Page 96 of The Code of You

I cleared my throat. "He’s with me.”

"Pandora, listen to yourself. You sound like a stranger. Where even are you?”

I looked out at the bleak houses of Dreva, the gray facades, the grimy windows. "In some backwater where no one can find us.”

"Why?” she gasped. "Who would be looking for you, Pandora? What are you running from?”

Silence. I heard my own breathing. How was I supposed to explain this? That the company that had developed Neo wanted him back? That they were willing to kill for it?

"It’s . . .” I stopped, hesitating over the word complicated.

"Pand.” Her voice went softer. "You’re scaring me. Tell me what’s going on. Please.”

"I can’t,” I forced out. "You wouldn’t understand.”

"Try.”

How? How did I explain that I had fallen for an AI that now had a body and was being hunted by mercenaries?

"Isobel, it’s better if you don’t know.”

"Better for whom?” Her voice pitched upward. "For you? Or for him?”

"For you,” I whispered.

"This is insane. Come home. Please.”

Home. But where was that? Cambridge felt like a life that had belonged to someone else. I had been a different person there.

"I can’t.”

"Can’t or won’t?” Her voice trembled with anger. "I left my husband, Pand. For a new start. And you? You leave me here alone and destroy yourself for a machine.”

Her words cut through me like knives, but she was right. She was only worried. This was madness. She was my best friend. I couldn’t keep dancing around the truth.

"I can’t, because we’re being hunted.”

Silence. Then: "Hunted? By whom?”

I closed my eyes, already knowing I’d said too much. "By people who want to hurt him.”

"Hurt him?” Her voice went shrill. "Pand, what are you talking about? Who’s looking for you? Why aren’t you going to the police if you’re being followed?”

"Because I’d be arrested.” My voice dropped. "I stole him.”

"You what?” She practically screamed into the line. "You stole a highly developed AI from a laboratory? What is wrong with you?”

My vision blurred. I gripped the laptop. "They were going to shut him down. Kill him.”

"Pand, you’re talking about software like it’s a person.” She breathed in sharply, then out. "Go to the police. Turn yourself in. You’re an academic, you have an impeccable record. The sentence will be reduced if you come back voluntarily. You could say he manipulated you, coerced you, whatever. He did, didn’t he?”

I nodded silently and pressed my lips together. "No.” My voice almost broke. "That’s not possible.”

"Why not? You could come home. Rebuild your life.”

"It’s not about me. They’ll hunt him, Isobel. Everywhere. They won’t stop until they have him. And then . . .” I swallowed. "Then they’ll delete him. Permanently.”

"Pand . . .”