Say your Prayers
by Dana Anthony
Keira thought frantically for a moment. She could escape the robot easily she had electronic equipment that would jam a robot's electronic movements long enough for her to get away. But that would reveal her status as a spy, and she didn't want to blow her cover.
So she pretended not to understand him, and said, "I'm not interested," as though his approach had been a sales pitch. She quickly intercepted the old man as he ran.
"Grandfather," she said, "why are you running?" The old man grabbed her arm and pulled her after him, not stopping to speak. Keira could tell he could not spare the breath to speak and run at the same time.
She tried to judge his age by his appearance. This was a game of hers, since she had not grown up seeing humans every day, except for her father. His uniform fit tightly, made of cheap extruded rock fibres, and his frame was thin, though he had a gut, she could see that he must exercise, since his muscles had not completely atrophied. That, or he was not a permanent Moonbase resident, but was from a stronger gravity well. His face was lined and crinkly, but not weathered most human environments filtered out all dangerous electromagnetic rays emitted by their suns. His hair was grey, almost silver. She guessed he was about 150 Earth years old.
The old man ducked into a large building that Keira had never before entered, through an unmarked side door. As she followed him through, Keira lost sight of the robot. She had only just glanced at the shopkeeper, but now she wondered anew what he was searching for with his metal detector. She would have to look into it later.
The robot could not have been her contact. Her contact, whose name she would not even think lest an enemy discover it, was a consummate infiltrator who could take on any corporeal form, but there was no way he would take on the form of a robot. Keira didn't even think it was within his extensive range of abilities. She hoped the robot wasn't an agent of the enemy. Perhaps it had only been trying to solicit her. But she was too good an agent to let herself be consoled by that idea. She would have to check out the robot, too.
"We made it," the old man said, looking at his watch. "Just in time."
He pulled Keira into a room - a dressing room. Robes hung on hangers. He pulled a blue robe with red trim off a hanger. "Here, put this on," he said, handing the robe to Keira. He took a silver robe with black trim down and pulled it over his coverall uniform. From a large box he took a tall bishop's headpiece - a miter. Carefully he positioned the miter on his head.
He led Keira down a hallway and up a narrow staircase. Pulling back a
curtain, he placed her on a balcony. There were already five women there, dressed in blue and red robes just like Keira's. The spy noticed immediately that they were all robots. Keira looked out over a large auditorium. She was in the choir loft of a church.
"You don't have to sing," the old man said. "I'll be right back to get you after the service." He left Keira there to think.
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