The Sexual Assistant

Chapter 10

"We have a problem!" shouted one of the intelligence technician. "Harrison, turn on video!"

Harris spun around and began pushing buttons on his computer. Buffy grabbed her headphones and responded, "What have you got?"

"Just heard a commotion in Nadheer's place and what sounded like a couple of silenced gunshots," responded the technician.

"Holy crap!" declared Harris as Jade's eye camera activated. In his monitor, he could see a masked man with a gun walking slowly towards Jade. The team was now scrambling to take positions. They could also see the man and knew this was big trouble.

"What's Jade doing?" asked Buffy.

The translator answered, "She's saying something about being a sex robot, over and over again."

"Brilliant," declared Harris, "she's pretending to be a simple sex robot. She's trying to avoid being shot. Way to go."

Buffy was about to respond when the gunman shouted something to the man in the other room. The translator listened and reported, "He said, send in the cleaners to get rid of the body and this perversion in the bedroom."

Buffy grabbed the audio frame from the recording unit containing the gun man's voice. She uploaded this to Washington for analysis. She wanted to know the identity of this guy. At the same time, she shouted to Harris, "Take someone and get over there before the cleanup guys arrive. Get Jade out of there!"

Harris pointed at the largest man in the room. The two took off at a sprint. They headed downstairs.

"How will we get her past everyone at the hotel?" asked Harris' running partner.

"I'll think of something on the way," yelled Harris.

As they ran out of the building's door, they passed a man unloading a small copy machine to the first-floor office. He exited behind Harris and his running friend. He also was in a hurry. Harris had a brief thought about the man seeming to be out of place. However, the next thing he knew, his face hurt, and he was looking at the sidewalk from ground level. His ears were ringing, and he was stunned senseless.

For several seconds he tried to force himself to focus. Why was he on the ground? He crawled over to a nearby wall and clawed at the bricks to stagger onto his feet. Then he looked behind him. His new friend was lying unconscious on the street. The building he had just left had a large hole where the front wall used to be. Smoke was pouring from the building.

"Bomb," was all Harris could think.

#

Barnett Lay was sitting at his desk reading through the reports coming back from Buffy and Harris.

"Oh, man," he said suddenly.

Sitting in the outer office, Wendy asked loudly, "problem?"

"Oh, yes," Barnett replied. "I'm reading the reports from Beirut. Nancy, or Jade, or whatever they are calling her today, is starting to form concepts about humans' morals."

"Is that a problem?" asked Wendy.

"It will be if she completes the circle and starts to make judgments about the human race. Harris may have created more than synthetic intelligence. He may have created a new life form."

#

Harris fought to clear his mind. He observed his surroundings. His running partner was knocked cold. An imprint of the bomber was embedded in the side of a delivery truck parked in front of the building. The mangled body of the bomber was lying in the gutter.

Harris wobbled back down the street towards what was left of the building he had just exited. "Buffy," he suddenly said. She's in her wheelchair somewhere in a burning building. Harris entered the front of the burning building and bumped into one of the technicians staggering out of the building. The man's face was bleeding from several points. He held a broken right arm with his left hand.

"Where's Buffy?" shouted Harris at the dazed man.

"Not sure," he replied. "She was heading towards the elevator..." his voice trailed off.

Harris pushed past the injured man and went into the smoke-filled first floor. Near the back of the hallway was the elevator. Two more people from the intelligence team passed him. They looked like they had just finished a ride in a washing machine. Undoubtedly, the explosion had tossed them around.

Harris reached the elevator door. His eyes were burning from the smoke. He pounded on the door and yelled Buffy's name several times.

"Stop yelling and get me out of here," came the annoyed voice of Buffy.

Harris could see that the door was concaved inward from the force of the blast. He pulled hard on the door. It was jammed, and he needed air.

"Hang on," he yelled to Buffy. "Try to get next to the button panel."

Without waiting for a response, Harris ran back out into the street. People were gathering, and fire sirens could be heard in the distance. He looked around for the appropriate object. That's when he spotted the large motorcycle parked across the street. Harris pushed through the people and crossed the road. He jumped on the motorcycle and fired up its engine. Then he rode slowly towards the crowd beeping the horn. The people parted, creating the opening Harris needed. He aimed the cycle into the building and gunned the throttle as he lept off. The motorcycle shot down the hallway and crashed into the elevator doors.

Harris walked into the building and pulled the now wholly broken elevator doors. The impact of the motorcycle had forced the doors out of their tracks. Buffy was seated in her mobility device inside the elevator. Blood was coming out of her ears, and she had a nasty looking cut on one arm.

"Hit the eject button!" shouted Harris as he crawled to her side over the broken doors.

Buffy threw a switch that opened the leg protectors. Harris scooped her up in his arms and then set her right back down again.

"Man, you weigh more than I thought," exclaimed Harris.

Buffy responded with a string of very obscene words. Harris ignored this and told her to put her arms around his neck. He backed up to her, she hugged his neck, and together they struggled out of the elevator. The smoke was getting worse, so Harris lost no time getting her outside.

Harris put Buffy down on the sidewalk. They both were coughing badly. Behind them, a dark SUV pulled up to the curb. Two men got out and pushed the surviving team members into the vehicle. They went back and lifted Buffy and set her in the back seat with Harris. These men were from the American embassy. They were taking everyone to a private hospital for treatment.

As they pulled away from the curb, Harris asked, "What about Jade?"

"Too late," coughed Buffy.