How to Date an Android

How to Date an Android Chapter 37

And if that's the case...would that brain burnout thing have caused my stolen android to be fried too or was she stolen before that was activated?

Barbara would know, Ruth might now though, since it was a complex problem.

"So Jack, about the survivor check?" Ruth cleared her throat to ask me about it again. She is waiting patiently but peacefully.

"And?"

"They did give me their addresses. Craig was more cooperative than the others," Ruth added. She hands the page of scrap paper with both addresses on it. I can't help but notice Ruth purposefully tries to touch my hand when we gave me the scrap paper with the notes on it.

"Why do they hate me? Those kids," she asked.

"It's not your fault. They're upset and don't know how to focus on the problems. They probably feel helpless and it's eating at them that they can't go home too. It's a lot of things, and they are just kids really and don't know how to solve real problems with experience too," I said.

"I see. Thank you for explaining Jack. I still hope they won't hate or fear me later on. If they fear me it could raise the probability of them discovering I'm an android. I think that could make our mission more difficult," she said seriously.

I patted her on the back while she's next to me.

"You know these streets right?" she asked.

"Kind of. I have an idea but haven't been there directly. It'll be OK," I nodded.

"Good."

"Which one is which?" I asked. As expected they didn't specify which belongs to whom.

"I think the one on Mulholland drive is Craig's," she said.

"Nice work."

"Um...Jack. Is it better to visit those possible survivor locations by which kid is nicer or by which one is closer? How would a human solve this? I can think of how an android might, but there could be differences in my approach that could cause me to be detected. Can you go over it with me?" she asked.

"I'm deciding that now. What do you think?" I said.

"I pick whichever one Jack will like me more for doing," Ruth smiled, leaning into me. I have to resteady the controls and datapad I'm working on.

I coughed, "a nicer kid might have a nicer family right? So that's an option. But by the same token the two ornery kids probably have stingy parents that always work and are never home, which might mean more things that can be salvaged there. But that's not for sure either."

"Oh I see," she nodded.

"We could pull up property values in those areas from the internet. That might help us to know something more about them," she suggested.

"Good, see what you can find while I'm driving," I said.

We check the map while I'm not able to do more than give it 2 second glances. I show Ruth also how to look them up using the software and what to do, though its fair to say she already knows computers but just not how humans would use a computer to avoid being detected as an android. She's catching on pretty fast. I want to show her more stuff like cooking if we get a chance too, and more things to survive. I had her see how I handle the car remote controls too.

"Like this?" she asked.

"Yeah that's good, but when a human types they would probably do funny things like a girl might tuck her hair behind her ear after doing a paragraph or two. Or when you lift your hands from the keyboard you might hit the last keystroke extra hard or vary the speed. Yeah vary the speed...and make words with numbers or punctuation slower to type than your normal typing speed. That's how a human would type," I said.