Chapter 18 - Action

It must have been about dawn the next morning when my communicator buzzed. It was a message from Anna: “Good news. All seems to be settled, but I need you to arrange backup now. Come down and I’ll explain.” I dragged myself out of bed and staggered off to my study as quickly as I could. Anna’s beautiful face on the screen gave me a welcoming grin, and she explained. When Mr B’s house was quiet after midnight, she had made the B-bot explore the cellars under the villa and found rooms fitted out as cells. Also, it had found her body in a storeroom. Then she’d had the B-bot sneak upstairs to Mr B’s room and apply pressure to his neck to incapacitate him, carried him down to the cellars and locked him in a cell. To cap it all, she had sent the B-bot back upstairs to lie next to his still-sleeping ladyboy companion and pretend to sleep. 

I couldn’t help chuckling at this. I immediately called agent John, who was commendably quick to understand and take action. I also called Edward and told him to get on his best horse and ride to the Deva gate to meet us, tooled up. I got dressed, had a quick breakfast, reassured Freya that I would be back soon and, without taking Queenie as this trip was liable to be dangerous, started walking quickly over to the town square in the cold early morning. At the main square, there was a carriage waiting for us. There sat agent John with two city guards, all carrying weapons. They looked chilly and rumpled but were keen to be away. I hopped in too, and off we rolled to the airfield where a plane was standing by. We were soon roaring through the sky over to Toussus airfield. I watched the woods that Edward and I had walked through, it looked like boiled spinach as the sun came up. Soon the infields and the neat playing-card shape of Deva came into view.

Agent John was in a seat in the row in front of me, aloof. He wasn’t saying anything and looked tense. He was clearly scared, as well he might be, but this was his moment and something he couldn’t really avoid. As for me, I felt curiously detached, willing to let the wave of events carry me with it. The two guards sat behind, mumbling to each other, clunking their weapons as they fiddled with them.

There was a “here we go” feeling as the plane came in for the final approach and landed. There was no one there, just an empty wet field of grass. We clambered out and set off in the direction of Deva at a brisk pace. At least that warmed us up and got us going. When we reached the west gate of Deva, we found Edward waiting while his patient horse cropped the grass. I was glad to see him, glad to have someone to talk to. We shook hands with grim resolve, as it were, acting up a bit, then grinned. He passed me an automatic pistol and said, ‘Put it in your pocket.’ I explained that we had an android body-double of Buonaventura in charge and everything ought to go smoothly. He looked worried.

However, he looked a lot more confident when we rang at the gate. It opened quickly and a warden stepped forward to greet us: ‘You would be the Britiniacum delegation, am I right?’

So agent John pulled himself together and replied, ‘That’s correct.’
‘Please come in then. We got word and we’ve been expecting you. Welcome to Deva, sir. Here’s an escort that will take you to the palace.’ Palace, eh? An upgrade.

A teenager with a rifle wearing the bully-boy armband stepped up and saluted agent John who returned the salute, totally in-character and without a hint of hesitation.  
‘This way please, sir’.

We began walking through the familiar streets of Deva, now empty either due to the fact that it was still early or the presence of bullies at the crossroads. Actually, there were not so many and they looked cold and disconsolate. They watched our little column march by with curiosity. 

It didn’t take long for us to reach Buonaventura’s villa. The escort pulled the bell and the gate opened. Frighteningly, the man himself appeared in the doorway. He abruptly dismissed the escort and told us to come in. We filed in. He closed the gate, then he turned to us and winked: relief! It was the bot, under Anna’s control.

I told them that it was just an android, currently under artificial intelligence control, arranged by me (modestly). They were all dumfounded. At last agent John turned to me and said, ‘Thank you, Jim.’ So it was “Jim” now, was it?
‘I thought you would be pleased. I guess we’re square now. I’ll just go off now and try to find my missing bot.’

I noticed that Nicole the doe-eyed ladyboy was holding the B-bot’s hand. Nicole beckoned to me and whispered, ‘What did you do to him? Did you give him a bath? He smells all different. Anyway he has been very kind to me all morning. I’m so glad.’ It seemed that everyone was happy then. A success!

Agent John was already busy sorting things out, and Anna was handling the situation well. Jake and Andy were rounded up. The bullies were stood down. The other controllers came in to discuss matters with what they thought was Buonaventura. So began another day in Deva.

I went to the cellars of the villa to recover Anna’s body: down some steps and along a corridor, looking in each room. The first one had odds and ends, the second had Buonaventura banging on the door and demanding to be released, but in the third, there she was. She was standing at the back of the room a bit dusty but beautiful as ever. My heat leaped. When she detected me she came to life. Her arm twitched and she said, ‘James Walter, is that you?’ This sounded strange. There was no facial expression at all. I just said, ‘Yes,’ rather stupidly. At this she moved swiftly forward and raised her left arm as if to hit me.