EYE CANDY - Chapter 11: Chocolate Suicide and Rainbow Dust
Like abalone.
If you’ve just discovered this (Hi!), begin with Chapter 1 HERE.
New chapters every Saturday morning @ 9:09 a.m. EST. Yay!
Susannah looked up from her desk when the door opened. It was Doctor Calvin, returning from lunch. Candy, Susannah reminded herself, she prefers that I call her Candy. It had been twenty-four hours since the shuttle crash. Candy seemed her normal self. “Nice lunch?”
Candy smiled. She suspected that by now Danny had discovered the gift she’d placed on his windshield. “Very nice lunch. Only . . . you ever have one of those days when you feel like someone is following you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I went to Pandora’s for lunch and there was a guy there who came in and ate after I sat down. Then I saw him again a little while later at the Yog-yog place. Which reminds me . . .” Candy set a white paper bag on Susannah’s desk. “. . . I brought you a surprise.”
“A surprise?” Susannah smiled and opened the bag. Inside was a tall cup.
“It’s a low-fat, sugar-free Chocolate Suicide parfait made with whey protein. And I sprinkled some chopped almonds on top, to give it some texture.”
A deep, electronic voice rang out, “Doctor Calvin?”
Candy turned to Barney, who still sat in the reception area, facing the windows.
“Yes, Barney? Is there–”
Candy stopped.
In his big black robotic hand, Barney held a gun. A large one.
“Barney, I was told you had been relieved of your sidearm.”
“That’s correct, ma’am.”
“Where did you get that?”
“It’s a back-up weapon, doctor. Any good cop carries a back-up piece. I keep it in a secret compartment on my lower extremity.”
“Is it loaded?”
“Yes, doctor.”
“I see.”
Susannah was on her feet, the phone in one hand. “Doctor Candy, should I call–”
“No. I’ll handle this.”
Susannah replaced the phone.
Candy approached the robot. “Barney. Can you hear me?” She used her most commanding intonation, stating the name of the robot, followed by a brief and succinctly stated request.
“Yes, doctor.”
“Barney. I am a human being. I order you to place that weapon on the table in front of you. Do you understand?”
“Yes, doctor, I understand.”
Barney did not comply. Did not move. He still held the gun in his right hand, too far away for Candy to be able to reach out and grab it. Assuming she could possibly pry the weapon out of Barney’s mechanical hand, a hand which was strong enough to bend metal or lift a motor vehicle.
“Robot Barney. That was an order.”
“Doctor Calvin, have you ever swum in the ocean?”
Oh shit. Barney was disassociating. In humans, it was a sign of psychosis. In robots, it was virtually unknown. “I gave you an order, robot.”
“Please, doctor. I require an answer.”
“If I answer, will you put down that gun?”
After a few seconds, Barney replied. “Yes, doctor.”
Candy ran her hands through her hair and took a deep breath and let it out. “Have I ever been swimming in the ocean? Yes. Once. When I was a little girl.”
“What was it like?” Barney’s voice was softer now.
“It was cold. And choppy. The waves were far too big for me, and they kept knocking me down. I had salt water in my mouth and I couldn’t stop shivering. Why?”
“I would’ve liked to go swimming. Just once.”
“Barney. I have answered your question. Put down the gun. Now.”
Barney remained still. Candy realized then that the robot had been manipulating her, coercing her to answer the question.
“I must serve the public trust,” Barney stated. “A scared cop . . . is a dangerous cop. Goodbye, doctor. I shall miss you.”
In one swift movement, Barney raised the gun and pointed it under his chin and pulled the trigger.
There was a flash of white light and a loud BANG! Barney’s arm fell to his side and his body sagged in the chair. His blue eyes flashed once and went dark.
Sparkles of rainbow-colored light filled the air. Candy looked up. In the air all around her floated a cloud of rainbow dust. The bullet from Barney’s gun had gone through his cranium and lodged in the ceiling. Barney’s positronic pathways had been completely destroyed. His very thoughts seemed to hang in the air.
Candy stood immobilized as rainbow dust settled onto her blond hair and the shoulders of her coat. Rainbow dust settled into the palms of her hands. She rubbed her hands together and the dust smeared, staining her skin green and pink and purple and blue, like the inside of an abalone shell she’d seen once when she was a little girl, the same day she’d gone swimming into that cold and salty ocean.
Candy sat in the chair beside Barney’s inert form. She reached down, took hold of his hand, and held it between her own.
Read next chapter:
