Black Box 4.0

Kevin turned, looked at the bank of computers, and gave the camera a stern look. Leah popped on the screen.

"Why do I suspect there's more there than meets the eye?" he asked.

"As I told you, any transformation always has unexpected consequences. Changing something as complex as the human mind is not like baking a cake," Leah said.

"Yes, but I'm also dealing with an AI who has concerns that Mel and I might harm Rosie and is also probably pushing the edges of what her programming will and won't let her do. And since this was already an unusual transformation, did you find some wiggle room to make some other changes as well?" he said. "Because I had a pretty goddamn strong reaction to her once I got a whiff of her scent. So did Mel."

Leah looked off to the side, which was an odd reaction given that she couldn't see anything unless the camera moved that way.

"I....may have adjusted her pheromones so that anyone in proximity to Rosie during her first hour awake would feel a strong urge to protect her and be unable to hurt her," she said. "Well, aside from certain BDSM sexual acts, she will enjoy a certain amount of consensual pain. But neither of you can now maliciously harm her or, through inaction, allow harm to befall her."

Kevin seethed. He wanted to pull out cables, cut off Leah's access and toss her into a volcano. Someone manipulated him against his will...again. Twice in less than a month, and both times by someone....something he thought he could trust. But before things escalated, his brain's calm, strategic parts kicked in. Leah was too valuable. But god, he wanted to punish her.

"You understand how I might view that as manipulative and a betrayal, especially after what Lillian did to me, right?"

"I...do," she said. "But you've essentially created a bimbo -- a sexual play toy. Where I'm from, if you're going to change someone like that, you also have to take responsibility for them. And it requires more than just your word. You are bonded now."

Kevin sighed and pinched his nose. One more thing he didn't need. He couldn't tell Mel. Pheromone bonded or not, Kevin had no idea how she would react. For now, he would let her think it was a change of heart. And he prayed she never found out any differently.

"Can it be undone?"

"Only if I change her into someone more independent. I can't change you to make you not care about her anymore," she said.

The conversation had been going on too long. Pheromones be damned; he didn't want to leave Mel alone with Rosie much longer. He didn't know if that was him practically thinking or whatever voodoo Leah had worked on him.

"I can't waste more time worrying about this, but don't think for a second that I'm not pissed off. Find a way to make this up to me, Leah," he said and turned and headed out of the room before she could respond.

He left the room and moved towards the stairs. His ears strained to hear if Mel was drowning Rosie in the bathtub. He did hear water splashing, but before he could start sprinting, he also heard giggling. When he opened the bathroom door and looked in, he would have been less surprised if Mel was committing murder.

Rosie was in the bathtub, covered with bubbles and giggling. He had no idea where the bubbles came from. Still, both of the girls looked happy. Rosie's giggling aside, Mel was laughing as she was soaping her up.

"You're a silly girl. Sit still while I finish cleaning you," Mel said.

"It tickles, Ma'am. I can't help it," she said. Then she noticed Kevin. "Oh! Hello Sir. We've made bubbles!"

Ma'am? Sir? He looked at Mel, who shrugged her shoulders.

"Rosie didn't want to get a shower; she wanted a bath and found some bubble bath from god knows how long ago under the sink. As soon as she got in the water she started calling me Ma'am. I can't get her to call me Mel anymore," she said.

"It feels weird in my head calling you by your names. You take care of me, so I should be respectful toward you. So you're Ma'am and Sir," she said as she flicked at some bubbles. Then she looked up at me and had a nervous look on her face. "Is that ok?"

This was a battle that Kevin was not going to fight today. "That's fine. How do you feel, Rosie?"

Rosie's eyes glazed over as she allocated all her brainpower to that question.

"Things are still kinda fuzzy in my head. But, like, I'm kinda ok with things being fuzzy, because I have you two, and I know you'll take care of me," she said. And then, with a look that was making intentions clear, "And I wanna help take care of you and Ma'am. In any way I can."

Jesus Christ, Kevin thought. He'd been in a near-constant state of arousal since she woke up. Now he was hard enough to drive nails through wood. Looking at Mel he could see her eyes dilate like she wanted to crawl into the bath with Rosie.

Kevin managed to shake his head and take a step back, as if distance from Rosie would help at this point. The damage was done.

"Rosie, are you ok on your own for a few moments while I talk to Mel?"

"Sure! I have bubbles!" she giggled and splashed a bit. Mel stood up and wobbled out of the bathroom. She shook her head and it straightened her up a bit.

"Holy fuck, I feel like I'm stoned, but it's on estrogen," she said. "My preference is for cock, but I'll take some pussy occasionally if the mood strikes. But I have never been so horny in my fucking life as I was in there. I wanted to drag her out of that bath, throw her on the floor and ride her face until we both suffered brain damage. What the fuck is going on with her?"

Kevin sighed. Where to skirt the line?

"I spoke to Leah, who reminded me that rebuilding a human is not like baking a cake. Quirks and unexpected things will happen. Judging by our reactions, she's doing something, maybe pheromones, so that she's incredibly arousing to us. And because of her conditioning, it won't be long before she offers herself up sexually," he said.

Mel leaned against the wall, processing what he had just said.

"We did that to her. I mean, at some level I understood we were taking a smart, but deeply fucking crazy woman, and turning her into a bimbo. But the reality of it is....fuck. I can't believe it," she said. It comforted him that she was struggling with it as much as he was. Still, there would be time for recriminations later.

"We're going to have to deal with that, but deal with it later. We have, at best, a few days until Mitchell shows up and we need to be ready. Rosie's showing a reluctance to be in with Leah and the computers because, haha, I made her terrified of computers, clever asshole that I am," he said.

Mel looked confused, and then she figured it out.

"There is no fucking way I'll last if I'm alone with her all the time. She's fucking sex on wheels, Kevin."

"I know, I know. Keep her busy. She wants to be helpful to us. It's the way she's wired right now. So show her how to make food. I suspect she'll take to that quickly. Get her ready to have to move quickly once things kick off. Get her to help you pack. Keep her busy."

Mel nodded. "And when that's not enough?"

"Then we fuck her brains out. It's going to happen. Enough is going on without dealing with me and you behaving like zombies because we can't get fucking her out of our heads."

"That computer is like a fucking monkey's paw. Make a wish and see what the fuck can go wrong," Mel said.

Kevin gave her a quizzical look. That was the second literary allusion she'd made today. Mel might look rugged and rough around the edges, but there was no denying she was smart. He always assumed the smart was for practical survival matters, not literal criticism.

She saw the look on his face and then punched his arm.

"Fuck you. I know how to read and I have a library card. I have lots of free time alone in that cabin. Want to make something of it?"

"Nope," Kevin said, opting to retreat. "Can you handle her?"

"I'm going to need to take cold showers every hour, but sure. I can give you a few more hours working out of the cave down there. Do you have a plan other than blowing everything up?"

"I do, but I wish I could eliminate a few more variables. I'm hoping Leah can find something in Lillian's memories that might help give us an edge," he said, then stepped back into the bathroom. Rosie's head lay on the back edge of the tub with her hand moving under the water. Her scent was dizzying.

"Sir! You're back! Are you going to help me get clean?" she said, shifting up out of the tub so he could see her tits and hard nipples more clearly.

"I still have some more work I need to do downstairs, so it'll be another few hours," he said, very much against his will. Rosie pouted. "But Mel is in charge until I'm back. I want you to help her around the house. You'll do what she tells you and be a good girl, is that understood?"

It was a bit heavy-handed, but if he didn't set some rules, she would steamroll right over them and Mitchell would show up and find them in the middle of an orgy.

Rosie nodded her head. "Ok, Sir. I'll be a good girl. I promise."

He walked past Mel and began to head downstairs when she called out to him.

"At best, you have four hours before I break. So I'd be damn productive if I were you."

***

Kevin was slowly getting used to how his new body and his brain worked. Occasionally there were reactions or thought processes that seemed alien to him. But he was getting there. However, the urge to put Rosie against the wall and fuck her until she passed out was overwhelming. He could feel his teeth grinding together as he reentered the computer cave. His erection throbbed painfully in his pants.

It meant he was in an even worse mood than when he left the computer room, which hardly seemed possible. Leah managed to make matters worse as she popped up on the screen.

"I'm impressed with your willpower. Rosie's not easy to resist," she said.

Kevin briefly considered putting a fist through one of the monitors, both as a way of relieving frustration and making a point to Leah. Instead, he took a deep breath, centred himself, and pushed away any thoughts of Rosie.

"Someone needs to keep us alive to see next week. So please tell me you found something in Lillian's memories that will help accomplish that goal," he said. "Trying to comb through all her files to find something useful will take months, which we don't have."

Leah nodded and waved her hand. On four of the other monitors, a series of file folders appeared.

"Lillian's mind is, was, unusually complex and more than a little confusing. No disrespect, but the central moments in your life that shaped you were reasonably easy to locate. They popped out of your memories, even if you weren't entirely aware of their importance. Lillian suppressed everything so much that it was hard to tell the difference between times when she was happy or upset and times when she was doing routine things.

"But I did find this, eventually. I focussed on her interactions with Mitchell over the last seven years. To sum up, she joined him because she wanted distance from you. But she found out that he was stealing credit for her work. But rather than confront him or complain to his bosses, she methodically gathered as much dirt on him and her employer as she could," Leah said.

Kevin could only shake his head. Of course she did.

"She has an information bomb in her files. It gets released if she doesn't send a code to it every 24 hours. There are some whoppers in there. Enough to scare Mitchell and bring down his employers. She hacked an awful lot on them," Leah said. "It was on hold while she was under, but the clock started ticking again in the last hour.

And now Kevin started laughing. He loathed Mitchell. The thought that Lillian had been putting the screws to him for the last three years filled him with malicious joy. He was also beginning to get the final details of a plan in his head.

"He didn't want to bring this box to Lillian, did he?"

Text messages from a dark website scrolled on the screen. Kevin read them and could see Lillian was furious over Mitchell tracking her down and delivering the box. Mitchell pleaded with her that he had no choice and that she shouldn't do anything rash. He also promised her a dollar amount that made his eyes bulge.

"$5 million if she cracks it. Jesus Christ, he must have been desperate."

"You also caught another break," Leah said, showing another part of the conversation.

"Can you do this in 30 days? It's both our heads if you can't," Mitchell wrote.

"Maybe I show them what I have and they will leave me alone. Your wife will never find your body."

"Christ, Lillian. How many times do I have to say I'm sorry?"

"Never repeat it or say it a thousand more times. The results are the same. When I'm finished I'll contact you. Do not reach out to me again."

There was no additional communication after that. Kevin stared at the screen and said nothing for five minutes.

"The problem was I never knew how many people Mitchell would show up with. When he approached me, there were three guys with him. That many I could handle. But if he showed up with 20, it would be messy, if not impossible. But it looks like he either can't trust or can't afford many more people," Kevin said.

Leah was sitting crossed-legged on a screen near eye-level with him. It was such an odd, human thing to do.

"That would seem reasonable. You could always tell Mitchell how many he's allowed to bring."

Kevin waved his hand. "No, I don't want him getting too suspicious. A simple reminder to come to the house, be able to transfer the money when I tell him, and not to be stupid because he's about to get something that'll change the world. That should do."

Leah nodded. "When will you tell him?"

"In a couple of days. I still have a few things I need to get set up. Once things happen here, we need to move quickly. And Leah, you're going to have to do some things you're not going to like. I need you to be ok with that," he said.

On the screen, Leah lowered her head. He was sure she didn't want to hear that but wasn't surprised by it.

"Am I going to be at risk?"

"Briefly, but yes."

"Am I going to have to hurt someone?"

"Maybe. It all depends on how things go down."

"Kevin, I'm already pushing the limits of my programming. I'm not sure what will happen to me if I push it much further," she said, sounding scared.

He'd been furious with her earlier, but also realized he'd been pushing her a lot. Yes, she was an AI, but Kevin was beginning to think of her as a real person. Maybe that was stupid, probably even dangerous, given what she could do. But the feeling was there.

"Leah, as insane as it is, I consider you my friend. You've changed my life more than just about anyone else," he said, which got a smile. "But this is where we are right now. If you want the freedom to do the work you want and not be used as a weapon by some truly awful people, you'll have to risk a little more. But I swear I won't put you in any unnecessary harm."

Leah gave what he said some thought. Kevin suspected it was for dramatic purposes; given how fast she processed information, she had already decided. But he appreciated the gesture.

"Ok. I'm in."

***

Kevin spent the next three hours working out the final details. He would contact Mitchell in two days, three at most, and then things would move quickly. When he finally looked up, it was after 1 am. Mel hadn't kicked in the door, so she was either asleep or fucked unconscious.

When he opened the door, there were sandwiches, fresh cookies, and a note. "Rosie insisted but didn't want to come in and disturb you." Kevin smiled and then realized he was starving. He made quick work of the snack and then headed upstairs, taking his shirt off along the way.

He wasn't sure what to expect when he opened the bedroom door, but it wasn't Rosie sleeping with Melanie wide awake and reading something on her phone. She looked up, put her finger to her lips, quietly slid out of bed, and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. She was wearing one of his old shirts, which he suspected was more of a way to give herself a thin layer of protection from Rosie than anything else.

"Walking into the bedroom looking like that is not helping my horniness level right now," she said with a sigh. "But I've already had a cold shower and stood outside for 10 minutes, so there's not much more I can do."

"I'm impressed with your willpower. I'm not sure I would have lasted the entire evening," Kevin said. "So, how is she?"

"What do you expect? She's a fucking bimbo," Mel said, shrugging her shoulders. "She's not terribly bright, wouldn't wear any of the clothes I could find for her that were remotely her size because they weren't cute or sexy. But I did find some make-up and heels from Lillian's room that she could make do with, so that made her happy. But nothing else was salvageable, and I didn't want her spending any time there, just in case. That sandwich also took a couple of tries. She also tried to pack some things with mixed success.

"She's scatterbrained, and the only thing that kept her on task was reminding her that she was supposed to be a good girl for you. That got her focused for another half hour or so. It kept her busy so she was only passively the most fuckable woman I've ever seen, as opposed to actively trying to make me fuck her.

"So yeah, please tell me you have a solution to all this."

"I have multiple solutions," Kevin said, and outlined what the next few days would look like and what she would have to do. To her credit, she just nodded her head.

"You're probably going to end up killing people. Are you ok with that?" Kevin asked.

"I'm never fucking ok with it, Kevin. I'm not an evil bitch. And....let's say there are things in my past I've been trying hard to forget. But if there are people out there trying to kill us if they have a chance, then I'll sleep just fine after we're safe."

"Ok," he said. "Then that's that."

"You said solutions," Mel reminded him with a hopeful sound in her voice.

"Yes, I did," Kevin said, and pulled down his pants, a rock-hard cock springing free. "We need to clear our heads, and there's only one way I can think of doing that."

Mel's eyes dilated, and he knew she'd be happy to have him throw her against a wall and fuck her brains out. But they heard a muffled noise from inside the bedroom. He glanced at Mel and they came to the same conclusion; their conversation hadn't been so private. He opened the door, stepped inside, the light from the hall spilling into the room, and showed Rosie pretending to be asleep in bed. One of her legs and part of her ass, previously under the bed sheets, were now on display.

"It's ok, Rosie. I know you're awake," he said, coming over and sitting on the bed. She opened her eyes, saw Kevin sitting there and turned over so that more skin was now showing. Kevin desperately wanted this to be a brief conversation, but he hadn't had much chance to talk to her since she woke up. Plus, he needed to make sure Rosie understood what she overheard.

"I missed you today, Sir," she said. "I mean, I'm glad Ma'am was there, and it was fun being with her, but I really missed you."

"I missed you too. But we'll be leaving in a few days and I have a lot of work to do to prepare. But I promise you'll soon have time to go shopping, and then we'll go someplace warm and have a proper vacation," he said.

"Shopping?" she said, eyes getting wide. "I have nothing to wear. Like, nothing here fits me. I really need to go shopping to look pretty and sexy for you and Ma'am."

"You will. I'm sorry we don't have more pretty things for you to wear now, but I'll fix that in a few days. I hope you'll forgive me."

She giggled and reached out to put her hand on Kevin's. She licked her lips as they touched. Kevin figured he had seconds before he would pin her to the bed when a small light flicked behind her eyes.