Programmed To Protect (The Tau Cetus Chronicles) (6 page)

Rhean pushed his way through the hinged doors, and Wyatt noted that every programmer in the room was in some stage of work on an individual soldier. Some robots had their face panels removed while others were connected by cables to computers. A dozen stations, a dozen soldiers. A model of streamlined efficiency.

Rhean knocked once on the black door that led to Titus Veraine’s personal lab. Without waiting for an answer, he pushed open the door and entered the room. Wyatt followed him in.

Titus Veraine looked up from his work station, then pushed his chair back from his computer keyboard. “Agent Wyatt. Welcome back.”

Wyatt briefly noted that the soldier connected to Veraine’s computer was a dead ringer for yesterday’s robot. Then again, they were all dead ringers for each other. By design.

Veraine pinched the bridge of his nose, apparently exhausted. He stood to unhook the cable from the side of the soldier’s head. “Rhean, this one’s ready. Will you escort it to the storage area?”

“But…” The wiry-haired man looked at Wyatt. “Mr. Carron said… I’m supposed to—”

“It’s fine,” Veraine interrupted. “I’ll take care of agent Wyatt.”

“But—”

“Rhean,”
Veraine snapped, then eased his tone. “I said it’s fine. Don’t worry.”

He waved a hand toward the soldier, and an unhappy-looking Loris Rhean took the robot’s arm and led it from the room.

Veraine turned to Wyatt. “Pardon my temper. I’ve been working on that one for the last four hours straight.”

“Four
hours?”

“Yes. It takes longer to program them than it does to actually make them. Then again, their value is not only in their brute strength, but also in their advanced ability to follow orders. They have to be able to adjust, even on the fly, in case things change during a particular situation or battle.”

Wyatt raised an eyebrow. “That kind of technology….”

“Is complicated. Still, as I mentioned yesterday, this is nothing like the complexity of programming a Beautiful Doll. They were a work of art. A masterpiece. Our little miracle.” Veraine gave Wyatt a small smile.

Was that regret Wyatt saw there? Had Beautiful Dolls been Veraine’s life’s work, and programming homogenous robot soldiers a disappointing step down? Wyatt had certainly never seen anything as technologically impressive as Ginger.

He purposely stopped himself from throwing a glance toward Veraine’s utility closet, but it reminded him of a question. “You said yesterday that Beautiful Dolls can’t lie.”

“They can’t.”

“So… isn’t that a bad quality for a robot soldier? One of them could potentially spill military secrets if captured by an enemy.”

Veraine let out a small bark of a laugh. “First of all, these soldiers will
never
be taken. Do you think we’d let this kind of technology fall into enemy hands? No. We can activate any robot’s built-in self-destruct sequence with one stroke of a computer key. Secondly, they have no vocal chords. Artificial mouths, yes, but no vocal chords. They can’t speak.”

No vocal chords? Wyatt immediately thought of Ginger’s sultry voice, and knew it would be a damned shame if she were silenced forever.

“But speaking of mouths…” Veraine began.

Wyatt scowled a warning.
You’d damn well better not be referring to yesterday’s blow job…

Veraine ignored the look. “I had to send Rhean away,” he said, leaning an inch closer toward Wyatt, “because there’s something I want to tell you. But it’s…
private.”

Wyatt’s scowl faded. “Private?”

“Yes.” Veraine walked over to his lab door, and shut it firmly. Then he returned to stand in front of Wyatt, and lowered his voice. “Mr. Carron has a… secondary… plan for the robot soldiers’ deployment to Terra Acer. A personal one.”

Wyatt felt his jaw clench. It would be just like Anson Carron to have an ulterior agenda. During the Callex case, Carron’s double dealings nearly cost Jai her life.
Bastard.
“Tell me.”

“He intends to smuggle diamonds inside the mouths of five of the soldiers. As a test.”

Wyatt’s eyebrow rose at that information. “What kind of test?”

Veraine smiled slyly. “Mr. Carron wants to ensure that he has a comfortable retirement if Theus should one day – shall we say –
tire
of his services. Terra Acer and that part of Tau Cetus are still fairly lawless; it’s a good place for Mr. Carron to be able to disappear and enjoy his hard-earned profits. I’m to collect the diamonds once we get to Terra Acer and pass them to a trusted contact Mr. Carron has there. And to give this covert operation less chance of discovery, I’ve implanted the diamonds into soldiers number one, one-thousand-one, two-thousand-two, three-thousand-three and four-thousand-four.”

“And you chose those particular soldiers because every tenth robot is pulled out for testing.”

Veraine looked surprised that Wyatt was aware of their quality-control process, but he nodded in acknowledgment.

Wyatt paused while digesting all this information. He knew very well that if Theus
tired of someone’s services
it usually meant they’d fucked up in some way, and the Council’s standard way of dealing with that was by killing them, not retiring them. And smuggling diamonds for personal use inside robot soldiers technically owned by the High Council would definitely not sit well with Theus.

“Why are you telling me this?”

Veraine shrugged. “I think the Council should know what Mr. Carron is up to. Besides, I’m an ambitious man. If Theus decides to get rid of Mr. Carron, I’m confident he’ll remember my service in alerting you to this information, and realize that I’m here – ready and able – to take Mr. Carron’s place.”

Not bloody likely.
If Veraine could betray Carron this easily, he could just as casually betray the High Council. Still, there was a lot here for Wyatt to consider.

Veraine turned suddenly, and strode across the lab. Before Wyatt could utter a word to stop him, Veraine had opened his utility closet door.

“Ginger? Come on out and say hello to agent Wyatt.”

Veraine’s command woke Ginger from her hibernation mode. The Beautiful Doll’s green starburst eyes slowly opened, and she took a step into the room.

Despite his vow to resist her, Wyatt was once again transfixed by her beauty. He stared at her flawless face, with that enticing mouth. At her gorgeous red hair, falling like a curtain to her creamy shoulders. And her perfect body, naked in all its glory for him to admire.

She held herself as proud as a queen.

Ginger’s green-eyed gaze went from Veraine to Wyatt. Then she smiled sweetly. “Hello, Leith.”

Wyatt stopped breathing. He hadn’t imagined it yesterday. The way she said those two simple words was akin to a physical caress. A long, drawn-out purr. He couldn’t imagine Ginger without vocal chords.

His traitorous body began to stir.

Veraine’s eyebrows reached his hairline. “
Leith,
is it?” He threw Wyatt a glance, and laughed out loud. “Sounds like you two had a better time yesterday than I thought.”

Wyatt scowled fiercely, which only made Veraine laugh louder.

“Ginger? Why don’t you show agent Wyatt… er,
Leith
…congress of a cow today.”

“Yes, Titus,” she agreed.

“No, Titus,” Wyatt contradicted.
Damn it,
he was determined not to let himself get into this tempting situation again!

Veraine left the Doll’s side to walk the few steps back to Wyatt. He lowered his voice. “Go ahead and enjoy yourself, agent Wyatt. It’s safe here.” He shrugged. “I mean, would I have told you about the diamonds if we were being recorded?”

The words surprised Wyatt so much it gave Veraine time to exit the lab, pulling the door closed firmly behind him.

Would I have told you about the diamonds if we were being recorded?

How the hell did Veraine know that was
exactly
what Wyatt had believed? That Veraine and Carron hoped to record any interaction with Ginger and hold it over his head? The diamond story could easily be a ploy to lull Wyatt into a false sense of being able to trust Veraine.

Forcing himself to ignore the naked woman standing six feet away from him, Wyatt visually checked the standard spots for hidden cameras: the overhead light fixtures, the corners of the room where the walls met the ceiling, Veraine’s computer screen itself. There were no telltale red lights or black lens holes anywhere.

Which proved nothing.

And certainly not that Veraine was telling the truth.

The best strategy was always the safest one.
Trust no one.

“Leith?”

Wyatt sucked in a breath. As he watched, Ginger turned her back to him, bent over at the waist until her hands touched the floor, and presented him with her perfect ass. Wyatt swallowed hard.
What the hell was congress of a cow, anyway?

Stop it! You are
not
going to do this!

As if to mock him, his cock hardened even more.

Think! Think!

She’s programmed to follow commands…

“Ginger? Stand up.”

The Doll threw him an uncertain glance over her shoulder. “Leith, congress of a cow—”

“Stop!” Damn it, if she described the actual sex act to him, he might not be able to stick to his resolve. “I’m asking you, no, I’m
ordering
you to stand up.”

The Doll paused again, obviously considering his command, but then straightened and turned to face him.

Wyatt let out an audible sigh of relief. The danger had passed. He took a step closer to her. “Thank you. Now, I order you to step back into your utility closet.”

He gave her what he hoped was a smile of encouragement, along with a nod of his head.

She was just a foot away. All she had to do was back up and he could close the door on the temptation she presented. Hell, he even circled the inside door handle with his fingers in anticipation.

Instead, Ginger reached out a hand, grabbed his belt, and stepped back, pulling him into the closet with her. The movement was so fast and so unexpected that the door – with Wyatt’s left hand still on the knob – banged shut behind them.

“You are right. There are cameras in the room.”

Leith Wyatt screwed his eyes closed, intensely aware of Ginger’s naked body now pressed up hard against him. Dear God, her breasts were crushed against his tunic, and felt just as soft and lush as human female breasts would. Her hips were pressed tightly against his erection, which was reveling in the contact by becoming even harder. Her skin felt warm and silky soft where his right hand had landed on her backside to steady himself.

There’s a naked and willing sexbot practically in my arms…

Hell, he was so physically overwhelmed by the sheer reality of her incredible body that his brain almost skipped right over what she’d said.

There are cameras in the room.

Wyatt’s eyes flew open.
“What?”

“There are recording devices in Titus Veraine’s lab. They were installed yesterday.”

Wyatt’s eyes felt like they were going to pop right out of his head.
Calm down, calm down. She’s not telling you this because she wants to, necessarily, but because she can’t lie. Simple as that.

She’s not real. She’s just a machine.

But she was clever enough to pull you into the closet before giving you this information. Can an A.I. program do that?

“Take a step back, Ginger.”

The Doll tilted her head as if in question, but Wyatt was desperate to put some physical distance between them. He couldn’t think straight with her naked body pressed against him.

“Back up three feet,” he said again.

The closet was small, but there was enough space for her to give him a bit of breathing room. Ginger took a giant step back. As she did, Wyatt’s hand slid off her perfect ass.

He struggled to get his heart rate under control. “Why did you tell me about the cameras?”

“A Beautiful Doll cannot lie, Leith.”

“But isn’t Veraine your…
creator?
Why would you tell me something like this about your maker?”

Ginger paused, and Wyatt could almost swear he saw the synapses – or whatever would be the programming equivalent – firing in her artificial brain. “Titus and Mr. Carron want to trap you. I heard them talking yesterday. It’s not…
right.”

Wyatt felt himself go cold, and it had nothing to do with being correct about Veraine and Carron’s deceitfulness. A machine could not…should not be able to… make ethical judgments.

But Ginger just had. Hadn’t she?

This was too much. Wyatt needed some distance to figure out this situation. “I have to leave here.”

“Wait.”

Wyatt’s hand was already back on the utility room door knob, but he paused at Ginger’s anxious tone.