I, Android: A Different Model
Page 43
“Hang in there, Sam,” he told me clearly. He was able to maintain a steady voice despite his activity, the programming within him levelling out sound waves to perfection. I was impressed. But when I realized I was impressed, I also realized my attention was losing cohesion. I was trying to distract myself from what my body was feeling, and not at all focused on what was important.
Focus! I commanded myself. Prometheus!
“No!” I said forcefully, reaching my hand up to grasp the front of Daniel’ shirt. I put all of my remaining strength into my next words. “Prometheus has been compromised!” We couldn’t go back there now. “We need… a different place!” The cat was out of the bag, and the bag had been doused with gasoline, lit on fire, and burned to ash.
Ben had been inside Prometheus; he’d seen the enemy from the skeleton out. Jack and Lucas had been there the entire time; they were the skeleton. And Zero might now have access to all of Luke’s thoughts and memories – which meant he knew everything Lucas knew.
We most definitely were no longer safe at Prometheus.
“We’re not going to Prometheus,” Daniel told me, his step not even faltering. “I know of a safer location.” He glanced down, and I caught his blue-green gaze before her returned his attention to the path ahead. “Now rest, Sam. I can’t do for you what Zero can, but I’ll damn well knock you out if that’s what it takes to get you to settle down and quit pushing yourself.”
I didn’t have to be told twice. Daniel gripped me in a way that allowed me to relax all of my muscles. I rested my head against his chest and closed my eyes. All that remained was darkness, cold, and sound. I listened to his android heart, his molten salt reactor. I listened to the beat of his boots on the ground, and I listened to the falling-in of the other Prometheus members beside us – all running in tandem.
The beats ran together. Prometheus ran together. Like the rebels that we were.
I must have been more out of it than I’d thought, because time passed in splotches, fuzzy and mostly incoherent visions of Jack and Lucas, of Zero and transporter devices, and of lightning that chased me in and out of consciousness. And then quite suddenly, I was opening my eyes because the world grew more silent, hollow, and warm.
Daniel was taking me across a threshold. His footstep echoed on a clean, hard surface. I looked up, blinking away the blurriness, and recognized the art on the walls just as Daniel lowered his lips to my ear and teased, “Guess we’re married now?”
I laughed, though it was admittedly weak. Daniel chuckled too, but it was admittedly tainted with sadness. His attention was turned to the walls, the enormous staircase leading to the second floor, the massive gold-gilt paintings, the plush rugs over gold-veined marble….
This was Jonathan’s home. He knew it well.
“You can put me down, Daniel,” I said softly. He chanced a glance down at me in careful scrutiny, but I nodded assuredly and he gently placed me on my feet. I stayed there, steadying myself against him as the others filtered respectfully through the front door.
“I’m sorry, Daniel,” I whispered. I could see the pain in his bi-colored eyes. It stabbed through him with every familiar thing he took in.
“Yeah,” said Shawn softly, giving him a pat on the back. “Me too, man.”
The others agreed, also in hushed tones. And then Sonia asked what I’d been wondering. “You sure they won’t look for us here?”
It was Cole who responded. “Jack, Lucas, or Zero might, but whoever hired Jack and Lucas – probably not.” I hadn’t realized he was there until he spoke up. I stepped around Daniel to get a better view and found him standing in the arched entryway to the dining room beyond. Nick stood beside him.
“Hey guys.” It hadn’t been an especially long night time-wise, but it sure as hell felt like it. And to me, the girl who’d lost a father figure and a lover in the same night – that one had yet to fully hit me – the two life-long friends before me were a sight for sore eyes.
Their blue gazes fell on me in tandem, and I couldn’t help the grin that claimed my face when they both bolted for me as if I had become a human colander and they needed to hurry up and stopper all my bits from leaking out.
“Sam!” they exclaimed together.
Nick took up the reins, swearing softly. “Your lips are blue,” he hissed.
“Shit, that’s no joke. They seriously match his eyes,” added Cole as he jostled with Nick in an impromptu contest to see who could get to me first.
Suddenly Nick shoved him hard with a broad shoulder, and Cole made a tight grunting sound, taking the impact in his well-muscled side. I could hear it knock the wind out of him. I was fairly sure it was the first time I’d seen any kind of physical force defeat Cole in any way. And it was sure as hell the first time I’d ever seen Nick use physical force of any kind against his younger brother.
It surprised me.
Cole must have been thinking the same thing, because he blinked and straightened where he was as Nick slipped one arm around my waist and draped my arm over his shoulders, holding me up. “Let me see if I can sum up,” he then said, turning his attention to a scouring head-to-toe scrutiny of my body as he led me away from the foyer. I could hear everyone else fall in behind us. “You were injured again. Probably shot, by the looks of your skin tone.”
More than anything else, he was thinking out loud as he quickly and accurately put together the puzzle pieces of my appearance, so I didn’t bother confirming his suspicions. “And I’m guessing IRM-1000 healed you… but he couldn’t replace your blood. You’re close to shock, Sunshine. You need a transfusion.”
I went cold again, despite the warmth of the mansion. “No needles,” I said. Well, begged really.
“Damn Nick,” said Cole tersely. “Leave the poor girl alone. Let her drink some juice or something. She’s been through enough.”
Nicholas didn’t respond, but his eyes fell hard on me, and the impression they gave was so much like the ice picks that Zero used to lay me bare before him, I had to clear my throat and fumble to change the subject. “You… said they might come for us here. Did you mean that?”
Nick’s gaze narrowed. He’d never been an easy one to side-track once he’d put his mind to something. “I would have elaborated that it didn’t matter because I’ve had safe guards put into place around the mansion – but something more important came up.”
Cole snorted derisively. Nick shot him a warning look over his shoulder.
“Why wouldn’t the people who hired Jack and Lucas come for us too?” Sonia asked. Once again, she was putting voice to my unspoken thoughts.
“Because I highly doubt Jack and Lucas will choose to relay the night’s events to whoever hired them,” said Daniel as we reached the top of the staircase and he stepped around us to lead us through one of the doors in the balcony hall. “Rest in here, Sammy. I’ll get you some food and drink.”
Nick “escorted” me to the bed in the guest room, and I thought about what Daniel said. Prometheus’s leader was under the same impression I was about Jack and Luke’s employer. They probably weren’t the kind to take bad news well. Jack and IRM-900 had infiltrated Prometheus and stayed deep under cover for an entire year. For the whole thing to go kerflooey just like that would be a devastating report to have to make.
While Luke probably didn’t want to be deactivated, I doubted Jack cared as much about repercussions involving his superiors’ disappointment. However… I’d been thinking about this. Why would Jack leave the force and work for someone of dubious character in the first place? Why would he leave the police department his children had given their lives for? What did a suicidal man have left to even care about?
Revenge.
It was the only thing that made any sense to me. I could imagine it so clearly, too. All anyone who wanted his expertise would have to do is promise that he would be able to enact revenge on his children’s killers – in some outside the law capacity – and he would about-face so fast, it would give him whiplash
.
So, just like Lucas, Jack Hugo wouldn’t want to disappoint the people who’d hired him. Because he wanted that revenge, damn it. He’d worked too hard and too long for it. He didn’t want to compromise it now.
“Their long con didn’t pan out and the boss, whoever that is, won’t be happy,” Cole said as he plumped up the pillows behind me. “I’m betting the captain is going to pull back and regroup to try another tactic first.” When he bent over me, his leather jacket parted, revealing his long-sleeved shirt underneath.
“Cole! You’re injured!” I grasped at the leather, parting it roughly to get a better look at the mess underneath.
Nick’s head snapped around at attention. Cole’s expression became straight-lipped, his eyes like blue flint. He yanked his jacket back out of my hand with an irritated flick and stood up.
“Cole, let me see it,” said Nick, stepping around the bed.
“It’s not a big deal,” said Cole tightly. He moved back, putting space between himself and his brother, and Nick stopped mid-stride. “It’s a flesh wound,” Cole iterated. “Ask any one of these tin cans and they can tell you. God knows they probably scanned me enough.” He shot the lead android a hard look. “Not real big on privacy, androids.”
Daniel’s expression didn’t change at all. When he spoke, it was dead pan. “Actually, I hadn’t scanned you until Sam noticed you were hurt. And in point of fact, now I have. Your wound is rather deep.” He crossed his arms over his well-built chest. “It could use medical attention, Lieutenant.”
Cole swore under his breath.
“Cole, if we fall under attack, we’ll need everyone in tip-top shape,” said Sonia in what she probably thought was a helpful tone but what I knew Cole would take as patronizing.
I was right. Cole shot her a withering look. “My brother claims to have safe-guarded the house. Are you saying you don’t trust in his abilities, Sonia?”
I rolled my eyes. This was Cole’s smart side coming out. Or rather, his smart-ass side. He was good at winning arguments when he really wanted to. But I was feeling tired and I wanted peace around me, so I butt-in before it could go further.
“Cole, please – for me – just go with your brother or whoever and bind the goddamn wound. You can even do it yourself, as long as someone stays with you until it’s done. I know you know how to do it well enough.” I said that last part with a touch of felt irritation, recalling all the scars and bruises his body seemed to sustain on a regular basis. It upset me that he abused the body of one of my best friends with such frequency, even if that body was his own. “So, please?”
Cole studied me with an expression I couldn’t quite read. Everyone was quiet for a long time before he finally nodded, just once, and left the room. Nicholas shot Sonia a look, and though Sonia began to follow Cole out, it was Daniel who placed a gentle hand on her shoulder to stop her. They exchanged a look before Daniel followed Cole out instead, and Sonia turned to sit on the edge of the bed beside me.
“Can I get you that food and drink Daniel was supposed to get you?”
I smiled and nodded. “Thanks.”
She got up – and just then, just like that, the doorbell rang. At least, I assumed it was the doorbell. There was an alarm overlaying it so loudly, the doorbell itself was hard to make out. I sat up straight, preparing to run or fight.
Nicholas bolted across the room to the door. “Stay with her,” he told Sonia before disappearing.
I watched the doorway, wondering who would come through it next. But as I was watching the door I heard the faintest, very quick displacement of air. I spun just in time to see Sonia’s eyes go wide. She touched the side of her neck, winced, and pulled out the now-smooshed tranquilizer bullet that had embedded itself there. She turned it over between her fingers for a moment, perhaps marveling at it. Definitely hating it.
And then she toppled over onto the bed beside me.
Chapter Forty-Three
I reached for her as she fell. “Soni-”
But I was cut-off by the figure that stepped out of the shadows in the corner of the room. “Samantha.”
I could hear the name clearly, even over the blaring alarm. The intruder was using that android ability to project their voice to a specific target. It was all in the sound waves.
I stared in outright shock for half a beat before I softly exclaimed, “Grace!”
The beautiful blonde woman smiled warmly. “It’s good to see you, Samantha.” A guilty look crossed her lovely features. “Especially alive.” She looked down, as if she suddenly realized she couldn’t look me in the eyes. Her tranq gun, complete with added silencer, was down at her side, for the moment forgotten.
“I understand why you did what you did,” I told her. It was true. I did.
Her head snapped back up, her eyes wide.
“And frankly,” I continued, knowing she could hear me plainly over the alarm. “I’m seriously glad to see you alive too.” She’d been trying to protect me from Zero, and she just wasn’t as great at planning around human frailties as other people were. Though from the looks of Sonia’s unconscious body, she was pretty good at planning for androids. “I thought Zero was going to kill you,” I told her. Among other things, I thought.
But now she looked pained. “I’m sorry,” she said, stepping forward with urgency. “I need you to know that –” She broke off, pinched her lips together as if re-thinking, and then said, “There’s no time. There’s too much you don’t know, Samantha. Not the least of which is the fact that I know you were watching through him that day. After…” She closed her eyes, seemed to center herself, and then opened them again. “After I poisoned you and you fell unconscious, you were able to see through Malcolm’s eyes.”
I frowned, and she went still as if I needed time to process that. But the only new information there was that Grace had somehow found out.
“Okay, I know but –”
“This is important, Samantha. Think carefully. Think about what this means.” She licked her lips, which wasn’t a necessary idiosyncrasy for androids, but was probably an affectation she’d grown accustomed to in times of stress. “If you can see through his eyes, then….” She trailed off.
But I understood. “He can see through mine.”
“Yes.”
“Why would you warn me about something your boss can do?” I asked. Frankly, I didn’t understand why Zero would send her to me just to warn me away from him.
“I’m not warning you because of him,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m warning you because as you’ll soon learn, Malcolm is not the one you need to fear. And because as you know, technological breakthroughs have a way of being copied.”
If you can’t innovate, copy. It was so much a rule among businesses that in the mid-twenty-first century, someone had coined it, “Simon’s Law.” As in, Simon Says. But what it meant for me, what Grace was no doubt trying to tell me right now, was that no matter how hard I or Zero might try to keep word from spreading, it had been made possible for an android to infiltrate a human’s mind and influence them on a physical level. For all intents and purposes, the means had officially been invented.
And someone else out there was going to sooner or later figure out how to duplicate it.
When she could see by my expression that I had made the connection, she nodded and continued, somewhat flustered. She could clearly feel time pressing in. “You should also know that Malcolm was not actually aware of your presence the entire time you were spectating. In fact, it was only when you left that he realized you had been there all along.”
She licked her lips again. “It was the sudden absence of your presence he felt and recognized. It… distressed him. Samantha, that day was highly unsettling on many levels. My employer and I both messed up.” She shook her head and shrugged helplessly. “By poisoning you, I hurt you physically and almost irreparably. And by allowing himself to become more furious than I have ever seen him, Malcolm inadvertently hurt you emotionally.”
“I wasn’t instructed to tell you any of this,” she said. “But I need to tell you anyway. Yes, Malcolm Antares is a formidable and frightening man. He is calculated and cold, and immensely powerful. But…” she paused, looked down at the carpet, and said, “he is also the one who gave me my name. And insisted I use it.”
I blinked up at her, that odd sensation in my chest spreading, making my throat ache.
“I have never wanted for anything in my life,” she told me. “I’m well paid, and the requirements of my job are more than fair. I’m not alone, either. Everyone in Malcolm’s employ is treated the same way.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked. My voice sounded a little choked. Why, I couldn’t have said. I was utterly baffled by everything – what she was telling me, my reaction to it, everything.
“Because I want you to understand that when you saw through him that day, the timing could not have been worse. It was the first time I had ever seen Malcolm lose his composure in any capacity, much less such a thoroughly icy manner.” She broke off and placed her hand to her forehead. “I know you were disturbed by what you saw. So was I. And when he suddenly realized you had been watching, when he fully comprehended all that you had witnessed, Samantha –” She lowered her hand and looked me in the eye. “He came undone.”
I shook my head. Slowly. “No. You’re lying to me.” IRM-1000 was incapable of coming undone. He was incapable of that level of emotion. He was a psychopath. He had to be. It was the only thing that made any sense.
But even as I shook my head and accused Grace, I recalled the way he’d healed me. Twice. He’d saved my life. He’d told me that I made him feel. I closed my eyes and saw his EED switch colors, becoming purple. Becoming platinum-white. I felt his hands on me, holding me, strong but… careful. I recalled him using swear words in vehemence, like a human. Here and there, scattered throughout my memories, were signs. I just didn’t want to think about them. Because I didn’t know what they meant.