AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That day was the birthday when Sassi had been given to her. Sassi was not what she’d always thought he was. The bot had followed her out onto the balcony, as he often did.
This could be proved easily, according to the memoir. The note left by her father had given instructions but had also said not to do what she intended to do unless absolutely necessary.
It was necessary.
Dire times were coming, or her head was screwed on backwards.
“Face me, Sassi.”
The bot turned, eye stalks bouncing a little. With his boxlike head and rectangular body, Sassi looked plain ugly and docile.
She needed something like a screwdriver. A butter knife from breakfast sat on a plate on the table.
Calli picked it up, eyed the slots to either side of where SASSI was written on the bot’s chest, then pressed both slots with the end of the knife and said, “Protocol three five nine.”
Metal slid away to either side of the letters, revealing a much longer word.
Assassination Bot.
“It’s true.” She took a half-step backward then bent to study the label. “Wow.”
The text showing beneath that big label was ominous. Not to be used for unauthorized non-military purposes.
“Oh, ohhh. You naughty thing, Sassi.” She straightened. “Initiate Protocol Calli five zero.”
Sassi’s eyes on stalks were sucked into the head and new eyes emerged from the metal, like a frog creature from a pool of water. They glowed a bright red. It was, Calli decided, alarming.
“I must warn you this is not to be done without due consideration of consequences.”
“Such as?” she said absentmindedly, preoccupied by those new eyes.
“Uhhh. That has been lost from memory to some degree. People dying is my best guess.”
She chuckled. Not a laughing matter but still. On the other hand, was Sassi functional?
Frowning, she asked, “Is the rest of you working okay?”
“I can run a scan of my processes, memory, and structure once fully activated, Princess.”
“Good. Activate then. Report back if you detect any faults.”
“I shall. Who do I terminate?”
“Oh! No one, yet. Please. Just be my guard.”
“You must name those of highest priority if I need to get lethal. If not, I will tend to kill everyone except you, if it’s necessary to keep you safe.”
Everyone?
Her heart jolted. “Fuck! Drake! Myself.” This was harder than she thought. “We are highest. Always. Let me think on the others.”
“Absolutely. I’ll assume fuck is not a person’s name? Good. I’ll go arm myself better and... do those scans.”
That sounded a bit vague for an assassination bot. Arm himself with what?
Her father had given her Sassi and meant him to be a backup if ever the situation required it. Well, her brother was out there, maybe, probably, and people were now rebelling against what she’d thought was already her successful rebellion. That might be connected.
She needed a deadly bot. If nothing else, it made her feel safer and as if she were protecting Drake despite her secrets. If only Sassi wasn’t making her wonder about the reliability of his old mechanisms.
