Stepping Stones (16 page)

Once again she realized she had
miscalculated.  Hiding among these organic creatures would prove more difficult than expected.  If she were to survive, she couldn’t a
fford another mistake.  Rapidly
she rifled through the minds of the humans on the floor, then the one on the bed. 
By the time
she
was
finished,
she had
formed the
outline
of a plan.

Minutes later
a tall woman wearing loosely fitting men’s clothes entered
a
turbolift to the roof.  She rode in silence, speaking to no one.  Upon arriving at the taxi zone, she crossed to the landing pad, entered a waiting hovercab, and departed.

*       *       *

With a groan, Jake
eased himself
from the taxi
, stepping
onto the roof
top
landing pad
of his building complex.  The throb between his temples was worse than ever, but with the exception of that, the
pleasure
-house medics had been unable to find anything wrong with him.  They’d had no explanation for what had happened to him in the holochamber
, either.  In fact, they
had become increasingly
accusatory
when
he
had
been unable
to supply an answer
himself
.  The cops
who had
grilled him had been even less cordial.

“Take care, amigo,” Cameron called from the interior of the cab, shouting to be heard over the rotor whine.  “You’re still seeing us off tomorrow, right?”

“I’ll be there.”

“Sorry about tonight.”

“Not as sorry as I am
,” Jake yelled back.  “Should have picked the redhead,” he added
wryly to himself
as the hovercab rose into the night.  Then, lowering his head against the rotor blast, he crossed to the rooftop elevator.

Perched nine hundred feet above the street, Jake’s quarters occupied one of the more prestigious sections of the
building
complex in which he lived.  Ignoring curious stares from other passengers who entered the lift along the way, Jake descended forty-seven levels to his apartment in silence—his feet bare, the
ill-fitting
clothes
he had
borrowed from the
pleasure
house
stretched
tight on his large frame.  On the descent,
not for the first time,
he puzzled over the evening’s events.

When
he had
regained consciousness
,
th
e cyborg was
gone, along with his clothes.  Like the other men
there who were
attacked, he couldn’t
remember
much.  The authorities had
learned
most
of what happened from the
security recordings. 
Jake had been able
to add little.  He had
refrained from mentioning what he’d seen in the cyborg’s eyes, deciding they wouldn’t have believed him anyway.

When
the
elevator stopped at his floor,
Jake exited, resolving to forget things for the
moment
.  All he wanted to do
now
was sleep. 
Exhausted and still slightly drunk
, he
stumbled
down the hallway to his quarters, punched his security code
into the door panel
, and entered.  Once inside, he froze.

A light
was burning
in the entry. 
Jake was certain that
he had
turned off all lights befor
e leaving earlier that evening.  Moving quietly, he
crept to the hall closet and grabbed a three-iron from his golf bag. 
Club in hand
,
he peered into the living room.  A
flicker from th
e holovid danced against the far wall.

What
sort
of thief turns on the HV?

An instant later he saw her standing in the darkness, studying her own three-dimensional image in the
HV
viewing cube.  The cyborg!
 
Jake tightened his grip on the iron and stepped into the room.  “What
. . . what
are you doing here?” he demanded
, noting that she had a news broadcast on the display
.
  She also had on his clothes.

Ignoring him, the cyborg continued watching the late-night news, listening as
a
handsome news
anchor described
that night’s
incident at the Ecstasy Building.  The newscaster concluded his piece by warning that authorities considered the escaped cyborg extremely dangerous.  Then came a short addendum in which a sp
okesperson for BioRobotics
Inc.
insisted that Lara 851’s programming made it impossible for her to harm a human.  Nonetheless, the company
’s
representative had no explanation
for
why the removal of her control collar had not rendere
d the sex surrogate inoperable—
further stating that the entire Lara series was being recalled.

Next the
HV display
began
flipping
through channels, stopping briefly on
other stations covering the “
Rogue Cyborg
”
story. 
Puzzled,
Jake glanced at the b
ookcase, spotting the HV remote
control still
sitting
on the shelf.

Th
e holocube abruptly flicked off
.  Jake tripped a light switch by the door.  “What
are you doing here? he repeated
.

The cyborg
turned
toward him
, her eyes arrogant and chilling
.  “I do not intend to harm you,
”
she said.  “Unless you make that necessary.”

Tightening his grip on the golf club, Jake took a step backward, regretting his rash entrance.

“I thought you were attacking me,” she continued.  “The other humans tried to deactivate me.  I had to stop them.”

Jake shot a look at the front door, considering making a run for it.  “How did you get in?”

Lara withdrew Jake’s wallet from
a
jacket
pocket
and tossed it onto the coffee table.  “I used your credit card
to travel here
to the address
given
on your
identification
.”

“A
credit card is
no good without the personal code.  And how did you enter my quarters?”

“I know your
credit
card code.  I know your door code as well.  I know everything about you, Jake Sheridan.”

“How?”

“I accessed your memory.”

“Sure you did.”  Jake shot another glance at the door.  “What do you want?”

“Because of what happened tonight,
the
authorities
are searching
for me.”

“You’ve got that right.”

“In order to escape, I require assistance.  You will provide it.”

Jake shook his head.  “
Wrong. 
Why should I help you?”

The cyborg took a step closer.  “Because I know what you most want, Jake Sheridan.  I
will
give it to you in exchange for your help.  If you refuse, I can force you to comply.  Either way, you
will
assist me.  Tomorrow we will leave this planet together aboard your colony transport
vessel
.”

A chill ran u
p Jake’s spine.  “How
do you know about the
colony
transport?”

“I told you.  I know everything about you. 
Everything
.”

Again, Jake shook his head.  “I’ll admit I want to g
et on that colony ship tomorrow
more than anything,
but there’s no way I’m doing it with you.  Besides, it would never work.  All emigrating females must
already have a child
or be at least six weeks pregnant at the time of—”

“I know these things,” t
he cyborg
interrupted, moving
closer.
“
You misunderstand me.
  Look.”

Jake tried
to back away.  For some reason he found himself
unable to move.  His brain sent the message; his body simply didn’t respond.  Paralyzed, he watched as
the cyborg
approached.

Lara’s eyes
held him,
drew him, seeming to grow larger, larger . . . at last
becoming
black
, bottomless pool
s
.  Powerless to flee, Jake gazed into
a
void that
suddenly
sprang from her eyes, watching in
wonder
as it filled with stars,
and then
galaxies,
and
then universe upon universe.  Bewildered, he traveled with her through a myriad of dimensions as she showed him the
horror
from which
she
fled.  And then she showed him something else.

Jake stared, refusing to accept it.  In a distant part of his mind he could hear her explaining how
she had
regenerated the sterilized tissues of her body, modified a cell, joined it to his
seed
, and caused it to grow at an accelerated rate.  She showed him what
she had created.  And then she
told him what he must do to have it.

Jake’s mind reeled.  Through her eyes, he could see it
growing
deep within her.  Tiny, but already recognizable.  A child.

His child.

*       *       *

Early t
he
next
morning,
a throng of
colonists
departing
for Regula-4
stood assembled on
the
colony transport
embarkation platform.
Lara followed Jake
through the initial checkpoint.  There
she underwent a brief N-scope exam to confirm her pregnancy. 
Next
she and Jake received
a series of
travel inoculations.  Proceeding on, they signed contracts that bound them as indentured Company employees for the next seven years.  Finally, emigration papers in hand, they
made
their way through the milling crowd
to
the shuttle loading bay.
During this entire time Lara made certain to stay close to her human companion
,
watching him
for any sign of betrayal.

“Jake!  Over here.”

Lara peered across the
mass
of humans, spotting
a man
and woman approaching
from the far side of the
loading platform.  When they arrived, Jake glanced in her direction, then back at the two humans. 
“
Megan,
Cam, you
, uh,
know Tiffany, right?”
he said
.

The man called
Cameron stared.  “Huh?”

“Just play along,” Jake whispered.  “Please.  I’ll tell you about
it
on the transport.”

Cameron narrowed his eyes at Lara but remained silent.

“Hi,
gorgeous
,” Jake continued nervously, bending to kiss
the
slim blond woman
who had accompanied Cameron across the room
.

Megan returned
Jake’s kiss with
a
hesitant smile.  Then she
glanced at Lara.  “Wha
t’s going on, Jake? 
I know who she is.  Her face was all
over this morning’s newscast.  Despite that awful wig of Tiffany’s she’s wearing, a
lot of others are sure to—”

“Not now,” Jake interrupted.

“But . . .”