by Imogene Nix
Anger rushed through him, white hot. Brandon only wanted what was best for him, but hearing him talk about Levia like that? “No. She’s special.”
His friend gave him an are you joking look. “No! Don’t you damn well tell me… You haven’t done something supremely stupid, like married her, have you?”
“No, I haven’t. Not yet.” Temper raged, but he contained it.
“Shit!” Brandon passed a hand over his eyes and rubbed. “Sorry if it bothers you, but you’re… Damn it, you’re as close to a brother as I’m ever likely to get. So my advice is run. Run fast and far.”
The heat ebbed a little. “I know you’re well-meaning, but what I need to know is how to find Mayerber. His weaknesses.”
“You want… Geez, you aren’t asking for much, are you?”
“Brandon, just... Please. Levia isn’t like the other Cybes you’ve heard of. She’s a woman. Lost and more than a little scared right now.” The snort came through clear as a bell, and Sandon knew he wouldn’t change his friend’s view of Levia in one conversation. “I gotta go.” He reached for the off button.
“No. Wait. Look, I have some stuff. I’ll send it through our old encrypted channel, but to be honest, I’m not really happy with the position this puts me in. There are two files. One on your girl and one on the warrior dude. Mayerber.”
The beep on Sandon’s system told him the files had been received.
“Brandon, when this is done, we’ll get together. We’ll talk. I promise.”
The man on the other side of the screen gave a nod. “I just hope we get to the after. Okay, I’m going into black-out. You know how to find me.”
Sandon knew that meant he’d only be able to contact Brandon through the encrypted data stream in the near future. Once it was done, he’d get hold of his buddy and introduce Levia. But not now. They all needed fresh air and perspective. “Yeah. Hey, keep your head down.”
“Sure. Don’t get killed, otherwise you won’t be able to pay back this favor.”
Sandon gave a bark of a laugh as the screen turned black.
His eyes tracked to the message on his system. Levia’s file. I can open it and learn everything. His fingers itched. He’d never felt the need to know a woman like he did Levia. For a moment, the temptation echoed, before he shook his head.
“I want to know the real Levia, not what some report says about her.” He turned instead to the other file, the one on Mayerber, and entered the de-encryption code.
The file was sparse. He scanned it thoroughly. By the end, he was staring into the distance.
“Holy shit!” He raised a shaking hand to the comm unit. “Levia? You’re needed in my office now.”
How the hell could he forget what he’d read?
* * * *
The papers in front of her, the printout that Sandon had generated for her, told a tale that chilled her marrow.
“So, Mayerber also comes from Cordero. He was a failed early Cybe experiment.”
The knots in her belly churned, and she looked up at Sandon. She read his fear; hell, she shared it to some extent.
“Did you see the bit where he was classified as psychotic? The notations in the psych report that recommended termination?”
At one point, she might have shared his shock and horror, but she’d seen Cybes go rogue before. She’d seen with her own eyes the havoc that came with the enhancement of body and brain. “Sandon, not everyone survives the enhancement phase.”
The look he spared her was laced with revulsion. “You mean…”
“Whether I thought it was right or wrong, once the enhancements are in place, something has to happen with the ones that can’t be controlled. For some, medication is the answer. The others? They’re beyond dangerous. I know there were early ones who went on rampages and killed innocent civilians. Lots of them.” She reached out, hoping to soften the blow behind her words.
“But… Termination?”
He’d never understand. He couldn’t. She was an assassin. That was what they, the Cybes, were created for. It highlighted for her the impossibility of a relationship between them. That knowledge didn’t ease the pain in her chest.
“So, now that you’re aware of what he is, what do you want to do about it?” she asked. He looked shell-shocked, and she ached for him. “We need a plan, otherwise he’ll find us. Just like he was trained to do.”
He shook his head, and she understood.
“Okay. I think we need to offload the majority of the crew, and that includes you. Get you to safety. I have some favors I can call in. People who owe me.” In her mind, a plan was forming. “The trick is to make him think we’re running. He’s just a bigger and better trained predator. They always make a beeline for the wounded. So that’s the front we need to present.”
She stood and moved restlessly to the view port. The star field shone brightly, but it was what was beyond that caught her attention. Her knowledge of star maps and planets that she accessed through the brain implants and she ruthlessly hunted. Where? Where could she send Sandon and the others, knowing they were safest?
“Levia?”
She turned in his direction. He’d moved behind her while she’d been thinking, and the hand that rested on her shoulder soothed the ragged edges of her emotions.
“You aren’t leaving me behind. Wherever you are, that’s where I’ll be.”
Tears pricked at his words. She knew he meant what he was saying, but the danger would be extreme. Levia blinked the tears away, because any weakness right now would give him something to latch onto and he’d exploit it. “You can’t be, Sandon. It’s too dangerous.”
His hands gripped. “If you’re there, then so am I. I’m not some weakling who’ll stand by and let you save me. I’m a man, and believe it or not, I can hold my own!”
The torrent of anger washed over her and she turned, her own ire rising to the surface. “He’ll kill you, Sandon, and he won’t think a thing of it. He’s a monster. One without any modicum of remorse.”
“But you’re not. So what makes you more capable?”
The words ricocheted through her mind, feeding the hungry flames of righteous fury. Levia struggled to bank the conflagration that nearly consumed her.
“I am a killer.”
His pupils dilated, but she needed to hammer the point home. She was a killer and he wasn’t. Sandon was decent, good. Untouched by the violence in her past.
“Do you know how many I’ve shot? Assassinated? How many families lie in ruins because I’m a fucking murderer? Hundreds. Want me to be exact? Five hundred and seventy-four, Sandon. That’s my kill number. I’m what he is.”
He’d paled under the onslaught of her revelation. It smashed her heart, sharing this information, but she needed to make him understand.
“Ordan Mayerber and I are from the same mold. Just like the rest of the Cybes. The only thing is I’ve got more blood on my hands than most, because I was fucking good at it.” Her chest heaved, her hands shook. She hated that he knew what she was—a cold and heartless killer.
“I don’t care what you were. That was when you didn’t have a choice—”
“There’s always a choice.”
“If you hadn’t done it, what would they have done?”
Levia stared at him, confused by his words. “What?”
“What would they have done if you’d refused to follow their commands?”
Now she shook. They’d… Squeezing her eyes shut didn’t stop the memories. Because she knew exactly what those memories would show her. She’d refused once, and that had been enough to teach her it was a bad decision.
“Don’t, Sandon. Don’t try to second-guess me.”
His arms wound around her. “What? Levia, tell me. Because until you face up to it—that anger and those memories...they’ll consume you. Tell me what would happen.”
“They’d… First they’d place you in seclusion. For seven days. In a tiny cell, without light.” Cold and dark. That had been bad
enough. She’d tried to sleep, but they’d woken her time and again. “The plan was to break you. Most people who went that route? When they came out, they were different.” She grunted. “Not me. I thought about things. I made a point of remembering things that kept me sane. My family.”
Her chest tightened. It was as if a vise surrounded it, pushing down.
Exhale, wash it off, she told herself. “If, after that, you still refused, they’d reset the chips in your mind. God, that was ghastly. For those who still refused, there were the physical punishments.”
She shuddered as memories crowded her. That had been the worst, and her body jerked as the remembered pain filtered through her psyche. That had been when she realized that there was only one way out—death.
“You didn’t choose to be like them though, Levia. You had no option, and when the time came, you chose to be you.”
The floodgates opened. No amount of control could stop the tears that dripped down her cheeks. She clung to Sandon. He was the only thing in the depths of misery that seemed bright.
With the tide of emotions ebbing, she stood in his embrace. Spent.
* * * *
Truthfully, Sandon hadn’t expected the words. Five hundred and seventy-four? His stomach churned. The Dendarans weren’t peaceful, but the Juran Commonwealth had danced to the lily-white perfection tune for so long, he’d started to believe it.
The horror of what she’d lived through was something he couldn’t understand.
“War sucks.” Her voice was thin, hoarse from the vicious crying jag.
“It does. But right now, we have to work out how the hell we sort out the Ordan Mayerber situation.”
“I don’t want you there, Sandon. I don’t want you to see that side of me. The part of me that does those things? I tried to forget it after Omega V. That’s why, when I was released, I ran.” Her skin felt cold to the touch and he tugged her closer, into his embrace.
There was so much to learn before they could even begin to make plans for dealing with the danger ahead. But everything he’d heard so far explained the wall of ice she’d kept between herself and others.
A thought occurred. “The thing I don’t get is if the Dendarans had Mayerber, then why did they experiment with you?” He winced, realizing how cold the words sounded.
“Oh. Well, that’s quite simple. Mayerber was one of the first generation of warriors. The Jurans had been testing for a good fifteen years before me, but until Mayerber, none of the specimens had survived the enhancements. He was their first success. If you can call him that.”
He frowned. “So how old does that make him?”
“I don’t know exactly. There was some talk that when they did the brain enhancements they triggered something. Mitochon…uhh... Mitochondrial Cell Regeneration, I believe they call it. Realistically, he could be as old as fifty. They weren’t using students back then.”
“Students?”
She gave a sad smile. “On Cordero, on our seventeenth birthday, we attend the testing center. Our brain functions, knowledge, health, and...well, everything is tested. Depending on the results, we’re streamed to match our capabilities, to optimize our career placement for both commerce and the government.”
“But what about choice?” The regimented society she was describing must have been soul destroying. To have no choice was inconceivable.
“Look, I don’t know that it still happens like that. That was years ago. Things change. Times change.”
“So do people.”
She blinked at his words, her mouth forming a perfect ‘O’.
“Levia, you aren’t a cold killer. Yes, I can’t even begin to imagine how you survived after everything you had to do—I don’t think I ever will—but I don’t care. I love you.”
The way she stilled in his embrace, the tiny catch of her breath told him she was laboring under great strain. He didn’t know if he caused it. He didn’t want to cause her more pain.
Then her shoulders slumped. “But how can you? I’m not the woman you should love.”
“The woman I should love? What nonsense is this? I don’t want to choose anyone else, Levia. I want you.”
She couldn’t believe his claims, he knew that, at least, not yet. She’d spent too long protecting herself, looking over her shoulder, for the shields to just melt away. All he could do was keep battering at them. Hope that one day they would drop enough that she would feel it too.
“We have to discuss Mayerber.” She struggled, trying to pull out of his arms, and he released her, letting her move away.
“We do.” He watched while Levia paced back and forth.
“There’s something else. I know they wanted to know what changes were made, that was why the Dendarans took me, but there’s more. I mean, I wasn’t the first assassin they got hold of. But I just don’t understand why Mayerber wants me. Maybe there’s more in the files? Perhaps if I could get into the system I could find it.”
“But if that’s the case, why didn’t the militia just give you the files?”
“Oh my God! The files…”
She hurried to his computer before he could call her back. It was clear the instant she located her file. The look in her eyes would haunt him forever, he was sure. Dull. The vibrancy he associated with her had melted away.
“You have my file? Why? You could have asked me.” Her pained whisper echoed in his mind.
“I didn’t… I mean, Brandon sent it to me. I requested it, but I never read it.”
“Yeah, okay.” She didn’t believe him, and he closed his eyes momentarily. One step forward and two steps back.
She opened the file and he moved behind her, but she remained rigidly straight, ensuring there was no contact between them. Her fingers tapped over the keyboard, using every encryption sequence he’d ever learned and more besides.
Each time, the unit beeped. By the end, her face was drawn, tiny white lines bracketed her mouth, and he wanted to lift her body out of the chair and carry her to bed. “I’m going to need to contact the militia and access whatever information remains in their databases.”
* * * *
Levia worked long into the night, rigging the Golden Echo so they could use the hyperspace jump protocol.
“It’s a damn good thing the Dendarans haven’t mastered this form of transport yet.” Or they’d be dead. Mayerber would have been there faster than a blink.
It was a military transit system, but they needed to get rid of the equipment and get to Kefla III with all speed, so they could lay their hands on the file on Mayerber.
If questioned, she usually could pull off her need to know act and lord it over any other captains.
After all, in the military system, she ranked in the region of a commodore. And had all the rights and privileges, including being able to arrange for the vessel to use the transit system. Levia indulged herself in a tiny but grim smile before returning to the task at hand.
Inspecting the systems, boosting the engines and testing the shields, together with checking the integrity of the ship was something she’d done within weeks of joining the crew. Now she was able to settle in and amend the ship’s computational systems.
The question remained. “I don’t understand why Mayerber wants me. Apart from the fact I was sent to neutralize him, but it doesn’t really make much sense.”
No matter how hard she wrestled with the question, there was no rational answer to be found. And she sure as hell wasn’t going to make that kind of request to the militia unless it was face-to-face. The current encryption systems were good, but she wasn’t sure that Mayerber wasn’t better.
Her eyes ached, and she kept working, but in deference to the hour, she used Sandon’s office and the neural network. It would speed the process up by days, and she could still input data manually as required.
Sandon flitted in and out, checking on her. His worry chewed at her like a constant throbbing tooth, and like every other pain she’d experienced since her enhancement, she
ignored it. It was easier to deal with if it was enclosed in the virtual box in her mind labeled too hard.
“Levia?” A hot drink found a spot next to her left elbow on the table.
“Go away. I’m almost there.”
He grumbled but moved back to the chair, palmed a book, and she sighed before returning to the task at hand. His presence seemed to melt her brain capacity, and in the middle of the Echo’s systems wasn’t really a good time for her to experience the associated brain-fade.
Some time later, a hand on her shoulder startled her, and his “You need to rest. It’s nearly four in the morning” was earnest. But she needed to find that one entry point where she could place the final tag that would activate all her hard work.
“Yeah. Soon…” Her mind seized on the piece of code she’d been scanning for and she placed the override in manually, fingers tapping with great care. The computer beeped, accepting the command, and she smiled, satisfied that the last change had been successful.
Reaching for the coffee, she closed her eyes. The long hours hunched over keyboard and screen had left her exhausted, and her back gave an audible creak as it moved back into alignment. She started to close her hand around the mug and it tipped, scalding hot liquid cascading over exposed flesh.
Levia’s eyes opened, and she yelped as heat and pain radiated over her fingers.
“Damn it.” He wrenched her from the seat. “You work yourself into the ground, without any thought for the consequences.”
Shock kept her quiet while he ranted and carried her through to the ablution room. He’d never reacted quite like this before. That he should feel such anger that she’d injured herself… She shook her head, trying to dispel the confusion. The neural interfaces in her hand and arm were already working, damping down the pain from the burn.