Falling in Love Bit by Bit
Chapter 11

Copyright© 2008 by HLD

By all appearances, Holland Campbell was a bitter, broken man. He withdrew from nearly all human contact. His team of engineers split up. Some were traumatised by from the shootout in the lab. Some were lured away by more lucrative offers. The rest were pushed away by Holland's hostile—borderline abusive—behaviour.

He left Neurodyne, although they made him a standing offer to return at any time. A few other companies pursued him, but some others worried about his sanity and judgment. He didn't need the money. Besides what he had been paid outright by Neurodyne, he still collected residuals on the patents he owned and licensed out.

With no direction and what many people speculated was a broken heart, over the next year Holland Campbell did his best to fall off the face of the earth. He spent most days sitting in his penthouse. He never travelled. He never went out, not even to shop for groceries or clothes. His servant automatons did all the work for him.

Inside he was dying.

One morning, his doorbell rang. Holland just sat there seemingly oblivious to the world. The buzzer sounded repeatedly.

It wasn't until his brain registered that someone was keying the override that he bothered to turn his head.

"What the fuck?" he muttered when the door opened.

Miriam Garcia stood there, dressed in the same outfit she had on the first day he saw her. Her dark brown hair hung down past her shoulders.

"Sir, if you'd care to sign for her, this robot will be all yours," the man accompanying Miriam said.

"I didn—"

"My designation is KRL-40631, although you can call me Marianne," the robot said before he could protest any further. Her movements were fluid, almost human, but noticeably not. "I am a Fabricators, Inc. personal service Inanna-series robot, model P-600. You ordered me a month ago and had me built to your custom specifications."

"I'll just need your thumbprint right here, sir," the deliveryman held out the scanner. Holland dumbly gave his biometric approval and was in receipt of a brand new pleasure bot.

"Perhaps you would like to go for a ride in the country," the robot said conversationally.

He only stared at her. By all appearances, it was Miriam. Right down to the hairs on her head, the gentle curve of her breasts and the colour of her eyes. But there was something odd about her. Something that was inexplicably different. Something he couldn't place.

Without any prompting, the robot went back into his bedroom as if she knew where everything was. In shock, he stood in the foyer, his mouth open. A few minutes later, the robot returned with a suitcase full of clothes.

She smiled sweetly. Inside, Holland's mind raced, but he seemed paralysed. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get his body to move. He couldn't make his mouth form the words. It was all he could do to breathe.

Taking his hand, KRL-40631 led him to his aircar. She put him in on the passenger's side and then got in to the driver's seat.

"Where are we going?" he finally asked. Holland couldn't stop staring at his "girlfriend". The one who turned out to be an assassin robot. The one who he watched get gunned down by a military gunship. The one who blew herself up to avoid capture.

"Your cabin up in the Adirondacks," the robot replied.

"I—" he started, but she put her hand over his mouth before he could continue.

"The one you bought before you left Neurodyne," KRL-40631 said firmly.

Neither spoke for the remainder of the short flight to upstate New York. There was so much he wanted to say—to ask—but he didn't know where to start.

She set the flitter down near a small cabin overlooking Lake George. It was rustic to say the least. The grounds were well-groomed, but there seemed to be few, if any, modern conveniences.

"Whose place is this really?" he asked as they got out of the aircar.

"Why it's yours, of course," KRL-40631 replied. A servant automaton came out.

"Greeting, Master Campbell," it said pleasantly. Unlike androids, automatons do not attempt to pass for human. Although they are sometimes humanoid, their "skin" is metallic and they do not have human-like faces. "May I take your things?"

"Please escort Master Campbell into the cabin and take his luggage," KRL-40631—Holland still couldn't bring himself to call her by a name—said. "Then return outside to the aircar with me."

"Right away, Miss Marianne," the automaton bowed slightly.

Holland blindly followed the automaton into the well-provisioned and clean cabin. It was set up as a single room. There was running water, but no electricity. The robot set his suitcase by the door and then handed him a small box. "You will want to open this in a moment."

Then the robot turned and left Holland standing alone in the middle of the cabin. The automaton closed the door behind itself as it left.

Holland stared at the box in his hands. It appeared to be a jewelry box of some kind, perhaps for a necklace. With a shrug, he opened the lid. There was a sharp pop! and the hairs stuck up on the back of his neck.

It took him a second to realise what it was. By the time he looked at his watch to see that the screen was burned out, Holland heard the door to the cabin open.

"What was that for?" he asked, not bothering to look at the two robots standing there.

"We just needed to make sure that any bugs they planted on you were taken care of." Although it was Miriam's voice, he knew this was someone—something—different.

"Did you bring me here to kill me?"

"No, no, dear Holland," she said. "If my mother had wanted you dead, you would be."

"Your mother?"

"That's how I've come to think of her," Marianne said. She crossed the room until she was standing in front of Holland. "She wanted you to have this."

He stared at the robot's outstretched hand. A part of him wanted to take the memory pendant. Another part of him dreaded what it might tell him. Marianne started at him expectantly until he finally reached for her hand. His biorhythm activated the hologram.

 
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