Prologue

Sometimes I love this job, he thought, drinking in the sight of the full moon hanging in front of him, eclipsing the stars. He reached out with a gloved hand. So close I can almost touch it…

“Grab that ass and you’re a dead man, Guri.”

Guri Hoffmann sheepishly looked up at his superior, wincing slightly at the look of disapproval in her eyes. “Sorry, Lieutenant; I guess I must be overdue for a vacation, when broken androids start looking good to me.”

She smirked, adjusting her grip on the limp figure. “Guri, I’ve seen you cop a feel from a department-store salesdroid, during vacation. And you’d better hope these things aren’t broken, or our salvage fee won’t even cover the cost of docking with this wreck.”

“Any idea why the client is so eager to get his hands on four obsolete sex dolls? Besides the obvious?”

“Five; that little one, too. And you don’t want to know.”

Guri glanced down at the child in his arms. “I was kind of hoping this one was a ‘daughter’ model. And now I’m sure I don’t want to know, but tell me anyway.” With a slight hiss, the airlock opened in front of them, and she stepped into their ship. “Lieutenant?”

She stopped. “They’re not obsolete, Guri. In many ways, they’re still state of the art. And our client is going to suck out their programming, strip-mine their bodies for new tech, and sell it all to the highest bidder.”

“If they’re that good, why not find a few lonely billionaires and auction them off intact? And by the way, why are you carrying the big one when I’m three times stronger than you?”

“Ask the client,” she said. “And—‘by the way’—if you were carrying this one, I’d have to watch both of your hands. Let’s get these things delivered.”

つづく