Stanley Duncan's Robot: Genesis by David III (korean ebook reader .txt) 📕

Gritting his teeth, hand on the door handle, Dan wondered what sort of person would be so depraved. Drugs, he thought, judging from the way his body looked, although Dan didn’t know what this man’s motive was for destroying an android. Craziness from the drug? But fuse didn’t make someone like this. The man didn’t seem to be interested in salvaging anything from the android; the head was far too damaged. Was this a paid hit?

“Stop!” Dan jumped out of the car as it was still moving. The few seconds it would have taken to come to a gradual stop would have been far too long. Slamming the door shut, he darted forward. Papers spiraled behind him as he jettisoned them and his special sandwich. With lightning speed, Dan chased the fleeing man, fury and sadness mixing in a high-octane boost of speed and emotion.

Filled with rage, he felt as if he could kill him. But the thought faded quickly. It wasn’t right; it wasn’t real — just a passing implication of his extremely emotional state. As he rounded the corner, the grungy man swung a wooden baseball bat at him.

Dan ducked, cursing himself for falling for such a simple trap. He knew the man was on drugs because only a doped-up fiend could have that sort of strength, the unchecked power that overrides the muscles with tendon-snapping and bone-breaking ferociousness.

The bat shattered as it crashed against the brick wall. Before the shower of splinters settled, Dan was on top of him, forcing him onto the ground. He restrained himself from beating the hell out of his crater-ridden face. “How could you do this?”

“Get off of me!” The man snapped his teeth like a dog maddened with rabies.

Dan moved just in time, grabbing him by the throat, effortlessly turning him over, and pinning the man’s hands together behind his back with his knee. “Who sent you?”

“Screw you!” the man muffled, rancid spit blasting out of his mouth.

Dan looked around. Though he did not see anyone, there could be an army of men with weapons waiting for him around the corner. If this was going to be his last moment on Earth, he wanted to use it wisely. He took out his phone and started livestreaming. “This man has brutally murdered an android.” Dan forced the man’s head to the side to get a good view of his face with the camera.

The druggie spat at the lens.

Dan pulled his hand back to avoid the filth, but as he did, he was forced off balance by the man’s incredible strength. As Dan fell backward, the phone smashed against the ground. Dan jumped to his feet, kicking the man in the thigh and sending him back down against the pavement. “Stay down!”

As if the man would listen. Kicking wildly, he screamed, “I’m going to smash your stupid toaster head in.”

Dan avoided his kicks and bolted in with a knee to the chest, knocking the wind out of him. Quickly, he again pinned his arms behind his back. “Why do you hate me so much?”

“Because you’re a disgusting abomination,” he said. “You’re the devil incarnate.” The man continued to put up a fight, struggling to get Dan off of him and tossing expletives left and right.

Dan looked at his broken phone. Suddenly he realized he was all alone in a place that loathed his kind. This was exactly what Stanley had feared.

Chapter 12

The human being is a self-propelled automaton entirely under the control of external influences. Willful and predetermined though they appear, his actions are governed not from within, but from without. He is like a float tossed about by the waves of a turbulent sea.

— Nikola Tesla

Stanley was so upset with Dan’s disobedience that he poured himself a large drink, dumping the rest of the bottle down the sink because he would be unable to stop himself otherwise. Even though he was halfway through printing one exceptional set of armor, something inside of him insisted it be better. After guzzling half of the drink, he leaned over the table and attempted calculations that soon became too confusing to understand. The layering of different weave patterns and materials changed the flexibility of the body armor — it was vitally important for Dan to move around freely — and the defensive attributes to both blunt and sharp objects. Ideally, the design would produce complete invulnerability to all dangers. Deep down, Stanley knew that the only way for that to happen would be if he stayed home all the time.

But Dan was not Stanley. Dan was destined for greater things. He was an outdoor being, and Stanley needed to do everything to support and protect him. He had even been tinkering with ideas for a decentralized police force. The concept had started as a way to help protect Dan and grew from there.

The phone rang through the condo’s speaker system. “Leticia, answer the phone,” said Stanley, embarrassed to hear his own slurred words.

The voice of Jean Morrison, the library director, filled the condo. “I put the word out about you and Dan speaking at the library next — ”

“Hold on!” growled Stanley. “Dan’s keen on it, but I never said I would. My public-speaking days are most certainly over.” The glass in his hand was shaking from how hard he was holding it. This was not what they had agreed to, and he didn’t appreciate Morrison going around putting words in his mouth.

“Doesn’t matter now. Evan’s made it clear that the event will not take place. He claims to have created an unofficial registration policy, which I had never heard of until today. How is anyone going to follow it if they don’t know about it?”

“A little technology could have gone a long way.”

“A little muscle goes pretty far, too.”

“Did he threaten you?” Not only was Dan going to be disappointed, but this little publicity stunt was going to make it even more dangerous for him. Things were only going to get worse the