Longish chapter, and a lot of questions that need answered before I can move on.  Like are the auto-butlers sentient?

–Most of Chapter 17

–Chapter 17–

Even in the morning light Zod could tell there was a light on in the garage and their sensors picked up the tremors of someone moving across wood flooring. Discretion being the better part of valor, they decided to get as close as possible so they could hear without being detected.

The sounds were definitely footsteps, not tracks, so more than likely it was humans that were inside. Two, maybe three people, by the sound of it. It also sounded like they were searching for something.

Zod found dark spot near a window to hide in and deployed their mirror again, hoping that it wouldn’t sparkle or otherwise attract attention. It was worth the risk, they thought, to try and figure out what in the Devil’s name was going on.

And it was going on. Zod noted that the ringleader was clenching a cigar in their mouth and barking orders at what could only be their minions. And there was a lot of barking and little sense so far as they could tell.

Eventually it became apparent that they weren’t looking for [SEMPRINI] but rather any sort of documentation about it. And they were digging deep, and a lot of rustling of papers filled the air alongside the rumbling. From Zod’s perspective the dust covering everything had become a misty cloud that permeated half the air with futility. But still the henchmen labored to complete their search.

Cigar guy was definitely becoming agitated. “We’re on a schedule, so step it up now,” he barked. Even without seeing the bots in their wing mirror Zod could tell the efforts paced up again.

Then the bots came into view. Sadly, the auto-butler they met earlier was there along with an odd mix that was mostly auto-butlers. “Curious, ” Zod thought, “whatever they’re doing doesn’t sound like something they could get a sentient to do properly.” Desil wasn’t famous but sentients would find searching a human’s property questionable at best. So silently Zod watched and listened for any clue.

There certainly was a lot of murmuring, they thought. Zod couldn’t tell above the din if they were cross-communicating or just grumbling to themselves. Either way the pitch was too high for the humans to hear; too high even to trigger the run-of-the-mill voice coders the humans sometimes wore. The language was a secret one that was a byproduct sentients got on their borne day, and somehow the humans never found out. Zod thought about joining the conversation, but the time, at least, wasn’t right. They needed to know more about what was happening before he risked attention. Particularly, if the auto-butlers weren’t sentient they wouldn’t know the language but the sentients might accidentally give their presence away. After all, Zod didn’t know them and particularly why they were there searching with a human whose motives were questionable, to say the least.