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“All dressed up with nowhere to go,” said Iko from the doorway.
Cinder spit out the flashlight with a laugh and glanced down at her oil-stained cargo pants. “Yeah, right. All I need is a tiara. ”
“I was talking about me. ”
She spun her chair around. Iko had draped a strand of Adri’s pearls around her bulbous head and smeared cherry lipstick beneath her sensor in a horrible imitation of lips.
Cinder laughed. “Wow. That’s a great color on you. ”
“Do you think?” Iko wheeled her way into the room and paused before Cinder’s desk, trying to catch her reflection in the netscreen. “I was imagining going to the ball and dancing with the prince. ”
Cinder rubbed her jaw with one hand and mindlessly tapped the table with the other. “Funny. I’ve found myself imagining that exact thing lately. ”
“I knew you liked him. You pretend to be immune to his charms, but I could see the way you looked at him at the market. ” Iko rubbed at the lipstick, smearing it across her blank white chin.
“Yeah, well. ” Cinder pinched her metal fingers with the pliers’ nose. “We all have our weaknesses. ”
“I know,” said Iko. “Mine is shoes. ”
Cinder tossed the tool onto her desk. Something like guilt was beginning to grow in her when Iko was around. She knew she should tell Iko about being Lunar, that Iko more than anyone would understand what it was like to be different and unwanted. But somehow she couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud. By the way, Iko, it turns out I’m Lunar. You don’t mind, do you?
“What are you doing down here?” she asked instead.
“Just seeing if you need help. I’m supposed to be dusting the air vents, but Adri was in the bath. ”
“So?”
“I could hear her crying. ”
Cinder blinked. “Oh. ”
“It was making me feel useless. ”
“I see. ”
Iko was not a normal servant android, but she did retain one prominent trait—uselessness was the worst emotion they knew.
“Well, sure, you can help,” Cinder said, rubbing her hands together. “Just don’t let her catch you with those pearls. ”
Iko lifted the beaded necklace up with her prongs, and Cinder noticed she was wearing the ribbon Peony had given her. She pulled back, as if she’d been stung. “How about some light?”
The blue sensor brightened, shedding a spotlight into Nainsi’s interior.
Cinder twisted up her lips. “Do you think it could have a virus?”
“Maybe her programming was overwhelmed by Prince Kai’s uncanny hotness. ”
Cinder flinched. “Can we please not talk about the prince?”
“I don’t think that will be possible. You’re working on his android, after all. Just think about the things she knows, the things she’s seen and—” Iko’s voice sputtered. “Do you think she’s seen him in the nude?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. ” Cinder yanked off her gloves and tossed them onto the table. “You’re not helping. ”
“I’m just making conversation. ”
“Well stop. ” Crossing her arms over her chest, Cinder pushed her chair back from the worktable and swung both legs up to rest on top of it. “It has to be a software issue. ”
She sneered to herself. Software issues usually came down to reinstallation, but that would turn the android into a blank slate. She didn’t know if Kai was concerned with the android’s personality chip, which had probably developed into something quite complicated after twenty years of service, but she did know Kai was concerned with something in this android’s hard drive, and she didn’t want to risk wiping whatever it was.
The only way to determine what was wrong and if a reboot was necessary was to check the android’s internal diagnostics, and that required plugging in. Cinder hated plugging in. Connecting her own wiring with a foreign object had always felt hazardous, like if she wasn’t careful, her own software could be overridden.
Chastising herself for being squeamish, she reached for the panel in the back of her head. Her fingernail caught the small latch and it swung open.
“What’s that?”
Cinder stared at Iko’s outstretched prong. “What’s what?”
“That chip. ”
Cinder dropped her feet to the floor and leaned forward. She squinted into the far back of the model, where a row of tiny chips stood like soldiers along the bottom of the control panel. There were twenty plugs in all, but only thirteen of them were full; manufacturers always left plenty of room for add-ons and updates.
Iko had spotted the thirteenth chip, and she was right. Something was different about it. It was tucked far enough behind the other chips that it was easy to miss with a cursory glance, but when Cinder targeted it with the flashlight, it gleamed like polished silver.
Cinder shut the panel in the back of her head and called up the digital blueprint of the android’s model on her retina. According to the manufacturer’s original plans, this model only came with twelve chips. But surely, after twenty years, the android would have received at least one add-on. Surely, the palace had access to the newest, finest programs available. Still, Cinder had never seen a chip quite like that.
She pressed a fingernail into the release switch and gripped the edge of the silver chip with the pliers. It slid like grease from its plug.
Cinder held it up for closer inspection. With the exception of the pearlescent, shimmering finish, it looked like every other program chip she’d ever seen. Flipping it over, she saw the letters D-COMM engraved on the other side.
“Is that so?” She lowered her arm.
“What is it?” asked Iko.
“A direct communication chip. ”
Cinder furrowed her brow. Almost all communication was done through the net—direct communication that bypassed the net entirely was practically obsolete, as it was slow and had a tendency to lose connection in the middle of a link. She supposed paranoid types who required absolute privacy would find direct comms appealing, but even then, they would use a port or netscreen—a device that was set up for it. Using an android as one side of the link didn’t make any sense.
Iko’s light dimmed. “My database informs me that androids have not come equipped with direct communication abilities since 89 T. E. ”
“Which would explain why it didn’t work with her programming. ” Cinder held the chip toward Iko. “Can you run a material scan, see what it’s made out of?”
Iko backed away. “Absolutely not. Having a mental breakdown is not on my list of things to do today. ”
“It doesn’t seem like it would have caused her to malfunction, though. Wouldn’t the system have just rejected it?” Cinder angled the chip back and forth, mesmerized by how its reflective surface caught Iko’s light. “Unless she tried to send information over the direct link. It could have jammed up the bandwidth. ”
Standing, Cinder strolled across the storage space toward the netscreen. Though its frame had been shattered, the screen and controls seemed undamaged. She slid the chip in and pressed the power button, having to jab it harder than usual before a pale green light came to life beside the drive and the screen flared bright blue. A spiral in the corner announced that it was reading the new chip. Cinder released her breath and folded her legs beneath her.
A second later the spiral disappeared, replaced with text.
INITIATING DIRECT LINK WITH UNKNOWN USER.
PLEASE WAIT…
INITIATING DIRECT LINK WITH UNKNOWN USER.
PLEASE WAIT…
INITIATING DIRECT LINK WITH UNKNOWN USER.
PLEASE WAIT…
Cinder waited. And wiggled her foot. And waited. And drummed her fingers against her knee. And began to wonder if she were wasting her time. She’d never heard of a direct communication chip hurting anything, even if the technology was archaic. This
wasn’t helping her solve the problem.
“I guess no one’s home,” said Iko, rolling up behind her. Her fan turned on, blowing warm air on Cinder’s neck. “Oh, drat, Adri is comming me. She must be out of the bath. ”
Cinder tilted her head back. “Thanks for your help. Don’t forget to take those pearls off before you see her. ”
Tilting forward, Iko pressed her flat, cool face to Cinder’s brow, no doubt leaving a smudge of lipstick. Cinder laughed.
“You’ll find out what’s wrong with His Highness’s android. I don’t doubt it. ”
“Thanks. ”
Cinder rubbed her clammy palm on her pants, listening as Iko’s treads got farther away. The text continued to repeat across the screen. It seemed whoever was on the other side of the link had no intention of answering.
A series of clicks startled her, followed by telltale humming. She turned around, propping her knuckles on the gritty floor.
The android’s control panel was glowing as the system ran through its routine diagnostics. It was turning back on.
Cinder stood and dusted her hands just as a calm female voice began to emanate from the android’s speakers, as if it were continuing a speech that had been rudely interrupted.
“—pected that a man by the name of Logan Tanner, a Lunar doctor who worked under the reign of Queen Channary, first brought Princess Selene to Earth approximately four months after her alleged death. ”
Cinder froze. Princess Selene?
“Unfortunately, Tanner was admitted into Xu Ming Psychiatric Hospital on 8 May 125 T. E. , and committed bioelectric-induced suicide on 17 January 126 T. E. Though sources indicate that Princess Selene had been given to another keeper years before Tanner’s death, I have thus far not been able to confirm the identity of that keeper. One suspect is an ex-military pilot from the European Federation, Wing Commander Michelle Benoit, who—”
“Stop,” said Cinder. “Stop talking. ”
The voice silenced. The android’s head rotated 180 degrees. Its sensor flashed bright blue as it scanned Cinder. Her internal control panel dimmed. The fan in her torso began to spin.
“Who are you?” said the android. “My global positioning system indicates that we are in the 76th Sector of New Beijing. I have no memory of leaving the palace. ”
Cinder straddled her seat, draping her arms over the back. “Welcome to New Beijing’s mechanic suite. Prince Kai hired me to fix you. ”
The loud humming in the android’s torso died down until it was barely discernible, even in the quiet room.
The bulbous head rotated back and forth, scanning its unfamiliar surroundings, then refocused on Cinder.
“My calendar tells me that I have not been conscious for over twelve days, fifteen hours. Did I experience a system crash?”
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