“There’s no way of knowing who or what got terminated either, but even AIs don’t usually use those terms about something made of metal. AIs get shut down and packed in crates. And the guards used the term hibernate with the ones being moved.” Meara pointed at the New World Companions. “That’s what cyber scientists call what they’re doing.”
“Meara, I’m not trying to argue the validity of you wanting to rescue those females. I’m just stating my concerns that we’re outnumbered and low on resources for what you’re suggesting.”
“Oh, I hear ya loud and clear. Ya certainly don’t have to agree with helping me stop whatever is about to commence,” Meara said, her jaw tight. “If ya don’t want to risk yer precious arse, I’ll go spying and see if I can figure out who—or what—is being taken away from here and where the feck they’re going. I’ll collect all the information I can so I can go after them later.”
“Will you give me a fucking break?” Will demanded, hearing himself yell. He had to take a deep breath to quell his need to rant. The woman always thought the worst of him. “I’m not saying no to your request.”
Meara snorted. “Like ya didn’t say no to your former wife’s tearful pleas for yer help?” She turned away from Will, no longer able to hold his gaze. Goddess, how she hated his ambivalence. Had the man no passion in him? No anger over what others in the world were using cybernetics to do?
Meara drew in a breath and finally turned back to glare. “I was looking for Rio Sanchez when I found the New World Companions. This place is his last known location, which means Sanchez might still be in that place. Or he might be among those being moved today. Or, Goddess forbid, he could be among those who have already been terminated. I’m not going to think about the ones the bots said got delayed because they couldn’t yet travel. It makes me hurt all over to imagine what’s going on with them.”
She sighed and felt keen disappointment. “I can’t stand by and let what happened to cyborgs like us happen to others if I can stop it. I’d rather die trying to save them.”
“And what happens if they get hold of you again, Meara? What if they turn you into a weapon against your own kind? They can program you to hunt down anyone they want. Is that a risk you’re willing to take?”
Meara had long suspected that, like most restored cyborgs, Will’s worst fears were of the past repeating itself. She let her gaze drop from his so he wouldn’t be so quick to know her feelings. She and Will were in such different places in their thinking. She couldn’t see any way to close that gap in time for them to reach any sort of real agreement about what to do.
Meara pushed off her mask and her head covering. She wanted him to see the sincerity on her face. “Everything I’ve done in my life has been a risk for me, Will. I didn’t know what I was getting into when I agreed to become a cyborg and I’m still discovering the depths of mankind’s treachery in misusing technology. But yar going to have to take my word for it that it’s worse for women.”
“Worse than becoming a murder weapon for a madman? Because I’m living proof there are no limits to what they can do to your brain. I’m done with killing on demand.”
Meara nodded. “I understand yer reluctance to face what they’ve made ya become.”
Will was silent. She could see he still didn’t know how to respond to sympathy.
“Maybe ya could say it’s all a matter of apples and oranges about what’s happened to cyborgs, but in my humble opinion… yes, things are worse for the females,” Meara said, mildly glaring at him for not innately empathizing. “Ya see… they didn’t just turn women into respectable cyber wives or murderers. No. And I mean no disrespect to yer torment, but after all I’ve had done to me and seen happen to other cyborg females, I much prefer having buckets of blood on my hands. I can live with those nightmares.”
“You remember everything they did to you, don’t you?” Will asked, for what he imagined was the hundredth time. His mind couldn’t grasp that Meara retained memories of so many sordid things without feeling as insane as he often did about his own recollections. How did she set it aside and make jokes all the times?
“No. They made sure I didn’t remember their abuse of my body. They considered that to be a fix to every male’s problem of women saying no to sex on demand. Instead of letting us recall the details of our own encounters, they made the whole lot of us watch from our cages while seven of our guards got to do whatever they wanted to an all but comatose Lucy one day.”
Meara stopped to take a deep breath. She fecking hated talking about it. Remembering it was bad enough.
“Their tactic was meant to make us afraid of suffering the same fate as Lucy, and it worked on some. In the rest of us though, it bred a kind of hatred no amount of cybernetic tweaking could bury deep enough. That was their mistake with females like Aja and me. Eventually, Aja killed four of those guards who’d abused Lucy. I took out the other two first chance I got. Still… I was helpless to save Lucy from going through what she did at the time it happened to her. Aja and I both vowed never to feel that way again if we could prevent it.”
Meara pointed at the New World Companions while staring at Will. “Regardless of what ya choose to do, I’ve got to do what I can to change their fate—even if it means my death. Lucy took that fecking shit on herself to keep it from happening to those of us in cages. Maybe I’m trying to pay it forward—if ya believe in that kind of thing.”
Will nodded, trying hard not to think about Lucy—a decorated Army captain—being treated that way. Was everything they told soldiers from the beginning all just lies? Kyra had admitted as much but he… what? He reminded himself that one of the two masterminds of the Cyber Soldier Program was the person admitting it. Who would better know?
Once again, he got a glimpse of the depth of horrors he’d been spared by his storage being flushed so often, even with all the problems that had brought. Yet not remembering the process of killing them didn’t mean all his victims weren’t just as dead.
His past was what it was and nothing anyone did was going to change what he’d done—without or without the memories constantly assailing his mind.
Inside him was a violent creature held tight by a cybernetic leash that Will would not let loose if he could find ways to avoid it. But he was finally seeing that nearly every cyborg had a stranglehold on their darker side, maybe especially the female ones.
Yet Meara wasn’t worried about her past. No, she seemed to think the only thing that mattered was now—today—and what they chose to do in the next couple of hours. Will didn’t see how current righteousness could undo anyone’s past wickedness, but she wasn’t giving him any time to ponder such questions.
At that moment, Meara was in the process of arming herself with her bow and arrows. She intended to go without him and he had no doubts she would. But he couldn’t let her do that. They might not have what any rational person would consider a relationship, but despite his efforts to stay aloof, he now felt about Meara the way she felt about the New World Companions. If there was any redemption for his soul, it was in how protective he felt toward the tiny cyborg female who was fiercely passionate in ways he’d never seen anyone be.
Will cleared his throat. “I still say taking more prisoners is logistically impossible with only the two of us. We’re going to need armed backup to do that. How about this instead? I’ll help you stop the transport from leaving. That way they’ll be here if or when help arrives.”
Meara nodded tightly at Will’s suggestion. “Peyton and his people are not going to sit by when they hear nothing from us. Trust me. Eric keeps tabs on all cyborgs for just that purpose. They’ve got us fecking tagged like a person would their pets… and I’m not talking about Norton or the UCN when I say that.”
“Tagged with tracking mechanisms? Are you sure?” Will demanded.
Meara sighed. “Yes, I’m sure. Aja and I got rid of the ones put in us during our original conversion. A short while ago Aja found one in her cybernetic hand. That got
me to looking and I found one behind my left ear. Nero’s been the only cyber scientist working on us. If we’d removed them, ya can bet yer arse someone on Peyton’s team would have fecking known as soon as it was done.”
“Are you telling me Kyra and Nero installed trackers in all the cyborgs they restored?”
Rolling her eyes at Will’s genuine surprise after all he’d suffered in his cybernetic life, Meara turned and headed out of the transport. “Tell yerself they’re the good guys, Will. That’s what I do. It helps to put a damper on yer physical urges to throttle anyone wearing a white lab coat.”
Remembering Peyton pointing the blaster cannon at him during his redefinition, Will snorted at Meara’s suggestion and how on-target it was. He shook his head as he turned to gather up his gear and whatever else he could find that might work as a weapon.
11
Meara slid her cybernetic eye enhancer over her head covering. With it, she could see long distances and keep an eye on what they would be bringing out of the place.
“My eyes are still human. I need to get one of those,” Will whispered.
Reaching into one of the black folds across her chest, she pulled out a spare and handed it over. “It took Aja years to admit to me that she had a cybernetic eye. I got in the habit of carrying two around because all that time I thought she needed one as well.”
Will took the device from her fingers and put it on while looking with his other eye at the front of Meara’s clothes where she kept pulling things out. “I’m starting to think your stealth outfit is a great idea. What else are you carrying in there?”
“Just yer average, everyday set of female tatas,” Meara whispered back.
“They were well above average from what I remember feeling,” Will mumbled. “I hope I live long enough to see them and make sure.”
Meara glared at him through her mask. “The enemy’s breathing down our necks. Yer libido’s got bad timing.”
William grunted. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
They both went silent when the saw a large air transport fly in to land. It looked like an old military medical carrier that had been repurposed. Two human males dressed in matching dark uniforms exited and headed to the facility.
“The emblem on their jackets has a globe with something running around it. I don’t think they’re Norton employees,” Meara observed.
“No,” William coldly, recognizing the symbols. “That’s the symbols of the UCN elite guard, like the ones who protect the chancellors.”
“Those fecking dirty bastards don’t deserve to be protected. What kind of men sign up for such a task?” Meara asked.
“Don’t be too quick to judge them. Those pilots could just be pawns in a bigger chess game,” Will noted. He pointed to the transport. “That’s not exactly top-of-the-line these days. Somebody’s on a tight budget.”
Meara shrugged and went back to looking. “They fecking know what’s going on here or they wouldn’t be transporting cyborgs that should be running free.
“You don’t know they’re cyborgs.”
“Are ya thinking they’re here to move hibernating bears?”
Will shrugged. “I’m just saying we shouldn’t assume too much.”
Meara snorted. “Well, I’m not buying it. That old medical transport landed smooth so someone’s been maintaining it. Know anything about those carriers?”
“As a matter of fact, I learned to fly in one of those machines. Before I was promoted to captain, I worked in the medical field for a while. They set those up as airborne medical centers. Before cyborgs got involved in the war, those vehicles saw a lot of wounded humans.”
“Goddess, airborne medical centers are practically ancient, Will. How old are ya?”
Will turned a glare her direction. “Not that damn old.”
“Right, grandpa. Can ya make sure that bloody thing doesn’t fly away with the hibernating bears ya think they’re going to be transporting?”
“Yes,” Will said firmly. He smacked her shoulder. “And don’t call me grandpa. How old are you?”
“I’m not thirty yet. I was converted in my early twenties. With all the reverse engineering they did to make me youthful and appealing, I’m probably about eighteen in cyborg years. Interested in robbing the cradle, are ya?”
“Maybe.” Will blew out a breath. “I guess I am old enough to be your father. My oldest son is over twenty now.”
“Well, ya don’t look that old,” Meara said quietly. She peeked at him. “Want me to call ya Daddy? I know some men yer age like feeling all mature and experienced between the sheets.”
“I will spank you and not in a good way. Don’t even think about it,” Will said in warning.
Meara’s soft giggle released some tension in both of them.
Being relaxed for those few seconds sent Will’s gaze scanning the grounds to see if anyone might have overheard their teasing exchange. Whatever security measures they had in place here was keeping all the animals away. The only cover sounds were the air recycling units of the facility and its power generator.
“Whatever we do to the carrier needs to look like a standard malfunction.”
Meara nodded. “An innocent breakdown sounds grand.”
“How much faith do you have in Peyton showing up?”
Meara shrugged. “Not as much as I have in Lucy, but Eric thinks Peyton can do no wrong.”
“Marines,” Will said flatly. “They bond like brothers.”
“Brothers let each other have a life. From what I’ve observed, Eric can’t seem to make a decision without him unless it involves Lucy. I think he sees Peyton as some sort of father figure.”
“Do you see Peyton as a father figure or something else?” Will asked.
Meara snickered. “Why? Are ya jealous?”
“Not jealous exactly. It’s more like Peyton and I are the same age.”
Meara turned twinkling eyes to him. “Well, no one would guess that. Ya look younger than Peyton. I think it’s yer leaner build.”
“My cybernetics are programmed for agility instead of massive strength. I’m not sure how Kyra managed to increase my strength without increasing my muscle mass.”
“Yer muscles will grow eventually, but ya won’t bulk up like other cyborgs. I’m guessing ya got the female body-building program. Not that I’m saying yar feminine. I’m just saying they know how to keep ya lean. I like ya that way. Most massively muscled cyborgs make me feel like a child next to them. It’s bad enough being short.”
Will snorted at her piss-poor description of his manliness. “I definitely wouldn’t want you to feel like a child with me, but I would like you to at least think I was at least as half-ass masculine as someone like Peyton.”
Meara giggled again. “Are ya one of those guys who gets off on danger? Ya haven’t stopped flirting with me in an hour.”
“I don’t know what I am anymore,” Will said, wondering what he’d said that constituted as flirting to Meara.
“Well, let’s live long enough to find out, shall we?”
“Agreed,” Will answered. He pointed at the transport. “The navigation is the weakest part of that thing. If I broke that, it would report a no-fly message when they started it and delay their departure if they’re following flight rules. I can’t promise you it will stop them from leaving, but they won’t be able to tell their ride’s been jacked. That keeps us in stealth mode until Peyton and his guys get here, right?”
Meara would rather have planned to kill the bastards and fly the rescued ones to safety, but she didn’t think she was going to get any killing out of Will. “Do what ya can,” she said finally.
Nodding once, Will turned and began to move quietly toward the transport.
Meara got out one of her death arrows and the bow she’d made for herself. It was perfectly balanced to work with her cyborg strength and lightweight enough keep discreetly tucked under her clothes. The bow was her choice of weapon whenever the fight was at a distance, but
only one arrow in her quiver was going to take down those AI guards. And she only had two of them. Now those human bastards flying the craft Will was jacking with? Well, her death arrows would do the trick in a couple seconds.
Meara was dreaming about future weapons when she saw the AI guards outside the facility both hustle to hold doors open for the two guys in UCN uniform. Each pushed a two-tier levitating medical cart with people in the body pods. Four was nearly half of the nine they’d mentioned. At this rate, they’d be done in another fifteen minutes.
Even from this distance, Meara could hear the human heartbeats of their cargo. Being in hibernation meant the people being transported were most likely new or redefined cyborgs… or New World Companions.
Will hadn’t returned from his destructive mission yet. Meara chewed her lip and watched in amazement as the UCN guards ran the levitating carts right up into the carrier. She listened fearfully but didn’t hear any loud sounds coming from inside.
Three minutes later the UCN guards came out of the carrier laughing and joking around.
But where the hell was Will?
Her question was answered a full minute later when something wrapped all in black dropped out from under the belly of the carrier. Will rolled until he could hide among the surrounding trees. After that, he was by her side in two minutes.
“I had to go to Plan B,” Will said.
“Plan B?” Meara snorted. “What was Plan B?”
Will raised a finger to his lips as the UCN guards made yet another deposit of hibernating people into the carrier. He didn’t speak until they’d exited the carrier and taken the levitating medical carts back inside the building.
“The cargo is all cyborgs. None of them look over college age. They’re shut down.”
Meara nodded because she was too angry to talk. They were tinkering with kids now—kids she’d bet never signed up for it. When was the fecking madness going to stop?
Will let a tired breath escape him. “The carrier has gotten a lot of upgrades I didn’t recognize. To stop it, I had to take more drastic measures than we discussed.
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