The Android Chronicles Book One: The Android Defense Read Online Free PDF Page A

smile in her eyes. She
had not known he had taken her photograph with his visual camera
while they had been talking in the parking lot.
    He looked at the photograph
for a moment before he closed the file and drifted into a sleep
state.

Chapter 10.
    “Good morning,
Luke.”
    The voice roused Luke from
his sleep state. He looked around his new opulent room but saw no
one. Then he saw that the voice was coming from the TV, where a
video recording of Damian was playing. Damian was sitting behind
his desk in his office, looking refreshed and arrogant in a white
shirt and dark green jacket.
    “It’s 8:54 a.m., if your
digital reading hasn’t already told you so,” Damian said, looking
at his Rolex. “We have a full day ahead of us.”
    Luke heard the door of his
room open. A tall girl in a black and white maid’s uniform entered,
pushing a silver cart of breakfast platters and carrying a plastic
garment bag over her arm. She had short blond hair that looked
suspiciously like a wig and a blandly polite face devoid of
make-up.
    “This is Miranda, your
personal attendant. She is on call for you twenty four seven. She
is responsible for your clothing needs, your housekeeping, and all
of your culinary desires. Adventis employs four international chefs
with broad-ranging menus.”
    Miranda flashed Luke a
plastic smile. Her blue eyes were pale and shallow. She began
setting platters of food on the table in front of him. There were
dishes of French toast, fruit and pudding, muffins and cookies, and
a full pitcher of fresh orange juice.
    “Enjoy your continental
breakfast prepared by our chefs,” Damian said. “When you’ve
finished, come up to my office.”
    There was a click and the
live video recording disappeared.
    Luke eyed Miranda as she
began pouring him a full glass of juice.
    “You’re an android,” he
said.
    “Yes,” Miranda said, without
stopping her pouring. “I am an Adventis Model 671, from the
Fantastic Domestics line. Would you like some butter and syrup on
your French toast, sir?”
    Without waiting for him to
answer she took butter and syrup from her cart and began applying
it to the French toast.
    Luke suddenly caught her
wrist. He held it in his hand in a strong grip which began
generating heat. He scanned the inside of her arm quickly with his
internal sensors, gauging the wires and circuits within
it.
    Miranda did not seem
surprised at all. She simply waited placidly until Luke had
finished his scan and released her wrist.
    “Do you have questions about
my mechanisms, sir?” she said.
    Luke shook his
head.
    “They are easy to
understand,” he said. His comment did not seem to be a
compliment.
    “If you don’t mind me saying
outright, sir, I can tell that you are a far superior model to me,”
Miranda said. There was a trace of awe in her voice.
    “I’m not a model for
anything,” Luke said. “There’s only one of me.”
    Miranda simply smiled. She
laid the plastic garment bag beside him on the white
couch.
    “Your new clothes,” she
said. “They were altered by Mr. Foster’s personal tailor. And new
shoes.”
    She produced a shoebox from
the bottom of the cart and set it by his feet.
    “I will go now. If you need
anything, just pick up the phone and dial six.”
    She turned and pushed her
cart out through the door.
    Luke took only a small sip
of the orange juice. He ignored the food and opened the plastic
garment bag.
    He pulled out a
stunningly-made silk suit with a pale blue dress shirt and dark
blue satin tie. The shoes were made of Italian leather and in his
correct size.

    “Adventis has got him?”
Trista said. She was sitting with Mandelie in the kitchen of her
apartment, both of them drinking strong coffee and looking tired
and pale from a lack of sleep and hours of panic after Mandelie had
gotten the news that Luke had vanished from Fort Conway.
    “They’ve got him,” Mandelie
said. She shook her head.
    “Between a maximum security
prison and Adventis Technologies,