She woke to the sound of the shower. It was the first time she'd slept later than Ed for weeks. Her body ached and the artificial glow from the window hologram blitzed her head, despite its soft dawn landscape.
The doorbell rang. Rosalie was early or Ed was late. Ed's monitor would alert him to the visitor. Day waited, but the shower didn't turn off.
"House," she said, voice muffled by her pillow. "Just let Rosalie in."
"It's not Rosalie," House said. "Would you like me to ask Officer Rink and Officer Stanhope inside?"
The muscles in her chest contracted. Will Van de Berg's voice echoed through the room, except none of his videos were playing.
Your house catches fire, your mother dies, you break your leg. Great! This is your unconscious mind trying to get your attention. Your job is to embrace what's happening. If you can alter your belief that these things are bad, and instead understand them as an initiation, an opening into the deep unknown, then you'll realize that it's not about living the length of your life, it's about experiencing the depth of it.
How could she hear that? Where was it coming from?
"House turn off all sound channels from my preferences."
"They are all off, Miss White."
Another side effect the technicians at Janus forgot to mention?
"Would you like me to ask Officer Rink and Officer Stanhope inside?" House asked again.
"Who do they want to talk to?" It could be Ed, after all.
"They've asked for you."
The numbers on her monitor started climbing. She peeled her head off the pillow, struggling to turn herself upright.
"Don't open," she croaked. "I'm getting up."
She was still dressed in the loose grey trousers and white shirt she'd worn yesterday to the shopping mall. Feebly, she ran a brush over her tangled hair, slipped on flip-flops and headed for the stairs. She descended gripping on to the banister, shoulder bumping against the wall for support.
"Officers," she said, opening the door. Hazy pink sunlight bleached out vision so she could barely see the two men. She reached for Ed's shades, which he kept hanging from his blazer, and fumbled them onto her face.
"Day White?" an Officer asked. "May we come in?"
"Actually, my boyfriend's in the shower and I was sleeping. It's not a good time."
"I'm Officer Rink and this is Officer Stanhope. We have a few questions." Officer Rink had a rugged cowboy look about him, while his partner was tight-lipped, on the anally retentive side of the scale. "You met Ed Wang yesterday for lunch at Stone's. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"You stayed inside Brent shopping arcade for three hours and seven minutes," said Officer Stanhope. "Mr Wang stayed for fifty-nine minutes. What were you doing in the remaining two hours and eight minutes?"
"What's this all about?" Day pressed fingers to her head where it felt like someone was trying to extract a jagged knife from the soft grey matter.
"If you just answer the questions," Officer Rink said, "we'll take up as little of your time as possible."
"I don't know. Wandering around, browsing."
Rink's monitor beeped. He took out his inhaler and sucked at his portable oxygen.
"Did you purchase anything?" Officer Stanhope asked.
"Nope." The three of them stood and looked at each other. They were trying to make her uncomfortable. Maybe she was in too much pain to care, because she stared back, a wave of confidence sweeping over her.
Officer Stanhope's wrist monitor beeped, followed by the house alert.
"Do you recognize this woman?" Officer Rink held up a photo while his associate inhaled from his oxygen stick. It was Alexia, the woman from Janus who had told Day not to talk to any friends or family about her visit.
Day's pulse spiked. She heard Will's voice, carrying a flash of his relaxed smile, blonde hair flopping over blue eyes. This is all smoke and mirrors. Nothing to worry about.
"Nope. Well, if that's everything," she said, closing the door.
Rink raised an arm above his shoulder and leaned into the doorframe to prevent it from shutting. "Her husband has reported her missing," he said.
"Reported missing?" Day scoffed. That was hard to believe. No one went missing in this day and age. Apart from the wrist monitors tracking every human, there were monitors in every public space you could think of, and besides, humans couldn't exactly go strolling around outside.
"Mi-ssing," Stanhope enunciated.
"And you thought she might be here?" Day asked, the mockery palpable below her innocent expression.
The house blasted extra oxygen from the ceiling vents.
"We're talking to all carbon-based bipeds in the shopping mall, whose movements cannot be accounted for yesterday," Stanhope said.
"What?"
"Humans," Officer Rink clarified, glancing at his partner with a hint of irritation. "All humans in the shopping mall yesterday."
"Sounds like a big job," Day said.
"There were four of you."
"Well, there you go," she said.
Officer Rink's gaze shifted over her shoulder, as he scanned the hall. "Here's my card." He held up a transparent white card. She swiped over it with her monitor and he put it away again. "If you remember anything unusual, anything that happened while you were out yesterday, please get in touch."
The image of the black van hemmed in by two white vans careened through her mind's eye. The popping gunfire. The violent explosion.
The officers stepped off the porch. Day nodded at them.
"Oh Miss White," Rink said, as she was shutting the door.
"Yes?"
"If you see a black van loitering in the streets around here, let us know."
"Sure," she shrugged. But her pulse climbed again. According to Gavin, the chauffeur, she'd dreamed up the black van. She thought it was a latent memory or something. But if she'd hallucinated or dreamed the van, why would the police be talking about it?
"And don't leave Boulder without informing us. We might need to get in touch with you again."
She closed the door. House stopped bleeping and blasting air. She activated a square of the live-wall and asked House to show her the external front camera.
She watched the officers talking as they walked down the path. They stopped to glance back at the house. Rink's gaze shifted to the external camera. For a split second it was as though he was looking straight at her, and the hair on her arms shot up.
She sensed the blood pumping around her body. She sensed House, like a sentient presence, watching over her. She sensed Ed in the shower, and she sensed herself shaking off a veil of slumbering fog, and waking up.
As soon as Ed left, she jumped into the shower, quickly washed her hair and then stood, bath towel wrapped under her arms, perusing her wardrobe. White shirts, white t-shirts, white blouses, cream cardigans and two pastel pink and lemon tops.
"House," she said.
"Yes?"
"I want a black polo neck, some twentieth century blue jeans and some high brown boots."
"Any references?"
"Whatever you can find in the top style charts."
"Black polo necks aren't in the top hundred charts. May I suggest a white one?"
"No. Do your best to find what you can."
"Absolutely," House said. While Day waited for House to find the models and use the 3D copy machine, she pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, and went down to the droid storage.
The droid storage was in the basement by the underground garage. Day had had no reason to go in there since they'd moved in, but it was as neat and tidy as the rest of the house, so she imagined Rosalie had taken it upon herself to keep it clean.
Day overrode the auto-control on Gavin's cocoon. His door swished up and for the second it took for his eyes to blink open, Day thought how human and inhuman he seemed at the same time. His surprise at seeing her enhanced the human aspect.
"Good morning, Gavin."
"Good morning Miss White. It's uncommon for you to come down here. In fact, I believe it is the first time. Is something wrong?"
"No. I want to know if you can take me somewhere without logging it."
He blinked at her, like she'd spoken in Taiwan and his program was taking time to find the translation.
"Yes, I can do that."
"Will a back up log be registered somewhere?"
"Of course."
"And how would I get rid of that?"
"I'll ask House."
"No. House is busy. You find out and you tell just me. And then you erase your research."
"Understood," he said. "May I?"
She backed up and Gavin stepped from the cocoon, stretching his arms and rubbing his neck, though he couldn't possibly be stiff.
"We're leaving at ten," she said from the door.
"And why don't we want it logged?"
"It's an art project."
"Ah!" Gavin tapped his nose, looking pleased. He walked over to the mirror and checked his skin for repairs. Day watched him for a moment. He didn't seem suspicious but she didn't want to take any risks. Later, she would find out where she could access his short-term memory, and after their excursion she would wipe it.
***
On Day's orders, Gavin dropped her off at the droid entrance to the shopping mall. She walked up the outside ramp, not a wisp of her platinum blonde wig out of place. Her monitor began to beep as she reached the compression chamber. But with the disinfectant spray, in came the oxygenated air, and the alarm cut out.
She kept her head down, avoiding the pin-sized camera eyes circling the top of the tunnel. Clinging to her little black handbag, she pushed up her sunglasses, and stepped around an incoming droid. She strode onto the moving walkway and advanced with decisive steps towards the escalators, headed for Janus.
She went straight past Janus the first time, checking from the corner of her sunglasses whether the receptionist was the same as yesterday, scanning for anything different, any small changes. Nothing struck her as out of place.
Now or never. She straightened her shoulders, slunk through the auto-doors and approached the receptionist.
"Hi there," she said, lowering her sunglasses to make eye contact. "I need to speak to Alexia."
"Is it concerning a personality implant?"
"No. I was supposed to meet Alexia for lunch, and unfortunately something else has come up. I tried to contact her to cancel, but I can't get any feedback from her on the graft."
"Alexia isn't at work today. I can only advise you to contact this man." On the screen behind the receptionist appeared the holographic ID card of Officer Rink.
"Why would I want to contact Officer Rink?" Day asked, working hard to keep her voice and stance casual.
"I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to answer questions concerning Alexia."
"She's not in some kind of trouble is she?"
"I'm really not allowed to answer any questions."
"Well, could you just give me her husband's number? I'd feel more comfortable talking to him that Officer Rink."
"I'm not allowed to give out that information."
Day's mouth tightened. She breathed in deeply. Could Alexia's disappearance have anything to do with her implant? It was a timely coincidence otherwise. Especially as Alexia had turned off the monitors before advising Day not to tell anyone she'd been to Janus. But why would anyone care if she'd been to Janus and had a messed up implant? Maybe Janus eliminated botched clients to stay in business. Maybe frying their customers' brains was far more frequent than Day or anyone else realized, and now Day was a target.
The droid faked a cough. Day realized she was staring at the holograph of Officer Rink.
"I'm not allowed to give out information about Alexia, but Mr and Mrs Ray Pit are in the Whitepages, so I guess anyone could find his number if they wanted to. There are only two thousand three hundred and forty-one humans in this town!" The receptionist grinned showing pearly teeth. Droids didn't eat, which meant their teeth never got coffee or sugar stained.
"Okay," Day said nodding. "Yeah, I'll just look up Ray and see if I can't find him. Thanks."
"Would you like a consultation, while you're here?"
"Maybe another time."
Day skulked through the metal and glass lobby, back towards the shopping mall exit. Alexia's husband might offer some clue as to whether his wife's disappearance had anything to do with Day's visit to Janus yesterday. He might know if Alexia had seemed worried or anxious when she got home from work. If she got home from work.
Follow the breadcrumbs of excitement. Will Van de Berg's voice was in her head again. Was this exciting? A woman disappearing? Well, it beat sitting around feeling like she would die of disinterest.
Day stepped into the Colorado summer heat. The sultry air reminded her of mosquito bites and rashes. You could avoid the stifling, poisonous atmosphere most of the time, but you couldn't entirely ignore it as you travelled from one environment to another.
Colorado used to have mild summers. Day had looked it up when they first moved to Boulder, curious, as she always was, to know what the place she was in had been like before the great storm. The state used to be a mile above sea level and snow dusted the mountains even in the summer.
Outside, the monitor on her wrist switched back on automatically. It was like a survival reflex mechanism that she couldn't stop. And it was bleeping again. Leaving by the droid exit meant she had further to go in the unmodified atmosphere. Her lungs contained sixty percent of the desired oxygen levels.
She opened the back door of the car. Gavin was engrossed in an internal download and didn't notice her arrival. She pulled the door wide and was about to get in when there was a dazzling flash before her eyes. A wave of heat and energy threw her forward. Her head slammed into the car roof. Pain fired in her brain, then exploded, leaving her nowhere. No time. Nothing.
Photograph from Ex-machina