Anarchy Found (SuperAlpha, #1)(19)

“Date?” I ask, stepping out of the elevator and turning back to look at him.

“The stars, Masters.” He points upward. “You can’t say no to that. Every woman deserves to see the stars from the top of a castle.”

And then the doors close and he disappears from view.





Chapter Eleven - Lincoln




“Goddammit.”

“How can I assist, Mr. Wade?” Sheila is hovering over me, a worried expression on her semi-transparent face. “What do you need? I hate seeing you so upset.”

“I’m not upset, and I don’t appreciate that whole Mr. Wade routine,” I say. “You’re pissed off about my decisions, but it’s not up to you, Sheila. And I know what I’m doing. So no more passive-aggressive bullshit, OK? I’m busy.”

She’s silent after that and I’m left feeling like a class-A prick. I’m frustrated. Sexually frustrated. That detective has been on my mind non-stop since last night. But taking it out on Sheila is the wrong way to handle it. “Sorry,” I say. “You can’t help, Sheils, you know that.”

I wish she could. At least with the engineering stuff and the lab work. I have a few robots in the labs, but they have no intelligence. They just do what you tell them to do. Sheila has intelligence but she has no physical body.

For a genius, I sure didn’t think that one through. But I never figured on being in this position, did I? It’s been a dream for fifteen years. Something Case and I talked about, but never thought we’d see. And then Thomas appears—not physically at first, just in email—and he offers us everything we need to do what we always said we would.

I don’t care what Sheila thinks about it, I’m on board. And maybe Thomas is a dick and I don’t like him, but I don’t have to like him to take what he’s offering.

“It’s to the left,” Sheila says as I blindly search for the wrench I’m looking for on the ground. I find it with my gloved fingers. My hands are sweating like crazy.

It’s the stress. It’s the job. It’s the girl.

I really do need to make Sheila some kind of solid body when I get the time. Something with hands so she can expand her duties. Right now she’s perfection when it comes to computers and weapons. She runs all the automated systems in the cave. And I have several small robots used for cleaning that she’s wired into, so they are busy all hours of the day and night. She runs the bikes, and the car, and the helicopter.

But she cannot hand me tools. And the biology bot I call Hammer, despite his name, can’t do shit in that department either. He’s the largest robot I own at the moment. But he’s contained inside the inner labs. Stationary and mounted to a bench. He’s really just an arm with half a brain.

I sigh to stop myself from cursing too much as I try to fix the bike that Case f*cked up last weekend. I had to take the whole engine apart and rebuild, and that’s just the mechanical damage. The body work is something else altogether. If Hammer was mobile… if Sheila was solid…

But wishing aside, there’s no one here but me and these bits of computer code. So I go it alone. As usual.

“Why not just build a new one?” Sheila asks, still hovering over me like a mother. “The prototype is ready for engineering.”

“I don’t have time,” I growl through a wrench between my teeth.

“You need an automatic engineering system.”

“No shit.”

“That way we can work harder for you.”

Fucking Sheila. I stop what I’m doing and look up at her. She smiles. And goddamned if she isn’t the perfect replica of a human woman in her holographic form. I’d never be able to assemble something like that. It pains me to think of reducing her to a tin can of nuts and bolts like Hammer. “You work plenty hard, Sheils. I’d be sued for violation of labor laws if you were human.”

“I’m not human. And I enjoy working. I can’t work enough. What is rest to me but time spent being idle?” She cocks her head at me.

“Well, one day. When things quiet down, I’ll have time to build more. But right now I just need to make do with what I have.”

“We have all the parts, Lincoln. I inventoried everything in stock at the moment, and your new prototype could be assembled in seven days if you gave me control of your engineering lab.”

“Control how?” I growl, still trying to concentrate on the task at hand.

“If you gave me owner access to the entire lab, I’d recode the cleaning bots to build parts. Then I’d recode the AI program in this bike and transfer it to that bike.” She stands and points to the holographic image of my dream. The perfect motorcycle. Sleek, aerodynamic, powerful, and well-equipped.

Weaponized, is the word I’m looking for. This bike, the one I’m working on, has no built-in weapons. But if Sheila could…

“I can do it,” she says, like she’s reading my mind. “Just give me access and I will get to work. Then you can stop spending so much time in here and get out a little more. Mr. Reider sent me a reminder earlier that you’re expected at a party tonight in the city.”

“He’s out of his mind,” I snap. “I’m not going to a party being held by Thomas. I’m not his f*cking dog. I’m not at his beck and call. I’m not—”