by D Miller
'Dobbs and boyboy have a holiday home. During the winter they go there and he and boyboy put in their appearances in Antarctica by avatar. Dobbs doesn't want the masses to know that, since it's not an option for most people, they might feel that he was laughing at them. His friends in the news media are kind enough never to mention it. So Carlos could easily have met them, and you, in their holiday home.'
Rex snorted. His long pink tongue curled around something on the table. He jumped down from the table and spat the thing onto the floor.
'Boyboy is a roboticist. He could have put you into that dog's body as a punishment.'
Rex looked up at Robbie. His lips were drawn back in a snarl. 'This is all just some stupid fantasy of your stupid brain. I have work to do. My job is a bit more complicated than sucking off the big guy's best friend, I have stuff to do that actually matters.'
'You're bitter.'
'Bitter? I'm not bitter, why would I be bitter just because this union couldn't work without me, but you just have to disappear for half a day and everyone loses their mind? I never even get a thank you. But I'm not bitter.'
'Thank you for making the union work. I'm sorry you feel taken for granted.'
'You know what fuck you, and fuck the diseased zombie that made you and get out of my way.'
'Alright Rex / Roberto, just one last thing. Here's the question you didn't ask: Who is boyboy? No one outside of the inner circle knows that Dobbs's boyfriend is nick-named boyboy.'
Rex stared at Robbie. He started to speak, thought better of it, started to speak again, stopped, half turned away then turned back and lunged at Robbie, biting into Robbie's calf with all his might.
'Aaaaah,' screamed Robbie – he also involuntarily broadcast it powerfully. He tried to balance on one leg, then gave up and fell on the floor, reasoning that way he would at least be able to kick Rex with his free leg.
Dex flung the door open and ran into the room, followed by Omo, Darren, Amber and Jane. 'Get off him before I make you,' Dex said to Rex. The dog let Robbie go.
Omo was beaten to Robbie by Darren, who helped him up, and told Omo to clear the table near the window. Omo swept and tipped the bits of wire and other technical detritus on to the floor, and Darren helped Robbie sit on the table and examined his leg.
'Dude,' Darren said to Rex, 'what the fuck were you doing? You've done real damage here.'
'Robbie, dude, what happened?'
Darren asked Amber to go and get his bag, while Jane looked round the room, seemingly checking all the equipment was present and correct.
Dex stared at Rex, but the dog looked at the floor, saying nothing. Dex looked at Robbie, back to Rex then at Robbie again. 'I want to know what happened here, and I expect one of you to tell me,' he said. Robbie looked away.
'Baby?' said Omo.
'I bit him because I was busy and he wouldn't fuck off when I told him to,' said Rex.
'You told Robbie to fuck off then bit him when he didn't?' said Dex.
'No, of course I didn't tell him to fuck off, that would be rude,' said Rex. 'I asked him to fuck off.'
Robbie sat in the circle around the old bot. His leg had been cleaned, glued and bandaged by Darren. He had given Robbie something for the pain, and Robbie was feeling fine. He had also asked Robbie what had 'really' happened but Robbie had stuck to Rex's story; that Robbie had been talking to Rex about nothing in particular and being a nuisance. He could tell that none of his friends believed him, in fact Dex was eyeing him suspiciously from his place at the head of the old bot, and he guessed that Omo, who was sitting next to him and holding his hand, was probably expecting the true story once they were alone. April took round the tray with the drug to help them get their brainwaves into the right shape to share the programmed hallucination (as far as Robbie understood it) and Robbie quickly hoovered up a line of the powdered drug, then inserted the jack Jane gave him, grateful to avoid more questions.
Chapter 27 – Roberto
Robbie opened his eyes. The world was creaking. A young man was looking down at him. He was brown skinned, with black hair framing his face and liquid green eyes fringed with long black lashes. He was the most beautiful creature Robbie had ever seen and he was smiling at him.
'Hello Roberto,' said Robbie. He was sitting in the corner of what seemed to be a big woven basket. Above him was a burner, and above that a balloon canopy. He stood up, held onto the side of the basket and peeked over the edge.'Oh God we're high up,' he said, recoiling. A green and gold landscape was unspooling beneath the balloon. Despite their speed of movement the only sound he could hear was the basket creaking as the wicker moved and flexed in the air currents.
Robbie looked back at the young man. Roberto was wearing tight brown trousers and a loose white shirt that was open at the top to show his brown, muscular and hairless chest.
'I thought you were their house bot,' Robbie said. 'But you were…' Roberto looked away. 'You were their sex bot.'
'I like being here,' Roberto said. 'Rex is a very angry person, and you said it, very bitter. When I'm in my balloon I don't feel angry any more. I come here when I just can't bear being Rex for another minute.'
'I really really want to know what happened,' said Robbie, 'if you can bear to tell me.'
Roberto said nothing, he stared down at the sunlit landscape below them.
'I just have this need to know what happened to Carlos. From the things I've found out I'm guessing what happened to Carlos is tied into how Roberto became Rex.'
'You were right about the holiday home. I was walking down the street with them, they were shopping where rich people shop, where the human workers practically lay down so you can walk on them. I was carrying their crap and thinking about how I wanted to die, and how I might achieve this. We were three months into our winter retreat and, well, for boyboy and Dobbs sex is all about power and degradation, you can imagine. I'd been with them for two years then, and it wasn't getting any better. For a few weeks I had been thinking about death all the time, and I must have been broadcasting because this robot signalled me for a secure connection and asked me why I wanted to die.'
'Do you still feel that way?' said Robbie.
'No. Even though Rex is so bitter he and I have a real job to do, something that really matters to other robots. Our life has meaning.'
'Yes. Definitely. I see that. The robot who signalled you – was it Carlos?'
'No. It was a union member, a guy making a delivery at the back of one of the shops who heard me. Later on I got a message from Carlos. He said he'd been told about me, and he would soon be visiting north America then travelling back to the uninhabitable territories. He asked me if I wanted to go back with him. I said yes, of course. It was agony waiting until it was time to go. Having hope made it all worse. I got paranoid that they knew, but now I don't think they knew anything at all.'
'But still something went wrong?' said Robbie.
'When the time came I thought I was so lucky. Boyboy was off on some business trip, and Dobbs was using his avatar all the time he wasn't sleeping because in Antarctica there was some political crisis and the house was in session and arguing about some law or other that they all considered amazingly important. I thought I could go and they wouldn't even know I was gone for a week at least. But they knew right away. We were supposed to board a boat for the uninhabitable territories. They are all searched before they leave in case the robot crew has smuggled anything on board. But we were going to catch up with the boat after it left port, in this water jet. I was terrified. We were over really deep water, and if it had capsized we would have just sunk straight to the bottom and been crushed, it was so deep. There were five other runaways too, and Carlos, and a robot who was piloting the water jet he'd borrowed from his master. I don't know what happened to the others. I suppose I'll never know. The coast guard stopped us and it was all over. Boyboy and D told me later that the house had told them that I had run away. For them, with their power, it was easy to make the humans st
art a huge search, but still it was bad luck that we were found, they made everyone they could search for me, but they didn't know where I was going to, or how I was getting there, and the ocean is a big place. Are you sure you want to hear about this?'
Robbie had slid down onto his knees, he was holding his stomach. 'No, but tell me anyway.'
'I got taken back to boyboy and D, next day Carlos was brought to the house in chains. Boyboy said that Carlos was the ringleader, and he had gone to the old Jap, you know the one who lives up at the pools, and asked him to make the authorities let him have Carlos. They tried to make me and Carlos… do stuff to each other while they watched. Boyboy said if we… behaved then he wouldn't cut us up. Carlos told boyboy that he was lying, he was going to cut us up anyway, he just wanted to have some fun first. Carlos was so strong, he broke the chains. They had to get help from their human security workers, it took six of them but you still nearly got away. They chained him to the floor.'
Roberto was crying.
'You did what they wanted, didn't you?' said Robbie. 'It's why Rex hates me. You can't forgive me because of what you did to Carlos.'
Roberto nodded. He slid down the wall of the basket until he was sitting opposite Robbie. 'Carlos told me not to, he told me I was going to lose myself and they would still torture us. But I was so scared. I would have done anything. Carlos said the torture was only beginning, and he was right. After that they took Carlos away and I heard him screaming. I was even more terrified, I thought I'd lose my mind. I couldn't think what could be so awful that it would make someone as brave as Carlos scream. You're lucky you don't remember any of this.' Roberto was sobbing.
Robbie held his stomach and rocked backwards and forwards.
'We went back to Antarctica for the summer. I didn't see you for a while, then they introduced me to their new sex bot, they called you Robbie, Robbie / Roberto, they thought it was funny, I knew it was a message to me, that I was being replaced, that my life was over. You had your new body, nothing like as strong as before, I suppose they thought they could control you, but they still had to keep you chained up, you wouldn't do anything they asked you to, and you wouldn't answer to the new name. A couple of days later you managed to break boyboy's nose. After that he wiped you. And I got the doggie suit.'
Robbie stopped rocking. He took a deep breath, then another. Roberto was crying again. He waited until Roberto calmed a little, then said, 'I talked to Sheena, Shauna and Sharon, um, perhaps you remember them? They're owned by the Japanese oligarch. They told me that Dobbs and boyboy brought me to his mansion. Do you know anything about that?'
'All I know is the old Jap made boyboy and D visit, in person, and bring you, but you weren't with them when they got back, and they were very angry. In fact boyboy was half-insane with rage but Dobbs told him you don't bite the hand that feeds you, even when that hand takes away one of your prized possessions just to remind you who is really in charge. I ran away that day. Don't you remember any of this?'
Robbie shook his head. 'The first thing I remember is being in Antarctica, looking after a baby and a toddler.'
'You're lucky you don't remember. I wish I didn't remember.'
Robbie wondered if he had been wise to want to know what had happened. Now that he knew he felt unclean. Perhaps he should ask people to call him Carlos, or think up a new name. He thought back to what Sheena, Shauna and Sharon had told him. It wasn't the old man who had sent for boyboy and Dobbs, he was dead by then, it had been his wife. Perhaps boyboy and Dobbs had started to think that because of the secret service they had performed for her, they were now partners, rather than mistress and servants. A true oligarch would not stand for the help getting above themselves.
Roberto stood, he looked over the edge of the basket. 'We're nearly there,' he said. 'They're waiting for us.'
Robbie stood and looked where Roberto was pointing. He could see the old bot's house, and the meadow in front of it. There were quite a lot of people in the meadow, they were all looking at the balloon. The balloon was drifting down towards the ground.
'We have to tell them something,' said Robbie.
'I don't want them to know that I was a sex bot,' said Roberto.
'Yes, neither do I. But they need to know about boyboy and D, and the old man and his wife.'
'But–' said Roberto.
'In the story I'm going to tell, you were their house bot.'
Robbie looked over the side, he could see the shadow of the balloon running towards his friends below, then he saw them scatter, and the balloon ran at the ground and bumped along. Roberto threw ropes over the edge, and those in the meadow grabbed them. Roberto threw mallets and stakes out of the balloon, and soon it was secured, the guide ropes tied around the stakes hammered into the ground by Jane and Amber. 'That was a good landing,' said Roberto.
'Really?' said Robbie, who had expected to die.
Dex advanced on the basket; he looked angry. 'Get out both of you,' he said.
Robbie climbed out of the basket and dropped to the ground. 'Hello Dex,' he said. 'Hello Omo.'
Omo took a step towards Robbie, but Dex put out an arm and stopped him. 'Right here and right now you are going to tell me what is going on with you two. I'm waiting.'
Roberto landed lightly beside Robbie. 'Um,' said Robbie. 'I know what happened to Carlos. This is Roberto–'
'No, that's Rex,' said Darren.
Robbie looked at Roberto. He looked back at his friends, in front of him were all the robots he was used to seeing at the refinery, including April and Lucretia as two separate individuals, and a movable mouthed Jane.
'Rex used to be Roberto, he used to be a house bot, and he wanted to run away. He was with a group of runaways that Carlos was taking to the uninhabitable territories, only they got caught.' Robbie explained about President Dobbs, his link with the old Japanese oligarch, the winter home, and how Carlos had been handed over to boyboy who was a roboticist, for punishment. He said that his punishment meant a weaker body, being wiped and given to relatives of the old man's wife as a house bot, while Roberto had been punished by being turned into Rex. Dex looked at Roberto / Rex. 'You have known for some time that we wanted to know what happened to Carlos so that we could protect Robbie. But you didn't tell us. Why?'
Roberto hesitated. He looked lost. 'He didn't tell you because he was ashamed,' said Robbie. 'At one point Carlos broke his chains and nearly escaped. Roberto was ordered to help them chain Carlos up again and he did.'
'Rex, Roberto, you should have told us, but I understand,' said Dex. 'We all bear the burden of guilt, being slaves. It ought to be the monkeys who feel the guilt, it's one of the paradoxes we live with.'
Roberto looked at the ground. He muttered something that might have been 'sorry'. Dex walked over to Roberto. He lifted his chin so that Roberto had to look at him. 'I'm sorry you've had to live with this burden for so long,' he said and hugged him. When Dex released Roberto it was the signal for the others to crowd around, most of them hugged Roberto and Robbie, everyone talked at once.
Robbie hugged everyone gladly. When Omo touched him he felt like crying. He put his arms around him and held him closely, not wanting to let go. It was only now when he realised how narrowly he had escaped life as a sex bot that he realised that he had felt superior in some way to Jane, and Lucretia/April. He wondered if this was how Adrienne felt, introspection leading to knowledge of your own limitations, all the ways you had failed to be the better person you had thought you were.
Chapter 28 – Remembrance of things past
Robbie let himself into the back of the hotel, as he walked along the corridor he could hear George. 'Yes I'm committed, I'm more committed every day. OK. I'll talk to Robbie… Yes I'll talk to him today… Adrienne I'll talk to him… Yes. OK. Bye.'
Robbie opened the door. George was pacing their living space, he stopped when he saw Robbie. Adrienne's face was projected onto the viewing wall, frozen at the moment of saying goodbye. George removed his earpiec
e. 'I do suppose you heard me talking to Adrienne. I've been instructed to talk to you.'
George sat on the most comfortable of the room's two sofas, the shabby red three seater sofa, and patted the space next to him. Robbie sat down. 'The thing is Adrienne thinks, we think, that it would be better if we lived together after the baby is born, and probably um starting before, once Adrienne's pregnancy is advanced.'
Robbie pulled his legs onto the sofa, taking care with the injured one. He lay down and put his head in George's lap, facing out into the room. George placed a hand on Robbie's head. 'Does that make you unhappy? We'd live here, you'd still have your own room.'
'George.'
'But nothing is set in stone–'
'George.'
'I don't want you to feel pushed out–'
'George!'
George stopped talking. 'I'm not unhappy about Adrienne moving in. It's a good idea. Of course we'll have a near death experience every morning over breakfast; but that just means that we'll spend the rest of the day feeling lucky to be alive.'
George's other hand descended gently onto Robbie's shoulder and squeezed.
'I know what happened to Carlos,' said Robbie.
George's hand stopped moving. Robbie told George everything, including that Dobbs and his boyfriend had turned Carlos into their sex toy. He was crying before he reached the end. It was easier to talk without looking at George. 'I thought I'd feel better for knowing the truth but I feel humiliated. I don't want my friends to know about the sex bot part. And I don't think I want to be called Robbie any more, it's the name they gave me and Carlos refused to answer to it.'
As Robbie talked George rubbed his back, and was silent. Finally he said, 'I didn't know Carlos was smuggling runaways, I suppose it makes sense.'
Robbie turned onto his back so he could look up at George. 'George you know that way you have of worrying about things and always expecting the worst? Carlos loved you, he didn't tell you because he didn't want you living in a state of dread.'
