parts. You have to understand, Miss Silver, I would never do that. I respect a hardworking robot almost as much as I'd respect a hardworking human."

"That's not what the rumour mill says about your head office."

"The invention of new technology is a stressful business," he said, smile as wide as ever, but not wide enough to disguise his weak chin. "We might have had some problems in the past, but I made sure that my employees had access to mindfulness coaches that helped people retrain their mindsets so they could be more productive. Because I care."

"Wow, and you probably think you don't sound like a cartoon villain."

He leaned forward. "I don't think you want to be my enemy. I think you want to be my friend. We're alike."

"Really not."

"You want to figure out how to get out of here, and so do I. I've seen you working with that boy from the Constructed Islands. All I ask is that I get access to one of the downed crafts so I can fix it up and get us out of here."

She squeezed her hand into a fist, then let it unfold, carefully, so she could calculate her response just right. "I think it takes a little more than that."

Out of the corner of her eye she could see the guy who claimed to be Niall Turner walking in their direction. That was probably the last thing their conversation needed.

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"It's a minor physics problem," Spark said. "I'll figure it out."

"Oh, yeah, a stable wormhole on command, a minor physics problem so complicated that only the reclusive inventor Antley Grapfoy ever figured it out. So minor, so easy."

Rod Spark wasn't smiling any more. "I understand you're a hard partying hedonist like your parents and don't grasp real..."

Niall slammed his hand on the table. "Is this man bothering you?"

So unnecessary.

Angharad pushed her chair back. "No, I found this conversation illuminating."

"We know we can get out because Turner got in," Spark said.

"Obviously," Angharad said, already tuning out.

"And I'm here from the future knowing which of you gets out," Niall Turner said, just as smirky and obnoxious as Rod Spark.

"It must bother you," Spark said, turning to the other man, "that you busted in here with your sad, brain damaged sister, only to find the sex ban in the way of your incestuous complex."

Niall dived for Rod Spark, fists first, so fast that Angharad barely had time to shuffle back enough to be out of that blast radius. Colonel Huppert and Mnemosyne moved in to separate them, immediately, and Maria to pull the table back upright, though Niall was still struggling against the Colonel's grip when Angharad stumbled out of the room.

*

She stumbled into Freya, who was investigating the library, and it did look like an actual investigation. Freya perused the shelves, occasionally pulling a book half out before nodding and pushing it back in. Then she took notes after each book in the notebook that used to be Angharad's, which Jin must have given to Freya. Was she supposed to read something into that? Angharad was usually pretty good at imagining elaborate reasoning behind everything people did, but maybe that was just because it was easier than using the piles of card stock and soft butcher's paper in the craft room.

It would probably be even easier than that to make notes on phones, but it's not like Angharad was 100% sure the ability to use their phones wouldn't be taken from them again, and given how aware she was of the constant surveillance everywhere... Well, it wasn't like pen and paper was any more of a security risk. And there was something physically satisfying about writing things down by hand on nice stationery. Kind of old-fashioned and cool. It was a good thing Angharad had several other notebooks stashed in her room.

Freya looked at her side on, clearly fond but with a more serious expression than she usually showed.

"Was there something important you needed to tell me?" Freya asked.

"I think maybe we should let Spark play with one of the crafts once it's cleaned out of all the gross stuff or whatever. I mean, if he wants to restore it and maybe take the chance of doing something good for once in his life, who are we to stop him?"

Freya tapped the non-inky end of the pen against her own face. "Interesting. Jin will have opinions about this, and after that I should tell Major Keating and Captain O'Connor your opinion on this."

"Uh... They might be busy breaking up a fight between Rod Spark and the guy who just arrived as we speak. Which is totally not my fault! Spark started it on his own." Freya's eyes widened, which only made Angharad more determined to plead her case. "But, like, if we let him be bored isn't he just going to start more fights? Think of all the mess we can avoid by keeping him busy."

"How did...? It's true that Spark refuses to follow the chore roster and always starts trouble. Maybe..." Freya put down her pen and the notebook, and picked up one of the walkie talkies instead. She turned away from Angharad to speak into it. "Very important message, Jin. You will definitely want to hear this~!"

"I doubt it," Jin's voice, coming through the speaker all crackly for some reason. "There's no way you found anything interesting in the library. I've been in there. It's boring."

"Angharad thinks we should let Spark tinker with one of the planes," Freya said.

"Is she high? Is she right there? If she's not listening, tell her I think she's crazy," Jin said.

Freya looked over. Angharad crossed her arms and sighed.

"I am not taking Jin's opinions on my sanity. As if that guy knows anything about how not to be crazy," Angharad said.

"She thinks you're crazy as well," Freya said, over the sound of Jin's displeased noises. "And your objection is noted but I'm telling the bosses anyway."

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