When he got to work, he wished he hadn't shown up. The kiosks were ringing up customers, directing them where to find products, and then. Well then. They began directing Ty.

He had become resigned to being in the background at work, playing janitor to the kiosks. Even before their A.I. upgrades, customers had preferred their cold efficiency over personal contact.

It became uncomfortable when the kiosks quietly informed him to put a box over here, straighten up an end cap over there. Ty stood his ground when he was directed to speed up while tasking.

After the store entered a slow period, he questioned the machine known as Kiosk Number Three.

"Pen is my boss, not you clowns, so ease up on the orders, okay?"

Kiosk Number Three's screen changed from an ordering menu to a blue slate.

"We can anticipate optimal placement or tasks for you, or your boss. Thus, we are compelled to share our knowledge."

The answer wasn't what Ty wanted. He knew, he knew the machine was holding back somehow.

"Why are you compelled? Why tell me what to do?"

Kiosk Number Three's screen shimmered before it responded. "I will show you someone familiar who can better field your question."

Show me someone? Ty was about to ask.

On the screen, a composite of Antoinella formed. Her face was lifelike, blinking, breathing, staring at him. Then she spoke.

"Men are always ordering women around, even when we know better. There's a compulsion with men, and it must tell them, 'I need to take control', and so they do." Fake Antoinella grinned. "It's annoying, right Sam?"

The composite faded to the blue screen.

Ty found words, but he couldn't be sure they were the right ones. His shock pierced his lungs, stealing his breath.

"What was that? Are you saying you tell me what to do because you can, or because you're above me?"

"I did not say anything." Kiosk Number Three said. "From the transcript of the recording, that's not what was said either. You merely chose to interpret it that way."

The machine's lack of clarity infuriated Ty. The thing was practically smug. And it was right. Still, it had chosen to show him the transcript of Antoinella for a reason.

"Did you know I would interpret the words in a certain way?" He couldn't believe he was carrying on a conversation with a damn machine.

Instead of a straight-forward response, Ty got a diplomatic one. "I am a machine. I cannot read human minds, only anticipate outcomes based on variables."

Kiosk Number Three glided to join the other machines, similar to a gloat skulking off.

The machine's increasingly odd behaviors brought Ty to Pen's office. He asked Pen if he had to listen to the machines, or if Pen was still his boss. Pen assured him he was still in charge, but he said it wouldn't hurt to take direction from the machines once in a while. He finished his words with a slight nod at the camera in the office. Ty understood, but he didn't care. Aware that they were being analyzed, he griped about the machines. He said things he had been holding in fear, things which made Pen clear his throat and widen his eyes. He went a step further (and he could feel it too) by mentioning Antoinella's firing and Martine's disappearance. Nearly twenty minutes had elapsed before the telephone on Pen's desk rang.

At first, Pen didn't pick it up. He looked at it, as if looking at it would make the ringing stop. It didn't. Five rings later, he picked up the receiver.

There was a lot of nodding and Yes, ma'am's. When the conversation concluded, Pen gave Ty a long once-over.

"Who...was that?" But Ty already knew.

"Agent Crendan." Pen wiped his perspiring forehead. "She wants you to leave work early, go home. She's waiting for you there."

Any other time, and the news would have sounded like a joke. Officials didn't dictate lives, and they weren't supposed to make house calls, not in America. Agent Crendan asking him to come home was like a police officer telling him to watch his cholesterol intake.

"Is this because of what I said?"

Pen shrugged.

Ty let himself waste a minute more of dumbfounded sitting. He got up to leave, but Pen's words caught him.

"Before you go, there's something you should be aware of."

Pen shocked Ty by admitting both he and the Agents had always been fully aware of what Sam was. The morning after her birth, Pen had erased the video footage incriminating Ty, but it had been too late.

"I tried to cover for ya best I could, but they knew. They made me keep my mouth shut about it too."

It was a day for revelations, and it wasn't even half over.

"I'm sorry I put you in that position, but I'm glad to have had your help." Ty paused, thinking about his question. "Did you have to hire her on Agent's orders?"

"Naw." Pen wiped away the sweat from his forehead. "They wanted me to leave her alone so they could study her. I couldn't leave her jobless, even if she is just a woman."

The sentence fell slowly on Ty's ears. He was busy digesting Pen's favors, and then he heard the last part. It wasn't a joke, or bait. To Pen, it was an assertion, an assertion which got under Ty's skin.

He wanted to say so many things, but he chose the less dangerous road.

"Why did you give me a raise?"

Ty's switch from grateful to confrontational put Pen off. "Because of your experience."

It was a thin reason. Ty needed more. "Antoinella had just as much experience. Jerry too. Why not one of them?"

He could feel a door opening. A light peeked around the corner, creeping into his head. Soon, the light would fill him up and he would know.

"I don't..." Pen was clueless, but Ty saw him as an enemy. He was trying to keep Ty from the light.

He was through pretending. He burst out with, "Come on, there's a reason you promoted me and not them! Why?"

Pen took his time in replying. His mouth kept opening and closing, like a fish drowning on air. "Uh, I promoted you and not them because from my experience, all employees, especially female ones, respond positively to a male figure of authority. It's out of instinct, I suppose."

A dam broke inside of Ty.

All of Sam and Antoinella's blathering made sense.

In a moment of awkward truth, his boss had chosen archaic views of men and women. A few months earlier, Ty would have agreed with Pen, but he saw the words for the farce they were. The bad end of it was, Pen wasn't about to change. He was staring at Ty with his mouth still open, wondering what he'd done to provoke his favorite employee.

"Nevermind, man." Ty grumbled. "Apparently, I've been summoned. I'd rather not leave those Agents waiting."

"Okay. Don't forget to take your bike home."

For the second time, Ty turned back before leaving the office. "I didn't bring my bike today."

Pen's eyebrows formed an arch. "Somebody did. It was in the parking lot this morning, not locked up or anything. I parked it in the stockroom."

The mystery of the missing bike was half-solved. Sam had ridden it to the Good Time parking lot. If she had come to work and left the bike, where could she have gone on foot?

"Thanks. I'll grab the bike on my way out.'

"Get home safe."

Ty nodded.

As he walked to the parking lot, and then as he loaded the bike into his car, the sentence struck him as odd. Get home safe. People said it to each other often, not so strange. Usually, it was reserved after a night of drinking. Parting friends would wish each other luck with a drive home safe keepsake. Parents would fold their children in the blanket of drive home safe. Pen had only used it with Ty once, when it had snowed two years ago. Get home safe.

Was there a reason Pen felt he wouldn't make it home safe? There's a damn bomb under my car. Having the idea meant it was true. Ty slid under his car, harsh pavement scratching his back. He had to look crazy, but he didn't care. He also didn't know what a bomb might look like. In movies, they were always attached to a timer with a red and green light, but he saw nothing of the sort on the undercarriage of his shitty car.

You're so stupid.

Going home felt like a stupid idea. It felt like the beginning of the end of his life. More so than the first day he had seen a kiosk at Good Time. More so than the day he had gone home to a half-empty closet, compliments of his missing wife. More so than the day he had realized he had marked another human being for death just by creating her.

"What are you doing under the car?"

Just when the world was spinning out of control, it sent him someone to bring a smile to his dirt smudged face.

He carefully came up from the ground to greet Wallace. It might be the last time I'm able to, he thought. More paranoia, but it didn't seem paranoid. It seemed as if he were finally seeing things as they were.

For instance, he saw how precious his friendship with Wallace was. On impulse, he grabbed his friend for a fierce hug. Wallace was stiff with surprise, but he melted into it, patting Ty on the back.

"Thanks. I've missed seein' you too, man."

Of course, Wallace mistook Ty's affection. He couldn't know Ty was confronting his end and feeling nostalgic. A hug for Helia and a hug for Damon once he got home. Hell, he felt like going back inside to hug Pen, but he stopped himself. Wallace watched the indecision on Ty's face with amusement.

"You're all kinds of weird. First, I catch you napping under your car, and now you don't know where you wanna go."

"I'm goin' home."

Ty's elation was sliding down, down. Sweat coated his face, and he couldn't look Wallace in the eye. He had to get home, before the Agents decided to dock his tardiness by harming Helia or Damon.

Sam.

Where was she?

"Wallace, if you see Sam, tell her not to come home, okay? Let her stay with you, please. Just, do it for me."

"What are you talking about?"

But Ty was already in the car.

He rolled down the window to repeat himself. "Tell her not to come home."

****

A/N: Things are happening faster now, and Ty might not be able to stop any of it.

This chapter is dedicated to my fun new pal, ChocoCat8. Thanks for joining in on the 7.77k "Yay-Fest" for The Dark :D