VOLITION (Perception Trilogy, book 2) (20 page)

A force field sizzled between our hot bodies. Noah’s close
position over me was like a torch to my minefield. Any moment now I was going
to explode. I was glad Mary had exited. There was no way I could keep hiding
this.

Noah’s gaze moved from my eyes to my mouth. His face lowered to
mine, and I felt my lips part. I desperately wanted to kiss him. The energy
between us crackled. He bent lower, and his lips brushed against my ear.

“What are you waiting for,” he whispered.

I swallowed hard.

“I think I’m done for the day.” My voice sounded hoarse. I
hoped he couldn’t tell how he was affecting me. It was embarrassing.

“Are you sure?” he asked, leaning up to catch my eyes.

I nodded feebly.

“Okay.” He shifted off and collapsed to the mat beside me. He
was still close, but far enough away that I could get my senses back. I placed
a hand over my heart, willing it to slow.

I could sense Noah’s chest heaving. Then he sprung to his feet.
“I need a shower,” he said as he jogged away. “A cold one.”

A little smile tugged at my lips.

Chapter
27

Noah kept his distance after that, avoiding being alone with
me, to the point that he’d become Jabez’s shadow.

Fine. I had some dignity, and I wasn’t going to beg for
attention.

We spent most evenings scrounging up food for dinner and watching
the latest news. Grandpa was tightening his fist on the nation, and riots were
breaking out after curfew. The army was called in to suppress the uprisings,
spraying crowds with power hoses and shooting off pepper gas. Curfew was
changed to eight p.m.

“I can’t stand being shut up like an animal,” Jabez said one
night, jumping out of his chair. “I’m going out.”

“Jabez, no,” Mary said. “It’s not safe.”

“I won’t be rounded up like a criminal. This is a free country,
last I heard.”

Noah moved to follow him, and I reached for his arm. “Not a
good idea,” I said.

He took a breath and nodded before sitting down again.

Everyone was antsy. Mary stared at the door after her brother
before darting to the bedroom. I wasn’t about to disturb her.

“It’s getting scary out there,” I said.

“Yup.”

“Grandpa V is outdoing himself.”

Noah’s eyes darted to Mary’s door.

“She didn’t hear that.”

“I know. You just can’t be too careful.” He shifted and drew a
hand through his hair. “We’ve been in one place too long. Again. As soon as the
fight is over, we’re leaving.”

Assuming he won. Assuming he wasn’t terribly injured.

Or worse.

Tired of the seriousness, Noah flicked the old-style remote
until the channel landed on a syndicated sitcom.

Mary joined us after awhile, having made a pot of herbal tea. I
figured we all needed something to calm our nerves, and accepted a cup.

Just when I was about to call it a night and get ready for bed,
we heard the front door slam. Jabez blew into the living area.

“Mary!” His face was a bloody mess and he cradled his left arm.
“It’s busted!” he said. “My arm is busted.”

Mary almost spilled her tea. She set the cup down and rushed to
his side. “Oh my God. What happened?”

“Riots, Mary,” he said sounding delirious. “Riots. St. Louis
has gone crazy!”

The piercing sound of sirens filtered in through the high
windows. I couldn’t imagine what was going on out there.

Mary guided Jabez to a chair and then left for the kitchen.
Jabez’s eyes glazed over and his head fell back. Mary returned with a cold
cloth, first aid-kit and pain-killers. She dabbed the blood off his face,
rousing him.

“Take this,” she said handing him a glass of water and a couple
pills. Then she helped him to ease out of his coat. He screamed and I felt my
knees go weak.

Mary laid his forearm gently on the armrest of the chair. It
had an unnatural bend. “We need to get you to a doctor,” she said. “This needs
to be set.”

“We don’t have any money.”

Mary’s gaze scanned the room, landing on me. My heart skipped.
Did she know who I was? Did she know about the reward?

She looked back at Jabez. “I have some. Enough.”

Jabez scowled at her. “You’re hiding cash?”

“An emergency fund. It’s okay. You’ll get your cast. But we’ll
have to wait until morning.”

Noah helped Jabez to his room. I could hear him groaning while
I got ready for bed and well into the night. By the time I got up in the
morning, he and Mary were gone.

Noah and I were awkwardly alone as we ate our breakfast of
toast and jam. Our eyes drifted from our meal to the TV to each other. It
seemed like we’d forgotten how to talk together. “This sucks,” Noah finally
said, breaking the tension.

“I know. Poor Jabez.”

“And poor me. I still need training if I’m going to win this
fight, and not from the sidelines. In the ring.”

“I could train with you,” I said, catching his eyes. “Better
than no one.”

Noah smiled a little and shook his head. “I’d never forgive
myself if I hurt you. Even if by accident.”

Jabez moped around like a baby for the next two days while Noah
trained on his own. I waited until he was finished before working out myself.
Mary stopped training me personally, and being alone in the gym with Noah was
too intense.

Jabez left early one morning and came home a few hours later,
all excited. His brown eyes glimmered like a little kid waiting for his dad to
open the tie he’d made him for Father’s Day.

“What is it?” Mary asked

“I found the solution to Jude’s problem.”

“My problem?” Noah asked. “Which one?”

“The one about needing someone uninjured to train with. Wait
here,” he said going back to the front door. Like we’d go anywhere else.

And why would he leave someone standing outside in the cold?

He came back with a guy in tow, who wasn’t dressed nearly warm
enough for the weather. At first glance I thought he’d found another guy they’d
want to train to fight. He was a little over average height, with short brown
hair and blue eyes. I smiled at him, wanting to appear friendly, but when he
smiled back, chills ran down my spine.

The skin around his eyes didn’t fold quite right. His face was
a little too perfect, a little too plastic.

Mary’s eyes narrowed. “You brought home a humanoid?”

I gaped at Noah.

“It’s fine, Mary,” Jabez said. “I know a guy who programs them.
Don’t worry. This one’s not going to take over the world.”

“How’d you pay for it?” she asked through tight lips.

“I told the guy I’d pay after Noah’s fight. He’s gonna win,
now, don’t you see? If he can beat Fred, here, he can beat any virtual ass.”

Noah shook his head. “I don’t know if this is a good idea.”

“I thought you guys were anti-gap, anti-robots?” I said, still
incredulous.

“I’m anti-big brother,” Jabez said. “I don’t want nobody
following my every move from some space station or monitoring how much money I
have and where I spend it. I’m not against technology. It has its place and purpose.”

An uneasy quiet descended in the room.

“Okay, let’s not be rude,” Jabez said. “Everyone, this is Fred.
Fred, my sister Mary and our friends Jude and Chloe.”

Fred took a step closer. “How do you do?”

Jabez opened up a collapsible chair and told Fred to sit. He
did. “Jude is the guy you’re going to train,” Jabez said. Then he turned to us.
“I worked all morning going through the fight moves. Fred’s program is perfect.
He’ll be an excellent trainer.”

“Great,” Noah said grimly.

Jabez jumped to his feet. “I’ll take him to the gym. Jude, you
can come as soon as you’re ready.”

Jabez left to play with his new toy and Mary slipped into the
bathroom.

I leaned toward Noah and whispered, “Are you really going to
train with it?”

Noah huffed. “I don’t see that I have a choice. It’s just a big
gadget programmed to help me train.” His eyes lighted on my nervous look.
“Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”

Chapter
28

NOAH

Truth was I
was
worried. A humanoid was a machine. It
could crush my face with one punch, shoving my nose cartilage to the back of my
skull.

An experience I’d rather avoid.

But I had to train and hard to have any chance at winning. My
gut told me we needed to leave after the fight no matter what. My nerves
shimmered under a thinly guised veil of controlled panic. We had to get away
from here. Despite the fact that Zoe and I weren’t a romantic couple anymore, I
was dedicated to keeping her safe, even if I wasn’t sure how it was all going
to end.

Were we to be on the run for the rest of our lives? If so, we
could be running for years, decades.

I couldn’t worry about that now.

I headed down the hall ignoring the old, musty scent of the
ghosts of factory workers past. I spotted Zoe through the window in the
courtyard, bundled up against the cold. She’d developed a perpetual frown, and
it killed me to see her grow to be so sad. She leaned up against the cement and
puffed on a cigarette.

Another reason we had to leave. Jabez was a bad influence.

The fact that she didn’t really remember loving me last summer
still felt like a sack of rocks in my gut. Us breaking up was better for her in
the long run. Yeah, if I kept telling myself this, maybe I’d believe it one
day.

Either way, it sucked for me. Would always suck for me.

Her confession of falling for me a second time almost undid my
resolve. Her dewy eyes pleading and the pain that filled them when I’d crushed
her by letting her believe I wasn’t interested in her like that anymore.

It was true that Zoe had changed. It was a lie that I’d stopped
loving her.

I almost blew it the day Mary asked me to pin Zoe to the floor
in training. Almost. Blew. It. The temptation to kiss her possessed my whole
body. Holding back made me crazy, like all my mental synapses were unhinging,
invisible stitches popping along the seams of my soul.

An outside force, something stronger than my will, helped me to
move off her without doing something I was sure to regret later.

I was in some kind of twisted purgatory with Zoe Vanderveen. I
couldn’t have her and I couldn’t leave her.

The rank of the gym assaulted my nose when I entered, but it
was the sight of the humanoid standing statue-still in the ring that gave me
pause.

It wore shorts and a muscle shirt, clothes I’d seen on Jabez
before.

I changed quickly and warmed up by attacking a hanging bag.
Jabez must’ve noticed my frown and how my eyes kept darting to Fred, who
continued to stand there, unmoving.

“It’s gonna be fine, man,” Jabez said. “I’ve got him programmed
on easy to start. A child could beat him.”

“That’s what you said about Mickey, and he beat the crap out of
me.”

“Fred’s programming is more delicate.”

I’d have to take his word for it. I sipped water from my
bottle, then entered the ring.

Fred blinked and I kind of freaked. Its face was too real
looking. The skin, the hair, the glossiness of its eyes. Technology was moving
so quickly it made my head spin.

“You ready?” Jabez asked. He stood at the consul on the floor.
I nodded and he pushed a button.

Fred moved into the fighting stance, legs bent and apart, its
fists close to its face, elbows in tight.

I did the same.

We circled around like two wild cats.

Jabez watched from the side. “Are you going to hit him already,
or should I come back later?”

I struck Fred’s jaw with a right upper-cut, holding in my
surprise at how real it felt. For some reason I though punching it would be
like punching a steel wall.

Fred struck back and I saw stars. I was right that it would be
a tough opponent.

I threw a punch to its abdomen. It blocked me and recovered. We
both fell back into position.

“A child could not beat this,” I shouted to Jabez. Liar.

Fred proved to be a worthy opponent. We worked through a rally
of kicks and punches, until I was out of breath and beading sweat.

Fred, of course, showed no human-like weakness.

“See?” Jabez said. “He’s good.”

It annoyed me that Jabez used pronouns normally reserved for
people and animals. Real flesh-and-blood organisms. Fred wasn’t a person.

“
It’s
good,” I said loudly. Fred raised an eyebrow at my
declaration. It’s very human facial response unnerved me.

“Kick him in the head,” Jabez said.

“What?”

“Come on, Jude. You’re limber enough now. You gotta get these
kicks in. They’re the knock out shots that’ll win the fight for you.”

I should know. A kick to my neck had taken me out last fight.
But I was caught off guard that time. That wouldn’t happen again.

I twirled and landed a kick on Fred’s head. He didn’t even
blink. Encouraged, I wound up again. This time Fred was ready. He blocked my
kick and I flipped in the air and landed with a thud on the mat. I wheezed
hard, gasping for breath.

Jabez laughed. “Knocked the wind outta ya, huh? Next time don’t
announce it. You have to mix your kicks up with punches.”

I pulled myself off the mat, determined to take this AI down.
All my frustration, anger, the weight of the injustice going on in the world
wrapped up into a fiery ball in my gut. I went after Fred like my life depended
on it.
Punch, punch, jab, kick, punch, jab, kick
. The last one, pushed
Fred off balance and he fell to one knee.

I thrust my arms into the air in a victory V. “Yes!” I knew
this was the closest to a win with Fred that I’d ever get.

Jabez’s eyebrows jumped with approval. “See man, you can do it.
Whatever demon you just wrestled to take Fred down, make sure you bring it
along with you to the fight.”