Lloyd connected the flash drive into the computer, silently praying it would include Frederick's full plan. He didn't like how vague and cryptic he was being, and the fact that he didn't mention the drive was even more troubling. Phoebe had begun to wonder around Lloyd's house, looking for his kitchen.

"Is it okay if I order food?" asked Phoebe.

"Sure." Lloyd replied, unlocking his phone to hand it to her. "Use mine, I get a discount."

She grabbed the phone from him while a Manifest Digital logo appeared on the laptop screen. The words New Hardware Detected appeared at the bottom of the screen. Finally a new file appeared, with Frederick's name on it. Lloyd clicked on the file, but a popup appeared.
"File still uploading? What does that mean?" He wondered aloud.

"Maybe it takes up alot of storage." Phoebe suggested. "Can you see the file size?"

Lloyd tried to check the file size but the same pop up appeared. He didn't even have the option to eject the drive.

"This... This might actually be Frederick." He murmured. He turned to look up at Phoebe, only to jump back when noticing she was crouching down, peering over his shoulder.

"Jesus, can I have some space? This is a big room." He snapped, scooting over a bit.

"We're working together, remember? Because this company wants us dead. It's good to share notes. Also you still like pizza right? You aren't that old."

"Sure." He replied numbly, wondering if he should take offense to that.

"I can't run any programs with this file. He might not be in here yet, somehow. And I've never seen this type of flashdrive before. Is it possible he could be uploading all of his memories, on the go?"

Lloyd's phone rang, prompted Phoebe to grunt in frustration.
"I was just about to hit order!" She complained.
"It's Benjamin, the robot guy you left outside."

He grabbed the phone and put it on speaker.
"What's up?"

"I've been given guard duty over the purifier area, so I'll meet back up with you tomorrow." said Ben over the phone.

"They're using it again?" asked Lloyd.

"I think it's still a test, but yeah. Eventually they'll do it during the day too, until the atmosphere is completely clean. However long that takes." he said cynically.

"Alright. Don't get destroyed out there." Lloyd said dryly.

Ben offered a nervous laugh. "I'll run if I see a psycho, trust me. I don't want my unit hurting people."

He hung up, and Lloyd remembered the first time it was activated. The guy who shot the automatons. Phoebe took the phone from his stiffened hand.

"Are you okay?" She asked him.

"I'm fine," he replied, pinging Connor to return to local.

"He is not in my black box, so I need to... call him, kinda, to get him to arrive. He won't be expecting extra company, so it's best I do this alone."

Phoebe stood up, still holding his phone. "Alright, but if the drone shows up with the food, I will walk right past you."

She walked down the hallway, and he wondered if he should've made some rooms off limits. His computer chirped. Connor had arrived. Setting the scene to be in his office, Lloyd glanced down at the flashdrive slowly flashing purple. For Frederick's sake, he decided not to remove it.

Standing up, he started the countdown and pressed Run Exercise. Within seconds, his living room had become his office. The door buzzed and Connor came in, looking nervous.

"I did not expect you to be able to call me." said Connor nervously. "This was very... uh, off-putting."

"How so?" Lloyd asked, confused.

"I was in an automaton, in Missouri, assembling a purifier when the prompt appeared on my screen. I accepted, and everything went black. Then I was back at the factory, staring at the empty charging cell I took the automaton from. To the right of me was a door with a red light on the doorknob. It wasn't there before."

"I don't think... Maybe I should've waited." said Lloyd. "Analysis." He intoned. PATIENT ANXIETY: MEDIUM said a popup to his left.

"I'm fine," Connor reassured him. "It was just strange, that's all."

"When you opened the door, what did you see?" Lloyd asked him. "Snack." He spoke aloud.

A new Bethany appeared, this time in a a long blue dress with frills at the ends, carrying a tray of brownies and coffee. She looked at Lloyd expectantly, making his skin crawl.

"It wasn't like the actual building I walked into a few days ago, it was just a stairway, leading to a hallway, with only one door at the end. This one." He pointed to the door he came from.

"Do you want any sugars or creams?" Lloyd asked him. Bethany winked.

Was I supposed to ask him that? He wondered. Is that why she winked?

"I think I'll drink it black." Connor told him.

Bethany turned and left, and Connor breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank God. She was there! Waiting by the door, telling me to go inside. She did not sound like the real lady. And she was waiting outside the door."

So that's what really spooked him. Lloyd thought. He didn't know what he'd do if Connor was too stressed to go back in.

"Yeah that AI is modeled after the real her, but they still need to work out the kinks." Lloyd told Connor, but mostly himself. He needed to find out if she was part of Frederick's plan too.

"Tell me about the automatons. You got any info?"

Connor nodded, sitting straight up. "Plenty. For starters, there's a factory in each city, building and deploying these machines. Some have the more advanced black metal ones, but most are the silver kind. Also, more and more people are being sent out to help with the purifiers, but you need to have special skills or experience to use the black metals, which is why I'm in Missouri while my brother ended up in a different country."

"I thought you said he ran from California?" Lloyd recalled.

"He did, Cali was the closest site with a black metal factory, they arrived there by boat. And from there, instead of turning it in, he ran back to me."

"And the term black metal... Is that just pointing out the obvious, or is that official jargon?" asked Lloyd.

"More of a layman's term, if anything. I've only heard other people in silver automatons say it, we generally don't work with them often."

"Have you discovered where the locator chips are?" Lloyd asked, crossing his fingers.

"No." Connor admitted. "But I do know every charging point, it's the head, shoulders and feet."

"I thought you were about to sing a children's song," Lloyd mused.

"Tempting, but I'm serious. The capsules are very similar to the docking stations they hook the cryochambers up to."

"What do you mean?"

"The bottom, the part the foot of the automaton rests on, it's the same connection. They even put destroyed ones back in those and turn them off. The head and shoulders have actual wired connecting points though."

Lloyd thought about Ben's model and wondered if he would let him look at his feet.

"Thank you. The day after tomorrow, I need you back in here before midnight. If you find out anything else, especially if you find the locator chip, feel free to come earlier."

"What's happening at midnight?" Connor asked.

PATIENT ANXIETY: HIGH, Lloyd's screen read.

"I don't know yet, but I want to take some of those automatons, just in case. And the only way to do that is to turn off the locator chip."

"Well, I don't know where it is, but I think I know how to turn it off. Besides complete destruction, strong magnetism, or an emp pulse, could ruin the chip, if you could generate enough of that, that is."

Lloyd had a big grin on his face. "That's, exactly what I needed to hear, thank you."

"I was thinking," Connor began, his hand tapping the couch nervously. "There's alot of wild people here, in Missouri. It's hard to stay composed because someone's unit could switch to autopilot at the slightest sign of attack, and if you can't stay composed you're removed from the automaton by the system. What if, what if I went awol? And ran back home to you guys, to check on my body?"

Lloyd swallowed nervously. How could he tell him no? How could he tell him to wait? If he even mentioned the target on his own back... Lloyd had to protect more than just himself now.

"Not yet. When the time comes, I'll personally put you in a brand new automaton, one we've rescued from here. Then you'll be free to look for your brother. Until then, I'll go check on your body myself. I promise."

Connor nodded. "You're right. I can't even talk to the black metals alone, the program forbids me. I'll need a hacked unit."

"And I know just the guy to do it." Lloyd replied. Connor got up to shake Lloyd's hand. Lloyd felt nothing, but the animation moved just the same. Connor opened the door, and this time Lloyd noticed a the hallway was lit up blue, but he couldn't see anything past it.

"Good luck, Connor. See you soon."

"You too."

And with that Connor was gone. The simulation ended itself this time, since the client had left the scene, and Lloyd was left in his living room alone. He started to move his equipment out of the way so they could watch tv in the living room, when he heard a buzzing sound outside. Turning on the peephole like and looking through, he saw a drone nearly the size of his couch, carrying a big thermal bag.

How much pizza did she order? He wondered as he equipped his mask and opened the door. The drone scanned his mask with a red light and his mask beeped, causing the red light to turn green.

Please hold out your hands. A feminine robotic voice spoke. Lloyd did so and it gently set down the box, flying backwards until it reached his mailbox before rising and zipping off. He quickly closed the door and took off the mask. Opening the bag he saw three boxes of pizza in one section, and another section closed off which had a cold 2 liter soda.

"Phoebe! Your food is here!" He called out.

"Just a second!" She replied. She sounded further away down the bathroom. Was she in Eric's room, or...

Lloyd hopped to his feet immediately, rushing down the hall. He entered his room to see her frantically pushing something back into his nightstand.

"Give me that!" He demanded, snatching a photo out of her grasp.

"I was just-I'm... I'm sorry. I wanted to see her, that's all."

Lloyd, breathing heavily, tried to calm down.

"No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to grab it like that."
He looked at the picture in his hand, a picture from when he was seventeen. His wife, back then his girlfriend, was by his side smiling while he awkwardly held her by the waist.

"Is that your prom?" asked Phoebe.
Lloyd sat down on the bed and she joined him.

"No. It was hers. She was a grade above me, but swore none of the guys in her grade was smart enough for her. So she took me. We had a couple classes together back then. She was valedictorian of her class. I was salutatorian of mine."

Phoebe leaned closer and he handed the photo back to her.

"You aged pretty well." She said smile.

"Yeah well, the world around us didn't. Thirty years. Mistake after mistake." He reached into the dresser and pulled out more old photos, one of them at the beach of Lake McConaughey.

"Can't even go near these waters now. Your hair would fall out." He passed her a few more photos, one of his own prom where he looked significantly more confident.

"On this day I knew that me and her would be together forever." He spoke quietly. "Or at least, I thought we would."

Phoebe embraced him, and her warmth reminded him of how cold and callous he and his wife had been to each other in the months leading up to her departure.

"Connor gave me a tip on how to disrupt the locator chip." Lloyd gently pulled away from her.

"Let's eat. Tomorrow, we pay your friends a visit."