Chapter 4 – Enemy Territory
The hotel was sheer madness; four hundred storeys high, with its own air corridor for wealthy guests’ luxury speed gliders.
As he skilfully landed their glider in the hotel’s hangar, Jack remained calm in the face of this obscene display of wealth and power.
He used voice control to give the robots rushing past instructions on where to find their luggage and when they would need the glider again, as if he did this kind of thing all the time.
Jack’s probably completely indifferent to all of this, thought Marci with a sigh, whereas she could barely contain her nerves.
As a robot, he was likely only interested in whether his batteries were charged and his system was functioning, not in how these overwhelming circumstances were affecting her.
She was therefore really surprised when he gallantly helped her out of the glider and guided her, like a large shadow extending his protection over her, to a luxurious lift with a holographic directional display that she found totally confusing.
“Have you been here before?” asked Marci, feeling like an idiot. “How do you know your way around so well?”
“When we arrived, my core processor connected to the hotel’s central computer,” he explained briefly, “so I know exactly where our apartment is. I arranged for our clothes to be taken there and ordered something to eat. I’ve also raised the temperature in our hot tub so that you can take a relaxing bath before our appearance this evening. ”
“Hot tub? Is there a bathing suit in my suitcase?” she asked in a panic.
She hadn’t treated herself to a bath for years, instead simply cleaning herself and the children under an ion shower in her tiny apartment, water being virtually unaffordable for most slum residents.
She remembered, however, wearing a bathing suit to go swimming as a child.
“You don’t need a bathing suit in our apartment.” Jack grinned in amusement. “Who’s going to see you except me? And I’m just a robot, remember?”
Marci wasn’t certain whether she shared his insouciance; she’d spent the whole flight here wondering whether she would able to resist him in his role as an escort robot.
Jack was incredibly attractive and she felt a sense of safety and security in his presence that soothed her troubled soul.
Almost more than Will had been able to. He’d rarely taken her worries seriously.
And if she was honest with herself, she yearned to sink into Jack’s strong arms and no longer feel quite so alone in the world.
She didn’t know whether he felt the same.
Sure, he’d paid her compliments, but then he also stressed that he was just a robot.
And when she thought back to the discussion with Jeanette, he’d already had several relationships with human women that hadn’t lasted.
Jeanette may have claimed that he could feel just like a human could, but Marci wasn’t completely sure that was true.
And maybe it was better that way. After all, Will hadn’t been dead for that long and she would feel awful if she got involved with another man so soon.
Although a robot could be considered an exception, as that was something different.
Or was it really? Feeling unsettled, she glanced back at Jack as he guided her inside the vast glass palace, admiring once again his broad shoulders, confident stride and the perfect cut of his grey jacket.
He’d put it on before they left the glider so that his weapon wasn’t immediately obvious.
He’d have to register it at reception anyway, he’d said, so he could store it in the safe in their suite, as it was not permitted to wear a weapon inside the conference hall.
She admired all of him; not just his appearance, but also his air of authority and his clear strength of mind.
And she was already jealous about the thought of another woman coming close to him.
Damn, she thought, taking a deep breath before stepping into the hotel.
Maybe it was a bad idea to get mixed up with Jack on a mission like this.
Stepping into the reception hall, her concerns temporarily vanished from her mind.
She’d never seen anything so beautiful. Giant screens fixed to the walls and ceilings showed an ever-changing selection of adverts for products that only the richest of the rich could afford – iridescent exotic fruits made by several genetic labs that Marci had never even heard of, let alone seen, and breathtakingly expensive holiday destinations with idyllic beaches in the middle of the Caribbean aimed at high-net-worth clients, far away from the war and the slums. The speaker’s silky voice also mentioned that these locations were better protected against any unwanted intruders than the PanAmerican Bank’s credit reserves.
As Marci and Jack stepped into a glass lift that bore them upwards at incredible speed, the bright midday sun offered them stunning views over the city and Lake Michigan.
Marci tried to work out where in the endless sea of buildings the slums were or the villa where she’d mopped Rochelle’s floors, but it was all too much of a jumble to be able to locate anything.
When they finally reached their floor, Jack pushed her gently out of the lift and guided her along incredibly plush, snow-white carpets to their apartment, the door to which automatically slid open as they reached it.
Before they went in, he paused and turned to her.
He looked down at her with a serious expression on his face, and she saw that his pupils had narrowed.
“From here on, we are what we are – you’re a successful businesswoman and I’m your obedient robotic slave that follows your instructions to the letter,” he said firmly, his tone emphasising the importance of his words.
“Don’t forget that MacIntyre will be watching us the whole time, even though Silver is doing everything he can to replace the recordings with fake videos. ”
“OK,” replied Marci, slightly too submissively, considering her new role.
The thought of now being able to give Jack any orders whatsoever sent her mind off on a tangent and led to surprisingly erotic fantasies as they entered the apartment – Jack taking her over one of the bar stools; Jack, seducing her in the hot tub; Jack screwing her senseless on the white marble kitchen worktop.
Good God, Marci, what’s got into you? She felt shell-shocked and hoped fervently that nobody was able to monitor her thoughts.
Definitely not Jack, who she knew possessed some scanning functions.
Her focus was severely tested as she explored the gleaming white apartment, its floor laid with smart ceramic tiles that automatically adjusted to the temperature needs of each resident, and she saw to her astonishment that it didn’t fluctuate much between her and Jack.
A holographic assistant of Asian heritage with a mellifluous voice, wearing a close-fitting white catsuit, introduced her to all the features of their luxury accommodation, including the hot tub that Jack had mentioned.
It was on a spacious roof terrace laid out with delicate trees and shrubs reminiscent of a Japanese garden and couldn’t be seen from inside the apartment.
The only audience was a couple of huge fish with golden scales, gliding majestically through crystal-clear water in a second pool that formed a glass frame around the hot tub.
“What do they feed on?” asked Marci, crouching down to look closer at the glimmering animals that looked to be as long as her forearm.
“They’re robots,” Jack replied casually, looking all around them as if checking the surroundings for any unwanted intrusions. “They just need a source of energy, and they get that from the sun that charges their batteries.”
“But look,” said Marci, gliding her finger across the outside of the glass, watching as the animals followed her with curiosity. “They’re interested in my hand.”
“I do that as well,” said Jack, giving her an opaque smile. “And yet I’m just a robot to you.”
Marci looked up at Jack, feeling stunned and momentarily lost for words. “Do you really think I see you as just a soulless machine?” The words burst from her, as she stood up and planted herself in front of him, visibly indignant.
“I am what I am,” he replied cryptically. “Or, to put it another way, I am what you make of me,” he continued. Feeling the heat of the sun streaming down, or simply because he wanted to charge his batteries, he removed his jacket.
“It’s a bit like little children seeing their cuddly toy as their best friend,” he continued with a rueful smile.
“They talk to them and laugh with them because they’re convinced that their toy is alive and can think.
And yet everyone else just sees a cuddly toy that looks droopy when you put it in the corner at the end of the day. ”
“But you wouldn’t look droopy if I put you in a corner.” Marci smiled at him.
“How do you know?” he asked quietly, giving her a disturbingly intense look. “You’ve never tried.”
“OK then,” she said with an enigmatic smile, suddenly emboldened to find out how far Jack was prepared to go. “Get undressed and wait in the hot tub for me. Then we’ll see who’s the droopy one.”
Jack knew he’d gone too far. Too far for a robot, who was supposed to at least be giving the impression of obeying a human and certainly too far for his own sense of comfort.
His emotional programming meant that he was as unable to control his physical reactions – at least where Marci was concerned – as a human man who felt a powerful hormonal surge upon seeing an attractive woman.
Cathrin had repeatedly warned him about it, but until now he’d not met a woman who threatened his self-control. It was totally different with Marci.