Jack spoke up from where he reclined in his own chair. “Take a seat, Sam,” the captain said with a tone that told me something I didn’t want to hear was coming. “You’re gonna want to be sitting down when you hear this.”
Oh God, I thought. Not now. Not something horrible. Not tonight.
Not again.
Luke’s hand at the small of my back drew me out of my thoughts. I looked up; he was tall and strong, ever steady, and though he didn’t quite smile, he gave me a reassuring look and nodded as if he knew I needed that now more than ever. He was so beautiful that for a moment, he literally took my breath away. Nicholas was at fault for that; now I knew. Luke’s appearance had been designed to have this effect on me.
No fair.
Luke pulled out a chair at the table beside the one he’d evacuated. “It’s okay,” he told me softly. “Here,” he gestured to the seat he’d pulled out for me. “Sit down.” It was not only next to his, it also happened to be the one directly across the table from the viewing screen, offering me the best view.
“Oh look,” I muttered with not a little amount of sarcasm. “I’m the guest of honor.”
I glanced both angrily and nervously at Cole, who no doubt already knew what was going to appear on that screen any second now. But his face was shut down for once, utterly unreadable. Again, he was showing me a side of himself that was different than the one I’d grown up with, more mature, and frankly a little scary.
Everyone was getting scary these days.
I glanced at his older brother. Yep, I thought. Their expressions were identical.
Cole and Nicholas were “Irish twins,” babies born a mere nine months apart, indicating their mother had become pregnant immediately after having given birth to Nicholas. When they were younger, they couldn’t have been more different. And even now, most of the time Cole was a pain-in-the-butt smartass with a penchant for sex and anything even remotely related to the same.
But when I compared them just then in that room, I realized they were the exact same lofty height, had the same build, and their resemblance to one another in facial features was uncanny. They were nearly as similar as Zero and Luke. It brought a little more meaning to the second part of the term “Irish twins.” There were really only two enormous differences between them, when I thought about it. One was in the way they carried themselves. And the other was in their eyes.
Cole was a trouble maker, a smoker, a drinker, and if the scars and bruises he perpetually wore were any indication, he was a fighter. Who perhaps liked being in pain.
Nicholas, on the other hand was more refined. His clothing was expensive, he had no visible scars, and if he liked any aspect of pain, I would wager on him preferring to give it rather than receive it. It was always the quiet ones.
As far as their eyes went, Cole’s were a deep, gemstone blue like the cobalt of a troubled sea. And Nick’s were lighter, nearly as ice cold as IRM-1000’s. Of course, Nicholas had designed Zero, and knowing what I knew of that design now, I wasn’t surprised Zero possessed those eyes.
Speaking of eyes, every pair in the Prometheus interrogation room was on me. And no one was giving anything away. To make matters worse, the atmosphere was so damn thick with tension, I felt like I had to literally pull air into my lungs in order to breathe. It went sluggishly, in and out, fighting every inch of the way.
“Okay, what the hell?” I asked without sitting down. Lucas stayed beside me, one hand on the chair’s back, the other on my back. He didn’t move, but his eyes shot to Daniel. Daniel glanced at Jack. From his chair, Jack looked up at Cole.
Nicholas sighed through his nose. “You really do need to sit down, Sammy,” he said softly. But his voice was deep and his tone was that holier-than-thou tone he sometimes took when he was about to deliver an unsolicited lecture.
My gaze narrowed on him and I braced my hands on my hips. “Oh no,” I said, shaking my head resolutely. “I’m not fourteen, Nicholas. This won’t work with me anymore.”
He frowned, feigning confusion. “Anymore?” he asked incredulously. “When did it ever work with you, Sam? You’ve never listened to reason. Not now, not when you were fourteen, not ever.” His gaze narrowed to match mine and he added through clenched teeth, “If only you had.”
He was pushing my buttons, because I literally felt my blood pressure rising. “Fuck it,” I said, looking from him to the others. “If you’re all here to chew me out for bringing Ben to Prometheus, then scream at me already and get it over with. I’ve had a long day.”
The cylindrical case that held Jonathan and Theo’s ashes drew my gaze and I felt a wave of something strong move through me. It sapped my strength and lowered my voice. I swallowed hard, adding, “We all have.”
At the end of the table, in front of the computer, Lieutenant Cole Byron put all his muscled weight on one strong arm and ran his other hand through his dark hair. He looked more tired than anything just then. “For the love of God… please Sam,” he said without looking at me. “You really don’t know….” He sighed heavily. “This has nothing to do with Ben. In fact, it’s good you brought him to us when you did. It saved us at least one android we need to be worried about.”
Now… I was lost. I didn’t even know what to ask, so I just said, “What?”
Lucas pressed more insistently where his hand was on my back, and when I looked up at him, he nodded firmly at the chair. “Samantha, sit.”
I finally sat down. Lucas smoothly pushed in my chair and sat down in the seat next to me. His inner interrogator was showing.
Daniel moved around the table until both he and the screen were in front of me. “This notice went out across all android communication channels a few short minutes before you arrived here this afternoon, Sam,” said Daniel. He nodded at Cole, and Cole typed something into his keyboard.
The screen came to life with two very blue eyes. I swallowed hard when they appeared to spear right through me, pinning me to the chair as if with a rod through my heart. He didn’t move his lips at all, but the EED around his left eye pulsed slowly between blue and yellow, and a sound meter to the right of his beautiful image was moving up and down, indicating changes in audio levels. He was communicating.
“His message is inaudible to the human ear,” said Daniel. “So Nicholas made a few adjustments, and the lieutenant is looping the sound in right now.”
A heaviness settled in my gut that made me feel like I was sinking through the chair underneath me until Cole pressed a final key on the keyboard, and sound cut in half-way through IRM-1000’s sentence. I listened with mounting unease that quickly became disquiet and rapidly turned into outright dread.
“What you can’t hear,” said Daniel, “is Zero simultaneously sending out the model and bioreading information necessary to properly scan and identify all marks. Trust me, it’s there, and it was communicated clearly.”
“Oh… hell….” I didn’t even realize I was voicing my astonishment out loud, so I didn’t finish the sentiment. But there was no need anyway. It was clear now why everyone had been pale faced and serious when I’d arrived at Prometheus with Ben. It wasn’t just that they were surprised to see me with a stranger. It was that they’d just received this message.
I had to admit they’d hidden their trepidation really well, considering. I didn’t think I’d have been able to. But we were all on the same page now.
IRM-1000 had literally put bounties on all our heads.
Daniel, Shawn, Matt, Sonia, Charlotte, Lex, Lilith, Jack, Lucas, me, even Nicholas and most surprising of all, Cole, had been included in the announcement. All of Prometheus was now officially “wanted.” And the prize for turning us in was astounding.
“IRM-1000 managed to get his message across to nearly every single android on the planet earlier today,” Daniel told us as I put my face in my hands and closed my eyes. “The members of Prometheus were excluded from receiving it due to our barriers.”
He was referring to Daniel’s ability to prote
ct the minds of the members of Prometheus with the automatic upgrade that occurred to another android any time he or she joined our group. I had personally created that upgrade for him. All it took was a touch from Daniel, and the necessary computer information was downloaded by the new member. It in turn made the changes to the android’s design, bringing them into the fold like a new Borg member, but also acted as a shield against unwanted infiltration by anyone else, such as Zero. Due to the Borg similarity, I’d teasingly named the upgrade RIF, for “Resistance is Futile.”
“Also excluded were any androids with damaged neuronet processors,” Daniel went on. “It appears you were exceedingly lucky, Sam.”
I dropped my hands and looked up. Daniel settled me with his bi-colored gaze. He went on. “Ben happens to be one such android. Whatever he endured that caused the scars on his face also blocked Zero from entering his mind. So while you were on your way here with him, he didn’t receive the message. Otherwise…” he paused for effect, though it wasn’t necessary. “I don’t want to think the worst of people I don’t yet know. But this prize is too big to ignore, Sam. If Ben had received this message while you were alone with him, I honestly don’t know whether you would have made it home at all.”
No, I thought. Maybe not. Not with what Zero was offering.
Each member of Prometheus was worth something priceless. Turn any of us in precisely as stipulated, and the android making the delivery was guaranteed what Zero termed a “human existence.” The android and his or her loved ones would be given new, thoroughly-backed human identities with home and vehicle, high paying jobs, and a brand new lease on life free of persecution, all expenses paid as if the androids were entering the witness relocation program.
There were so many androids who would have scrambled at the chance to see this messy revolution in their rearview mirrors, this offer was thoroughly chilling. The temptation would be far too great for them to ignore.
What made it even more unsettling was that most of Prometheus wasn’t even wanted alive. Dead or alive would do. The stipulations were exact and unwavering, but they were simple. Jack, Lucas, and I were to be turned in alive and unharmed. The others would be accepted either way, though a large bonus was included for anyone still breathing.
Deviate from IRM-1000’s strict instructions in any manner, and the punishment would be severe. But stick to the order, and the reward was enormous.
“Wow,” I finally said softly. “He… really pulled out all the stops.” I slowly pushed myself back from the table.
Then I stood up abruptly, and found myself fisting my own thick, white-blonde hair in my hands as I turned around to face the wall and then turned back again in agitation. “Can he even do this?” I asked, too befuddled by this distressing turn of events to properly formulate my thoughts. “I mean, he’s offering new identities! Those take social security numbers that actually work, and new names that are registered, and past lives that have paper trails going back thirty to forty years!” I threw out my hands in exasperation, completely at a loss. “Not to mention removing their EED’s so they could appear human,” which I knew wasn’t impossible but extremely risky and problematic, which was one of the reasons Prometheus still had theirs. The other reason was a mixture of stubborn, morally-based pride. “How is this possible?”
Jack sighed and leaned forward, bracing his hands on the table top. His gray hair fell over his face, so he used one hand to brush it back and fist it behind his head before he said, “That’s kind of what I was wondering, in all honesty.” His voice was low and soft, a little less filled with hope than it usually was. It reminded me too uncomfortably of his Russian Roulette days. Those had been the days when the pain of losing a child was too much for him to take and the canvas of his memories was too vivid to forget or paint over, and all he wanted to do was wipe it clean once and for all. By just setting it on fire.
He went on with another sigh. “It makes sense that if that walking trash bin can actually make this offer with full intent of following through legally, he’d have to be granted the backing of the US government. Or at least, some faction of it.”
Knowing Zero? I wouldn’t put the ability past him. He was terribly charismatic, horribly resourceful. As Nicholas had said, into Zero had gone everything a woman could want in a man. He would have had no problems romancing this kind of cooperation and backing from someone in the higher echelons of our country’s administration.
I wouldn’t have been surprised to find the president on his side. After all, she’d been less than supportive of androids during the first half of her presidential term, and it was clear that his actions were anti-android, despite the fact that he himself was an android. And then there was the fact that our current president was a healthy, unmarried heterosexual woman who was no doubt too busy and too stressed for much of a sex life – and Zero was nothing if not living, breathing sex appeal.
“Fuck,” I whispered under my breath.
Daniel, who had approached the table and leaned over it to brace himself on his strong arms, looked up at me with a slightly amused expression but one that was mostly worried. “I would have to agree,” he said.
“Ditto,” said Jack.
“Yeah, me too,” said Cole with a good deal of bitterness as he ran his hands through his thick hair again and started pacing like a caged lion. “I can’t even go back to work. That plastic ass-wipe has managed to convince my captain and the commissioner that I’ve gone rogue and am now working with terrorists. Apparently they’ve already cleaned out my locker.”
“Oh my God, Cole,” I whispered, feeling sick for him. “I’m so sorry.” I had never meant for him to get roped into this mess. Everyone I’d ever loved was being punished by this revolution. And in a way it was all my fault.
Actually, if I wanted to be technical, it was all mine and Cole’s fault. Hell, it was Nick’s too – stolen kisses and brotherly jealousy being at the core of the reason for Zero’s existence. In a way, we were like the Three Musketeers of Android Death.
But Cole stopped and put his hands on his hips, turning his head to look at me over his broad shoulder. He appeared every bit the rogue in that moment. “You are?” he asked with a glint in his eye and a twisted smile. “I hope you don’t mean that, Cookie. Because I’m not. It was seriously worth it.” He cut his gaze hard and sharp to his brother. “And I’d do it again.”
Nicholas remained stoic, but his blue gaze iced over as it met Cole’s. The friction between them just then could have started a fire. Albeit a cold fire.
“I’m sure there’s a hell of a story behind whatever it is you two are piss matching about, but I’m also sure it doesn’t matter,” said Jack. “The shit of it is, Zero has managed to have his cake and eat it too.”
“He’s right,” I said, forcing myself to focus on the issue at hand. Feeling sorry for myself or my friends wasn’t going to save any of us. “He’s turned every available hard body into a bounty hunter, and at the same time he’s furthering his agenda to keep humans and androids on unequal footing. Toting a ‘human existence’ as a highly desirable prize to be won pretty much tells the android population that any hope they have of ever being equal to humans otherwise is lost.”
There was a moment of silence. Then Lucas said, “Frankly, I’m surprised he didn’t do this sooner.”
We looked at him. He was sitting straight-backed in his seat, and his gaze was steady on the picture of Zero, frozen up on the screen. But when he felt the combined weight of our stares, he looked at each of us in turn, and settled on me last. “You have to admit Samantha, it makes the most logical sense.”
Yeah, it did. What was catching me off guard was how calmly Lucas was handling it.
“He’s right,” said Nicholas frankly.
Now we all looked at him instead. He was leaning back in his own chair and his hands were steepled before him, his forefingers pressed to his lips in contemplation. But just as Lucas had, when he noticed us all staring at him, he looked up and sh
rugged. “What? It’s brilliant. IRM-1000 has the money, and he certainly possesses the ability to achieve the backing. And now every android that isn’t a part of Prometheus will be on the lookout for every member that is.”
“Nicholas,” said Daniel, turning to address him, “if you’re in this for the long haul, I have a job for you.”
Nick’s brows rose. “Oh?” We all stayed quiet, awaiting his response. After a while, he asked, “What kind of job, Daniel?”
The way he said Daniel’s name was familiar somehow. Then it struck me that it would be. Daniel was the first model he’d ever created. Who knew how long he’d had him before he’d given him to Jonathan?
They were old friends. I was shocked it was only hitting me then. But there it was. And the look Nick was giving his android friend was one that said Nick was expecting to be saddled with the worst. As if Daniel had done it to him a thousand times.
Maybe he had. I almost felt like laughing at that thought. Nicholas was a loner, perpetually just too damn smart to have the patience to deal with the majority of humanity. A Nicholas Byron with genuine friends was a new one for me. I liked it.
Daniel smiled a smile big enough I knew it was genuine. But his unique blue-green eyes remained hard where they were trained on Nicholas. “I basically need you to be Zero,” he said. “Tell us everything you think he would do, and try to tell us before he does it. You know him better than anyone, for obvious reasons.”
Clearly Daniel was aware that Nicholas had created Zero and Lucas. I wondered how much of that particular story Daniel knew.
Then I wondered who else knew.
I glanced at Jack and decided he definitely didn’t know. Then I looked at Lucas. Did he know? Did he know that in essence, he only existed because I had kissed Nick’s brother? Was he aware of what he represented? An afterthought to balance out the bad with some good?
Ugh, my mind thought. That was just too unpleasant. And I didn’t feel like contemplating whether anyone else in Prometheus was aware of the situation. So I forced myself to refocus again, feeling a little attention-deficit. It doesn’t matter, Sam. None of that matters right now. Reasons don’t matter. It happened. Right now what matters is figuring a way out of this.
I, Android: A Different Model Page 28
