Chapter 17

Holy shit.

Hey-hey? Are you alright?

Um. Hello?

What's your name?

I- I'm gonna scan you, okay? If you can hear me at all ... Jesus. I-I'm gonna call your emergency contact, alright?

... oh.

Um.

No, dude, look. Scan her.

... where-?

Out on Monty's property. I was, y'know, cutting through. She was just lying there. I thought she was dead at first.

And you just brought her here?

Well, yeah.

What does the serial mean?

Yeah, I looked it up. 'MT' is 'Madame Therese's' - they're the company that made her. '012' stands for the base template. The next six are just the date she was manufactured. '33' is the row she was grown in, and 'F' was the tank.

Screwing and substitution.

Zack-

No, hear me out- why else would you pay the extra money? Either you want the perfect fuck, or you want an easy to manage replacement for a corpse.

I don't think-

Trust me on this, Sauce. When my brother was active, he went to a synthetic brothels. He said they had everything- all the stars, with barely the 5% dif. There were a few used ones the place had gotten cheap, too.

So-?

So what? She... it was probably made for fucking. You didn't see Monty, like ... have a daughter or anything, right?

No ... but we don't even know if she's his. And dude- she looks like she's practically fifteen.

And? It's not like there's an age limit on them, Sauce. My brother said he saw a synthetic that looked like it was a kid. Like, eight or nine or some shit. But he got one that was practically a twin of Miranda Clay.

Zack-

He said it was the best sex he'd ever had.

Whatever, dude.

Seemed like I could do more than that. I could set us as her owners, even.

We'd never have to do anything again.

Sweet. Are we set?

Yeah. Go ahead.

Ah, alright ... er- MT012041- um, 01233FC, wake up, or turn on, or whatever. Time to get up-

Renee gasped and blinked away the shadows. Her chest heaved as she inhaled the air greedily. The blood was pounding in her head and she couldn't get enough air.

The room inched into focus.

She lay naked under a dark blue comforter. Her curly hair left a damp patch on the pillow as she sat up and faced the two boys staring at her, eyes wide.

And they are boys, she thought. They can't be much older than me.

The two were nearly the same height. The one to her left was skinny, but with a slight paunch. Messy, coal-black hair fell across his eyes, and he brushed it back with absentminded practice. Once it was out of the way, she could see his left eye was covered with a- a silvery film.

Next to him stood square-jawed muscle. The boy's fair hair was cropped close to his head, and he was staring at her so intently she half worried she'd been... damaged, maybe, in the escape.

"It worked..." he breathed. "Shit, Sauce- it worked."

Then that would make you 'Zack.'

"Yeah," said the other- Sauce. He backed up a few steps and landed- heavily- into a wheeled chair.

Renee's attention was roughly jerked back to Zack by a calloused hand on her chin.

"Hey, um, stand up," he ordered.

She barely had time to process it before her body was in motion, sending her to her feet.

That was ... stronger than Claude's commands, she noted, but the name of her former master brought back his last moments as well.

The look on his face as he fell.

The sound as the knife had come out.

The blood.

She shook her head sharply, ridding herself of the dark memory. Focus on the now, idiot.

Zack was staring at her with an idiotic grin plastered across his face. She could have guessed what he said next.

"Let go of the covers."

Renee's fingers loosened against her will and she bit the inside of her cheek. Heat rose to her cheeks and, for some reason, tears filled her eyes.

This isn't any worse than Claude does- than he did.

But-

... it was supposed to be over.

"Zack," snapped a voice. "Dude-"

"C'mon. It's only fair. You already saw it naked."

She willed her body to remain still as he sauntered closer. Even though the two friends were the same height, Zack towered at least an easy foot and a half above her.