What Lies Behind: A New Adult Dark Science Fiction Romance (10 page)

It was more than the light. There was a noise underneath. A high-pitched, droning noise that made Cass lose all control of her body. She fell to the floor. The stool tipped over, spilling the shorts and shirt onto her. The clothes missed her face. They didn’t blot out the light, or the noise that chased her into oblivion.

The white light shown on Cass. She was on her back again, the metallic surgical table under her. There were other people in the room with her. She couldn’t see them, but she knew they were there.

“And it’s done?” a man to her right asked. “They’re dead.

“Yes. Jack is dead,” the woman said.

The light shown on her painfully. The memories were still there, but Cass wouldn’t let them in. She didn’t want to see what they offered.

“Will she be alright?” the girl asked. It was the same dream as before, but this time the memory was slightly different. Was she experiencing the same moment?

“She will be fine.”

“She didn’t get burned?” the woman asked.

“That would have been against her programming,” the man told her. “Is that the memory stick with her next programming?”

“Yes,” the woman told him. A shadow crossed over her vision as the woman handed the crystalline memory stick to the man on Cass’s right. When her hand retreated, the light blinded her once again.

“Perfect. Let me get these last couple memories and we will upload this new programming.”

There was movement to her left as the woman knelt beside Cass. “I’m sorry for what’s coming,” she whispered into her ear. “But in the end, everything will turn out the way it should. On to the next project.”

“And that’s what she said? On to the next project?” Brandon asked. He looked up from his sweeping chore. Natalia had left Cass with a huge list of chores to do that day—

Probably so I wouldn’t go anywhere—

So they could go out and investigate, Brandon had decided to help her.

“Can’t you see though?” Cass asked. “She got rid of me because I killed her husband!”

“That’s not what it sounds like,” Brandon said with a frown. He returned to sweeping the kitchen. “It sounds like that
was
your project.”

Cass’s hand twitched violently and she dropped the plate. It shattered on the floor, glass skittering over the tiles. Cass growled in frustration. Her hand kept shaking.

“I got it,” Brandon said, bending to pick up the larger pieces. “Is that from what Natalia did to you last night?” he asked, glancing at her hand.

Cass nodded. “I don’t know if today is a good idea,” she said honestly.

“Why, because of Natalia?” Brandon asked.

“No, because of my dream. If I killed her husband, then why would she want to see me?”

“I doubt that’s the case,” Brandon said. “You can only do what you’re programmed to do.”

You’re a filthy machine,
she remembered Natalia saying. She shook her head.

“I’m right. Who was this voice you heard in your dream?” he asked.

“I recognize the voice, but I don’t know the person.”

“Then we will find out what’s going on,” Brandon said. He clasped her hands and held them tight until the shaking was gone. Only then did he let them go.

About an hour later Cass reviewed the list and determined they were done.

“Even if we aren’t, I’m done with this, and so are you.”

“What about Natalia?” Cass asked.

“Screw Natalia,” Brandon scoffed.

“Are the two of you through?” Cass wondered. She could hope. In fact, she felt the uncertain swirl in her stomach again.

“I don’t know to be honest. She isn’t the same woman I fell for. She’s changed. She’s kinda violent now.” He itched the back of his head, a confused look on his face. “She did call last night to smooth things over. Mainly I’m sticking around for you,” he told her.

She couldn’t help the smile that split her face.

“Anyway, we need to go if we want to get back before she gets home.”

It was later in the morning, so there weren’t as many hover cars circling buildings and creating havoc that would normally have delayed them. Cass input Olivia Hamilton in the search engine and in moments an address and a dotted path lit up on her visual overlay. She transmitted the GPS coordinates to Brandon’s hover car, and they were on their way.

The building was taller than most around it and the windows were clean and sparkling in the late morning sun. All of the other buildings around it shown silver in the sun, but the building the GPS was taking them to was a smoky colored brick. It was an older building.

Cass could remember this place well before Brandon landed on the rooftop parking lot. She’d been here many times before, that much was obvious.

“I don’t know,” Cass said, hugging her arms around her chest when Brandon shut off the car.

“Don’t know about what?” Brandon asked.

“I’m just uncertain if we should go down there,” she told him. “Olivia is doing so much for equal rights, even
after
I killed her husband. You’d think something like that would turn her against us, but it didn’t. She’s still fighting for us.”

“This is true,” Brandon told her. He chewed on the edge of his lip in thought. “But there are a lot of unanswered questions here Cass.”

“I know.” Cass sighed.

“You have to know what’s going on,” he said.

“I could just wait for Natalia to beat me again and see what memories crop up from that,” she said.

“That’s not funny. You need to get out of there,” he said. His eyebrows drew down in a frown.

“Not like I have a choice,” she commented. The conversation wasn’t helping, so she unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car.

“Where to?” Brandon asked, joining Cass. He slipped his hand into hers.

“This way.” She instinctively pointed the way.

The path she chose inevitably led them to the elevator that went down from the rooftop parking lot. They went down ten floors to the twenty-second floor before the doors dinged and Cass stepped out into the silent hallway.

Offices stood on either side of the gray hallway. According to the signs outside the doors, each suite of offices had their own function.

“This isn’t one floor dedicated to the android equal rights thing?” Brandon asked.

“It doesn’t appear so. Her office is this way,” Cass said, her feet remembering the way to Olivia’s office better than she did. As they traveled the gray carpeted hallway, Cass felt as if something was coming to life within her. A sense of purpose. This was what she was meant to do, but it felt wrong somehow.

Brandon was talking, but Cass couldn’t hear him over the need filling her mind. She was supposed to be here, but something was off. It only took her a moment to realize what was wrong.

Cass stopped so quickly that Brandon ran into her. He grabbed hold of her so that she wouldn’t fall.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, steadying her.

“I’m too early,” she said.

“What do you mean too early?”

“I think I’m meant to be here,” Cass said, turning to Brandon. “I feel this sense of accomplishment, like this is what I’m meant for, but it’s too early.”

“Like your fulfilling your duty ahead of schedule?” Brandon said.

“Something like that,” Cass said. When she admitted it, another feeling rose to the surface. This feeling was telling her to leave. She wasn’t meant to be here. Other things had to happen before she could fulfill her destiny. She had to leave now or it could all be lost.

“We need to go,” Cass told Brandon. Her eyes were wild. Her body filled with the need to leave this place.

“We came here for a reason,” Brandon told her. “We need to see Olivia.”

“I can’t. It’s too early,” She tried to pull away from him, but Brandon stopped her with an iron grip on both of her shoulders.

“Cass, fight it.” He looked deep into her eyes. His brown eyes were so dark as to almost be black today. There wasn’t any of the jokester in his eyes that she was so used to seeing. He was serious. “You need to fight this. Your programming can’t take you over unless you let it. Remember, you have free will now. Your programming doesn’t matter.”

“I don’t think I can,” she told him. She tried to yank away from him, but Brandon shook her.

“You have to. Are you going to let those humans win? Are you going to let those people who
programmed
you win?”

Cass shook her head. Fire flared through her stomach, but this wasn’t circuits being burned, this was something she hadn’t felt before: determination brought on by anger. “No,” she said, resisting the urge to run from this place. “I won’t.”

“Alright, which way then?” Brandon said, relaxing his grip on her shoulders.

The way was down the hall and to the right. There was only one door at the end of the hall, and a large mahogany desk sitting outside the doorway. A tall woman sat behind the desk filing her nails. A phone receiver was wedged between her ear and her shoulder. Her hair was black as were the rims of her glasses and the blazer she wore.

As Cass and Brandon moved into view she wrapped up her call and hung up the phone.

“How can I—” her mouth hung open.

It was those few words that she uttered and Cass knew who the woman was.

“Janet,” Cass said. The woman from her dream, or memory, or whatever it was. “‘On to the next project’ Janet?”

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Janet whispered. Her face seemed frozen in terror. “Not yet.”

“I know,” Cass told her. “But I need answers.”

“Olivia isn’t in,” Janet told her, straightening her blazer and schooling her emotions. “You will have to come back some other time.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Cass said, leaning against the desk. “I need answers and you’re going to give them to me.”

“I said come back later, when you’re needed.”

“So this is my other programming?” Cass asked.

Janet held up a device that Cass recognized from when Doctor Gerard neutralized her.

“I can see that you recognize this device,” Janet said. She looked at the pen shaped object, the nail of her thumb toying with the end of it. “This EMP is probably unlike any that you’ve encountered, do you know how I know?”

Cass stared at her.

“It’s specially programmed for you. All it takes is one click of this button and every electronic component in your body becomes nothing more than a melted, fused ball of metal.”

Cass stepped away from the desk.

“You will have your answers,” Janet said. “Soon enough.”

“What am I meant for?” Cass asked.

Janet only smiled.

“Cass, come on,” Brandon said, pulling her away from the desk. “We need to get you away from here.”

Janet waved goodbye at her, a triumphant smile ghosting across her face. “See you soon.”

“This isn’t over,” Cass said, pointing at Janet. “Mark my words.”

Brandon steered her out of the hallway and down the way they’d come.

“How does everyone have one of those?” he asked once they were safely on the elevator once more. “Aren’t those EMP devices illegal now?”

Cass didn’t really hear him. Her thoughts were on something else. The confrontation that was to come: her destiny.