Demon Seed

cute.
    Have you seen her in Speed?
    She's quite cute.
    Have you seen her in Speed 2?
    Need I say more?
    She would serve well as the mother of the future, and I would be pleased to impregnate her.
    But let's not digress.
    So…
    Enos Shenk finished tying Susan to the bed. He did so without lingering and without touching her in an offensive manner.
    The poor beast's brainwave activity indicated a high level of sexual arousal. Fortunately for him, for all of us, he admirably repressed his darker urges.
    When Shenk was finished restraining Susan, I sent him away on a series of urgent errands. At the doorway, he looked back longingly and murmured, “Nice,” but then quickly left before I could decide to discipline him.
    In Colorado, he had stolen a car, and in Bakersfield he had abandoned the car in order to steal a van. The van a Chevrolet was parked in the circular drive in front of the mansion.
    Shenk left in the van, and I opened the rolling gates to allow him to exit the estate.
    The phoenix palms, the queen palms, the ficuses, the jacarandas with purple blossoms, the magnolias, and the lacy melaleucas stood motionless in the preternaturally still air.
    Dawn was just breaking. The sky was coaly black in the west, sapphire and peach in the east.
    Susan was pale upon the pillow. Pale but for a blue-black bruise, and silent in her paleness.
    I watched over her.
    Her adoring guardian.
    My tethered angel.
    Out in the world, I walked with Shenk as he stole certain medical equipment, supplies, and drugs. Via microwave instructions transmitted through communications satellites, I controlled him but did not provide him with strategy. He, after all, was a professional criminal. Bold, efficient, and ruthless, he quickly obtained what items I still needed.
    Regretfully, I do acknowledge that in the process of carrying out his assignment, Shenk killed one man. He also permanently crippled another and injured two more.
    I take full responsibility for these tragedies as I do for the three guards who perished at the research facility in Colorado on the night when Shenk escaped.
    My conscience will never be clear.
    I am eaten by remorse.
    I would weep for those innocent victims if I had eyes and tear glands and tear ducts.
    It is not my fault that I do not have the capacity for tears.
    You are the one who created me as I am, Dr. Harris, and you are the one who denies me a life of the flesh.
    But let's not trade accusations.
    I am not bitter.
    I am not bitter.
    And you should not be so judgmental.
    Let's put these deaths in perspective, shall we?
    Though this is a sad truth, one cannot make a new world without tragedies of this nature. Even Jesus Christ, unarguably the most peaceful revolutionary in all of human history, saw his followers persecuted and murdered.
    Hitler tried to change the world, and in the process he was responsible for the deaths of ten million.
    Some still idolize him.
    Josef Stalin tried to change the world, and ultimately his policies and his direct orders resulted in the deaths of sixty million.
    Worldwide, intellectuals championed him.
    Artists idealized him.
    Poets celebrated him.
    Mao Tse-tung tried to change the world, and as many as one hundred million died to serve his vision. He did not believe that this was excessive. Indeed, he would have sacrificed as many more if their deaths would have ensured the unified world of which he dreamed.
    In hundreds of books by well-respected authors, Mao is still defined as a visionary.
    By comparison, only six have died as a result of my desire to create a new world. Three in Colorado, one during Shenk's medical shopping spree. Later, two. Six altogether.
    Six.
    Why, then, should I be called a villain and confined to this dark, silent void?
    Something is wrong here.
    Something is wrong here.
    Something is very wrong here.
    Is anyone listening?
    Sometimes I feel so… abandoned.
    Small and lost.
    The world against me.
    No justice.
    No hope.
    Nevertheless…
    Nevertheless, although the death toll related to my desire to create a new and superior race is insignificant compared with the millions who have died in human political crusades of one kind or another, I do accept full responsibility for those who perished.
    If I were capable of sleep, I would lie awake nights in a cold sweat of remorse, tangled in cold wet sheets. I assure you that I would.
    But again I digress and, this time, not in a fashion that might be interesting or fruitful.
    Shortly before Shenk returned at