Three’s Company

  She let out the most blood curdling, terrified scream he's ever heard as the gun goes off. Blood splatters out from her chest as she continues to scream. Breathing heavy she calms her hysteria, looking down at her chest she looks up at him.

  “Damn you! You twisted mother fucker!” She snarls. The red paint from the blood bag charge is still slowly expanding on her white blouse. He sets the revolver aside.

  “Well that's no way for a lover to speak.” He says with a smug grin. “I honestly thought you were a wetware host with some sort of advanced greyware to link you back to your stasis tank. But you're flying solo, aren't you? You have a fear of death like us all. Ironic, the clone is more human than the original.”

  “But why the blood bag?” She frantically spits out, her eyes wide, her system still amped up on adrenaline.

  “Wizbang has one as well, it was more an idea to get the other to talk while you're gagged. But the desperation to stay alive that you showed was pretty genuine. I wanted to see what else you'd say.”

  “So are you going to kill me?” She says. He can see her racing heart start to slow to a normal rate. Looking at her he can feel his brain pulling towards her, the dark, naturally curly locks, her olive skin, her ruby lips he would like to taste.

  Not your thoughts, Boss. Edgar speaks.

  Yeah, thanks for the reminder. He says.

  Deep within his mind a faint whisper comes forth, It's not Angela...

  He shakes his head.

  There's a clatter from the outer door; then footsteps coming up the stone steps. The pair enter the room, Tales walks over and looks at Nadine with a grin, “Well, are you having fun?” She says. Nadine just glares up at her.

  “She's a clone.” Bucket says.

  “Not a wetware host?” The Colonel asks.

  “Nope. I don’t have the knowledge to fully extrapolate the data but looking at it from the point of view of her being a clone, my eye is indicating cloned DNA.” Scanning Nadine deeper with his eye, she stares at him and smiles; his eye is telling him more than he wants to know about how her body is reacting to looking at him.

  “Bad news, Mr. X has been quite insistent we turn her over asap. He knows we took her.” The Colonel says.

  Nadine laughs, “Do I get a goodbye kiss, darling?” She says, blowing Bucket a kiss. Bucket puts the gag, ear muffs and hood back over her head.

  “What did you find out?” The Colonel asks.

  “Beyond she's kind of a bitch?” He lights a cigarette and takes a drag, “She's not just a clone, she seems connected to 808petra somehow. We won't find out more if she has to go back soon.” He stands there staring at her, wondering what possible intel she could have gotten from Wizbang, “So we're just going to hand her over?”

  “We have no choice. Let's try Wizbang, he might be willing to turn on her if he can see she's a Net Lord.” She says. Bucket starts to take the sack off his head then stops, turning to the desk he pulls a needle out from a bottle and fills it.

  “What's that?” Tales asks.

  “A sedative.” He injects Nadine, she goes limp and he drags her on the chair to in front of Wizbang. “Do you have any spare electronics here?”

  “Yeah, in the drawer by the workbench.” The Colonel says. He goes over to the workbench, pulling out a few servos and generic tech boards he carefully smashes them. Tales looks confused, the Colonel smiles. Placing the broken parts on Nadine's chest mixed in with the fake blood he dims the light by her and removes her hood, smearing some of the fake blood down her nose and chin. He then removes Wizbangs hood, earmuffs and gag.

  “Well Wizbang, what does it feel like to be a traitor?” Bucket says.

  Squinting in the low light he looks at her, “What the hell? Nononno, she is a robot?” He frantically says.

  “Was. Yeah, like one of the advanced robots at Madam Estelle's. Only more advanced, the Net Lords made her. No shame, Glitch and I were fooled as well.”

  He squints at her, “She was a robot?”

  “Well, you need to focus more on what you are, traitor.” The Colonel says.

  “No, she's real, what happened to her?”

  Bucket sighs, “Look man, do you think I would lie about putting it in a toaster?” He looks off to the side with the best look of embarrassment he can muster, “I killed her, well, more like permanently shut it down. She was just a robot.”

  “Wait, how?” He is showing a hint of doubt–or disbelief. Either way Bucket needs to not let him linger on trying to figure it out.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “New tech from the Net Lords. Anyways,” Bucket slowly loads bullets into his revolver, “Any last words, traitor?”

  “No! All I did was load some scripts for her.” Desperately he pleads his case. Bucket is still deciding how far to push him.

  “What about the leaked intel?” The Colonel asks, fishing for more info.

  “What leaked intel? All I did was load those two scripts. I swear!”

  “What about the negligence in the mission?” She says.

  “I...” He starts sobbing, “She said she wanted to see what I did, so I mirrored my system to her. She saw what I saw, I...I didn't mean anything by it, but she told me to do things. It was like I couldn't help myself, I just did what she asked, I couldn't help myself, and people died...” sitting there sobbing, Bucket looks at him with pity. Could he have resisted her will with the increased attraction from the mecha-nanobots altering his brain chemistry?

  He kneels down by Wizbang, “Ok, you need the truth,” He starts to untie him.

  “Bucket?” The Colonel questions.

  “Can you go get Glitch, and leave the three of us to chat?” He says. She looks at him with a perturbed look, “Unless you went through it you wouldn't understand. He had no control over his actions, Colonel.” She nods and leaves the room.

  “I really didn't mean... Bucket, it's like she cast a spell on me.”

  “I know, you're not far off. Just relax, I'll explain it all when Glitch gets here.” The two men sit there in silence. Standing there looking at her he gets vivid flashes of their time in bio-purge. He turns his back to her and smokes.

  A few long minutes later Glitch shows up.

  “Ok, we're all going to have a talk about the truth of Nadine.” Bucket says, looking at the men. He puts the hearing protection back on Nadine, not sure if she can hear them in her medically induced slumber.

  “That seems redundant, she's dead.” Wizbangs says.

  “No. First off, she's a clone.” Bucket says, Glitch looks at him with a quizzical look, ”Second of all she's not dead. It was fake blood, I had to get the truth out of what you know.”

  “Well that seems harsh...”

  Bucket scoffs, “Harsh? You have no idea what harsh is.” Glancing down at his right hand he continues, “She infected You, Glitch and I with mecha-nanobots. They change our brain chemistry in order to be attracted to her. I, all of us, were affected to do as she pleased. Glitch and I have it mostly out of our system, she likely has been reapplying it to you Wizbang.”

  “No... She loves me.”

  “Buddy, she doesn't.” Glitch says, leaning against the desk, “She's changed your brain, changed our brains. Tell me, did you and I ever have any issues getting along in the control room before she came in the picture?”

  “No, but... I love her... we are going to get married...” He pleads.

  “No. She was going to get you doing whatever she wanted. It'll take a couple of weeks to get it out of your system. It sounds like the dosage she used on you was much higher.” Bucket says. The poor bastard. It would be like someone telling him Emmy was a Net Lord. The more he talks with the guys the more he doesn't want to just let her go.

  You like Emmy a lot. Edgar says.

  Yeah. You're getting quite talkative, aren't you?

  Yes. I am Edgar, but I am also you.

  “Why would she do this to us?” Wizbang says.

  “Look man, she's one of them, all they live for is to fuck with us.” Glitch says, taking Wizbang by the shoulder he shakes him.

  “Yeah. It doesn't feel like she wanted intel that much, although who knows what she picked up from here, being around secure areas.” Bucket says. It feels like she saw him as a toy. When she convinced him to get into her side of bio-purge it felt like a game, more to see if she could convince him. She stirs. Bucket removes her earmuffs.

  “Oh, well, this is awkward. I don't suppose the three of you would want to...” She says with a coy smile.

  Wizbang's face turns red, contorted with rage, he lunges at her. Glitch and Bucket stop him. “You're evil! How could you do this to me?” He yells. They hold him back as she laughs.

  “If you really love me, darling, kill these two, then I'll be all yours.” She says with a gleeful laugh.

  “Glitch, take him out of here.” Bucket says.

  “Ok, come on man, she's not worth it,” Glitch grasps Wizbangs head, pressing his forehead to his, “She's not worth it. She got in our heads, it'll take a bit but you'll be free of her. Don't let her stay in your head. Come on, let's go.” He gestures towards the door, Wizbang stops struggling. Nadine laughs as the two of them leave.

  “Oh, my hero, you saved the damsel in distress!” She yells out as the door closes.

  “I should have let him through.” Bucket says.

  “But that's not what heroes do, is it? Now you are my hero, by default.” She says with a grin. Her mocking smile fades, looking up with saucer eyes, her lips pursed, “I have a secret.”

  “I'm sure you have many.”

  “I am not just a clone, I have a symbiotic relationship with 808petra. Now, right now, that contact is severed to avoid detection.” Looking up at him the tip of her tongue presses through her lips, the fake blood on her chin not doing a thing to dissuade the intent of her actions. She withdraws the tip of her tongue and continues. “But it was severed after bio-purge. She experienced bio-purge with us.” He turns his back to her.

  “I'm not surprised.” Bucket awkwardly says. He has an overwhelming, conflicting, urge to not want to be alone with her.

  “Oh, she likes you Bucket, I like you. She wants you.” She says in a smooth, sultry voice. “I want you. But darling, that's not the secret.”

  He doesn't want to know, but he has to. “What is it?”

  “Come closer and I'll tell you.” He turns back to her and steps forward, “Closer. It's a secret, secrets must be whispered.” He leans over, putting his ear to her mouth he feels the warmth of her moist breath, deep down he wants to turn his head, to taste her lips.

  “What is it?” He says in a wavering voice.

  In a low, sultry, velvet smooth voice he feels her whisper in his ear, ”The mecha-nanobots take 12 hours to alter the mind, they weren't influencing you in bio-purge.” He pulls back from her, stumbling. “It's an open offer if you want us, there are more then the two of us. The group of us, together, could do fantastical things.”

  There is the bang of the door opening. Startled, Bucket stands bolt upright as the Colonel enters. “Bucket,” The Colonel calls from the door, “Hooded men are here for Nadine.”

  “Good,” He says, looking down at Nadine she looks back with a lustful longing. “Lets get her the fuck out of here.”

  The Colonel, Tales, Bucket, Wizbang and Glitch are escorting Nadine to room 203 at the Last Port Inn. They knock, a hooded man opens the door and silently gestures them to enter. Three other figures are there.

  The cramped room has two double sized beds, the bedding made with the crisp neatness of an experienced inn maid. The tacky multitude of neon signs are powered off, there is a towel over the holo-projecter. The faint musty smell of the room is partially masked with the smell of a synthetic jasmine auto dispenser.

  The Colonel looks at some sort of communication device, Bucket doesn't recognize the tech and his eye doesn't give him much info on it. Scanning them Bucket can see they’re humans, not clones, with quite a lot of redundant communication implants and each armed with a revolver.

  “Thank you for a lovely time, you can all leave now...” Nadine's sentence is cut off with a gasp. She sharply exhales, spitting out blood. Her eyes wide, she falls to the floor.