Page 58 of Chaos Theory

FIFTY-FIVE

MAEVE

‘Can’t you turn on the heating?’ I rub my hands together, blow on them. The weather is running a winter preview, and Shane’s car is decidedly frosty. Or maybe that’s just the atmosphere.

‘Come on, Shane,’ says Josh from the back seat. ‘You don’t want Maeve to suffer, do you?’

The Jeep is parked on a dark side street, two blocks from RoboTron.

Shane turns fully around in his seat to give Josh a look .

He mumbles something under his breath. Then says louder, ‘Maybe you’ve both forgotten that I have to drive three hours tonight, supposedly incognito.

I was hoping to do that without stopping off to recharge.

If that’s okay with you criminal masterminds. ’

I see Josh hold up his hands in the rearview mirror. ‘Hey, this whole thing is Maeve’s idea. Well, eighty per cent of it anyway.’

‘Nice of you to give credit where it’s due.’ Shane drums his fingers on the steering wheel. ‘What’s your twenty per cent then?’

‘My job is to distract the security guard while Kobi exits the building alone. At exactly eleven tonight, I will assume the role of a disgruntled former employee. Method acting, if you will.’ A note of irony in his voice .

‘And remind me again why you have to go in there, Maeve?’ says Shane. ‘Can you not just get a message to Kobi to come out? I like pranks as much as the next person – maybe more than most. But technically, what we’re doing here is probably illegal.’

Josh laughs. ‘Technically, what Ron’s doing is probably illegal too. We’re way past that now.’

I put my hand on Shane’s arm and speak gently.

I already have my back to Josh, but I try to turn away from him even more.

‘Don’t worry. We’ll all be fine. I can’t message Kobi because it might alert Ron.

Also, I have to give Kobi my security pass so he can get out of the building.

You’ll have to take that from him and destroy it, remember? ’

‘Then how will you get out?’

‘I’ll be able to get out a bit later. I can just say I must have dropped my pass – I’m sure security will let me out.

Kobi will walk out of his own volition and you’ll drive him to Clare, where the Farmers are waiting.

They’re excited and already thinking of what Kobi can do around the farm to help.

He’ll have to keep a low profile, of course. ’

Shane shakes his head, then meets my eyes. ‘Is this really what you want?’

‘It’s the only way,’ I say. ‘The only way to save Kobi.’

I pull myself together. ‘Okay, boys. Part one is a go. I’m going in to RoboTron now.

I’ll tell Kobi to make his exit at eleven o’clock and to make his way here to you, Shane.

Josh, you be ready to start your am-dram from ten to eleven.

I’ll send you a message beforehand to confirm all is good.

I’ll tell Kobi to wait when exiting the elevator until he sees you in the lobby.

If anything goes wrong, message me, and I can come to the foyer and create more distraction. ’

‘What could possibly go wrong?’ says Shane as I get out of the car.

What are those two going to talk about for the next thirty minutes? I ask myself as I begin the short walk to RoboTron.

Then it hits me with a dull pang: I haven’t said goodbye to Shane .

Story of my life, really. We stayed up talking late into the night last night, Shane trying to suggest alternative solutions to an impossible situation.

We went round in circles until we eventually fell asleep on the couch together.

As I pad swiftly down a sketchy street, I check my pocket for the new burner phone I bought this afternoon.

My real phone is at home. Tomorrow I’ll destroy it and get a new one – one without Shane’s contact details saved in it.

I’ll get a new number too, in case he’s tempted to call me.

I’ve already combed through my social profiles and deleted any online connection between us.

I spent two hours going through Kobi’s TIL files yesterday, to see if there was much mention of Shane in the data already downloaded by Ron.

Yes, learning experiences from interacting with Shane have already been absorbed into Kobi’s neural network, but at least the raw data files have been deleted.

With luck, Ron won’t find out how important Shane is to me.

Anything Ron does to me, at least Shane won’t be dragged into it.

Now that Shane is slipping away from me, things are suddenly so clear. I can see us together – or at least, we could have tried. I could have tried. But how could we be happy knowing we’d let Kobi down?

I know I could probably go back to my job in Go Ireland and still see Shane that way. But only as a colleague. I could never be seen with him outside work. Even at work, we couldn’t really relax. Ron would be suspicious of me for a long time, and anyone I’m connected to.

Go Ireland has offices all over Europe. I could put in for a transfer – Barcelona, maybe Madrid.

I don’t want to be here for Christmas. I can just imagine Sandra Smith’s objectively beautiful smile as she celebrates the success of the office Christmas party, organised by her and Shane after numerous after-hours meetings.

And a few months after that, after the so-called heat has died down, if I was able to come back to Dublin, things just wouldn’t be the same between us.

No, it’s all about timing. Whatever we could have been – we’ve missed our moment .

I glance at my watch as I approach the bright glass frontage of RoboTron.

Ron prides himself on running a 24/7 business, so the building is always open and lit up at night.

At weekends, according to Josh, there’s just one security guard on reception, and the only other staff I might encounter are a code-weary, sleep-deprived engineer or two.

I breeze into the lobby. Just act natural.

Perfectly normal to be going in to work after 10 o’clock on a Saturday night.

Sure enough, there’s only one bored-looking guard behind the front desk.

I hold up my security pass from a distance, give him a nod as I pass by.

He seems utterly uninterested, thankfully.

I reach the turnstile gate and hold the card up against the scanner.

I wait for the high-pitched beep, but instead it makes a sad, low buzz.

Oh no. Stay calm. I try it again. This time it beeps and releases the gate. Phew.

I make my way to the elevator and press the call button.

The doors open immediately . I hit number four on the panel, swipe my pass again and exhale audibly as the doors close.

The plan is on track. I feel a little pulse of adrenaline.

Is this going to work? It has to work. I don’t have a Plan B.

Yes, it’s all very rushed, and maybe I haven’t thought it through properly, but Shane says people are always trying, and failing, to control time.

You either adapt to a new situation or you miss out, he says.

I try not to think of what I might be missing out on with him.

I’m doing the right thing , I tell myself.

I get off on the fourth floor, relieved at the low lighting and all-round quiet.

There’s a dreamlike quality to the whole experience.

Reminds me of a day when I was about eight, when Dad brought me to school on a day off by mistake.

The caretaker felt so sorry for me that he let me run up and down the corridors a few times before I went home again.

I’m pretty sure Dad would agree I’m doing the right thing now.

The robot bay doors glide open as I approach. It’s quiet here too, blue lights glowing from sleep pods. The Leila bot is not in her pod but stands motionless near the door. I reach Kobi’s pod and press the button to open the door. I take a deep breath. Here we go .

The pod doors open to reveal an empty compartment.

I do a double-take. There’s a lone screwdriver on the floor.

I inspect the four corners of the back wall of the pod, as if there might be a false door like in a magician’s box.

That’s when I notice the painting. It’s leaning against the side wall.

I feel myself frown as I pick it up. The paint’s not fully dry. Something cold creeps into my stomach.

I emerge from the pod holding the painting and pace the length of the robot bay. I find light switches, flick a few on. I look under workbenches. I go to the coffee area and stare uselessly at CoffeeTron, somehow even more menacing in the silence.

I pass the Leila bot again on my way back towards the door.

I stop and stand in front of her. Very slowly, Leila raises one arm and curls her fingers.

I understand it as a beckoning motion. I follow her as she moves towards the door and exits into the low-lit corridor.

She extends a finger towards the door to the stairs, then brings her finger to her lips in a ‘shush’ motion. My blood turns to ice.

I move stiffly towards the staircase door, as if I myself have robotic limbs. I open the door to chilly air. Motion-sensor lights begin turning themselves on as I grasp the banister.

‘Kobi,’ I say. I clear a lump from my throat. ‘Kobi!’ I call quietly.

I’m remembering something Kobi said on his very first Monday at Go Ireland. How did he phrase it? ‘I have always known that stairs would be the death of me.’

I begin descending the staircase. At each turn in the banister, I look over the edge into the darkness below. Please, please be wrong. I quicken my step, outpacing lights that flicker on too late as I stride into darkness.

I get to the second floor, glancing down as I round the corner, and stop . In the semi-darkness of the stairwell below, I catch a glimpse of something shiny.

I take the remaining steps two at a time, leaning heavily on the banister for support. I reach the bottom of the stairwell. My legs go from under me as I collapse down beside the something that’s already collapsed there.

I pick up Kobi’s arm, hanging loose from the shoulder socket, and caress it. One of the bigger wheels is missing, the other one broken, spikes sticking out. The lower section is botched and loose. The worst part is the neck. Kobi’s head flops down onto his chest. He looks so small.

Numb, I fumble for my phone, turn on its light. I shine the light onto the crumpled heap that is my friend.

I examine the control panel. The cover is gone; some of the buttons are missing. I push the remaining buttons anyway. Completely unresponsive.

I take one photo. Then I open the messaging app and send a single word to Shane and Josh: Abort .