The machine abruptly turned around and moved off, as if I was suddenly of no interest.

“Hey, wait! Wait! Where are you going?”

The suit pinged. There were blocks of high explosive in the tunnel. Demolitions? They were shaped charges, civilian-grade. What was going on?

I looked up at the hole in the ceiling again, still hopelessly high. An active ping showed the tunnel to stretch a very long way in both directions.

“Hey, you can’t just leave -”

But it did, building up some impressive speed before mechanically taking off a chunk of the ceiling and securing another shaped charge inside. I shook my head, wondering at the inpenetrable logic of machines, and followed it. Under the circumstances, gathering information seemed wiser than hostile action.

“Who sent you? What happened to the workers?”

It turned back to me, regarding me with a sensor cluster.

“When I asked you, why did you say you are a man?” it said, intonation steady.