Part 8 (1/2)
He lifted his hand in a farewell, glad to know Jamie was in good hands. Then he headed back to his car.
His next stop: Alpha.
The trees were at their peak fall foliage, so vivid they reminded Thomas of neon signs. He and Alpha walked down a path bordered by azaleas with dark, waxy leaves, but no flowers this late in the year.
Major Edwards and two armed ”orderlies” accompanied them, discreet but always there. Thomas also had a mesh woven into his collar that would record every word he and Alpha spoke.
”The bargain,” she said, ”was that you take me for a ride and I tell you what orders Charon left me.”
”I can't take you out of here,” Thomas said. ”If you want to talk about Charon, I'd like to hear. If not, that's fine.”
She slanted him a look. ”Bulls.h.i.+t.”
”Alpha, listen.” He drew her to a stop. ”It's over. Charon's plans to have you kidnap me and Sam failed.”
It had been his final ploy; if Charon couldn't break into the safe house to get Pascal, he would take hostages to trade. It was how Thomas had met Alpha; she cracked the AI of a helicopter transporting him and Sam to the Pentagon and had it fly to her instead.
”It's never over,” she said.
”I can't hold off the committee forever. If you won't talk, they will have a.n.a.lysts take apart your matrix.”
”It doesn't matter.” Alpha pulled away her arm. ”You're the ones who want what I know. Taking me
apart will destroy a lot of it. But you know that.”
What he didn't know was which unsettled him more, her expressed lack of interest in her own demise or his strong emotional reaction against it. The idea of her death bothered him more than her.
”I don't want you to end,” he said.
She started walking again. ”Don't like losing data, hmm?”
”No. I don't like destroying life.”
”You can copy me.”
”It's not the same.”
”That's not my problem, is it?”
He wished he knew how to reach her. ”It doesn't bother you?”
”No.”
She seemed self-protective, hiding her vulnerability behind a tough facade, but he was a.s.sociating human reactions to her behavior. And she wasn't human.
”I don't believe you,” he said.
”Well, h.e.l.l, maybe I know how to lie, too.”
”Can you?”
She regarded him without a flicker of her eyelashes. ”No.”
”I think you can lie through your teeth.”
Her face lost all expression. ”It isn't in my programming. Why would Charon create equipment capable of deception?”
Thomas wished she wouldn't turn off her emotive responses that way. ”It could serve his purposes when you act as his covert agent.”
”Maybe.” With that eerie lack of affect, she added, ”But that wasn't his purpose in creating me.”
”What was his purpose?”
This time she pulled him to a halt. The instant she touched him, his guards surrounded them. Thomas shook his head at Edwards. The major paused, then motioned to the orderlies. They faded back into the trees, but they didn't withdraw far.
Alpha laid her palm on Thomas's chest. ”What do you think Charon's purpose was?” Her voice had a dusky quality.
”You're a mercenary. A spy.” He nudged away her hand. ”Maybe he had you do other things with him, but I don't believe he would use up so many resources to make an android whose sole purpose was as a synthetic companion.”
”Synthetic companion?” She gave a derisive snort. ”General, loosen up. I f.u.c.ked him. Any way he wanted, any time he wanted.”
Thomas's face heated. Who wouldn't wonder what it was like to have Alpha in his bed? ”That makes you angry.”
”I don't feel anything.”
”He didn't program you to react to him?”
”Of course he did. I can simulate anything you want.”