The Android Chronicles Book One: The Android Defense

by Marling Sloan

  Luke accessed his communication console. He dialed a number and placed a call.

  He heard a voice speak on the other end.

  “Lina Calders.”

  “It’s Luke,” Luke said.

  “Luke, where are you?”

  “Damian’s been shot by Mercenare. Someone came and took all the Super Soldiers away in huge trucks. Whatever deal Damian was working on, it fell apart. The Super Soldiers might be coming for Adventis, all the people and all the androids.”

  “What? I don’t understand.”

  Luke tensed when he heard the unmistakable sound of a police siren behind him.

  “Lock down the building, Lina. Do what you have to do to keep everyone inside of it safe. I’ll talk to you in a little while. Bye.”

  He closed his communication console and glanced over his shoulder at the police car that was flashing its sirens behind them.

  “Hold on,” Luke said to Brigite. He pressed down on the gas pedal and his motorcycle roared far ahead of the police car.

  The officer inside the car picked up his walkie talkie.

  “I’ve got an ATF on a motorcycle on Beverly Street and Marcourt. Over.”

  He floored the acceleration on the police car and sped after Luke and Brigite.

  Luke crouched low over the motorcycle. He swerved it away from the street and cut down a narrow residential road. The police car squealed its brakes as it followed them.

  “Are you going to try to outrun him?” Brigite said. Her voice was disbelieving.

  “Yes,” Luke said.

  The police car was beginning to close the distance behind them, until Luke veered the bike sharply onto the driveway of a small house. They crashed through the backyard fence of the house and raced through the yard, leaving several crushed children’s toys in their wake.

  The motorcycle crashed through the back fence and raced up into a hill of trees. Luke felt branches lashing against his helmet and Brigite leaned her face against his back to avoid them.

  They tore out from the trees and onto a highway filled with racing cars. Horns blasted the air. Brigite gasped when she saw a truck racing down on them. Luke swerved the motorcycle underneath the truck, he and Brigite almost lying flat as they flew across the ground and emerged on the other side of the truck.

  Luke got the motorcycle upright and they sped down the lane of traffic.

  “Maybe we got away,” Brigite said.

  At that moment they heard sirens behind them. Brigite turned and saw three police cars as well as four officers on motorcycles slicing through the traffic to get to them.

  “Four cops on motorcycles, Luke!”

  “I see them,” Luke said, without turning around.

  He increased their speed. Their motorcycle jumped up onto the car in front of them, a van, and raced across its roof, throwing its occupants into a panic. The four police motorcycles separated into two on each side of the lane. Between them Luke’s motorcycle was roaring across the roofs of the cars in the lane, jumping from one car to the next. Finally it crashed to the ground again, landing upright and tore through the traffic, Luke keeping his foot on the gas. The police motorcycles were drawing closer to them.

  Luke accessed his navigation system and quickly put in a search request.

  “Address for Trista Barge’s residence.”

  The search ran and an address flashed on his navigation screen.

  “We’re getting off the highway,” Luke said to Brigite. “Right now.”

  “There’s no exit here,” Brigite said.

  She held onto Luke’s back tightly as their motorcycle swerved around cars. They sped to the concrete wall of the highway and jumped over it, dropping nearly twenty feet to the ground below.

  Somehow they landed upright and Luke did not stop. The motorcycle raced down the grassy hill on the side of the highway, until they reached a street where there was no police car waiting for them.

  “Where are we going now?” Brigite said.

  “Someplace safe,” Luke said. “For androids.”

  Chapter 31.

  Lina paced the floor in Damian’s office, unsure of what the make of Luke’s urgent message. She looked out of the window and saw that everything looked the same outside of the Adventis building. Police cars, reporters, protestors.

  She picked up her phone and called Damian. She only got a voicemail message. Then she tried calling Carlie.

  Carlie picked up.

  “Hello?”

  “Carlie, I just got a weird message from Luke,” Lina said. “He said Damian’s been shot. What’s going on?”

  “He has been shot, but I don’t know why and I don’t know how Luke found out,” Carlie said. “I’m on my way to the hospital.”

  “Unbelievable,” Lina said. “Are we in any danger here at the building?”

  Carlie hesitated.

  “Try to send everyone home, if you can,” she said. “I’ll make sure the police stay at the building, just in case.”

  Mandelie, Trista, and Jake were gathered in her den, watching the television screen tensely as news reports of violence against androids and protests at the Adventis building continued to flow in an unceasing barrage.

  Mandelie did not hear the doorbell ring but Jake did. He got up and went to the door and opened it.

  He stared in amazement at Luke and Brigite, standing in front of him.

  “Luke?”

  “Hello, Jake,” Luke said.

  “Oh, man, am I glad to see you!” Jake said, with a grin. He grabbed Luke and hugged him fiercely.

  Mandelie joined Jake at the door as Luke was introducing Brigite.

  “This is Brigite. She’s an Adventis android.”

  “Oh,” Jake said, blushing bright red. “Oh. Um. Wow. Nice to meet you.”

  Luke looked over Jake’s shoulder and met Mandelie’s eyes.

  Mandelie ran to him and threw her arms around him.

  “It’s really you,” she said. “I can’t believe it.”

  Luke looked down at her face. He turned away with difficulty when Trista pounced on him and hugged him as well.

  “Good to have you back with us, Luke.”

  She ushered Luke and Brigite into the den of her apartment.

  Brigite looked around. Mandelie seemed a little bit lost for words at the sight of the female X-droid in her skimpy red bikini and bright blue wig.

  “I’ll get you both something to drink,” she said. “Then you can tell us everything.”

  She went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. She took out two sodas, closed the door, and jumped when she nearly backed into Luke.

  Luke took the soda cans from her.

  “You know technically she and I aren’t thirsty, right?” he said, looking at her with a smile.

  Mandelie tried to laugh.

  “I know. Sorry. She’s really something. I had no idea Adventis was making androids like her.”

  “She is designed to produce a certain effect,” Luke said. “I suppose to a human being she is somewhat enthralling.”

  “Jake is definitely enthralled,” Mandelie said.

  Luke took a step closer to her. The tension between them was broken when Jake looked into the kitchen.

  “Come on, you guys. If the androids aren’t thirsty, Mandelie, I’ll take both of those sodas.”

  Chapter 32.

  Mandelie tossed and turned on her mattress in Trista’s spare room. Every time she closed her eyes to sleep she drifted into nightmares. She saw buildings burning all around her, people and androids running through the fire, screaming.

  Finally she got up and went to the den. Brigite was curled up on the couch, in a deep sleep state.

  Luke was sitting on the couch. He was awake.

  He looked up and saw her.

  “Couldn’t sleep,” Mandelie said, sitting down beside him on the couch. “I keep having nightmares of things, androids, and people on fire.”

  “It’s a dangerous time right now,” Luke said.
“I couldn’t help noticing this.”

  He nodded at the notebook lying on the table in front of him.

  “I got that from the police station,” Mandelie said. “My father’s project notebook.”

  “I know,” Luke said. “You’re trying to find answers in it?”

  “Yes,” Mandelie said. “Maybe you can help me.”

  She opened the notepad. She turned to the first page and then felt Luke take her other hand. Her fingers entwined with his, tightly.

  Carlie sat in a hard plastic chair in a brightly-lit hospital corridor, as nurses and doctors walked past her and announcements crackled over her head.

  “Dr. Stills to surgery, please. Dr. Stills.”

  She was holding onto her iPad with shaking hands, ignoring the various messages and alerts that kept flashing across its screen. She picked up her paper cup of coffee and took a long fortifying drink from it.

  She heard footsteps approaching her and looked up.

  A nurse in a blue smock loomed over her, holding a clipboard.

  “How is he?” Carlie said.

  “He got through the surgery alright,” the nurse said. “We’re cautiously optimistic about his chances. Are you his wife?”

  “I’m his assistant,” Carlie said.

  “We’re taking him to a private recovery room now,” the nurse said. “If you’ll follow me. Just one thing, Miss-”

  “Wesler,” Carlie said.

  “Miss Wesler, he won’t be able to walk again. The bullet hit a vital part of his spinal cord. He’ll be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. If he recovers.”

  Carlie stared at her, stunned.

  “This notebook is specifically about the Mind Portal,” Luke said, as he and Mandelie paged through it. “From day one.”

  “He has the messiest writing in the world,” Mandelie said, as she tried to understand her father’s scribbling.

  “Wait a moment. This language isn’t even English. It’s-”

  “Latin,” Luke said, deciphering the language.

  “Why would he be writing in Latin?” Mandelie said. “I didn’t even know that he knew Latin.”

  Luke did not answer. He was busy translating the words aloud.

  “The Society of the Future means to preclude humanity. It feels that nothing can be done to stop the inevitable fall of humanity from happening. The only way for the Society to survive is to ally itself with a far more advanced intelligence. Perhaps the Mind Portal will change the Society’s mind. This is my aim.”

  He stopped.

  “What’s the Society?” Mandelie said.

  “I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Luke said.

  “Wow,” Mandelie said. “If you’ve never heard of it, then it must really be obscure.”

  Chapter 33.

  Carlie had been dreading the moment Damian came to consciousness. She sat beside his bed in his private recovery room, unable to even look at his face.

  Instead she stared at her iPad, drafting messages to Lina at the Adventis building, staying informed of the activities there.

  When the hour grew late into the night, she began to nod off in her chair. Her iPad slid to the ground.

  Then she heard Damian mutter something. He began coughing.

  Carlie jolted awake and stumbled to him.

  Damian opened his eyes and looked at her.

  “Unbelievable. I’m alive.”

  “Just barely,” Carlie said. She swallowed.

  Damian tried to move and groaned.

  “Tell me what happened again.”

  “Mercenare shot you,” Carlie said.

  “Right,” Damian said. “I remember now.”

  “Damian,” Carlie said. She froze, unable to say the words.

  “What, Carlie?” Damian said, with impatience. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

  “You’re … you can’t walk anymore, Damian,” Carlie said. “You’re going to have to use a wheelchair. Permanently.”

  Damian stared at her.

  “You’re kidding me.”

  “Would I kid about something like that?” Carlie said, distraught.

  Damian looked down at his legs. He closed his eyes and covered his face with his hand.

  He said nothing.

  “I’m sorry,” Carlie said.

  Damian drew in a ragged breath.

  “Do you want to be alone?” Carlie said.

  When Damian said nothing she began getting up from her chair.

  “Wait a minute, Carlie,” Damian said. “Sit.”

  Despite his incapacitated state, his tone of command still had an effect on Carlie. She sat.

  “I have to tell you something,” Damian said. “I haven’t been entirely honest with you. About Adventis. About the androids. About anything. I need to come clean to you.”

  “What are you talking about?” Carlie said.

  The gray light of dawn was pouring into the den of Trisha’s apartment as Luke and Mandelie remained trying to make sense of the notebook. It contained more references to the “Society of the Future,” none of which they could understand.

  “The others will be awake soon,” Luke said. He ran a hand through his tousled hair. “I still don’t know what Dr. Miles means by the ‘Society of the Future.’”

  “Did you say the Society of the Future?” Brigite said. She was awake and staring at them.

  “Does that sound familiar to you?” Mandelie said.

  “Not really,” Brigite said. “But once Mr. Foster asked me to entertain a few of his guests who came to see the androids. They were older men, in suits. I did my thing and I heard them mention the society of the future. And something else. The android revolution.”

  “I never told you about how I started Adventis,” Damian said. “Why I started it. Or what I was doing before it.”

  “You told me you worked at Argonaut Laboratories,” Carlie said.

  “Yeah, I did,” Damian said. “I must have been seventeen or eighteen when I started working there. I never knew my mom or my dad, I was raised by a mechanic who fixed Dr. Jason Miles’ car once in a while. One day Dr. Miles asked me if I wanted to help out at the lab, and I said I did.”

  “I worked there for six years, learned everything I know now from Dr. Miles. He’s the most brilliant man I know, Carlie. I can’t deny it. He could make things happen that just didn’t seem capable of happening. It was like he knew how to bend the laws of science, somehow. It must have been in my fourth year of working in his lab that I heard him mention something about a top-secret society called the Society of the Future.”

  “The Society of the Future,” Carlie repeated.

  “Yes. It’s a society of brilliant minds, most of them scientists or technicians. All of them have this belief that humanity is doomed and another race of technological beings will take its place. Androids. The only way for humans to survive is to make sure that they’re in control of android technology when that android revolution happens.”

  “Dr. Miles used to be part of the society, but he disagreed with them and left. He told me that he thought there was a way to make humans more advanced in their intelligence, capable of using the full potential of their minds to help ensure their survival. When he told me about the Society, I wanted to be a part of it, Carlie. So I left Argonaut Laboratories. I contacted the Society and told them I wanted to join them.”

  “Well, they thought I could play a vital part in their revolution because I knew Dr. Miles’ secrets and I knew his ideas. They told me to set up a company – a technological company – and start building androids. Basically, the company would be a legitimate front for the Society of the Future. I’d pretend to be selling androids to make the country a better place, while in reality I was building an android army for the Society to use and control.”

  “The Super Soldiers,” Carlie said. “Are you saying I’ve been helping you run a fake company?”

  “Yeah,” Damian said. “Sorry. But you did a great job making it seem real.”<
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  “Why would Mercenare try to kill you, if you’re a part of this society?”

  “I don’t know,” Damian said. He sounded gloomy. “I guess I was never a part of the Society. I just thought I was.”

  “I should hate you,” Carlie said. “I should really, really hate you. What are we going to do now? Your stupid society has gotten its hands on a huge, potentially lethal army of androids.”

  At that moment they both heard a huge explosion outside of the window.

  “What was that?” Damaian said.

  Carlie ran to the window and looked out.

  “Oh, no,” she said, her face paling. “There’s a bunch of Super Soldiers running down the street, blowing everything up.”

  Chapter 34.

  Mandelie, Luke and Brigite heard the explosions as well. Brigite ran to the door and opened it before anyone could stop her.

  Mandelie pushed her out of the way and onto the ground as bullets ripped through the air over their heads.

  Luke crawled to the door and looked out before he slammed it shut.

  “What’s going on?” Mandelie said, in a panic.

  “Super Soldiers,” Luke said. “All over the place.”

  They waited until the explosions died down and the Super Soldiers seemed to be moving away from them.

  Trista and Jake appeared behind them, looking shaken.

  “Is it the end of the world?” Jake said.

  Mandelie and Luke glanced at each other.

  Lina looked down from the window of Damian’s office in horror at the scene surrounding the Adventis building. She could see Captain Mercenare and a huge number of Super Soldiers, attacking the police officers and exploding their cars. The sounds of screams and gunshots deafened her.

  She closed the window and backed away from it.

  She picked up her phone.

  “Tony, get all of the androids to a safe location in the building. Now.”

  She did not hear the sound of breaking glass at the bottom of the building as the Super Soldiers broke through the line of police officers and crashed through the doors of Adventis.