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This is the Twelfth chapter. You may find earlier chapters here: https://wyattwerne.substack.com/s/kate-devana-series.
Note: Chapters 1-11 are Part I. This week I will reorganize the chapters into Part I (1-11) and Part II.
I am excited to bring chapters of the new Kate Devana series.
Space 2074: The lunar colony is the new Wild West. Sheriff Kate Devana is away on a deep space supply shuttle, wrangling a fugitive con artist who bilked retirees for billions. But robots are glitching, killing people, and Kate is the target of an FBI Agent looking to avenge the death of his former partner. Bodies are piling up. Again. On the moon, Kate Devana is the law.
While this is the 3rd novel in the series, each is designed to be read independently.
For accessibility, there is a voiceover for each chapter.
APRIL 8, 2074
PROCELLARIUM IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT, LUNAR COLONY, U.S.A.
Vapor Trail Lounge
Kiera, a teal-fleshed gynoid and the star of the Teenage Mermaid Experience, performed its deadly sexcapade in reverse as the bouncer rewound the footage. Leyna’s greasy lunch sloshed up her throat, leaving a burning metallic taste on the back of her tongue. Normally, the colony’s fatburgers of deep-fried and heavily salted food didn’t bother her; what else were they going to do with bland vat-grown chicken and shrimp, anyway? She inherited her mother’s clear complexion, so she wasn’t prone to acne caused by fatty food. She had a cast iron stomach and access to a private gym where she could kickbox it off later. But Vapor Trail’s security office smelled rancid, and she had to force a poker face as her lunch heaved in disgust.
The footage was from 19B’s hidden security camera. Leyna stood over the Vapor Trail’s bouncer, Troy something-or-other, while he scrolled and manipulated his way through the lounge’s security system, stalling and leering like she was the only human female he’d seen in a year, which might not be far from the truth. He had raw brown eyes, short, bushy brown hair, patchy fuzz on his cheeks that he probably thought was a beard, and wore a black polo stenciled with SECURITY in yellow block lettering.
His office was dim; what she expected for strip club security. But on his desk sat a half-empty bucket of sweet-and-salty caramel popcorn. Its sticky condensation beads reminded her of the johns’ sweaty faces outside the office, where they lined up for the hostess telling them to choose your adventure. This was Leyna’s first time here because Vapor Trail Lounge was one of the most discreet places on the Colony’s’ red light strip. Also, one of the snootiest. The lonely old men weren’t johns; they were clients. The girls didn’t turn tricks; here, personal entertainment directors delivered experiences. Her boss’s brother, Greg Devana, was a bouncer at another club and called them prostate amusement parks, PAPs for short, and called the johns who he dragged off the floor pap smears.
This dead john’s name was Reid, no last name given, because it was probably fake. His adventure was a mermaid. His experience ended with him as a bloody smear all over 19B’s headboard.
Troy something-or-other had two more identical but unopened popcorn buckets on the floor beside his desk, and a third, empty, that looked like mice had been through it. He ate a lot of popcorn watching a lot of clients on the hidden cameras. She had her black latex gloves on, but in this office, she felt like she needed a hazmat suit. She surmised he’d already replayed this sex-turned-snuff video a dozen times and uploaded it to his private cloud.
“I expected your boss to show up for this one,” Troy said, fiddling with the video timebar.
“She is busy serving a fugitive warrant. Which I am assisting remotely, so lets make this quick.” She could upload and scan all this video and review it at the office, but Troy said he wanted to point out some odd things on the video. As if everything in this place wasn’t odd.
“What about your boyfriend, is he coming?”
“Can we play the video, Troy?”
“Our system is slow.” As he said it, a spinning wheel appeared on the monitor. He turned and ogled her, slapping his tongue across his lips like a reptile. “Can I ask you something, Leyna? Can I call you Leyna?”
Greg and Jin both warned her about Troy. Greg said to make sure her tazer was charged and to carry extra pepper spray. She had a badge, a knife, a gun, and could double tap the ten ring at ten yards. Or she could take a step back and kick his skull through the video monitor and download what she needed. But the law didn’t allow her to use deadly force against Troy merely for being a slimy hard-on.
Looking around his office, she caught a bug skittering from the empty bucket and wished she’d brought bleach. “That was two questions, Troy. My first name is Lieutenant and my last name is Darcy. Lieutenant Darcy, like the nametag. But you can call me officer for short.”
After she said it, she realized she shouldn’t have called attention to her nametag. It was on her chest, and now he was gawking at her tits. She wished she’d worn her kevlar vest.
“I meant, is this your first homicide?”
“This isn’t a homicide.”
“A client was murdered. What else is it?”
“A homicide is the killing of one human being by another. This is more like an an amusement park accident. Like when the restraints fail on a roller coaster and it kills the johns.”
She hoped. Droid accidents that killed people were a statistical rarity, but they did happen. But, usually the way droids failed was that their power packs overheated and incinerated everything within ten meters—not by taking their victim’s skull between their hands and crushing it like a tomato.
Simple failure was one theory. Another, someone hacked the gynoid to kill the john. Like her boss always said, lowlifes have a low life expectancy. It was the nature of being a john to get into nasty situations and end up as a pap smear. There would be evidence of hacking when she scanned the droid’s controller. Finding who did it would be harder.
But there was a more disturbing theory. Before she let herself think it, she wanted to see the tape.
“We call them clients, not johns,” Troy corrected her.
“Just play the video, Troy.”
“Sure.” He teed up the video but didn’t start it. “I am starting at 23:48 because this is where it gets weird.”
“I don’t think that word weird means what you think it means.”
He turned to face her, licking his lips and undressing her with his crude brown eyes. “This is.”
She was irritated that he wanted to control what she saw, but let it pass. There was some sort of insect rooting around in the empty popcorn bucket on the floor. Troy made her skin crawl. This office made her skin crawl. The quicker she got out of here, the better. She would scan the whole tape later.
“One more question, Leyna. Is your gun loaded?”
He called her Leyna, not officer, but again she let it pass. “No use otherwise, is it?”
“Maybe you could show me how to use it some time?”
Maybe she should put it to his head and pull the trigger. She smiled and grit her teeth to keep the acid at the back of her throat. “Play the fucking tape, Troy.”
“No need to be rude,” he said, clicking the play arrow.
The teal gynoid-mermaid walked her soft, aquamarine fingers up the john’s gray-haired midsection, but looked straight at the hidden camera with its cold green eyes while doing it. “He’s coming amid the clouds, and every eye will see him.”
“The droid is quoting Revelation,” Troy added.
“Troy, no play by play.”
“I am just trying to help.”
She didn’t see any duct tape around his office. Maybe in a drawer. Or she could taze him into silence. “Help by letting me watch the video. Quietly.”
“That’s why you get paid the big bucks, right? To draw your own conclusions? I’d like to be—”
She gestured, putting two fingers to her eyes and then pointing to the monitor, motioning for him to watch, and then putting one black latex-glove covered index finger to her mouth to shush him.
She’d missed something while he talked, but didn’t want to ask Troy to rewind. She wanted out of here. Did she hear the gynoid say Vega? Or maybe Omega? The next line in Revelation was something about Alpha and Omega. This john had some sort of religious kink.
“I want to be inside you,” the gynoid continued, lightly kissing the john while twirling his thin gray chest hair. Its hands and arms were turquoise, blending into teal at the shoulders. Its veins were violet and fluoresced under the room’s lighting, so it looked like one of those bioluminescent tropical fish she had in her aquarium as a kid. The flesh covering its silicone-over-aluminum frame had been tattooed with scale patterns in black ink. Its nipples were the same fluorescent violet as its veins. Its most revolting feature was its childlike, almost cartoon blue face with enormous green manga eyes. It didn’t have fins, though. It had two legs, because it needed to walk away eventually. They all did, when the john’s money ran out, or like today, when he got his head squashed like a tomato.
What would Kate Devana do, she asked herself. The boss didn’t like her and thought she wasn’t ready. Kate was also busy a hundred and fifty thousand kilometers away with more important things. She needed to solve this one herself.
After this, she’d definitely toss all her stuffed animals from that studio’s amusement park. She was twenty-eight and too old for them, anyway. Also, she’d never discuss these movies with her dad anymore.
Kickboxing. At least two extra hours after this, with Troy’s face on the bag.
“I am not into that,” the john said.
The gynoid put one knee over the john’s hips and rubbed her mermaid breasts against him. “I don’t mean that. When you come, I want to be inside you and come too.”
“Is that possible?” the john asked.
“What’s a john pay to fuck a mermaid?” Leyna asked. She tried to keep her mouth shut, but when she got anxious, she chattered. Inside you. She hoped it didn’t mean what she thought.
“We call them clients, not johns,” Troy reminded her.
“Accountants have clients,” she retorted. “Whorehouses have johns. Even when the whores have servos and blue genetically engineered skin.”
“We are not a whorehouse. Our clients pay thirty grand a month.”
“To fuck a robot?”
“Boss doesn’t allow humans,” Troy said. “That’s the latest model. First one I’ve seen with real blue skin. Usually its a tattoo. Made by some new company, SonyeoBot, I think. We’ve had her for two months. The XXXyley 6.9, with three X’s.”
“Three X’s. Clever. I thought its name was Kiera?”
“Clients get to name their model. He named it Kiera and it will respond to that name.”
“As long as they make the rent.”
“Naturally.”
“Do johns share the same fuckbot?”
“Clients, and they are not fuckbots.”
The john didn’t wince when the gynoid maneuvered and climbed on top to straddle him. Somehow, she expected the silicone and aluminum gynoid to weigh so much it would crush him as her perfect, heart-shaped hips gyrated rhythmically.
“If you say so,” Leyna said. “Let me rephrase. Has this fuckbot—Kiera or Xyley or whatever—been with another john?”
“His lease is exclusive.”
“Ever any sign of any trouble with this one?”
“No. Its new, two months, like I said, and he’s only been here three times.”
She forced a wry smirk across her face to cover her disgust. “Three times? Are you sure? Do you want to check your records?”
Troy turned, his brown brows and coarse eyes feigning innocence, ready to deny that he’d watched Kiera’s footage several times over. He returned to staring at the video monitor where the teal gynoid was arching her back and gyrating on the john. “I checked before you came over.”
Sure he did. He probably memorized every perverted second. “What level AI does it have?”
“Level three is standard. Obeys commands but no cognitive understanding.”
“No sentience, no mens rea,” Leyna mumbled under her breath. “How long does this go on?”
“Three minutes and twenty five seconds.”
“Do the johns know about the cameras in the suites?“ She asked.
“It’s in the terms of service for the club. Boss’s rules. She says if they don’t like it, they can fuck somewhere else.” He paused the video. The gynoid was in mid-ride, head back, and the john had a tight smile, enjoying himself. “This is where it really gets weird.”
Weird, because simply fucking a mermaid was normal at the Vapor Trail Lounge.
He played the video. The gynoid rolled off the john. “I want to be inside you.” He protested, but it ignored him, reaching for a bag near the bed and pulling out handcuffs. Pink, furry handcuffs.
“I’ve never been tied up by a robot before,” the john said.
“Last time for everything,” Leyna heard herself respond.
The gynoid straddled the john again. She walked her fingers up his right arm and then handcuffed it to the corner of the bed.
“May I do the other one?” the gynoid asked.
The john wore a big grin on his face and only nodded, too excited for words. He grimaced, like he was having a heart attack, but that wasn’t how he died.
The gynoid licked her way up the johns body, down his left arm, the whole time straddling him. She handcuffed his left arm to the bedpost.
“I want to be inside you,” the gynoid repeated.
“It said that before,” Leyna said. “I thought it meant…something else.”
“I did too,” Troy said. He couldn’t tear his eyes from the video.
“I told you, I am not into…that,” the john said.
“Let’s try it. Use the safe word and I will stop,” the gynoid said. She ran her hands all over the john’s thin gray hair.
The john nodded, reluctantly. The gynoid got off, reached into the bag, and retrieved a black metal cube about the size of an ice cube. It set the cube on the bed, near the john’s head, and then straddled him again. She gyrated, riding him, running her hands over his head. He started moaning. The teal gynoid-mermaid started moaning. Leyna felt sick, like vomiting, but held it. They moaned in unison for ten to fifteen seconds.
When the john yelled he was going to come, the mermaid-gynoid looked straight at the hidden camera with her big cartoon-like green eyes. It smirked at Leyna. “He’s coming. I can feel it.”
It didn’t seem to be talking about the john. Or was it? She was sick, dizzy, and needed air. Maybe she was imagining things.
The gynoid leaned closer as the man groaned. It rubbed his temples, but still looking straight into the hidden camera, it crushed his skull like a melon between her palms. His head exploded. Blood and brains speckled the gynoid, turning her teal skin almost black. Pink and red gore spattered the headboard and walls.
“Jesus fucking hell.” Leyna had to look away. Troy paused the video. The gynoid was still smirking at her. Like it could see her. It looked like it enjoyed killing the john. Its green eyes scorched a hole in her belly. Acid burned her esophagus. It wasn’t really looking at her. It couldn’t be. This video was recorded a half hour ago.
Leyna took a deep, panicked breath and tried to remind herself that level three AI did not have sentience, mens rea, or feelings. Level four or higher was sentience.
“Are you sure the XXXyley 6.9 model is a level three AI?” she asked Troy.
“The boss is very rigid about that. You know, being an AI herself. No sentient gynoids or androids allowed in the club. She says that’s your boss’s rule and she could lose her license. No humans work at the club either. Well, except for me.”
“Maybe a mistake. The factory sent the wrong model?”
“I checked the specs three times before we accepted delivery, and so did the boss. Like I said, she is very rigid. I also ran diagnostics while you were on your way over. It gets weirder though.”
“How can it get weirder?”
“I scanned the tapes of the other clients—”
“You have tapes of all your johns?”
“Of course.”
“Do they know?”
“They are clients. It’s in the terms of service.”
“Right. They can go fuck somewhere else if they don’t like it.”
“Boss’s rules,” Troy said. “Anyway, three other gynoids said the same thing. Tried to handcuff their clients too, but it never got this far.”
“Said what, exactly?”
“He’s coming. I want to be inside you. The whole bit.”
“But that’s it? What about the black cube?”
“Never got that far, like I said. We get a lot of kink, but most of the clients are what you’d call averse to being a sub for a robot.”
“After this, it will probably trend.”
“I don’t think so,” Troy said, not catching the sarcasm.
“Is the cube still in the room?”
“We didn’t touch anything. Got any theories?”
A disturbing theory. Maybe the same malware that caused problems at the mining claim had infected machines here, too.
The eyes. Those cold green manga eyes felt like they were watching her across space and time as the droid crushed the john’s skull.
What was the purpose of the cube?
What would Kate Devana do? Jin might know about the cube—if she could ever reach him. The last call dropped. By now, he was two thousand kilometers away, where reception was non-existent.
“I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.”
“So it is a homicide,” Troy said gleefully. “I knew it.”
She exhaled raggedly. “I will need to seize the gynoids CPU for a scan. The other robots too. Crime scene unit will be along to retrieve what’s left of the body in about thirty. Don’t touch anything, and nothing and nobody goes in there.”
“The boss said to cooperate fully. Whatever you need.”
“Do you have any travel plans, Troy?” She couldn’t remember his last name, but now realized it was important.
“Am I a suspect?”
She pointed at the monitor, where the teal-and-black stippled gynoid-mermaid was mocking them while holding empty, bloody space between its hands where the john’s burst head once was. “Who is the mermaid looking at, Troy? Not me. It’s looking at the hidden camera.”
Troy’s brown eyes grew as big as full moons and he looked at the gynoid as if seeing it for the first time.
“Who else watches this footage?” she asked.
“Just—me.”
She put her black latex-glove covered hand on his shoulder. “Take some time off, Troy. Don’t go anywhere. Take a break from videos for a while.”
She turned to walk out of his office. “Before you go though, give me access so I can scan all your video records.”
“Where are you going?”
“The first thing I need to do is seize the gynoids CPU in the basement.”She needed to disconnect and isolate it from the network, along with the other potentially infected droids.
“What’s second?”
As she was walking away, she heard him repeat, “Hey, if that’s first, what’s second?”
“Send me the login and password, and then go home, Troy.”
The office door slammed. She exited through the back of the club, avoiding the crowd. As she pushed the rear door open to the stairs, she thought that with Jin gone, this was a great opportunity to prove herself. Get the gynoid CPU, get the cube, and solve this before Kate got back in twelve hours. She’d have to rewatch the tape. She was almost positive the droid mentioned Vega, but that couldn’t be right. It had quoted Revelation because the john must have had some religious kink. Alpha and Omega. That must be what it said.
Taking the stairs to the basement server rooms, she asked herself, what would Kate Devana do?