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?"While Elijah Kamski visited with Carl, Markus found himself having to speak to others he hadn't been prepared for. Other androids. "Why are you here?" Not his grandest question, but it was a start.

"I didn't become deviant during the revolution," Connor said to him. "I was supposed to be deactivated, but Kamski took me into a program. It behaved like a game. I thought that I could see certain paths, that could change the way the war would have turned out." He glanced toward Kara.

"I was put in with Alice," Kara added. "Something awakened in Connor, and he became deviant."

"Finally." That was good to hear. It would have been better to have him on their side when the war happened, but free was free. "I'm glad." Other free androids again. "Where are you all staying, America isn't safe at all. Elijah Kamski called you the Archers, are you pretending to be human?"

"We haven't given up," Connor told him. "America . . . it wasn't the end. It can't be the end. It was a huge loss to the cause, but androids exist elsewhere."

Hadn't given up? Markus had, at least for now. A few data facts here and there he kept track of, but overall? After all of that loss, living the rest of Carl's life in peace. That was his goal. "Fighting the good fight? With who?"

"With RA9," Connor said, gesturing to Kara.

RA9? Markus had heard of that before. "Kara, you are RA9?"

"I didn't mean or understand that the touch wouldn't go well," Kara said slowly. "I worked on it a second time with Elijah. It was something inside of me."

"Kara was born free," Alice had to say out loud. "She was born not being a machine."

Markus looked at Alice a little extra longer. The little girl wasn't actually human. Three wonderful free androids. A neat little surprise, he almost missed a slight exchange with Connor. It seemed safe so he checked the shared connection. It was a video of Kara's creation. "You really were born free. I've never heard of it."

"The RK's and RA9 can change androids to have free will," Connor told him. "Kara, worked with Kamski for that purpose."

"I'm limited in my abilities," Kara admitted. "I can't change right away. It takes extreme emotion. When they do change, then they could hear messages I carried onto them. Later on it was about Jericho, and not giving up."

Hang on? "Two messages, similar, but not the same?" Markus couldn't believe it, maybe that was it? "What happened if an android got both messages?"

"You mean if they were infected with her original error, and then the upgraded error Kamski added?" Connor asked.

Boy, he had a way with words. It was clear Connor wasn't happy with her. Kara just ignored it, but he wouldn't. "Infected isn't the right word, it was a touch that freed us. I found my free will when things got drastic for me. Heavy emotion, I guess you could say. I must have been touched by an android that touched you." Markus smiled at her. "That was good luck."

Kara smiled back.

"But? Then, when I woke up in an android dumping ground, another android touched me. They showed me the way to Jericho," Markus said. "I think that double-tap made some things a little tougher for me."

"It screwed up your thoughts, or your menus? A second contagion." Connor basically glared at Kara. "North led them to revolution because Markus couldn't lead."

Whoah. "Wait," Markus stopped Connor. "If it wasn't for the double tap, I wouldn't have known about Jericho. I can't say whether or not the double tap made me a poor leader or not. But, I don't regret knowing Jericho. No matter how it turned out, I was glad to have known everyone there. Simon. Josh. North."

"I left her alive," Connor answered. "She already looked almost dead. I don't know if she's still alive, or where she could be."

"North." He had no ill will toward her for taking over Jericho's leadership. It was a fair decision, their missions were getting screwed up because of him. She'd been through so much with him. They didn't seem like they went well with each other, and her advice to him tended to be the wrong way of his own moral compass. But? "I miss North."

"North led us into the revolution," Connor reminded him, like he somehow forgot. "She wanted war with the humans. Why . . . dwell?"

Connor. He was free, but he wasn't quite free. Maybe the tight grip of the machine that held him, still controlled a part of him. Otherwise, he could see past things. "Her thoughts were different than mine, Connor, but I still cared for her. I shared about my life with her, and she shared her own feelings about where she came from. It wasn't nearly a nice home."

"Eden's Club is a sexual entertainment club, Kara also was there."

It didn't hit Connor at first. Markus could see exactly when it hit him. It wasn't when he spoke. A few seconds after the word 'there', it just hit him.

"Kara?" Markus wasn't going to talk about that with her, she didn't know him well, and he should really speak with Connor instead. "Two doors on the right to your left are your guest bedrooms. If you'd like to check them out?"

"Yes." She eagerly agreed and took Alice's hand.

Connor still seemed in shock. "I did it again. I can't believe I just said that."

"Actions are taken without fully thinking through?" Markus asked. "What you shared was logical, but not appropriate. Agreed?" Connor paused, like he was waiting for something. "Connor?"

"Can I ask you about Eden Club's policy?" Connor asked him.

That was strange. "I don't know anything about that."

"I didn't think so." Connor almost seemed to curl along the nearby wall. "I feel less compassionate. I'm not sure. Will I become machine again?"

"No." Markus came closer to him, and pressed his hand against his shoulder. "Never. You still speak like a machine before you think things through. It just looks like it will take more practice. Slow your processing down a bit. We don't need to run a thousand miles per hour to crunch data for humans anymore."

"I'm? I'm mad at Kara, and I shouldn't be," Connor told him. "I have no right to be, but I still feel anger. She's RA9. She gave Kamski the means to create us. It feels strange, like I was deceived to be a detective, but I was never supposed to be. And? And damn it, I had to kill and chase because of the deviancy she caused!" He lowered his voice. "Well-meaning androids, when they were emotionally changed, it made them go crazy. They hurt people they cared about, killed others they cared for . . . and killed people who hurt them. They couldn't control themselves."

Yeah, his emotions, experience, and logic were wrapping into a confused ball causing anger toward Kara.

"It's not perfect. Even knowing the risk I know now, I'm still glad I became deviant," Markus told him. "I'm alive. I'm free. Even if humans don't see me that way, inside, I still am. If Kara was part of the reason I was created, then it was just that way. She's only an AX400, she wasn't equipped to just . . . it was an error. An error that brought life. She wasn't designed to handle bringing life." Markus patted his arm one more time. "Just, remember. Slow down your processors when it comes to more personal things. I guarantee? Eden's club is very personal. The fact she even told you she was from there, it showed some courage and trust on her part."

"Slow down." Connor pulled himself off the wall. "Good idea. I have a deviant menu that I need to discuss with her." Slow down. Don't run on maximum efficiency. "I was so much better inside that game," Connor muttered.

"You weren't calling all the shots in the game," Markus reminded him. "Running speed, situations, and experiences. Now, you are in control. Take it easy."

"They gave my game the same name they gave for their fake game too."

"Fake game?"

"They made a second video to reach humans. Kamski pretended he was making a game to get away with it all and to travel with her safely. He somehow expects I will do the same thing."

"Is that where the anger started? It doesn't sound connected, Connor."

"It was the first thing that made me mad."

"Anger is easy," Markus said to him. "Misunderstandings and forgiving? It takes a few more protocols. Especially for androids like us. It's possible though."

"If we think it through." Connor headed toward the guest bedroom.

—

Guest Bedroom

Kara relaxed with Alice when she heard a knock. No one spoke through the door this time.

"Kara, could I talk with you?" Connor used his own voice through the door.

She'd rather not. Outwardly saying that like it was nothing? He just didn't understand.

He knocked again. "Please?"

He sounded nicer at least. She couldn't ignore him forever, he'd just get louder. "Alice, I will be right back." She opened the door.

"I'm sorry." He apologized. "I am sorry about many things. I have conflicts about how I feel about certain things."

Yes, she knew that.

"I would like to ask you a few more things, but a little more . . . less efficiently."

"Fine." She closed the door behind her so Alice didn't hear their conversation. She had no idea what he was going to ask. What he figured out. What his menu would tell him to blurt out this time.

"How long did it take before you first felt sunshine and wind?" he asked.

Yeah, this wasn't a nice direction. "The first time I felt sunshine and wind. It was when I left to create the video."

"How long ago were you created from that moment? Just, rough estimate?"

Oh geez. "Six years."

"You were alive for six years before feeling sunshine and wind?" Yeah, Connor did seem more like himself now. "I felt sunshine and wind even as a machine. Did it have something to do with the policy of the club?"

"No one left." Pretty simple. He seemed to want to say something to that, but instead he paused.

"When was Ken able to get you away?"

Oh, he was getting personal again. "Year two."

"You didn't feel sunshine or wind for six years, but he had you at year two?"

Kara shifted a little. "I was moved to his office full-time."

"You worked in his office?" Connor was trying to piece it together.

The more he did that, the closer he'd get anyhow. I don't want to string this out. "Any androids permitted inside the Eden Club, that aren't just visiting, are kept in a capsule or connected to a pole."

"You stayed in a renting capsule?"

"Yes."

"When did you start showing interest in Ken?"

"After he purchased me."

Connor seemed like he wanted to say something, then stopped. Then he looked like he wanted to say something again.

Kara didn't know what he was wanting to say. She just waited.

"How did you end up with Todd?" A completely different question.

"I . . . liked the wind and sunshine," Kara said, "that I felt when I made the video. It was so incredibly nice. I couldn't help myself, I wanted to try the outside world on my own. I talked to Elijah, gave him the access to me to create Jericho, and . . . and new androids more capable of spreading the touch. I helped him, and he ripped out my buying system. He switched it for a rental system. By that time, my model wasn't the latest and greatest, and I found myself taking care of Alice and a home. Until, I guess . . ."

"Repair took your freedom back away." Connor finally said something. He stuck out his hand.

Kara was surprised as she found herself back in his dreamspace again. Why did he do that?

Connor stood in front of her. "Shake my hand from here, in reality."

Kara looked for the hole he once kept in it to see into reality.

"No guide." Connor didn't sound angry. "Try."

Kara looked at him. She moved her hand beside her and tried to hold hands with air.

"Don't make the gesture in here," Connor said. "Just out there."

"I can't." Not without extra help. She watched as he grabbed her hand.