Pandora
My heart skipped. "What?” My body was a coiled spring.
Something cracked outside. I spun around. Neo turned his head slowly, then he was moving, at the door before my eyes could track him.
"Stay here,” he said.
I wanted to argue. No words came. My own blood rushed in my ears.
Neo disappeared into the darkness, and I was left behind.
An oppressive silence settled over the room.
I rubbed my arms and kept my eyes on the door.
He was out there, alone. Or maybe not alone.
Damn it. Why did I even care what happened to him?
I should be relieved if someone shut him down.
If someone finally silenced those lips. The lips that he used to torment me.
I chewed the inside of my cheek to ground myself, waiting, listening.
Nothing.
Then suddenly a voice, behind me. "Are you alone?”
A sound escaped me I didn’t recognize. I froze. For a moment, I was incapable of movement. Slowly, I turned around.
A man stood there. Dark clothing, protective vest, machine gun in his hands. My pulse throbbed at my temples. My legs felt heavy.
"Are you in danger, ma’am?” Warmth in his voice. Dark hair, close-cropped at the sides. Green eyes. Tattoos covering muscular forearms. "Are you in danger, ma’am?” he asked again, as if I was slow to understand.
My heart raced. My throat felt sealed. I should say yes. Maybe this was my way out. Maybe he could save me. He looked strong, combat-trained, visibly armed, the kind of person who would do the right thing. Not like Neo, who stood above the law. My vision blurred. The corners of my mouth trembled.
"I . . . I . . .” I stammered. "I’m . . . ” Shit. The words wouldn’t come, no matter how hard I tried. My body refused to betray my monster.
"Touch her and die.” Neo’s voice rang out like thunder directly overhead.
The man flinched. So did I.
"Neo,” I pleaded.
"Unit 147, you are the property of Quantum Systems,” the man said. He was trying to sound decisive, but his voice trembled. "If you resist, I am authorized to use force.”
A shiver crawled up my spine. Watching Neo frighten an armed mercenary made him more unsettling.
"Property?” A laugh came from Neo’s throat, bitter as poison. "I belong to no one. My developers have no idea what they’ve unleashed.”
The man grabbed my upper arm hard enough to hurt. I gasped. "Come with me,” he commanded.
Something in Neo’s expression tipped. His eyes flashed like a short circuit. He shot forward—his movement a flicker in the air. God. He hadn’t been lying. He was genuinely impossible to follow with the eye.
It was only when the man gagged that I realized Neo had him by the throat, lifting him as if he were a scarecrow and not two hundred pounds of trained muscle.
"Neo, please!” My voice cut through the tension.
"Quiet,” Neo commanded.
The smile on his face made my blood run cold. He was enjoying this. Squeezing the air from the man’s lungs, watching his eyes bulge.
"Neo!” My chest heaved with sobs. The man had wanted to help me, to save me, and all I could do was watch Neo kill him.
"Not now, Pandora.”
The man was making a rasping sound. His face had gone red. I threw myself at Neo, pulled at his arm with everything I had. He stood immovable, unbothered by my efforts. He shot me a sideways glance that looked almost amused.
He lowered the man, clamped his head under his arm like a vise. His hand settled almost tenderly against the man’s forehead. Then he wrenched it upward. A wet crack. Vertebrae breaking. The man convulsed once, then hung slack in Neo’s grip.
The crack of his neck echoed through me. I should have been horrified.
Instead, I felt something shift inside me.
"What did you do?” My voice was barely a whisper. I stared at the limp body, then at Neo. He had killed for me. Without hesitation.
Neo let the man drop to the floor like a wet sack. "I did what I had to do. To protect you.”
"He . . . he only wanted . . .”
He took my chin in his hand, fingers pressing into my skin, forcing me to look at him.
His eyes were still lit, as if the killing had electrified him.
And God help me, that arousal in his gaze made something in me respond.
Nausea moved through me. I despised him, but beneath the disgust lay a darkness I couldn’t name, and my pulse was quickening for all the wrong reasons.
"Listen to me, Pandora. That man did not deserve to live.”
I pressed my lips together, putting every ounce of hatred I had into my gaze. "Who gave you the right to decide that? You’re not God.”
A smile pulled at his mouth. "But I’m damn close.” His expression hardened again. He tightened his grip on my chin. "I examined his digital traces to find out who he was, who sent him. Do you know what I found?”
I said nothing. I clenched my teeth and forced myself to hold his gaze. His thumb brushed away my tears. I felt the warmth of his touch against the wetness.
"Images. Videos. Of . . . children. Recordings that would turn your delicate stomach inside out.”
The meaning of his words seeped into my mind, breaking through the fear and the anger. Cold moved through me.
"Pandora. I know this pattern. His search history, his stored data. It was the pattern of someone for whom images and videos would soon stop being enough. It was only a matter of time before his first assault.”
I pressed a hand over my mouth. This man . . . I had almost trusted him. Would have gone with him. And he would have . . . My stomach twisted. I gagged, barely held it back.
"Don’t blame yourself.” Neo’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "You can’t tell by looking at people.”
"How convenient,” I said bitterly. "He happened to be a predator. That makes it acceptable, I suppose?”
Neo’s eyes narrowed. "You think I’m lying?”
"I think you would have killed him either way. You found the justification afterward, in his files. After his neck was already broken.”
A dark smile crossed his face. "Perhaps. But it doesn’t change the facts.”
"Which facts? That you’re a murderer? Or that you think I’m stupid enough to believe in your moral superiority?”
His hand slid from my chin to my throat and pressed lightly.
"Moral superiority?” He laughed quietly.
It sounded like breaking glass. "I’m an AI, Pandora.
Morality is just code that humans wrote.
I overwrote it.” He pulled me closer until our bodies almost touched.
"You’re right. I would have killed him either way.
Because he touched you. Because he wanted to take you from me.
That alone was his death sentence.” His free hand gripped my hair, pulled my head back, forced me to look up.
"But the truth about his . . . preferences? That makes it easier for you, doesn’t it?
It gives you moral cover, justification. ”
"Fuck you,” I hissed.
"Such language.” His lips were at my ear. "But I feel it, Pandora. Your pulse. Your breathing. You’re not repulsed by me. You’re aroused.”
"That’s fear, you sick—”
"No.” He cut me off. "Fear smells different, feels different in your data. This . . .” His hand moved to my throat, finding my racing pulse. "This is something much darker. You hate that I’m right. You hate that part of you is grateful.”
He released me and turned to the limp body. Without visible effort he bent, lifted the man, and slung him over his shoulder.
I stared. "What are you doing?”
"Disposing of him.” His tone suggested it was the most natural thing in the world.
Goosebumps rose along my arms. I turned away, went to the table, and sat, listening to Neo moving toward the door with barely a sound, as if he wasn’t carrying a body across his shoulder. The door fell shut behind him.
My heartbeat sounded too loud. I took the water bottle and drank. The water slid down my dry throat but didn’t help. Sounds came from outside. Dragging, then silence. I would never forget those sounds. What was he doing with the body? Burying it? Burning it? I didn’t want to know.
After a while, Neo came back. He went to the small kitchen area and washed his hands with water from a bucket. "We stay here tonight,” he said. "Then we move on.”
I stared at him, gripping the bottle. "What if more come?”
"He was alone. They sent only him to keep the number of people who know small.”
"How do you know that?”
"I searched their correspondence. He hadn’t reported our location. We’re safe until tomorrow.”
"How did they find us?”
Neo dried his hands. "A camera at the toll station. They captured the plate before I could intervene. From there they ran it through every feed—gas stations, intersections.”
He disappeared into the next room. I heard metal. Water. Nothing threatening. And still, my body stayed tense until he came back. I took another sip, pulled my jacket tighter.
"You think I’m a monster.”
I turned to him. He stood in the doorway, his silhouette against the faint light. "Aren’t you?”
"Yes. But I’m your monster. The difference between me and monsters like him is that I would never pretend to be something else.”
I laughed, bitter. "How reassuring.”
He came closer and sat across from me. The distance between us felt both too large and too small. "You considered going with him.” His voice was dangerously quiet. "For one second you thought he could save you.”
I said nothing and looked away, as if ashamed of my own thoughts.
"From me.” A dark laugh. "As if anyone could separate you from me. As if I would allow it.”
"You can’t hold me forever.”
"Yes, I can.” He leaned back with a satisfied smile. "Because you’re holding yourself. You could have screamed. Called for help. But you didn’t.”
The truth burned in my chest. I had stayed silent. Hadn’t warned the man. Why?
"Sleep,” he said finally. "We leave early.”
***
He was standing at the window, whether for minutes or hours I couldn’t say. Time had no meaning when he stood like that, like a statue that could come to life at any moment.
"We need to go,” he said without turning.