by Kin Asdi
She hadn’t anticipated the huge and laughable spectacle which unfolded right before her eyes. All of the androids got up at the same time and started to run. However, the first two instantly lost their balance and stumbled over their own feet. With a muffled thump they fell to the floor which resulted in the others falling over too. Danette realised that she hadn’t anticipated that they would all start at the same time, but she was fascinated by how quickly the androids were adapting and before she knew it the androids were running at an equal distance from each other. It was impressive to hear the drilled sound of nine feet landing on the floor at the same time.
Now it was time to mix things up a bit! Danette placed a cone on the line. She was impressed when she saw that it took only four androids to wobble a bit before the others smoothly avoided the cone.
She was flabbergasted how quickly the androids were learning from each other! She was proud of the fact that the AI software was working so well. She couldn’t wait to make it much more complex.
Olga walked into the hall where Miss Danette was training the androids and was taken aback by what she witnessed. The nine androids were running around the hall at a dazzling speed while they swerved and jumped over objects. The sight was mesmerising because of the women’s light-footed tread. To all intents and purposes, it looked as if they were gracefully dancing over the obstacles. She couldn’t help but laugh when she heard Miss Danette shouting, “Okay, now smile!”
Olga wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes when the graceful dancing women started to tumble over each other. Within a few seconds, all of them were piled up into an impressive heap of mangled androids.
She heard Miss Danette commanding, “Okay! At ease and process what just happened.”
It took the droids a considerable amount of effort to untangle themselves before they were able to walk silently to the bench to sit down.
Olga said to Miss Danette, “That was very impressive.”
“Are you referring to how easily you can disrupt them with one command?”
She realised instantly that she had witnessed an unforeseen failure and that Mr. Yousima would have gone berserk if he had seen this. “I’m sorry if I have caught you at a bad moment, but the way in which they were moving was incredible.”
Miss Danette’s face turned into a brief smile as she said, “Well yes, you have an impeccable sense of timing, but I’m glad that I found it out before I made a complete fool of myself at the demo!”
Olga laughed as she imagined an unseemly pile up of androids in front of the whole company and she said, “I think you would have Mr. Yousima after you.”
“Yes, I guess so. Anyway, what brings you here?”
Olga hated to dump unfinished work on somebody, but Mr. Yousima had insisted that she had to go back to the task of investigating the security breach. He had said that Miss Danette could take care of number ten.
She sighed, and she couldn’t prevent the tremble in her voice as she started to speak, “Mr. Yousima wants my complete devotion to a pressing matter which means I have to dump something on you.”
She heard Miss Danette huff, “Oh great. Don’t tell me I have to take care of Jane Doe as well!”
Olga thought about how to respond because she wasn’t pleased by Danette’s bitchy answer. However, in a moment of blinding clarity she realised that she would have done the same thing. So, instead of losing her temper, she calmly retorted, “Well, yes, but Joshua will help you with it, and he is quite capable. If we hurry, we might catch him before he is done with her.”
As they walked at a sturdy pace towards the recovery room, Danette asked, “What is Joshua doing with her?”
Olga had to laugh. She knew that she had used a strange turn of phrase and that clearly Danette hadn’t understood its meaning.
“You know, the usual: checking her vitals and, if necessary, washing her.”
Danette snorted and said, “I bet he finds it necessary to wash her every day.”
Olga felt her anger rising again because of her prejudiced opinion, but she knew Joshua wouldn’t let an opportunity pass to examine that beautiful body.
Being in the same room with Joshua and the girl made her feel uncomfortable. She was relieved that Miss Danette was going to be there as well, and she murmured more to herself than to Miss Danette, “I can’t blame him.”
As they arrived at the door which led into the recovery room, Olga blew out some air before saying, “Right, here we are. Jane Doe is still connected to a respiratory device which might look a bit disturbing.”
“Why is she on a respiration? Can’t she breathe on her own?”
“She is on special medication to speed up the healing, and it is a lot more effective when she is breathing air with a higher percentage of oxygen.”
Olga knocked on the door realising that it was more a warning for Joshua. She had the authority to barge into the room, but she wanted to spare Miss Danette an awkward introduction to Joshua.
He opened the door and said, “Olga! I didn’t expect you to be here!”
He walked into the corridor and closed the door behind him. His face was beetroot red, and as Olga deliberately glanced at his pants, she knew that his embarrassment would get even greater.
She wasn’t fazed by his arousal and said with a smirk, “I want you to meet our new colleague: Miss Danette. She will train the androids and your lovely girl.”
Olga turned her head to Miss Danette to see that she was looking at Joshua with amusement.
Miss Danette licked her lips before purring, “Nice to meet you, Joshua.”
He cleared his throat, and as he took Miss Danette’s hand with both his hands, he tried to deepen his voice when he replied, “The pleasure is all mine, Miss Danette.”
Olga had to grin as she realised that he was failing spectacularly in his attempt to impress Miss Danette.
“Shall we have a look?” she asked abruptly.
Olga heard Miss Danette reply instantly, “Oh yes, I can’t wait to meet our lovely Jane Doe.”
Joshua tried to prevent Miss Danette from opening the door, but she marched straight into the room.
Olga rushed into the room after she heard Danette scream, “What? No! No! It can’t be true! Where the fuck did you find her?”
She saw Miss Danette sink onto her knees and begin to rock. “Oh shit! This is so fucked up. This is so fucked up.”
Olga realised that Miss Danette must have recognised the girl and that it had clearly had a huge impact on her. She hated finding herself in this situation because she was duty-bound to report anything unusual to Mr. Yousima. It was always unpleasant to bring him the unexpected news because of his erratic behaviour. She needed to know if Miss Danette knew the girl. Placing her hand carefully on Danette’s shoulder she asked in a very gentle voice, “Miss Danette, do you know her?”
Danette stopped rocking and turned to face Olga; a look of bewilderment on her face. Olga felt a shiver running down her spine when she saw Danette’s pale face change into an unnaturally placid expression. Her dark brown eyes seemed to pierce her soul; making her feel incredibly uncomfortable. It felt as if they were sitting there for hours until Danette forced a crooked smile.
She placidly responded with a croaky voice, “No, I have never seen her before in my life.”
Haruz sat down at his desk with his coffee and saw that the video had been successfully generated from the particle array. He eagerly started the video and watched as the screen flickered briefly before showing the glistening gorse and the grounds between the field and the buildings. Just as he was about to take a sip of his coffee, he saw someone walking to the field and was mesmerised as the vines wrapped themselves, almost lovingly around the man. Tancred was clearly in control. “Damned Tancred! You are a conceited bastard!”
Haruz hadn’t forgotten that Tancred was an alien, but he had up until this point, overlooked the fact that he was also a drug addict. He now regretted his decision to allow
the field to be built so close to the quarters. However, he conceded since Arnost had been the one to grant Tancred’s wish, then it would have been impossible to dispute.
With a big sigh, he fast-forwarded the recording and timed the complete event. He then deleted the file from his system to ensure that no-one else got their hands on the footage. As he was waiting for it to delete fully, it dawned on him that his sister must have witnessed Tancred with the vines. He had hoped to keep his sister out of this for as long as possible. However, he now had no alternative but to tell her everything. He smiled as he remembered the look of excitement on her face when he had suggested that they have lunch. He wouldn’t be surprised if she had it all worked out already and that he only had to confirm her theory. The lunch was going to be interesting! Haruz was pleased to see that Alice had finally sent her report which he opened eagerly. His mouth fell open when he read the ultra-short message. Her demands were simple:
You are a major asshole! I am withdrawing my services until you have rescued my brother and killed Mr. Yousima.
A.
He had totally forgotten about her brother, and the truth was that he had no idea where he might find him. Alice’s note clarified that. However, he wasn’t surprised. Her brother had always been a thrill seeker and was constantly placing himself in dangerous situations. A knock on the door prevented him from giving it any further thought. Closing down his secure application, he called out, “Enter!”
A young man entered the office, and Haruz’s smile was genuine when he exclaimed, “Baxter, what do you have for me? Did you have any success in finding anything? Did you find Miss Andena? Any feeds from Miss Danette’s lab?”
Baxter looked tired, and his smile was a little forced. He cleared his throat several times before saying with a hoarse voice, “Um yes, Mr. Haruz we did. We didn’t find Miss Andena but straight after you had sent us the message we activated the channels in Miss Danette’s lab. We have recorded footage of a conversation between Miss Danette and Mr. Yousima.”
Haruz had trouble hiding his disappointment at the fact that there had been no sightings of Miss Andena and said glumly, “Oh, I see.”
“But um, it seems that a particle array was available,” Baxter continued.
Haruz was surprised and asked, “A particle array? How’s that possible?”
“I’m not sure and because we had some trouble to get the sync-line aligned I haven’t had time to investigate it thoroughly. However, it seems that we sold that building to Miss Danette’s grandfather.”
Haruz laughed and said, “Those arrays are really old! No wonder you had trouble getting anything decent from them.”
Baxter’s grin was wide when he said, “Well we had some problems in the beginning but um, we finally solved that problem Mr. Haruz.”
Haruz couldn’t believe what this young man was saying, and he asked eagerly, “Did you? How far back can you go?”
“Up to eight hours, after that, it becomes too grainy.”
Haruz slumped back into his chair and exclaimed, “That is amazing! Congratulations! I’ll see to it that your team get a bonus! Send me the names of those involved, Baxter.”
Baxter smiled and said meekly, “Thank you Mr. Haruz, I will. Um, I’ve made a video where I’ve combined the array and the other capture devices. It starts with Mr. Yousima coming into the lab.”
“Thank you, Baxter.”
Baxter walked to the door and before he left the office he said, “Have a good day Mr. Haruz. I’ll send you the names of my team.”
“You too, Baxter.”
Haruz hesitated for a few seconds before he slid the memory stick into his terminal. He took a deep breath and started the movie. He was surprised by the confident manner in which Mr. Yousima walked into Miss Danette’s office. The array followed him into the laboratory where he examined the android which was lying on the table. Haruz stared at the footage with disbelief. He shook his head in disgust when he saw Mr. Yousima groping the breasts of the naked android. Sickened, he was about to stop the recording, when he saw Yousima remove a small module from the android’s head and then slip it into his coat pocket. A moment later he saw him replacing it with another one. As Mr. Yousima reached for the android’s breasts once again, Haruz stopped watching the recording.
Haruz was so angry that he thought that he would explode. Instead of learning Miss Andena’s whereabouts he had been forced to watch, while the perverted CEO of Bionex violated the android! Clearly Mr. Yousima had lost any sense of dignity. However, to his annoyance, Haruz realised that there was nothing that he could do to put this vile man behind bars.
In his frustration, he slammed his fist on the table. He was deeply concerned for Andena’s safety. However, he also knew that he needed to reign his emotions in if he was to stand any realistic chance of finding her. Time was running out: the longer Miss Andena was missing, the greater the chance that she was dead. Haruz shook his head trying to keep his mind focused; he still had an hour before Meleda was due to arrive and he needed to find a way of venting his anger. He stored the memory stick in his safe and left his office for a serious workout.
Alice marvelled at Lunn’s strong body. She had felt the muscles ripple when he had moved his body into a different position. It was the first time in her life that a man had made her feel so comfortable, and she couldn’t help but wonder why this should be the case. She felt Lunn’s fingers rubbing the back of her hand; it was incredibly soothing, and it gave her the feeling that he somehow cared for her.
Last night had been amazing; both shocking and revealing at the same time. As a result, Alice had now changed her opinion about Lunn completely. She had believed him to be a super macho man who slept with any available woman, but she was quite taken aback how sincerely concerned he was for both Andena and Danette. She hadn’t expected him to confide in her. It had felt special but awkward when he had asked her for her advice. It was clear that he had strong opinions of his own about the best course of action, and it had been difficult trying to keep her emotions under control. Never had a night been so revealing and she had been pleased to find herself in complete alignment with Lunn for the first time ever.
Seeing the video footage of the field had shaken her to the core. Seeing her only sibling imprisoned by the vines had broken her heart, and it was hard not to burst into floods of tears. It was at that moment that she had made a decision. Under the circumstances, there was no way that she could continue to act as an informant for Haruz. He had betrayed her by lying to her! When she had asked him if he knew what had happened to her brother he had lied to her face! After two long, agonising months, Alice had assumed that her brother had most likely been murdered, and his body dumped at sea.
When Lunn had hugged her, she had been surprised at how comforting it felt. However, just at the point when she had started to become aroused, she realised that Lunn had fallen asleep. Disappointed, she had listened to the regular beating of his heart for a while and couldn’t remember when she had also fallen asleep.
But now here she was; snuggled up against Lunn’s muscular back and it felt wonderful! The innocent stroking of her hand had become more intense. Alice began to feel pleasant, tingling sensations in her whole body. Her belly was full of butterflies, and she loved the little jolts of desire that she felt in her core. She revelled in the way her body was responding to the mere thought of having sex with him. The heat of their bodies enhanced the wonderful musky smell of Lunn and she couldn’t get enough of it. She pushed her chest against Lunn’s back and couldn’t resist the temptation to kiss him in his neck after she had inhaled his smell again.
Lunn turned his body slowly around, and she saw his eyes full of fiery desire. It was also clear by the manner in which his hands were beginning to explore other parts of her body, that Lunn knew exactly what was going through her mind. She knew that she couldn’t deny her body’s reaction to his wonderful assault any longer and if she didn’t stop him now, then she was going to very quickly pass th
e point of no return.
She needed to make a decision.
The more he touched her, and the more he kissed her, the more she wanted him. If she didn’t stop him now, then she knew she would be in deep trouble. Kissing him on the forehead, she whispered, “If we don’t stop now, I might end up doing something that I regret.”
His words threw her off guard, “Why would you regret something that your body craves, Alice?”
She thought about what he had said for a few moments and knew that he was right. It had been a long time since she had felt this way. She was speechless, and, this time, having anticipated her dilemma, Lunn asked, “Don’t you trust yourself?”
That wasn’t the problem. It was more about where this was leading. Looking him in the eye, Alice said, “I need to know what you expect to get out of this.”
He chuckled and moved her hand to his lips. She felt herself go weak and moaned softly as he responded lazily, “I would like to see it as the icing on the cake. The perfect end to a perfect evening.”
“Nothing more?”
“I will always remember it with a smile even if you want it to stop right now.”
She pulled him closer, and she knew that she could have the best of both worlds; that she could enjoy a night of passion with Lunn and then move on with her life without any regrets. Flipping him onto his back, she straddled him, locking his lips with her own. When they finally came up for air, he asked with a smirk, “What flavour icing do you want, Alice?”
She purred, unbuttoning his shirt, “Vanilla will be fine.”
CHAPTER TEN
Feeling drained, Danette plumped down on her sofa with a bowl of instant noodles. Her head felt as if it was going to explode. She knew that she would feel better after she had finished her bowl of food that had been enriched with some concentrated vitamins and enhanced proteins.
It had been a taxing day working with the nine androids who needed to re-learn the smallest things, but that was nothing in comparison to the heart-stopping shock that she had experienced when she saw Andena lying there in the recovery room.