Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 41151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 206(@200wpm)___ 165(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 206(@200wpm)___ 165(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
“Illegal?” I am teasing, because of course they are illegal. Everything Shah does is illegal. I can tell he’s a criminal. He wears that criminality on every inch of his massive body.
“Illegal, yes,” he laughs. “And extreme.”
“Why would you do that for me?”
“Because you sacrificed yourself for me and my crew more than once. Because you’re the only woman I ever want in my life or my bed.”
“I don’t remember.”
“I know. But I’m going to abduct you from this Colony now and never bring you back. I hope that’s okay. If it’s not, too bad.”
With that, he picks me up. I find myself pressed against his rock hard, very tall, very powerful body. It’s a very pleasant feeling, though did he just ask me if I minded being abducted? Being abducted seems like something I should resist. How would I go about resisting? His arms are like two big muscular bands of steel, and he’s using them to hold me so tenderly.
He carries me into a nearby bar with a Greek symbol above the door, the sort of place only criminals and reprobates frequent. I seem to remember that a place like this is not for me. I am not supposed to be here. I have no choice but to be here, of course. He has taken me, and so I was taken. Not my fault.
A dozen people turn toward us as we enter. They are a fascinating and motley crew of handsome, strange, beautiful men and women, all of whom seem very pleased.
“Dreamy!” Everybody shouts the name he used for me.
I don’t recognize any of them. But they certainly seem to know me, and they’re happy about it. I lift my hand in something like a wave.
“She doesn’t remember, so don’t scare the shit out of her,” Shah calls out to them. “And don’t let her out of our sight.”
Shah
The plan worked perfectly. Zeki is now coded with Dreamy’s data. She is no longer Zeki. She is Unit 4392. Early this morning we dropped her off on the docks and she walked up toward the factory like the good little wind-up worker she is now. That means as far as the Colony is concerned, Dreamy is present, correct, and accounted for. That means the real Dreamy, my Dreamy, can be retired from the system without anybody noticing. She’s free. Properly free. With Zeki taking her place, there’s nobody left to plot against her, and me, and everybody we care about.
We’ve solved every problem we had with this one act. I feel relief and happiness of a kind I have not felt in a long time. I have Dreamy back in my arms, and I have precisely zero inclination to ever let her go.
Malik comes up and nudges me. “Ready to let her use her own legs, bro?”
“No,” I tell him firmly.
“Malik?” Dreamy says his name in curious remembering tones.
“Yes,” Malik says. “I’m Malik. That’s good recall!”
It is good recall. It’d be nice if she had remembered me first, but I’ll take what I can get. The scientist told us it would be almost random, the way her memories returned. He explained that the programming very much relies on the routine of the Colony to stay intact. That means Zeki will be out of our way as long as she stays at the box factory, and Dreamy will be my Dreamy again the more I immerse her in our world.
“I’m sorry about your sister,” she says. She’s remembering, but what she’s remembering is coming out at the wrong time and in the wrong way. Trust Dreamy.
“It’s okay,” he says. “Natural justice. Poetic justice.”
Dreamy looks up at me, her eyes searching my face.
“Shah?” She says my name in a much more knowing tone. It’s as the scientist said, breaking the routine is the same as breaking the programming. What they’ve done to her won’t be undone immediately, but there are already cracks in the facade of her repression, because it’s not just words when I say she is mine. Dreamy belongs to me, and I belong to her.
“Yes,” I say. “It’s me.”
“I know it’s you,” she says. “Can you put me down for a moment? I promise I won’t run away. I just want a drink.”
A drink at club Omega. Why not. Everything comes full circle. I set Dreamy down, knowing I don’t have her fully back in mind, but in spirit she never left. She gives me her sweet smile and proceeds to order the highest percentage beverage the bar has.
“Slow down, Dreamy,” I caution her as she proceeds to gulp it down. “That’s potent.”
“It’s okay,” she says. “If I get too drunk, you can spank me.”
More memories are clearly surfacing. She’s got a mischievous little glint in her eye. I wonder if she remembers that I don’t always take her to a private place to teach her a lesson. If she doesn’t, I’m about to remind her.