Deanna's Surprise Pt. 03

"You can't do shit against me!" Neil moaned, his attempts at breaking my grip on his jaw having weakened considerably.

"Care to bet on that?!" Deanna replied, then smirked. "If you'll recall, Mister Burnet, you crossed a bridge between a city named Buffalo and a town named Fort Erie sometime back. It's called the Peace Bridge. Halfway across that bridge, there're these three flags. One's the Stars and Stripes, one's the U.N. flag and the other one is the Maple Leaf Flag of Canada. A different country with a whole different set of laws. Which include laws that'd allow us -- seeing that you're a drug dealer whose wares nearly killed three innocent people -- to get a copy of your memories so our police can chase down everyone who supplied you with the drugs. And since memory copies are admissible evidence in a court of law, the FBI will be more than willing to help the RCMP out in this case. Get it so far, jerk?"

"You've got a choice, Neil," I finished as Izak Miles stepped out of Marlenn's office. "The easy way or the hard way!"

Neil shuddered, then deflated...

Neil was soon taken into custody and dragged off to the local police station by Izak. Once he was gone, everyone pitched in to shift the Beemers' gear back into the storage room. Karen, who'd stayed out of sight throughout the encounter so that Neil wouldn't realize who ultimately set him up, took her leave, promising to get back in touch with us as soon as she could. Hopefully, once the news of Neil's arrest got out on the Net, the Beemers' record company and medical insurance firm might decide to see things a little differently.

If not, though...

"What's our function?" Bryce asked.

We had all moved into the kitchen to relax, allow the success of the day to wash out of us. "What do you want to do, Bryce?" I replied.

Brenda's replica was quick to list all the skills programmed into her. "No, Bryce, that wasn't my question," I reminded her. "I asked you, 'What do you want to do, Bryce?' You haven't answered that question and I demand you do so," I said with mock firmness and a big smile.

Bryce froze for a couple moments as she tried to conceive of an answer. Finally, she gazed confusedly at me. "I don't know, Deanna."

"You'll learn how to figure it out," Rayven squeezed the other 'bot's shoulders in support. "It doesn't come right away."

"Not even for IP-'bots like us," Lenn added.

"You'll teach us how to think like that, will you?" Lynda asked.

"Definitely," my three bi-'bot lovers and Rayven replied in harmony.

The video phone rang. "Hello!" Irene answered it, then beamed on seeing who it was. "Oh, hello Alex! Deanna!"

"Hey, Al!" I walked over to look at the image of Alex Martinos, my late mother's favourite student. He had been in her Grade Eight class back at Plymouth Elementary School twenty years ago. He also served as the executor of my mother's estate. "What's up?!"

"Hey, Dee!" he grinned back at me. "Listen, I need to talk to you tomorrow. It's about one of your grandmother's sisters."

I blinked. "Grandma Ivana?! What about?!"

"Your grand-aunt Tasha died two weeks ago," Alex reported. "You're named as a beneficiary. Her lawyers contacted me since they didn't know that you'd come back to Canada. Do you want me to contact Tom Fenris about this?"

I paused. It had been a decade since Grandma Ivana passed away from kidney failure. I never expected that I'd have to deal with any of her relatives. "Yeah, call and tell him what's going on. Can you come down to Lenn's lab on South Pelham?"

"When?"

"First thing tomorrow morning?"

"Sure thing," he nodded.

The link was cut. I turned to see my considerable brood of 'bots gazing on me. "Oh, damn..."

"Did you know her, Dee?" Lenn wondered.

"It's not that," I shook my head. "I just realized something."

"What?" Irene asked.

"What the hell am I gonna do with seven robots?!!"

My girls exchanged looks, then Rayven rose. The others were quick to follow. "If you'll allow us, Mistress, we can figure something out."

My eyes went wide as they moved to undress...

And we all enjoyed it very much!