Despite my best efforts, I can’t keep from obeying his command. I peel my dress off, ashamed that I ever felt sexy wearing it. Suddenly, I think of Cole. Where is he? Will he find me in time to aid in my escape?
It’s not that I want to be a damsel in distress, but if that’s the role that I have to accept in order to get some help from a shining cyborg, I’ll take it. I’ll take anything to flee from this lucid nightmare.
Rid of my clothes, I dip into the lavish bathtub. Donner perches on the edge, leering at me as I splash some water on myself. It takes a concerted effort to not meet his gaze. In a way, I’m surprised he’s not forcing me to. My line of thinking is, the sooner I get it over with, the sooner I’ll be free from the nausea rising in my gut. It doesn’t matter that he’s seen me naked before. This is a violation.
“Didn’t know you were so modest,” Donner quips.
I ignore him, grateful that I’m in control enough to have a choice in the matter. I scrub myself, careful not to get my hair wet. Once I’m finished, I say in a wry monotone, “All done.”
“Follow me.” There’s a hint of self-satisfaction in his voice. He feeds off my discomfort, and there’s no time that Donner is more alive than when he’s wreaking havoc or controlling me.
When he gets to do both, it must be his version of a freaking all-you-can-eat buffet.
Nevertheless, I rise from the tub. After fastening the slinky sash around the robe, I trail after him into another set of doors. Inside a cavernous room, I could scarcely believe fit into a station or a spacecraft, a dress hangs off the furniture. It’s sleek and revealing, sleeveless with a plunging neckline.
“Well?” Donner looks at me expectantly. “Go on. Model it for me.”
Tears of rage well up. Keep it together. Just a little longer. Hold on just a little bit longer. Seeing me cry will just get him off. I refuse to do so. Wordlessly, I jerk the dress off the hanger and pull it on with little regard to any potential rips or tears that my brusque movements might provoke.
“You look ravishing.” He whistles. “Simply stunning.”
I shoot daggers at him.
“Don’t believe me?” Donner cocks his head to the side. He approaches me, planting his beefy hands on my shoulders. I bristle as he spins me around to look in the mirror. “Take a look.”
It won’t kill you. Just do it.
“Don’t you look good?” He’s usually so careful about not straying too deep into the heartless asshole territory, but at this very moment, he can’t hide the sick, twisted pleasure he’s taking in seeing me so off-balance and terrified. “Won’t you thank me for getting you this beautiful new dress?”
“Thank you, Donner.”
It’s disconcerting how it only took one little session of his powerful reprogramming to get me to comply. He’s not pulling any strings this time. They are my words, born of my own volition, and that tiny tidbit is enough to make me sick to my stomach.
“That’s more like it.” Donner scrutinizes me, inspecting every inch of my appearance. A shadow of consternation falls over his face. “What’s missing?”
My willing participation, you miserable fuck.
“I know!” He makes a great show of pantomiming his ‘Eureka!’ moment. “Your hair.”
He finger-tousles my knotty tresses. A curtain of hair falls to my shoulders. I’ve grown so used to wearing wigs that the distinct weight and feel of my own, natural waves feel foreign to me.
“There. Now you look like you.”
On the surface, that sounds innocent enough. It dawns on me that he’s counting on a deeper implication, though. I scour my mind to think of what his angle is, almost crying out when I come to a conclusion.
He wants me fully identifiable.
It’s a not-so-veiled threat. He might kill me after I do his bidding, or else he might whisk me off somewhere far away. A hideaway in any inter-galaxy location where I can’t be found.
“When am I to kill those innocent civilians for you?” I ask.
I hear the slap before I feel its sting. My cheek burns. “Don’t be an impudent bitch, Lily.”
Shame courses through me. I blink back tears, bowing my head so he can’t see if any spill over.
“Good girl.”
My eyes remain glued to the floor.
“We still have some time before you faithfully carry out your mission,” he says at last. “For now, you’ll go back to your room and keep out of trouble.”
With that, he drags me back to the quarters I’ve occupied since he kidnapped me. Without any further delay, he stalks out of there through the door he originally came from, but not before he’s made sure all possible escape routes are locked down.
You can do this. Cole will find you. There’s still time.
I repeat the mantra again and again and again, dry heaving through the tears that I can no longer contain. Once the hysterics die down, I go back to thinking about my options. If Cole doesn’t show up in time—I know that he will show up eventually, because it’s unthinkable that he might not come for me at all—then I need to prepare my contingency plans.
As soon as we’re away from the comm-blockers, I’ll have my shot.
20 Cole
I can’t believe my luck. After spending hours mindlessly watching the video feeds, I finally catch a break.
Donner slipped up. One of his AIs decided to go on a shopping excursion, allowing my scanners to pick up its signal and pinpoint its location.
I follow ten paces behind as it exits the tech-stall and joins the main passageway. It proceeds at an even tempo, careless and unaware of my presence. I stay on its tail as we weave through the terminal, leaving the stores and vendors behind.
My target is heading home, and I’m determined not to lose sight of it. Wherever this AI goes, I know I’ll find Lily.
The AI veers left down a narrow alley, and I follow. Unmarked doors line the sides of tall silvery walls. The lighting is dim, except for a few bars that flicker with a strong glow. At the end stands a double-door entrance with a fake-vintage chandelier hovering over it.
The AI walks past each entrance with solid steps, not even giving them a glance. Its focus is narrowly pointed to the end of the corridor. That’s its destination.
My feet kick off, and my legs pump into a sprint. I charge the AI.
Just as it glances over its shoulder, I shoot off a few high-powered charges. The shots blow right through the hardware, severing wires and melting the motherboard. The distinct smell of metal and fried plastics fill the corridor. I can taste the smoke from the singed materials.
The AI stands, unmoved for a few seconds, still staring at me with the same expression before it topples over. Tiny metal parts scatter across the floor as an inky blue liquid oozes from its opening.
I step over the heap of junk and continue down the alley. As I draw near the end, the words ‘Hotel Dagobah’ begins to scroll across the double doors in golden script. To the right of the doors is a raised keypad. Which is odd, considering this establishment is supposed to be a hotel. Why would they require a code to enter the lobby? It doesn’t make sense.
I scan it for any outbound or inbound signals, curious to see to whom it’s linked. But there’s nothing. The little rectangular box is silent.
That also doesn’t make sense. The device should be connected somewhere—it should at least be connected to something. As I stare at the mechanism trying to piece together this odd occurrence, a signal streams from the source before cutting off within the second. It does it again three more times.
I sigh. I’ve seen this kind of frantic networking before. My Syntex-Metal fingers grip the edges of the keypad and pull. The cover pops off effortlessly. And just I suspected, a tiny microchip stares back at me. Its onyx-colored board shimmers in the light, teasing me. To its right sits another. One for incoming signals, and the other for outgoing. The only reason to install two is to ensure that nothing is getting in or out without your permission. And the combo is particularly e
ffective around neurapaths.
“Of course,” I mumble. “Comm-blockers.”
I pluck the two chips from their home and crush them between my thumb and index finger. The little bits fall to the floor, looking like nothing more than dust.
My eyes turn back to the hotel, and the first wave washes over me. It’s only a hint of pulse, but I feel it nonetheless. It’s her. Lily’s being kept within these walls.
It’s the first “contact” I’ve had with her in days. It makes my heart thump with a newfound conviction. The ancestral roar boils in my blood, urging me onward. I need to rescue my mate.
My arm rears back, preparing to bust through the door, when it occurs to me a quieter approach might be possible. My hand touches the face of the door, and the entrance slides open.
A single AI stands behind the concierge counter. My scanners pick up all of Donner’s usual markers. The AI is practically radiating with them. There’s a rainbow of signals pouring off of him.
Its pupils dilate to uneven sizes at it stares at me. When they reach max and min shape, the AI hurls itself over the desk and sprints toward me. Its feet pound against the metal floor, sounding like two cymbals crashing together. His shoulder drops, preparing for impact.
But I don’t move. I stand my ground. When he’s but a foot away, my arm punches out and sinks into his hyper-silicone flesh. He skewers himself along my forearm. His odd warmth surrounds my limb. In my hand I hold a thick cord with metal rivets. It’s the AI’s cerebral connector. All signals run through it, allowing the AI to operate in a coordinated effort. Without it, the machine ceases to run.
I crush the connector in my hand with all my metal might. An inky blue liquid covers my fist. It smells like a strange and minty oil. The AI folds in on itself as it shuts down. When the last signal runs its course, the AI is in a full fetal position.
I drop my arm, and the empty body slides off. Its back hits the floor with a metallic clang, but its body remains balled up.
My eyes search the lobby for more of Donner’s lurking AI, but the place seems clear. The only thing that registers with my scanners is Lily’s telepathic-beat. It’s stronger now which means I’m getting close. Its rhythm slips from my wires and enters my veins. It’s like a blood-call luring me home.
My steps are quick as I jog through the hotel, following the pulses to their source. In my chest, my heart escalates its pace until it beats at the same tempo as her call. Determination and duty consume me. I know at that moment, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to find her.
Even if it meant taking my last breath.
21 Lily
I hear the blood dripping on the floor, a steady, disconcerting beat, before I catch sight of Cole. He busts through the door, which is when I realize the blood is coming from his mech-limb. There’s a light in his eyes, a passionate burning that makes me feel like we’re not alone. Like maybe—just maybe—there’s some sort of ancestral force he’s emitting. Whatever it is, it feels like the future—and where I am meant to be. More so than a physical destiny like Verna or a calling for future works—it’s the sensation of belonging.
It occurs to me then that despite not knowing how he did it, the results are undeniable: Cole managed to make himself irreplaceable to me.
His ingrained duty, his sense of honor, his ability to hold a noble focus, and, not least, the gentle aspects to his flawless maneuvers. His ability to keep a promise. He told me he’d protect me, and here he is. Keeping his promise. Making good on his word. It fills me with an ethereal sort of glow.
I would be lying to myself if I ever try to claim that it’s within my powers to get out of this particular mess all on my own.
Cole marches up to me, intense and quiet, and I prepare myself for an outburst of sorts. Instead, he reels me in, his mouth covering mine.
More surprising still is how I yield to his passion. I wrap my arms around him, ravenous for his touch, and deepen our kiss. Whatever fear brewed inside me is long gone. I can feel the same effect in Cole. Kissing him is like a meeting of the souls, bare and unencumbered, ready for exploration.
It would appear that the prospect of having lost each other forever was a good jolt to the system for the both of us.
“You came,” I breathe as soon as we pull apart.
Cole pants but his arms stay around me. Sweat beads his forehead, giving him a glossy sheen. “Yeah.”
For some reason, that sends me laughing like nothing else. For that brief second, I forget everything about where we are and the circumstances surrounding this rendezvous. It’s a short-lived kind of glee, though, because then the realization comes back to me with the weight of a thousand bricks collapsing on me.
“We need to get out of here,” I say.
Cole straightens his back and studies his arm, frowning at the puddle of blood pooling on the floor beneath us. “Yeah.”
“AI got your vocabulary?” I quip, a futile attempt at humor while I assess the damage his injury might present.
There are basically two options in front of us: carry on without cleaning him up, or risk Donner finding us while we spend longer than necessary here to get Cole’s wound patched up right.
Then again, there’s also something to be said about the possibility that Donner could track us from the trail of blood Cole is very likely to leave no matter what we do. And if I have to go down, I don’t want it to be due to something entirely preventable and stupid like that. I know a thing or two about cleaning a gash quickly.
So that’s what I will do. I scan the room, looking for anything I might be able to use to put together a makeshift bandage. I don’t know if the doors here are hooked to some kind of central mainframe that alerts Donner when someone passes through the thresholds. If they are, it’s going to suck. My life would be a lot easier if I could just have a quick look around the bathroom where that bastard made me bathe, but the thought of him getting pinged and us meeting our fate entirely too prematurely helps to dissuade me from that train of thought.
“Lily?” Cole calls after me as I set loose inside the room, searching every nook and cranny for suitable supplies. It becomes apparent to me soon enough that no such instruments are there to be found. “What are you doing?”
“Looking for something that will help get you cleaned up,” I tell him absently. “Damn it, that sociopath cleared this room of anything remotely functional.”
“It’s okay,” Cole says. “Come on, we should go. I’ll be fine.”
“No,” I argue, spinning around to look him in the eye. “It’s not fine. You’re hurt, that’s one, and two, if we leave a huge old mess on the floor, how much easier do you think it’s going to be for Donner to find us? I don’t want to cut corners for him. It’ll be on our heads later. Don’t you see that?”
“Lily,” Cole soothes, “listen to me. You and I are going to be fine, do you hear me? But we need to get out of here as soon as possible. We need to move.”
“But—”
“No buts,” he counters. “Let’s move. Come on. Do you know where there might be any alternate exits?”
“Wherever they are, I’m sure Donner has kept them well-hidden,” I say. Cole lets go of my arm and heads in the opposite direction of the room. I don’t follow him with my eyes, opting to use my time productively and keep scouring the place for some medical tools. I’m still not convinced that Donner would strip this room—the room I was staying in, after all, and by now it’s pretty safe to assume I’m no ordinary captive of his—bare of any kind of emergency supplies that might come in handy if something were to suddenly happen to me. Which is a fair assumption to make, because there’s no way he could’ve known whether I’d be compliant and docile or aggressive and unruly.
“You sure about that?” There’s a creak of a door behind me. I swivel to see a secret passageway, concealed in the metallic hull. Beyond the door, there’s a ghostly, dim sort of lighting that creeps me out and beckons me in equal measures.
“How did you —”
I marvel at him, stunned by his surprising resourcefulness.
“Now, let’s go?” Cole holds the passageway open, clear for me to pass through.
Soon as I do, I hear him quick at my heels. Then he moves past me to take the lead. It strikes me as just a bit too convenient that we can find another way out of the place that Donner led me to believe is a fortress, but then I remember that Donner is a pathological liar. I really should know better than to take anything that comes out of his mouth as gospel.
Damn it, Lily.
Our hustle through the commuter-tunnels feels oddly like the passage in an underground terrestrial gallery. Is this what earthly bugs experience when they leap into a burrow, hiding underneath the surface to make transportation a breeze? The air is sterile and rarified around us. I struggle to keep my breathing level, willing my muscles to oxygenate as much as possible in case we need to make a sudden run for it.
Whatever it is: our lives? Our dignity? Our salvation?
The adventure hits a dead-end as we breach the limits of the passageway. Cole inhales sharply, glancing backward at me as if searching for affirmation. I shrug and then nod, because, really, what other choice do we have but to take a chance at whatever lurks beyond the tunnels?
“Quietly, though,” I whisper. “We don’t want to trigger any kind of alarms just yet.”
Cole presses a button off to the side, out of my field of vision, and a sliding door opens swiftly. The sudden explosion of overhead lights glares violently, assaulting my vision. I blink several times and rub my eyes before tiptoeing through the door frame.
Cole and I sigh heavily as we ascertain that the coast is clear.
“Oh!” I exclaim, pointing like an excited child at the far corner of the vacant room, directly opposite of where we are. A small, metallic briefcase with a red cross sits on top of an impromptu workstation. “Look!”
The Cyborg Bounty Hunter: In the Stars Romance Page 10