CHAPTER THREE—Android Breasts

Thirty-three minutes ago…

John angled the sticks toward the vent, then activated the laser cutter. Once the vent was off he walked Lexa’s forward operating buffer into the crawl space and travelled along the vents.

It would have been almost impossible to get Kyle up here because of the security precautions in place at Invera-Tech Industries.

“I’m not sure how I feel about this,” Lexa said over their wristlet coms.

“I’m sorry,” John said. “It’s the only way we can get in there safely.”

“John’ll have you out in a jiffy,” May said.

“Stop worrying so much,” Kyle added as he thrust his face between the driver and passenger seat up front. “This is almost too easy.”

“You’re just saying that because you don’t have to climb up in here,” Lexa said.

May said nothing, just glanced about the interior of the 2286 Lycan Fate with a smirk on her face, one that was hidden from Kyle in the backseat.

“We have to take turns,” Kyle said.

Lexa sighed.

John steered the remote forward buffer through the vents until he came to the main security station. Then he projected a port stream to their systems where Lexa was able to get into their system.

“I’m in,” she said. “Wow, it’s nice in here.”

“It’s a security mainframe,” Kyle said doubtfully. “How can it be ‘nice’?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“Okay,” Lexa said. “I’m delivering the coding package now.”

“Nice,” May said. “I’ll be invisible in there.”

“And what about us?” Kyle asked indignantly.

“You boys are on your own.”

Lexa laughed.

John glanced into the back of the car through the rear-view mirror display at the top of the front viewing port. Kyle had his arms crossed in what John thought a petulant manner.

He made sure not to laugh.

“It’s done,” Lexa said.

“Good job,” John said, feeling proud of her. “I’m going to bring you back now.”

“Thank you.”

“Good,” May said. “I’m ready to do some serious shopping.”

“You buying some prosthetics?” Kyle asked.

“Nah,” May said lightly. “I’m in the market for a love bot.”

Kyle chuckled. “Really?”

“Sure,” May said, sounding completely authentic, but John knew she was messing with Kyle.

She does that a lot.

*

It was plump, perky with a nice protrusion. He squeezed it. “They’re so real,” he muttered to himself.

He turned and found May watching him with a smile on her face and he yanked his hand back reflexively.

“First time?” she asked.

As his cheeks heated, Kyle cleared his throat. “Yeah. I’m just a shut-in that plays VR games all day.” He shook his head. “Total virgin.”

“Yeah,” she said with a nod. “I thought so. The suit really doesn’t really do a good job at disguising that about you, I’m afraid.”

“I mean… I occasionally rob banks, too.”

“And yet you’ve never…” Her eyes flicked to the pair of android breasts on display.

“What can I say? I really can’t get enough of the adrenalin that comes with shooting the overlord’s storm troopers.”

She grinned. “Then you’re missing out.”

“Am I?”

“Yeah,” she said with a nod.

“Maybe you can introduce me to your preferred source of a kickass time?”

She nodded sardonically. “I could do that. But then you might get bored with shooting stuff.”

“I can do variety.”

“Yeah? Is that why I hear you were cursing the paint off your walls this morning?”

“What?” Kyle asked, feeling embarrassed that she had heard about that. “Who told you?”

She shrugged.

“It was John, wasn’t it?”

She shrugged again.

“No,” he said, nodding emphatically. “It was Lexa. I knew it! She’s always had it out for me ever since the Chylaxium.”

May raised an eyebrow. “Do you really think so? She seems fine to me.”

“No, she hates me.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that.” She glanced back in the direction that May and John had walked as they perused the android parts, but they were no longer within eyeshot.

And Kyle had thought she was with them.

Damn.

But he couldn’t awkwardly avoid the breasts now like some loser. He glanced at the them. The android bodies on display were breasts only in this section, so they were cut into busts without heads or arms or hips.

“Do you see any you like?” May asked, surveying them as well.

He shrugged. “How to choose?”

Of course, Kyle had his tastes. Oh, he had his tastes all right. Very specific ones. He glanced at May. Her jacket was open and he wondered if—

No, he told himself forcefully. Behave, dammit.

Thankfully May hadn’t been watching him. She was concentrating too hard on a pair of particular breasts. “These ones are mine,” she said.

The heat in his cheeks flared.

Why am I so embarrassed around her?!

“What?”

She smirked, turned and sauntered off. Kyle glanced at the breasts. They were great. Not the one’s he would have chosen, but definitely high up there on the list of available types.

He glanced after here. “Are you for real?”

She laughed.

“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

“Nope.”

“Shit…”

*

“Which do you like?” Lexa asked.

They hadn’t even gotten into the Invera-Tech Industries main shopping center yet. There were so many androids on display with every imaginable body type.

John shrugged. “I don’t know.” Right now they were perusing hip and John was feeling particularly uncomfortable about all this.

Why does this have to be so awkward?

“You’re a man,” Lexa said as she looked at him from her projection on the mobile forward buffer. She put a hand on his shoulder, but couldn’t touch him. “I know you have tastes.”

“I’m…” he began, but trailed off. “I really don’t,” he added. “I just… I’m more about a girl’s personality. What’s inside.”

Lexa’s eyebrow quirked up suspiciously. “Then how about those over there?”

John turned, and what he found made him want to wince. “Are you making jokes?”

Lexa laughed.

Those other body types were interesting to say the least. John was surprised anyone would come into Invera-Tech and order something like that. But then… there were body types of every conceivable kind here, and not every android was capable of sexual interaction anyway.

But who am I to say what people find attractive.

He sighed.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

He looked into her eyes and shook his head. “You don’t have to be.”

Lexa turned her gaze away from him and looked at the pieces. John wondered how on earth he would be able to make choices at all—the whole process was a little bit too “shopping list” for his liking.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like attractive women. But he felt somewhat superficial—being the one to choose the parts—even though he was interested!

“I need some air. I’ll be back.”

Lexa nodded. “Of course.”

“You decide what you like.” He smiled and walked away.

*

“Ah, Mister Wagger,” a saleswoman said. Kyle glanced at the woman and blinked. “My name is Vera. Do you see anything you like?”

Glancing about the other customers in the shopping center who were keeping to low tones, Kyle frowned. He wondering how this… woman knew his fake identity so readily. “Are you scanning my biometrics?”

Her hair was pulled back tightly into a ponytail and she wore a snug-fitting white latex dress with sheer spandex cutouts. With a nod she said, “Its company policy that we know exactly who our customers are so that we can best serve them at all times, sir.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes sir, but if that makes you feel uncomfortable, I can turn the biometrics off.”

“Sure.”

She turned her head slightly in a tweakish manner and smiled. “Done, sir.”

“Oh,” Kyle said. “Vera... You’re a sales bot.”

“Took you that long?” May asked from behind.

Glancing half way toward May, he put his attention back on Vera again in a critical fashion.

May laughed.

“What?” Kyle asked. “I’m checking out the merchandise.”

Vera smiled. “If you like, sir and madam, I can give you a full tour of these floors?”

That does sound interesting.

“I have a question, Vera.”

“Yes?”

“These androids are pretty pricy, but do you have any stock for primo shoppers?”

“What on earth could you want to know that for?” May asked as she glanced at a skinless android without muscle or other body parts. It was metallic and black.

“I’m just curious. Can’t a guy be interested in the merchandise?”

“Sure,” she said with shrug.

“Mister Wagger,” Vera said accommodatingly. “If by ‘primo shoppers,’ you mean exclusivity of merchandise, then yes, we do offer a higher-end product for those with the monetary benefits as suits those items.” She paused. “We… also offer other services.”

Kyle raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Other services?”

“Yes,” Vera said. “Please come this way and I will introduce you to our head sales representative, Mr. Thalaway.”

“You definitely scanned us, bot.”

She looked at him with a very realistic, albeit, slightly synthetic smile.

“Lead on,” Kyle said. Then he tuned to May. “You coming?”

“Why not? Might be good to give John and Lexa a little bit of space to… hash things out.”

Kyle laughed.

“Hey,” she said. “Don’t be mean.”

He shrugged. “I’m not being mean.”

“Yeah you are.”

“Uh… sure.”

*

As Kyle followed Vera, May realized that “mean” might be somewhat relative.

Poor kyle. We really did kick his ass this morning…

“What are you smirking about?” Kyle asked over his shoulder.

“Oh,” she said, shaking her head. “Nothing.”

“Fine. Keep your secrets.”

“I will.”