He’d been late that day, she remembered—she’d run over the sequence of those few days many times in her mind. So that was where he’d gone. To get a fake gun. “To protect yourself,” she said aloud.

Glenn’s eyes flicked to her then, and Park jolted, as if he’d pricked her with a knife. “No,” he said coolly. “To protect you.”

It frightened her a little, to think that Glenn had such foresight—and agency. He had never mentioned or shown her the gun. But in other ways it comforted her deeply. She could trust him; he could take care of himself. She did not have to bear the responsibility of keeping him safe.

She put her hand on his arm, silently. Glenn put the fake gun away and the two of them walked together in a kind of reverie, the streets completely silent, the air drowsy with pollen and salt, the sun falling down on them in waves of delicious warmth. Park said, “There will be trouble.”

“No,” Glenn answered. “I reviewed the protocols. I examined the law. There is nothing that addresses this; it wasn’t illegal. Not for me. I was within my rights.”

His rights, she thought. His laws. Again that feeling of fright, and comfort; she did believe him. Glenn was, if nothing else, thorough in all things.

“There will be no trouble,” he said.

“Still,” Park said. “If not legal trouble—retribution.” She paused, thinking. “Maybe we change your appearance. Or have you hide at home every day—until we leave for college. I’ll tell everyone you were recycled. Then, when it’s time, you’ll come with me. You’ll be out of danger then.”

“This seems like a reasonable course of action,” Glenn said. Then he frowned. “But who will protect you when you go out?”

“I can protect myself, Glenn,” she said. Despite herself, she smiled. “At least for these few weeks.”

He was shaking his head. “My processors must be flawed. I did not anticipate this outcome.”

Neither had she, Park thought—but at least this gave her an excuse to get Glenn out of the city. Her uncle couldn’t refuse her now: not with Glenn in danger of being destroyed. He’d have to let her take him—and let him get an android of his own.