"Rudy, if you don't do something about this, I'll shoot him too."

Rudy moved quickly, re-activating Dorian's speech program without bothering with the final check. He kept his cool, something he was proud of. But for a moment, Rudy had panicked. He knew that John had anger issues. He also knew about the detective's record regarding Synthetics. And he hadn't been able to tell if Kennex was joking. Not until after the fact, anyway. Rudy had been left with doubts. Moodily, he reviewed the footage he had access to. It wasn't pretty. The MXs assigned to Detective John Kennex came to particularly bad ends. Being thrown out of a moving car or shot in the head was just the beginning. And, disturbingly, only a little over half of the "deaths" of the MXs were because John managed to destroy them. The rest had been destroyed in dangerous situations, which they had been led into by John Kennex. A little extra research revealed that John had made the best possible decision in each situation, to save lives.

Rudy knew that John had always been somewhat disturbed by the MXs. He could understand; Rudy sometimes wondered if the benefits of having robots with human faces (meant to be reassuring), actually outweighed the disturbing aspects. Seeing the MXs was like seeing bodies without souls; the walking dead. And for a while, Rudy had had a hunch that the reason John went through so many MXs was to remind himself that they were disposable.

But Dorian was different. He was… less disposable. Valuable, certainly, in a material and scientific sense-Dorian was possible the most well-adjusted DRN on planet Earth. Still, valuable wasn't exactly the word Rudy was looking for.

That wasn't of immediate importance. What mattered was that sooner or later, John would run into one of those situations that required him to put Dorian in harm's way. And he would do it, to save any human life. He would sacrifice Dorian and watch him being blown into a million pieces, or dissolved, or vaporized, or something equally awful. And then John would be torn up inside, and he would destroy more Synthetics, and Rudy's life would be a lot harder.

Dorian was a miracle-he was as close to human as a glorified robot could get. And slowly, he was getting close to John. That was good, in a lot of ways. John had someone to keep him in check, to help him along, and Dorian was able to experience a growing friendship. Unfortunately, Dorian wasn't a human being-he was disposable. And what if John grew to need him, to depend on him? That might be good...until he was called on to sacrifice him. Even worse, John might not be able to bring himself to do it. The closer he got to seeing Dorian as someone he could work with, be friends with, and depend on, the less likely he was to put Dorian in harm's way. And that would put people-"real" people-in danger.

Rudy stayed up late that night to think about it.

"Please," Rudy begged, "Just consider it?"

Dorian looked away uncomfortably. He didn't like to refuse Rudy, he would rather reason with him. "What you want to do," he said slowly. "It would… cheapen my very existence."

"But not really. At least, not all that much," said Rudy. "And it would be worth it, I promise you."

"It's my individuality at stake here!" Dorian burst out. "The possibility of loss is what gives a human life value. You don't replace a human being. You replace a toaster."

"Dorian," Rudy said, "if you care about Detective Kennex, you will do this. Maybe life is valuable because it can be lost, but losing someone is one of the most painful experiences that anyone can go through."

"And what will happen when we tell John about this? He'll be throwing me off a bridge before you can say 'useless cannon-fodder Synthetic.'"

"Then we won't tell Detective Kennex," Rudy said firmly. "We won't tell anyone. It will be our little secret. I won't even use web storage-I'll keep it stored safely here at the lab, under lock, key and password."

Dorian took a few minutes to consider the entire conversation.

"All right," he said. "But don't make me regret this, Rudy."

"Neither of us will regret this," Rudy said reassuringly. "Now, just lie down on the table and I'll get you hooked up in just a moment."

Dorian laid himself down on the table and looked up at the ceiling. It had been the first thing he had seen in his current "life." The first scene with thoughts and emotions attached to it, rather than flat, colorless memory-records. Rudy moved efficiently around the lab, finding various wires to hook into Dorian.

"I think this may even be good for you," he rambled. "Maybe it will give you some peace of mind, when you're out there fighting crime with Detective Kennex. At least you'll know that he'll be cared for, you know?"

"Yeah," muttered Dorian. "If it's still me."

"Well, I'm ninety-seven percent certain it will be, and that's as good as you're going to get since I doubt you would allow me to test it."

"I'm already not too sure about what we're doing here."

"I know, I know. Anyway, you're all hooked up now. Ready to go! I'll just, umm, leave you until it's finished...you may want to compose a message or something for Detective Kennex."

"I'll think about it. And thank you, Rudy."

Rudy just nodded, and pressed the button that began the transfer of Dorian's "soul" into data storage. He was downloading everything that Dorian was-not just the memories, but the entire, unique program the DRN ran on. The data would allow Rudy to create an exact duplicate-literally, another Dorian as he was at that very second.

The transfer took about thirty minutes. Dorian composed a message for John that he thought was nicely balanced between sentimentality and practicality. It took a few tries, but eventually Dorian was happy with it.

"All right, it's all downloaded in here," Rudy said cheerfully. He held a grooved metal box about the size of a man's fist. "This is a safety box," he explained. "The only people who can open it are you, me, and Detective Kennex. It's practically indestructible, not that anyone will find it. I have the perfect place to keep it hidden."

"Good," said Dorian. "Is there anything else I need to do?"

"Well, I'd like to update the data every week or so, no less than once a month," Rudy said. It's because your Synthetic Soul is constantly changing, improving, and updating itself, and I want this data to represent the real you."

"Got it," said Dorian. "I think I'd be okay with doing it once every three weeks."

"Good."

"Just one more thing, Rudy?"

"Yeah?"

"Where is that perfect place you're going to keep it hidden?"

"Umm… my underwear drawer. It's wear I keep everything hidden, it's sort of like a secret vault, you know?"

There was nothing that Dorian could say.