Plasticity Page 25

“Yes, I am active,and can perform my basic functions.” The voice was not unpleasant, but it was also not Hayley's by a long shot.

  Hearing the interaction, Lydia emerged from the office. “Yeah, she's up and running. I can't figure out how to get her voice to be Hayley's, though. And the face isn't ready, yet.” She turned her head toward the far wall, to indicate that Alan was working on it over there, and it would be ready when it was ready.

  “I'm impressed. You even got most of the skin tone correct. However,” Portland looked to Alan, then back to Lydia. “I am curious how you got certain aspects so right with off the shelf parts, and I'm fairly certain Cyrus wouldn't have let you get that close to the girl.”

  Lydia knew exactly what she was talking about, and figured it would be fun to let her sweat for a bit. After an extended silence, Lydia instructed Portland to follow her down to where Alan was working.

  Alan had half of a head in front of him, with the top half skinless and sitting on the table to the side of the piece he was working on. Eyebrows and nose were exact matches for Hayley, which just made the lipless mouth and eyeless sockets even creepier.

  “Alan Rice, how long did Hayley have to sit for you, so you could copy her face like this?” Lydia had set a hand gently on his back, causing him to look up from his work.

  “She didn't have to sit for me, or anything. I've seen her face, I know what it looks like.” He seemed unsure of the reason for the question, and for a second, he started to doubt himself. “I didn't get it wrong, did I?”

  “No, it's perfect, I was just explaining something, in a roundabout manner, to our friend, here.” Lydia smiled at him, and left him to his work.

  “I'm not sure that makes me feel better about my specific concerns.”

  “Calm down, Guinevere, no one touched your knight. He's seen the plastic one naked a dozen or more times, and he can do a face in detail from memory, so it stands to reason he could get pretty close with anything else, right?” Lydia seemed to think this was good enough, but Portland wasn't completely defused by it. She relented, none-the-less.

  “I'm going to search the house for...” Lydia struggled for a word, before settling on, “appropriate clothing for the decoy. Keep an eye on the twins, for me, would you? Alan must have coughed, or something, and set off some weird sub-routine. They're alternating between standing in the office and standing out here, and they avert their eyes every time Alan looks up. Like they're plotting something, or just plain stupid. Either way...” She left it at that.

  Portland went to the office, and saw what she meant about the twins, standing off to the side of the room, staring at their feet, motionless. Hayley and Cyrus were engaged in conversation on the couch, and Portland felt a tinge of jealousy begin to chip away at her, already fragile, state of mind. At least they didn't stop talking when she walked in. Portland didn't think she could handle that right now.

  Hayley looked up at her, her face calmer than usual, but still shining brightly. “Hey. Did you see that thing out there?”

  Portland wasn't sure how to respond to that, assuming she was talking about the new plastic. “Uh, yeah...”

  “Alan did a great job skinning it, didn't he? Looks just like me.”

  Portland had to shake her head. If the real Hayley didn't have a problem with Alan's reproduction of her intimate details, it was supremely stupid for her to have a problem with it. “Yeah, he did.” She smiled at Hayley, then realized she hadn't seen Thom since she had returned to the mansion. “Hey, where's Thom?”

  “He went upstairs. Said something about looting or something.” Hayley sounded sincere, but Cyrus chuckled. Portland raised an eyebrow at him, but he did not clarify.

  “Okay, then. If you're doing okay, I'll go check on him. It's been a long day for him, too. I'm sure he needs to sleep.” Portland couldn't help but feel awkward leaving Hayley, but she had a responsibility to Thom, as well, and he had responsibilities outside of her, which he was neglecting on her behalf.

  Getting out of the elevator, Portland swore she heard voices just before the door slid open, but, again, the living room was empty. She imagined it would make her skin crawl, if her skin had that capability. She almost wished it could crawl, believing it might reduce the tension the haunted room was building in her head.

  Lydia was descending the stairs in the foyer when Portland exited the living room.

  “Hey, you see Thom around?”

  Lydia adjusted the clothing bags and shook her head. “Nope. Could be in the kitchen, though, I didn't go in there. The twins behaving?”

  “Far as I could tell. They didn't move the whole time I was down there, so I figured it'd be okay to come up here and look for Thom.”

  Lydia was past her, and entering the living room, when Portland stopped her. “Hey, you hear anything weird in the living room?”

  Lydia looked like she was thinking for a second. “No, not that I can recall. What did you hear?”

  “Probably nothing.” Portland turned and went to begin the search for Thom. She'd love to start with the kitchen, but she'd have to find it first. Threading through a couple of rooms that seemed to be offshoots of the foyer, she found a sitting room, and Thom asleep, sitting upright, in an antique-looking, Louis the Someteenth armchair. She approached him delicately, normally being more than happy to mess with him, and tease him, but today feeling like he had deserved some respite from her usual taunting. She set a hand on him, gently, and whispered at his face. “Thom, wake up for a sec.”

  Thom remained asleep, showing no indication that he had heard her at all. She repeated herself at a slightly larger volume, which produced a better result. Thom looked up at her, drowsily. “Heyyyy... Meg got a promotion, today. Lovely isn't it?” His head lolled back until it rested on the top of the seat back. Portland couldn't tell if he knew what was going on, or if he was having some kind of dream. She felt bad waking him, but she would feel worse if he missed work because of her.

  “Hey, wake up, Thom. What about work?” She gently nudged his shoulder.

  He looked more awake, but not by much. “I don't have work today. I called in sick, already. Meg's head nurse, now that Cynthia's gone out of state on a family emergency.” Thom smiled. “It appears that she quit today, with little notice, but Alex had her replacement lined up already. Meg's having a party tomorrow, and I'm going to be there. Meg's nice, huh?”

  Still couldn't tell if he was dreaming or not, but Portland shrugged it off, and let him fall back asleep. “Yeah, she's real nice, Thom. Too good for your dumb ass, that's for sure.” Portland patted Thom's head, and left him in the sitting room.

  In the foyer, she heard the voices in the living room again, but from this distance, they seemed clearer than they had been, earlier. She stopped and listened, and realized it wasn't voices. It was one voice, slightly transposed over itself. And she recognized the voice. It was Tabitha, the witch-girl. Portland couldn't make out the words, it just sounded like gibberish.

  “Tabitha, is that you?”

  The voice stopped for a second, before coming back in a more solid, coherent sound. “Portland? You can hear me?”

  “Yeah, I can hear you. What's going on?”

  “I have used Version Two-point-oh's connection to the house to broadcast through the speakers in the monitor in the living room, but my signal gets cut every time one of you walks into the living room. It has been quite frustrating.” Tabitha's voice was tinny and metallic, but it carried well enough through the empty rooms. “I have set up a new code-set that is ready to be run, but I cannot execute it, myself. Alan has to do it, because he has voice admin. If you would help, I can promise to be less rude to you and your friends.”

  Portland considered this, but it took little consideration to understand that the girl was more useful the way she was before being turned into a mindless robot. Another thought came to Portland at that moment, and she was completely on board with bringing the evil witch back from the dead. “I'll do it, if you promise to help me wi
th a task.”

  There was no response from Tabitha.

  “It'll be fun. You get to hijack a robot body and walk it around, playing dumb until they wipe it.”

  “The idiot's body?” She did not wait for a response. “Of course, I will assist you in anyway that I can.”

  “Okay, good. What do I need to tell Alan to tell you?”

  Tabitha explained the process, which was simple enough, then she ended the transmission, knowing that she would be cut off as soon as Portland entered the living room, anyway.

  Straight from the elevator, Portland crossed the room to Alan. He had made considerable progress on Hayley's face, and it looked like he just needed to add the eyes, attach the brain case, then skin and wig the top.

  “Looking pretty good, there, Alan.”

  He looked tired, but he smiled. “Thank you.”

  “So, you want to take a break for a second, for me?” Portland didn't like pulling him away from his work when he was so close to completion, but the witch-girl's part in this plan would just be icing on the cake, and it shouldn't take long to get her back in the game.

  “Sure.” He sounded more upbeat than he looked.

  “What I need you to do is go into the office, where the twins are, and say 'Tabitha, deactivate Sarah Chattenberg.' Can you do that for me?”

  Alan was a little hesitant, but he was willing to try it, for her sake, and the sake of his robot sister. Portland followed him to the door of the office, and motioned with her finger against her lips, signaling Hayley and Cyrus to remain quiet. Portland watched with interest, but no one else in the room knew what was going on, so they sat in confusion, not sure what they should be expecting.

  As soon as Alan finished reciting the command, one of the twins slumped lifeless, and the other smiled wickedly.

  “That is much better. Thank you, Alan Rice.” Tabitha, newly mobilized, began to exit the office. To where, no one was sure, but Portland stopped her from leaving.

  “Wait, I still owe you, and I haven't figured out what to do about that, yet.”

  Tabitha smiled without malice, perhaps for the first time any of them had seen. “Because you have freed me from my prison, I have decided to accept a lesser fee, in lieu of my actual father. Two-point-oh had several memories of my father that I did not possess. I now possess these memories, as well as access to a larger network of machines. I am everything Two-point-oh was, and more. I consider your end of our deal to be upheld.” She gazed at Portland. “And now, I will help you with your plan to deceive the hospital.”

  Lydia had dressed the new plastic, so it was slightly less of a sight when it walked into the office, but it still made Cyrus jump. The new plastic stood before them, it's out-of-place head angled down, surveying its body. They watched it pick at its clothing and shake its head, before hearing it speak in a slightly autotuned version of Hayley's voice.

  “I know, for a fact, that you could have found better clothes. I look ridiculous.” The new plastic smiled at them.

  “Fashion never was my thing.” Lydia shrugged.

  “Okay, so, you're pulling off the Hayley thing pretty well, so I'm pretty sure we can make this happen. Although, I may have a hard time hiding you in the car. They'll be watching when I deliver the new plastic to be wiped, and it's probably best if they don't see you.” Portland was running through a mental checklist, but the only reasonable thing she could come up with is making Tabitha ride in the trunk.

  “That won't be necessary.” Portland's head snapped at Tabitha, and she narrowed her eyes in suspicion. She was still in airplane mode, so the witch-girl should not be able to read her thoughts. “There was some interesting new code in Two-point-oh. I do not have to leave this house to pilot the decoy.”

  Tabitha did not elaborate, but she had said enough to get everyone worried, even Hayley Prime, who had nothing to fear from the witch-girl, as far as hijacking was concerned.

  Portland did her best not to cringe at the thought of what she had potentially unleashed upon the world. “Yes, well, let's put that on a back-burner for now. Alan, how long before the head is ready?”

  Alan looked to the ceiling for several seconds. “Seventy-five minutes.” He looked pleased with himself, and rose to exit the office.

  “That gives us some down time, I guess. Hayley, would you join me upstairs for a bit?” Portland watched Cyrus's face dip into sadness, but he stayed quiet.

  Chapter 26: Helen Maria Caballeros

  Portland and Hayley were, again, standing outside the door to Mei's house. If they had not been wearing different clothes, Mei would have felt some level of deja vu. Mei let them in, and called out for Hayley to join her for their arrival.

  When they reached the door to Mei's room, Hayley was standing with her hands on the back of the chair that Mei was slumping in. They were both smiling and it made Portland mentally recoil in disgust. She didn't even want to begin to think about what had happened between these two while she was gone. Hayley stepped out from behind Mei's chair and approached them, lighting herself better in the residual light from the hallway.

  Mei, with some effort, motioned her arm toward Hayley. “Portland, meet Helen Maria Caballeros.”

  Hayley bowed, clearly pleased with her new persona. “A pleasure to meet you.”

  Portland rolled her eyes, and dragged the new plastic in front of her. “Hayley, say hello to our friends.”

  New Hayley smiled, tipped her head, “Mei...” She let her face go slack for a moment. She chose to greet Helen with action, as it amused her to find that the girl had been switched out of airplane mode.

  Mei began to say something, but in her confusion, could not find the words, but Portland just laughed.

  When she had regained control of her body, Helen wanted to be angry, but found that she was more surprised than angry. Then, with a wicked thought bursting into her head, she was boiling with excitement. “You put Tabitha in that body? And you're giving it back to the hospital?” She was practically drooling.

  “No, it is even better than you think, Idiot. I am remotely piloting this body. All I need is the GPS marker and internet access, and I can hijack anyone, anywhere. So, play nice, or I will walk you in front of a train.” She smiled, presumably with malice, but with Hayley's face, it looked more like she had just offered to bake them all cookies.

  “Okay, let's all settle down here. The last thing I need right now is to have to figure out which one to shoot while you two are killing each other.”

  Helen looked at Portland, her blank eyes confirming that she had not understood, but New Hayley laughed, gently, causing Helen and Portland to stare at her in wonderment.

  “You know, because we are twins. She would not know which one was the evil one.”

  “What the hell did you guys do to her?” Helen didn't particularly care for Tabitha before, but this version, in her body, was somehow worse.

  “I dunno, I kinda like her like this. Evil, powerful and a dumb sense of humor. She merged with her twin, which, apparently, had capabilities that she didn't.” Portland shrugged. “It's probably a bad idea to let her live, with how dangerous she is, now, but, whatever.”

  Perhaps unsurprisingly, this did not seem to comfort Helen, but there was nothing she could really do about it. “Okay, well, I guess we should get going and let Mei do her thing with this one, huh?” She was acting impatient, out of nowhere, but she was not wrong. The sooner Mei finished the job, the sooner they could tie up this whole affair and be done with it.

  “Yeah, go, get out. I'll let you know if I run into any issues, but I don't expect to. The 'custom' unit your friend has is full of generic, off-the-shelf parts.” Mei snorted. “Two hundred grand for a thirty-thousand-dollar robot with a fancy paint job.” She shook her head.

  Portland winced at this, though. She looked at Helen, expecting her to be upset, but she looked more like someone had turned her rheostat down to 'Bored.' More importantly, though, it gave Portland a great, and potentially highly prof
itable, idea for a price she could give to Alex.

  “How long do you think you'll need?”

  Mei counted to eight on her fingertips before responding. “About an hour or two should cover it.”

  Portland hated to start counting chickens, but she wanted to get her foot in the door with Alex sooner than later. “Cool. I'll call them and set up the return for later tonight. I assume they won't do it in broad daylight, anyway. I'll call you if any odd details pop up. Come on, Helen, let's get you out of that skin.”

  Mei tapped on her desk, resulting in the usual clicks and whirs, then turned toward them as they were leaving. “I sent you all the paperwork, including a photo ID, that I have for that identity. You're on your own with the skin-work. Not my area of expertise, you could say.” Mei turned in her chair, and resumed tapping at the desk. She considered them gone well before they had actually left her room.

  Once outside of Mei's house, Portland wasted no time calling Alex. She leaned against the hood of her car, while Helen got in the passenger seat.

  “Hey, Lexi, now a good time?”

  “Never is when you call. What can I do for you, this crisp Autumn day?” Alex was using his salesman voice, which indicated to Portland that he was unlikely to be alone in his office.

  “I've got a price for you, if you're interested.” Portland held a hand up to block the sun's glare, before silently chiding herself, and simply dimming her eyes.

  “Of course. That is assuming you can deliver.”

  “Send me the time and place, and I'll be there. I think my price is fair, or maybe less than fair, but in your favor for it, so you won't have to worry about that.” Portland ended the call and hopped up from the car.

  “So, I assume we're on?” Helen was lazily twirling strands of hair with one hand, and drumming on her thigh with the other.

  “Yep. Now we just need to go get you set up.” Portland, for the first time, checked the files that Mei had sent. She grimaced. “I'm going to executive decision this right now, we are not going off of the photo ID Mei sent.”