Somewhat a cumulative update from day 11 to now, and I’ve included Chapter 17 in its entirety since there were a number of edits for story continuity.   There were also lots of questions as to what direction the entire story was going to take, so I more or less went up the middle as reasonably as possible.

–Chapters 17-19

–Chapter 17–

Even in the early 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 a combination of footsteps and tracks, so more than likely it was several humans and a few bots 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, and now they heard bots, laboring 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.

Zod could barely see murky shadows through the grime that coats every shop walls but they could tell the bots came into view by their shapes. It seemed that there was an odd mix of Sentients: diggers, thwackers, repair bots, and more. But mostly there were auto-butlers. Zod could make out the accent of the auto-butler they met on First Street earlier was in the mix. There were no other voices they could recognize “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. Silently Zod watched and listened for any clue.

There certainly was a lot of murmuring, Zod thought. They couldn’t tell above the din if they were cross-communicating or just grumbling to themselves. Either way the RF frequencies they used to communicate with each other was too high to even trigger the run-of-the-mill voice coders the humans sometimes wore. The language was a byproduct that Sentients got on their borne day, and somehow the humans had never found out, probably because Sentients were creating Sentients now, and humans aren’t involved in the process.

Zod thought about joining the conversation, but the time, at least, wasn’t right. They needed to know more about what was happening before they risked attention. Particularly, if the auto-butlers weren’t sentient they wouldn’t know the language but the Sentients might accidentally give Zod’s presence away. After all, Zod couldn’t recognize any of them, and particularly why they were there searching with a human whose motives were questionable, to say the least.

— Chapter 18 —

One of the other humans called cigar man [JOSEPHUS] which sounded like a name Zod had heard before, but couldn’t remember the context. At least it was something and they filed it away as another piece of the puzzle for now. But they suspected it was important.

[JOSEPHUS] had shifted into being in a bigger hurry looking for whatever that document was. The trouble seemed to be that they didn’t know exactly what it was they were actually looking for: probably some sort of notebook or binder. Zod became under the impression that it wasn’t actually there, and the bits and pieces of chatter between the Sentients they were starting to pick up above the din seemed to agree with that. Zod also noticed that the auto-butlers were also in the conversation, but didn’t seem to have the same range of emotions. Was it only partial sentience, or just the nature of the job crept in, they wondered.

Zod’s internal chronometer indicated that it was nearly shift change, and indeed the group stopped working as [JOSEPHUS] grumbled that they needed to shake up Desil a bit for not being thoroughly candid. Zod’s ears, as it were, pricked up since here was the first real thing to work on. But as the group started leaving the garage, Zod had no idea how to trail [JOSEPHUS], or any of them for that matter. They decided to watch from the bushes to see what they could see.

For starters, what they could see is one or two of the dam thwackers heading off towards the dam, and auto-butlers plus a small group of mixed Sentients headed off towards town. The garage bots and the road crew were of particular interest. Zod imaged the lot alongside the previous ones of [JOSEPHUS].

Eventually [JOSEPHUS] and a couple other humans eventually slinked out grumbling to themselves and headed towards town too. By their actions they wanted to be noticed even less than the bots. But it was early still so Zod risked following them at a distance.

Once they passed through East Gate Zod crept along the shadows again until they hit Second Street where their prey crossed through the park towards Government House. From there they turned right towards North Wall and caught up with the several auto-butlers, who were apparently slow-moving. It seemed like they did everything slow.

Zod followed them up the block, then watched from the corner while the group traveled down North Wall and turned down Government Alley. Then they backed up while the road crew Sentients picked their way down North Wall to East and quietly slipped to River Avenue and through the East Gate. The road crew quarters lay down that River Avenue, Zod thought to themselves and wondered if Toll knew.

–Chapter 19–

Zod thought that asking Toll was something they should do, but couldn’t decide whether that or trying to figure out what the auto-butlers were doing since the humans weren’t likely to be out and about at this hour. Besides they weren’t sure how to contact Toll since Toll didn’t trust all of their road crew. Zod opted for the latter, at least for now.

Government Alley was deserted, but Zod opted to not risk that since there would be few places to escape detection. They hoped First Street was better. But first, they thought, maybe they should check out that corner market since that’s where the first major clue came from.

When Zod entered the store it was obvious that they were interrupting something, and the lone customer and cashier created an cloud of suspicion hanging in the air. Zod decided they really didn’t want to be there, not because of a fear of violence, rather, they’d be more noticeable by the pair on the street. So they grabbed another oil pen and went to check out.

“You again?” grunted the cashier.

“I gave away my pen and there aren’t many places to buy them on this side of town,” Zod retorted.

“Hmm,” the cashier breathed. “We don’t really cater to bots here, so perhaps you should look harder next time.”

Zod took the obvious hint and quickly paid and left, hoping this lark hadn’t cased any more problems for him. There were more close calls than they really cared to think about.

First Street wasn’t terribly crowded, which wasn’t surprising given the early hour. Humans and bots alike were just beginning their work day. Zod scanned the street for someplace they could hide, watch, and hopefully listen. The hallway they’d hidden in yesterday was certainly tempting, if risky. But there must be someplace better, they thought to themselves.

Zod rumbled down the street nonchalantly, scanning all the nooks and crannies as they went. Unfortnately nothing else seemed any more promising, so they made their way back to that hallway and hoped for the best.