"If only it was that simple." Zach snaps his fingers again and the cyborgs go back to their meal. "This technology is being hunted down by the Inquisition in order to control it and destroy it. You wouldn't want these poor cyborgs to be enslaved like the androids are, would you? They would have it worse, though. And you shouldn't be afraid. All of your father's internal organs are mechanical. He's one of them, just on the inside. So think of them like Isidore. Now, come with me into the lounge so we can discuss where we go from here. I can't let you leave this building until you enter into a binding contract with me."
"Contract?"
Zach grins and leads her down the hallway into a brightly lit room that looks more like a kitchen than anything else. He unbuttons his shirt and places her hand on his chest. "Tell me what you feel."
She gazes into his eyes as she realizes that Zach Montgomery may not be who he has always claimed to be. "Nothing. I don't feel anything."
"Exactly." He brings her hand to his lips and kisses her fingers. "I gave up my human heart so I could install one that would never die. It's more advanced than the one in your father's chest. Mine filters any harmful chemicals from my blood as well and no annoying beating."
Katarina stares at his smooth chest. "There's no scar."
"Of course not. It's amazing what constructor nanobots can do."
"What do you want from me?"
Zach kneels in front of her and smiles as a glimmer of passion flickers in his bright green eyes. "Join me in the shadows and be my beautiful bride. Together, we can unite humans and androids for the security of the human race. As both, you will be the object of perfection and the queen of my new world. Just take my hand and we'll rule this country . . . no, this galaxy together."
She jerks back away from him. "Never. You're a monster."
"A monster? I believe you can be reeducated to feel differently. There is only one person standing in our way, y love."
She knows where he's going with this and it's not someplace she wants to go. "Isidore."
"Exactly."
"I can't kill my father."
"No? Well, my cyborgs can." Zach stands then reaches up in a cabinet and holds up a syringe. "You have two choices. Marry me and obey willingly then return to your life while keeping my secret, or I inject you with this tracker. I will know everything you say, see everything you do, and if you tell a soul about my project, I will cause you intense and undo pain. Is that clear, my angel?"
"If I marry you, what stops me from telling them anyway?"
"Because as soon as we say our vows, you will be put under the knife to receive your own enhancements. Isn't that thrilling?"
What can she do to get out of this? Either choice is terrible. So he wants to kill Isidore? She never believed that Zach had this side of him. And why today of all days did he decide to do this? As her heart pounds in her chest and she looks nervously at the needle, she thinks back to the plasma match the night before. Maybe trickery is the only answer. She doesn't want to do this, but if it will give her a chance to gain the upper hand, she will.
"Make your choice." Zach demands.
"I don't want to talk right now, Zach." Katarina grits her teeth as she kneels down in front of him and runs her hands up his legs.
He places the syringe down on the counter as his eyes wander across her skin. "Let me help you with that, my love." Zach removes his belt and unzips his pants. "What's gotten into you?"
As her hands move over him, she tries to not look at him. The truth is that she's never seen a man like this before, but judging from his body's reactions, she is doing something right. When he tangles his hand in her hair and pulls her face to his groin, she takes the chance and lunges for the counter, grabbing the syringe before he yanks her down on the floor by her hair.
Zach pins her down as she is squirming and laughs at her. "Oh, my little vixen. You think you can trick me like that?" He bites her arm until she drops the syringe to the cold concrete floor. "Not all men are weak. It will do you well to learn that. Now, what do I do with you, helpless and defenseless where no one will care to come help you? I could take you right now and make you mine, but I'm not that kind of man. Dearest Katarina, I believe that I have the upper hand now. Either you give your body willingly to me and become my bride, or I inject you with this tracker and we forget any of this little encounter ever happened. What do you say?"
Well, this certainly backfired on her. Then she thinks to the modified plasma pistol in the holster on her thigh. If she could only reach it . . .
"Answer me, my angel."
"Take me, Zach. Let me undress for you."
He grins and rolls off of her.
She takes the split second to draw the pistol then crawl away from him. "Don't touch me. I will shoot you."
"That's a plasma gun. I'm so scared." He mocks her.
"Don't make me do this. Let me go and no one has to know anything."
"You're so cute when you're scared. I find that when women are afraid, they are the most attractive."
"You're sick. You're mad." Katarina shakily stands and tightens her hand around the gun. "Please, just open the door and let me go."
Something crashes in the hallway as an alarm sounds. Six men in tan trench coats embroidered with a golden triangle with a daisy in the middle and red sunglasses hiding their eyes fill the room with laser pistols drawn. "Stop in the name of the Inquisition!"
5
Isidore wakes up as his watch beeps loudly in the empty bedroom that his disillusioned captor so graciously let him sleep in after their discussion turned from plotting the end of the human race to a sloppy, vodka-fueled dance party. Rubbing his eyes in the golden morning light spilling into the room from the window high up near the ceiling, Isidore taps the screen on his watch and reads the alert. It's from Katarina's watch communicator. He jumps out of bed and pulls on his jeans then quickly braids his hair. As soon as he opens the door, he is met by Kazimir's large hands pushing him back inside. He nearly trips, but his arms are soon caught between lead handcuffs again. "What the hell, Kazimir?"
"I can't have you freaking out about your daughter. Let the Inquisition do what the Inquisition does best. They'll find her."
"She's missing?"
"Oh, I guess you wouldn't know that yet." Kazimir says. "Yes, according to the news reports, Byron alerted them to her disappearance not even ten minutes ago."
"Do we know who took her?"
"Our dear little friend Zach Montgomery."
Not surprising. "Did he take her or did she run off to be with him?"
"Byron saw everything and from what he said, she was forcefully taken."
"I should be out there looking for her."
Kazimir grins. "So, I want something and you want something. I believe an agreement is in order. If you agree to go up to the moon base and not only rescue the hostages, but also destroy everything, killing Vladimir Evans in the process, then I will let you go right now and I'll have my men drive you back to the Presidential Palace so you can go find your daughter."
"Fine. You have a deal. I'll kill Evans."
* * *
One of the inquisitors steps in front of Katarina as another replaces her plasma pistol in the holster and wraps her in a blanket. The one in front aims his laser pistol at Zach who is still naked from the waist down. "Put your pants on then get down on your knees and put your hands behind your head."
The other inquisitors surround Zach and search his leather pants before tossing them to him.
The man holding Katarina tightly takes her out in to the hallway and places his red sunglasses on top of his messy brown hair. "Miss Williams, are you injured?"
"No."
He rubs her arms. "It's okay. We're here to help."
Zach cries out in pain from the other room.
"Don't hurt him." Katarina says, still genuinely caring about the man who attacked her.
"We're just going to take him in and question him. Do you know anything about this pla
ce?"
Then she remembers the cyborgs. She points to the door. "There are people being held in there."
The door opens and more inquisitors step out. "Nothing in here, sir."
"You're sure there were people in there?" The inquisitor asks her. "My recruits just did a full sweep of the building and found nothing suspicious."
Zach is in handcuffs as they lead him out of the room. He grins darkly and winks at Katarina. "See ya later, baby."
How did he do that? Somehow, he managed to hide everything while never leaving the room. "I swear there were people in there and all kinds of technology."
"All we found were some old broken down computers. We ran a scan on the data that's on the hard drives, but we couldn't find anything worth noting."
"Come with me." The young inquisitor leads Katarina up the stairs and out into the cold light from the artificial sun. "Let's get you back to your owner. Move your hair so I can check your slave collar. It's just a formality to make sure everything is accounted for and working right." He taps on the small screen and reads over her information. "Looks good. Just be sure to remind your owner that you shouldn't be out alone, except for during the plasma matches. Now you know why. It's to protect you from predators who would try to take you as their own. We can't have slaves being stolen. Androids. Sorry. Not slaves. I meant androids."
What's the point in trying to distinguish them? Call them what they are. "It's fine. It was my fault for being out alone. I was trying to find my father."
"The president is safe and back at the Presidential Palace. He's meeting with his staff as we speak. I'm Inquisitor Doss Monroe, by the way."
Katarina gives him a small but nervous smile. "Nice to meet you, Inquisitor Monroe."
"The pleasure is mine. And call me Doss. Here, let me walk you home. I'll have these recruits finish up here. I was worried when I got this call. Seeing as how you're an android, I was afraid that your owner had done something. Imagine my surprise when your owner is the one calling asking for help to find you. You don't know how nice it is to know that at least one owner gives a damn about his android. I get so many calls and reports about owners abusing and beating their androids. That was never the intent of these laws, well not since the last Paradise. Once your father took control of the government, he made so many changes to the Android Laws in order to prevent any androids from suffering like he did. How does it make you feel to be cared for by an owner? Byron Erikson, right? Is he kind to you?"
"Very much so."
"Does it bother you at all to know that he has the ultimate say in whether you live or die?" Doss asks.
"I guess I've never actually thought much about it."
"Ah. Conditioning."
She studies his tanned youthful face. "Conditioning?"
"You've been conditioned to not think about it. Probably from your owner or your father. I'm sure he doesn't want to think about what his owner did to him. Your father knows all about the power of training and conditioning. I read a lot about him from the reports my father has. Oh, you probably know my father as the Master Director of the Inquisition. He used to be a Secret Service agent. Anyway, Isidore underwent intense and brutal training from when he was only a few days old until he was twelve. He grew up in a concrete cell without any friends and no knowledge of the outside world. Being a T.I.M.E., with the computer in his head, they were able to further control him by programming him to not have any emotions. They tried to turn him into an unthinking slave, but one woman installed a free will program and he woke back up to reality. He suffered for years under their torture and neglect until he was given to Blice McSage as a birthday present. We all know what that evil bastard did to him."
"What happened?" Katarina asks. "I thought they were friends."
"Well, sometimes love and hate are so closely related you can't tell the difference. Forgive me for saying this about your father and for being so blunt. Blice raped him fifty-eight times in six months, sometimes with a loaded gun. Broke his pelvis and hurt him badly. He'd take him to the emergency room then do it all over again. It was a power trip for Blice who always had to be in control. My father told me all about him and how much of a druggy he was. He'd be fine one minute then beating the hell of Isidore the next for no reason. He'd starve him for weeks at a time then pretend to be his friend. Granted, Blice's father was pressuring him to do it, but still . . . it doesn't seem right, even to do to an android."
Blice did that? She had no idea it was that bad. Even though Blice gets on her nerves sometimes, she never thought he could do something like that.
Doss looks troubled. "Forgive me. I shouldn't have said anything."
"No, thank you. My father will never tell me much at all."
"Just be glad that Blice McSage is dead and we'll never have to deal with him again."
She almost says something, but she decides against it. When she gets home, she has a butterfly to squish. Her thoughts are brought back to reality when Doss takes her hand. She looks up at his rich brown eyes and his flashy smile. So . . . he's handsome.
"What's wrong?" Doss asks.
"Nothing. Just thinking."
"About Zach? Don't worry about him. He'll be fine. He works for the Inquisition as an android hunter, after all. We have to allow him some leniency."
"What are you going to do with him?" Katarina asks.
"He'll probably just spend a couple of weeks in a cell then be free to go, that is unless you want to press charges and we can have him castrated."
"No, no. It's okay. He didn't hurt me. I don't want anything bad to happen to him."
He stops in the middle of the street as cars speed by. "You have a kind heart. Well, we're nearly there. What should I call you by?"
"Just Kat is fine." She says as he hands him the blanket.
"Okay, Kat." He kisses her hand then begins typing something into her watch. "I'll put in my number for you. If anything ever happens again, you give me a call and I'll be right there to protect you. No one will ever touch you again. Now get in there to your owner. Tell your father I said hello. He knows who I am. Oh, and tell him I'll take him up on his offer."
"What offer?"
"Private government stuff. Nothing for you to worry about." Doss says as he replaces his red sunglasses on his face. "I'll watch the plasma match next week and my bet is on you, Kat. Shoot straight and go for your father. Don't let him win again."
Katarina smiles as she turns to go inside. "I don't plan on it."
As soon as she steps through the automatic doors and into the brightly decorated lobby, Byron runs to her and embraces her. "Katarina! Thank God you're all right. I was so worried about you. When I saw Zach lead you away, I knew something was wrong. Did he try to hurt you?"
"Has the Inquisition not given a report yet?"
"I want to hear it from you first."
"I'm okay, just a little shaken up." Katarina says. "There was a nice inquisitor who helped me calm down. I'm more concerned about Isidore."
"Don't be. He's fine. Turns out that he was just with Kazimir."
"He's got to stop doing that. Kazimir needs to realize that Isidore is the president and he can't keep taking him away from here for days at a time without telling anyone. Remember the last time this happened and the Inquisition found them drunk and passed out in the lake?"
Byron laughs. "Yah. That was hilarious. But your father isn't drunk. He's more pissed off than anything."
"At Kazimir?"
"At you."
"Me? What did I do?" Katarina asks.
"You and I both know that you went willingly with Zach even after I forbade you to see him anymore. I told the Inquisition that you were kidnapped, but I knew."
"I'm sorry, Byron."
"You'll be punished later." Byron says. "For now, Isidore is waiting to speak with you."
Isidore steps out of the Oval Office and comes down the stairs. He grabs Katarina's arm and pulls her to the door. "Come with me. We're going for a drive."
&n
bsp; "Where are we going?"
He fishes in his pocket for a set of keys. "Doesn't matter. I need to get out of here for a bit and talk with you where there won't be Secret Service agents monitoring every word we say."
Katarina follows him out to the garage and into his favorite red Ferrari that someone managed to save from above ground. She watches her father as he drives down the road, out past the tall office buildings and arcades then out into the open areas where the fish farms and other biogenesis spheres are that grow all the food and other goods for Paradise.
Isidore looks over at her and he doesn't look happy. "Why Zach Montgomery?"
"We're not together anymore. I thought he was a good person."
"Well, that's the thing about people." Isidore says. "They never are. That's why next week we are going to get away from it all for a while. I will be going up to the moon base to rescue the hostages. You will be coming with me so you can meet the man who made me go through so much abuse. Then you'll see how much of a man I really am when I finally get my just revenge and kill him."
"Why am I going?" Katarina asks.
"So you can witness the true evil that is Zach Montgomery's father. But first, I need you to pick between being human and being an android."
"How do I do that? I'm already both. I can't change that. Byron says that I'm perfect the way I am."
"He just says things like that so he can get in your pants." Isidore says as he hits max speed then leans back in his seat and steers with his bare feet as he coasts downhill.
Katarina glares disapprovingly at him. "I'll have you know that I'm still a virgin, thank you very much. Not that it's any of your business."
"Sorry, it's just hard to trust him."
"Why? Because Byron has been with so many women before me? He's not a bad man, so much as you seem to think so. He has been very respectful of me and my wishes."
"Okay, again, I'm sorry." Isidore says. "He just doesn't have the best track record when it comes to women. Either way, I want you to stop leading him on. You're only teasing him and asking for trouble. He'll only end up hurting you, Kat."
"Why do you hate him so much?"
Paradise Awakened Trilogy Page 4
