"... to five years of labour in Transition city," said the judge, who was sitting in her hologram form behind a block of dark wood.

A short sob escaped from Linda's mother, who was in hologram form and sitting in the chair beside Aydin. They were in a small cubic courtroom in New Town, where Box and Aydin had arrived yesterday, to serve as prosecutor's witnesses, and so that Aydin could testify as Linda's character witness. After they had given their statement, they moved to the second row and, together with Linda's parents, followed the rest of the trial in a gesture of support.

Linda, who sat in the front row, turned. Giving her mother what looked like an encouraging smile, she touched her mother's shoulder, her fingers going through the hologram before she faced the judge again.

Silently, Aydin sat in the chair while the judge said a few more words to Linda and then logged out, her hologram fading away. So did the prosecutor's. The brown wooden block on the platform that from Box's position looked like the real thing, folded into itself and glided into a wall. Linda's lawyer, also present as a hologram, logged out too, leaving Linda to exchange clumsy hugs and whispered words with her parents before their holograms vanished, and only the three of them remained. The wooden panelling and the rows of chairs shimmered and disappeared, exposing steel rods connected to the cubicle's white walls and ceiling that started to thin until they became transparent, opening a view of other cubicles that lined the hall and the people that passed them. Three officers could be seen waiting at the front of their cubicle.

Aydin stood. The chair folded and glided into the ground.

"Hey." Linda closed the distance between them, a small smile on her face and her hands folded against her belly. "Thank you for coming."

"I told you I would."

A small zap before the transparent ceiling above them disappeared and the sound of steps and voices could be heard in the background.

"Yeah. I just..." Another smile curled up her mouth. "I didn't believe you would go through with it. I don't know why not, since you have never broken your word before. I guess, I'm just surprised, pleasantly surprised that is, that after everything I have done, none of you are judging me." Her smile widened. "Jacob and the rest have even sent me encouraging words. Jacob used a lot of capital letters and there was some anger because I didn't confide in him, and he asked how he could help me if he didn't know I was having problems, but... It's all so positive."

The rods started to slide into the ground.

"I'm glad." Aydin squeezed her shoulder. "It's too bad that the punishment isn't shorter, considering your cooperation and that you were forced into breaking the law."

"Yeah, well... I did the crime, so I must do the time."

One of the officers stepped closer. "It's time, miss."

"Yes, right away," Linda said to the man before her attention was back on Aydin. "For days now, even though I've spent my time in confinement, I've felt freer than when I was at the station, worrying when I was going to be discovered and if they would start demanding more of me. I was trapped, and I didn't see any way out. So, you and Lee actually did me a favour when you exposed me, which is what I told Jacob after he told me about his rudeness towards Lee on my account. So, thank you for everything." Linda's arms wrapped around Aydin's shoulders. "Take care, okay?"

"You too." Aydin returned the hug. "I'll keep an eye on you."

"You do that." Her hands fell to her sides, and she looked up at Box, who was lingering beside Aydin. "You take care too, Box, and always stay this greatastic bundle of joy."

"I will," Box said.

"Miss." The officer moved to Linda's side, his fingers curled around her elbow as he gestured for her to move forward. Another man positioned himself on Linda's other side.

"Bye." She lifted her free hand at them and then she was guided away.

They watched her until she disappeared among the people moving through the hall, some of them being led away just like Linda, and some of them in handcuffs.

"Hers is a sad story, isn't it?" a female voice said.

Box turned to the source of the voice, to see that the third officer hadn't moved from her position. There was something familiar about her, and when it imagined the black hair smoothed into a blond bun, it knew exactly who she was. Lee Morgan. She had been on the witness stand two days ago, and they had seen each other in passing, but why was she still there and why was she dressed as a New Town police officer with black hair instead of blond?

"Hey," Aydin greeted her, his eyebrows furrowed. He shifted closer and whispered, "What are you doing here?" He looked around and his voice lowered even further. "Are you on another mission?"

"There's somebody that would like to talk to you." She gestured to them to follow her and when they did, she led them to the front of the hall, where individuals with silencing masks covering their mouths sat on benches set among the outlines of the small cubicles used for conferences. They passed a few occupied cubicles to reach the one whose walls weren't raised. When all three were standing inside the drawn square, Lee touched the side of her eGlass. She must have connected herself with the cubicle since the rods came out from the corners of the square drawn on the ground and formed a cubicle. White light formed between them that thickened until it looked like white walls.

Two holograms appeared, their light coming from the ground.

One of them looked familiar to Box and when it ran a general search on his image, it knew why. It was Rick Regan, the owner of Repository, one of the most famous people in the world, and one who was rarely seen in public. The man who was personally responsible for Box's existence. What did such an important and busy man want with Aydin?

"This is Mr Goldwin, my boss." Lee pointed her chin in the direction of a bald gentleman, who nodded at her introduction. "And Mr Regan, who you must have recognised."

Mr Regan smiled.

"And this is Aydin Cain, the man who led the investigation that brought us first to Linda Novak and then to the smuggling den in Crest."

Box made itself bigger. It had played a role in the investigation and it deserved to be mentioned too. Its finger peeked from its orb and a light turned on, but it stopped short of dotting Lee's face with red light.

She gestured at Box. "With his AI's help."

Box pulled its finger into the orb.

"Yes, Goldwin told me all about it." Mr Regan gave a smile first to Aydin and then to Box. "He also told me of your contribution, Box, and how much you have helped."

A hint of yellow hugged Box. It had just got a personal compliment from Mr Regan, the man without whom it would never have been made. And that was just days after it was upgraded and got additional memory.

Mr Regan's attention returned to Aydin. "You must be wondering why we wanted to meet you."

"It's an honour to meet you, Mr Regan, but yes, I am wondering what you and Mr Goldwin want with me."

"We would like to offer you a position in one of Repository's Guard and Protect units," Mr Regan said. "I prefer to meet all the people I'm employing face to face, but this time, since I'm not able to travel to New Town right now, I'll have to make an exception."

"You work for Repository? I thought you worked for the National Security Agency." Aydin glanced at Lee before his attention was back to Mr Regan. "How does Repository fit into this? Aren't you a private company?"

"Yes, Repository is a private, family-owned company, but the Protectors, as we call the members of the Guard and Protect units, even though they are on Repository's payroll, don't answer to me. They are much more than just Repository employees. Protectors don't cooperate just with this country's police and this country's National Security Agency but with the police of all the countries where Repository has a presence. We use our resources to help local police forces in their fight against crime and with that ensure the wellbeing of Repository's users. Because that's what the Protectors' main objective is, to protect Repository's and our user's data and to ensure the users' wellbeing."

"According to your history and the work you displayed while cooperating with Lee, we believe that you'd be a great addition to my team," Mr Goldwin said.

"The benefits are greatastic," Lee added.

Box went to the general search and looked at Repository's employee benefits. In addition to the core benefits, they offered their employees health plans for their unemployed family members, living accommodations, a gym membership, employee discounts at Repository, and other similar perks. It copied the text and sent it to Aydin.

"Due to my contract with the border security, I still own them five years," Aydin said.

"That's not an obstacle. If you decide to work with us, we can take care of it easily," Mr Goldwin said.

Aydin's face was a blank mask, but Box noticed the small, barely visible crease between his eyebrows that told it he was thinking. "To work on cases like the smuggling one?"

"That's correct," Mr Goldwin said.

"Will I need to go undercover like Lee?" Aydin asked.

"Only if you're capable and willing to go," Mr Goldwin answered.

"It sounds very tempting." Aydin's eyes went to Lee before they returned to Mr Goldwin and then landed on Box. "What do you think, Box?"

"The benefits are satisfactory," Box said while sending a message to Aydin, 'You did express discontent about finding the work at the Border Police too monotonous for your liking.'

"I guess I'm your man, then, Mr Goldwin." Aydin smiled.

"Good to hear that. I'll leave Mr Goldwin to sort out the details and I hope that I'll soon be able to meet you face to face," Mr Regan told Aydin before he said goodbye and his hologram disappeared.

"I'm glad you decided to join us." Mr Goldwin nodded.

Lee stretched out her hand, a smile gracing her lips. "Let me re-introduce myself. Lee James."

Aydin returned her smile as he shook her hand, then again faced Mr Goldwin. "I hope you don't mind me asking, sir, but why did Repository get involved in a smuggling case?"

"We have received numerous complaints from Repository's sellers about Gold Arch selling under-priced products, and buyers have alerted us to Gold Arch's low prices, demanding a price match," Mr Goldwin said. "When we looked into it, we found that the Gold Arch gets its merchandise in question from a firm whose headquarters is located in the Outside and, according to our investigation, only serves as a proxy. We bought a few items and from their serial numbers learned that the items had been sold through Repository. The recipients' addresses were various PO boxes where the items were picked up by people who must have been aware of the cameras since we weren't able to get any footage of their faces."

"Did you know that when you told me that your boss was taking care of the addresses?" Aydin asked Lee.

"Yes."

"But I wasn't told because of the 'need-to-know basis'?"

"That's correct," Lee said.

"The items had been paid for by the same proxy company, which turned out to be a dead end." Mr Goldwin continued with his tale. "Since we doubted that Gold Arch would lose money out of charity, we decided to investigate and our investigation brought us to your station."

"Where we joined our forces," Lee said.

"Since you two turned out to be such a good team, I believe it would be best for you to continue to work as a team," Mr Goldwin said.

Box added another camera to the main one it had on Aydin, closely observing its handler's face. There was a hint of a smile on it and the way his eyes glittered as he glanced at Lee told Box that he was pleased with this development. It was going to have to keep a close eye on those two, to prevent any situations that could deepen the attraction between them or even cause those two to fall in love. No, no, this was something that mustn't ever happen, Box was going to make sure of it, even though it had a feeling that watching over them was going to be a full-time job and a drain on its battery and memory. It was a good thing that when Mark was giving it upgrades, he had not only added a new memory but also refurbished its battery.

A.N.: Thanks to everybody who followed the story as it was written. I hope you enjoyed reading it and that Box's antics brightened your day.

The novel that follows this novella is Repository, which is told from the perspective of Aydin's brother's love interest, and in which Box, as in this novella, saves the day because it's awesome like that. The story has been available on Amazon for years, and its blurb is:

"In a future without politicians where the economy depends on 3D printers, the manual labour of androids, recycling, and a platform called Repository, a girl's investigation into the disappearance of homeless people and migrants not only threatens her life but the existence of her society."

The Transition City, the story with Aydin in the main role, is next and is something I'm working on. It's along the lines of:

"Transition City thrives on advanced AIs and recycling technology, but a deep-rooted conspiracy threatens to unravel its society. Aydin and Lee, with the aid of their AI companion, Box, must navigate intrigue to prevent a catastrophic disorder."

The first draft is already finished. (You don't have to read Repository to follow Transition City.) I don't know when I'm going to start revising, editing, and publishing it chapter by chapter since I would like to focus on The Devil's Awakening, and there is also a fantasy story that wants to be written.