What Lies Behind: A New Adult Dark Science Fiction Romance by Travis Simmons Read Free Book Online Page A

stepping forward, suddenly interested like maybe the guy was being attacked.
    “Watch him,” Cass said.
    The cleaner bent down, grabbed a cobra by the tail and tossed it to the side of the tank.
    “Holy crap!” Brandon exclaimed. “He must have brass balls or something.”
    The man continued tossing snakes aside as if they weren’t deadly and hissing at him.
    “Alright, I’m ready to go,” Brandon told her and tugged her toward the exit. She smiled at him, but didn’t argue because he was looking pretty green around the gills.
    It was her turn to squirm next when Brandon steered her toward the aquarium. He insisted that they take the conveyor belt through a huge tank with a tunnel built through it.
    “Ow!” Brandon yipped when Cass squeezed his hand as a shark glided overtop. “Be careful, you’re stronger than me.” He chuckled as he pried her hand loose. “Why are you so uppity around water?”
    “Robot, remember?” she asked. “Water doesn’t really mix well with electronics.”
    “Well this much water cascading down on anyone wouldn’t be too good for them.” Brandon smirked at her, but took her hand again. He went through names of the fish that they were seeing, all salt water and all of them as amazing as the snakes had been. It was hard for Cass to settle down with that much water around her, but at least she was able to enjoy the fish.
    “And you really don’t need me to name them, do you?” Brandon asked her. “You’ve probably got some kind of internet connection, right?”
    “Cortical nodule,” Cass nodded. “Please continue. I’ve shut it off so I won’t be able to identify the fish.”
    She could have seen any number of the fish through her cortical implant, but that was through videos. This was better. Seeing the fish and the sea life first-hand wasn’t something she was likely to forget.
    But I forgot Olivia, she thought.
    Brandon led her out of the tunnel and to another tank where she could see an octopus swimming around. Cass didn’t really pay as much attention to the octopus as she’d normally have because Brandon hadn’t removed his hand from hers yet.
    “There is a reason I brought you here,” he told her, sitting her down a few hours later. “But I have to use the bathroom right now. I will show you when I get back, okay?”
    Cass nodded and as he walked away she connected to the internet. A stream of information flooded into her mind and all she had to do was think about a name or a topic for a list of results to populate on her visual overlay.
    She tried looking for Doctor Gerard, but the list of results didn’t happen to show the specific doctor she was looking for. Cass wasn’t sure what his full name was, or what the name of his shop was.
    Olivia…she’d heard her name earlier on the news. Cass let her mind enter the information required for Olivia Hamilton and a ton of search results populated before her eyes. She made sure to store the results for later in case Brandon returned while she was investigating.
    There wasn’t much information on her that was helpful to Cass. She was a prominent figure in the android rights fight and had lost her husband a year ago to a fire in their home. When Cass read about the horrible fire, she stopped reading the article all together.
    Had she been part of that fire? Was that why Olivia had gotten rid of her? If Cass was right, and her memories were true then she was the old automaton that belonged to Olivia and Jack. She knew where the house was when she was flying with Brandon, and it had been burned out.
    Is that why she got rid of me? Cass wondered. Was it because she couldn’t bear to think about that fire? Was I a reminder of that?
    “What has you so deep in thought?” Brandon asked.
    Cass pushed the stream of information from her mind. Her eyes came into focus. Brandon was wiping his hands on his dark, beat-up jeans leaving wet tracks over the pockets.
    “Nothing. You had something you wanted to show me?”