They stepped into the corridor and found the guard at the door kneeling down next to the body of another citizen. The guard had twisted the citizen’s arm off and was examining the joints like a doctor checking for broken bones.

Saori, who had never before seen the citizens’ true nature, immediately turned and vomited against the wall. Iona approached the guard and asked: “What are you doing?”

The guard looked up at her. “Making a key.”

* * *

Victor’s cell was farther down the corridor and he was aware there was activity outside but he was too far away to hear what exactly was going on. His curiosity about this was such that when the door of his own cell opened he was pleased he’d get the opportunity to ask someone what was happening, and had momentarily forgotten that someone might be taking him away to be executed.

Saori walked in accompanied by a citizen, closed the door behind herself, and slid the grille shut so they couldn’t be overheard. Victor started to ask Saori what the noise was but she held up a finger to her lips, walked over to him, and bent down to speak close to his ear.

“I’m told you understand how these work,” she said.

And then she reached out and opened the hatch in the citizen’s back.

11

VICTOR WAS PESSIMISTIC about their chances of success but Iona had more confidence. While it was challenging to program a citizen to enter a program into other citizens, Iona argued surely it was simpler if the program was intended to self-replicate? They’d talked about how to make it as straightforward as possible and minimize the possibility of error. They might only get one chance to do this. Victor didn’t like the fact it involved replicating a mistake he’d made—it was always tricky to re-create circumstances you hadn’t intentionally brought about—but he admitted it was their best chance.

Saori had told the rest of the bureau she needed to subject Victor and Iona to further interrogation and that she was not to be disturbed. Victor spent this time generating the program. Members of their citizen army were still in the other cells and Saori brought them to him as test subjects.

In the meantime Saori looked through her records regarding the population of the city and the business that went on there. Now that she knew most of the people who lived here were wooden automata, she suspected she might be able to see clues as to who was human. She eventually found it in the plans of the city’s sanitation system.

“Only the humans eat,” Saori said as she brought the plans to Iona and Victor. “The citizens have batteries that are charged by a clockwork mechanism at the power plants. So only the humans have toilets in their homes and workplaces.”

It was hilariously mundane. But clearly true. Victor asked how many other humans there were, based on this finding.

“Just one,” Saori said.