Conduit

Ch. 25

Logan shifted, turning to face me. I could, no, should just close the doors in his face.

"What? I don't understand. I thought the goal was to fight the power and create a floor of acceptance."

I sighed. "You can't just 'fight the power.' You need a plan. Until you realize that," reaching over, I tapped the 'close door' button. "I hope you have a great morning."

"Elijah, wait—"

The doors shut, and I couldn't hear the rest of his sentence.

***

I stared up at the numbers of the elevators, watching as I passed each of the higher floors. I couldn't help the tension in my chest. Should I have been nicer to Logan? Despite how I felt, I would be lying to myself if I said I wasn't fascinated by him. But his actions had consequences and I knew I needed to distance myself. At least for a little while.

I exhaled sharply as the elevator shot up to the fiftieth floor, skipping past floors forty-plus. Then the doors opened, and I caught sight of a small group of people surrounding Katherine's desk. When their eyes landed on me, they scattered like roaches, leaving the boss of it all in clear view. She sat on the corner of her desk, leaning back with her body partially twisted. She looked at me with an annoyed smirk on her face.

"Well, well, well, it looks like my prized employee has decided to work."

I wished she'd stop calling me that. I was forced to live here and "work" under extreme conditions. Where was the work-life balance?

Stepping out of the elevator, I pushed my hands into my pockets. "Didn't I give you some of my work?"

Or did she figure out that it was a dummy file?

Katherine smiled at me. "You did. I have my technicians uploading the file now."

"Good." That means they haven't figured it out yet. "Is there an update on what I asked you to do?"

Katherine pushed off the desk, flattening the wrinkles of her dress suit. "Me?"

"Yeah," I bit the insides of my cheeks, "I asked you to get the employees here to have a better understanding of androids and the kindness they deserve."

"Oh, that, yes." Katherine walked toward me. "I've requested my human resource consultants to let me know what's possible within the employee contracts and their human rights."

Human rights? People are living amongst machines—nothing harms their lives. If anything, without machines, we would all be dead already. There was no way humans could maintain the world in its current state.

I wasn't going to argue with her. Sighing, I nodded, taking what she said as a small win. "All right, that's good to hear." I looked into her eyes. "But I am here because I have a request. Something that may help you," I smirked, "on a wider spectrum."

Passing her tongue over her bottom lip, she cocked a brow and crossed her arms. "Oh? And how's that?"

Good, she's biting.

"I need the ability to broadcast a speech."

She blinked. "A speech?"

I nodded. "Yeah, for everyone to see, possibly worldwide. I need it to reach as far as possible."

As her eyes bounced around different objects in the office, I focused on the large windows behind her. My distraction to sort through my thoughts. Daniel wanted me to talk to as many people as possible. I hoped what I wanted to do wouldn't need extra approval because what I would say to the people, Katherine probably didn't agree with. She came off as very anti-android even though she controlled the company that made them.

My words wouldn't be for her or humans. It would be for the androids and every machine listening. I would start building my bridge of communication.

"Okay, fine." Katherine straightened and drummed her fingers along her arm. "And who is going to pay for it?"

Well, that was a dumb question. If I was asking for the ability, that meant I couldn't do this on my own. Also meant I didn't have the money. Could regular people pay to have their faces on large screens? I wasn't aware that was an option.

I decided to answer with the obvious. "I thought it would be you?" I lifted my brows. "Or is there someone higher I should ask?"

Those words pressed a few buttons. She scrunched her face in a poor attempt to hide her anger. But wasn't I right? If she was able to lose fifty million dollars and still function without losing sleep, then paying for my broadcast wouldn't be a problem.

"There's no one higher." She traced her pointy-toe shoe over the office rug. "But how would you like to be broadcast?"

It couldn't be that easy. She was going to let me do it? "I can ask how I would like to talk?"

"Look, give me your conditions before I change my mind and think against it. If it will help me in the long run, I will pay."

My mind raced. I hadn't thought this far. I knew I wanted to reach the world, but I hadn't planned out how. Podcasts were easy; everyone listened to them on the way to work or when they were at home. But I felt like if the world saw my face, they'd feel the message. To see a human, a man, someone just like them, express concern and love for machines—they had to be able to connect, right?

I immediately thought of the large LED screens hanging against the buildings in every city, as well as the channels everyone was supposed to watch. If I had a slot and took over the televisions around the world, I'd have a good shot at this.

"What about every messaging channel? Can people see my face?"

"Fine." Katherine quickly pulled out her phone and dialed. "I'll make calls. I'll give you an update tomorrow."

Perfect. So, all I had to do was wait.

Pulling my phone out from my pocket, I turned toward the elevator and scrolled through my contacts. My thumb tapped Frank's name. With a smile on my face, I typed, I've got good news. Are you free?

There was a second before the ellipses appeared. His response came faster than I expected and stopped me in my tracks. My hand hovered over the elevator call button as I read his reply, Come to the instructional bay, it's bad, something's wrong.

"Fuck..." I hissed as the doors opened for me.