The Gate by Kaitlyn O'Connor Read Free Book Online Page B

done something?”
    Brenda glanced from Carly to Devlin,
saw that the door was still standing open and pulled away. “Shit!
Move away from the door and let it close.”
    Devlin looked around at her command,
noticed that he was still blocking the door and stepped deeper into
the room. It closed immediately, leaving them in a deeper gloom
than before. Only one feeble light illuminated the interior of the
tiny room that led into the underbelly of the colony
complex.
    “How did you know he called me that?”
Brenda demanded angrily.
    “I don’t know what you’re talking
about!” Carly snapped, angry by now herself. “You said you wanted
to see him. I brought him.”
    “Funny Bunny!”
    Carly gaped at her, trying to figure
out what Bren was accusing her of. “How could I possibly
…?”
    “It must have been in something you
found!”
    “Something she found?” Devlin
prompted.
    “When she was researching about you,”
Brenda responded tightly. “You shouldn’t know that name! Nobody
ever called me that but my brother and that was when we were just
kids on the reservation.”
    “I know because I am your brother,”
Devlin responded with a mixture of anger and confusion. “What’s
going on, Bunny?”
    “You are not my brother! You’re nothing
but a mechanical doll made to look like him!”
    Carly and Devlin both gaped at her in
dismay.
    Devlin’s face hardened. “I had to have
extensive cybernetic replacements after the accident, but
….”
    Brenda uttered a scoffing laugh.
“Extensive! They could barely scrape together and identify enough
pieces to fill the little box we buried!”
    Carly was horrified at that grisly
detail, but Devlin’s reaction was even more disturbing. He turned
white, swayed as if someone had clocked him with something and he
was struggling against blacking out.
    With the best will in the world Carly
found it hard to explain that reaction away as mere programming and
AI. In fact, her first gut reaction was total belief that he was a
person who’d just received news so stunning he was about to pass
out. She moved toward him instinctively, curling her arms around
his waist. “Devlin? Sit down. You look like you’re going to pass
out and if you do I can’t hold you up.”
    He sloughed her off like she was an
annoying insect, barely acknowledged her presence at all. “That’s …
not possible,” he said in a voice that sounded strange—hoarse,
disbelieving. “You really believe I’m just a machine like she
does?”
    “She knows what you are,” Brenda said
sullenly. “She ordered you from the factory, custom built—because
she had this thing about my brother.”
    Carly felt her face turn fiery with
discomfort. “Bren!” she exclaimed.
    “You’re worried about me telling … that
… thing? It isn’t as if he could feel anything about
it!”
    “Stop it!” Carly said angrily. “You
don’t have to be such a bitch about it! I wouldn’t have brought him
if I’d known you would be so … nasty! It isn’t his fault! Don’t
take it out on him!”
    “He isn’t a him,” Brenda said tightly.
“And you had no right to use my brother as a … template for your
sex toy!”
    That comment sent a jolt through Carly
and another wave of embarrassment. She glanced at Devlin
uncomfortably, but she could see he’d hardly heard. He was still
struggling mightily with the other things Brenda had flung at him.
“Come on, Devlin. Let’s go home. I knew this was a bad
idea.”
    Devlin looked down at her then. His
face hardened, but he didn’t argue with her. He turned and headed
toward the door. Carly sent her friend a speculative look and
decided not to say anything else. She thought enough had already
been said.
    * * * *
    “ I have memories, Carly,”
Devlin said tightly when they’d reached the apartment again and
entered it.
    Carly’s gaze flickered toward the vid
surveillance. She pasted a smile on her lips. “Of course you do.
You’re supposed to. It’s part of your