Page 48 of Chaos Theory

FORTY-FIVE

We await our fate in the gleaming RoboTron reception area.

The foyer is spacious and calm, full of natural light.

Just one receptionist behind the desk, although two security guards made their presence felt as we checked in.

They eyed Kobi without reaction. They probably see robots like this every day of the week.

JP and I sit quietly on a multicoloured fabric couch.

Kobi is by our side, alert but silent. After the roller coaster thrill ride that was this morning’s team meeting, the mood has shifted.

The compliance report was completely overshadowed, thankfully, by Kobi’s productivity report.

Because Kobi insisted on crediting me for the report, people swarmed around me after the meeting with a warmth and enthusiasm not seen since that Friday in August when JP let us all knock off early because it was exceptionally sunny outside.

On the way over here, I told Kobi that it was me who should be giving him a gift, not the other way around.

I’m unsure of JP’s feelings about the productivity report, and I’m afraid to ask. I can sense he’s nervous about seeing Ron. I texted Josh this morning with an estimated time of our arrival. He texted back a thumbs-up, and nothing more .

I still have so many unanswered questions about Josh. How did he manage to manipulate so many people? Why did he do it? How could he betray me when I’d trusted him? I’m not even sure I want to know the answers. But I do want to know what will happen to Kobi now.

A distant bell chimes. I look up to see Josh’s blond head emerging from the elevator. My nerve endings jangle. I remind myself to be professional, for Kobi’s sake at least. Also alighting from the elevator is none other than Ron Tron himself.

‘Welcome to RoboTron,’ Ron booms as he crosses the floor to us. ‘And welcome home, Kobi. Good to have you back where you belong.’

He seems to be in good form, in spite of that passive-aggressive remark. Passive aggression is better than active aggression , I tell myself.

He shakes JP’s hand vigorously. ‘JP, my man! How the hell are ya?’

If JP were a dog, his tail would be wagging right now. I recall the Halloween costume with an involuntary shudder.

‘Great, not a bother, thanks. Haven’t seen you at the club for a while though.’

‘You know how it goes.’ Ron holds up his hands like Christ on the cross. ‘They won’t let me out of here!’

JP laughs. ‘Oh, my lot are the same. I believe you’ve already met Maeve here. One of our best and brightest.’ This is news to me.

‘I have, I have. Now, listen, Maeve –JP and I need to talk privately for a little bit. Why don’t you run along with Josh here? He’s all set up for the Kobi handover.’

My stomach flip-flops at the word ‘Josh’ and even more so at the word ‘handover’. I feel like I’m on the wrong side of a custody battle. I don’t even have time to process the way Ron just told me to ‘run along’ as if I were a child.

‘Sure thing,’ I say breezily.

I watch as Josh greets Kobi with what looks like genuine warmth. I realise they haven’t seen each other in a while. I can’t look him in the eye though.

‘Josh,’ Kobi is saying, ‘I have many questions.’

‘All will be explained.’ Josh looks at me. ‘Please, follow me to our robot bay.’

In spite of the circumstances, I feel a stir of curiosity at the prospect of seeing the ‘robot bay’, whatever that is.

My ill-begotten robot-handling career is currently on the rocks.

I flash through a quick recap: Duped by an engineer into integrating a malfunctioning bot into an office full of unsuspecting people; lying to Laura Cantwell and PHI employees about where I work; attracting the ire of the CEO of RoboTron .

Not a great résumé. But it’s not all bad.

I’ve done some good things too – things I never thought I’d be able to do: Integrated a robot into an office full of people; helped said robot put humans first in a moment of crisis; rehabilitated a damaged robot .

But it’s very hard to know where I go from here.

The three of us board the elevator. I feel the space shrink around me. Josh’s lies suck all the air out of the metal box. I’m doing this for Kobi , I remind myself.

‘So how many people work here?’ Maybe some small talk will ease the tension.

‘No one knows,’ says Josh. ‘Or at least, no one will tell me. We have the top three floors of the building, anyway.’

‘Oh,’ I say. ‘I thought the whole thing was RoboTron.’

‘Yeah, people assume that. There’s some subletting going on though.’

‘I suppose things are not always how they seem on the outside,’ I find myself saying, and we fall into an awkward silence.

A few minutes later, we arrive at the robot bay.

The entrance is via oversized, opaque sliding doors that swoosh open to reveal a cavernous, messy workspace.

The atmosphere feels chilly, and not just because of the tension between me and Josh.

Tools lie discarded on workbenches, wires trail everywhere.

I almost trip over a single bionic arm on the floor.

My eyes are drawn to the large glass cases that line one wall. I stop in front of the first one, peer inside. I tap on the glass as if I’m at the zoo. The small white robot within lights up its eyes and swivels its head towards me.

‘Maeve,’ says Kobi from behind me, ‘may I introduce you to the Leila bot? Its responsiveness to environmental stimuli makes it an ideal companion for the housebound, the elderly, the confused. I believe you would enjoy her company.’

‘Ha,’ I mutter.

‘Josh,’ says Kobi, ‘shall we give Maeve our lab tour? Maeve, you will find it most stimulating. The grand finale is a robot dance, which Josh performs while I mimic the actions of a nightclub DJ.’

‘Wait,’ I say. ‘Josh, look. I can’t pretend this is normal.’ I gesture at the glass cases. I can make out the labels ‘Poopsie’ and ‘Drover’ on the next two. ‘Obviously, this isn’t normal. But…’

I take a few steps to get further away from Josh. Then I stop, turn to face him properly for the first time. My voice shakes as it all comes tumbling out. ‘I cannot… I just… How could you? I mean, why did you? I mean, how did you?’

I thought I didn’t want to know, but it turns out I do. I want to hold him to account.

He takes a step towards me. I take a step back. He moves to a workbench, picks up a controller. The lighting dims a little.

‘I’m so sorry,’ he says. ‘What I’ve done is inexcusable. But at least let me explain it. I’ll tell you everything. Maybe we can sit down together, have a coffee? Kobi can wait here.’

‘No. You owe Kobi an explanation too. He’s very confused about all of this.’

‘Maeve is correct,’ says Kobi. ‘Data is incomplete. Logic circuits have misfired. A number of fundamental assumptions are currently undergoing re-evaluation.’

Josh sighs. He sits on a chair, puts his hands on his head.

He speaks quietly. ‘The last thing I wanted to do was to harm Kobi. That’s what started this whole…

runaway train. When I got the call to go to PHI in the middle of the night, I didn’t believe what they told me.

Until I watched the video, I thought they’d made some kind of mistake.

Kobi’s actions were just way beyond any of his programming or experiences. ’

He looks at Kobi. ‘He’d been doing so well up to that point. Incredibly well. Game-changingly well.’

‘I get it,’ I say sharply. ‘He was going to be your big break.’

I slump down onto a swivel chair. Kobi was going to be my big break too, I realise. ‘Why didn’t you just take him home right then and there?’

‘I did take him home – to my apartment.’

‘Josh, I have no memory of your apartment,’ says Kobi.

‘What?’ I say. ‘Surely you could have – should have – brought him back here?’

‘And explain to Ron that the multimillion-dollar Kobi project had just gone horribly wrong? The first thing he would’ve done is fire me. The second thing he would’ve done is take Kobi apart. I just wouldn’t… couldn’t …’

He stands, rearranges the tools on the workbench. He continues talking without looking at me.

‘You have to understand, Maeve – Kobi was three years of my life, and counting. Yes, he was going to be important for my career, but it was more than that. I knew, if I just had more time, I could figure out what had gone wrong and fix it. Get him back on track before Ron realised anything was wrong. Of course I’d have to tell Ron what happened, but I figured I could put it off until Kobi was back in good shape. All I needed was time.’

‘All?’ I ask.

‘Okay, you’re right. Time and – once I’d rebuilt his code – I needed him to build up his TIL files again, get him back to where he was before the PHI incident.’

‘Which is where Go Ireland came in?’

‘Which is where Go Ireland came in,’ he repeats.

‘I’ll admit it was a long shot, but I needed him to be around people, in a safe, controlled environment.

Low-risk physically, but with enough interaction to ensure his communication skills could quickly develop.

And there had to be a plausible connection between our two companies. ’

He continues straightening each tool on the bench. ‘To be honest, there weren’t that many places that fit the bill. I input a few parameters into Kobi’s system, along with all of Ron’s social profiles and contact lists, which I pulled from RoboTron databases.’

‘So JP’s name came up, thanks to his golf connection with Ron.’ Bloody golf.

‘Not just JP. I also discovered that a couple of people at Go Ireland had attended a “Robots in the Workplace” conference. So I knew there must be someone there with an interest in robots, maybe some IT skills.’

I sigh as I’m piecing it all together.

‘You thought Jen would be put in charge of Kobi, didn’t you?’

He nods.

I almost laugh. ‘But then you were stuck with me. I suppose I should be flattered you trusted me with your precious robot. Sorry, Kobi.’

Josh is examining the workbench tools with seemingly great interest.

‘Yes, well. That’s why I had to keep an eye on you.’

‘What do you mean? I only saw you once, maybe twice a week.’

‘Yes, but I also…monitored you…for a little bit.’

My cheeks flush. ‘What does that mean? What did you do?’

‘I…um…hacked your email account. And, um, your phone.’

I feel sick. I shake my head. ‘I don’t believe this. Gross.’

‘I couldn’t be there in person as much as I wanted to. I had to do something to keep an eye on the situation. I tried not to read anything personal, I swear. I just skimmed to try and gauge how well you were handling Kobi. I’m not proud of what I did.’

He looks at me properly for the first time.

‘Listen, Maeve, I really did enjoy getting to know you. And I’m not a bad guy. I’ve just…done some bad things.’

‘That’s literally the definition of a bad guy!’ I can hear my anger rising.

‘I’m so sorry, Maeve. The clock was ticking. I wasn’t thinking too far ahead. You have to believe me when I say I never wanted to hurt you. I wish I would have told you everything from the start. But there was never a right time. I just couldn’t…burst the bubble.’

I think back to the night of the Phelan’s incident. Josh’s confession about Kobi’s meltdown at PHI. ‘You said you’d make sure Ron never heard about what happened to Kobi in Phelan’s. I thought you were so sound, doing me a favour.’

‘Well, technically, that was true. I did keep it from him.’

‘Along with everything else!’

‘Also technically true.’

‘Well, technically , I don’t want to hear any more!’

I pick up my bag and bolt for the doors. But they don’t open automatically. I wave my arms over my head. I look all around the frame for a sensor or a button to press. I bash at a few switches on the wall. Overhead lights flick on and off. ‘Oh, come on!’

‘Sorry.’ Josh picks up a controller. ‘It’s been acting up. I keep meaning to fix it.’

‘Fixing things is not your strong suit,’ I say as the doors finally swish open.