Hey baby, you can call me the British Empire Circa the 1850s, ’cause I wanna get India.

Adam: The Beekeeper Chronicles, Chapter Thirty-Six

Gladys meandered through the city. Hands in her pockets, she wandered for hours.

SecGov City had been a ghost town. Designed to house thousands, it had been home to a few hundred robots. Gladys had always known everyone around there, and been known to them.

As real cities go, Port Nadine is on the smaller end. Yet people walked by and paid no attention to Gladys. Only Dante and Adam knew her here. Nobody spoke to her or expected anything of her. In fact, with her guise as an elderly woman, they seemed to avoid her.

Gladys felt at home.

If everyone else is playing checkers and you’re playing chess, that doesn’t mean you’re smart, it means you’re losing at checkers.