The Android Chronicles Book One: The Android Defense (6 page)

“Our Blue Collar Workers
line,” Lina said. “Once the Blue Collars start working on dangerous
construction sites, we think that the accidental deaths of human
workers will be decreased greatly. They are programmed with immense
physical strength and endurance. They are capable of building a
high rise in half the amount of time it would take human
workers.”

The ninth android was
dressed in a nurse’s outfit.

“Our Tender Loving
Caregivers line,” Lina said. “These androids are meant for
childcare and the care of the elderly. We think this line will be
nearly as popular as the Fantastic Domestics.”

The tenth android was
dressed in a plain smock and safety goggles.

“This line is one of our
ways of pleasing our corporate partners,” Lina said. “The Worker
Bees line. They’re designed to perform well in an assembly line in
a factory, or in a regular run-of-the-mill shop or big store.
They’re basically shift workers, programmed with the intelligence
of the average human being who works at Target or
Wal-Mart.”

The eleventh android was
dressed in a hazardous materials outfit.

“The Haz-Mat Handlers line,”
Lina said. “These androids are designed to withstand extreme
temperatures and toxic surroundings. We thought they might be
useful to companies who are presently using live people to work
with hazardous materials.”

“But we’ve saved the best
for last,” Damian said with a grin.

Lina looked
amused.

“I’ll let you do the
honors,” she said.

Damian pressed a button on
the floor and a slit in the ground opened. A long pole rose out of
the hole. The peaceful background music changed to a thudding,
sensuous electronic beat.

A dark-eyed female android
dressed in a red bikini sashayed out of the twelfth box. She wore a
bright blue wig that fell to her shoulders. She prowled up to the
pole and began dancing around it seductively.

“The Guilty Pleasures,
adult-themed line,” Damian said. “All female androids, designed to
entertain in a variety of ways. I call them X-droids. But they’re
not sex toys, they’re entertainers. This is Brigite.”

Brigite left the pole and
walked up to Luke. She placed her hands on his shoulders and began
gyrating against him.

Luke turned his head and
looked over her shoulder at Damian.

“How will you keep androids
like her from being misused by humans?” he said.

“There’s an electric shock
system built into each X-droid,” Damian said. “Anyone who tries to
mess with them will get zapped. But only if they’re doing something
that’s prohibited by the X-droid’s programming.”

Brigite finished dancing
close to Luke. She brushed his face with her hand and then walked
back to her glass box.

“So that’s it, Damian,” Lina
said.

“What do you think, Luke?”
Damian said.

“Your androids are
products,” Luke said. He did not say the word in a complimentary
tone. “Products are made to fill a purpose. Going by that
definition, they are competent.”

“But you can help us
transform them,” Lina said. “Elevate them beyond being just
products. Right?”

“I am an android and,
despite the differences between myself and them, they are androids
as well,” Luke said. “I will do what is in their best
interest.”

“And in the company’s,”
Damian said.

“And in the company’s,” Luke
said.

Chapter 13.

When Luke let himself into
his room at the end of the day, he was surprised to see Miranda.
She was standing in the center of the room, ironing a white shirt.
Her long legs protruded beneath her maid’s uniform. A stack of
shirts rested on the white couch beside her.

Luke watched her for a
moment until she detected his presence and turned.

“Mr. Foster asked me to
bring you some more clothes, sir,” she said. “I’m getting them
ready for you to wear.”

“Thank you,” Luke said. He
passed by her and sat on the couch.

“I’ll bring your dinner to
you,” Miranda said. She stopped ironing and left the
room.

Luke felt an urge to contact
Mandelie, but knew he could not do so until Miranda was gone.
Instead he picked up the remote control and turned on the
television.

He heard the door open and
Miranda returned, pushing her cart. She set a covered platter on
the table in front of him.

“You did not touch your
breakfast this morning,” she said, sounding worried. “Was there
something wrong with it?”

“I wasn’t hungry,” Luke
said. “Technically I don’t need to eat, you know.”

“It’s part of my programming
to serve meals,” Mirada said. “Whether or not they are
eaten.”

Luke did not say anything.
He returned his attention to the television. Miranda continued
ironing shirts.

“What did you think of the
presentation?” she said. “Of all the Adventis androids.”

“Do you want my honest
opinion?” Luke said, muting the volume of the
television.

“Yes,” Miranda
said.

“Adventis technology is
short-sighted,” Luke said. “You and the other androids are not much
more than plaster molds. You fall off the factory line, each one of
you exactly the same as the one behind it. You’re programmed to
serve. Not programmed to live. Thus you can all be easily
controlled and used for the wrong reasons.”

Miranda’s shallow blue eyes
filled with tears.

“Do you even understand what
I’m saying?” Luke said.

“No,” Miranda said, wiping
her tears away. “But it sounds awful.”

Something in Luke’s
unreadable expression softened.

“Sorry for my bluntness,” he
said. “You cannot help the way you were made.”

Miranda tried to smile. She
began ironing shirts again.

At nearly eleven at night,
Damian was still in his office. Carlie was stretched out on one of
the couches in the sitting area, her iPad on her chest.

She jolted awake when she
felt her iPad vibrate. She picked it up and looked at the
screen.

“There’s an incoming call
for you,” she said. “The name is Mandelie Miles.”

Damian smiled.

“I’ll take the call. In
private, Carlie. Go out and get yourself some fresh
air.”

Carlie looked annoyed but
she complied.

When she was gone Damian
picked up his phone.

“Mandelie. Did you change
your mind about the drink?”

“A flat out refusal isn’t a
big enough hint for you, is it, Damian?” Mandelie said. “I’m
calling about Luke.”

“Of course you are,” Damian
said. “But before you start yelling yourself blue in the face about
him, I should inform you that I bought the android fair and square
and he is now a holding of Adventis Technologies. And I didn’t even
buy him from your father or from you. I bought him from an
oily-faced prison guard. For a discount price too, compared to the
original one million I offered your father. I acquired the android
for five thousand dollars.”

“Luke can’t be bought,”
Mandelie said. “That’s a concept you can’t seem to grasp. He’ll
always be loyal to Argonaut Laboratories and to my
father.”

“Whom he’s accused of
murdering.”

“You scum. My father taught
you everything you know.”

“And I took that knowledge
and turned it into a billion-dollar corporation,” Damian said.
“Adventis is a giant next to your father’s operation. If I wanted
to I could buy your little laboratory and turn it into a racket
ball court. As for Luke and his loyalty, I’m sure that a week of
his new luxurious existence within the Adventis walls will change
his colors quickly enough. I can already see it
happening.”

“You’re
delusional.”

Damian laughed.

“Oh, Mandelie. You’re all
alone in the world now, aren’t you? Mom drowned in the ocean, and
now your dad missing, presumed dead. I’d love to ease your pain.
Why don’t you come over to Adventis too? I could use a second
assistant. And you’d be able to see Luke from time to
time.”

“That has as little chance
of happening as you and I having drinks together.”

“We’ll see about that. The
things that I want to happen tend to happen, Mandelie.”

He heard a dial tone on the
other end. He laughed softly and hung up.

Chapter 14.

“Shirt off,” Lina said. She
was sitting on the edge of her desk in her office, dressed in a
sleeveless tan shirt and short brown skirt. Luke was standing in
front of her, like a customer waiting to be fitted for a
suit.

Luke peeled off his
long-sleeved cotton shirt. He set it on the chair beside
him.

Lina adjusted her glasses on
her nose. She drew in her breath and jotted a few quick notes on
her clipboard, her face bright red.

“Am I making you uneasy?”
Luke said.

Lina cleared her
throat.

“Umm … no. You’re just …
you’re in very good shape, that’s all. Your organic exterior is
perfectly conditioned. Did you exercise or work out a lot while you
were at Argonaut Laboratories?”

“I ran two miles every day
up and down the hills near the lab,” Luke said.

“Right,” Lina said.
“Alright, well, let’s go to the imaging room now, so your internal
make-up can be photographed.”

She led the way out of her
office and down the long white hallway. They went into a small,
sterile room where there stood a big machine that resembled a CAT
scan machine used in hospitals.

“Lay down,” Lina said. “On
your back.”

Luke remained
standing.

“I can’t lie down,” he said.
“There is a bullet in one of my central nervous plates. It prevents
me from certain movements.”

“Really,” Lina said, with a
frown. She spoke into her microphone.

“Tony, come to the imaging
room. Bring an internal scanner with you, a multi-tool, and some
flesh glue.”

In a few minutes Tony came
into the room, carrying the requested instruments.

Lina took the scanner – a
small tool that looked like a flashlight – and moved it over Luke’s
back. She paused when the tool beeped.

“The bullet’s here,” she
said. “Give me the multi-tool, Tony.”

Tony gave it to her. Lina
pressed a button on the tool and a small incisive blade popped out
of it.

“I’m cutting a hole in your
back,” Lina said to Luke. “Don’t move.”

Luke stood extremely still
as Lina cut through the skin on his back, all the way to the metal
console plate beneath it. She pressed a button on the multi-tool,
and a plier came out of it. She used the plier to pull an embedded
bullet out of a corner of the console plate.

“I’ve got it,” she said. She
dropped the bullet on the ground, and then used the tube of flesh
glue to glue Luke’s skin back over his console plate.

“Thanks,” Luke
said.

“Now lie down,” Lina
said.

Luke lay on the conveyor
belt stretching out from the machine. Lina carefully arranged his
posture more closely and then pressed a button on the side of the
machine.

“Just close your eyes,” she
said. “It’s like an X-ray for humans.”

The conveyor belt moved
forward until Luke vanished inside the machine.

Lina looked at the computer
screen on the side of the machine as Luke’s internal mechanisms in
their entirety were displayed. Her eyes widened
slightly.

“Incredible,” she
said.

Chapter 15.

Mandelie and Trista stood in
front of the desolate gray building that had once been a thriving
lab and was now a crime scene. Pieces of torn yellow police tape
were strewn around them. A cold salty wind blew over their heads,
like a taunting ghost.

Mandelie sighed. She wore a
plain gray sweatshirt over her denim shorts. Her hair was
disheveled, falling around her face in messy waves.

“I’m a little scared to go
inside,” she said.

“Well, we have to,” Trista
said.

The two of them looked at
each other, both seemingly frozen to their spots. Then they heard a
footstep behind them. They both whirled around.

Jake stood behind them,
looking uncertain and somber. His dreadlocks tumbled around his
shoulders and he wore a dark shirt instead of his usual bright logo
ones.

“Hey,” he said.

“Jake!” Mandelie said. She
gave him a ferocious hug, as did Trista.

“I can’t believe what’s
happened,” Jake said. “Like, it’s insane. It doesn’t make any
sense.”

“No,” Mandelie said. “It
doesn’t. That’s why I want to see if there’s anything in the lab
that could explain something.”

“Good idea,” Jake said. “I
want to help you guys look too.”