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

a massive-scale attack on humanity. If that were the case, he had been too slow. “I’ll be right there.” A few minutes later, he slammed his fist into Brad’s heavy wooden door. It opened immediately.

A canopy of crusty blood had formed across the forest of hairs on Brad’s chest. Weakness rolled down his face.

“Tell me everything.”

Brad stirred, stumbling away from the door and struggling to come up with the right words. “Michaels and I — ”

Evan’s phone rang. It was Shannon, but she was going to have to wait. Putting it away, Evan stepped into the living room. A wave of sour vapors hit him hard. It smelled like a dive bar at closing, except rich in fresh blood. Empty beer cans and bottles of whiskey littered the floor. A broken coffee table, split in half, had black mold growing on one side. Fist-sized holes covered the walls. Evan thought, If Brad had a woman in his life who respected him, she would be able to balance him out. “Continue.”

Brad’s face hardened. “We were drinking, talking about the different ways we could eradicate the toasters.”

“My kind of party.”

“Right.” Brad stared off.

“So, what went wrong?”

“Michaels crashed in my spare bedroom. I had just gone to bed when I heard his screams.”

“Cowards! Attacking a man in his sleep.”

Brad held up a finger. “Not a coward, an abomination.”

Evan picked up a bottle of whiskey. After giving it a quick sniff, he poured some down his throat. “This is what I’ve been trying to tell everyone. They’ve taken our jobs, and now they’re after our lives.”

“If people had listened, we wouldn’t have had these tin cans in our town. Michaels would still be here.” Brad grabbed the bottle. After pouring the rest of it down his throat, he threw it against the wall. Glass shattered everywhere.

Evan turned his head slightly to avoid an oncoming shard. “But now another good soldier is dead.”

Brad’s voice weakened. “I tried to help him …”

“How’d it go down?”

“I heard screams. I rushed into his room, but it was dark and hard to see what was going on.” Brad shook his head. “There was a figure darting away faster than any human could. I shot at him, but …”

“Did you get a good look at the perp?”

Brad shrugged. “It was dark, and I was drunk and half asleep.”

“You’re always drunk and half asleep.”

“You saying it was my fault?”

Evan ignored him.

Screaming expletives, Brad picked up the couch and threw it into the wall. Evan watched, letting him destroy things until he calmed down. He knew better than to interfere during one of Brad’s rages.

Brad stopped his rampage and stared at a blob of blood on the floor. “Synthetic blood.”

“So, no DNA trail.” Checking hospital records was useless, given how easy it is to fix minor wounds with nanites. They could canvas the area for cameras, but, ultimately, it didn’t matter. Every abomination was responsible. Every abomination was guilty.

Brad put his boot through a wall.

“Had you two been involved in any sort of altercation earlier in the day?”

Brad shook his head. “Do you think it was Duncan’s abomination?”

“Could be. Both you and Michaels were known to him. It wouldn’t surprise me if that traitor was trying to start a war against his own people.”

“We’re not his people.”

“Damn right, we aren’t. Not after what he’s done.”

Sweat-beaded skin folded into waves of fury around Brad’s eyes and across his forehead. The agony pulsating from his face was unmistakable. “I know how important following protocol is, Evan, but this is personal. I want to find this fucker and make him pay.”

“Understood. Nobody messes with us and gets away with it.”

Brad nodded, waiting.

“I will give you your revenge, but it must play out according to our greater mission. Michaels has died, but his death will not be in vain. He was a dedicated officer and would have wanted his death to mean something. We’ll use this misfortune to our advantage, letting the world know that this was an assassination by a treasonous toaster-lover, a man desperate to protect his secrets. The news outlets will be all over it, especially when we leak information that Duncan was behind it all. And when they do their pathetic press release at the high school, we’ll arrest them.”

“Screw them and their press release. Their words are poison. We can’t let them speak.”

“Nobody will believe anything they say after we pin this murder on them. Their arrest will be covered across the country.”

“That’s not enough,” said Brad. “I want to see them suffer. I want to see his skull crushed in, hear him scream for help, and watch the fear in his eyes knowing that nobody is coming to save him.”

“He’ll get what he deserves in prison. I’ll make sure he doesn’t survive the first week.”

Brad shook his head.

“Where’s the body?”

Brad led him to the bathroom, motioning for Evan to enter. Inside the tub, Michaels lay naked down to his crimson underwear. A smoky aroma filled the room. Unlit candles lined the counter as if they had been extinguished as an afterthought.

“Why the hell did you put him in the bathtub?” He couldn’t believe Brad was stupid enough to disturb the crime scene like this.

Brad stared at the body, his face quivering and growing red.

Evan sighed. No, he could definitely believe it. Across the body were dozens of lacerations “This was a crime of passion. Pure hatred.”

“Or absolute insanity, like a tin can programmed to murder.”

Evan inspected Michaels’ cold palms, noting the lack of defensive wounds. “They think we’re a bunch of pussies.”

Snorting like a bull, Brad’s bulging arm muscles locked across his chest.

Memories flashed through Evan’s mind, scraping across his neurons like an old microwave and crippling his mind. “Not again,” he shouted, slamming his fist into a tile, which crashed down to the floor. They needed to flex their muscles, or else, they’d become the abomination’s bitches. “We must remind the world that toasters are to be feared.”

“Then let Brutus rain down hell on them, ripping them apart on