CHAPTER 38
The fucking deceitfularsehole. Dariux fumed that night in his home office as he compared the test results he had smuggled from the lab with the results provided by Max. The discrepancies in one specific area were glaring.
Not that he had any illusions about Max’s transparency when it came to business deals. But lying to him about his own test results and causing a rift between him and Kalli was crossing a line. It went beyond a mere lack of scruples and into betrayal territory.
It wasn’t difficult to discern his motives and his intentions. Max wanted to suppress any proof that inter-human relationships might engender feelings that went dormant during the interaction with robots. All in an attempt to sell his theory that the best solution was to produce the missing hormones in a lab and inject them into females, to make them want to reproduce. The greedy bastard basically wanted to create a fucking human breeding farm.
It disgusted Dariux that he had ever seen eye to eye with Max. Anything he might have agreed on with the man was surely wrong. Kalli had been right all along. The proof was staring him right in the face. But he didn’t need to see his test results with his own eyes to realize what he had known for weeks now but had been too afraid to admit. He was in love with her. If he hadn’t been such a bloody idiot, he might be with Kalli right now.
Dariux needed to see her, talk to her as soon as possible. The longer this misunderstanding went unresolved, the harder it would be to undo the damage. He hoped to God it was not too late.
Turning to his communication device, he instructed, “Call Kalli.”
A fist had lodged in his throat, and his heart was beating a staccato beat as he waited for the connection. What would he say to her? What could he say after his obtuse behavior? After a few seconds of the logo twirling, it was obvious the call was not going through.
“Connect me with Kalli,” he repeated.
“I’m sorry, sir. I’m unable to establish a connection. The requested customer is outside the network.”
“The fuck she is. I just saw her a few hours ago. Try again.”
But after several attempts, and a reboot, it became obvious that it was impossible to connect with Kalli.
“Useless piece of crap,” he said, hurling his communication device against the wall. He lived in the twenty-fucking-second century. Humans had invented the telephone not long after the year they had visited in their mission. Yet here he was, three centuries later, still unable to make a simple call.
He grabbed his coat and stomped to the door. If she would not pick up the call, he would pay her a visit. He knew where she lived. It was in her file.
“Are you going out?” Elena called from the kitchen, where she was making some sort of fruity dish wearing a skimpy baker’s uniform. Bloody hell, had that ever turned him on? What a pathetic cliche.
“Yes,” he replied curtly, unwilling to give explanations.
“Should I wait for you in your bed?” she went on, undeterred. “What should I wear?”
“No, go to sleep. I won’t need you tonight. In fact, I won’t need you for the foreseeable future. I’m taking a break from sex.” With that, he left without waiting for her response. He ran down the few steps towards his car, which was already waiting for him. “To Kalli’s house,” he ordered, and the vehicle took off.
He leaned back in the comfortable commander chair but did not relax. The trip to Kalli’s house was a short one. Less than five minutes. He had never visited her home before. It was in Kensington, an old part of London. The buildings looked pretty much the same as they had in the nineteenth century. He could only hope they had updated the interior to accommodate modern conveniences. His own house was a masterpiece of modern engineering and architecture. But of course, romantic Kalli would prefer the charm of the old, even if it came with a few inconveniences.
Soon he was running up the steps to her townhouse. The porch light turned on at his approach. Good, at least she had security and monitoring systems.
But the voice that spoke to him through the speakers was not the familiar timbre of Kalli’s.
“May I help you?” asked a man’s voice.
Bloody hell, had he got the wrong address? He checked the number again. No, this was the address on her file.
“I’m here to talk to Kalli.”
A pause. Then, “She is not here.”
Who the fuck was this bloke, and why was he obstructing his access to Kalli?
“Does she live here?” he bit out.
