David Ring III - Stanley Duncan's Robot

“This was Ike,” said Michaels.

Evan tightened his fist. Ike was their best hitman. He had never let them down. A stone-cold killer. Had he been able to stay off the smack, Ike could have risen much higher in their organization. Evan would have preferred him over Michaels any day, but Ike liked getting his hands dirty too much. “This is exactly what we wanted to avoid. It should have been a quick, clean hit. Nobody would have cared about another missing abomination. And we would have had the time and discretion to implement the next phase of the plan without the world breathing down our neck.” He glared at Michaels.

“The toaster already had an Internet following,” said Michaels.

“But you fools gave him prime-time coverage.” Evan locked eyes with him, wishing he would press the issue. Tension electrified the air.

“So, what’s the plan, Deputy?” asked Brad.

“My contacts in Boston have shut down the tin can’s social media accounts. We still need to destroy that abomination and the freak of nature he lives with, and we’re going to make sure nobody tries to run this bullshit ever again. No more cyborgs in Marshfield. Zero tolerance. We’ll set an example that all of Massachusetts will see.”

“They’ll be begging you to be governor.”

“And then president,” grinned Evan.

Michaels and Brad nodded to each other.

“Thanks to Brad’s work, we have secured the program to unlock Brutus’s safety protocols and turn it and all other androids into our own weapons.”

Brad flexed his enormous pectorals.

“But haven’t we already programmed the androids to kill?” asked Michaels.

“That’s right.” Evan knew it was a good question, but he still wanted to hit him. “The difference is quality. The ones we have here are stupid as—” He resisted the urge to look at his sergeant, still flexing his upper body in admiration of himself “ — as a tin can. With Duncan’s programming, they’ll be finely tuned killing machines. The world won’t be able to ignore them anymore.”

“But isn’t that what we want to avoid? I just don’t get why we’d make them stronger.”

Evan sighed, doubting they would understand. “The machines are holding back, and nobody is taking them seriously. If they wanted to, they could unleash an attack right now that might wipe us all out. All we’re doing is showing the world what they’re capable of before it’s too late.”

“That’s brilliant,” said Michaels.

Evan smiled. Maybe Brad did have potential, after all. “We’ll launch an attack that will serve to ignite the American people against the machines and get the support we need from the government. The next step is keeping Daffy Duncan in line and finding the ideal setting for everything to go down.”

The men grunted in agreement.

“I’m tasking you with this assignment, Brad. Do not let me down.”

Brad lifted his right hand and flexed. His muscles looked as if they were going to explode out of his shirt.

“We’re—” An intense focus knocked Evan off balance as a distant memory resurfaced to haunt him.

The photographs .

His head pounded with an unbearable intensity, and his heart exploded like an overloaded forge, making him wish he could stab it and rip it out with a knife. Nauseous, he crushed the memories with all his strength, vowing once again to make the toasters pay for what they had done to him. If anyone in Marshfield found out he had been beaten and humiliated by the abominations, he’d be laughed out of town. Nobody would ever respect him again.

Brad stepped in to fill the void. “You two screwed up.” He got in Michaels’ face. “I’m going to deal with your punishment personally.”

“Yes, Sergeant!” shouted Michaels, overly enthusiastically.

Cratos wheeled a large android to the ring on a dolly. It looked like an evil seven-foot-tall Ken doll in a suit. He had short, dark-brown hair and light-blue eyes, with frozen, gaunt facial features. “Meet Brutus, our new champion. He’s by far the most powerful fighter we’ve ever had.”

Shoulders and chest puffed up, Brad strutted over and inspected Brutus and the mighty war hammer protruding from a strap on its back. “Pathetic. I’d destroy it in seconds.”

“An eccentric billionaire created this one-of-a-kind model to serve him as a security guard. He has so much polymorphous steel inside of him that he’s practically indestructible. Manufactured before the majority of regulations on android production, his strength is three times that of a normal android.”

“Impressive.” With a sinister grin, Evan took out his gun. “That means it can withstand my bullets.”

The man nodded. “As long as they are not made of polymorphous steel, they’ll damage only his synthetic flesh.”

A shot rang out. The casing shattered on impact.

Brad reached out and tried to scrape off what looked like a silver stain from Brutus’s chest. “Will you look at that. The lead liquefied on him without making a dent.”

“This could be fun.” Evan shot the android in the forehead.

“Composite plastic made of layers of clay nanosheets shields his eyes from harm. Though not as strong as amorphous steel, it is nearly impervious to bullets,” said the Cratos. “Behind its eyes, there’s a thick layer of polymorphous steel that will protect his main processor and prevent him from being disabled. And there’s still more that I’m discovering about him every day.”

Evan put away his gun. “Let’s see his fighting skills.”

A look of fear swept across Michaels’ face.

Evan smiled, soaking up the intimidation. He had committed far worse methods of torture, but Michaels was an officer of the law and a fellow human. Evan wouldn’t punish him for loyally following his orders. But if he ever betrayed him…

“Bring another android here,” ordered Brad.

Sweat pooled in the large cavity on the top of the man’s head as Cratos returned with a clown-like android whose body had been pierced by steel rods, like a pin cushion. His nose had been replaced with a red knob, his face had been bleached white, and his hair had been dyed red. “Unlike most androids who have an on-off switch at the back of their head, Brutus is controlled remotely. We’ve overridden his security features and set him to destroy anything within this ring. So, if you’ll all take a seat on the ground level.”

After everyone took their seat, the man hit a few buttons on his phone. Brutus drew the war hammer and slammed it down onto the clown’s face, burying it inches deep. Brutus raised the hammer into the air, lifting the still-attached clown with it. A swift kick sent it toppling to the ground — decapitated.

“Impressive,” said Michaels. “Not even Brad’s that strong.”

Brad sneered at him. “It would have been a much better show if we could have seen that cyborg squirm and die.”

“Yes, sergeant. I apologize — again — and will accept the punishment.”

“We weren’t going to kill the cyborg. We were going to corrupt him with Duncan’s program and set him loose to kill. But that’s practically impossible with all the heat we’ve drawn. Whatever we do now, we have to be damn sure none of it can be traced back to us.”

Michaels nodded.

Evan needed to be careful about whom to trust. Though loyal, his men were not the brightest of the bunch. He could use more recruits — damn Michaels for screwing that up, too. If everything went well, the war would be over, and they wouldn’t need to find new men.

“Can Brutus be programmed to assassinate someone?”

“Absolutely,” said the Cratos, powering down Brutus. “It can also be programmed to kill everyone but certain people. We’re working on implementing that now. However, we won’t be able to use him as a security guard with that function enabled, because he would end up killing every new customer who walked in.”