The next day, I stepped out of the elevator into the lobby, and headed to the pool when Holly's words popped into my head. She enjoyed my company. Was that possible for an AI unit—actual enjoyment?

I spotted one of my security detail as I rounded a corner. Had I not know what he looked like, he would've blended perfectly with the other hotel guests. Apparently the other agents were blending a little too well.

My steps came to an abrupt halt as I spotted a dark-haired Russian man in his forties with a distinct jawline and and high cheekbones--the man who'd killed my wife.

I forced my feet to move his direction. Death would be a mercy for me at this point. Killing the man who'd murdered my wife would be a close second.

My panic button was in my pocket. If I couldn't kill the man myself, I could hit the panic button and my security team would have him in seconds. They were probably closing in on me already.

Guessed scrambled to get out of my way when I body checked a blue-haired old lady, almost knocking her down. "Sorry, sorry."

She gave me a vicious scowl, but I had no time to make further apologies—the man was getting away.

I pushed past several other guests toward the front desk and stopped dead in my tracks as the Russian turned and looked at me with confused eyes. Blue eyes. The man who'd killed my wife had brown eyes, almost black. Eyes I'd never forget. His chin wasn't quite right either now the I'd gotten close. People could be augmented, but the man looked truly shocked. If it was the Russian, he was an amazing actor.

I sighed, my shoulders sinking. The paranoia or the repressed rage was messing with my head. The man who'd murdered my wife was dead, but the KGB had somehow managed to steel the man's body from the morgue. Supposedly standard protocol from what I was later told. I'd thought the days of the KGB were over after Devil's Night ended the world as we knew it, but the subjugated governments of the world still sought to spy on each other.

I turned and plodded back toward the old lady to apologize again, then headed for the pool.

A few minutes later, I found a lounge chair and stretched out with my sunglasses masking my eyes, ready to think about absolutely nothing for a while. The sounds of kids playing, people laughing, water splashing—it was all a perfect recipe for sending me right to...

I woke, unsure how much time had passed. A long pair of perfect legs stood right beside me. I followed them up to a red bikini, then farther up to a white sun hat and black sunglasses that hid the eyes of an AI unit. Holly.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I wake you?" She held a tray with a Hawaiian margarita by the look of it, complete with salted rim and a blue umbrella. God, she acted so human. Part of me wished she hadn't said anything about being AI. Ignorance really might have been bliss for me.

"No, it wasn't you."

"Oh, good." She lowered the tray and sat my drink on the table beside me. "This is your favorite drink, correct?"

"Yes." I smiled. "Would you like to join me? Or are you busy working?" I did a mental eye roll at myself. What was I doing? I was just asking to be hurt. But after a year of physical therapy to get back on my feet, part of me craved companionship other than that of a physical therapist.

"This is me working." She stayed crouched, placing the tray under the table.

"Ah, I see. Well, you're a lot prettier than the butler."

That made her smile. She stretched out on the lounge chair beside me.

I wasn't sure how I felt about her. She might have been flesh and bone, but her bones were titanium.

"Is it okay if I ask how you're made?"

"Of course." Her lips twisted into that pleasant smile from last night. "My model starts as a titanium skeleton. It's lowered into a solution full of embryonic stem cells. Using just the right mix of frequencies from within the bones, the stem cells will begin forming around the skeleton. The frequencies tell them which proteins and cells to form. I know—romantic, right?"

I snickered.

"Once the skin and muscles form, frequencies are used to implant cellular memories copied from real people. Not just muscle memory but actual memories of where a person's been, what they've done, how they've used those limbs to move around." She flexed her hand and opened it, looking at it. "Then cloned human organs are placed inside of the skeleton and stem cells are used to 'fill in any gaps,' as they say. My first true memory was when they placed the warm-state quantum processor at the center of my brain. That's when I opened my eyes for the first time, and yet I felt as if I'd been alive all along. It was surreal."

My jaw dropped. "You're one of the first quantum AI models?"

She just smiled.

"Wow. That's some serious cash they're putting out on protecting me." That's when I noticed her skin. "You're tan. Is that permanent or do you actually tan?"

"I tan just like you."

"Just like me? You can't get skin cancer just like me, though, right?"

"Well, I suppose I don't tan just like you, but close enough. My cells are programmed with the most effective immune system known to modern science. And I'm given antivirus updates periodically."

I laughed to myself—antivirus software.

She turned to look at me and paused. Her eyes seemed to appraise me, as if considering something. Why would a robot need to consider anything for more than a millisecond with the incredible processing speed it had? In fact, their quantum processors, in a sense, accessed several parallel dimensions to gather information to help them come to solutions for each task they had to perform, then decided on the best solution, all in a spilt second. Why the hesitation? Was it programming or was it the quantum processor mimicking human behaviors?

Her eyes continued to hold me in that contemplative stare. "Why is it that you're so fit? Aren't you a programmer?"

"Yeah, but I was bullied when I was twelve."

Her lips dropped at the edges, eyes saddened. Couldn't be genuine, though.

"So..." I gave her a half-smile. "...I made sure it'd never happen again."

"You worked out or you trained to fight?"

"Both."

She nodded her approval. "And did it happen again?"

"No."

"Good. You're far too sweet to be bullied."

She thought I was sweet? Interesting. Was she flirting with me? What exactly had they programmed her for? Maybe the government felt sorry for me.

"So you're a programmer for the government?"

"Only a little. It was required as part of the deal." I cocked my head. "You don't already know all of this about me?"

"Actually, no. My handler only told me a few things. Your habits, likes, dislikes. I also know you're an extremely high-value target of many foreign covert government organizations despite the Global Unification Act. I don't know why, but I'm supposed to ask you. I'm purposely not informed about you so it doesn't conflict with what you tell me. Also, it gives me a chance to acclimate to you on a personal level. After a week, my handler will show me a detailed case file on you."

"Gee, that's not creepy at all."

She snickered.

"But, oddly enough, I think I see why they do that. I just didn't realize they were doing it with the new AI units."

She shrugged. "Seems to work well."

I nodded. "So, you're supposed to ask me about myself and why I'm a high value target?"

"I am."

"Alright, well...when I was twenty-eight, I designed a quantum program that could invade computer systems, copy their data, and then perform a quantum time reversal, leaving no signs of it ever being there."

"Wait, you actually managed to utilized quantum time travel to reset the system to the second before your software entered it?"

"Yeah."

"Now that's impressive. But it sounds...dangerous."

"Very. But not even remotely as dangerous as what I created last year."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Very few people know what I created. But when I sold it, part of the deal was that my wife and I would travel the world together, protected. Only problem is, I hesitated, taking an extra day to consider the offer, wondering if I could get a better deal. That's the day my wife was killed and I was shot trying to protect her." The sick sludge-like sensation mingled in my gut again as I fought back the lump rising in my throat. "Messed up my leg pretty badly, too."

"My god, that must have been a nightmare." The concern in her voice sounded genuine, but who was her 'god' exactly? "How did you make it through that?"

"I didn't."

She shook her head in disbelief. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Yes."

Her eyebrows rose.

"Get me another one of these." I held my drink up then downed the entire thing.

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