by Gini Koch
My record remained intact. The android dropped its eyes before I had to give. “Fine.” He hit a button and the privacy window rolled down.
Looked back at the boys. “Get the four of you inside where it’s safe,” I said to Len. “Remember, this is just like when I first met you guys.”
Len blinked, nodded, grabbed Evalyne and started to pull her back. Kyle looked uncertain, but he grabbed Phoebe and did the same. “You’re sure?” Kyle asked worriedly. Len nudged him.
“This is just like when we were in Vegas, Kyle. I promise.”
Saw the light dawn for Kyle, too. Waited until the four of them were inside, the boys willingly now, the women far less so. Made sure my team was still conscious and alive in the back, then got into the car and closed the door. “Where are we going?” I asked as our android driver pulled us away from the curb and I rolled the window down. The windblown look was always in fashion, especially because I had to figure an android could release gas and not be affected by it. Besides, the banana clip was doing a great job of holding my hair in place so far.
“Somewhere we won’t be found,” he replied as we headed off and the others in the back followed my lead and rolled their windows down, too. Ensured I was turned sideways in the seat, with my seatbelt on, so that I could keep an eye on our driver and my team in the back.
Lizzie was texting away, as was Abigail. Sadly, my looking back meant he looked in the rearview mirror. “Turn off all your phones and give them to me,” he ordered.
Found it interesting that he’d taken so long to ask for our phones. But then again, he wasn’t one of Marling’s Top Models. Stephanie had clearly followed the schematics, but creating something like androids so lifelike as to fool humans and empaths both required artistry as well as scientific knowhow. Marling may have been one of the Original Board of Directors for the Crazed Evil Megalomaniacs Society, but he was definitely an artist. And Stephanie wasn’t.
No one handed their phones over. He put his arm out and grabbed me by the neck. “I’ll crush her windpipe if you don’t.” Everyone’s phones from the back dropped into the front bench, between him and me. He let go of me immediately. “You, too,” he said. “And turn the phones off.”
“Thanks, gang.” Turned their phones off. “So, what do we call you?” I asked as I dug my phone out and massaged my neck. He definitely had the Android Grip.
“Thomas.”
“No way. You’re not him.”
He shot me a snide look. “I’m truly Thomas Kendrick.”
“He’s definitely not,” Abigail said.
“See? You’re truly not, though you may not know it for sure. You are his android. So, you can choose between the names I’m willing to use. Kendroid or, if we’re playing nicely, TK.”
“I don’t understand why you want to give me different names.”
“You’ll adjust. Can we use my phone to listen to music?”
He glanced at me. “I have a GPS scrambler.”
Decided not to ask him if the scrambler was in the car or inside of him. That was me, using the old diplomacy skills like a boss. “Super-duper and whatever. Does it affect music? Because if it doesn’t, music would be nice.”
He shrugged. “Go ahead. Just don’t try to send a message or answer a call.”
Pulled out my adapter and plugged it into the dashboard. Hit random and Mötley Crüe’s “Same Old Situation” came on. Had that right. “So, TK, why do you want all of us?” Figured it might be wise to keep him talking. My experience said that keeping your enemies monologuing was the only sure technique for short- and long-term survival.
“You’re all important.”
Waited. This appeared to be his entire thought on the matter. “Yeah? Important to whom?”
“Various interests.”
We were on Independence Avenue, heading for what turned out to be the 295 going north. Apparently we were heading for Maryland. Wondered if we were heading to Camp David, but didn’t have a real guess—I’d never been there, and since I was driven more than did the driving these days I tended to not pay a lot of attention to where we were going. Probably needed to pay a lot of attention right now.
Looked around to see if I could spot anyone following us. That someone was or would be trying to follow us seemed likely, since I doubted that Evalyne, Phoebe, Len, and Kyle had all decided to say the hell with us and just declare that it was now Miller Time. They might have wanted to, but had to figure their sense of duty would have overridden those desires.
Didn’t spot any limos. Well, that wasn’t true—we were in the D.C. area and it was a typical day for most people, so there were limos and other nice cars with official drivers about. But none of them were swerving in and out of traffic. The only vehicle doing so was a motorcycle—a black crotch rocket. The rider was all in black, too, helmet included. But that was how most people rode on a sport bike—like they were on a racetrack.
The music changed to “Machine Slave” by Front Line Assembly as the Kendroid put the pedal down. Really hoped that there weren’t any cops nearby—knew without asking that he’d kill them if they tried to pull us over. Looked around for cops. None. No limos, either, or big burly SUVs, or anything else that seemed like it might be carrying the cavalry.
“Would those interests have names?”
“Yes.”
“Wanna share them with me?”
“No.”
Interesting. Most of the androids that I’d interacted with couldn’t stop running their yaps. This one was, naturally, Mr. Curt And To The Point. Figured.
“Why did you take Drax’s helicarrier?”
“Because we need it.”
“Who’s we?”
“You’ll find out.”
“Can’t wait. What about the people who were on that helicarrier?”
“What about them?”
“Where are they?”
“You’ll see.”
Promising. But no guarantee that we were really heading to where the flyboys and the others were. “Are they okay? As in unharmed and unchanged?”
“For now.”
That boded. “Who’s making the decisions on whether or not they’ll remain unharmed and unchanged? Stephanie?”
He pushed a button on the dashboard. “Go to sleep now.”
Prepared myself for gas. There was none that I could tell. But I started to feel sleepy and I could tell that Lizzie did, too, by the way her head was bobbing. Noted the three A-Cs looked tense.
“Sonic wavelengths,” White said.
“I don’t hear anything.” Well, other than Front Line Assembly.
“Subsonic.” Mahin sounded tense. “They can kill us if they go on too long.”
Considered options. Had no idea if it would work, but it had worked in the past. Grabbed my phone and turned the volume up to high just as the song changed to “Bring Me To Life” by Evanescence.
Results were happily immediate. I felt more awake, Lizzie jerked and seemed more conscious, White and the girls looked less pained. The Kendroid, on the other hand, looked like he was having some issues.
He was jerking and twitching. Revised “issues” to “seizure.” While we were driving down the highway at a rather high rate of speed. Right toward what looked like a traffic jam.
Always the way.
CHAPTER 50
DECIDED I’D HAVE trouble wresting the steering wheel away from an android who didn’t want to let it go. Found the button on the dash that the Kendroid had pushed and pushed it again.
“Subsonic sounds have stopped,” Abigail shouted. “Now we’re just all at risk of going immediately deaf.”
“Everyone’s a critic!” Checked the android. He was still jerking. Lowered the volume until he stopped jerking. This timed out for him to stop twitching and slam on the brakes.
The team in the back e
nded up on the floor. Heard a lot of complaining and what sounded like quiet bird squawks of anger and Poof grumbling. Well, at least I knew my Stealth Backup was here.
“That was foolish,” the Kendroid said. “I almost lost control.”
“I feel so ashamed of myself. I’ll just keep the music ready to go up to eleven, though, and you, Kendroid, can keep your fingers off of anything that’s going to incapacitate anyone else in this car.”
“I’ll agree but only if you turn the music off.”
“For now, sure.” The song was almost over anyway.
“Why did you call me Kendroid instead of TK?”
“Because I didn’t like what you did to us. Do you prefer TK?”
“I’m . . . not sure.”
“Well, feel free to ponder that and let me know your preference.”
“I will. Thank you.”
The traffic jam was over fast and we were back to racing along. Decided to accept the détente and stop trying to question him—for all I knew he had more nasty buttons he could push.
This worked for a few minutes and several miles, but the scenery, while pretty, was kind of mundane. Besides, I wasn’t really all that great with silence. Presumably this meant I wasn’t comfortable with myself. Not true. I was all about the wonder that was me. I just liked sharing that wonder with others. Also, I was starting to get sleepy and it wasn’t due to anything that the Kendroid was doing—the movement of the car was enough. Clearly I was totally calm and cool in the face of danger. Also clearly I needed to stay awake and alert and all that jazz.
There was nothing for it—I had to run my yap or die. Time to see if the interrogation skills were up to snuff. “Why did you want Lizzie?”
“She’s your daughter.”
Caught that Abigail had her hand over Lizzie’s mouth. Managed not to blow it myself, but only just. Frankly, if I hadn’t been sleepy, I’d have blurted out that he had seriously wrong information. As it was, this woke me right up, so that was one for our meager win column.
“Ah, so it’s the usual grab my daughter ploy?” It always was, when you got right down to it, or at least had been since Jamie had been born. Was now glad that Nadine had been totally on the case and taken the kids to daycare and that Jeff had insisted I leave Jamie and Charlie with Nadine. Because if they’d been in the White House, they’d have been with us.
“Your daughter is very powerful.”
“So everyone likes to point out.” Looked out the side view mirror. There was a motorcycle behind us, a black crotch rocket. The rider was all in black, helmet included. Couldn’t be sure if it was the same one I’d seen back in D.C. or not. “Why did you want Richard?”
“He’s important.”
“You said we were all important.”
“True.”
“So why him and the other gals? Why was it okay to bring them along and not the others?”
“The others are humans.”
“You could tell?”
“Yes.”
“Single heartbeats,” White said.
“That’s one way, yes,” the Kendroid agreed. “Though only two of you in the car have two hearts. The others were all security. That’s the other way.”
Picked up the sarcasm. But if he was susceptible to being sarcastic, then he might also be susceptible to flattery, meaning now wasn’t the time to point out that we had A-Cs working security, too. “Wow, you can hear heartbeats from far away?”
“Yes. Can’t you?”
“Um, no, not really. I can if I’m leaning my head on someone’s chest. Otherwise, not so much.”
“Can’t the others?”
“No,” White said. “We can’t. It takes very specialized hearing.”
“Jeff could pick it up.” At least I remembered that he had when we were in Vegas.
“Jeffrey has been enhanced,” White reminded me. “And that had happened prior to the time I believe you’re speaking of. It’s also possible to hone listening skills to that extent, but it takes training and focus, which he also had. The average A-C can’t hear heartbeats any better than you can, Missus Martini.”
“As always, I learn something new every day. So, Kendroid, you’ve got some cool skills. What else can you do?”
“What everyone else can.” He sounded uncomfortable. “I don’t like Kendroid.”
“Noted.” Not sure what it meant, but I was happy to take whatever I could get.
“You’re not like everyone else,” Mahin said gently. “That’s why we’re interested.”
“Of course I’m not like everyone else! I’m Thomas Kendrick. That makes me an individual.”
“What do you do for a living?” Abigail was getting in on this with the rest of us.
“I . . . do things.” The Kendroid looked like he’d just realized how lame that sounded.
“Yeah, but what things? Exactly? We’re just curious.” Ensured my tone was interested and friendly.
“I . . .” He was quiet but not having a seizure or pushing buttons to knock us out, so decided we were still doing okay. “I have a heartbeat.”
Exchanged the WTF look with those in the back.
“But you know it’s not a real heart, don’t you?” Lizzie asked.
“I have thoughts and feelings.”
“You do,” Abigail agreed. “But like Lizzie said, they aren’t quite like ours, are they?”
“What do you do for a living?” I asked as gently as I could, because Abigail’s question had been the one that had thrown him and he’d avoided answering.
“A living? I . . . I don’t . . .” His voice trailed off as he moved the car over. Either our exit was coming up or he was thoughtfully going to park before he had another seizure.
“Why did you take the helicarrier and the people?” I asked as we did indeed pull off the parkway onto route 198. Per the signs we were entering Laurel, Maryland. Had no idea what was here or nearby, but sincerely hoped it was an invisible helicarrier.
Also sincerely hoped we had no state police nearby, because the Kendroid wasn’t slowing down.
“Because we needed them.”
Was going to ask another question but chose to look around and check the side view mirror. There was a black motorcycle coming off the 295 and onto this highway. Wondered who this was and if they were our backup or if they were just heading wherever we were for whatever reason.
We’d gone in and out of wooded areas along the way here. If we’d gone to the left we’d have been in what had, from the parkway, looked like a typical little city area. But we’d gone right and were in more woods. Heavy woods.
“Are we near Camp David?”
“No,” White replied. “Not close, really. We could get there from here, but from where we started there’s a far more direct route.”
We made a sharp left, almost a U-turn, tires squealing impressively since the Kendroid clearly wasn’t in the mood to slow down for anything other than a traffic jam, and headed into even more forest on a much smaller road.
“I think . . . I think we’re heading to somewhere bad,” Mahin said, as we made a right, with slightly less tire squealing but still far more than anyone in the car probably enjoyed. “I’ve been studying this part of the country under your father’s direction, Kitty. And I think we’re heading to an abandoned area.” She looked worried, and more so as we made another right onto a really bad road, one that was clearly not on the repair schedule.
“Well, that would make sense for what’s been going on.” Stephanie was merely using the time-honored bad guy move of making an abandoned building her base of operations. “Lots of areas get abandoned. What’s bad about this one?”
Looked around. There were a lot of big buildings and not a lot of other cars. In fact, I saw no other cars at all. There was a lot of scrub and overgrown bushes and trees and the like.
“What’s bad,” Mahin said as we pulled into a circular drive that had definitely seen better days, “is that this entire complex is part of the Forest Haven Insane Asylum.”
CHAPTER 51
“OF COURSE IT IS! Because that is exactly, and I do mean exactly, how my life works. What’s the skinny on this place, Mahin?”
“It was closed due to horrific treatment of patients. If there’s any place that could be haunted in this region, we’ve just arrived there.”
“Of course it is! Maybe we’re just passing through.”
The Kendroid parked the car. “Here we are.” He took the keys and got out.
We were parked in front of a dilapidated brick building that had four stories with a weird attic-looking thing on top. Everything around it was overgrown, and even though we were here at the start of summer, all the plant life looked like it was at the turn of fall to winter—alive but mostly dead or dying.
Most of the many windows looked black, but I realized they were open or broken, because I could see window frames dotted about. In addition to this, there was debris and, of course, graffiti all around, too.
If there was a competition for Creepiest Building, this place was going to take the blue ribbon.
Looked back at the others. “So much for that passing through idea. Haunted, you say, Mahin?”
“Nothing confirmed,” she said tensely.
“Horrible conditions inside?”
She nodded. “Among the worst. They literally just left it, and no one will buy the property. For reasons.”
“I don’t believe in no ghosts. But, let me also say that I didn’t really believe in aliens until I met all of you, so . . .”
“Ghosts can’t hurt you,” Lizzie said. “It’s the living you have to watch.”
“My ‘daughter’ makes a good point.”
The Kendroid poked his head back into the car. “Get out now. We’re here.”
“Gotcha. We’re just all being Cowardly Lions right now. Give us a mo.”