What Lies Behind: A New Adult Dark Science Fiction Romance Read Online Free Page B

even those buildings became further and further apart until there were wide sheets of grass between the houses, and then large fields between farms.
    “How does one become an android?” Cass asked. Her thoughts were on her memory and on what Brandon had asked her. So much so that she didn’t really notice they were flying.
    “I’m not really sure, but if you’re interested in that, I can do some research,” Brandon said.
    Cass shook her head. Natalia wouldn’t allow that. “No, not interested for myself, just not sure how it’s possible.”
    “I’m not really sure. I do know there are only a few androids. I assume if doctors like Gerard can take homemade robots and make them into automatons that meet legal regulations that you can take a robot and make them into an android.”
    Cass didn’t answer. She let her eyes wander over the fields and farms they were flying over. The air was clearer here, away from the city. Up ahead, through the bug splattered glass of the windshield, she could see a wall of white billowing up into the sky.
    “What’s that?” Cass asked.
    “Don’t you know?” Brandon smiled over at her. “Doesn’t your programming show you that?”
    “I’m a home unit,” Cass reminded him. “Enlighten me.”
    He chuckled. “That’s a cloud whitening facility,” he told her. “Back a couple decades ago, when global warming was becoming a big issue they started this kind of ecological engineering where they could change how bright or dark clouds were to help either cool the planet or warm it.”
    “Strange,” Cass said. She looked around at the green fields and the towering trees off to the left of the hover car. “So, what, things were deader?”
    Brandon shrugged. “More pollution I guess. I’m not really sure. I haven’t looked too much into it. I just know that this is one of the ways they’ve corrected the issue.”
    They were flying closer to the mass of white clouds drifting up from giant smoke stacks and into the sky. “We’re by the ocean,” Cass said.
    “Yea, that’s where they work on the clouds,” Brandon said, pointing with one hand over the ocean so she could see the clouds drifting on the wind out to sea. He pulled back on the steering wheel and they began to slow and drop to the ground.
    The car alighted in a green field. The wind blew the hay like ocean waves around the car. He turned the vehicle off and stepped out. Cass could hear the wind outside rushing over the tops of the tall grass in fits and starts as if a great inhalation and exhalation of breath. Cass didn’t wait for him to help her out this time. She opened her own door and followed him out into the warm afternoon.
    Brandon took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “Makes you wonder what the air was like before they started purifying it.”
    Cass looked at him. She couldn’t smell what he was smelling. She could tell the quality of the air thanks to her visual overlay but she had nothing to compare it too. Cass didn’t know what the air used to be like, so she took his word for it.
    “It’s so quiet here,” she commented, leaning against the hood of the hover car. “You’d expect there to be a lot of noise from those stacks, but it’s just silent.”
    “Very peaceful,” Brandon said.
    It was a sight that Cass could live in forever.
    “So what about this android thing?” Brandon asked, turning to her.
    Cass sighed. The thought made her nervous. She looked behind her as if someone might be there to hear them, be there to hear her talking about going against her owner.
    “I don’t see how it’s possible,” Cass said. “I’m someone’s property, and that someone isn’t likely to give me up.”
    “Right,” he said and sighed. “I want to show you something tomorrow. Natalia is working late tomorrow so we have time to sneak you out without her knowing it.”
    “What is it?” Cass asked, her curiosity piqued.
    “You’ll see tomorrow.” Brandon smiled and pushed away from