Till Elizabeth entered the drawing-room at Netherfield, and looked in vain for Mr. Wickham among the cluster of red coats there assembled, a doubt of his being present had never occurred to her. The certainty of meeting him had not been checked by any of those recollections that might not unreasonably have alarmed her. She had dressed with more than usual care, and prepared in the highest spirits for the conquest of all that remained unsubdued of his heart, trusting that it was not more than might be won in the course of the evening...
P&P Chapter 17-18
"First dance is starting. You leaning bot or lady, Darce? I have the first with the either delectable or lethal Miss Bennet, and it might be convenient to know if it's likely to be my last dance or not."
"The bot theory is taking a beating. Some of the observed reflexes and mannerisms are still ambiguous, but at the moment, I'm mostly finding her goddamned attractive, which ain't doing my objectivity much good. You do have to admit the pair of them are stunners."
"Yeah, gotta agree with you there. Maybe there's hope for you yet! Tell you what! You do your tests and I'm gonna flirt with Miss Bennet. I think she might be the one."
"The one! You have got to be shitting me."
"No shit involved, Man! She'd pretty much have to kill me to convince me against her."
"All things considered, I'm not so sure that's your preferred alternative, Bingley."
"Falling in love or having her kill me."
"Not sure I can distinguish between the two, to be honest."
"Ha! Well, whatcha gonna do about your own bot/lady/bane of your existence?"
"Not at all convinced she's a bot. At the moment, the lady theory looks promising."
"Ok, Mr. Bad Ass Bladerunner - whatcha gonna do?"
"Take my life into my own hands, I think."
"As in?"
"I'm going to ask her to dance."
"Dance!"
"Yes, dance. I do know how, after all."
"Live on the edge, my friend! Live on the edge! I'll go make sure my sister doesn't have any knives handy."
"Can you freaking believe it? We argued during the dance."
"How is that even done? This isn't a complicated science – dancing, that is."
"She brought up Wickham. Threw me off my game. She implied he's saying some nasty shit and she believes him."
"What kind of shit?"
"The kind that makes me think he's almost certainly either a mayhem bot or a disciple."
"He's not here. He apparently went to town. How you gonna test him?"
"I'll have to go to town in the morning and hunt the goddamned thing down. If what she says is right, and it's a 304 as I expect, it will be gathering disciples. Things will get nasty quick."
"Where does that leave the ladies?"
. . . . . .
"Darcy?"
"It leaves them the same as before. Probably innocent, but unproven. Gotta track the immediate threat. 3000s aren't usually all that destructive, so I can come back to finish my tests later – but if we have an active 304 mayhem bot, we're going to have to deal with it before it gets completely out of hand."
"What do we do with the ladies?"
"As you so rightly pointed out earlier, death isn't the only thing to fear here. You, at least, are on the ragged edge of leaving expectations. In fact, if you take Sir William at his word, you may have already started down the slippery slope."
"So, I suppose I'll have to marry her."
"Not yet. I will not have you married to a replicant, and I'm still not sure."
"So again – what do we do."
"We need to bank the fire for a while. We can't write to them, and I'm not entirely sure the conversation, 'Love to stick around but we have to go retire a bunch of replicants' plays all that well."
"Nah – I suppose I could get Caroline to write and tell her we have to go to town on 'important business' or some nonsense, and that we'll be back as soon as we can."
. . . . . .
"Much as I hate to say it, that's probably the cleanest exit. Your sister's not the brightest bulb in the circuit, but that at least seems within her meager capabilities. Not that hard to say, 'urgent business in town'."
"I suppose so. Doesn't feel right, though."
"Hardly anything ever feels right in this business, Bingley. Just say the word when you want to pull up stakes and quit."
"Nah, I'm at least with you on this Wickham. If it turns out to be a 304, you'll need an extra sword arm and you could do worse than me."
"All right, town it is. Hope Caroline doesn't screw it up."