"The Protector"

A mechanical love story.

By Jenn Zycos

Senator Bradley looked out between the curtains from backstage as he waited for the master of ceremonies to announce him. The crowd was as much as ignoring the long-winded announcer, preferring to nibble at the last of their deserts and await the announcement of what they already knew. They all knew that announcements with this kind of pomp in the middle of one's term meant one was going to retire, or run for another office.

No one thought the Senator was going to retire.

His name was finally announced, and he made his way to the podium with the usual and expected bounce in his step. The applause was loud and heartfelt. The Republican Party leadership in attendance really liked him both personally and as a great political asset. He greeted the room with his arms-open gesture of acceptance that was his trademark and thanked everyone for the applause before it had begun to die down.

He quickly picked out his family near the front of the room and gave his two children a wink and a smile. His son gave him a thumbs-up with his usual exuberance, while his daughter gave him her usual bored wave. She hated these events, though she gave only token resistance when asked to attend. Though, lately she had taken to some embarrassing habits, such as picking political fights with his colleagues.

He announced his intention to run for the presidency and paused for the expected cheer. The speech was rehearsed enough that he could let his thoughts wander, and seeing his daughter stifle a yawn led his thoughts to his family.

His party had paid a great deal of lip service to what they labeled "family values". The senator has long ago intended to live those values, and believed that he had succeeded in doing so. His daughter Jill had claimed to reject his conservative views, for a while just to rebel but later for more concrete reasons. Still, the values he considered most important - family, community, and responsibility - were values she lived even as she tried her best to rebel against them. She was a bit immature for her seventeen years as was evidenced in her bouts of teenaged rebellion, but he had no doubt her adulthood was close at hand and so was not worried. She might vote Democrat - or, God forbid, Green - after her eighteenth birthday, but he'd still be happy with who she had become. In fact, once she could focus her incredible resolve and energies as an adult, she'd be quite formidable.

His son was the epitome of sons. He was so much the perfect example of what he hoped for in a son that it worried him. There were few sports where Mike didn't excel, and his academic career so far was such that even at fourteen years universities were already sending him letters. His pride for his son never wavered, even when he was angry with him.

As he paused for the cheers at his announcement of his intent to be the next President of the United States, he looked at the beaming face of his beloved wife. Janice was an incredible woman, and he sometimes wondered why she decided to be a stay-at-home mom even though she held a master's degree in computer science. Not that he minded, such old-school families did well in the Republican Party. She seemed happy to be so. He would never have refused her the chance at another career, but she never seemed interested.

He made his way from the podium down to the floor, the requisite hand-pumping and ego-stroking keeping his progress slow. He saw his wife and children making their way toward him. After a many photos and even more repetitious questions from reporters he was able to quietly sneak out with his loved ones to the waiting limousine.

He took a moment in the comfortable seat of the luxurious car to just watch. Jill rummaged through the little bar as was her habit and extracted a can of Coke. He smiled diminutively when she automatically poured half into a glass and shared it with her brother - the brother she clamed to be unable to stand. With his typical fourteen-year-old compulsion to annoy his older sister at every opportunity the senator doubted anyone could blame her for taking that position.

"So…" The senator started, looking pointedly at his daughter. "Tell me about this fellow - what was his name? Nathan?"

He stifled his laughter as her eyes widened and the blood drained from her features. A small part of him wondered if there was any significant difference between his son's need to annoy his older sister and his own need to tease that same young woman.

"Daaad!" Jill croaked, exasperated.

"He seems nice enough." Janice said. "Quite handsome." She added after an appropriate pause.

"Mom!" Jill yelped, scandalized.

Mike laughed, securing a half-hearted kick to his shin from his still blushing sister.

The teasing quickly became that wonderful family time the senator enjoyed so much, where everyone had something to share with everyone else. He had no idea how his family had been able to stay so close, most of his colleagues' families had come apart to one degree or another and he didn't think he was necessarily doing anything differently. It was a blessing, though, and so he didn't question it too deeply.

The talking didn't stop while they piled out of the limousine and headed into the house. It tapered off only when they began to head toward their bedrooms, each finally feeling the fatigue of a day full of activity.

Mike took a few moments before crawling into bed to look at the two posters that dominated the outer wall of his bedroom. On the left was his favorite football player, someone who inspired him to succeed simply by existing. On the right was his favorite model, who in this particular image was clad in a tasteful but no less sexy outfit. He'd have preferred one of her bikini shots, but his mother always gave him 'that look' when he brought it up. Even without the gratuitous display of skin, however, the leggy blonde represented everything he liked about the female form. Awash in a sea of hormones, Mike turned out his lights and tried to get to sleep.

Jill was engaged in her nightly task of clearing away the menagerie of stuffed animals and dolls that had their homes on her bed. This evening she decided on two horses and a bear as her slumbering companions. The imaginary creatures were all a careful shield against her approaching adulthood. With them, and the bright pink room, matching pink sheets and comforter, and matching nightgown she could still feel like a little girl: Even knowing that one day soon she'd have to give that feeling up.

Janice watched from their bed as her husband puttered about in their large master bathroom, as was her custom. Though the classic passionate romance had long ago fled their marriage, they were lucky enough that it had been replaced with something equally wonderful if not nearly as energetic.

She wrapped her arm around him as he climbed into bed, giving his forehead a brief kiss.

"Are you ever going to stop teasing poor Jill about her boyfriends?" She asked.

"Not so long as she keeps being so adorably embarrassed." He answered with a smile. "Or, once she gets married."

"Married." Janice repeated quietly.

"Married." Bill said, also quietly. "I think I tease her because it helps me keep from feeling old. Eighteen years next September. From this side of it, it seems such a brief time. Too brief to explain why she's so grown up."

"Well, she is. And I think we did well - she's going to be a terrific catch."

"Yeah, we did Okay. Doesn't make me any less old." Bill said, smiling again.

"Good night, ya old fart."

"Night, ya old lady."

Senator William Bradley's face was red with rage. It was one thing to threaten him - it happened all the time as a natural part of politics. But threatening his family was intolerable. He slapped the report back on his desk and took a moment to calm down. He didn't want to snap at his security head, it wasn't his fault that there were cracked nuts in the world, it was just his responsibility to make sure the crackpots never got farther than that.

"Is this crap serious?" He asked once he felt calm enough.

"Normally we don't pay this sort of thing much attention, sir." Agent Tomas Jones answered. "But this one was hand delivered by paid courier and right after your announcement. Still, it's probably just the usual crank. We're just hedging our bets."

In other words, the Secret Service was doing their job. The senator saw no need to complain about that.

"Well, I'm taking this one kind of personal, Tom." The senator said. "If you can find this asshole, arrest him. No one threatens my family, Ok?"

"Yes, sir." The agent acknowledged.

"Is a man-hunt the best start for your campaign?" The red haired campaign manager asked.

"What would you have me do, Dana? Ignore it?"

"No, but I think you could play it for a little public sympathy. No one likes terrorist threats, but a manhunt sometimes gets seen as brutal no matter the reason for starting it. Why not just a little extra security? You could seem put-out by it, the threat would appear credible, and you would look like someone who really believes in the old 'innocent until proven' philosophy."

The senator looked at his security head. "Tom?"

"We're ready to go either way. I prefer a proactive approach, of course." He paused. "The final choice is really yours."

Bill Bradley nodded, silently thankful that his Secret Service officer understood politics, too. "Well, lets arrange for an escort for my family, then. I prefer one each, and lets plan this just for a month or so."

"Yes, sir." Tom affirmed.

"Oh, and be careful picking my daughter's, she's not going to like this one bit."

"Yes, sir. I already have an agent in mind."

Senator Bradley smiled. "Good."

"Keep up! Gaahhd!" Jill's shrill command instantly caught Tom Jones' attention.

He looked up from his notebook PC at the Bradley's kitchen table and saw Jill leading Agent Alice Brooks toward her room, Brooks carrying a heavy load of shopping bags.

"Jill." Agent Jones said, his tone one of exasperation. "My agents are not pack mules."

Jill harrumphed and flicked her hair as she continued her march toward her room.

"Alice, what the heck are you doing?" Tom asked as she unloaded her burden.

"If I wasn't carrying something she wanted" The agent snarled "she would take off and hide. I can't work with her! If she's not hiding from me, she's insulting me. Or she's 'accidentally' spilling her food on me. She complains constantly about me when she's around her friends. She stopped a stranger and asked him to protect her from a stalker! And when he confronted me, she took off!" Alice's face was scrunched in a mix of anger, frustration and fear she'd blown the assignment.

Tom felt frustrated himself. He had chosen Alice Brooks for her patience and youth, hoping that Jill would be able and willing to relate to the younger agent at some level. Instead Jill had become instantly belligerent. Jill would complain that Alice was always in the way, and when Alice had a day off or was trying to stay out of Jill's way, Jill would complain that Alice wasn't attentive enough or wasn't taking her assignment seriously. It all added up to a lot of frayed nerves.

"I'll have a talk with her." Agent Thomas said.

"And it will make a difference over the last three talks you had with her, how?" Alice grumbled.

Tom was taken aback, Alice had never snapped at him before.

"Okay." Jones sighed. "Transfer?"

Alice's eyebrows rose in mild surprise. "That's really an option?"

"In this case, yes."

"Then, yes."

Tom sighed again, and pulled the necessary papers from his briefcase.

Jill wiped at a tear as it wandered down her cheek. The letter frightened her with its strong language and threats that mentioned her by name. Some of the letter was blackened out to protect her from some of the nastier imagery, but that really only made it worse, her imagination filling in where reality left off. Her father's angry stare did nothing to relive her fear. She re-folded the copy and handed it back to her father.

Senator Bradley took a moment before speaking, putting the letter in his jacket pocket and seating himself on the edge of his daughter's desk adjacent to where she sat on her bed.

"I assume that you now understand why it is I've asked for the personal escorts." He said.

Jill could manage only a nod.

"Three agents in three weeks." Bill repeated. "God help me, Jill. Do you have any idea how this makes me look? Are you in the least bit aware of how it would make you look if the press ever got wind of this?"

Jill shook her head in the negative, still too emotional to speak.

"Well, I'm not letting it happen again. Agent Jones and I discussed this matter a few days ago and we settled on someone who just will not take this kind of abuse from you and someone who you can't manipulate with such ease."

"But, Daddy…"

"No!" Bill commanded. "There's no discussion here, this is the way it is. You are going to accept that you need protection and you are going to cooperate with your escort, or you most certainly will spend the duration of this situation locked in your room. Now, which is it going to be?"

"Daddy, I'm sorry. I didn't understand. I'm so sorry." Jill's words were punctuated with sobs.

The sobs broke her father's heart. The senator stood and gathered his daughter in his arms. "My sweet little angel. You know I only care about your well being."

"I know." She replied in a small voice.

"It's just for a while. Then it gets back to normal." He said as he dabbed at her tears with a handkerchief.

Jill dipped her head in agreement and acquiescence. After giving his daughter a moment to collect herself, he opened the door to the hall and motioned for the Secret Service agents to come in.

Tom Jones entered first, his hulking form filling the doorway. He gave Jill a little smile and a nod as a greeting and then stood aside, his usual scowl back in place. A small Japanese woman followed. Like the lead agent, she was dressed conservatively, walked with her back straight and head up, and her eyes were active and alert. Unlike the lead agent or any other agent assigned to her so far, her petite smile didn't go away after she entered the room.

"Hello." The woman said. "My name is Sentaku. I'm your new bodyguard." She offered her hand.

Jill took Sentaku's hand, noting that Sentaku was just a little shorter than she was. "Hi. I'm Jill."

There was a brief moment of uncomfortable silence.

"So, uh… Ho long have you been a Secret Service officer?" Jill asked, hoping to break the ice.

"Oh, she's not an officer. Not really." Tom Jones answered. "It's not legal to commission a cybernetic, but she does carry my authority, if she needs to use it."

Jill looked back to Sentaku in shock. "She's a robot?" Jill snapped. "But… Daddy?"

"No discussion, Jill." The senator said warningly.

"Look, Miss Bradley, it's not as bad as you seem to think. Take some time to talk to her; you'll see she's very flexible and accommodating. She's programmed to get along with you."

"Sit and talk." Jill was obviously incredulous.

"Yes." Agent Jones said.

"With a robot."

"Android."

"Whatever." Jill sighed, and looked pleadingly at her father.

"I thought you liked robotics." The Senator asked.

"I do! It's just that… well, she's cool and all, but… I…" Jill sighed and let her words trail off, unable to explain why she was repulsed.

"We'll let you get acquainted." Her father finally said. "If there's anything really intolerable about Sentaku we can fix it. I don't mean silly things like her hair or clothes, and I certainly don't mean the way she handles your security. Okay?"

It wasn't, but Jill agreed anyway.

Agent Jones left right behind Senator Bradley, giving one last glance over his shoulder at the young woman and her android escort.

Jill flopped back onto her bed growling in frustration. Her friends would have a fit if they found out. Most of them were of the liberal stance that robots took away jobs from the people whom really needed them. Worse still, she did feel it was her fault they had assigned a machine to do a human's work, and so was guilty of taking food from the mouth of some nebulous, unidentified person.

Jill sat back up and found Sentaku wandering about the room looking at everything, but being nice enough not to touch anything. She spent as much time looking up at the ceiling as she did the stuff on her shelves. It was very weird.

"What are you doing?" Jill asked.

"I am familiarizing myself with your room, learning where you put your things, and looking for security threats."

"Ooh-Kay." Jill said protractedly. "Why are you looking at the ceiling?"

"I am scanning the ventilation system with low energy radar."

"Right." Jill smirked. "Anyone ever tell you that you're weird."

"No." Sentaku answered, unperturbed. "But I've only been conscious for five months, three weeks, two days, eight hours, and twenty three minutes and thus do not have a great deal of experience with people's opinion of my being."

Jill found herself stunned at the unemotional and clear observation, and at the android's incredible youth. She opened her mouth to ask further questions, but closed it again as Sentaku popped off the ceiling register, grabbed the side of the vent for a one-armed pull-up into the ceiling.

"No! Wait!" Jill barked.

Sentaku pulled down a shoebox.

"That's private!" Jill cried. "Put that back."

Sentaku removed the lid and saw an unopened package of condoms, and an object used for female personal sexual gratification. She replaced the lid and put the box back, replacing the register cover after it.

Jill was mortified. "Don't tell Daddy! Please!"

Sentaku turned to Jill.

"I understand I've embarrassed you. I wish to apologize." Sentaku bowed politely. "Since the box and its contents were not a threat to you or to the security of this house there is no need for me to mention it to anyone."

"Even though it was… stuff like that?" Jill asked, surprised. Other agents had found things she wasn't supposed to have and it had always meant a lecture from her father at least.

"I'm here to guarantee your safety, not to enforce codes of behavior." Sentaku said plainly. "Though on occasion your safety may require specific behavior, and I will require that you do obey."

"What, you mean like run away?"

"That is one possible example, yes."

"I can live with that."

"That is the intent." Sentaku smirked.

Jill laughed skeptically. "Did you just make a joke?"

"I am not without an understanding of humor." Sentaku said.

Jill shook her head in disbelief. "You are nothing like what I expected. You don't even talk like the servitor that Alice's dad has at their house. You seem to… well, you seem to understand. Are you a gen. three?"

"No. I am a generation four Akira class combat android with bodyguard program version eight. I also have files and training in social behavior for several cultures, and a tutoring program with proficiency in English, Japanese, Math, Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus, basic Physics, basic Chemistry, North American history, South American history, African history, Middle Eastern history, European history, and Asian history."

Jill's mouth hung open throughout Sentaku's recitation. Generation four was supposed to be nothing more than a few ideas floating around Mitsubishi's R&D department, not a full-fledged working product. Yet here stood a generation-four android acting rather proud of her programming.

"You're not a prototype, are you?"

"No. The generation four nanoelectronic brain has not been announced publicly." Sentaku looked thoughtful. "I've not been told why."

"Were you built for the Secret Service?"

"Yes."

"What were your previous assignments?"

"None. My first five months were spent at the academy with three other androids. We did not actually need the training, as we're programmed with a great deal of experience from previous bodyguard androids. I am told we were being field proven."

"And the next three weeks?" Jill asked.

"I waited."

"What did you do while you waited?"

"Aside from daily maintenance routines, there was nothing to do."

"Wait, they just had you idle? For three weeks?" Jill asked, quite shocked.

"Yes." Sentaku answered.

"What a waste. Didn't you get bored?"

"No. Boredom is the effect of fatigue in an organic brain. Since I am not organic, I am capable of great periods of idle time before it has an adverse effect on my psyche."

"That would be useful in my physics class." Jill said, more to herself than to her bodyguard. "So, you haven't really seen much of the world, have you?"

"Not directly."

Jill stood and put her hands on Sentaku's shoulders. "Ever seen a mall?"

Sentaku shook her head in the negative.

"Well, let's go, then." Jill said happily, and headed toward the door.

Sentaku followed the young woman, who headed toward the front door of the house.

"Jill, part of the security parameters for you require all outings be approved by Senator Bradley."

"I thought you said you weren't here to enforce a code of behavior." Jill said mockingly.

"This is a security issue." Sentaku said, taking hold of Jill's arm. "There was no leeway given on this matter."

"Let go." Jill said, trying to free herself.

"Please, Jill, you must ask your father before you can go. I'm not allowed to let you leave otherwise."

Jill's frantic tugs were becoming panicked. Sentaku's grip was not painful, but it was relentless.

"Let go!" Jill yelled. "Help! Daddy! Help!"

"Help with what?" Her father said, standing in the living room doorway, arms crossed over his chest and amusement on his face. "I think Sentaku is doing great so far."

Jill stopped struggling, though she was still leaning against Sentaku's grip, and looked at her father.

"This isn't funny!" Jill cried. "Make her let me go!"

"Sentaku, let her go." He ordered.

Sentaku obeyed instantly, and Jill fell on her behind with an undignified thump. It was all Bill Bradley could do not to laugh. He gave his daughter a moment to get over the startle of the fall.

"Where were you off to?"

"The mall." Jill said from her spot on the floor.

"I don’t think that's such a good idea, Jill." Bill said. "Do you?"

"Sir." Sentaku interrupted. "The threat is minimal. This is an unplanned trip on a day Jill does not normally go shopping. The letter threatened instant action, and nothing to substantiate that threat has materialized for almost a month. Even if the parties making the threat were to see Jill there, it would be random chance and they would not likely be prepared enough to get past me."

The Senator looked thoughtful for a moment, and then looked at his daughter.

"Please?" She said, trying to look pitiful.

"Ok. But if I hear about you trying to dodge your escort again…"

"I won't!" Jill promised as she accepted Sentaku's help off the floor.

Jill headed out the door and stood by the limousine.

Sentaku walked past and got into a rather plain looking car that was parked on the curb, and then motioned for Jill to get in the passenger side.

Sighing again, Jill complied.

"You know, the limo is armored." Jill complained.

"I know." Sentaku replied. "This car is, too. It is also far less of a target, can travel far faster, turn quicker, stop shorter and…" Sentaku pressed the play button the dash and the sounds of Jill's favorite band came rushing from the speakers, though more quietly than Jill usually liked. "…It has a superior sound system."

Jill smiled, again shaking her head in disbelief. It was hard to decide whether or not she liked this machine.

Sentaku activated the motor and pulled the car onto the road, accelerating comfortably if a little aggressively.

"Look here." Sentaku pointed to a covered button. "This is a panic button. If things are going badly and you think I can't get you away, press it. It will summon help without you having to worry about the radio, which is here." Sentaku pointed out the radio microphone.

She handed Jill a small cylinder, like a personal Chemical Mace bottle. "This is a panic button like the one under the dash. You pop off the cover here, and press the red button within."

Jill took the device and shoved it unceremoniously into her pocket.

"Where are the guns?" Jill asked.

"Where I can get to them quickly." Sentaku answered slyly. "You know the rules on that."

Jill did, but loved to annoy the agents by asking.

"Will your friends be there today?" Sentaku asked.

"Huh?" Jill looked skeptically at her escort. "Why would you care?"

"It would be good to get a look at their faces directly." Sentaku answered. "The photographs I've been shown were not of the best quality. It's best to see the face directly anyway, so I can be sure to recognize them from any angle and at any distance."

"You sure are job-oriented." Jill commented.

"Yes." Sentaku agreed. "Will they be there?"

"Well, probably a couple of them. They're worse mallies than me."

"That's quite a feat," Sentaku said with a smirk. "If what I've been briefed on is true. Do they show up at opening and leave at closing?"

Jill giggled. "Yeah. Actually, once Anna and Gracie hid in Sears and slept in the bedroom display so they could be in the mall for 36 hours straight. It's a record." Jill giggled nervously. "Weird, huh?"

"Well, at least you know they have dedication."

Jill chuckled and agreed. It was nice not to be judged; in fact it was delightful to be treated more like an adult and a human being rather than a pain-in-the-ass job. Still, it was odd that it was a machine treating her so well.

Sentaku pulled off the road and into the mall parking area, headed for the main building.

"You'll never find a parking spot so close." Jill said.

"I'm not concerned with parking just yet." Sentaku pointed toward the large glass doors. "I'm getting a look inside and around the parking lot first."

Jill shrugged and sat back, waiting as Sentaku orbited the building once, and then found a spot unusually close to the main entrance.

Sentaku was out of the car quickly, long before Jill had her seatbelt undone. She opened the door for her charge and made certain she was always between Jill and the few places a threat might be hiding. Jill didn't notice.

Sentaku let Jill set the pace for the trek into the mall, and Jill picked a fast one since the midday sun was unbearable. As soon as they passed through the interior doors Jill became lost in her own world. She knew where she wanted to go, and what shops required more than a peek in the window. She was more at ease here than she was at home.

Jill didn't notice that Sentaku was right with her the whole way, her accelerated reactions and prognostic programming allowing her to stay close without getting in the way. In fact, Sentaku's skill allowed Jill to totally forget about her protector.

After about three-quarters of an hour of browsing, Jill headed for the food court, where she knew she'd likely meet up with Anna or Gracie or both. Even if neither was at the mall - almost unthinkable - her stomach and palate was hoping for some sort of treat, and there was quite an array of indulgences to choose from in the food court.

As she stepped off the escalator she heard her friend call for her.

"Jilly!" The black-haired young woman called.

"Gracie!" Jill called back. "Annie!"

Anna and Gracie stood as Jill pranced up to their table and all exchanged their traditional hugs. Jill's friends retook their seats and Jill rushed to get herself her favorite cinnamon treat and something to drink. Immediately upon her return the three friends got down to a serious girl talk and giggling session.

As the last of the treats was eaten and the drinks began to make the classic slurping sound of an empty beverage cup, Jill placed three slips of paper on the table, each representing a…

"Movie?" Jill asked.

"Oh yeah!" "You bet!" Her friends spoke at once with enthusiasm.

The three took their time deciding on which, finally settling on one of the summer comedies. A visit to the concession stand garnered three more drinks, and they headed to the theater.

Jill was made aware of her escort as Sentaku quickly pushed past and entered the darkened room first. Jill's first reaction was one of annoyance, but she quickly realized how inappropriate that was. Sentaku was almost a specter, and had gone totally unnoticed by her friends, which was a terrific relief. One brush with her was hardly reason for anger.

For the first time in who knows how long, the person who chose to sit behind them for the movie wasn't loud mouthed and rude nor did they put their feet up on the girl's seats, because Sentaku would never do these things. Jill enjoyed the movie, but found that having her escort behind her made her a little self-conscious, particularly when the movie's humor got a little raunchy.

They wandered out with the crowd, repeating their favorite lines to each other. Once the crowd thinned enough to pause, Jill looked about and wondered what to do next.

"Hey, I hear Earth Center is having a sale on those cool new sandals." Anne said by way of suggestion.

"Jill?" Sentaku called as she approached.

The three friends turned toward the android.

"I'm sorry, but I have to take you home now."

"Who're you?" Gracie asked as she stepped protectively in front of her friend.

"She's my body guard." Jill explained in a deflated tone. "Sentaku, there wasn't a time limit."

"It's not about the time, Jill. We have to leave now."

"Nuh-uh!" Gracie spat. "Jill leaves when she's damn good and ready, bitch! Back off!"

"She also speaks for herself." Sentaku said calmly. "Jill, the situation has changed. We need to leave."

Jill was ambivalent for a moment. She was ready to defy Sentaku on principle, but she was also not sure Sentaku would drag her out of the mall just as a show of authority like previous escorts had. In fact, it seemed likely that the only reason a tireless, detached android would want to leave was because there was real reason.

"I… uh… well…" Jill waffled.

"Girl! You don’t have to go if you don't want. She's just another damn cop telling you what to do!" Anna expounded.

Sentaku started forward, gently taking Jill's arm and guiding her toward the nearest exit. "I don't have time to explain." She apologized.

"Don't drag her out!" Gracie yelled after them. "Damn!"

Jill didn't have time to think about it as she was guided through the crowd at a trot. Sentaku seemed to have a feel for how large groups of people moved, and was able to keep an astonishing pace with a little zigzagging. Anna and Gracie were left far behind.

When they got to the parking area, Sentaku upped the pace to a near-run. Her head swiveled constantly as her eyes scanned, taking in everything. The sense of urgency began to frighten Jill.

Sentaku opened the passenger door of her car and deposited Jill in the seat in one smooth motion. There was no pause as Sentaku entered the driver's seat and they headed toward the road.

"Angel one transit from last check." Sentaku spoke into her sleeve microphone.

"What's going on? Why are you moving so fast?" Jill asked, voice tremulous.

"Your brother's panic alarm has been activated. We've lost contact with his escort." Sentaku explained as they sped away.

"Wha-what?" Jill's panic intensified. "Where is he?"

"I don't know. Last check-in was at his baseball practice."

"Oh god! Oh god!" Jill whimpered as tears welled in her eyes. "We have to find him!"

"No. We have to get to your home. There is a search and interdiction team headed to the beacon. They'll get there in about three minutes." Sentaku looked at Jill. "When they report in, do you want me to tell you what they find?"

"Of course!" Jill snapped.

"Even if they find him dead?"

Jill's eyes widened, but she nodded her head in the affirmative. "Yes, even if."

Sentaku nodded understanding and returned her full attention to the drive.

The seconds slowed. Jill startled when Sentaku made and adjustment to the radio that hung on her belt, then was disappointed when Sentaku said nothing.

Sentaku pulled the car into the driveway of Jill's home, and parked the car close. She put her hand on Jill's shoulder, indicating she should stay in the car.

"Angel one at tac one." She said into the radio mic in the sleeve of her jacket.

Sentaku seemed to be listening.

"They've just arrived. The car is still at the Baseball Park."

Jill waited impatiently for Sentaku to continue.

"No one is in the car, there's nothing indicating trouble so far."

Sentaku smiled diminutively and tuned to Jill. "He's fine. False alarm."

Jill's relief was palpable. She found herself hugging Sentaku as an expression of that relief. She let go, blushing, and opened her car door.

"Uh, I'm going to go call my friends."

Sentaku nodded and opened her own car door.

"You know that's not a plaything! You had everyone in a total panic!"

Jill could just make out her father's yelling as it wafted in through the house vents. Mike had pulled a dopey this time, and her father didn't seem to be in a forgiving mood. Not that she could blame him, she intended to give her little brother a chewing out of her own for pressing that button.

She knew that her brother's escort was in for far worse. Ignoring his broken handheld radio had been foolish, doubly so as there were other options available - like calling for a replacement from the car-mounted set. Jill wasn't a fan of the starched-collared ultra-serious Secret Service, but she still hated to think he'd lose his job over the mistake.

She leaned back over her computer's keyboard and tried to ignore her father's rant. Soon she sank herself into writing the English essay and the world became unimportant.

"Jill?" Sentaku called quietly from the door.

"Mmm?"

"Just to keep you informed: A second letter has been delivered to your father's office. Though this time it's even more disjointed and maniacal and thus even less likely an actual reason for concern, your father has decided to keep the close escorts on for a while longer."

Jill looked up at Sentaku and sighed at the news. "Figures." She said, then "Sorry, no offense."

"None taken." Sentaku said honestly.

Sentaku began her retreat from the room.

"Sentaku?" Jill called.

"Yes?"

"Come in for a while, please?"

"As you like." Sentaku agreed and returned to the room.

Jill polished off her essay and started the transmission to her teacher's homework bin. She turned and indicated the dressing bench at the foot of her bed.

"Have a sit." Jill suggested informally.

Sentaku sat on the bench at a slight angle so the two faced each other.

"I'm curious." Jill started. "Why did you help talk my dad into letting me go to the mall today?"

"There was no need to prevent it, from a security standpoint. Overreacting to a threat can be just as bad as under-reacting and it seemed your father's interest in keeping you at home was an overreaction. It is part of my duty to keep him and you informed of the actual level of threat. Separating the family also makes you more difficult targets, so there is some use in the unpredictability of unplanned individual outings as a security measure."

"All business, huh?" Jill sounded disappointed.

"Primarily." Sentaku explained. "I do have the capacity to understand the human need for entertainment and frivolity. No matter what the actual level of threat, it is still stressful. I know from your file that you like trips to the mall, even when you don't intend to purchase anything, as a stress reliever."

"Still sounds like business." Jill said.

"It was a complex way of saying that I knew you wanted to go."

"Oh." Jill realized that was so.

"I don't know what to make of you." Jill commented. "I know you're a robot, but you can seem so human. A bit pedantic, but still human."

Sentaku seemed to understand. "I appear and act human so I can blend in. If you know where to look, there are signs of my artifice." Sentaku moved her hair away from her ear. "Behind my ear you can see the seam where my hair was attached."

Jill leaned forward and looked. It was tiny and verged on imperceptible, but it was there to be found along the hairline if you looked hard enough. She reached up and felt the skin there, then felt Sentaku's cheek.

"You're warm."

"Yes, or I'd be obvious on infrared cameras."

Jill stroked her escort's hair, which felt coarser than it appeared.

"Plastic?" Jill asked.

"A carbon chain polymer."

"So, why are you a girl?"

"I appear female because people tend to be more at ease around women. That is also why I am slightly shorter than average. The Kurogane class combat android appears male, and is built to be very intimidating. They are most useful for crowd control situations or any time you need to discourage impulse attacks."

"Those were the ones that were going to be soldiers, right?" Jill asked, remembering the newscasts about the UN resolution disallowing independent robots on the battlefield.

"That was their original intent, but the design adapted very well to a security role." Sentaku confirmed. "Apparently the adaptation saved several robotics companies from bankruptcy, including Mitsubishi Robotics."

"I wonder if that's why the G4 was never announced." Jill mused. "It was for soldier class robots - the illegal sort."

Sentaku shrugged: a decidedly human gesture that both amused Jill and bothered her slightly.

Jill startled when her brother slammed the door to his room. He was obviously not taking his licks very well, but that was par for the course. He rarely screwed up, and when he did he was ill prepared for the consequences. Jill rolled her eyes at his immature response.

"You probably want to sleep." Sentaku said as she stood. "I have been assigned watch duty for the duration of the heightened security, so if you need me for anything just call out. I'll be in the living room primarily, with occasional patrols through the halls."

"Wait, don't you need to recharge or something?"

"I would be of little use to you tied to a wall outlet." Sentaku said with a smile. "I have a fuel-cell good for several months."

"You must be expensive."

"Very."

Jill felt a little warmed by the thought that her father would have allowed such an expense to keep her safe.

"Good night, Jill." Sentaku said as she closed the door behind her.

Agent Thomas Jones made his way toward the front door of the large and well appointed house that was the home of Senator Bradley's family. It was just after four thirty in the morning, warm but still dark. He was tired, having been unable to sleep for most of the night, finally giving up and deciding to get some paperwork done and get a jump on what was probably going to be a busy day.

He opened the front door and started fumbling for the light switch.

"Hello, sir."

Jones nearly leapt out of his skin.

"Sentaku." He sighed as he recovered from his surprise. "You scared the hell out of me."

Sentaku turned on the lights for her boss. "Sorry, sir."

The agent ignored the machine and went to the guest bedroom become temporary office. The computer was already on and ready for him to log in. He did so and began to work on the various reports and information forms that were required by the vast bureaucracy that was the Treasury Department. Sunlight began to peek over the horizon, and Agent Jones thought he smelled coffee, something he desired at the moment. He saved his work and began to turn away from the computer when he noticed a mug sitting on the desk beside him, still steaming. A serving tray was behind it with a pitcher of cream and a bowl of sugar ready for him to adjust the flavor of the strong brew to his liking.

"Sentaku," He said under his breath as he mixed in a tablespoon of sugar. "If only all my agents were so damn attentive."

"Yes, sir." Sentaku acknowledged, again startling the lead agent. "I would like to take a few minutes away from my post to change into new clothes and clean off the accumulated dust."

"Sure."

Sentaku nodded and headed into the guest bath.

Agent Jones turned back to the computer. He sipped his coffee and stared at the screen for a while, letting his mind wander. Slowly he realized he was looking at the reflection of the guest bath in the glass cover of the computer's monitor, and in that reflection he could see the wall mirror that reflected the image of Sentaku removing her jacket.

He was about to turn away when her decided that he would watch. She was only a robot and consequently was not in need of privacy, and it had been too long since he gazed at a lovely female body. A robot body would do until a real woman came into his life.

Her shirt came off and he admired the lines of her bare back and the lovely curves of her buttocks. She was, of course, just about perfect. Designed to appear as a human in peak physical condition, she was naturally quite attractive. As she ran a wet washcloth over her arms, he watched the simulated muscles ripple in her back and looked forward to her turning around.

When she did, he nearly choked on his coffee.

She was well proportioned, without a doubt, but there the similarity to real women ended. Her breasts were small and properly perky, but had no nipples. Her belly was flat and there was a hint of well-toned muscles beneath, but there was no navel. The greatest shock was her total lack of genitalia. There wasn't so much as an allusion; she was totally androgynous there.

He set his coffee mug down and massaged his eyes with his hands. He figured that he should have known better. The machine was designed to be a sentinel and if necessary a killer, it was not a sex toy.

"I am back on post, sir." Sentaku said as she passed by on her way to the living room.

"Right." Agent Jones said, feeling quite self-conscious.

The trip to Washington DC was almost uneventful. Senator and Missus Bradley were so used to traveling that it was all habit now, requiring astonishingly little effort. Michael Bradley loved to fly, and so looked forward to these trips. Jill, as much as she hated political outings - especially those that took her away from friends and the places she loved - managed to be ready to go without complaint.

Her one request was that Sentaku come along and be her bodyguard during the reception. The request had been granted easily, as that had been the plan from the start.

It had been rather startling for Jill when Sentaku was loaded into the luggage compartment. It had been explained that there were others aboard the flight that would object to the presence of the machine, notably a senator from Texas who led the failing campaign to ban robots from all aspects of society.

Jill had known rationally that Sentaku could easily handle the flight in the unpressurized cargo hold, but still had an irrational and emotional response to what appeared to be an act that endangered the woman.

Jill was amused by the startled reactions of the baggage crew when Sentaku walked out of the cargo hold onto the tarmac. She watched as the android met Agent Jones at the base of the stairs leading to the airport concourse and was given her gun and radio back.

"How was your flight?" Jill asked idly as Sentaku entered the concourse.

Sentaku reached into her jacket pocket and produced one of the small packages of mixed nuts served by the Air Force crew. She handed it to Jill.

"The baggage handlers have an interesting sense of humor." Sentaku said sardonically. "I trust your flight was comfortable."

Jill shrugged her shoulders noncommittally.

Beckoned by Senator Bradley, Jill and Sentaku began the short trek to the waiting limousine. Sentaku took her usual protective position as Jill boarded the limousine, and then quickly entered the chase car.

Their ride to the hotel was in silence. There was something tiring about air travel and recovery was slow. At least the District of Columbia was in the same time zone as their home state of Florida.

Everything was handled before their arrival, the typical efficiency of the senatorial aides reliving them of most of the minutiae of travel. Soon Jill was lounging on a hotel bed, watching the news, as Sentaku stood guard outside.

For the first time in her life, the national news affected her in a personal way. The reporter droned on about threats made to most of the conservative members of Congress, including her father, by a group calling themselves the "Freedom Guard". They had some sort of strange grudge against what they called an "absurdly fundamental and puritanical" Republican Party and claimed the Republicans had a plot to eradicate freedom in the U.S.

She turned off the television and digested what she had heard deciding that she needed a little clarification from someone who would really know - namely, her father.

She headed down the hall to her parent's room, but paused before knocking. She turned to face her bodyguard.

"Sentaku, were those threats from that 'Freedom Guard' group?"

"The second letter claimed so."

"Are they dangerous?"

"There is no intelligence suggesting that they are more than protestors and letter-writing campaigners. At the moment it is believed that the threats are coming from a fringe or splinter group only loosely associated with the core 'Freedom Guard'."

"If they aren't dangerous, why do we need extra Secret Service?" Jill asked.

"Because I prefer extra caution over risking the lives of the ones I love." Senator Bradley said from his hotel room door.

Jill turned about and looked at her father. "Hi daddy." She said somewhat sheepishly. "I didn't hear you come out."

"I gathered." Her father said, smiling. "I know you've never liked some of the trappings of public office, sweetie, but this was the best option. Besides, I thought you had started to like having Sentaku around."

Jill glanced back at the android, feeling unnecessarily self-conscious. "Well, I guess."

"Then stop worrying about it. Now, go and relax for a while. We've got about three hours before we have to go."

The senator reached out and gave her shoulder a loving squeeze and headed down the hall to wherever it was he was going.

Jill returned to her hotel room and invited Sentaku in.

"Ok." Jill said after a deep breath. "You're always honest with me. I want to know what sort of trouble they could really cause."

Sentaku looked almost surprised for a very brief moment. "Until the first round of courier delivered threats, the group attracted little attention. They are ostensibly a civil rights group concerned specifically with minority religions and lifestyles. Previous to the attempts at intimidation they did little. All known members of the group own firearms. One member has a collection of military weaponry, but is also a licensed collector and the weapons are known to the BATF as non-functional."

Sentaku paused to see if Jill really wanted a full analysis. Jill gestured for her to continue.

"Over two months ago, preceding the threats, they staged several rallies in large cities across the U.S. Slightly larger crowds than expected attended these rallies. Their popularity has since increased. They have recently begun to issue press releases. Most simply announce their stance on bills before Congress or laws already in effect. One listed their mission, which is to defend their civil liberties against what they perceive as a far-right conservative led attack. It is believed that the group's roots lay in the backlash against some of the anti-terrorism laws and policies of the early 21^st century."

"God, that was decades ago!" Jill exclaimed.

"Yes. There were extreme fundamentalist groups who did try to make use of the public's fear of terrorism to assert their own agenda. They exist still, though with far less vibrancy, and may have fostered the growth of the 'Freedom Guard' by way of political friction."

"Ok." Jill was not sure if she understood. "So what does that mean to me?"

"My analysis suggests they have the capability of carrying out much of what they threatened, but have no actual motivation to do so. Their energies are reserved for their protests and political actions. However, until those who have actually broken the law by threatening public servants have been located, it is best to keep security at its heightened state."

"So, it's probably nothing to worry about." Jill prompted.

"If by 'it' you mean the 'Freedom Guard', then yes." Sentaku clarified. "There is still the concern of the threats, which should be considered a separate matter."

"I should be worried about that, then?"

"No." Sentaku said. "There are officers investigating the matter. Let them do the worrying."

"Well, what should I be worried about, then?" Jill asked, finding she felt oddly left out.

"At the moment, you may wish to be concerned with how to keep yourself entertained for two hours and twenty minutes."

Jill wandered away from yet another boring non-discussion. What made these receptions such long and dreary events was the total lack of real interaction. Everyone not in public office avoided political talk and was guarded on any other subject. Even when discussing the weather no one wanted to get too specific. Those who were in public office rarely paid her much attention, and her arguments or commentary was usually dismissed.

Her brother seemed to have an easier time of it. His favorite subject was sports, and there was always a group happy to discuss the rather concrete issues of sports statistics. It made for safe and entertaining conversation, if one enjoyed such things, which Jill unfortunately did not.

That left her with mingling, a skill which she was still developing. She had met some interesting public figures with her wanderings around these receptions, including movie and music stars, leaders of other nations, ambassadors and once even a real spy. The hope that similar meetings might take place kept her from being too bored.

She carried a flute filled not with the sparkling white wines others drank, but a clear lemon-lime soft drink. It was a habit she had formed when she had so wanted to be an adult. The various wait staffs had always been accommodating about it, and this particular staff knew her well enough to have had a flute ready for her.

She paused again and looked around for her bodyguard. Sentaku was, like all the Secret Service, always at the periphery of the large ballroom. Unlike the rest of the officers, she was never in the same spot twice. Jill noticed that she was always fairly close and with a clear path to her. It was a little annoying.

"Hey."

Jill turned toward the voice ad saw a fellow not much older than she was. He was handsome and smiling, holding a tumbler with some sort of liquor.

"Hey." Jill returned the greeting. The young man seemed familiar somehow, but Jill could not place him.

"Enjoying the reception?" He asked with an odd slurring of the last word.

"As much as usual." Jill answered, her tone conveying the unspoken distaste.

"Me, too." He said. His tone failed to convey whether or not he noticed her aversion.

They stood in uncomfortable silence for a few moments. Jill studied his face, trying to place it.

"I'm Ted." He said, pointing to his chest with his drink.

That helped. "Oh, you work for Senator McLeod." Jill said, smiling. "Yeah. I'm Jill Bradley."

Ted nodded his head. "I know, Senator Badley's beautiful daughter."

Jill blushed at the complement and decided to ignore his mispronunciation.

"I've been meaning to introduce myself for a long time now." Ted explained. "I've just had to work up the courage." He smiled sheepishly.

"Oh." Jill blushed again. "That's very flattering."

"Well, I don't know if you know this, but it takes guts for a guy to talk to a woman as incredibly attractive as you are." Ted explained. "And you are, you know, really really sexy."

Jill found herself feeling on edge, he was laying it on a bit thick.

"Uh, thanks." Jill said flatly.

"I hear that you got quite a head on your shoulders, too." Ted smiled. "Gonna make it near the top of the class."

Jill shrugged. "I'm trying to." She explained. "The competition's stiff."

"I'll bet." He said, his smile broadening. "I know I am." He finished with a nervous, staccato laugh.

Jill furrowed her brow, not understanding. As his smile faded, Jill realized he had made an innuendo. Her face flushed with a combination of anger and embarrassment.

"I'm going." She said, turning to walk away.

"Oh, hey." He said, sounding insincerely apologetic. "Don’t be like that. I didn't mean nothing by it."

Jill ignored him and walked on. She glanced back and saw he was following. Unsettled, she started looking for her father.

The ballroom was too large and the crowd too dense to spot him easily. Fortunately, the nature of political receptions meant all you had to do was ask since chances were any one had seen any other in the last few minutes. She spotted the wife of the Texas senator who had shared her flight. Knowing how friendly she was, Jill decided she was the perfect choice and approached her.

"Hello again Mrs. Aitcheson." Jill said, smiling. "Have you seen my father?"

The elderly woman returned the smile. "Why yes, out on the veranda not but a few minutes ago."

Jill nodded her head in thanks and continued toward the balcony. Another glance back let her know she was still being pursued. She widened her stride a little, trying to hurry without looking hurried.

She reached the door to the veranda and stepped through quickly. She was disappointed when she found it abandoned. Jill turned to return to the ballroom and found her way blocked.

"Nice night." He said. "Warm and moonlit. Very romantic."

Jill shook her head in disbelief. "Whatever."

He took an impulsive step forward and put his arm around her waist. He smiled a predatory smile down on her, and she could smell the alcohol on his breath. It repulsed her.

"Leave me alone." She said, trying to disentangle herself.

She froze with a surprised yelp when he put his free hand on her breast. Her mind rejected the situation; this sort of thing just didn't happen at receptions, certainly not the ones in Washington, certainly not to her. She'd had to swat away a few clumsy advances during her trips to her favorite mall, but those had been almost playful and she felt she had some say in the outcome.

Here she felt like a rabbit staring at approaching headlights.

"Just one little kiss?" He said, puckering up.

"No!" Jill barked, renewing her struggle to get away.

He didn't acknowledge her rejection in the least. She bobbed her head, avoiding his advances with some success, but had little success getting away from his octopus-like arms.

His head whipped back suddenly and with a grunt of surprise. He took a couple of clumsy steps back, letting go of both Jill and his drink.

Jill watched, speechless, as Sentaku roughly hauled her assailant back a few more steps, then with a quick but light kick to the back of his legs she brought him down to his knees. He struggled and she shifted her grip on him, locking one of his arms in place behind his back.

"Hey!" He yelled. "Lemme go, you bi…"

Sentaku put a hand over his mouth.

"Quiet. Don’t spoil the reception for everyone else." She said.

He tried to say something, but it was muffled by Sentaku's hand. Jill was certain it was a very rude and very common phrase. Two more Secret Service agents piled onto the veranda. With cold efficiency they handcuffed Ted and led him away though a smaller service door.

Sentaku looked at Jill.

"Are you injured?" She asked.

"No." Jill answered though the fog of sudden relief.

"I am sorry that it took so long to arrive."

Jill didn't really hear the apology. As the adrenalin wore off Jill began to realize just how frightened she had really been. She felt herself shivering, and tears welled up in her eyes.

She reached out almost instinctively for comfort and Sentaku gathered her up in her arms. Jill cried quietly against the android's shoulder.

Jill sat apparently forgotten against the office wall. Sentaku stood beside her, her hand protectively on Jill's shoulder. Her father was looking quite humorlessly at the young senatorial aide handcuffed on the other side of the room. The aide's boss, Senator McLeod, had a look of barely controlled rage on his face.

The discussion about what to do with the young man had been going for quite some time now. It was not going well for him, either. As the two senators talked and as the Secret Service gathered information an ugly picture of Ted's habits began to form.

Jill was not the first young woman he had pawed at during official gatherings. In fact, there were some unspoken speculations that if her bodyguard had not been alert, Jill may well have faced far worse than clumsy and drunken advances. It seemed the aide did not handle rejection well.

As the aide's fate was decided - arrest on an assault charge among other things - the politicians began working out how this might be kept from the press, or should they get wind of it, how it should be spun. The potential negative effect of having employed someone who might well be described as a sexual predator at worst or a pathetic misogynist at best was not something McLeod wanted to have to deal with.

Jill felt beside the point. Here her father was helping another politician squirm out of a difficult spot. Her mother was off trying to turn this fiasco into an object lesson for her brother. The Secret Service, always as apolitical as possible, was cold and uncaring.

Sentaku's hand was still on her shoulder. The android wasn't human, and probably was totally incapable of feeling compassion. Still, she was the only player in this farce that seemed to have Jill's interests at heart. In fact, Jill realized, Sentaku had only her interests in mind. Without emotion and without ambition, she could give herself over totally to her mission. She showed every sign of having done just that. She had asked after Jill's well being, and then apologized for not stopping Ted sooner. Since then she hadn't left Jill's side, holding Jill's hand when she wanted and letting Jill lean on her. The two officers who had arrested Ted had spent a great seal of time congratulating each other for the arrest. Not only was it callous, it was pure fiction. All they had done was put the cuffs on; it was Sentaku who had spotted the situation, took action and brought Ted to his knees.

Jill looked up at her escort and smiled. Sentaku smiled back, and Jill was warmed by it.

The smallest of the three men in the hot and dank room was also the most nervous and confused. That part of his mind that could still manage was happy that it wasn't popular to smoke anymore, like it was in the old movies. It was bad enough as it was, tobacco smoke would have made it unbearable.

"Okay. Let me see if I have this straight." The large man said. "You never saw your customer. You just found an addressed envelope and cash waiting for you on your counter."

The small man nodded. His throat hurt too much to even grunt.

"And you just delivered it." The medium sized man sounded incredulous.

The little fellow nodded again. "Could I have some water?" He asked with his scratchy voice.

The large man filled a paper cup from the pitcher beside him.

"It never occurred to you that you might be participating in something less than legal?" The medium sized fellow asked.

The small man gave a small smile and nod of thanks as the large one handed him the cup. He swallowed what little water it had, letting it soothe his throat.

"Look." The little guy said. "You know how often I get cash customers? UPS and FedEx have us little couriers almost wiped out." He shrugged. "I'm not going to ask unnecessary questions. It didn't tick, it didn't leak - it wasn't even a box."

The two larger men didn't comment.

"Look, I want my lawyer."

"You're not under arrest." The larger man said.

The smaller man looked even more confused.

The largest man in the room glanced up at a rather pedestrian piece of art on the wall.

Agent Tom Jones peered through that painting at the three men in the next room. He turned to his fellow agent on his right.

"Every last letter delivered by some small-time courier, not a one having seen their customer?" He asked.

"Yep." He said, not looking up from his paperwork. "Looks like we got a big group doing' this."

"One, a million, who cares? This isn't spit." Jones growled. "Just a bunch of cranks trying to get attention."

"Your call." The other agent said, still busy with his own work.

Jones stood up and walked out.

"I thought you'd be happy." Bill Bradley was surprised.

"I just got used to it, I guess." Jill said in half-truth. "Couldn't we get her assigned to you, or something?"

The senator sighed. "I doubt it. Besides, do you really want to displace a career agent?"

"No." She said dejectedly. Jill wanted to scream and throw a fit, however knew it would not have convinced her father of anything other than her immaturity, and he wasn't the one who needed convincing.

"Look, you still get to have her around for another three weeks. Take the time to let go. Say goodbye."

Jill glanced over at Sentaku, who was standing guard in the living room.

"Yeah." She sighed.

Jill stood and wandered toward her room, knowing Sentaku would follow. She threw herself on her bed and thought for a moment.

"Do you want to go?" She asked.

"No." Sentaku said. "I would rather stay with this post."

Jill smiled, she liked the way Sentaku always sounded so businesslike. "So how do we fix it so you can stay on this post?"

"I do not know." Sentaku answered. "I suspect the change is inevitable."

"Can't you ask for me to be your permanent assignment?"

"As I am considered inventory rather than personnel, I doubt any request I made would garner significant attention, never mind approval."

"It's not fair." Jill said with a calm she did not feel. "You're the only person who ever really cared about me. The only one who ever really put me first. And now they want to take you away."

Sentaku raised an eyebrow. "I do not understand why you would come to believe that. Your family all seem to care for you a great deal."

"Not like you do."

"No, not like I do." Sentaku agreed. "None the less, they do care. You do care for them as well, that much is obvious. It would be imprudent to dismiss them and their feelings. It seems that the more rational and considered position is to recognize that you will not be without affection when I am reassigned."

Jill sat up in bed and looked at Sentaku. "Did you just suggest that I'm being childish?"

"I suggest that you are over-reacting. I will not be deactivated, and it is Treasury Department policy to let cybernetics retain experience, so my memory will not be reset."

"It's not like you're dying." Jill translated with a thoughtful look. "Hey, if daddy gets the presidency…!" Jill's excitement at the thought was obvious.

"That is one possible scenario. I suggest you stop worrying about our disposition, since nothing is guaranteed. Instead, focus on what is more likely to continue. Stop lamenting this change."

Jill's face went through several emotional changes, settling on frustrated.

"It's just not…"

"Jill." Sentaku interrupted. "I am going to be reassigned. No one within our influence can change that. Especially not you or I, it is out of our control. You have exams tomorrow. You're within the last few days before your graduation and you still have a weakness in algebra and U.S. history. These things you can change."

It was true. Sentaku had always been honest with her, even when it hurt. There was no point in pretending. Jill knew that she'd just have to accept the situation, even though she hated the knot that formed in her stomach when she thought about it.

"Help me study?" Jill asked.

"Of course." Sentaku answered with a smile.

Jill sat quietly fondling the scroll that represented her high school diploma. Her eyes were unfocused and so didn't see the people mingling at her graduation party nor did she hear their idle prattle. She had a diminutive smile on her face, but that was only for appearances.

She had been first called during the ceremony. It wasn't valedictorian or salutatorian, but third place in what GPAs proved was one of the smartest classes ever to graduate from that school wasn't exactly failure. She felt a bit proud of that.

She had been accepted at the University of Florida, which made her father happy. She was even starting on the right major - though she didn't expect she'd stick with it, her interests lay elsewhere.

Jill's funk came from having four more days to get over having to see Sentaku go.

Her attachment had begun to worry her mother, who had suggested she see a therapist for what she called 'inappropriate anthropomorphizing of a cybernetic'.  Jill thought that was a funny term, as any anthropomorphizing of any object would be inappropriate. She didn't seek therapy because she didn't believe she was mistaking Sentaku for human, she just really liked the android.

Though comparing Sentaku to a favorite toy didn't seem quite right, either.

Jill looked up, tilting her head back far enough to see Sentaku's face.

"Hey."

Sentaku looked down at her charge.

"I want to hit the mall tomorrow."

"I anticipated that." Sentaku beamed. "I've arranged permission from your father."

Jill's smile became real. "Damn, I'm going to miss you."

Jill was in a quandary. She had visited, literally, every shop in the mall. Not one offered anything that seemed a fitting gift for her bodyguard. The jewelry store she was in seemed to hold some promise, however, if for no other reason than it being the last shop on the list.

She had spoken to Agent Jones about it. He had confirmed that Sentaku would be allowed to keep a gift from her, so long as it was token, as would any other Secret Service agent. He looked a bit incredulous and suggested that Sentaku might not really have a place to keep a gift.

Well, if she couldn't find a gift that was fitting, then she'd at least find one that Sentaku wouldn't have to keep somewhere. And the answer to that was right under her nose.

"The little one." Jill said to the saleswoman behind the counter. "She's got little ankles."

The smiling clerk placed it on the black velvet tray on the counter. It was simple - nothing more than a gold-plated silver chain and clasp - but the anklet was something the android could wear all the time.

Well, it wasn't exactly perfect, but it met most of the criteria.

Jill pulled out her new credit card and made the purchase.

She reentered the mall proper and beckoned for her bodyguard to approach. She still spent most of her time a distance away, trying not to be noticed. Of course she succeeded at it, even her friends rarely saw Sentaku and they knew who to look for.

"Here." Jill said, handing the jewelry box to her.

Sentaku looked at it dubiously.

"I am under orders not to carry your shopping." She said apologetically.

Jill laughed. "No, silly! This is for you."

Sentaku raised her eyebrows in surprise, but accepted the box. Jill waited for Sentaku to open it, but quickly grew impatient and did it for her.

"What is it?" Sentaku asked.

"It's an anklet." Jill said, frowning.

"What is it for?"

Jill had never bumped into an area of ignorance in the android before. It was a novel experience.

"It's jewelry. Here." Jill took the anklet and opened its clasp, kneeling to put it on Sentaku. Sentaku crouched as well.

Under Sentaku's watchful eye Jill lifted the android's pant leg, lowered her sock and put the anklet on. Her judgment of the android's ankle size proved to be accurate, it fit very well. She put the sock back up over it and replaced the pant leg.

 "If it's for body decoration, why is it hidden behind clothing?" Sentaku asked, for the first time acting like an android.

"It's for remembering me. It's a gift. You know, because you’re leaving."

"Oh." Sentaku exclaimed.

Both stood, and Sentaku hugged Jill. "Thank you."

Jill was surprised again. She had never initiated a hug before, only accepted them. It was pleasant and equally novel.

"Come on; let's go see Anna and Grace."

Sentaku nodded her head once in acknowledgement.

Jill made her way through the mall at a leisurely pace. She noticed that Sentaku was already back to business, keeping her distance and her vigil as if nothing had changed. Jill knew better, though. That hug was all the proof she needed that Sentaku was more than just a machine.

Jill reached the overlook for the food court and waved down at her friends. They waved back with vigor, eager to spend time with their friend as she was with them. They were another thing that was changing in her life, each destined for different universities. Sentaku's admonition to concentrate of the positive and on what one could change had been a great help in dealing with the realization. As Jill mounted the escalator, she found herself actually thankful for the changes - she felt that it was helping her grow up.

Sentaku appeared unexpectedly right behind her.

"Jill, we have to go."

"Huh? What's wrong?" Jill's fear was instant.

"Two panic alarms."

Jill's face went pale. "Who's?" Jill demanded.

"Your mother's and your brother's." Sentaku said as she guided Jill off the escalator.

Their path went right by Jill's friends.

"I have to go!" Jill called in apology to her friends.

Jill abruptly found herself pinned to a support column by her bodyguard's back.

Jill could feel something striking Sentaku's body with force. In the confusion, she failed to associate what she felt with the loud bangs she heard. The bewilderment did not last long.

A peek over her shoulder made Jill's heart leap into her throat. Sentaku had her H&K SMG2 out and aimed at a man with a pistol. She was not firing, but she was tracking the man as he ran.

"What's going…?" Jill started.

The man made the mistake of running past a section of blank wall. With reduced danger of unintended casualties, Sentaku pulled the trigger.

Even holding the small submachine gun one-handed, her aim was deadly. All six of the rounds fired struck the man in the chest. He fell like a rag doll.

Jill started to step from behind her bodyguard, but was shoved back by Sentaku's free hand. She was training her gun on another, this one also with a handgun.

"Angel one requires backup, multiple ambulances." Sentaku called into her sleeve microphone. "Weapon fired. My primary is good. Bystanders injured."

The mall was pandemonium. The gunfire had panicked the shoppers, who were running everywhere, tripping over one another. The men - Jill saw now there were three others - didn’t seem to care, firing at her and her bodyguard through the crowd. Several people were already lying on the ground, screaming. Chillingly, some were making no sound at all.

"We have to back out. Jill, keep very close to me."

"Ok." Jill said in a small voice.

Sentaku started to back toward a service entrance, keeping her front to the attackers. Every so often a round would make it through the crowd and strike a nearby wall, the floor, or Sentaku. Each would elicit a yelp from Jill.

Another opportunity emerged for Sentaku and her sub-machinegun spoke. Another man fell, his pistol clattering on the hard floor. Sentaku took a sudden step back, shoving Jill into the corner between the drinking fountains and the doors. Two new holes appeared in the metal fire door leading into the service halls.

Sentaku took a fast look through the small window on the door, and then kicked it open, shoving Jill through with haste while firing her weapon again. She didn't let Jill pause until they were around the corner.

The empty magazine clattered on the ground and Sentaku inserted a fresh one into the weapon. She kept looking back around the corner and down both directions of the hall as she did so.

"Are you injured?" Sentaku asked.

Jill shook her head. The sight of the holes in her bodyguard's clothing helped make the situation become real for Jill, and she began to weep.

"I'll keep you safe." Sentaku said, wiping away a tear.

Jill let herself be led down the hallway to the fire exits. The doors were chained shut, no doubt in violation of all sorts of fire codes. This deterred Sentaku not in the least. With a twist and a yank she wrenched off the push handles with ease and the doors opened.

Sentaku led Jill around the building at a trot, pausing for a cautious look around each corner and keeping a close eye on their exposed flank. The android kept calling for backup and ambulances via her radio.

"Aren't they answering?" Jill asked, getting anxious.

"No." Sentaku said flatly.

They approached the last corner before the lot where their car was parked and Sentaku peered around the corner cautiously. She drew her head back, turned and pointed to a set of payphones across the parking lot attached to another wing of the mall.

"We need to call in. They've set the car on fire." She said. "My handheld relays through the car radio, so we're cut off."

Jill nodded, happy to let the android make these decisions.

Sentaku guided Jill though the parked cars in a crouch. Their progress was slow, and Jill's legs began to ache. As they neared their goal, Sentaku gently pushed Jill into a sitting position near the tires of one car, putting a finger to her lips in a gesture of silence. She moved up to the front of the car, still crouched, and pulled out the shoulder stock of her weapon.

There was a moment where Jill thought it was going to turn out to be nothing, with Sentaku sitting so still. But Sentaku stood suddenly at let fly with fifteen rounds in the direction of the phones. Jill heard people start screaming in panic, and the calls of a couple of people who seemed only slightly less determined to get closer to their quarry.

Sentaku replaced her spent magazine as she returned to Jill.

"There are too many of them. We have to leave and try to make contact later." Sentaku said as she shattered the driver's side window of a neighboring car. She put Jill in on the floor of the back seats, ripped open the steering column and brutally overrode the security of the starter switch. The car's propulsion motors hummed to life and the tires squealed as she backed the car quickly away from the would-be assassins.

Jill felt the car spin around and start going forward, accelerating aggressively. Jill risked a peak over the front seat in time to see them run a red light. Sentaku took a seemingly random turn down a small side street, then another.

"Stay down." She admonished Jill, who obeyed.

The ride felt wild. Jill could hear the honks of protest and anger from other drivers as Sentaku pushed their stolen car to its limits. Eventually they slowed down, and soon they were acting like any other car in traffic.

"Go ahead and sit up. Put on your seatbelt."

Jill complied, still confused and frightened.

"Where are we? Where are we going?" Jill's voice was tremulous.

"We have a backup safe-house a few minutes away. I don't want to risk going to your home or the primary safe house, whoever these people are, they are well organized and have exceptional intelligence about us. I'm sure they would be waiting for us."

Jill was desperate to know about her family, but grasped the fact that she knew just as much as Sentaku did. Without a radio, they were on their own and in the dark.

Soon they pulled up to a nondescript little home in an old neighborhood. The neighborhood looked like the so-called tract homes built before custom prefabs were the standard - most of the homes in the area were pretty much identical.

Sentaku got out and stood by the open door of the car, facing the house with her SMG2 in hand. She held her free hand in a gesture telling Jill to stay in the car, and Jill did so. After a few moments Sentaku gestured that Jill get out and follow.

She made her way to the front door quickly and found it ajar. In a space of time too short to be noticed by Jill, Sentaku weighed her options. She was down to her last 15 round clip, and if this wasn't a safe place to stay she'd need the ammunition that was within. She needed to get in contact with some part of the Secret Service command structure for instruction and backup. Jill needed some information on the status of her family; the stress of not knowing would be difficult for her to bear. Riding around aimlessly in a stolen car was tantamount to painting a target on their foreheads.

No movement had shown up during her radar scan of the house, so there was probably minimal risk in going inside.

Sentaku cautiously opened the door and, with weapon at the ready, slowly entered. Nothing appeared disturbed; in fact most of the furniture slipcovers were still in place. She moved forward, checking the coat closet and the downstairs half-bath. The living room, dining area and kitchen were almost one room, making it easy to clear. After checking the empty garage, Sentaku guided Jill into the pantry, leaned close to her ear and whispered that she hide there. Sentaku promised to be back in less than two minutes. Jill responded with a nod and a brief hug.

Closing the pantry door behind her, Sentaku made her way up the stairs with speed. She kept her feet where the floor was least likely to creak, and used her agility to bound forward and land silently. The two secondary bedrooms were empty, as was the hall bath and linen closet.

The master bedroom was a shambles. There were bullet holes in the west wall and the east, the bed was broken and toppled. Two bodies that Sentaku did not recognize were on the floor near the door, and the body of Agent Alice Brooks lay in a pool of coagulating blood behind the bed. There were signs of injured and bleeding survivors of the fight having used the master bathroom to tend their wounds, but no way to tell if they had been assassins or Secret Service.

Sentaku went to the gun safe behind the dresser and replenished the two magazine holders on her shoulder harness. She also filled her coat pockets with two magazines each. They were the last; the other magazines lay empty around the room. One minute and forty seconds after she had left, she opened the door of the pantry to retrieve Jill.

"Well?" Jill said.

"This house has been compromised." Sentaku said as she went to the house phone. "There was a gun battle upstairs. I've no reason to believe any of your family members was killed, but they are not still here either."

Sentaku lifted the phone to her ear and heard nothing. A quick check at the phone jack to make sure it wasn't simply unplugged let her know the line was cut.

"Useless." She said.

"Where would they be?" Jill asked anxiously.

"Assuming they are still under the protection of the Secret Service, they are likely headed to Tallahassee."

"Should we go, too?"

"Yes, but it would be better to do so after regaining contact with command. They may still be in the position to provide some backup."

Jill looked thoughtful. "Neighbor's phone?"

"Yes, that seems to be the last option." Sentaku didn't seem pleased. "Please stay at my side. Though unlikely, should the situation turn bad it would be best for you to be close."

Jill nodded her understanding and the two headed to the next house up the street. It was empty. As was the next. They crossed the street and found no one home at the five houses they checked there. They crossed the street again and found that both houses on the way back to the safe house were also without occupants.

"This explains how there could have been an exchange of gunfire without the local police being called." Sentaku said. "It also means I can do this."

Sentaku struck the front door they had just knocked on near the handle. The frame broke and the door swung open.

They entered and quickly located a phone in the kitchen. Sentaku dialed a number and waited.

Fifteen rings later, she tried another number.

"Hello." Jill heard her say. "Extension 5923 please."

More waiting.

"This is Angel one, reporting in." She said. "Requesting backup and secondary safe… no, sir. Yes, sir. It was destroyed at the mall, sir. I had to commandeer a car from the parking lot. No, sir. One hundred and five rounds now, sir. Primary is healthy and intact, and requests information on status of related parties."

Sentaku listened for a while; Jill could just make out an unfamiliar voice speaking at length.

"Yes, sir." Sentaku said, and then replaced the handset in the cradle.

"They are not in the position to send backup. The system appears to be badly overloaded at the moment." Sentaku said as she approached her charge.

"Jill, they haven't heard from the agent assigned to your brother. The fight here was over your mother who is now with an interdiction team headed to Tallahassee. Your father is on an Air Force liner, they could not tell me his destination. The interdiction team sent for your brother is still trying to find them."

Sentaku turned on the little television on the kitchen counter.

"This is not an isolated series of events. Several prominent political figures and their families have been attacked."

The television showed imaged from the mall, where several ambulances and their medical crews were trying to save the lives of those injured in the crossfire. The announcer droned on about the suspects exchanging fire with an unidentified female, and then engaging the local police and their SWAT team. The image changed to the burnt-out armored car with the comment that no one yet knew what had happened there.

The announcer went on to relate the story of other political figures around the country; some not as lucky as Jill and her family appear to have been. A senator from Kansas was dead, and one from New Mexico was injured. Both California senators had lost family members.

"This is the Freedom Guard?" Jill asked.

"Unlikely. This does not serve their purposes in the least." Sentaku explained. "This may also be too big for them. The scale suggests attack by another government."

"Which one?" Jill asked, bemused.

"I can't say. It's just speculation at this point." Sentaku said as she broke the door handle to the garage.

There was a mid-sized pickup truck within. A quick search of the kitchen produced a spare set of keys, saving it from having its steering column destroyed.

Sentaku left a note on the refrigerator explaining what happened and who they could contact for compensation. She made one more call to her command and let them know what they would be driving and what route she intended to take.

As they drove away Jill surveyed the damage done to the stranger's house.

"You should probably have a mobile phone."

"Normally I would." Sentaku said. "But this was considered too short term a post to warrant the expense."

"Figures." Jill sighed.

Sentaku drove efficiently and very legally. Their best defense at this point was a low profile, and getting a speeding ticket wasn't in line with that goal.

Nothing can take the edge off the boredom of a road trip, even being pursued by assassins. Jill entertained herself by looking through the under dash storage compartment, reading the truck's owner's manual, and listening to the truck's rather cheap stereo.

Sentaku occasionally tuned the stereo to a news station to keep up with events. The first rounds of attacks were, by and large, failures. However, whoever these people were they were tenacious and willing to die to slay their targets. The announcement that one had made it past the intense security and assassinate the previously injured senator from Kansas sent chills down Jill's spine.

"How do you fight that?" Jill said in despair.

"By not repeating mistakes." Sentaku said confidently. "Once we get to Tallahassee, we'll undoubtedly be sent somewhere else, somewhere less predictable where we can control access better. I know that the New Mexican senator's security will not succumb to the same or similar ploy."

Jill knew that if the android were in charge, the ploy would not have worked in the first place. The attack in the mall had come out of the blue, with only the vaguest warning that it might be coming. Even so, Jill had been protected perfectly. It made Jill wonder if a human bodyguard would have done so well.

Even as safe as she felt for herself, she worried about her family. Her father was going to who knows where, where more terrorists may lie in wait. Her mother was probably safer, with a uniformed and armored team, but still all human. And she still had no idea about her brother.

As the road droned on and the sound of the wind whistling past the truck's skin turned into her whole world, Jill started to doze off, worrying and fearing the worst.

The minister spoke the usual words over the two coffins as Jill wept into her father's shoulder. She was vaguely aware of all the onlookers each doing their best to appear properly gloomy, and of the military honor guard in charge of looking sharp and not much else. Her world was made up primarily of the coffins and the unrecoverable loss they represented.

Her father was far too stoic to cry at the funeral, but she knew he hurt just as much as she did.

The coffins were lowered into the ground and she tossed a traditional handful of dirt over each, saying goodbye to two people who she had truly loved.

As her father stood from grasping his first handful of dirt, the assassin stepped out of the crowd. His machinegun was huge, and it was already spitting lead and hot gasses. Her father staggered back under the assault, finally falling over the pile of dirt in a heap.

Jill could only watch as the assassin turned his weapon on the mourners. Family, friends and fellow politicians were mowed down without mercy.

"Senuuhhh…" Jill's voice was frozen with fear.

"Sentaku." She forced out the name.

"Sentaku!" She screamed. "Help me!"

The assassin looked her way and began to walk toward her.

"Sentaku! Help!" She cried, terrified. "Please help!"

He put the barrel of his gun near her face, and she could feel the heat of it.

"Sentaku!"

She could hear the trigger click against its stop. The muzzle flashed.

Jill woke with a start, grabbing the door and dash.

"What's wrong?" Sentaku asked, anxious.

Jill took a deep breath. "Bad dream."

Sentaku reached over and took hold of Jill's wrist, giving her a gentle and brief squeeze before returning her full attention to driving. Jill smiled at the android and stretched out her cramped muscles.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"Just over two hours."

Jill was surprised, it didn't seem like it should have been so long. When her stomach growled, however, it seemed about right.

Sentaku looked over at Jill's stomach, then up at her face.

"Hungry?"

Jill nodded, a little embarrassed.

"There's a small town about three minutes away, we'll stop at a chain fast-food restaurant. You should probably get out and stretch, too."

Jill nodded agreement as she yawned again.

"You'll call in and ask about Mark?"

"That is my intent." Sentaku confirmed.

The small town appeared from over the hill and Sentaku took the first exit off the highway. One of the more ubiquitous fast food restaurants waited at the first intersection. Its bright primary colors and familiar shapes were comforting in their banality.

Sentaku did her usual building orbit before choosing a spot near the front doors. The place was quiet, and thankfully air-conditioned, with only one young couple eating at a table near the back.

"Uh." Jill grunted as she made her decision. "A number four, small."

The bored cashier punched the proper buttons and turned to Sentaku. "And you?"

"Nothing for me, thank you."

The cashier's focus shifted to Sentaku's clothing whish still sported several bullet holes. He looked confused.

"What's with the clothes?" He asked.

"Second hand." Jill said.

The cashier shrugged and completed the order. Sentaku ran a Secret Service expense card through the pay slot.

Jill took her tray of food to the table Sentaku pointed out, chosen no doubt for its cover and visibility from the payphones Sentaku went to use.

Sentaku returned after a few minutes and sat across from Jill.

"I'm sorry; they still haven't located your brother."

Jill looked up at the android, her eyes glistening with tears.

"Jill, they haven't found a body, either. The terrorists haven’t shown any sign of wanting to collect or hide bodies. I suggest the greater probability is that he and his assigned agent are in hiding. When they get the opportunity to contact regional command, we'll hear about it."

Jill was unwilling to argue the point; in fact she was very willing to believe the assessment.

"Ok." Jill said. "It had better be soon, or I'll have to hurt him myself." Jill snorted in mock derision.

Sentaku smiled, understanding the sarcastic objective of her threat.

Jill finished her sandwich, ignored most of the fried potatoes, and refilled her drink.

Sentaku held Jill's drink as she stood guard at the door of the restrooms. It garnered a curious look from the young couple, but wasn't totally out of the ordinary for women to wait like that, especially at roadside restaurants. The couple never noticed that Sentaku didn't go in when Jill came out.

It took little time to get back on the highway. It took little more time for boredom to set back in.

"Should have bought a book." Jill sighed to herself.

"Entertainment has something of a low priority at the moment." Sentaku admitted. "I suggest napping."

Jill settled back into her seat and tried to relax. As she had expected, making the effort to slumber did more to keep her awake. She tried to take in the countryside, but there wasn't much to see as they were surrounded by thick forest.

Jill noticed Sentaku watch one of the oncoming cars pass, even turning in her seat and then turning her attention to the rear view mirror. It took Jill a moment, but she realized that Sentaku wouldn't watch a car at random like that.

"What's wrong?" Jill asked.

"A car with four men in it, two of whom were pointing in our direction. The car has turned around over the median and is now thirty car lengths behind us. They are closing at about fifteen miles per hour over the speed limit."

Jill glanced back over her shoulder, not sure what she was looking for.

"Make sure your seatbelt is on tightly."

There followed several uncomfortable moments of not knowing if there was really anything to be worried about.

Sentaku pushed the accelerator to the floor, and the motors whined with effort as the truck accelerated.

"They have rifles. Jill, get down."

Jill leaned into the seat, putting her head on her bodyguard's leg.

There was a jolt as the truck was hit from behind by the pursuing car.

"Hold on."

Sentaku locked the brakes and the back end of the truck was lifted into the air by the initial impact. Jill heard glass crashing and the crunch of metal and permafiber.

Sentaku stomped on the accelerator again and the truck lurched forward, the back end falling back into contact with the road.

"What was that?" Jill asked.

"I tried to kill the driver, but his window pillars held. However, without his windshield he will be handicapped."

Sentaku swerved the truck violently several times as she moved around slower traffic and tried to make them poor targets. Jill thought she heard a siren.

"A State Trooper has noticed us." Sentaku said. "She is attempting to pull over our pursuers."

"That's good, right?"

"For us, yes. Probably not for the trooper: If these are the same terrorists they will try to kill her."

The trooper maneuvered her cruiser close to the sedan's tail for a PIT maneuver. Her windshield exploded in a hail of bullets.

Luck was with her. Her vest stopped the only round to strike her body. She wisely backed away, but kept up her pursuit.

Jill heard the ' thack! thack! thack!' of rounds hitting the truck. She whimpered quietly and swallowed hard.

Sentaku looked back to see the driver squinting against the ninety five mile per hour winds, his front passenger firing his assault rifle at them.

Their truck was slower and much less maneuverable than the sedan. The highway was sparsely populated now, leaving little cover.

There were several more thunks of bullet hits, followed by the loud pow of a rear tire deflating.

It barely affected the android's control of the vehicle, but it slowed them down.

"Hold on to me." She instructed.

Jill grabbed at Sentaku's waist as the truck lurched off the road and into the shallow drainage ditch that ran along side it.

Jill heard the retaining fence come apart around them as Sentaku threw the truck into a sideways slide.

A thick cloud of dust formed around them as they settled to a stop. Jill could hear the sedan's tires scraping against the dirt as it tried to stop.

Sentaku had her SMG2 out with its shoulder stock extended. Unhindered by the dust, she fired out the driver's side window.

Resisting the urge to scream, Jill could hear the bark of assault rifles fired blindly into the dust and the pop of the trooper's sidearm between the loud cracks of Sentaku's fire.

Three rounds, new target, three rounds, new target. Sentaku repeated the pattern five times. She dropped the empty magazine and reloaded.

The dust settled and it became abruptly quiet save for the whispers of traffic passing on the highway. Sentaku had her gun back against her shoulder, but didn't resume firing.

"Stay here, stay down." Sentaku said as she opened the door.

Their four assailants were scattered in and around their sedan, dead. Each had at least two rounds from the android's gun in their heads. One had two wounds from the trooper's nine millimeter handgun in his chest.

The trooper was slumped over her bullet hole coated door, still bleeding from the gaping wound that had once been her face. Sentaku checked for a pulse and found one that was quickly fading.

There was a very brief moment where Sentaku was considering using the state police radio to call in for help, but the question of how they were located was unanswered and some of the potential answers meant that local police procedure would get Jill killed.

Instead, she turned off the cruiser's flashing lights.

"Keep low." She called to Jill, who had been peeking over the door.

Sentaku ripped open the sedan's trunk and found several magazines of ammunition for the AEK971 and AK-74 assault rifles they carried.  There was also an RPG-7 with one high explosive grenade, and this was worrisome. Had they access to it, it would have finished off the truck, and thus Jill, with ease. She could not rely on further errors on the part of these assassins, the only security she could provide Jill was still in not being detected. She had to discover how they located them.

A quick but thorough search of the cab of the sedan and the bodies turned up nothing except that they carried no identification of any sort.

Two and a half minutes after getting out of the truck, Sentaku put away her weapon and walked back to it. The pickup was astonishingly intact, with the only serious problem effecting drivability being the flat tire.

Not bothering with a jack, Sentaku popped the retaining clamp on the flat and used it to hold the back end up. She pulled the spare from under the bed, satisfied to see it was a full-size, and promptly put it on the bare wheel. A quick yank on the old flat and the truck was ready to go. The flat was left behind as it was unlikely to be repairable.

She got the truck moving down the highway quickly. Jill, still slightly bemused and frightened by the sight of the dead, waited for a few miles to pass before speaking.

"Uh." She grunted, not sure where to start. "The bad guys all looked dead."

"Their injuries were fatal."

Jill swallowed hard. "Was the cop… ok?"

"Her injuries were also fatal."

Jill glanced back, though they were long out of sight of the scene.

"Shouldn't we have waited, or something?"

"Normally, yes. In this instance there is the question of how we were located. Several possibilities suggest themselves, not the least of which is compromised command security. If that is true, or if any of several other similar possibilities are so, then staying there would get you killed, and so would being detained at the local police station. We have to keep moving, and get away from predictable paths."

"Couldn't they have, you know, just gotten lucky?" Jill asked.

"It is possible, but profoundly unlikely."

Jill caught herself chewing on her thumb as she thought about their predicament. Sentaku took a small exit onto a nondescript county road. The road was paved for a while, but as the surrounding forest thickened and enclosed the road, the road became less and less well maintained. Their pace slowed to twenty five miles per hour or so.

"Where are we going?"

"I'm trying for a state highway several miles north of here." Sentaku said. "Unfortunately, my maps of county and local roads for this area are apparently out of date - this road is supposed to be paved and maintained."

The forest began to thin after a few more miles, and then became mostly underbrush and glades. The sun was near the horizon, coloring everything with an orange hue. The road became more of a path, just two ruts through a field.

Sentaku flipped a switch on the dash, changing the way the computer controlled the four wheel motors from road-efficient to a more power hungry off-road configuration.

The road faded away with such subtlety that Jill failed to notice. Sentaku pulled on some of the military knowledge and subroutines still available in her program to dead-recon her way through the wilds.

The sun finished its descent below the horizon. Sentaku slowed and concentrated on the path ahead. Eventually, she stopped and turned off the truck's power.

"I can't see well enough to avoid rocks and other tire threats." Sentaku said. "Without a spare, I don't think it's wise to risk going on until sunrise."

Jill looked out at the moonlit wilderness around them and shuddered. She was not happy with the idea of an impromptu camp-out.

Sentaku checked her weapon and opened the door.

"Wait, where are you going?" Jill asked.

"I'm going to stand watch out here, so you can use the whole seat to sleep."

Jill shook her head in an emphatic negative.

"I won't be able to see you if you're out there." Jill said in a small voice. "I can sleep sitting up!"

It didn’t really make much of a difference to Sentaku where she stood guard, and it was unlikely that they were in the least bit locatable by anyone who didn't have access to high-resolution satellite imaging.

She closed her door and placed her weapon on the dash where it would be out of the way but immediately accessible should the unexpected call for it. Jill relaxed and looked out the windshield at the stars.

Jill always felt insignificant at the sight of the night sky, and the stars away from the muting effect of city lights were even more intimidating. She wondered why she, someone who was really not anything special, was being hunted by people determined to finish their mission. She wondered why she deserved to be protected by a being so good at what she does that eight or more determined people had failed to even hurt her.

Few others found themselves protected when their lives were in danger. If they had to fend for themselves, why didn't she have to?

She rolled her head over to look at Sentaku, who was scanning the horizon. Jill couldn't understand how she rated either the threat or the protection, but she knew beyond doubt that she appreciated the latter of the former had to be so.

The weight of the day's events tugged at her eyelids. Away from civilization, with a tireless defender beside her, Jill felt perfectly safe. Sleep came easily.

Jill opened her eyes to the sounds of some cheerful sounding birds. She found herself tucked into Sentaku's arms, curled up on the truck's bench seat and with her head on Sentaku's shoulder. She was embarrassed at first, but Sentaku looked at her with a warm smile.

"Good morning." Sentaku greeted.

Jill gave her bodyguard an impulsive and tender hug. Sentaku responded in kind, placing a kiss on Jill's forehead. Jill enjoyed the moment, then sat up and stretched.

"So. What's for breakfast?" Jill joked.

Sentaku opened her door and began to get out, putting her weapon back in its sling.

"Berries." She said as she pointed to the bushes she was walking toward.

Jill followed, stretching luxuriously to drive out the kinks from having been in the cramped cab for so long. Sentaku picked several of the red berries and handed them to Jill.

"I don't suggest eating too many, they would upset your stomach. But a few will take the edge off your hunger until I can feed you properly."

Jill ate the few she had been handed, and picked a few more.

"They're good." Jill said. "Can you taste?"

"Yes, though it's undoubtedly different from what you experience. I can identify various substances by taste, but I don't experience pleasure or displeasure from it."

"Can you eat?"

"No. I don't have anything like a stomach." She explained. "It is an option on my model, however."

Jill looked surprised. "What for?"

"It's part of the overall package that would allow the android to go undetected among humans. It's useful for surveillance and interdiction."

Jill thought about that for a bit as she finished off her berries. She imagined that the whole package would make the android indistinguishable from human, on the surface anyway, allowing it to completely blend in with society no matter what situation the android found itself in.

This made her wonder how many androids she had seen without knowing it.

The thought was interrupted by a biological imperative.

"Uh. Bathroom break." Jill said, and headed around the bush.

Sentaku returned to the truck and searched the cab. She returned with an old newspaper and tossed it over the bush.

"Oh! Thank you!" Jill called back.

"You know," Jill said as she returned. "For someone without a digestive tract, you sure seem to understand its needs."

"Thank you." Sentaku replied as she held open Jill's truck door for her.

"Ok, we've got no road, I can't see anything besides brush and trees, how do we get to where we have to go?" Jill asked as Sentaku put on her seatbelt.

"Well, I've been using that radio tower to navigate. We should be about…"

"Wait, what radio tower?"

Sentaku pointed out her side window. Jill stared, squinted and just barely made out the tower on the horizon.

"Wow." Jill exclaimed.

"I'd say that we have about two more hours before we reach the state highway, barring delays." Sentaku said. "What do you want to talk about?"

Jill stretched and looked around at the unfamiliar small town while Sentaku dialed around the payphone's recompense protocols.  It took a while, and would not have been necessary if it weren't for the fact the pay phone was an antique.

"Hello." Jill heard her say. "Extension 5923 please."

Jill looked over at the restaurant and felt her stomach growl.

"Angel one reporting in." Sentaku said into the phone. "Primary is still healthy. Yes, sir. Sir, I'd rather not give my position or plan, we were located and attacked in route. I have reason to suspect there may be an information leak…"

Jill could hear someone screaming in anger over the phone.

"No, sir. Yes, I know you can have the phone traced; it is not my intent to hide from you. I am acting in the best interests of my primary."

Jill heard more angry ranting.

"I will not, sir. We were located and attacked… Sir, please let me finish. Sir…"

Sentaku hung up the phone, and then turned to Jill.

"That was very unhelpful." She commented. "Let's quiet that gastrointestinal tract of yours, and then try that again."

Jill saw no reason to argue, and preceded the android to the restaurant at a trot.

The place was old and comfortable. A few people sat at the tables drinking coffee and reading the paper or enjoying breakfast and a quiet conversation. Sentaku and Jill chose seats at the counter and a friendly young woman immediately took Jill's order.

"Scrambled eggs, rye toast with jelly, and… um… sausage. Oh! And a glass milk, too."

"Ok, how about yourself?" The waitress asked Sentaku.

"Nothing for me, thanks." Sentaku declined politely.

"Oh, honey, don't deprive yourself of the best breakfast in Florida." The waitress smiled.

"I'm sure it's good food." Sentaku said. "Unfortunately my stomach is a little upset this morning."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear it." The waitress said. "Can I get you anything to settle it?"

"Just a glass of water, please."

The waitress smiled and went to get the cook started.

"Water?" Jill whispered.

"No one will notice I'm not drinking it, and she needed to serve up something for the situation to feel normal." Sentaku explained in quiet tones.

Their food arrived promptly and Jill enjoyed both the cooking and the fact that Sentaku would lift her glass on occasion, just so it would be in her hand now and again. Apparently it wasn't even necessary to put it to her lips or drain water from it. As she had predicted, no one seemed to notice.

Sentaku paid with cash, which was a real novelty for Jill. She hadn't seen much in the way of printed paper money in her lifetime, few establishments in larger cities even accepted cash. This little place still had a cash drawer, another novelty. It was fortunate that agents still had to carry one day's operating cash on them, as Sentaku wanted to leave a minimal electronic trail behind them.

Their next stop was the fueling station. Their trip across country had depleted the hydrogen supply to less than was necessary to complete their trip. The old fuelling station was not only capable of refilling their high-pressure tanks it was still capable of refilling gasoline tanks. Jill was fascinated by the old gasoline pumps, and the owner of the station explained that some of the farming equipment in the area still had internal combustion engines. Fuel cells weren't powerful enough yet for all applications, just most of them.

There was enough cash to pay for the hydrogen as well as some road snacks for Jill and a paperback book. Though Jill felt a bit guilty about spending government money on such frivolity, Sentaku argued that there was room in the budget for keeping one's sanity.

Sentaku used the station's phone to contact her command center again. This time they listened to her, and approved her plan to make it to central without telling them where she was or how she intended to get there. They did want her to call in from some random stop in Tallahassee so they could arrange the pickup. Sentaku had no reason to argue. Unfortunately, there was no news about Jill's family.

"I had hoped your brother had been located by now." Sentaku said apologetically. "I can no longer explain the time out of contact."

Jill shrugged as she got into the truck. "I'm sticking with your original theory. I can't deal with anything else right now."

Sentaku activated the power core and engaged the motors. They were back on the highway without delay.

The monotony of the road quickly reasserted itself. Though Sentaku was a good conversationalist, Jill found herself needing to do other things. She was suddenly glad her bodyguard had insisted on the book.

Soon even the book wasn't interesting anymore - even though it was an appealing story. Jill found herself staring out the windshield without really seeing.

"I need a shower." She mumbled. "I need a change of clothes."

"Less than an hour…" Sentaku said. "And you can get both."

Jill closed her eyes for a moment, imagining how wonderful it would be to feel clean again. When she reopened them, they were in sight of the city.

"I fell asleep?" Jill asked.

"For about half an hour." Sentaku looked displeased. "I was about to wake you, the right rear motor is running very hot. I suppose I did more damage to this vehicle than I thought. It may not take us all the way in to the city."

Jill smiled. She had passed the point of surprise some time ago.

"So we get to walk." Jill said with a giggle. "I need the exercise anyway."

They passed a sign informing them of the half mile left before the first exit to Tallahassee when the motor began to rumble. Sentaku pulled the truck over onto the shoulder, and as she applied the brake, the motor froze. The truck lurched to a stop, and the computer lit up the dash with all sorts of warning lights.

"Out. This is a little dangerous." Sentaku instructed.

Jill got out and glanced back at the wheel. The tire was actually starting to smoke.

They hopped over the guardrail and trotted away from the highway. Jill stopped and turned around. The tire was aflame now, sending a greasy black plume into the sky.

"We sure know how to make an exit." Jill commented.

"It's our entrances we need to work on." Sentaku said, half humorously. "I had intended to take the last exit and call from the other side of the city."

Jill shrugged and turned to follow Sentaku. They pushed through some brush and climbed a shallow hill. When they crested it, Jill let out a gleeful laugh.

"It's a mall!" Jill pointed. "We're saved!"

Sentaku smiled at her charge's humor and proceeded toward the large building. The way was longer than it first looked, and the late spring sun was beating down on them with gusto. Of course, Sentaku didn't seem affected by the heat, but Jill certainly was, and the android kept an easy pace among as much shade as there was to be had.

The trek across the parking area was the hardest, with the black asphalt intensifying the effect of the afternoon sun. Sentaku decided to forgo her usual circumscribing of the building for fear her charge would have to be hospitalized.

The doors opened into a large and well air-conditioned center filled with kiosks, small snack shops, and astonishingly few people. There was a bank of public phones tucked into one corner near a service way. Sentaku went straight to the phones, and Jill followed without question. Her eyes, however, were locked onto a kiosk selling shaved ice drinks.

Jill barely heard Sentaku start the usual check-in. All she cared was the conversation would stay brief. Sentaku tapped on her shoulder, and Jill turned to find her bodyguard holding up a small amount of cash, probably something she had held in reserve for phone calls. Jill accepted the bills, and with an encouraging nod from Sentaku, went to purchase some relief from the heat and her parched throat.

Jill returned as Sentaku put the phone on the hook.

"We have about twenty minutes to wait." Sentaku said.

Jill looked anxious.

"Yes, they found your brother and his assigned agent. They had taken a private flight to the field office in Atlanta."

"Yes!" Jill shouted, grinning broadly.

"Your mother is waiting for you here in Tallahassee. You'll be taken to see her directly." Sentaku smiled. "Now, as much as I know you want to look around, I think it would be prudent to remain here."

Jill shrugged her shoulders as she sipped the cold beverage through her smile.

"Who cares about some stupid mall? I just can't wait to see my family again."

She went to sit on the wall-mounted bench nearest them and pulled the paperback book from her back pocket. Sentaku sat beside her charge and took to scanning their environment.

Jill shifted in her seat several times. The benches weren't designed to be terribly comfortable, just enough to take a break.

"Gaaahd." Jill mumbled to herself. "This story is neat and all, but this one guy… geez what an asshole."

"Treats people poorly?" Sentaku asked.

"Well, no. He makes these really annoying mistakes. Like, these three were with him for a night out, right? He talkes everyone into dinner at this expensive place he likes, orders everything, behaves like a pig and then can't pay for his part 'cause he forgot his pay card." Jill rolled her eyes.

"Sounds cliché."

"Yeah. Oh, hey. The cliché reminds me." Jill pulled out the cash Sentaku had given her. "They wouldn't take cash."

Sentaku took the money and pocketed it.

"Jill, I told you that your pay cards were traceable."

"Sorry, I had already started drinking it. I had to pay with something."

Sentaku looked like she had just thought of something she should have thought of earlier.

"Did you have to pay for that drink refill?"

"Huh?" Jill looked confused.

"At the first restaurant where we stopped for a meal, you refilled your drink before we returned to the truck. Most of those franchises have free refills, was that one of the establishments that requires you pay?"

"Yeah." Jill said. "But, it was just a dollar."

Sentaku stood. "We have to leave."

Jill stood and followed her rushed bodyguard. "Why? What's wrong?"

"It is not common knowledge, but pay card and credit card transactions are instantly available to several agencies and businesses, including the Treasury Department. The leak may not be in the command structure of the Secret Service, but in the Financial Tracking Bureau of the Treasury Department."

As they stepped through the doors to the parking lot, they passed a man chatting on his mobile phone. Sentaku snatched it from his hands. He protested, but acquiesced when Sentaku flashed her Secret Service credentials and badge.

Ending the call the man had been in the middle of, she then dialed her command center.

"Extension 5923 please."

Sentaku led them around the buildings towards other businesses in the area. Though she would have preferred to disappear into a more secluded area, easily identifiable landmarks would allow her backup to find them faster.

"Angel one is shifting position. I have reason to believe that there is an information leak in the FTB, and it is being utilized to track the movements of known targets by the attacking organization."

As they started across the parking area, Jill was thankful for having some of the drink left. She sipped at it as she listened to Sentaku trying to convince her commanders of her suspicions. Whoever it was she was talking too seemed receptive.

Jill was distracted by the squeal of tires. She glanced back to see a grey and white sedan driving quickly toward the entrance they had just departed. Within were four men.

She was about to point this out to Sentaku when the android grabbed her wrist and took her at a brisk walk toward a cluster of cars near a service alley.

 As they reached the cars, Sentaku shattered the driver's window of the first. She unlocked the driver's door and as she opened it the grey and white sedan accelerated as it turned toward them. The passenger in the front leaned out his window with an assault rifle in his hands.

Sentaku grabbed Jill and lifted her off her feet, running swiftly toward the alley. Jill screamed in terror as bullets tore through the car and through the space she had occupied a split second before.

With the walls of the alley providing temporary cover, Sentaku set Jill back down. She instructed Jill to run for the loading doors at the back of the alley. Sentaku prepared her weapon.

"They're locked!" Jill called.

Sentaku turned the handle hard, and it came off in her hand. She gave the door a mighty blow, leaving a deep dent but failing to break the door's frame. She struck again and a third time, each blow making the heavy metal door ring, but it held firmly.

"They're some kind of blast door." Sentaku said. "I need you to take this and hide behind the dumpster. Tell them where we are and keep them apprised of the situation."

Jill took he cell phone from Sentaku and dove behind the heavy permafiber dumpster. One of the men from the car looked around the corner and down the alley. He withdrew his head among a hail of bullets.

Sentaku took a crouched position several paces in front of the dumpster, SMG2 tucked into her shoulder and set for three round bursts.

The sedan rolled to block the alley, the driver hunkered down as low as he could manage. The next three rounds from Sentaku's gun pierced his skull and he fell from the vehicle.

The gunman at the edge of the alley started to fire his assault rifle blindly toward Sentaku. All were aimed far too high. Another popped up from behind the sedan's front end, protected by the heavily shielded fuel cell. His aim was true, and most of his rounds struck Sentaku.

"God damn!" He yelled. "She's a fucking robot!"

He stood and ran for the other side of the alley. Sentaku fired and he went down, though she had only managed his right chest and arm.

The first gunman dared a peek and stopped firing. He leaned forward to take more careful aim, and died when Sentaku proved faster at the task.

In the silence Sentaku heard Jill trying to tell the command center what was happening though her sobs. She wanted to tell Jill she was proud of her for being able to even after several bullets had pelted the walls around her, but there was a fourth man out there, and she had to stay entirely focused on the task at hand.

Her low energy radar couldn't see though the durasteel reinforced buildings, and the sedan was empty. She could hear him breathing, and it was the ragged and quick breaths of a frightened man.

"Throw down your weapon and leave." Sentaku called out. "Live to see another day."

"Fuck you, robot!" He screamed back.

"I am an android." Sentaku agreed. "I'm faster than you, and more accurate. I've already killed three of your compatriots; you know I can kill you, too. What's the point of dying?"

"I'm better than you!" He yelled. "I'm human! I have a soul!"

Sentaku didn't have a chance to reply. He jumped from his cover on the far side of the alley and fired his weapon, a rocket propelled grenade.

Sentaku's mind went into overdrive. She had already fired a three round burst at the man, which had already killed him. The grenade was going to miss her, but endangered Jill.

She took the only choice available to her.

Jill screamed when the explosion jostled the dumpster. Her fear was mixed with a deep, cold grief when one of Sentaku's legs careened off the dumpster and struck the armored door behind her.

She could hear someone on the small mobile phone begging her to tell them what the explosion was. Jill didn't care, all she could see was the leg, sitting motionless just a few feet away.

"They killed her." She heard herself say in a near whisper. "They killed her!"

She wept and raged and had no idea what to do. Eventually, she dropped the phone, tired of hearing various people try to get her to talk to them. She stood to go look and see if maybe Sentaku had somehow lived, that maybe this part was not hers.

A man was there. His right side was covered in blood, and his face was pale and sweaty. He held a rifle unsteadily in his left hand.

He smiled and aimed the weapon at Jill, who was frozen with fear. The weapon's muzzle was inches from her face and she could feel the heat of it. He pulled the trigger, and the muzzle flashed.

His shots went wild, completely missing their target, as he fell to his knees. He looked more frightened than Jill felt, and then his face twisted with pain. Sentaku was digging her fingers into his ribs to drag her self up to his neck. As he screamed, she wrapped one arm around his head. She yanked back and Jill could hear the wet crunch of his spine snapping under the pressure.

He fell forward, and Sentaku's ruined body fell at Jill's feet. She was missing most of her right body from mid rib cage on down, and her left leg was shattered and leaking fluids.

"Sentaku!" Jill's voice was hoarse.

She knelt and gathered her bodyguard in her arms. Sentaku's face was partly blackened by the blast from the grenade. Her mouth moved like she was speaking, but the air bladder she had used in place of lungs was punctured and burned, so no sound came out. Jill could smell the gasses used to run the android's fuel cell.

"Don't die, please don't die." Jill begged.

Sentaku reached up and stroked Jill's cheek, smiling.

An armored van came to a tire screeching halt at the mouth of the alley. Its doors opened, regurgitating several armored and well armed agents. It was the interdiction team.

They swarmed into the alley and quickly gathered up Jill, who protested vehemently at being separated from Sentaku. One of the armored men grabbed Sentaku by the collar of her shirt and dragged her to the van, unceremoniously tossing her into the back.

Not one single soul in the facility seemed to understand why she wanted to see her android bodyguard. It had taken every ounce of skill she had to convince her father and the chief of security to let her, the decision finally made when she reminded them the lab was even deeper into the fortress-like facility than was her family's quarters.

Both because she was concerned for her little brother and because her mother would have as much as killed her for being more concerned about a machine, she had delayed asking until after visiting for some time with her brother, who was recovering in the medical center from his days without food and minimal water. She didn't understand his bodyguard's decision to transverse the countryside on foot, but he seemed to have actually have enjoyed the adventure and so she didn't complain.

Her father led her though the maze of corridors to one of the many nondescript doors. She hadn't a clue how he navigated all that plain white space.

He leaned forward to swipe his security pass, but paused and looked at his daughter.

"Sweetie, I don't know if you saw how damaged she was." He said with honest concern. "Try to remember that she's a machine, Okay?"

His suggestion angered her, but she didn't let it show beyond the reddening of her cheeks. She nodded tersely.

"I was there. I saw what happened to her." She reminded him.

He used his pass and the door opened. They stepped through into a large lab filled with diagnostic equipment. A tech in a lab coat was working away at a multi-screened terminal. Images flashed by on one screen, and Jill thought she saw her face among them.

Sentaku's body lay on a slab-like table in the middle of it all. Someone had removed the remnants of her clothing from her. Her ruined leg had been removed, as had several other internal components. Tubes and wires ran from her insides to several pieces of equipment around the room. Some did the work of the missing components and others monitored the remaining android systems.

Sentaku stared blankly at the ceiling. Her face was still a little blackened, as was most of her torso. Jill stepped up to the table and took the android's hand in her own.

"Sentaku?" She asked.

"Her external sensors are offline for a few minutes." The tech said. "I'm doing a memories dump."

Jill nodded her understanding, and then looked back down at the machine. Her father came up beside her and put a loving arm around her shoulders.

"Jill, sweetie. I'm sorry." He said hesitantly. "The Treasury Department doesn't have the budget to pay for the repairs."

He felt her stiffen and saw her eyes start to glisten.

"This incident drained their resources horribly, everyone's looking at budget cuts, and…"

"Don't." Jill said. "Don't try to explain this away like she was just a… a thing. She is sentient, daddy. She thinks. I don't see the medical care for the human agents being taken away because of money."

"This is different, Jill."

She looked up at her father, glaring. "You don’t get it."

He sighed. "You don't want to loose her. I understand that much." He drew her to him a little. "I'll leave you with her for a bit, so you can say goodbye. When you want to come back to our rooms, just have the tech call us."

"Okay." Jill said without taking her eyes off the android.

The senator went to the door, and looked back at his daughter with some concern before leaving.

Jill held Sentaku's hand for a while. She tried to be stoic and collected, but her grief and frustration weren't so easily contained. She brushed aside a few errant locks of Sentaku's hair as the tears began trickling down her face.

"There isn't a need for sorrow." The tech said as he adjusted a setting on one of the nearby monitors.

"Why?" Jill asked acerbically. "Because she's just a machine?"

"No, no." The tech said. "You're quite correct, the gen four is a fully developed intelligence. What I meant is Mitsubishi has taken Sentaku back ostensibly as part of our quality assurance program. We'll rebuild her body at our expense."

Jill looked up in total surprise. "What?"

"Look, I'm not supposed to tell you any of this - and I'd appreciate it of you wouldn't repeat any of what I'm going to tell you - but you're ready to know it. Sentaku told me all about you, and you seem to be one of those who understand what a cybernetic really is without being a robotics engineer. Also, you obviously came to care about her as much as she came to care about you."

"She has emotions, too? Real ones?" Jill asked.

"Of course." He said with a slight chuckle. "They aren't exactly like animal emotions, but they are part of the structure of her brain. See, that's one of the reasons we haven't announced the gen four publicly. Mitsubishi's a little worried about public perception."

"Oh." Jill said. "That makes sense."

"We don't let them die, if we can help it. They're too valuable as beings. Each brain is a little different from all the others, each has strengths and weaknesses we work with to make the best android there can be. We even build in a survival instinct as strong as a human's to make sure they stay functional. This is why we were so impressed when Sentaku deliberately put herself in the way of that RPG. Sentaku has absolutely no damage to her nanoelectronic network, and all her primary neural systems are at one hundred per cent. She's not only our most highly experienced Akira; she's also our most proven. She'll train a few new Akiras, and then - if all goes well - she'll come back here."

"I thought the Secret Service didn't have the budget for that."

"I think they'll buy another. We'll just send them Sentaku."

He wandered back to his terminal, which was still now. He made a few control gestures at it.

"Jill!" Sentaku said with a smile.

"Sentaku!" Jill cried out as she threw her arms around her friend.

The two held on to each other for a few moments.

"I thought they had killed you." Jill said tearfully.

"They built me far tougher than that." Sentaku said. "I was afraid they had damaged me too badly to keep protecting you. When that one man stepped over me… I'm sorry he even got near you."

Jill let out a chuckle and a sob. "Damn it, Sentaku, I owe you my life. You don't need to be sorry for anything."

Jill shook her head in frustration. "I still have to say goodbye. You still have to go."

"Yes." Sentaku said. "You had a good idea, and I confirmed something that backs it up. You see, the President's family gets at least one escort each, and they get escorts for the rest of their life."

Jill smiled broadly. "My dad's going to freak if I help him with his campaign."

"You say that as if it's a bad thing." Sentaku smirked.

They laughed together, and talked for a while longer. The tech gave Jill an e-mail address that he promised to set up for Sentaku when they got to the training center after her rebuild.

Jill stayed in contact with her friend. Senator Bradley soon became President Bradley, though he wasn't sure if it was because of or in spite of his daughter's notoriety for her fledgling 'robot rights' campaign. He was unambiguously happy, however, when the android they assigned to his daughter's security detail looked and acted exactly like the one who had saved her life.