“There he is.” Nisrine’s low voice pulled his attention away from the decor as they walked past a waitress settling Doctor Martin at the next table set for two. “Does he have a chip?”
“He does, and I’ve deactivated it,” he whispered back to her while linking into the restaurant’s digital security feed. “They’re relatively short range, but I’ll know the moment someone attempts to fry him.”
“Who’s he with?”
“Sergei Umbridge, a fellow neurosurgeon.” A dozen cameras allowed him to view egress and ingress to the public and employee restrooms as well as the kitchen. He saw nothing out of the ordinary. No one poisoned the meal or Martin’s drinks.
They waited on pins and needles throughout their lunch, sipped lemon-water between bites of breaded calamari, and nibbled honey-butter rolls while awaiting their entree. When it arrived, Kaiden raised a quizzical brow at the meager amount of sliced steak.
“I don’t know if this is worth two hundred quid a plate,” Kaiden grunted.
“Shut up and eat,” Nisrine playfully retorted. She leaned forward, the gesture intimate and perfect for their cover as husband and wife. With her back to the doctor, it was up to Kaiden to monitor the exchange over her shoulder. Her voice dropped to a hushed whisper. “What are they talking about?”
“The recent death of Doctor Watson at the moment.” He kissed her cheek, letting his lips skim toward her ear. “I’m recording the entire exchange.”
“You can do that? Wait, never mind. Nothing should surprise me anymore when it comes to you.”
“Now the conversation has drifted to their research. They’re using avosapien brains to conduct their experiments until the Lexar decree relaxes.”
“That’ll never happen. At least, that’s what Xander once said.”
Kaiden shrugged. “They seem to believe it may.”
“Rather morbid conversation to have over a meal,” Nisrine muttered.
“They’re doctors. I’ve seen Xander wolf down dinner with Thandie while discussing his current research.”
Her nose wrinkled.
They observed longer without learning anything incriminating. The men drank glasses of port with their overpriced meals, bid one another farewell until next time, and summoned the electronic check at the tableside kiosk.
He had an idea. After leaning in close again, he whispered. “If we’re lucky, we can abduct him from the sidewalk. I’ll stall him and remain on his trail.”
She caught on and said in a conversational voice, “I’ll only be a moment, my love. Something in our meal must not have agreed with me and my medicine is in the car.” She kissed his cheek then she hurried to the stairs. He placed a lid over her teacup of premium, forty-credit brew from Elora and feigned interest in his datapad.
At that moment, Martin’s half of the check bounced. A gentle chime made the men pause, the doctor uttered an apology, and he scanned his credit chip again.
It bounced a second time.
Kaiden sipped water and tracked Nisrine’s unimpeded movement from the restaurant. Beside him, the doctor had removed another chip to scan. Kaiden took the machine offline.
“Absolutely ridiculous,” Umbridge muttered. “And people wonder why we yearn for the days of physical coin and money.”
A waiter arrived to aid the men with their bill, and all the while, Kaiden monitored his partner’s progress with acquiring their rental vehicle. She returned with it less than five minutes later, just as the baffled restaurant employee called his manager to the upper level.
“Let’s try my scanner,” the floor supervisor said.
Kaiden took it offline, too, while the doctors, waiter, and supervisor frowned.
“I don’t understand what happened. It’s worked fine all day,” the young woman said while fretting over the machine. After a moment of polite conversation, she and the waiter bowed to the duo. “Our system appears to be down at the moment, and you have our apologies for the delay, sir. Please. The meal is gratis. We’re sorry for the waste of your time.”
“I’m waiting outside the restaurant in the chauffeur vestibule,” Nisrine said over the comm.
“Great,” he replied internally, without using his mouth to speak. Playing the role of the worried husband, he settled their bill, glanced at his watch, and rose from his seat.
He monitored all of the common and uncommon areas where he would lurk if he wanted to assassinate a target. Then it happened. He felt the incoming signal slash through the air, a hum of malevolence carried in a data stream. Since he’d already deactivated the chip, Kaiden traced it to its origin.
“Found our assassin,” he spoke over the commlink to Nisrine. “Woman at the bar. Navy coat. She’s following him outside.”
The two doctors parted outside the double doors, a limousine taking Doctor Umbridge away while Martin turned right toward the parking lot.
A syringe glinted in the assassin’s hand, a single drop of fluid glistening at the tip. Her pace remained steady and she gained ground on her target.
“Hey, you, stop!” His shout startled both the doctor and his would-be killer.
Martin turned and saw the needle. His eyes grew large with understanding, but his would-be assailant moved too swiftly. Before he was able to bolt for freedom, the assassin swept his feet from beneath him. The doctor fell heavily to the ground and his briefcase slid across the sidewalk, popping open to spill confidential documents across the sidewalk.
Unnatural speed and fluid motion flung the woman in Kaiden’s direction within a split second of completing the sweep. She jammed the syringe against his bicep, only for the needle to snap upon impact.
The loss of the killer’s primary weapon drove her to retrieve substitutes from her coat, arming her with a knife in each hand to compensate for Albion’s strict gun control laws. Fast, precise, and vicious strokes put Kaiden on the defensive. The blade sliced through his shirt and parted the material like tissue paper.
She was quick. He had to give her credit for her speed, and a grudging respect for keeping up with him.
“Someone call the police!”
He tuned out the onlookers. Without a nonlethal weapon on hand, Kaiden threw up his left arm. The knife sank through the synthetic flesh and scraped past the biometal beneath. Her eyes grew large, but she recuperated in time to flip away with the training of a gymnast, evading his retaliatory strikes and swings. Lean and strong legs propelled her backwards beyond Kaiden’s range.
Something in her expression had changed.
She’d recognized him.
The rented car screeched to a stop at the sidewalk, windows down, and Nisrine yelled, “Doctor Martin, get in the car!”
The dazed man didn’t hesitate. He scrambled up off the hot pavement where he had been grabbing up his papers and clambered into the rear, slamming the door behind him.
With the doctor out of the way, Kaiden had one less worry in the fight. He squared off against his attacker, ready for her next lightning swift strike. The razor-edged blade struck across his cheek as she rushed in. Hot blood welled up from the cut but he ignored the pain. As she swiped again, he caught her arm, twisted, and shoved her toward the restaurant wall.
She used the momentum to run up the textured surface and flip over him. Kaiden pivoted on one foot and grabbed her as she came down.
Her leg snapped, the bone as fragile as a toothpick in his hands. In the time since his awakening, he’d underestimated his own cybernetic strength multiple times, but never to such a degree. She crumpled to the ground and her head bounced off the pavement. Dazed and in pain, she writhed.
“Shit!”
“Stop that man!”
Cries of protest and indignation became a terrifying maelstrom in the vicinity. Cameras were on him, taping the entire incident, but there hadn’t been a quiet way to go about getting their target. If she hadn’t forced their hand by attacking in public…
Not too late to disable them. Sparks flew and tech sizzled, commanded to self-
destruct.
He jabbed her in the thigh with a tranquilizer then hoisted the woman up with one hand. The incredible feat of strength made an onlooker gasp. Kaiden tossed the bleeding assassin in the backseat beside the doctor then hustled into the empty front passenger seat. So much for the rental agency returning their deposit. Of course, they had bigger problems to worry about.
Wailing police sirens shrieked across the distance, accompanied by the blips of blue and white. Kaiden peered through the rear view and grimaced. “Drive fast. Cops are gonna be on our tail soon.”
“Who are you people?” Martin demanded.
“You don’t get to ask questions. Buckle the hell in and shut up,” Kaiden growled back at him.
Nisrine put her foot to the gas and they zoomed forward into the flow of traffic. She rushed past other cars, horn blaring, and veered them into the hover lanes at full speed. Sirens wailed behind them, several police vehicles merging into the upper two levels of vertical traffic.
“Let me out this instant.”
Kaiden suddenly wished the doctor had been knocked out as well. “Listen, Doc, this woman was sent to kill you. You’re a loose end your previous employers want snipped.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I work for Glimlivit Mercy Hos—”
“You are a butcher,” Nisrine interrupted. “We know about your part in illegal experiments on both cyborgs and gene splicers.”
Kaiden admired her bluff and took note of how the doctor’s face paled.
“Take a left then a right,” he instructed. She complied and the car swerved, the sharp maneuvers rocking them from one side to the other. Their unconscious assassin banged her head against the door.
“They’re going to keep following us no matter which way we go,” Nisrine shouted. “The rental car has a satellite tracking device.”
“Not in a moment they won’t. I killed this one. Now, trust me, dive down to the lowest lane of traffic on my word and be ready to make an immediate left again.”
“Are you crazy?” Martin demanded. “You’re going to get us all kill—”
“Now, Nissie!”
To shake off their pursuers, Nisrine disengaged the engine and sent their vehicle into a nosedive. The doctor screamed as they shot down three skylanes, missing other cars by mere inches. At the last moment, she primed the engine and banked left, swerving into a horizontal position.
The doctor fidgeted, glanced at Kaiden, and parted his lips to speak. “I—”
“Say a word and I’ll shut your mouth for you,” Kaiden threatened. Cowed, the doctor shrank back and snapped his head in the other direction to look out the window.
Nisrine glanced at him through the rearview mirror. “I know a place where we can ditch this car and question these two.”
“A safe house? Nisrine, they’ll look for us at any of them.”
“This one belongs to a friend. Trust me, it’s nowhere on the government’s radar.”
Nisrine drove them for an hour through the massive city, keeping to the lower lanes while Kaiden advised her of police activity. They pulled into a tenement sector as the sun began to set. Nisrine hopped out of the car and tapped in a pin on the rusting garage door. It slid up for Kaiden to guide the car inside.
The outer door camouflaged a ballistic-grade inner liner that secured into place with high-end magnetic locks. Kaiden’s link to the outside world dropped, cut off by the inlaid shielding. He stumbled, startled by the sudden loss of his connection.
“You said this belongs to a friend?”
“It does. Let’s leave it there for now.”
He tossed the unconscious assassin over his shoulder while Nisrine took the doctor by the arm and led them into the apartment.
“Have a seat, you’ll be here awhile.” She nudged the man toward a dark brown leather sofa.
After Kaiden secured their other guest in the tub with electronic restraints keyed to his thoughts, he rejoined the others in the living area. Martin stood near the couch, arms crossed over his chest as he faced off with Nisrine.
“You can’t keep me here. My wife will—”
“Your wife has been living separate from you for over a year while you continue to reject her terms in the divorce,” Kaiden cut in. “I guess you don’t wanna share all that dirty money from hacking up settlers to play with their brains.”
Unlike Watson, there was no apology in Martin’s face. A sociopath through and through, lacking sorrow and regret for his actions. He looked at them straight-on without blinking. “We did what needed to be done.”
A scene played out in Kaiden’s mind of him jerking the doctor by his starched collar and shaking him until his brain rattled. “You don’t feel an ounce of remorse.”
“No, and why should I? Look at you. You’re almost the perfect machine. Faster and stronger than any of our previous specimens, though I do lament the delay in placing the behavioral chip.”
Nisrine crossed the room in three strides and took the doctor by his throat, her eyes narrowed into angry slits. “I can rip the information we need from your mind, but you and I both know what the outcome will be. I’m willing to take the chance. Are you?”
The doctor’s back stiffened. “What do you want to know?”
“Names of everyone involved.”
“I can’t—” He wheezed as Nisrine’s grip tightened. “I don’t know everyone involved!”
“Then tell us the names you do know.”
Doctor Martin spouted off a short list of names, most of the conspirators no surprise to Kaiden, or victims they’d already discovered killed off in a series of ‘accidents’ recently.
“Who in the government authorized your funding?”
“This was Admiral Scarot’s brainchild. She cleared off on everything we asked for. Made all of the arrangements through United Command and arranged for the funding through her company.”
The blood seemed to flush cold in his veins. Of all the admirals on the board, her supportive, grandmotherly approval had meant the most to him. All along, he’d known it had to be someone on the Admiralty Board, but he’d anticipated it would be Himura. Or even Palmer.
“That bitch,” Nisrine muttered in a dark voice, trembling with rage.
By contrast, Kaiden became numb. He didn’t move until Nisrine took him by the arm and guided him into the next room.
“We can leave him here and dump the assassin at a local police station. Our work is done. We know who’s responsible for your abduction, we know who’s leaking classified intel, and we have a possible list of the remaining witnesses scheduled for elimination.”
“Okay,” Kaiden agreed.
“Are you okay?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. Always knew we’d discover things we didn’t want to know.”
“I’ll open a channel with Joaquin when we’re back on the ship and request a meeting with the queen herself.”
The two agents emerged from the kitchen to find the fretful doctor on the sofa where they’d left him. Upon hearing their plans, he leapt up from the seat and shook his head. “You can’t leave me here!”
“There’s enough supplies to keep you for a month unless you’re a gluttonous pig. There’s even cable, so you’ll have something to watch, at least,” she said.
“If you think I am staying here for a month, you are gravely mistaken.” The doctor rose and took a step toward the door.
Kaiden stepped between him and the entry. “The way I see it, you don’t have any choice in the matter. You can stay here where it’s safe and no one is aware of your location, or you can go out there and wait for the next assassin to find you. Make your own choice. Oh, and I should add, out there,” he gestured beyond the door, “there’s nothing shielding that little chip in your brain.”
“They deactivated it.”
“Is that what they told you?” Kaiden laughed, a dry, humorless chuckle. “The only reason you’re standing here is because I intercepted the kill signal during your overpriced
lunch.”
“But, but…” As Martin trailed off, the color drained from his face. He sank down onto the couch and dropped his head into his hands. “They swore it was a precautionary measure. When the project was finished, we were told they’d be taken offline.”
Kaiden locked eyes with Nisrine. She knew and he knew he’d already neutralized the chip, but the doctor was better off in the dark. “And lose their only leverage on you? The choice is yours—you can remain safe here and wait to testify against your accomplices or take your chances out in the world.”
When they left the apartment with their prisoner in tow, they didn’t look back.
As planned, they dropped the assassin off outside the nearest police station. With the woman’s record, she’d be locked up without release for a long time—if no one intervened on her behalf.
Nisrine sighed and rubbed her temples, wondering not for the first time if they’d done the right thing.
“No flags have been run on the ship,” Kaiden said, pulling her from her thoughts. “We haven’t been discovered.”
“Thank goodness for small favors,” she muttered.
They abandoned their car and hurried into the spaceport, neither one of them relaxing until they were back onboard with clearance for take-off. Leaving nothing to chance, Nisrine sent an encrypted, albeit vague message to both Queen Catherine and Joaquin while Kaiden got them into the air. Within seconds, her terminal beeped with an incoming call.
“Where the hell have you been?” Joaquin snapped.
“Working.”
“Don’t play cute with me, Nisrine. You’ve been radio silent for over a week. And now you go over my head to contact Catherine. What’s going on? I’ve been cleaning up your messes for days. Was that you and Lockhart on Boreas? What happened there?”
At the end of his flurry of questions, she bit out a terse, “We’ve cracked open the case and would like to report our findings to the queen directly. In person. I won’t do it over a communication channel.” Catherine? Even Nisrine drew the line at calling their esteemed ruler by her first name. How close had she and Joaquin become?
“You should have brought this directly to me.”
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