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"All dressed up with nowhere to go," said Iko froh and glanced down at her oil-stained cargo pants "Yeah, right All I need is a tiara"

"I was talking about me"

She spun her chair around Iko had draped a strand of Adri’s pearls around her bulbous head and smeared cherry lipstick beneath her sensor in a horrible ireat color on you"

"Do you think?" Iko wheeled her way into the roo to catch her reflection in the netscreen "I was i with the prince"

Cinder rubbed her jaith one hand and mindlessly tapped the table with the other "Funny I’ve foundlately"

"I knew you liked him You pretend to be immune to his charms, but I could see the way you looked at hi it across her blank white chin

"Yeah, well" Cinder pinched her ers with the pliers’ nose "We all have our weaknesses"

"I know," said Iko "Mine is shoes"

Cinder tossed the tool onto her desk Sorow in her when Iko was around She knew she should tell Iko about being Lunar, that Iko more than anyone would understand what it was like to be different and unwanted But so herself to say it out loud By the way, Iko, it turns out I’ down here?" she asked instead

"Just seeing if you need help I’ the air vents, but Adri was in the bath"

"So?"

"I could hear her crying"

Cinder blinked "Oh"

"It wasme feel useless"

"I see"

Iko was not a normal servant android, but she did retain one prominent trait--uselessness was the worst emotion they knew

"Well, sure, you can help," Cinder said, rubbing her hands together "Just don’t let her catch you with those pearls"

Iko lifted the beaded necklace up with her prongs, and Cinder noticed she earing the ribbon Peony had given her She pulled back, as if she’d been stung "How about soht into Nainsi’s interior

Cinder twisted up her lips "Do you think it could have a virus?"

"Maybe her progra was overwhelmed by Prince Kai’s uncanny hotness"

Cinder flinched "Can we please not talk about the prince?"

"I don’t think that will be possible You’re working on his android, after all Just think about the things she knows, the things she’s seen and--" Iko’s voice sputtered "Do you think she’s seen him in the nude?"

"Oh, for heaven’s sake" Cinder yanked off her gloves and tossed the conversation"

"Well stop" Crossing her arms over her chest, Cinder pushed her chair back fros up to rest on top of it "It has to be a software issue"

She sneered to herself Software issues usually came down to reinstallation, but that would turn the android into a blank slate She didn’t know if Kai was concerned with the android’s personality chip, which had probably developed into so quite complicated after twenty years of service, but she did know Kai was concerned with so in this android’s hard drive, and she didn’t want to risk wiping whatever it was

The only way to deter and if a reboot was necessary was to check the android’s internal diagnostics, and that required plugging in Cinder hated plugging in Connecting her oiring with a foreign object had always felt hazardous, like if she wasn’t careful, her own software could be overridden

Chastising herself for being squeamish, she reached for the panel in the back of her head Her fingernail caught the s open

"What’s that?"

Cinder stared at Iko’s outstretched prong "What’s what?"

"That chip"

Cinder dropped her feet to the floor and leaned forward She squinted into the far back of thethe bottos in all, but only thirteen of them were full; manufacturers always left plenty of room for add-ons and updates

Iko had spotted the thirteenth chip, and she was right Soh behind the other chips that it was easy to eted it with the flashlight, it gleamed like polished silver

Cinder shut the panel in the back of her head and called up the digital blueprint of the android’s inal plans, this model only came with twelve chips But surely, after twenty years, the android would have received at least one add-on Surely, the palace had access to the newest, finest programs available Still, Cinder had never seen a chip quite like that