The Android Chronicles Book One: The Android Defense (16 page)

“Shoot her,” Cargio said.
“Or we will kill you.”

Tony’s face was
white.

“No,” Dr. Miles
said.

Lina struggled, with
terrified eyes, but the Super Soldier held her tightly.

Tony looked at Lina. His
finger moved to the trigger.

The bullet hissed over
Lina’s head as Dr. Miles threw himself on Tony and knocked him to
the ground.

Cargio laughed.

“Oh, Jason. Perhaps it is
you who is the lost cause.”

“You would have never
started this future without me,” Dr. Miles said. “It was I who
created the first android. Your monsters are pale shadows compared
to Luke.”

“And where is Luke now?”
Cargio said, his voice taunting. “I’m sure he’s lying somewhere in
a ditch.”

An android dressed in a
police uniform entered the room. He said something in a low voice
to Mercenare.

“Sir,” Mercenare said. “The
android named Luke has been located.”

“How fortuitous,” Cargio
said. “Bring him here. Luke will see his creator one last time,
before they are both destroyed.”

Chapter 39.

Mandelie felt Luke shake her
awake gently. She opened her eyes and looked at him.

“What’s wrong?” she said.
“It’s still night.”

“It’s nearly dawn,” Luke
said. “I have figured out the purpose of the Mind Portal. Come with
me.”

A little confused, Mandelie
got to her feet and followed Luke to room 1.

She stood beside him in
front of the long box.

“Okay, what?”

“The Mind Portal is not a
way for humans to prevent the android attack from happening,” Luke
said. “It’s a way to fight it. It’s a weapon.”

Mandelie stared at
him.

“Look.” Luke placed his hand
on the lid. It opened slowly.

The inside of the box was a
hollow space, but there were indentations that indicated where a
person would lie in it.

“How did you get the lid
open?” Mandelie said.

“When I put my hand on it, I
scanned the inside of it,” Luke said. “This box is made from
android technology. I was able to find the area of the box that
caused the lid to open. And I was able to find out how the box was
meant to be used.”

“How?” Mandelie
said.

“It triggers the destruction
of androids,” Luke said. “Once the second part of the weapon is put
in its proper place.”

“What second
part?”

“Me,” Luke said.

“I don’t understand,”
Mandelie said.

“Your father had a plan when
he created me,” Luke said. “He knew that the Society would look for
a way to create androids, to make their vision of the future
happen. So he took the first step. He created the first android. He
knew that the Society would not be able to resist using me as a
blueprint for all other androids. And then your father created a
way to destroy those androids. The Mind Portal. Once I am secured
inside the box, it will trigger a program inside each android. A
command causing each android to explode.”

“Then … what will happen to
you?”

“I must start the chain
reaction,” Luke said. “My destruction will cause the deaths of the
other androids.”

Mandelie shook her
head.

“No,” she said quietly.
“There must be another way. What about Brigite?”

Luke looked away from
her.

“That I haven’t figured out
yet.”

Mandelie grabbed his
shoulders.

“Hey. I can’t accept what
you’re telling me. My dad would never make a weapon that would
cause the death of good people. And that includes androids. Maybe
you’re close to the way to use the Mind Portal. But there has to be
another way, other than the one you’re telling me.”

She looked up into his
eyes.

“I can’t lose you,
Luke.”

“Then you do feel something
for me,” Luke said.

Instead of answering,
Mandelie kissed him.

A flood of police cars
pulled up before the laboratory. The doors opened and nearly twenty
android police officers got out. They surrounded the
building.

One of them gave a signal
and the androids leapt through the windows.

Glass flew everywhere,
landing on Trista, Jake, and Brigite as they were grabbed by the
androids.

Brigite screamed loudly
before one of the androids struck her on the side of her
head.

Luke and Mandelie burst into
the room.

One of the androids pointed
his gun at Luke.

“Don’t try anything,” he
said. “Or else this X-droid gets a bullet in her head.”

Luke remained still as the
androids grabbed his arms and dragged him out of the building,
followed closely by androids holding the other four.

Cargio made himself
comfortable on the couch in Damian’s office. He looked casually at
his watch.

Dr. Miles, Lina, Ledia, and
Tony were still seated on the ground, surrounded by
guns.

The door opened and a group
of android police came in, dragging Luke, Mandelie, Jake, Trista,
and Brigite.

Mandelie gasped.

“Dad!”

“Mandelie?” Dr. Miles
said.

Mandelie tried to run to him
but the android held her tightly.

“So this is your daughter,
Jason?” Cargio said, rising from the couch. “Well,
well.”

Mercenare grabbed hold of
Luke and walked him in front of the others.

“This is the android, sir,”
he said.

“Good,” Cargio said. “I’m
sure you’d like to take his head off yourself,
Mercenare.”

“I’d be overjoyed,”
Mercenare said.

Mandelie looked at Luke in
terror as Mercenare placed his arm around Luke’s neck.

Suddenly there was a sound
of breaking glass.

Cargio spun around and
stared at the window, where a female android in a maid’s uniform
was pulling herself into the room, grabbing onto a bed sheet. Her
face looked slightly singed, but she looked otherwise as she
normally did.

“You should know better,”
she said. “Fantastic Domestics never fail in their
duties.”

Luke took advantage of
Mercenare’s distraction and struck him in his side. Mercenare
howled in rage, losing his grip. Luke ran to Miranda.

“I’m sure you’ll explain
everything to me later,” he said.

“There’s not much of an
explanation,” Miranda said. “I’m fire-resistant. I just forgot I
was. Behind you, sir!”

Luke spun around and punched
a police android who was leaping on him. Mandelie, Jake, Trista,
and Brigite had managed to get away from their captors and were
kicking, punching, and smashing furniture over the heads of the
android police.

Luke grabbed a fallen gun
and began firing at the Super Soldiers standing guard over Lina,
Dr. Miles, Ledia, and Tony. The soldiers jumped out of the
way.

Luke pulled Dr. Miles to his
feet.

“Good to see you alive, Dr.
Miles,” he said.

“You as well, Luke,” Dr.
Miles said. “You as well.”

Luke felt someone grab hold
of his shoulder savagely. He spun around and ducked out of the way
as Mercenare lashed out at him with a knife. Luke grabbed a chair
and swung it at Mercenare.

Mercenare threw himself
bodily at Luke and they both crashed to the ground. Mercenare
grabbed Luke and began punching him repeatedly in the
face.

Luke felt his vision growing
dim. He felt around for his gun and fired wildly into the window
glass behind Mercenare.

The huge window began to
crack and crumble, until it disappeared and the air outside rushed
in.

“I think it’s time for you
to leave,” Luke said, locking eyes with Mercenare.

He used all his strength and
flung Mercenare away from him. The soldier fell through the window
and disappeared.

Luke lay on his back, unable
to move for a moment.

Dr. Miles had trained a gun
on Cargio, forcing him to lie on the ground. Mandelie and the
others had managed to destroy or drive out the remaining android
police and soldiers.

Mandelie wiped blood from
her face, where she had been cut by a knife.

She ran to Luke and sat down
beside him.

“You’re bleeding,” Luke
said.

“It’s just a cut,” Mandelie
said.

Jake limped to Dr. Miles and
gave him a fierce hug. Brigite forced Tony to join the other
captive enemy androids.

“I’m on your side,” Tony
said.

“Keep him there, Brigite,”
Lina said. “If it wasn’t for Dr. Miles, that rat would have killed
me.”

“Gladly,” Brigite
said.

Miranda knelt by Luke’s side
as well.

“Mandelie, this is Miranda,”
Luke said. “The bravest android I know.”

“Right back at you, sir,”
Miranda said, with a smile.

Mandelie got to her feet and
joined her father.

“Who is this guy?” she said,
looking down at Cargio.

“This is Cargio Lataun,” Dr.
Miles said. “He is the president of the Society of the Future, and
poor father to a young man by the name of Damian
Foster.”

“I thought Damian never knew
his dad.”

“He didn’t,” Dr. Miles said.
“Cargio gave his son up before he was three years old. He had no
desire for a child. I was in the Society at the time and I made
myself responsible for giving the boy to a friend of mine. Years
later, after I had left the Society, I felt guilty about what had
happened to Damian and so I invited him to be part of my work. I
tried to teach him everything I knew. Of course, you know what
happened after that.”

“Does Damian know who Cargio
is, now?”

“No,” Dr. Miles said. “He’s
never known. I think it would break his heart – if he does have a
heart – if he ever discovers that his father not only gave him up,
but tried to kill him. I don’t have enough anger against Damian to
inflict that pain on him.”

Mandelie looked down at
Cargio in disgust.

“What a scumbag.”

Luke joined them, leaning on
Miranda.

“There’s still a war going
on outside,” he said. “How is the Mind Portal meant to be used, Dr.
Miles?”

Chapter 40.

A small group of people
including Luke, Dr. Miles, and Mandelie gathered around the Mind
Portal box.

“Luke thinks that he needs
to sacrifice himself in order to destroy all the androids, Dad,”
Mandelie said.

Dr. Miles looked taken
aback.

“I would never put that
obligation on you, Luke.”

“I told you,” Mandelie said.
Her eyes were filled with relief.

“But he is right in one
part,” Dr. Miles said. “The chain reaction must be started by
something in some way. But it doesn’t cause any destruction. It
causes restoration.”

Lina raised her
eyebrows.

“It causes androids bent on
destruction to be restored to their original programming,” Dr.
Miles said. “It makes them obedient to Adventis once more. But it
needs a model to use. A model of obedience to Adventis.”

He smiled at
Miranda.

“I think you’re our secret
weapon.”

Miranda looked at the
box.

“Will I be alright inside
it?” she said.

“You’ll be perfectly safe,”
Dr. Miles said. “The machine will use your programming to override
the destructive programming in the other Adventis androids. You’ll
end all this chaos and death.”

Luke touched the lid and it
opened.

Miranda stepped inside of
the box. Before Luke closed the lid he looked down at
her.

“I take back my words,” he
said. “You’re nothing like a plaster mold.”

“Thank you, sir,” Miranda
said.

Luke shut the lid. He
stepped back from the box. He took Mandelie’s hand.

“I feel a new revolution
starting,” he said.

Epilogue

The handsome wooden house on
the lake looked more like a small mansion than a cabin. The lake
beside it was blue and clear, reflecting the clouds in the
sky.

Carlie stood behind Damian
on the deck, both of them looking at the water. She leaned her arms
on the back of his wheelchair.

“I got a news alert on my
iPad,” she said. “It’s safe to go back to the city now. I don’t
know what happened, but the androids aren’t programmed to kill
anymore. They belong to Adventis again.”

She hesitated.

“That is, if Adventis is
even a real company anymore.”

“I’ve decided it will be,”
Damian said. “I’m not taking orders from the Society anymore. I’m
taking my company into my own hands. It’s going to be real, Carlie.
From now on, Adventis will exist solely to further what I
want.”