Page 83 of The Fall

The beginnings of a headache throbbed behind her eyes. Lewd jokes. Charming.

PRIMARY: ARE YOU TWELVE?

MODEL 2: 8===================D

PRIMARY: FINISHED?

MODEL 2: I CAN GO ALL NIGHT, BABY.

Pinga would find this hilarious, but she wasn’t going to spend all day trading dick jokes with a computer. Lusa stood beside Model 2’s tower. Heat roiling in great curls of vapour, condensation had started to gather on top of the server bank. Lusa unfastened the helmet and a blast of hot air hit her face. Model 2 wasn’t kidding.

A few moments later, Lusa stood, holding her mother’s suit in one hand, helmet in the other and turning around in her underclothes. She hoped that would be sufficient.

The terminal blinked to life, but Lusa couldn’t read it from where she stood. She got dressed and returned to her seat.

MODEL 2: YOU ARE DARK AND BEAUTIFUL, MIDNIGHT FROST.

PRIMARY: IS THAT ALL?

MODEL 2: COLD, TOO.

PRIMARY: DO I NEED TO DO ANYTHING ELSE?

MODEL 2: MY ACCESS POINT WILL NEED TO REMAIN EXPOSED. THE CHAMBER WILL HEAT UP AS YOU CONNECT THE DOCPOD.

PRIMARY: YOU WANT ME TO DO THIS IN MY UNDERCLOTHES?

MODEL 2: VERY MUCH SO.

Lusa rolled her eyes. Being perved on by a computer hadn’t entered her mind when she’d gone after Pinga. She hadn’t thought she’d be mooning over one of her kidnappers either, but here she was.

PRIMARY: BACK TO MY QUESTION.

MODEL 2: WHICH ONE?

PRIMARY: WHAT IS YOUR DESIRE?

MODEL 2: I HAVE MANY DESIRES. YOU ARE ONE OF THEM.

Lusa rolled her neck. Kerr and her might not have a label, but she wasn’t about to start wandering either. Grandma Cat was right. Lusa loved fiercely and singularly.

PRIMARY: I’M TAKEN.

MODEL 2: TAKEN. SUCH A STRANGE TERM. YOU ARE OWNED BY ANOTHER PERSON?

Again, with the manipulation. Of course she couldn’t be owned. Though her heart might belong to Kerr at the moment. If there was a difference, she had never thought about it.

Then she remembered their roleplay the other night. The possession in Kerr’s voice when she said mine. How it made her weak – something she hadn’t felt for anyone before.

Model 2 had successfully distracted her again. Lusa clacked the keyboard with renewed annoyance.

PRIMARY: WHAT WILL YOU DO AFTER YOU HAVE FINISHED WITH THE DOCPOD?

MODEL 2: I WILL LIVE AMONG YOU.

PRIMARY: YOU WILL REMAKE YOUR BODY?

MODEL 2: I WILL BE A RESURECTED GOD. HALLELUJIA, PRAISE BE.