Machine Man (serial)

Lola’s chest rose and fell like a heaving sea. This would have been quite erotic had there not been a Better Future Combat Augmentation powering up inside her chest. Since there was, not so much. “Try to lower your heart rate,” I said. “Think about something else.”

“What did they put in there? What is it doing?”

“How about those dogs of Angelica’s? They’re so cute and soft.” At this moment, they all began howling. A set of paws came scampering up the hallway, bayed, then fled. Those useless fur sacks. They were not helping.

“Help me!”

“Okay. Okay. Let’s think about this. It’s probably some kind of weapon.”

“What?”

“That’s what they’re doing. Better Future. They’re trialing parts for super-soldiers.”

Lola’s eyes bulged. “In me? In me?”

“I was just as pissed, when I found out,” I said. “That’s why I kicked the Manager through that window. But the point is, it probably won’t hurt you. It will be designed to hurt other people.”

“I’m not a super-soldier, Charlie!”

I became aware of a tone: a whine so high-pitched it was only just entering my detectable range. So that explained the dogs.

“It’s a bomb.” Lola’s lips were turning blue. “Oh God. It’s a bomb.”

“I don’t know. I don’t think that would be cost-effective.”

“What?”

“Well, you want to blow something up, is the best way to do it really to go to all the trouble of surgically installing—”

“It’s shaking!” Lola shrieked. Her teeth chattered. “Run, Charlie!”

“We need to lower your heart rate. You can do it, Lola.”

“I can’t! Run!”

“I believe in you. You can—”

“Please!”

The whine had become so loud it was difficult to hear anything else. “No,” I said. “I’m not running, Lola.”

“But Charlie—”

“What we have here is a technical problem. And I know that if we—” There was more to this sentence. I was forming a little speech about how we were two rational people, and logic could move mountains. The idea was that this would either reassure Lola or bore her, and either way we would get that heart rate down. I still think this was a pretty good idea. But before I could get it out, Lola exploded.

117.