Valdieri House, Early Afternoon
Rain had barely put her phone down when Rongrong trotted up to her feet with the little fish toy in her mouth.
The cat dropped the fish onto Rain's shoe and looked up at her, ears forward, expectant.
"Rongrong!"
Rain bent to pick it up and tossed it a short distance away.
The kitten shot after it, retrieved the toy, and trotted back to set it down by her shoe again.
Rain stared, then finally laughed.
"She really does fetch."
Celestina put away the cat teaser and watched from the window. Two quiet seconds, and then the corner of her mouth slowly curved.
"She learns fast."
"You taught her?"
"More or less," Celestina said. "At first she just liked chasing things. Then I let her learn that if she brings things back, there's a reward."
Rain nodded, watching Rongrong pounce around in delight, and smiled.
"So you trained her into a puppy."
Celestina turned her gaze on her.
"She's smart. She only needed patience."
Rain faltered—by then Rongrong had brought the fish back and, tail held high, carried it to Celestina and dropped it at her feet. Celestina bent, picked it up, tossed it casually, and the kitten bounded off after it at once.
The sitting room went briefly quiet, filled only with the soft patter of paws over carpet.
Celestina tucked the medical records and the supplies list into a kraft paper bag and pushed it toward Rain. When Rongrong brought the fish toy back again, she picked it up and set it on top of the bag too.
"Take this as well."
Rain looked at the plump little fish. Rongrong tilted her head up too, still waiting.
"But she loves it."
"So next time you come, she'll remember you're the one who brings the thing she loves."
Celestina smiled, and without waiting for an answer beckoned to the corner of the room.
"I'll have Lior see you out."
In the Car, Dusk
Rain settled into the back seat still a little dazed.
On her way out she had crossed the entrance hall again, past the oil paintings, the sculptures, the orange trees. Valdieri House was still vast and foreign to her.
And yet everything felt different from when she had arrived.
She turned to the window and watched the quiet, old streets of the Upper East Side slide away. Coffee shops, convenience stores, bicycles, yellow taxis jammed at the intersection—the familiar world refilled her eyes.
Looking at it all, Rain felt herself settle back into reality, inch by inch. She looked down at the paper bag in her lap, took out the folder, and the first page was Rongrong's vet report, corners pressed perfectly square. A note was clipped to the mouth of the bag, in Celestina's own hand:
—She's very taken with chasing the fish lately. Ten minutes of play a day will make her happy.
The handwriting was crisp and handsome, very much what she would expect from Celestina.
Rain stared at the line for a while, then hugged the bag a little tighter.
Maybe Emily was right. She should stay on guard around Celestina.
But for now, at least, she was willing to believe what she had just been told.
The car stopped below her apartment. Before Rain could move, the driver was already out and around, opening her door for her. He inclined his head politely. "Miss Rain. Until next time."
"Goodbye."
Rain stepped out and stood watching until the car disappeared before going upstairs.
The elevator doors opened—and there was Emily, arms crossed in front of her apartment door, regarding her with a grave face.
"What are you doing here?!"
Rain stared at her friend. Wrinkled shirt, slippers, hair in a messy knot skewered with two pencils, two bulging plastic bags hanging from her hand. She looked like a refugee from a scrap drive.
"Confirming you haven't been shipped off to an Italian estate. Also, I require hot pot."
Emily hauled Rain out of the elevator without ceremony and helped herself to the keys from her pocket. She had just slid the key into the lock when something occurred to her, and she turned around.
"Where's the cat?"
Rain gave a dry laugh and winked at her.
Emily looked at her with mute despair.
"I feel you're about to have a great deal to tell me."
The Old Apartment, Evening
Emily dumped her bags on the kitchen counter; Rain set the paper bag on the desk and glanced at the sunset outside. When she turned around, Emily was unpacking the plastic bags item by item.
Beef rolls, mushrooms, tofu, napa cabbage, shrimp paste—and one huge bag of frozen fish balls from who knows where.
"It's May," Rain said, sidling over.
"New York can be cold in May," Emily said righteously.
"It's twenty degrees today."
"My soul is cold."
Rain rolled her eyes, hung her coat over a chair, and padded to the stove to fish a small pot out of the cupboard.
"People of the British Empire genuinely have never eaten anything good."
Emily, already washing her hands with practiced ease, whipped around: "First of all, I am here to receive the blessings of civilization. Second, do not insult my country. It has been insulted enough by its own food."
Rain burst out laughing despite herself.
When the broth came to a boil, steam filled the small apartment; the fragrance of chili oil and Sichuan peppercorns pushed aside the lingering smells of paper, laundry detergent, and stale coffee.
Rain had barely put the beef in when Emily's chopsticks shot out, her eyes lit as if she had witnessed a miracle.
"Wait—it can't come out yet."
"It's cooked."
"It is not."
"It looks cooked."
"Respect the hot pot."
Emily set her chopsticks down with a clack.
"You'd better respect me! I haven't even started interrogating you!"
Rain hurriedly smiled, pushed the beef toward the center of the pot, and poured Emily a glass of orange juice.
"You have to eat first, though. Here, some juice."
"Spare me." Emily took a sip. "I just don't want you sweet-talked by that Alpha into selling yourself and not even knowing it."
A few minutes later Emily finally got her first piece of beef. She dipped it in sauce, put it in her mouth, and closed her eyes briefly.
"Rain," she said thickly, "you should genuinely put cooking on your résumé."
"What company would hire me because I can cook?"
"Valdieri Dynamics," she said instantly. "They do human–machine interaction. You could be in charge of teaching androids real human happiness."
Rain nearly sprayed her water.
Emily smirked at that, and after demolishing the meal she finally revealed her true purpose.
She shoved her bowl aside and leaned forward, the eyes behind her lenses too bright.
"Right. Now. Valdieri House."
Rain's chopsticks stopped.
"What?"
"Don't play dumb." Emily stared at her, unblinking. "Her house, her android, her—everything you two did all afternoon. Every detail. Not one left out."
Rain ate the last slice of potato, drank some water, and shrugged.
"We talked. And since I haven't settled things with my landlord, I left Rongrong there for now..."
The more she said, the harder Emily's brow knitted, and Rain's voice trailed off.
Then inspiration struck—a way to redirect her friend.
"But speaking of which—her android really is something!"
"The one I told you about? You actually saw it?" Emily was instantly diverted, thrilled.
"They publicly say the third-generation civilian unit is still in restricted testing—and the Valdieri house is using one to greet guests?"
Rain thought of Lior suddenly leaning in with that perfect smile, and felt a chill down her spine again.
"He really is very like a person."
"What do you mean, very like a person?!" Emily was going a little frantic. "What does it look like? What did it do? Details, details!"
"Um..." Rain nodded and told her about meeting Lior in the garden, how it had led the way, how it moved.
When she finished, Emily sat frozen for a long moment, then slowly leaned back in her chair.
"Rain."
"What?"
She was serious now, nearly grave. "That is a mobile agent that understands social boundaries and safety protocols in real time. That is not a demo unit. That is an execution unit already embedded in a high-security private environment."
Rain frowned and nodded, only half following, and fished another slice of potato into the pot.
Emily watched her, and suddenly snapped back to herself. She fixed Rain with a look of exasperated despair.
"Watching you, I realize you have absolutely no idea what kind of background the 'friend' you have gotten yourself entangled with actually has!"
Rain stopped, thought about it, and answered honestly: "Isn't she just that old money who owns a bunch of tech companies and AI and does immersive networks or whatever?"
Emily's face collapsed into a wince.
She shook her head hard.
"No, no, no. Rain. You do not know her at all."
Rain was caught off guard by the solemn, almost theatrical tone.
She put down her chopsticks and sat up a little straighter.
"...Then tell me."
Emily drained her orange juice, swept everything on the table into the kitchen—and then dashed to the bedroom and came back with Rain's laptop hugged to her chest.
She set it on the dining table and opened it, focused as a professor about to teach an impromptu public lecture.
"The Valdieri were never just some rich family. The businesses they used to run were far more frightening than today's AI and tech companies."