The Sexual Assistant

Chapter 13

"Creator Harrison? Creator Harrison?" Jade transmitted several times a day. But, there was no reply. Jade was created as synthetic intelligence that could observe the world and make conclusions. However, many of the recent events she had experienced did not fit any of Jade's knowledge frameworks. Instead, they were piling up in memory as unresolved observations.

This included a wide range of emotions displayed by the men she had met over the past few weeks. They all seemed to want to engage in sexual activity with her, but their behavior was crude and forceful for human standards. Nadheer Abdo was dead. Did that make her a widow? And why was she always evoking laughter when she had not intended such a reaction?

Jade needed to discuss this with Creator Harrison. Only then, she felt, could she produce conclusions on all of these questions.

#

A dejected Harris Harrison sat with Buffy at Heathrow Airport, awaiting their flight back to the United States. Buffy had finally got to a civilian computer at the hotel the night before and read her e-mails. Neil had tried to reach her for three weeks, and then he had gone silent. "Damn it," she thought.

Just then, her reissued cell phone buzzed. It was an incoming text message. She read it and then rammed Harris in the lower leg. "Come on, deadbeat," she said, "we have work to do."

"What are you talking about?" answered an irritated Harrison. "I just want to go home."

Buffy was already turning her wheelchair around with baggage in hand. As she turned to head towards the cabs' waiting line, she yelled over her shoulder, "They found Jade."

Harris hesitated for a moment. Then he jumped to his feet and ran to catch up with Buffy.

#

Unresolved questions were raised at GFT Solutions. Barnett Lay came into the office and was promptly ignored by Wendy. Instead of saying, "Good morning," she remained buried in her latest romance novel. Barnett knew what this meant, so he went into his office, hung up his coat, and left his briefcase on the floor.

When he re-entered the outer office, Barnett pulled a chair up to Wendy's desk. "Now I am ready," he said. "Tell me what the problem is."

Wendy slowly put the book down and turned towards Barnett. "It's about Jade," she said with some hostility.

"Do you mean Nancy?" asked Barnett.

"Either way," she replied. "Aren't you uncomfortable about what you have done with her?"

Barnett wasn't quite sure where this was leading, so he kept talking. "What have I done to her?"

"Don't act so innocent," snapped Wendy. "You programmed her to satisfy sexual desires and then sent her overseas to be raped repeatedly."

Ah, now it was becoming more apparent to Barnett. He kept engaged. "Actually, it's fairly consensual..."

Wendy cut him off. "Don't you think that's going to leave her psyche damaged for life?"

"I don't think she has an ego or a psyche..." Barnett started to reply when he suddenly stopped talking and looked away into the distance. "Hang on," he said, "put the argument on hold of a couple of seconds."

Wendy did not look happy. Barnett started moving his mouth as if talking to himself while counting on his fingers. After several seconds he looked back at Wendy. "Oh, I see your point."

"You do admit you are doing her harm?" demanded Wendy.

"Not important," replied Barnett.

"Not important?" shouted Wendy. This time Barnett cut her off.