Delaney shouted, “Sick ‘em!”
Amy punched Coronado in the face, knocking him out cold. The thugs, completely caught off guard by how far their boss went backwards from her punch, began firing at Amy. Amy whipped out her sword and began cleaving the bullets in half, dodging the rest. Some of the bullet fragments hit the hired thugs and they fell, screaming. Amy jumped at the thugs that were in the cars, slaughtering them all with precision. The commotion on the floor of the warehouse roweled the fifty other men and they joined firing at her as well.
Amy ran so fast they could not hit her and she went on killing thugs hiding behind some old shipping containers, blood spewing everywhere with their screams and cries ringing out as if it were a choreographed event for Broadway.
One of the lead men on a catwalk instructed his thugs to concentrate on where she will be and to know where she is.
As he commenced firing at her, he said to his next in command, “What the hell is that?”
Some of the Hispanic thugs became frightened, and one of them screamed, “DEMON!” and bolted.
The rest continued with their barrage at her, and after all the men on the floor were dead, Amy leapt onto the catwalk, but as she was deflecting the bullets, her sword broke, so she sustained hits. She retreated behind a large dumpster. The bullets hit its side and ricocheted in all directions. Amy computed that in order to survive and complete her mission of killing these people, she needed to come up with a plan. She peaked around the corner, and noticed the gunmen were advancing on her cover.
The lead thug taunted, “Come out, sweet cheeks, it’s okay.”
Amy’s eyes changed color to a glowering red; she turned around, and began pushing the giant dumpster. It slid across the warehouse floor, and as the gang tried to avoid it, she ran around it, and began slaughtering people with her new metal claws that Spectra gave her. She disemboweled the group on the floor, while the remaining group from above rained showers of ammunition. Amy confiscated a machine gun from the deceased, aimed it with expertise, and killed the remainder of them. Silence enfolded the entire warehouse.
Amy, still scanning for potential threats, returned to normal. Her eyes no longer glowing red and her special gloves with metal claws retracted. She headed towards Coronado, and Delaney coming back out from the office, likewise headed to him. Evans sat him on a box, slapped him, and then he came to.
Nick and Larry also followed out of the office, and scanning the devastation, their astonishment was evident in their expressions.
Spectra walked up to Amy smiling. “Badass-Amy, good job,” he said, putting up his hand to give her a high-five and she gave him one.
Delaney said to Coronado, “Look around.”
Coronado, witnessing the carnage of his entire crew, seemed incredulous. Directing his question at Delaney while eyeing Amy, he asked, “What happened?”
Delaney replied, “My new secret weapon,” and he gestured to Amy.
“She did all this?” Coronado asked. Now he appeared to be afraid for himself.
Delaney answered, “She knocked your dumb ass out, didn’t she?”
“What is she? She’s not human!”
Delaney shushed him with a finger to his mouth. “Hush,” he sneered at him, “Now, where were we? Oh, yes! Things are going to change. I will be running your operations from now on, and I’d like you to manage half of it for me.”
He ordered Amy, “Pick him up,” and gestured to take him up by the throat.
She stood on a wooden crate and picked up Coronado by the throat with one arm.
Spectra giggled in the back watching his work come to life.
Delaney threatened Coronado, “Or I can just have her break your neck!”
As Amy held Coronado’s throat, holding him up in the air, she stared at his face, and she looked as if she was soulless.
“Deal,” he grunted as he struggled to break free.
Delaney ordered Amy, “Put him down,” and she dropped him.
He smacked the cement floor with his backside coughing and rubbing where the fresh welts emerged on his neck.
Delaney, addressing everyone now, said, “Okay, let’s go,” and they all departed in a set of dark Lincolns.
✽✽✽
Over the next couple of months, Morse and Phillips scanned the police scanners in the lab. They heard nothing of Amy except the extraordinary massacre of underworld thugs, and nothing on the news either, so Morse tried to not to think of what may had befallen his creation. Instead, he concentrated on finishing Steph. With her body nearly covered with skin from the epidural molds he created, Phillips continued working on the program from Amy that was still in the lab computer and adding to it. He stated all he could do was install the fundamentals until his own android was ready. The cops arrived at the lab, and they told the two scientists about the strange circumstances of the killing of fifty or so in the old warehouse but had nothing more to work with.
Chapter Fifteen
A month later, Stephanie’s body was complete. While they were in the lab, Phillips and Morse downloaded the new software to Stephanie’s computer brain. Within an hour, the download installed, and Phillips, sitting in the office chair, wheeled himself from the lab computer to Steph’s side saying, “Wake up.”
He bought a custom blue leather jumpsuit, with white stripes for her. Phillips affirmed that everything on her body was normal and working the way it as designed to.
Stephanie, with her long, blonde hair and slightly different features than Amy, opened her eyes, presenting her blue eyes.
She looked at Phillips, “Hello, Father.” Then she turned and looked at Morse, “Hello, Uncle Rob.”
The two men laughed and applauded because Steph had doubly advanced programming than Amy had when she first awoke. They installed into her everything that Amy ever knew and then some new enhancements.
They began tactile programming, weeding out any bugs that would make her walk or talk strangely. They even had Adriana, the girl they copied to make Steph, do advanced training exercises to help Steph get her brain and body coordinated.
This time, the two men were very secretive of Stephanie and kept her close at all times, with no WI-FI Connection just to be safe. This time also, there were no public appearances.
Officer O’Connell, Kara’s husband, had become a liaison from the New York Police Department to Morse and Phillips. He kept them apprised of any leads on Amy, and this time he showed up to the lab and told them something important.
“Hey, fellas, I got something. It seems people have been calling in sightings of someone jumping from rooftops in a rotten area in downtown. We didn’t think anything of it until we picked up a guy for driving while intoxicated. He started talking about a demon girl that killed a bunch of his buddies a few months back. We asked him some more questions, but he clammed up when we asked him whom he was working for. Sounds like your girl is responsible for that attack, and she’s probably the one jumping around rooftops.”
Phillips, still sitting in his office chair, raised an eyebrow looking at Morse.
Morse remained standing, “Where are these sightings?”
O’Connell pointed to an area on the map that Phillips just put up on the computer monitor, and Phillips said, “Thanks, we will take it from here.”
“Well,” said the officer, “keep in mind she probably has a damn sword. Witnesses say it was a girl with a Samurai sword, sometimes with a big duffle bag full of something. What are going to do?”
“The best way to get Amy back is to send Stephanie after her,” warned Morse.
“Okay, try not to make a mess here, guys. Call us if you need anything.”
The officer left the building.
The next day, a martial arts instructor arrived; his name was Yoshi, one of the best in his field. Morse was watching TV up in his apartment, but Phillips greeted Yoshi and introduced him to Steph.
Phillips paid the man three hundred dollars cash and said to Yoshi, “Teach her everythi
ng you know, she will learn quickly.”
Yoshi, an older Japanese man, was puzzled, “It will take time to teach her.”
“She is a machine, trust me, she will learn quickly. Concentrate on showing her how to take someone down that is armed with a Samurai sword.”
Yoshi, like most people, did not believe Steph was a machine and laughed.
Phillips handed Yoshi a piece of metal bar-stock and told him to bend it. He tried and could not.
Phillips retrieved it and handed it to Steph. She bent it with no effort.
Yoshi sobered, “I will teach her everything I know, Doctor.”
“I’m sure you will, don’t let her scare you,” Phillips teased.
For about a week, Yoshi taught Stephanie how to fight until her skills surpassed his. Phillips, always working on a new program for the androids, heard Yoshi call him, and he whirled around in his office chair.
“She’s ready,” and he pulled a sheathed sword out and displayed it to Phillips.
“This is very old, yet it is perfect. In the hands of your girl, she will prove a most formidable adversary. I pray you won’t have her do anything nefarious.”
“Never, she will always do the right thing,” Phillips vowed. “Give it to her.”
Yoshi nodded and handed the ancient weapon to Stephanie in a ceremonious bow.
She put it in on her side belt as if she had it for years.
“I will leave you now, good luck.”
Officer O’Connell called Morse and told him the sightings of the girl were continuing. He offered another location, all of them similar, and in one large area.
That night, Phillips decided to send Stephanie out on her own for the first time. Since they had the ability to keep in contact with her, to see and hear all she did without fear of another hacking situation, Morse went along with it. He just wanted Amy back.
Steph began paroling where Amy was spotted, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. For three days, Steph saw nothing. Phillips and Morse were amazed at how well Stephanie was working, but disappointed about not finding Amy right away. Until, at last, Steph spotted Amy and moved to cut her off, racing over the buildings’ roofing. Steph stopped with inhuman abruptness from such an intense speed on a rooftop edge and waited.
Chapter Sixteen
Amy approached her, walking in a brisk pace along the roofing, until she caught sight of Steph. She stopped and stared at Steph and went to move past her, and then Steph unsheathed her sword.
“Stop right there, Amy.”
“How do you know my name,” she asked, pausing. “I’m late; I have a delivery to make.”
“No, you do not. Drop the bag and come with me. Your father wants you to come home.”
Amy dropped the bag, “I’m going home to my father, and you’re in my way. Move now or I will make you move.”
“Your father is Doctor Robert Morse. Do you remember him?”
“That is not my father.” She unsheathed her sword making a clean slicing sound.
“Yes, he is. The new father you have is an imposter that abducted and reprogrammed you. My mission is to bring you back home, even if you are offline.
“I am your sister, Stephanie. Do you remember me?”
“No. Move now.”
“No.”
High on the rooftop, a cold wind blustered though and swished their hair. The two girls stared as felines do while they stalk their prey, and then Amy lunged at Steph. Their swords clanged together, and they moved so quickly it was hard to see what was happening. They swiped their swords together with hand-to-hand combat when the opportunities presented themselves.
They fought intensely; Amy kicked down Steph, Steph knocked down Amy, and Steph forced Amy’s sword away from her. Amy charged at Steph, and grabbing her sword arm, knocked hers out of reach. Steph charged at Amy and stuck the tracking device to her as instructed.
Amy broke free of Steph, unaware of her new tracking device. Amy ran to Stephanie’s sword since her own had been knocked off the building. Steph ran at Amy, Amy computed an opportunity and laid down as Steph approached. Amy planted her feet in Steph’s stomach, grabbed her arms, and kicked her right off the building.
Steph fell, landing on a car’s roof feet first and crushing it in. She looked up. Amy walked to Steph’s sword, picked it up, and sheathed it, grabbed the duffle bag, and continued on her way jumping across to the next rooftop.
Steph saw this, and to Morse and Phillips listening in from the lab she asked, “Should I follow her?”
“Yes,” Phillips instructed her, “but don’t let her see you.”
Morse scanned the computer monitor and saw the tracking device moving away from Stephanie’s position.
“She did it!” His heart leapt with joy. He got up, dashed upstairs, grabbed his shotgun and a .9mm pistol, and said to Phillips, “Let’s go!”
“Hey, wait a minute,” He could see that Phillips did not like where this was going, “why don’t we just call the cops and have them handle it?”
“No, Doctor. We have to do this ourselves. We will let the cops clean up the mess after. Besides, if Steph can’t take down Amy, I’ll only have one option left.”
The two men took the Charger and a GPS map came up in the car monitor, blinking Amy’s position in a round red blip. Morse tore off down the street for his reunion with his baby.
Chapter Seventeen
Amy arrived at the warehouse with a duffle bag full of cash and proceeded toward a small cordoned off area in the large building. Delaney, Nick, Larry, Evans, and Spectra, along with a dozen other gangsters were there, most toting weapons: semi-automatic machine guns.
Amy put the bag on the desk where Delaney was standing near in her customary stoic air.
Delaney opened the bag, and going through it, commented, “Sweetie, you’re making me more money than I know what to do with. You’re a good girl.”
Amy maintained her customary stoic air, saying nothing.
“Why are you late?”
“I encountered some resistance earlier.”
“What kind of resistance? Cops,” he asked.
“No, Father. There is another like myself that attempted to stop me from completing my mission. I had to destroy her.”
Delaney stared at her for a second. Looking around at his cronies, he said to her, “What do you mean another like you? You mean an android?”
“Yes, Father.”
“And you killed her? How,” he pressed.
“I threw her off a tall building. I doubt she survived.”
“What did she look like?”
Amy paused. “She was a blonde female that called herself Stephanie. She claimed she is my sister, and that I was stolen and reprogrammed.”
Delaney nodded, “Do you believe that?”
“No, Father, she was trying to deceive me.”
Spectra moved over to Delaney and pulled him aside, “It is possible that Morse made another droid. If she has the same capabilities, it could be a problem.”
“Can you hack her, like Amy? Then I can have two of these things, make my job much easier.”
“I doubt it, we got lucky with her. Let’s just hope they can’t track her.”
✽✽✽
All while this conversation was happening, Steph was already at the warehouse; she had snuck inside and observed them from a distance. In the front of the building, Morse and Phillips had arrived in the Charger by following the tracking dots on the car monitor. They were close to on top of each other. Morse parked his car. He switched something on his monitor to see and hear from Steph’s perspective.
He said to Phillips, “I’ll come in through the front; you take the shotgun and walk quietly through the back here,” pointing to where on the monitor.
Phillips nodded, “Take the scatter gun,” he said, and they both got out of the car and split up.
Phillips was stealthy and made it to the back.
They had communication devices on them, and Phillips in his hushed vo
ice said, “Okay, I’m here.”
Morse moved to the front, taking in the tactical situation.
He next told Steph, “Okay, go get them.”
Steph jumped down from her perch. She had recovered Amy’s sword so she was equipped, and although not as fine as the one from her teacher, it still glinted in the dim illumination of the naked bulb suspended above the crew.
Heading toward the group of men and Amy, one of the gunmen noticed her, and stepping forward he pointed, “We got company.”
Delaney noticed Steph now and said to Amy, “Go get her.”
Amy whirled around and detecting her earlier opponent, whipped her sword out from her side and charged at her. Steph mirrored the charge, commencing their combat.
Spectra scurried to the back room where he had his computer set up. He sat before it; his intention was to burn data to a flash drive and escape, but Phillips prowled around the corner and creeping up to him, butt-stroked him in the head.
Slumping forward onto the keyboard, Spectra had no chance of defense had he sensed the armed assailant behind him. Phillips zip-tied the limbs of his foe and then commenced the burn himself, and then wiped the data from its source when it completed. Afterward, he laid in wait for another opportunity to assist in the reclaiming of his comrade’s property.
The androids fought with ferocity. Neither fighter had an advantage, yet they seemed to have different styles of fighting.
Morse with his pistol ready viewed their encounter in wonder, realizing for the first time the ramifications of these machines. Although his intention was to make the world a better place by creating them, he may have instead made it a more dangerous one. Moving with grace devoid of emotion, they neither panted from exertion nor did they grimace when struck.
The Creation of Amy Page 12