Page 52 of Fembot
The line muffled, and Winston heard his dad speaking to someone, probably his driver. “Look, I’m going to get in touch with some friends of mine, and I’ll get this mess sorted out for you. You don’t have to worry about a thing. And if you want, Lucky, you can come work for me. I’ll find you a position that will suit your skills, with or without your degree. Don’t answer right now. Think on it for a while, okay? Let me worry about this mess, and I’ll be in touch when it’s fixed.”
“Thanks, Dad.” Winston exhaled a sigh of relief. “Send me your schedule, and I’ll try to pencil myself in for lunch sometime,” he offered.
If his dad was going to pull strings and help Lucky, then Winston could at least make an effort.
“That sounds nice, son. I should go. I have fires to put out.”
“Wait, you said you were going to call me?”
“Oh! Yes, the president of Rebonix Tech called. There was a small technical issue with some of the units, and they’re doing a recall. You’ll be given a new unit to replace the one they’re coming to collect.”
The bottom dropped out of Winston’s stomach. “Collect? When? What? What issue?” Winston tried not to panic. His father might understand a lot of things, but Winston doubted that he’d understand him falling in love with a robot.
“I gave them your address right before you called.”
“I have to go. Thanks, Dad.” Winston ended the call and looked at Calvin, who stood off to the side with his arms wrapped around his torso.
“I won’t let them take you,” Winston said. “There’s nothing wrong with you.”
“You can’t stop them. Even once the units are purchased, the company keeps the right to repossess at any moment, for any reason, but especially if the health and safety of humans is considered to be compromised by their presence.”
“Why would they think that?” Lucky reached for Calvin and tried to pull him close, but Calvin flinched away.
Scared.
Calvin. Was. Scared.
“You’re not like other robots, are you?” Winston said, getting to his feet. He approached Calvin slowly.
Calvin shook his head. “I’m… more.”
“No,” Winston said, taking Calvin into his arms. “You’re everything.”
“They’re coming for me. They’re going to take me away,” Calvin said, like it was inevitable.
“They’ll have to find us first.” Winston looked at Lucky. “Get dressed. We need to get out of here.”
CHAPTER THIRTY_
R U N
They threwtheir clothes on faster than they’d ever managed to take them off. Winston dove into his closet and threw a bunch of shoes and boxes to the side, unearthing his safe. He punched in his code and when the locks disengaged, he took a breath.
If there was one thing Winston knew, cash was king, even now in a digital world. Cash greased palms. Cash opened doors. Cash didn’t leave a paper trail. Everything else could be tracked, but not this.
Winston shoved the bundles into a bag and stood. “Okay, are we ready?”
Lucky yanked a hoodie over his head as Calvin did the same.
“They aren’t going to stop, Winston,” Calvin told him.
“I don’t care. Do you hear me? I don’t care. I’ll run forever if we have to. They’re not taking you. But when we’re out there, you have to pretend. You can’t stand out.” It drove a knife into Winston’s heart to say that. To demand Calvin not be the very thing that made him special. But the alternative was unthinkable.
Lucky grabbed the bag of cash from Winston and thrust a hoodie at him. “We need to leave,” he said. “Where are we going to go?”
“We’re going to drive until we can’t, and then we’re getting a hotel room. And after that, I don’t know. I have enough cash to get us through for a while, but I’ll have to figure something out later.”
Winston ushered them down the stairs. Novak was in class and the house was deserted. Which Winston hated. He’d have liked to say goodbye to Novak at least.
