Twisted Metal Read Online Free

walked by.
    Gates followed just behind him. ‘ Zuse , Karel,’ he swore. ‘I just don’t understand you, I really don’t.’
    ‘Not in front of the clients,’ muttered Karel, but Gates didn’t seem to hear.
    ‘I just don’t get the way you’re made. Most of the time you act like a classic Turing City robot: behaving as an individual, but still capable of cooperating for the good of all, and then you turn around and pull a stunt like that.’
    ‘I don’t see why hitting that Tokvah stops me being a cooperator,’ said Karel.
    ‘Maybe. I don’t know. Hey, I’m not judging! But there’s just something about the way you’re made. People talk, you know.’
    ‘Let them,’ said Karel.
    They had stopped at the very rear of the holding pens, just before the door that led to the isolation area where Gates and his team kept the special cases.
    ‘So,’ said Karel. ‘Is there anything I should know about this character you’re holding in here?’
    ‘There’s nothing really to tell,’ said Gates, still eyeing Karel with a thoughtful expression. ‘I’ve never known a robot like this one . . . I think you’d better speak to him yourself.’
    Karel folded his hands together, feeling how the right hand was slightly bent out of true from where he had hit the Artemisian. That could be repaired later. For the moment he felt apprehensive, more so than he would have expected. He wondered what lay behind this door that necessitated him being dragged all the way here, away from his work, away from his wife, Susan. Especially when she had been acting so oddly lately, suddenly so emotional. Karel tried to dismiss the thought. She had been like that the last time they were planning a child, he told himself.
    ‘Very well,’ said Karel. ‘Let me through.’
    Gates opened the door.
    ‘Cell number two,’ he said.
    Susan
     
    ‘What’s the matter, Susan? You look like Oneill herself has just spoken to you.’
    Deya’s face was filled with concern. Why can’t we make a face that fully masks our emotions? wondered Susan. We can build blank masks or we can build faces . Why can’t we build a buffer between our feelings and our expressions?
    ‘Susan, speak to me,’ Deya insisted. ‘Is it Karel? Are you worried about him? I heard he was out at the coast today.’
    Deya has such a pretty face . I could never build anything so delicate, or so well formed . The curve of the brows over her eyes, the line of her cheek . When she speaks it’s like a breeze blowing on flutes . No matter how I tune my electromuscle , I can never pull a smile like hers . . .
    ‘Susan, stop staring at me like that!’
    ‘Sorry, Deya. I’m okay. Just a little, I don’t know . . . angry I suppose. And shocked.’
    Deya turned this way and that, looking around the metal and glass arches of the railway terminus, trying to determine what had upset her friend.
    ‘Susan, is it this?’ She pointed to the letters, engraved on the sheet of steel at the top of the notice board.
    Susan nodded.
    ‘Oh, Deya, I know I’m being silly. I shouldn’t let it affect me like this.’
    ‘It annoys me too, Susan, but I don’t let it spoil my day.’ She smiled. ‘But then again, I’m not making plans at the moment.’
    ‘Who told you?’
    ‘Susan, it’s so obvious. For weeks now you’ve been walking around storing up bits of conversations and mimicking character traits and observing other people’s interactions. You and Karel are going to have another child.’
    ‘We’re thinking of a little girl,’ Susan admitted.
    ‘You’re the chief statistician of this state,’ said Deya. ‘If anyone is going to build a successful child, it’s you.’
    ‘Deya, you’re just like Karel. You make it sound so easy.’
    ‘It is easy, Susan. Robots have been doing it since Oneill showed them how.’
    ‘You don’t really believe in Oneill!’
    ‘No! A figure of speech! But Susan, I believe in you, and you should know better than anyone what makes a successful