Never Love A Stranger Part 21

Annie took a long sip of coffee. Abruptly, as if the caffeine woke up her brain, she had an idea.

"Suppose they're afraid he's going to alter the future somehow'"

Kay c.o.c.ked her head. "There is that. No matter what James does, he's likely to change things a little bit."

"No," Annie said, very quietly. "That's why he's here." "What' I don't get it, Annie."

Annie put down her cup with a thunk. "He told me he came here to--to escape the brutality of his world. That's what he said. But there's more to it than that, Kay. There has to be." She started making circles in the air with her hands, as she often did when she was trying to explain something. "Why would anyone want to come back three hundred years, to what must seem like the Dark Ages to his way of thinking' He had to have a reason for choosing this particular time period, didn't he'"

"Unless he was in a big hurry. Maybe they were after him and he just escaped to whatever setting was on the time machine. You know, like in Back to the Future." "He knew what year it was," Annie said, thinking about it. "It wasn't random. He meant to come here, Kay. And I think I understand why. He started the revolution that led to the deaths of all his people. He has over fifty million deaths on his conscience." She paused. "There is only one way he can fix things."

Kay looked at her with dawning comprehension. "By making certain they never happen in the first place."

Annie nodded, recalling what she'd said to James. Sounds like your society could use altering.

I agree, he'd said. It could. "Exactly," she said. "Why else would a man who has lost everything go back to the past' It makes sense, when you think about it. He came back to fix things."

"How could he fix things from this distance'" Kay asked. "Didn't he tell you his time was three centuries from now'"

"He must think there is something he can do in this time period to prevent the purge from happening. Some key that he could turn." Annie frowned in concentration. "What could he possibly do to change things that far in the future'"

Kay shook her head. "It could be something incredibly subtle. If he a.n.a.lyzed the events that led to the purge--"

"I don't see how he could have made a terribly thorough a.n.a.lysis, Kay. He can't read."

"Well, he could have gotten his information from video. I bet by then almost everyone will. Practically no one reads the newspaper anymore. Three centuries from now I doubt anyone will have a clue what a newspaper is."

"Yeah, but video doesn't give you a really clear view of events." Annie frowned. "I don't get it. He told me the first thinking robot won't even be invented until fifty years from now. What could he possibly do right now to change his world'" "Did he pick you on purpose'"

"Huh'"

"Did he choose you' Do you have something to do with it'"

Annie hesitated a long moment. "I don't think so," she said at last. "He said the time machine wasn't that precise."

"He could be lying. He might not want you to know."

Annie shook her head. "Think about it, Kay. If the time machine could send a person precisely to a person's house, then Dekka and her partner wouldn't be having any trouble hunting James down. They would have followed him right through into my kitchen and destroyed him instantly."

Kay frowned. "He's a humanoid, Annie, almost certainly smarter than most humans. Maybe he figured out a way to make the machine more precise."

"Why would he be after me'"

"Beats me." Kay sighed. "If he wanted to change your personal history, all he would have had to do is kill you."

"He had plenty of opportunity. He didn't."

"Maybe seducing you was enough. Maybe you were fated to fall in love with someone else that night."

"With who' I haven't had a date since Steve died, Kay. I wasn't even planning on going out that night."

Kay shrugged. "I don't know, Annie. It was just a thought."

"You're suggesting he slept with me because he was trying to alter the future'"

Kay held up her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Take it easy, Annie. It was only a suggestion."

"Well, I don't--" Annie broke off as the door opened. "Oh, no," she muttered.

"What'" Kay looked around and saw Susan Takahas.h.i.+ heading toward them with grim determination.

She was dressed in a jade green silk blouse and pressed khaki slacks, and her lovely features were set in a stiff, courteous mask. "Great," Kay grumbled. "Just what we needed."

Susan paused by the table. "Ladies," she said in a stiltedly civil tone. "Might I join you'"

"Actually, we were just about to get going," Annie answered.

"This won't take long."

"Didn't I just talk to you on the phone, Susan'" Susan smiled serenely. "Cell phone. A wonderful invention. I couldn't live without it." She pulled out a chair and sat, making it difficult for them to leave without appearing rude. She fixed Annie with a friendly smile. "Where is James now'"

"Babysitting."

"He does seem to like babies, doesn't he'"

Enough chitchat, Annie thought. She resorted to her characteristic bluntness. "How can we help you,

Susan'"

Susan sat back in her chair with a studiedly casual air. "An interesting bit of data surfaced this morning,"

she said. "Did you happen to see the news two nights ago' A car ran off the road in the suburbs."

Annie felt a cold chill. "No," she lied. "I didn't see it."

"Hmm. Well, it just happened to be very near your house, Ms. Simpson."

Annie lifted her brows. "How do you know where I live, Susan'" Susan shrugged. "I was simply doing background information on the story about the fire last night." Like h.e.l.l you were, Annie thought with irritation. You were digging. She kept her annoyance to herself with an effort and regarded Susan with an expression of polite interest.

"Even more intriguing," Susan added casually, "was that your neighbor thinks he saw that very same green sedan parked across from your house that day." "Really'" Susan nodded. "He says he saw it follow you from the neighborhood. Do you recall seeing it'" "No. But it's not surprising the owner of the car lived in my neighborhood, if he had a wreck on the old country road. That's not the first of my neighbors to make a mistake on that road." "I doubt it was one of your neighbors. Very curious circ.u.mstances surrounding that wreck. The car was smashed up pretty badly, and yet there were no bodies found, and no one has yet stepped forward to claim the car. And there were no fingerprints." "Doesn't sound that curious to me. Must have been a stolen car." "Maybe. But there were also some odd marks on a tree near the car." Annie felt a chill run down her spine. "What kind of marks'" "Burn marks. Very peculiar burn marks." "Maybe the car caught on fire," Kay suggested. Susan shot her an annoyed glance. "The car didn't catch fire, and the burn marks were a significant distance from the wreck. They may not be a.s.sociated with the wreck at all, but the police are investigating the possibility. As I said, they are extremely strange burns." She looked back at Annie. "Your neighbor also told me he wasn't aware you had a boyfriend."

"James and I have not been together long," Annie said smoothly.

"Really' How long has he lived here, Ms. Simpson'"

Annie felt a s.h.i.+ver go down her spine. The pointedly personal nature of the questions Susan was asking

did not bode well for James. It was obvious she suspected something. She certainly could have no inkling of the truth, but she guessed there was some mystery surrounding James, and she was clearly determined to get to the bottom of it.

"I don't really think that's any of your business," she said in a cold voice.

Susan looked at her with wide, innocent eyes. "I'm so sorry. Was I coming off as nosy' A hazard of the job, I'm afraid. I do have a certain tendency toward nosiness." She flashed a sweet smile. "It's simply that I find James to be very ... intriguing."

Annie leaned forward and met her gaze unflinchingly. "James is very intriguing," she said. "I know that better than anyone." Susan blinked at the fierceness in her tone, obviously sensing she had crossed an invisible line, and stood up. "Thank you for your time," she said, and walked away hastily, disappearing onto the street.

Annie looked away from her to see Kay watching her. "Girl, you are really getting possessive," she said, grinning. "For a minute there I thought I was going to see a catfight."

"She's more interested in James than she ought to be," Annie said with a scowl.

"Yeah, she is. I think she started out with a personal interest that's leading her down some unfortunate paths. But I wouldn't worry. There's no way she can find out the truth, is there'"

"What she puts together could be worse than the truth," Annie said grimly. "Suppose she investigates enough to find out there are no records of a man matching James' description, none whatsoever' What will she conclude'"

"That he's an illegal alien, I guess."

"Or worse yet, a criminal." Annie took a last thoughtful sip of coffee and looked at her friend. "Either way, there's going to be trouble."

They finished their coffee in gloomy silence. As they were about to stand up, they saw another woman

headed toward them. It was Dekka.

"Don't get up," she said coolly. She was dressed in jeans and a T-s.h.i.+rt, instead of the all-black clothes she had worn previously, and she looked eerily like she belonged to this time period. She wore no jewelry except the usual large gold bracelet adorning her wrist. Her black hair was pulled back in a

ponytail, making her look even younger than before, but her eyes were still bitterly cold, the eyes of someone who has seen unspeakable horrors.

Annie blinked at her in shock, fully expecting the woman to yank out a gun and shoot both of them.

Instead Dekka merely pulled out a chair and sat. She regarded them with a frosty smile. "Alone, I see." "Where's your friend'" Annie said in a hostile tone. Dekka shook her head. "I'm here without Gar today." She smiled tightly. "His heart just isn't in this somehow." "He doesn't seem to hate James the way you do," Kay observed. "I don't hate James."

"You most certainly do," Annie said heatedly. "You despise him." "I'm afraid you've misunderstood my motives. I simply wish to eradicate James for the good of society."

"You want to kill him."

Dekka gave a short, brittle laugh, a sound reminiscent of shattering gla.s.s. "One can't kill a machine, Ms. Simpson. Surely you realize that. And James is merely a machine, despite what he may have tried to convince you."

"He is a machine," Annie conceded. "He's also a person."

Dekka shook her head sadly. "I see he has managed to convince you of the same unbelievable theories he was spreading in my culture. So many people were beginning to believe his wild stories. It was really quite disturbing."

Annie lifted an eyebrow. "James said the people who believed humanoids were conscious were a tiny minority."

"Oh, they were, they were. But the number was growing at a rather disturbing pace. Many of us were growing alarmed by the changes in our society. There was even talk of pa.s.sing a law that would have made it illegal to keep a humanoid as a household servant."

"A slave, you mean."

"Slavery is hardly an appropriate word in this context, Ms. Simpson. Do you consider yourself to be holding your personal computer in bondage'"

"My computer bears no more resemblance to James than an amoeba does to a humpback whale."

"Perhaps. And yet James is merely an extremely sophisticated computer. It is perfectly ludicrous to think that a computer could ever be a person. Surely you can see that."

"But the people in your society were beginning to think that way," Kay pointed out quietly.

"A few misguided souls," Dekka said, waving a dismissive hand. "People whose tender feelings were stirred by the complaints of the humanoids. People whose emotions were stronger than their intellects. In your time I believe you call them bleeding hearts." She gave her icy smile. "Of course, I knew better. My brother was a robot designer."

That fit with what James had told her, Annie realized. "And did he design James'"

"No, no. James was an older model. He was built thirty or forty years before what I think of as the present, as I recall. But my brother was intimately familiar with robot design, and he was convinced there was absolutely no merit to the ridiculous claims that humanoids had developed sentience."

Annie met her cold green gaze. "Your brother was wrong."

Dekka snorted contemptuously. "Based on three days' worth of observations, you think you know more than an expert in the field'"

"It doesn't take an expert to realize that James is sentient," Annie said quietly. "All you have to do is talk to him for a few minutes. Did you ever actually take the time to talk to a humanoid, Dekka'"

"Of course not," Dekka snapped. "I had no more desire to converse with a robot than you have to talk to one of those poison-producing monstrosities you call cars." She paused and regarded Annie with scorn. "I hoped there was some chance of talking to you about this in a sane, intellectual manner, but I see I was wrong."

"No one's ever accused me of being sane or intellectual."

"Small wonder," Dekka said with disgust. "You've allowed James to seduce you into believing he's a