Page 32 of Ezra
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Katrina
I let out a high-pitched scream, a knee-jerk reaction to that horrifying eight-legged monster I just saw. The bathroom door slams open, loudly crunching as it flies off its hinges. Startled, I jump backward, slip, and nearly fall in the shower, but I grab the glass door handle and manage to save my balance.
Ezra brought the door down with a single kick. He scans the entire bathroom with his firearm drawn. “What is it?” he demands, clearing the area before peering at me. “What’s wrong?”
I stare at him dumbly for a moment, mouth agape. Then, remembering I can in fact speak and that I’m incredibly naked, I scramble for cover.
“Holy shit, Ezra. You broke the door!” I fumble with a towel around my body, trying to cover myself.
“You screamed,” he declares. “Why?”
“I saw a spider!”
He blinks and lowers his pistol. “A spider?”
“Yes! Some people scream when they see spiders.” I point to where it’s already scrambled away. “But it washuge. A-as big as those ones you see in Australia. Like a tarantula on steroids!”
Ezra is skeptical. “Tarantula on steroids,” he repeats.
“You don’t believe me? It was there. I swear!”
He holsters his firearm with a sigh. “Okay.” He goes to where I point and crouches down, peering behind the bathroom toilet. I can’t see his face, only the back of his head. He reaches for something, then rises to his feet.
“It’s not a spider.” He turns, cradling something in his hands.
I wasn’t imagining things. I stare in shock at an odd mechanical creature that looks similar to a jumping spider, made of black metal and plastiglass orbs. Eight legs with bolts for joints, two large eyes surrounded by smaller ones that glow white as they peer at me. It trills and chitters, shifting in Ezra’s hands.
“What the hell is that?”
Ezra’s pupils shutter, narrowing and widening as he gently rotates the little metal spider in his hands. “It’s a miniature bionic. Model is BM05-1. Apparently, an invention of Dr. Schroeder’s. A line of android pets that require no clean-up and are meant to be played with like toys, marketed to both human and bionic children.”
I grip the towel around me. “How do you know that?”
“A capability of mine. When I touch other bionics, I can access their memory banks,” he replies. “This little one wasn’t popular with trial audiences, so the line was never launched in the private sector. But it appears Dr. Schroeder couldn’t bring himself to shut it down.”
I stare at it, and it stares right back at me, trilling again. “A spider bionic?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“So, it’s like you, but a spider?”
“Not quite. Its motherboard is very...” Ezra searches for the word. “How do I explain it? It’s intelligent, but innocent.”
“Like a dog?” I venture tentatively.
“More like a crow or a raven.” He offers it to me. “And quite harmless, if you’d like to hold it. It was stowed in a closet in the bedroom. It heard your shower, powered on, and came to investigate.”
I tie my towel a little tighter, unable to stop myself. Now that I can see it clearly and not through steamed-up glass where it was little more than nightmare fuel, a blur of black and skittering legs, I can appreciate how complex it must’ve been to put together. I hold out my hands and shiver when it crawls onto them, blinking up at me.
“Wow...weirdly enough, it’s kinda cute.” It chitters at me, a cacophony of pleasant sounds. “Is it saying actual words?”
“Sort of,” Ezra replies. “Not full sentences, just words. More like expressing an emotion.”
“An emotion?”
“Yes. It’s currently experiencing confusion.”
