Kinetics (16 page)

I was sure that it was foolish to assume
that I would be able to find something that the police overlooked, but I was
optimistic for the first time since as far back as I can remember.

I had to wait around for a few hours
while Ryder finished his assignments that Sam had given him. 

He picked me up in the mid afternoon.

"How are you feeling today?" I
climbed into the passenger seat of the car and buckled my seat belt.

"Better, I guess.  I still feel
like there is a huge gap up here.” I pointed to my head. 

He smiled and nodded towards the road,
"Are you ready to go?"

"Never been this ready for anything
before."  I grinned.

There was only one road leading out of
town and Sam was waiting at the entrance.  He leaned on the side of his truck
with a heavy look in his eyes.  My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach,
the first thing that came to my mind was him not letting us go to the house.

“What’s this about?” I shifted in my
seat.

“He knows what we are doing.  This must
be about the meeting he attended this morning.”

Ryder pulled the car over and put it
into park, "What's up boss?"

Sam walked over and knelt down by the
driver's window, "Two things before you guys head out.” He looked both
directions before continuing in a lower voice, “I want you to be careful.  This
man was a technological genius and we don't know what he could have left
behind.  And secondly when you get back we need to do a crash course in combat
training for Grace, we have a mission.  No one else knows who she is yet.  Best
to keep that under wraps I think."  He sighed and glanced back at the
town.

Ryder nodded.

“I don’t think that things are as secure
as they once were here.” Sam added before taking a step back from the car and
allowing us to leave. 

"What kind of mission do you think
that he is sending us on?" We were on the main road.
"There has been talk about the facility you escaped from; they think that
there is information there we can use." It wasn't long until we pulled off
the main road and onto the old dirt road that led to the lake house. 

A mile down the road we passed through a
damaged gate that had once blocked the driveway.  The lot was massive, a house,
garage, boat house, and a separate cabin rested next to a dock that was
partially submerged in the lake.  Everything looked weather beaten, but
perfectly intact. 

Ryder parked the car in front of the
main entrance, a huge door that was two stories high. 

We sat in quiet for a moment and then I
opened my door after I decided that waiting would accomplish nothing.  Ryder
joined me on the other side of the car.  He didn't say anything even though I
could see on his face the urge to say something.

"How hard do you think it is going
to be to get in?"

"Worst case scenario we break a
window and then we have someone replace it..." he inspected the windows either
side of the door.

"I'd like to avoid that if at all
possible." I walked right up to the front door and placed my hand on the
wood.  There were no handles or knobs.  There weren’t even any visible hinges
holding the massive doors in the frame.  I wondered how one would open the door
at any normal point in time.  I reached out and pushed on the door, it didn't
budge.

"Over here." Ryder was
standing at the left hand side of the door. 

There was an electrical panel on the
wall.  He opened the panel's door, and inside there was a small computer
screen, a key pad, and a ring that could fit a person’s hand.

Ryder reached out to put his hand into
the ring.

"Wait." I held out my hand to
stop him.

"What," he jumped back.

"I don’t think that it is going to
work for you.”

"You scared the crap out of
me." He pumped his fist a few times taking a deep breath and a few steps
back clearing the way for me.

Please insert hand
flashed
across the screen.

I stood in front of the box and took a
deep breath.  I reached out to put my hand in the ring.  I stopped; I had no
idea what was going to happen.  I clenched my fist, gritted my teeth, held my
breath, and put my hand into the ring. 

The ring closed around my wrist snuggly. 
It resembled a mechanical iris. 

"What's happening?"

"Nothing yet...  It’s just getting
a little snug.” I tried to pull my hand out, but it wouldn't move.  The harder
that I tried to pull, the tighter the ring got around my hand. 

I started to panic.

"Talk to me Grace." He was
also beginning to panic.

"It won't let go!" I was now
pulling with my other hand. 

Beginning DNA scan...
flashed
on the small screen.

I heard a humming coming from inside the
wall and then it felt like electricity shooting trough my hand. 

I yelled out in surprise. 

Ryder grabbed my wrist, and gently tried
to pull it out of the wall.

"No, no.  Stop, stop." I
pulled his hand off mine. 

"But, Grace…" He tried again
to pull my hand free.

"There is a count down on the
screen, only two more seconds." I pointed to the small screen.

He let go of my wrist. 

The countdown finished, and the pain
stopped.  The pressure released and I pulled out my hand squeezing it
repeatedly, and shaking off the pain.

"Are you alright?" He took my
hand to inspect for injury. 

"I'm fine." I pushed him off
focusing on the information flashing across the screen.

"Grace Madison, Access allowed.  Is
guest welcome?"
the computer spoke aloud.  The question
also displayed on the small screen.

"Yes." I shrugged to Ryder.

"What type of access should guest
be allowed?"

"Um..."

"I'm sorry, your options are A)
Minimal access, this allows for access to only the entrance area, and escorted
areas of the house.  B) Medium access, this allows for access to all areas,
except those that have been deemed private. And C) Maximum access, this allows
for access to the entire complex at all times."

"Maximum access."

”Very well, please submit guest for a
DNA scan whenever convenient.  There is a DNA scanner located in lab number
one.  Thank you."
The computer screen flickered off.

The doors started to click loudly, and
they slid into the walls on either side of the doorway. 

There was a man dressed in a butler's
uniform on the other side of the door.  He smiled from ear, to ear, "Ms.
Grace Madison I had almost given up hope that you would return.  Mr. Madison
did tell me to never lose hope."

"Who are you?" Ryder and I
walked into the dimly lit room from out of the sun. 

"Where are my manners?  Mr. Madison
did program me better than that,"

"Programmed?" I interrupted
him.

"Yes, I am PCD-003.  I am here to
serve.  Anything that you need ma'am, you have only to ask." he happily
bowed as we entered.

"What are you?"

"I am an android constructed by
your father to assist him and your mother in daily duties.  They were always so
busy.  They didn't have time for simple things such as cooking and
cleaning."  He sounded very human for claiming that he was an android. 

"003? Are there more of you?"
Ryder asked.

"Yes sir, there are four of us. 
There is a mechanic, he is two.  Four is a doctor, here to help.”

"And the first?" Ryder was
walking around looking at the paintings on the walls of the entrance hallway.

"Yes, Mr. Madison constructed a
prototype that I have never seen.  I don’t know what happened to him.  Only
your father knew about his details.”

"Do you know what he was constructed
for?" I paced around the room checking for dust.  There was none.

"I do not know ma'am"

"Could we get a tour of the
house?" I asked.

"Of course." He held out his
arm.  I walked in the direction that he was pointing, "The kitchen and the
dining room are through here." There was a long table in the center of the
room with a crystal chandelier over the center.

We walked to the right wing of the
house, "There are twelve bedrooms on this side of the house, all with
their own bathrooms."

"Why are there so many?"

"Your father would often have
project managers here for long periods of time to collaborate on projects.  He
did not like to use phone or video conferences.  He would always say there was
no way to do any actual work with those things.  He did most of his work here."

After showing us the first bedroom, we
walked over to the left wing of the house, "this is where your father
worked, there are two workshops.  In one he worked on personal projects and the
other is for the projects that were work related.  I'll take you to his office." 

Ryder's phone rang, "I'll catch
up." he put his phone to his ear and wondered off in the opposite
direction. 

The Android and I walked deeper into the
left wing of the house.  I stopped him, "Hold on before we go any
farther.  My father had to have called you something other than PCD-003."

"Yes ma'am he always would call me
Alrick."

"Did you like that name?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Alright that's what I'll call
you.  And you can stop calling me ma'am.  Call me Grace."

"Thank you, I loved the name that
your father gave me.  Shall we continue?" He smiled again holding out his
hand directing me.

"Sure." We went into the
office.  The lights came on when we walked through the door.  There were
several monitors mounted to the back wall surrounding one computer station with
bay windows on both sides. 

"It will be nice to see someone
back in here working.  It has been a long two years.  You will be continuing
your father's work? Won't you?"

"You keep saying things like
you
love,
or
it will be nice
aren't those emotions that androids wouldn't
be able the feel?" as the words came out I felt like an ass, "Don't
get me wrong it's cool.  I'm just trying to understand all of this."
"All of us PCD's started out the same, but given a different set of tasks
and knowledge pertaining to those tasks.  What he also gave us is an ability to
learn and to develop emotions."

"Unbelievable, well I don't know if
I will be continuing his work.  Only time will tell."

He hung his head and his shoulders
drooped in disappointment.  I couldn't believe the realism in the actions.

Ryder came into the room, "Grace we
have to head out.  Things are moving faster than Sam thought that they
would." he had a sense of urgency about him.

"What is the mission?" I
wanted to stay at the house and speak with Alrick and meet the other PCD’s. 

"Sam will explain when we get
back."

"I'll be waiting; the rest will
love to meet you.  We will be standing by."

"It was nice to meet you.  Maybe
when I get some time, we can talk about my parents, and you can tell me what kind
of people they were." I nodded.

He returned the nod, "I will look
forward to it.”

The sun fell behind the mountains as
we drove back towards Eastcroft.  Ryder drove straight to the hanger at the
edge of town.  He parked next to Sam’s truck.

"Let's get inside, they're
waiting for us." He seemed very worried.

We got out of the car and joined Sam
and the others where they patiently waited.  They were standing in a group
talking quietly.  When Sam noticed that we had arrived he met us halfway.

"Good, now we can get
started." He was impatient and somewhat agitated.    

"Wait a second here; you are the
one that dropped this on us last minute." I became quickly irritated with
his tone. 

He stopped with his back to us and
took a breath, "Look, I'm sorry but we have a very small window of
opportunity that we have never had before, and we cannot let that window shut
on us."

"I got it and I want to help,
but calm down.  Been through a lot in the past month." We all gathered
around a table at the back of the hanger.

"All of this is equipment that
we put together for you." He picked up a handgun, ejected the clip slid it
back in and primed the chamber. 

"What is all of this?"

He picked up a smart phone,
"This is your Last Line issued phone, but it's so much more than that. 
You will have one hundred percent uptime and a constant connection to the ATN. 
If you spot anyone not in the network please snap a photo for your debriefing. 
These are headsets already set up for each phone." He held up one of the
headsets, when in the ear it was almost invisible.