After a terrifying accident, hard-nosed private investigator Laura Kraft develops an affinity for finding little lost robots. She meets a runaway android named Winston and she’s soon pursuing Titan, a sentient android on a mission that will change human history.
The Android Who Got Away is a free short story available here.
I sat at my office desk on a sultry Spring morning, already in conversation with my old pal, Johnny Red, and tackling The New York Times crossword puzzle with a pencil stub I found in the back of the bottom drawer, when I heard someone at the outer office door. This was such an unlikely event, I reflexively reached for the stun gun I keep hidden in the desk leg well.
“A white male approaches,” my PA, Celeste, warned. “His signature is hidden. Approximately 5’ 8” tall, 200 lbs. He is unarmed. How shall I proceed?”
“Stand down,” I said. “I’ll handle him. Alarm only.”
“Will do, Ms. Kraft.” Celeste fell silent as instructed. I don’t use her often because she talks too much and has a voice exactly like a hooker who tried to stab me to death when I patrolled the Hollywood Hills. Yes, I know I can change her voice but then I might start to like her.
I powered up my Smart Braces and clumped my way out of my office into the reception area. A short, rotund man stepped in as I reached the door.
As with most people who meet me for the first time, my visitor looked surprised and alarmed by my appearance. Even with two years in rehab, I only recently began re-generating my legs. They were about fifteen inches long and too weak to bear my weight but grew steadily. Strapped into the robotic braces, the legs allowed me to walk with the speed and agility of a three-year-old. Although the braces never let me lose my balance, I tended to latch onto any available furniture.
“You must be Laura Kraft,” the man said.
“That’s me,” I replied. “And you are?”
He stuck out his hand. “Terry Essler.”
I knew the name and tried to place it with something I saw in the Cloud. Celeste, the name dropper, would have told me in a nanosecond. I left my unconscious to chew on this memory and shook his hand.
“Come on in,” I said. “Coffee?”
“Don’t drink it.” He looked around the office as if he wanted to share the name of his interior decorator.
“Have a seat.” I indicated the plush red-leather armchair in the corner but he took a wooden chair in front of the desk. I sat behind it so he wouldn’t have to look at my girlish gams.
I pushed the paper out of the way and gave him my happy face.
“So, what can I do for you, Terry?”
He stared at the paper. “You do the crossword by hand?”
I wanted to gift him with the long, boring story of how learning to write again took me a year but I didn’t think he was that interested in my problems.
“I’m an old-fashioned girl, Terry,” I said. “I do things the old-fashioned way and I get old-fashioned results. What can I help you with?”
“My android, Winston, disappeared,” Essler began. “He’s a security bot, mostly a deterrent. I searched for him and I reported him missing to the police, all the good that did me. If I can’t get him back, I want insurance money to get a replacement. The insurance company suggested I hire a private investigator. I asked around and your name kept coming up.” He said this last sentence as if someone suggested that cows could, in fact, jump over the moon.
“You want me to find your android, Winston?”
He nodded. “Either that or prove he can’t be returned to me.”
Essler wore a navy blue tailored, window-pane suit with a powder blue shirt and silver gray tie. He reminded me of a TV pitchman. That’s when I remembered where I saw him.
“I didn’t recognize you without your wife beside you,” I said. “International Gold and Diamond Exchange.”
“That’s right,” he said. “Angela’s my better half. Best deal I ever made.”
I didn’t bother repeating what everyone said about her marrying him. A tall, beautiful Eurasian with long black hair and a body that didn’t know when to stop exuding charm, she made the IGDE commercials look like trailers for a Best Picture nominee.
“When did you see Winston last?”
“Sunday evening about 8 p.m. We close early on Sundays and it takes a while to do inventory and lock things up.”
“He functioned properly?”
“As far as I know. His console said he was okay.”
“When did he go missing?”
“About 4 a.m. That’s when his connection dropped.”
Nothing new there. “This may seem like an odd question, but what kind of relationship did you have with Winston?”
“Relationship?”
“People have different responses to being around an android,” I explained. “Some regard it as another piece of equipment, like an auto. Others regard it as something like a pet. Still others regard it as a child, almost human.”
“I see,” Essler said. “For me, he was like the diligent employee who took orders too literally. I always had to explain the job’s nuances to him.”
“How did the other employees regard Winston?”
“They treated him like he wasn’t there. They thought of him as just another security system.”
“How did your wife feel about him?”
He smiled. “That was kind of funny. Winston has an AR module so he’s always reading people’s emotions. Angela thought this meant that Winston had feelings. She always talked to him to cheer him up. She thought he looked lonely.”
A typical reaction and totally without merit. The law forbids androids to display expressions. Personally, I think they look like they feel superior to humans and are secretly plotting our demise.
“Any problems with the business?” I asked. “Aggressive competitors? Questionable transactions? Organized crime moving in?”
He shook his head. “Nothing like that. Things are quiet. We have the retail outlet and a wholesale business. Angela handles the store and I build the inventory.”
“Did you notice any suspicious activity before Winston’s disappearance?” I asked. “Did any customers pay too much attention to him?”
He again shook his head. “Not that I noticed. I gave my surveillance video to the cops but they didn’t see anything either.”
“Bosco and Zelnick?” I asked.
“That’s right,” Essler said. “You know them?”
“Grand Theft Android,” I replied. “There are so many untethered androids these days, LAPD established a task force. Bosco and Zelnick are lead detectives.”
He sniffed. “I wasn’t impressed.”
I didn’t go into my long, sad history with those two. “Bosco has experience and Zelnick has brains. If they can’t find your android, it’s no longer on this continent.”
Essler frowned. “I heard androids get sold for parts overseas.”
“A security android like Winston typically will be used as a distraction in a robbery,” I said. “If it survives that, the android’s memory is wiped and sold to a reconditioner for resale.”
“That would be a hell of a loss. Winston has some expensive mods.”
I leaned forward and rested my elbows on the desk. “Let’s be optimistic. Most likely, punksters saw Winston guarding your store, untethered the android and told it to walk to Juarez as a bad joke. He’s probably powered down under an overpass waiting for you to pick him up.”
“I don’t think I’m that lucky.” Essler gazed out the window for a moment before turning his attention to me. “When can you start looking?”
“Immediately.” I had him sign a contract and explained my fee schedule. He agreed to the terms and paid the deposit.
“Two things before I start,” I said. “Wilson sounds like a standard XLN-460 to me. What kind of modifications does he have?”
“He’s equipped with a non-lethal sonic cannon,” Essler explained. “Not for use in the store, of course. It’s to knock down fleeing suspects.”
For a moment I was distracted by images of flying glass from exploding display cases and shattered showroom windows.
“Did he ever use it?”
“Not in the wild. I saw a demo at the practice range. The blast flipped a car on its side.”
“That could leave a mark.”
“Winston’s cannon has a much lower setting. Sort of like being knocked down.”
“Good to know.” The last thing I needed was having my artificial organs ruptured by a run-amok android.
“Your second thing?” Essler asked.
“My PA couldn’t identify you when you came to the door. Why is that?”
He looked around the room as if Celeste would materialize out of the filing cabinet.
“A precaution,” Essler said. “In case I’m a target for robbery, the thieves won’t know where I am.”
I rolled my eyes in disbelief. “I’ll come by the store this afternoon to check out the android’s console and start tracking him from there.”
