What Lies Behind: A New Adult Dark Science Fiction Romance (17 page)

“Alright, where do we start?” Brandon asked, rubbing his hands dry on his pants.

It had been a week and Cass hadn’t been able to find either device. At that point she figured that Natalia carried them with her, and there was no way she was going to find them in the apartment.

Contrary to all of Brandon’s insistence, she wouldn’t leave yet. There was still a way she was hoping she could get either of the devices while Natalia slept.

She was good. She cooked breakfast the way Natalia wanted every morning. She went back to wearing her old clothes and not styling her hair at all. As far as Natalia knew, her efforts in controlling Cass had worked.

However, during the day, when Natalia was gone, Cass would go outside on the balcony and bask in the warm rays of the sun. It was strange to her, now that she had regained part of her free will and had made her decision to be free of Natalia it almost seemed like she could feel the rays in more ways than heat. She seemed to smell the flowers and take in the noises of the crowd below much better than she had before.

In the background the holovision played a news broadcast about the top headlines. It seemed android equal rights were a front runner these days with more and more people, celebrities, government officials, and less prestigious people cropping up on both sides of the argument.

She let her mind wander, staring out into the overcast day. It was going to rain later, that’s what her overlay told her. Cass could see how far off the storm was and how much rain they were going to get. It was going to be a good storm.

She let her thoughts drift to her old family and the memories. Cass couldn’t save Jack, and Olivia had given her up. She wasn’t sure if what she was doing was smart, but wasn’t that part of being able to choose her own future? Making risky decisions?

At what cost?
Would she end up hurting Brandon? She couldn’t keep thinking about that though. Her decision was made, and she didn’t want to go into her future with fear in her heart. She wanted to throw caution to the wind and embrace her budding future with both arms.

Cass heard keys jingling in the door, and she rushed into the apartment, closing the balcony behind her. She’d just barely sat down on the couch when Natalia came in, Brandon trailing behind her.

Natalia tossed her keys on the table beside the door, and shucked her green jacket, trailing it over the back of the couch. Brandon closed the door.

In the distance, thunder rumbled and the first sheet of rain fell like a bucket had been emptied onto the patio.

“Beth told me what you’re like at the clubs. Girls hanging all over you. I’m not good enough?” Natalia said, folding her arms across her chest and resting back against the sofa.

“Beth would say that. She’s the girl hanging all over me. It’s pathetic.” Brandon came into the apartment and slumped in a chair, he barely afforded Cass a small smile.

“Sure, blame it on my friends,” Natalia said rolling her eyes. She turned around, placing her hands on the back of the couch and leaned over it slightly. She was staring at Brandon.

“Whatever. I can’t stand this,” he pushed to his feet. “Lately it’s always my fault. Something I’m not doing right. Something that pisses you off, or some way that I’m living that you just can’t stand.” He made his way to the door.

“That’s right Brandon, run away. You said you were different, but I guess you’re just like everyone else. Just leave.” Venom dripped from Natalia’s lips.

Brandon turned to her. His face was calm but there was fire in his eyes. “Did you ever think, Natalia, that
you’re
the one that pushes everyone away? Did you ever stop to consider just how fucking insufferable you are? You’re aggravating as shit. You’re the one to blame here. I can’t take any more of your mental abuse. And I’m not going to let you abuse Cass any longer either.”

“What?” Natalia said, her voice hard. She crossed her arms over her chest. She started to turn to Cass, and then stopped. “What gives you the
right
to tell me how I will treat my own property?”

“Just give it to me. I know about the EMP. I know about the remote,” he said.

“And how would he know about that?” this time she did turn to Cass.

Cass didn’t look at her. She kept silent, truly hoping that Brandon knew what he was doing. He was putting them both into deep water. What did she expect Natalia to do? Well, certainly there wasn’t much she could do to Brandon, but there was a whole hell of a lot she could do to Cass.

“C’mon Cass,” Brandon said, holding his hand out to her.

Cass’s eyes went wide. Her gaze flickered to Natalia, who was studying her property with flared nostrils. Cass’s hands began to shake. She looked to her feet and shook her head. She wanted to go with Brandon, she really did. She didn’t know what would happen to her now. There was something holding her back. It was much like the night that Natalia had shown the different devices to her. She was frozen in place. What she wanted to do, and what she could
physically
do were in complete contradiction to one another.

Brandon made to go to her, but Natalia stepped between them.

“I don’t think she wants to go with you. This is her place. She’s
my
machine.”

Brandon didn’t move.

“It makes sense now why I wasn’t good enough for you. You’re a fucking circuit breaker. No human is good enough for you because they have a personality, a heartbeat. You can’t program us to be your little sex doll.”

Cass flinched at Natalia’s words.

Brandon tossed up his hands and left, slamming the door behind him.

“So,” Natalia said, turning around.

Cass retreated to the kitchen to start making dinner. She took the chicken out of the fridge and set it on the counter. The iron skillet came out of the oven and onto the stove. Cass removed carrots and celery from the fridge and went to the sink. It was only when she started washing them that Natalia followed her into the kitchen.

“You’re the little whore?” Natalia said. “Do you like fucking him? Does he tell you how much better you are than me?”

Natalia shoved her. Cass stumbled into the counter, catching herself on the edge of the sink before she fell down. She stumbled around to see Natalia holding the iron skillet.

“Little fucking sex-bot.”

Natalia swung the skillet at Cass, but she dodged out of the way, grabbing the knife as she came around behind her owner. The skillet was an unexpected weight in Natalia’s hand, carrying her through the swing and into the counter. Glasses on the counter smashed and scattered debris everywhere as Natalia lost her footing and fell to the floor.

Cass rounded the island, her feet crunching against the glass. Natalia wasn’t paying any attention to her. Now was her time. She had the knife in her hand, all she had to do was strike out.

No!
A thought ran through Cass’s head, and she dropped the knife. Her vision blurred and she looked down at the knife. What had she been about to do? What stopped her? Cass wanted more than anything to go after Natalia with the knife. Her owner was picking herself up off the floor, her skin scrapped and bloody from the broken glass, but something had stopped her. Something that
wasn’t
her own will had made her stop.

Was it her programming? Was it something deeper than her own free will that stopped her from doing what she wanted? It made her think of the night of the fire, but there was no time to contemplate it. She turned from the scene and dashed out the front door before Natalia could attack her. She left the door open, and padded down the hallway on bare feet.

She avoided the elevator, imagining that Natalia would catch up to her before the elevator arrived. She burst out the side door of the apartment complex and dashed down the alleyway to the main street.

Brandon was crossing the street when she came out of the alley. She could barely see his hunched form through the cascade of rain.

“Brandon!” Cass yelled. She saw him turn toward her as the wave of fire overtook her and her sensors screamed out in pain.

Brandon saw her slump to the ground and then looked up toward the balcony, his face morphing into a mask of rage. He started yelling something, but Cass couldn’t hear it. All she could think of was fire burning through her head, stiffening her arms.

Then she was falling toward the cobbled street.

She woke some days later on a worn down mattress, a shadow bent over her, tending to a wound on her head. Cass recognized the place as Mathilda’s from the sound of a kettle squealing and the same tree outside the front windows. Of course, this time she was looking at the tree, not only through a window, but through the door of the bedroom as well.

“What a mess she made of you doll,” Mathilda said.

“Mathilda,” Cass sighed. “I can’t go back to her. I just can’t. I should have gone with Brandon when I had the chance.”

“Shhhh,” Mathilda said, placing her hands on Cass. She eased her back onto the bed. The robot’s presence was comforting to Cass at least. Several silent moments passed before Cass felt calm enough to talk.

“How was she able to reach me so far away with the EMP and not take out more electronics than just me?”

“Musta been one that was specially calibrated to you,” Mathilda told her. She sunk down onto the edge of the bed and looked Cass in the eyes. Mathilda’s eyes were a rich brown, and oddly jaundiced looking around the edges.

“How is that possible?” Cass asked. Janet said she had one also. Cass hadn’t been sure then that such a thing could be done, or if the secretary had been lying to get her to leave.

“You ask if that’s possible from a civilization that can create automatons. Honey, there isn’t much now that isn’t possible when it comes to technology. All that holds humans back is imagination most times.” She rubbed Cass’s arm. “Yes, it’s very possible.”

“I can’t go back to her, but she has a remote. She will call me back,” Cass told her.

“Oh honey, you don’t understand. Once you come here, you don’t go back. This is the place you go when you’re not wanted any longer.”

Cass turned her head toward the wall. The older machine’s words stung.

“I just hope there’s not much long lasting damage from the pulse,” Mathilda said. “I hear this wasn’t the first time she did it to you?”

“No,” Cass said. “What if she tries it again? If it’s calibrated to me, won’t she be able to reach me here?” She tried to sit up, but her vision went hazy and she slumped down.

“The nanobots are still working on you,” Mathilda put a restraining hand on Cass to keep her down. “Good thing you aren’t human. A similar attack on a human’s brain would have killed them. Bad thing is, you’re an abandoned machine now, there’s no help for this.”

Cass leaned her head back in the bed and looked at the wall. Tears bloomed to her eyes. Why did the fire have to take away her other family? Why couldn’t she have burned up with them? Melted so badly that she would not ever, have been able to be made whole again?

There was another plan for her, and she desperately wanted to know what it was. Janet eluded that it had something to do with Olivia, or at least the equal rights campaign. Cass wished she knew what it was, so that she could prepare herself for fight the impulse. Whatever they wanted from her, whatever the
overlords
demanded of her, Cass would fight it.