Ghost in the Machine

Truth & Lies

The walls were blindingly white, reflecting the light into his eyes making them water. Wrists cuffed in metal links to the steel desk in front of him, Rhaner had been sitting here for a long time, forced to wait. Questions whirled in his mind, but as yet, there were no answers. The shock of seeing his wife, who he'd thought dead, was just beginning to wear off. Anger gradually replaced it.

Fingers clamping into fists, his jaw tightened as the door to the small room abruptly opened. A tall, thin man with graying hair came in, his dress suit crisp, with sharp lines and a solid gray tie. Mina followed with a man who wore a military uniform. His eyes were hard.

"Greer Rhaner," the man in the suit spoke, taking the seat opposite Rhaner. "You're a hard man to find."

"Must be why you blew up my house," he retorted sourly. The man scowled.

"You're in possession of contraband technology. For that alone I can have you and your son shot."

There was no way to refute that, so Greer stayed quiet, just watching him. A desire to look at Mina was strong within him, but he coldly squelched it. He wasn't ready to deal with anything connected with her...not yet.

"Explain why you did not immediately turn the android over to the authorities when you discovered it."

"She looked lonely."

Lunging from his chair, eyes blazing, he grabbed Rhaner by the shirt front.

"Do you think this is amusing-!"

"Easy Fowler." The military man stepped forward, his gaze on Rhaner.  "We won't get answers that way. We must reason with him."

Fear darted through Greer at his tone. This one was dangerous. An anxious thought fluttered through him, where was Kai? Carefully keeping his expression still, he returned the hard gaze aimed at him. They were vultures, circling, looking for any weakness to exploit.

"You sound like a man I can deal with," he said carefully. "What do you want?"

Gesturing the taller man aside, the commander sat down, folding his hands on the tabletop.

"You have an android, Rhaner, the kind of Tech that hasn't existed in three centuries. I'd like to know why."

"You folks were at the storage unit where I got it," Greer sized up the man. "You tell me. I don't know Tech."

Pursing his lips, the man seemed to consider it, nodding a little.

"Fair enough. Since the War, a concerted effort has been made to find and destroy every form of A.I. out there. It was considered dangerous and unreliable. Old records surrounding the death of Vera Wagner indicated that a prototype of a new android, a Series Five, had been made but was never discovered by our agents. Dr. Lewis Dwighthall was the mind behind the ingenuity. We believe the Series Five is what was in that storage unit you purchased, as it was held in the name of an old family member of Dwighthall. We found it interesting the unit was paid for in advance, for a very long time. Then after the War records were lost, leases destroyed, entire populations wiped out, and its taken the governmentcenturiesto sift through the rubble."

"Other than my buying the contents of the unit sight unseen, what does that have to do with me?"

"Nothing." With a faint smile, the man sat back. "Greer Rhaner, I'm General Marshal Bowman. I'll level with you. We hit the series five with a handheld EMP that should have put it out for good. It activated on the trip here but has said nothing. According to our understanding, it shouldn't be awake, not unless its directly reactivated. That makes this model uniquely interesting, kind of a novelty, wouldn't you say?"