When Good Toys Go Bad (3 page)

He looked back at me. A mischievous grin formed on his lips. “Not at all.”

Brynn wrung her hands and shifted from foot to foot before finally turning to face Kai. Her entire face crimson, she looked like she had just run a marathon.

“I don’t understand the embarrassment,” I said. “You don’t even think of him as a real person.”

“It’s not him, stupid. It’s you watching me.”

“Oh, sorry,” I said, throwing the blanket over my head. “All clear.”

It was silent for a few seconds. I was about to emerge from my quilted cocoon when Brynn asked, “May I?”

“May you what?” I demanded from under my blanket.

“Touch my penis, and, yes, you can,” Kai answered me and Brynn respectively.

“Don’t I get a say?” I emerged to find Brynn holding Kai’s penis.

“Does it bother you?” Brynn asked, distracted by the piece of flesh in her hand. “It’s much softer than I thought,” she said, more to herself than anyone else.

“Not at all.” I crawled off the bed and stood behind Kai. I reached around him and placed my hands over Brynn’s, which were still cradling Kai’s manhood. I guided Brynn’s hands so that they encircled the flesh. Kai’s penis sprang from semi-flaccid to fully erect.

Brynn pulled her hands away, “What was that?”

“That’s supposed to happen,” I responded, biting back a laugh. “It means he’s excited.

Kai nodded his agreement, and I guided her hand back over his cock.

“May I?” Kai mimicked Brynn’s earlier request.

“May you what?” Brynn asked.

“He wants to touch you,” I answered before Kai had a chance.

Brynn tentatively nodded her head.

Kai reached up and cradled Brynn’s cheek in his hand. He drew her in and kissed her. The sight of them kissing made my own passions rise. I stroked Brynn’s hair and then Kai’s.

He broke the embrace. His features soft and his eyes hooded with desire, he gazed into Brynn’s eyes and then mine.
 

“He loves you,” Brynn whispered. “I can see it in his eyes.”

“I do,” Kai whispered back, reaching around Brynn to grasp my hand.

“How do you feel about him?” I asked.

“Well, I’m no longer afraid he’s going to hurt you, if that’s what you mean.”

I put my lips so closed to her neck, I could see her pulse. “I meant, are you attracted to him?”

Brynn nodded her head. I kissed her neck. My gaze fixed on Kai to see his reaction to our intimacy. His expression didn’t change, but Brynn made a little sound of surprise as his cock grew in her hand.

Kai’s smile disappeared and his playful smile curved downward into a frown. “I’m sorry, ladies.” His voice broke the spell. “They’ve initiated my return protocol.”

“Wait.” Brynn held her hand out to stop Kai from getting up. “I wasn’t going to tell you this. I was afraid for Darra.” Brynn pulled herself from our mutual embrace and took my hand. “After seeing you together, I can’t let them split you up. You can’t go back. They’ve recalled all the Kai units in the North American Territories. They’re to be reengineered.”

I grabbed the robe from the foot of the bed. “I need to get you out of here. How do we override your return protocol?”

“They didn’t program me with that information.”

“You don’t have to terminate the protocol,” Brynn spoke up. “They won’t consider him missing for several hours. What you need to do is find his tracking chip and disable it.”

“How?”

“You need to hack The Consortium computer and get his schematics.”

“How do you propose I do that? It’s the most secure system on the planet, and I have no reason to be accessing files from the bioengineering department. You’re an engineer. Why don’t you get the schematics?”

“I’m a structural engineer—big difference. Besides, I need to make other arrangements.” She planted a maternal kiss on my forehead.

“Kai, it was…” she paused, “…an education.”

“Why are you helping us?” I called after her.

“Because I love you, and you’re right, he’s a lot more than an appliance.” Her voice trailed off, and I heard the front door whoosh closed.

“It’s too dangerous, Darra.” Kai confronted me when I stepped out of the shower. “I’d rather end up a mine bot than see you in a rehabilitation colony because of me.”

“I won’t get caught.”

I walked into the living room and put my credit stick back into the transport.

“I’ve paid for another day. You’re safe for now.”

Dressing in my own version of the gray skirt-suit the other lemmings wore, I got ready for work. Kai argued with me the entire time. He tried to get me to change my mind, to do the safe thing—the respectable thing. What I didn’t tell him was that I couldn’t live without him. I’d die in a rehabilitation colony before I let them destroy him.

“I love you,” I whispered in his ear before kissing those perfect lips, which were like a drug to me.

“No one’s listening, Darra, and I love you too.”

I put a finger over his lips to silence his declarations.

Pulling up a map of the colony on the main display, I told him the plan. “If you haven’t heard from me by noon, meet me here.” I handed him a frequency modulator. “It won’t take them long to match the harmonics, but this should give you enough time to get to the caves without them tracking you.”

Kai’s gaze followed my finger. He nodded his understanding. “Your wish is my command.”

Chapter Three

Everything at work was as it should be. The low-intelligence workers busily cleaned the frosted-glass walls and the marble floors until the surfaces reflected off each other, creating an odd 3-D effect. The butch security guard greeted everyone with her patented half grunt, half smile. I had to give her credit though. She carried her impeccable black uniform with a regal authority.

I nearly tripped over a low-I as I made my way to the scanner. She uttered a quick apology and scrambled away like a crab, continuing her duties on another section of the floor. The scanner made its usual humming sound when I placed my hand on the pad. The light turned green and the glass door slid open.

The place buzzed with activity. The clippity-clip of hundreds of high heels hitting the marble surface caused a continual symphony. I remembered pictures of the old days when women wore clothes of different styles and colors. Today they all wore the same gray suits, the skirts varying lengths and proportions adjusted to fit the women wearing them. Same white shirt, same black, gray or tan pumps and same mesh hose. Even the furniture sat colorless and boring—gray chairs, silver desks, only the occasional personal item sitting on top. In fact, the only color in the place came from the occasional splash of blue or green hair. The lack of color or imagination usually didn’t affect me, but for some reason today it made me sad.

“Thank you, Ms. Gentry.” I heard Brynn’s voice over the din.

I was surprised to see her. The last thing she had told me was she was going to make “other arrangements” today. I thought she meant staying away from the office. Brynn saw me and raised her index finger, signaling me to wait for her.

Turning her back to the security camera she whispered, “Susan Camus is out today. Her office is Engineering Section C, Room 501. You should be able to get whatever you need from there.” She handed me a contact lens case. ”This should fool the retinal scanners.”

“And you?”

“I got what I need here. Now, poor me, I have a horrible stomachache. I really think I’ll have to go home for the day.” She winked.

“You still haven’t told me what you’re doing.”

Brynn put a finger to her lips to silence me, pointing at the camera behind her.

I nodded, and she kissed me on the cheek. “I’m having so much fun,” she whispered and headed toward the door, the clippity-clip of her heels blending into the din.

I touched the red light, and the electronic voice sang, “Door locked.” I held my breath and stared into the retinal reader with the eye covered with the contact. I let out the breath when I heard the click of the lock as it opened. Unfortunately, the maintenance workers were slow replacing the equipment. There was no retinal identification scanner on her computer. I would need to figure out Susie’s password to get into the engineering schematics for the androids. I knew enough about her to know her password would be something having to do with flowers. F-L-O-W-E-R-S. Access denied. Damn, this wasn’t going to be easy. T-U-L-I-P-S. Access denied. If it wasn’t her obsession with botany, what was it? Then it came to me. The name of her girlfriend no one was supposed to know about. I typed in the name. R-A-I-N-E and the home screen for the Robotics and AI Department materialized.

“Good morning, Ms. Camus,” the computer purred in a sexy female voice. “How may I assist you?”

“Please bring up the schematics of the Kai 2600 android, specifically the location of its GPS chip.”

Big red letters, CLASSIFIED, filled the computer screen. “I’m sorry, Ms. Camus. All information on the Kai android is classified while under investigation. May I assist you in some other way?” The voice droned from the small speaker attached to the computer screen.

“What investigation?” I asked.

“The viability of the Kai project both morally and monetarily, and the disposition of the existing Kais.”

Bile rose from my stomach and burned my throat. “What are the disposition options?”

“That information is classified. May I assist in some other way?”

“Yes. You can jump into a pit of magma.”

“I’m sorry. That is beyond my program’s capabilities. May I assist in some other way?”

The screen went dark.

“You are logged on and active at multiple locations. I’m sorry. You will be detained until we determine which location is being operated by the actual Susan Camus. Please be comfortable. The authorities will arrive shortly.”

I poked at the lock pad to no avail.

Stupid twit was supposed to be out sick today, not logging in from her home work station. Panic surged through my body. There was no way out of any offices except the door.

I tapped the comm pad on my desk. “Call home.”

“All communication from this location is blocked. Please be comfortable. The authorities will arrive shortly.”

“Shut up, you stupid bitch!”

“I don’t understand the command. Please be comfortable. The authorities will arrive shortly.”

My mind raced, random thoughts pushing out other random thoughts, none of which were making any sense. I had a hard time catching my breath, and my hands started tingling. An electronic ding rang and…

“Door unlocked.” A flat, unemotional, computerized voice broke through my haze of panic, and the frosted-glass door slid open to reveal two enormous women in uniform.

“Identify yourself,” one of the amazons bellowed.

“Darra Athol. May I ask what you’re doing here?”

“We have a report of someone hacking into another employee’s account from this location.” She had her hand on her gun, scanning the room with a singular intensity. “Are you alone?”

“Yes. Obviously there’s been a mistake. I don’t know what you are talking about. I was just doing research for a meeting I have.” I made a point of glancing at my watch. “And I’m late.”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Athol, but you need to accompany us down to the supervisor’s office.”

I put on my best nonchalant attitude. “I’ll be sure to go talk to her as soon as my meeting is over.”

“I apologize if this is a mistake, but this is standard procedure. If you will please come with us now.”

Her silent partner grabbed my arm with such a large hand, her fingers wrapped entirely around my bicep. Her grip felt like steel jaws, cold and unmoving. She pulled me to my feet and her partner fell in behind. I realized the façade of indignation was not going to work on these women; they had muscles where their brains should be. It was like mental sparring with a rock. They dragged me, hand on arm, down to the supervisor’s office two flights below. Besides a little extra space, the office appeared to be exactly like everyone else’s.

The petite, stern blonde motioned for me to sit in the metal chair across from her. The only personal belonging in the room was an image of her cat sitting next to her computer screen. She tilted the screen to hide the display from me.

“We have confirmed you were the one using Ms. Camus’s account. Can you explain?”

I knew they were monitoring my vitals. I tried to steady my breathing, hoping my heart would stop pounding. “Ms. Mern, there must be a mistake. Susie gave me permission to use her office.”

“Ms. Athol, don’t play dumb. We know you have been utilizing the Kai. We also know you hacked into Ms. Camus’s account and tried to acquire the schematics for said android.”

I slowed my breathing again and tried to force a smile. “I know it looks bad. I let my curiosity get the better of me. I just wanted a little information on him. The texture is so real, I wanted to see how they managed the—um—realism.” I strained an embarrassed giggle.