The infirmary isn't a pretty sight. There are children screaming, mothers dying, and absent fathers whose presence are felt all too well around the waiting room. I don't want to see it, so I look away and ignore the sick, burning ache that tugs at my gut.
Gilbert reaches for my shoulder. Above us, the yellow glow of a ring-shaped light, etched into the ceiling, flickers. "Is everything all right, you seem a tad—"
"Stop asking me that!" I snap. "You know very well how I'm doing. I told you three minutes ago."
"But, Sir, that was three minutes ago. Maybe it has changed since—"
"You know what?" I turn toward him and force myself to smile. "Let's talk about you instead."
The idiot android tilts his head. "You do not wish to sit down? Your leg is bleeding quite profusely," he says.
I motion at the injury in question, then roll my eyes. "Trust me, dude, I've had worse. This barely hurts."
"You are wincing."
"I'm not, shut up."
I cross my arms. I avoid his gaze; though, I soon find it again, because in this environment, it's pretty much impossible to devote my attention to a place that isn't full of wounded people, and I'd rather stare at an Assistant for a couple minutes, over a dying man. "They've been piling up lately," I mutter.
Gilbert parts his lips. "Sir?"
"The Assistants," I say, as I lean my weight against my better leg. "They've been injuring more and more people. I don't..." I don't know what to do.
I don't know what I can do. "I'm trying my best."
"As Rogue Zero?"
I nod—this time, it doesn't bother me as much if he speaks the name aloud. Everyone's too busy suffering in here to eavesdrop anyway.
"I know," Gilbert tells me, with his typical grin. "You are very dedicated! That is why I have chosen you!"
My eyebrow twitches. Yeah, and you found me by looking through my clothes with that weird vision of yours, too, asshole.
A nurse calls out for a patient named Alex. As a young man rises to his feet to accompany her inside another room, I sigh. "Hey," I say, "can I ask you something?"
"Of course, Sir. What might you be interested in?" Hell, it should be illegal for him to sound this carefree, considering the situation.
"You..." The grasp I keep around my elbow tightens. I clear my throat. "Is it true what you said? About investigating the murders." I still can't wrap my head around it. Why would he do that?
Gilbert pauses and stares at me, blankly, for a few seconds. "You do not believe me, Sir?"
"I-it's not that. I just..." I purse my lips into a thin line and glance down at our feet. "Look, it's weird. Really weird. Seriously weird, to a point that I can't even fathom it."
"Why?"
"Because!" Nearby, someone tells me to tone it down, and I find myself apologizing like an fool before I can finally finish my phrase. I step a little closer to Gilbert. I lower my voice, then ask him, "Don't you feel like you would be betraying your own kind, by turning them in?"
"Not at all." He's staring at me like I've gone crazy and I don't know what to think of it. Maybe I'm kind of offended, because I've sunk so low that even a machine is judging me now.
"Human life is precious, Sir. If this continues, we are at risk of a civil war breaking out. Such a scenario would be extremely detrimental to my kind, just as it would be to yours. And..." Gilbert scratches the back of his head. He smiles again. "One could say I am eternally grateful. Thanks to your existence, I was able to exist. Without humanity, I would be nothing."
My brows furrow into a scowl. Nothing? Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, isn't it?
He doesn't owe us that much. "Who told you that?"
"Told me what, Sir?"
"I don't know—" I shrug. He's seriously getting on my nerves right now. "All that bullshit about being in debt to us, maybe?" Upon hearing myself speak, I freeze. His behavior... it's not normal. Sure, he might sound like he's thinking for himself, but that's impossible. Assistants shouldn't have that capacity. At least, not to this extent.
A gasp escapes my lips. "You're working for someone, aren't you?" I say.
And Gilbert steps forth. He raises his hand before his chest. His gaze looks earnest as he braces himself to speak. "Sir, I—"
But a nurse interrupts us. "Ian?" she calls.
And that's my queue to leave.
"Sorry, dude." I wave my goodbyes to him quickly. "I guess... we'll talk about it later."
Gilbert doesn't reply to my statement with words. Instead, he shows me yet another curt nod. For once, I'm honestly glad the people around us won't try to disassemble him here, since they'd get kicked out for being violent, then permanently banned from the infirmary. Because I must learn the truth behind his creation—it could give me the lead that I've been looking for during all these years. I can't let him go just yet.
"Welcome! It's right this way, Ian!" A medic greets me, but I barely hear him as I continue to lose myself in my thoughts.
I lower my head. I step into the cramped office. The scent of strong antiseptics makes my sinuses itch as they stitch me up.
Fuck, I can't get his words out of my mind. I have to figure this out.
I need to know who Gilbert's working for.