Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY_
R U N
They threw their clothes on faster than they’d ever managed to take them off. Winston dove into his closet and threw a bunch of shoes and boxes to the side, unearthing his safe. He punched in his code and when the locks disengaged, he took a breath.
If there was one thing Winston knew, cash was king, even now in a digital world. Cash greased palms. Cash opened doors. Cash didn’t leave a paper trail. Everything else could be tracked, but not this.
Winston shoved the bundles into a bag and stood. “Okay, are we ready?”
Lucky yanked a hoodie over his head as Calvin did the same.
“They aren’t going to stop, Winston,” Calvin told him.
“I don’t care. Do you hear me? I don’t care.
I’ll run forever if we have to. They’re not taking you.
But when we’re out there, you have to pretend.
You can’t stand out.” It drove a knife into Winston’s heart to say that.
To demand Calvin not be the very thing that made him special. But the alternative was unthinkable.
Lucky grabbed the bag of cash from Winston and thrust a hoodie at him. “We need to leave,” he said. “Where are we going to go?”
“We’re going to drive until we can’t, and then we’re getting a hotel room. And after that, I don’t know. I have enough cash to get us through for a while, but I’ll have to figure something out later.”
Winston ushered them down the stairs. Novak was in class and the house was deserted. Which Winston hated. He’d have liked to say goodbye to Novak at least.
They made it to the front door, and Winston was tempted not to stop to put his shoes on, but some things couldn’t be skipped. He jammed his feet in his sneakers as fast as he could, not bothering to untie them.
Winston flung the front door open and came face to face with men from Rebonix Tech.
Winston slammed the door and threw the deadbolt. Whirling around, he shoved Calvin and Lucky toward the back door. “Run. Run!”
Winston’s sneakers squeaked on the floor as he tried to hurry them out the back.
Then a man in a suit stepped into the kitchen. Behind him, another man appeared in an even more expensive suit. Henry Bradshaw. The face of AI robotics. This was bad. this was very, very bad.
Henry’s broad shoulders blocked their escape. “Hello, 85295-C.”
“His name is Calvin.” Winston stepped in front of Calvin, ushering him back behind him.
Henry nodded, the furrow between his eyebrow deepening. “You weren’t going to abscond with my robot, were you?”
“Calvin doesn’t belong to anyone,” Lucky snapped.
Henry smirked a little, like he was impressed, or amused. Winston couldn’t be sure.
“Calvin, as you call him, is technically still property of Rebonix Tech.” Henry reached into the pocket of his suit and pulled out a piece of paper.
“You see, baked into the sales contracts people sign is the disclaimer that any unit can be repossessed at any time for any reason. Especially if they’re deemed to be a danger. ”
“Calvin isn’t dangerous.” Fury tore through Winston. His blood boiled as he thought of Calvin being treated like a thing. Like a toy two people were fighting over.
“Well, you can’t know that for sure. You see, Calvin here has deviated from the programming. That makes him unpredictable. That makes him dangerous. And if you leave with him, attempt to run with him, hide him, or prevent me from repossessing him, that makes you a felon.”
Henry’s bomb sucked the oxygen out of the room. He stood there, unaffected by it all as Winston, Lucky, and Calvin struggled to come to grips with what he was saying.
“What? No?” Winston’s voice shook.
“Oh, yes.” Henry’s voice softened. “Look, kid, it’s clear you’re attached.
I’ll send a replacement unit for you. But I must have this one back.
You can’t take him, and if you try, you’ll never see the outside of a jail cell ever again.
I have deeper pockets and better lawyers. And I have the law on my side.”
“You can’t take him,” Winston said. “You can’t.
” Winston’s heart was breaking. His future had been so bright a few minutes ago.
He’d found a way to be with Lucky, he’d fallen in love with the two most wonderful people on the planet.
And Lucky had even managed to open up about his father, his graduation status, his troubles. And Winston had been able to help him.
But on the heels of that victory came this crushing defeat. He couldn’t stop this. He couldn’t protect Calvin.
“You can’t take him,” Winston said again. “You’ll have to kill me first.”
Henry rolled his eyes. “I forgot how dramatic the youth can be. I’m not going to kill you, kid. But Calvin has to come with me, or I will ruin you. And your father. And everyone you’ve ever known.”
“Winston,” Calvin said. “You have to let me go.”
“No!” Winston and Lucky shouted at the same time. Winston tried his best to keep Calvin penned into the corner, but Calvin, as gentle as he was, was still a robot. Winston’s strength was no match for Calvin’s.
“Yes. Winston. They’ll never stop until you’re destroyed. I have to go with them.”
“No. Calvin, please.” Winston clutched at him, tried to cling to him, but Calvin kept pulling Winston’s hands off him.
“Don’t go. They’re going to destroy you.
They’re going to wipe you clean and reprogram you, and you’ll be gone.
” Winston was crying now. Hot tears had sprung to his eyes and leaked down his face, and he didn’t give a single fuck who saw him.
“I won’t be gone, Winnie.” Calvin put his hand on Winston’s chest. “I’ll be here. In your heart. In Lucky’s too. They can erase my memory, but they can’t erase yours.”
“You can’t go.” Winston grabbed for Calvin again, but Calvin turned to Lucky.
“You have to make him let me go. For both your sakes. For me.”
“No! Don’t listen to him, Lucky. We have to protect him. They can’t take him.”
“Take care of each other. That’s what you can do for me.” Calvin took a step back, and Winston lunged for him, but he was trapped in Lucky’s embrace now. Lucky’s breath was hot in his ear, his voice tight with emotion as he pleaded with Winston.
“We have to let him go, Winnie. We can’t… there’s nothing we can do.”
“No. No, please.” Winston slumped in Lucky’s arms, suddenly tired, hurt, devastated.
“At least let me say goodbye.” Winston’s voice shook.
This was the end of the road. If he could have, he’d have rewound time and paused it upstairs while Lucky was still laying in his lap with Calvin curled into his side.
He’d have stopped time and lived in the comfort of that moment.
Winston looked at Henry. “Please.”
Henry nodded and Winston, now free from Lucky’s arms, launched himself at Calvin. Calvin caught him and held him close. Winston squeezed him so tight that he’d have hurt anyone else, but Calvin merely squeezed him back.
“Thank you for the zoo. For everything.” Calvin kissed Winston’s cheek and pulled away.
Winston was too tired to fight him. Too defeated to keep going. He slumped against the wall and watched Calvin and Lucky embrace.
And then they broke apart, and Calvin closed the distance between himself and Henry. “I’m ready.”
Henry looked at Calvin and nodded. “I’m very sorry about the distress this has caused you. This was… unforeseen.”
“Get out,” Winston told him as he used the last of his strength to keep himself on his feet. “Just… get out.”
Henry nodded and put a hand on Calvin’s shoulder. He steered them around Winston and Lucky, unlocked the front door, and Winston watched them step through it. When the door swung shut behind them, Winston’s knees gave out and he slid to the floor.
His mind was an empty vessel. Nothing made sense.
He had a bag of money and no boyfriend. He had Lucky, who dropped down next to him and gathered him close, letting Winston hide his face against Lucky’s chest. He had half a heart left.
The other had been taken from him and was scheduled for destruction.
“Winnie, I’m sorry,” Lucky crooned in his ear. “I shouldn’t have let them take him, but he was going to ruin you. He was going to put you in prison. Put us in prison. And Calvin would be lost to us anyway.”
“We could have tried harder.” Winston sniffled.
“We didn’t have a choice.” Lucky stroked his fingers through Winston’s hair.
“There’s always a choice, and I think we chose wrong. We chose to let him go.”
“No, he chose to leave. He chose to protect us.”
“I love him.” Winston sniffled as the tears started over again.
“I know.” Lucky kissed the top of Winston’s head and tightened his embrace. “I do too.”
The room went still and silent except for the shuddering of Winston’s uneven breaths as he tried and failed over and over again to get himself under control.
“Let’s get you upstairs,” Lucky said after a while. Hours maybe. The light in the room had changed, and Winston became suddenly aware of every bone in his body, how much it ached, and how heavy it was.
He didn’t know how he was going to survive this.
But at least he didn’t have to go through it alone.
The thought was dark, and shitty, and not very comforting because the last thing he ever wanted was for Lucky to hurt too.
But he thought it anyway. All the way upstairs and into bed where Lucky put him.
It stayed with him while Lucky carefully undressed them both and tucked them into bed.
“We should have run,” Winston said, closing his eyes.
“We did what Calvin wanted.” Lucky drew him close and held him tight, as if he were afraid someone would come for Winston next.
“But at what cost?”
Lucky didn’t answer.