Chapter 12

Colonel Jerrik started at the surveillance holos and frowned. It had been over a year since the shootout that left a squad of her soldiers dead, two city blocks in ruins and a political mess that nearly shut down her task force.

"We checked with Fabricators, Inc. and this is one hundred percent legit," Sergeant Major Bohannon said.

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely, Colonel," he replied. "I saw the specs and the invoice myself. On the outside, this thing is an exact replica of the other robot. Inside, it's as harmless as the valet parkers downstairs."

"Why would he do something like that?" she turned to the other man in the room.

Special Agent Rendel only shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe he's lonely. Maybe he's bored. Maybe he's still traumatised that his girlfriend turned out to be one of the ten most-wanted assassins in the world. Maybe he wanted pleasant memories of her instead of watching her blown to smithereens all over Columbus Circle."

"And this thing has no combat capabilities?"

"None whatsoever," the sergeant said. "We even took the liberty of running it through the scanner before the delivery guys took it up to his place. It's an off-the-shelf pleasure bot designed for companionship, friendly conversation and all sorts of bedroom delights."

"You sound like you're ready to buy one," Colonel Jerrik allowed herself to flash him a wry smile.

"Not on my salary," he snorted.

"What do you think, Jim?"

"I agree," the FBI agent sighed. "If he were going to do anything dangerous, Campbell would have done it by now. I think he's a little bit off his rocker, but he was like that in the beginning. The guys down in psych say that having a robot built to look just like the other one fits his profile. They only thing they're surprised about is that it took him a year to do it."

"So he's a dead end?"

"That's my assessment, Colonel."

Jerrik stared at the images for a few more seconds then flipped the holotank off. "All right, we'll drop him back to code blue surveillance. We'll renew our passive wiretap search warrant but otherwise leave him alone."

The other men in the room nodded and despite their assurances, Colonel Jerrik couldn't shake the feeling in the pit of her gut that something just wasn't right.