Weird Visit

(Welcome to my new novel, The Sleepers. I hope you enjoy the read! As stated in the synopsis, this is a submission for a contest so I ask that you spare any power stones you can if you do happen to enjoy it. Happy reading!)

*Bzzzzzzt* *Bzzzzzzt*

A gentle vibration coerced me from my slumber. Accompanying the vibration was a gentle pressure that gradually pushed me into a sitting position. Evidently, it was time to wake up.

An almost human voice called out to me. "Good morning, James. It's a beautiful day out today. You should be fine without a jacket."

My consciousness began returning to me as I slowly woke up, the curtains automatically opening slightly to allow some light into my bedroom. "Ughhhh."

I rolled over in bed, shoving my face into the pillow. My muffled voice rang out, breaking through the cloud I rested my head on. "Fuck, how much did I drink last night?"

The voice replied to this rhetorical question. "You had approximately eight drinks. Here, I made your coffee."

I stopped rolling around for a moment, slightly lifting my dizzy head off of the pillow. "Iced?"

The voice chuckled. "Of course. You always have it iced. I added the milk and caramel as well."

Smiling, I slowly flipped over, letting my eyes gaze upon the android in front of me. "Thanks Mark, you always know what I need."

Mark smiled and nodded. "That is my function, James."

I shrugged, reaching out for the coffee. "My morning update, please."

The android handed me the coffee. "Of course. I've already told you the weather so I'll get to some current events. For your personal life, your wife is currently at the OBGYN for her regular checkup. To my knowledge, the baby is healthy. You have no appointments today so you are free to take Lana to lunch. She has informed me that she enjoys the diner, Rico's, down the street so maybe you can take her there."

I nodded, my stomach rumbling a bit in hunger. "Rico's sounds amazing right now. How long until she is back?"

Mark tilted his head for a moment, almost as if he was thinking. Then he straightened out again. "Based on previous visits, she should be returning within the hour. That gives you enough time to get ready. I'll move onto the news now…"

I waved my hand, cutting him off. "I'll skip the news today."

Mark nodded. "Very well. Oh, there is a message from your boss, Arthur. Would you like me to relay it to you?"

I tilted my head in confusion, pulling a large sip of coffee through the straw. "Um, sure. What did he say?"

Mark nodded again. "He said that he is in the area and would like to drop by. Shall I invite him over and prepare some coffee for him?"

I sighed and shook my head, taking another sip from my coffee before dealing with this headache. "This can't be good. Invite him over… and he drinks tea, not coffee."

Mark tilted his head, appearing to be thinking again. "Black, green, or herbal tea?"

I chuckled. "What time is it?"

He quickly replied. "It is 10:02 AM."

After thinking for a moment, I replied. "He usually has a cup of Earl Grey at this time. English Breakfast with, well, breakfast. Then he usually has a cup of green tea towards the end of his shift."

Mark's eyes flashed briefly before he nodded. "I'll commit that to memory. How do you know all of this?"

I chuckled. "I've been working for Arthur for almost twenty years. I'd hope I know this type of simple stuff."

Mark nodded. "Very well. He has been notified. I shall prepare his tea. I have instructed him to arrive at 10:30. That should be enough time for you to shower."

I nodded in reply. "And I'll be ready for a second cup of coffee. See you in a bit."

Mark smiled before turning and exiting my room. I quickly got out of bed, tucking the morning wood into my brief's elastic strap as I waddled to the bathroom. A lengthy session of urination relieved the stiffness.

I then walked over to the mirror, staring at myself for a few moments. My long black hair was disheveled and flowed over my shoulders, stray hairs poking out of my unkempt mane. My face was clean, not a hair in sight. I had that done a few years ago. A pair of bright blue eyes sparkled under the mirror's border of light.

Happy that I didn't fall and bruise my face like last time I went out drinking, I decided to take another sip of my coffee with a smile. I didn't bother washing my hands since I was about to shower.

This bathroom was one of my favorite parts about my home. When we moved in, my wife and I had a bunch of renovations done. One of which was heated tile flooring in the master bathroom. I could only sigh in relaxation. "Mark, set the water temperature please."

His voice came through a speaker in the bathroom. He was connected through my home. It made everything quite convenient. "The water is being preheated. Turn it on when you are ready."

I smiled. He really made life so damn easy. "Thanks, Mark."

His voice sounded out again. "Of course, James. Would you also like to listen to your shower playlist?"

I chuckled. "Is that even a question?"

There was no further reply as some punk rock started playing. I sucked in a deep breath of air, holding it for a few seconds. I then released it without pushing, feeling pure relaxation. This always helped calm my nerves.

Finishing the last sip of my coffee, I placed the empty cup onto the vanity. Dropping my drawers to the floor, I stepped over to the shower. I grabbed my bath sheet off of the wall hook and moved it to the one closer to the shower door.

After sliding the door open, I stepped in, closing the door and then pressing the button to release the waterfall of warm, steaming water. This shower was probably my second favorite thing in the house. I had jets installed on the walls that can be turned on and off. I love to just stand there in the cascade of water barraging me from all sides.

As I showered, I considered what could possibly be the meaning of Arthur's visit. He is a man with purpose. Everything he does, every step, every word, they all have meaning and purpose. He would never waste even a second on just happening to be in the area and visiting. Typically, he'd just send a message asking how I'm doing if he is nearby. He is, afterall, the COO of the company I work for, Southrop Martin, and my boss.

I've spent almost twenty years working under him. I started off as an entry level employee at 32 years of age. I had just finished my PhD in computer science and it was my first job. My job title back then was Sensor Interface Developer in the same project I'm working on now. That project is defense model androids.

About fifteen years into my time at Southrop, Arthur took note of my abilities and groomed me into a leader. Shortly thereafter, the person that was in my current position retired and I took her place. I am now the Senior Vice President of Android Operations. Fortunately, most of the administrative work gets taken care of by my secretary. This allows me to spend the majority of my time working on my current project which is perfecting the martial arts and ballistics functions of our combat models.

Mark is actually one of the prototypes after a few years of work. He may seem like a glorified butler but I actually take him to work with me every day. I keep him close at all times to protect my precious work.

Back to Arthur visiting, I couldn't figure out for the life of me why he would be coming. I guess I would just have to find out. I mean, I didn't do anything bad or neglect any of my responsibilities. I doubt I'll ever forget the dreadful four hours of paperwork I went through yesterday which led me to the hangover I'm currently getting over. The only thing I hate about my job is having to do anything other than programming.

I emerged from the shower after finishing my train of thought, bellows of steam escaping the shower door and quickly fogging the mirror. Just as quickly, the mirror was devoid of it as the defogger kicked on.

Mark's voice suddenly came over the intercom as I was drying myself off, interrupting the music. "James, Arthur has just arrived at the front door. Shall I invite him in?"

I sighed, shaking my head as I noticed that the clock on the wall read exactly 10:30 AM. "Punctual as always, eh? Yeah, sure. I'll be down in a moment."

Rushing back to my room, I dropped the towel onto the floor. I went into my walkin closet and took out a few casual clothing items. A simple soft wash t-shirt, joggers, briefs, and a pair of socks. After pulling all of that on, I grabbed my glasses from my night stand and put them on.

I almost immediately gagged. One of my pet peeves was having clean lenses. To my dismay, both lenses were riddled with smudges and fingerprints. "Ugh, I'll have to clean these."

According to my memory, I was wearing contacts all day yesterday. Even if I only put my glasses on right before getting into bed, where did all of the fingerprints and smudges come from?

I shrugged, quickly making my way downstairs to the kitchen. After reaching the bottom of the second flight of stairs, I was greeted with the sight of Arthur typing on his tablet while sipping a cup of tea at my kitchen island.

Without looking up from what I presumed to be an email, he spoke in his deep and royal sounding voice. "Quite the night you had, huh?"

I rolled my eyes, walking over to the cabinet across from the sink. "I was really hoping you didn't see that."

Arthur scoffed. "Do you really think I'd let one of my most prized associates out of my sight? I'd never forgive myself if something happened to you. Southrop hasn't made this much progress in its entire two hundred and sixty three years of operation before your hiring."

Taking a cup out of the cabinet, I walked over to the fridge and pulled the freezer open. Ice water was what I needed right now. "Fair enough. That paperwork really did a number on me."

Arthur nodded, still typing on his tablet. It had a foldout keyboard so the sound of him tapping away was quite distinct. "I'd offer to hire someone to do that for you but I already know your response. Sometimes I regret instating you as a VP."

I shrugged, filling the now full cup of ice with water from the tap. I took a deep swig of the water and then replied after releasing a breath. The air coming out of my mouth had a slight fog to it from the cold water. "So, I know you didn't come here just to make small talk. What do you need?"

Arthur winced slightly. "Ahhh, that stung. You know, my coach told me I need to incorporate some down time and socialization into my schedule."

I rolled my eyes again, shaking my head at him. I knew just how difficult this would be for him. Just look at him, still typing emails while talking with me. "Well, a great way to start that would be closing that tablet for a bit. It's a saturday morning for fucks sake."

He chuckled before quickly closing his tablet, taking another sip of his tea. "How did Mark get so good at making tea?"

A drop of sweat rolled down the side of my face as he asked this. "Umm, I… uhhh… definitely did not put a camera in the break room and use recordings of you making tea."

In opposition to my expectations, Arthur laughed heartily, something I rarely, if ever, see from him. "Well, I approve. He did learn from the best after all. On that note, how is his development?"

I sighed in relief, picking up the ice coffee Mark had left for me on the counter and taking a large sip through the straw. "It is proceeding very nicely. He is now fully proficient in martial arts from 43 countries. The current task is to continue developing that knowledge base to ensure that his programming contains knowledge from every single school of martial arts throughout the history of man."

Arthur smiled, taking another sip of his tea. "Wonderful. How about the ballistics?"

I nodded, showing a proud expression for this one. "That should actually be complete by the end of this coming week. Just some final calibration on the physics computing. You should have received a report, right?"

Arthur nodded. "I did and read it too. I just wanted to hear it from you. Robotics isn't my area of expertise after all so some of the technical jargon is just Chinese to me."

I scoffed. "Arthur, you are fluent in 9 languages. Nothing is Chinese to you."

He shrugged in response. "Just an expression, James, just an expression."

I shook my head, taking another sip of my coffee. "Would you like a demonstration?"

Arthur raised his brow, not expecting this. "Well, unless you have a firing range in your home, I presume it would be for the martial arts."

I nodded. "Yep. I can show you how he performs against me."

Arthur sighed, sipping his tea once more. "I have heard that you were learning each and every school of martial arts in order to properly develop Mark."

I smiled, puffing out my chest a bit. "Yep, I'm a bit of an aficionado at this point."

Arthur nodded. "Very well. Do you need to prepare?"

I nodded in response. "Mark, can you prepare the MMA ring in the rec room?"

Mark's voice came over the intercom. "Is it time for your morning training?"

I chuckled, thinking about how much I enjoyed sparring with Mark every morning. It was a great workout and Lana still can't get over the results. "Indeed. Arthur will be observing so please prepare a chair for him as well."

Mark replied. "I'll get on it. It will only take a few minutes so come downstairs whenever."