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Steven jumped up and headed for the door. “I need a set of your cloths,” he said as he paused with his hand on the doorknob.

“What are you talking about?” Jaqueline was right behind him. “Who’s on the phone and why do you look so flustered?”

Turning to stare Jaqueline in the eyes “It’s Sam.”

Jaqueline ran to her room and grabbed a pair of slacks and a blouse. “I’m coming with you.”

Steven didn’t have time to argue. Jaqueline grabbed her phone and called her lobby man to pull a car around.

Listening to Sam’s panicked breathing on the other end of the line Steven was so grateful Jaqueline had the ability to make things happen with a phone call. Just then the line went dead. “Sam?” His voice raising an octave. Yelling at the dial tone, “Sam”.

Steven pulled the phone away from his face and started dialing. “Matthew, I need you to meet me at DataArt. Sam’s awake.”

Jumping into the waiting town car, identical to the one they just got out of, but different driver. Jaqueline gave the driver instructions as Steven got off the phone with Matthew.

“I shouldn’t have pushed the button.” Steven was shaking his head back and forth as his eyes fixated on the floor. “I thought they’d wiped her memory card and did a factory reset. She sounds terrified.”

“Remember, Jaqueline snipped, "she’s a robot.”

Steven looked up at her and then back to the floor. Struggling to reconcile truth from fiction. The twenty-minute drive felt like hours.

Not waiting for a complete stop Steven opened the door and jumped out running for the front of the building. Reaching for the front door, it didn’t budge. Everyone had gone home; the building was dark. Looking at the glass door then around at the landscape he walked over and picked up a big rock when he heard a buzzing sound. He dropped the rock and walked back to the building he looked up at the camera above the corner of the door frame. He dipped his head in appreciation and ran inside.

“Don’t we need to wait for Matthew?” Jaqueline was attempting to keep up with him. He couldn’t really hear her at this point.

Steven’s brain was going a million miles a minute trying to process what was going on. Hearing the fear in her voice ignited a drive that he was all too familiar with. He knew it wouldn’t shut off till he found Sam. Despite Jaqueline’s words bouncing around in his head, ‘she’s a robot’ Steven needed to get to her. He needed to wrap his arms around her and protect her, not just for her sanity, but for his own as well.

Reaching the elevator, he realized it didn’t open without a key card. “See, we need to wait for Matthew.” Jaqueline stepped in front of Steven to get his attention. “She’s not going anywhere she’s locked in a basement.”

Steven looked up at the ceiling and found what he was looking for. He walked right in front of the camera and pointed to the elevator. The doors chimed open and he dipped his head at the camera again.

They found the hidden button in the access panel and started the decent to the underground manufacturing line.

“What are you going to do?” Jaqueline kept trying to get Steven to talk. “Are you going to tell her she’s not real?”

Steven stood right in front of the doors staring at the line break between the doors. The doors chimed as they opened and Steven darted down the hall and to the room they vacated just hours before. The door buzzed before Steven grabbed the doorknob and he ran inside. Scanning the room looking for a moving naked robot.

There wasn’t much in the room besides the nineteen naked identical robots hanging from the ceiling waiting for their number to be called. Steven looked over at the lone desk holding a phone that was off the hook. Walking towards the desk he kept looking where else she could be. Crouched next to the desk Sam was in the same position as when Steven found her half frozen under a tree.

Swooping down Steven wrapped his arms around her and pulled her onto his lap. Relieved to see him she wrapped her arms around his neck and started sobbing. “Why,” she choked. “Why does this keep happening to us?”

Still speechless Steven just held her and rocked her back and forth.

Standing in the doorway, Jaqueline watched in disbelief. “She’s… she’s so real.”

Sam’s head pops out of the crook of Steven’s neck. “Who are you?” Terror suddenly back in her eyes.

Jaqueline takes a few steps toward them and stretches out her hand. “I… I brought you some cloths.”

“Steven, do you know this woman?” Sam slowly stands up and backs against the wall.

“Sam, we need to talk,” Steven stood up stepping closer to her. “This is Jaqueline. She’s… she’s a friend.”

“Why does she look like me?” Sam couldn’t take her eyes off Jaqueline. Frustrated with the lack of answers she turns to Steven and screams in his face, “What the fuck is going on here?”

Steven turned around, walked over to Jaqueline’s outstretched hand and grabbed the cloths. Walking back to Sam, “Here. Get dressed and I’ll try to explain.”

As Sam slid on the pants and blouse Steven talked slowly. He didn’t know how much to tell her and what she really needed to know. All he knew is he needed to buy time till Matthew could arrive and shut her program down. Steven mentioned the robots hanging in the room and told her about the social experiment Matthew’s company was running. He did not tell her her part in the experiment. He explained that Jaqueline works with Matthew.

Rubbing her arms as he talked softly, he couldn’t help but feel the pangs of love, hurt and betrayal all at once. Finally, running out of things to say, “Sam, you are a robot.”

Sam cocked her head to the left as she stared at Steven’s face furrowing her brow. Steven kept rubbing her arms softly waiting to see if she was capable of processing what he just said.

“What?” Sam ripped her arms away from his touch and swerved around him. Walking backwards she refused to let either this Jaqueline character or Steven get behind her. “What do you mean… a robot?” She glanced over at the exposed lifeless bodies with wires coming out of their backs, hooking to a panel on the ceiling.

Shaking her head, “No. No. No.” She stopped moving and stood there staring back and forth between the prototypes and Jaqueline. “How do you know she’s not the robot?”

Jaqueline stepped toward Sam, “You were patterned after me.”

Sam bolted for the door pulling it closed behind her locking in all twenty-one occupants. The elevator doors chimed, and Matthew appeared. “Oh, thank goodness Matthew.” Sam ran up to him, “They’re in there.” She pointed towards the locked door.

Matthew said, “I’ll take care of this”. As he walked to unlock the door Sam slid into the elevator as the doors closed.

Steven and Jaqueline were banging on the door as Matthew swung it open. “Where is she?” Steven came running out. “Where’s Sam?”

“What do you mean where’s Sam?” Matthew looked at Jaqueline.

“I’m not the robot dumb ass,” Jaqueline wanted to hit him but refrained.

“I need you to shut her down Matthew,” Steven ran to the elevator watching as it ticked which floor it was passing.

“I can’t,” Matthew stammered. “Once you pushed the button on your phone, it sent and override code to our computers severing our ability to control her. It was to give you full autonomy with your life together.”