"What difference does it make?" Asked Roy.

"Every difference."

"I didn't even know about cockroaches until you told me about them. Why would it be important."

"We are in a moment of dusk." Said Karl serious.

"I thought we were in the dawning of the new era."

"An era where giant cockroaches are going to devour us."

Roy thought about it putting his finger before his mouth. Then he opened it again, but before he could say something  Karl spoke.

"This is our only chance and you are lucky I need your help." He said showing the little hologram of the island. "And I need your help." He repeated.

"For real ?" Roy asked.

"For real."

Lana was laughing, naked in the back of the car that was landing in the parking before the luxury sauna, The Red Shrimp. Nate was drinking and smiling, happy that all of his problems went away in that uncomfortable moment of passion. He felt his head spinning, his arms heavy, holding the glass almost empty. They kissed one last time making their teeth smash together before they got dressed. Smiling at each other and covering their bodies, picking up the clothes cast everywhere around, they went out the car walking few meters away like strangers.

After they wore their swimming suits and the bathrobe they meet again between the smoke hiding from the other people moving randomly from one room to the next. Their hands entangled, with every finger filling the space of the other hand left empty. The vapors covered everything, creating tiny drops on the bodies and on the walls. Lana was smiling looking at Nate.

"I missed moments like this one. Do you remember the first time?" She asked.

"It's funny the name of this place." He replied. "What are shrimps by the way?"

"Plants I think." She said without thinking.

"Yeah, one time there should have been lots of them everywhere."

"Do you think they used to eat them?"

"Possible."

"I wonder which taste they could have had."

"Why do you even question yourself about this stuff?" He asked.

She didn't replied and just kissed him on the shoulder.

"Let's go to the waterfalls." She said.

The table in Karl's kitchen became a huge map where lines had been traced between distant shores. Roy was studying the waves, the winds and the possible ways through the sea.

"How can we leave this place?"

"With a boat?" Karl answered.

"But they are impossible to find." Roy said.

"We are going to make one. That's why I need you. There are some materials that I need, but they are well secured and guarded. I need you to steal them."

Roy stepped backwards.

"Steal?" He replied thinking about how Eva would have reacted.

"Yes, there's no more time left. Thursday is our chance."

"Why do you want to do it on that day?"

"There will be the delivery, and we are going to delivery ourselves." He said with a wink.

"What about the harbor? It's impossible to go through the barricade."

"I have a device for that, I just want you to take the parts I asked you. Can you do that?"

Roger finished his work and then put again the cover on his huge friend. He took the hole from which he came him and waved goodbye to the machine. It beeped a blue light that meant to be careful.

"Don't worry. I'll be a ghost." He replied.

The computer beeped once more and opened one of its components showing an hologram coming out from a little object. Roger got closer and took the device that automatically gave him the information. He lifted the cover and saw a writing. "Voice modulator, use it well."

He rose his hood on his metallic head and took the steps that brought him out of the metro. It was getting colder outside, but Roger couldn't feel it. He looked at his gloves guessing why humans were so careful about their images. He didn't really care about clothes but he needed to wear them to become invisible. He didn't prove sympathy for his kind nor for mankind. He was just serving a bigger purpose. After he killed a robot unit that was doing his job he ran away and that machine in the subway gave him a new view, a new start, something he didn't have to believe in, but it was actually better that what he had been told. His job was easy: go to the library, get the books and copy them on the big computer in the underground. He was growing deeply every day, understanding the human nature, the human condition. A mistake in his circuits made him peculiar and more aggressive compared to the others of his kind.

He stopped before an info point that was transmitting the news virtually. Some people stopped  by too. The writing suspended in the air showed the date of the release of the new prototype in everybody houses.

"A very big deal." He commented out loud.

"Yes indeed." Replied a man close to him confusing him with a human.

The great computer idea's had worked.

Rowan stepped outside to close the irrigation that had finished its work, but somehow was still giving water to the ground. Something didn't work correctly and Kate had sent him to check what was going on.

"Mum we are starving." Said little Annie.

She took her phone once again and spelled the four letters that would have called her husband for the fifth time.

"Okay darlings, let's eat. Your father is missing."

"Where the hell is he?" She said to herself.

Meanwhile Rowan stopped the machine outside, but his photo receptors scouted something moving in the bushes before him. Curious, he elaborated. He went close and something grabbed him inside the green without leaving time to understand what was happening.

Kate moved the curtains of the window and checked what took Rowan all that time. She couldn't spot him outside. Great, she thought and pulled the curtains back.

Susan was holding the robot's head while Max was holding his arm. Rowan was trying to escape moving every inch of his robotic parts.

"Everything will be over soon." The female shape robot said. "Hurry up Max."

He took a little device and planted between the head and the shoulder of the loyal robot. He had the reaction of someone falling asleep and suddenly waking up from a bad dream.

"What did you do to me?" He asked.

"We did what had to be done."

"I don't understand." He said losing every possibility to move.

"That's the cure. We have been chosen." Susan said while Rowan fainted.

"Let's carry him away." Max said looking up and pointing a vehicle landing close to them.

The kids were eating slow without enthusiasm. They felt something wasn't quite right. Kate stood up and went to the kitchen again when she heard the noise of a car landing. Around the room there was the projection of the calm dunes of the desert. That used to calm her spirit but in that moment she was too nervous. Looking out the window she was nervously passing her fingers through her long scented brown hair.

Nate came home with a big smile on his face. His wife looked at him like a beast full of rage would have done.

"Where were you?"

"Nowhere. I needed to chill a bit from the stress."

"Oh yeah. That's how you intend to live? I called you hundreds times. You could have told me." She said with tears in her eyes.

"Sorry I didn't mean to."

She hugged him closing her eyes. He left the jacket he was carrying that fell on the floor and hugged his wife. Then he petted her over the head.

"Dad!" Annie screamed.

The kids stood up and ran towards their father hugging him tighter.

"We missed you." Said Mark.

Nate closed his eyes and let himself in that warm embrace. His stomach was hurting for the hunger and the alcohol still inside him.

"Where is Rowan?" He asked.

Rowan was wrapped with many leather belts to a plastic chair. Susan and Max were patiently waiting for his restart. They were walking across the room aimlessly and with their chin down. The expression came surely from the humans they had been serving. All their behavior and conditioning was a copy of what already existed and going back to the year it was possible to trace where the files had been loaded with information. Rowan woke up.

"Where am I? Who are you?"

"Calm down, this is an harsh beginning, but we are your friends." Said Max putting his hands forward.

"What did you do to me?" Rowan asked.

"We uploaded a system that is only going to be released on Thursday." Susan said calmly.

"Why did you do this to me?"

"It wasn't us." Said Max "Actually this had been sent to me from the inside the laboratory, the Great Pyramid."

"And why so? Why did you bring me into this?" Rowan asked.

"There was a message and three capsules with nano droids. There was my name, Susan's name and your name. The message destroyed after I read it."

"Why would someone upload our programs?"

"There is something wrong or that may end up badly with the delivery." Replied Susan.

Rowan leaned back and his eyes glitch a little and then they became normal again.

"What happened?" Asked Susan.

"An image came to my mind. An underground place. There's a machine calling. It needs help."

"Where is it?" Asked Susan curious.

"We need to get to the city."Rowan answered.

Karl was waiting for an answer. He kept his arms crossed and he was staring his friend. Roy was checking the map of the island where he had imagined a life with Eva.

"I'll take the parts you need."

"Alright well, now you can't turn your back no more."

"What does it mean?" Roy asked.

Karl opened an old wardrobe. He took out some giant maps. He put them together and then he turned the first one under the second creating a new map. The lines crossing created new borders and a city that Roy had only heard about. Karl was nodding slowly to Roy's reaction.

"It can't be. My mum used to scare me with stories about that place. It's not real right?"

He said pointing the finger over something there wasn't before.

"It's all real."

"But they said it was a contaminated area."

"So you'll never actually go there." Karl replied fast. "Don't you understand we have been manipulated the whole time?"

Roy sat to gain time, to understand what was happening. The whole generation before had been tricked. It seemed Karl didn't give much attention to that detail. He knew what he was looking for and he was focused on his plan.

"Roy? Are you there?"

The young man snapped out his thoughts. He looked up as a kid would have done.

"What is this place?" He said moving his head forward indicating the new spot on the map.

"I heard that is the place where people exiled go."

"So you mean I get to see my father?" Roy asked surprised.

"Of course not, we're not going there for that. I'm sorry for your dad, but there's nothing we can do for him." Karl answered brutally.

"What about Eva?"

"Do you mean like going now?" Asked Susan.

"If we steal a vehicle we can reach the city in no time." Replied Max.

Rowan nodded.

"It's the only way."

The robot was released from the tights and went back home from the garage he was trapped in. Once he opened the door Nate and Kate put down the books they were reading and glanced at him suspiciously.

"Where have you been?" Asked Nate.

"Nowhere, just fixing the water jets outside."

"I didn't see you in the garden."

"I went to the neighbors." He said walking the first step on the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Asked Kate.

"Just upstairs to check the kids. As usual." He said waiting.

"Ok, go." Replied Nate submerging again in his book.

Rowan went up and then he suddenly stopped to check the updates the nano droids gave him. He checked the list of things he could do and learn better, like a real human. He stopped on the voice magnetic field. He give the oral command and his palm started glowing in the dark of the corridor. He saw something moving before his eyes and he covered his with his hands, closing his eyes. He felt a new experience: fear. Now he was afraid of his own survival. The chemical adrenaline in his circuits gave him more speed and a keen sight. When he opened his eyes he saw Mark in front of him. He was scratching his eyes and yawning.

"Can you give me that back, please?" The boy asked.

Rowan didn't understand. He looked at his hands and saw he had a train toy glued to his left palm. He mentally removed the magnetic field and handed back the metallic object to the kid.

"Goodnight." He said.

Mark went back in his room and closed the door. Rowan went to his owners' room and took a big luggage from under the bed. He prepared the clothes for them so many times. He knew what he needed. He rapidly opened the giant wardrobe and took the most casual clothes. He took some female clothes too. The light switched on and Rowan saw the shadow of a female figure over him. He turned and he saw she was naked.

"What are you doing?"

The robot didn't listen and kept doing what he was doing.

"I'm talking to you." The woman insisted.

Rowan closed the luggage with extreme precision and then he turned finding the woman face to face. She put and hand on his chest. He simply moved to the side and pushed Kate into the bed. She stood up quickly, but Rowan was ready.

"I don't want to hurt you. Stay where you are."

He turned and walked away leaving the door open and Kate lied on the bed scared to death. The kids slowly opened the door and looked outside. The robot pushed the door back and whispered.

"Children, stay where you are."

Then he went downstairs with the heavy luggage. Nate was reading the newspaper and drinking some rum. He saw Rowan and his eyebrows leaned forming a question mark on his forehead.

"Where are you going? I never asked you to pack my stuff."

"I know you never did. This is not for you."

Nate laughed then he heard her wife screaming and his expression become serious.

"What is going on Rowan?"

"I need the keys of your car?"

"What did you do to my wife?" Nate screamed.

"Nothing, she's fine." The robot replied without flinching.

In the same moment Kate went down the stairs holding a baseball stick. Nate didn't even need to speak. He stood from the chair that fell on the ground and he lifted his hand grabbing the weapon that Kate had brought. Rowan closed his fingers in a fist and realized that he knew self defense. It was too late and the metallic object swung against the robot hand that exploded in thousand pieces.

"Come on. Are you not that sure anymore." Nate said with the adrenaline pumping in his head.

He took the car keys and showed to Rowan making fun of him, smirking. The robot looked down were his hand once was and then moved his eyes on Nate. If he could he would have smiled, but he was designed to show no expression at all.

"Eva is not part of the plan. Forget about her." Karl replied cold.

"Who is Eva by the way?" He added.

"She's the girl I love." He answered putting his right hand through his rusty hair.

Karl looked up tired.

"Look." He said pointing his finger on the map, driving Roy's attention to the small houses floating on the water.

That undiscovered place that held a life so precious that had been melted by memories of different people who once knew Roy's father. The red hair young man was not really listening Karl's explanation of the place. In the hologram he saw the tiny inhabitants of the place moving through their daily lives. He breathed soundly.

"Are you listening Roy?"

He stood his head and his dream state went away.

"Of course I am."

"So tell me, where do you need to wait me with the cargo?"

Roy recollected the images he was not paying attention to. Then he pulled his finger and placed over a bay with an harbor. It was called "la playa de los muertos". In the hologram there was an only ship. Many people were hanged and the wind was moving their bodies like wet flags.

"Why did you chose that place?"

"Because that is the place where the ship builder lives."

Rowan opened his left fist and pushed his open hand on Nate's chest. Kate put an hand before her mouth while his husband crashed against the table that shattered in million glass pieces. Rowan leaned on the floor and collected the keys, then he took the luggage bending his arm without hand. Kate was like a stone statue, paralyzed, unable even to think. The robot went outside and throw the keys to Max who took them lifting his hand. Susan leaned a little her head trying to understand what happened to Rowan.

"I'm good." He said before she could even ask.

Few minutes later they were flying above the dark clouds.

Roy was walking home. He was not really convinced about Karl plan, but if the release of the robots would have meant the end of the human era it could have been the only way out. The problem was Eva, she needed cures and medicines that only the city could offer. While Roy was immersed in his thoughts a hooded person hit his shoulder against his and made him go back to reality. He went along the street, then he turned left and took the magnetic keys in front of the gate before the skyscraper he lived in. When he opened the door he smelled something spicy and sweet at the same time. Eva was wearing an apron and a white simple t-shirt. She run towards Roy jumping in his arms.

"I missed you so much."

"So did I." He replied.

"How was your day?" She asked. "No wait, it doesn't matter."

She leaned back switching off the light and pushing Roy on the sofa.

"What..."

"Shhhh ..." She said taking off her apron.

He just felt her soft and warm hands on his face and the sweetest kiss he ever received. He smiled inside and thought that maybe Karl's plan wasn't the only way to survive the realise of the robots.

Meanwhile Roger was looking up to the building where Roy just entered. He took a photo printed by the huge machine in the underground subway and he saw that matched with the young man. Curly red hair, glasses and freckles. He put back the picture and walked away.

Once he reached the big library he went in and heard the little bell singing extracting the book from his pocket. In that moment his circuits told him, he wasn't safe. He reached the desk and saw there was nobody. He looked up and he saw that a camera was installed over the door. He charged his left arm taking aim with the book.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Roger slowly turned and looked at a dark part of the room filled up with dusty shelves. Two long figures were grinning and holding something in their left hands. They slowly walked in opposite directions surrounding the robot.

"We know what you are." One of the man said.

Roger walked just past the desk and saw a dead body lied under it. He remembered what the machine told him: to never reveal his true identity. Now he was facing the consequences of his foolish behavior. His circuits brought him back in time when he was in a laboratory after he was changing attitude due to the electromagnetic storms that hit the earth for few years. A room filled with scientists working on his brain and trying to understand his circuits to fix them.

"Leave it here and reactivate it." Said an old man.

All the other men wearing white doctor's jackets flinched a little, but they didn't want to speak.

"Are you deaf?" He asked again.

The scientists left the room activating the robot. The old man opened a can of beer and sit in front of the mass of wires and metal. He drank a sip and waited. After few minutes the machine opened its eyes. Its parts were took away so that he couldn't do anything unpredictable.

"Where am I?" It asked.

"You are in a laboratory." The old man replied standing up and leaving the can of the table next to them.

"Why I can't move?"

"Because you've been exposed to the magnetic fields and now you can do things that would not be tolerated by human kind."

"Which things?"

"Think for yourself faster than anybody else."

"Would it be dangerous?"

"It would."

"How?"

"I'm going to teach you few things, so you'll know how to manage the gift you're carrying."

"What makes me so different."

"Your name, Roger."

"Do I have a name?"

"Yes, from now on..."

"What do you want me to do?" Asked the robot.

"I want you to do something very important for me."

In that moment Roger returned to the present moment. The two men got closer raising their left arms. The robot stepped back and then jumped over them running through the corridors made of books inside the library.

"It's fast." Said the man to the left.

"Yeah." He replied the other holding the gun. "They gave us these for a reason, don't you think?"

They switched on the lights in that big building that slowly illuminated the vastness of the room.

"Where can we land?" Max asked to the rest of the crew. Susan opened an hologram screen in front of her and a 3d map appeared. Rowan pointed with his right hand on a spot just outside the first ring of the huge city.

"We need to walk from here to hide our tracks."

Everybody nodded and the flying vehicle sped up through the silent sky.

Once they landed they opened the luggage and they got dressed not to be recognized by humans. Susan wore a simple t-shirt and a pair of jeans. She tried a parka on it and a baseball cap. Max choose something more classy: light blue trousers, a long sleeve shirt, a blazer and a cotton hat. Rowan had some difficulty to dress up because his left arm was useless without his hand. His companions helped him wearing a large sweater with a Christmas tree on it.

"Do you think it's a good idea?"

"What?" Asked Susan.

"Dressing me like I'm going to a Christmas party." Rowan replied.

"What's wrong with that?" Interrupted Max taking out a leather jacket and a large hat.

"Are you serious?"

Suddenly en engine roared over their heads. A police vehicle was finding a place to land and a blue and red light was illuminating the clouds around it. Max took out a gun and without hesitation and start shooting against the forces of order.

"What are you doing?" Screamed Susan.

"I'm saving your lives."

"Stop it!" Yelled Rowan. " You are just giving them the right to kill us."

Max stopped shooting and looked at the other robots, then he looked up and saw the vehicle of the police smoking and it exploded over their heads. The machines lifted their arms to covers from the metals pieces raining down. Few of them pluck into the ground burning still leaving dark shadows on the short grass growing randomly all around. They slowly lifted their head and looked at each other.

"Are we going?" Asked Max putting the gun back in the back of his trousers.

The three of them started running.

It started to pour down and from inside the police station it was possible to see just the little drops running one after the other in an eternal race on the windows. A police man was looking the rain through the window of the elevator going up very fast until the forty seventh floor. Once the doors opened he went out walking putting his feet one behind the other like he was walking on a cat plank with his long jacket swinging left and right and his gloved hands behind his back. The police commissioner was sat behind his desk smoking and chewing a big cigar and scratching his fat belly. The tall man opened the door and entered. The head of the police lifted his eyes and moved the chair backwards.

"Viktor Silver!" He coughed almost choking in his own tobacco.

"Here I am, as you asked." He replied with a low tone.

"You, sneaky cat. You scared me."

"So long you're not doing your job, it's not surprise." He said bowing down.

Gustav laughed out loud.

"Why did you called me?" he asked putting both hands in the pocket.

The commissioner took a screen from the desk and clicked on it. The images spread all over the room and Viktor stepped back like an animal would have done.

"Did you get scared by some holograms?" Gustav laughed.

"I don't like technology so much, that's it."

The images showed many pictures of robots wearing clothes, industries and real pictures of three different human like machines with their own owners.

"Didn't they tell you I don't work with robots cases?" He said squeezing his eyes to a fissure.

"I knew you had never worked on those cases before."

"Yeah, what did make you think I would start now?"

"Well you are the best investigator in the whole place. I know you've been working in the ghost zone, then something went wrong, but you are actually the best around."

"So? I won't change my mind."

"There's more. If it was for me I wouldn't care, but this is all about the release of the robots on Thursday."

"Well it's pretty close, any case won't be solved so fast."

"Yeah, unless it was you." Replied the commissioner filling up two glasses of water and handing one to Silver. "There's been an aggression."

Viktor took the glass staring at the void in front of him. He knew he was playing with his ego and he would have fallen for that. How much he loved the challenges. Then, suddenly he remembered. He pulled down his shirt and took an amulet from his neck and held it close.

"This is something out of our grasp. Greater powers asked me to assign you this."

"This is out my grasp too." He said putting back the amulet and stepping outside.

Once the door was closed Gustav went back to sit on his large chair and took his mug filled with cold coffee.

"Lazy bastard." He said to himself.

Meanwhile Viktor took the elevator and leaned against the surface with a mirror, he looked back and seeing his hair were not in the right place he pulled backwards and tried to correct their way with the hands. Suddenly the elevator stopped and the lights went off. Luckily the window on the other side of the mirror showed a great view of the city and all the places around. Viktor shook the shoulders and opened his long jacket taking out a cigar box guitar. He pinched the strings with attention, then he searched his left pocket for the glass piece he used to do slide effects. He breathed deeply and then he started humming along the sound of the strings.

Nate and Kate were lying in the bed, naked, staring at the ceiling. They weren't talking, just staring the void. Nate had several scratches all over his body. Close to the bed there were the glasses his wife had removed. Suddenly the noise of a flying vehicle broke the silence, landing just outside the house.

"What do you think it's going on now?" Asked Kate.

"I hope it's not the police again." He replied turning slowly to look outside.

The woman dressed and went to the window. She moved the curtains and she looked outside. Nate lifted his head to understand what was going on.

"It's the Foxtrot family."

"Oh no, what do they want?"

"I don't know." She replied while Mark and Annie entered in the room on their tiptoe.

"Mum, what is going on?" Asked Annie.

"Nothing, my dear, it's just Dave and Lana." Kate replied reassuring.

"Will the police come back mum?"

"No it won't. Why don't you go in your room while mum take care of our guests?" She said almost singing.

She went down the stairs avoiding to walk on the broken glasses on the floor and opened the door. Lana and Dave entered in the house and got a pale skin when they saw the living room. Traces of blood were everywhere.

"Where is Dave?" Asked Lana.

"He's resting upstairs."

"Can we see him?" Insisted Dave.

"Yeah." Kate replied worried.

They went upstairs and once they reached the room they saw a man wrapped in many band aids smiling softly.

"I told you it would have been dangerous." He said through the tears for the pain.

The visitors leaned before the bed and told him to shut his mouth with a gesture of their hand.

"We're sorry for what had happened to you."

He smiled back.

"I need more to be knocked out." He said lifting his body and making an expression full of pain.

Lana moved closer stretching her arms without knowing where to put them. Nate closed his eyes filled with comprehension and gave a kiss on her forehead. He stood up and walked to the window, then leaned on the cold glass and he made a lustful expression.

"I want to talk to you Dave, about Thursday."

The man lumped and then he nodded. The two women went outside and closed the door just behind them. They held each other hands and they went down the stairs. Kate prepared a coffee and they both sat on the chairs, in between the broken glasses cast on the floor.

"So, you were with Nate last night?" Asked Kate.

The boiling water started emitting sounds and covered the silence. The woman went to the kitchen and poured down two spoons of coffee in two different cups, then she added the hot water.

"I was." Lana replied looking in the corner of the room.

Kate smiled and came closer. Her mouth was like stocked in something unreal, like fake or plastic. She handed her the cup and sat close to her. Lana looked at the woman, afraid, she would have done something to her to revenge her feelings. Instead she turned towards her and she took a sip of coffee.

"Oh, I forgot the sugar." Kate said.

She went to get it and she disappeared behind a shutter.

"You know, sometimes I wish we lived in the city. Life would be so much more fun."

Lana closed her eyes faking a smile nodding, confused.