CHAPTER 07
Blue was dozing in bed.
He was half in a dream state, and thinking about how when he was a young man, he’d been brought onto a team that trekked across the vast wilderness of northern Canada. He could see the snow-capped mountains in the distance, as the team moved along a forest trail. He could picture himself as he was then - big, stronger than anyone in the group, a glorified porter, but also hired muscle in case the expedition ran into trouble.
They’d gone up there because someone thought they had spotted a small tribe or family of Bigfoots from the air, and because the wealthy founder of a computer security firm wanted one. The man kept a zoo on his lands in Montana, with all types of unusual animals. A Bigfoot would be the most unusual animal of all. The team never found a Bigfoot, though they did find evidence of something, from half-eaten animals, to scat, to remote cabins broken into and plundered.
Blue started to drift off again. He had enjoyed that trip. It was a pleasant memory. And it was nice to sleep so much. He imagined that if they ever caught Number Nine, they’d keep her in a zoo like an animal.
He woke with a start.
He was in a small beachfront condominium not a mile down the road from Howard’s house. He was on a double bed in the master bedroom of the condo. The condo itself was on the second floor, and was narrow, more like a motel room than an actual home.
He reached behind his head and swept under the pillow with his hand. His gun was there. He had chosen the second floor because if push came to shove, there was only one way for someone to come in, but several ways for him to go out. The condo had two screened-in sun porches which he could easily break through and jump ten or twelve feet down to the pool area, if he had to.
This was what he was looking for when he told the taxi driver he’d know it when he saw it. There were thousands upon thousands of holiday condos in the Sarasota area. At any give time, even during the height of winter, hundreds of them were empty.
What Blue had needed was a place, slightly run-down, and walkable to Howard’s house. Then he needed to skulk around the development a little while, and see if he might run into a maid who could use a little extra money, who knew which apartments were full, which ones were empty, and who had keys to all of them.
He did these things, and found this nice second-rate condo for the day and the evening. He got it for just $200 in cash - $100 upfront, and $100 payable after he had gotten a full day’s sleep without anyone coming in and bothering him.
Blue had slept like a baby, and hadn’t heard so much as a peep all day.
He got up and padded nude around the small apartment. He hardly remembered the place at all. He’d been tired when he got here. He and Green had flown in on the red eye from the west coast two nights ago. They were awake all the next day, setting up the Susan Jones job. They did the job, and then Blue had gone all night into this morning with no more than a few blinks of shut eye.
Blue went in the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. There were a few items left in there. Mayonnaise. A half-eaten jar of pickles. Horseradish. He poked around until he found a bottle of beer. He glanced at the label. They were putting expiration dates on beer nowadays. In the old days beer never expired. This one had gone bad back in December.
Oh well. He twisted the cap off and took a swig. It tasted fine. He stood inside the small screened-in porch off the tiny dining area. A half moon rode high above the water outside. Beautiful.
A quiet knock came at the front door to the apartment. Just in time. He went to the door and checked through the keyhole. It was the maid. He opened up for her.
She was small and dark, Mexican, very pretty. She stepped inside. She wore jeans and a t-shirt - she had ditched the cleaning lady uniform from this morning. She didn’t seem overly concerned or even surprised to see this large man standing there naked.
“Momento,” Blue said. He held up one finger.
She nodded.
He went in the bedroom and dug through the suit he’d worn this morning. He came out with the money.
Back in the hallway, he handed her the second $100.
“Tiene las otras cosas?” he said. Do you have the other things?
She nodded again. “Si.”
She reached into a paper shopping bag she was carrying and came out with a large owl mask. She handed it to him. He put it on his head, checking for size. It fit fine. He stood in front of her, a huge naked man in a party owl mask.
“What do you think?” he said in Spanish.
The woman laughed, and now she was very, very pretty. “Estupido.”
She took a few more things out of her shopping bag. A black t-shirt and blue shorts. A pair of ankle socks. A cheap pair of running shoes.
He handed her two more bills. She took them, then looked up at him again. He still hadn’t removed the mask.
“I need the apartment for another hour,” he said.
She shrugged. “Bueno.”
“No diga nada a alquien.” Don’t tell anybody anything.
She smiled. “Soy una cripta.”
I am a crypt.
She went out, and Blue took the mask off. “I’m a crypt,” he said to nobody. He drank another slug of the beer, and sighed heavily.
He might as well take a shower and get ready. He was going to walk down the beach to Howard’s house and sneak into the party somehow. That was the long and short of his plan. Maybe he and Howard would make it up and let bygones be bygones. Maybe he and Howard would die tonight.
And Number Nine?
He shook his head. It could never be. He must have been out of his mind to think it could. He regretted his need for sleep. If he had remained awake and stayed in the game today, he might have been able to do something to save her. But in the shape he was in, and with the company bearing down, he probably would have just got himself killed.
Nine would be dead by now. The whole thing had been a set up. Howard had never intended to capture her in the first place. The company had probably killed her, taken her various pieces and dropped them to the bottom of the ocean. Blue felt bad about that, he really did. And he rarely felt bad about anything.
For a second, he allowed himself the fantasy that Nine had somehow survived the night, survived the day, and was alive and still on the run somewhere. But where? Where would she go?
He shook his head, more to clear it than anything. There was no way she could have escaped. Even if by some miracle she did escape, there was a time bomb inside of her, and it was set to go off… he glanced at the clock on the wall… in a little over two hours.
Nine was dead, or about to be dead. It really was that simple.
* * *
Nine was alive.
She was trapped inside the wreckage of the car. She had blanked out for a moment, but everything was coming back online now. Behind her eyes, a systems check was underway. She watched it. A few glitches, a few skips, but for the most part, hundreds of processes loading without trouble.
She tried to move her body, but couldn’t. She was completely encased in twisted metal. She glanced around. The other half of the car was back down the road, on fire. This car was Michael’s pride and joy. She had said she would take care of it.
Oh well. She hadn’t really believed it herself when she said it.
Her right arm was free. She reached around on the seat next to her for the gun, but she couldn’t find it. It could be on the floor. It could be on the road. It could be anywhere.
A black SUV pulled up nearby. Four men climbed out, dressed in black body armor and helmets. Three of them had guns drawn, and moved in slowly, covering her. They were grim-faced, angry. Of course they were. She had probably killed a few of their friends back there.
The fourth soldier sidled up to the car.
He smiled. “Pretty spectacular crash, huh?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I didn’t really see it.”
“Well, take it from me. It was something else.” He reached inside the car window. Nine felt his hand on the back of her neck. Expertly, he pried open a control panel back there with his fingers.
“How are you feeling? Systems okay after all that?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like anything major got hit. A few minor processes didn’t load, but I can’t tell the difference.”
He nodded. “Okay, good. So I’m going to pull the plug now.”
“Wait,” she said.
There must be something she could say, something this man must want, maybe something she could give him.
“Sweet dreams, princess.”
It was the last thing she heard.
* * *
Michael Simms crouched in the darkness.
He was in the attic crawlspace of his house. His heart raced. He could feel the blood thumping in his chest, and in his head.
Men were downstairs, moving through the house, calling out to one another. There had been several loud explosions down there. It seemed like they were throwing incendiary devices into each room before they searched it.
He had come up here as soon as he heard Number Nine drive his car through the garage door. That’s when the shooting started. If nothing else, Michael had realized something about himself tonight. He didn’t like loud noises. Car crashes? Explosions? They really weren’t for him.
About five feet away, someone downstairs pulled the cord that opened the ladder to the crawl space. It had only been a matter of time. Michael glanced at the small window in the far corner. It was sealed for energy efficiency. He couldn’t break through there if he wanted to. And he really didn’t want to anyway. Push through the window and then what? Fall three stories? That sounded like fun.
No. His best bet was probably just to surrender.
Light streamed in now from below. A man clambered heavily up the ladder. A helmeted head appeared, followed by broad shoulders. Then a flashlight came on, and it swept the darkness of the tiny space. The light shone in Michael’s eyes, blinding him.
He put his hands up. “Okay!” he said. “Okay, you got me! I’m not armed.”
The helmeted man said nothing.
Michael looked down to protect his eyes from the light. As he watched, a small red dot appeared in the middle of his chest.
He looked up again. “Wait!” he said.
* * *
Ninety minutes had passed since Blue first woke up.
He didn’t like to think about it, but if Nine was still alive somewhere, she had about forty minutes to go.
He jogged up the beach in a heavy nighttime fog. The wet sand made it like jogging through sludge. Each step was an effort. To his left, he could hear, but not really see, the waves breaking on the shore. The dense fog obscured everything. But he knew that Howard’s house was very close.
Blue wore the shorts, t-shirt and running shoes the condo maid had brought him. He had two guns strapped in shoulder holsters, one on each side. He had taken the holsters from the guys who had tried to kill him this morning. He had a steak knife he’d found in the kitchen of the condo taped to his right calf. He also wore the owl mask.
That was it. That was the whole plan. He was going to show up there strapped with guns, and with an owl mask on his face. He had no idea what the dress code was at a party like this, or if there even was one. He imagined the wealthy guests would be most comfortable wearing, and doing, whatever they wanted.
The fence to Howard’s estate was just ahead now. Blue pictured the property. It was expansive, with rolling lawns along one side, a pool, and a great deal of beachfront. There was also a little protected inlet with a dock where Howard kept his boats. Howard had at least one really nice boat parked here. It was a 48 foot Cigarette boat, a monster, with a top speed of over 100 miles per hour.
Blue had priced a couple of them once. Three quarters of a million dollars and up, a little steep for a working man like Blue. Maybe for a boat he was going to live on, but you couldn’t live on a Cigarette boat.
He could see the lights of the house from here. He could hear some music playing through the damping effect of the fog.
Two men stood at the fence. The beach was supposed to be a public right-of-way, but Howard didn’t believe in the public, or in their rights-of-way. If you wanted to walk on Howard’s beach, you’d better bring some cops with you.
Both of the guards wore bird masks, and long black robes, with rope ties at the waist. They were big guys. Blue jogged up to them out of the mist. He didn’t take the time to think about the funny medieval robes, except that they were probably packing heat under there. He was only going to get one chance at this, so it had to work the first time.
“Hi guys,” he said.
“I’m sorry, sir,” the first man said, holding up a big meaty hand. “This is a private party. Invited guests only.”
“I’m an invited guest,” Blue said, breathing hard. “I just thought I would jog over tonight, instead of, you know, take the limo in. I thought I might work up a sweat first. It feels kind of sexy.”
The second man produced a tablet computer from under his robe.
“Your name, sir?”
“My name?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I’d hesitate to tell you that. I’m a little bit well-known, and I prefer to keep my affairs private.”
“Your code name, sir.”
“My code name,” Blue repeated. He was starting to feel just a little bit stupid.
“Yes, if you were invited, the invitation had a code name on it that you would use when entering. That way guests can safeguard their privacy. Do you have a code name?”
Okay, that was about as far as this little ruse was going to make it. Blue didn’t have a code name, and he couldn’t begin to guess at one. It was time for Plan B.
“Boy, that’s cool,” he said. “Code names and everything.”
He took a deep breath, and centered himself.
The two big guys stared at him. Behind their masks, their eyes were hard. The one with the tablet computer took a step forward. “Yes. If you were really invited, you would have one.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what,” Blue said.
He drove his fist into the man’s face. The man fell backward, falling down, dropping the tablet to the sand. Blue spun, and stepped in close behind the second guard. He grabbed the man’s head, and snapped it hard to the left, nearly turning it all the way around, breaking his neck. He dropped the body to the ground. The man made horrible sounds, gasping for air. Blue would come back to finish him in a minute.
The one on the ground scrabbled away on his hands and knees, like a crab. Instead of staying to fight, he was making a run for it.
Blue couldn’t allow that.
He ran, leapt, and tackled the guy. The guy reached under his cloak for something, maybe his gun, but Blue locked up his arm. They wrestled on the beach, arms and legs grasping and clawing. There was no sound but their heavy breathing. The guy was strong. Strong. Blue reached under the guy’s cloak, pulled the gun, and threw it away.
They fought on, rolling in the sand. Blue pushed the guy’s face to the ground. The guy spun and rolled over. Now Blue was on top.
“Hey!” the guy shouted. It was barely more than a croak. “Hey!”
Blue covered the guy’s mouth with the blade of his hand.
The guy bit down on Blue’s hand. Hard.
Blue’s urge was to pull his hand away, but he drove it in deeper instead. He pushed the man’s head backwards with it, exposing the throat. The man’s hands reached for Blue’s face. Blue punched the man in the Adam’s apple.
“Glunck!” the man said.
Blue reared back and hit him again. And again. And again.
Four punches to the windpipe, and the guy stopped fighting. He just lay there, making strangling noises. Blue rolled over and lay next to him in the wet night sand.
Blue stared straight up at the sky. His heart was pumping. His brain was thudding. He took a moment to compose himself. Skidding clouds flew by over his head. He glanced at the guard.
The guy’s eyes were wide open. His breathing was rapid, shallow and high-pitched, like steam escaping from a ruptured pipe. His hands clawed at his own throat, trying to do the impossible, which was re-open a crushed breathing passage.
Blue waited while his own breathing and heartbeat slowed down. He listened to the waves, to the music coming from the house, to the gentle rustle of the wind in the palm trees. He felt the throb of pain where the guy had bitten his hand. If he thought about, it seemed he could feel where the bite marks swelled with blood.
Blue glanced at the security guard again. The man had stopped moving. His eyes were wide open and staring.
Blue settled deeper into the sand. He took a deep breath, and then exhaled all the way. It was like the air going out of a tire.
“That was easy,” he said.
* * *
Nine dreamed of a lighthouse from an earlier century, far away on a rocky coast. It seemed that she was the lighthouse keeper. She walked a well-worn seaside path. She stepped quickly among the stones, because she had to light the lamps before dark.
The memory faded, if it was even a memory. It was replaced by her boot menu. Soon, lines of code were scrolling by in a blur.
She opened her eyes, and a large room appeared. Nine was in that room.
It was a lovely, modern bedroom. Everything was white. There was a gigantic, double king-sized bed in front of her. There was a long white sofa with matching accent chair. There was a flat-panel monitor, perhaps six feet across, hanging on one wall. A huge wall-length, floor to ceiling window gave a view of the dark night, and the ocean, black on black. The night was partially obscured by fog. Even so, from here she could see the brief white foam breaks of whitecaps on the water.
“Hello Susan,” a voice said. “You’ve led us on quite a chase.”
She turned her head, and a man was there. He was short, with a big, balding head, a mad shock of rust-colored hair, and a large, almost beak-like nose. He wore a baby blue bathrobe. He stood near her, flanked on either side by two beautiful women in lingerie. One of the women was blonde. The other was a black woman with an afro hairdo the size of a beach ball.
“Hello Howard,” Nine said. “Please call me Number Nine.”
She tried to move her hands, but of course her wrists were tied with thick leather straps to two metal poles. Her legs were spread, and tied with leather straps at the thighs and the ankles, also to metal poles. She was bound to some kind of device, something which bent her backwards just slightly. She tried to get a look at it, but she couldn’t make out quite what it was. She saw she was still wearing the bodysuit from earlier in the night.
“It’s a wheel,” Howard said. “In case you’re wondering.”
He grabbed one of the poles, and gave it a spin. Nine’s face went straight toward the floor, her legs in the air behind her. She did a somersault in place as the room spun, the white carpet passing, then the wall, then the ceiling, and back to where she started.
Howard was there again, still smiling. “See?” he said. “I can spin you around and around. But really it’s so I can position you any way I want you. I can put your mouth where I want it. I can put your ass where I want it. I can have access to any part of you, any time I want.”
Nine was silent. The spin was a little bit dizzying, like a carnival ride.
“That was fun,” she said.
“Do you know why I want access to any part of you? So I can have sex with you, Susan. Oh, I’m sorry. Number Nine. So I can fuck you any way I want. Because that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to have you however I like, then I’m going to decide what to do with you next. I might just have your hard drive removed and crushed for scrap metal. And where will Susan be then? Gone, I’m guessing. Just… gone. I’d say dead, but you’re already dead, aren’t you? You’re the ghost in the machine. You’re dead, and soon you’ll be gone.”
“Well, I’m glad to see that chivalry isn’t dead,” Nine said.
“No, not like you. Not like dead and gone Susan.” He raised a hand. “But don’t worry. You’ve got some time. About twenty-three minutes, according to that little timer under your arm.”
Howard held up a piece of white paper. It was small, like a piece of notepaper from a pad left in a hotel room. Something was written on it. “Do you know what this is?”
“The prescription for your bi-polar meds?” Nine said.
Howard smiled. “Good guess. No. It’s the 10-digit code to disable the bomb inside you. See, I’d like to keep you around a little while longer, as my plaything. I’ve got a fully-armored, soundproof closet all tricked out for you. You’ll just be in there, helpless, waiting until I’m ready to play with you. Then I’ll let you out for a little while until I’m satisfied. Then back in you go. That’s the life you have to look forward to, Susan. How does that sound?”
“Charming,” Nine said.
“It’s the life of a slave,” Howard said. “But here’s the best part. I’m going to make you beg for that life. Sometime in the next twenty minutes, you’re going to beg me to let you live. And I mean grovel. You’re going to lick my feet, and lick… anywhere I say. All the while, you’ll be begging and calling me Master. Otherwise, I’m not going to input the code, and the bomb’s going to go off, and you’re just going to sizzle and die.”
Nine found that after the events of the past twenty-four hours, she was out of ideas. She tried to run some escape options, but she couldn’t think of a single one. Instead, she became curious about Howard.
He was still smiling. “Can you imagine what a turn-on this is for me?” he said.
Nine stared at him. He seemed different from the last time they met. She couldn’t put her finger on it. But then again, she supposed she had changed a lot since the last time, too.
“Are you upset about something, Howard? I mean, did I do something to annoy you? You seem a little irritated.”
“Did you do something to annoy me? Susan, let me count the things you’ve done to annoy me.” He began to count the offenses off on his fingers. “First, you tried to block the progress of the Methusaleh Project.”
“My project,” Nine said.
Howard smiled. “The company’s project, Susan. You remember the company, don’t you? Suncoast Cybernetics? They were the ones who paid your very high salary, and made you rich before the age of 30. The technology in question belonged to the company.”
“Okay,” Nine said.
“Second, you didn’t die when you were supposed to. Instead, you made an unauthorized download.”
“The first human trial,” Nine said. “Remember how badly you wanted to go to human trials?”
“Third, you destroyed company property, namely the robot Mr. Green. Fourth, you caused the deaths of, at last count, at least twelve company employees. Fifth, you sullied the name of this company in the local, national, and world media.”
“I guess I’ve been a bad girl,” Nine said.
Howard’s smile broadened. He shook his head. “You see, Susan, you shouldn’t have messed with me. Oh, you were the big smart scientists, right? You and Martin. But you were both dummies, too. You had no business sense. You had no idea who you were fooling with.”
“You envied us.”
Howard’s smile died. It died so fast it was as if it had fallen through a trapdoor. “I didn’t envy you. I made you. I recruited you into this company. You thought you were better than me, but you were wrong. Now look at you.”
“You tried to date me, Howard. Is that what this is about? That you tried to date me all those years ago, and I said no?”
Howard shook his head and smiled sadly. “Do you think I needed you? I have beautiful girls any time I want. All day long, in fact.” He gestured at the two Sexbots, waving his arm like a game show host revealing the grand prize. “Like these girls here…”
“That I created.”
Howard came very close to her. His face was inches from hers. His teeth were like white razors. She wouldn’t be surprised if he bit into the flesh at her neck.
“You know what?” he said. “I had Martin killed. You probably know that. I also had you killed. Now you’re going to be owned by the man who gave you everything, and then took it all away. But first I’m going to make you beg. Not for revenge. Not to prove any kind of point. Just because I feel like it.”
He stepped back. “Ladies?” he said.
The two Sexbots moved into place at his sides. They each took one side of his robe, and pulled it away. It dropped to the floor, revealing Howard in the nude. His small body was well-muscled and strong. There was barely an ounce of fat. Howard must work out all the time. He had the body of a young athlete. He flexed his chest and his arms like a bodybuilder. His muscles rippled. It seemed impossible. Nine remembered him as slightly overweight, even paunchy.
Even worse, between his legs hung an enormous, snake-like, rope-like thing. It was half-erect, and growing harder every moment. Thick veins pulsed all over it.
“What do you think?” he said, gesturing toward it, obviously proud.
“I’ve seen better,” Nine said, but she was alarmed. Soon her programming would kick in, and she would be helpless to do anything but obey him. Anything he wanted, she would do it.
Howard smiled. “I know you’re lying.”
He moved closer. She felt his heat. His body was very, very close now.
“Okay, Susan,” he whispered. He glanced at the clock on the wall. “You’ve got sixteen minutes left, give or take. It’s time to start begging.”
* * *
The party was a rollicking affair.
On the first floor of Howard’s mansion, men and women mingled in masks and robes, the elite of Southwest Florida, the beautiful people of a beautiful region, gearing up to enjoy a wild, remorseless orgy with the most advanced sex robots in the world. The air was electric with excitement. A buzz of expectant chatter echoed off the high ceilings.
Blue waded through the crowd, dressed in his owl mask and the robe he had taken from one of the guards on the beach. He looked like everyone else at the party, except he was taller and broader than even the biggest men. His size made him uncomfortable. How long before someone wondered about him?
All around him, the guests were drinking, getting loose. Sexbots walked through the crowds, high-end demonstration models, wearing elaborate bird masks, high-heeled shoes, and little else. One walked by carrying a tray of drinks. Blue scooped up a glass of red wine.
A fat man nearby had his meaty arms around two Sexbots. He had a glass of wine in each hand. He was already drunk. He had large jeweled rings on each of his fingers.
“Drink up, pal!” he said to Blue. “You’re way behind.”
Blue raised his glass to the man.
A Sexbot walked up to Blue. She wore a feathered owl mask, clear high-heeled shoes, and electric blue panties. She had light brown hair. Startling blue eyes looked out from behind her mask. Her eyes seemed to match her underwear. She had a perfect body, forever young.
“Sir,” she said. “Would you like to take me upstairs in private?”
“There’s nothing I would rather do,” he said.
The Sexbot took his hand in hers and led him up the center spiral staircase away from the crowds. As they climbed the stairs, Blue took a sip of his drink. It would be nice to duck in somewhere with this girl, but now was as good a time as ever to visit Howard, and the girl leading him upstairs was the perfect excuse to do it.
Blue now had four guns on him - two strapped in shoulder holsters, and one strapped to each of his powerful thighs. All of the guns were Glocks - standard company issue, taken from standard company employees.
When they reached the top of the stairs, the Sexbot tried to go left, but Blue steered her to the right, toward Howard’s private wing.
“Sir,” the Sexbot said, her voice sultry. “Our room is this way.”
“I’d like to try a room down this way.”
“Those rooms are restricted, sir.”
Blue slipped his hand out of hers, and gripped her wrist instead. He pulled her along, though she didn’t resist much. “It’s okay. I’m good friends with the owner. He wants me to come down to see him. We’re both going to party with you.”
“Oh?” she said. “Oh. I didn’t know.”
From memory, Blue took another right, then followed a long hallway.
“What are you men going to do with me?” the Sexbot said.
Blue shrugged. “You know. The usual.”
“Oh, goodie.”
They made a left turn. Just ahead was the door to Howard’s apartment. A guard stood in front of the door, also dressed in owl mask and robe.
The guard made a stop sign gesture with his hand. “I’m sorry, sir. But this is a private area.”
“Private?”
Blue slurred his speech as if he was drunk. He downed the last of his wine. “They told me I could take this pretty little thing upstairs here.” He dropped the crystal glass to the floor, and it shattered.
The guard looked at the broken glass at his feet, and shook his head just a touch. Blue could sense his disapproval. These were the parties the boss wanted to throw nowadays - drunken idiots wandering around the mansion, breaking things.
“You can, sir. If you go back down the hall there… Never mind. There are a few turns involved. I’ll call someone to escort you back.”
The man reached under his cloak. Blue noticed his earpiece, and the wire running down behind his neck. Blue slid his own hand under his cloak, reached into his left shoulder holster, and came out with the gun. He held it concealed under the cloak.
He flipped the gun so he had it by the barrel. He took one step forward, and in one motion, pulled the gun from under his cloak and slammed it across the guard’s face. Stunned, the man reached for his own gun. But he was too slow.
Blue grabbed the man’s hand and brought the handle of the gun down on his skull. Once, twice, three times. Bam, bam, BAM! The third one was the money shot. The man oozed to his knees. Behind Blue, the Sexbot made a sound, not a scream, not a shout, more of an exhalation:
“Oooooh.”
Blue bent down and hit the man again. And again. After a moment, the man lay still on the marble floor, half slumped against the wall. Blue reached inside the man’s cloak and came out with another Glock. He turned to the Sexbot and held it up.
“Gun number five,” he said. “Let’s go.”
He took the man’s key fob, and found the key card to Howard’s front door. He swiped the card through the control unit, and the shot slid upward in the blink of an eye. Beyond the doorway was the wide hallway that led to Howard’s living room, dining room, and the master bedroom beyond that.
Blue held his arm out to the Sexbot.
“After you, my darling.”
* * *
Nine watched as Howard kissed the two Sexbots. They pressed in close on either side of him. Howard and his ladies were bare inches from Nine.
Their kisses were wet and sloppy. Even Howard’s tongue seemed long, longer than a normal human tongue. He turned to Nine and grinned. He was ready now, his erection full and at attention. He held it up for her inspection. His eyes narrowed.
“Twelve minutes to go, Susan. I don’t hear you begging yet.”
“Howard, my name is Nine.”
“How about we change your name?” Howard said. “How does Slave sound? Or maybe Slut?”
He pressed against her, his body touching hers. Nine felt his heat, she felt the touch of the thing between his legs. She tried not to become aroused.
It wasn’t working.
“I really want to save you,” he said gently. “I want to put you in that closet and use you whenever I feel the urge. But you’re not helping me. Maybe we should give you a little spin, and put your mouth down below. Then you can show me what it was designed to do.”
“Howard,” she gasped.
“Yes?”
“Don’t do this.”
He kissed her on the mouth. His tongue probed her.
“Say please. That will be a start.”
Her life hung in the balance. If she begged, he might let her live. If she lived, she might find a way to escape. She was very close to doing what he wanted. It was a slippery slope once she started, and she knew Howard would never let her off easy. He would make her slide all the way down.
“Howard…”
“That’s it, beg me for it. Come on, Susan. Beg like a dog.”
To Nine’s right, the bedroom door slid open. She turned her head at the sound. Howard also turned.
A large man wearing an owl mask and a black robe walked in. He had a flat black gun in his hand, and a Sexbot with him. She wore nothing but a large feathered bird mask, blue panties, and clear high-heeled shoes.
The man stared at them.
“Can I help you?” Howard said.
The man removed his mask, revealing the deeply lined face of Mr. Blue. He let his robe drop to the floor. Now, he wore running shorts and a t-shirt. His big, muscular body was strapped with guns.
“Hi Howard,” he said. “Imagine seeing you again.” He looked at Nine’s sheer bodysuit. His eyes widened as he stared at the contraption Nine was secured to.
“Jeez, Number Nine, that’s quite an outfit. And quite a…” he waved his free hand at the bondage wheel, “…device.” He looked at Howard, then back at Nine.
“You kids having fun?”
Howard barely looked at him. He turned his focus back to Nine.
“Blue, now isn’t a good time,” he said. “In fact, right now this slave of mine and I are a little pressed for time. So if you’ll kindly excuse us…”
“Howard, I killed six men to be here tonight. You can’t dismiss me with a wave of your magic wand.”
Howard raised a hand. “Yeah, I know. Things got fucked up. Mistakes were made. I probably shouldn’t have tried to kill you. I’m sure you found that irritating. But admit it, you made a mess of this job. And anyway, you’re still alive, and the fugitive Sexbot is right here, so no real harm done. I’m willing to make amends, drop everything, say forget it all. As far as I’m concerned, we don’t even need to talk about it.”
“I appreciate that,” Blue said. “But I’ll tell you what. I don’t feel like I can drop it that easily. You betrayed me Howard.”
Howard smiled, still facing Nine. He gazed directly into her eyes. To Nine, it almost seemed like there was no one in there. Howard seemed empty, a zero.
“Come on, Blue,” he said. “This is hardball we’re playing. Everybody gets betrayed sooner or later.”
“Yeah, but it hurt my feelings, Howard. My therapist says I shouldn’t let people hurt my feelings.”
Howard turned, and really looked at Blue for the first time. “Blue, you big dumb idiot. I knew you were coming. Don’t you get that? I can read you like a book. I’m offering you a chance to walk back out that door and live. Leave the country. Fly down to Brazil or wherever you go when you’re not here. Call me in a couple of weeks, we’ll figure everything out. In the meantime, do me a big favor, okay? Go back out to the party, have a nice time. I’m in the middle of something.”
Blue smiled. “And if I don’t walk out the door? What then, Howard?”
Howard shrugged. “You’ll be dead in the next five minutes.”
Blue nodded. “Yeah, but you’ll be dead now.”
Blue pointed the gun at Howard.
Howard’s shoulders slumped. He stepped away from Nine and faced Blue directly. He stood up straight and puffed his strong chest out.
“Blue, give me a fucking break, okay? I’m the best boss you ever had. Are you really going to shoot the golden goose?”
Blue fired. He shot Howard in the head. The shot was loud in the enclosed space of the room. Nine saw the bullet penetrate Howard’s forehead, then blow out the back of his skull. She blinked. Fragments of bone, hair, plastic, and metal flew through the air.
Howard barely moved. His head was dented in front, and ruptured in the back. He stared at Blue. He smiled.
“Jesus, Blue. I guess that makes us even.”
Blue fired again. Again and again. The shots hit Howard’s chest. The sounds were deafening. The Sexbots, Howard’s two and the one Blue brought with him, all covered their ears in unison. Nine would have covered her ears, but her wrists were bound.
“Blue,” Howard said. “Bluuuuu…”
He did a jitterbug dance as the bullets penetrated him. The sound of his voice slowly wound down. Toward the end, it took on a metallic tone. It no longer sounded like a human voice. It sounded more like a car alarm, slowly fading as the battery died.
Blue kept firing anyway.
Howard sank to his knees, but he didn’t die right away. He sputtered, trying to stand back up, trying to say something. Sparks flew from his many bullet holes. His head did a weird, sideways wrenching move at the top of his neck. He caught fire briefly, the flames blue and red. Then the fire went out, replaced by tendrils of black smoke.
His eyes blinked. His hands closed and opened, closed and opened. He fell over sideways and died.
For a moment, no one said a word.
Blue scratched his temple. He stared down at Howard’s body.
“Did you know he was a robot before you shot him?” Nine said.
“I had my suspicions.”
“What tipped you off?”
Blue shook his head. “I walked in here, took one look at Howard, and I figured he couldn’t be real. I’ve never heard of Howard exercising. No way is he in that kind of physical condition. Also, no way is his dick that big. I mean, Howard? Come on. He has classic little man’s syndrome. He’s got to be compensating for something.”
“Is he going to blow up?”
Blue poked Howard’s body with the toe of his running shoe. “I doubt it. I don’t think he was designed for the battlefield.”
Blue turned towards Nine. She stared at him, her killer. He was a very large man. His face was grizzled and scarred. He was handsome in his own weird way.
“Listen,” he said. He couldn’t seem to look her directly in the eyes. “I’ve been thinking a lot about everything that went down yesterday. I realize I’m probably not your favorite person right now, but if I had known more about the situation… Well, let’s just say I’m sorry, and I’m really glad to see that you’re still alive.”
“I think you’ll understand,” Nine said, “if I hesitate to forgive you right now.”
He raised his hands as if she had pulled a gun.
“Sure, sure. Of course. It’s a serious thing. It’s wrong to kill people. I get that. But I’ve also been thinking about… you know, you and me. It seemed like, I don’t know, there was a little spark or something there last night.”
Nine smiled, just a little. She shrugged.
Was he kidding? Of course there was a spark. She was a Sexbot. She could spark with anyone. She could spark with a dog, or a gorilla, or a killer whale. She could spark with the high school football team, or the chess club.
“Maybe a little something,” she said.
Blue let out a long exhalation of air, like he had been holding his breath. “I knew it. So do you want to come with me?”
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know. Out of this house, for one thing. I think it’s about to get hot in here.”
“Well, untie me, and let’s talk. I’ve got this little bomb inside me, and Howard’s got the code there clutched in his hand. I think I don’t have much time left.”
“Oh, Jeez,” Blue said. “I nearly forgot about that.”
“I didn’t,” Nine said.
Her bodysuit was ripped a little under the arm where the digital reader was. Blue pulled the fabric away. He looked at the time.
“Six minutes and forty-seven seconds,” he said. “And counting.”
“Okay, please hurry,” Nine said.
He reached for her straps, but then hesitated. She noticed for the first time that Mr. Blue had pale blue eyes. Perhaps that’s where the name came from.
“What’s wrong?”
“Can I trust you?” he said.
Behind Blue, against the far wall, the giant flat panel TV screen came to life. At first, it showed a blank purple screen. A loud tone sounded. Then Howard’s face appeared. He wore a dark jacket and a red power tie. He was smiling.
Blue and the three Sexbots turned to face him. Nine, still tied to the bondage wheel, had no choice but to look directly at him.
“Hi everyone,” Howard said.
* * *
Blue was feeling pretty good.
All day, he hadn’t let himself believe that Nine might still be alive. He hadn’t even let himself think about it. He didn’t want to be disappointed.
But here she was, alive and well. And she had confirmed what he’d known to be true - that they had a little something, call it a spark, call it the jazz, call it whatever you wanted, between them. It wasn’t anything big yet. He knew that. But that spark was something you could build on. You could start a fire with that spark.
All Blue had to do was punch in the code, and he and Nine were free to go anywhere, and do whatever they wanted.
But now here was Howard, playing more games. Despite the interruption, Blue even felt good about Howard. Look at Howard’s suit! Blue suit, red tie, very, very corporate.
“Technology’s a wonderful thing, isn’t it?” Howard said.
“Where’s your robe, Howard?” Blue said.
Howard sighed. He smiled. “You can’t always wear a bathrobe, Blue. Sometimes you have to change into your big boy clothes.”
“Who are we speaking with?” Blue said. “Are you the real Howard, or just another wind-up toy?”
Howard shrugged. “You’ll never know. Anyway, I’m just popping on here to say goodbye to you both. I’d like to say it was a pleasure, but I’d be lying if I did. Susan, you weren’t much of a scientist, but you were a brilliant little tinkerer. A robot mechanic, let’s call you. I guess you found out the hard way that’s all you were. And now you make an excellent lab rat. Blue, you were never anything more than the hired help - a thug, a murderer, and a wiseass to boot. You had the brains of a tree snail and the ethics of a saltwater crocodile.”
“Howard, from you, I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Take it however you like. You may remember your former partner, Mr. Green.”
Blue nodded. “I remember him.”
“Well, you’ll be interested to know that he’s been the subject of a robot cloning project we’ve been working on. It turns out that robots are easy to clone. He’s been uploading his experiences at the end of every day for the past year, which are in turn downloaded by a group of identical clones. We’ve got a small army of Mr. Greens, all the same, with all the same memories. So let me allow you to make his acquaintance again. And again. And again.”
Howard pressed a button on his wrist watch. Somewhere outside the bedroom, in Howard’s private suite of rooms, an alarm went off.
“Signing off,” Howard said. “I don’t think we’ll meet again.” His image became pixilated, then began to fall apart. “Bye now,” said his disembodied voice as the image evaporated, replaced by a tiny green dot in the center of the screen.
“Oh man,” Blue said. “That doesn’t sound good.”
He drew the gun from under his left shoulder and walked to the door. He put his hand on it. Any second now, something bad was going to happen. He glanced around the room, looking for a way out. He could smash through the windows, then drop two stories to the beach. That might work.
“Blue?” Nine said. “Let’s forget about Howard and Green for the moment. We need to type in that code. The one that disarms the bomb, remember? We’re running out of time.”
“Right,” Blue said. He took a step toward Howard’s body.
“Sir?” said the Sexbot he had come in with. He glanced at her. She looked wide-eyed and worried. He looked at Howard’s Sexbots. They were worried, too. Every Sexbot in the room had big wide eyes, and faces stricken with fear.
“What is it?” Blue said.
Next to him, the door slid smoothly open. An exact replica of Mr. Green stood there. He was slim, with the same male-pattern baldness, the blank stare, everything. He and Blue were a foot apart.
Blue didn’t hesitate. He pointed his gun at Green’s chest, grabbed Green by the neck, and started pulling the trigger. He shot him five times at point blank range, blasting shots into where Green’s hard drive should be.
He shoved Green back, still firing.
Green stood in the hall, staring at Blue. Smoke started to rise from Green’s bullet holes. Behind him, two more Greens walked up the hallway.
The Green who was shot began to draw his gun. “Blue,” he said slowly. “That was a serious breach of…”
Blue fired at him, dead center.
Green fell over sideways, dead before he hit the ground.
“Protocol,” Blue said. “I know.”
He hit the big green button next to the doorway, and the door whooshed shut again. He dove away from the door as bullets began to dent the metal. The bullets made a sound as if metallic popcorn were popping.
“Blue!” Nine shouted.
Blue went to her. The metallic popcorn kept popping.
“We don’t have much time,” she said. “I’m about to explode here.”
“Can I trust you?”
She shrugged. “As far as you can throw me.”
“That’ll have to do.”
Suddenly, an explosion ripped through the hall outside the bedroom. The door blew inward. Blue was knocked off his feet by the force of it. He lay on the floor, feeling the house shake. He looked at the doorway. It was on fire. The door itself was gone. Instantly, the lights in the room went out.
Green had self-destructed. The Green clones had the auto-destruct feature. Blue ran a scenario through his head. The force of the explosion had probably demolished a couple of those Greens coming up the hall. Who would now also self-destruct. Behind them, more Greens would likely be coming.
“Oh, man,” Blue said. He began to crawl toward Nine.
As he watched, a Green clone stepped into the room, on fire. It turned, gun in hand, looking for a target. The red light of its laser pointer rested on Nine’s chest.
“No!” Blue shouted.
BOOOOM.
Another explosion ripped through the doorway. The Green clone was blown off his feet. He flew through the air and crashed into the far wall. The wall caved in and the Green went halfway through it.
Blue jumped to his feet and raced to Number Nine. He pulled the steak knife taped to his calf, and began to cut Nine’s straps. In several seconds, he had sawed through them.
“We have to get out of here right now,” he said. He glanced at her readout. “Just over three minutes left. You grab the code. I’ll type it in when I have a free second.”
Nine slid off the bondage wheel. “Give me a gun,” she said.
Blue hesitated.
“Give me a gun!”
Blue glanced back at the doorway as three more Greens came in. Their red lights scanned crazily around the room. Their sights caught the three Sexbots, and the Greens began firing. These Greens didn’t have Glocks. They fired staccato bursts from handheld Uzi machine guns. The Sexbots were shredded, doing crazy death dances in the light from the muzzle flashes. Smoke rose in the air.
Nine was crouched on the floor next to Howard’s body. “How can we beat them?” she shouted. She pried the paper out of Howard’s dead hand.
“They’re robots. As smart as they are, you can still surprise them. Do something they’re not programmed to expect.”
“Like what?”
Blue had no time to think. This was when he was at his best. He turned and charged the three Greens. He grabbed the middle one and head butted it. The pain was instant, and intense. The room spun. Green had a much harder head than Blue did.
The two Greens flanking the middle one turned their guns on Blue. Blue felt, rather than saw, the red laser sights. He fell backwards, dropping to the floor and rolling, just as both Greens let loose.
They fired their guns, ripping ten rounds per second for several seconds. The bullets tore through the middle Green, grinding him apart first, then piercing the two Greens on either side. They kept firing even though they were killing themselves. Finally, all three Greens fell in a smoking heap.
Blue clawed his way to his feet, nauseated from the head butt.
He smiled at Nine. “See?” he said. “That was easy.”
Nine just stood and stared at him. He imagined that she stared at him with a mix of wonder and awe.
They had about ten more seconds before those latest Greens blew up.
“Now follow me,” he said.
He charged the big window, firing his gun at it as he ran. He leapt, expecting to crash through it, readying himself for the two story fall, and the shoulder roll on the beach. Instead, the window barely budged. He slammed into it like a small bird hitting a windshield. The window quivered, but didn’t break.
Blue fell backwards, took two stumble steps, then landed on his back. The room swam around him. For a moment, everything went dark.
When his vision came back, Nine was bent over him, her pretty eyes looking into his. “That was some stunt,” she said. “I mean, the way you went charging through that window, I just…”
He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her down on top of him.
“Blue! What are you doing?”
A second later, the three Greens self-destructed, all at once. The explosions were gigantic. Blue rolled over, and shielded Nine with his back. It was dumb - he knew it as soon as he did it. His shell was flesh and blood. Hers was harder than that.
He felt the shards of shrapnel tearing away at the meat of his wide back. He hunched into a ball. He and Nine hugged each other. An inferno raged all around them.
When it was over, they were in each other’s arms. The room was in flames.
“Shall we go?” she said quietly.
“We’d better,” he said.
The explosion had blown a ragged hole through the window. Blue and Nine stood. Blue limped to the window. He looked down. It was a long way to the beach. He turned back around. The entire suite was engulfed in flames. The wide door to the hallway looked like the entrance to hell. No hope that way.
Two more Greens came racing into the room, one of them already on fire. Red and green laser sights climbed the walls.
How many Greens did Howard have?
“Ready?” Blue said to Nine.
“Ready.”
They held hands. Behind them, another explosion rocked the room.
They jumped, one second ahead of the fireball.
* * *
Nine landed in the dunes like a cat.
She found herself in a three-point stance, down on one knee. She glanced around for Mr. Blue. There he was, sprawled nearby in the sand and the high sea grass. He was on his back halfway down a dune, his head at the bottom, his legs at the top. He looked like he was passed out, or dead. Smoke rose from his clothing.
She glanced up at the house. The entire wing they’d just left was on fire. Flames poured out of the shattered window just above them. The red laser sights of killer robots swept the beach. Back towards the main part of the house, naked guests and Sexbots were running down the stairs and onto the back lawn.
As she watched, another explosion ripped the night. Two killer robots were thrown through the roof of the house and high into the air. She followed their arcs as they flew. Whump! They hit the beach hard. Even so, one still struggled to his feet. His right arm and head were missing.
Nine crawled to Blue. He still hadn’t moved.
“Blue,” she whispered. “Are you alive?”
For a long moment, there was no response. Then one eye opened. Then the other. He smiled. “Not really.”
BOOOM.
The second Green, the one that didn’t get up, exploded on the beach. The heat wave washed over them.
“It’s really a design flaw, to make them blow up like that,” Blue said. “Am I right? I mean, a missile attack, a suicide bomber, and you could have these things blowing up all over your own base. A dozen destroyed robots could take out your whole company.”
“Sounds like something for the suggestion box,” Nine said. “But right now, I can’t think about it. I need you to do something for me.”
“What’s that, baby?”
“The code,” Nine said. “You know, for the bomb? My bomb.”
“Oh,” he said. “Right.”
Nine had Howard’s paper in her hand. Blue sat up, and she gave him the paper. She got up on her knees, raised her right arm, and he kneeled beside her.
“You must think I have a terrible memory,” he said. He looked at the digital readout. He grunted. “That was close. Only thirty-six seconds left.”
He stared at the paper for a moment. He held it all the way out at arm’s length. He squinted. He blinked several times.
Nine suddenly got a sinking feeling. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he said. “It’s just that Howard has awful handwriting. It’s all scribble-scrabble. And it’s kind of dark out here. And not for nothing, but I am 45 years old. I’m a little bit far-sighted. I can’t see the numbers clearly.”
He looked at the readout again. “Christ, twenty-one seconds.”
Nine’s heart seemed to skip a beat. “How can you see the countdown but not the paper?” she said.
“The counter is lit up! The paper isn’t lit up.”
“Give me the paper! I’ll read the numbers to you.”
He handed her the paper. “Fifteen seconds,” he said.
“Fourteen.”
“Thirteen.”
She held the paper with her left hand. This was her only chance. There wasn’t enough time to get it wrong and somehow start over. She looked at the numbers, but they didn’t seem right. They weren’t random. It was a dummy code. The sequence was: 1234567890. Could that be true? Or was this Howard’s parting gift, a code that couldn’t possibly work?
“Ten seconds,” Blue said. “Come on. What’s the hold up?”
“They’re in order,” Nine said. “One through nine, and then zero.”
“What?”
“Just type them in order. One, two, three… like that. One first, zero last.”
“Shit. Six seconds. I don’t…”
“Blue! Just type the fucking numbers in order!”
Blue’s big index finger pressed the keys. Each key made a small beep as he touched it. He typed the ten numbers in rapid succession. His breathing was fast and heavy.
“One second left,” he said. He looked at her.
She stared into his blue eyes. One second seemed to go on and on. She had time to drink in the lines of his rugged face. Thick beard stubble poked through his weather-beaten skin. Blue’s face might be the last thing she would ever see.
“Did it work?” she said.
* * *
An explosion rent the night.
Blue was knocked onto his back in the sand. Number Nine fell on top of him. For a long moment, he held her in his arms. He didn’t want to let her go.
He glanced to his left. Another Green clone had died on the beach about thirty yards away. That was the source of the most recent explosion.
Nine pushed herself up against his chest. Her eyes looked deeply into his.
“How do you feel?” Blue said.
She smiled. “Alive.”
“Well, that’s better than the alternative.”
She had to help him to his feet. He could walk, but he limped, and he moved slowly. His whole body seemed to ache. He was only human, after all.
They walked down the beach to a wooden boardwalk. Blue knew this boardwalk. It ended at a private dock. Somewhere behind them, another explosion went up. And somewhere behind that, the sirens started in. It had been a bad couple of days for Suncoast Cybernetics, and it was about to get worse.
There were two boats tied up to the big dock. One was Howard’s sport fishing boat. It was nice enough, if you liked to fish. Blue didn’t like to fish. He picked the one shaped like a giant wedge. It was long and narrow, with a very long bow. At the stern, there were five big engines. The boat itself only had four seats.
“Cigarette boat,” he said to Number Nine. “Very fast.”
He gestured at it. “Climb in.”
She scrambled over the gunwale and into the cockpit. Blue untied the lines, and a moment later joined her aboard.
The boat floated free from the dock, drifting. Blue moved his hands along the dashboard of the boat. He found a cover, opened it, and pulled out the boat keys.
He looked at Nine. “I once rode in this boat with Howard. He told me he leaves the keys in this dash box so he always knows where they are. What an idiot. Might as well leave them in the ignition.”
Blue turned the ignition switch, and the big engines roared into life. He stood at the wheel, and put the boat in gear.
“Do you know how to drive this thing?” Nine shouted over the roar of the engines.
“Baby, I can drive anything.”
He steered the boat into deeper water. In a moment, they had passed through the No Wake zone. Blue opened up the gas, and they went tearing out into the Gulf of Mexico, running in the dark, bouncing over the swells.
“Where are we going?”
He shrugged. He didn’t think about it very long. Their best option came to him almost instantly. “Havana. Cuba. We’ll probably need to stop in Key West for fuel. But after that we’re home free.”
In his mind, he pictured Havana as it was when he lived there as a young man. Hot sun, narrow, crowded streets, old Spanish architecture, and palm trees lining the grand boulevard. He saw the oceanfront drive, young boys diving into the water from its walls. He heard the sound of a lone guitarist on a park bench, picking out a tune late at night. He looked forward to walking those streets, hand-in-hand with beautiful Number Nine.
“Havana’s a nice place,” Blue said. “I think you’ll like it. And we’ll be safe there.”
The boat bounced hard over a big swell. They were moving very fast now. Blue sighed. He glanced at the sky, scanning for aircraft.
“For a little while,” he said.
The End