“Sometimes,” he pondered. “It seems more honest here, don’t you think? More natural, I mean. I suppose that’s why
Eva didn’t know what to say to that. Fortunately, Ivan noted her discomfort and changed the subject for her.
“Are you coming with us to the concert tomorrow, Alexandr?”
Alexandr grinned. “Don’t you think I’d be getting in the way? Wouldn’t I cramp your style?”
“We’d like it,” Eva said deliberately. She took Ivan’s big hand in hers as she spoke. Alexandr shrugged. “If we finish this last job in time. We’ve still got more screens to nullify. The infestation runs right through this building.”
“Where did it come from?” Eva asked, grateful for the change of subject. For some reason, Alexandr didn’t answer straightaway. He was staring at the older man, as if waiting to see what he had to say. Eva turned to Ivan, head tilted, waiting for an answer.
“From underneath the building,” Ivan said, blushing. “The earth is full of VNMs. They crawl up from beneath the ground. You find them in mines, in caves—they are there all the time, working away beneath our feet.”
“Yes,” Alexandr agreed. He seemed pleased to be allowed to confirm this. “You did not know this, Eva? It is an open secret—”
“It is not a secret,” interrupted Ivan, “but there is no point in worrying people.”
“They run up the walls of the Narkomfin,” Alexandr continued. “They have interfaced with most of the screens, thus attaching themselves to the outside world.” He gave a laugh. “It’s a joke. Social Care are interfacing you to the rest of the world, whether you like it or not, and at the same time they are paying me to come in here and eliminate their machines.”
“They are not all Social Care’s machines,” Ivan said darkly.
Alexandr was stirring his feet uncomfortably at this. He drained his glass with a hurried gulp. “All done. Come on, old man Vanya. Let’s get on or neither of us will get to the concert.”
Ivan quickly packed their tools while Alexandr vacuumed up the tiny pieces of plaster he had chiseled out of the wall in his search for the VNMs’ line of approach.
Ivan took hold of Eva’s hand again.
“Would you like to come around to my apartment tonight? For dinner?”
“Yes,” she said, staring back into his dark eyes. “Will Katya be there?”
“No, she is going out. Her friends have organized a good-bye party of their own.”
“I want to say good-bye properly,” Ivan continued, mercifully unaware of her thoughts.
“It’s not good-bye forever. I’m sure you will come back, at least for a visit.”
Ivan nodded and squeezed her hand. She kissed him lightly on the lips and gave a little wave as the two men left.
Eva softly closed the door and returned to the solitude of her lounge. She glanced at the screen on the wall. She didn’t care what Alexandr said, she still felt she was being watched. This was why she had come to the Russian Free States: to get away from the constant surveillance of the Watcher. The Watcher, Earth’s first AI, was shaping the world to its own ends, and sometimes it even asked Eva for advice. Why Eva? She didn’t know. But the responsibility of it had been too great to begin with and had only gotten worse since.
She shivered, remembering. She had met the Watcher. She had been present when it had released the original VNMs into the ground. Now they were sprouting forth—bursting from the fertile Earth—even here. Metal tendrils searching and questing and reaching for the sunlight, binding humanity in their growth as they reached up to the stars.
“Go away!” Eva shouted at nothing in particular. “Leave me alone!”
There was silence, but to Eva’s ears it was the silence of someone choosing not to speak.
