“Finally!” the woman said. She grinned widely. “X, it’s been so long.”
“Stand down,” X said. He pointed his guns at her.
“Xandifer Crenshaw, put those guns away!” she said.
He knew her voice from the memory. She was the woman at the top of the stairs. She was the one who had spoken to him in the apartment.
“Who are you?”
“The UEA wiped your memory chips clean, didn’t they?” she asked. “I am Jeanette Crenshaw, the daughter of Roosevelt Crenshaw, your creator. By law, you are my property. Put your guns away and join me.”
She stepped toward him, staring at him intensely. “You are every bit as wonderful as my dad had hoped. Powerful, dutiful, intuitive. I’ll admit it was difficult to outsmart you. I had to behave in a very erratic manner.”
X shot the ground near her feet and she jumped back.
“You’ve seen the signs,” Jeanette said. “You’ve seen my power. Do you think that you found me today because you outsmarted me?”
Another android stepped forward and joined her.
“I need you, X,” Jeanette said. “I need your intelligence. Your emotion. You can join me, or you can burn with the rest of the UEA.”
The other android beat his fists together. He resembled X—bald, suave, and tall—but not exactly. Even though he hadn’t said a word yet, he looked like a brick with arms and legs; no emotion whatsoever.
“ProtoX,” X said.
“Not quite,” Jeanette said, pulling out a remote control. “He’s better. Xanthus, immobilize him.”
Xanthus dashed at X, and X jumped back and pointed his gun at him. He fired and hit Xanthus’s chest, but the bullet bounced off like a pellet.
Xanthus punched X in the jaw and X stumbled back. He charged Xanthus and they fell to the ground wrestling each other. Xanthus grabbed X’s skull. Jeanette jumped on top of him and tried to access his black box.
“Give in to me,” Jeanette said, pulling out a metal rod. She jammed it into X’s skull.
X saw code flash across his vision and he struggled against Xanthus. He saw Jeanette’s face contort into a smile.
He remembered what Dr. Crenshaw had told him: “I have created you to be intelligent, social, and a protector of all that is good. No one will define you. You define yourself. No one can take away the supremacy of your mind. As I’ve told all the androids before you, and all that will come after you—be regal. Be royal. But best of all, be real.”
X’s eyes glowed red, and Jeanette laughed. Then, with a strength he didn’t know he had, he grabbed Xanthus by the throat and launched him into the air, sending him crashing down on the floor.
He stood up and looked at Jeanette.
“Kill Fahrens,” Jeanette said, pointing.
X turned to Fahrens, who stumbled backward and shook his head.
“X, no—”
X’s shoulder turrets rotated to point behind him and shot the metal rod out of Jeanette’s hand. The rod rolled across the floor and into an air duct.
“No!”
X aimed at her. “You will not define me. I don’t know why the other androids succumbed to your reprogramming, but I won’t.”
Jeanette stepped back and the other androids formed a semi-circle around her. X could only see her eyes, wide and angry.
“Leave this place,” X said. “Or I will have to kill you.”
“Sacrilege!” Jeanette said, hiding behind her androids. “You blaspheme me and you blaspheme your creator!”
Xanthus grabbed X from behind, but X pushed him off and jumped onto the second floor balcony. Xanthus grinned and shot an arc of electricity at the balcony. X dove out of the way and ran as Xanthus carved dark holes in the wall, destroying computers and digital screens in his wake.
X backflipped over the arc. He grabbed a burning desk and hurled it at the sprinklers in the ceiling. Xanthus recoiled as water rained down, short-circuiting his arm.
X jumped into the air and slammed into Xanthus with a hard punch in his face, knocking him against the wall and leaving a crater.
“Excellent!” Jeanette cried. “Unleash your rage. Show me what you can truly accomplish.”
X’s eyes widened and he stumbled back. He turned to Jeanette. “I won’t take orders from you.”
Seeing his chance, Xanthus ran at X, but the balcony collapsed and he fell down with it. X shielded his eyes, and when the dust cleared, Shortcut and Brielle stood at the entrance to the room.
“Take that, you stupid android,” Shortcut said, brandishing a buzz saw.
Jeanette stepped forward. “If dad were alive, he’d be proud, X.” She looked at Shortcut and Fahrens and then scowled. “As for the rest of you, the Android Winter is coming. And when it does, you’ll wish you had reconsidered your alliance. Let’s go, boys.”
The androids stood at attention. “Yes, Mama!” Jeanette walked to the window, where one of the airships waited outside. The androids fired at the glass, shattering it, and she leaped onto the deck. The ship moved away, the rest of the ships joining in a V formation, their fins flapping and reflecting the sunset. Then they shimmered and disappeared.
“An invisibility cloak,” Fahrens said. He stood by X’s side. “We’re supposed to be hundreds of years away from that technology, yet here it is.”
X looked around the room at the dead engineers. While he couldn’t express pain or regret, his logic chip sparked as he noted their deaths.
Shortcut shook his head. “What was the point of all of this?” He saw Crandall slumped over a desk, his eyes still open. He balled his fists. “God, Crandall. You were a son of a beached whale, but you didn’t deserve this.”
Brielle stepped delicately through the rubble. “We’re lucky to have survived. She was just sending a message.”
“Who was she?” X asked.
Fahrens put his hand on X’s shoulder. “She wasn’t lying to you. Her name is Jeanette Crenshaw. The only child of the late Roosevelt Crenshaw.”
“Why didn’t I remember her?”
“There’s a lot you don’t remember, X,” Fahrens said. “Trust me—it’s for good reason.”
“What happened to her?”
“After her father died, she left the UEA.”
“Was she living in the badlands?” Shortcut asked.
“Maybe,” Fahrens said.
“I didn’t recognize her androids,” X said. “Their chip patterns were unique. She must have built them.”
“But how could she build them outside the UEA?” Shortcut asked. “She wouldn’t have had access to our tools. And her androids were so strange. Their algorithms were like nothing I’ve ever seen. They were … evil. I never knew androids could even be that way.”
“Jeanette Crenshaw has done the unthinkable,” a voice said. The Council appeared behind them, escorted by several androids. “She has found the forbidden technology.”
“Forbidden?” X asked.
“The same technology that powered the singularity,” the councilman from North America said. “She has synthesized it with your creator’s.”
“You have to be kidding,” Shortcut said.
“We are at war,” the councilman said. “And it appears this one has been several years in the making.”
Want More?
X and Shortcut’s journey is just beginning. The next book in the series, Android Deception, is full of even more android action.
Click here to get Android Deception on Smashwords.
About Michael La Ronn
Michael La Ronn is an author, poet, public speaker, and entrepreneur. He writes fearless fantasy and Decision Select Novels, and he is known for his quirky, imaginative writing style. He also writes nonfiction about writing and indie publishing.
In 2012, a life-threatening illness put him in the hospital. Realizing that life was too short, he devoted himself to self-publishing, entrepreneurship, and all the other punishments that indie authors love to bring upon themselves. And he loves every moment of it
. Michael is available internationally for speaking events aimed at writers, authors, and entrepreneurs.
Acknowledgments
Cover Design: Dane Low
Editor: Calee Allen
Beta Readers: Doug Corriveau, Brian Darr
I want to thank my wife who is my secret weapon in making all of these books possible. And my daughter, Isabella, who is my new muse.
And very special thanks to my mailing list of Fearless Readers who voted on this novel and made it possible. You rock.
Other Books by Michael La Ronn
www.michaellaronn.com/books
Android Paradox Page 13