Zendyne | Page 6

for a moment and then looked away. "Such a professional humiliation for you. I knew you would never have agreed to go. So, you are being granted an indefinite leave of absence."
"But ... that’s not fair!"
"It was most unfortunate that I could not protect you. If only you had given me more reason. Perhaps..." She favored him with an unsubtle glance, leaving him in no doubt about the price tag of her support. He found himself shaking his head. Xia Lin’s face reddened and she looked away.
Lee paused, marshalling his defenses, wondering how much of this was corporate policy and how much Xia Lin’s jealous vendetta. He hadn’t foreseen getting sacked. A reprimand, a demotion, a setback to his career, yes, but he’d expected to retain access to the lab, to have the opportunity to generate the test results that would set everything right.
Instead, they’d already given up on trying to contain news of the killing. They’d moved to damage control, spinning the facts to minimize the downside and protect the stockholders. Naturally, they needed a scapegoat.
One particular scapegoat, to be precise.
Lee fought back, knowing it was hopeless because the only thing that could clear his design was the one thing he wasn’t prepared to reveal. "Listen. No one else knows the 9400 series like me. No one is better placed to diagnose the fault—"
"It pains me to say this, Lee, but I have already discussed the matter with our departmental superiors. You are no longer seen as a reliable engineer."
And that was that.
The personnel lady was hovering outside, ready to progress him — according to the jargon of her kind — into an extra-corporate placement situation. He signed the post-employment waivers and non-disclosures that she brought up on her screen, and watched her save them with all the drug tests and psych profiles they’d done over the years. Then she wanted to beam the latest vacancy list into his handeck.
"At least that’s one company document you can take with you," she said brightly. "And please, do glance over it when you have a moment. We often find that employees in your position are able to transition into other, ah, less demanding roles."
"I’d rather not, thanks." Lee still didn’t want to switch his ‘deck on, and he doubted that the machine would have accepted the list in any case, not since Lilith flitted aboard and melted its input circuitry.
"Then I’ll email them. To your personal account, of course, since your company mail is disabled as of now." Humming, she tapped a command into her own handeck. "Now, please don’t hesitate to contact me if you want any further details. We always enjoy welcoming long-lost members of the Zendyne family back into the fold..."
Lee thanked her and left. He knew that her list would have no professional-level openings, and he wasn’t about to start applying for janitorial work or night security. Right now, he was more interested in the price of his company stock.
As he crossed the lobby for the last time, he saw Kelly registering at the reception desk. The rentacop was grinning inanely in his crisp new uniform, being ushered into the building by a pair of sleek-looking suits.
***
Lee went straight to the nearest Coffee Co-operative and sat at one of the café’s customer terminals, sipping overpriced froth as he considered his next move.
He’d really been counting on having access to the lab; the loss of his monthly paycheck was an irrelevance compared to that. Being unemployed left him with no way to vindicate his design or clear his reputation.
He imagined some diligent, competent technician analyzing the doll’s mind, piece by painstaking piece. Everything would be in perfect working order. The killing would be attributed to some misunderstood aspect of Lee’s mindware, and the Aphrodite 9400 series — his first product as lead designer — would go down in history as the android that murdered its owner.
Lee had a horrible feeling he’d forgotten to renew his professional indemnity insurance.
For now, he could only hope that Lilith was unique, because if there were more like her out there, no insurance would cover the bill ... but that possibility was too depressing to think about.
He activated the data terminal and checked the portfolio he’d built up over his years as a Zendyne employee. The rumors weren’t even confirmed yet, but the stock was already on a downtrend. Lee felt a twinge of guilt about the sweet old lady who’d probably end up holding his shares when news broke of the recall, but it wasn’t as if he was really an insider any more.
He touched the SELL icon and watched his stake in Zendyne dwindling away while his personal account grew, wondering — without a great deal of optimism — if the transaction would turn out to be a metaphor for his