by Tamsin Ley
He shook his head. “You are assigning feelings where there are none. Twerp is a machine. We’re programmed to be logical. Once the AI understands Marlis is in danger, its programming will conclude that this is the best course of action.” He removed his hand from her shoulder and closed the flap of skin back over his chest, running a cybernetic finger along the seam to seal it in place.
She stared at his chest as the wound knitted itself back together, mesmerized by the way the blood reabsorbed into the surface and the scar lines faded. Perhaps Doug was right. He was a cyborg, after all.
Her attention rose to study his face. Metal jaw, human lips, cyborg eye—it all meshed together with an elegance she couldn’t help but admire. Feeling bold, she reached up and ran her fingers along the line where metal met flesh. “Why did you become a cyborg?”
He lifted a hand and encircled her fingers, stopping her caress without breaking her touch. The light in his cybernetic eye flickered as he took a breath. “I didn’t have a choice. Our parents died when we were eight. Lisa and I dug through garbage and picked pockets to survive. Eventually, one of the local gangs took us in. The old goat who ran things fancied herself a surgeon. She gave me my first black market implant so I could steal ID chits.”
Attie gasped. She thought that sort of thing only happened in the movies. “You were just children! Why didn’t the authorities take care of you?”
He shrugged as if it was nothing. “Nobody cares about slum rats on Whylon Station. But I was good at hacking, and when we turned fourteen, the cartel recruited us. Getting more cybernetic implants gave me an edge that kept Lisa and I alive. But I didn’t become a cyborg until after I came here.”
She shook her head. So that’s why Marlis had tried to rescue him. He was a slave in this lab, and his sister wanted him back. Just like I want Marlis back. “If you were with the cartel, how did you end up on a Syndicorp ship?”
“A job went bad. Lisa and I had to get out, and Syndicorp offered us a new life. I’m just glad Lisa escaped before she was turned into a cyborg, too.”
Attie’s chest ached. Doug had been forced to become a machine to survive. Now he was imprisoned by a corporation she was no longer certain she could trust. Helping him would probably sabotage any chance she had of returning to her career, but she knew she had to try.
“Marlis went about rescuing you the wrong way.” She put her free hand on his chest, feeling his skin shiver at her touch. “Our family has a lot of contacts. Once I’m out of here, I’ll go to the authorities and do everything I can to expose what’s going on. This could be a way to get our sisters back!”
He laughed bitterly. “Don’t be naïve. Syndicorp is the authorities. If you tell anyone, you’ll end up dead. Or worse.”
“But this lab is illegal—”
He stepped back, trying to free his hand from hers. “You can’t help.”
She refused to let go. She’d dealt with Marlis’s anxiety for ages and knew when to back off and when to keep pushing. “Escape with me now.”
Chapter 12
Doug had never yearned for freedom so much in his life. He was tempted to give in to Attie and escape with her, even if it meant he only had a day with her—or an hour. But as always, he had more to consider than his own desires. If he attempted to escape, all Dollard had to do was push a button, and the nanites inside Doug would boil his blood from the inside out. And if Doug was dead, who would protect his sister?
And equally important now—who would protect Attie?
“Stop,” he said through gritted teeth. He recognized that it’d been a mistake to tell her about his past. Talking about it had humanized him in her eyes, and he was no longer human. She shouldn’t—mustn’t—care about him.
“Please, Doug.” She squeezed his fingers reassuringly. “I—”
“No!” He jerked his hand out of her grasp. She was a law-abiding Syndicorp citizen—a trooper. He was little more than a criminal—even worse, a cyborg. He refused to drag her into his sordid world. “Our sisters can never come back, and I don’t want to be saved. The best way you can help is to destroy the AI as we discussed and forget you ever met me.”
“So you just want to stay here and rust?” She crossed her arms, making her words more challenge than question.
He refused to take the bait. Syndicorp owned more of his body than he did. He could never be free. Let her think what she would of him, as long as she was safe. “Yes, I do,” he ground out, gripping her arm. “We have to go now. The security officers change shifts soon.”
He opened the door again and pulled her through the Consort Chamber, heading toward the opposite door. She stumbled behind him in the dark, passing the alcove where the other woman slept as he moved them toward the opposite exit.
“Wait,” Attie said, trying to slow their pace. “What about Claudia?”
He kept his attention on the camera feed in the hallway where the guards stood watch. “Consorts come and go all the time. She won’t question your disappearance.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Attie fought against his grip. “They’ve got her hooked on drugs and prostituting herself. We need to get her out, too.”
Doug scowled. This was no time for Attie’s idealism. “She chose to be here.”
In the camera feed, he watched the guards move away from their post. They had a few precious moments when the hall would be empty. “Come. We’re out of time.”
Releasing her arm, he opened the door and stepped through. The empty hallway stretching to his right and left made him feel like a rat scurrying for cover as he pried open an access panel directly across the way. The dark service tunnel behind it was lined with pipes and conduits, barely wide enough for a man to pass through. He turned to usher Attie inside.
She was gone.
“Fuck.”
Behind him in the Consort Chamber, she was bent over the sleeping Claudia. “Hey,” she whispered, putting a hand on the woman’s shoulder.
No! He charged in and swept Attie over one shoulder. She let out a breathy squeak, her hands clawing his waist for balance. Claudia inhaled deeply and rolled over. He didn’t have time to wait and see if she’d woken. Pivoting, he dodged toward the service tunnel just as the whoosh of the door at the end of the hall met his ears. Yanking the panel closed behind them, he commanded the Consort Chamber door to close, too.
Then he waited breathlessly, listening to the guards’ approaching footsteps. Had they noticed the open door or the panel?
Attie squirmed on his shoulder, but thankfully didn’t speak. He remained still, watching the camera feed. That had been too close for his liking. Once he felt confident the guards hadn’t noticed, he lowered Attie back to her feet and immediately pressed a finger against her lips.
She huffed, but nodded in agreement.
Taking her by the shoulders, he turned her around and nudged her forward down the tunnel. He followed close behind, turning sideways to keep from catching against pipes and conduits.
Attie stepped cautiously through the dark tunnel, one hand feeling along the wall on her right.
He clenched his fists. The other cyborgs were back in their cells, waiting for the right moment to stage their revolt. But the moment Dollard realized he was missing, not only would Doug be terminated, the entire fleet would be put on alert. Perhaps he could create a distraction, something to hold Dollard’s attention elsewhere until he sneaked back in.
As he continued following Attie, he hacked into the cloning lab’s database. He tracked down Dollard’s current experiment and put a kink in the biometric data. Hopefully, the mixed up test results would keep Dollard and his team too busy to check on the cyborgs.
Ahead, he spotted the dark abyss of the elevator shaft. It was a good thing he was here with Attie, since he hadn’t explained the route, and she obviously couldn’t see. He reached out and caught her arm to stop her from plunging to her death.
She turned to face him. Her breathing was shaky, and splotches darkened her pale skin, all tinged gree
n by his cybernetic vision. She’s angry. Lisa used to have a similar reaction during arguments with him about escaping the cartel.
Before he realized what he was doing, he said, “After I see to your safety, I’ll devise a way to free your friend.”
It was a stupid promise—he didn’t even know if he’d be alive tomorrow, let alone live long enough to plan yet another escape. But the way Attie’s shoulders relaxed and her eyes softened increased his determination to follow through. He checked the camera in the labs, gratified to find the NIU empty as all the technicians gathered in the cloning lab.
Attie nodded. “Thank you. How do we get out of here?”
He had already been monitoring the camera feed inside the lift, waiting for it to be empty. It whooshed past the service tunnel opening, coming to a stop on the floor below them. “I’ve summoned the lift.” He guided Attie forward onto the cab’s ceiling and popped open the ceiling panel. “From here, simply take your usual route back to your quarters.”
He lowered her inside, but she remained looking up at him expectantly. “Aren’t you coming?”
He shook his head. “I can’t pass for human out there.”
“Sure you can. Turn off your eye and tuck that hand in your pocket.” She pointed to his cybernetic appendage. “No one will give you a second glance.”
He blinked. He had intended to stay in the service tunnel until the next guard shift. Hours of waiting, every second potentially his last. He looked at the long sleeve of his tunic and the cybernetic hand. Plenty of people had an implant or appendage but weren’t considered cyborgs. Could he truly pass for human?
He looked at Attie again. She nodded and held up her hand. Her encouragement melted the last of his resistance.
Turning off his cybernetic vision, he lowered himself into the cab next to her. The world looked flat using only his single human eye, and it made him uncomfortable, but he reminded himself it was only for a short while. A reminder of what it was like to be normal.
“Level six,” Attie said, and the car began to move.
To minimize potential contact with the ship’s crew, Doug commanded the car to bypass the other levels.
Staring at the door as if it was a gateway to hell, he took Attie’s hand. “If I suddenly drop dead, run as fast as you can and don’t look back.”
She looked at him with a horrified expression. “Why would you drop dead?”
“If anyone realizes I’m gone, they’ll destroy the nanites in my body. I’ll burn up from the inside out. I don’t want you anywhere near me when they track me down.”
She made a choking sound. “That’s why you can’t leave?”
“One reason, yes.”
“But you seem able to control everything else. Isn’t there a way for you to stop him?”
He shook his head. “No. I’ve tried to hack the device, but the codes are too tightly integrated. Any alterations would trigger an immediate self-destruct.”
The doors opened, and Attie guided him blithely past two crew members busy in conversation. The precariousness of their situation made his heart beat faster. Or perhaps it was due to her soft hand in his as they sauntered down the hall together as if they were lovers. Venturing into the Icarus’s main hallways had to be the single most idiotic thing he’d ever done, including that time he’d tried to pickpocket a rakwiji bounty hunter in a bar. There must be something wrong with my circuits.
The corridors weren’t wide, but they provided more space than he’d had in a very long time. Every turn they made, every door they passed made Doug pull Attie tighter against him. By the time they reached her quarters, he had his arm around her shoulders and his chin touching her hair.
She opened her door and ushered him inside, letting the door shush closed behind them.
For a long moment they just stood there, breathing hard as they stared at her empty room. He’d seen her quarters plenty of times on camera, but standing here in person made him feel funny inside, as if he’d just brought her home from a date rather than helped her escape from a secret, maximum security lab.
The air smelled of everything Attie, and the warmth of her body against his side made his groin harden. She turned toward him and let out a long, relieved sigh, her gaze like gravitons pulling him in. This was the last time he would ever be near her. The last time he experienced the smell of her hair, the softness of her lips, the fathomless blue of her eyes.
He wanted to memorize everything about her. So even though he knew they were running out of time, knew he risked undoing the precarious trust he’d built—he lowered his head and kissed her.
Chapter 13
Attie hadn’t let go of Doug’s arm when they stepped inside her quarters. He needs grounding, she told herself. But she couldn’t deny there was a part of her that wanted to keep touching him, too. Everything she’d believed—about her sister, Syndicorp, her own life, even—had shattered since yesterday. And now Doug could be killed at any minute. All in order to keep her safe. He was putting everything on the line to protect her.
The first kiss both startled and thrilled her. Where their previous kisses had been a frantic, bruising collision of mouths, this time his lips were feather light. He dipped his head toward her mouth again, and her insides trembled. She slid her arms around his hips.
There wasn’t time for this, but she wanted it. Wanted him.
He turned into her, cupping her face with both hands as he lavished her with his kiss, tongue prodding her to open. She rose on her toes to meet him, heat flooding through her. Dragging his cybernetic fingertips down her ribs to her hip, he pulled her against him with a deep sexy sound in his throat. She could feel how hard and ready he was through their clothing.
Leaving her mouth, he pressed kisses along her jaw and down her throat. His touch was like a spark hitting rocket fuel, igniting shivers along her skin. Her pussy grew slick as his human hand roamed down her bare midriff, then up beneath her skimpy top. He gripped her breast, fingers massaging her flesh until her nipple ached. Between her shoulder blades, his cybernetic hand bunched the fabric of her shirt. The sound of tearing fabric met her ears, and the top opened down her back. She let the fabric slide free of her arms as he backed them both toward her bed.
He gripped her hips and pivoted, laying her out on the mattress. She let out a surprised breath as he yanked both skirt and panties down her legs in one smooth motion.
He was still fully clothed, but his erection looked like it might tear through his pants at any moment. How big was he? She needed to see him. Sitting up, she reached for his drawstring. “You, too.”
Brushing her hands aside, he planted one knee on the mattress between her legs. He placed both hands on her thighs and spread them, holding her open to his gaze for a long, lingering moment. Inch by inch, his cybernetic gaze crawled upward, lingering on her pussy before moving over her belly and breasts, finally coming to rest on her face as if cataloging every millimeter of her body.
“Gorgeous.” He licked his lips, the hinge of his metal jaw catching the light as it moved.
She trembled, swallowing hard as he lowered his head between her thighs. He gave her slit a long, firm lick and she moaned, closing her eyes, her breath coming in pants.
Pinning her to the bed with his cybernetic hand, he flicked his tongue slowly between her folds and over her clit, sending jolts of pleasure through her. She clawed her fingers into his hair as he increased the tempo.
A finger prodded her opening, dipping into her shallowly before circling again, dipping and circling. Her legs trembled, and she bucked against him, needing more. Then he plunged the finger inside, pulling out in a long curved stroke against her upper wall. She clenched as he penetrated her again all the way to his knuckles. In and out he stroked, bringing her toward climax with dizzying speed.
All at once, she crested, body arching upward and waves of release pulsing through her. He continued stroking until he’d wrung every ripple of her orgasm from her. Slumping limply against the mattre
ss, she tried to catch her breath as the waves of intense pleasure subsided. She was vaguely aware that he now lay with his cheek against her abdomen.
Reaching down, she placed one hand on his metal jaw. “Now you,” she said, not sure she had the energy to do anything, but knowing she wanted to.
He kissed her belly and shook his head. “That’s all right.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I’m a cyborg. I’m okay.”
“No, you’re not.” She sat up and looked pointedly at his bulging crotch. “Come here, I want to feel you.”
A pained look crossed his features. “I’m um, not sure I… function anymore. I was in an accident.”
She raised an eyebrow. “From what I can see, it seems to be operational.” She pushed him off her. “Take your clothes off.”
When he made no move to undress, she reached for his pants. He let her untie the drawstring, but before she could pull them down, he caught her wrists. Undaunted, she leaned forward and caught the fabric between her teeth, pulling the waistband down around his hips. It caught on his shaft, but he didn’t move to free it. His hips were exposed now, the V from his abdomen meeting the crease above his thighs. He was completely hairless, and she might’ve missed the subtle transition from true flesh to synth skin if she hadn’t been this close. He has cybernetic legs.
Was his cock an implant, as well? Was this what he meant when he’d said he wasn’t sure it worked? Part of her wanted to stop now, before she embarrassed herself, but the stronger part of her was determined to see this through.
He still clutched her wrists, body rigid as he stared down at her, so she continued using her teeth, tugging the fabric insistently downward until his erection came free. She wasn’t terribly familiar with male genitalia, but he didn’t look like synth skin there. But he is huge. His girth was almost as big as her wrist, the shaft long and slightly curved toward its tip. A bead of pre-cum sat like a pearl at its slit.
Her heart thundered against her ribs. He looked a bit too perfect to be human, but he smelled warm and musky, with a hint of that whiskey-like scent she’d noticed earlier. She took the crown into her mouth, swiping the bead clear with her tongue.