The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 36
Henry laughed and said, “People used to think that abouthomosexuality less than a century ago and look how things are now – no one batsan eyelid. The thing with Dani is – she’s an incredibly sophisticated machine,almost indistinguishable from a living, breathing woman.”
“But she’s still just artificial intelligence?” asked Josh.“You said yourself before, sex is nothing without chemistry.”
“True, but she’s a lot warmer towards me than Vanessa everwas. What’s more, she’s so sophisticated she emits certain pheromones thatsimulate those given off by the human female. It does make her feel real asopposed to a highly sophisticated sex toy.”
“But she can’t actually feel real emotions, can she?” askedJosh.
“The Henry android felt emotions,” Alice reminded him. “Wesaw it.”
“That was different, he was an actual copy of my own brain.Creating emotions from scratch is a whole different ball game but it’s thelogical next step,” said Henry. “It’s what I’m planning to work on once we’vefinished the current project. Though funding could be an issue after thisevening’s little exchange.”
“Speaking of which, what do you think we should do abouther?” asked Alice. “She seems pretty besotted with Josh, and that worries me.”
“The feeling’s not mutual, believe me!” said Josh.
“That isn’t what I’m concerned about,” said Alice. “Youheard what Henry said. She doesn’t give up until she’s got what she wants. Forall we know she could be plotting something right now. Perhaps we ought to goaway for a few days and let the dust settle.”
“I guess it wouldn’t do any harm,” said Josh. “We’ve gone asfar as we can for the time being, so it would be a good time to take a break.”As he spoke, the waiter returned to the table to take away their dinner plates.
“Would you like to see le dessert menu?” he asked in hisusual pidgin English style.
“I certainly would,” said Henry. “I’m not in any hurry toget back. Actually, I’m not going back to the hotel at all. Instead, I wasthinking of asking if I could stay at yours tonight.”
“We’d be glad to have you,” said Alice.
“In the meantime, Henry, you must try the cheeseboard inhere. They’ve got some amazing unpasteurised French cheeses which are reallyhard to get in the UK. They have to have a special licence to sell them thesedays after a big food scare a few years ago.”
“Sure, I love cheese almost as much as I love steak,” saidHenry.
“It’s vegan, of course, like everything in here,” said Josh.“But don’t let that put you off. Just like the steak, it’s the real deal.”
“I swear I didn’t even know this was a vegan restaurant whenAlice suggested it,” said Henry. “Amazing.”
“While you two get stuck into the cheese, I think I’ll gofor the Tarte Suzette,” said Alice. “I had that last time we were here and it’sabsolutely delicious.”
As soon as they had finished giving the waiter their orders,Henry stood up and removed the folded white napkin he had tucked into the topof his latest shirt which depicted a lurid red and black late-night beach party.
“If you’ll excuse me, I must visit the little boys’ room,”he said.
While Henry was away, Alice took the opportunity to takeJosh to task about Vanessa.
“I still think you should have said something about herobsessing over you like that. We’re married, we should be able to discuss thesethings.”
“I know, and I don’t like keeping things from you, but Ijust thought it would cause a lot of unnecessary aggravation all round. Ithought I could handle it. How do you tell your partner someone’s hitting onyou without there being repercussions?”
“Oh, there would have been,” said Alice. “But for her, notyou.”
“What do you suggest we do now?”
“For starters, after what Henry said, I think we need tostop all time travel with immediate effect, at least for the time being whilewe work out what we are going to do.”
“Makes sense,” said Josh.
“Then we need to seriously sit down and decide where all ofthis – and we – are going. Are we going to send our brains back into the pastbefore we die? Or should we create android copies of ourselves and live on thatway? Or maybe we should just forget all this and just accept that when ourtime’s up, our time’s up?”
“If everyone thought that way, then we’d never havedeveloped medicines and there would be no doctors,” replied Josh. “It’s thenatural instinct of our species to prolong our lives as much as possible and wenow have the technology to do that – with or without time travel.”
“Henry’s been gone a long time,” remarked Alice. “He’s goingto be missing his cheese,” she added as the waiter returned, carrying twoplates.
“Tarte Suzette?” he asked. He already knew it was Alice’s,but it was convention to ask.
“That’s for me,” she confirmed, and he placed themouth-watering plate of triangular pancakes, drizzled with an orange and GrandMarnier sauce, right in front of her.
“Wow!” said Alice in anticipation. Meanwhile, the waiterplaced a square plate with a selection of five different cheeses in front ofJosh, flanked by crackers and decorated with grapes in each corner. Thecentrepiece was a slice of Camembert which was practically oozing.
“Can I get you anything else, monsieur?” asked the waiter.
“Ah, yes, there is one thing. We ordered two plates cheeseand biscuits,” said Josh.
“For you, madame?” asked the waiter.
“No – for Henry. Our friend who was here before,” shereplied.
“Your friend, madame? What friend?”
“You know,” said Alice. “Big guy, Hawaiian shirt, spoke inan Australian accent? He had a big row with his wife, and she walked out?”
The waiter just looked back at her with a bemused look onhis face.
“Je ne comprends pas, madame. It has only been zee two ofyou, all evening.”
“But you must remember,” protested Alice.
“I’m sorry, madame, it has been a long night. I do notremember. I shall get you another cheese, tout suite!” He turned and headedback to the kitchen.
“How could he not remember?” asked Alice.
“Alice!” said Josh, noticing something for the first time.“Look at the table – where Henry was sitting.”
Alice looked to see that Henry’s place was empty. There wasno wine glass, no cutlery, and no evidence at all that anyone had ever