Return to Wardate Read Online Free PDF Page B

would have been
pretty damn painful. However, being an automaton, it probably
wouldn’t even tickle.
    The ‘time under
the knife’ was used wisely by Madeline; she caught up on several
hours of TV soaps, watched dozens of films and completed countless
codeword puzzles. Apparently, credit to all of them, they made a
superb job. True, the operation took over a week to complete –
which was slightly inconvenient but afterall, this was something
that couldn’t be rushed. Madeline was surprisingly patient
throughout and took almost no interest in what they were doing. As
long as there were no scars, she remained jaw droppingly gorgeous
and everything still worked perfectly, she really wasn’t bothered.
After all, it was a useful time for convalescence which was what
Poppy needed – loads of rest and television.
     
    Something else
that’s good about being an android – automaton – whatever, when
it’s done, it’s done. No recovery time, no secondary infections, no
drains, no MRSA, no stitches to take out, no scars, absolutely
nothing.
    ‘Okay, Madeline
Bull… you’re now pretty much indestructible. Your skin is now
entirely carbon nanotube. All your bones have been replaced with
chloro bromine. Your hearing and eyesight have been upgraded and we
have taken the liberty of installing a monitoring system, happy?’
said Nuttall just like a real surgeon would.
    ‘Yes, fine,’
said Madeline with indifference, ‘got a mirror?’
    A mirror was
produced from somewhere, she examined her face, her hair, eyes and
skin; all was exactly the same. She was still gorgeous.
    ‘Well, I don’t
feel any different. Okay, so what now?’ she said casually.
    ‘This is the
first of three development stages. The next stage is training and
the final stage is compliance,’ said Nuttall nonchalantly.
    ‘Compliance?
Doesn’t that mean obedience - as in dog? Like to know how you’re
going to do that?’
    ‘Quiet easy
really,’ said Nuttall as he walked over to a monitor and turned it
on.
    ‘Adam!’
screamed Madeline with delight.
    ‘ Hi
sweetheart ,’ a perky reply whimpered through the monitor
speaker.
     
    Three things
Adam was not very good at were planning, thinking ahead and playing
chess. Ideally, getting Madeline out of a high security building in
the depths of the countryside, surrounded by armed police, required
some of these skills. Adam decided to go ahead anyway – just break
in, find Madeline, untie her (if she was tied up) and leave
quietly. Consequently, this procedure failed instantly. He climbed
a fence with a big red ‘keep out’ notice fastened to it and the
next thing he knew, he was locked in a small comfortable room
complete with plush carpet, comfy bed and a large screen TV. He had
failed again; he was truly Madeline’s weakness and Nuttall knew
this.
    ‘You do
anything to my Adam and you’ll see another side of me,’ said
Madeline sternly.
    ‘What do you
take us for, thugs? Now you’ve seen him, he’s free to go... or stay
a while and use our amenities. We have an a la carte restaurant,
sauna, Jacuzzi, a fully equipped gym,’ said Nuttall amicably.
    ‘Your
point?’
    ‘We can find
him and bring him in anytime we want and make life very unpleasant
for him but... as I’ve said, we’re not thugs - we just want some
means of chaining down a loose cannon.’
    ‘Loose
cannon?’
    ‘A feisty
android,’ said Nuttall bluntly.
    ‘Oh that,’ said
Madeline quietly.
    There would
always be a mystery why such an advanced, cutting edge machine -
automaton, had been programmed to embrace love and develop a
relationship with a human. Surely this was a serious flaw in her
programming and clearly a weakness. However, there was nothing that
could be done about it. Nuttall and his team of scientists were
certainly not qualified to interfere with such advanced piece of AI
software – wherever it was situated in her frame. Of course it
wasn’t situated in her frame at all because she used Poppy