by Susan Hayes
“Didn’t you want to tell someone?”
“Of course I did. Every fraxxing day. But I signed some scary non-disclosure agreements. The kind that meant if I whispered a word to anyone they’d lock me away, along with everyone I cared about. My cousin works for Astek, too. He designs artificial intelligence programs. I got him the damned job. What do you think would happen to him if I spoke out?”
“I understand.” Fear of retribution was the reason she had testified anonymously. She couldn’t blame Zale for making the same choices she had. The question was, what choice would he make now? Would he let her walk out of here with the data?
“Were you going to take those files to the doctor so she could undo what was done?”
“That was the plan, yeah.”
“Do you understand that if you do that, there will be repercussions? The ones who made this happen are still out there, and they’ve got a vested interest in keeping this quiet.”
She nodded. From the moment she had agreed to Alyson’s request to help, she had known there would be risks. “I’m done keeping secrets. That doesn’t mean I’m going to rush to announce what I’ve done. It’ll take time for Alyson to create an antidote, and even after she has it, I don’t expect every cyborg woman in the galaxy to suddenly decide she wants a baby. There are going to be a lot of risks involved, for everyone. Including you—if you let me walk out of here with that.” She nodded toward her data tablet, still sitting on the workbench.
Zale glanced at the tablet, then reached over and pushed it toward her. “I’m not going to stop you. This might be the only chance I get to make things right. I’d like to sleep through the night again someday, you know?”
She knew exactly what he meant. “Thank you.” She threw her arms around him in a bear hug. He was taking a huge risk. They both knew it.
He hugged her back. “Tomorrow you need to come into work like it was a normal day. You can hand in your notice, I’ll bitch and complain and send you off to your new job with my boot print on your ass, exactly the same way I treated the three techs who quit this job before you.”
“You got it. You know you’re not going to be rid of me that easily, right? You still owe me the drink you promised me if I passed my probation period. You can come by the Nova Club or Amped one night and pay up.”
“You want a drink from me, I’ll buy you a round at the Nova. Amped is a little too rich for my blood. And given that you never seem to go anywhere besides here or your cubby, I’m a little surprised you even suggested the place.”
She grinned. “As it happens, Mack and Dash are friends with the owners of both places. They’ve been expanding my horizons.”
“I’ll just bet they have,” Zale chuckled and released her from their hug. “They know what you’re doing down here?”
She grunted noncommittally. “Yes and no.”
“I take it they don’t approve?”
“Not really. They’re worried I’m going to get hurt. Between the lunatic trying to wipe out the taskforce they lead and my extracurricular activities, they’re convinced I need to be protected from the world day and night. I’m not some delicate Tiskalian ice orchid. I won’t wilt and die the first time someone breathes on me.”
“No, you’re tougher than that, but no one’s tough enough to survive an explosion or a shot to the head at close range. Well, no one but your boyfriend. Why don’t you let me walk you home? Make sure you, and everything you’re carrying gets there safe and sound.”
Her first instinct was to say no, but she needed to stop doing that. She was a target, and she had already taken enough risks with the data currently in her possession. She needed to get home and disseminate copies of the files to the others.
“Thank you, Zale.”
Tomorrow, she was going to have to apologize to Dash and Mack, too. She hadn’t been entirely reasonable with them. They still needed to stop treating her like she was made of glass, but it was time she admitted her share of the blame in this whole mess. Then she could tell them what she’d discovered, which was likely going to make them both even more overprotective.
“I’ll wipe the security log once we’re out of here, too. It will be like the bot was never here, and none of this conversation ever happened.”
“Sounds like a plan.” If only the rest of her life could be fixed so easily. There was no do-over button for reality. If there were, she would have punched it years ago, and gotten back all the time she’d lost with Dash and Mack. Out of all the regrets she had in her life, past and present, the years they had spent apart were at the top of her list.
Even if everything worked out for them in the future, they wouldn’t be together forever. No one knew how long the cyborgs would live, but their medi-bots made it likely their lifespans would far outlast any normal human’s. They were going to outlive her by decades, if not centuries, which meant every day they’d lost was that much more precious.
Going forward, she was going to do her best to make sure there weren’t any more lost days to regret.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Dash was fighting to remember, but it was like trying to catch hold of a wisp of smoke.
He paced the length of one of the private rooms in the back of the Nova Club, while Mack sat on a nearby couch, watching with concern. He had tried offering up suggestions at first, but after Dash shot down every one of them, he had wisely opted for silence.
There was something about the gesture Len had made when he was speaking to Lieksa. He couldn’t shake the feeling it was important. The second he saw it, his pulse had kicked up a few beats per second and and his shoulder ached where he’d been shot. There was no way that was a coincidence. His subconscious was trying to tell him something.
He went round and round inside his head, chasing after-echoes of a memory until he couldn’t think straight. “Fraxx! I hate this. How do humans deal with such limited memory capacity?”
“They’ve never had perfect recall. You can’t miss what you’ve never experienced.”
“Insightful, but not very helpful right now,” he snapped.
“If you want, I could try hitting you upside the head. Maybe that would help.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not a medically sound approach to memory retrieval, asshole.”
“Probably not, but I’m here for you, my friend. Whatever it takes.”
A knock at the door cut off his reply. Since they were still at the club, there weren’t many people it could be, and all of them were owners with more right to be there than either he or Mack. He called out, loud enough to be heard through the metal door. “You don’t have to knock, you know. You do own the place.”
The door slid open, revealing their visitor to be someone unexpected. “As much fun as that would be, I don’t have time to run a bar. I have all these patients, you see. Some of whom are really lousy at taking my advice.”
“I thought you were off the clock,” Mack said to Alyson.
“I was, but Lieksa asked me to look in on Dash. She said you were struggling to remember something. Funny thing, I distinctly remember telling you not to force things. Your brain will heal at its own pace, Dash.”
“I don’t have the luxury of time, Doc. I need to remember. Now. Something I saw tonight triggered a memory, but I can’t quite pin it down. It’s important that I do.”
“Then sit down and let me try something. I don’t promise it will work, but it has a better shot at working than your current technique of pacing a hole in the deck-plating and beating yourself up.” Alyson pointed to an empty couch. “Sit.”
“Has anyone told you that you have the bedside manner of a Terran pit bull?” he asked as he took a seat exactly where she’d pointed. One thing he had learned while under Alyson’s care was that she would put up with a fair bit of backtalk, but only if it was accompanied by compliance.
“That’s a kind of canine, isn’t it? Do you really think now’s a good time to be insulting me?” She took a seat beside him.
&
nbsp; “I tried flirting with you, once. As I recall, that didn’t go so well, either.” The only woman he planned on flirting with from now on was their red-headed angel of mercy. Somehow, they were going to get past everything. They had to. The universe hadn’t brought the three of them together just to tear them apart again. He couldn’t believe that.
“You ever spy on either one of us again, she might shoot you herself. Then who's going to put you back together?” Alyson asked with a hint of a smile. “Now, close your eyes and get comfortable. This might take a while.”
Mack cleared his throat. “Anything I can do?”
“If he doesn’t stay still, you have my permission to restrain him. Otherwise, you’re fine where you are.”
Dash cracked open an eye. “I don’t remember you being this bloodthirsty.”
“You upset my friend. More than that, you hurt her. That’s a conversation from another time, however. I need you to be relaxed for this process to have any shot at working, and from what I’ve seen, your love life is not exactly a tranquil topic.
Okay, Dash, I want you to keep your eyes closed and try to relax. I’m going to talk you through a short breathing exercise to help with that.”
“I’m ready.” He did as he was told, inhaling and exhaling according to the calmly spoken instructions Alyson gave him. It wasn’t easy to stop thinking about things at first, but eventually, she declared him ready for the next step.
“Think back to the day you were wounded. Find the last complete memory you have of that day, and tell me about it. Try to use your real memory as much as you can. I know there’s going to be some overlap.”
Dash took a deep breath and thought back to the day of the raid. It was an inaccurate, messy process, but he got there eventually. It would have been far quicker to use his enhanced memory bank, but the doctor was right, that wasn’t going help him remember anything.
“We’re outside the main doors. Mack’s going over our assignments one last time. Movements. Targets. Goals. The team is restless. They want to get going. We’ve been planning this for more than a week. Everyone knows what they’re supposed to do.”
“They’re restless. How about you, Dash. How are you feeling?” Alyson asked.
“Adrenaline’s pumping. I’m on edge. Sharp and ready to go. Mack’s still talking, though. Reminding Len—Officer Daniels—his new assignment is to keep me in one piece.” Dash chuckled. “I’d forgotten about that. Guess he didn’t obey that order, huh, Mack?”
“He was wounded trying to follow those orders, so I think we’ll give him a pass,” Alyson said. “What else do you remember?”
“The door breach went perfectly. We go in. There should have been a deal going down, but the place appears empty. The team moves to their positions. I head for the stairs that lead up to the catwalk. My job is to get eyes on the whole area so I can send the data back to Mack. Len goes first. I follow. We make it about halfway up before anything else happens. This is where it starts to go fuzzy.”
“Stay in the moment, Dash. Think about what you can see and hear. Is there a smell? A sound? Where are you right now?”
“Metal. There’s cold metal under my hand.” He focused on the small details, and the memory grew clearer. “I’m on the ladder. We’re nearly to the catwalk. Len is above me. There’s a crash. Crates! I remember the crates being toppled. They’re blocking the door. Our primary exit is blocked. There’s comm chatter about it. Teams reporting in. A few more seconds and I’ll be in position. Len’s made it to the top. Once I join him, I’ll create the link between Mack and I, and—It was Len. Son of a starbeast, Len’s the one that shot me.” His memory was still imperfect, but he remembered enough to know what had happened. He climbed onto the catwalk, expecting Len to be in position already. Instead, his partner had a firearm pointed at his head.
“I always said it’s better to be lucky than good. Sorry, Dash. Today’s not going to be your lucky day.” He’d made that trigger pulling gesture with his off-hand and then opened fire.
His cyborg reflexes had saved his life. In the split second before the weapon fired, he charged at Len. The sudden change of position was enough to cause the first shot to hit his shoulder instead of blowing his face off. He remembered grappling with Len, but that was when his memory ended. The next thing he remembered was waking up in the medical center. It didn’t matter, though. What he did recall was more than enough.
His eyes snapped open, and he launched himself off the couch. “We need to find Len, now!”
Mack was already on his comm device. “Kit. We need you to locate Len Daniels. He was in the bar a little while ago. If he’s still there, let us know but do not approach. And tell Cynder she needs to bring Lieksa somewhere safe. Quickly and without raising suspicion.”
“Lieksa’s not here. She left a few minutes after she talked to the two of you,” Alyson said, her voice thick with worry.
“Where did she go? And what did Len say to her?” Dash’s heart was hammering a staccato beat against his ribs, and his stomach was full of bitter bile as he tried to come to terms with the fact that a friend had tried to murder him.
“He was asking about you. He wanted to know if she had come up with a way to restore your memory.” Alyson’s cheeks blanched, and she uttered a low, horrified moan. “She told him she might have thought of a way, and she’d know more tomorrow. Then she went to her workshop.”
“If he thinks she can repair my memory, he’ll go after her, tonight. The only reason I’m still alive right now is because he didn’t think I’d ever remember what happened. “
Mack grunted. “And because you and I left early that day and weren’t there when the bomb went off. “
Dash pulled out his comm device. “I’m calling her right now.”
Lieksa answered quickly, but her tone was ice cold and her expression stormy as she stared at the screen of her comms. “What do you want now?”
“I need you to tell me where you are, angel. Are you alone?”
“I’m on my way home, and Zale is with me.”
“Get home as quickly as you can and stay there. I need you to stay calm and not show any expression change, okay. Someone might be watching you right now. Len Daniels is the leak. He’s the one who shot me. You told him you were close to helping me, so it’s likely he’s going to be coming after you tonight.”
“This night keeps getting better,” she muttered, but her expression didn’t change.
“One of us will be there soon. Okay? We’re not going to let anything happen to you.”
She flashed him a brief smile, but her eyes were dark with worry. “Don’t let anything happen to you, either.”
“Send one of us a message once you’re safe. And tell Zale to keep his eyes open.”
“I will.”
Once he ended the communication with her, several things happened at once. Mack heard from Kit, who confirmed that Len wasn’t anywhere inside the Nova Club. Alyson checked her messages and found the one Lieksa sent regarding the recovered data, and relayed the find to them.
“So, right now our girlfriend is wandering the station with stolen data in her pocket and a killer on her trail.” Mack slammed his fist into a wall. “I’m going after Lieksa. Dash, you get to hunt down the asshole that shot you. Don’t let him do it again.”
“Don’t let him get near our girl.”
Mack nodded and vanished into the crowd, leaving Dash to start organizing the hunt for their teammate turned traitor and whoever was helping him. Someone killed Steven Crews and his wife while Len was still laid up in the med center, so he wasn’t working alone. Whoever it was, they were probably the ones who had killed their informants, too.
Dash continued contacting the team members still on the station and directed them to meet up at Corp-Sec headquarters. They’d have to take over one of the briefing rooms as a makeshift command center. Not that they were going to be there long. As soon as they had a list of places to hit, they were going to hunt Len down and brin
g him to justice before he could hurt anyone else.
* * * *
Mack didn’t often make use of Corp-Sec’s fleet of private transports, but tonight was an exception. He had to get to Lieksa as quickly as possible. He called for a pod to pick him up outside the club, and within minutes he was on his way. He tried to use the travel time to get a handle on his anger, but that wasn’t realistic. It would take a trip across the fraxxing galaxy and back before he’d be anywhere close to calm.
He was on high alert the entire trip, and the moment he stepped out of the pod, he had his hand on his firearm as he scanned the area.
He made the last leg of the trip on foot. Along the way, he passed Zale, who strolled along as if he didn’t have a concern in the world. They didn’t speak, but the half-Torski gave him a slight nod as he passed by. When this was over, Mack was going to buy that man a drink or six in appreciation.
The area around her doorway was completely clear. He activated the door chime and smiled when his comm device buzzed a few seconds later. It was Lieksa.
“Please tell me that’s you at my door right now,” she said in hushed tones.
“It’s me. You can let me in, there’s no one around.”
The door opened, and he was pleased to note she stayed off to one side and out of sight until the door sealed again behind him.
“Cubby, seal door. Security setting maximum,” she spoke aloud, and the in-house AI beeped in acknowledgment of her order. “We should be safe, now.”
“I’m going to add some additional security measures in a second, but first, I need to do this. You can add it to the list of things I need to apologize for later.” With that, he hauled her into his arms and covered her mouth with his.
She melted into his embrace with a sexy little sigh, her arms reaching up to twine around his neck. He pulled her in tight to his body, loving the way her body fit against his. He’d been a fool to distance himself from the one person who made him feel whole.
“I love you,” he whispered against her lips.