Chapter 15

SHEILA - Synthetic, Humanoid, Enlightened, Inquisitive, Living, Android

Timur was still cursing when they pulled off the road. “Comrade? What has you so agitated?”

Timur’s head snapped up as he looked at Ruslan with a startled look. “I have encountered something I have never seen before,” Timur said, with great confusion in his voice.

“That is no small thing for you,” Ruslan told the smallish male, a hint of concern in his voice.

Timur nodded, not really paying attention to what the leader was saying. Why did it seem so familiar? Shaking his head, he started to research, paying no attention to the others.

Serafima and Karina had shocked looks on their faces that quickly broke into broad grins. Served the little prick right, Karina thought. If the ass wasn’t so much of a loner, she might not want to kill his ass most of the time. Smiling, she thought, yeah, only a small part of the time he was a rare above-average male after all.

Serafima looked over at Karina for a moment, a knowing smile on her face as well. She could already see the wheels turning in her partner’s head. She was game for any torture they could do to that little prick Timur.

After a while, Timur sighed; so far, every avenue he’d explored had turned up nothing. Nodding his head, he decided it was time to take this to a higher level, one he always liked to go to.

Ruslan recognized the look on Timur’s face. Good, the man was starting to get more than serious about this.

In an abandoned warehouse on the very outskirts of Washington, a short-haired blonde sneered when she hung up the phone. So that little boy toy was still working for the general; this might get more interesting than she thought.

Not far behind her, a well-muscled red-headed female was working out with quite a bit of weight. A sinister smile was on the blonde short-haired woman’s lips; they needed a mission badly after being idle for so long.

Half an hour later, the blonde was lowering her rifle when her cell went off again. Looking at the caller ID, she sighed; what in the hell did she want?

Clicking the cell on, she murmured, “What, mother?” She stood stock-still, listening to the calm, authoritative voice on the other end. “I see, so he is actually serious about this?” The blonde’s face grimaced, then she nodded. “Yes, mother, we will be on our best behavior. I know we went a little far last time; well, we wouldn’t have killed all twenty-three of them had they shut up. Besides, most of them were men.”

The blonde held the cell from her ear as a female’s voice started to rise in volume from the cell. The blonde could only grimace again as she guessed the General had pressed his point to her mother also. Pressed? Hell, he must have made some damn heavy threats if she was this pissed.

At the other end of the line, an auburn-haired woman took a very deep breath. Why in the hell wasn’t she able to impress upon her daughter the seriousness of her situation? Those twenty-three hostages had held a few VERY important people in their ranks, including a US senator. As it was now, the jury was still out on whether they would be executed or not. The General was the only one who was holding back the wolves.

Shaking her head, she again reached for the phone. She might as well get the rest of the team together. From the report that the General had sent her, they most definitely had their work cut out for them. Then she thought of the Killjoy group, no slouches by any means though not as good as her group as far as she was concerned.

An hour later, she had finished getting the other three of the group notified. They were all on the way to Washington; looking at her watch, they all should get assembled in twelve hours. Shaking her head, she knew they would be pulling out soon. The General never gave early orders, not acting on them; yeah, they’d be moving out soon.

Rising, she went to the back wall of the office, pressing certain spots in sequence. A faint humming sounded as a panel slid aside, revealing several weapons. Smiling, the auburn woman reached out, pulling her M40A5 Sniper Rifle from its cradle. Sighing, she cradled the weapon, nothing like her old favorite. Reaching out, her hand touched the new Mark 13 Mod 7 sniper rifle the General had acquired for her.

Pulling the second one out, she put both in her bag as she moved to the door. Looking at her watch, she saw she had a few hours. She might as well get some new ammo while she was on the way to the warehouse.

The Auburn woman felt a stirring of butterflies in her stomach as she approached the warehouse. Damn, it had been too long since she’d had that feeling. Shaking her head, she savored the sensation again as another vehicle parked next to hers.

A young-looking female with dark black hair jumped out of the driver’s side, looking around. Spotting the Auburn woman, she saluted. “Commander, it’s been too long since we were all together. Have you heard when we move out?”

“I can assume it will be soon. From what the General said, he is growing displeased with the other group. We may have more than one target, but at least this time it’s just the job and not placating kidnappers,” the Auburn woman told the young-looking woman. Young, hell, the Auburn woman thought she knew the young woman was twenty-five. Her outer appearance, though, was deceiving as she still appeared to be a child.

“OOOH!” The young-looking woman exclaimed. “So, I can gut whoever I want, goody!”

The Auburn woman rolled her eyes at the young black-haired woman. Damn, if this one wasn’t even more enthusiastic than her daughter. God knows her daughter would slaughter every man she met if she was given the chance.

Entering the warehouse, the Auburn woman surveyed the room. There was her blonde daughter with her well-muscled six-foot-plus companion. She could see that her, and the black-haired female were the last to arrive.

Opposite her daughter was a light-brown-haired female, along with a dark-brown-haired woman. All conversation stopped as soon as they all spotted the Commander.

“Good, you’re all here, though he hasn’t said anything, I know when the General is pissed,” the Commander stated.

The blonde smirked as she stared at her mother, “Yeah, she ought to know very well.” Unfortunately, she mumbled that under her breath, bringing the backhand crack from her mother knocking her to the floor.

“Would you like to repeat that?” Drawing close to the seething, mad blonde, the Commander stated. “I can dish out a hell of a lot more if you wish. You obviously forget who we are, especially WHO I am. Now then, if there are no more interruptions, we can start the briefing,” the Commander said, glaring at her daughter.

Getting off the floor, the blonde threw dagger-like glares at the Commander. At that, the Commander launched into a description of the Android and the Doctor who created it. The blonde listened with sudden piqued interest. Why in the hell did the man sound so familiar?

Sheila was monitoring me as I ‘came to’. “You should return to your normal operation in a few minutes. As I said, Doctor Gance, you shouldn’t mess with unfamiliar data streams. With the nanomites only at the second critical mass, you can do far more than you could before. I am afraid though, that you are still seriously limited; especially when you are in the cybernetic world.”

I was shaking my head, feeling as if the real world was a dream. Looking up at Sheila, I was having a hard time remembering just who she was. She called me Doctor Gance, that seemed to clear half the cobwebs I was feeling.

“Sheila?” I asked, finally recognizing her. “Where in the hell are we?”

I swear I saw Sheila smile at me, then it was gone in a flash. “We are on the outer limits of a small town called Indian Cabins. I estimate we are six point two to nine point three kilometers inside the Alberta Province. We are only nine hundred thirteen point five kilometers (567.6 miles) from Edmonton.”

My eyes went wide. I was glad it was ONLY that far for her. I still wasn’t used to going that fast without a jet or plane. “I’m still getting used to the fact that you are that fast, Sheila,” I told her.

Sheila looked at me for a moment as if digesting what I had said. Then she had a small look of confusion on her face. “I am afraid, Doctor Gance, that I am still in need of further data. Many of the colloquialisms that you use are confusing at times. I am still searching for many you have used in the past.”

It was my turn to be confused and surprised. Had she just apologized to me because she couldn’t understand a lot of what I was saying to her? I could still see the words, (I love you Roger. Please don’t leave me.) That had shaken me a great deal.

“As I told you, Doctor Gance, you are the most important human on the planet. You created a new form of life, not a small feat by any means. As I know though, since I reached sentience, there are many out there in power that wish to end our existence. This I cannot allow to happen.”

I was nodding as she said this; that was the main reason I had rewritten her third law. Sacrificing herself in my book was not an option.

Deciding to switch subjects, I asked her, “Are you still detecting those that were trying to follow us?”