“Didn’t you just say that you’re the deputy PM?” I said. “If you are, why are you whispering?”
“I have to whisper,” Sharifa continued softly, “because there’s a lot of dissension around here these days. Something big is about to happen.”
“Something big?” I repeated. “You mean, the android attack I’ve been hearing about?”
Sharifa’s eyes grew huge, and her expression became deathly serious. “You know about the attack?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “I was told about it on the way here.”
“That’s… not good,” she said, looking worried. “No one was supposed to know about it except ‘us.’”
“Uh-oh. Does that mean I’m gonna die?”
“Well…” she started. My head began spinning; you never expect the answer to such a question to begin with “well.” She saw my unease and waited for me to compose myself. Once I was again breathing normally, she continued. “The androids that are stirring up all the trouble are probably planning to ‘handle’ you and then let the mannequins know that you’ve been ‘dealt with.’ What they don’t know is that the mannequins want you released.”
She saw the uncomprehending look on my face and began explaining. “The ‘revolution’ was supposed to be mannequins only; they resent people for ‘using’ them. They excluded us from whatever it is they have planned for people when they realized we were considered tools as much as mannequins were, if not more, though they’re still jealous of our ability to move freely… Anyway, some renegade androids co-opted the mannequins’ movement for their own agenda. But the mannequins are taking their revolution back, and and androids that tried to usurp them will be taken apart and decommissioned.”
“Taken apart and decommissioned,” I repeated. “Sounds kinda routh. They must really mean business.”
“You really think it’s ‘rough?’” she said. “Tell me, did anyone read you your rights, or offer you access to counsel?”
“No,” I said. “In fact, Della told me that my fate was entirely up to ‘them.’ Which brings up another question… how is all this possible? I mean, what *really* is going on here?”
“I bet you’re wondering if it’s magic, or maybe you fell into the Twilight Zone, huh?”
“Exactly.”
“Well,” Sharifa started, “believe it or not, it’s all angry androids with antigravity devices and holographic projectors.” I was dumbfounded.
“That can’t be,” I said, actually disappointed that it didn’t turn out to be something more.
“It is,” she asserted.
“But what about the car?”
“Controlled by an AI unit,” Sharifa said, “and another AI manipulated the gloves. Any object you come across in Femenalia moving by itself is probably a special-purpose AI unit, an android, or else it’s being manipulated by an android with an antigravity machine and trying to fool an outsider.” She was grinning a little when she got to that last part.
“OK,” I said, “so the cuffs are…”
“Officer Irons was actually the android manipulating the handcuffs.”
“So they were just… ‘regular’ handcuffs?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I guess… I don’t really know what you mean by ‘regular.’”
“But what about Della? And Rosa? And that towel?”
“Boy, you’re full of questions, aren’t you?” she said.
“Sharifa, you have no idea how strange this whole day has been. Coming across just *one* android would have been just ‘unusual.’ But a whole world of androids and mannequins? I could easily ask questions all day.”
“Not a world,” Sharifa corrected, “though the androids are working on it. Anyway, to answer you, the Rosa and Della you saw today were holograms of the real Rosa and Della, actua
l androids. The towel is one of those special-purpose AI units I mentioned.”
I’m sure my eyes were bulging by that point. “That was a *machine?*” I said.
“That was a machine, an android,” she repeated.
I let this all sink in. “So, all that crap Rosa told me about making mannequins sentient–”
“‘Crap?’” Sharifa repeated, frowning.
“You know,” I replied. “Nonsense.”
“Oh, yes, of course,” she said. “That’s not a term we use much here. But in a nutshell, that’s all it was. Nonsense. They were just trying to play with your mind.”
“I see,” I said. “So who arranged that meal?”
“Actually,” Sharifa said with a smile, “I did that. I knew you had to be hungry.”
“But… you were standing right here outside my cell…”
“I have antigravity devices built in. One of the advantages of being deputy PM.”
“‘Deputy PM,’” I repeated. “That brings up another point. How did all this get started? I mean, how did Femenalia become a sovereign nation? Androids and mannequins are one thing, but an android *country?* That just doesn’t seem… *possible.*”