The Android Chronicles Book One: The Android Defense (2 page)

“I agree,” Damian said.
“That’s why I asked you all to come today. Adventis Technologies is
at the top of the game, but that’s all about to change.”

The investors eyed
him.

“Adventis is going to change
the game,” Damian said. “We’re developing a piece of technology
that’s going to blow everything out of the water. It’s not in the
final stages yet, but it’s been performing well in test
stages.”

“What exactly is
it?”

“Android technology,” Damian
said. “The next step in technological evolution.”

He picked up a remote
control and turned on the flat-screen TV on the wall.

A video of a woman lying on
a table, surrounded by people in white lab jackets as though she
was getting a medical examination, played. The woman seemed to be
peacefully asleep. Then one of the technicians around her prodded
her in her shoulder. The woman sat up and looked directly at the
camera.

“My word,” one of the
investors said. “Is that an android?”

“That’s Suzy,” Damian said.
“She’s the first fully-assembled android to come off the line. And
when I say fully assembled, I mean simply that, her physical parts
are put together and work in the right way. My technicians right
now are working on the way she thinks and reacts to things. That’s
where it’s going to matter.”

The investors watched
spell-bound as Suzy waved to the camera.

“Android technology is going
to change the future of the human race,” Damian said. “Think about
androids teaching at schools, policing the cities, fighting our
wars, helping scientists find cures for diseases. They’ll help
reduce crime rates, maybe even improve the education system, and
keep our country on top. Nothing can compete with the reliability
and intelligence of an android once it’s programmed to work for us.
They’re basically computers given human form. They represent
mind-blowing intelligence, without the distraction of
emotion.”

“It’s … intriguing,” one of
the investors said.

“Intriguing is just the
beginning,” Damian said. He turned off the TV. “But is it
intriguing enough for you to get on board with us?”

The investors glanced at
each other.

“You’ve given us something
to consider,” one of them said. “How does an answer by tomorrow
morning sound?”

“Sounds great,” Damian
said.

He shook hands with the
investors and they departed the office, accompanied by
Carlie.

Damian turned on the video
once more. He watched with narrowed eyes as Suzy looked blank-faced
into the camera. She did not move until one of the technicians
prodded her in her back, and then she turned and walked obediently
back to the table and lay down on it.

Damian turned off the video.
He sat on the couch, lost in thought.

Chapter 4.

“Alright, on your stomach
again on the board.”

Mikey, Mandelie’s surf
instructor, stood in the shallows of the ocean and watched as
Mandelie climbed onto the surfboard, soaking wet.

“You did well,” Mikey said.
“You took those three waves like a pro.”

Mandelie lay on the board
and paddled through the cold water towards the beach. When she
reached Mikey, she stood and walked unsteadily up the sandy beach,
dragging the surfboard behind her.

Mikey slapped her a high
five.

“Nice job today,” he said.
“Get some practice and I’ll see you next week.”

Mandelie nodded and walked
towards her car. Her wetsuit was soaked and chilling her to the
bone. She began peeling it off as she walked, until she was in her
two-piece bathing suit.

She stood next to her car
and reached into her bag for her keys.

“Mandelie Miles,” a voice
said. “It’s been a long time.”

Mandelie spun
around.

Damian Foster stood leaning
against a black convertible. He wore a dark blue sweater, jeans,
and dark shades. He blatantly assessed her up and down in her
bikini.

“You’ve grown
up.”

“Damian,” Mandelie said.
“This is an unpleasant surprise.”

Damian laughed.

“Charming,” he said. “I
don’t feel the same way. I think you look very pleasant in your
swim wear.”

“What do you want?” Mandelie
said.

“I just stopped by to pay
your father a visit.”

“I’m sure he was overjoyed
to see you.”

“Oh we caught up like old
times,” Damian said. “That android of yours is
impressive.”

“Luke isn’t my android,”
Mandelie said. “He isn’t anyone’s. He thinks for
himself.”

“That’s exactly what’s so
impressive about him,” Damian said. “I offered to purchase him from
your father. It was a very respectable offer. A million
dollars.”

Mandelie’s mouth dropped
open.

“Trying to steal more
technology from this lab, are you?” she said, when she could
finally speak.

“It’s not stealing if you
pay for it, sweetheart,” Damian said. “Anyway, he turned me down.
It’s a shame.”

Mandelie’s eyes showed her
relief.

“Your dad’s making a
mistake,” Damian said, as he got into his convertible. “I’ll come
into possession of that technology, one way or the other. It’s all
a matter of time. In the meantime, I’d love to take you out for a
drink one of these nights.”

“There’s not a chance of
that ever happening,” Mandelie said.

Damian laughed again. He
waved to her as his convertible roared away.

“Mandelie!”

Mandelie heard her father
burst through the front door of his house in Montecito Heights. She
was sitting in the kitchen, watching a movie on her
laptop.

“I’m in here!” she
called.

Dr. Miles came into the
kitchen, carrying a box of pizza.

“Pepperoni, like you asked,”
he said. He placed it on the kitchen table.

Mandelie bit into a slice of
pizza.

“I’ve got some work to do,”
Dr. Miles said. “I’ll take a slice up to my room.”

“Did Damian Foster offer to
buy Luke from you?”

Dr. Miles
hesitated.

“I don’t know how you heard
about it, but he did,” he said. “I turned him down. Luke’s not
going anywhere, and certainly not to that two-faced money
scrounger.”

“Good,” Mandelie
said.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Dr.
Miles said. “I’m going to the lab early in the morning.”

“
I’m going back to my place
in an hour, but I’ll stop by the lab tomorrow night,” Mandelie
said. “I’m spending all day on the water tomorrow. Gotta practice
if I’m going to compete in that beginner’s surfing
competition.”

“You’ll blow them out of the
water,” Dr. Miles said. “Pun intended.”

The blazing sun beat down on
Mandelie’s bare shoulders as she floated in the water a few hundred
feet from the beach. Not far from her a few other swimmers and
surfers were splashing around.

She leaned her arms on her
surfboard for a break. She blew saltwater off her face.

An inflated ball landed in
the water close to her. She heard someone shout, “Sorry! Can you
throw it back please?”

Mandelie picked up the ball
and threw it. She was caught unaware by the wave that rose up
behind her and crashed down on her.

She was pushed down into the
water by the force of it. She spun and turned, her lungs burning as
she inhaled seawater. It felt as though a giant hand was holding
her underwater and refusing to let her go.

“Alicia!” Seven year old
Mandelie Miles huddled against the side of the fishing boat in her
life jacket, watching with frightened eyes as her father leaned
over the side of the boat as it pitched and rolled in the storm. He
was stretching his hand out to something bobbing in the
water.

“I’ve almost got you! Take
my hand!”

Mandelie kicked to the
surface, gasping and spluttering. She looked around with wide,
panicked eyes. She saw her surfboard, bobbing a short distance from
her, and swam towards it.

The sound of laughter and
cheers from the nearby swimmers shook her senses. She climbed onto
her surfboard and began paddling back towards the beach.

Behind her the sun was
setting in a sky splashed orange and red.

Detective Jack Strouds of
Malibu P.D. was cruising down Pacific Coast Highway in his police
car, another detective named Detective Grimes sitting in the
passenger seat, when the call came on the police radio.

“Cruiser 9196 to address 473
Bluff Drive, please. Building is named Argonaut
Laboratories.”

“Argonaut Laboratories?”
Strouds said, with a frown. “Is that the wacky little establishment
where all sorts of weird experiments go on?”

“I’ve heard of it,” Grimes
said. “Never been called there before though.”

“Let’s go see what’s going
on,” Strouds said.

Strouds pressed down on the
accelerator and sliced through the traffic.

Chapter 5.

After feeling her hands and
feet scrape sand, Mandelie waded thankfully up to the beach. She
wiped her face with her towel and slipped off her wetsuit, pulling
a shirt and shorts over her bathing suit. Then she walked to her
car.

Mandelie was humming along
to a favorite song on the radio when she caught sight of the
barricade of police cars lined up in front of the laboratory. The
entrance gate was rolled back.

Several police officers were
pacing back and forth in front of the gate, talking on their phones
and to each other.

Mandelie stopped the car.
She got out and ran towards the police.

“What happened?”

“Stop right there,” one of
them said sternly. “Who are you?”

“I’m Mandelie Miles,”
Mandelie said. “My dad is Dr. Jason Miles. He owns this
lab.”

She fell silent when she saw
Luke being escorted out of the lab by two police officers. His
hands were cuffed behind him. His head was lowered.

“Luke!” Mandelie
shouted.

She tried to run towards
him, but was held back by one of the officers.

Detective Strouds and
Detective Grimes led Luke towards a waiting police car.

“Wait! You can’t do this!”
Mandelie said. “Why are you arresting him?”

The officer holding her arm
coughed.

“I’m sorry to have to tell
you this, miss, but your father is missing,” he said. “There are
copious amounts of his blood inside the building. We’re taking the
… robot into custody under suspicion of murder.”

“That’s impossible,”
Mandelie breathed. She watched with stunned eyes as Detective
Strouds pushed Luke into the backseat of the car. “Luke wouldn’t
hurt anyone, least of all my father.”

She pulled her arm out of
the officer’s grasp and ran towards the car.

“What are you going to do
with him?” she said tersely to Strouds.

“Er,” Strouds said. “The
normal laws don’t seem to apply to him, so we’re going to hold him
at the police station until a decision is made about what to do
with him.”

“Miss Miles!” Luke
said.

Mandelie met his
eyes.

“Don’t risk yourself on my
account,” Luke said. He shook his head.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Luke said.
“I swear I don’t know.”

Strouds closed the door on
Luke’s face.

Mandelie turned to the burly
detective.

“Don’t hurt him,” she said.
“I’ll get to the bottom of this.”

“We’ll hold him in a cell,”
Strouds said. “But I can’t make you any promises.”

Mandelie watched,
white-faced, as the two detectives got into the car and it drove
away.

Luke sat silently and
motionlessly in the back seat of the police car as Strouds and
Grimes conversed loudly enough in the front.

“Killer robots,” Strouds
said disgustedly. “I thought we’d find a lot of strange things in
that lab, but this takes the cake.”

“You have to admit, they did
a good job making the guy,” Grimes said, looking in the rearview
mirror at Luke. “If I passed him on the street I wouldn’t give him
a second glance.

Luke looked down at the
heavy chains on his wrist cuffs. He lifted them and broke them
cleanly with an effortless twist. Then he kicked the passenger door
open.

“What the hell!” Strouds
shouted, swerving the car hard to the left.

“He’s trying to get away!”
Grimes said.

Luke was leaning out of the
police car as it weaved dangerously and as the fast-moving traffic
in the next lane tore past him. Horns blasted into his face as
alarmed drivers caught sight of him. He seemed to be timing the
movement of the cars, waiting for the right moment to
jump.