Page 14 of Operation Iron Heart

“I think Logan and Willie would be pleased if you could be a father figure in their lives.”

Jack’s heart filled with joy as she smiled at him warmly. “It would be my honour to care for Will’s sons,” he replied slightly stiffly, turning to Marci’s older son. Logan had discovered the kitchen units and was thrilled to have found a red berry shake in the chiller. Jack wandered over to help him and poured some of the nutritious juice into a beaker.

Logan took small sips and it was obvious how much pleasure this unexpected delicacy gave him. Jack added a protein doughnut from a food dispenser and Logan could barely contain his excitement.

“The children haven’t had anything decent to eat for such a long time,” Marci said sadly. “Apart from the pizza you gave them. I never had enough money left over to be able to offer them anything better than the standard mush that everyone in the slums eats so they don’t starve.”

“It’ll be better here,” Jack promised. “You’ll see, the children will like it here.”

“But you don’t get paradise for nothing?” Marci’s brown eyes were full of scepticism. “Am I right? To stay here, I have to – we have to – play our part?”

Jack tried to reassure her. “Don’t worry about what might happen. You’re all safe here and it’s certainly better than life in the slums. Tomorrow morning, Cathrin will talk to you about what happens next.” Marci was right. Living on the base brought with it certain obligations. Jack wasn’t sure whether Cathrin would be able to persuade her to become part of this mission, although he assumed that Cathrin had already thought of a job for Marci. In truth, they needed every robot and every human if they were going to win the battle.

As he walked out, leaving her and the children in the room, she met his gaze. Jack sensed her clear distrust and that she wasn’t exactly keen to get involved with this new, unpredictable life. As he stood in the doorway, however, the questioning look in her large, dark eyes was enough for him to know that he would do everything for her and the children so that they felt at home by his side, even if he couldn’t replace Will.

“Thank you,” she said suddenly, smiling at him.

“What for?”

“For not being a brainless sex robot, but a guy with a heart and a mind who also cares for humans, even though you don’t have to.” She paused and looked up into his eyes. “Even if you have to earn my trust first.”

“I will,” replied Jack with a sincere smile.

“I don’t know why, but I’m certain you won’t disappoint me,” she added warmly. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” he said quietly, taking a last look at Willie, who’d slept through everything, and Logan, who’d gobbled down the doughnut and then curled up next to his little brother like a cat and was now also fast asleep.

As Jack stepped out into the long corridor, and as the door closed behind him, he noticed that his heart rate was raised and that he was experiencing something that he would call a sudden burst of energy. In the emotional world of humans, there was a word for it: happiness.

“Why are you grinning like that?” Lennox asked him as he got back to the soldiers’ sparse quarters – simple lodging shared by a few robots and hybrid soldiers injured in battle. Lennox had only been released from intensive care a week before; he’d been fitted with new limbs and was really proud of them, as apart from the lack of tattoos, they looked no different from his original arms and legs and worked just as well.

“At least I was able to save my dick,” he’d announced when he was admitted, showing more humour than Jack thought a human would have in such a situation. Broad-shouldered, he now stood in front of Jack, dressed in a military jumpsuit, and grinned as if he’d not been severely injured and almost bled to death. His chin-length, dark blond hair was slightly dishevelled and his dark blue eyes sparkled with charm as a slim female combat robot with black hair crossed in front of him, but without paying the least attention to his chatter.

“I heard you were with Silver in the States and rescued Will’s family from the slums?” Lennox looked at Jack with curiosity and helped himself to a beer from one of the many free dispensers. “Do you want one?” he asked. Jack shook his head. Carrying the old-fashioned beer glass, Lennox headed towards the seating in the brightly lit communal room. Jack followed him and sat down on one of the upholstered stools with a quiet sigh, while Lennox sat in a chair opposite and took a generous slug of beer before continuing blithely with his questioning. “Is Marci really as pretty as Will always raved about?” he asked.

“Prettier.” A faraway look automatically appeared in Jack’s eyes.

“Oooh…” Lennox grinned in amusement. “Did your cold robot heart catch fire when you saw her?” he teased. “Hey, she’s human,” he added unsympathetically when Jack didn’t respond. “And you’re just a bloody tin can. Apart from the fact that nobody could ever replace her dead Will, she’s hardly going to fall in love with a robot when she’s got through her grief, but with a real bloke with a functioning dick who can give her more children. Human women want a family and they want to grow old with their husbands. Two things that a robot can’t offer them.”

“He doesn’t have to,” countered Jack with a touch of annoyance. “First of all, the world is hideously overpopulated and secondly, Marci already has two boys by Will who urgently need a father more than she needs a man. And thirdly, in fifty years, she’ll still be as pretty as she is today.”

“Well, it sounds like you’ve really got it bad and you’ve clearly planned everything,” said Lennox in an amused tone; he believed that robots couldn’t develop any genuine human emotions, just facsimiles of them – depictions of human emotions that didn’t actually go deep enough to do justice to the human original. Jack knew better, but it was a waste of time trying to explain it to Lennox.

“You know you’re skating on pretty thin ice there, don’t you? From what I know of Will, he wasn’t exactly keen on you robots, and his involuntary trip to the hybrid store won’t have changed that. I can’t imagine his wife has a different opinion.”

“Will is dead,” responded Jack drily, getting himself a beer as his energy level was dropping and his temperature had spiked. “And apart from the fact that he – robot or not – was my friend, I will certainly not force Marci to start anything with me. And I don’t have to, either. I’ll have plenty of opportunities to convince her that robots are superior to human men in nearly all respects.” Jack knew very well that he was far from being just a tin can. One hundred and twenty kilos of genetically replicated muscle mass on a two-metre-tall flexible ceramic skeleton that was almost identical to a human frame, but with bones that were practically unbreakable. With complex internal organs and painstakingly designed blood and nerve pathways, perfectly complemented with lab-generated muscles and tendons and covered in skin that was, at least visually, virtually indistinguishable from human skin. Even his hair grew like a human’s, apart from his armpit and pubic hair, which had been omitted for hygiene reasons. What hadn’t been omitted was a sophisticated brain designed down to the last synapse that was far superior to a human brain in terms of logic and responsiveness. It also had areas that could be expanded depending on how the robot was going to be deployed. Cathrin had fitted Jack with all the options so that he could feel and react like a human man. He would be eternally grateful to her for that, even if he already knew that he might have to pay a high price for it.

“Does Marci know of your intentions yet?” asked Lennox, rolling his eyes. “She seems to have really got your artificial hormones flowing. And how exactly are you going to get her into bed? Invite her to a candlelit dinner? Sing her a song?” he laughed loudly.

“Do you think she’d like that?” asked Jack, looking slightly uncertain. He’d never really thought about the best way to impress Marci.

“No,” replied Lennox firmly. “Believe me, that kind of woman is only impressed if you play the macho card and give her a good time as soon as possible. Mechanically speaking, you’ve probably got an advantage there over a real man, but do you really think she’ll forget when you’re sticking it in her that you’re just a machine? No, my friend,” he chuckled without pity, “believe me, you’ve drawn the short straw with that one.”

Jack found it hard to restrain his anger, battling against his potential for excessive violence that still ruled him despite his integrated peace chip. Previously, he’d been grateful to his makers at MacIntyre LLC for that; in battle, it had enabled him to galvanise additional energy to not only beat the enemy but completely destroy them. Cathrin didn’t think it was right to completely scale back this ability as he was still intended to serve as a fighter in her organisation. Fortunately, Lennox didn’t notice him clenching his fists under the table and deciding that the impulse to rip his human colleague’s head off should probably count as forbidden. Instead, he took another sip of beer, trying to look as relaxed as possible, and smiled impassively.

“I don’t have to try to do anything, Lennox,” he announced, triumph clear in his voice. “Marci wants me to stay close to her and the children. So that’s exactly what I’ll do.”

Lennox almost choked on his drink and coughed. “Well, it’ll be exciting to see how long that lasts. Particularly when she finds out that you can’t fulfil your potential as a replacement father because you spend most of your time on dangerous missions.”