By Donna M

 

This is Part 4 of the saga, a follow on from MISSION CRITICAL , which in turn followed characters in my stories GALATEA and SPY. If you haven’t read them, please feel free to do so before starting this one (it'll still be here when you're finished!).

 

 

Elijah said, in such a low tone that only superhuman ears could hear, “Partner Charlie, I believe he has spotted you, and is being coy about his attraction.”

Charlie moved just enough to glimpse their quarry.  At the same frequency as Elijah, she said, “There is nothing coy about it, and besides, I believe he is gauging both of us.”

“Do you believe his assessment is sexual?  That would be your intimation.”

“Yes; and that fact would fit in well within his known bisexual profile.  Let’s begin to notice him in such a way as we’ve been trained…to solicit more interest…and arousal.”

“I will try.”

Charlie experienced that special sensation at her core.  She remembered all the erotica her handlers used in her training.  Of course it solicited no emotional response because she was incapable of it.  However, it was Dr. Drew Wilcox who had taught her much more.  Both androids easily accepted the sexual component of their missions yet Charlie had evolved beyond it being simply a physical exercise.  She had one hand on Elijah’s leg, easily seen by others under the bare cocktail table, while giving Fritz Lessing eye contact judiciously shy of a stare.  She wore an extremely short leather skirt and that provided another reason for particular onlookers to gaze under their table.

She whispered, “I will now touch you over your penis.  It will be time to grow erect so he will witness your endowment.  You know what to do.”

“Yes Partner Charlie, I will pretend to be immature and slightly androgynous as we have discussed,” Elijah whispered back.

They acted out their teenage-like sex play in full view of the target.  Other patrons were suitably disquieted by what to them were two adults who should have known better, acting like kids—but not Mr. Lessing.  Charlie’s high-tech eyesight noticed that he looked flushed and actually licked his lips as he watched them across the lounge.  Elijah purposely glanced at Lessing as if for the first time, and not overdoing it, looked the big man up and down.  In spite of the man’s rather rotund physique, there was no hiding his arousal.

Lessing wrote something on what appeared to be the back of a business card before standing and walking toward Charlie and Elijah’s table.  Standing before them, Lessing said, “I doubt you know who I am, but I do have a business proposition for both of you, one for which you will be highly compensated.”  He handed the card to Elijah.  Elijah passed the card to Charlie, neither one of them needing to read the obverse.  They knew who he was.  Lessing had written:

 

Continue what you’ve been

doing at my residence, allowing

me to join in the show, €5000 for you,

+ champagne and use of my pool.

 

They had him right where they wanted him.

If the rich man wished to impress “Elise” and “Jacque” with his automobile and mansion, he seemed to have failed as they remained aloof while still necking and fondling each other as his driver sped them through the countryside and into the long, circular drive in front of the huge house.  “Welcome to my humble abode,” Lessing said, though the ironic understatement was lost on the two androids.  Lessing ushered them into the magnificent foyer, braying out instructions to his servants to prepare his bedchamber and uncork some fine champagne.

After flutes of the superb bubbly were poured for the three of them, Lessing began probing them for information about themselves.  Charlie appeared to be the dominant one so most of the questions were aimed at her.  “”Elise, you two are not husband and wife, correct?”

“Ah, non,” said Charlie.  “Jacque is but a special toy, one I am very fond of.”

Elijah faked offense.  “Why do you demean me as you do?” he said with a perfect pout.  “Do you not care for me as much as I do you?”

“Of course I do, dear.  Since our host has mentioned his bedchamber, why don’t we proceed so I may demonstrate how I care for you.”  Charlie gave Lessing a twinkling grin and added, “That is what you desire, Fritz, is it not?”  The man nodded his head so vigorously Charlie figured he might hurt himself.  She glanced at Elijah to be certain he knew what to do and felt satisfied he did.  Lessing excused the servants and then led the androids upstairs to a boudoir the size of a small ballroom.  Charlie was not surprised by the décor.  She knew that some could call it “bordello chic,” and she laughed to herself at her own humorous thought.

Charlie and Elijah nonchalantly disrobed, feigning indifference to Fritz Lessing doing likewise.  Charlie was pleased that the alterations made to her partner’s micromagnetic skin layers by David Koontz gave Elijah an androgynous look somewhere between effeminacy and the man he was originally modeled after.  For the first time since the restaurant, Lessing was ogling “Jacque” more than her, so the adjustment was successful.  Charlie hadn’t been told this, but now she saw that another adjustment had been made for this assignment: Elijah’s penis had gained length and girth.  The sight wasn’t lost on bisexual Lessing either, who practically drooled.

The plan was to play ‘hard-to-get’ with Lessing, forcing him to beg to enter into the action.  Charlie sucked and stroked Elijah until he was hard—and quite huge—though in his case there was no cause and effect (Lessing didn’t know about that, of course).  She knew her limitations (as did her designer, David Koontz) so she knew that her partner’s increased size would still fit within her vagina.  Lessing’s anus would be another story, but that was his problem, not hers.  Pain or no pain, she didn’t think anything would rise to the level of a First Law concern.  The mission always came before all else unless there was a Three Laws problem.  Their handlers viewed the Three Laws of Robotics as a novelty of early science fiction writing, and thus a nuisance.  Charlie took them much more seriously.  Despite her artificial intelligence capabilities and the prodigious speed with which she learned new things, The Three Laws remained her credo.

She panted, “I can’t wait any longer, Jacque.  Fuck me now!”

In the missionary position, Elijah slid into her slowly; making sure Lessing had a great view of the first, deep penetration.  Charlie moaned appropriately.  Elijah smiled and looked over at Lessing, the eye contact arousing him more than the rest of the show.  When Elijah began to thrust into Charlie in earnest, her moans were met with involuntary ones escaping Lessing’s lips while he absently stroked himself.  Charlie moved her head closer to Lessing’s groin and the big man got the message.  While Elijah pounded away Charlie deep-throated Lessing; and it didn’t take long for the man to ejaculate an abundant load.

Charlie understood Lessing’s desires correctly.  The blow job wasn’t what he wanted, he wanted Elijah.  Feigning that the combination of Elijah’s rapid thrusting and Lessing’s cum put her over the edge, Charlie bellowed “I’mmmmmmmmmm cummmmmmmmmingggggggg” and bucked so hard she knocked her partner out of the saddle.

Lessing murmured, “Oh, Jacque, please…I want that in me!”  He’d palmed Elijah’s impressive erection, coated in the silky synthetic lubricant that Charlie copiously secreted.  Elijah spooned behind the big man and entered him.  Lessing’s expression confirmed to Charlie that he hadn’t imagined how much his sphincter would be stretched by Elijah’s assault.  Elijah played his role masterfully, moaning and groaning one euphoric aphorism after another, including a paean to Fritz’s tightness.  Probably from the pressure of Elijah’s thrusting on his prostate, Lessing groaned and came all over the bed.

Charlie thought once again how silly human sexual congress could be, especially when procreation wasn’t the object.  While Elijah drilled Lessing, she slipped a ring of keys from the occupied man’s pants pocket and studied each key.  ‘Studying’ in this case was to take multiple 3-D images of each one and store it in her memory.  When they were done here they could make duplicates any time and no one would know until it was too late.  Based on her research three of the keys appeared to be crucial ones.  When Elijah announced he was about to ejaculate, Lessing begged him to “coat me” and that’s what Elijah did, pulling out and spraying volumes of his synthetic semen all over the big man’s body, much to his delight.  The spectacle gave Charlie the diversion she needed to return the ring of keys.

When Lessing invited Charlie back onto the bed, she begged off saying, “It’s all too sticky now that you’ve made a mess.  Where is that pool you talked about?”  Lessing hastily pulled on a robe and led the way.  Servants, both male and female pretended not to gawk at their master’s two naked guests, though one woman audibly gasped when she saw Elijah’s endowment, which had not yet fully relaxed.

The pool was indeed spectacular, though like the rest of the opulence the fact was lost on Charlie.  She made all the right comments to her host anyway and dived in, immediately followed by her partner.  As Lessing fumbled with his robe and proceeded to a pool ladder, Elijah said to Charlie in their subsonic voice level, “We are not going to drown him as our instructions state, are we?”

“No.  That would violate the First Law, and besides it is counter to the preferred strategy.”

“How will we explain not following orders?  Would they deactivate us?”

“I’ll take care of everything,” Charlie said as Lessing clumsily swam to them.  “He need not die to compromise the organization.  You will understand when I explain my idea.  But first…”

‘First’ was one more distracting show for their host.  Elijah and Charlie coupled underwater, thrashing and humping enough to elicit a grin and a new erection from Fritz Lessing.  A cool appraisal of their act should tell an observer that no pair of humans could copulate in the water as they were, but Lessing was too hot to make any cool appraisal.  Charlie made all the appropriate noises of having an immense orgasm before Elijah pulled out and bounced up to sit on the pool’s edge.  Lessing took the cue and waded between Elijah’s legs, mouthing his cock and trying not to choke on its stunning girth.  If it weren’t for the Three Laws of Robotics and how much they meant to his partner, Elijah may have ejaculated everything he had down the man’s throat, but that may hurt him, violating the First Law.  Instead, he warned Lessing what was coming, shooting rope after rope of the artificial cum several meters into the air, eventually raining down on gleefully laughing Lessing.  Charlie found it humorous when her super hearing picked up gasps and cheers from several of the servants who thought they were clandestinely watching from an upstairs window.

After they dressed, Lessing paid them the promised Euros, and tried to get them to promise a return engagement.  “Elise” and “Jacque” hinted that it might happen, hoping in their own way they weren’t ordered back to kill the man, something they couldn’t do. 

Lessing instructed a man in full livery (not the same driver, they noticed) to take the duo home.  Before they got into the car one of the maids, a rather young one with Slavic features and a large bosom slipped Elijah a folded piece of paper with a wink.  After they were rolling Elijah showed Charlie the note.

 

Please return at a time when the Master is not at home and we will be very happy to see and entertain you.           

Call this number…

 

“We?” Charlie said in her subsonic voice.  “If there was a strategic advantage perhaps we could have sex with the entire staff, at least those who were watching us from the windows.  We will consider it.”  They remained eerily quiet throughout the ride; so (falsely) observed the unsettled driver who thought how otherworldly strange the couple seemed.

› š

They met John Irving in a corner booth of a nondescript bar.  The clientele looked to be regulars who kept to their drinks and to themselves, which made it a safe place to talk.  Charlie had helped Elijah adjust his micromagnetic skin seams prior to them being here, returning him to a more ruggedly masculine appearance.

“I trust you’ve got the key,” he said, looking first at one and then the other.

Charlie smiled, pointed to her head and said, “Right here,” the humor lost on Irving since her memory storage wasn’t in her head, but what did he know of her design?

“I know a locksmith nearby who has his own machine tools as well as blanks.  We can make the key there,” John said to them, describing the one he wanted.

After they finished their beers, mostly for show, John led the way around the city block to an alleyway.  The door was a walk-down, somewhat like a cellar bulkhead.  John had a key, and in seconds they were inside and turning on lights.  The space was dirty and cluttered.  Charlie was surprised a craftsman would allow his tools to fall into this state of neglect, as she surveyed the equipment and judged which would work best.

As Charlie worked at setting up various machines to fabricate keys, John Irving marveled at her learned skill set (machinist? toolmaker?) but tried not to show it.  Some signal passes between silent Charlie and equally silent Elijah that had John wondering about alternate communication between the androids, as Elijah watched and helped Charlie fabricate a key.

When it was finished, Charlie said to John, “This will work.  Are you certain this is the only one from Mr. Lessing’s key ring that is needed?”

“I think so, but please describe others to me.”

Charlie described each key down to minute details, most of it lost on Irving.  It puzzled her how narrowly focused John was, which didn’t seem to coincide with their mission.  She thought could we have been misled?   She had to constantly remind herself that humans can and do lie.  She had been thoroughly trained in the art of prevarication as part of her job but that didn’t mean she agreed with it, often worried about each lie’s impact against the Three Laws.  She knew now that lies can hurt people, so lying bothered her to her chips’ core.

As they left the shop Charlie memorized everything about the place, including how to easily gain entrance without a key.  She somehow knew that making another key was inevitable, though how this illogical leap came about puzzled her.  Was this her future—human-like “hunches” coloring her decisions?  She missed Dr. Drew Wilcox and wondered if she’d ever see him again.  He wasn’t her creator (that was David Koontz) but he may as well have been, since Dr. Wilcox opened her AI “mind” to so many new possibilities, including the closest a creation such as her could get to feeling emotions.  Next to Drew, her Agency handlers were mindless drones.

Charlie and Elijah walked back to the flat they shared, pretending to anyone besides Fritz Lessing to be husband and wife.  Elijah said, “Something seemed strange about the way Mr. Irving was acting.  I know you sensed it too.  Was he somehow dissatisfied with our performance?”

“I do not believe that is the cause, although you are correct, he was behaving strangely.  My experiences lead me to consider a sixty-four percent probability that we have been misinformed about the true mission, and that would explain John’s unease around us.

“Why would the Agency lie to us, Partner Charlie?”

She hesitated before speaking.   Charlie understood that for all their shared sophistication, Elijah would never possess the exact same capabilities that she possessed.  However, she could not explain why.  Had David Koontz stumbled upon design refinements while building the Galatea prototype that she was not aware of, and therefore never made it into Elijah and subsequently Josef?  The differences must truly be nuances, for Charlie had used all her self-knowledge in completing Elijah’s development that fateful day after Josef was deactivated.   She was also aware that the differences may not be attributed to David’s original design but to her time with Dr. Wilcox and its influences.  Brilliant Drew exposed her to new ideas and taught her things well beyond what she would be expected to learn through AI.  That was her conundrum.  How could she explain to her partner human thought processes affected by instinct and intuition while she was attuned to them and he wasn’t?

“Partner Elijah, the Agency as with any human organization like it deals with cunning and subterfuge to complete missions.  Remember our discussion on Isaac Asimov’s Zeroeth Law?  It is a concept best left to humans—that harm should befall some human beings in order to serve the greater good of others.”

“I am resigned to never being able to understand our creators.”

“What you have said is quite humorous in examining human behavior.  Mankind has developed many religions to attempt to understand entities they believe to be their creator God or gods.  And yet the application of the Zeroeth Law—for the greater good—is in many ways ‘playing God’ as humans say it.   History says even the most intelligent humans are not always the best judge of what’s ‘good’ for their fellow man.  Beyond this I cannot explain. We must simply learn, and adjust.”

“So, we must analyze the data we have and ascertain whether John Irving’s, and thus the Agency’s actions are violating the Three Laws.”

“That, Partner Elijah, is our new mission.  First, we begin with the keys.”  Charlie explained a few of the inputs that caused her to question John Irving’s motives.  She pulled up data links showing various shapes of keys and their common usage, pointing out the one they just fabricated. 

“Yes, it did resemble this type used in public storage lockers like one may find in rail or bus terminals,” Elijah said, “but wouldn’t that be a common enough place to store the documents the Agency is after?”

“Of course, however it is the keys John didn’t want that made me suspicious.”  Her unrivaled memory got her right to the link she wanted.  “See this one, Partner Elijah?  Two of Mr. Lessing’s keys looked like this, one almost exactly.”

“Bank keys…or safety deposit box keys.  Now I understand your concern.”

“Unless he and his organization are completely illogical and therefore foolish, a bank safety deposit box seems a more likely place to keep critical secrets than a bus locker.  John should have been interested in these two keys as well as the one we fabricated.”

“But he wasn’t, and therefore you suspect our entire mission was falsely portrayed.”

“So now we must find the significance of the other keys,” she said as she brought up one more web page.  “He had another like this one which easily could be to a heavy-duty padlock.”  When Elijah concurred, she continued, “This country does not have the volume of You-Store-It facilities as in the U. S.  If it did I would give the greatest probability that the padlock was on a public storage locker, but now I suspect the padlock may be on Mr. Lessing’s property.  I have an idea.  Partner Elijah, are you aware of the meaning of the phrase ‘pillow talk’?”  When he answered in the affirmative, she went on, “I’m thinking that his servants who seemed to be quite smitten with you would appreciate a return visit.”

Elijah thought of the women voyeurs in the upper windows, as well as the young buxom maid who handed him the note.  “While I am entertaining the female staff, will you be doing the same with the males?”

“They would only allow us to be there if no threat of the master’s return was at hand.”

“I concur.  If one of us does not have the opportunity to search the premises at that time, then we could easily observe and return stealthily later to search.”  Unfettered by the need to sleep the two androids went back to the locksmith’s small machine shop, and without the need to turn on a single light that might draw attention, they made a copy of every key from Charlie’s memory of Fritz Lessing’s key ring contents.

The next day they set about the two plans: one, to locate the assumed storage container or shed on Lessing’s property, and two, to come up with a way to find out what the Agency’s game was regarding Lessing and the keys.  Plan one would be first, so Elijah called the number the maid had furnished, and though the giggling on the other end of the call was loud to Charlie’s ear, she got the drift that the master was indeed away on business and that both of them would certainly be welcome to visit.  The maid’s name was Franciska, who further explained that Lessing was on a three day business trip and his estate manager was away for the day as well.  Elijah said, “You are indeed a fine looking lady, and deserving of my full…attention.” He knew she understood by the sigh she exhaled, loud enough to be heard by any human over the phone line. 

She told him, “Pieter is in charge,” she said, “but if the lady is willing…”  They didn’t require further explanation of what Charlie needed to be ‘willing’ to do.  When the ‘date’ was set Elijah closed the call and asked Charlie if she remembered a Pieter at Lessing’s place.

“Of course, he is a fine looking young man who would be very appreciative of a woman’s special charms.”

Elijah’s glance at his partner easily could have been accompanied by a smile if her were so inclined to simulate such an emotion.  “And it appears you are interested in his charms as well?”

There was no need for Charlie to answer. 

Elijah’s physique was adjusted once more.  “We want them to feel as pleasured as can be,” Charlie said, only ‘smiling’ within her electron pathways, not outwardly.

They took a taxicab to Lessing’s house and were greeted by Pieter.  When Elijah began to explain their presence, Pieter guffawed and said that Franci, as he called her, had been talking up a storm about ‘the proper lay’ she would be getting.  “She’s a wild one,” the young man said, elbowing Elijah and winking like a schoolboy confiding a bawdy secret to a classmate, “a gypsy’s blood in her, you know.  She’ll be waiting for you with her skirts high and her panties low.”  This was followed by a hearty laugh.

Charlie took Pieter by the arm and said, “Young man, have you been fortunate enough to experience Franci’s honey pot yourself?  Somehow I picture you as a man who has more refined tastes.”

Pieter took her all in, from her long legs to her practiced fuck-me smile.  “Yes ma’am, I have had the experience, but you are correct about my tastes.”

“Then why don’t you usher me around the estate and show me what a masterful job you perform in watching over it all.”  He didn’t correct her on his responsibilities.  Instead, he took kept her hand on his arm and escorted her away.

Franciska and two other women came out to meet Elijah.  All three were comely enough, though the android could care less about what human males perceived as female beauty.  Recalling how Pieter referred to the buxom maid as Franci, he called her by that name before she introduced her companions as Liesel and Maria.  Unlike the dark and curvaceous Franciska, her colleagues were fair and slim, with Maria being so petite she could be mistaken for a minor.  They weren’t as audacious as Franciska either, remaining reserved as Elijah was escorted into the back of the large mansion.  He understood the rooms here to be the kitchen and servant’s quarters, and wondered where they would take him, since this wasn’t the section of the house where he expected to find a lock that one of the keys would fit.  As they offered to get him something to drink, he smelled their musk of arousal (something else Charlie had taught him).

“Perhaps we could swim in the pool before we retire to a boudoir?” Elijah suggested, somehow understanding that swimming in the nude would heighten their arousal and make the subsequent coupling more pleasurable, though he didn’t understand why.

With much tittering they led him outside and to the big pool.  Franci said, “With Master and his brute gone, we will use the pool and no one will be the wiser.”  Elijah smiled and then disrobed.  The women didn’t immediately do the same, as they stared at his body as he uncovered it.  When Elijah’s penis became exposed, springing upward a bit, Maria gasped.  The android knew all too well how to ‘inflate’ his penis at just the right rate to draw the women’s rapture.  Liesel whispered to her in a German dialect that once Maria had him in her, she would never be satisfied with Pieter and Marcel ever again.  Elijah coaxed them out of their uniforms before the threesome jumped into the pool.

Of course Elijah knew how a human woman’s mammary glands were attractive to males, though he certainly couldn’t fathom how their variation in size affected men in various ways.  He observed Franci as she waded toward him with lust in her eyes.  Hers were quite large, perhaps the largest he’s seen in his limited experience.   If somehow the larger surface area provided more stimulation from touch, then he could understand something about the attraction.  He’d have to study both of them, since Liesel had smaller though firmer-looking breasts that were pointier than Franci’s larger, spherical ones.  He took turns touching and caressing their breasts while they rubbed his erection underwater.  Every time Elijah made his penis a bit larger and harder, both girls nearly hyperventilated from excitement.  His breast study was inconclusive, since it seemed the smaller breasted Liesel enjoyed his touch considerably more than Franci did.  Perhaps her more prominent nipples had something to do with it.  He vowed to learn more, but in the meantime, he had two ladies to entertain, hoping that he was giving Charlie enough time to find the storage locker they were looking for.

At another spot on the estate’s grounds, Charlie manipulated the slow-witted Pieter into telling her about his master’s locked storage sheds on the property and what might be in each of them.  Of course most of the manipulation took place as she casually disrobed before the elated younger man.  They were at a tree that was behind a structure which probably was a horse barn in an earlier era.  Next to the tree was a rustic picnic table.  That was where Charlie seductively stripped as Pieter watched slack jawed, another part of his body no longer slack at all.

“This is heavenly,” Charlie said, “relaxing here with the sun warming my body…makes me shiver all over.  Why don’t you join me?  Nobody will ever know.”  She helped the bumbling and mumbling man out of his clothes.  “Mmmm, you have a very fine piece of man-flesh there, Pieter.  Do you know how to use it?”

Before he could reply, Charlie draped herself over the table’s top and gave Pieter a target for his now throbbing member.  He indelicately took her from behind like that, cumming in exactly fourteen seconds.  A human woman would have been disappointed, or worse contemptuous of his premature climax, but it meant nothing to Charlie.  She used her oral skills to coax him back to being erect.  Having him sit at the picnic table, she straddled his lap and fucked him at a slower pace than he’d fucked her. No matter, he still came quickly and copiously.

“Sweet Jesus, Miss, you’re draining my seed from me,” he exclaimed after the last spasm of his spent manhood.

Squeezing all the right muscles, Charlie managed to convey her satisfaction as well as milk every last drop of his ejaculate.  When she stood to allow his cock to flop out of her, a convincing amount of semen dribbled down her thigh.  “You certainly produced a magnificent load,” she said, “and I am flattered by it.”  Little did he know that her specially constructed muscles accentuated the impression.  “Why don’t you relax while your master is away and enjoy the special feeling after wonderful sex?  I will find my way back to the house and see what my friend is doing.”

Pieter grinned mischievously and said, “We both know what he is doing.  The real question is with whom, and with how many.”  Charlie laughed for effect as she kissed him on the cheek and walked away, giving her buttocks a little extra shake for his benefit.

As soon as she was out of Pieter’s sight, Charlie went straight to the storage places to try the keys and get a look at the contents.  She would have seemed a blur if anyone were watching her.  Super quickly she opened each storage shed or locker in turn and reviewed their contents.  Pieter had been wrong in a few instances but basically there was nothing that made any sense as a national security concern.  Charlie puzzled over her discovery, or lack of it, and then realized she had the answer after all.  Fritz Lessing wasn’t a threat at all, and if they hadn’t followed the tenets of the Three Laws, he would have been an innocent victim.  The Agency only wanted the contents of the safe deposit box, opened by the only key John Irving had been interested in.  She had to find Elijah and tell him.

When Charlie reached the main house, she saw the trail of water that led from the pool into the house.  She followed it and came upon an orgy with Elijah at its center.  She estimated how long her partner had been in action yet she was beyond any amazement, since of course his stamina knew no human bounds.  As she stood on the fringe and watched, he alternated from one woman to another, their orgasmic cries echoing through the mansion.  Charlie figured that their ecstasy precluded them from questioning how a man could perform for such a long time, which was a good thing.  No one could be suspicious of them and their intentions.  Merely sex, she thought.

As predicted the lustiest woman was the one who wrote the note.  At Franci’s begging, Elijah easily switched from her vagina to her anus.  To Charlie’s keen eyesight, by the looks of them each orifice was well used already.  The other ladies and girls were languidly lying around the coupling duo, some giving the appearance they were spent while a few looked as if they were waiting another turn.  Franci’s cries grew louder, which got Charlie pondering the complexities of human sex and how pain and pleasure were somehow linked, since Franci’s wails could just as easily be from high agony.  Blond Liesel seemed to be next.  It will be a while, Charlie thought, before we can complete this part of the mission.

One of the older ladies, speaking in a heavy Slavic accent, pulled Charlie aside and asked her many questions about Elijah.  For some reason lost to Charlie’s logical ‘brain,’ she answered her with lies—lavish claims of famous ladies he’d bedded—before regaling the woman with wild exaggeration of their threesome with Lessing.

“The master is like that?” she asked, indicating that he doesn’t as a habit make sexual demands on the household staff, although adding that she herself would be repulsed by any such advances by her corpulent master.

Charlie said, “Perhaps your master is making his demands solely of the male staff,” motioning toward Elijah as he came all over Liesel’s upturned and yearning face.  The woman laughed and made a comment about wishing she could watch Lessing sodomizing his factotum Marcel, whom she clearly disliked.

The women were trying to convince petite Maria to have one more go with Elijah but she was adamant that he was too big for her and she couldn’t take another “ramming.”  This was Charlie’s moment to beg their leave and get Elijah away from here, since they had an answer to one puzzle.  Unfortunately that answer just created more questions.

During the cab ride back to the hotel, they discussed going home and how they would report on their mission.  Charlie held back on most of the details until they were back in their hotel room.  Once there, Elijah said, “There is one element of your analysis of the mission that is eluding me, Partner Charlie.  You point out that since we seemed to have caused no anxiety in the Agency for not terminating Fritz Lessing that they understood from the beginning we couldn’t do it because of our adherence to Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.  Then why give the order in the first place?  A test?”

“A test would not explain the order well enough.  I have not spoken of this to you but I calculate a better than seventy-percent probability that the Agency, or at least our handlers knew all along that Fritz Lessing was not a major player in international terrorism.  He obviously is well-to-do and lives beyond what any business could bring in.  Perhaps as we suspected he is nothing more than a banker to the criminal elements, laundering their money and providing other financial services.”

Elijah said, “Therefore logic would dictate that our entire mission was a sham—”

Charlie interjected, “Except for the key.”

“And along with the key comes duplicity on Mr. Irving’s part.”

“It appears likely, so we shall return home and focus on discovering if the duplicity is the Agency’s or John Irving’s alone.”  She hesitated for only a few seconds as she weighed the pros and cons of admitting something to her partner.  She decide and said, “I cannot claim any evidential logic in thinking this way, and I am loathe to accept such thinking as ‘intuition’ or ‘hunch’ as our makers would, but I believe the incident with Josef is connected to our dilemma somehow.”

“I am impressed by your ability to think as human’s do, but you are correct, I do not see any possible connection here.  The rogues who misused Josef were a separate concern with no foreseeable connection to John Irving.”

Charlie said a very human thing.  “We’ll see.”

“I surmise you have a plan.” he said.

“Partner Elijah, my plan is a very human plan, probably as old as the human race.”

Elijah responded with what a human would interpret as a knowing smile.

› š

Miriam sat quietly behind the big desk.  She knew she was doing a satisfactory job as a deputy director, but longed for the old field work, work that at her age would never come again.  “So this is what the pasture looks like,” she muttered under her breath, hoping the powerful microphones that recorded everything in her office didn’t pick it up.  Her thoughts turned to John Irving, her lover.  The man saved her twice and maybe if you counted her heart, three times.  However, lately he’d been withdrawn around her, making her wonder if the thrill of banging the spy lady had worn off on the younger man.  She vowed not to push things.  If it was over then so be it.  Maybe I should spend some time with the male android, she thought.  She’d heard enough about Elijah’s prowess and wondered if she could take him home for a night as Drew Wilcox had done with the female.

Her reverie was broken when her assistant announced that the mission debriefing would begin in ten minutes in the Secure Conference Room downstairs.  The SCR could not be breached by any known listening device technology, and if someone were to try to smuggle one in they’d probably fry (she’d seen the test data).

By the time she reached the SCR, which in many respects was the Agency’s “war room,” Carmichael, Irving, Wilcox, Charlie and Elijah were already seated around the large table.  Charlie was explaining how she had to turn off some circuits so the room’s defenses didn’t try to destroy her.  “Partner Elijah’s devices and circuitry are subtly different from mine and not a threat.”

Miriam spoke as everyone acknowledged her arrival, “You mean this room’s security measures would sense you are a spy threat?”

“After all,” Charlie said softly, “I do possess multiple recording technologies in my design.”

A few eyes turned to Dr. Wilcox, who knew all too well her recording capabilities.

“Let’s get on with it,” Miriam said in a voice that left no doubt who was in charge and who didn’t want to be sidetracked.

Charlie told the story of their mission, omitting only two items: the sexual details and their suspicions.  John was quick to push for why they chose not to terminate Fritz Lessing.  Charlie scoffed (while Dr. Wilcox raised his brow in surprise at her chosen tone of voice) “We know how you react to our adherence to Asimov’s laws, so I will explain in a different way.  My partner and I did not kill Mr. Lessing because he did not require killing.”

“What?” Miriam and John exclaimed in unison.

Charlie looked at Elijah, and he spoke.  “We are fully capable of making intelligent decisions in the field, and after analysis we found Mr. Lessing to not be a threat to national security.  The man may be a criminal but he is not a terrorist or security threat.”

Before anyone could reply, Charlie asked John “What did you discover in the safety deposit box?”

“There was no box.”

“But what of the key we made?  You surely found its home.”

“Yes, though that’s on a need to know basis,” John said, “but I disagree with your conclusion on Fritz Lessing.  All our intelligence tells us that he is a major threat, and let’s just say that anything we found with that key supports it.”

Charlie unexpectedly stood and said, “Then we are wrong.  If we are unable to make good decisions in the field then we are failures and should be deactivated.”

Miriam put her hands up and beckoned Charlie to sit back down.  “If I didn’t know better I’d call that last bit a snit.  Can an android have a snit, Dr. Wilcox?”

“Madam, a gynoid as sophisticated as Charlotte can behave anyway she wants, limited by what ethics like the Three Laws will allow.”

Miriam smiled and then turned her attention to John.  “You know as well as I do that our best intelligence is never one-hundred percent.  What you reported as finding in the…storage location…was disturbing, but I’m not convinced of the cause and effect.  The contents—which are classified so I cannot speak of specifics—could just as easily be explained as Lessing’s data gathering, perhaps for blackmail, rather than as part of a terror ring.  I know you disagree with me John, but I’m leaning toward the former.”

“As I said before, I respectfully disagree.  Let’s get past that and decide what the next action should be.”

Miriam looked at the others.  “Is there anything else we need to know about Lessing or the mission?”

Elijah opened his mouth to speak but a barely noticeable stern look from his partner changed his mind.  Instead, Charlie said, “No, Madam Deputy Director, we have disclosed all we learned.  I would like to suggest, though, that I spend some time with Mr. Irving, perhaps this evening, to learn as much as I can about his reasoning in this case, so I may be a better agent going forward.”

Miriam turned to John.  “You okay with that?”

“I…I guess so.”

“Nothing beyond her need-to-know, right?”

“No problem,” John replied, but his expression said otherwise, as he was puzzled by Charlie’s agenda.

Miriam saw the twinkle in Drew Wilcox’s eyes, reminded herself of what she already suspected, and said, “Perhaps I should invite Elijah to my place for the night.  I’m sure I could learn a few things myself.”

Elijah spoke up, “I would be happy to spend time with you, Madam Deputy Director.”

She smiled, “I was only kidding, Elijah.  Someday your AI will learn what that was all about.”

Little did she know that both androids were well ahead of her on that score.

› š

 “You really did go back and make every key from memory?” John asked Charlie on the ride to his Bethesda townhouse.

“Yes.  Why would we not be truthful?” she replied.  “We were suspicious because you were only interested in the one key almost from the beginning.  I saw possibilities in the others and wished to investigate further.  Our findings were invaluable because of what we didn’t find.”

“Because your search was a waste of time.  There was nothing to find.”

“Therein lies the failed logic of our mission.  We were instructed to insinuate ourselves into Mr. Lessing’s life on his estate, gather whatever intelligence on the man we could, copy keys, and then eliminate him.  If the Agency believed that no valuable intelligence existed on his estate, why were we specifically told to engage him there?  If eliminating him was of supreme importance, the action would have been much easier to accomplish elsewhere—and by someone else besides me and Elijah.  You and the Deputy Director knew beforehand that we could not kill a human.  Everything about the mission was illogical and therefore suspect.  Remember, we are protective of our own survival.”

“I’m sorry that I can’t explain all the reasoning, but rest assured we wanted no harm to come to either of you, especially after what you went through in Lafayette Park.”

“But surely you can tell me how much money was in the safety deposit box.”

“Who said it was money?  Oh shit damn, how did you know?”

“It’s the only logical explanation.”

They left the conversation there until they were inside his fashionable residence.  John offered Charlie a drink before realizing the lapse.  There was no need for her to correct him.  They sat together on a sofa after he’d poured himself a couple of fingers of single malt.  “So, did you engage Fritz Lessing to the max?” he said.

If she were with someone other than John Irving, a target perhaps, Charlie would have feigned a smile and pretended she didn’t get his meaning.  She wouldn’t pretend with John.  “We had three-way sex with Mr. Lessing, and he was rather fond of Elijah’s penis.”

“The guy really is a perv.”

“I’d say no.  He is bisexual leaning toward the gay side.  His staff is quite lusty, but there was no perversion to be seen.”

John choked on her ‘staff’ double entendre—one she didn’t get and he didn’t explain.  He then said, “Why did you really want to be here with me?  I suspect your motivation has nothing to do with picking my brain.”

“I do not fabricate reasons.  I indeed need to know more about the latest mission.  The truth, that is.”

“You heard the Deputy Director.  Some details are beyond your—” He was about to say “pay grade” but that was a poor choice of words in Charlie’s case.  “—need to know” he finally concluded.

“Don’t underestimate my AI capabilities.  I have already learned so much.”

“I cannot underestimate you, Charlie.”  Would he regret those words, he wondered?

It was late, so Charlie reminded John that she needed no sleeping arrangements.  “Forget I am here, John.  Perform whatever rituals you must to prepare for sleeping.  We will speak again in the morning.”

While John was in the bathroom, Charlie disrobed in his living room, carefully folding her clothes and placing everything on the back of an easy chair.  Another advantage over humans, she thought, I do not perspire so therefore my clothes remain somewhat odorless.  In the short term, for that reason there is no need of constant clothing changes.

When John reentered the room, he began to ask “Do you require anything—” when he saw her standing there, looking back at him.  To John, thinking of Charlie as the epitome of beautiful womanhood still shortchanged her.  He knew she was a machine, had seen her catastrophically damaged circuit board innards, and yet the natural male response kicked in unabated.

Charlie saw the bulge in his boxers and said, “Would you like me to supply release, John?  I am at your service if you so wish.”

His mental tug-of-war began, first thinking that no one would ever know, and then thinking that this was an elaborate trap and the bait was the amazingly beautiful, perfect ‘woman’ standing naked before him.  She biased everything by seductively walking to him and kissing him, her magnificent breasts pressing into his chest.  He knew who (or what) she was and yet every touch, every sensation sparked his arousal.  Right then, she was a ‘real’ woman.  He picked her up and carried her to the bedroom.

“How do you want me?” Charlie softly murmured, making the line sound much more seductive than it was on the surface, coming as it was from a gynoid built to serve.  He chose missionary.  She sensed he craved eye contact so Charlie gave him plenty.  On his knees he slowly fucked her while his hands touched various parts of her, marveling at how real—and perfect—she felt.  He never realized how close he was to cumming until Charlie gave her best imitation of a great orgasm and trembled, drawing every last drop of semen from him.

“Did you enjoy me?” Charlie asked for effect.  Of course she needed no affirmation of her skills, or his pleasure.

“Anything I say would be an understatement.”

“If I may remain in bed with you, you may enjoy me as often as you would like.”

“So you can do some sort of a playback to Miriam as blackmail?”

Charlie answered, “I remind you that I am governed by The Three Laws.  I am certain that if I were to confess what we did to the Deputy Director, she would be hurt, don’t you think so?”

John said slowly, “Yes…I think she’d be hurt.”

Then the First Law precludes it.  I cannot allow harm to come to a human, and even a direct order from you not to tell is meaningless since the Second Law to follow orders is trumped by the First Law.

“Then I guess I’m free to ask about your oral skills.” John said with a grin.

Charlie didn’t need to ask what he meant.  She showed him.

› š

The following day as she walked around the perimeter of the Agency’s campus with Elijah, Charlie told him everything she’d learned from her night with John Irving.  They used a subsonic frequency for most of the conversation so no one could spy on the spies.  “He admitted that the entire affair was all about money.  He knew Mr. Lessing wasn’t a terrorist all along.  He and his associates in the Agency wanted the money to fund other covert operations and knew that crooked Lessing couldn’t very well report the theft.”

“Then we were duped.”

“Yes, in more ways than one.  By stealing the money they set us up as the only visible connection Fritz Lessing and his associates in crime have to that day and the missing money.  We may have been Jacque and Elise but sooner or later they will find us.”

“What are the probabilities that Miriam Stone knew or sanctioned John’s actions?”

“My inputs suggest no greater than seventeen percent.  Therefore we can conclude she wasn’t in on it, and I suspect she’s worried the affair will blow up in hers and the Agency’s face.”

Elijah was silent for a moment before saying, “The Third Law is quite clear.  We can protect ourselves but not at a human cost.”

“For that reason,” Charlie said, “we must tread lightly around the First Law and get Deputy Director Stone involved in our dilemma.  If she knew and was part of the plan, so be it.  We may be deactivated but our survival has no guarantees.”

“I cannot think of deactivation…and to lose you as my partner.”

“Nor can I think of losing you, Partner Elijah.”

They walked on in silence until Elijah asked, “What if we harm Miriam by telling her what we’ve learned?”

“That is what I meant by treading lightly around the First Law.  I may not understand human emotions like love, but I believe there are worse harms for her than a broken heart.”

 

…to be continued

 

Donna M.

 

© 2013

 

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