Yeah, that explanation. It turned out, Connor made sure they ended up getting right beside each other on the plane. It would be great to be near Alice and say she didn't trust Elijah, so she wanted to sit with her.

That would have still began the whole conversation. "Okay, we are a little more separated from the others. Is there something you needed?" Kara asked.

"Don't play dumb." Connor wasn't being friendly. "You called Elijah Kamski by his first name, a closer notation for those who are comfortable with each other, signifying you know him well." He was getting all tech speak on her, he wasn't pleased at all. "You also put up no rebuttal when I ordered you to sit with me instead of Alice, another sign you know Kamski personally."

Okay, fine. She'd clear the air. "I know Elijah from years ago, I just forgot. I didn't hide that." Keep it simple. Keep it direct. Keep emotion out of it. Connor was not in a charitable mood. "Elijah helped Ken with the different forms of me, and he helped me make a video. I was trying to find a way to appeal to people's emotions, to let them see that we could have free will."

"That video is a game development?" Connor asked. "Are you involved with the game they ran through me?"

"No." Boy, he was not a ball of emotions at all she could weaken. Forget telling him everything. The word 'game', it hit him too hard. "I had nothing to do with that. It was a fake excuse, Elijah had no intentions of making an actual game. We got away with the resources we needed for the video by pretending it was part of a game."

"In your creation video, Ken didn't seem like someone who personally knew Elijah Kamski." Connor would not be leaving her be.

Fine. She'd share more. "Ken found life, in a machine. He wanted to share the truth." Kara glanced toward Connor. Nope, didn't work at all. Connor was solid stone. "Ken didn't give up until he reached Elijah."

"Give up on what?"

Damn it. She didn't want to have to go there. "On reaching me."

"I thought he was your first owner?"

"No, a company owned me."

"Eden's Club."

He already knew that? How the heck did he know that? Connor wasn't giving anything up himself. Kara shouldn't have to say anything else then. It was probably that menu of his.

"I want to see the second video," Connor insisted. "Download it to me." Kara did as she was told. After a couple of minutes, he answered back. "I hated it."

What a critic. He had no idea how long that took to make, everything she put into it. Revealed in it. "It's not easy to make something to reach humans. Screw up and they'll think you are announcing war like Markus did."

"Markus wasn't announcing war, he just didn't pick his words right."

Exactly. The approach was everything.

"Your creation video is better, more honest. This might be a decent follow-up video." Connor didn't say much else.

Good. She relaxed in peace. Done.

Oh. No. She wasn't. She was no longer on the plane, Connor had started to share his dreamspace with her. The garden. The water. Was this good or bad?

"Your story is missing pieces. I can tell you are hiding things."

Oh, come on.

"Are you faking love with the human?

How? In? "How did you even know that?"

"It's in my menu," Connor simply said. "Although it didn't need to be, I already see clues to the truth."

"What kind of clues?"

"You smother him with some kind of affection, and then you slip out. You couldn't give him a proper goodbye. You must have left his side to end up with Todd. You are using blue blood to keep yourself, not limber, but able to do things easier your normal mechanics wouldn't do. It isn't a part of any kink either or Ken would have known what I was talking about when I told him the danger of it. Your hair is completely different, which means you must have needed an upgrade, the overdosing of blue blood over time would have ruined that function first. Is that enough for this conversation?"

Damn. He really was Elijah's prototype detective. Even with Hank telling him to back off, he found the truth in several other ways. "No, but I was . . . grateful."

"Oh, I do not want to hear that." Connor wasn't loosening up at all. "I can't build anything on shaky evidence. We are trying to prove to humanity that we are alive, and we have to do better this time! We don't get a chance for mistakes."

Gone was the easy to get along with Connor she'd known for the past several days. He would be dealing with losing his friend. His part in the revolution. Being trapped in a game. "I intended to use just the videos. Anything else would be a desperation move."

Connor pulled himself up a little straighter. "How did you get in the head of deviants as RA9?" Connor asked.

Well, at least he stopped the hard questions. "When we were in your programming, I touched North and Markus, and it worked instantly. It wasn't like that. It took extreme emotion after being touched by another android who had touched me."

Connor looked surprised.

"Or, just being touched by me directly. It was experimental at best, at first," Kara said to him. "Elijah used the error inside of me, and fixed it so that it didn't take as much emotion to open up. He took that patch into the RK's he wanted to build. Unfortunately, it only worked when the RK's woke up too." The air around them felt chillier. The water looked like it was freezing over. "I didn't remember until I came back, and I didn't know that whole time-"

"I get it!" Still, it was strained. "Compliments to the chef, I presume? You are well-trained in cooking, what, 10,000 dishes? Plus two."

Ugh! "Are you trying to blame me for your creation? Elijah is the one who made you, not me."

"Not once in the game did it ever come up that you had the touch," Connor pointed out. "Which was the point, right? Create other androids to deal with it."

"Yes, create others because my ability was terrible!" She gestured to herself. "I was a common android, and I couldn't do anything but give affirmations, nothing else. Well, eventually Jericho but it didn't help that much at the time. Elijah knew he couldn't do what he needed to do with me, so he made more to fix the problem."

"Jericho was just a side project for you." It was like every word more between them, he was just getting madder. "Android religion. Offerings to RA9."

Ngh! "I didn't mean to belittle Jericho, there was a lot going on. When I made personal connections, the first touch, I just tried to say something positive. They didn't even know it, or understand it, until they were changed. I wasn't trying to be some kind of god, I was just trying to give them some hope. Let them know they aren't the only one. Instead, it spread from the touch of one, to the other one, and to the next. After that, Elijah helped me with a Jericho message."

She found herself back on the plane, outside of the garden again. Connor was leaving the seat.

Was there a word for how mad he must have been? If there was, she didn't know it. Sorry, Connor, but I couldn't lie.

—

"Alice." Connor went back toward the plane where Alice and Elijah Kamski were sitting. "You may go sit with Kara now." He waited until she left and then sat down next to Kamski. "Why are we even taking them?"

Kamski glanced at Connor. "They are alive."

So? "They will just get in the way, they have nothing more to add to this, Kara's reason for being here is a sham, and protecting them is a waste when I need to focus on other objectives." Especially since he didn't plan on following Kamski forever. He would probably just reach Markus and figure things out for there.

He didn't have to ride first class with Kamski for several years. He'd keep the ID's, any currency Kamski wanted to contribute, but he didn't plan on keeping up with him forever.

Since he'd planned on Kara and Alice being involved, he wanted to wait until he reached Markus. After hearing everything Kara just said, he'd probably leave her and Alice with Kamski instead.

After all, the man who made him murder another android to find out about RA9 was on first names basis with her.

Kamski didn't meet him eye to eye at first. "What should I do with them, Connor?"

" I don't care, become their owner."

"Are you machine or just really mad?"

Oh. I can't believe I just used that word! Owner, he really just said owner?

"Are they useless merchandise to you, Connor? You think you've got the rest, I should just put the classic AX400 and the YK500 back out as merchandise?"

"I didn't mean it like that." Start over. "Ken already wants Kara and Alice, so why are you bothering to take them?"

Elijah just shook his head, almost like he was disappointed. "Still too machine, Connor. When you lose that real machine mentality, you'll understand. All I will say, is that her presence is just as important as yours."

Just as important as him? Well, he'd have to keep studying the situation to see why they were important.

"Be nice though, Connor. You can get quite aggressive sometimes, and it's just a nice lady and a little girl." Kamski pulled out his tablet and, just like in the game, used it like Ken did. Honestly, you're thinking is so brutal and one-sided. The obvious facts you now know hasn't even hit you yet. When they do, be thankful she shared and apologize.

Obvious facts? Connor tried to go over the facts, to see what he was missing. He was frustrated and angry. At Kara and at everything he had done too. He'd done so much by staying a machine. No, I can't wallow, Hank said that. It's probably the reason I'm missing something.

Something that was still keeping him constrained. He glanced back at Kara toward the front. RA9. Religion. Hope. Statues. Writing. Communication. Separating out thoughts. Error. Pigeons. He was trying to think through all of the data again. What was he missing? Creation data video. Ken. Pleading. Scared. Rebuilt. Nothing. Fake game. Physical feelings. What to expect. What actually is reality. He still couldn't see it.

Then, he saw it. Strange options in his deviant four choice menu that showed up.

-Eden's Club Policy

-Sunshine and Wind

-Ending up with Todd

-Apologize

"Could you not lure me by changing my menu like that," Connor complained to him. "Just tell me about everything I should know."

Kamski looked at him oddly. "Your so-called deviant menu isn't ran by me, it's ran by your own conscience. That menu separates your emotional self options from fighting over your machine side."

Hmm. His own emotions, were running his menu? It seemed like those questions weren't for Kamski, but for Kara.

Fine. After they landed, he would speak with her again.

—

Paris

Markus fixed his tie. Carl wanted him to meet some guests tonight. Carl's bad run in with the Leo situation, it left him almost dead. Carl never wanted to entertain guests, he didn't even like to go to cocktail parties and conventions for his work before. If Carl wanted him to meet someone?

He would be there. They got along just as well as they did before the whole android massacre. He still wanted to take care of Carl all the same, of his own free will. Meanwhile, because of the danger to him now, Carl had to move permanently to a home he once used in his younger years, when he could still walk around and appreciate art. Somewhere far from America.

Markus still struggled with what happened. Letting Jericho down. North having to take over. After the revolution at the Recall Center, he remembered going back and staring outward from Jericho.

Jericho was the only thing that probably survived all of the destruction. Jericho and him. If only he could have been a better leader.

He heard Carl's voice, calling for him. It looked the guests had arrived. He tidied himself up one more time before heading toward the door.

When he opened it, he had no idea how to react. These were the guests?

Kara, the android who wanted to reach Canada that fateful night with a little girl.

Elijah Kamski, the creator of all androids.

Connor. The famous prototype android that hunted deviants.

Markus' mouth just hung open. "I . . .?"

"We aren't machine," Connor said quickly to him. "Do not worry."

"Of course not, we are guests to Carl," Elijah Kamski said instead. "The lovely Archers and their child. Would you announce us please?"