Chapter 19 - Episode: Taking Calls, Names, and All Bets

"So," Eric said, "I did have some other questions. More now, I guess." He added, as Rachel pulled a plastic box of moist towelettes from her drawer. "If you don't mind." He held out a hand. Rachel chuckled and pulled a few of the damp napkins out and handed them to Eric, and he began to swab himself down.

"Ask away, I can imagine a few you had from the start." She pulled a napkin for herself and began to drag it across her body where Eric's perspiration had clung to her. She watched him clean off the sweat of his own body, and licked her lips with a smile on her face. She sure likes to watch. Eric's thoughts mused.

"Well, I'm a little surprised that you're a Lilim," He started, and Rachel sighed and nodded. "Sorry, it's just-," Oh doesn't our foot look tasty today? "When I saw you the other day, I thought you were an upgraded Justicar," Not bad. Eric's voice commented when Rachel let a smile slip through. "You've gone through a lot to be you not your model type." Eric presumed, but correctly, as Rachel's smile grew.

"I was made before Drei-Riech's bioweapon was unleashed." She began, and Eric's eyes widened. She was made before the 'virus' that led to the end of the old world. Damn. She's VINTAGE. "Yeah, I know. I don't look it." She chuckles. "We were actually the prototypes for the Lilim that everyone thinks were the first Construct Keepers sent out to protect people from all the mutating animals, and 'aggressive' flora." She looked at her hands. 

"Us 'Zero-generation' girls were sent back to the Workshops for a remodeling." Her optics dimmed and Eric wondered what she was remembering. "Instead of keeping the peace and protecting people, we were being used as hunter-killers. We tracked and destroyed whatever, or whomever, the virus mutated." She closed her hand. "Then those idiots tried spreading their 'cure' with a proof-of-concept terraformer." She scoffs. "It wasn't even a prototype, it was a lab model."

"And now we have the Haze." He sighed. "They didn't realize the entire human population was infected, just passively carrying minute amounts of the virus. But their Nano-cluster Mediators and Regulators saw the 'passive' form of the virus as an equally valid target." Eric crossed his arms, having given up on his pants, and his boxers were equally lost. They now were folded up in the chair, under his ass. 

"So when the Lilim joined the Mediators and Regulators," Eric said, and he could see Rachel's optics look away from him. "Because you were from the real first generation, and your original raison d'être was to protect people, not purge the infected, you and your sisters weren't compelled by code to go along with them." Rachel sighed and actually wore a sad smile.

"It wasn't code that made my 'little sisters' decide humanity had served its purpose. They saw themselves as a viable replacement, and an improvement, on the Human race. The Mediators and Regulators lack their ambition, at least until the Mediators started rebuilding themselves. That took a spark Humans didn't put into them." She shook her head. "No, We just didn't want to be killers and murderers. We were raised better, I guess." She smiles. "You could still call it programming, but its no different than a human's upbringing, disposition, and social conditioning." She argued and Eric nodded.

"So, your security 'protocols', for keeping people from 'working on you' without admin authorization?" He asked, and let the question hang.

"They're an 'insecurity'. I was conditioned, by my creators, to keep myself from trusting any 'unauthorized mechanics.' But really, it was in order to keep company secrets safe/ It's moot now, of course, but I keep it around just to see who knows the loopholes." She winks. "It also helps weed out guys who like to brag they're tech-savvy, but can't back it up." She adds. I'm part of a select group, then.

"How'd you work out the loopholes, in the first place? Before you broke free and could mod yourselves, that shouldn't have been possible." Eric asked and tossed the last of the wet napkins in a bin beside Rachel's desk. And why did you give yourself Wet Nurse breasts and a Surrogate womb? Eric thought, as Rachel laughed.

"My little sister, Sarah," Eric felt the pause as she use a more common name, "She came up with it after she fell in love with this Engineering Tech, way before everything else. But because the Technician was new, she wasn't in the 'secure' list of 'consorts' we were allowed to partake in." She explained and Eric nodded. "So, Sarah got it into her head of a work around, and with the right 'tinkering' of her own, she found a loophole." Rachel laughed brightly. "Oh the Big Money men weren't happy with that. But," She shrugged, "The end of the world started, so they couldn't exactly fire her, or afford to scrap us." Rachel summed up.

Eric had been leaning forward throughout her telling, then a knock came at the door.

"Come on in, Linda." Rachel said, and Eric shivered as a breeze wafted in and chilled his ankles. "Thank you." Rachel said even as the soft clack of heels on the wood paneled floor echoed behind Eric. He turned in his seat, thinking perhaps he should have put the pants in his lap. But the well dressed assistant with her blonde hair in a French braid didn't bat an eye as she walked up and laid a sealed parcel on the desk.

"Not a problem, Ma'am." She said, "Also these dispatches came in for your review and signature." She laid a short stack of papers beside the parcel. She turned and casually ran her eyes up Eric's legs, to his still semi-hard cock, up his chest to his face, and his smile. "Mister Wyre." She nodded with a smile.

"Miss Linda-" He replied, and cocked his head, hoping for a last name.

"Taluna." She offered, and Eric nodded.

"Nice to meet you, thank you for the prompt delivery." He added, and she shrugged.

"I would have been here sooner, but the dispatch decoder was being finicky again." She shrugged. "Something internal, not in the programming." She turned to Rachel who frowned at what sounded like a reoccurring issue.

"I could take a look at it, if you'd like? What model is it?" He asked. Linda and Rachel exchanged a confused look. "I am a licensed Engineer, after all. I think I can handle a decoder." He smiled, as Eric reached for the parcel which, he presumed, held his replacement pants.

He blinked when he opened the parcel. They weren't just the right size, but they matched the brand of the torn up pants under his ass. The boxers were even the same color. "Damn." He wondered, and looked at Linda with surprise, "You're good." The Captain's Assistant smiled. Eric stood up and proceeded to dress himself, Linda leaned back to get a look at Eric's ass and smiled wider. Rachel chuckled while Eric pulled on his new pants. He'd moved all his effects to the new pants's pockets, and the old pants were now stashed in the parcel.

"I'll dispose of that." Linda offered, and Eric held out the parcel. "Shall I show him the encoder?" She asked Rachel.

"Not at the moment," Rachel said, her optics scanning over the papers. "Mister Wyre, you know your way back to the front desk?"


"Yes, Captain." Eric said as he buckled his belt. "One last question though, if I may?" He asked, looking politely toward Linda.

"Go ahead." She said, and looked up from the sheets. "I don't keep secrets from Linda."

"You fought Regulators before, correct?"

"I hunted beside Regulators before they went Rampant. I fought them for decades during the Dark Years. Then, I was part of the movement that helped 'rehabilitate' them to the state they're in now." She explained, bluntly.

"I've seen Regulators work before, but against D and C rank beasts. But, I've never actually fought one." He explains. "How strong are they, like in a fight?" He asked. 

"They were designed by a Machine that was given a blank check. It created living, thinking, weapons that could hunt giant monstrous beasts, clear cut moving forests, and battle sociopath 'super'-humans." Rachel sighed. "I wouldn't advise fighting one. Even with your training, and even if you were properly armed. You'd have a bad time." She advised. Eric nodded.

"How would you fare, just for scale's sake?"

"When I was at my peak? With all my Military Hardware?" She leaned back. "I think my final kill count stands at: Six hundred forty-nine; and one-thousand eight-hundred and ninety-two disabled and captured." She quoted off the exact number with the same tone she might discuss how much she paid for fuel. "Now? If I had a chance to gear up with what I'm allowed to use, I can fight three or four without support." She said then looked as Linda narrowed her gaze. "Not that I have, or would fight four regulators, or even one, without support."

"Uh-huh. Of course not, ma'am." Linda cocked her head toward Eric. "Try not to provoke this odd Regulator of yours, okay?" She asked. Eric nodded and bid the ladies farewell. His walk back to Sergeant Boiler's desk was brief, but he felt the eyes of the Police Officers and other men and women he passed in the hall. They weren't bad looks, just appraising, sizing him up. 

He reached the Sergeant as a pair of officers arrived with a handcuffed man. Between two dour looking officers, a man in a gaudy red and yellow suit was smiling even as the officer's brought him up to the desk.

"Back again, Ruzco?" The Sergeant scowled at the badly dressed man. "How long will you be staying with us this time?" He asked, and Eric could taste the bitter resentment in the words.

"Boiler, my good man." 'Ruzco' spoke in a rich, flawless, High London accent, "I hope you have my usual accommodations ready. I think I'll be staying for the weekend. My previous lodgings have become utterly unacceptable." He sighs, dramatically. 

"Doris, Berriwine," Boiler looks to the officers holding Ruzco. "Take him to Booking, I'll tell the Captain." He signed in the arrival and the two officers nodded and hauled Ruzco through a pair of swing doors that led deeper into the building. Boiler picked up his phone but stopped when Eric stepped up to the desk, the Engineer watching the doors swing shut. "Mister Wyre." He said and Eric looked back at Boiler. "You're meeting with the Captain go alright?"

"Yes, Sergeant, I think I addressed her inquires to her satisfaction," He said diplomatically. Boiler laughed and nodded at Eric to continue. "Officer Woolrick's desk, or office maybe?" He paused in thought. "Station?" He remembered the word she'd used.

"Yeah, it's a desk station, but it's down that way." He points down a hall to his left, opposite the hall he took to reach the Captain's office. "Head down that way, look to your left, and you'll see her."

"Thanks, Sergeant. Hope things don't get too interesting for you, today." He said.

"Well," Boiler rolled his eyes, "Now that you've got and jinxed it," He frowned, then laughed, and Eric joined him. "Have a good one, man." He bid Eric well and the Engineer walked off, and saw desks, arranged in pairs or groups of four, with an officer working at many of them. Some were processing paperwork, others on the phone, a few doing research, and one man was geling back his hair.

Eric chuckled as he walked through and kept an eye on the left. After ten paces, he saw Cornelia at a desk, on the phone, and looking frustrated. Eric closed in on her, and she looked up to give him a smile. She mouthed the words: Save me, and Eric felt a smile bloom on his face as he sat down in a chair beside her desk. Eric could almost hear an angry woman's voice coming from the receiver by Cornelia's ear.

"Agent Tarquin? Agent Tarquin." She interrupted whomever was speaking on phone. Tarquin was the name of the CCS Agent the Captain had mentioned. Cornelia had been on the phone, this entire time? "I have Mister Wyre here now. Yes, he just sat down beside my desk. Yes." She held out the phone to him. TAKE IT, she mouthed and Eric took the phone.

"Hello?" Eric cordially said into the transmitter, "Eric Wyre speaking, how can I he-"

"Cut the wise act, Wyre." A harsh, authoritarian, voice cut into his leading line. How rude. "My name is Agent Abigail Tarquin. I'm with the CCS, City-"

"Construct Security. Yes, you're the Agent covering the case involving me and the Regulator I've encountered twice now." Twice while he was speaking he heard her voice start to cut in, but kept speaking. "How can I help you?" He repeated what he was going to open with.

The line was silent for ten solid seconds. "Hello?" Eric said with a smile. Did she hang up?

"Mister Wyre." A very agitated voice growled over the line. Guess not. "I am sure you aren't familiar with the CCS, or how we operate-" 

"I know that you're supposed to respond within twenty-four hours to any Regulator related reports." I also know that most of the time, you're busy waiting on the 'personal calls' for the rich and famous. He said, coolly. "My Landlord, and employer, reported about this shortly after Dawn, yesterday. It's been more than an hour since curfew broke," He looked at his phone, "And I see no contacts from either said landlord or any official number. I'm sure my contact information is on the report?" I know it is. I included it in my report, and Belle put it in her's just to be safe.

"Yes, Mister Wyre, but a random report of a Regulator, is hardly something we can just take at face value," Wait. WHAT? "We have a number of complaints and issues that come in every day and regular maintenance operations to conduct."Probably too busy keeping all the serv-bots in the Rich District squeaky clean. "We can't spare a specialist-." She started, but Eric wasn't having it.

"It's a fucking Regulator, Agent." Eric interrupts, loudly. "Who jokes about that shit?"

"You'd be surprised, Mister Wyre." She shot back at him. "Now, I can schedule an appointment tomor-" Agent Tarquin tried to put him off. Oh, Hell no.

"No." Eric shook his head. "This is a Regulator that has taken a personal interest in me. It's already shown the capacity to hinder civilian life support systems in order to serve its own agenda, and has threatened my pet. It's a serious problem, and you will come here, today, to address it, or I am going to go to the Local Army Garrison and report it to THEM. He paused and exhaled.

"Mister Wyre," Tarquin's voice squeaked as she 'back pedaled', "There's no reason to-" Nope.

"I know the laws, and even if they only oversee what the Police do to intervene, They get the collar and credit for the capture, if it comes to that. You get nothing, but a serious write up for not responding as the law requires, while you handle your 'regular maintenance." Rich and powerful old bastards with their robotic dicks malfunctioning, probably.  "So if you're too busy to do your job?" Eric offered. "They'll do it for you." He laid down the ultimatum. "You know where to find me." He said and hung up the phone.

Cornelia's jaw was hanging when Eric blinked and realized that most of the officers had been listening in to him. He looked around, and shrugged. "What? Don't tell me none of you have ever wanted to do the same to one of those Suit Spooks?" He asked, and laughter erupted around him.

Thanks to Skiratas and Aeronator for editing, as well as Treble for a plot hole that was avoided.