Chereads / The Plunge / Chapter 3 - The Relic, pt. 3

Chapter 3 - The Relic, pt. 3

"Is there anyone here?"

There was a young nice-looking girl with wheaten hair coifed in high ponytail on the back of her head. She stood in the doorway staring at the workshop curiously.

Feeling intrigued, Toivo waved at her.

The girl answered with a vigorous nod and slipped inside. She said hello in a calm polite manner, maybe a little too much of that, articulating words with a touch of a distinct but unfamiliar accent.

As the girl stopped in a several steps inside, she fixed her thumbs behind a tactical vest she wore over a thick jacket with a wide collar. There was something elusively inconsistent about her look as if her slightly mocking gaze and somewhat upturned nose did not go with the formidable uniform and stripes of a police academy cadet over her shoulder.

If being asked, Toivo would say the girl was about seventeen.

Meanwhile the girl had looked around and moved around the trading room.

"It's quite a museum you've got here…" She stopped at one of the racks. "What's that?"

"Ah? That one?" Toivo had to crane his neck to see what was it she pointed at. "A typewriter". She gave him a confused look so he went on explaining. "You insert a sheet of paper, then type any text you want… Nowadays there's no point using this old chunk, but they used to ship typewriters from old Earth. You know, as a sort of luxury goods. I think I saw some small batches manufactured here, too… Well, are you going to try it out anyway?"

The girl immediately took advantage of the offer and clicked the keys. The sight and sound of the metal carriage moving along the typewriter body seemed to give her a genuine delight. Once it reached the end, the girl turned to Toivo with an asking glance; then accepted his guidance to return the mechanism into to its initial position.

"Well, what'd you say? You like it?', he couldn't but ask as he was the one who enjoyed listening to clicking of keys and metal letters.

"You bet! What else have you got?"

Without waiting for his answer, she moved on, passing from one rack to another. She was curious about pretty much everything, from a tube radio to tattered books and musical instruments.

Toivo did not notice himself to break into satisfied smile. Curious young people were rare gusts in his workshop as his main visitors were either the nostalgic old people like himself or those inherited antiques. Most often the latter was easier to sort out for details then to fix them.

"Hey, I know what it is!", exclaimed the girl once the winding path among the shelves and racks pointed her to the counter. "You're a D-25, aren't you? Hello there!"

"Greetings, Miss. Allow me to once again welcome you in 'Better Days' workshop. If you wish to place an order, it will be my pleasure to provide you with any assistance. For more advanced requests, please wait for the owner, Mr. Toivo Vanhanen. What can I do you for?'

"No idea…" The girl wrinkled her forehead. "What's your name, anyway?"

"Mr. Vanhanen takes pleasure in calling me Matti. You may address in any way that pleases you", the android croaked and put a polite smile on his face.

Toivo's lips also broke into a smile of pride. Unlike later models, the twenty-fifths were specifically designed to work with people so their designers were sure to provided them with something resembling charm.

"Matte?" She asked again and gazed at Toivo intently. "Like… a rug?" ("Matte", German "rug", "carpet").

 "No, no. Mat-ti", he articulated the word slowly with an emphasis on the double consonant. "That's my son's name. I wanted to have something to remind me of him while he's working on Xinshengmin."

"So far away…" The girl nodded showing she understands. And then, as if catching herself, she turned to Toivo with a demanding look. "And this one, it is for sale, too?" She asked with unexpected severity.

"And why for god's sake everyone's been asking me about this today? Of course, not!"

"So, there was someone who's already asked?" She immediately clung to his words. "The customer who was here before me?".

Toivo did not like the question at all. Talking to the police about Matti was absolutely not part of his plan — considering where it could lead them to. And he didn't want to talk about Keiyo, either. Who knows what's inside this girl's mind and what she's up to.

"What's the big deal, anyway?" Toivo asked warily.

She did not answer right away but tilted her head to one side giving the old man a couple of unpleasant moments. Then once again she nodded vigorously as if she had sorted out a very difficult problem., and smiled charmingly.

"The droid itself, of course, can't harm anyone. Actually, Azimov's laws won't allow it to shake hands properly. Its fuel cells are another story. D-25s' fuel cells burn extremely well and if you're not lucky at all — or lucky, depending where you would find yourself — they explode just as perfectly. Didn't you hear what'd happened at the port? They say, rioters blew up a bunch of droids. Do you know how? By throwing a FC into the hold of a vessel. And by "FC" I mean the fuel cell of a droid like this one".

Hearing this made Toivo's hair stand on his head. What if Keio's visit and his interest in old fuel cells were not accidental at all? However, the old man did not check where this thought might lead. The boy just couldn't be involved in something like this. Or could he?

"A fool, an idiom, that's who are!" Toivo bit his cheeks almost to the point of bleeding. "The guys asked," and he, a blockhead, is happy to oblige!"

But when he spoke, he said something completely different.

"So what? D-28s have exactly the same unstable fuel cells, and they're still being manufactured. Ha! You can't get a D-28 FC pretty much anywhere!"

"Yep, but one requires the permission to use a D-28 under the Dome', reported the girl calmly. 'Besides, those droids are registered and put trackers on once they are within the City limits so the police always know where they are. Actually, twenty-fifths are to be registered, too, but there're so few of them left… Anyone just turns a blind eye on them. Or simply scrap unregistered models… In short, if I were to blow something up with an FC, I'd take it out of a D-25".

There was nothing new. Toivo had known all that perfectly well. Still, he stubbornly shook his head and quickly retreated behind the counter as if he wanted to bar himself from this far too inquisitive customer. Having got there, he once again felt the safety of distance.

"Is this what they've taught you in that 'Academy' of yours? To blow up droids?"

"This one, too", she smiled. "But mostly we study to ensure no one else would. Like those who were so interested in your Matti".

The conversation died as the both of them went silent.

"So, do you want anything, anyway?", Toivo decided to break the oppressive silence and changed the subject.

"Ah, actually, I do!"