Zendyne | Page 5

was she
just genetically lucky, or was the golden, downy stuff custom-engineered? No one knew
except for Xia Lin, and she wasn’t telling.
Her eyes were a different matter. Their almond shape might have been classical Han but
their blue intensity declared them to be couture jobs, the product of some ultra-chic
cloning house in Brazil or Singapore.
No, it wasn’t a lack of physical chemistry that held Lee back, or any professional scruple,
either. It was simply that, while Xia Lin’s physical charms counted almost irresistibly in
her favor, her approach to relationships — any sort of relationship, not just personal ones
— weighed even more heavily against her. She was just too pushy, too persistent, as if
excluded from the subtle loop of human signals that told others where the behavioral line
was and helped them not to cross it.
Which left Lee in the uncomfortable position of spending his workdays with a girl who
was physically irresistible and ostentatiously available, but who just happened to make
his hackles rise just about every time she opened her mouth.
Xia Lin, of course, was unaware of this. She never seemed to lose hope that things would
work out between them, if she tried hard enough and gave him time.
Lee raised his tea to his lips and sipped.
Xia Lin regarded him gravely from her side of the desk, her blue eyes holding his gaze
just a little too long for comfort. "You should know that our directors are taking a very
serious view of this incident."
"I wouldn’t expect otherwise. Aphrodite 9400 is an extremely profitable product." Lee
chose his words carefully, knowing they were double-edged. His product had won market
share, investment and publicity — all of which could snowball into corporate catastrophe
if news of the killing got out.
Xia Lin’s expression was devoid of sympathy. "The more ubiquitous a product, the more
reliable it must be. You are perfectly right to note the success of the 9400 series. It has
sold particularly well at the top end, among political leaders and CEOs." She paused.
"You can see the delicacy of the situation."

She must think it’s the end of the world, Lee realized. Faulty dolls running amok, spiking
industrialists and statesmen ... stock markets chasing each other to the bottom, countries
and corporations changing hands overnight.
If only he could tell her the truth: that the killer had come from outside and was secure in
his handeck. Instead, he reached for a platitude. "It’s not that bad. Anyone really
important is bound to take regular backups."
"Yes. I imagine the queues for regrowth facilities would stretch around several blocks. It
would take months to restore order. Who knows what the world would be like by then?"
And then Lee considered things more fully and felt a chill run through his body. What if
Xia Lin was right? What if Lilith wasn’t unique? There could be any number of
interlopers lurking in Aphrodite units right now, waiting to spread mayhem by means of a
hijacked, high-heeled doll. He felt a sickening, almost overwhelming urge to confess
everything, just to make himself feel less alone.
If his manager had been a different person, he might have done it.
Instead, he remained silent as Xia Lin sipped her tea and dropped her bombshell.
"Unfortunately, rumors of our difficulties are already spreading across the net."
Lee shook his head in disbelief. "That’s impossible. I was first on the scene. The
containment team arrived a few minutes later. The only witness has already been
recruited."
"Nevertheless, there has been a leak. The best we can hope for now is to manage the
incident and minimize the damage. Our first step must be a product recall." Xia Lin’s
face stayed impassive as she pronounced sentence on his career.
Whatever control Lee thought he’d had was slipping away now, spinning into darkness.
All that was left to him was a charade, playing the part of the designer who’s just been
caught making the biggest fuck-up ever.
He nodded, doing his best to look professionally contrite. "I agree. I’ve made solid
progress towards diagnosing what went wrong, but it’ll be a day or two before I can be
sure. In the meantime, whatever triggered the crash could happen again." An
uncomfortable thought struck him. "If we’re recalling Aphrodite, we should do the same
with previous models."
"Is there any reason to believe that other product lines might be affected?"
Lee risked a small part of the truth. "We have to consider the possibility that the 9400
unit was taken over by an external agent, something able to subvert any device based on
similar neural processors."
Xia Lin’s smile was wintry. "That would be a comforting thought, no? A generic problem,
unconnected with this particular