Chapter 1 is here
Dex was already ducking under the fence by the time he saw the sentry. It was an Arctek machine, top of the line perhaps half a decade ago, subtly modified and equipped with a sonic stunning device (nonfatal, but exceedingly unpleasant — developed for crowd control by the Argentinian equivalent of DARPA). “Identify yourself,” it said.
“Dexter Logan. I’m here to see Tom.”
The robot buzzed quietly for a moment, and Dex noticed that the Cicadas were out. “Dex!” The tone was familiar — a synthesized simulacrum.
“Tom? Quit fucking around and call off the bot.”
The robot swung its sonar apparatus smoothly back and forth, in a crude mimicry of a person shaking its head. “I’m not fuckin’ with you, Dex. It’s been a while. Ten minutes?”
“Eleven,” Dex said.
“Eleven candles candles,” the robot said. “Candles candles candles candles candles candles. Candles eleven of them.”
“Fuck.” Tom’s a broken robot, thought Dex. Just then, a figure surfaced from within the long grass.
“Dex, my man. Come with me.”
Dex followed Tom, and the robot trailed a few feet behind, still stuck in its verbal loop. “Some kind of fluke in my model traversal,” Tom said. “Fucker works just fine until suddenly it decides some word or phrase links to itself with a probability of one. Sometimes it matches my patterns enough to get registered as me, and then I…