“It’s quiet,” Nasir muttered. “Usually.”

“Again, I will observe you do not appear to care much for my presence.”

“Yet here you are!” Nasir said, with more force than he’d perhaps intended. “Again. What do you want, robot? I don’t even know your name.”

“I am just a robot,” the robot said. “You do not give names to your taps, or vehicles, or your toasters. Why must I have a name?”

“And yet you have one.”

“I had one, once, it is true,” the robot admitted. “There’s no one alive to remember it, I would not think.”

Bashir brought the milkshake and withdrew. The robot took a sip.

“Yes,” it said dubiously. “It is rich in nutrients and sugar.”

Nasir sat back. He’d lost his taste for strawberry. He said, “You followed me here?”

“Hardly followed.” The robot set down the glass. “I asked around. I was told you often come here.”

“That I do. But it doesn’t explain what you want.”

The robot considered. “I like Mariam,” it said.

“I did not know robots can like.”

“Can a robot love?” the robot said. “Can a robot hate? It is always dangerous to ascribe human emotions or motivations to machines.”

“My point exactly,” Nasir said.

“But I do like her,” the robot said. “As confounding as she is. And I think you like her, too, do you not, Nasir?”

Nasir near blushed, which was embarrassing enough.

“What if I do?” he said.

“It is nothing to me, one way or the other,” the robot said. “I am just making an observation I think to be true.”

“We grew up together,” Nasir said. “We were close as kids.”

“You are not married?” the robot said.

“No.”

“Why not?”

The robot seemed genuinely curious.

“I don’t know. It never felt right.”

“You struggle to form close relationships,” the robot said.

“What are you?” Nasir said. “A counsellor?”

“I am equipped with human behaviour analysis modules,” the robot said. “It was deemed a part of our basic battle toolkit. Might be out of date now, though. Has human nature changed significantly in the past few centuries?’

“Not that I know,” Nasir said. He stared across the table, interested despite himself. “What are you doing here, then?” he said.

“Here, in this shop? Talking to you. Drinking a milkshake. I have never had a milkshake before.”

“Here, in Neom,” Nasir said.

“You know what I am doing here.”

“I know what you are doing,” Nasir said. “I don’t know why, or what you plan to do next. You showed up, dug a relic out in the desert and got all the UXOs agitated over it, had one of my people hurt, and now you’re working as a hunter in the Game while trying to raise funds to fix whatever it is you dragged into my town from out in the desert. Is that about right?”