1953….

The August holidays were over a week away, and Ann O’Malley was thinking about the value of her robot doppelganger.

"It wouldn't have the same level of instinct, and the same quick responses that come from a human being's body," she thought, "So it could never take my place in a fight. Someone would easily be able to belt the robot, and then they might just find out that it's not me at all. Where are we now?"

Ann looked at the monitor. She and Wendell had climbed into Wildstar on a Thursday morning, and asked Butler One to pilot Wildstar on a slow flight over Sydney. The spaceship flew high above the ground, probably out of anyone's sight. However, Wildstar's monitor screen had a zoom lens feature, which enabled anybody to look down at the distant earth as if it were right below the viewer.

"Oh, aren't you very clever," said Ann, amused at Butler One's choice of flight plans.

"Your intonation reflects faint tones of cynicism, Miss O’Malley. Is this flight path allowable?"

"Oh sure," she mused, "but I should have guessed that your computer mind wants to pick something and follow it. You obviously picked the train line, because it links Pymble and the town quite well."
Ann laughed again. Ann O’Malley's face was never more alive than it was when she was laughing. Her brown eyes were in the same positions in which they would rest, were she to stare in horror; but the lower half of her face would be in an open-mouthed smile, which gave the impression that the eyes were laughing as well.

"I just can't believe that we're flying directly above the train line, but so far up that nobody can see us."

"With respect, Miss O’Malley, your limited human mind would have trouble believing a lot of things."

"Oh well, aren't you just a charming computer robot, Butler One?"
"Robots are not programmed to charm, Miss O’Malley."

"Do you really think I didn't know that?"
"There may be many things you do not know, Miss O’Malley."

"You are so... so...ooh!"

“Cheeky,” finished Wendell.

“I am incapable of such-“ began Butler One.

"Oh be quiet, Butler One. I would like to concentrate on where we are. Freedom Fields does not usually let girls in their early teens go out for very long trips, even in the holidays, but I know I am safe with you, and my robot is pretending to read books in my room at the orphanage. I have got to keep the orphanage staff convinced that it is me, so that I can keep going for trips in Wildstar whenever I feel like it. Ah, there's North Sydney below. Stop here and rotate the monitor screen, Butler One."

The robot obeyed her instructions.

"You can talk now, but no more being cheeky," said Ann.

"Understood, Miss O’Malley."

"Why, Butler One, that's a new building below! It's taller than any other building in North Sydney. It wasn't there when I was once driven past there in a car a few years ago. Let's look for its name... There it is: Computer Contact. It sounds worth looking at, well at least to satisfy my curiosity. Land on top of the building, and I will get out quickly. Then you can take off again."

Butler One lowered Wildstar to the upper surface of the building.

Ann left the spaceship and found a stairwell leading down into building. It started from a box-like structure, which was jutting out upwards from the roof.

"Well of course," she thought, "If the roof was completely flat, then nobody could get out onto it, but I have the feeling that I am not supposed to be up here. I only came this way, because the area's crowded with enough buildings. Nobody saw Butler One's quick landing with Wildstar on the roof."

Ann opened the door and went down the stairs. She decided to take the time to walk all of the way down to the ground floor.

"It will look suspicious if I come from above," she thought. She put her arm on the stair rail and slid, jumping several steps at a turn, and then ran around the flat levels where the stairs changed direction. All the stairs descended, but every second small flight of stairs was facing in the opposite horizontal direction thought Ann, which was a naturally sensible thing for flights of stairs to do.