“Have you finally come to kill me?”

Adele Zoeway’s voice jerked me out of my musings, yet my extended arm did not so much as waver.

“You knew?” My voice held no inflection. No emotion, no question. It was a cold hard statement. I didn’t have to pretend anymore to be human, so why bother?

Adele gave a slight nod of her head, yet her eyes never wavered from mine. Then she gave a small smile, her full lips stretching ever so slightly. She didn't move in her sky blue couch chair. I noticed she was even dressed as if she had been expecting visitors all along. Most inhabitants of the City wore dark and unobtrusive colors. Was blacks, whites and shades of grey considered to be colors? Be that as it may, I don’t think I’ve seen her in a dark piece of clothing yet.

She was dressed every bit as colorful as her cafe, her thick frame was dressed in a light purple jumpsuit that stood out against her mocha skin. I’ve never seen anyone wear such colors until her. It should have disgusted me but strangely it did not. It was obvious that the only way to make such colors would be to buy a lot of light clothing and then dye them in different colors.

You could find such dye in the City?

“Your eyes”, she answered.

When I said nothing, she continued, “Your eyes looked cold and calculating. A step up from the usual look of dead and lifeless. Dying, day by day. Look around and you’ll see so many eyes are already hard and bitter, making them close to lifeless. That is something that is hard to mimic unless you feel that way, live that way. But you don’t. Everything is done with thought and precision. You received orders and carried them out, without any real thought to yourself.”

Yet, I couldn’t help but to think of many of her regulars at her cafe. Their eyes weren’t either cold and calculating or lifeless.

“You know what else gave you away?” Adele asked. She obviously didn’t expect an answer because she continued without breath. Just as well as I would not have given an answer.

“Doubt. The longer we knew each other more I saw confusion in your eyes. Like many you didn’t understand the purpose of such a place as the Pastel Cafe. But you didn’t let that deter you from your mission then. You pretended. Laughed with the best of them but always you held yourself back. Looking for just the right opportunity to strike. You shut yourself off and wonder if it’s your programming or something you do naturally? But the longer we knew each other the more questions began to rise in your heart. And it was easy to see them lingering in your eyes.”

“But now something is giving you pause. Doubt. You wrestled with something until today you had come to come to some sort of resolution. It’s why you are here. But now that you are here you have yet to complete your assignment. I wonder why this is.”

Her dark eyes drilled into mine as if she didn’t have a gun point blank in her face, “So tell me, what are you doubting now?”