“I’m sorry,” he said.
“She was my friend,” Brigite said. “But there’s nothing that can be done to bring her back now.”
She looked up at Luke.
“The product lines have launched, and by tomorrow we may all belong to different humans. If I don’t see you again, Luke, I hope you’ll remember this. From a friend.”
She stood on her toes and kissed him, the heat from her internal circuitry flooding through Luke, reacting against his.
Luke did not move or say anything when she broke off the kiss and ran down the hallway.
“I’ve got something to tell you,” Damian said, once he was alone in his office and had picked up the phone. “I don’t know how it’ll change your thinking about the Super Soldiers.”
Quickly and tersely he related an account of Mercenare’s doings to the person on the other end of the line. When he was finished he listened.
“Well, I didn’t expect you to take that stance on it … but I agree with you. No, I won’t alter the Super Soldiers’ programming one bit. If that’s the way you like them, that’s the way they’ll stay. Yes, it’s all covered up. I agree with you, don’t want this to get out on the news, now that the androids have launched. Yes, I think we’ll get some huge numbers tomorrow, but of course that’s not going to change our deal. Thanks. Thanks for your support.”
Damian put the phone down and looked relieved. He walked to his television screen and pressed a button on the remote. Moments later he saw Luke, sitting on the couch in front of his own screen.
“You look as good as new, Luke.”
“Thank you,” Luke said.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like nothing happened,” Luke said. “I feel fine.”
“That’s good to hear,” Damian said. “Thank you for what you did, Luke. You stopped it from getting a lot worse and I am abundantly grateful. If there’s anything you want, name it.”
Luke leaned closer to the screen.
“Brigite and Miranda. They’re not to be sold. I want them to remain here, at Adventis.”
Damian looked slightly surprised.
“Miranda, of course. Brigite … well she was a huge hit at the launch ceremony.”
“I don’t care. Take her out of the product lines, do what you need to do, but she stays at Adventis.”
“If that’s what you want, Luke,” Damian said. “It’s done.”
“What are you doing to do with Mercenare?” Luke said.
“Don’t think about Mercenare,” Damian said. “I’ll deal with him. You just concentrate on getting yourself back together again. I’ll talk to you later.”
He turned off his television screen.
As he leaned back against his couch, Luke closed his eyes and accessed his communication console. He touched the inside of his wrist and began typing another message to Mandelie.
“Mandelie, are you there?”
He sent the message and waited, feeling as though his internal wiring and circuits had turned to crackling flames within him.
“I’m here, Luke,” Mandelie said.
Luke felt strangely dizzy.
“You haven’t responded to any of my messages,” he said.
“I know. Sorry. I’ve just been wrapped up in finding more about my dad’s disappearance.”
“It’s alright. I’m just glad to hear from you now.”
“Me too,” Mandelie said.
“I think about you. All the time,” Luke said. “I’m sorry if I did something to make you run off, but I’m not sorry that it happened.”
“Me neither,” Mandelie said. “I’m not sorry, Luke. But I have to go. Take care.”
Luke felt his communication console blink twice. He exhaled and put his head in his hands.
Chapter 27.
Damian felt jubilant and carefree as he drove his Maserati towards the Adventis building. He had been getting regular updates on the sales numbers for the androids, and they were through the roof. Carlie, sitting in the passenger seat behind him, was cautiously optimistic as she looked down at her iPad every two minutes.
Then as the Maserati pulled up in front of the Adventis building, it was surrounded by a swarm of reporters, shouting questions at Damian.
“Mr. Foster, what do you have to say about the deaths caused by your Super Soldier android?”
“Are you going to pull your android lines from the market?”
“What do you have to say to the people out there who have just bought your androids?”
Damian swore loudly, without getting out of his car, as the sea of reporters overran it like a flood.
“I thought you kept this quiet, Carlie!”
“I did!” Carlie said, her face white. “Something must have leaked, or someone must have talked to the press.”
Damian picked up his phone.
“I’m calling my attorney. Get out of the car, Carlie. Go into the building. Don’t say a single word to them until I’ve told you what to say.”
Carlie got out of the car, shaking as reporters rushed around her and put microphones in her face.
“Do you have anything to say, Miss Wesler?”
“Do you feel like you were involved?”
Carlie pushed her way through them, as valets rushed to help her through the mob. She disappeared into the building, just as a group of security guards rushed out to aid Damian in getting out of his car.
Luke was roused from his sleep state by the phone in his room shrilling. He got out of his bed and picked it up.
“Come to Damian’s office, now,” Carlie said. Her voice was ragged and sharp. She hung up before Luke could say anything.
Damian was leaning against one of the couches in his sitting area, his attention fixed on the television screen which was flashing a news report on the deaths caused by Mercenare.
A pale-looking Lina and a distraught Carlie sat beside him. Melinda and Ledia sat on the other couch.
Damian switched the channel to a news show where the anchor was talking loudly and excitedly.
“These robots are killers, Jim. I don’t know why the FBI and SWAT teams aren’t surrounding the Adventis building right now, and arresting Damian Foster for the crime of murder!”
“I hate that guy,” Damian said. “He’s always had it out for me.”
He mixed himself a vodka and drank it in a single gulp.
“Should we … say something to the reporters?” Ledia said.
“My attorneys Patrick Carnery and Lane Bellows should be here any minute,” Damian said. “We’re not making any statement until they get here.”
Carlie took a long sip from her cup of coffee. Outside of the Adventis building groups of protestors had joined the sea of reporters, shouting and carrying signs. Their voices mingled with the sound of sirens as police cars arrived at the building to control the crowds.
“Send out a company memo, Carlie,” Damian said. “No one is to speak or talk with any members of the press.”
“Already did,” Carlie said.
They all looked up when Luke came into the room.
“We’ve got a crisis on our hands, Luke,” Damian said. “The people out in the streets are howling for Adventis blood.”
“They’re howling for android blood,” Luke said. “None of the androids who aren’t Super Soldiers would have done what Mercenare did. They’re innocent.”
“Well, of course,” Damian said. “I’m not pulling any of the androids from the market. We haven’t released the Super Soldiers yet, and we won’t. That’s what I’ll put in the statement.”
“Maybe you should pull the androids from the market,” Luke said. “Humans may be tempted to blame them for what happened.”
“No,” Damian said. “I’m not pulling them.”
Luke’s face was unreadable but his body was stiff and tense.
The door opened and two serious-faced men in suits entered the room.
“Good, you’re here,” Damian said. “We need to draft
a statement right away.”
He glanced at Carlie.
“Get a hold of Joe when you can, Carlie. Tell him I want him out of the building. He talked to the press, and he’s going to pay for it.”
Chapter 28.
Damian walked through the glass doors of the Adventis building, surrounded by a group of security guards and flanked by Carlie and his two attorneys.
The reporters waiting in front of the building erupted in a chaos of questions. The attorneys walked up to a podium set up for them. One of them began speaking into the microphone on the podium, as Damian and Carlie stood behind them.
“Adventis Technologies wants to express its sorrow to the families of the technicians who were killed in this tragic accident. Those technicians were unforgettable people, skilled in their craft and devoted to what they were doing. What they were doing was ushering in a new era of technology, created right in this very building. Created by their hands. Adventis Technologies continues to believe in the work of these technicians. We will continue to sell the products these technicians created, the androids, and we urge the public to remember that these androids are designed for positive behavior. The android that was responsible for the accident suffered a programming malfunction, which will not happen again. There will be no questions taken at this time.”
The reporters began shouting out endless questions. The attorneys turned and accompanied Damian and Carlie back into the building.
Luke watched the press conference from the window of his room. He turned away and accessed the communication console in his head. There were several new messages waiting for him.
All were from Mandelie.
“Luke, are you okay? I just heard what happened.”
“Luke, are you there?”
“Whatever you do, don’t go outside. There’s a lot of anti-android feeling out there right now. Send me a message when you can. Please.”
Luke closed his communication console. He looked at Miranda, who was sitting on the couch, staring at the television screen which was showing images of an android being set on fire.
“Ever since the news broke of the killings, Andy, we’ve been getting a lot of accounts of things like this happening. People taking androids they had purchased from Adventis Technologies and destroying them to make a statement,” the news anchor was saying.
“Don’t watch that, Miranda,” Luke said.
He tried to take the remote control from her but Miranda held onto it.
“Oh, sir,” she said. Her voice was high-pitched and shaking. “I’m frightened. Any one of those androids could be me. I could be purchased at any second and set on fire like that android was.”
“It’s not going to happen,” Luke said. “I made a deal with Damian. You’re staying here.”
Miranda turned to him.
“Is it true, sir?”
Luke nodded.
Miranda ran to him and flung her arms around him.
“Oh, thank you sir. Thank you.”
Luke held Miranda tightly, his eyes watching the brutal images on the television screen. Then shock appeared on his face, as he saw footage of a female android with bright blue hair being thrown from a bridge.
He tore himself away from Miranda.
“Where are you going, sir?” Miranda said, but Luke was already gone.
“I need to make a private call, Carlie,” Damian said. “Get out.”
Carlie did not argue with his tone of voice. She left his office quickly.
Damian picked up his phone and dialed a number.
“You’ve seen the news, I’m sure,” he said to the person on the other end. “Yes, it’s a distasteful situation, but we’re handling it. I’m thinking that now is the time you should pick up your order, before we may be forced to destroy it. No, I’ll keep them safe for you until you get here. Alright. Good.”
He hung up and rubbed his eyes.
Chapter 29.
The cavalcade of police cars surrounding the Adventis building were too preoccupied with the crowds and did not notice as a motorcycle roared out of the underground parking garage. Luke’s face was concealed by his helmet and he hunched low over the bike as it sped past the police and the crowds.
He accessed his navigation system and searched a map of Los Angeles until he found the bridge that he had seen on the television. He pressed down on the accelerator, cutting through lanes of traffic crowding the streets.
When he arrived at the bridge, he braked his bike beneath it and looked around. The water that passed beneath the bridge was soiled and dark. He could not see a sign of Brigite anywhere.
Luke closed his eyes and changed his visual settings so that he could magnify everything in his sight. He scanned the bridge and the river once more.
Then he saw a flash of bright blue, beneath the dark water.
Without hesitating he jumped into the water, sinking beneath the surface. Long, monstrous fish bumped into him. He swam to the bottom of the river and looked around.
He saw Brigite floating motionlessly, her leg trapped beneath a rock. Her face looked sightlessly up at the surface of the water.
Luke swam towards her and freed her from the rock. He held her securely and swam to the surface. He dragged her onto the bank of the river.
Brigite’s bikini was sodden, her body drenched. Her eyes were wide open and unseeing.
Luke placed his hand on her arm and scanned her internal mechanisms. He found an area of her body that controlled her nervous system and jolted it with a burst of electric heat from his own current.
Brigite’s mouth opened and she gasped for air. She stared up at him.
“You – you came,” she said. “I thought I was a goner.”
“Come on,” Luke said, helping her to sit up. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Damian’s going to know you’re missing if we don’t go back to the Adventis building,” Brigite said into Luke’s ear, as they sped down the streets on his motorcycle, with her sitting behind him, her arms around his waist.
“I know,” Luke said. “And half of these human police are looking for me. We might get caught if we don’t go back to Adventis, but I’m trying to see if we have any other options.”
Brigite leaned her head against his back.
“Why don’t we go to the factory?” she said.
“What’s the factory?” Luke said.
“You don’t think they keep all of the androids in the Adventis building, do you?” Brigite said. “They’re all stored in a warehouse outside of Los Angeles.”
“Alright,” Luke said. “Tell me how to get there.”
Damian leaned against the backseat of his limousine as it drove out of Los Angeles. His tie was untied and his hair was disheveled.
Carlie sat across from him, looking shaken.
“What a day,” Damian said in disgust. “What a day.”
Carlie said nothing.
“It’s going to get better, Carlie,” Damian said. “Soon as I get those Super Soldiers off my hands. We’ll be rich. I don’t care if the rest of the country destroys all of the other androids.”
“Sometimes I can’t believe the words that come out of your mouth, Damian,” Carlie said.
She stared out of the window.
Luke and Brigite rode the motorcycle slowly and as quietly as possible down a long, dusty road that led down a hill to a huge set of warehouses. The warehouses were sold gray buildings that looked deserted, except for a few security guards walking around them.
Luke braked his bike behind a dried out tree. He and Brigite looked down at the warehouses.
“This is the factory?” Luke said.
“This is the factory,” Brigite said.
Luke ducked down behind the tree, pushing Brigite down as well, when a long black limousine suddenly drove past them, heading towards the warehouses.
“That’s Mr. Fosters’s car,” Brigite said.
They watched as the car stopped in front of the warehouses. Damian and Carlie got
out.
They looked around, seemingly waiting for something or someone.
Luke looked over his shoulder and saw a line of huge cargo trucks coming down the road. They were led by a sleek black Range Rover.
The Range Rover and the trucks stopped next to Damian’s car. A group of men in business suits got out of the Range Rover.
Damian walked to them and said something to them. Then he turned to the warehouses.
One of them opened its huge doors and an army of Super Soldier androids came walking out, an endless line of them.
Luke magnified his vision and saw that Captain Mercenare was leading the army of soldiers.
“Mercenare’s there,” he said. “I see him.”
Damian shook the hand of one of the men in business suits. Then he fell as Captain Mercenare took his gun and shot him in the back.
Carlie’s screams ripped through the air.
The Super Soldiers ran past Damian and jumped into the back of the trucks. The men in business suits got into their car as well. The trucks and the Range Rover roared back up the dusty road.
Four security guards came running out from the warehouses and gathered around Damian. Carlie was still screaming.
“What do we do?” Brigite said.
“We can’t stay here,” Luke said. “The Super Soldiers have turned on Adventis. We need to go back and warn the others.”
He got back on his motorcycle. Brigite jumped on the seat behind him.
Chapter 30.
Carlie felt as though she was in a trance as she sat in the backseat of the limousine.
A security guard from the warehouse leaned inside the car.
“You alright, Miss Wesler?”
Carlie managed to nod.
“Is Damian alright?”
“He’s still alive,” the guard said. “They’re taking him to the hospital now.”
Luke and Brigite raced down the streets of Los Angeles, Brigite’s blue hair streaming behind her. She hung on to Luke tightly.
The Android Chronicles Book One: The Android Defense Page 8
