On Will’s demand, the men ordered the New World Companions to follow. Meara looked at the transport, thought about how to disable it, but then got a better idea.
“This way,” she said to Will.
She climbed into the thing and started it up. There was only one big problem with her plan to steal the craft. She couldn’t fly the fecking thing.
Luckily, Will followed her inside, dragging both scientists by the arm. Both New World Companions followed closely behind them. Meara’s eyes widened. The men had said nothing to the women. Maybe they didn’t know what the New World Companions were trained to do… outside being live sex toys for them.
“We have them all. What now?” Will asked.
Meara smiled, looked at the men, and pointed at the women. She spoke in the friendliest voice she could manage. The New World Companions merely stared at her. “Hi there, gentlemen whose guts I hate. Give the shutdown code for your New World Companions and send them into hibernation.”
“Nein.”
“Willst du sterben?” Meara asked in German. “Because I’ll be more than happy to do the fecking honors of ending your pathetic female-abusing lives. Now do as I say before I have to get ugly.”
The one who’d said nothing up to that point hurriedly gave the shutdown command to the women. Meara made a face and glared when the women moved to the cargo area and stretched out on the floor.
“The fecking floor? I really detest you sadistic bastards,” Meara said, wishing she could punch the two of them.
“Are you still affected by the commands?” Will asked.
“No—thank the Goddess,” Meara said firmly. “Aja fixed us so we wouldn’t be hurting over them, and then Nero really fixed us so we could ignore them completely, but the commands remain in our permanent storage. There’s no deleting them without complications we don’t want.” She waved a hand to the console. “Can ya fly this fecking craft, Will?”
“Sure. Can’t you?” Will asked.
Meara rolled her eyes. “Would I be asking ya if I could? I swear ya ask more questions than I do. Tell ya what… you fly this thing and I’ll tie up our geeks. How does that sound?”
Will moved to the console and looked at the controls. It had been awhile, but he could manage. “Thought you were going to destroy their means of escape, not appropriate it.”
Meara glared at him for throwing her own words back at her. “I was going to, but then I realized we needed to get them away from the fecking place. I saw ya lying there for bait and figured it would work out. I knew ya would have them in yer hands when the time was right.”
“That was a lot of assumptions,” Will said.
Meara snorted. “And yet here we fecking are. How about that? There are more New World Companions somewhere in that place because I saw four of them training in the yard when I was spying, but at least we got two of them. That’s more than we had watching and doing nothing.”
She looked at the men and grunted. “Bastarde.”
“Nein. We are there to help the scientists with important work,” one said in perfect English.
Meara pointed at the New World Companions. “Those scientists make female slaves for a living? That’s not science—that’s black-market work for hire. You deserve to die for what ya’ve done to them… or suffer the same fate and see how ya like being turned off and on at someone’s whims.”
Both males turned white at the threat of being turned to cyborgs.
“What’s the matter, boys? Did ya think ya had the whole market on cyber science? I used to be one of those females too. Now I’m looking to get even. So ya bastards better not piss me off.”
“You? Prototype AI?” the other asked in sketchy English.
Meara picked up a nearby canister. She unscrewed it and looked inside. Smelling it, she realized it had only held food. Meara looked at both men while she squashed the canister and formed it into a metal ball. They swallowed hard and stared.
“No. I’m not a fecking AI. I’m a female cyborg who escaped ya fecking bastards. Now I want to rip off yer dicks and do this to yer heads. I’m also a woman with a mind, not some fecking toy for yer amusement. Neither are they.” She pointed to the hibernating women again.
“Not androids?” the first asked as if it were the first time the thought crossed his mind.
Meara saw the two scientists turn to each other and start talking rapidly in their native language. Both seemed agitated and were arguing about the women on the plane. They were either good at acting or they honestly thought the New World Companions were nothing more than very sophisticated bots. She’d bet her new com station that neither was a New World Companion programmer or they would have known how to get the females to set off a distress signal. Of course, she imagined that was going to activate anyway if they went beyond the boundary of the property without proper clearance.
“Look for a place to put down near the neural shut-off perimeter,” Meara ordered.
“Why?” Will asked.
“If we go any further, they’re for sure going to know we nabbed them because the New World Companions will start calling for help, even in hibernation. We’ll wait there for Aja and the others.”
Meara went over and knelt. She put a hand on each female’s chest and felt her heartbeat. It was very slow—the normal condition during hibernation—but at least steady in both. For a moment, she’d hoped she and Will had made a terrible mistake. She’d hoped they had been a new kind of realistic AI bot. She wouldn’t have minded being wrong.
“They’re both just as human as I am,” Meara said sadly. “Or at least they once were.”
Both scientists drew in a sharp breath. “We did not know. Wir haben nicht gewusst. Androids,” they insisted.
“Save yer breath. I don’t believe ya didn’t know,” Meara said, putting a gag in the first one’s mouth. “But then I don’t believe most people who wear white lab coats out in public like they’re so fecking proud of what they do to people like me.”
After securing the other one, Meara glared at them both before heading to take the seat next to Will. The scientists were now secured. The New World Companions continued to hibernate.
Despite the ease of their success in now having at least two of the New World Companions, Meara continued to fume. She didn’t dare send any communication to Aja or Lucy. It was best everything appeared normal as if the air transport had encountered no problems at all.
“I could bring the women around with an activation command,” Meara said, frowning over the memories of once being in their situation. “But it would be next to impossible to control their actions since they’re obviously programmed for those two scientist dorks. They’re saying they genuinely thought the women were a new kind of android. How could they be such eejits? What kind of scientists are they?”
“I don’t think they’re scientists at all,” Will said. “According to the transport’s registration, they’re engineers. But the facility is a UCN science center.”
“Engineers.” Meara thought of Rio Rodriguez. “Why were they wearing white lab coats then? They look like Kyra and Nero—or doctors of some sort.”
“I don’t know. Bad fashion sense maybe?” Will suggested.
Meara laughed. “Goddess, was that actually another joke, Will? Yar up to like two now.”
“Was what I said a joke?” Will asked, thinking about it. “Huh. Maybe it was a joke. I wasn’t aware of it. I was just… answering. My thinking has been going to strange places lately.”
Meara blinked her eyes to stop thinking about what Will was thinking. That curiosity could only lead to madness. She had no time for such foolishness now that they’d taken hostages.
“Now I really want to know what’s going on inside that facility,” she said.
“I don’t.”
“Ya don’t?”
Will looked up and into Meara’s surprised face. “No.”
“Can I know why?” she asked, her eyebrows high in surprise under her face covering.
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“Because I don’t trust myself not to make them pay for my past sins as well as their current ones.”
Meara looked off as Will set the transport smoothly down. “I hear ya, but ya would be behind me in the ass-kicking line.”
Will looked at Meara. “No, I’d be running ahead of you. That way if you’re up all night because of regret, I’ll be awake to keep you company.”
Meara snorted. “Never looked at gender equality quite that way before. That’s sweet of ya, Will.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Will asked, his mouth quirking inside his mask. “Guess I’m an old-fashioned kind of guy.”
Hours after they’d kidnapped the engineers and rescued the two New World Companions, there was still no armed cyborg posse charging to their rescue. She was starting to worry now. Aja had been gone for nearly twelve hours.
Meara looked at the hibernating women and sighed. She hoped they weren’t programmed with an auto-wake time.
Needing to breathe real and unfiltered air for a bit, she and Will had rolled their masks out of the way until most of their faces showed.
Two hours into their waiting, she’d given the engineers a little something she and Aja used from time to time to make their victims sleep. The engineers would have a terrific headache when they woke up in a day or so, but they wouldn’t be in anyone’s way in the meantime.
Watching captives sleep was boring. She’d always been better at waiting than Aja was, but even she had a limit. “I’m going to make another pass around the perimeter and see what’s happening,” she said to Will, standing and stretching.
“Here then,” Will said, reaching out his hand.
Meara took something from Will’s fingers that looked like a small disc. “What’s this?”
“Old fashioned tracker that uses low radio frequency instead of high-frequency transfers. Its presence on you shouldn’t set off any alarms. They were barely being used when I joined the military. I imagine they’re all but obsolete now,” Will said. “Attach it to your clothing. Tap it if you get in trouble. An alarm will sound inside the transport. I found them among the emergency supplies.”
“Nearly every inch of this outfit already has a weapon hidden in it. Where do ya suggest I put the fecking tracker?”
“That’s a loaded question. Are you sure you want me to answer?” Will asked.
Meara was looking for a place to put it when Will reached out and dragged her to him by the black cloth belt holding her clothing closed. She didn’t protest his action or complain when he stood to get more leverage for his hands, which were busy attaching the device to her waist.
Meara peered up into his serious face once again aware of how much bigger he was than her. Will wasn’t the most handsome man she’d ever known, though it didn’t hurt to look at him. If that had been her only point of attraction, Meara would have never given him a second thought. But there was something about Will that drew her—something rugged and masculine—something that made her feel safe.
Yeah, that was exactly it. William Talon made her feel safe—normal even. Fecking weird, she knew, especially as messed as he was. Outside of Lucy, Will was a messed up as a cyborg could be.
“If you keep staring at me so hard, I’m going to have to act on what that stare motivates me to do,” Will warned.
Snorting, Meara narrowed her gaze. “Do I inspire ya to be naughty, Captain Serious?”
“Yes,” Will said as he smiled. The facial movement was still rare enough for his face to be surprised by those muscles being used. He leaned down and pressed his lips lightly to Meara’s.
Meara lifted an eyebrow as Will straightened away from her. “That’s how fecking inspired ya are? I kiss strangers with more passion. Bloody hell, Will.”
Will laughed at her complaining. “My idea of naughty is going to require lots of time and privacy. Be careful and be safe while you’re prowling around this place.”
Will sunk back into the seat and was startled when Meara draped herself across his lap. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Getting some relief. Ya got me churned up with that little lip-pecking kiss of yers,” Meara said, her mouth seeking and finding his.
In under a minute, their kiss went from nice to ache-relieving to blistering hot with real desire. Their mouths locked desperately in exploration of the passion rising between them. Will finally pulled his mouth away but used his hands to urge Meara deeper into his lap. Her groan as she slid across his thighs was like music to his ears.
Being so aware of Meara’s arousal made him feel like a normal man again. He kissed her temple in gratitude. Her sigh of pleasure had him putting both arms around her and holding her close.
They sat like that for a very pleasurable seven point nine minutes—just being together. He listened to her heartbeat and felt comforted by its steady, even sound. He assumed she was listening to his. It was strange to feel so much in sync with another cyborg.
“Now you got me churned up too. I want to take you to bed, Meara,” he said.
“Good. I prefer all my sex to be mutual. Do ya need me to take care of ya again so ya won’t be distracted?” Meara asked in a whisper.
“Yes,” Will whispered back, sliding his hand up the inside of her thigh and using his fingers to brush against the intimate heat he found. “When it can be reciprocal for both of us. I want everything you want to give me.”
Her insides curled in delicious arousal and it made her want to purr. “Can ya be more specific, William? I’d really, really like to hear the details of what ya want from me. I think ya’ll find I’m surprisingly good at taking orders in the right set of circumstances, such as now when those magical fingers of yers are playing between my legs.”
Chuckling at her flirty speech, Will reluctantly moved his hand and slid it under her butt to boost her off his lap. “Go, before I forget we’re on a rescue mission.”
A now standing Meara blinked and looked around. “Fecking-A, Will. We have to save these two New World Companions. I got carried away with ya and nearly forgot what was going on.”
Will grabbed her arm to keep Meara from running away after that admission. “Good. I want you to do that with me. I mean that. When we have real time.”
Meara nodded. “Right. I believe ya.”
“Good. I want you to believe me,” Will said, letting go.
Meara took a step to leave him again. When he made no further move to stop her, she didn’t stop until she’d cleared the door of the transport.
9
Another two hours passed uneventfully. Meara’s inner alarms were starting to sound. There was only one reason Aja wouldn’t have returned by now, but she refused to dwell on it without proof.
“I need to get far enough away from here to send a message to Lucy. If we take the transport and leave, ya can bet they’ll lock that place down as tight as they can. Since we may have to go in alone, that wouldn’t be good.”
“Are you worried they somehow got hold of Aja?” Will asked.
Meara nodded. “I am. She was distracted when she left us. I didn’t tell ya, but she was hiding in the woods and watching us. After nearly killing her, I shooed her off, but I didn’t check that she left for certain. What I do know is that she wouldn’t leave me here this long if it were in her power to return. If Peyton hadn’t been on board with coming back, she’d have come back anyway. Lucy might have even risked it too. Ya said it’s been over twelve hours since she left, right?”
“Right. Go where you have to and call Lucy,” Will commanded.
“I’ll do it now.” Meara lowered her face mask into place and took off at a run. She stopped at the two-mile range. She had a com, but that common signal would be picked up instantly. Her most reliable communication bounced off satellites and would randomly hit targets. In learning to avoid it, she and Aja had also learned how to use its randomness to their advantage.
“Feck, I hate doing this. Yar lucky I love ya, Aja Kapur.” Breathing deep, Meara bent over and closed h
er eyes. Swearing at the pain it caused her to activate that part of her old processor, she sent out a distress call.
Restless for reasons she couldn’t explain fully but believed were connected to Aja and Meara being away, Lucy paced up and down the hallways of Norton, waiting on Eric to finish his work so they could leave. Not having found something productive yet to do with her own time, she’d been hanging out in the cybernetic repair lab lately. She’d enjoyed watching Seetha and Rachel make cybernetic repairs to soldiers and enjoyed seeing the happiness they brought to those cyborgs they fixed.
When she’d commented on Rachel’s self-taught talents, Seetha had confided to her about Rachel’s growing interest in what they were doing and how much learning the girl had done in the last few months. Apparently, the girl’s calculations since her redefinition were getting more accurate than Seetha’s.
Lucy suspected Rachel had Kyra to thank for her brain’s sudden ability to learn so fast, which was odd really since Kyra took a lot of measures to actually restore a cyborg’s humanity instead of just enhancing their abilities. She was always curious about Kyra’s motivations because the cyber scientist was not easy to figure out. Kyra seemed to answer to some higher goal she’d set for herself. Nero and Peyton were the only ones who came close to understanding the woman.
When the old New World Companion communication signal pinged loudly in her mind, the incredible pain of accessing it sent Lucy to the floor. Of course, it had to be Peyton Elliot coming toward her the very minute her knees landed on the hallway tiles. Snorting at the irony and sighing in frustration, Lucy took deep breaths as she worked to deal with the message coming through.
She was still mad at Peyton for making Eric cave to his demands for information about Aja and Meara. She didn’t like the idea of Eric’s loyalty being split between her and Peyton.
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