Machine Man (serial)

The funny thing about running with Lola was that I nearly dropped her. Not funny ha-ha. Dropping Lola while trying to escape a dimly-lit subterranean parking from Better Future security personnel, that would not have been funny. That, after all the effort I’d expended to reach this point, would have been incredibly frustrating. Also possibly fatal. I mean I didn’t realize how quickly I’d adapted to moving around in the Contours—how to lean with them as they moved, how a tiny click near the hip meant they were about to jag—until I tried to do it with a hundred ten-pound woman in my arms.

The Contours bolted out of the elevator. Lola yelped and slipped out of my grasp, sliding around my side. Her fingers clawed at me. I managed to get hold of her, then the Contours sidestepped a guard I hadn’t even seen and Lola slipped all the way around to my back. Her legs locked around my waist. Her arms wrapped my neck in a choke hold. My eyes watered. There was a loud noise like metal striking concrete and I had no idea what the hell was going on. Then we burst into sunlight and Lola bounced around to my front again. The top of her skull popped me in the nose. As we hit the road, we clung to each other like lovers, lovers who were very angry with each other.

Safe, I willed the Contours. Take me somewhere safe.

102.