The wind from the swiftly closing doors splayed Zeera's hair over her face in a manner Chad found tremendously attractive.
He didn't have time to comment on it though. Chad had been a bounty hunter for the GBay corporation for only a day or two.
And now he was alone with Zeera, who despite being an android, still had more knowledge and experience in this craft than
he did.
"You think we should follow him?" Zeera asked, figuring Chad might have some insight into Dusty's behavior.
"Dusty wouldn't ask for our help, especially not yours. No offense I mean..." Chad looked down, hoping he hadn't inadvertently
wounded Zeera.
"Don't worry about it. I've gotten used to it. Come on, we need to find out where we'll stay." Zeera said as she approached
the desk and showed off her credentials. Every Gbay consulate was equiped with rooms that could house traveling officials
or bounty hunters and it was to one of these that they were shown.
When they stepped inside and stowed their gear Zeera remembered that Dusty's scant belongings were still on the shuttle,
something she thought suspicious.
If Chad had any doubts about Dusty, they were about his well being, not his loyalty. He was now wondering if Zeera's suggestion
of going after him had been right after all, and he put voice to his doubts. "Maybe he does need our help..."
Zeera hadn't been thinking of helping Dusty. She had been thinking that it was bad luck for an agent to disappear on the
same satellite where the legendary rogue they hunted had last been seen. Lux had lured some of the corporation's finest assets
away, after all. But as for helping him? "If Dusty runs into any trouble he can't handle I doubt we'd be much use to him."
Zeera said with a forlorn chuckle.
"If he can't handle it alone we'd have a better chance of getting through it together." Chad said, his last word holding
more emphasis than he had consciously meant it to.
Zeera turned to him with a welcoming smile and drew a bit closer. She was quickly getting used to having a friend, perhaps
more.
"Now, as I recall you promised to tell me about yourself." Chad said with a smile as he took a seat on the bed he'd claimed
for his own.
"I don't know if I exactly promised..." Zeera said, more to tease her companion than in any real attempt to get out of
it.
"That's fine, I've been meaning to practice my interrogation skills incase I end up having to beat information out of someone."
Chad said with a laugh, playfully tilting the room's lamp so it shined at Zeera's face.
"You don't shine a light in their eyes, that messes up their reactions and you can't read them as well." Zeera said confidently.
Unlike Chad she actually did have knowledge of how to beat knowledge out of people. This didn't exactly make the former claims
investigator comfortable.
"Ok. No more interrogation, I promise. You can tell me as little about yourself as you like!" Chad said with a laugh, waving
his hands infront of him.
"When you put it like that, I suppose I could oblige." Zeera said with a grin. She gathered her thoughts and tried to think
of how to put her memories, so clear and linear to her, into a compact box that would fit easily into the space of their time
together.
"As you probably know I was created by Dr. Winters. But Dusty's wrong about her. She may not have time to show interest
in all the replicas, but the prototype models, the ones she builds by hand, we're all special to her. I may have started out
with more knowledge than most human adults have, but there are some things that can't be programmed in, and she helped me
to learn them until they became as much a part of me as the directives of the corporation.
Until now she was the only human that had ever been kind to me and treated me like more than just a machine. The people
I was paired with though... They were never like you." She gave Chad a warm smile as she said this. The simple idea that Zeera
thought him to be special made Chad's heart flutter, though he didn't see anything out of the ordinary about his behavior.
Zeera smiled at the effect her words had and then continued her tale.
"When I was out there hunting down whoever we were sent to kill, I was looked at more as a weapon without feelings. That
was if I was lucky. Some of them were worried that a machine would out do them. And I did. One bounty hunter even tried to
kill me. That was one of the missions where I was the only one that returned."
Zeera looked down, almost guiltily for a moment until Chad spoke up.
"You mean you were able to kill your own partner or let them die?" He asked, though he wasn't worried for himself. Zeera
nodded. That wasn't just the way of Dr. Winter's robots. That was Gbay policy.
"People are expendable. The mission is what's important. That's one of the directives hardwired in my memory. If I could
complete the mission, if I was more capable than my partner, what did it matter?" Now Chad was worried.
Zeera did her best to dispel his misgivings, knowing their orgins and seeing them written on his face. "But I never liked
any of them. When emotions get involve it's different." She said knowingly.
"So what usually wins out? Emotions or the Gbay directives?" Chad asked, looking up contemplatively.
"I don't know. I prefer for my emotions to gel with the directives, and most of the time they have. Anyhow it's late and
we both need some rest. I'll see you in the morning." Chad simply nodded and bid his friend goodnight as they both crawled
into their seperate beds. Somehow Chad had a good idea of what would win out if it ever came down to Zeera having to make
a choice between their mission and his life. He felt safer now even without Dusty around.
He spoke like a younger child might to his older sister, smiling as he turned in bed to face her.
"I'm glad you're here Zeera."
Zeera had already powered down, and Chad really didn't want her to hear such a sentimental and revealing phrase anyhow.
He didn't want to be the one depending on Zeera. He wanted to be the one who was vital to the completion of the mission. He
decided he'd start to that goal the next morning.
The next morning came on quickly, in the form of Zeera jostling him out of bed.
"Get downstairs." She said in a tone that would brook no questions as she strapped on her guns and tossed one to Chad.
He took one look back at her before running for the door as she had said to.
By the time he had moved back into the lobby and was at the doors Zeera had pried open the window of their third floor
room and was sailing down to the ground to meet him. She had decided that a two pronged approach would be best, and Chad saw
what she was after in the alleyway.
Dusty was talking to a large figure with spikey silver hair and a strange vest on. The figure was largely hidden by Dusty's
coat though, but Zeera, having lunged diagonally from the window, was determined to get a clear shot. As soon as Dusty's companion
saw the two of them he scurried down the alleyway. Dusty whirled around, his coat tails and arms swirling like clouds billowing
out from a cyclone. A dangerous one that now had two pistols in its hands.
Zeera took aim and would have brought the man down if her gun hadn't exploded in her hand, courtesy of the weapon smoking
in Dusty's hand. Chad had no choice but to draw his own fire arm as well.
"The mission was to find out where Lux is headed. I did that. There was no mention of killing anyone. Inside before the
authorities come around!" Dusty ordered, keeping both his guns trained on Zeera after taking a quick glance at Chad to size
him up. The authorities were no worry to either of the more experienced bounty hunters training guns on eachother (Zeera had
drawn a replacement for her broken weapon) but they still didn't desire any extra trouble. Zeera muttered but obeyed. Not
because she had any desire to mollify Dusty, but because she was intent on finding some explanations from the old cowboy,
preferably in private. She didn't want Chad to know just yet that Dusty had just saved the life of Ignacius Lux.
On to CH 19!
