Programmed To Please (The Tau Cetus Chronicles)

by Jenna Ives

  Christ. He’d never bared so much of his soul – and in a single breath! – to another human being, much less to a machine. But he meant what he’d said. Every single word.

  So much for divorcing his emotions from this relationship.

  I deal in weapons of war, but I just want some peace….

  Jai could see that Marque was in distress. It was in his words, but much more in the haggard look on his face. Had something happened this morning?

  She inhaled sharply as a sudden realization hit her. This was her perfect chance. He seemed… vulnerable… today. Yesterday, he had taken the first step in opening up to her. Today was her opportunity to try and push harder to get more information out of him, hopefully the information on his arms dealings she needed to do her job and be done with this case.

  So why did her heart ache at the thought of it?

  Because I care for Marque Callex.

  Yes. But there was no future in those feelings. He was a dangerous arms dealer and she’d been sent here to take him down. It was her job. She had to suck it up, as Commander Rainey had ordered, and be done with this assignment.

  And ironically, her feelings for him just might help her to do that.

  She was out of her chair and by his side in seconds. “Come with me.” She led him to the foot of the bed, which was really the only place they could sit side by side. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

  The question got an ironic, sharp bark of laughter out of him. “What’s wrong? What’s right, you mean. Nothing’s right. Nothing’s right in my life.”

  “Talk to me, Marque.”

  “I can’t. I wish I could, but I can’t.”

  “I told you once that I’m here to please you. To make you happy. In whatever form that takes. Talking. Listening. I’m here.”

  He shook his head. There was such a conflicted expression on his face that Jai’s heart ached again.

  She stood up and stripped off her thin sarong, did a slow pirouette, then stood before him naked. “Look at me. I’m not programmed to record, Marque, if that’s what you’re afraid of. I’m programmed to please. Check me over for yourself.”

  Technically, it was true. She wasn’t wired. But Wyatt’s camera was very definitely whirring away overhead.

  Her stunt got a small smile from him. “Beautiful J, you’re the one good thing in my life right now. I didn’t realize how miserable I actually was until I met you.”

  Oh dear. Jai swallowed. He cared for her, too, and she was going to coldly betray him. She hated this.

  “Come here.” Marque opened his arms and spread his legs, inviting her into his embrace.

  She went willingly.

  He wrapped his arms around her waist, nestling his head on her chest, between her breasts. “Christ, I can hear your heartbeat.”

  “My pseudo-heartbeat. I’m Beautiful Dolls most lifelike model,” she said quickly.

  “So you keep telling me. But sometimes I can almost forget you’re not real.”

  I am real, Marque…I just wish I could tell you.

  Stop it, Jai! Do your job.

  “Talk to me, Marque,” she urged. “You look like you need someone to talk to.”

  That got a small chuckle out of him. “And how would you know what the hell someone who needs to talk looks like? I’m the only man you’ve ever been with.”

  “That’s true. But you look so…”

  He pulled back and gazed up into her face. “What?”

  “Sad. I want to make you happy, Marque. I’m programmed to make you happy. Let me fulfill my function. Please. Talk to me.”

  Jai held her breath as she stared down into Marque’s troubled face. She cursed the fact that her blue starburst contact lenses hid the plea she knew was in her eyes, but hopefully he’d believe her words. What more could she do? How much more pressure could she possibly apply?

  A long moment passed before Marque finally sighed.

  “You’re right. I do need someone to talk to.”

  Jai could hardly believe her ears. He’d taken the bait! Her knees felt weak with relief as Marque gently guided her to sit on his lap.

  He wrapped his arms around her waist again. “My name is Marque Callex.”

  Jai frowned. “I know that, Marque.” Then she felt compelled to add, “Mr. Carron introduced you when you first arrived.”

  “My company is called Callex Industries,” Marque continued. “It sells weapons to… ambitious men.”

  Jai knew that too, but it was not something Anson Carron would likely have told a Beautiful Doll sexbot, so she kept silent.

  Marque blew out a breath. “Callex Industries operates entirely under the direction of Tau Cetus’s High Council. The government is not my client, it’s my employer. I sell weapons only where it tells me to. Including to rogue nations.”

  “What?” The stunned response came out of Jai’s mouth before she could stop herself. No, no, Marque was lying. He had to be. Callex Industries sold weapons to dangerous countries at the direction of the High Council? Impossible.

  Marque looked at her abruptly. “Why the surprise?”

  Jai searched quickly for a logical robot answer. “I-I don’t know anything about the ways of the world, Marque, but why would a government sell weapons that could be used to start a war against it? It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Ah, good question. There’s a strategy to it, you see. I sell weapons only to the territories or dictators or politicians that the High Council instructs me to, in order to maintain the delicate balance of power on our planet. To the world, I may seem to be a rogue arms dealer, but in reality, I help to keep the peace. I answer directly to the premier, Theus.”

  Jai’s brain was racing. If Marque was the High Council’s man, why on earth would Theus himself have ordered Tau Cetus’s police force to bring Marque down?

  Oblivious to Jai’s frantic train of thought, Marque continued with his story.

  “Unfortunately, I have a problem. A few months ago, three wasp missiles were smuggled out of my factory. They were subsequently used to assassinate the Regulator of Terra Domus. This month, two stingers have gone missing. I discovered the identity of the thief this morning. It’s my own brother-in-law, who works for me at Callex Industries. I have the evidence on disc, and he confessed to it when I confronted him.” Marque blew out a breath. “Not only that, but he also admitted to killing an agent that Tau Cetus’s police force had sent to infiltrate my company.”

  Jai froze on Marque’s lap. Dear God. Marque hadn’t killed Joran Breaux either?

  “Christ, J, when you freeze up like this, there’s no denying you’re a robot. Are you malfunctioning? Say something.”

  Jai forced herself to blink. To breathe. “What is your brother-in-law’s name?”

  Marque frowned. “Chavis Smith. Why?”

  He’s identified the killer by name for Wyatt’s recording. Again Jai searched for a logical robot answer. “I’m just trying to keep this story straight, Marque. All these names are unfamiliar to me.”

  “Right. Sorry.” Marque sighed, and continued. “My duty, of course, is to turn Chavis immediately over to the High Council. But my sister… well, I’m afraid my sister Leora would never forgive me if I did. I’ve already ruined her life by being what I am. To take away her husband, too…I don’t know if I can do that to her. She’s suffered so much at my hands already.”

  Jai sat on Marque’s lap, speechless. Marque Callex was an innocent man. He was not the evil arms dealer the world believed, in fact, he was exactly the opposite.

  As the numbing, unbelievable truth started to settle in, Jai’s heart began to beat with a strange new rhythm, even as her brain began to process the new facts of her situation. “You say you’ve ruined your sister’s life by being what you are. But it sounds to me that ‘what you are,’ Marque, is an important government agent, a hero even.”

  Marque made a small, scoffing sound. “A hero? Hardly. I became the High Council’s weapons dealer to help ensure that a war can
never happen again. I gave up all chance at a normal life when I committed to this, but unfortunately, I forfeited all chance at a normal life for my sister as well.”

  Jai wrapped one arm around Marque’s shoulder. “Why did you do it?”

  Marque shrugged. “I know you’ll have no concept of this, being a machine and brand new off the assembly line, but… I lost my parents in the Great War.”

  The statement came out as simple fact, but it hit Jai hard in the gut. She knew what Marque was really saying with his unemotional words. Jai had lost her parents in the war, too, as well as two brothers. Nearly half the planet had died in that terrible conflict. It had taken Jai – and all of Tau Cetus – a long time to recover, to heal. Some people said the world was not the same even today. Jai’s life path had led her from a foster group home to Tau Cetus’s police force; Marque’s life had led him to a higher goal. But they were a lot alike. Children of war often became the fiercest defenders of peace.

  Good God. What a revelation Marque Callex was!

  “What will you do about Chavis Smith?”

  Marque’s grip around her waist tightened. “I don’t know yet. I have to speak with my sister first.”

  Oh, dear. Not good. Chavis had to pay for what he’d done. He needed to be apprehended and turned over to the authorities. Jai shifted on Marque’s lap as she had a sudden insight. “Does your sister know what you really are?”

  “No. It’s dangerous enough for her as it is. Why complicate things further?”

  “How long has it been since you’ve seen her?”

  “Nine years, two months and six days. Since Callex Industries has been a front for the High Council.”

  “Marque! Why?”

  He shrugged. “To protect her. I felt if I stayed far enough away from her, she’d be safe.”

  “But if her safety is in jeopardy by the mere fact she’s related to you, wouldn’t it give her some measure of comfort to know that her danger is at least in the service of a good cause? A noble cause?”

  Marque frowned.

  “Go talk to her. As a brother. As the loving brother you obviously are. Given the fact that weapons killed your parents, she can’t possibly want her own husband to be selling death.”

  Marque was quiet as he considered her words, and then blew out a breath. “Jesus, J, who the hell made you so wise? What kind of A.I. program does that?”

  Jai didn’t have a logical robot answer for that one. “I don’t know, Marque. It’s just the way I feel. It’s just…inside me.”

  He reached up to slip one hand behind her head, pulling her down for a kiss. It was wonderful, his kiss. Slow. Warm. Emotional. Possibly the best kiss of Jai’s life, now that she knew who Marque Callex really was.

  An honorable man.

  “I know what I’d like inside you,” Marque murmured quietly as he pulled away. “Me.”

  Her heart tripped again to its new rhythm, and her hand eased a path up his chest, to tug urgently at his tie.

  Marque needed no further encouragement. Seated as Jai was on his lap, Marque simply slipped one arm under her legs and the other around her back, and swept her up into his arms, turning to carry her the short distance to the top of the bed.

  He shed his clothes in seconds flat. They made love gently, tenderly. Marque on top. Then Jai on top. It wasn’t the cataclysmic orgasms of days past, or even the poignant heart-stopping lovemaking of yesterday. In a way, this was better. This was contented sex, committed lovemaking, caring about each other’s pleasure. A mutual give and take. Comfortable. Easy. Secure.

  And so very powerful.

  When the sex was over and Marque was getting dressed to leave, he looked down at her with something like a rueful expression on his face.

  “You know,” he said, shaking his head, “I specifically requested a blue-eyed, blonde-haired Doll. I hate blondes – my type has always been brown-haired, brown-eyed girls – so I thought there was no way I’d get emotionally attached. But I am. Emotionally attached. I’m in love with you, J. With a robot!”

  He shoved a hand through his hair, but it wasn’t a frustrated gesture, more like an ironic one.

  “I’m in love with you,” he repeated, giving her a warm smile. “And I think you’re going to make me very happy. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  As Jai watched him leave, her heart found yet another new rhythm. Happiness. Marque loved her and she loved him. When he returned tomorrow, she was going to convince him to turn in his brother-in-law, if his sister didn’t convince him today.

  And then Jai was going to tell him she was real. Human. And a brown-haired, brown-eyed girl, to boot.

  Then they could start a real relationship.

  Chapter Seven

  “Holy shit.”

  Aside from that one, vivid comment, Commander Talis Rainey had sat mostly speechless behind his desk during the daily afternoon debriefing, as Wyatt played the section of the video disc where Marque Callex revealed the true affiliation of Callex Industries, and the killer of Joran Breaux.

  And despite the fact that her nudity featured prominently on the digital recording, Jai held her head high.

  “You have to let me convince him to turn in Chavis Smith, sir,” she insisted, her blue uniform a stark contrast to her still sex-tousled hair. She and Wyatt had rushed back to Rainey’s office almost immediately after Marque had left Beautiful Dolls, pausing only long enough to give Anson Carron’s staff a chance to strip off Jai’s artificial skin and pop out her contact lenses. She hadn’t even showered. “The brother-in-law is the one who’s illegally selling arms, sir, not Callex.”

  “Turner—”

  “Our orders were to get to the person peddling weapons on the open market, sir. That’s Chavis Smith, not Marque Callex.”

  “You know…” Rainey mused, tapping a finger against his lips. “When Theus gave us his orders regarding Callex, he explicitly said to ‘bring him down.’ Not ‘take him out.’ That’s why you weren’t sent in as an assassin, Turner. I guess Theus had his own doubts about Callex’s guilt.”

  “He’s not guilty, sir. He’s a hero.”

  Rainey frowned. “I suspect Regulator Florens Hericus would disagree with you. He’s dead because of Callex Industries’ wasp missiles.”

  Jai shifted uncomfortably on her feet. She couldn’t deny that salient point.

  “And unless we can find out who Chavis Smith sold those two stingers to, more people could die.” Rainey leaned forward in his chair and pointed to Wyatt’s digital disc player. “Callex may have Chavis Smith’s confession, but we have his. Right now, Callex is guilty of protecting a criminal, so you have one last day tomorrow to convince him to turn in his brother-in-law—”

  “Unless his sister does this afternoon,” Jai interjected.

  “Right. Either way, he needs to turn over Chavis Smith to the High Council, or else we’ll consider Callex an accessory, and take him down along with Smith.”

  Jai was determined that would never happen. She had other plans for Marque’s future. One that included her.

  She saluted the commander. “I understand, sir.”

  “Good job today, Turner. I know this assignment has been a rough one – on both of you – but you’ve handled it with a professionalism I’m proud of.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Jai threw a concerned glance at her partner. “You okay, Leith?”

  Wyatt shrugged. “At least I have closure. I know now who killed my partner, and I know we’re going to punish the bastard.”

  “Damn straight,” Rainey agreed.

  “There’s one more thing…” Wyatt started.

  “Yes?”

  “We have Anson Carron to thank for something else. Today Callex was suspicious because he’d never seen any other clients at Beautiful Dolls. Carron was pretty quick on his feet with a response. He told Callex all the boudoir rooms were full, but that he staggers the clients’ arrival times for the sake of their privacy. He even offered to let Callex peek into any one of the empty r
ooms. Of course, Callex refused. It would have been too embarrassing, which is what Carron was counting on.”

  “Brilliant,” Rainey observed. “Ballsy, and brilliant. First he makes sure Callex’s bodyguard searches Turner’s boudoir room before you install your camera, then he refuses to let Callex run Turner through a scanner on grounds of exposing ‘proprietary company secrets,’ and now this. Whoever thought we’d be so indebted to that slimy pimp?”

  “He clearly had his own agenda,” Jai said sarcastically. “He agreed to all this to get his ass out of trouble. I wouldn’t trust the man as far as I could throw him.”

  “Well, we won’t need him after tomorrow. That is, if you finish your job. Callex needs to turn over Chavis Smith either to us or directly to Theus. Or else he goes down, too.”

  “I’ll see to it,” Jai vowed.

  #

  Instead of going back to his office after his session with J, Marque gave Bursus an address, and asked him to make a quick call to another set of bodyguards.

  And now, pulling up outside an ornate apartment building on the wealthy side of town, Marque found himself a little short of breath. What would he say to Leora after all this time? He’d purposely had Bursus call her security detail to make sure she was at home, instead of Marque simply phoning Leora directly to tell her he was coming. Hell. He’d been afraid she might flat out refuse to see him.

  Ironic that he could face a powerful and dangerous man like Theus without breaking a sweat, but he was a nervous wreck about meeting his own sister.

  Bursus pulled their transport into an underground garage and parked. After a quick check of the immediate surroundings, Bursus opened the car door for Marque, and the two men headed for the private penthouse elevator. The dedicated lift worked only with a personal key, so Bursus put in another call to the bodyguards upstairs.

  “We’re here.”

  Then the two men stepped inside the elevator, and were whisked thirty stories to the top floor. As the doors opened, Marque was glad to see one burly man blocking the elevator’s exit, and another two men guarding the door to Leora’s apartment.