Episode Three of the Laura Kraft, Android Hunter Short Story Series
Outwitting Homicidal Kidnappers Can Get You Burned — Alive!
Disabled PI Laura Kraft is back on the case, tracking little lost robots. She’s on the trail of a pair of scheming clones who kidnapped a top secret deep-space android prototype for ransom. Laura figures the clones intend to keep the android AND the ransom. Laura decides to fight fire with fire but will her well-laid plans go up in flames — and her with it?
The Android Who Played with Fire is available at Amazon Kindle.
Read an exciting excerpt below:
That afternoon I got a call from a guy named Marshall Jennings who had a problem he didn’t want to discuss over the phone. I invited him up to my office and he didn’t like that either. We finally agreed to meet at a Greek restaurant about a mile from my house.
Jennings sat in a tiny booth in the back where he could listen to the cooks in the kitchen insult the wait staff. From the outside, Jennings didn’t look special to me and I could tell by his widening eyes I wasn’t what he expected either.
Jennings stared at my crutches. “You had an accident?”
I nodded. “Car crash. Somebody tried to cut me in half. Actually, they did cut me in half. But thanks to the miracle of modern science, I’m almost my old self again.” I sat down and perused the menu.
“I saw something about you in the cloud,” Jennings began. “You’ve had some success finding stolen androids.”
“Missing androids,” I corrected. “Some of them wander off.”
“Mine was stolen.”
“Tell me what happened.”
The waiter dropped by and we placed our orders.
“Two nights ago, I was clubbing on Sunset and I met a woman who said she found computers fascinating. When she found out I was a programmer, suddenly I was fascinating, too.”
“A groupie?”
“A gold digger,” Jennings replied. “After I told her I worked for Maiden Voyage, she acted like she wanted to have my child and she wanted to start then and there.”
“Maiden Voyage builds space cruise liners?”
“No, the automated systems and androids.”
“The gold digger’s star struck quality didn’t put you off?”
Jennings shrugged. “In that scene, you take whatever comes along.” He gave a deep sigh. “That’s when things started getting weird.”
“How so?”
“The way she acted, all bright and perky, I thought she might be on something—maybe Krazee, something like that.”
“Crazy?”
He spelled the name for me. “New designer drug. Mild euphoria, sexual arousal.”
“You’d hardly think that was necessary.”
Jennings smiled for the first time. “Yeah, right. Anyway, next thing I know, we’re on the way to my place. She’s starting to ask personal questions about my job and my house and I can’t stop myself from answering her. I realize, way too late, she must have slipped me some Truthies when we had drinks.”
“Truthies?”
“Another designer drug,” Jennings said. “Sort of like truth serum.”
“You seem to know a lot about these drugs.”
“I used to do all kinds of shit,” he said. “Anyway, we get to my place and she’s asking about my android. This totally creeps me out. Nobody knows about my android.”
“Why is that?”
“I built it myself. It’s my hobby. I write programming for it.”
“Does your android have a name?”
“No, it’s a prototype,” he explained. “I call it One Twenty-Three.”
“Because—”
“It’s the 123rd iteration of the program.”
I thought a moment. “How do you suppose she knew you had an android?”
“I have no idea. It’s my little secret, y’know?”
“What happened when you got to your place?”
“I felt exhausted. I couldn’t stay awake. She made me tell her the android’s access codes and I passed out on the bed.”
“How long were you out?”
“About eight hours,” Jennings said. “My comm woke me up. My staff called from work. I was late for a meeting. I was supposed to give a presentation on—” He caught himself. “On our next project.”
“And the android?”
“The android, right,” he said. “So, I start remembering the night before and I’m wondering why the android didn’t wake me. I wasn’t in good shape. I stumbled around the house, calling for him, looking for him. After a few minutes, I realize he’s gone. She even took the charging station and console.”
“Your android would follow someone else’s commands?”
“It’s basic AI, off the shelf,” Jennings said. “You have the codes and the console, you’re in.”
“No, anti-theft safeguards?” I asked. “No voice recognition, no iris comparison?”
“The house is secure. I never thought anyone would steal the android.”
The waiter brought our entrees. I munched on a Kalamata olive. Jennings stared at his fork.
“You should go to the police,” I said. “The sooner, the better.”
“I can’t,” he replied. “I’m a project leader, top security clearance. They found out I lost an android, I’ll be canned in a Mumbai minute. Not to mention the contract violations.”
One way to open yourself to extortion and blackmail. I changed the subject.
“Do you take women back to you place often?”
“Not in the last couple of years,” he said. “I’m getting too old for that scene.”
“But that night you did.”
“What can I say? Old habits die hard.” Jennings gave me a hard stare. “And I was drugged.”
“And you happen to meet an android thief.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re starting to sound like a cop.”
“You need a cop,” I said. “Instead, you came to me.”
“I told you why. Otherwise, I’ll be ruined.”
I sighed. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Give me the name of the club where you two met and let me take a look around your house. If I get any leads, I’ll pursue it. But don’t get your hopes up. The City is crawling with theft rings. They steal something here today and tomorrow it’s halfway around the globe.”
“I have to find it,” Jennings said. “My career depends on it.”
He hadn’t touched his gyro.
“Are you going to eat that?” I asked. “I need a lot of protein.”
He pushed the plate toward me. “I have to go. I have a meeting.”
“One more thing,” I said. “What’s the woman’s name?”
“Cindy,” he said. “That’s all I remember.”
I gave him a hopeful smile. “Sometimes, that’s all we need.”
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