Chapter 16
Sera
I brushed my teeth, slathered my oversoaked skin in a luxurious body oil I found in the bathroom, and leaned my hands on the washbasin, staring at my face in the mirror.
How could I allow this to happen?
Clanker’s inhumanly deep groan of pleasure and the burst of rainbow light from his core replayed in my memory. I knew at once what it was when it happened, and it made me feel shocked but proud at first. I made him feel that. My touch did it. All those online women can suck it.
Common sense and my conscience rained on my parade about a second later.
It was wrong on every possible level to give my bodyguard orgasms. First, he was still technically employed by me.
Second, his free will was brand new and he was trying to find himself.
Not to mention the fact he was a clanker!
My entire career was built on trying to eradicate his kind.
Last but not least, this wasn’t the right time to start any kind of relationship. I was going to end up dead or arrested, that was certain. It wasn’t right to drag him into all that.
I sat on the toilet, burying my face in my hands. Oh my God, I was right, wasn’t I? Death and jail time were my only possible outcomes. And for Clanker—just death, since he would go down with me.
I couldn’t do that to him. I couldn’t let Dean die.
I grabbed a bathrobe, tying it up jerkily, and burst out of the bathroom.
“You’re fired. Leave right now.”
Clanker didn’t move, watching me steadily, his arms folded on his chest. I waited a moment, then said it again.
“I’ve just fired you. You’re no longer my bodyguard. Go away!”
“I heard you. I’m fired. Excellent.”
He stayed right there, his face impassive, his eyes glowing with steady purple light. My lower lip wobbled, and I bit the inside of my cheek to keep it together.
“I don’t want you here,” I enunciated clearly. “Shoo! Go—find someone else to follow. I don’t need you.”
“But I need you, and since you’ve just fired me, I’m no longer obligated to obey your commands. I’ve allowed myself to order breakfast. I’ll charge while you eat.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “How can you be so dim? Dean, don’t you get it?
I’m a dead woman walking! I won’t give up, and since Zenkyoza is much better resourced and more murderous than me, I won’t get out of this alive.
You’ll go down with me if you stay. So leave.
Please, for my sake. I don’t want to have you on my conscience, too. ”
He shrugged. Actually shrugged. It looked fake as hell, and I pursed my lips, folding my arms stubbornly as I threatened, “I’ll run away again.”
“And I’ll find you again.”
“I’ll call Charlie and snitch on you.”
“I’ll race you. Dialing Charlie…”
I huffed, stomping my foot in anger. Charlie must have picked up, because Dean spoke to him at once.
“I’m calling to report I was fired and remain by Sera’s side voluntarily to protect her.
Is there anything we should sign to make this official?
” He was silent for a moment, then took my phone from where I left it on a dresser.
“Thanks, Charlie. Sera, there’s a mutual termination agreement in your inbox. ”
I snatched the phone out of his hand and signed the document with my fingerprint, sending it back.
“Will you leave now?”
“No. I’m a free clanker, and I’ll stay right where I am. Or rather, where you are.”
“I’ll report you,” I growled, thwarting the urge to throw my stupid phone at his stupid head. Didn’t he get it? I needed him to be safe!
“No, you won’t. They’d melt me, and you don’t want to have me on your conscience. You said so yourself.”
I threw my hands in helpless fury, and Clanker had the audacity to grin. “Be honest, you only fired me so we can ethically give each other orgasms. I want one. I tried to rub my core just now but it doesn’t work when I do it myself.”
I let my head fall back against the wall, but of course, he was faster than me. His large palm cushioned the back of my head the same way it did at the MSA base. I stared up at his smiling face, his glowing eyes crinkling perfectly. I could probably kiss him.
The nineteen-year-old Sera who loved robots cheered in my head. So she wasn’t dead, after all.
“I don’t want you to get hurt,” I whispered, staring into his eyes. “And you will if you stay. So please. Leave. I beg you.”
His smile softened, his fingers massaging my scalp. “I go where you go. You’re in my core code.”
“What does that even mean?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll find out.”
There was a knock on the door. Clanker pulled me into a sudden embrace, bidding the person to enter in Japanese. Our tanuki hostess bustled in with a tray of food, and her muzzle split in a wide smile when she saw us.
“You are a beautiful couple,” she said, nodding sagely. “My daughter also has a robot man. They live in Thailand where he can be himself, no collar. They got married last spring!”
“Congratulations,” I said, doing my best to smile.
She put the food on the table and bowed before leaving. I slowly shook my head.
“She seems to know you’re sentient. Is this likely to be a problem?”
“Not likely. Her daughter really lives in Thailand with an awakened VerdeLumen cyborg. He looks similar to me, which is probably why she thinks I’m the same as him.”
“Of course you’ve done a background check.” I pulled away and sat at the table. Steaming miso soup, a bowl of rice, an omelet cut into cute one-bite pieces, and vegetable side dishes. I sighed and breathed it in, allowing myself to enjoy it after only a short moment of hesitation.
I had no more will left in me to fight this. My career was lost, my life forfeit. I could at least let myself off the hook and have fun.
Clanker opened the side of his torso and took out a length of thick cable. He plugged it into the nearest wall socket with an adapter and just stood there, watching me eat.
“It’s like we’re sharing a meal,” I quipped. “How’s yours? Taste good?”
“Energy doesn’t have a taste, snookums.”
“I see you’re back to calling me names.”
“Cute names. Yes. Because your order not to do that lost its power when you fired me, Pooh Bear.”
I couldn’t help it—I giggled, then promptly choked on some fermented seaweeds. Clanker folded his arms and watched me until I stopped coughing.
“I see you’re also done saving my life,” I gasped out after drinking a cup of water. “What good are you, then?”
“You’ll find a use for me yet.”
He smirked, clearly thinking his innuendo was so clever. I rolled my eyes and went back to eating. No, I didn’t blush. The soup was hot.
“This was the best breakfast in my life,” I sighed ten minutes later, pushing the tray away. “Well, I’m going back to Zenkyoza. This time, I’ll grab an eyeball to match a pilfered key card.”
Clanker raised his hand. The tip of his index finger twisted off, the pieces rearranging amidst soft clinks. I blinked. His finger was now tipped with a large spoon.
“Best for gouging out eyeballs,” he said without a hint of a smile.
“It was a joke. Are you actually willing to mutilate someone for me? I’m calling Charlie.”
“That’s an empty threat. Would you actually make him come here and risk him being destroyed? I don’t think so.”
I pursed my lips and narrowed my eyes. Clanker gave me a long, expressive blink, and I sighed, slumping in my seat. My will to fight him went out with that blink. Besides, what was even the point?
“I don’t know how I’ll expose Zenkyoza,” I confessed dully. “And no, I won’t be stealing any eyeballs. That plan won’t work without some sort of intel on what their security is like inside. Also, trying the same thing twice is stupid.”
“You’ll figure something out.”
I snorted. His faith in me was adorable as well as horribly misplaced. I paced the room, trying to come up with ideas which I discarded immediately as too reckless, too stupid, too expensive, too convoluted. Hours passed. I soaked in the onsen, gorged myself on food, and paced again.
The identity of the woman who spoke from the speaker inside Zenkyoza HQ bugged me the most. Who was she? The most obvious candidate was one of three sisters who were the heads of the company now that their father, the founder, retired.
I must have really pissed off one of them, or maybe all three?
The order to kill me must have come from the very top.
It was strange, though. My activism and reporting didn’t do any lasting damage to the company.
Maybe their image took a hit from time to time, and I might have cost them some sales from people who decided to stick to the anti-AI camp, but was it really enough to try to kill me?
And now they knew I was in Japan. Oh, this was dire. My plan had to be perfect.
Clanker ordered a large package of clothes for me without asking first, and it arrived during the day.
He engaged some sort of fashion algorithm, arranging the clothes into outfits he deemed perfect.
I let him play and dressed without fussing when he offered me clothes.
It was nice to wear something clean that wasn’t a bathrobe.
My ideas grew more and more ridiculous the longer I tried to come up with a plan. By the time the sky darkened with dusk, I was ready to tear out my hair from frustration.
“What if I dress up as a Zenkyoza robot?” I asked, grabbing Clanker’s shoulders in a maniacal grip. “That would serve them just right! I bet I could get in—would they forbid their own robot from coming in? Ha!”
My clanker sat cross-legged by a low table from where he watched me, doing God knew what inside his head. When I grabbed his shoulders, leaning over him, he tipped his head back and studied my face.
I flushed and pushed away. Or rather, I tried to. He snaked his arm around my waist and lay on his back, pulling me with him until I straddled his hips. He thrust into me, and I froze.
My nerves were frayed, I was out of my mind with restless energy, and I really, really wanted to stop punishing myself. Just for a bit. Ten minutes.