The Android Chronicles Book One: The Android Defense (21 page)

“Wow,” Madrick said. “Can an
android like him feel pain?”

“He feels a sensation that
is equivalent to pain,” Madrick said. “Like what a car would feel
if it was given consciousness and one of its wheels was shot off. A
sense of shattering loss and disruption that would impact his
electric current flow in an adverse way.”

Madrick drew in his
breath.

“I want to meet this
android,” he said.

“You and I both,” Gustaf
said.

Madrick folded his arms and
leaned back in his chair.

“Well, now that you’ve told
me about this marvelous android, I guess the big question is now …
can you make an android better, stronger, and more powerful than he
is?”

Gustaf met his
eyes.

“I think so.”

Chapter 11.

Carlie had pushed Damian out
into the orchard in front of his villa so that he could get some
fresh air before his physical therapy session began. Damian was
engrossed in watching a sitcom on his touch screen and did not
notice the huge flatbed truck that was pulling up the curved
driveway.

Carlie shaded her
eyes.

“Looks like your car’s
here,” she said.

Damian looked up.

“Oh, man. Yes!” he said. He
wheeled himself quickly towards the truck. Carlie followed
him.

The driver of the flatbed
truck got out and carefully unloaded the new car. It was a sleek,
black vehicle that vaguely resembled a rocket.

Damian rolled himself around
the car in a circle, admiring it from all different
angles.

“What do you think, Carlie?”
he said.

“It’s nice,” Carlie said.
“And unnecessary. You have sixteen cars.”

“And now I have seventeen,”
Damian said. “I think I’ll name her after you.”

“Please don’t.”

Damian laughed.

“How’s Elena working
out?”

“She’s … adequate,” Carlie
said. She had taken Elena on a tour of the Adventis Building and
had found Elena to be a placid observer and listener without ever
asking a single question once.

“Good,” Damian said. “I want
adequate. She’s just supposed to be a prop, you know. I don’t want
her to be as good as you.”

Carlie had to
smile.

It was nearly eleven o’clock
at night when Luke and Brigite had driven out to a Laundromat near
the laboratory. Brigite carried a huge bag of her clothing and Luke
a slightly smaller one.

They walked into the
Laundromat and stood in front of two of the machines. Luke fed
quarters into the machines and began putting his clothes as well as
Brigitte’s into it.

Brigitte walked towards the
soda vending machine near the doors and eyed the
selection.

“Want a soda, Luke?”” she
said.

“No,” Luke said. He
continued putting his clothes into the washing machine.

Brigite put a quarter into
the machine and pushed one of the soda buttons. When nothing came
out, she frowned. She hit the machine lightly.

“Want any help,
miss?”

A heavily tattooed man with
a large belly came near to her, with a sly grin.

Brigite stepped away from
him.

“No, thanks.”

He eyed her bright blue wig
and her tight shirt and skirt. He reached out and tried to grab her
arm.

“Hey!” Brigite
said.

In a flash Luke was between
her and the man.

“She said she didn’t want
your help,” Luke said.

“Back off,” the man said. He
pushed Luke roughly.

Luke immediately grabbed the
man’s arm and bent it behind him. The man screamed in
pain.

“Are you going to walk away
now?” Luke said. “Or do I have to tear your arm off?”

“I’ll walk away,” the man
said, his face squeezed in pain.

Luke let go of his arm. The
man disappeared quickly.

Luke turned to Brigite. In
exasperation he grabbed one of his jackets and threw it over her
shoulders.

“No more trouble tonight,”
he said. He placed his hand on the vending machine and administered
a jolt of electricity to it. A soda can tumbled out and Luke handed
it to Brigite.

Chapter 13.

“You’re cheating,” Damian
said.

He and Carlie were playing
chess in his bedroom. Carlie was sitting in her chair and Damian
was sitting in his wheelchair, wearing a loose shirt and flannel
pants.

“You’re just saying that
because I’m winning so far,” Carlie said.

Damian smiled.

“Exactly. You’re cheating.
There’s no way you could be beating me at this game.”

“I’ve beat you the last
three times in a row,” Carlie said.

There was a knock on the
door and the maid poked her head in.

“There is someone at the
door for you, Mr. Foster,” she said.

“I’ll go see who it is,”
Carlie said, getting up. “Don’t touch the board while I’m
gone.”

She left. Damian eyed the
board and then thought better of it.

Carlie was slightly
surprised to see Elena at the door. Elena looked fresh and gorgeous
in a pale dress and heels, a folder under her arm.

“Elena. What can I do for
you?” Carlie said.

“Hello, Carlie,” Elena said.
“I’m here to see Damian. Is he here?”

“He is,” Carlie said. “Come
with me.”

Elena followed Carlie up the
sweeping staircase and down the hall to Damian’s
bedroom.

As Elena came in Damian sat
up in his wheelchair alertly and self-consciously brushed his hand
through his chair.

“Elena. What a surprise. I
had no idea you were coming, or I would have put on some decent
clothes,” he said. “I’m a mess.”

“No,” Elena said. She smiled
at him. “You look great. As usual.”

Carlie moved a chair towards
her.

“Sit down.”

“Thanks.” Elena
sat.

“What’s going on?” Damian
said. He leaned back in his chair and eyed her legs. Carlie
resisted the urge to slap the side of his head.

“Oh, I just chanced stopping
by to see if you were here. I’ve drawn up some ideas for the
company, moving forward,” Elena said. She took a pad of paper out
of her folder.

Damian glanced at Carlie,
who gave him a look of surprise.

“Nice,” he said. “Tell me
about them.”

“Well, I’ve been reading up
on Adventis’s history of products, especially going over the ones
that made a big splash when they came out,” Elena said. “The ones
that made a particularly big impact were the android lines. I know
we’ve still got the Domestics and the Caregivers in circulation,
but I was thinking … why don’t we bring back one more of the
android lines, updated and upgraded? Just to show the competition
that we’ve still got what it takes when it comes to building new
technologies.”

“It’s a good idea, but we’ve
been muzzled by the Feds, Elena,” Damian said. “We can’t build any
more androids for the market. I know we’ve still got the
technology, which seems like a waste, but there it is.”

“And you should have already
known that, since I told you about it on the tour,” Carlie wanted
to add, but she refrained.

“Then if we have the
technology and it’s of no use to us, why don’t we sell it to
another company?” Elena said.

Damian looked dumbfounded.
It was Carlie who found the words.

“We can’t sell our
technology, Elena,” she said. “That’s like selling
secrets.”

“Adventis is made of
secrets,” Damian said. “Take one out and the whole house
collapses.”

Elena nodded
briskly.

“Of course. I understand.
But Adventis’s problem right now is image and advertising. We need
to do something flashy and bold. Something that will catch people
by surprise.”

“
Like an android circus,”
Carlie said.

Damian stared at her.
Carlie was surprised as well at what she said. She reddened
slightly.

“I had a dream a few nights
ago, about being in a circus, with androids all around
me.”

Damian was beginning to
smile widely.

“An android circus,” Elena
said. “That’s fantastic. If we can’t sell androids, then we can
organize a big display of them instead, open to the public. We
don’t have to sell any of the androids, but we can at least display
our newest technologies and make a splash while we’re at
it.”

“That’s zany enough to
possibly work,” Damian said. “And it’s definitely
flashy.”

He grinned at
Carlie.

“I should start asking you
about your dreams more often.”

“But it would have to be a
real state of the art circus,” Carlie said. “With some serious tech
minds involved and their names all over it so it’s not just some
gimmick.”

“Serious tech minds,” Damian
said. “I think I know who to ask.”

Chapter 14.

“Where did you get all your
knowledge about androids from?” Carel said.

She was sitting beside
Gustaf – her choice, not Gustaf’s – on the plane ride from New York
City to the lab in Los Angeles where all five of the recruits were
to begin their work.

“From observation,” Gustaf
said. “When you start looking at things more closely you begin to
see that everything is a model of each other.”

“That’s fascinating,” Carel
said. “I never thought of it that way. You have such an unusual
perspective on things. I always wondered, why did you hide yourself
away in the mountains?”

“For solitude,” Gustaf said.
“I was not hiding. Hiding implies some kind of
wrongdoing.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re not
in the mountains anymore,” Carel said. “I’ve always been a big city
girl myself. My family moved around a lot.”

“What made you decide you
wanted to be a robotic engineer?” Gustaf said.

“There’s something so
refreshingly simple about robots,” Carel said. “They don’t question
life, like we do. They just are. I envy robots,
sometimes.”

“I disagree with you,”
Gustaf said. “I think androids are full of questions. The
difference is they have the answers, and we don’t.”

Mandelie was brushing her
teeth when her phone rang on her sink. She picked up her phone and
nearly swallowed toothpaste in her surprise to see the name on the
caller ID.

“Hello?” she
said.

“How are you, Mandelie?”
Damian said.

“I’m … fine,” Mandelie said.
She had not spoken to Damian in months but she knew of course of
his injury. Though she had no fond feelings for him, her conscience
pricked her to be polite.

“How are you
doing?”

“I’m fine,” Damian said.
“Rolling along, so to speak. I was wondering if you could stop by
my house, at some time today that’s convenient?”

“Stop by your house?”
Mandelie said. “Why?”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going
to try anything with you,” Damian said. “Maybe I would have done it
a while ago, but things are slightly trickier for me now. Plus I
can’t get out of the house so easily anymore, so most meetings for
me take place at my house now.”

“You’re charming as ever,
Damian,” Mandelie said. “What is this all about?”

“I won’t tell you over the
phone, but it’s very important and I would be extremely
appreciative if you could come and hear me out on it,” Damian said.
“Will you?”

Mandelie stifled a sigh. The
last thing she wanted to do was to visit Damian Foster, but she
felt trapped and unable to turn him down.

“Alright. I can stop by in
an hour.”

“Great,” Damian
said.

Mandelie had never seen
Damian’s palatial residence in Bel Air before, and despite herself,
she was impressed by it. She walked up the front steps and rang the
doorbell.

The door was opened in a few
moments by a maid, who showed her inside. Mandelie looked around
her in awe and nearly forgot to follow the maid as she led her up
the sweeping staircase.

They walked down the
slightly gloomy hallway and the maid knocked on the door of
Damian’s room.

“Come in,” Mandelie heard
Damian say.

The maid opened the door
for Mandelie, who stepped inside.

Mandelie had seen pictures
of Damian’s handicapped state, but it was her first time seeing him
in person and it was a jolt to her. She vividly remembered him as a
teenager helping at her father’s lab and then as a magnetic CEO of
a flourishing tech company.

Damian did not seem as
jolted by her appearance, though Mandelie did not know that he was
secretly appreciating her casual, effortless prettiness in her
jeans and shirt, her hair falling loosely around her
shoulders.