‘Are you kirgo?’ Reese asked with a harsh laugh. ‘That’s a violation of the privacy act! We could get our crags numped!' She shook her head in that brusque, official way she had. ‘If we can’t revive her, we leave her here.’
Leave her out here? On the doorstep? Someone looking as young and innocent as that? In Hilldale, now, while dusk was falling? Foley hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
Sometimes she hated her job.
Reese gently but firmly patted the sleeping woman's face.
‘Miss? Miss?’
The woman started to come around. She blinked her eyes, having obvious trouble focusing on anything. Not at all unusual for a trank.
‘Uhhhh,’ she groaned. ‘Where am I?’
You're home. Miss,' Reese replied matter-of-factly.
You got a little tranked, but everything's fine. Can you walk?’
The citizen still seemed a little disoriented.
‘I - I don’t know,’ she managed after a moment.
'Would you like us to take you inside?’ Reese asked.
Foley was surprised at that. She guessed, once the citizen was awake, regulations would allow you to offer assistance. Or maybe her partner still had some human feelings after all.
‘Oohhh The woman’s eyes almost crossed. Foley guessed she would have trouble standing, much less walking. ‘Okay,’ the citizen added weakly.
So now they could use the identiplate. Sometimes, Foley swore, she could make no sense at all out of those numping regulations! Foley gently picked up the citizen’s limp hand and pressed the woman's thumb into the plate below the doorbell. The door shooshed open.
Reese and Foley each took one of the woman's arms and helped her inside.
'Welcome home, Jennifer!’ a computer voice chirrupped merrily. No surprise that the computer was one of those outdated models, all warm and insincere.
Since the lights didn’t come on, there was no way to tell where they were going. They took her into what should have been the living-room.
‘Ma’am,’ Reese spoke with as much concern as Foley had ever heard. ‘You should reprogram. It's dangerous to enter without lights on.'
‘Lights on?’ the citizen replied groggily.
The computer activated the lights at tho voice command. Voice activation? This program was even older than Foley had imagined!
And the furniture in this place! She was sure there wasn’t anything in here made after 1990. The scratched coffee table, sagging couches and threadbare chairs, all reminded Foley of the kind of stuff you’d find in one of those charity stores - except the stuff in those stores would be in a lot better shape.
The two officers eased the citizen down on the sofa.
'Just take it easy and you’ll be fine,’ Reese said brusquely. ‘And you be careful in the future.
The citizen - Jennifer - looked groggily up at the two officers.
‘The future?’
There was the oddest expression on her face - like there was something wrong with the future. Maybe, Foley thought, she was just reading into the woman’s expression. Still, it wasn’t surprising. When you lived in a place like Hilldale, you didn’t have much of a future to look forward to.
‘So long. Mrs McFly,’ Foley called, trying to sound cheerful despite it all.
‘So long,’ the citizen replied, still half in her tranked-out stupor. In a way, Foley couldn’t blame her for turning to chemicals. Who knew - maybe Foley would have done the same thing if she had been stuck in a dead-end place like this?
Sometimes she really hated this job.