“Whenever you are ready, sir,” she said, gesturing to the testing bed, all professional indifference.
“Right,” he said again.
Bloody hell, he was becoming a monosyllabic and prudish idiot. Taking a deep breath, he stepped up to the bed and removed his clothing and shoes with efficient, almost furious movements. Better to get this over with as quickly as possible.
Naked as the day he was born, he climbed into the testing bed and the cover closed over him. He hated this feeling of confinement even more than being naked and exposed. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The only good thing about this test was that it took but a minute.
“Don’t move, sir.” He heard her voice through the speakers by his head. “The scan will start now.”
A minute later, he was gratefully stepping out of the contraption and yanking his clothing back on. He looked at the screen. Neat rows of information started loading. He craned his head, trying to read the results, but her head blocked the monitor.
“I would like to have a copy of the results,” he informed her.
“I’m afraid the test results are classified information, and I’m not at liberty to give you a copy.”
“Excuse me?” Since when his bloody test results were classified, even from him? Was that even legal?
“I’m sorry, Mr. Kinkaid.” She didn’t meet his gaze, uncomfortable at having to convey this information.
“These are my body and mind we are talking about here.” Indignation burned through him, making him uncaring of her obvious distress. “I have indisputable rights to my own results.”
“Of course, sir. It’s just... Mr. Greer said... although he probably didn’t mean from you. But that’s how they wrote the order. It could be a mistake. If you’d talk to him, I’m sure he’d allow you—”
“I am not leaving this room without my results.” The sentence, uttered in the calm and assertive voice he had honed in his many years of commanding men, brokered no argument.
Sandri paled and stepped back. God, she was so young. A twinge of guilt at bullying this girl percolated through his mind, but he pushed it back. He hadn’t raised his voice or threatened her in any way. But he couldn’t allow her to dismiss him. No fucking way. Once the results were out of his sight, who knew what they could do with them? He smelled foul play.
“I-I’m sorry, sir. I just can’t give you the results,” she replied, standing. “I’ll go fetch the gear for the blood test.” She turned her back to him and walked to the other side of the room. Busying herself by opening drawers and gathering supplies.
What the...? She said she couldn’t give him the results, and yet, left them exposed and accessible to him. Did she have any idea how easy it would be for him to copy them himself? In fact...
With a surreptitious swipe of his hand over her station, he downloaded the information onto his bracelet. By the time she turned back to face him, he had the results copied and saved on his own secure mainframe at home.
She smiled and winked—winked!—at him, confirming what he already suspected. She had done it on purpose. To allow him the opportunity to copy his test results. How amazing! A parbot would have never gone against its commands. Having a human capable of scruples and critical thinking had its uses, after all. And unpredictability had worked to his advantage this time.
He smiled back. “I understand, Miss...Sandri. I’ll speak to Mr. Greer. Thank you for your help.”
It was a matter of a moment for her to collect a sample of his blood, and then he was ready to go.
“It’s been my pleasure, Mr. Kinkaid. Good luck.”
Another bot was waiting for him as he exited the testing room. Blast it all. Did they think he needed an escort to any part of this building? He could have walked around every corner while blindfolded.
And Mr. Greer knew that. The escort was not to help him navigate the building, but to make sure he didn’t deviate from his course, or worse, bolted altogether. The prickle of unease on his neck became stronger. First the insistence he had the test done at once, then the refusal to give him his own test. All that coupled with the obvious reluctance to leave him alone for even one minute. Yes, something was definitely afoot. And if he weren’t so curious to see what was going on, he would turn and leave this instant.
Alas, he needed to see this through, so he followed the parbot, wishing he could just get this meeting over with. After today, he was going to take some time off. He hadn’t taken a holiday in nearly ten years. Before the mission, he had devoted all his energy to developing the TEQT.
And for what? What had they really accomplished by messing with the past? They had meddled with the lives of two people and had left them devastated. In the process, they had also created chaos and unbalance in their own lives.
And had they found the answers they sought? Not in his opinion. Kalli, on the other hand, believed she had. He had read part of her report and knew the conclusions she had drawn. Kalli believed that love existed and that increasing contact between human beings and decreasing interaction with parbots could instigate love in the figurative hearts of people.
Oh, he could only imagine the reaction Mr. Greer and the rest of the board were going to have to such a report. Was she that naïve? Wasn’t she aware that the president and owner of this company, who had funded the time travel technology, had significant investments in the parbot industry? She had to know. Maybe naïve wasn’t the word, but idealistic.
Did she think they were interested in her little study about love? The only thing that concerned them was the rapid decrease in the population because of the scarcity of births in the last twenty years.
If they didn’t find a way to encourage people to reproduce, they would put themselves out of business in another twenty years when the entire population of the planet had aged and declined so much that there wouldn’t be enough people interested in their product.
Yes, they wanted to find a solution to that problem. But not by encouraging people to form relationships with each other and mate, foregoing the bots. Oh no, that would be bad for business, and corporations never acted against their own interests. They wanted to find a way to alter the brain chemistry of women, making them want to have children. And then commercialize the entire process. From fertilization to childcare. Once, he had thought this a sound plan. He wasn’t so sure anymore.
