Allen was at a loss, almost choking as he answered, “No, sir.”
“Didn’t think so. Stuck here talking to a machine. Sounds like my life these days. All work and no thanks, not from no one but my officers. They do too much for this city, and for me. Roche especially. Bastard quit and still can’t get away from this place. We’ll be the death of him, that’s for damn sure.”
Even inebriated, Robins could be a wealth of information for Allen. He took the liberty of squeezing in a question. “Why did Roche ever leave, sir?”
“For the same reason I kept that goddamn fountain. You have your access, robot. Get to work.”
Robins shut his mouth after that, leaving the room in silence except for the groan of the ceiling fan and the roar of passing cars outside. Allen took that as his cue to leave.
He patted the pocket where he’d stowed the access card as he turned and walked out of the building.
He headed south once more, toward SoHo. Perhaps Roche would spot him on his way back from his errands up north and pick him up. And then, as though Roche had heard Allen’s mechanical thoughts from across the city, the French Talbot appeared, roaring down the street. Allen waved it down.
Roche pulled over to the side of the street, pushing the door open as he got out. He was panting and pacing around, and there was panic in his voice as he explained to Allen what had happened up north. His pants and shirt were stained with dirt and mud and other repulsive-smelling substances. An Automatic got out of the passenger seat, likewise slathered in muck, its eyes blue and its servos creaking. The mud had likely gotten into some very hard-to-clean areas.
It approached Allen, holding out a mud-covered hand. “Toby, friend of Elias. You’re the new partner, huh?”
Allen didn’t answer, but instead looked over at Roche, who had stretched out his back and calmed his breathing down.
Roche looked at both machines and nodded at the car. “Get in, Allen. We’ve got some juicy stuff to catch you up on. And we’ve got the evidence we need.”
“A Neural-Interface?”
Allen jumped as he heard slamming and shuffling from the trunk of Roche’s car. Toby snickered as it slid back into its seat.
Roche scoffed, wiping his nose before pushing his seat forward for Allen to climb into the small cab behind him. “Better — a suspect.”
CHAPTER 11
MY TALBOT SCREECHED TO A HALT outside of Karl Jaeger’s shop two hours later. I hopped out along with Toby and unlatched the trunk. The two of us pulled out the Automatic from the back. Rudi struggled in my arms, its flanging voice roaring with anger. A quick disconnection of its arm servos rendered its limbs useless. Allen stepped out of the car slowly and followed us.
I hammered on the door to Jaeger’s shop. After a moment, we heard tentative footsteps approaching from inside. The door opened several inches to reveal Jaeger clad in pyjamas, his face pale with fear. “What the hell are you doing, Roche?” he whispered, peering behind me.
“And what the hell is that?”
“We got you a present. Open up.”
He did as I asked, and we dragged ourselves in. Jaeger slammed the door shut behind us and locked it, then pulled the window blinds down to prevent anyone from seeing inside. Toby and I sat the Automatic down on a folding chair and bound its legs to the seat with belts. Allen stayed near the door, watching us work.
“Have you any idea what this looks like?” Jaeger said. “What would any other cop think if they saw you three idiots dragging a robot in here? I’d be thrown back in prison faster than I could say, ‘Don’t look!’”
“You’re welcome,” I retorted.
“The fucker’s friends nearly corpsed Roche, here. Besides, we thought you might recognize him.” Toby grabbed the Automatic’s head and turned it around to reveal the faded spot where I had torn off its serial number a few days ago, along with the large identification letters that spelled out RU-D1.
“Rudi!” Jaeger’s eyes popped wide open and he grabbed the machine’s head himself to inspect the missing voice box and tampered-with electronics. “Where on earth did you find him?”
“It,” I corrected him. “And that is a story to tell. But I’ve got something even better for you. He’s moving, right?”
“Of course! Red-eyed as well … how displeasing. This will take so long to reverse —”
He fell silent as I opened the back of Rudi’s head, revealing that it was empty. “I was right. This was the Red-eye that shot up the Prince and Greene speakeasy. Seven other Automatic shells tried to do me in at the dumping ground where we found it.”
Jaeger peered inside. As he pushed his hands into the tiny space, his eyes widened even more. “Impossible … impossible! He’s moving, acting, trying to kill you!”
“With no brain. Interesting, huh?” I smirked with self-satisfaction and walked off to lean against a nearby desk. Allen joined me. “How’d you fare?” I asked it.
“Good, Detective. I was able to get us access to the restricted areas of the General Electrics building. We have a Police Access Card, which will serve as our temporary warrant for anything above the Plate, so to speak.”
“Excellent.” Things were working out — that was a first.
Jaeger dragged a small table over to Rudi and set up a terminal and some wiring kits behind it. He pushed his fingers along the seams of Rudi’s neck, finding what appeared to be a loose plate in the back and flipping it up to reveal a hole — about one and a quarter inch in diameter. He retreated to the back to root around before
