The Know 10

"What is this..." Riley started only to have Cathal interrupt him.

"Unfourtunately I could only give you this recorded message. I couldn't risk interceptin the GSS signal again, in fear that 'they' might track it this time. I am going to give you a set of instructions it is your choice as to whether you want to follow them. But I strongly suggest that you do... now listen carefully..." He leaned forward folding his hands across the desk placed in front of him.

"Your car will stop in front of an alleyway the location is not important. After you arrive put these gloves on if you are not currently wearing any..." A silver tray slid out slowly from under our seat; the electric are it was attached to brought it up over the seat and stopped between Riley and I. Riley picked up a pair of the white gloves and pulled them on.

"...in the alley on the building to the left there is a blue and red door, enter the blue door, from there you will be given more instructions. Thank You for your time and I hope we can meet soon to discuss... things."

"What the hell did we get into? I knew I should have brought my gun!" Riley said as he examined his gloves.

"I would have to agree with you..."

"I don't know should we trust the guy?" He said finally looking up.

"...never trust anyone untill they prove themselves..." I mumbled to myself analyzing our situation.

"...trust them until they prove themselves unworthy..." I looked down at my hands trying to decide the best path to take. We sat there in silence for a while, both of us stuck in our own worlds, attempting to think of a solution.

"Hey ya know I don't think I have ever seen you without your sunglasses on! You should take the off!" He said suddenly.

"Is that what you've been thinking about for the past 35 minutes!?" I turned to him.

"No, I started to think about what we should do and then I realized, it wouldn't matter if I had my gun!" His tone turning to anger.

"This isn't the time for a fight..." I said caught off gaurd by his anger. He's probably just scared. I thought to myself, trying not to get angry.

"I'm just stating the facts!"

"This is not the place or time..." I said again with a more serious tone. The car rolled to a stop and before he could speak again I opened the door and pulled him out by the shirt.

"Don't Speak!" I said and started walking down the alley.

He adjusted his button-up flannel shirt by pulling the bottom down forcefully and fixing his rolled sleeves. The air held a musty odor; mold and a hint of wet dog. This was clearly somewhere far from the city. We had been in the car nearly two hours. Everything around us was sopping, the stone walls of the two buildings and the concrete beneath us.

"There's the door." Riley said now calm.

"Oh what did I get myself into... its been two days... and all of... this has happened..." He spoke mostly to himself.

"...because you know whats right..." I said reassuring him.

"...and partly because 'fate' brought us together..." I said sarcastically. It seemed to comfort him some so I left it at that.

"Alright lets go."

Looking at the door I could tell it was wooden, something I have yet to see in person. The blue paint was starting to chip off where mold was starting to grow. I grabbed onto the doorknob with my left hand and pushed it open. Riley was directly behind me looking into the dark room. My glasses quickly switched to night mode casting a green glow onto everything. Something felt weird. Riley stepped up next to me and I put my hand out to stop him from entering.

"Wait a sec..."

I stepped inside, suddenly there was movement over in the right corner of the room. I saw a small circular light flash like the "on" button of a television. It was followed by a high pitched beeping noise. The object lurched forward unexpectedly. I jumped back bracing myself for whatever was going to come out of the darkness.

"Grrr-eeat-ings." An electronic voice said, just as a lamp turned on in the room. The object walked under the lamp revealing its identity. It was an old service robot. The robot was a simple design, it had an oval shaped head, which was turned on its side like a football and a cylinder body placed on four wheels. Its arms looked like two metal bungee chords that dangled down on both sides of its body; and its eyes were abnormally large giving it the "cute" effect.

"I thought service robots were banned." Riley whispered.

"And you think what we're doing is legal?"

"Puh-leez cuomb inn."

I stepped in pulling Riley with me.

"Miiie Nay-m is Colbert. Yoou ken hav a see-at if yoou ly-k." He wheeled over to a wooden table placed in the middle of the room, adn pulled back both of the chairs at the same time. Extending his arms to reach across each end of the table.

"Aye will geet refresh-e-mentss."

Colbert wheeled away into another room as I sat down on the left side and Riley on the right. The table was made from the same wood as the door, and was also starting to decompose. Looking around you could tell that the place use to be a bar. Over where the robot came from there was a bar and old stools with torn red cushions. Glass littered the floor around the bar area, probably from wine and beer bottles. Next to the bar on the wall there was a door that most likely led to the kitchen, because that's where Colbert went.

"Wow look at this place. How is it still standing... how old do you think it is?" He said examining the table.

"Well we stopped using wood in 4800."

"Its amazing, I've never actually touched wood before."

"Neither have I... well at least not with this body, but once again there are memories of it."

"Heres som drin-ks." Colbert said rolling back into the room with a rusted silver tray.

He placed the tray on the table and made a beeping noise. I picked up one of the warped wine glassed, the glass looked sanitary enough. I put the cup to my lips and took a sip of the clear liquid. I swallowed hard amd choked at the strong taste of pure alcohol.

"Thank you Colbert." I managed to say through a constricted airway. The robot then turned towards Riley and gave him a blank stare and beeed as well.

"Uh... yeah right... sorry." Riley said and picked up the other glass. He took a large gulp and tryed to act unaffected by the strong taste, but his eyes began to water.

"Mn, very good."

The robot seemed to find satisfaction in our response and rolled back into its corner and stood there inmoving. Riley gave me a weird look and took his sunglasses off.

"Now what?" Riley said.

"Now we wait."