Chapter 6 Upgrade
Slowing the car I inched it forward until we were just past the tree line and the building was in full view. Turning in my seat to face Kate I smiled.
"What do you think?" I asked.
"It's nice?" She said as if unsure exactly what to say. "A little big."
"Well I got the money so why not? Only cost about 750K. It's got fast internet and I can fit a few servers in the basement, and with the solar panels on the roof we won't light up like a marijuana grower on the electrical grid." I said.
"I thought we only had 5 million or so Master? Why spend almost a fifth of it on this?" asked Kate. She turned to glare at me.
I scratched my nose, "Well we started with 5 million, and that Bastard and his Father haven't noticed I'm still siphoning off whatever cash I can from their accounts."
Kate swatted my arm and I grinned. "Master that is illegal!" said Kate.
I shrugged. "At this point I don't think legality is our biggest issue." I said.
Kate nodded in agreement and shifting the car out of park and hit the accelerator jolting us forward, and chewing into the gravel we shot up the small road to the garage and I parked inside. Kate and I along with the two Dolls had been in half a dozen motels and another half dozen cars in the past week as I drove us from the East coast of the United States to the West.
Every few states or so I would ditch the car we were in and drawing on my now considerable sums of money buy another cheap clunker and continue driving, promising to get proper plates at the dealership. I had considered stealing cars but that would just attract more attention. Sleazy car salesmen were willing to ignore the lack of paperwork if you were paying the asking price up front in cash.
We were now up in northern Washington on the damn other side of the Country from the Company and the City they controlled. The cabin had been a hurried purchase and done in cash much to the agent's delight. I needed a place to work and get at cracking at fixing Dolls, for that reason I had already ordered several massive computer servers for raw data processing and other tasks and they were on rush shipping to be here tomorrow. I had let Kate pick out and order furniture for the cabin from my laptop while I had been driving figuring that a woman's touch even if she was enslaved to me would be better at color coordination than my own. I had never actually purchased any furniture new always getting it from yard sales or craigslist and neither had Kate to her knowledge still she had fun picking it all out.
It had been just the two of us on our flight across the country, the Dolls of Tracy and the other woman in my back seat sitting passively in them as I drove. I knew I should have fixed them as soon as possible to be like Kate but I wanted to do it in a more controlled environment and be able to explain what was going on to them in case they had no memories of what had happened to them.
Stepping out of the car I opened the back door of the car, both Dolls were still sitting ramrod straight in their seats starring straight forward.
"Both of you out, follow Kate inside." I instructed them.
"Yes Master." They chorused in exact sync with one another.
"Take them to the kitchen." I told Kate as I stepped back and they got out of the car. I could hear joints popping as they moved, Dolls they might have been but their bodies were as human as my own and they were not supposed to sit in a car all day long.
"Yes Master." Said Kate and she went over to the Dolls who fell into step behind her.
She led the two from the garage and moving around the car I went and popped the trunk and pulled out my laptop. Opening and turning it on I absentmindedly walked into what was my new home while I looked over the programming again. The script I had used to flip Kate out of Doll Mode and put her into permanent diagnostics mode should work, but like Kate their personalities would be merged with the Doll protocols. I had no way of turning off the chips entirely without killing them and as far as I could see emptying the chip of anything but the basic programming was a good way to lobotomize someone.
Kate had come to me in that mixed personality but these women had not and I was having a difficult time reconciling if I should do it to them. Mixing the Doll programming with their personalities would most likely result in something like Kate.
The two Dolls were standing at attention in the kitchen and Kate was absentmindedly looking around inside the different cupboards and drawers when I walked into the room.
"I think this is better than your apartment Master." Said Kate as she pulled out the silverware set from the drawer to look at it. As opposed to my original mismatched and dented cutlery this set was pristine and without character.
"I liked that apartment." I said.
"Well I think your learn to love this place." Said Kate. She stretched her arms up and sighed. "I can actually move in here!"
I nodded and set the laptop down on the counter. "Kate, I'm not sure I should do this." I said.
"Do what?" asked Kate.
"Put them in the middle, lock these women into an existence where they know they should be something else but can't remember and still have the Doll programming rattling around in their heads." I said.
Kate shook her head. "No Master! They are in their! I was floating in the darkness when I was like them. I was aware of what was happening and it was like a nightmare! They are not sleeping behind the masks of the Doll! They are floating alone in a void!" She said.
I swallowed and nodded. "You're right." I said. Sighing I looked at Tracy, it was perhaps a little biased to fix her first but I figured she would be the easiest to deal with already knowing something about her from Beth.
"Come over here." I said to the Doll Tracy.
The Doll walked over and stood in front of the counter. I considered this for a moment,
"Sit down." I told her. Kate had come close to collapsing each time we had messed with her implant and Tracy falling over and getting a concussion wasn't something that would do her any good what with her head already being messed with.
I plugged the cable into the back of her head and went back to my laptop. Checking the modified programs again I glanced down at her and then back at Kate.
"Here we go." I said.
Kate nodded and hesitantly I hit enter. The program was going to set the chip in Tracy's brain into a permanent diagnostic mode merging her identity with that of the Doll like Kate.
Like with Kate it took a moment for the program to load into the chip and then run. Tracy twitched and fell backwards onto the floor. The cable popped out of the socket and she went limp.
I looked down at her concerned. "Tracy?" I asked.
The woman blinked and slowly pushed herself up to her elbows.
"Fucking hell!" she gasped and she remained still for a moment her eyes widening.
She leapt up to her feet and continuing the momentum from the jump swung her fist catching me squarely in the jaw sending me sprawling onto the tiled floor.
"That's for leaving Beth behind!" she said.
I groaned and got up to me hands and knees trying to pick myself up despite my dizziness.
"You remember her?" I slowly asked.
"I remember everything, including what that creep did to me." Said Tracy shuddering.
"Your memories from before?" I asked.
Tracy frowned. "I remember everything!" she said.
I glanced back at Kate, further evidence that she was a unique case. Whatever she had done to escape the Company had scrambled her brain. It also meant that her memories might be unrecoverable. For the moment though I pushed those thoughts aside.
Getting to my feet I extended my hand. "Marcus." I said.
"Tracy." She said reaching out to take my hand and shaking it.
"So Master, what next." Said Tracy. She blinked and then looked back at the laptop.
"So it's not all fixed then?" she asked.
I nodded. "I can't remove the chips or deactivate them without turning you into a vegetable."
She nodded. "Explains a lot." She said.
