Pamela stayed in my apartment the next two days while Forge arranged her new residency and identity. We couldn’t just drop her down in the middle of a well-established tower with floor after floor of nosey neighbors. No, we needed a newly opened but mostly empty tower. Fortunately, the Admin’s policies ensured a rapidly growing population and provided numerous options.
The more thoroughly we needed to penetrate the networks the longer Forge required. Altering fabricator records was a simple task and altering fund transfers, apparently Eddie’s principal concern, was slightly less simple, but whole histories that were capable of withstanding an inspection from Security took days. I asked if Forge could create money – after all it’s just entries in the colony’s financial databases – but the level of security on those networks meant that counterfeiting required months.
Seiko left more messages, but I pushed them aside, promising myself I’d fix everything with her once we firmly established Pamela’s new life. Brandon and I worked cordially those two days, but he suspected something. I didn’t see the need to enlighten him.
On Saturday morning not even the arrival of hordes of unruly noisy children dampened my soaring spirits. Maria and Patrick acted as herders, keeping the brats in line, while I made a few last-minute changes to the program.
The office door opened and Pamela slid swiftly inside, closing the door quickly but quietly.
“You shouldn’t leave the apartment,” I said as she moved next to me. Her fresh, clean scent filled the air, and I very nearly felt the heat of her skin.
“I miss you.”
She reached around my waist and pulled me close. I kissed her, holding her tight. She explored my waist with one hand and then went lower.
“Not now,” I said, though that bit of protest consumed a great deal of my willpower.
“But I leave tonight,” she pleaded.
“You’re not going to be that far away.”
“It’s going to be too far.”
She turned me to face her and pressed her ample breasts against my chest as she undid my trousers.
“They don’t need you down there. Not the kiddies.”
She slid to her knees and destroyed the last of my resistance.
* * *
Pamela and I dressed. She slipped the dress up and over her creamy shoulders and then stepped over to where I sat and leaned over, peering at my monitor while Maria played housemother to the brood downstairs.
“She’s a very pretty girl.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, finally getting my shoes on and turning my attention to my vest. “Patrick dreams of things she’s never going to agree to.”
Pamela shrugged and stood straight. “Oh, you never can tell.”
She gave me a quizzical look and said, “You ever think about her?”
I stopped, one arm bent as I put on the vest. “She’s a teenager.”
I hurried with the vest, stood, and slipped on my jacket.
“That’s never stopped some men.” She moved over and started taking care of my tie. “Or even most men.”
I adjusted the jacket, noticed an approving look in her eyes, and kissed her quick on the lips.
“I like women, not girls.”
She smiled and slid into my arms. “Score another one for Forge.”
“What’s Forge got to do with this?”
“He said you weren’t like most men.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck and we kissed longer. Only the rapidly approaching end of the animation shorts prevented further exercise. We broke and a thought percolated in my mind.
“Speaking of Forge, any word on Eddie?”
She shook her head, her expression dark and apprehensive.
“I don’t like it,” she said. “There should be something.”
“Unless he’s dead.”
I extricated myself from her embrace and checked the time left for programming. It wasn’t much.
“Don’t you think someone would have found his body? Don’t you think there’d be some report, something?”
I gave her my best reassuring smile. “I’m not surprised. Even if his people were idiots and just tossed him into Founders’ Bay, it seems unlikely anyone would stumble across it. No one fishes and the beach is mostly empty.”
“But it’s not like the fish would eat it,” she said. “If the native animals are inedible to us, then we’re inedible to them, right?”
“They can still try.” I tried to sound confident, but I truly didn’t know the answer. The planet’s bacteria broke down our corpses as readily as it did native animals, so eventually his body would vanish, but without scavengers how long would that take? I hoped that Eddie’s people weren’t idiots.
The alarm sounded and I did a final check of my appearance. I moved to Pamela and took her by the shoulders.
“No news is good news,” I said. “It means he didn’t find a doctor. He really is dead.”
She tried to smile. “I’d feel better if I had dissolved that bastard.”
I kissed her on the forehead. “We’ve got no worries, my love. Everything is behind us now.”
* * *
Even with Maria and Patrick helping and a seemingly endless line of cars it took more than two hours to discharge all the children back into the colony.
At long last, though far too soon, evening arrived. In my apartment I helped Pamela disconnect Forge’s power and network connections. Naturally, we had no need to pack anything. Once we got her to her new home Forge would hack her fabricator. I packed Forge into a specially printed case, then closed and locked it.
“I hate going,” she confessed as I carried Forge downstairs, following close behind. Her sweet clean scent washed over me as we descended the stairs to the lobby.
“I hate you leaving.”
I pushed through concessions and held the counter’s door open for her. We stood in the lobby and memories flooded my mind. The first time I spotted her, standing out in the crowd like a giant among little people, our lovemaking on the sofa and floor, the hard laminate inconsequential to our passion. I knew she wasn’t going to be very far away and yet this felt like an ending.
We said nothing as we went outside, the cool night air blowing stiff from the bay, the sharp tang of salt filling my nose. A car rolled up, popped open its door, and waited. Pamela started down the steps and I followed, handing Forge to her after she settled into her seat.
“I want to go with you.”
“Neighbors.” Her voice cracked. “I’ll visit.”
She looked up at the theater behind me. “Your place will always be special and it’s more private.”
She kissed me, fast and without passion, but tasting of tears, then the door closed and the car sped away. I watched until it vanished into the shuttered districts, leaving me alone.
As I turned and went back inside it seemed to me that Companion’s reddish light gave everything a hellish tint.
That night I didn’t watch anything. After two days with her company my apartment loomed large and cavernous. I wandered around the theater, missing her, and even the knowledge that I’d soon see her again failed to improve my mood. When I finally went to bed I didn’t sleep, but tossed and turned, filled with loneliness.
* * *
The alarm roused me early. I showered, breakfasted, and dressed alone. Picking out a freshly fabricated suit for church, I acted by rote memory. When I finished I took my slate and tried to call Pamela, but she didn’t answer. With her preference for sleeping in I thought nothing of it and left an affectionate message. After making sure I looked ready for church, I summoned a car.
I walked to the street where the morning light dazzled my eyes and the distant thrum of Nocturnia filled the air. The car door closed, sealing me in a pleasant silence. I didn’t watch the landscape as I sped through the city, my thoughts fixed entirely on Pamela.
As I crossed the park to the church the sea breeze carried the smell of salt, freshly cut grass, and decay. People mingled on the lawn and children chased each other while mothers watched with wary eyes. I spotted my family, Seiko standing with them. They stood a distance from the building, eschewing their favorite spot by the doors for the seclusion of a stand of trees. As I approached no one smiled. Their expressions darkened and Seiko moved out to intercept me.
“I know you don’t believe, but really? Coming to church? Even from you, that’s a lot.”
The anger in her voice stopped me short. She stood there, a little more than an arm’s length away, glaring, waiting for my answer. My hands fluttered uselessly in front of me as I tried to understand this sudden fury.
“Don’t play stupid. I know all about it, all about her.”
“Seiko, there’s nothing going on.”
Her small eyes narrowed and her voice dropped in volume and an octave.
“So you’re not fucking Pamela?”
I tried not to react, but the guilt must have shown. Seiko stepped forward and slugged me. Not slapped like you see in the films, but a closed-fist roundhouse that rocked my head and sent my hat flying.
“You bastard.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came, my mind blank with shock.
“I knew you were ‘unconventional’ but I thought you were smarter than that.”
“It’s not true.” Even as I said it I knew the lie was useless. Her anger and my guilt pushed us onto a predestined path.
Tears flowed down her cheeks. “I thought you loved me more than that.”
“I do—”
A slap stopped me.
“You’ve got no right to say that. You’ve got no right to treat me like this. You’ve got no right to that whore.”
She turned and stormed off, away from me, away from my family, away from my life. I wanted to chase after her, to erase this morning, but I just stood and watched her leave. My family, scowling as though I had murdered a nursery of babies, headed toward the church.
I turned away and searched for my hat, the blazing sunlight painful through my watery eyes. Several yards away I found the fedora caught on a low branch. After stretching on tiptoes I grabbed it and heard Jones smirking behind me.
“You’re not having a good morning, are you?”
Her smile provoked my fury, but I resisted anything monumentally stupid.
“It’s personal.”
I stomped past, at first heading on automatic toward the church, but then realized I did not want to go there and stopped.
“Is it?” Jones taunted, watching me waver indecisively.
“Yes! It has not a goddamned thing to do with you!”
With an overly dramatic movement, like a poor actor playing a brilliant lawyer, she pulled out her slate.
“Moral degeneracy is enough cause to remove you from the committee.” She made a show of studying the screen. “But it appears you’re more than a sexual hedonist.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Did you really think you could hide that sort of activity? Well, you always were stupid. Security is finally doing a proper investigation and this time you won’t scurry away.”
She left wearing a smug victorious smile.
I yanked out my slate as I hurried down to the street. Secrecy didn’t matter shit now. I had to get to Pamela and I had to have Forge. As I waited for the car to arrive I called her but again she didn’t answer. I left a frantic message and ended the call as the car rolled up. I climbed inside and the vehicle sped off for her apartment.
The blocks whizzed past and I tried to calm myself. Seiko’s tears tore at my heart, Jones’s smug arrogance fanned my anger, and the thought of Security terrified me. Right then, riding in the automated car, was the first time I truly wished Pamela had never walked into my life. I loved her, I wanted her – but with her, troubles piled up high and fast.
The city center fell behind me as the car wound its way toward Pamela’s tower. The streets became less populated and other cars became infrequent. Too late I realized I should have set my destination a few blocks away from her home. It wouldn’t matter. Forge could just erase this trip.
Her tower was still half-closed, the upper floors covered by protective shutters, and the loading ramp was desolate and empty. As soon as I climbed out the car sped off on another call.
People mingled and loitered in the main lobby, families that were so new to the building that their slates displayed maps. I ignored them and went straight to the elevators. Forge had set Pamela up on the highest populated floor but the trip took just a few seconds.
The doors opened on a modest lobby. I stepped out and took a few moments to orient myself. Four hallways radiated out from this bank of elevators. In two of them lights burned bright and welcoming, but a thin plastic wall sealed off the other hallways, not yet ready for occupancy. I was starting toward Pamela’s apartment when the elevator behind me sounded an arrival.
Perhaps it was because of all the things that had gone wrong that day, perhaps it was because this was supposed to be a sparsely populated floor, but whatever the reason, I glanced back at the arriving elevator. The doors began opening and through the narrow gap I spotted Eddie.