Paycheck (2003) Read online

  There was no sound. The house was still. They were all asleep upstairs. Sound asleep.

  The Nanny pushed, and the back door opened. It moved out onto the porch, letting the door close gently behind it. The night air was thin and cold. And full of smells, all the strange, tingling smells of the night, when spring has begun to change into summer, when the ground is still moist and the hot July sun has not had a chance to kill all the little growing things.

  The Nanny went down the steps, onto the cement path. Then it moved cautiously onto the lawn, the wet blades of grass slapping its sides. After a time it stopped, rising up on its back treads. Its front part jutted up into the air. Its eye stalks stretched, rigid and taut, waving very slightly. Then it settled back down and continued its motion forward.

  It was just going around the peach tree, coming back toward the house, when the noise came.

  It stopped instantly, alert. Its side doors fell away and its grapples ran out their full lengths, lithe and wary. On the other side of the board fence, beyond the row of shasta daisies, something had stirred. The Nanny peered, clicking filters rapidly. Only a few faint stars winked in the sky overhead. But it saw, and that was enough.

  On the other side of the fence a second Nanny was moving, making its way softly through the flowers, coming toward the fence. It was trying to make as little noise as possible. Both Nannies stopped, suddenly unmoving, regarding each other - the green Nanny waiting in its own yard, the blue prowler that had been coming toward the fence.

  The blue prowler was a larger Nanny, built to manage two young boys: Its sides were dented and warped from use, but its grapples were still strong and powerful. In addition to the usual reinforced plates across its nose there was a gouge of tough steel, a jutting jaw that was already sliding into position, ready and able.

  Mecho-Products, its manufacturer, had lavished attention on this jaw-construction. It was their trademark, their unique feature. Their ads, their brochures, stressed the massive frontal scoop mounted on all their models. And there was an optional assist: a cutting edge, power-driven, that at extra cost could easily be installed in their ‘Luxury-line’ models.

  This blue Nanny was so equipped.

  Moving cautiously ahead, the blue Nanny reached the fence. It stopped and carefully inspected the boards. They were thin and rotted, put up a long time ago. It pushed its hard head against the wood. The fence gave, splintering and ripping. At once the green Nanny rose on its back treads, its grapples leaping out. A fierce joy filled it, a bursting excitement. The wild frenzy of battle.

  The two closed, rolling silently on the ground, their grapples locked. Neither made any noise, the blue Mecho-Products Nanny nor the smaller, lighter, pale-green Service Industries, Inc., Nanny. On and on they fought, hugged tightly together, the great jaw trying to push underneath, into the soft treads. And the green Nanny trying to hook its metal point into the eyes that gleamed fitfully against its side. The green Nanny had the disadvantage of being a medium-priced model; it was outclassed and outweighed. But it fought grimly, furiously.

  On and on they struggled, rolling in the wet soil. Without sound of any kind. Performing the wrathful, ultimate task for which each had been designed.

  ‘I can’t imagine,’ Mary Fields murmured, shaking her head. ‘I just don’t know.’

  ‘Do you suppose some animal did it?’ Tom conjectured. ‘Are there any big dogs in the neighborhood?’

  ‘No. There was a big red Irish setter, but they moved away, to the country. That was Mr Petty’s dog.’

  The two of them watched, troubled and disturbed. Nanny lay at rest by the bathroom door, watching Bobby to make sure he brushed his teeth. The green hull was twisted and bent. One eye had been shattered, the glass knocked out, splintered. One grapple no longer retracted completely; it hung forlornly out of its little door, dragging uselessly.

  ‘I just don’t understand,’ Mary repeated. ‘I’ll call the repair place and see what they say. Tom, it must have happened sometime during the night. While we were asleep. The noises I heard—’

  ‘Shhh,’ Tom muttered warningly. Nanny was coming toward them, away from the bathroom. Clicking and whirring raggedly, she passed them, a limping green tub of metal that emitted an unrhythmic, grating sound. Tom and Mary Fields unhappily watched her as she lumbered slowly into the living room.

  ‘I wonder,’ Mary murmured.

  ‘Wonder what?’

  ‘I wonder if this will happen again.’ She glanced up suddenly at her husband, eyes full of worry. ‘You know how the children love her … and they need her so. They just wouldn’t be safe without her. Would they?’

  ‘Maybe it won’t happen again,’ Tom said soothingly. ‘Maybe it was an accident.’ But he didn’t believe it; he knew better. What had happened was no accident.

  From the garage he backed his surface cruiser, maneuvered it until its loading entrance was locked against the rear door of the house. It took only a moment to load the sagging, dented Nanny inside; within ten minutes he was on his way across town to the repair and maintenance department of Service Industries, Inc.

  The serviceman, in grease-stained white overalls, met him at the entrance. ‘Troubles?’ he asked wearily; behind him, in the depths of the block-long building, stood rows of battered Nannies, in various stages of disassembly. ‘What seems to be the matter this time?’

  Tom said nothing. He ordered the Nanny out of the cruiser and waited while the serviceman examined it for himself.

  Shaking his head, the serviceman crawled to his feet and wiped grease from his hands. ‘That’s going to run into money,’ he said. ‘The whole neural transmission’s out.’

  His throat dry, Tom demanded: ‘Ever see anything like this before? It didn’t break; you know that. It was demolished.’

  ‘Sure,’ the serviceman agreed tonelessly. ‘It pretty much got taken down a peg. On the basis of those missing chunks—’ He indicated the dented anterior hull-sections. ‘I’d guess it was one of Mecho’s new jaw-models.’

  Tom Fields’s blood stopped moving in his veins. ‘Then this isn’t new to you,’ he said softly, his chest constricting. ‘This goes on all the time.’

  ‘Well, Mecho just put out that jaw-model. It’s not half bad … costs about twice what this model ran. Of course,’ the serviceman added thoughtfully, ‘we have an equivalent. We can match their best, and for less money.’

  Keeping his voice as calm as possible, Tom said: ‘I want this one fixed. I’m not getting another.’

  ‘I’ll do what I can. But it won’t be the same as it was. The damage goes pretty deep. I’d advise you to trade it in - you can get damn near what you paid. With the new models coming out in a month or so, the salesmen are eager as hell to—’

  ‘Let me get this straight.’ Shakily, Tom Fields lit up a cigarette. ‘You people really don’t want to fix these, do you? You want to sell brand-new ones, when these break down.’ He eyed the repairman intently. ‘Break down, or are knocked down.’

  The repairman shrugged. ‘It seems like a waste of time to fix it up. It’s going to get finished off, anyhow, soon.’ He kicked the misshapen green hull with his boot. ‘This model is around three years old. Mister, it’s obsolete.’

  ‘Fix it up,’ Tom grated. He was beginning to see the whole picture; his self-control was about to snap. ‘I’m not getting a new one! I want this one fixed!’

  ‘Sure,’ the serviceman said, resigned. He began making out a work-order sheet. ‘We’ll do our best. But don’t expect miracles.’

  While Tom Fields was jerkily signing his name to the sheet, two more damaged Nannies were brought into the repair building.

  ‘When can I get it back?’ he demanded.

  ‘It’ll take a couple of days,’ the mechanic said, nodding toward the rows of semi-repaired Nannies behind him. ‘As you can see,’ he added leisurely, ‘we’re pretty well full-up.’

  ‘I’ll wait,’ Tom said tautly. ‘Even if it takes a month.’

  ‘Let’
s go to the park!’ Jean cried.

  So they went to the park.

  It was a lovely day, with the sun shining down hotly and the grass and flowers blowing in the wind. The two children strolled along the gravel path, breathing the warm-scented air, taking deep breaths and holding the presence of roses and hydrangeas and orange blossoms inside them as long as possible. They passed through a swaying grove of dark, rich cedars. The ground was soft with mold underfoot, the velvet, moist fur of a living world beneath their feet. Beyond the cedars, where the sun returned and the blue sky flashed back into being, a great green lawn stretched out.

  Behind them Nanny came, trudging slowly, her treads clicking noisily. The dragging grapple had been repaired, and a new optic unit had been installed in place of the damaged one. But the smooth coordination of the old days was lacking; and the clean-cut lines of her hull had not been restored. Occasionally she halted, and the two children halted, too, waiting impatiently for her to catch up with them.

  ‘What’s the matter, Nanny?’ Bobby asked her.

  ‘Something’s wrong with her,’ Jean complained. ‘She’s been all funny since last Wednesday. Real slow and funny. And she was gone, for a while.’

  ‘She was in the repair shop,’ Bobby announced. ‘I guess she got sort of tired. She’s old, Daddy says. I heard him and Mommy talking.’

  A little sadly they continued on, with Nanny painfully following. Now they had come to benches placed here and there on the lawn, with people languidly dozing in the sun. On the grass lay a young man, a newspaper over his face, his coat rolled up under his head. They crossed carefully around him, so as not to step on him.

  ‘There’s the lake!’ Jean shouted, her spirits returning.

  The great field of grass sloped gradually down, lower and lower. At the far end, the lowest end, lay a path, a gravel trail, and beyond that, a blue lake. The two children scampered excitedly, filled with anticipation. They hurried faster and faster down the carefully graded slope, Nanny struggling miserably to keep up with them.

  ‘The lake!’

  ‘Last one there’s a dead Martian stinko-bug!’

  Breathlessly, they rushed across the path, onto the tiny strip of green bank against which the water lapped. Bobby threw himself down on his hands and knees, laughing and panting and peering down into the water. Jean settled down beside him, smoothing her dress tidily into place. Deep in the cloudy-blue water some tadpoles and minnows moved, minute artificial fish too small to catch.

  At one end of the lake some children were floating boats with flapping white sails. At a bench a fat man sat laboriously reading a book, a pipe jammed in his mouth. A young man and woman strolled along the edge of the lake together, arm in arm, intent on each other, oblivious of the world around them.

  ‘I wish we had a boat,’ Bobby said wistfully.

  Grinding and clashing, Nanny managed to make her way across the path and up to them. She stopped, settling down, retracting her treads. She did not stir. One eye, the good eye, reflected the sunlight. The other had not been synchronized; it gaped with futile emptiness. She had managed to shift most of her weight on her less-damaged side, but her motion was bad and uneven, and slow. There was a smell about her, an odor of burning oil and friction.

  Jean studied her. Faintly she patted the bent green side sympathetically. ‘Poor Nanny! What did you do, Nanny? What happened to you? Were you in a wreck?’

  ‘Let’s push Nanny in,’ Bobby said lazily. ‘And see if she can swim. Can a Nanny swim?’

  Jean said no, because she was too heavy. She would sink to the bottom and they would never see her again.

  ‘Then we won’t push her in,’ Bobby agreed.

  For a time there was silence. Overhead a few birds fluttered past, plump specks streaking swiftly across the sky. A small boy on a bicycle came riding hesitantly along the gravel path, his front wheel wobbling.

  ‘I wish I had a bicycle,’ Bobby murmured.

  The boy careened on past. Across the lake the fat man stood up and knocked his pipe against the bench. He closed his book and sauntered off along the path, wiping his perspiring forehead with a vast red handkerchief.

  ‘What happens to Nannies when they get old?’ Bobby asked wonderingly. ‘What do they do? Where do they go?’

  ‘They go to heaven.’ Jean lovingly thumped the green dented hull with her hand. ‘Just like everybody else.’

  ‘Are Nannies born? Were there always Nannies?’ Bobby had begun to conjecture on ultimate cosmic mysteries. ‘Maybe there was a time before there were Nannies. I wonder what the world was like in the days before Nannies lived.’

  ‘Of course there were always Nannies,’ Jean said impatiently. ‘If there weren’t, where did they come from?’

  Bobby couldn’t answer that. He meditated for a time, but presently he became sleepy … he was really too young to solve such problems. His eyelids became heavy and he yawned. Both he and Jean lay on the warm grass by the edge of the lake, watching the sky and the clouds, listening to the wind moving through the grove of cedar trees. Beside them the battered green Nanny rested and recuperated her meager strength.

  A little girl came slowly across the field of grass, a pretty child in a blue dress with a bright ribbon in her long dark hair. She was coming toward the lake.

  ‘Look,’ Jean said. ‘There’s Phyllis Casworthy. She has an orange Nanny.’

  They watched, interested. ‘Who ever heard of an orange Nanny?’ Bobby said, disgusted. The girl and her Nanny crossed the path a short distance down, and reached the edge of the lake. She and her orange Nanny halted, gazing around at the water and the white sails of toy boats, the mechanical fish.

  ‘Her Nanny is bigger than ours,’ Jean observed.

  ‘That’s true,’ Bobby admitted. He thumped the green side loyally. ‘But ours is nicer. Isn’t she?’

  Their Nanny did not move. Surprised, he turned to look. The green Nanny stood rigid, taut. Its better eye stalk was far out, staring at the orange Nanny fixedly, unwinkingly.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Bobby asked uncomfortably.

  ‘Nanny, what’s the matter?’ Jean echoed.

  The green Nanny whirred, as its gears meshed. Its treads dropped and locked into place with a sharp metallic snap. Slowly its doors retracted and its grapples slithered out.

  ‘Nanny, what are you doing?’ Jean scrambled nervously to her feet. Bobby leaped up, too.

  ‘Nanny! What’s going on?’

  ‘Let’s go,’ Jean said, frightened. ‘Let’s go home.’

  ‘Come on, Nanny,’ Bobby ordered. ‘We’re going home, now.’

  The green Nanny moved away from them; it was totally unaware of their existence. Down the lake-side the other Nanny, the great orange Nanny, detached itself from the little girl and began to flow.

  ‘Nanny, you come back!’ the little girl’s voice came, shrill and apprehensive.

  Jean and Bobby rushed up the sloping lawn, away from the lake. ‘She’ll come!’ Bobby said. ‘Nanny! Please come!’

  But the Nanny did not come.

  The orange Nanny neared. It was huge, much more immense than the blue Mecho jaw-model that had come into the back yard that night. That one now lay scattered in pieces on the far side of the fence, hull ripped open, its parts strewn everywhere.

  This Nanny was the largest the green Nanny had ever seen. The green Nanny moved awkwardly to meet it, raising its grapples and preparing its internal shields. But the orange Nanny was unbending a square arm of metal, mounted on a long cable. The metal arm whipped out, rising high in the air. It began to whirl in a circle, gathering ominous velocity, faster and faster.

  The green Nanny hesitated. It retreated, moving uncertainly away from the swinging mace of metal. And as it rested warily, unhappily, trying to make up its mind, the other leaped.

  ‘Nanny!’ Jean screamed.

  ‘Nanny! Nanny!’

  The two metal bodies rolled furiously in the grass, fighting and struggling desperately. Again and a
gain the metal mace came, bashing wildly into the green side. The warm sun shone benignly down on them. The surface of the lake eddied gently in the wind.

  ‘Nanny!’ Bobby screamed, helplessly jumping up and down.

  But there was no response from the frenzied, twisting mass of crashing orange and green.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ Mary Fields asked, tight-lipped and pale.

  ‘You stay here.’ Tom grabbed up his coat and threw it on; he yanked his hat down from the closet shelf and strode toward the front door.

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘Is the cruiser out front?’ Tom pulled open the front door and made his way out onto the porch. The two children, miserable and trembling, watched him fearfully.

  ‘Yes,’ Mary murmured, ‘it’s out front. But where—’

  Tom turned abruptly to the children. ‘You’re sure she’s - dead?’

  Bobby nodded. His face was streaked with grimy tears. ‘Pieces … all over the lawn.’

  Tom nodded grimly. ‘I’ll be right back. And don’t worry at all. You three stay here.’

  He strode down the front steps, down the walk, to the parked cruiser. A moment later they heard him drive furiously away.

  He had to go to several agencies before he found what he wanted. Service Industries had nothing he could use; he was through with them. It was at Allied Domestic that he saw exactly what he was looking for, displayed in their luxurious, well-lighted window. They were just closing, but the clerk let him inside when he saw the expression on his face.

  ‘I’ll take it,’ Tom said, reaching into his coat for his checkbook.

  ‘Which one, sir?’ the clerk faltered.

  ‘The big one. The big black one in the window. With the four arms and the ram in front.’

  The clerk beamed, his face aglow with pleasure. ‘Yes sir!’ he cried, whipping out his order pad. ‘The Imperator Deluxe, with power-beam focus. Did you want the optional high-velocity grapple-lock and the remote-control feedback? At moderate cost, we can equip her with a visual report screen; you can follow the situation from the comfort of your own living room.’