I, Android: A Different Model

by Heather Killough-Walden

  “I have an idea,” I said aloud.

  Now everyone’s eyes were on me. I stood up straighter and took a deep breath. “I say we use this against him. There’s no better defense than a good offense, right?”

  Everyone nodded, especially Jack who still appreciated a good televised hockey game from time to time.

  “Okay,” I reasoned, “so what if we get to the bounty hunters before they get to us? Find someone good. Make them an offer. Turn the tables?”

  Their gazes intensified on me, and as a group they moved in a little. “What exactly are you thinking, Sam?” Daniel asked.

  “Hear me out,” I said, leaning over the table and splaying my hands across its surface as I began to verbally formulate my thoughts. “If I were an actual bounty hunter and I’d received this message along with every other work-a-day android, I’d be a little peeved. FutureGen did create android bounty hunters, after all. They work for bail bondsmen and sometimes in cooperation with the police. They’re naturally good at their jobs, much better than humans and much better than non-bounty hunter androids.”

  Bounty hunter androids were a brilliant FutureGen production, and their production was designed and enacted while Nicholas was still in charge. Bounty hunting was a dangerous job for two reasons. One, when a defendant signed the bail bond contract, they actually signed away their constitutional rights, making them easy targets for bounty hunters with a penchant for violence. Android bounty hunters were adept at bringing in fugitives without unnecessary violence, which protected the defendant. And two, unlike the police, bounty hunters were not protected by law when they injured a non-fugitive by accident. Sometimes they weren’t even protected from legal repercussions when they injured the fugitive. Hence, having a bounty hunter who was smart, fast, and strong yet almost never damaged their mark was ideal for everyone involved.

  Chalk one up for Nicholas and his genius.

  I went on, “But now all these other less qualified androids are going to be getting in the way of actual bounty hunting.”

  Jack smiled. “I think I see where you’re going with this, kiddo.”

  I gave him a thankful glance, but continued to explain anyway. “Hunters are going to be unhappy with IRM-1000’s offer in general. Which puts them on our side, in a way. And yet they’re still bounty hunters, so they have one mission: bring in the bounty. What we do is make the first move. We contact them and tell them they can take us all in alive and we won’t put up any struggle – if they agree to our terms. And then we carefully set it all up. We choreograph the entire exchange so that in the end, the prizes have already been won and – obviously – we get away. This effectively takes us off the market again.”

  There was another mutual moment of silence all around as they processed this, and then I watched smiles spread. Daniel lifted off the table, Cole scratched the back of his head, Jack grinned from ear to ear, and Lucas gave me a proud look.

  But it was Nicholas who spoke up. “You really want me to think like Zero, Daniel?” he asked without looking up at Prometheus’s leader. I realized he was the only one not smiling.

  Daniel studied his profile. “I do.”

  “Then I have to tell you – if I were Zero, this is exactly what I would expect you to do.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  Nicholas looked up, catching my gaze. I was hit with that ice from earlier, and it was uncanny how much it reminded me of being in IRM-1000’s sights.

  “Malcom was designed to be a strategist, among other things. Tactician, diplomat, the works,” he told me, using the name he’d given Zero years ago. He put his hands down from their steepled position and leaned forward, sitting up straight. “So depending on how smart he believes the members of Prometheus to be, he’s going to plan around anything we might plan.”

  I saw the others glance at one another out of the corner of my eye, but Nicholas held my gaze tight. “I think Zero is well aware of how smart you are, Samantha.” He paused, finally looked away, and sighed, leaning back in his chair again. “And with my brother and I now officially on your side, you can safely wager he’ll be thinking several steps ahead from now on.”

  No one said a word for a long time after that, but we were all thinking it. The word we weren’t saying was a swear word.

  “Okay then,” I finally said, looking each of them in the eye one after another. “We’re just going to have to out-plan him. We’re up against the Sicilian from The Princess Bride. Either someone needs to break out the android iocane powder, or we need to strategize like Garry Kasparov.”

  I moved away from the table and walked around it to stand before the stilled image of IRM-1000 with his glowing blue eyes and his hard-set jaw. I stared right back at him for a moment before shooting him a dirty look and turning my back on the screen. “We’ve got a job to do and we can’t let Zero stop us from doing it with this little temper tantrum. So if we can’t go immediately on the offensive, then we at least need a good defense.”

  I looked up at Daniel. “If Zero sent out all of our personal information so that we can be scanned and identified by any android, then that’s what we need to prevent right off the bat.”

  Daniel nodded in agreement. He looked down at Nicholas. “Can you out-strategize Zero as far as that is concerned?”

  Nicholas considered that. “He’ll know we’re going to try. But that’s all he’ll know.” He looked over at me intently. “But I can’t do it alone in the time allotted.”

  Just like he knew I would, I said, “You won’t have to.”

  Nick’s eyes glittered like the surface of a frozen lake. He studied me while cocking his head to the side. Then he leaned forward and slowly rose to his feet, gaining a good foot of height on me. “Are you telling me you’re finally willing to work with me, sunshine?” he asked with a small but very Cole-like smile and ice-blue eyes that promised frosty resolve. And now I knew where Zero got that particular look from.

  But I nodded. “I am. Let’s get a boatload of coffee in us and get to work.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “We need a drinking game,” Sonia suggested conspiratorially.

  I laughed. That was probably the last thing I needed. Nick and I had been working around the clock for a day and a half and I definitely could have used a break, and not a break with alcohol. A break with a bed.

  But that didn’t mean a break with alcohol wasn’t what I wanted. As a matter of fact, it was. And I wasn’t alone. Everyone seemed to be in the “let loose” mood that night. I looked around me at the androids and humans reclining on the couches, playing cards, or bullshitting about personal experiences. There was laughter. It had been a long time since there’d been that kind of laughter.

  “Looks like they’re way ahead of us,” I said, nodding to a group across the room. A small round table sat five people playing a slightly more intrepid version of “Truth or Dare.” How did I know it was more intrepid? Because I knew Prometheus. Probably if you didn’t answer truthfully, you had to French kiss one of Zero’s androids without getting shot. Something suicidal like that. Especially given the people sitting at the table.

  “Oh, now this I have to see,” said Sonia. She fell silent and leaned forward on the couch, most likely using android hearing to catch every nuance of every word spoken. But I didn’t need to have android hearing to catch them clear enough. They’d had enough to drink that they weren’t exactly trying to be quiet.

  “What about you, Lieutenant?” asked Daniel as he leaned his strong body back in his chair and propped his booted foot up on a free chair. He gestured to Cole with his chin, and a glint of mischief flashed in his vivid eyes. “Truth or dare?”

  It was apparently Cole Byron’s turn to answer a question truthfully or run some dodgy gauntlet of daring.

  “Truth. You terrify me as far as dares are concerned,” Cole answered coolly, his lips turned up in a tight but mirth-filled smile.

  Smart boy, I thought.

  Jack Hugo was player number th
ree at the table. He scoffed, slapping his hand on the table top and laughing riotously. “Hell, you should have gone for the dare, Byron. Daniel has a way of ripping your damn soul wide open.”

  That was probably true. Daniel was intuitive as hell. Again, he was Prometheus’s leader for a reason.

  Daniel grinned, paying Jack no mind as he instead fixed his gaze on Cole. “You ever been in love, Lieutenant?”

  Wow, I thought. It was like he’d had that question ready. I went still and slowed my breathing. I did not want to miss this. I wanted to know what Cole had to say. After all, it had been ages since I’d seen my high school friend. A lot could happen in almost twenty years. Had he fallen in love? Had he been engaged? Married? Hell, did he have seven strapping sons somewhere like Disney’s Gaston had wanted?

  In the periphery of my vision, I saw Sonia glance sidelong at me, but I ignored her and focused. Which she no doubt found highly amusing.

  Cole looked squarely at Daniel while the rebel leader took a long pull from his beer. Like all androids, Daniel had no practical use for alcohol since he could turn off its effects like the Star Trek crews could shun the effects of Synthehol. But he could also turn those effects on.

  Handy – being an android.

  Something passed over Cole’s dark blue eyes like clouds across a twilight sky. But he weathered the quickly passing turbulence, and it was gone so fast I wondered if I’d just imagined it. He smiled and shrugged with absolute nonchalance. “I may have.” He grinned, turning his bottle around between his thumb and forefingers and not meeting Daniel’s gaze. “Once.”

  “Aw hell,” said Jack with a shake of his head. “Don’t give us that evasive bullshit. You basically got away with not answering! And besides, you falling in love? Not fucking likely. I asked around your station, Lieutenant. You’re a playboy just like your brother.”

  But Cole chuckled, utterly at ease. Shawn and Lex, the other two at the table, laughed with him. “He’s telling the truth, Captain,” said Lex in his deep, gravelly voice that made his immense size seem even bigger. He had always reminded me of the Russian from Rocky 4.

  “He is speaking the truth,” confirmed Shawn. “The man’s been in love, and only once.”

  Jack eyed him suspiciously. “What, you scanned him?” he asked incredulously.

  Daniel made a grunting noise. “Of course we scanned him, Captain. How did you expect us to determine if and when you were lying?”

  Jack shook his head, gave a surrendering snort, and said “Remind me never to play poker with an android.” He finished off his own beer while Cole just continued to mysteriously smile, still staring down at his bottle.

  But that tells me nothing! I thought in irritation.

  “You were wondering if he had a litter of kids somewhere, weren’t you?” Sonia asked. I jumped a little because she’d leaned over to ask it right by my ear. Then I blushed.

  “Maybe.”

  “Maybe yes,” she grinned.

  I rolled my eyes. “Didn’t you want to play a drinking game?”

  Sonia never missed a beat. She got up from the couch and turned toward the kitchen area. “Think of one while I get us fresh beers,” she said over her shoulder. I watched her leave for a moment, then turned back to face the group across the room. They were laughing again.

  But for the briefest, perhaps imagined moment, that troubled weather was darkening the blue of Cole’s eyes again. And just like that, it was also once more gone.

  “You didn’t think of a game, did you?”

  I looked up as Sonia sat down beside me and handed me a fresh, cold beer. All beer was imported now, as production in the states had all but come to a full stop. But I’d always preferred imported beer anyway. “Guilty as charged. So, what did you have in mind? And please don’t say ‘Truth or Dare’.”

  She thought about it, screwing the top off her bottle, then shot me a wicked side-long glance. “What would you say your boyfriend is? Alpha, beta, or omega?”

  I blinked. Then I looked around to make sure none of the androids, or humans for that matter, were within ear shot. It was a futile gesture, since if I could hear them, then they could certainly hear me. But they were all busy doing their own thing and seemed distracted enough that it was safe. “Okay… I haven’t heard those terms in a while,” I said. “Like ever, really. I’ve only read about them.”

  “I know,” she said with a shrug. “I learned them from some turn-of-the-century erotica novel. That would be last century, by the by. But just for the sake of argument. Where would you put Lucas? I mean, I know you haven’t been dating that long, but you’ve known him almost a year. Where would you place all of our boys, in fact?”

  It was an idea that had indeed become popular in the early twenty-first century, this classification of men as either alphas, betas, or omegas. It was odd to hear Sonia mention it now out of the blue. But she had a mischievous smile on her lips and a twinkle in her eyes, which meant she had been doing “research” on sexual subjects and was feeling playful. So I played along. She was just lucky I was as interested in vintage erotica as she clearly was.

  “I guess if I had to put them into categories? Well….” I thought about it. Then I smiled. “I think we both know what Daniel would be.”

  “Alpha as hell,” said Sonia with a wink and a fanning of her hand. She would know, having slept with him. Several times.

  As for me, I’d always felt Daniel was in another league and well out of mine. I was pretty sure if I’d ever given him any indication that I wanted to spend the night in his bed, he would have welcomed me with practiced ease and zero hesitation. But he was my hero and my leader, and I just couldn’t go there with him. And I think he knew that, too. I hoped he even maybe – maybe – respected me for it.

  But I smiled too, getting into this “game” now. “Nick… is definitely an alpha,” I said. I couldn’t help but think of him right away. My teenage crush hadn’t changed in all the years I’d known him. He was as in charge now as he’d ever been. And with enough beers under my belt, perhaps I’d finally admit to myself how much it destabilized me.

  “Ugh, tell me about it,” Sonia agreed with an eye roll and a less enthusiastic expression. “And he knows it. That male wears his alpha like a fucking crown. I’ve never met a man with a bigger head.”

  I laughed. She had a point. Nicholas Byron did have a big head. But I supposed he’d earned it, in a way. “To be honest, so is his brother,” I added. And as I did, I glanced across the room again. The five truthful darers were at it again, teasing Jack this time and laughing up a storm.

  Sonia nodded. “Yes. I can see that for sure.”

  I went on. “But… Cole Byron doesn’t care about being alpha. He’s more laid back. So if I’m not mistaken, that makes him omega, right?” If I remembered correctly, alphas that didn’t behave in a leader-of-the-pack manner on purpose were not considered beta, but omega. Meaning, they could do it if they wanted, but it was unnecessary or they just didn’t give a shit.

  Sonia was nodding emphatically now. “It does according to what I read. So far we’re on the same page with our boys.”

  “You know, this isn’t much of a drinking game,” I told her.

  Sonia snorted. “Thinking about guys? And sex? And the way they would probably behave in bed? I disagree. That requires copious amounts of alcohol any way you look at it.”

  “Okay,” I said, acquiescing. “You have a point. Drink.”

  We both took swigs.

  “Now we get to the hard ones,” I said after swallowing. I thought about who was left. Lucas, obviously. But I had my reasons for not getting to him yet. There was also Jack and Shawn and Lex and a host of other male androids who’d joined Prometheus over the years. And… there had been Jonathan Montgomery and his son, Nathan. My chest felt strange when I thought of them.

  I saw Sonia turn her head out of the corner of my eye. She was watching me. She was quiet for a moment before she said, “I know. Try not to think about it I
guess. But for what it’s worth, Nathan was a beta. He was my beta.”

  I looked up to find her gaze distant. She’d sensed what I was thinking about. She was empathetic like that. Absently she touched her chest, where I knew Nathan’s pendant rested against her android heart beneath her shirt. He and his father had both worn pendants. But Nathan’s was a sparrow, simple and gold. I’d never asked what it meant. Somehow I was sure Sonia knew.

  I put my hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. She glanced at me, then smiled softly. She took my hand and kissed my palm before I wrapped it back around my beer bottle. “Now back to the game,” she said.

  I sighed. “Okay, but shouldn’t we have a buzz word or something that triggers the actual drinking part?” I was missing my fallen comrades, I was terrified of Zero and the horde of bounty hunters keeping us on lock down, I was admittedly a little confused about some of the men in Prometheus and how I felt – or still felt, even after the better part of two decades – about them, and I wanted to get drunk.

  “I’ll be honest,” Sonia said. “I’m already on beer six.”

  I laughed. Of course she was. “Fair enough,” I said. Then I returned to the game. “Lex is probably omega. He’s built like an alpha and could kick the shit out of every alpha here put together, with the possible exception of Daniel. But he also doesn’t care one iota.”

  “Yep. Still on the same page.”

  I said, “Being on the same page deserves a drink.”

  She laughed and lifted her beer. We chinked our bottles together softly at the necks and took long pulls from the mouths before settling back down again.

  “Shawn, Matt, and the Eddie’s are betas.”

  Sonia nodded. “That was too easy, yeah?”

  “Yeah. Jack and Lucas are more difficult.”