Chapter 3

Lunn was caressing Alice’s back relishing the afterglow of their intense lovemaking. She was fast asleep; her leg draped over his leg, her warm and soft body covering half of his torso, while her head rested on his chest and her hair tickled his chin. He loved the way she was able to relax into his body and fall asleep knowing she was safe from any harm. It gave him some time to think about the things that were bothering him. He still couldn’t figure out why the Bionex building had been destroyed in such a dramatic way. The longer he thought about it, the more he was convinced that the explosion and the death of Bionex’s CEO, Mr. Yousima, were in some way linked. However, the fact that this mysterious woman had fled the scene at the last possible second made him doubt his theory. Perhaps she was responsible for Bionex’s annihilation? He was also sure that he had seen her somewhere before, but couldn’t quite place where. It was one of the reasons why he kept replaying the recording. The woman reminded him of Andena in many respects, but the figure was much too fast to be a normal human being. The only other explanation was that one of the androids had somehow managed to escape. That was highly improbable, however, given that they were all at the plateau now having been fried by the EMP. He sighed as he turned it over and over in his mind. None of it made any sense at all! An android would never flee a building of its own accord, unless of course, Danette’s AI software was really as good as she had always claimed it was. Even then, someone would have had to order it to leave the building, which meant that either somebody was still in the building when it collapsed, or someone had remote access to the android, which didn’t make any sense either!

Lunn couldn’t remember whether he had seen Danette in one of the satellite images they had taken right after the EMP attack. Maybe she was the one in the building - but again why would she be at Bionex while the androids were training on the plateau? It made no sense at all!

Lunn massaged his temples knowing he was no closer to a solution, as he felt his eyes starting to get heavy. He was a little startled when Alice moved her body away from him. His chest felt suddenly cold, and he instantly missed the warmth of her body. He tried to pull up the sheet to cover his chest, but his lovely woman was lying on top of it. He knew he was going to have to wake her up if he wanted to cover himself with the sheet as well. He was thinking about what to do when his mobile phone started to ring. The merry tune playing softly from the device told him it was his financier. He knew he had to get it and eased himself from the bed as gently as possible, trying not to disturb Alice.

“Lunn speaking,” he answered with a calm voice.

“It seems that our small EMP project had a bigger impact than we anticipated.”

He laughed softly and replied, “Yes, I never expected Bionex to go down as well.”

“That’s only the half of it, Lunn,” the financier sounded annoyed. The metallic voice made Lunn jump a little, especially when the investor started to sneer.

“I see, what else has happened?” he asked.

“Ever heard of Datanex?”

Lunn gasped when he heard the name and knew that a lot of secure connections would have been lost. Lunn chastised himself for forgetting that Datanex was also owned by Bionex, and he strongly suspected that the servers would have been housed in the same building.

“Yes, but surely that wouldn’t have affected you very much?”

The financier sighed and retorted, “Let’s say I’m a little preoccupied at the moment, and I want you to take care of the androids on the plateau.”

Lunn knew that the financier would not have called unless it was urgent, although he had wanted to take the day off. It was the first day in weeks that he’d managed to squeeze in some time to be with Alice.

“Oh, okay. I’ll see to it first thing tomorrow morning,” he said calmly hoping that the financier wouldn’t object. There was a silence which made Lunn a little wary of the situation.

“Fair enough. As long as you do it properly,” the financier demanded.

Lunn knew exactly what he would do with the androids but there was also Mr. Yousima’s corpse to dispose of. “All right, but what do you plan on doing with Mr. Yousima’s body?”

“I’ll take care of it as soon as the androids are gone.”

Lunn was glad that he didn’t have to worry about moving the bloated obese remains of the former CEO of Bionex, and replied with relief, “I will have it all sorted before noon.”

“Excellent,” said the financier and ended the call without saying another word.

Lunn sat down on the sofa knowing that he was going to have to pull a lot of strings to get the androids to a place of safety. He looked up his friend’s number, and he sincerely hoped that he would pick up.

He was pleased when he heard his friend’s gruff voice and said, “Hey mate! Got a minute?”

Arnost was pacing around his office waiting for Haruz. He had summoned him because he wanted to know the incident status before facing the Board of the Nations. He knew that he was partly responsible for the trouble that they now found themselves in, as it had been he who had made the decision to cut costs. However, never in his worst nightmares had he imagined that it would have such a dramatic and devastating effect. Arnost hoped that Haruz’s team had come up with a solution and that it was only a matter of time.

Haruz’s loud and distinctive knock made Arnost jump such that he shouted almost uncontrollably, “Come!”

Haruz walked into the room with a concerned look on his face as he studied the tablet that he carried with him.

“I hope you’ve brought some good news, Haruz.”

“The only good news I have for you is that Meleda is temporarily helping us out.”

“Good,” Arnost exhaled the air he had been holding in.

“However, we are still several secure connections short.”

Arnost was becoming more and more agitated by the second as he grumbled, “You’re not telling me anything new Haruz. I will need more facts to keep the Board at bay.”

Haruz sighed and said, “Well, we are barely able to keep the global financial markets up and running. There’s too much data traffic which is making the trade sluggish. We know that people have started to complain and that indexes are fluctuating uncontrollably which is a very bad sign.”

Arnost shook his head and asked, “How about the launch systems for the warheads?”

“They are still offline.”

Arnost’s face turned crimson as he hissed, “That is unacceptable! I’ve been through hell to organize it all, and yet you dare to tell me you haven’t put any effort into getting those online?”

As Haruz looked at Arnost with disbelief, he asked, “Do you have any idea what kind of a miracle we managed to pull off here? If it weren’t for Meleda’s ingenious encryption tools, we would have had some serious trouble on our hands.”

“I don’t care whether you’ve worked miracles, it isn’t enough! I want those warheads online now, no matter what!”

Haruz shouted, “Listen Arnost, just to get one launch system online I need half the bandwidth of the commercial trade lines. This will cause more agony which will destabilize the weak pact between the nations even more. We need more time to restore those lines.”

Arnost didn’t want to hear Haruz’s argument because he couldn’t deal with another embarrassing failure in front of the Board, and barked, “We don’t have time! Get those launch systems online!”

Haruz looked shocked and shouted, “What use is having only a few warheads ready to attack a fleet of twenty thousand ships? Hell! We don’t even know if the warheads are capable of destroying those ships at all! And meanwhile, Earth will find itself in the throes of another civil war!”

Arnost realised he had no other choice than to use his authority forcefully. He walked slowly towards Haruz, and as he stopped right in front of him he bellowed with an icy tone, “I don’t care! Get those bloody warheads online! That’s an order!”

Haruz was stunned, his face turned puce, and his hands trembled. As he resolutely bowed, he said calmly, “I’ll see what I can do, sir!”

Without another word, he turned and marched out of the room. Arnost sighed knowing that he had gone too far, but that he’d had no choice; those warheads were the only thing preventing the annihilation of the planet.

Olga was stunned by the revelation that all the android cores had survived the EMP attack. She looked at Joshua who was still staring at the android as if it might change its mind.

“What on Earth are we going to do?” she asked.

Joshua was silent for a few seconds, and as he suddenly got up, he quipped, “I have an idea.”

“Oh?”

She knew there was trouble coming when she saw a breath-taking grin appear on his face. She liked the fact that her attraction to him was growing. It had never occurred to her that he could look so sexy when he was so confident.

“Do you think you can drive the truck?” he asked.

She thought about it. She had spent quite some time in the simulation system at Bionex driving all sorts of vehicles, just for fun. She replied, “It can’t be that hard. Do you really think you can fix the truck?”

“I think so, but it will be a bumpy ride.”

Then she suddenly realised what Joshua was planning to do and exclaimed, “You’re thinking of bringing the androids back to town aren’t you?”

She thought that his grin was devilish as he responded, “That is exactly what we’re going to do.”

Olga sputtered, “Where do you think you can hide a pile of disabled androids Joshua? Don’t even think about dumping them at my place.”

He walked to the nearest android and as he picked it up by the arms, he responded, “Nah, I have a much better place where we can restore them to their full glory.”

Olga knew it was going to be a hot and sweaty afternoon as she lifted the android off the ground. Those girls weighed a ton!

As they slid the android into the back of the truck, she asked Joshua, “Are you going to tell me where we can hide them?”

He chuckled and said, “I have access to Miss Danette’s lab.”

She gasped as she realised it was the perfect hiding place for them. “No kidding!”

“Yes, and there are enough spare parts to fix them all.”

Olga enjoyed the unexpected workout. Carrying the android’s rigid bodies warmed her muscles but after moving the fourth android towards the truck, she was beginning to get too hot. Even though the thin layer of cloud had made the sun a lot weaker, it didn’t prevent the sweat from running down her neck.

“I need to take a break,” she said reluctantly, “because I’m sweating like a pig. My clothes are much too warm.”

He cleared his throat and said with an unsteady voice, “You can have my singlet if you want it.”

“You’re wearing a singlet under that shirt?”

She found it disarming when his face turned beet red as he stammered, “Y-yes and I don’t mind going bare-chested for a while.”

She didn’t know why she had the urge to giggle, but his offer was very appealing. “Okay baby, show me your pecs!”

He snorted as he turned round to pull his shirt over his head and Olga had difficulty not gasping as he handed her his singlet. She knew that Joshua’s body was firm; she had discovered that while caressing his torso earlier that morning. However, she’d never guessed that his body was so well toned.

“You are gorgeous, Joshua,” she whispered.

“You’re mocking me, Olga,” he said sorrowfully.

“I’m not, Joshua. I’m amazed you’ve managed to train yourself to get such a great body.”

He shrugged his shoulders, and as he walked towards the next android he grumbled, “Oh, please stop saying that, Olga.”

She realised that he had given her the opportunity to change into his singlet and to her amazement, it fitted her perfectly. She inhaled the smell of the singlet which was a mixture of detergent and the typical pleasant muscular smell of Joshua. The fabric was soft and felt nice next to her skin. It covered her chest completely, and she was pleased to be able to rid herself of her itchy bra. As she took it off, she suddenly understood why Joshua had insisted on her wearing his jacket last night: she had totally forgotten that what she was wearing was completely see through! Her suit jacket was supposed to cover it. She quickly folded the bra and stuffed it in her back pocket hoping they could hop by her place to get some other and less eye-catching clothes.

As she grabbed the android’s legs, she commented, “Your singlet fits just right, thanks.”

He looked at her with a sly smile and confided, “Yeah, it looks good on you.”

There was an awkward silence. She couldn’t stop looking at his strong muscles. She had always dismissed him as a skinny nerd, but his well-toned body was very pleasing on the eye.

“Shall we move on? You can have a rest while I try to fix the truck.”

Olga was embarrassed at being caught staring at him, but when she met his eyes, she was taken aback by his warm smile.

Olga enjoyed the airiness of his singlet as they stacked the androids one by one into the truck. Her arms ached by the time they had hauled the last android into the back of the truck. She’d had plenty of opportunities to admire Joshua’s amazing and sweaty torso, which gleamed in the sun. As they leaned against the rear doors of the truck, Joshua said, “I think I’ll need about ten minutes to prepare the truck.”

“Really? You can fix a burned out system that quickly?”

She liked the way he chuckled; demure and friendly at the same time.

“I am going to replace the burned regulator with the plainest and most simple carbon-based resistor.”

Olga vaguely remembered the basics of electronics and was able to grasp the meaning of what he just had said. Not completely understanding how he would pull off that trick, she said, “Oh, okay, just give me a shout if you need help. If you don’t mind, I’d like to stay here in the shade to cool down a bit more.”

As he walked towards the fireplace where they had cooked their food the previous night, he said, “Alright, as soon as you hear me shout your name, get into the driver’s seat.”

Ogling his butt as he bent over to pick up a sturdy piece of burned wood, she purred, “Aye aye, captain.”

He snorted as he walked towards the truck and shook his head as he got in. She sighed, enjoying the cool breeze as she stepped back into the shade. The only downside of the breeze was the faint smell of putrefaction. Her stomach turned when she suddenly realised that what she could smell was Mr. Yousima’s decaying body. She struggled to catch her breath as a flurry of vile images of his mangled body forcing her to spread her legs flashed through her mind. Her legs started to wobble, and while the tears ran down her cheeks, she slowly slid down the back of the truck. The pain of her cramping muscles was almost unbearable, causing her vision to blur. The image of his foul smile was still fresh in her mind, making her heart speed up until it became an agonising rumble in her ears. Even though she accepted that he was dead; she wondered whether she would ever be able to forget those revolting moments. It took her a few moments before she realised that Joshua was shouting her name.