CHAPTER SEVEN—USUAL SUSPECTS

John’s heart rate was increased, but so far this was nothing. But even in such a casual movement of illicit intent, he could be stopped or even found out.

As he walked the luxurious corridors of the inner VIP areas he passed a reception desk and didn’t even bother to glance at the woman behind the counter. Luckily she was staring at her screens and said nothing.

In such high quality attire, he practically screamed “billionaire” and men like him—or women for that matter—were the upper crust of society. They were rarely bothered.

And yet John could have been a pauper that lived out of a shipping container on the side of the river and still he would have made it past. Having the correct appearance and easy self-assured confidence often went a long way to fooling the system. That system being people.

And it worked.

He grinned to himself as he moved toward the office of the President of Sales, PR and Corporate Acquisitions.

Damn, he thought, that is a mouthful. They gotta come up with a shorter title for all that.

And perhaps he had one, but that’s not what May had told him. He turned the bed where some fancy live plants were growing under some artificial UV rays and came to the Thalaway’s office doors. He found the secretary’s desk empty, as he thought he would.

Glancing about, he stepped through the office doors and they swished softly. The room was dark, elaborate with android art and other technical pieces on display, no doubt worth billions. The woman on the floor moved somewhat, but she seemed dazed.

John’s eyes caught May’s high heels as she sat at ease cross-legged on the sofa.

“Hey,” she said. “You made it.”

“Yeah,” John said with a nod.

“Watch out,” May said as she got up. “I told Kyle to let Thalaway lead him here. I’m sure they’ll arrive shortly.”

John nodded while he simultaneously pulled out his little container containing the pharma syringes he and Kyle sometimes used to incapacitate people they didn’t want to kill. He bent and stuck the bodyguard in the thigh. She didn’t even seem to notice before her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

“She’s out?”

“Cold.”

“That’s not bad. I need some of those fancy syringes.”

John handed her one. “Here—for the secretary.”

“So I can just stick her anywhere?”

With a short grin, John shrugged. “I guess, but its best in the upper arm, thigh or the gluteus.”

“The gluteus,” she said with a wink and a click of the tongue as she made a shooting motion with her forefinger.

“Don’t let Max catch you like that.”

May chuckled. “Watch the door.” She went into the restroom. John grabbed the bodyguard and pulled her closer to the restroom door where she wouldn’t be seen by anyone entering the office suite.

After he moved the unconscious woman, he glanced at the darkened windows. He suspected that had he hit the button to opaque the shades, an excellent view of the Invera-Tech Industries complex would be visible from the office.

The door opened and he pushed himself against the wall, glanced back and put his finger to his mouth.

May nodded and they both took their pistols out of their holsters.

A man stepped past John and then glanced back at him with wide eyes. “What? Who are you, and what are you—“

Kyle pushed him, forcing Thalaway to almost lose his balance as he caught himself near his desk.

Stolen novel; please report.

John stepped into the middle of the office space. “We want our AI back,” John said, feeling like he wanted to hit this guy across the face. “No games.”

“That’s right,” May said from behind as she came out of the restroom.

Thalaway gaped at them. “What the hells?!” he said. “I don’t know what you’re—“

John sighed heavily, feeling impatient with all this. Kyle seemed to realize that and he grabbed Thalaway by the back of the neck. “No games!” Kyle said.

John put his hands on his hips. “We know your man, De Brossier has her.”

“Tell him to come here,” May said. She stepped forward and sidled up to Thalaway to his right near the couch. “Or we might have to get physical—and I don’t mean physical like how you get with the girls that come up here.”

He looked at them, eyes wide and his mouth hanging open.

“I think it went dumb,” Kyle said.

May grinned. “I think you might be right. Let’s put him in his chair so we can smack some color back into this fish.”

Kyle laughed, moved quickly to get the chair. “You sound like me.”

“No,” May said. “It’s you that sounds like me.”

Kyle rolled the chair so fast that when he hit Thalaway in the back of the thighs he fell and slammed into it, his head swiveling left and right as if he were trying to keep his eyes on all of them at once in case one of them got the cute idea to lunge forward and rip a few of his slimy scales off.

“Now listen,” he said, his tone sounding completely reasonable. “I am certain we can come to some kind of an agreement.”

“Yeah,” John said. “We want our AI back.”

“And undamaged!” Kyle said. He then thrust his hand into Thalaway’s Jacket and yanked his mobile device out. He smacked it against the guy’s chest and it slid down his shirt.

Thalaway grabbed at it quickly before it fell to the floor.

“De Brossier,” John said. “You might think you just stole a piece of priceless tech, but she means a hells of a lot more to us than that.”

“Yeah, way more than a hells of a lot to some of us,” Kyle said.

John glanced at him sardonically, and once again added, “De Brossier!”

“We’re not going to keep asking you,” May said. “Now, or we’ll shoot your balls off!” She pulled back the slide on her Miatsu but not far enough to let the bullet eject. Then she let it slam back for dramatic effect. The clank of the slide actually made Thalaway jerk with a physical reaction.

“Damn,” Kyle muttered.

“All right”—he nodded quickly—“all right. I’m calling him!” The call went through. “De Brossier… I need you to come to my office…. Yes. No—bring the AI… Yes.”

Then he hung up.

May smiled. “Good.” Then she smacked him over the forehead with her pistol, causing him to convulse once before falling unconscious in his chair. “That’ll teach you to steal from us.”

“That’s right,” Kyle said. He then patted Thalaway down. “He’s not armed.”

“I wouldn’t expect him to be,” John said. He took in a deep breath. He was worried about Lexa. Though this was not a life or death situation for her, as her core was in the penthouse. But still—he was extremely uncomfortable with an android corp like Invera-Tech having any copy of her in their data banks, even if it was only a foreword buffer portion.

“Don’t worry,” Kyle said. “That De Brossier douche is going to come in here and we’re going to give him the exact same treatment as our pal Thalaway here.”

“I’m sure Lexa will be fine,” May said.

“Do I seem that worried?”

Kyle raised an eyebrow as an annoying little grin popped across his features. May just shrugged diplomatically.

“And now we wait,” John said.

“Yeah,” May said as she stepped behind Thalaway’s desk. “I want to see what’s going on here. You know Strogaus has dealings with Invera-Tech, right?”

“Seriously?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah.”

“Is that why you were trying to get away from me?”

She glanced up at him. “I wasn’t ‘trying to get away from you,’ I was trying to sneak in here to check things out.”

“And you said nothing?” John asked.

She shrugged.

“It’s actually extremely fortunate you did,” John continued, despite being a bit disappointed. “Normally I’d be pissed, but this was a lucky break.”

“Wait, what’s going on?” Kyle asked. “I feel like I’ve been left out of the loop.”

“Weren’t you listening when we said we were going to get De Brossier in here so he could bring Lexa, or are you asleep?”

He shrugged and scratched the back of his neck. “I guess I wasn’t listening?”

May rolled her eyes dramatically.

They explained the situation fully while keeping an eye on the office doors.

“Oh,” Kyle said nodding. “Wow. I have to hand it to this particular overlord. He’s got some balls on him to try and steal Lexa out from under us like that.”

“Well he’s neutered now,” May added with a grin.

“And like I said,” John said again. “We were very lucky that May was messing around, or we wouldn’t have found out so soon.” Then he glanced at her and held her eyes. “We’re supposed to have trust.”

Kyle swiveled his head toward her behind the desk, then back to John, but he said nothing. She sighed. “Look, you’re right, John. Next time I’ll let you in on what I want to do.”

He nodded. “Thank you.”

“Another thing,” Kyle said. “Why are you wearing a different shirt?”

“Long story,” she said flatly and rubbed her nose. “Now let me concentrate.”

John turned toward the door, then glanced back at Thalaway. “We better move him so De Brossier doesn’t catch wind of what’s up as soon as he passes through the damn door.”

“Good idea,” Kyle said.

Once they moved Thalaway, he woke up and glanced about dumbly.

“It’s been five minutes at least. What’s taking this De Brossier loser so long?” Kyle asked.

“Holy shit!”

John glanced around Kyle toward May, who still had her face firmly planted in the holo-screens as she manipulated the tactile displays. “What’s wrong?”

She glanced up with wide eyes. “Guys, you’re not going to believe this!”