Interlocking Hearts

by Roxy Mews

  There was nothing but silence as they approached Coral and Quinn’s cottage. The road was bumpy. They still hadn’t paved it, but at least there was a path for cars now. This had been Quinn’s hideout. He’d given up his secrecy because Coral wanted to live here.

  Paisley couldn’t fathom living outside the city. But when Coral talked about the fact that she and her man could be as loud as they wanted because the trees dampened any sound, Paisley could see the perks. Especially when taking into consideration the voice amplification modules they both possessed.

  The driver opened the door, and Ben stepped out first. He held a hand out to Paisley. She was never really one that was impressed with gallantry and having doors held for her, but she’d made the mistake of wearing heels, and the ground was soft. Even after she got out of the car, she held on to Ben’s arm for stability. She made a mental note to steal some flats from Coral.

  While Jon worked his way from the vehicle, Ben leaned in to whisper, “I really do apologize for causing you trouble in the palace.” He took a breath before continuing with, “I hope your breasts pressing against my bicep is a sign that you can forgive me as well as Jon.”

  “I’m holding on to your arm because I might sink into the mud here. Don’t read into it.” She gave up on trying to put space between them, because the fresh path was covered in gravel, and she was walking on her tiptoes to keep from falling.

  “Doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the benefit of your supple skin.”

  Even with her hanging on, the point of her toe caught beneath a rock and Paisley nearly face-planted on the gravel sidewalk.

  “This is ridiculous.”

  Paisley was righting herself when her feet were swept out from under her.

  She let go of Ben’s arm to grab around Jon’s neck as he hoisted her up into his arms.

  Ben laughed. “I was going to be a bit more subtle, but points for being blunt.”

  Paisley fought for just a second, but really…there wasn’t much she could do against the arms of a robot. So she resigned herself to being carried. As much of a hardship as it wasn’t, Paisley still pushed away to straighten her clothes once she had her feet on the porch.

  She tucked a boob that was starting to slip out back into her bra just as the door opened.

  Coral smiled. “I’m so glad you could all come over for dinner, and lubricant.”

  Coral waved them all into the small room. She and Quinn had made the bed that used to take up the majority of the space into a Murphy bed. There was room in the cabin to do more than stare at the place they had loud robosex. Although, Paisley doubted her bestie was a bed-only type of girl.

  Sure enough, Coral handed out lubricant. Her neon pink lubricating beverage was opened and handed to Jon.

  “I know the sea life additives aren’t necessary for your function, but I find it usually appeals to most taste receptors.”

  Jon sipped. “I’m just a regular old human skin transplant, Coral, but maybe this will prevent the gray hair for a few years longer.”

  Coral shook her head. “No. It has no benefit to you. You’ll still decay at a normal rate.”

  Paisley laughed. “So you get super strength, but you still have to get old?”

  “I plan on aging gracefully. If James Bond can do it, so can Jon Bond.”

  Paisley had a beer put in her hand. She turned up and smiled her thanks.

  Quinn smiled back. “You’ll need this if you have to deal with Major Renolds and his equipment all night.”

  “Why do you call him Major?” she asked.

  Quinn swallowed twice more from the bottle before answering. “Ben was my commanding officer. Don’t let these two fool you. They are idiots at times, but I asked them to come because of the Anti-Mech movement.”

  “You shouldn’t call your CO an idiot, Quinn.” Paisley cocked an eyebrow. She wasn’t up on much military protocol, but that seemed like a bad idea.

  “Of course I should. It’s one of the perks to being retired.”

  Out of habit, Paisley got up to serve the meal to herself, Quinn and Ben. Ben thanked her before reaching for some of the lubricating drink himself.

  Coral saw Paisley watching. “You’re the only one who doesn’t have any mechanics in her body here tonight, Paisley. I thought you already knew that.”

  “They were some of the other lucky experiments in my unit,” Quinn said.

  Jon sat next to Paisley. There was no plate in front of him, but he put a napkin on his lap anyway. “Except for me. I wasn’t working, I was owned. They did what they wanted to me, without having to ask.”

  Ben put down his drink. “You really wish you were back working in Japan?”

  Jon’s expression soured. “What I was created for isn’t my fault.”

  “Don’t get your dick in a bunch. I never said it was. I’m saying, you got to serve a country that, in my opinion, owes you a debt. The least they can do to repay it is grant you your CoH.”

  Coral smiled. “That’s where I come in.”

  “You could just push the approval through,” Jon mumbled around his drink.

  Ben was the one that laughed. “Yeah, because that’s how our government works.”

  Paisley wasn’t needed for this part of the conversation, so she decided to go ahead and eat. She always felt on display when she went to dinner with mechanical beings. They were always acquiring data and tended to stare. She was used to it, but she didn’t care to be noticed as she masticated her food. Well, she wanted to be noticed, but not when there was basil between her teeth.

  This was going to turn into a big bummer of a conversation about the Anti-Mech assholes, and her idea to make Quinn’s military buddies want her held a lot less appeal now that it looked like they’d be hanging around for a while.

  The Anti-Mech stuff wouldn’t be an easy fix.

  “As soon as Paisley has time to eat, we can get going with reviewing the files,” Quinn said.

  That was her cue. There might be beer, but this was no party. She drank more anyway, because this stuff with the protesters really made her uncomfortable.

  “I’m almost done. Just work around me.” She slid her food closer. “I’ll try not to touch anything.”

  “I want your input on this too, Paisley,” Quinn said. He didn’t ask her to hurry, but he still went and retrieved a small file box from a coat closet. “You have a unique relationship with mechanics and since you don’t have any in your system, I figured you were the best human to answer the questions we have.”

  “You and Ben are human too. And you have a ton more training than I do. What can I contribute?”

  “Interpretation,” Coral answered for him. “You understand the cultural norms at a commoner level, but have the insight into a world of mechanics and bureaucracy. And you understand how to explain things to me in ways they don’t.”

  “Okay,” she said around a bite full of food. Coral might not eat, and Quinn might not need as many calories because of all of his mechanics, but the two could cook. Paisley wasn’t about to waste food that didn’t come from a place with a drive-thru.

  Robohippie tapped his fingers along his suspenders. “Wait…you said you were going to consult with an expert. She really is just a maid? I don’t think this is a good idea. I no longer believe she is working for these green paper assholes, but she is not the type to work on a secret project.”

  Even with a vibrating penis, Jon was getting a lot less sexy.

  Paisley rolled her shoulders back and the pops and crackles were loud. Cleaning a castle put a strain on a girl’s joints over the years. She was about to get even louder when Coral spoke for her and turned Paisley’s anger to humility.

  “Paisley is the reason all of this began. She is the reason the bill exists and the reason you can apply for human rights in this kingdom.”

  Coral stood, took awa
y the remaining bottle of her lubricant and put one that looked a lot more generic in front of Jon. It read MMC. Paisley had no idea what those letters stood for, but the smell was not pleasant when Coral opened the bottle.

  “I know Quinn trusts you to perform your job, but according to cultural practices, I hate you. You insulted my best friend, and despite the ample benefits sex with a former pleasure bot would bring her, I no longer would be happy for you.”

  Jon was pissed when he turned to Ben. “You told Quinn’s girlfriend what I was?”

  Paisley nearly choked on her food. Jon was a pleasure bot? Those were supposed to be illegal.

  The time in Japan…

  “You were the prototype they talked about the Japanese developing? Everyone thought that was a rumor.”

  He turned back on her. “I cannot change what I was, but I am not a pleasure bot any longer.”

  “You’re telling me. You sure didn’t finish my job,” Paisley fired back.

  That was what he got for calling her just a maid.

  Quinn choked on his beer.

  Ben smiled. “I like her.”

  Coral forgot to reference cultural norms and ignored the way Jon was getting angrier and angrier. “So do I. She is my best friend. Which makes me curious if she is aware that you and Jon participate in sharing sexual partners. She was unaware of his origins—I was wondering if she was unaware of your relationship?”

  Now Paisley choked. Holy hell…they shared?

  Ben coughed into his hand. “We were supposed to be here to discuss recon and a plan to combat the Anti-Mech movement since the government is taking no official steps to handle the situation. Not our sex lives.”

  Then Paisley thought of something. “Why did I only get one of you?”

  “You didn’t really get either of them, from what you told me,” Coral reminded her.

  Paisley flipped her off. Coral raised her middle finger and waved her hand back. She must have deleted that gesture to make room for other items. Paisley would have to remind her later. Quinn put her hand down, and motioned for her to be quiet.

  Someone might think he was helping protect Paisley from being interrupted. Having known him a little while now, Paisley knew he was just trying to make sure Coral stayed quiet so he could hear. He was particularly sensitive to her vocal pattern and couldn’t concentrate on much else if she was talking nearby. It was a cute little robolove quirk the scientists were still trying to analyze.

  “Jon seduced you behind my back,” Ben reminded her. “He wanted to get you in a vulnerable position and exploit that to evaluate your position on mechanics.”

  Paisley was getting angry too, and these yahoos were running down the same trail all men took. She revved her anger engine to high. This was an argument she’d had many times over. “I wanted to have sex with him. Why is it when a guy and a girl have sex, and there isn’t a relationship involved, the girl is the one being taken advantage of?”

  Ben opened his mouth and closed it again a few times before he finally said, “What?”

  Quinn was openly laughing now. The bastard. He whispered something to Coral and she went and grabbed a bowl.

  “Coral, why do you have popcorn?” Paisley heard Jon ask her.

  Coral smiled. “Quinn told me that he has seen you both argue like this before. He said for you it’s like foreplay. And Paisley told me that if you watch someone have sex, eating popcorn is the appropriate social response.”

  Jon grabbed some popcorn and ate a few bites while Paisley waited for Ben to respond to her question.

  “You heard me,” she said. “Why do you think that because I am a woman that you would be the one taking advantage of me if we did the horizontal bed dance?”

  “When did I become the bad guy?” He leaned in. “And when did we start to discuss us having sex?”

  Paisley pushed her chair back to try and regain the necessary personal space in her bubble. Jon’s leg stopped the chair from moving too far.

  Paisley resigned herself to be around two guys who made her body respond, even if her brain wasn’t interested. And it totally wasn’t.

  “I am speaking in generalities. I enjoy sex. There is nothing wrong with me enjoying sex. I get my boosters so I can have it safely, and it pisses me off when someone tries to discount me or tell me I’m being taken advantage of. So shut your pie hole when it comes to the sex thing.” Paisley grabbed a bite that she’d cut on her plate and shoved it in her mouth. It was probably bad manners to talk with her mouth full, but according to the societal norms this guy obviously adhered to, she was vulgar anyway. “Let’s talk about what you want to do about the green flyer brigade and not talk about sex for the rest of the night.”

  Coral tapped Paisley on the shoulder.

  “What, Coral?”

  “I can still talk to you about sex, right? This was an anger-fueled response to the primitive views of sexuality expressed by our guests, correct?”

  Paisley rolled her shoulders one more time just to resign herself to the fact that if she was to ever have a sexual rodeo with these two, that they would think less of her because of it. She’d almost used Jon’s former pleasure bot status to throw harsh words at him.

  She bit her tongue. It would make her no better than Ben to tell Jon that he was something less because he performed sexual acts at the demands of his manufacturer.

  Then she realized she could use this. She wondered how much of what she’d heard about pleasure bots was true. Paisley learned a long time ago to arm yourself with ammo against whomever you’ve become close to. Like it or not, she was living next door to two very hot men. She didn’t know much about pleasure bots, but she’d start out making some random statements and he’d probably fill in where she had the holes without being prompted.

  Paisley had learned a long time that people loved being credited with being smarter than they were.

  “I bet these guys with the green flyers are sexually repressed as well. Did you have any insights as to why they were having these meetings?” Paisley shoved more food into her face before pushing her plate away.

  Quinn grabbed a file and everyone gathered around.

  “They always seem to advertise where a younger demographic gathers.” Quinn unfolded a map.

  Paisley noticed all the red dots covering the paper and before she could ask Coral about it, her bestie’s eyes were trained on the ceiling. When Paisley stared at the wooden beams above them to figure out what her friend was looking at, Quinn tapped her hand to get her attention.

  “She’s not looking at the map on purpose. Her programming automatically passes map coordinates on to the DMA representatives at Bio-Dyne.” He frowned. “I’ve been working on coming up with a way to override the initial prompts, but it’s so ingrained, it’s been a bit of a road block.”

  “Should she even be in this meeting if we’re bringing in the coordinates?” Ben looked at Coral. “Submitting the meeting and recruiting coordinates would give away one of the only pieces of the puzzle we’ve managed to put together so far. We are working on this behind the backs of the DMA. If her reports include our intel…”

  “They won’t,” Coral said to the ceiling. “I only have basic map point programming. Visual reception of data will be transmitted. Not auditory discussion. We’re fine as long as I don’t look at the map. The programming was initially installed to map my location in case of malfunction, or system failure. I was a prototype. You know that’s common practice.”

  “It’s only common in the America Republic,” Jon said. “Across the ocean, it’s more likely they would deny all ownership if their product suddenly did something wrong. They would leave their machines to be someone else’s problem.”

  Paisley heard his voice change tone. It was the first time she’d seen Jon look like anything bothered him. This was something he hated knowing or hated remembering.

/>   It must be hard to forget things if you’re a robot.

  It was hard enough when you were human.

  Quinn cleared his throat. “Like I was saying. The flyers are recruiting in coffee shops, college campuses and the clubs. Anywhere the demographic trends toward the twenty- to thirty-year-old crowd. That means either this is a younger group initiating the movement and their recruiting practices are for convenience, or this is an older group who is looking to add some youth and muscle to their cause.”

  Jon grabbed the file and started flipping through. He moved his hand down the page slowly as he looked.

  Ben shook his head. “This isn’t just about the age. This is about trying to get people who tend to be more forward thinking about robotic rights. The younger crowd grew up with more and more advanced robotics. They are the ones who wouldn’t even think about the malfunctions these people are threatening them with.”

  “Youth doesn’t mean stupidity.” Paisley had to remind these people. She wasn’t a coed. Hadn’t even been a coed when she’d been that age. There was more to life than sitting in a classroom. “Many young people take care of themselves, and succeed where others wouldn’t simply because they have the guts to do things people tell them they can’t.”

  “What did people tell you, you couldn’t do, Paisley?”

  “They told me I couldn’t live on my own. They told me no one else would have—” She stopped before she said anything else. She had gone from her parents telling her she wouldn’t make anything of herself to a man telling her she wasn’t worth even a moment of his affection. Arranged marriages weren’t as ancient as everyone thought.

  Coral stopped looking at the ceiling once she heard the map shoved back up into the folder. “Paisley doesn’t want to talk about herself right now. If they are trying to take on the robotics with force, youth in their ranks would be preferable, but this, to me, speaks more of working through the law-making process.”

  “That’s one of the reasons why we brought Coral into the investigation,” Ben said quickly. “She is the only one who could tell us when something seems to be out of the ordinary at the DMA.”