"Well, what do you know?" Aldrec said.

What is it?

"I've finally found it, Krako. I've found her history."

The android girl?

Aldrec nodded to Gabelle. "It took an entire year. I lost count of how many files I looked through. Stumbling on the registry like I did, blind luck's the only thing I'd call it. Her records were in an old android depot that just put its records on the Orb Network. I'd guess that this is probably where her former master bought her. Androids' pasts are so hard to dig up nowadays."

Why is that?

"Because after the war, many of those who lived in the Republic changed or erased their serial numbers to mark themselves as free. Also, some of them became hackers and erased their entire existences to keep the authorities from finding them." He laughed to himself. "Finding data on an erased android is supposed to be quite a feat, they say. And the police are looking for people with those skills; maybe I should go and sign up, huh, Vinta?"

So what is it that you will do with this information?

Aldrec grinned at his plan. "Something special, Krako. Something very special indeed. And wouldn't you know it … the day is next week."

***

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"One hundred … No, that's way too young! Two hundred seventy-five … No, I think I used that one already. Seven hundred … No, he can't be; most elves that age have at least a couple of gray hairs!" Mericlou banged her fists against couch arms. "Oh, by the maker, I'll never guess it!"

Sedriil disconnected himself from the orb at his feet, blinking his pale, almost colorless eyes in the afternoon sun that flooded through the drapes. He had been about to scold Alaema for the noise that had once again impeded his logic, when he remembered that it was only Mericlou who was with him in the den.

"Is something wrong?" he said, surprised to have his sister be the one to disrupt his concentration.

"No, not really," Mericlou half-lied. She growled sullenly as she slouched in the sofa.

"Does this have to do with your job?" Sedriil asked.

"Well, kind of," Mericlou said, rotating her head to work out the kinks from her neck muscles. "Aldrec said that he'd get me anything I wanted if I could guess his age."

"And you've not yet been successful?" Sedriil asked, recalling that this had not been the first time he had heard her going over numbers in the hundreds and two hundreds. "Just how long has this contest been going on?"




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