Never Love A Stranger Part 13

"Don't try it, James," said the man. His light brown hair was cut into a short, military style, and his jaw was square and firm. He could have modeled for a Marines recruiting poster. Despite his tough-as-nails appearance, however, his gray eyes were gentle, and he sounded, oddly, almost apologetic.

James paused for a long moment. His eyes flickered toward Annie, and she realized he was thinking about charging the man despite his warning. He was obviously concerned for Annie, worried that she would be hurt or killed.

Don't worry about me, she implored him silently. Think of Kay. Please don't do anything to get her killed. Please.

James looked back at the man. "Leave the women alone," he said coolly. "They have absolutely nothing to do with this."

The woman spoke for the first time. She was young, with long black hair and green eyes. Her angelic beauty was belied by the stark hatred in her voice. "Don't be a fool, James. You know we can't let them go."

"They have done nothing to harm you."

"They know something of the future, James. They could use it to alter our world. You know we can't permit that."

James tilted his head. "But if you kill them, you may alter the future anyway."

"Unlikely," the woman said. "I have reviewed their histories. Neither ever made a major contribution to society."

"That's a great thing to find out just before you die," Kay said to Annie in a loud whisper. She attempted to shoot Annie her habitual cheeky grin, but it looked more like a grimace of pain. Annie knew she must be scared half to death.

"At any rate," the woman said, "I suspect your concern for them will ensure your good behavior. Cooperate with us, James. If you don't, we will kill them."

James looked grim. "If you intend to kill them eventually anyway, then there is no reason for me to refrain from attacking you."

"True," the woman admitted. "But if you attack us, an innocent bystander will die because of your action. Can you bear such a notion'"

James hesitated, then turned away.

"I thought not," the woman said with evident satisfaction.

James spun and lunged for her.

As quick as he was, the woman was faster. She lifted a small, cylindrical device she held in her gloved hand. White light flared out from her hand and enveloped James. He dropped heavily to the floor, writhing in pain.

"That was very foolish, James," she said, looking down at him with cold eyes. She seemed unaffected by his agony.

"Leave him alone!" Annie cried, coming to her feet. The anguish on James' face slashed at her heart. He was obviously in excruciating pain. "What are you doing to him'"

The woman glanced at her, unconcerned. "Punis.h.i.+ng him," she said coolly.

The man looked more uncomfortable than before. "Is that really necessary, Dekka' Can't we just kill him'"

The woman named Dekka looked back at him. Her eyes glowed with a fanatical light. "Don't be a fool, Gar," she said bitterly. "He killed my brother with his bare hands. He and his so-called people killed hundreds of our people in their uprising. He deserves to suffer before he dies." She made a slight adjustment to the device she held, and the light brightened. James jerked in agony. Despite the fact that his teeth were clenched tightly together, a tortured whimper of anguish escaped him.

"Stop it!" Annie screamed. "Stop it! You're hurting him!"

Dekka looked at her with cool derision. "That is, after all, the idea."

"But Dekka--" the man called Gar said. He did not appear to have the same savage hatred for James

that the woman did. Furthermore, he seemed to have forgotten that he was holding a hostage. His gun

wavered from Kay's temple.

Annie saw Kay move suddenly, taking advantage of the man's momentary distraction, saw her wrench free, saw her fling the man over her shoulder'with impressive ease for such a small woman--and kick him in the head, hard. He grunted and lay still.

And then Annie did the most courageous thing she had ever done in her life.

She leaped forward, directly into the light that was torturing James.

To her surprise, she felt no pain. There was a slight tingling sensation, like static electricity, but that was

all. There was no hint of the agony that James appeared to be enduring.

Without pausing to question her good fortune, she dashed forward and hit Dekka in the stomach with her fist as hard as she could. Taken by surprise, the woman doubled over. Then Kay struck her from behind,

and she fell to the ground and lay motionless. The device crashed to the floor and seemed to deactivate.

James collapsed against the carpet, utterly still.

Annie stared at him, feeling her heart thudding against her ribs. "Oh, my G.o.d, Kay, is he--"

"He's alive," Kay said. "His chest is moving." She blinked at the three bodies on the floor, and the two

futuristic devices. "This is going to make for an interesting discussion with the police."

"You were wonderful," Annie said, feeling a rush of affection for her friend.

Kay shrugged. "I told you you should take karate in college. But no, you had to take modern dance."

She smiled wanly. "The truth is you were pretty d.a.m.n terrific yourself. But now I think we better get them tied up before they wake up."

They found some rope and tied the man and woman securely at wrists and ankle, then Kay went into the

kitchen to retrieve her baby. Annie staggered over and sat down next to James. "James," she whispered, brus.h.i.+ng back his hair. "Wake up. Please."

There was no response. James did not stir. She ran her fingers through his hair tenderly.

"Is he your lover'"

At the mocking, scornful tone, Annie turned to see Dekka's green eyes, full of malice, on her. Dekka had evidently received a less serious blow to the head than the man had. "Yes," she said coolly. She was d.a.m.ned if she would deny it. "He is."

"You poor little fool," Dekka said. "You don't have the slightest idea what's going on. You haven't the faintest notion of how that'that thing has manipulated you, do you'"

Annie blinked, taken aback by the woman's obvious hatred for James. She remembered Dekka's a.s.sertion that James had killed her brother and wondered if it was true. James had admitted to killing people, she remembered with a s.h.i.+ver of unease. But he had had a compelling reason for doing so, after all.

"He is a good man," she said firmly. "You won't convince me otherwise."

"You poor deluded idiot. He's not a man at all."

Annie stared at her, bewildered. "What do you mean'"

Dekka looked at her with contempt and spoke coldly.

"James is a machine."

Chapter 10.

"That's ludicrous," Kay said sharply. She had come from the kitchen and stood at the entrance to the living room, cuddling her baby.

"Is it'"

Annie said nothing. There were certainly some odd things about James that she hadn't quite been able to reconcile with what she knew of him--his sheer physical perfection, for one. And then there was the way Oscar was afraid of him....

Then she shook her head. Kay was right--it was ludicrous. She had made love to the man, felt his skin grow damp with sweat, had heard him cry out with pleasure. She had heard the sorrow in his voice when he talked about his dead friends. And she had just seen him writhing with pain. A machine couldn't react that way.

Could it'

"Kay," she whispered. "Can you check'"

"Annie, this is crazy!"

"Please, Kay. I have to know."

At the desperate plea in her voice, Kay nodded reluctantly and went to get her bag. She took out her stethoscope, placed it on James' chest, and listened for a long moment. Then she moved it around. Annie watched her silently, without the vaguest idea what she was doing. She watched as Kay picked up his hand and studied it with the utmost care. Finally Kay placed his hand back on the floor and stared at her in helpless bewilderment.

"Well'" Annie demanded. "Is he human'"

Kay shook her head slowly. She looked stunned. "No," she said. "He's not."

Annie felt her mouth drop open as Kay continued, attempting to conceal her shock beneath her most professional manner. "I don't know for certain what he is. He has no heart in his chest. He does appear to have a pump of some sort in the abdominal area, but it does not sound like a heart." She hesitated. "Frankly, it sounds artificial."

"Of course it is," Dekka said with grim satisfaction.

"But--but--" Annie looked at James' inert form. "People have artificial hearts even now," she said pleadingly, knowing she was grasping at straws. "Couldn't it be a replacement of some kind'" She saw James' chest moving up and down and grasped at that with the desperation of a drowning woman clutching at a branch. "I mean, he breathes, Kay."

"His respiration does not sound normal, either. I don't believe he has human lungs. And his skin, in my opinion, is artificial."

"Artificial'" Annie stared at her blankly. "How can you tell'"

Kay shook her head. "The texture is not precisely the same, although it's a very convincing imitation. There are pores, just as there are in human skin, and I'd lay odds that he has sweat glands, or an imitation thereof. He even has hair on his arms, just as humans do. He is an excellent imitation, but in my estimation that's all he is. An imitation."

Kay hesitated, glancing at Annie and seeing her evident anguish, then continuing in the same doggedly professional tones. "I can't imagine how something like this could be built. A crude artificial skin has been developed in the last few years, but it does not begin to approach this level of sophistication. And a.s.suming that this--this ent.i.ty has a computer for a brain--"

"He is not a computer!"

Kay ignored her outburst. "I don't know how far away such technology is, but I'd guess a very long time. Many, many people are working on artificial intelligence, but so far it's nothing more than a dream, and a distant one at that. I'd say there's little doubt he really is from the future. And furthermore, he is a machine."

Annie stood up and looked across at her. "Are you saying he's a robot'" she said incredulously. Her stomach began to churn violently.

"I think you'd call him an android, actually. A robot made to look like a human."