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thought you were…?’
    ‘Gay? I am! Oh
my God, why I did that? I don’t know what came over me.’
    She glanced
down at what she wasn’t wearing. She grabbed the hall curtains and
tried her best to wrap herself in them and make herself decent.
    ‘I’m so sorry,
I really don’t know what came over me.’
    ‘Don’t
apologise, I quite enjoyed it, especially how you did that bit with
the end of your ton…’
    ‘…I’m so
embarrassed,’ interrupted Jenny. ‘If I was straight, obviously
you’d be up those stairs and I’d have you, Madeline or no Madeline
but… yaky yak! Girls are so much nicer to kiss!’
    ‘No offence
taken… Anyway, if you were straight, you wouldn’t be staying here,’
said Adam.
    ‘No offence
taken… but if I was straight, I wouldn’t dare stay here!’ said
Jenny.
    She hastily
rushed up stairs leaving Adam admiring his new clean shaven look in
the wall mirror. A few moments later Jenny reappeared, now decently
dressed.
    ‘By the way,
something important you ought to know, there’s been two men
pestering me almost on a daily basis wanting to know your
whereabouts. They wouldn’t go away. They’ve been sitting in a car
outside for nearly a fortnight, look.’
    Jenny gently
moved back the net curtains of the bay window.
    ‘Well, would
you credit it, they’ve gone! I’m sure they were here a few minutes
ago.’
    Now it was
Adam’s turn to look out of the window.
    ‘Fuck!’ Adam
justifiably swore. ‘They’ve taken her!’
    Adam had not
heeded Barton’s warning. True, he had been distracted somewhat but
who the hell would kidnap a snoozing robot out of a parked car down
a quiet street in Bristol? But... they had. Just to make it easy
for who ever they were, Adam hadn’t even bothered to lock the car.
Adam rushed out into the street and pointlessly searched the
interior of the Volvo.
    ‘Shit, shit,
fuck, fuck, shit!’
    Adam’s blood
pressure instantly reached a dangerous level – his head and neck
performed a neat colour change trick that all known androids,
including Madeline Bull, cannot do. Sweat spontaneously formed on
his red brow, steam ejected from his red ears and his collar melted
into his damp neck. He had cocked up his simple mission almost
before it had begun. He side steeped the imaginary hole that had
open up before him just before it swallowed him up... and then
phoned Barton.
    ‘Hi... err...
little problem, well really huge actually, Madeline appears to have
been kidnapped.’
    Barton was not
one for dramatics, yelling down his mobile phone would not help
matters. The tone of his reply almost reflected an expectation that
this would happen.
    ‘How long?’
    ‘Literally
minutes ago.’
    ‘Naturally you
have to find her. I would imagine, whoever they are, their priority
is to get her out of the country as quickly as possible. Where are
you?’
    ‘At home -
Bristol. Was going to take her to Scotland, didn’t get very
far….’
    ‘Apparently
not... Look, her system is down at the moment. As soon as I have
the link up, I’ll concentrate on overriding her eyesight - maybe
we’ll get some clues from what she can see. Perhaps one day we’ll
fit her with a tracker... Have you got a smart phone?’
    ‘Yes, pretty
smart.’
    ‘Good, I’ll let
you know when she’s active – you’ll be able to access her sight. In
the mean time do your best – there must be some clues around.’
    This was not
one of Adam’s better days. Pathetic, useless, incompetent, twerp,
were words Barton hadn’t used, he was far too polite to say what he
was thinking. Adam was determined to put matters right, he had to
find Madeline.
    ‘Jenny, can you
describe the men?’
    ‘Normal really,
medium height, Jeans and jacket, white skinned.’
    ‘Had they got
an accent?’
    ‘Yes, now you
come to mention it.’
    ‘Great,
what?’
    ‘Don’t know,
definitely an accent.’
    ‘Great! – I’ll
go and search the gutter.’
     
    Whoever they
were, they had been brought up properly.