“Drop everything and get back here. Someone’s coming to pick us up.”
Her news was better.
Although at this point, Sirus was about the only person Logen didn’t suspect. Everyone else was a risk to Talia unless he figured out the real murderer.
His fingers brushed the inner access panel. He couldn’t quite reach. “When?”
“Get back to the tractor right now.”
“That soon?”
“Dammit, Logen, now. The robot torso thing is missing.”
Fuck.
He took off his glove, jammed his ragged nails in the groove, yanked the panel, and stared at the wiring. All he needed was one look and...
Talia was screaming and his atmosphere gauge was beeping and a shadow fell across the wall and nothing made sense.
...and the wall got all wavy, like a heat hologram, and faded to black.
* * *
Twenty minutes earlier.
“Daz has cleared Base One of the robots,” Vi said, briefing Talia on her local situation while Navina worked on another screen. “Therefore, you may remain at Base Two and await our pickup.”
No way in hell.
Talia pointed out the facts. “He’s grounded without a force shield, hover bubble, comm tower, or way off the planet. We’re meeting up with him as soon as Logen gets back.”
Vi’s lips thinned. “Stay put. That’s an order.”
“You’re crazy. Tell him to expect us.”
“Talia, you’re countermanding me.”
“Well, make sense!”
“It is perfectly logical to remain in place and await rescue.”
“It’s even more logical to combine forces. Which is what I’m going to do it unless you give me a good reason to stay put.”
“Driving there is a waste of fuel.”
“I said a good reason.”
Despite the fight, or maybe even because of it, she was so glad to see her team. Bruised and banged up, they had survived the robot assault on the resupply drone and all subsequent attacks, and were now heading back to save her too.
The only problem was that no one was able to raise the solar station. As far as the solar station knew, their two companies had simply vanished.
Of course, as far as they knew, the solar station could have been hit first.
Everyone hoped the solar station was still fine. Because if not, it was a hell of a trip to the next one.
Talia could worry about that once her neck was no longer tingling from paralysis. Back to her local situation.
“Did you contact the main ship?” she asked, since the Bad Company CO must have met up with the main ship and even stayed in the area to drop the Misfits’ tractor.
“Gone now. The CO has to deliver the biologists to complete his assignment.”
Fucking company man.
Talia gritted her teeth. Of course he prized the paying biologists over their ragtag team. Her anger grew as the truth smacked her again. Why brave the enemy to drop the tractor if he wasn’t going to check on whether anyone made it out alive? He’d act differently if an important Bad Company team member went down.
She wondered if anyone had told him about Chaelee.
“Well, we have to get to the solar station ASAP,” Talia said. “This incident is way bigger than the mercenary corps. Way bigger.”
“What do you mean? Logen murdered you when his stents stopped working.”
“That’s not what you thought before.”
“It’s most probable.”
She glared at Vi for the ridiculous suggestion. “What’s wrong with you?”
Dark bruises covered her whole forehead, suggesting she had face-planted into something not intended to cradle a human skull. Shock, and her untreated injuries, clearly flattened her emotions and made her sound detached, and nothing like herself.
Vi regarded her obliquely. “Isn’t it the truth?”
“Of course not,” she snapped. “The Robotics Faction is using this planet as a base to invade the whole solar system.”
“How do you figure?”
“The ships from the attack on Seven Stars have reconvened here,” she said. “We’re the only ones here, and our equipment is old and obsolete, allowing them to break in and kick us in the face before we even realized they arrived. They’re going to steamroll over the rest of the system the same way.”
Rallying at the solar station was the only way anyone could stop them.
“Why this system?”
“Because of the prison planet,” she said. “If they can get past the Wardens, they could pick up those stented prisoners and deploy them anywhere. They would have sleeper agents spread throughout the whole universe.”
Chaelee said this couldn’t be the decisive strike, and she was half right. It was the precursor. The small test. The big one was yet to come, and the whole universe would become the bloody testing environment.
“That’s unbelievable,” Vi said.
Talia tapped through the tractor’s records, looking for something to back up her theory.
And she found it.
“The CO managed to put the last satellite images into this tractor. There.” The skies over the arctic swarmed with ships. “I see empty troop ships. This is proof!”
Vi raised a brow. “There are other possible explanations.”
“Fine. I’m a spotter, not logistics. Ask Navina.”
Navina did not look up from her other task. Whatever absorbed her took all her concentration, and Vi didn’t interrupt.
“Your theory is flawed,” Vi said.
But Talia wasn’t in the mood to debate. It explained the half of a robot they had found. And, if the Bad Company CO had dropped the tractor, it explained why they had been chased off again.
Around this latitude, the dinozoids were too interested in snacking on them, as the half-eaten one proved. Safer for robots up there.
“It is interesting to an untrained mind,” Vi said. “Who else have you told?”
“No one.” Obviously. “I’m stuck on a planet with no comm. You’re the first mercenaries I’ve been able to reach.”
“Of course.” Vi looked away calmly. “Actually, we may be able to get someone there sooner to pick you up. One moment while we mark your position.”
Her signal cut out. Another face jumped as a new signal garbled the screen, interfering.
Vi was talking.
“Just a sec,” Talia said. “There’s a problem.”
Some sort of signal was attempting to take over theirs to Vi. Talia tried to fix it. It clarified enough to see the new signal’s location and sender. She sat back in shock.
It was their long lost CO.
Vi addressed her. “What’s going on?”
“I’m receiving another message. From the commander.”
His words garbled. She changed the frequencies. The message appeared to be looping, sent on an extremely old technology, a signal that almost no one used any more, but which had probably been the main signal in the tractor’s heyday.
“Eliminate the message,” Vi said. “There is no question of my authority. I have assumed the correct place as Misfits CO. The Bad Company CO is of no importance to you now. He is out of the chain of command. I am your only commander.”
“It is Misfits’ CO,” she told Vi. “It’s Sirus.”
Shock crossed the second’s face, and then her cheeks reddened. “After fourteen years, what does that disgraced reprobate have to say?”
Now that sounded more like Vi.
“I think he’s on his way here.” Talia shunted more power and upped the reception. “Do you see him? Near you?”
Vi shifted her gaze to another screen. “No.”
Talia increased power once more. Almost...
“It’s a tr—” His transmission garbled. “Ab—. Avoid conta—. Robots, everyone is robots. They are capturing sold—. You can’t trust an—”
“He says I can’t trust anyone, and everybody’s robots and...” T
alia trailed off.
Everyone’s robots.
“Yes, we neutralized the robot threat in our area,” Vi was saying.
Talia was used to mistrust. Turning away from her teammates when she should have relied on them had dropped her down the ranks until she bottomed out in Hazard Zero.
But she knew her teammates in the Misfits. She had gotten to know them, despite her inability to trust.
For the first time, Talia saw Vi not as exceptionally calm and calculating in the face of disaster, but inhumanly calm. Her emotions seemed to have flattened below subzero. She was cold. True cold. Cold as Logen in all of the interview holos.
Cold as someone who had Robotics Faction stents.
“And?” Vi prompted.
“Ah...”
Talia picked out each indicator—or absence of emotional indicator—even without her spotting oculars. A horrible dark pit opened up in her belly. What was that strange bruising on Vi’s skin? Around her temples, right where Logen had his stents. Navina had them too. An identical bruising pattern. And she couldn’t see Iren.
No.
No fucking way.
Maybe her team hadn’t fought off the Robotics Faction invaders. Maybe they had been captured, forced to surrender, and converted into robot soldiers for the other side.
No. She shook her head, refusing to believe her own eyes. “What happened to your face again?”
“Hmm?” Vi poked the ugly purple center of her bruises without wincing. “A slight injury from repairing the resupply drone. Nothing to worry about.”
Talia looked at the woman who had once been someone she worked with, disagreed with, tangled with, and respected. Another person who always had her back. And Navina behind her, always with the oddest humor, had nothing to say. Grief welled up. First Chaelee. Now these two, and also possibly Iren.
Vi addressed her, emotionless because of a stent controlled by evil robots. “Can you identify the location of that rogue transmission?”
Grief could wait.
Talia rested her chin on her hand. “I could. When are you going to get here?”
“What’s wrong, Talia? You look as though you don’t trust something I’m saying.”
“I have trust issues. You know that. Don’t you, Vi?”
Vi stared. Blank.
Talia stared right back. Goading her.
For the first time in their entire relationship, Vi backed down. “Yes. I do know that. However, you must follow orders.”
“Oh. Sure. What possible reason would I have to hesitate?”
“Yes.” Vi looked untroubled by her sarcasm. “Remain where you are and do not go to Base One. That will make it easier to find you.” She signed off.
Easier to call in an air strike, she meant.
Talia rested her elbows on the console.
Wait. Was that... were those tears burning her eyes?
She rubbed her dry cheeks.
Talia didn’t let emotion creep up on her. Not since the incident with Rezo. Emotions weren’t safe. She needed to keep her head down and her oculars clear for spotting targets before those targets in turn spotted her team. It was the only way to get out of the mercenaries and back to her real life.
But since the emotions released by her constant contact with Logen, the truth of the suppressed feelings burst through.
She liked her team.
Calculating Vi had steered them through a shit ton of loopholes to keep them together after Sirus took off, and she had their backs against any other ruthless CO. Perfectionist Navina ensured they had what they needed when they needed it, and never let them run out of food or ammo. Iren joked around so that they had an excuse to smile again after seeing something that should have run the smiles off their faces for the rest of their lives. And Daz patched them up no matter how stupid their injury, his sarcasm the only poke he administered without anesthesia.
Now they were gone. All gone.
Well, except Daz. He was still alive and in hiding at Base One. And then there was herself and Logen.
Grief could wait.
She had work to do.
Talia tapped the comm to reach Logen. “I know who’s behind the attacks.”
He didn’t respond.
Damn. She double-checked the power and their connection, but he was silent as if his suit comm was off. She couldn’t see him in the local area, couldn’t get a read on his location.
Fucking Hazard Zero equipment. She knew she shouldn’t have let him go alone. Not until the tractor finished powering up and they at least had a chance to check his comm.
Or...
A new thought occurred to her. Vi had spoken to her without any delay. The only people who could speak from far away had a faster-than-light relay on their ships.
That wasn’t anyone in Hazard Zero.
But it could be someone speaking from one Robotics Faction-enhanced ship to another, and then beamed down to her tractor.
Meaning all of their signals were potentially unsafe and easy to tap. And trace.
How long had Vi and Navina been under robotic control? Surely not before the resupply drone incident. What about Iren? He seemed too emotional, but then, they all did.
She pulled out her acidified badge and plugged it into the tractor’s speakers. The same message played back, scuffed and distorted.
“...ssss...about our Logen. It’s...sss...important. Meet...sss...waterfall? Sss...”
She tried audio programs, but all she could get was one additional word.
“...ssss...about our Logen. It’s real important. Meet...sss...waterfall? Sss...”
It’s real important? She played it over and over, trying to pinpoint anything else. Man or woman? Human or robot? She couldn’t tell.
It’s real important.
That phrase sounded familiar. Someone used it. She just couldn’t remember who shortened “really” to “real” in normal conversation.
Maybe Logen would know.
Speaking of which, suddenly a scuffed wall appeared on a small screen and Logen’s incredible, wonderful, sexy voice crackled over the comm. “Hello, beautiful.”
She gasped and leaned forward. About ready to kiss the mic. “Logen?”
“Here I am.” The screen showed him looking at an open wiring access panel. “You’ll never guess what I found.”
That could wait. “Drop everything and get back here.”
His gloved hand disappeared into the access panel. The wall filled the entire screen. He grunted.
How to get him moving? “Someone’s coming to pick us up.”
“When?”
Fucking hell. “Get back to the tractor right now.”
“That soon?”
“Dammit, Logen, now.”
She booted up the local holos, put on her spotting oculars, and planned their escape route.
They had to get the hell out of there. If the robots were stationed in the arctic, she needed to be out of their strike zone. Any ships could drop by and nuke their location at any time. Or they could release a hundred more androids, or a thousand more, and swarm over the tractor, and burn their way in.
Or they could send another human-like one to trick them...
She glanced out at its last location. Oh no.
“Logen?” She spoke into the mic, dead sober. “The robot torso thing is missing.”
Something started beeping.
“Maybe it got eaten,” she said, picking through the possibilities as the beeping on his side of the comm got louder, “and maybe it woke up and crawled away. With robots, you never can trust they’re actually d—”
Logen collapsed.
Chapter Twelve
What the hell was going on in there?
Talia gripped the controls and shouted at him. “Logen? Logen!”
Logen’s vitals tanked. His atmosphere indicator flew off the charts, buried in the red, and a hazard alarm beeped.
Fuck.
His suit cam focused on a blank wall. His outstretched ha
nd went lax and dropped the wires. Where the hell was his glove?
She’d taken her eyes off the screen for an instant to search for that robot torso bastard. It only had arms. It couldn’t go that damned far.
Logen’s heart beat faster and faster, and the atmosphere levels of his blood dropped lower and lower.
He was suffocating.
In a minute without oxygen, his heart would stop. Then, in four minutes, his brain would start to die.
Stay in the cab.
She had no restore point.
He did have one. He could be resurrected. Surely nobody would put stents in a criminal anymore if it turned them into a slave to another force. She could leave him behind to die with all of the memories of the rooter and the waterfall and the three weeks he took a beating for her and losing her and their first kiss and—
Fucking hell.
She sealed up her armor and grabbed her strength-assists, snapping them on her suit joints as she waited for the pressure seal to let her out of the tractor.
Caution.
She ran across Base Two, the strength-assist exoskeleton making every hobble into a stride of giants, her head aswivel and eyes recording every detail. Where was the goddamned robot torso? Not dangling from the mouth of a hungry dinozoid. She passed the place it had been in the dirt.
Hand prints and drag marks disappeared into the mess hall.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fucking hell.
Logen’s heart rate, projected from her in-helmet speakers, slowed and weakened.
A labyrinth of boxes made the corridor into an ambush zone. It stretched from the entrance to where it disappeared into sinister shadows.
She moved, fast and low. Her oculars analyzed every detail, tracing Logen’s passage and the robot torso’s. Through zooming lenses, the boxes and foliage and insects looked strange and unfamiliar, both brighter and more frightening, as she entered the cold, calculated warzone.
Something moved in the dark.
She lifted her gun and shot.
A black millipede sliced in half, screaming. Its top half toppled. The bottom collapsed. Her laser smoked black, holing a samples crate.
Fuck.
Now the robot thing would know she was inside. It would know she was armed. It would know she was coming.
Logen’s heart stopped.
Resurrection Heart: Robotics Faction - Cyborg Mercenaries Page 15