Read Online What Lies Behind: A New Adult Dark Science Fiction Romance by Travis Simmons - Free Book Online Page B

my inventory. It’s mandatory.”
    “Why are these memories surfacing now? Was it something you programmed into me before I went to Natalia?” Cass asked him.
    “It’s not uncommon that an automaton can remember bits and pieces of their past,” Gerard told her. “After all, your memory is a big computer, and it’s impossible to erase data from a computer. It is still stored. What the memory wipe does is just erases those files from your main processor. You could still, technically, access them.” He sighed.
    “But?” she asked. “There’s something more, isn’t there?”
    “You could access them, but I have to be honest, this is the first time I’ve ever heard of an automaton actually remembering anything after a wipe.”
    “And why do you think I’m remembering?” Cass asked him.
    Gerard didn’t answer her.
    “I had this memory, when Natalia struck me,” Cass told him. “There was a fire. I was part of the fire. Apparently I made it out of the house?”
    Gerard nodded. “You were in the garage. The fire didn’t spread that far.” His eyebrows drew down over his eyes as if he wasn’t sure he should be telling her this.
    “And people died in that fire,” she pressed.
    “Well, it’s all part of public record. I don’t see why I can’t answer you. Yes. One man died in that fire. Jack Hamilton.” Gerard took a seat in another chair by the door. He crossed his ankle over his knee and folded his hands in his lap.
    “But not Olivia,” Cass said more to herself than to Gerard.
    “Why is this so important to you?” Gerard wondered. “Why do you need to know your past? You don’t belong to Olivia now.”
    “Because there’s this feeling in me, that there’s something more behind the surface. What lies behind my current programming?” Cass asked. “Why is this all happening to me? The free will, the emotions, the memories? If what you said about memories never fully being erased is true, it seems like they would be stored in a deeper part of my motherboard than where the nanobot can reach.”
    Gerard pushed to his feet with a huff. “I can’t answer any more of your questions.”
    “There is something more to tell?” Cass pushed to her feet too.
    Gerard started to open the door, but Cass slammed her hand against it. The door jerked out of the doctor’s hand and slammed shut. Pictures and diagrams along the walls shuddered and rattled with the force of the blow.
    “You’ll answer me,” Cass said. It was the first time she’d really experienced anger. “You know what’s happening to me, and you won’t tell me. There’s some other programming under my current one, isn’t there? And you would have been the only person who could have put it in place. You know what’s happening to me. You know why it’s happening to me.”
    Gerard was backing away from her. His hand digging around in his pocket. Cass paced after him, following him around the room.
    “You know what I’m meant for, and you will tell me. It’s obvious that Natalia isn’t my real controller any longer.”
    Whatever she wanted him to tell her, Cass was never going to hear. Gerard pulled a black cylinder out of his pocket. It looked like a small pen, or maybe a pointer flashlight. He clicked a button and fire swarmed up Cass’s legs and through her arms. Her head jerked to the side, shivered against her shoulder. Her knees buckled and she collapsed to the floor. Her joints were frozen in an electric storm that ate through her circuitry.
    “Yes,” Gerard said, stepping up to her. He crouched before her, looking into her eyes. Her vision was jumpy, the image of the doctor blurry. “I know all of that, and I can’t tell you any of it. You aren’t a human. You don’t have the right to know what you’re being used for. I did give you something that wasn’t required…free will. When the time comes and your programming takes over, use that free will. But I have to tell you if you come here again, the electro magnet