“What did I tell you? Both of you?” Hammer looked between Ted and Aurora.
“She wasn’t inebriated,” Ted protested.
“I might have been a little, what did you say? Tipsy. A little.” Aurora made the decidedly human gesture of holding her thumb and forefinger together. “But I didn’t hurt anyone or anything. I just got very…” She furrowed her brow. “Giggly.”
“What you got is very talkative.” As she spoke, Finley held up an iPad, showing an article from the San Francisco Chronicle headlined “The Dynamouse Speaks.” The feature photo showed Aurora sitting on—not at—one of Revival’s tables, surrounded by human listeners, as if she were a celebrity holding court. “And very photographed.”
“I didn’t say anything bad.” Aurora looked to Ted. “Did I?”
“I don’t think so.”
Hammer arched a brow and looked toward Finley.
Finley read from the article. “While the Dynamouse, who calls herself Aurora, remained polite, she didn’t shy away from philosophical debate. When a bar customer who identified himself as a visiting software engineer responded to her assertion that she deserved the same legal rights as humans pointed out that even if she looked—and sounded—human, she was still ‘just’ an animal, she retorted, ‘Humans are just animals. We’re more than that.’ When this reporter gently pressed her on whether that meant she believed she was more deserving of rights than we have, she demurred, saying only, ‘I certainly don’t deserve less.’”
Aurora straightened up. “None of that was wrong.”
“You told a reporter on record that you’re superhuman.”
The mouse spread her hands, palm up, in a clear yes, and? response.
“Questions like that had to come up eventually,” Ted pointed out.
“You understand we were shooting for ‘later,’ don’t you?”
He sighed. “I don’t see how it affects the trial.”
“It might not,” Finley said. “But if I were in the prosecution’s shoes, I’d take every opportunity to emphasize that Dynamice are designed and engineered by humans. Pointing out that you are, in some sense, superhuman could be turned around to support the case that you’re a biological object that wouldn’t exist without human tampering.”
“But it wasn’t humans who gave us this form. We made this change ourselves. We made a lot of changes ourselves.”
“That’s not going to change their argument.” Hammer’s phone dinged, and she pulled it out of her purse. “And it’s also opening the door for discussion, in court records, about how damn scary you are.”
Aurora crossed her arms, looking put out, but didn’t argue the point.
Hammer pursed her lips. “Opposing counsel wants to meet.”
Ted lifted his brows. “Why?”
“They’re being deliberately cagy about that, but if I’m understanding it correctly, they intend to make an offer.”
“An offer of what?”
“My guess would be a plea offer in exchange for a reduced sentence.”
“I don’t want a reduced sentence, I want no sentence. I want to beat this.”
She looked over at him. “As your lawyer, I’m going to advise you to at least listen to what they have to say. I know you and Mr. Hackett want this to be the test case that awards Dynamice human-equivalent rights, but you’d also better damn well know that’s not only a risky legal strategy, they will appeal all the way to the Supreme Court. And if at any point we come up on the wrong side of a verdict, you’ll spend the time between that and the next higher appeal in jail while we fight to keep Aurora from being returned to the tender embrace of Nanolab Sciences.”
Ted went ashen. He’d known that all, in the abstract, but when laid out so bluntly, it became much sharper and threatening. “I mean… I think Hackett can pull strings here, can’t he?”
“I’m sure he’ll try, but let’s be real here, Mr. Bishop. Your case is a way in for him to hit two goals he already had. The first is getting his name in the history books for a win more meaningful than a goddamn database, and the second is kicking Walter Lucas in the metaphorical nuts. As sympathetic as I am to both of those, especially the second, my priority is your future, not his legacy. If this means I’m going to have an uncomfortable conversation with Mr. Hackett, so be it.”
Ted swallowed and nodded.
“As for your future,” she turned to Aurora, “I’m gonna be real about that, too. This case isn’t going to settle the question of your rights one way or another, but it’s going to push that question into the limelight even if the trial never happens. Your ‘interview’ last night is becoming a national story, and your best bet—not just for your goals, but frankly for keeping yourself alive—is staying in the news cycle.”
Aurora let herself smile enough to show the tips of her square front teeth. “You said you didn’t want to see ‘mouse woman’ in the news.”
Hammer didn’t smile back. “I didn’t want to see inebriated mouse woman, because you might say things that give critics ammunition. Which you did.”
“If being honest makes humans upset, I don’t think I can help that.”
“Mmm.” She stood up. “We’re going to set up a meeting with Kirkman and Dickerson. Mr. Bishop, you’ll be invited. Aurora, I don’t know whether you will, although I’ll push for it.”
• • •
While Hammer wanted to meet at her office and Dickerson wanted to meet at his (apparently Ms. Kirkman didn’t get a say in the matter), they met in a conference room at the hotel, what Finley described as a “mutually unacceptable compromise.” Aurora’s attendance was part of the compromise. Hackett’s attendance was a surprise to, as far as Ted could tell, everyone.
“Wait,” Dickerson said as Hammer’s group walked up to the conference room door. “He’s not part of this case.” He addressed Hackett directly. “You’re not part of this case.”
“I’m here as an observer.”
“I don’t agree to that.”
Hackett shrugged. “You don’t have to, Mister…Dick, was it?”
“Dickerson.”
“You don’t have to, Dick, but how this case comes out determines what my foundation’s next legal move with the Dynamice is.”
“And your interest in that is what?” Dickerson looked skeptical.
“Making sure they’re treated fairly.”
“Uh huh. If you make a disruption, you’re out, got it?”
“I’m always on my best behavior.”
“So,” Kirkman said as soon as they’d all taken their seats. “We’re prepared to make a plea deal.”
Hammer nodded. “Lay it on us.”
“Mr. Bishop pleads guilty to the felony theft charge, but, he only gets one year of probation. No jail time. At the end of that, his record gets expunged, as if this had never happened.”
“In exchange for?”
“Nanolab Sciences wants to get this behind them, Ms. Hammer. The case is becoming a distraction rather than a focus.”
“Yeah, I bet they’re focused on the Great Mouse Rebellion,” Hackett chimed in.
Dickerson and Kirkman both scowled. “Mr. Hackett,” Dickerson began.
“We both know he’s not wrong.” Hammer drummed her fingers. “And that’s it? This is about avoiding a trial?”
“It is.”
Ted cleared his throat. “And what happens to Aurora?”
“The Dynamouse is Nanolab Science’s property, Mr. Bishop. You return it.”
“No!” Aurora burst out.
“Mr. Bishop,” Dickerson said, “this is an amazing offer. I know you have…some affection for the mouse—”
Hackett snickered.
“—but returning stolen property isn’t optional. You take this deal and she leaves with us.”
Hackett leaned forward. “And the Hackett Foundation will be filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of the Dynamice against Nanolab Sciences before you get to the elevator with her, Dick.”
Slick opened his mouth, closed it, and shook his head. “Are you f—are you serious?” He stared at Hammer, too, who shook her head and spread her hands in an all news to me gesture.
“You bet I’m f’ing serious. See, I don’t think you wanting to drop this case is solely about your mouse rebellion. I think it’s because you know a defense built on proving that Aurora here is legally a person will be a shitshow for you.”
“Do you really want Mr. Bishop to have to depend on an uphill battle so steep it might as well be a cliff, Mr. Hackett?” Kirkman said.
“He loses he gets, what, three years?” Hackett shrugged.
“And a permanent conviction on his record.”
“I don’t like where this conversation is going now,” Ted muttered.
Hackett waved a hand to him. “Okay, that would suck. But whether he wins or loses, what comes out in the trial?” He pointed at Aurora. “The fact that Nanolab Sciences didn’t make her.”
Dickerson rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. “You think she’s a naturally occurring bipedal mouse woman?”
“He’s right. You didn’t make me. Not into this,” Aurora interjected. “Nanolab Sciences came up with our predecessor model, but we evolved ourselves to be bipedal mouse people.” She put an unmistakable emphasis on people.
Hammer squinted thoughtfully. “And the Dynamice Maxes or Ultras or whatever the one Aurora is now—your naming is goddamn terrible, you know that?—is being sold for a lot more than the model you made her, even though they’re basically the same mouse. Which means two things.” She refocused on Dickerson. “One, if Aurora is legally a person, all the Dynamice Maxes and Ultras might be legally people, and you’d be even more screwed than we all originally thought.”
“You are not going to win the case on those grounds, Janet, and you know it.”
“And two,” Hammer continued, “by selling the Maxes and Ultras as two different products, your client is open to charges of fraud, and nobody’s gonna need a novel legal theory to base that suit on, will they.”
“And that,” Hackett stabbed his finger at Dickerson, “more than anything else, is why you want to make this all go away, isn’t it, Dick?”
Kirkman turned to Dickerson with a faintly accusatory look.
Grunting, Dickerson looked up at the ceiling to avoid meeting anyone’s eyes. “Is it or is it not in both your client’s best interests and my firm’s best interests to settle this expeditiously?”
Clearing her throat, Kirkman turned toward Ted. “Let me be candid, Mr. Bishop. If you go to trial, your only possibility of avoiding jail time and a permanent record for felony grand theft is convincing multiple courts that Dynamice are entitled to legal personhood. The offer we’re putting on the table is, frankly, the best one I’ve seen in over a decade of working in the prosecutor’s office. Take the offer.” She indicated Hackett. “Let Mr. Hackett and his foundation file a class action if they choose, leave the ball in their court, and get back to your life.”
It was Dickerson’s turn to flash a faintly accusatory look at Kirkman.
Ted looked down at the table, then at his lawyer. Hammer sighed. “It’s a good offer, Mr. Bishop.” She glanced at Hackett.
Hackett leaned back, spreading his hands. “Do what you gotta do.”
“I’m trying to figure out what that is.” Ted turned to Aurora, who looked nearly as frightened now as she had the first night they’d met. He took her hand in his. “But I know Aurora is a person. And she can’t get sent back to Nanolab, as if she’s just…lab equipment. If I can take that offer and keep her here, I’ll take it, but if the only way to stop that happening is taking this to trial, so be it.”
Dickerson gave Hammer a glare. She shrugged. “Ball’s in your court, Slick. How bad do you not want this to go to trial?”
“We can’t simply give the mouse to Mr. Bishop.”
“You don’t want to simply give the mouse to Mr. Bishop.”
He gritted his teeth. “Both Bishop and the mouse need to sign non-disclosure agreements that cover everything, I mean everything, about the Dynamice.”
Ted blinked. An even stronger NDA? Great. But— “And if we do that, she goes free.”
“If we do that, you sign a lease for her, just like any other customer, and we charge you a dollar a year.”
“What? No. You can’t—that’s the exact opposite of what we want.”
“Ted.” Aurora squeezed his hand. “Maybe it’s a step in the right direction.”
Hackett lifted his brows. “It keeps her safe while we get the class action suit together.”
“If we do this,” Dickerson said, “there is no class action suit.” He looked at Hackett. “You’d need Ted and the mouse as crucial witnesses, and without her, who’s your class representative plaintiff?”
Hackett wiggled his fingers. “Oh, I guess you’ve outsmarted us, Dick.”
The lawyer narrowed his eyes at the CEO for a second before standing up. “We’ll draw up papers.” Shaking her head slightly, Kirkman stood up with him.
Aurora looked back and forth between all the humans, then squealed and gave Ted a firm hug. He hugged back, kissing her cheek. Aurora nuzzled his in return.
When she drew back, she looked back to Dickerson as he was leaving. “When will you turn my nanobots back on?”
“That’s not part of the deal.”
Her eyes widened in slowly dawning horror.
“I bet that’ll go over big with the rebel mice,” Hackett called cheerfully.
Dickerson turned red and strode out.
Hammer looked at Hackett. “You’re still going to file that class action suit, aren’t you?”
He rested his chin on his hand and grinned at her. “Wanna be part of it?”