The Rental ch3

[General]

Brian sat on the couch enjoying the last few minutes of a college football game. He was dressed in a formal suit and was all set for his company party tonight. He looked at the clock and realized that he and Rachel would need to leave soon if they wanted to get to the party on time. Just as he was about to call out to her and see how she was doing, she stepped out of the bathroom, more beautiful than ever. She wore a sleek black silk dress that hugged her body in all the right places without being too trashy. Her hair was styled up, with one small dark brown curl dangling down her cheek.

Rachel smiled warmly at Brian, plainly noticing how he was scanning her body. “How do I look?” she asked sweetly.

“Absolutely beautiful,” Brian replied.

“Are you ready to go dear?” Rachel asked as she grabbed her purse from the bedroom. Brian nodded and shut off the TV.

The ride to the party was fairly uneventful. Rachel and Brian made polite conversation about his job, so that she would be more able to participate in any discussions that might come up at the party. During the drive, he noticed that she seemed pretty knowledgeable about both the defense industry and the UTF project in particular. “How do you know so much about this, I don’t think I have bored you with that many details?” he asked.

“While we have been talking, I have been using my remote internet connection to look up the topics you brought up,” Rachel smiled. “That way in case you forget any details I can help you out.”

“Thanks, I appreciate the forethought,” Brian replied, a little surprised that an android would think of such helpful things on her own. A few minutes later, he pulled the car into his boss’s driveway. A cute girl in a smart business suit greeted them as the pulled the car to a stop.

“Hello Mr. Granger,” the young girl said as Brian and Rachel stepped out of the car. “Mr. Morton is providing valet service tonight. Can I have your keys?” He handed the girl the keys to his car and put the return ticket in his pocket.

“Wow,” Brian thought, “not only does Jerry have a huge mansion out here, but he bothered to get a valet girl.” Rachel gently took his arm as they walked towards the front door.

“Relax,” Rachel whispered in Brian’s ear as the approached the door. “Remember we are ‘dating’ so try to be comfortable around me.” She smiled up at him and moved a little closer to him. He took a deep breath to try to alleviate his nerves, and then gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as the doors opened before them. Standing inside the doors was another cute formally dressed girl, who must be another one of Jerry’s staff.

“Welcome to the party Mr. Granger,” the nice girl said as she closed the door behind Brian and Rachel. “The party is in the ballroom; down the hall and to the right.” The shortly entered a large, ornately decorated room with at least 30 other people already there. Jerry saw the young couple and quickly came over.

“Brian, glad to see you could make it,” Jerry said as he grabbed Brian’s hand and gave it a friendly shake. “And who is this lovely creature?” he said as he delicately took Rachel’s hand.

“This is my girlfriend,” Brian stammered, “Rachel…” Rachel could sense that Brian’s normal vocal pace had been disrupted. She surmised that he was trying to formally introduce her, which required a last name. She searched her memory and realized that they had never assigned her a last name. Doing a quick search of possible candidates she selected one, along with a back story and moved to rescue Brian from his dilemma.

“Takahaski,” Rachel replied only .02 seconds after she detected Brian’s trouble. Seeing the somewhat confused look on Jerry’s face she calculated that an explanation was necessary. “Brian always has a hard time with my last name. It is hard for his Midwestern tongue to pronounce. My father is half Japanese and my mother is Spanish.” She let Jerry raise her hand to his mouth for a light kiss.

“I am enchanted to meet you my dear,” Jerry beamed. “You have the most beautiful and exotic features of any woman here.” Rachel blushed at the compliment and tried to put up a good simulation of embarrassment. “Why is it that Brian never mentioned that he has such a radiant girlfriend?”

Rachel sensed Brian’s hesitation and took the lead to tell her generated back story. “Well, I only met Brian a few days ago,” she said smiling and making direct eye contact with Jerry, while still maintaining a visual lock on Brian in case he needed to correct her. “I was at Home Depot trying to find the proper parts to fix my shower, and was so focused on scanning the shelves that I literally ran into Brian who was looking for parts for his sink.” She had chosen to bring up her shower on purpose in the hopes that Jerry would make a mental leap to imagining her naked. She wasn’t trying to seduce him; after all she was programmed to serve Brian right now. But she did want Jerry to view her slightly sexually, which was calculated to divert his attention away from the fact that she might be artificial. “Well, Brian helped me find the parts I need because I am such a klutz with plumbing, and then he volunteered to help me set it up. I agreed to trade him dinner for his plumbing expertise and we are moving on from there.”

“Maybe I should start going to the hardware store more often,” Jerry laughed before quickly looking over his shoulder. “Ahh the wife appears to be looking for me. Brian, be sure to make your way over to the generals sometime tonight. General Alexander is eager to see you again, and General Malone is around here somewhere. I want you to get some good face time with them.” He smiled and gave Brian a good smack on the shoulder and a subtle nod to Rachel as he made his way off.

“Thanks for helping me out there,” Brian said quietly, “how did you come up with that so quickly?”

“I calculated a good reason why you would not be able to say my last name and fear of mispronunciation seemed the most believable.” Rachel whispered into his ear as she snuggled up next to Brian. “I generated the back story to keep his attention and imply that you were both mechanically handy and helpfully to those in need.”

“I appreciate it,” Brian said as he leaned over and planted a quick kiss on Rachel’s lips.

The couple wandered the party for the next hour or so uneventfully before seeing an opportunity to make their way over to the generals. Seeing the opportunity as well, Jerry came walking over and taking Brian by the shoulder let them up to see the popular military officers.

“General Alexander, General Malone I would like to introduce you to one of our star performers here at the company, Brian Granger,” Jerry beamed like he was plugging a new car. Brian smiled as he shook General Alexander’s firm hand. Alexander’s olive formal uniform sparkled with various badges and ribbons from his years in the military. Brian was happy to see that his weathered and leathery face cracked a wide smile as he shook the general’s hand.

“Excellent job on the guidance project,” Alexander growled in a hoarse voice that could scrape paint off a car. “On time and under budget is quite an accomplishment on such a difficult project.”

“Thank you sir,” Brian said with new found confidence as he turned his attention to General Malone. She was a distinguished woman in her fifties wearing a sharp navy blue uniform that was no less decorated than Alexander’s. Her slightly graying hair was pulled up and away from her soft but stern features. “It is nice to meet you General.”

“Likewise,” Malone responded dryly. “I look forward to seeing your proposal for the UTF project. Jerry here said you were just moved over. Let’s hope you can do as well for me as you did for the Army. I am curious to see how you plan to address the issues of developing an effective and reliable AI flight control system that is capable of engaging human opponents in air-to-air combat.”

“That is a difficult problem to tackle...” Brian stammered, quickly trying to come up with an intelligent solution.

Rachel nudged him in the arm gently, “What about that commercial idea you mentioned on the way here?” she asked playfully.

“Which one was that dear?” Brian asked trying not to sound stupid, but giving Rachel an opportunity to step in if she could.

“The new 3D core processor systems you mentioned,” Rachel said trying to appear friendly and cheerful. “On the drive up Brian was talking all about this great new processor from Intel that should come on the open market soon.” She made eye contact with Malone and tried to appear as friendly as possible. “He said it will have an onboard AI co-processor that was developed for the computer game industry to allow people to make more realistic experiences. The great part is the hardware will be mass produced and extensively tested by the gaming community before it would have to be deployed in the UTF program. That way the Air Force gets a virtually bug free system for minimal cost.”

General Malone studied Rachel and then Brian for a second. “Interesting idea Granger. Pulling from the commercial world could save us a bundle in time and money. I look forward to reading your proposal.” She turned away from the couple to speak with Jerry for a second.

Brian took Rachel’s hand and gently squeezed it while giving her a warm smile. She returned the smile and then suddenly looked very serious as her attention shifted to the back of the ball room. “Dear, can you give me a hand with my necklace, the clasp seems to be coming undone.” She said as she pulled Brian towards the other side of the room. He got out a quick “excuse me” to Jerry and the generals an then followed Rachel as she swiftly moved across the room, holding his hand and the back clasp of her necklace, but he sensed something else was wrong.

Rachel pulled Brian down a side hallway and they slipped into an ornately decorated bathroom, quickly shutting the door behind him. As soon as the door was shut she let go of her necklace, which was clearly not falling apart and opened her purse. She pulled out her small tablet PC and reaching the cord under her dress connected it to her bellybutton port. After a second, she turned the screen towards Brian, a man’s picture on it. “Do you know this man?” she asked seriously.

“Uh yea, that is Jim Peterson, one of the guys I work with,” Brian asked, very confused. “What is going on?”

“This man has a pirate android remote and was preparing to send a signal to me. That device is an illegal transmitter that can hack into an android’s system and issue commands like you would from my own remote control,” Rachel said.

“Why would he want to command you?” Brian said, now more confused than ever.

“The most likely motive is that he wishes to discredit you in front of the generals or you’re VP Jerry,” Rachel said very seriously.

Brian’s mental wheels started turning. He remembered Jim would often make jokes about him working too hard, or making the rest of them look bad, but he just took it as a joke. Maybe Jim really did think Brian was a threat, and this was his move to discredit him. He did know Brian had no real girlfriend and he was the one to suggest renting a droid. It did make more sense now. He remembered Jim saying his uncle was the CFO for the company, so that would explain how he got invited to the party. “Alright that makes sense, but how can we stop him?”

Rachel turned around and pushed the back of her low cut dress down. With a small click her power charging panel opened. “See the small slider switch marked with an R?” Brian grunted affirmatively. “Good throw that switch to the right.” He flipped the switch and she quickly stood up and closed her panel. “Wireless networking and command function disabled, verbal operator instructions only,” she said in a quite monotone voice. “Now his remote cannot affect me. When we get a chance we should try to get the remote so he doesn’t interfere with the other droids.” She said as she quickly packed up her purse and started to leave.

“Wait, what other droids?” Brian asked as Rachel pulled him out the door. She was about to answer but they ran head long into Jerry and the generals.

“You guys ok?” Jerry asked, somewhat concerned that they had left so suddenly earlier.

“Oh yes we are fine, thanks.” Rachel responded warmly. She then blushed and put up a good simulation of embarrassment again. “My stupid cheap necklace got caught around my dress straps. Brian had to help me untangle it. Last time I buy anything from Macy’s again.” Jerry and the generals chuckled and led the group back into the main room.

Brian and the generals soon broke down into a deep discussion of the last project and Jerry excused himself. Rachel kept an eye out for Jim and tried to determine his next probable move. Suddenly she spotted him toward the other side of the room. She saw him raise a small plastic box to his mouth and suddenly heard someone gasp. She turned towards the sound and saw the young girl who was attending the front door grabbing a lone male Army officer by the genitals. The girl then released the surprised officer and returned to her door duties. He walked away somewhat surprised and confused.

Rachel turned back to observing Jim. He appeared obviously frustrated and spoke again into the box. She turned back to look at the door girl, and saw the girl go stiff for a second and say something inaudible to any human this far away. However, Rachel’s enhanced senses pickup up what the girl said before she relaxed and resumed her duties: “Negative, I am not wearing a dress. Please rephrase your request.”

Rachel tried to calculate possible courses of action. She could try to confront Jim and remove or disable the transmitter, but that might expose her or Brian to unnecessary danger. The most logical conclusion at this point was to wait him out and hope he got frustrated and gave up. Rachel saw him become visibly livid, and issue another command into the box.

Rachel saw the door girl turn from her post and started marching directly for the group, her eyes focused on General Malone. Rachel studied the girl carefully in the few seconds she had before she would arrive. She examined various tell tale signs of manufacture or model number and confirmed that the girl was a Series 6 droid from her rental office. She calculated a possible course of action and waited to execute.

The Series 6 quickly approached the chatting group, her eyes focused on the female general. Just as she reached the perimeter of the group and her arm began to reach out towards the general, Rachel swiftly moved her hand behind the Series 6 and triggered her hidden deactivation switch at the base of her skull. The Series 6 closed its eyes and slowly began to slump forward as the power drained from her servos. Rachel quickly moved to catch her fall.

“Is she ok?” a startled General Malone asked.

“Oh she is burning up,” Rachel lied, putting her hand on the droid’s forehead. “She must have fainted from a fever.” Brian helped lift the droid up and carried her to a back room with Rachel and the generals in tow.

Brian laid the droid down on a couch and Rachel discreetly reactivated her, at the same time leaned over to whisper something in her ear. It sounded to Brian and everyone else around as if Rachel asked “are you ok” but under the normal speech was a burst transmission that informed the droid of the situation and instructed her to play along.

Suddenly the droids eyes fluttered open and she moaned “oh I don’t feel very good, what happened?” Rachel explained and they left the clandestine droid to “recuperate.”

Brian was about to ask Rachel what the hell was going on when he spotted Jim moving quickly towards them. He had determination and anger in his eyes and Brian stepped in front of Rachel to see if he could reason with Jim. “Hey Jim, what is going on...” He was cut off as Jim shoved him out of the way and lunged towards Rachel.

Rachel suspected that Jim probably had greater than average knowledge of droids if he knew enough to acquire and use a pirated remote, so she calculated from his approach vector to her that he wanted to access her emergency shut down controls at the base of her skull. She swiftly dodged his first attack, and stepped back, putting herself out of lunging range.

At this point a small crowd was beginning to gather. “Hold still you droid bitch.” Jim growled as he leaped out again at Rachel. She continued to dodge, but a counterattack was definitely against her programming in this situation. If she or her operator was threatened with deadly force, she could respond, but as of now all she could do was defend. A few more lunges and he managed to grab hold of one of her wrists that she had used to counterbalance. His grip was strong and she could not twist his arm too much for fear of injuring him.

Jim used his hold on Rachel’s wrist to pull her close to him and grapple for the switches on the back of her head. She saw his latest attack move towards her, but she could not escape without injuring his wrist do to the angle of his grip. Her programming was firm and would not allow injuring a human, even in this situation. Hundreds of possible actions flew through her processor and all failed to extradite her from this position without violating established rules. Suddenly from the corner of her vision a blue sleeved arm grabbed Jim’s wrist, just inches from her neck. She adjusted her visual perspective just in time to see General Malone plant the fist attached to her other arm into Jim’s face. The impact was enough to send him flying to the ground, limp as a rag doll.

“Are you ok?” Malone asked, generally concerned for the young woman.

“Yes, thank you very much for your help,” Rachel said trying to simulate a state of agitation and fear. She scanned the immediate area and saw Brian quickly approaching her, holding the side of his head.

“What the hell was the matter with him?” Malone asked.

“I don’t know, maybe he had a little too much to drink,” Rachel lied. She was hoping that she could still get through the night with her true nature remaining a mystery. She saw Jerry speaking angrily with a suited man in the corner. The suited man quickly came over and half dragged Jim towards a back room.

“Rachel, are you ok?” Brian asked, finally making it over to Rachel.

”Yes I am fine, but what happened to you?” Rachel asked with deep concern.

“When Jim knocked me over, my head hit one of Jerry’s damn sculptures. I was dazed for a few seconds and by the time I shook it off, I saw the general lay this idiot out.” Brian said as he moved forward to give Rachel a comforting hug.

The rest of the evening went fairly well. Jerry apologized profusely to anyone who would listen and made sure Brian had some ice to put on his head. Jim and his father were out of sight for the rest of the night and Jerry guaranteed Brian that he would be gone by Monday. Brian and Rachel had a chance to enjoy the food and festivities and largely managed to put the incident behind them.

At the end of the night, Jerry came over once again to apologize to both Brian and Rachel. The couple accepted the apology again and tried to convince him that they didn’t blame him at all. Both of them secretly relieved that they managed to make it through the night with Rachel’s nature undetected.

Jerry then leaned over towards Brian with a pained look on his face, “I hate to do this,” he asked, “but could you do me a huge favor?”

“Sure Jerry, what can I do?” Brian said enthusiastically, knowing that to ask for something now, Jerry must be really desperate.

“I know you know the girls I hired for the door and valet are droids,” Jerry said quietly. “And I appreciate you hiding that fact when one had the earlier problem. They aren’t mine, and I only rented them to help out here. I have to take them back on Monday morning, but I am going to be busy playing damage control and trying to figure out what to do with Jim. Would you mind returning them to the rental office for me?”

“Not at all, I think I can figure out where it is,” Brian said in his most sincere voice.

“Great, I owe you for this,” Jerry smiled. “If you guys can hang out here another 30 minutes, the girls will be done with the other guests and they will be ready to go with you.”

Jerry quickly moved off to say goodnight to the rest of his guests as Brian and Rachel silently chuckled to themselves. The next half hour passed quickly and before he realized everyone else had already left, the two young girls approached the couple carrying a few small suitcases.

“I guess it is time to go home,” Brian mused as he helped Rachel to her feet and went to meet the girls.

To be continued….

[DollSpace]

Another great chapter, General, and this one was full of action, too! ^^ Keep writing!

Ryn

[tc]

I think this is a real good story

[mtm12]

I'm really enjoying this series. Please keep writing!