by Simon Archer
“And that wife of his, Leah, is the stuff instant best friends are made of,” Bev added.
“They seemed very different from the rest of the clowns at that party last night,” I said. “Speaking of the Lindy’s, Kennedi, what did you and Leah talk about last night? I meant to ask you earlier.”
“She had asked me why I was different from the other cat girls she’d met and heard about,” Kennedi recounted. “I told her about my defect. She told me that she and Charlie had recently been gifted a CG that she isn’t really comfortable around. She said the CG always made her feel like she was being addressed as an owner instead of a person. Leah has no desire to be master to anyone other than herself.”
“I could see that about her. She didn’t seem like the kind of woman who’d enjoy having a staff of servants,” I stated.
“Did you tell her about the Omnicorp programming that makes them like that?” Theo asked Kennedi.
“I did not. That’s not a bit of information that I think I should be floating around to people,” Kennedy answered and then looked at me. “Should I have told her?”
“No, you did the right thing. There may be an appropriate time in the future, but for now, you’re good,” I confirmed for her.
“Was that it?” Theo asked.
“No,” Kennedi went on. “She told me about some of the organizations she was a part of and the charity work she did. There were a few of the women in the room that she divulged some information about but nothing above a little factual gossip.”
“They’ve asked us to dinner tomorrow night,” I informed Theo and Bev.
“They will probably take you to their place. It has the most amazing food,” Bev said, slicing herself another piece of banana bread.
“Where is that?” I asked.
Both Theo and Bev looked up at me like I had just asked the stupidest question they’d ever heard.
“You don’t know?” Theo asked, shocked.
“If you tell me, then I’ll know,” I responded, my curiosity growing.
“Clark,” Bev said, leaning forward, “Charlie and Leah own the Red Lion Hotel and Casino. They also own the other two major casinos in town and several in Vegas. Surely he told you?”
“He did not tell me. I asked what he did, but he was rather vague in his response. Something about being in the hospitality industry,” I told her, realizing just how understated Charlie had been during our conversation.
“That sounds like something he’d say. He and Leah aren’t the kind to be flashing their clout or money around, but they both have very keen business minds,” Theo explained. “All the people you were with at the party are most likely staying at one of the hotels the two of them own.”
“That explains why they were there. Neither seemed to care about the Platform at all but mentioned that it was good business to know what their clientele was up to,” I said.
Theo leaned back in his chair and asked, “Do you know what they want to discuss at dinner?”
Kennedi smiled and said, “I got the impression they were simply excited to have company that wasn’t all... what’s the expression?... smoke-and-mirrors.”
Theo, Bev, and I all looked at each other and broke out laughing. Kennedi just stared from one to the other.
“What did I say?” she asked, confused.
Bev reached over and patted her hand and said, “We are just so proud of you for the smoke-and-mirror reference! Two days ago, you would have been asking us what ‘smoke-and-mirror company’ was like!”
Kennedi laughed with us. “I told you I was a quick study!” she exclaimed and continued to eat her breakfast.
After breakfast was cleared, Theo and I went to work on the fireplace. Demolition went quickly, and soon, we had all of the old rock hauled away and the new stones stacked in the living room, ready to be cemented in place. Bev had pies to make for a function in town that she was part of and decided to take the opportunity to teach Kennedi how to bake.
I welcomed the opportunity to work in silence. Theo was a no-nonsense co-worker, so there wasn’t a lot of conversation. As I started slapping mud and setting the stones that Theo was handing me, I couldn’t help but try to pinpoint why Charlie and Leah Lindy would be so interested in Kennedi and me. I understood that they simply might be looking to spend time with people who weren’t as pretentious as those they were surrounded with normally, but I kept thinking there had to be something else as well. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.
By the time Theo and I were ready to set the mantle and finish the upper stonework, the entire house smelled like pie. Strawberry pie, apple pie, cherry pie, even blueberry pie. Just as I noticed how much of an appetite I’d worked up, Kennedi came into the living room. “Sandwiches are ready, gentlemen.” She nodded towards the dining room. “Bev and I will be leaving soon to take the pies to the local high school bake sale.”
“Thank you,” Theo and I said in unison.
Kennedi walked back to the kitchen, and I could hear her telling Bev that she wanted to carry the pies out to the truck for her. Theo and I stopped working long enough to eat our sandwiches and down a cup of coffee and then went back to it. The project was coming together nicely. The new stones Theo had picked out were a mix of dark gray and black, and we laid them randomly, giving the fireplace a naturally marbled look.
Three hours later, I laid the last stone and stood back with Theo to examine our work. The fireplace would still need grout-work and sealer, but that couldn’t be done until the mud had dried. We set to cleaning up the tools and supplies we’d used and finished up just as Bev and Kennedi got back from the bake sale. The two of them came into the living room to examine our handy-work.
“That looks absolutely perfect!” Bev exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “You were right about the stone colors, Theo.”
“Thanks, I thought you’d like it!” Theo smiled from ear-to-ear. It was obvious that praise from his wife was something he thoroughly enjoyed.
“I do! You two must be famished, I’ll go get dinner started,” Bev said and whisked Kennedi with her off to the kitchen.
“I appreciate your help, Clark,” Theo said to me as we hauled the last of the tools out of the house.
“I’m glad to be able to do it,” I told him. “You and Bev have been more than hospitable when you could have just sent us on our way. I consider us lucky to have had the good fortune to have met you.”
“Well, I did need those tractors fixed,” Theo said jokingly while he finished putting his tools away.
“I’m happy to be your mechanic, in that case.” I chuckled, and the two of us headed out of the barn.
Just as we were crossing the drive to get to the house, we saw a car, not unlike the one that had taken Kennedi and me to the party the night before, coming up the drive. We waited for it to pull in front of the house. A woman in a crisp set of black hospital scrubs, holding a black medical bag, got out.
“Are you Clark?” she asked flatly, looking at me.
“What do you want with him?” I asked back.
“I need to give you your physical,” she stated, ignoring the fact that I hadn’t confirmed my identity.
“What do I need a physical for?” I said, instantly uncomfortable with her.
“It’s a requirement between Platform matches. Where can I set up?” she asked as though I should have expected her arrival.
“I’m standing and breathing. That’ll have to be good enough for you.” I wasn’t a fan of the medical profession when they were needed, and I wasn’t about to let someone poke and prod me when there wasn’t a need for it.
“If you want to compete this week, I’ll need your vitals and to check the laceration you got during your last match. If you don’t want to compete, I’m more than happy to go home and have dinner with my family,” she said coldly and waited for me to make a decision.
Theo stepped to the side and waved at her to head into the house. “The dining room is free for the next few minutes.” He looked at me, shrugged
his shoulders, and put his hands up. He obviously hadn’t expected the woman’s visit either but wasn’t interested in debating it in the driveway.
Once in the dining room, the woman looked at me like I was a nuisance and said, “My name is Sloane. I’m the staff nurse for Omnicorp.” She immediately went to work and was amazingly efficient. In under fifteen minutes, she managed to take my blood pressure, check my pulse and oxygen, test my reflexes, and examine the now non-existent wound on my ribs. Everything was moving along as I’d expect in a routine medical visit until she took out a camera and photographed my ribs.
“Why the hell are you taking pictures of my ribs?” I asked her, standing up and pulling my shirt down to stop her from getting any more shots.
“It is protocol to document proof that prior wounds have healed,” she answered, unaffected by my curt tone.
“Well, now, you have your documentation. I’ll see you out.” I was done with this woman and her exam.
“No need. I’ll show myself out,” she said and snapped her bag closed. She swiftly lifted her bag and headed for the door. Theo and I walked to the kitchen where Kennedi and Bev were slicing up ingredients for a salad, and watched her out the window until her car was out of sight.
I turned to Theo. “That was about the most random thing to happen to me since I got here, and that’s saying a lot!”
“I wasn’t aware that Omnicorp gave a shit about their combatants’ health,” Theo said sarcastically, and we both laughed.
“They don’t,” Kennedi said without looking up from the carrot she was dicing. “They just need proof that you are healthy after a match so that they can’t be held liable if you die during the next one.”
“Oh, well as long as they aren’t liable, then I guess the world can keep revolving around them, now can’t it?” Theo joked and slapped me on the shoulder.
19
Later that evening, after dinner, the four of us decided to play a friendly game of cards. We started with five-card draw and soon ended up playing a never-ending game of Texas Holdem.
After a few losses, Theo folded his hand and tipped back in his chair. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, Kennedi, what did you and that other cat girl in the skybox talk about?
“I’d almost forgotten about that,” I said and glanced up at Kennedi as I dealt another hand.
“We didn’t say a whole lot,” Kennedi explained. “She is a monitored unit, so she had to be very careful with what she said. I had to piece the words she wanted me to hear together one syllable at a time as she inserted them into other words. She was warning me to make myself scarce.”
“Why would she want to warn you?” Bev asked, caution creeping into her voice.
“She heard Alan talk about my defect, and she knows he wants all defects to go to the recycling center. She said that she’d never seen any cat girl who had a defect more than once,” Kennedi went on.
“Why the hell didn’t you say something sooner?” I asked, irritated that she hadn’t told me about the conversation earlier.
“It wasn’t of consequence, really,” Kennedi continued. “Besides, I already knew how the Omnicorp admin would react to me having a defect. I just hadn’t known, at the time, that Alan already knew about mine.”
“I’d really like to know how the fuck they knew. None of them shook your hand so they couldn’t have seen your mark,” I spat out.
“I’d venture to guess that if someone like Leah Lindy could know something was different about Kennedi just by hearing about her, that the suits could recognize behavior out of the ordinary rather easily,” Theo said.
He wasn’t wrong, so I left it at that. We played a few more hands before deciding to head off to bed. Kennedi and I said ‘goodnight’ to Theo and Bev and headed to the loft.
The next morning, I opened my eyes to see Kennedi sitting on her knees, staring at me.
“Exactly why are you staring at me like some sort of psycho?” I asked, only half kidding.
“I’ve been waiting for you to wake up!” she said excitedly. “We get to go build your new CG today!”
“When did ‘we’ decide that?” I asked sleepily, wondering what time it was. The room was still dark.
“There’s no better time to do it!” she exclaimed. “We have dinner with the Lindys tonight, so by then, you’ll know more about what they went through building theirs, and the next match is very soon so you’ll be training again. Today is the perfect day to do it!”
Kennedi sounded so much more excited about getting the new CG than I felt. She did have a point, though. If Leah Lindy was so interested in Kennedi’s differences versus standard cat girls, it would be beneficial to have some experience with a Maid to Order store.
“Alright, I’ll get up. How far is the nearest CG store?” I asked, sitting up and reaching for a nearby pair of jeans.
“Four hours. It’s in Reno.” She was beaming.
“That’s eight hours' drive time!” I said, thinking she may catch that I didn’t feel like making an eight-hour trip. “And tell me why you are so excited to bring home another cat girl, anyway?”
“It’s going to be so much fun to finally be the one teaching instead of being taught all the time!” Kennedi saw my look of confusion. “What I mean is teaching about the nuances. The tiny human things that aren’t included in the updates. The things that most CGs will never know about because they are too busy being ordered around.”
“Ah, gotcha,” I said. “Still, it’s eight hours we don’t have.”
“We have it. It’s only five o’clock,” she said and jumped up off the bed.
That was more than enough conversation for me before I’d had any coffee, so I got up and started getting ready.
Half an hour later, after grabbing coffee and hazelnut muffins from the house, Kennedi and I were on the road, headed to the nearest Maid to Order store in Reno. We had a four-hour trek ahead of us, and I thought it would be the perfect time to find out what I should expect.
“What is the process that goes on at these stores? I mean, do you point and click, or are you presented models and pick one? How does it work?” I asked Kennedi.
“The salesperson will take your card and lead us to a private room. All the selections will take place there. Your CG will be built as you choose your options.”
“Ok, that sounds simple enough. About how long does it take?” I asked.
“The average selection process is about two hours.”
“Two hours?” I asked. “Why would it take two hours to pick a hair color and a special skill?”
Kennedi smiled at me as though she had won an argument that I wasn’t present for.
“Why are you smiling?” I inquired.
“I’m simply looking forward to this is all,” she insisted. “Regardless of how long it takes, it’s going to be fun. Now, no more questions! Half the fun will be the experience itself!”
“Fair enough,” I said, and surprisingly, I realized I agreed with her. It would be fun to build a catgirl.
When we pulled into the Maid to Order store parking lot, we were met by two valet parking attendants. One took the car, and the other led us to the door where a doorman, dressed in a black tuxedo with a bright red vest and bowtie, held the door open for us to pass through.
We entered into a massive, brightly lit showroom. The entire room was predominantly white. The walls were white. The plush carpet under our feet was white. The bar-height tables littered throughout the room were white. The only hint of color was from the cat girls on display. Non-functioning cat girls of every variety were displayed in glass capsules that were recessed into the walls on the right side of the room. The ones in capsules on the left side of the room were demonstrating various skills that apparently were options for purchase. Across the back wall, there were several white doors. The room felt sterile and was so bright that I could just imagine the number of people who’d left with a headache as well as a cat girl.
Directly in the middle of the showr
oom was a large check-out desk. It was three-sided, with the opening facing the doors on the back wall. Behind the desk were four petite women who looked to be in their mid-thirties. Each was dressed in a short, tight black skirt, fitted white dress shirt, and black suit jacket. They also each had a bowtie around their collars that was the same shade of bright red that the doorman had to accent his tuxedo. One of them saw Kennedi and me and came out from behind the desk and walked over to us.
“Welcome to Maid to Order,” she said, her shiny silver name tag informing us that her name was Jane. Her voice was low and reminded me of being in a library. For the first time, I noticed the incredible lack of noise in the room. I could see several other shoppers with their mouths moving as they discussed their options but couldn’t make out a single distinct word.
“Hello, Jane,” I started. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Clark, and this is Kennedi.”
“Nice to meet you as well,” Jane said, smiling at us politely. “Have you shopped with us before?”
“I have not,” I answered.
Jane’s smile got bigger as though she was happy to be dealing with a noob. “Tell me, do you have certain traits in mind for your cat girl?”
“Not specifically,” I answered, fishing the card Alan had given me out of my pocket and holding it out to her.
She took the small envelope from me and pulled the card out. She saw the front and glanced up at me quickly. She then proceeded to flip the card over and read the back. Her expression took on a serious look, and she raised one hand in the air and snapped her fingers. It was the loudest noise I’d heard since we walked in.
“I see you are a special Omnicorp VIP guest,” she said, her smile returning. Her snap had summoned two of the other women from behind the desk who were now walking toward us.
Kennedi took a small step forward and stood taller than I’d ever seen her. “Yes, we are guests of Henry Blackwell and Alan Graves,” she said. Her tone was low and polite but commanding at the same time. Jane took a half step back and seemed to shrink just a little. I puzzled as to why this woman would be intimidated by Kennedi but was even more curious as to why Kennedi was actively trying to intimidate her.