Plasticity Page 24

  “There must be hundreds in there.” Thom was, appropriately, in awe.

  “Well, sixty-two, but close enough.” Portland smiled and began pulling potential heads of hair from their perches. She set several options on a table, and waved at the wall again, closing it. She began inspecting the details of each wig, a couple she lifted, turned, held them at arms length and squinted, using the optical effect of placing them on Plastic Hayley's head. After disqualifying four of the six heads she had pulled, she lifted a straight, black wig from one and walked it over to the plastic Hayley, who shrugged at it, and went back to work on assembling her decoy-self. This, obviously, did not satisfy Portland, so she went into the office to check it against the original. She returned with a smile on her face. “It's about an inch short, but I think it'll be good enough.” She returned the wig to the head and carried it over to a table closer to the two women working on the new plastic. After looking over the table, and not finding a marker of any sort, she had to go back into the office. Upon returning, once again, from the office, she wrote Hayley's name on the face of the mannequin head in red ink.

  “Well, my work here is done.” Portland dropped the marker on the tabletop. “When you're done screwing around with that thing, you and I have a couple of stops to make.”

  Hayley looked up from her work, narrowed her eyes, and went back to work without a word. Portland didn't care at all, and bounced joyfully into the office, leaving Thom standing alone, between the decoy and the twins. Thom looked around, nervously, and decided that he had not had a sufficient explanation for the existence of the twins, and he didn't want to bother the girls building the robot. He didn't want to bother anyone, really, but that was rarely an option for him, so he tried to quietly sneak away into the office, perhaps believing that the girls would be disturbed by his exit, though he was pretty sure they were ignoring him, anyway.

  “So, what's the deal with the duplicate witch-girl?” Thom walked in to see Portland discussing something with Cyrus, their hurried whispers ending when he entered the room.

  Portland set a hand on Cyrus's arm, briefly, to which he nodded, and resumed a cross-armed stance. “Alan controls them both with the same name, but it was like pulling teeth trying to get specific answers out of them. What we patched together was something about one of them being a prototype, and the other being the mark two version. No answer of how to reanimate the bad one.”

  Alan Rice finished his reading and rose from the floor with a determined look on his face. “Nothing in there about it. Maybe I could just command her to go back the way she was...”

  Portland started, with her face set to insult, but thought about it for a second, and changed her mind about whatever she was going to say. She just looked at him and nodded, which set Alan to a quick pace out the door, almost knocking Thom over in the process.

  Plastic Hayley came in, dodging Alan while removing her gloves. Her mask and goggles, apparently, left behind on the factory floor. “Okay, Portland. What's this about stops to make?”

  “You didn't think we could just mock up a robot and drop it off, did you? We have to set it up to be you. It will have to pass internal tests, including an ID system coded to your account. Well, her account.” Portland gestured to the sleeping girl on the couch. “For that, we need to do some programming that I am grossly incapable of doing. Also, I need to shower and change my clothes.” Hayley smiled and started to say something. “Even if I could fit into them,” Portland interrupted, “which I doubt I could, I'm not dressing myself in those ridiculous loli dresses.”

  Hayley laughed, but didn't say anything about what her opinion of Portland's current outfit was. “Well, I've done about as much as I can, for now. Probably didn't need me for most of the work I did, anyway. Lydia seems to be unnaturally skilled in the art of assembling plastics. So, I'm okay to go whenever.”

  Portland could see a little more of the flesh Hayley showing through the plastic, a little more color in that black and white photograph, and she had to fight to keep her distance, but it was getting harder to keep it up. And, after her talk with Cyrus, she was left even more uncertain of her priorities when it came to the two Hayleys. The flesh one was safe, and the plastic one was on the verge of safe, especially with the flesh one's impending decision to remain flesh. A prospect that was equal parts worry and relief.

  Chapter 24: Zhou Mei-Xiu

  “What the fuck, Mei?” Portland's tone was halfway between anger and something resembling entertainment.

  “What?” Mei's innocent tone was clearly fabricated. She knew exactly what this was about.

  “They fucking prodded me. I can't believe you gave them my passcodes.”

  Mei laughed loud and hard. “Oh shit! Sorry.” She had trouble talking with her laughter breaking in at each chance. “I really... I thought you could handle a couple of idiots. Getting soft?” Portland could almost hear her wiping tears from her eyes. She could picture Mei sitting in her darkened room, blue-ish white light like alien suns burning brightly from her monitors, lighting Mei's headset adorned face, casting odd shadows over her half-naked, crumpled form. She thought she could hear a slight creak of the cracked leather office chair, and imagined Mei repositioning to avoid a particularly irritating rift that left jagged teeth of leather framing a gaping maw.

  “I'm glad you find it so amusing. I'm in the deep right now, so I'll be bringing some of that back for you in short time.”

  Mei tried to stop laughing, but she couldn't stop seeing Portland in her head, dropping like a mannequin to the floor. What was she doing that she was so distracted to the point of being prodded by people that, Mei was certain, had trouble tying their own shoes? “What kinda deep we talking about here? It's not like I'm just sitting here watching porn all day. I have some work to do, in between.”

  “This is more of an 'in-person' kind of request. Do you have time today?” Portland was being unusually kind in her tone, and it made Mei start to sweat.

  “Well, I guess. Let me start—” But she was cut off by Portland.

  “We're here. Just let us in.”

  Mei panicked and scrolled through the surveillance cameras until she reached the one for the front door, showing Portland and another girl standing outside. The girl looked vaguely familiar, but Mei couldn't immediately place her. Portland appeared impatient, which was an impressive achievement for someone whose face was barely visible from the angle of the camera. Mei touched the door icon in the bottom right of one of her screens, it briefly flashed from red to green. “Okay, you're in.”

  Portland did not need to be told that the door was open, the door clicked so loudly, she was fairly certain the people across the street knew the door was open. She held it open for Hayley to enter, then pulled it closed against the resistance of the motors. Portland knew the door would close on its own, but once she had started guiding it, she felt like she had to keep going until it was done. Maybe out of a belief that she should finish what she started, or maybe she had some strange quirk about doors, but she didn't remember ever having one before.

  They found Mei upstairs in a darkened room, not having bothered to put clothes on, everything was basically as Portland had imagined it to be. No real surprise to Portland, though, since she had just imagined the scene the way it had been the other times she had visited Mei. What she had not expected was to see the group of three naked bodies on the bed in Mei's room. Three men of clearly distinctly differing, but indeterminate ethnicities sat along the edge of the bed, the feet of one not quite making it to the floor. Nude, sculpted bodies, displaying abs a model would be jealous of, beautiful faces empty of expression, hands limp at their sides.

  “Yeah, 'cause that's not creepy at all.” Portland had given as much attention as she had planned to give them, and turned her attention to the small girl, half-curled up in the office chair.

  Hayley, however, was interested. Perhaps a little too interested for Portland's taste. “Who are these guys?” Hayley approached them, finding it
easy enough to navigate the room in the minimal light that spilled in from the hall, cross-lit by the bright monitors. “They're beautiful.”

  Portland rolled her eyes, but Mei was more than happy to talk about them. “They're wipes from the discard pile. I rescued them from being reintegrated into the system.” Mei turned her chair around, and recognized the girl she was talking to, and hoped it didn't show on her face. If Portland didn't bring it up, there was no way in hell that she was going to say anything about it.

  “I followed about half of that, but the half I got didn't have many nouns in it.” Hayley stared vacantly at Mei for a few seconds, then turned her attention back to the men.

  “Blanks that owners never showed up for. Which is a euphemism, usually for death of the owner, but it could have simply been a change of mind. Custom units are non-refundable. So they reintegrate them into the system, which means they add them to their stock and sell them at a discounted rate. I spared them that humiliating fate.” Mei turned back to her monitors, clicked through a few things, then turned back to face Portland. “So, the deep.”

  Portland extended her hand and tilted her head toward Hayley. “This is Hayley. We need to spoof her and return a similar blank to the hospital for... Reintegration.”

  Mei raised an eyebrow and took to studying Hayley, who was still looking at the details of the blanks on the bed. “Wow. Such simple words, it almost makes it sound like that's not a herculean task.” Mei adjusted her bra straps and groaned as she unfolded her legs and let them dangle off the side of the chair. She had been in this position for hours, and if she was going to get up, she might as well make the most of it. “You guys make yourselves at home, by which I mean, don't touch anything, sit still and pretend like you're on the couch watching a movie. I'm going to pee and step out for a cigarette. Seriously, not a thing.” Mei plopped her feet down and used the arms of the chair to steady herself as she raised slowly out of the chair, wobbling like a newborn fawn.

  Hayley watched her creep like an elderly person away from her desk and out into the hallway, then turned to Portland. “How old did you say she was? Twenty?” To which, Portland nodded. “That's the oldest twenty-year-old I've ever seen. And what is she doing with these? She resell them or something?”

  “I'd imagine she fucks them. Pilots them when she needs to run errands. Maybe both at the same time. I dunno. I'm half creeped out by it, but more than half jealous that I couldn't do that.”

  “She can do that?” Hayley had heard about people that could pilot blanks, but she had never met someone that actually did it. The equipment and surgery to allow you to do it was almost as expensive as getting your own robot body, even if it may have been from the discount bin, and then you still had to buy a robot body to pilot. She assumed most people just cut out the middle man. But, Portland had raised an interesting aspect, and Hayley couldn't wait to ask Mei about it.

  After a brief eternity, Mei returned to the room. Portland started to say something, but Hayley cut her off, almost exhibiting some level of the excitement that her flesh version was capable of. Portland was surprised, and had to catch herself, not letting her face show it.

  “Can you pilot these?”

  Mei smiled like a kindly old lady, patronizing, but without condescension. “Yes, that's why I have them. My body doesn't work so well, so I keep some of these guys around for going out.”

  “With the expense of that, why didn't you just get a full body prosthesis?”

  Mei looked slightly confused for a moment, then she understood what she was talking about. “No, I don't have the implants. It's not a full dive, hence the headgear.” She gestured to the headset that she had removed before she had left the room.

  “Oh.” Hayley felt slightly abashed. It should have been obvious, but she could be oblivious at times. But, that did make what Portland said seem more likely. “Do you...” Hayley hesitated, unsure about the wording and the level of appropriateness. “Do you have sex with them? While diving?”

  Mei smiled the widest, most devilish grin Hayley had ever seen someone smile. It was unsettling and adorable in the most alien of ways. “Oh God, yes. It is the most amazing thing in the world, and almost no one gets to experience it. A shame really.” Mei crumpled back into the office chair and turned to face the monitors. “So, I was thinking about it while I was out smoking. There's no one else you could have come to for this kind of work, so it is incidental that I gave them your passcodes, right?”

  Portland smiled. Mei wasn't wrong, but she was on the hook for letting those idiots into Portland's apartment. “It's one of those things that just happens to work out well. Like one of those 'universe giving me what I want,' kind of things. So, when can you do it?”

  “Most people wouldn't have added the 'when' in there. But, since it's you, yes, I can do it.” She made tapping gestures on the empty desk, and screens flicked by on the monitors. “When is relative.”

  “Relative to what, exactly? I can get you anything you need.”

  “I'll need to scan and compile the plastic, then do some coding to break the other plastic. You got another body, already?” Mei did not look up from her monitors.

  “We have, right now, someone across town setting it up. New blank, full function, slight customization to match the girl. We'll be returning it as if it were the girl's blank, and we'd like to not have to worry about it coming back that it is not the same custom unit as her.” She, again, tilted her head toward Hayley.

  “I should be able to do that, assuming I can be as thorough as possible finding any and all markers, including artist's marks, and assuming they aren't as detailed in their inspection at the hospital.” Something unseen clicked and whirred, and Mei stopped tapping on the desk. “I'll have to keep the girl here overnight... for a thorough examination.” She turned and smiled wickedly at Hayley, but did not expect to see the girl smiling back at her in a similar manner. What had she gotten herself into?

  “I had assumed as much.” Portland started walking over to Hayley. “We should have the new body ready later tonight, or early tomorrow. I'll swing it by and swap you, then. Sound good?”

  Hayley began to nod, and Mei cut in, neither one certain which of them Portland was talking to. “Yeah, that's fine. I'll just put everything else on hold until then.” Mei tried to sound sarcastic, but she knew that Portland knew better. There was nothing that was nearly as important, or even a quarter as interesting, as what Portland had just dropped into her lap.

  “And Mei, while you're in there, maybe you can fuck up her ID or something, so she doesn't have to live in a basement, in airplane mode, for the rest of eternity. Maybe something that lets her get insurance, and a job, and some benefits.” Portland had surprised Hayley with her kindness. Until this point she had been treating her as some kind of pariah, or, at the very least, a not-so-distant relative. “And give her a new name.” Portland glared. “There's only one Hayley, and that's the way it should be.”

  “Ouch.” Hayley had succeeded in her sarcasm, although it was with great effort, because she truly felt wounded. Possibly made worse by the fact that Portland was not wrong. She wasn't the same Hayley, and she couldn't be, unless they wiped her and reinstalled the flesh version, which was potentially unethical, but not even a little bit illegal.

  Portland left without saying goodbye, leaving Mei and Hayley to get to work, doing whatever it was that Mei was going to do. Portland had an idea of what it would entail, and may have been interested in watching, but she had more important things to do back at the mansion.

  Chapter 25: Haunted

  The sun was high in the sky when Portland pulled up in front of Alan's house. It had been approximately seventeen hours since her phone call with Alex, and she had, yet, to notify him that she had the plastic, or give her “price” for returning it. She hadn't really considered what she should be looking for, cash value or otherwise. Price too low, and it would be suspicious, too high and it might make them more thorough in their investigation.
She, also, did not want to appear to know anything about the girl, and least of all, to know anything about her changing her mind and deciding to stay flesh. She needed the return of the plastic to be the end of the whole thing, for everyone involved. And, she needed to return to Margot Becker, having fulfilled her promise, but she had a feeling Margot was going to try to get her back with Charlie, and she wasn't sure how she was going to get out of that, but it wasn't going to be easy. All she had wanted, this whole time, was for Charlie to come back, but ten-years-ago Charlie, not today Charlie. She didn't even know her, anymore. And Hayley Prime staying flesh could mean additional complications, further muddying up the waters of Portland's mind.

  When she entered the house, she heard voices from the living room, but she didn't recognize them. This set her on her guard, and she crept to the wall, craning her neck to peek into the room. The voices disappeared as her face poked beyond the moulding of the doorless entryway. The room was empty. She cleared the room, and the voices did not return. Portland was left somewhat unbalanced by this, after all her praise of the robot body's ability to discern fact from fiction, she had wandered into a haunted house scenario, and had no way of debunking it. She glowered as she touched her finger to the elevator actuator, not even able to take pleasure from the haptic feedback.

  On the factory floor, the new plastic stood on its own two feet, motionless and naked. It was nearly a perfect replica, at least a perfect replica of Hayley Prime. She had not seen Ersatz Hayley without clothes, but she would assume she was similar to the real thing. If it weren't for the temporary head, which she could only believe they had chosen for the entertainment of its contrast, she would have thought they were finished. She walked up to the plastic, watching its eyes follow her, and began to inspect it from several angles.

  “Can you speak?” She aimed her query into the eyes of the plastic.