The Android Chronicles Book One: The Android Defense

by Marling Sloan

  “Sit down,” he said, as he sat as well.

  Mandelie sat. Grimes leaned back in his chair.

  “Um, well, we haven’t had any breaks in the case,” he said. “There’s a lot of … I guess you could say weirdness surrounding your dad’s disappearance. We had those blood samples from the lab investigated. But only some of it matches your dad’s DNA. We don’t know where the other blood came from.”

  Mandelie’s heart rose.

  “If only a little was his, then maybe he’s still alive.”

  “I don’t know,” Grimes said. “I can’t say.”

  “I looked through the lab,” Mandelie said. “There’s a lot of things missing.”

  “Yeah, they’re in the evidence room,” Grimes said. “Waiting to be analyzed.”

  Mandelie’s eye was caught by a familiar-looking notebook sitting on Grimes’ desk. It was her father’s notebook in which he kept notes on the progress of his experiments.

  She rested her arm on the desk and pretended to knock a pile of papers off of it.

  “Oh, sorry!” she said. As Grimes leaned down to pick up the papers, Mandelie swept the notebook off the desk and into her bag.

  “Well, I’m sorry to have bothered you,” Mandelie said. “Can you please let me know if you make any other discoveries in the search?”

  “Sure,” Grimes said, in a non-committal voice. “Have a nice day, Miss Miles.”

  He did not accompany her back to the front of the station. Mandelie walked quickly out of the front doors, hoping Grimes would not notice the missing notebook and chase after her. He did not.

  “Isn’t this fantastic?” Carlie whispered in Luke’s ear as she sat beside him in the private box seat overlooking the huge gleaming sports arena in the Staples Center. She wore a jersey belted into a dress and her usual stiletto heels.

  Luke resisted the urge to shrug. He had a sudden memory of a hockey game he had played with Jake in the parking lot. He had found that a lot more interesting than this current activity.

  “It is,” he said instead. Carlie took a sip from her drink and danced in her seat to the music blasting from the arena speakers.

  Damian had excused himself to take a call in the hallway outside the room.

  “Want another drink?” Luke said to Carlie.

  “Oh, sure,” Carlie said. She beamed.

  Luke got up and went to the bar at the back of the room. He made sure Carlie was not looking in his direction and then he closed his eyes and accessed his communication console.

  There were no messages waiting for him from Mandelie. She had not responded to any of his messages since the night they had kissed.

  Luke returned to his seat beside Carlie. He felt heavy, weighted down, as though his internal mechanisms had turned to lead.

  “You okay?” Carlie said.

  “Fine,” Luke said.

  “You said you wanted the Super Soldiers to be terrifying, and I promised you they would be,” Damian said in the half-darkness to the person on the other end of the phone. “And I always come through on what I say.”

  He listened for a moment.

  “Oh, they’re ready. You ought to see the leader of the Super Soldiers. He’s this pile of muscles with a huge anger management problem. We call him Captain Mercenare. How do you like that, eh?”

  He listened again.

  “I’m with you on that. It’s time to show the world that power doesn’t belong in the hands of humans anymore. It belongs in the hands of the humans who control the androids.”

  Damian laughed.

  Chapter 23.

  The gray day over Hollywood Boulevard was cold and drizzling, but that did not stop huge crowds from surging all around it, screaming their excitement or else their protests as twelve Adventis androids stood on top of a long raised stage in front of the Roosevelt Hotel.

  Hordes of police officers stood around the stage, keeping the crowds at bay. Damian, Carlie, and Lina stood on top of the stage as well.

  Damian was being interviewed by the host from the Sci Fi Channel. He wore a flashy gray suit and dark blue tie. His handsome face seemed to be even more striking with the numerous cameras turned onto him.

  “This is the day all of us get to see the future,” Damian was saying. “The day everyone will be talking about for years to come.”

  Carlie scanned the faces in the crowds. They were all watching the androids in wild fascination, especially Brigite, who winked and danced seductively on her side of the stage. The other androids were moving around as well, waving to the crowds.

  “What do you have to say to those protestors who are saying that the androids are going to steal jobs from humans?” the host said.

  Damian shrugged.

  “I believe humans and androids can find a way to benefit from each other mutually,” he said. “We at Adventis are working on finding that way in the shortest time possible, believe me.”

  “Nicely done,” Carlie said to herself. “Diplomatic.”

  She glanced at Lina.

  “What will we do if it starts raining?” she said.

  “All of the androids are weather-resistant,” Lina said. There was a superior tone in her voice. “I’m surprised you don’t know that, Carlie.”

  Carlie refrained from saying a very rude word and returned her attention to her iPad.

  Luke leaned back on the couch in Damian’s office, watching the launch ceremony on the television screen. He quickly became bored, however, with Damian’s endless interview. He pressed a button on the remote control and the screen turned to a video image.

  It was a live camera feed of the androids and the technicians in every room in Product Development. Everything seemed to be going as usual. Technicians were hovering around androids in each room, modifying them or maintaining them. Then the camera image showed a picture of a room which was splattered in blood.

  Luke sat forward on the couch.

  He stared at the screen as Captain Mercenare’s face came into view of the camera. He picked up the broken body of one of the technicians and flung it against the wall of the room. Then he left the room.

  Moments later Luke heard a loud, siren-like alarm ripping through the entire building. He raced to Damian’s elevator and hit the button for the fortieth floor.

  The launch ceremony was going tremendously well. The crowds had grown and now surged around the stage with the androids and the stage for the musical entertainment.

  Carlie was standing next to Damian who was deep in conversation with the mayor of Los Angeles. She glanced down at her iPad and her eyes widened in horror at the message that had flashed on the screen.

  Chapter 24.

  Captain Mercenare had left a bloody trail behind him as he rampaged through Product Development. He had killed three technicians and severely wounded five others. Technicians as well as androids were screaming and running desperately, trying to get out of his way.

  “Martin, what are you doing?” one of the X-droids named Bernessa shouted at him. “You’re not programmed for this!”

  “Shut up,” Captain Mercenare snarled. He grabbed Bernessa, lifted her above his head, and then smashed her against a wall.

  Tony del Travio appeared from a room. His eyes widened as he saw Captain Mercenare and he looked around in a panic for a weapon. He grabbed a fire extinguisher and spewed its white smoke all over the Super Soldier.

  It did not seem to affect Captain Mercenare at all, but it blinded the other people in the hallway, who were now unable to see around them.

  Luke appeared at the end of the hall and charged into the white smoke, pushing people out of his way. He knelt over Bernessa’s broken body and looked around for Captain Mercenare.

  The white smoke cleared slightly and Captain Mercenare caught sight of Luke.

  “You,” he said. “I’m going to break your head clean off your body.”

  He ran at Luke with surprising speed and knocked Luke completely off his feet. Luke fell to the ground but before he lan
ded Captain Mercenare grabbed him and threw him down the entire length of the hallway.

  Luke slid across the floor before crashing into the wall. He lay for a moment, stunned, before crawling to his feet.

  He looked around but did not see the Super Soldier anywhere. Then he sensed a shadow over his head.

  He threw himself out of the way in time as Captain Mercenare dropped down from the ceiling onto him. The Super Soldier grabbed his gun and began firing it at Luke wildly.

  Three of the bullets hit Luke and buried themselves in his body and his internal circuits. Luke was jolted but he grabbed a long piece of shattered glass and stabbed it into Captain Mercenare’s eye, so hard that the end of the piece of glass protruded out of the other side of his head.

  Captain Mercenare howled in rage. Blinded in one eye, he grabbed Luke and smashed his head against the wall.

  The inside of Luke’s head was exposed through a huge crack. Despite the tremendous damage, Luke managed to find a spot on Captain Mercenare’s body that he knew controlled his movements. He punched it, as hard as he could.

  The Super Soldier went limp and slid to the ground.

  Luke felt his vision fading as the broken wires and circuits in his head took their toll on him. He too, crumpled to the floor.

  “I want this kept quiet,” Damian said to Carlie as they sat in the limousine on their way back to the Adventis building. “Until I talk to my Plan B backers.”

  “I’ll try to keep it as quiet as I can,” Carlie said. “I’ve already sent out a memo to all the workers in P.D.”

  “How many fatalities and how many injured?” Damian said.

  “Three dead, five injured,” Carlie said. “They’ve already been taken to a private hospital with a confidentiality agreement. Luke was the one who took down Captain Mercenare, Damian. He got his head smashed and the technicians are trying to fix him up right now.”

  “Took down Captain Mercenare,” Damian repeated. “Did he destroy him?”

  “No, he just immobilized him,” Carlie said. “Captain Mercenare is still in working order, but he’s been locked down in one of the rooms.”

  “Keep him locked down,” Damian said. “I don’t want anything done to him yet.”

  “If word of this gets out, Damian, it won’t be good for the launch,” Carlie said.

  “Don’t tell me what I already know,” Damian said. “But as long as my backers don’t mind the fatalities, I’m fine with writing them off as necessary sacrifices.”

  Carlie looked a little disgusted at his harsh words, but she said nothing.

  Luke faded in and out of consciousness as technicians worked on him in one of the rooms in the white hallway, which was still strewn with the wreckage of Captain Mercenare’s massacre.

  Lina arrived a half hour after Luke had been brought into one of the rooms, and immediately took over the operation.

  She and three others spent four hours removing the bullets from his body, and then trying to piece together his shattered skull as well as the intricate circuits and wires within it.

  “If only it was anything other than his head,” Lina said. “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

  She was ferociously examining the read-out of Luke’s imaging session, trying to follow the visual image of his head when it had been in one piece.

  Damian and Carlie stood in the room as well, Carlie looking distraught, Damian looking absorbed in thought.

  Finally Lina closed the crack in Luke’s head with flesh glue and smoothed his hair over it.

  “Done,” she said, with a look of relief. “I did the best I could. It’s fine now, everything as it was before. He’ll have a slight scar on his head, but that’ll be the extent of the damage.”

  “Why won’t he wake up?” Carlie said.

  “His internal circuitry is recovering,” Lina said. “Running a new current through him. Just give him fifteen minutes.”

  Chapter 25.

  When Luke came to consciousness he was lying on his own four-poster bed in his room. Miranda was sitting in a chair beside him.

  When she saw his eyes open she jumped to her feet.

  “Oh, sir, you’re alright!”

  “Am I?” Luke said. He shook his head gingerly. He could not remember anything that had happened.

  “You’re a hero, sir,” Miranda said. “You stopped Captain Mercenare from killing more people and androids in the building.”

  Luke’s memory drive was suddenly flooded.

  “I remember now,” he said. He winced.

  “Stay in bed,” Miranda said. “Don’t move. I’ll bring you some water.”

  She brought him a glass of water and watched as Luke drank it.

  Luke gave the glass back to her and sank back onto the bed.

  “I don’t understand why he did that,” he said. “Captain Mercenare.”

  “None of us do,” Miranda said. “None of us androids at least. There was nothing in his programming that would have caused him to lose control like that.”

  “I’m going to find out why it happened,” Luke said. “Before it happens again.”

  “Yes, but not now,” Miranda said. “You really need to rest now, sir.”

  Captain Mercenare was standing upright against a wall in one of the Product Development rooms, his body securely shackled with huge iron bolts. His head dropped to his chest. He was still in a motionless state, but his eyes moved back and forth and he was able to speak, with some difficulty.

  A team of five technicians including Ledia and Joe stood in front of him, assessing him with wariness.

  “If I had my way I’d disassemble him right now,” Joe said in a low voice to Ledia. His arm had been broken in a struggle with Captain Mercenare and it was in a cast.

  Ledia said nothing. She was shining an internal sensor up and down Captain Mercenare’s body, trying to detect anything out of place in his interior mechanisms.

  “Well, I’m not seeing anything I shouldn’t be seeing with this sensor. But we need to get him to the imaging room. We’ll get a clearer picture that way,” she said..

  “We need to get him to an incinerator, that’s what we need to do,” Joe said. The other technicians looked as though they were in agreement with him.

  “Not without Damian’s say so,” Ledia said.

  “There’s money and people’s lives on the line right now,” Joe said. “So we know which way Damian will sway.”

  “And what way will that be, Joe?”

  Joe started. Damian had come into the room, accompanied by Carlie, without anyone noticing.

  “Um, well, I’m just concerned, that’s all,” he said.

  “And you think I’m not concerned?” Damian said, folding his arms as he looked at the prone Captain Mercenare.

  “It’s not just your name all over this, Damian,” Joe said. “It’s my name, Ledia’s name, Melinda’s, and Lina’s. We’re all responsible for what happened.”

  “What happened?” Damian said. “An android’s programming malfunctioned and he lost control because of it. It’s a risk we all knew we were undertaking when we started building androids. The product lines have launched, Joe. The public – most of them, at least – is clamoring to get their hands on their own androids. As far as I’m concerned – and that means as far as any of you are concerned – nothing happened on this floor today except for an unfortunate accident that has no chance of affecting the average consumer.”

  He eyed Joe.

  “Got it?”

  Joe looked away.

  “Sure, Damian. Whatever you say.”

  “Come on, Carlie,” Damian said, leaving the room.

  Chapter 26.

  “How are you doing with keeping things quiet?” Damian said to Carlie as they walked down the long white hallway, which was eerily deserted and quiet except for a few janitorial crews.

  “Um, not a word has gotten out, I’m sure of it,” Carlie said. “None of the family members of the injured technicians even know anythin
g happened. Those techs in the hospital are recovering. And the ones we lost … I’ve prepared a memo to send out to their families saying they died from a routine workplace accident. Caught themselves on the machinery, etc. All of the other P.D. workers and know their job is on the line if they breathe a single word of what happened to anyone. I’ve managed to convince most of them that what they saw was just an android malfunctioning and knocking down people in its way.”

  “Good,” Damian said. “I want to talk to Luke. Thank him for what he did. It could have been worse if he didn’t stop Mercenare. Make sure everything is swept under the rug, Carlie. Everything. And keep an eye on the sales numbers coming out tomorrow.”

  “You’ve got a call coming in,” Carlie said, looking at her iPad. “It’s from V.I.P. Confidential.”

  “Let them know I’ll call them from my office,” Damian said, quickening his pace.

  Luke was preparing to try to contact Mandelie one more time when he heard a knock on his door. He went and opened it.

  Brigite – dressed in a see-through lavender cover-up over her red bikini, her bright blue hair neatly brushed - was standing in front of him.

  “You shouldn’t be here, Brigite,” Luke said.

  “I just wanted you to know that all of the androids – each of us except for the Super Soldiers, of course – are grateful for what you did,” Brigite said. “None of us would have been able to stop Mercenare. He doesn’t just hate humans. He hates androids who aren’t his soldiers as well. ”

  Luke nodded.

  “How’s Bernessa?”

  “They tried to fix her up,” Brigite said. “But they couldn’t. They’ve salvaged her parts.” She looked down at her feet.

  Luke leaned against the side of the door.