Pluto, who had been crawling toward a corner, suddenly paused. Then, without turning back, he continued crawling. Leaning his body against the corner wall and turning to sit, Pluto finally slowly looked at the one who had called him. Pluto already knew who that person was.
“You came before it was too late.”
Pluto’s mechanical voice resonated and echoed through the empty factory.
“You knew I would come here?”
“Yes.”
Mika watched Pluto’s red eyes grow larger and smaller. From the helmet, irregular steam burst out as if gasping for breath and then subsided, making shiik—shwik sounds. It sounded like the breathing of someone facing death.
“Do you know me?”
When Mika asked that, Pluto’s red eyes quietly moved toward Mika.
“You’re asking if I know?”
After saying that, Pluto remained silent for a while as if looking at Mika. Then at last he began speaking in his distinctive mechanical voice.
“You are a social affairs reporter who has an independent satellite channel. But—”
Pluto paused for a moment.
“Do you know since when you have been a reporter?”
Mika scoffed at Pluto’s question. Of course. Since when had that been—
Suddenly Mika’s answer was blocked. She could not remember at all since when she had been a reporter.
“What’s wrong? You don’t remember?”
Pluto asked as if it were natural that Mika did not remember. Mika had nothing to say. Pluto spoke.
“Could you play some music? The requested song is Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel.”
Mika was a little surprised by Pluto’s sudden request for music, but since it seemed like the last wish of a robot that might soon stop functioning, she decided to grant it.
“Leo. Send the camera drone.”
“Yes. Understood.”
Soon a camera drone entered the building without making any sound. It was a noiseless filming drone without propellers.
“Speaker on.”
A disc-shaped speaker unfolded from the camera drone.
“Music play. The title is Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel.”
Soon Spiegel im Spiegel began to play. Piano and violin. It was a performance composed of only these two instruments. On top of the simple piano melody repeating like a heartbeat, the sorrowful violin poured deep emotion like a wind blowing, rising and falling repeatedly without end. It was as if the piano and violin were looking at each other. Inside Pluto’s helmet, while listening to the music, steam leaked out shiik—shiik. It was as if he were still breathing.
“I can breathe a little easier. Who said it? Pain passes, and beauty remains… It’s good music.”
Mika had no leisure to be appreciating music with a dying robot in a place like ruins. The police might burst in at any moment. Pluto seemed to already know Mika’s thoughts.
“There’s no need to think in such a hurry, Mika Yoon. This music blocks Talos’s eavesdropping.”
Talos? If it’s Talos, that’s the giant mechanical man made of bronze that appears in Greek mythology. It is said that the blacksmith god Hephaestus made it to guard the fortress of Crete ruled by King Minos—the first robot handed down in legend— No! What am I thinking right now? The Talos Pluto is talking about cannot be that kind of robot. Pluto is talking about Talos, the AGI security defense system of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency!
Startled, Mika asked.
“You’re saying it blocks Talos’s eavesdropping? Are you saying the Seoul Metropolitan Police AGI is eavesdropping on us?”
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