The Android Chronicles Book One: The Android Defense (11 page)

“You shouldn’t be here,
Brigite,” Luke said.

“I just wanted you to know
that all of the androids – each of us except for the Super
Soldiers, of course – are grateful for what you did,” Brigite said.
“None of us would have been able to stop Mercenare. He doesn’t just
hate humans. He hates androids who aren’t his soldiers as well.
”

Luke nodded.

“How’s Bernessa?”

“They tried to fix her up,”
Brigite said. “But they couldn’t. They’ve salvaged her parts.” She
looked down at her feet.

Luke leaned against the side
of the door.

“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.