Cruel and Unusual (Somewhere In-Between)

by C. E. Wilson

  “What did I do?” I asked sharply. “What the hell is going on?”

  She inhaled and exhaled deeply, standing on the deck and crossing her arms. “I’m sorry, Mr. Davenport, but your behavior has been strange as of late.”

  “What? Based on what grounds? You only see me once a month…if that!”

  “The way you acted when we were here last month is the reason I was concerned. You were hiding something—a sex doll, as I recall—and though I tried to help you, you didn’t want my help.”

  “And that’s my right! It doesn’t mean I’m being suspicious!”

  “That’s not all,” Janet said. Her eyes trailed into my home and then back to me. “There have been louder and angrier messages about the new elect project that’s been compromised. Project TruthSeeker.”

  “Great! Swell! What does that have to do with me? You think I’m working to overthrow the government while I’m in prison? Do I seem that smart to you?”

  “You certainly do not,” Milo called again.

  My hands balled up into fists as more clattering and even the sound of nails being pulled from the floor filled the cool air. Of course Milo would check under the floorboards. If I had listened to Verity, she could have been found by then. My paranoia was working in my favor for once.

  “The drone that escaped definitely came this way, Mr. Davenport,” Janet continued. “At first, we were all looking for the same thing. A flying camera. A drone. A robotic bird of some kind. A recording device of some sort. The point is that we were looking for some sort of technology, but we were wrong, Mr. Davenport. And after what was found two days ago, it finally all came together.”

  I tried to remain composed. That didn’t sound good. “What was found?” I asked.

  “The spy drone,” she said in a soft voice. “Well…one of them.”

  “So what was it?”

  “A robot,” Janet said, smiling. “To our eyes, it looks like an extremely realistic winged doll, but it’s a very complicated piece of equipment.”

  “Equipment?” I growled, not liking the idea of someone referring to someone like Verity in that way. She must have been talking about Verity Four. “And you said she—it—looked like a doll?”

  Janet nodded excitedly. “Yes, Mr. Davenport. It has wild pink hair and turquoise eyes. An amazing-looking toy. It was found in the snow a few days ago, two islands away. My husband is studying it now.”

  “So then you have what you’re looking for,” I said.

  “Not exactly,” Janet said. “Mr. Davenport…I remember a few weeks ago, you said that Felix had given you a… sex doll of some sort.”

  “I never said that—”

  “And Flynn can vouch that you had a similar toy of the same description.”

  “She’s not a toy—” I stopped.

  “So you do admit to having something you shouldn’t,” Janet interrupted.

  “I…I mean…she’s not a sex toy,” I tried to clarify. “From what you told me, what you’re looking for isn’t a doll.”

  “No,” Janet said. “It’s really not. It’s a sophisticated espionage device – and it’s part of a set. Apparently, the drone that was found the other day does not function well without its counterpart. And this counterpart is what we believe Flynn saw… and what we believe you have, Mr. Davenport. If you would simply cooperate with us…”

  “I don’t have anything,” I said quickly. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

  “You know damn well what we’re talking about, Mr. Davenport,” Milo growled from inside. After a few steps, his short but stout frame filled the doorway. “Where is it?”

  “I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

  “Please, Mr. Davenport,” Janet said in a calming voice. The mother-like quality in her voice suddenly pissed me off, and I shot up to my feet. She backed up slightly, but she stood her ground. “Give it to us.”

  “I don’t have anything.”

  “The doll!” Milo roared, advancing on me. “The description matches perfectly! Little doll! Pink hair! You had it! Mr. Andersen saw it, and I—er—we need it now! So hand it over!”

  “I let you search my place.” I winced as Milo grabbed me by the shirt collar. I didn’t resist, and he easily slammed my back against the front of my house. I lowered my chin. “You searched. You didn’t find anything. I guess there’s nothing you can do now, is there?”

  “Tell us where you’ve hidden it,” Janet said, stepping behind Milo. “We’ll search the whole island—”

  “Search away,” I said, eyes darkening at Janet.

  She turned pink. She wasn’t used to me speaking harshly with her, but I didn’t give a shit. That woman was the reason I was in this predicament.

  “You already have what you need,” I grunted. “I don’t have anything.”

  “We need the doll’s partner! The one we have refuses to work properly without the other!”

  “And how is that my problem?” I hissed. “Check the island all you want. You can turn my entire place upside down. Burn it to the ground, for all I care.”

  “We may do just that, Mr. Davenport,” Milo said.

  “Stop being difficult, Mr. Davenport,” Janet said, still remaining calm. “If you would simply turn the robot over…”

  “She’s not a robot!” I yelled, tired of Janet’s insinuations. “So why don’t you shut up? You don’t even know what the—” I let out a grunt as Milo slammed me against the house again. And again. “You can do whatever you want…you won’t find anything. There’s nothing here.”

  “There was,” Milo said. His eyes shimmered. “You said she’s not a robot—implying that something was here.”

  I dared to smile back. “So what if there was?”

  Janet shook her head.

  “There’s nothing you can do about it now. She’s gone.”

  “Mr. Davenport, you’re treading on some very dangerous grounds,” Janet’s voice had an edge to it. “Your sentence will be lengthened if it’s found that—”

  “There’s nothing here! All you can report is that the place was empty. You can’t go off one man’s word, you stupid bitch,” I hissed. My head slammed into the wall, but I didn’t care. “You’ll never find her! She’s gone! She’s never coming back! And good riddance to people like you because now she’ll have a chance to be free.”

  “You speak like it’s a person,” Janet said.

  “Because she is! She’s a transplanted soul! She used to be a human!”

  “You poor, lonely man,” Janet said. “Such technology doesn’t exist. They’re robots, Mr. Davenport. They aren’t real.”

  “Shows what you know! She’s real! She’s as real as you and me! She has a soul—”

  “You can’t transplant a human soul,” Janet said, trying to calm me. “Please, settle yourself.”

  “Settle yourself down!” I cried out. Milo continued to shake me violently, and the more my head struck the wall, the crazier I got. Verity was gone. Verity was safe. I didn’t care what happened to me. “She’ll never come back. She’ll never be in your hands, you fucking motherfuckers!” I laughed wildly until Milo finally had enough and threw my body off the deck, and I landed hard on my back on the near frozen ground.

  I groaned loudly and started to stand up when two sets of footsteps came down the deck stairs to meet me. Milo pulled the heavy baton from his belt, but Janet said something I couldn’t catch, and he nodded curtly before allowing her to approach. Janet came close and knelt down.

  She tried to reason with me, but I no longer cared what she had to say. She could only think about getting her hands on Verity. She would stop at nothing now.

  “Mr. Davenport,” she tried again. “Try to understand. I don’t know what happened with you and this robot, but I can promise you that everything it said was a lie. It’s part of its programming… that’s all. It’s how it works its way in with children. It’s not alive, Mr. Davenport. It never was. It never will be. It. Is. A. Machin
e. It. Has. No. Soul.” She spoke to me in monosyllables as if I were a child.

  “How would you know?” I hissed. “You never saw her. You never met her. You never spoke with her.”

  “My husband has inspected the other drone closely, Mr. Davenport. They’re not real. Whatever you think happened with the robot was nothing more than the overactive imagination of a lonely man. And that’s understandable! Project Isolation is cruel and unusual. There’s no denying it, but that doesn’t excuse what you’ve done and what you’re convincing yourself of. That thing in your house…it’s nothing more than a robot with the outward appearance of a person. If you allow yourself to understand that, I’m sure you can understand why we need the counterpart so badly. If you could please hand it over—”

  “I told you before. She’s not an it!” I shoved Janet backward as I stood up, and I had gone too far. As she staggered away from me, crab style, Milo advanced and didn’t hesitate. The first blow from the baton caught me right under my rib cage, and I shouted in pain. Janet scrambled away at last and found her footing, getting behind Milo as he came at me again. The baton struck my back where it had before and also the backs of my thighs as I stumbled to keep my footing. My arms and shoulders weren’t spared from Milo’s anger.

  Then one finally clocked me in the face, and my feet left the ground momentarily as I fell backward. Janet screamed and begged him to stop, but Milo’s boots crunched on the cold grass as he came at me again.

  “Where’s the robot?” he growled.

  “I told you. I don’t have her.”

  “Tell me where it is.”

  “She’s not an it, you asshole,” I groaned. I spat some blood onto the ground as Milo wound up and struck me on the upper arm. “Hitting me won’t bring her back. She’s gone…” I croaked. “And yes, I said she. Because she’s not a robot…she’s a person!”

  “You’re a fool, Mr. Davenport,” Janet said gravely.

  “I don’t care what you think, you bitch,” I said as Milo hit me again. The world spun, but I didn’t care. Verity was gone… Verity was safe. “You’ll never find her.”

  Then my eyes widened with horror as, even through my blurred vision, a flash of color caught my eye.

  Pink.

  Pink flashed through the sky.

  No. No…NO!

  Everything happened in an instant. Flynn shouted, and Janet looked into the sky. Milo’s eyes quickly followed, and time stood still as the pink got closer and closer.

  “The robot!” Janet cried out.

  “The sex doll!” Flynn shouted from his side of the cage.

  Milo threw down his baton and reached for something else hanging by his pocket—a gun.

  “Milo, no! Don’t shoot it!” Janet wailed. “We need it—”

  “Fuck that,” Milo growled. “I have my orders.” He raised his gun as my fingers closed over his baton, and I sprang to my feet behind him.

  Verity shouted for me.

  Milo’s gun went off.

  Janet screamed.

  And Milo hit the ground with a large, bloody, rapidly swelling lump on the back of his head.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Are you insane?” Janet shouted, running to Milo’s side.

  “Verity!” I screamed when I found my voice again. Flynn was shouting for something, but all I could focus on was Verity’s voice. She was the only one who mattered. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  She stopped in front of my face. “I saw the whole thing,” she said.

  “How?”

  She pointed toward a clump of trees on the top of a hill—close enough for her to see everything.

  “So why did you come back?” I asked, starting to reach for her. “I asked you! I told you! You promised—”

  “I didn’t promise anything,” Verity said. “You asked me to leave, but you didn’t think I would hide in the shadows while that guy hurt you again?”

  “I can take care of myself,” I muttered. “Verity, I asked you. I begged you not to come back—”

  “I don’t care,” Verity said, flying into my chest. At last. I wrapped my arms around her tiny body and pulled her towards me as though she was nothing more than a girl—a normal girl. I felt her wings against my fingers, but I didn’t care.

  I stiffened and opened my eyes as a strange clicking took my attention away from her.

  Janet stood there with Milo’s gun pointed at my chest. No. It was pointed at Verity. “Drop it,” she said to me in a warning tone.

  “Fuck you,” I snapped back.

  “Drop the thing,” Janet said. “Don’t make me shoot you, Mr. Davenport. What you have there…it’s bigger than you. It’s bigger than me. It’s bigger than you could imagine.” She stepped over Milo’s unconscious body but kept the gun steady. “Drop it now, and we can talk about lessening your sentence for assaulting a prison warden.”

  “Fuck you,” I said again, locking Verity in my arms. “You’re not going to do jack shit to lessen my sentence. And even if I did…it wouldn’t save her.”

  “That’s not a her, Mr. Davenport,” Janet said. “Please understand that—”

  “She is a person!” I yelled. “Tell her, Verity,” I said, lowering my eyes to meet hers. “Tell her what you told me. Tell her you’re a person!” My expression faltered when she didn’t answer. “Dammit, Verity! Tell her now! Now’s the time.”

  “It’s not going to say anything,” Janet warned. “It’s in some type of shutdown mode. It won’t reveal anything. Apparently, the same thing happened with the other one when it was discovered.” She held out one hand toward me and kept the gun cocked in the other. “It should be obvious even to you now, Mr. Davenport. What you’re holding is a piece of equipment designed to trick people into thinking they’re real. They are not real themselves. Don’t do this to yourself, Mr. Davenport. Don’t ruin your life over a machine.”

  “She’s not a machine!” I bellowed. “Please, Verity. Say something. Tell her. Tell her that you have a soul. Tell her that you…” My hand felt damp, the same hand holding Verity’s tiny head against me. “She’s bleeding,” I shouted at Janet. “That’s why she’s not talking anymore. It’s because that asshole shot her.”

  “She’s not bleeding, Mr. Davenport,” Janet said. “She can’t.”

  “So what is this—” I stopped short when I held up my hand to show her the blood, but no red could be seen. Instead, it was a clear liquid… thinner than blood. “What the hell…”

  “I told you, Mr. Davenport,” Janet said gently. “Not alive. That is merely a coolant. I’m sorry, but…”

  “No!” I shouted. I didn’t want to believe it. She had just been talking…she had flown to me. She had come to me. I couldn’t accept the fact that her existence wasn’t real. I cradled Verity to my chest and turned my back to Janet. She bellowed something about her stupid gun, but I didn’t care. I could only think about Verity. “Verity, come on,” I said. “You’re…you’re alive. I know you are. You’re a person.” The words came, but so did the clear fluid through my fingers. It wasn’t blood. She wasn’t bleeding. But she was getting warmer.

  “Please, Verity,” I sobbed. Fuck being manly. It felt like she was dying in my arms—dying because she had come back. Because of me. I tucked her head under my chin. “Please…say something…I need to hear your voice…”

  “I…I’m fine,” a tiny voice came from my chest. Quickly but gently, I pulled Verity away from my chest. Her eyes were open. She was alive.

  “Verity,” I said softly. Janet approached, but I ignored her. I needed to focus on Verity. “I knew it. I knew you were alive. And you’re okay…”

  “I’m fine,” she said again, smiling. “I…I’m sorry that I came back.”

  “You’re okay,” I said. “You said you’re okay.”

  “I’m okay, yes. But…but I feel…”

  “You feel…what?”

  “I feel…like I’m losing myself.” She locked those electric-blue eyes on mine. “I feel l
ike I don’t belong here anymore.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Like I don’t belong—”

  “No, you’re fine. No! You do belong here! You belong with me! You can’t go…you can’t just leave me alone!” My eyes tried to find some life in her face, but with the clear goo pouring onto my fingers, I couldn’t convince myself that she was okay. Something was wrong. “Verity, we were gonna get out of here when my sentence was up and—”

  “And then what?” Her voice grew weaker with each syllable. “Malcolm, I know what I am—”

  “No, you don’t,” I said over her. “I know what you are. You’re a person…”

  “And like I told you, I don’t know if I can trust my memories…” Her eyes started to close.

  “Please hand her over,” Janet said, shattering the moment.

  “Will you shut up?” I shouted fiercely, continuing to hold Verity. “Can’t you see that she’s dying?”

  “I see she’s powering down—”

  “Shut up!” I pulled Verity back to my chest. She was very warm now. “You’re not dying. You’re not dying…”

  “She can’t die. If you would hand her over, we could discuss—”

  “I’m not discussing anything with you! She’s real! She’s a person—”

  “That coolant on your hands implies otherwise,” Janet said.

  “She’s real to me!” I shouted. “You hear me, Verity? You’re real to me and that’s all that matters. You’re a person to me. I don’t care what anyone else says.” I turned my back on Janet. “Shoot me if you want,” I called over my shoulder. “I don’t care anymore.”

  “I wanted to be real for you, Malcolm,” Verity said, her expression softening.

  “And you are,” I stammered. “You’re real.”

  “That doesn’t mean we could ever be anything or have anything. I told you. I’m a doll. And even though I’m happy you don’t see me that way…” she trailed off as a tiny spark shot from her left eye, “it’s obvious that no one else can. You need a real girl—”