I couldn't touch anything else. One fingerprint, and I would be pointed at as the culprit of a break-in... if hair falling from my head hadn't already done the trick. And despite being far above most human issues, Zed had the same problem as me. No, double that. If they found a synthetic hair of Zed's in here, they'd do much worse to him.

My only chance was to find Zed and make sure he wouldn't do any permanent damage to any of the doors and that he would keep his word and wipe our tracks. There wouldn't be an investigation if nobody suspected unauthorised people had been down here.

I didn't know where Zed ran off to and why, but I feared he worst. The further I hurried down the hallways, the stronger the uncanny feeling I had became.

"Zed?" I called out, both trying to be quiet and loud. "Zed!"

It felt like I'd walked forever until I finally found one door open on just a crack. Light flickered out of the room through the opening. One person could fit but just barely. I cursed under my breath and squeezed myself through. Slowly and carefully, with my hands up and without touching anything.

Zed was standing on the other side. With him, at least twenty other models of androids and gyndroids.

Their vacant eyes stared at me from behind glass protection sheets. The fortified type impenetrable by bullets, lasers, and whatever other small arms one could carry. The robots were shut down and harmless, yet, thick steel cables were wrapped around their bodies from neck to ankle, tying them tightly to the wall behind. Should they be roused and woken, there wouldn't be an inch of movement space.

The sight of the tied up, dead-eyed androids and gyndroids freaked me out. I imagined it was fucking Zed up worse. The thought that something like this, a pile of lifeless bodies, was stored right underneath the University building was insane. I was shocked they'd kept them here all these years. 

"Zed?" I repeated, guarded this time. "Are they..."

"I don't know," Zed answered my unfinished question. "They're in poor condition. They can't be reactivated as is." 

Zed slowly turned to face me. His expression and voice had not betrayed any emotion, but that in itself told me enough. From the brief moment I'd known Zed, he was mostly cheerful. A tease. 

"I did not expect this. There was no record of them in the electronic vault... There's more in the next room."

I looked at the second vault door way back in the room, behind the rows of androids and gyndroids. 

My brain was telling me 'no way, get out now.' 

"Do you want to go there?" my mouth asked. 

Zed breathed out deeply, like a human trying to make a big decision would. Then he walked towards the second vault door. There was more delibarete precision in his movement when he reached for the terminal. He didn't move immediately when the door swung open, but me stepping forward seemed to trigger him into motion as well. 

I entered the next room right behind Zed. It was more dimly lit and significantly smaller. There were no bodies stored in here, only shelves with smaller, locked boxes on them. Zed and I barely fit in the room together. We were standing shoulder to shoulder while Zed scanned the room. 

"What are these boxes?" I asked. 

"Memories," Zed replied cryptically. His eyes stopped on one of the boxes nearly at the top of the shelf. Like he'd opened the vaults, he opened the box with a simple touch and I realised he literally meant memories. What memories were to androids. A single memory stick was in the open box. 

Zed lifted it out with upmost care and almost reverence. 

Because of Zed's attitude, I automatically lowered my voice to a respectful, low volume.  "Whose memories are that?"

"Ava Claes's." 

My eyes nearly popped out of my sockets. "That's Ava's memories? So, it was true. What you said. They kept her system down here all this time." 

"Correct." 

The skin on Zed's right arm retracted, revealing a slot the memory stick fit perfectly.  Zed closed his eyes as he plugged it in. The stick made a soft, humming sound for a brief moment, and before I could ask the obvious question whether he was downloading stuff, Zed already pulled it out again. 

With one last longing look, Zed placed the stick back inside the box and closed it. 

I ended up asking the obvious anyway. "What did you just do?" 

"I copied her memories," Zed replied. "I can't take the stick with me, but I can take its contents."

Suddenly, the entire situation didn't sit well with me. It never had, completely, but now that Zed had his creator's memories, things felt off. It also had to do with the way Zed ran off without as much as a warning. And what did those memories do to him? Could he access them immediately? Was he probing through them right now? Would the knowledge change him, evolve him, make him think differently?

What did I know about Zed, anyway, except that he was a lone android who needed help. 

I didn't voice any of the thoughts whirling around in my mind. We had more important matters to handle, like the ever pressing clock we were on. 

"Alright, we got everything we came for. Now, let's get out of here quickly," I urged Zed, jutting a thumb over my shoulder. 

Zed nodded. 

The way back to the tunnels somehow felt much shorter than the way forward. Zed  behaved normally again. He closed every vault door behind us, constantly scanning and confirming we hadn't left any visible-to-the-naked-eye traces. According to Zed, we hadn't. I checked my watch. If we continued walking at the pace we were right now, we'd make it out before the next drone patrol. 

"Wait." Zed raised an arm in front of me, stopping me dead in my tracks.

"There's someone there. Up ahead," Zed whispered. "One person."

"Shit," I hissed. "Shit, what do we do? We have to keep moving or we're dead." 

Zed flashed me a charming smile. "I'd be dead. You'd only be caught." 

His usual lighthearted, teasing attitude was there again, and it reassured me for now that the memory stick hadn't made changed him. That I hadn't made a huge mistake going here and helping him gain his freedom. 

"Stay here. I can handle it," Zed told me, nodding at the road up ahead. 

I shook my head. "No, it's like you said: I get caught, you get... dead. If this is someone who can spot an android, you don't want to be seen. I'll do it."

For a moment it seemed Zed would argue but then he stood down, gesturing me to go on ahead. Politely, like he was letting me step into a train first.  

My heart drummed in my throat as I walked further into the tunnel alone. I wasn't scared. It was the anticipation of a fight. 

I spent hours training at the gym and I knew how to throw a punch. I'd been kicked out of two high-schools, picking fights with other kids. Mom and Dad always said I had a temper, though I'd grown up a little and had learned to talk with my mouth rather than my fists by the time I'd arrived at university. 

I heard footsteps. The mysterious guy had to be around the corner. I was fully on edge now because me hearing him, meant he had heard me as well. I pressed myself against the wall near the corner and waited. 

The footsteps drew nearer and nearer and finally there was a shadow. I counted the seconds before I'd pounce. 

Three...

Two...

One...

I leapt forward and a very loud, very female scream echoed through the tunnel as I grappled the woman coming around the corner. I stared straight into Zekiye's terrified, wide eyes for a brief moment before she elbowed me in the stomach. Hard.

"What the fuck, Camilo?" she called out while I backed off, groaning and rubbing the place where she'd hit me. "What did you do that for?" 

"Me? You sneaked up on me, what did you expect? And what the hell are you doing here?" I countered her question. 

"I--" Zekiye scowled. "Crap, I lost track of time. We're not going to argue here. We have two minutes before the next drone patrol catches us. Run!" 

"Right." I looked over my shoulder. Zed was in there. Zekiye couldn't see him, yet, I couldn't leave him either. Plus, we needed him to close the surface entrance and cover it with dirt. Zekiye and I wouldn't be able to move it without him. 

I had no choice. 

"Zed!" I called into the tunnel. "Zed! Coast is clear! We have to run!" 

I assumed he'd heard me and started running myself, too, Zekiye right behind me. 

"Zed?" she asked between pants. "As in--"

"Run now, talk outside!" I cut her off, praying I'd somehow be able to come up with a logical explanation between now and the next two minutes. If we made it out at all.