Page 31 of The Genius
Marco instructed the drone to fly north as I’d requested and turned to me. “Do you know how strange it is for me to look at you and know that I had sex with you… or rather with Natura.”
I fiddled with my hands. “It’s strange for me too, but it was just an experiment. There’s no need to think about it ever again.”
Marco scoffed and laughed at the same time. “Yeah, right. That sounds like a solid plan.”
“I mean it; you don’t have to see me again.”
“But don’t you understand that I’ll be wondering?”
“About what?”
He threw up his hands in the air. “Where do you want me to start?”
I said nothing, my eyes taking in the city beneath us and my thoughts spilling over. “The buildings look so different here. In the Motherlands most have plants and herbs growing from top to bottom.”
“This isn’t the Motherlands, and you’re changing the subject.”
“Did you know that underwater farming is becoming a big thing in the southern part of the Motherlands? We’re using large airtight growth houses anchored about seven to nine meters under the surface.” I began ranting. “It’s an effective way to eradicate threats from vermin, storms, droughts, and frost that could harm the crops on land.”
“Shelly.”
“Most people don’t know this but the pressure under water makes the plants grow faster.”
“Shelly.” Marco was staring at me. “Stop lecturing me about plants. I want to know if you sent in that sex-bot to fuck me.”
I jerked my head back, my eyes wide in shock. “What?”
“Did you?”
“I don’t know.”
He tilted his head, his lips pressed together in a flat line. “It’s a yes-or-no question.”
“It’s complicated.”
“All right, if it’s so fucking complicated, then let’s take it one question at a time so even a non-genius like me can understand. Did you know it was me in that room?”
“Yes,” I admitted. “I saw your alert that Mindy had broken down.”
“Did you send in the bot to have sex with me?”
“You asked for a different model.”
Marco raised an eyebrow. “So you sent in a prototype modeled after you?”
I tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear. “Kind of.”
“Kind of?”
For someone who spoke without filters on any normal day, I was being very careful about not revealing too much.
“Did you authorize having the sex-bot modeled after you?”
I swallowed hard and thought about my answer when the drone began descending. “Oh, look, we’re here.” Never had I been so happy to see the test facility.
“You didn’t answer my question.” Marco looked anything but happy that we had arrived.
I counted the seventeen seconds in my head until the drone was on the ground and the door slid open.
