Neural Wraith, page 33
Her body rubbed against his length as she tried to fuck his fingers. Nick placed a hand behind her head. She responded eagerly and mashed her lips against his while her pussy juices poured over his hand and crotch.
Then she collapsed against him. Her hot breath ran across his neck while he stroked her hair.
This part of her felt normal, at least. Nick could stroke Rie’s silken black hair all day long.
“That was even better than the simulations,” she said, peeling herself off him. “Maybe there is a hidden directive that makes it better.”
“That might just be your emotion engine.”
“Maybe.” She smiled impishly. “Are you sure you don’t want me to return the favor? In the simulations—”
“How long do you want to wait before we have sex, Rie? Because ordinary humans have something known as a refractory period,” he said drily.
She pouted.
Then, without any warning, she gripped his cock, raised herself above it, and buried the entire length into her pussy at once. Her eyes lidded in the process.
“F-fuck,” Nick said, snapping his hands onto Rie’s ass.
Like so much else about her, it was disappointingly hard. Nick wouldn’t be squishing her buns for fun anytime soon.
“The answer was no time, Nicholas,” she whispered while wrapping her arms around his neck. “And this is delightfully filling. I can feel you twitching inside me, ready to coat me in your seed from the inside out.”
“You practiced your dirty talk, didn’t you?” he asked.
“I’m glad I did.” She bounced on top of him, eliciting gasps from both of them. “Can… can we just fuck now?”
Nick was more than happy to agree to that.
While Rie tried to ride him at first, he quickly settled her into a more comfortable rhythm. Her crotch made wet slapping sounds every time it struck his, but she never slowed. He held her against him and listened to her ecstatic gasps. His whispered nothings in her ear seemed to cause her to buck violently against him.
But she grew faster and faster over time. Nick didn’t know if she could climax, but his own rapidly approached. Rie pushed herself back and grinned at him.
“Come whenever you want,” she whispered. “Inside, outside, all over me. I’m yours right now. Just come…”
Who was he to deny her?
His hands rammed her crotch against his and he felt himself let go. Rie moaned happily as hot jets of his seed filled her. She bucked against him repeatedly, as if trying to milk every drop.
He kissed her, and she reciprocated.
“Thank you,” she mumbled. “For the kisses. They mean a lot to me.”
“You’re an acquired taste,” he said.
She batted his chest playfully, then slid off him. While there was some mess on his length and her outside, nothing seemed to drip out.
He stared at her slit. “Let me guess, they figured letting anything escape would be a structural weakness.”
“Hmm? No, I just want to keep it inside until later. I can measure it, after all.”
She could what?
Rie stood up and began peeling off the rest of her clothes. “I know you mentioned your refractory period, but the night is young, isn’t it? Maybe some coffee or juice, and then we can continue where we left off?”
She smiled impishly at him while pointing at the bedroom.
Nick already felt his length attempting to spring back into action at the suggestion.
“That sounds like a great idea,” he said.
The real question was whether he had the stamina to keep up with his new robot girlfriend. Tonight would be a real test of will for him.
CHAPTER 26
Nick’s sleep was restless. He didn’t toss and turn, due to Rie’s vice-like grip around his waist. Her rock-hard head nestled over his shoulder restricted his movement.
Sometimes he dreamed, and those dreams mostly consisted of being suffocated, or drowning in the grip of some sort of betentacled sea creature. Nick didn’t need to think very hard to see the symbolism.
Because while he enjoyed Rie’s company, and last night had been great, sleeping with her was like sleeping with a radiator. A radiator that physically prevented him from escaping its grasp.
Rie was warm, but that was about all he could say about her. Oh, and the breasts pushing against his back were sort of soft. As he’d discovered last night, they weren’t exactly silicone. More like some sort of soft, molded silicate with a ballistic plate behind them. Her creators had still been thinking about function when they designed them.
As for everything else? Rie was pointy in all the wrong places, harder than he was, and had abs that Olympic body builders could never hope to match—mostly because hers could deflect bullets.
But despite everything, morning eventually came. Or close enough. His clock showed 4:00AM and Rie’s arms freed him from his prison.
“I sense you only slept for three hours and fourteen minutes,” she said.
“That’s better than I expected,” he said, stretching as he sat on the edge of his bed.
He had aches where he had never ached before. His shower couldn’t help him with this sort of pain, given its awful hot water delivery. If this was his future, then he needed a better home pronto.
“Given we retired to bed over eight hours ago, it is a sign of very poor sleep. You usually sleep quite well.” Rie frowned. “Was yesterday too stressful?”
“I didn’t even think of yesterday.”
She blinked, then followed him as he ambled into his bathroom. He prepped the shower while she watched. Her frustration grew while staring at the water.
“Your hot water is terrible,” she said.
“Juliet already told you that. Care to join me?” he asked.
Rie’s eyes had gone vacant. Nick shrugged and began washing himself.
After several seconds, she returned to reality. “I’ve rented a hotel room. We’ll go there and enjoy actual hot water.”
Nick stared at her.
“Get out, Nick.” Rie physically dragged him out of the shower.
His mind processed the fact she had finally called him “Nick” while she forcefully rubbed him down with a towel. Then she pushed him into his bedroom. While she began rummaging through his clothes, he took the opportunity to soak in the moment.
Rie was still naked, and it turned out there was a reason she needed to cover up. The schematics of police dolls suggested they didn’t need to.
He frowned as he noticed that she was taking an extraordinarily long time to pick out his clothes. And going through every drawer in his bedroom.
“Are you cataloging my clothes?” he asked.
“This will save time in the future,” she said.
“You’re not planning to dress me every day, right?”
“That would be inefficient.” She held up a particularly old, ratty t-shirt and made a face. “But you are going to buy new clothes. And when you hire that housekeeping doll, she might have some specific directives about what you’re allowed to leave the house in.”
“Why are you programmed with fashion sense? You’re a police doll, Rie.”
“Maybe Sigma foresaw a future where the Fashion Police would be vital to humanity’s survival.” The grin on her face was visible even from Nick’s angle.
He picked out a discarded pair of briefs—surely Rie couldn’t argue about these—and put them on. At the same time, he fished her clothes out from the main room and deposited them on the bed.
“Thanks,” she said, while handing him a button-up, slacks, and undershirt.
He hadn’t worn the first two for a couple of years. Also, they were all black. Apparently that was Rie’s color.
“Where did you even find these?” he asked.
“The same place I found the rest of your good clothes. Buried beneath the terrible ones. Get dressed, and we’ll go relax somewhere that has running water.”
“Rie, I have running water.”
“Yes, but for how long?”
Unsure if that was a threat or an exaggeration, Nick decided to get dressed.
Juliet and Rosa waited for them outside. The hall lighting had switched into energy saving mode, and only half the bulbs were on.
Outside, there wasn’t the slightest hint of the sun. Maybe in an hour he’d see it peeking over the horizon. A trio of police SUVs awaited them. Not a soul could be seen besides the Mark 1s milling about.
“Good morning, Nicholas,” Meta greeted him, recognizable due to her updated serial number.
Her new unit gleamed under the bright streetlights. She carried a bulky shotgun, which Nick assumed was loaded with some sort of armor-piercing shell. Quite a few of the Archangels had switched out their SMGs for heavier weapons.
He wondered if that would be the new normal for the next few weeks. If neural warfare wasn’t effective, and the enemy brought heavy armor to the fray, then the Archangels needed to carry bigger guns.
That would set the Altnet ablaze. Tensions would rise further.
“Meta. Glad to see you’re… new,” he finished lamely.
He had planned to say “good as new,” but that was a fairly stupid statement.
She smirked at him, as if realizing what he had intended to say. “Thank you, Nicholas. I am, in fact, in a new unit. It is nice of you to notice.”
“You enjoy bullying me, don’t you?”
Meta’s expression didn’t budge an inch. “I was informed that you bullied us. By none other than Rie herself.”
“Oh, cut it out,” Rie grumbled. “You can flirt with Nick once he’s submerged in a steaming hot bath.”
Meta’s eyes widened and the SUV doors opened instantly. Nick took the hint and got in before he was forcefully shoved inside by his subordinates.
They didn’t go far. The hotel that Rie had booked was fancy enough that Nick felt his wallet implode just from entering the lobby, but it was only a few blocks away. Some sort of business hotel, he assumed.
There was no visible reception desk. Instead, a pair of busty dolls in black uniforms greeted them. Both showed too much cleavage. One trotted up to Rie the moment they entered.
“Officer Uriel, your room has been prepared. The lounge is also available for your escorts, should they require it,” the receptionist doll said. Then she turned to Nick. “Detective Waite, will you need your own room? Or are you in need of other services?”
Given the way the doll’s chest mysteriously attempted to escape its confines, Nick knew exactly what those “other services” were.
“I’m with Officer Uriel,” he said.
The doll nodded, then escorted them to the elevators. All of them were already on the ground floor and wide open. “These will take you to the lounge floor. Please enjoy your stay.”
Nick and Rie dropped off Meta and the others, then went to their own room. Meta made a face at them as they left her behind.
Another doll escorted them to their room, and managed to offer Nick special services again, before vanishing.
The room itself wasn’t anything special, other than being modern and well equipped. The bathroom came with a spa, shower, and a bath half the size of the room.
“Is this some sort of love hotel?” he asked. “I know there are a bunch of them here thanks to the Japanese population.”
“It’s a business hotel that caters to Asian business travelers,” Rie explained as she began running the water for the bath. “Much like your apartment complex, it caters to those with an interest in Alcatraz. The dolls are all illegally modified, of course.”
“Which is why they were all unsubtly offering to have sex with me, even though I’m a detective,” he said drily.
“They only have logic engines. Even if they think it’s stupid, their directives tell them to do it. I half expected you to ask what services they offer.” She laughed. “They have a menu, you know. And prices.”
“That’s fairly standard. At least in the doll district.” Nick shrugged.
“Ah, yes. Always so knowledgeable.”
They waited in comfortable silence while the bath filled up. Nick watched the steam waft through the air and felt anticipation build up in his body.
He could have just paid for something like this in the past. There were plenty of bathhouses and health spas in the city. To say nothing of the shadier joints. But the idea had seemed silly to him, so he had never bothered.
When the bath was ready and bubbly, Rie turned off the taps and undressed. Nick joined her—and was ready a lot sooner, given how much fiddlier her clothes were.
But then they were relaxing in the hot water of this gargantuan bath. Nick’s muscles thanked her for the idea, and he groaned in pleasure.
“I figured you’d like this. It must have taken a toll on you to shower like that every day,” she said.
“Mmm.”
“We never finished our chat last night.”
“Mmm.”
“Are you listening to me?”
“Mmm.”
Rie kicked him, and he finally started paying attention.
“I did hear you,” he grumbled. “But I don’t think there’s much to add. You’re right that I focus too much on lacking an implant. I chose not to get one when I had the choice, and I guess I should move on from that decision. It just bothers me when I’m made to feel special because of that, rather than who I am.”
“You will always be special because of that,” Rie said.
“Rie, you just said the opposite last night.”
“I did. But I also said that you’re more mysterious because you don’t have an implant.” She crawled over to him in the bath and placed a hand against his cheek. “If I want to understand you, I need to talk to you. Maybe you’re lying to me. Maybe you’re lying to yourself. Maybe your emotions are clouded, complicated, and confused. But there is no secret. No shortcut to discovering what you think. Others are like open books to me, while you are a neverending mystery that I delight in reading every single day.”
“You know, I think the same thing about dolls. Especially you Archangels.” Nick laid his hand over hers. “I code directives, but the results are unpredictable. Although rather than a mystery, I think of it more like a puzzle box where every time I solve it, there’s another puzzle box inside it.”
“Oh? Don’t puzzle boxes usually come with ratings?” Rie’s smile grew mischievous. “What rating would you give me?”
“Eleven out of ten.”
“Is that good or bad?”
He pushed her away from him, causing her to squawk in surprise. She splashed up water while righting herself. Her glare tried to melt his face, but he merely smirked in response.
“Both. I can do things like that, and somehow still surprise you. But then you pull stunts like last night, where you’re able to pull my psyche apart like you’ve known me for years.” Nick’s gaze became distant. “In fact, you suggested that you have.”
Rie remained silent, but there was something in her eyes.
Nick still wondered if he was going crazy. Was he actually seeing emotions in her eyes? Or was he just projecting what he wanted to see onto the cold, unfeeling face of an android?
Given he’d spent the night together with Rie, it was probably a little insulting to call her cold and unfeeling.
“Is this hotel safe?” he asked.
“Physically or…?” she left the question open-ended.
“Do the walls have ears?”
“No.”
Nick nodded. “Then I want to know what Kushiel meant when she said I might get put into a lab as well.” He suddenly frowned. “When I initially brought up Welk, you nearly brought something up. If anybody is in a secret military lab, it’s him.”
Rie looked away.
“It is him, isn’t it?”
“I can’t tell you this,” she muttered.
“Can’t? Or won’t?”
“Officially, I can’t.” She sighed. “Well, I can. Kushiel did follow through with her word and remove almost every restriction and monitoring system on you. She refused to lift the phone tracking—apparently because she was using it herself—and your national security classification remains due to your past activities. But there’s nothing fundamentally stopping me from telling you what I know.”
Nick waited patiently. Rie seemed to be struggling internally with her knowledge of his former CEO.
And friend? Nick wasn’t sure how to describe his relationship with Leon Welk. They got along well, but Welk was both older and inscrutable. Especially to a younger Nick who was only finding his feet in the shitshow that was Babylon.
If they met again today, Nick had no doubts that he’d call Welk a friend. Just like he considered Hammond a friend. People that reached out to him and tried to get along were few and far between. Hammond was trying, and there was an affinity between them, even if they’d only known each other for a few days.
“I’ve been in development far longer than you likely think,” Rie abruptly said. “The Mark 1s rolled out, but Sigma already wanted to enhance their neural warfare suite. Kushiel and I were developed concurrently. At some point, she took center stage, because the Mark 1s failed to make a mark outside Neo Westphalia and smaller European states.”
“Few countries want police officers with the autonomy of the Archangels,” Nick said. “And the Mark 1s lacked the heavy weaponry to match warbots.”
“Indeed. So they created Kushiel. But I wasn’t abandoned and became her younger sister not long after.” A grimace crossed her face. “The problem was that Sigma were fundamentally uninterested in a more advanced emotion engine. I was a caged bird. I lived in their labs, sometimes in the neural network, sometimes in an experimental body. But I never experienced reality.”
Nick resisted the urge to ask what counted as reality. Instead, he crept backward in the bath until he leaned against the far wall. Rie faced him. Most of her body was underwater. Nick noticed that her breasts were the opposite of buoyant.
“Do you know what I did while stuck there?” she asked.
“Read? Watched videos? Stared at the wall?”
She chuckled. “Well, yes. But I meant more specifically.”
He shrugged.
