a cog in the machine: the Ellara series book one

chapter 13

I didn't know where we were going to go. Everywhere we could go would present issues. Down here, we'd have to face the issue of people trying to use ellara for scrap metal. In the sky kingdom above we'd face the issue of being fugitives because ellara is technically some rich asshole’s property.

Even with fake IDs, all the money I have, everything that seems to be in our favor now, someone will eventually recognize an Ellara robot. Try hard fans will draw attention to this. We wouldn't be in the clear.

I had a lot to think about as me and Sarah drove through the city in a white van in the middle of the night, preparing to make our deal for fake ID’s and the parts to hopefully fix Ellara's malfunctioning limbs. Yeah, who would predict bad things to come from a mysterious white van? Oh wait, almost every movie with a mysterious white van ever.

I took several deep breaths, hoping the police wouldn't get suspicious. But they had no reason to be suspicious of me. Until recently I've been a model citizen, quiet, unspoken, compliant.

We pulled into a dark alleyway and there were a couple of people. One of them had a pistol pointed right at me. I knew that if we made one wrong move this could easily be a deal gone south. When working with criminals that's how it usually is, everyone holds up their end of the deal or someone gets killed.

“get out of the van!”

I heard the familiar click of Sarah unlocking the car door. And hesitantly I opened it and stepped out. “I-I’m supposed to be meeting with someone about a few fake ID’s.” I kept my hands in the air so they had no reason to think I was gonna pull out a weapon of my own.

One guy held out a briefcase and opened it, revealing the extremely impressive fakes. I couldn't even tell the difference other than the names. But there were only 2, for obvious reasons. Ellara's fake ID was gonna have to wait until we can get her fixed up and hopefully unrecognizable to the public.

“Do you have the money?”

I nodded because I did. “It's in the back in a briefcase.”

The guy with the pistol went around to the back and checked to make sure I wasn't lying before they gave me the ID’s. Then we got back in the van. Sarah started the van.

“Oh my God! I can't believe we actually did that!” I was shaking all over.

Sarah gave me a high five. “Yeah, you were great!”

“But what's the plan? Where will we go?”

“We are going to start a revolution.”

“How exactly do you plan to do that?”

“We go up there. We expose the truth, we expose the horrors of the rich elitists.”

“Y-yeah- we just have to fix ellara first. Fixing her, trying to protect her from such horrors ever again, that's what I promised her. And I never go back on my promises.”