"FWLS56" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

Help. "Get her."

The crowd swarmed in, knocking cheap knick-knacks off N.M.'s
personal shrine as they bulged through the opening, five of them
tackling the substitute teacher while a few others regarded me
with amusement.

"Got her!" one of them yelled from the other side of the
room, over some muffled yells from Help. "What do we do with
that other one?"

"Are you human?" the leader asked me.

I paused, not sure what I should be doing. The others
happily dragged Help away, tied up in wire and electrical tape,
while the leader kept me blocked away from the brawl.

"I... I am Sarah Ann Tatewaki," I replied, unsure of what
else I could say. "Master of the Wae Spat, daughter of Jim Bob-"

"Just answer the question, are you human?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, trying to look away.

"Good!" he said. "We gotta stick together against these
cheap Disney audio-animatronics that try to claim they're people.
Keep up the breathing!"

With that, he returned to the pack, which was out the door
and off, rowdy cheers echoing off in the distance of the
apartment building hallways.

I was human; he said so. I was my father's daughter. I was
a living being with thoughts and feelings and a conscience.
There was no more proof required.

Then my taped-up arm fell off.

I sat there, looking at my own limb, complete with a sad
little blob of duct tape jutting off it.

No. I was kidding myself. That's an obvious sign, a
punchline to a long and elaborate joke. I'm an AI, reality said
so. A robot, a droid, an automation, a thing.

I grabbed my arm and re-affixed it. Well, if I'm going to
be a thing, then I'll be a thing. I may or may not be a
Tatewaki, I may or may not be alive, but that didn't matter right
now. In the here and now of my life, down below the building,
another of my kind was in trouble. The man had said it; we had