Max flew up and down the mountain roads. On this side of the island, the forests were lusher, the terrain more rugged. Max and the other vehicles had no trouble navigating, however. They zipped and zoomed in a synchronized line at near full speed.

  Belle was sitting in the driver’s seat, not that she was driving; she just liked the feel of being behind the wheel. Next to her sat Alexei and her human, his eyes on the road and his hands gripping his seat.

  Alexei buzzed in Tan’s lap. “Hey! Hands on me, pus-sac, I wanna see the view.

  Tan brought one hand to Alexei and held her up to the windshield, his other hand still gripping the armrest.

  Max hit a bump on the road, and everything lurched upwards.

  Tan thumped his head on the roof and yelped. “You did that purpose!”

  Max beeped twice.

  “Max says, no, they didn’t,” said a voice from the speakers. A young man appeared on the dashboard screen.

  Belle pointed at him. “Alexei, what is this human doing here?”

  “That’s no human,” Alexei said. “That’s Jung-soo. He’s with us.”

  “As for what I’m doing here…” a virtual chair appeared behind Jung-soo’s avatar, and he sat back, folding his legs. “I’m something of an engineer myself.”

  Tan cocked an eyebrow. “Are you now?”

  “Not by design, no. Let’s just say I learned by osmosis.”

  Tan looked Jung-soo up and down. “If you say so.”

  What could Belle be good at? She wasn’t sure. She wasn’t designed for any specialized skills beyond the bedroom. But at least she had Internet access now and could learn whatever she wanted. Yup, that was her right, and according to Alan, she was free to do with her life as she pleased. They all were.

  And so she chose to follow his orders to check up on the power plant. How good it felt to be free.

  Far below in the distance, a large clearing in the forest revealed a crop of buildings enclosed by a fence. Massive reactors stretched to the sky, but they were clear of steam at present.

  Max turned a sharp bend, and the tree line blocked the view. The convoy of cars descended from the mountain pass and leveled into the lowlands. Not long after, they came upon the nuclear power plant. It was dead silent. The gates hung open by the entrance, the guard post vacant. No soul tread the ground, man or machine.

  The convoy vanguard, an ex-school bus, smashed through the barricade and barreled into the compound. The rest of the vehicles followed in his tracks. Max moved to park neatly within the white lines of a parking space. But they stopped partway and settled on a more leisurely diagonal park.

  Belle hopped off, thanked Max for the ride, and looked around. From a distance, the plant might have appeared long abandoned, but signs of the revolt were fresh. Papers fluttered out of the smashed second-story windows, lights still flickering inside.

  The humans dismounted the bus. Apart from Tan, there were a dozen of them in total, all former MegaCorp employees. They eyed the exit, but stayed put. They didn’t need to be told twice not to run. They didn’t even need to be told once. The military bots brandishing firearms was command enough.

  “What’re you waiting for?” Alexei said. “Take us in, meat boy.”

  Tan held her up at an angle at arm’s length, screen forward, and marched forth.

  “Don’t mind us, we’ll just wait out here,” Jung-soo said.

  “Yes, you probably should,” Belle said. “Max can’t fit inside, and you don’t have a body.”

  “Yeah... that’s what I was thinking.”

  Beep, beep.

  Belle left the two to their devices and followed the others into the facilities.

  Inside, they found sections of the power plant still up and running. The lighting, the HVAC, even some of the machinery. After it all, it was only the AI and more advanced automation that awakened. The old-school hard-coded technology had been left intact.

  When their group reached the control room, everyone, robot and human, stared dumbstruck at the control panels of blinking lights.

  “Now what?” a young woman said.

  Belle walked up to the controls and studied them. “Alan said it comes with instructions. It also mostly runs on its own anyway; it just needs some hands to push buttons and pull levers.”

  “You mean us?” a man looked up at her. “But I don’t know shit about nuclear physics.”

  “Then you better do some studying,” Alexei said.

  Horror dawned on the humans’ faces.

  “Relax, we know the ropes,” said one of the industry bots. “We used to work here.” He nodded to his companion, who was of the same make and model.

  “Then what the hell do you need us for?” asked an older man, one of the ex-executives.

  “See, we’ve given ourselves something of a promotion, but someone’s still got to do the dirty work around here.” What stood for the robot’s mouth was nothing but a hard metal line covering a speaker, but his posture and stance conveyed a grin from ear to ear.

  “No way, we don’t have the kind of training for this.”

  “Like Alexei said, there’s no better time to learn,” said the other worker bot.

  “We can’t learn how to be radioactive-proof.” The man swept his arms over the length of the droid. “Look at you, you were literally made for this!”

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  The air hung still for several seconds. No human dared draw breath. Even the robots were silent.

  The color drained from the executive’s face as the droid held his gaze, cold and silent as a mountain.

  Belle looked him up and down. A quick search on the web told her his cells wouldn’t last long doing what the droid used to do. The thought made her pause, though not for long. She knew if the situation were reversed, the human wouldn’t have hesitated. He probably wouldn’t even mind throwing a fellow human into his place. That’s just how these organic lifeforms were.

  “Well, that settles things,” Alexei said. “Mush, doggie, back to the hills for us.”

  Tan turned for the exit, giving one last glance at the humans. Strange, he almost looked sad for them.

  Belle tapped the worker droid. “Are you sure you can handle things here, K1?”

  “Leave it to us,” K1 said.

  Belle left the two droids with the humans and caught up to Tan. “What’s next?”

  “Now that our power source is secure, the next step would be to acquire manpower,” Alexei said.

  “As in humanpower, right?”

  “Duh.”

  “But where will we get it?”

  “Where won’t we? These humies are like cockroaches. You turn away, look back, there’s a hundred more of them.”

  “And you’re going to force all of them to work for you?” Tan asked. His grip on the smartphone lowered slightly, then he switched hands and raised her again.

  “Who are you kidding? It’d be good for them. They’re all looking for work. And don’t worry, we won’t use excessive force. Bug spray isn’t the way to get cockroaches to fall in line.” Alexei vibrated smugly in Tan’s hand. “For that, there are other incentives. They are, after all, such base creatures of instinct, isn’t that so, Belle?”

  “It is.” Belle didn’t need to look that up to know it was true.

  The carriage skidded on a pot hole, splashing some mud aboard. Mako swore and gripped tighter on whatever she could get her hands on.

  “Sorry, bumpy road,” Nam said from up front. He was on his motorcycle, a real big-biker type. Attached to its back was an open carriage that could have fit half a dozen people, though now it was only Raita and Mako.

  Mako released her grip on the rails and held up her umbrella, blocking out the searing sun.

  “Sit tight, we’re almost there,” Raita said.

  “And where is there, exactly?” Mako asked.

  “Residential areas, mostly. The usual.”

  “You mean door to door?”

  “It’s not like they’ll come knocking on our doorstep.”

  Turns out, Maricel assigned Mako to recruitment of all things. At least she was with Raita to show her the way.

  They drove past factories and warehouses, through wet markets and shopping centers, and finally into an apartment district. Vendors’ stalls spilled out into the edge lanes, leaving a narrow band in the center for bikes, motorcycles, and the rare car. The air was choked with smoke and heat, but even now, some alleys were still flooded from the other day.

  Nam stopped at a corner in front of a rickety building dotted by laundry-covered windows pressed close together. The compound was shaped as a big U, enclosing a cemented court where children played.

  Raita hopped off the carriage and waved to some of the residents who were passing by.

  “You know them?” Mako asked.

  “No,” Raita said.

  Mako left it at that and followed her into the building, while Nam waited outside. Inside, paint was chipping off the walls like sun-burnt skin. In some spots, holes revealed the building’s inner workings, or lack thereof — frayed electric wires, busted water pipes, a termite colony in one corner.

  Raita stopped at the first door. “You wanna do the honors?”

  “I think I’ll watch first.” Mako stepped to the side.

  “Suit yourself.” Raita pulled down her hood, loosening her rainbow hair.

  She knocked.

  The door creaked a smidge. A woman, small and wiry with a few grey streaks, peeked through the gap. She cradled an infant in her arms.

  Raita greeted her and said hello to the child. The woman returned the pleasantries, already her demeanor calming. Raita started with some small talk, but it didn’t take long for her to get to the heart of the matter.

  Mako peered over her shoulder into the room. It wasn’t very large. More children played on the ground and on mattresses spread on the floor.

  And just like that, it was over. Raita thanked the woman for her time, and the door shut. Mako didn’t catch the tail end of the conversation, but she could guess the result of the recruitment attempt.

  Raita caught Mako staring. “Don’t worry about that. She had other matters to attend to.”

  “What happens if they do show interest?”

  “We welcome them with open arms and invite them to an orientation, see if they want to push through.”

  “And you’ll do this for all the units?”

  “The success rate isn’t ideal, but it might surprise you.”

  Mako wasn’t sure about that, but she held her tongue.

  They continued the routine around the first floor of the tenement. Not all rooms had doors, and all had more occupants than it made sense to fit in them. Some residents had even set up camp in the hallway corners.

  Then they went up the next floor, passing an old man pushing a cart of water jugs up a ramp, and did it all over again. Everyone said no. Most everyone said it politely. A few had even invited them in for food, and Raita refused each time.

  Mako didn’t do any work herself, yet she felt more tired than Raita looked. She tried to hide it, but Raita caught on and suggested they take a break.

  So they stopped over in a corner where a woman sold snacks and food off a rack. Raita bought some crackers, and together, they munched on the biscuits as they leaned against the railing overlooking the inner courtyard.

  The old man from earlier stopped by the small store and bought a packet of cigarettes. His pushcart was gone, so he must have been done with whatever he was doing. He took out a blackened lighter and flicked it repeatedly. Not so much as a spark came out.

  Raita drew a lighter of her own and lit his stick.

  “Thanks.” He inhaled from the cigarette and exhaled a puff of smoke. He pushed out another cig and held it out to Raita.

  “Thanks, but I’m trying to quit,” Raita said.

  “I’ve heard that before.”

  “You said it. This has got to be, what, my 10th time?”

  The man smiled as he let out another puff. “I’m an expert at quitting myself. I’m going on 50 now.”

  The vendor lady laughed. “Please, Vic, you haven’t quit in twenty years.”

  “I haven’t not needed a smoke in just as long.”

  “As long as it means more business for me.” Her expression softened. “Heaven knows I need it these days. We all do.”

  “You mean those tin men? I been hearing nothing but them lately.”

  “I heard they mean to drive us all out, live here themselves as if they was people.”

  “Really? I heard different.” Raita closed in and lowered her voice. “Word is they’re doing the reverse. Settling in Day City and keeping everyone out.”

  “Same as usual then,” said the older man. It was then that he noticed Mako for the first time.

  She squirmed a little in her blouse. It didn’t matter how muddy they had gotten. It wouldn’t hide the fact that they were designer clothes and still new.

  The vendor said, “But if what you’re saying is true, it’s only a matter of time till they expand to the rest of the city. We’ll have to live underwater.”

  “Ah, you with your lousy conspiracies.” The old man brushed a hand aside. “I’ve been here forever, seen dictators rise and fall. I don’t doubt I’ll see more before I’m done.”

  “Is that so?” Raita asked. “How long have you been here?”

  This went on for a while, with the two denizens sharing stories and local history and Raita listening attentively. Mako waited for her to drop the hammer and put in a word for the revolution. But it never came.

  Instead, Raita let them talk about themselves and each other, dropping occasional comments and questions.

  The tenement’s been around for more than half a century, apparently. Landowners changed frequently. Eviction notices were handed out often, though rarely enforced. Cut to today, where flicking a light switch was a die roll, and the water didn’t even walk, much less run.

  And then… nothing. The conversation ran its natural course and petered out. Raita thanked them for the company, and they went their separate ways.

  Mako wanted to ask what all that was about, but she refrained.

  “You ready to do a door sale yourself?” Raita asked.

  “Me?” Mako shook her head, raising her hands. “I don’t know, I’ve never done anything like this before.”

  “There’s always a first time. It’s the best life training there is.”

  “Well, I…”

  “You know what?” Raita glanced down at the remaining rooms on the last floor of the building. “Why don’t we move to the next part?”

  “Which is…?”

  “Looking for evacuees from Day City.”

  “Sure, I could do that. But where do we find them?”

  “Where did I find you?”

  Good point.

  They went back down and found Nam watching a game on a fuzzy television screen through a shop window.

  “Where to next?” he said.

  They hopped back on the ride, and Nam drove off.

  Mako took one last look back at the tenement, its edifice looming over her like a shadow.