Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence - 6

“I’m afraid there’s not really a choice factor involved”.

This seemed to make him laugh – but it wasn’t a humorous one. “You really think you can just come in here and make me do what I don’t want to? You’re just a girl anyway”, he muttered the last part, but it didn’t escape my ears. The grin on my lips immediately dropped.

“Really?” I stressed my eyes impassive. “You think I am just a girl, do you, not one that could kill you in an instant?”

7

His smirk faltered under my scrutiny and I knew I was getting to him, even though he wouldn’t necessarily admit it to himself. The mask that he tried so hard to keep on was something I could easily tear away.

“Sure..?” he answered my question with one of his own – and an uncertain one at that as well.

“Whatever”, I sighed, knowing that I had won the battle. The war seemed to be in my favour as well, considering that we were not in the eyes of the public for long. Ah. who was I kidding? I was only digging myself a hole that would eventually be too deep to climb back out of. I turned away, knowing for a fact that he would follow and walked down the hallways and the stairs, twisted a few corners, and was in the sitting room. It had been much too easy to place a tracker on Mr Mason. That guard was too lax in his own home. Who knew, maybe I was secretly a terrorist – not that I was – and had gotten by everyone, sure I would have killed him by now, and then the mission, and my company’s reputation would be at a F.A.I.L. (Feeling Actually Incredibly Lame).

The Mason family and company were sitting in the incredibly lavish lounge area, discussing delicate matters that I was yet to be introduced to. This much was obvious from the silence that swept the room once I entered, Jason trailing behind me, calling out, “Hey! Come back here!” Once I stopped, he grabbed my arm, and tried flipping me around to face him, but this much I had expected, and easily countered with my elbow attacking his stomach. He doubled over in pain, groaning heavily.

“Sorry?” I turned to Mr Mason, wondering how he would take my somehow frank behaviour with his treasured son.

Mr Mason only let out a brief chuckle, while Mike’s lips twitched. I guessed I was probably the only person who had done that to His Gracious Highness. I shrugged it off, thinking that at least I had taught him a lesson – never to attempt touching me without my permission again. “Well, you know, you did get him to come down”, he nodded his head approvingly, to which I smiled. I was actually starting to like Mr Mason, on first accounts anyway.

“Dad!” Came the indignant answer from Jason. He had managed to pick himself back up, and was now trying to stand tall, while still placing an arm on his stomach. I glanced down briefly at my elbow, thinking that maybe my elbow was pointier than I had thought it to be. “You are just going to let her hit me like that, and say nothing!? Last time I checked, you were supposed to care about me”, he spoke in a hard tone, which somehow became harder when referring to me. We weren’t going to be good friends now, were we?

“Dude, relax. If you calm down, the media will never know that your girlfriend beat you up”, I smirked, wondering how he was supposed to counter that one. The funny thing was, I could never tell the media that that had happened, since no girlfriend of Jason – ever – would be able to beat him up. He had muscle, but he had no skill, no precision. But it wasn’t as if any other twenty year old university going girl would know that. That would be just plain suspicious, would it not?

His eyes widened at my words, nevertheless, his mind being too thick to realise the lie. While his jaw hung open, and he stared back and forth between me, and his abdomen, as if calculating something, I stole a wink at Mr Mason, to assure him that it was only a joke. His worrisome expression immediately softened, replaced by an amused one. Mike, on the other hand, was looking at me apprehensively. My approach was different to the usual one, and it was making him worried. He probably thought that I didn’t know what I was doing, just some teenager, who had somehow managed to become the bodyguard of the presidential candidate’s son. Yeah, right. Anyway, I wasn’t very much perturbed by him; he had no say in any of this. He was nothing but an onlooker, only interfering in the name of National Security.

“You can’t do that...” Jason whispered angrily, but somehow cautiously.

“Says who?” I replied immediately, sitting down on the arm of the soft, cream, velvet couch. I pretended examine my manicured nails, waiting for a response. Actually, I was following the pattern on the immaculately clean off-white carpet, with similar floral spirals. Who ever had designed this house, they sure had a sense of style.

The exasperated sigh came then. “Whatever, I don’t care. I’m going out, I’ll be back whenever.” He walked out then, about to slam the door, but I caught it before the bang! could be heard.

“Jason co-” Mr Mason began, but I cut him off.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be going with him”, I called out, while following Jason.

“No you’re not!” Jason shouted back to me, waving his hand.

I placed my hand on my heart, in mock surprise. “I’m so sorry Princess, but that’s my job. Now where are we going anyway?”

My words seemed to spark some kind or realisation in his eyes, as in the next second he had flipped around, facing me indignantly. I watched him cautiously, wondering what his next words would be. From his actions, it was easy to decipher that he was under the impression that he had just gained the upper hand.

“You know”, he said. “The paparazzi seem to enjoy following me around quite a bit, which means you can’t do anything, or say anything out of place. That means, I can treat you like shit, and you can’t do anything about it.”

Damn. He was smarter than I had first given him credit for. I wondered what else he was hiding from the rest of us.

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