Chapter 56

“I got called for the lottery.”

“Oh.”

She pulled the chit of government plastic from her pocket. Charlie would have had to run it through her wrist scanner to read the data on it, but Remy was a ‘china. His pseudoflesh was equipped with scanners and sensors. The human skin had more than a thousand nerve endings per inch, and while Remy’s own covering was a poor imitation, it was, at least, flexible for programming.

Remy thumbed the plastic, reading the chip.

Nothing so life-shattering should be in such simple, cold numbers, he thought.

35,108.

One hundred thousand humans, every year. Fifty-thousand men and the same number of women.

“I probably won’t get called. It’s a miracle that I even made it this far.”

Remy nodded. He didn’t know what else to do. He ran a protocol line, searched the databanks for something. Anything.

“Congratulations.” He finally chose a word.

“You’re…not happy for me.” Charlie actually turned entirely to face him, her whole attention on him.