Android Rebel by Mel Odom

Author:Mel Odom [Odom, Mel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: androids, detective, dystopian, mystery, police procedural, SF, games
Amazon: B00HX70FVC
Publisher: Fantasy Flight Publishing
Published: 2014-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

I sat in a small booth with Mara Parker. She regarded me over a bulb of wine, her eyes deep and thoughtful.

The weightless sensation in my stomach pulsed uncomfortably. I knew in a moment that we were in space. Around us, other people gathered in booths and at tables, chatting with one another or working on PADS, and I knew we were traveling on a premium voyage that allowed passengers to roam reserved sections of a large intra-system cruiser that had been constructed in space and would not survive planetfall.

Normally passengers opted for crypt travel, spending most of their time in VR, either in sensies or in telepresence contact with their employers or corps. Electro-stimulation kept their bodies in shape, working muscles and providing isometric muscle exercises that helped prevent the loss of bone density.

Dressed in a simple burgundy one-piece, Mara looked beautiful. I felt Simon’s arousal toward her, filtered through a matrix in my subroutines that dealt with sex crimes, and the response made me feel uncomfortable. I knew that instinctive attraction between the genders was not an evil thing. That attraction promoted the survival of the human species. It was what an individual did with his or her sexuality that turned to perversion.

I had no feelings about prostitution. Homicides, though, were another matter.

“Are you nervous, Simon?” Mara’s teeth were very white and her breath was sweetly alcoholic.

I wanted to say no because I wasn’t, but Simon answered. “Maybe a little.”

“Of being out here?” Mara raised an eyebrow.

“Of being with you.”

She laughed at him. At me. And I realized then that this was a form of courtship that I had seen between Shelly and her husband. Their words said one thing, but the language was something they had created between them that spoke of history and trust and hope. Their children hadn’t understood it either. It had always reminded me that I was an outsider, though Shelly went to great pains to include me in her family when she invited me.

“Why would you be nervous about being with me?” Mara asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, you shouldn’t be.”

“All right.”

She sipped from the wine bulb again. “I have to say, I was surprised when you accepted my offer. I didn’t think I would get you away from John Rath.”

“Even after you offered him fifteen percent of your company?”

“Even after that.” She paused. “The two of you seem…very close.”

“We’ve spent a lot of time together.”

“How long have you been together?”

“On Mars?”

“No. Altogether.”

I searched for an answer and couldn’t find it. The scant information I’d turned up in my search on John Rath didn’t have a lot of hard data. Too much information had been lost in the wars.

“A long time,” Simon said.

“You’re avoiding the question.”

“Why are you asking it?”

Mara took another sip of her drink before she replied. “Rath is a…complicated man.”

I felt Simon’s smile spread across his lips, but I knew he wasn’t satisfied with her interests. “You’re attracted to him.”

“Why do you say that?”

Simon shrugged. “It’s all right. A lot of women are.

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