‘Clarice!’ She called her robot, who she preferred to think of as a proper puppy, despite the presence of the wriggling reality at Drew’s feet. Clarice was in sleep mode in the corner of the room and raised her head in response. ‘Come here.’
Clarice trotted across the room. A lot of work had gone into that gait, but it wasn’t quite the same as Phoenix’s unpredictable movements. Caro stroked Clarice’s head, and when she nuzzled against her legs Caro saw Drew’s eyebrows shoot up.
‘It responds to you?’
‘She responds...’
‘Sorry. Do that again, will you?’
Caro stroked Clarice’s head again and this time she pawed at her legs. ‘Her programming mimics real life. She learns, and she has a range of different reactions to any one action.’
‘She learns?’ Drew shook his head. ‘How does she do that?’
‘The same way we do. If she responds the way I want her to I reinforce it with my approval.’ Caro bent down, stroking Clarice’s head again. ‘Clarice, well done.’
Maybe she’d gone too far. Moving around so much as a child had meant that Caro’s only permanent companions had been her robots. She knew they weren’t human, or even proper animals, but sometimes they felt a great deal more dependable. She expected that Drew would think the way most people did and consider that giving her love to a mess of circuitry and plastic was a character flaw. His derision would be harder to bear than usual and betraying her feelings for Clarice would be a mistake.
‘It’s fascinating. Challenging...’ He held his hand out to Clarice and her head swivelled towards him. ‘She’s very cute.’
‘She’s programmed to be that way. I could equally easily programme her to snap and growl at you.’
He laughed. ‘Then you programmed her well. Maybe that scrap of humanity I see in her is really yours.’
Was he for real? How did he understand that Caro felt that she’d put a little of her own personality into Clarice? She felt herself blush.
Perhaps working with someone who knew nothing about robotics wasn’t going to be like wading through mud after all. Drew seemed to understand the bare bones of what she was trying to do.
‘So our first challenge is to find dogs to film. I imagine that’ll be where I come in.’
Caro had been thinking that it was more a matter of what challenges she would face. In the singular. The vets at the veterinary centre were just there to provide her with the things she needed. But she couldn’t resist those eyes. Suddenly it didn’t seem so bad to share some of the challenges with Drew.
A loud beep sounded, and he pulled his phone from his pocket.
‘That’s my alarm call. The tide’s coming in.’
Oh. Up till now, the tide coming in had seemed like a good thing. Something that naturally cut a vis
it short and allowed Caro to get on with her work in peace.
‘That’s a shame. We were just getting to the interesting part...’ She turned the corners of her mouth down. The interesting part was actually Drew at the moment, and he had to go.
He looked at his phone speculatively, not meeting her gaze. ‘It’ll be going back out again this afternoon.’
That sounded like an opportunity that was there for the grabbing. ‘Would you like to stay? I’m...um...getting a bit hungry...’
He grinned. ‘When did you last eat? Something other than chocolate biscuits.’
Caro thought back. ‘Yesterday.’ Sometime yesterday, at least. Perhaps he’d jump to the conclusion that she’d had a hearty home-cooked meal yesterday evening.
‘Okay.’ Drew didn’t seem to be jumping to any conclusions. ‘I can go out and get us something before the tide comes in, and let you get on with what you’re doing.’
‘I have plenty of food in the fridge...’ Lack of supplies wasn’t the issue. Tearing herself away from her workshop to go and prepare a meal was sometimes tricky. ‘Would you like some cheese on toast?’
‘Sounds good, thank you. Why don’t you let me do that? I could do with stretching my legs.’
He never mentioned being in pain, or finding it difficult to walk, but Caro had caught him wincing a few times when he’d thought she wasn’t looking. If her little secret was the last time she’d eaten a proper meal, then his might be that he’d be pulling painkillers out of his pocket as soon as he was alone.
‘If you don’t mind. That would be really nice, thank you.’