Read Online Paycheck (2003) by Philip K. Dick - Free Book Online Page A

sides were dented and warped from use, but its grapples were still strong and powerful. In addition to the usual reinforced plates across its nose there was a gouge of tough steel, a jutting jaw that was already sliding into position, ready and able.
    Mecho-Products, its manufacturer, had lavished attention on this jaw-construction. It was their trademark, their unique feature. Their ads, their brochures, stressed the massive frontal scoop mounted on all their models. And there was an optional assist: a cutting edge, power-driven, that at extra cost could easily be installed in their ‘Luxury-line’ models.
    This blue Nanny was so equipped.
    Moving cautiously ahead, the blue Nanny reached the fence. It stopped and carefully inspected the boards. They were thin and rotted, put up a long time ago. It pushed its hard head against the wood. The fence gave, splintering and ripping. At once the green Nanny rose on its back treads, its grapples leaping out. A fierce joy filled it, a bursting excitement. The wild frenzy of battle.
    The two closed, rolling silently on the ground, their grapples locked. Neither made any noise, the blue Mecho-Products Nanny nor the smaller, lighter, pale-green Service Industries, Inc., Nanny. On and on they fought, hugged tightly together, the great jaw trying to push underneath, into the soft treads. And the green Nanny trying to hook its metal point into the eyes that gleamed fitfully against its side. The green Nanny had the disadvantage of being a medium-priced model; it was outclassed and outweighed. But it fought grimly, furiously.
    On and on they struggled, rolling in the wet soil. Without sound of any kind. Performing the wrathful, ultimate task for which each had been designed.
    ‘I can’t imagine,’ Mary Fields murmured, shaking her head. ‘I just don’t know.’
    ‘Do you suppose some animal did it?’ Tom conjectured. ‘Are there any big dogs in the neighborhood?’
    ‘No. There was a big red Irish setter, but they moved away, to the country. That was Mr Petty’s dog.’
    The two of them watched, troubled and disturbed. Nanny lay at rest by the bathroom door, watching Bobby to make sure he brushed his teeth. The green hull was twisted and bent. One eye had been shattered, the glass knocked out, splintered. One grapple no longer retracted completely; it hung forlornly out of its little door, dragging uselessly.
    ‘I just don’t understand,’ Mary repeated. ‘I’ll call the repair place and see what they say. Tom, it must have happened sometime during the night. While we were asleep. The noises I heard—’
    ‘Shhh,’ Tom muttered warningly. Nanny was coming toward them, away from the bathroom. Clicking and whirring raggedly, she passed them, a limping green tub of metal that emitted an unrhythmic, grating sound. Tom and Mary Fields unhappily watched her as she lumbered slowly into the living room.
    ‘I wonder,’ Mary murmured.
    ‘Wonder what?’
    ‘I wonder if this will happen again.’ She glanced up suddenly at her husband, eyes full of worry. ‘You know how the children love her … and they need her so. They just wouldn’t be safe without her. Would they?’
    ‘Maybe it won’t happen again,’ Tom said soothingly. ‘Maybe it was an accident.’ But he didn’t believe it; he knew better. What had happened was no accident.
    From the garage he backed his surface cruiser, maneuvered it until its loading entrance was locked against the rear door of the house. It took only a moment to load the sagging, dented Nanny inside; within ten minutes he was on his way across town to the repair and maintenance department of Service Industries, Inc.
    The serviceman, in grease-stained white overalls, met him at the entrance. ‘Troubles?’ he asked wearily; behind him, in the depths of the block-long building, stood rows of battered Nannies, in various stages of disassembly. ‘What seems to be the matter this time?’
    Tom said nothing. He ordered the Nanny out of the cruiser