Books And Covers Thereof (1.9)

>Kitty: Tell him you haven't seen a disheveled man RUNNING through your library. (He has mostly been unconscious the entire time, and that's the truth.)

“Oh, um,” begins Kitty, thinking very cautiously and choosing her words with the care expected of someone who only spends their time around books.  “I haven’t seen anyone like that, running through the Library.”

“Oh,” says the robot, the single eye turning downwards.  Kitty felt robots shouldn’t be able to look crestfallen, but this one certainly did.

“Sorry,” she added.  “I’m sure you’ll find him.”

“I hope so, miss.  Maybe they won’t disassemble me this time,” says the robot, dourly.

>Kitty: Inquire as to what he wants with the man in a roundabout manner.

“Uh, if you don’t mind sharing, what’d he do?”
“Oh, heavens miss, I’m not too sure.  They don’t tell us nothing, you know how it is.”

“Um. I don’t, really.”

“Oh, my apologies, miss.  See, they don’t tell us precisely what crimes people’ve done, right?  They just give us a few photos, maybe a name and a location, and tell us to go bring them back to one of them more, what do you call, flesh and blood cops, like the Captain lady. Sometimes we bring them back to Father.”

“Your creator?” This was an easy guess.

The robot nodded.  “Yeah.  Sometimes he’ll tell us to find people.  Never tells us to do anything bad to ‘em, though.  I think his friends just got a way of getting lost, miss.”

“Is he the one who disassembles you?”

“Oh, no, certainly not, miss!  Father loves us.  Father is good to us.  He would never do that to us, Father wouldn’t.  No sir!  Er, ma’am!”

“Then who does?”

“We don’t like to talk about They Who Disassemble The Unworthy, miss.  Which is okay, because I don’t actually know who they are.”

“Oh.”

>Kitty: Ask him if he's in the market for a new job. I see no way having a large metal man who doesn't need to eat and has no concept of money on staff could be a bad thing.

“Sooo.  Uh.  Are you going to be in the market for a new job, then? Because I could use a giant metal guy to help me out with the Library.”

The iris zooms in and out a few times, in thought.  “What?”

“You know, carrying books...Organizing books...Tracking down books.”

“I do not understand.”

“In fact, I have a book that needs tracking down right now.”

The robot appeared to be considering this.

“Oh, uh.  I suppose that might be all right, miss.  I like to be useful.  Er.  Who has the book?”

“Dante Ilucis.  If you’ll stay right there, I’ll just-”

The iris zoomed in and out, several times.  “Please, miss, what was the name again?”

“Dante Ilucis?  D-A-N-T-E.  I. L. U. C. I. S.  The c makes...Kind of an s sound, I think?  I could be wrong, though.”

The iris whirred with more movement.  “I cannot do it.  I am sorry.”

“Why not?”

“I cannot do it.  I am sorry for bothering you.  Good day, miss.”  The robot tipped its head, put its hat back on its head, and lumbered off down the street solemnly.

“Wait!”  you shout as he walks away, still holding the pile of books.  “I got this books for you!  Isaac Asimov!  You’d probably find them interesting!”   He just continues to ignore you, walking away.

What was that all about?  Whatever it was, it’s over now.  Kitty turns and walks back to the desk, remembering the next order of business.  She sits down at the computer.

“Kitty?”  calls Annie’s voice from upstairs.   “Are you still alive?”

“I’m fine!  I’ll be up in a few minutes!” Kitty calls back.

She clicks ILUCIS, DANTE’s overdue notice on the screen.   As it expands into more information, her eyes scan over it...

Hmmm...He checked out a book called the Zoinomicon.  Sounds like a Necronomicon ripoff aimed at girls named Zoey. It's primary author was...A. Reddtyde.  That's quite a ridiculously last name  Let’s see...the number is 216.015.  Odd, didn’t know we even had a 216.  What’s even in 216?  I think that’s in the religion category...

“Kitty?!”

“I’ll be up in a few, Annie!  Just give me a little while, okay?”

Kitty opened on of the drawers on her desk, taking out a flashlight  and a small, if incomplete, map of the Library’s unusually expansive space.  She glanced around for the start of the 200s, before standing up and heading down the aisles.

* * *


Kitty glanced to her left.

“215 - SCIENCE & RELIGION” read a small gold plaque at the top of a bookshelf.

Kitty glanced to her right.

“218 - HUMANKIND”, read another at the top of a different bookshelf.

Kitty looked straight ahead.

There was no gold plaque announcing the existence of 216, let alone 217.  There was no bookshelf.  There wasn't even a single book.

Just an old, decrepit wooden wall.  It had not been repaired or replaced in a long time, from the looks of it, and stood out among the old stone walls of the Library’s lower floors.  If division 216 and division 217 had ever existed at all, they were long gone.  But why the gap?

Kitty’s thoughts shuffled around her head, pushing and shoving for dominance.  Was it a prank?  Maybe a glitch?  But no, no, the database had never been wrong, was never wrong.  She had always been careful.  If nothing in the Library had ever been put in division 216, it wouldn’t be in the database.  That wasn’t just a hope, that was a fact.  Revisions to the system the Library used hadn’t been made since the apocalypse.

Division 216 had to exist.  It had to.  There was no other way.

But where the hell is it?