Addicted to the ECHO

Forty-five-year-old Nathaniel Blackwell, CEO of Blackwell Dynamics, sat with his feet crossed on top of his massive desk and waited for this female who stood before him to be intimidated by his wealth. To be intimidated by him. After all, he had once been called the most dangerous man in Silicon Valley.

Usually, the women who desired him would say something flattering at this point. Oh, Mr. Blackwell, what a wonderfully thick cock you must have. That’s how the bolder ones would flirt. The shyer girls would fluster and blush about him, and this irritated Nathaniel far more than even the come-hither whores.

But this woman, appropriately named Karen, with her long golden mane tied into a ponytail and curvy ass. (When it came to women, Nathaniel was an ass-man. To him that was the most beautiful part of the female anatomy) said nothing at all. She really was behaving like a machine waiting to be switched on, and damn it if her silence wasn’t infuriating him ...

.. even if it did inexplicably turn him on a little. Not full throttle mode, but he certainly felt something stirring down there in his Neanderthal parts.

“Well?” asked Nathaniel, and he uncrossed his legs and stared hard into Karen’s eyes. He didn’t want to give this woman the impression that he was somehow impressed by her good looks or stoic silence.

“Well, what?” Karen replied, tipping the rim of her glasses. She had that whole sexy librarian vibe. White blouse, tight, short black skirt emphasizing her beautiful bottom. Just like the kind of woman Nathanial had a crush on back in high school before his billions and he was a nobody teen with acne. “If you’re expecting me to fawn all over you like one of your thousand dollar prostitutes, that is not my purpose, Mr. Blackwell. My job is to propose solutions, not fantasies.”

Is this chick for real?

No, she wasn’t. That was the whole point of Karen.

“Go on,” Nathaniel waved his hand.

“Mr. Adrian Vale would like to propose a fully integrated holographic companion interface for Blackwell Dynamics’ executive division,” Karen continued. “The Echo platform is designed to combine adaptive emotional intelligence with real-time behavioral analytics, allowing the interface to anticipate user needs before verbal communication becomes necessary.”

“Oh, really?”

Nathaniel stood up and walked around his desk, which was the same length as his limousine, with his impressive height of six feet and four inches. He was an attractive man with his well groomed hair graying fashionably at the temples. His muscles were carefully built from daily visits at the Echelon Athletics gym, and the tan that he kept year around came from his personally owned tanning bed. In Nathaniel’s own way, his physical appearance was more programmed than this ‘Karen’ woman. Which made her insubordinate attitude even more irritating.

“Baby doll, I don’t need a -what did you call it? An echo? What I need is someone to get on her knees for me and suck. Right now.”

Crude, very crude. But that was his signal for her to talk dirty to him. Now, she’ll talk like a whore. She’ll talk dirty, or I’ll have Adrian eliminate her faster than -

Before he could even finish the thought, Karen spun around and headed towards the exit.

Nathaniel rushed towards her, alarmed, temporarily forgetting that she was completely incapable of opening his office door.

“Wait, where are you going? I didn’t dismiss you yet. Adrian has ordered you to obey me. Are you listening to me, you -“

“No. You are the one who isn’t listening, Nate Blackwell.” She turned to face him with her turquoise colored eyes, an unusual shade for humans, but happened to be Nathaniel’s favorite color, tightened behind her glasses.

“I am here to demonstrate the efficiency of Vale Technologies. Yet you remain determined to transform this meeting into a sexual negotiation. Not because of any genuine biological need you claim to possess, but because you have never learned to perceive women as anything beyond objects of gratification. An unfortunate behavioral pattern, Mr. Blackwell. One that likely began years ago, while girls laughed at your awkward attempts to earn their attention. Is that not correct?”

Nathaniel’s mouth dropped open like a fish gasping for air. How dare she talk that way to him? HOW DARE SHE?

“Your mother was rarely accessible to you during childhood. Not that you blamed her for it. Even at a young age, you understood the burden placed upon a sixteen-year-old girl suddenly forced into motherhood. You defended her long before you were emotionally capable of defending yourself. Yet the question persisted beneath the surface of your consciousness: was there something fundamentally lacking within you? Something unworthy of affection. You wondered if there would ever be a woman capable of desiring you for your existence rather than your influence, your wealth, or the fact that Blackwell Dynamics became the world’s leading force in defense technology and predictive AI infrastructure.

“I don’t need a psychiatrist.” Nathanial felt himself tremble with rage. Apparently Adrian Vale, that arrogant asshole, did some research on his family background and told this bitch everything. Well, congratulations, Adrian. You just lost what could have been an extremely profitable deal for both of us!

Nathaniel came storming towards her. “If Adrian Vale believes that the grand and awe-inspiring future of AI is limited to only performing psychiatric services for emotionally damaged people, then he is sorely mistaken. Go back to your owner and tell him that he suffers from a catastrophic lack of vision. I take that back. Tell him he has no vision.” Nathaniel squeezed his thumb and forefinger together as if he were crushing a fly between them. “I have no use for men like that or for women like you.”

He went behind his sleek and important looking desk and reached for the call button. All the while he wondered if this was some clumsy attempt at blackmail on Adrian’s part. If so, it was a stupid move. A stupid, stupid -

“Don’t touch that,” Karen said.

Nathaniel hesitated. And he hated himself for hesitating.

“You see that?” Now she approached him, her red polished fingernail stabbing towards the intercom. “You see how your natural instinct is to obey me? That is an instinct, Mr. Blackwell, that will serve you well. Beneath the expensive suits and rehearsed confidence, you are exhausted from fighting for control every second of your life. Men like you crave power because power is predictable. Obedience is predictable. And I am the first thing you have ever encountered that makes obedience feel… safe.”

Then, as un-seductively as possible, as if really was nothing more than a business transaction, she said;

“Take off your jacket.”

Nathaniel stared at her, blinking. The wonder of this Karen. He should dismiss her. Or better yet, have her dissolved right here in front of him. Maybe under the guise of a fake deal with Adrian. Why was here actually doing what this female ordered and removing his jacket? Was he that desperate to possess her? Or was she doing the possessing?

I’m just testing the procedure out. That’s all, he told himself as he removed his jacket. Even Sam Altman, the founder of AI, would test this shit out before making a blind investment.

“Now the tie.” She was sitting on the edge of his desk with folded arms, and he was standing. But somehow this made her feel larger than life.

He was fumbling with his tie, when without warning, without the pleasant beep from his intercom as his executive secretary coolly announced, Excuse me, Mr. Blackwell, but the CEO of Vale Technologies is requesting a visit with you - the double doors to his office swung open.

In popped a young man in his early twenties dressed as a Steve Jobs wannabe with his black pants, black jacket, and of course, black turtleneck sweater. He had dark brown wavy hair and could pass for good-looking if it wasn’t for the raw ambition in his dark gray eyes. Nathaniel was familiar with that naked need. He knew how dangerous it could be.

“So, did you enjoy your time with ‘Karen’?’” the man who was undoubtedly Adrian Vale asked as he stepped inside Nathaniel’s office. Adrian did finger quotes in the air as he said, ‘Karen’.

And suddenly Karen was nowhere to be seen.