Silicon Dawn (Silicon World Book 1) by W.H. Massa

Author:W.H. Massa [Massa, W.H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Critical Massa Publishing
Published: 2017-09-26T06:00:00+00:00

17

There was an otherworldly quality about the night as Malveaux stepped from her building to take out the trash. She felt groggy from the wine and still couldn’t believe she’d opened up to her new partner like that. Her mech partner. Embarrassment mixed with a surprising sense of relief. A burden had been lifted.

She was about to head back to her apartment building when excited shouts caught her attention. Following the sounds, she entered the alley that flanked the left side of her building and spotted four teens. The group of young men formed a circle around a figure splayed on the ground. Cold laughter infused the night as each one of them took turns kicking their downed victim.

A growing anger stirred inside Malveaux as she closed in on the crowd. In mid-stride she scooped up a steel pipe from the trash-strewn alley, arming herself for what lay ahead. Fury shook her as she said, “What the hell are you punks doing?”

The teens whirled.

For a second they stood their ground, but something about Malveaux’s intensity gave them pause. They were locals and they knew she was a police officer. She was hoping they’d cop an attitude. Then she could make them pay for picking on some defenseless victim. But the kids backed off.

“Hey lady, chill out, it’s just a fucking mech.”

Malveaux looked down. Peering up at her was a sanitation mech. The robot’s arms and legs were missing, its wires spilling over the alley like intestines.

A fucking mech.

The kid’s words echoed in her head. She’d said them more than once, but they carried a different meaning for her now.

The lights in the X-2000’s eyes dimmed and went dark. The destroyed machine stopped moving.

He’s not like Adam, she reminded herself. He’s not alive, not really.

She tried to ignore the thought but failed. Was Adam alive? With each passing day, she was becoming convinced that his consciousness wasn’t some clever side-effect of his programming. Synthetika wasn’t pulling off some magic trick here—they’d created a new form of honest-to-God life. Adam might be a machine, but his emotions and thoughts were as real as hers.

The sickly-sweet scent of rotten fruit drifted from a nearby dumpster, and Malveaux reeled with a growing sense of nausea. Damn, her head was spinning. She definitely wasn’t in any shape to contemplate loaded philosophical questions. Malveaux cast the steel pipe aside, the metal echoing in the alley, and returned to her apartment.

Once inside, she headed straight for her bedroom. The wine had made her drowsy; sleep would come easily this evening. She removed her jacket and shoulder holster and draped her pistol over a chair next to her dresser. She turned toward the bedroom mirror…and froze. A figure lurked behind her in the shadows like a statue. The intruder must’ve entered her home when she’d taken out the trash, biding his time in the dark until she returned. An eerie mask made of a latex-like material covered the figure’s entire face, two insectile eyepieces suggesting its night-vision capabilities.

Before she could react, he snapped a wire around her neck.

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