James Patterson - Toys

Right off, I heard voices coming from my daughters’ bedroom. April and Chloe were here. What could be more bittersweet than that?

“Why do we have to go back to Grandmere’s, Mommy?” Chloe asked.

“Remember, I told you that Daddy’s not feeling well?” Lizbeth said, with tense impatience in her voice. “We’ve got to give him the proper time to rest and become himself again. Poor Daddy. Besides, the city is dangerous right now. I told you that, girls.”

“Grandmere’s no fun. She’s a grump and she doesn’t have enough toys,” April complained.

“I’ll bring you toys. But right now, we have to hurry. Let’s go, girls. Now! You can bring Jacob and Jessica if you insist. And don’t ever call Grandmere a grump.”

They were coming out of the girls’ room, so I slipped inside the front closet and partially closed the door behind me. Then I climbed straight up.

There was only a foot of space between the top shelf and the ceiling, but I wedged myself into it, folding my body like a pretzel.

It was damned uncomfortable, but the very dangerous and humanphobic Metallico was bustling around the apartment somewhere, and I couldn’t afford to have him or Lizbeth, or especially the kids, see me.

Just being here was bad enough, but hopefully I could do what I had to do without badly scaring the girls. They’d be confused, but fine. There was no way I could explain myself to them now, only hope that someday they might understand that I had done the right thing. For humans, and even for Elites.

After a few seconds, Metallico actually came into view. He was carrying their little overnight bags, which he set down at the front door. “Let’s go, ladies!”

Let’s go, indeed. I focused my wrist chron on his head. I’d already set it on DM-Deactivation Mode. I carried this special device because robots occasionally got in our way when we were carrying out missions. Sending out a DM signal shut them down in a hurry.

I touched the control, feeling a tingle myself as an electron pulse shot into Metallico’s circuitry.

The family robot made a sound like a groan, stopped dead in his tracks, then locked in place like he’d been turned to stone. He’d be back to his old self as soon as he was reset-although if I had anything to say about it, that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

I eased out of my little niche in the closet, then dropped back down to the floor without making a sound.

“ Lizbeth! Would you come here a second?” I called out-mimicking Metallico’s sassy tone.

I could gauge her annoyance by her sharp, angry footsteps-she practically stomped down the central hallway in my direction.

“Honestly, Metallico, can’t you handle something this simple on your own?”

I stepped all the way out of the closet now. Lizbeth stopped in midstep, her eyes widening in shock. I stared back at the wife who had heartlessly betrayed and manipulated me, then abandoned me to die.

But this was still the most heart-wrenching thing I’d done yet. Now I was betraying her. There was no other word for this.

“You’re coming with me, Lizbeth,” I said. “I’ll do my best to keep you alive. The girls might not have a father much longer, and I’d like to leave them a mother. But if I have to take you dead, I will. You’re just as useful either way.”

“You unbelievable bastard, ” she barked. “This is our home, Hays.”

“We’re leaving home now. Make up your mind. Dead or alive?”

It took her a few seconds to compute her chances in a brawl against me. Then she answered with a taut, hair-tossing nod. I motioned to the apartment door. Lizbeth went ahead and reached to open it. I couldn’t see what else she was up to.

Suddenly a vicious rrrhhh erupted behind me-a growl like from a savage beast that’s ready to feed. I whirled to face Metallico, who was charging with his steel fingers ready to pierce through my body like spikes.

“Traitor!” the robot yelled. “Human turd!”

“Nice mouth,” I said. “There are children here, you know.”

I barely managed to twist myself sideways, just in time to avoid being severely maimed or possibly killed. Metallico’s rigid and powerful hand raked across my chest, slashing through an inch of flesh and scraping my rib bones raw.

As the powerful and determined robot lunged past me, I pivoted and kicked his legs out from under him, watching as he sailed headlong into the wall and then crashed down to the floor.

But he sprang right back up and at me again, still snarling that ugly rrrhhh .

Deactivation Mode, hell! I thought. The only way to deactivate that berserk hunk of silicone was to bust him up into byte-sized scraps. I’d been right all along that something was seriously scrambled in his wiring.

Now it flashed through my mind that maybe it was no accident-and that Lizbeth had secretly modified him to protect herself and the girls from me.

My darling wife wasn’t standing still either-she’d taken off running toward the kitchen. “Leave me alone, Hays,” she called over her shoulder. “I’m warning you.”

I couldn’t let Lizbeth go, so I grabbed the granite-topped coffee table and slammed it into Metallico’s very thick skull. Then I went after Lizbeth. Though not as physically ferocious as Metallico, she was still just as dangerous.

But the robot was on me before I could get to her, and the two of us went into mortal-combat mode again. I was hammering him with fists and elbows and knees, while slipping like a snake to dodge his gouging fingers. The wounds from where he’d already raked me were streaming blood now, slicking my skin and staining my shirt bright red.

Through the blur of his attacking parts, I could see Lizbeth literally tearing at the kitchen wall. What in hell is she doing now?

Good God! She was yanking loose the controlled-fusion unit that powered all the appliances in the apartment. If she touched me with the feed-out prong, I’d be fried to cinders.

“Lizbeth-you wouldn’t!” I called to her.

“I certainly will. Watch me!”

I caught Metallico’s wrist in my hands, clamped down on it with a viselike grip, and leaped up in a double backflip. Strong as he was, the torque was too much for him-I tore his arm loose at the shoulder, leaving it hanging by a single cluster of wire, which I then ripped away.

“Hays!” the robot groaned. “How could you?”

The kitchen lights flickered, and the appliances bleep ed as their backup batteries kicked in- Lizbeth now had a seriously deadly weapon in her hands!

I clobbered Metallico across the head with his own arm, then hurled it like a spear at my wife-just as she was swinging the power unit around toward me.

Metallico’s spiky fingers pierced and drove through her upper arm, pinning Lizbeth to the kitchen wall. Talk about domestic squabbles.

She shrieked with pain and fury, and the power unit went clattering across the floor. I scooped it up just in time to meet Metallico’s next charge.

I rammed the feed-out prong right into his chest.

Ssssssttt! Ssssssttt! Ssssssttt! The sound was like a giant bug repeatedly hitting a red-hot grill. Very satisfying.

You’re deactivated now, you homicidal sonofabitch, I thought.

I shoved the shell of the pesky robot out of my way, leaving the prong embedded in his melting torso. Then I turned back to Lizbeth.

She was still struggling to free herself from the wall, and her flesh was starting to bleed. But the wounds weren’t serious, and whatever qualms I’d had about fighting her were quickly gone.