Chapter Text
“Your son is dead.”
Her voice was unwavering and expressionless. With her back straight, she faced her Director who was pinching the bridge of his nose and seated at his desk.
“That’s how you said it?”
“Yes, Colonel.”
“Exactly like that?”
“Yes, Colonel.”
“You don’t have to call me Colonel.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Or Sir.”
"Director."
“I...”
"..."
“Violet.”
“Yes.”
Claudia Hodgins crossed one leg over the other and put his head in his hands. Slowly, he ran his fingers through his hair with a weary exhale and then leaned back in his chair again, parsing through the words he wanted to say. He was illuminated only by the dim light of streetlamps behind him that peeked through the crack of his drawn blinds.
“Why would you say it like that?” He asked, half to himself, almost whining.
“It was the most efficient way to convey the information.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. Why so harsh? Poor woman was agonizing about what happened to her son for weeks and you just… told her like that?” He was incredulous and desperate for a glimmer of comprehension in Violet’s eyes, but once again, found himself disappointed.
“Yes.”
“Violet…” The man hung his head in shame, as if feeling it for her since she couldn’t feel it herself. “What am I going to do with you?”
At this rate, he was going to lose more business than he already was losing. He could practically hear his potential customers slipping away. ‘I hear Hodgins is using automatrons as informants—cutting corners ‘n all. You know those robots are just government spies. Bet that’s how he’s really making his money.’ But as much as he worried about their dwindling reserves, he was more concerned with the well-being of the girl in front of him. He’d taken her in months ago, trusting she would get better at her job, start understanding human emotion, find a home in a new life without war, but there were no signs of progress. He wondered if he was being naïve but still refused to give up on her.
Right as Hodgins opened his mouth to continue, knuckles rapped on the door. It was not a request but a warning. Cattleya entered without waiting for a response, brushing her long inky hair over her shoulder before crossing her arms.
“How’d it go?” she asked.
“Good,” Violet said.
“Terrible,” Hodgins countered.
Cattleya’s eyes softened knowingly and she put a hand on the young girl's shoulder. Violet did not react to the affectionate touch. “Give her a break, Claudia, she’s learning. Times have been tough for all of us.” The older woman was the only one that Violet knew who was able to refer to the Boss by his first name. In addition to their mutual respect, Hodgins trusted Cattleya with impunity. Just as much as he ran the business, so did she, and there was an unspoken understanding that the Company would collapse without Cattleya’s experience and expertise.
Violet had seen many such androids during the war, but Cattleya’s model had been discontinued before Violet was a soldier due to the self-modifying code that had run awry. The CX-1128s, with the base personality of an unidentified 20-something Leidenschaftlich human female, had effectively gained sentience and became impossible to control. In response to the many violences enacted against them as resources for the morale of lonely human men, the androids began to resist or otherwise lost their minds. They were swiftly shut down by the State for the bodily threat they posed, but due to the lack of regulation during the time that they were being produced the government couldn’t track them all down and some had slipped through the cracks. One of them currently rested a hand on her.
The new hire had no idea how her Boss and his right-hand android met, and struggled to make any inferences. She knew that Claudia Hodgins was an unaltered human who had fought in the Continental War as a soldier, and that Cattleya was a discontinued CX-1128 courtesan Doll. Perhaps they had met on the battlefield, but that wouldn't explain their connection in Leiden. Of course, their history never came up in conversation and the topic was strictly avoided in the Postal Company, but Violet identified Cattleya’s model by the tattoos which marked the perfectly engineered skin of the android’s left outer thigh and peered above her long boots. Violet wasn’t the only one who knew, but even mentioning it in whispers would put the Company under scrutiny and Cattleya in danger of decommission so they pretended she was just another human.
Still, the black-haired woman didn’t act like she was in any precarious position. She moved with the ease and grace of a panther that had no predators to worry about.
“If I learned, she can too. Besides, she has an advantage as a human!”
“But you were programmed to please people,” Hodgins murmured petulantly.
“Excuse me?” Cattleya narrowed her eyes at him, fury sparking in the glowing purple irises.
“Sorry, sorry!” The man raised his hands frantically as if warding off an incoming attack. When he settled back down, he rolled his sleeves back up to his elbows and Violet studied his forearms, unmarred by any sort of cybernetics. It was unusual for a human in this day and age to have no visible augmentations. “What I’m trying to say is it’s been a long time, and I can’t tell if anything’s changed.”
“Is the work I am doing unsatisfactory?” Violet asked, entering the conversation that had been happening around her and not with her. “Will you discharge me?”
The Boss winced at the question, and Cattleya’s arm squeezed Violet reassuringly.
“He won’t be doing anything like that,” the Doll replied. “Violet, why don’t you call it a night and get some sleep. You need to recharge after such a long trip.”
"I'm not tired."
"Yes, you are."
Violet hadn’t noticed her tiredness. Being a Runner required stamina in order to cover long distances away from the prying eyes of Enforcers, weaving through alleyways, backstreets, and rooftops like a cat to deliver information quickly and stealthily. Now that Cattleya had pressed it, the young girl felt the fatigue setting in her muscles.
“Yes, Madam."
Before she turned away completely, Violet caught a glimmer of sadness she didn't understand in her Director's eyes.