CHAPTER TWO—CRUISE BOTS AND SEXY GUNS

The elevator door pinged open and May sauntered into John and Kyle’s penthouse apartment looking like a million bucks.

“Shit,” Kyle muttered, trying not to stare too hard. May was wearing high heels, black jeans and a tight-as-hells white T-shirt with an open leather jacket over that.

Lexa smiled. “Good morning, May.”

“Good morning, Lexa.” Then she tilted her chin down to look at them all over the rims of her shaded glasses. “Are any of you even ready?”

“What?” Kyle asked. He glanced down at his clothes. She thinks I’m under dressed. “No—I was just going to go get ready.”

She nodded. “Cool.”

May winked as she kicked up a heel and mimed blasting some magic at herself with her forefinger. Her shimmering pink-silk nightgown instantly changed into knee-high black suede boots, short shorts with a floral design and a loose blouse that hung past her waste and wrists.

“I’m ready!” she declared.

John looked at Lexa, then glanced at Kyle. He clearly hid a smile, making Kyle want to snarl in frustration as he turned and lopped off and up the spiral stairs into his bedroom.

“Shitshitshit!” he muttered, glancing about what May would probably describe as an animal’s pen. “What am I gonna wear?”

His eyes landed on the closet where he had that suave suit he had worn to his uncle’s party last week. “Yes!” He lurched to the closed and ripped the hangar off the rack and tossed the clothes onto his bed.

The suit was grey with somewhat of a light sheen. He tossed a white shirt onto the bed and threw his clothes off as fast as he could.

*

John handed May a cup of the coffee he had brewed. After their game—of which Kyle was completely unaware that he had been picked off by himself and May—he had tried to tell Kyle to dress up a bit more.

But Kyle was stubborn—and he liked what he liked. John never pressed too hard. He didn’t like it when Kyle got prickly, which he sometimes had a tendency of doing, especially in the mornings before his flood of caffeine.

“It’s just a shopping trip for an android body,” he had said. “There’s no need to dress up.”

“And you think May is going to walk in here wearing sweats and a baggy shirt?”

Kyle laughed. “Hells no, but I’m sure she’ll dress appropriately.”

John had nodded. “Yeah.” Then he had set to brewing the coffee. Not thirty minutes later he was standing with May drinking that very same pot with her while Kyle was probably fussing with his clothes upstairs.

John wanted to sigh and shake his head.

I should probably find an excuse to get away so I can go check on him.

“So Lexa,” May said. “Are you excited for this shopping trip?”

She smiled and nodded. “More than my subroutines can handle.”

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“I’m sure,” May said. “Have you decided on what kind of body you want?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like weather you want your body to be civilian issue or combat capable?”

“Oh!” she said, looking confused for a moment as she glanced toward John.

He smiled. “I’m sure a cross between the two would suit all her needs.”

“Definitely,” May said, a thin knowing smirk on her face.

John had to school his face to keep from betraying his own embarrassment. But then, why was he embarrassed? Human android relationships were not uncommon in this crazy world of theirs.

“The coffee is good!” May said, changing the subject.

“Thanks, I—“

John was distracted as something thumped through the floor overhead and they all glanced up.

“Is he all right up there?”

Nodding with perfect composure, John said, “I’m sure he’s fine.”

Maybe that wasn’t the right call. His composure probably signaled to May that he was in fact not fine up there. Knocking about on one’s bedroom floor that loudly signaled some odd behavior at the least—assuming the movers weren’t in the apartment—and there certainly were none right now.

“So about security…” John said.

“Right,” May said with a nod. “I brought the stuff over that we talked about.”

*

Kyle glanced at himself in the mirror and nodded with a self-satisfied smile on his face. He was looking damn good. And without the tie, the suit was rather casual, though somewhat dressy in quality and cut.

But by the way May was dressed, he would fit in good standing next to her. His shirt had two buttons undone. Kyle forwent wearing the necklace. Too pimpish. His loafers were primo leather, black with narrow toes.

He grabbed the hem of his jacket and shrugged his shoulders, nodding. He touched his hair and nodded some more. “Yeah… not bad.”

The skinny Anarcho—because that’s how he always thought of himself—put on some expensive cologne and sauntered to the stairs. When he arrived in the living room he found May and John at the kitchen table while Lexa stood in front of the windows, one foot kicking the floor as she wrapped her leg around the other.

“Yeah…” May said. They had their noses in something. “Right there. That’s the terminal we need to jack into.”

“What are you up to?” Kyle asked.

Just our security precautions,” John said.

“Oh right,” Kyle said, remembering. “May’s on the down low. I almost forgot.”

“We should really all be on the down low,” John said. “And Lexa?”

“Hmm?”

“You will be able to carry these coding packages to the mainframe?”

“Easily,” she said. “I am one of a kind, after all.” She gave John a sexy little wink.

“That you are.”

“All right,” May said. “Calibrated. We just need to find a terminal to insert Lexa into so she can set it all up.”

“Set what up?” Kyle asked.

“Our false biometric packages,” May said.

“But…”

“No ‘buts.’” She said. “We upload these packages to the Invera-Tech mainframe and we’re invisible.”

“No toppos?”

“No need. Their system will see us as completely different people—even the video feeds will show up differently.”

“And they won’t detect the packages,” Lexa said. “I’ve disguised them as simple back-end data. To figure out what we did, they would have to do a complete system check.”

“Wow,” Kyle said, genuinely surprised.

“It would take them weeks to do that, and they might still miss the hidden coding packages.”

“Damn.”

“All thanks to Lexa,” John said.

“Thank you, John.”

He smiled at her.

Kyle’s eyes widened slightly when he noticed May glancing up and down at him.

“You look good.”

Surprised, he put on his best grin. “Thanks.”

“Are we all ready?” May asked.

“Whoa!” Kyle said. “Invisible or not, I’m not going unarmed.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” May said. “And don’t worry, the coding packages will erase any of our weapon signatures unless we do something so outlandish that concealing them would be all but a farce. We wouldn’t want that, or else if something goes down the digital security goons will know something’s up with our biometric data. What do you think, John?”

“Makes perfect sense,” he said. “We’re definitely going to arm up,” he added with a chuckle. “If Strogaus ever tries to pull a hit job on us—we’ll be ready.” He stood and Kyle noticed he was wearing a suit as well—black without a jacket. Just the vest with brown leather shoes, an awesome metallic watch and even a tie.

He looked quite… dapper.

But the short well-trimmed beard he was now sporting actually looked good on him—especially with the clothes he was wearing.

“All right,” May said. “Let’s gun up and go buy us an android body.”

“Woohoo!” Lexa wooped.

John laughed.

“So what are you going to bring?” Kyle asked her.

May turned around and looked at him over her shoulder. “Gonna bring that sexy little Miatsu, of course.”

Damn, he thought. Good thing John’s into the cruise bot, or else I might have some comp on my hands.

“Good choice.”