After a minute, Sabre appeared in the aisle between the stacks of crates, striding towards them with his lithe, graceful gait. He entered the office and stopped in front of the desk, assuming a guard stance, hands clasped behind his back, legs slightly apart.
Vorn jerked his chin at him. “You sure this is the one you want?”
“Yes.” Tassin gazed at Sabre, wanting to hug him, but acutely aware of Kole and Vorn watching her. “How was he injured?”
“Tassin…” Kole’s voice held a tinge of concern and warning.
Vorn sat back. “Well, now, that’s none of your business, is it?”
“No, absolutely not,” Kole agreed. “So, name your price.”
The smuggler looked disgruntled. “I really don’t want to sell him. I need him.”
“He’s not a common labourer,” Tassin said, “he’s a –”
Kole gripped her elbow. “Hey, cool it. We all know what he is.” He faced the smuggler again. “Look, you can buy a new one with what you get for him. He’s a bit banged up, like you said, and an older model. Surely you’d prefer a new one?”
A tense few seconds ticked past in silence, then Vorn shrugged. “Fine. Seven hundred thousand credits.”
“That’s what a new one costs,” Kole protested.
“So that’s what I need if I’m going to get a new one, isn’t it? You said price was no problem. That’s the price. Take it or leave it.”
“We’ll take it,” Tassin said.
“Yuh.” Kole looked unhappy. “We’ll come back in a few days with the money.”
“No!” She turned to him. “We have to take him now. He’s being abused!”
“Tassin…” Kole drew her aside and lowered his voice. “You don’t have any money. You have to sell the sword first.”
“We’ve only been offered five hundred thousand for the sword, it’s not enough!”
“You’ll get better offers.”
“I can’t wait. Look at him. He could be dead before we get that much money.”
“Oh, I doubt that.”
“Can’t you pay for him now, and I’ll pay you back when I sell the sword?”
Kole pulled a face. “That’s a hell of a lot of money.”
“The sword’s worth that much, isn’t it?”
“Sure, it’s worth much more than that.”
“I’ll give it to you, then you can sell it. You’ll make a profit.”
He shook his head. “No, that’s nuts.” He hesitated, shooting Vorn a quick glance. “Look, a few days won’t make a difference. He’ll be fine.”
“He’s not fine! Look at him. I can’t leave him here. Please, Kole!”
He raised his hands. “Okay, okay. You can pay me back.”
“Thank you.”
Kole returned to the desk and pulled his silver device from his pocket. “All right, let’s do the deal. Seven hundred thousand credits.”
The smuggler opened a drawer and took out a small black instrument that Tassin recognised, and a transparent sheet covered with writing. Kole fiddled with his device, and Vorn switched on the computer screen on his desk, typing something on the keyboard.
“I’m ready to transfer,” Kole said.
Vorn picked up the transparent sheet and squinted at it. “What’s the new owner’s name?”
Kole said, “Tassin Alrade.”
"Cyber XCA-6352-JY9019, command input, authorisation password, moonlight. Initiate transfer protocol."
"Password accepted. Transfer protocol initiated," Sabre said. "Proceed."
"New owner's name is Tassin Alrade, transfer codes are..." The smuggler peered at the sheet. "Midnight, enigma, velocity, image, brigand, starburn."
"Codes valid, transfer accepted. Proceed with voice imprint."
Kole and Vorn looked at Tassin, whose mind had gone blank. “Err… It’s a sunny day?”
"Voice imprint successful,” Sabre said. “Transfer complete."
Kole fiddled with his device. “Funds transferred.”
The smuggler frowned at the computer screen as a couple of seconds ticked past. “Funds received. Congratulations, you just bought yourself a banged up second-hand cyber for the price of a new one.” He smiled, holding out the transparent sheet.
Kole took it. “Yeah, great. Good doing business with you.”
Tucking the code sheet away, he headed for the door, and Tassin followed, shooting Vorn a parting glare. The man rocked back in his chair, looking smug.
Outside, they climbed into the air-car, the cyber taking the back seat. As Kole guided the vehicle into the air, she turned to gaze at Sabre, her heart aching with profound joy. She had done it, just as she had promised. She wondered if Sabre knew she had rescued him. There was no way to know, but she hoped he did. She knew he could hear her, for he had told her so. What had Myon Two done to him? How had they repaired the control unit? She remembered Sabre’s assertion that, even if she found him, she would not be able to free him from it again. There had to be a way, though, and she would find it. She refused to accept that he was right, in this instance.
She turned to Kole. “Can you… hack… a control unit?”
He shot her a disbelieving glance. “Now you’re really asking the impossible.”
“You said finding him was impossible, and getting here from Omega Five the way I did. But I’ve done both those things.”
“Well then, you’d better hack his control unit, too, because I can’t.”
“I thought you were a good hacker?”
“I am,” he said. “The best on Ferrinon, and possibly in the universe, but no one can hack a cyber.”
“Why not?”
“That’s a combat machine, Tassin. Do you really think he’d be much good if it was easy to hack him? People would be hacking and stealing cybers left, right and centre. There’d be a thriving black market in hacked cybers. But guess what? There isn’t. You want to know why? Because you can’t hack a bloody cyber.”
“So you know it’s supposed to be impossible, but you don’t know why it’s impossible?”
“I haven’t actually tried to hack one, no, but I do know why it’s impossible.” He guided the air-car around a tall glass building. “Apart from the impenetrable security codes, which, apparently, change every hour according to the time at Cybercorp, and consist of random numbers, if anyone tried to hack him, he’d defend himself. He has a cybernetic interface that will literally fry any computer you hook up to him. That thing on his head is the most sophisticated and powerful AI ever created, and it’s programmed to fight back.”
“Even against his owner?”
“Yeah, if his owner tries to hack him; it’s about the only thing an owner can’t do to a cyber. Also, you need the right equipment, because his unit can’t be accessed remotely, except by his override’s coded signal. That’s another security feature. You need a cable that fits into the brow band’s access port, and you can only get one from a cyber accessories store. Even so, they’re only meant for lower-level access, and you still couldn’t hack him unless you had the codes.”
Tassin turned to gaze at Sabre again, her joy spoilt by his blank gaze. It reminded her of the first time she had met him, when he had stepped out of his casket and stared through her as if she did not exist, like now. The warehouse where they had found him was far from Kole’s apartment, and it took almost an hour to reach it.
By the time they arrived, she was fuming with impatience, longing to be alone with Sabre and tend to his injuries. As soon as Kole parked the car, she climbed out and headed for her room, Sabre following. She closed the door and turned to him, taking his hand. She longed to embrace him, but shyness and decorum, as well as the wounds on his chest, prevented her.
“I found you.” Her throat tightened again, and she swallowed hard. “I almost gave up hope, Sabre. You hid the damned sword! Why did you hide the sword? I needed it to get here. It was the only way I could, and you hid it. It took me three years to find it!” She scanned his face for some sign t
hat he had heard her, gripping his hand in both of hers. “Show me you can hear me. Squeeze my hand. Sabre? Please, give me a sign.”
His hand gripped hers, and her heart leapt, then sank again as she scanned his impassive features. “That wasn’t you, was it?”
“Question not understood.”
She blinked and lowered her gaze to the laser burns on his chest. “All right, let’s get you fixed up first. Remove your harness and vest.”
The cyber unclipped and stripped off the webbing and dropped it on the bed, then removed his vest. “How did you get these injuries?” she asked.
“Information about previous owners is classified.”
“Sit on the bed.”
He obeyed, and she fetched a bowl of water and soft clean washcloth from the bathroom, sat beside him and dabbed at the injuries, chewing her lip.
Sabre turned his head towards her. “This unit requires cleaning prior to medical attention.”
She lowered the cloth, realising that he was right. Dust filmed him, and dried sweat made runnels in it. Whatever he had been used for before she had rescued him must have been extremely taxing and dangerous. “Use the shower.”
Tassin sat on the bed and listened to the water run, thinking about what had happened so far and what still lay ahead. What if he was right about her not being able to free him again? What if he remained as he was for the rest of his life? Would she be able to bear it? Finding him had seemed like an impossible dream until she had found the sword, but then it had come true quite quickly and without too much mishap. The sword had made it possible to buy him as well, so she owed everything to it, but certainly it could not free him. Kole could not help her in that endeavour either, so she was on her own, but she had no clue how to go about it. If Myon Two had repaired the damage to the brow band, it might well be impossible. Then all she could do was take him back to Omega Five and give him a good life, as much as she was able. Certainly it would be better than the one he had had with the smugglers. Then there was the problem of how to get home without the sword, once she sold it to repay Kole. There had to be a way of freeing Sabre, though, and she had to find it. If only she knew what Myon Two had done to repair his control unit.
The hiss of running water stopped, and a minute later Sabre emerged, clad in his shorts, towelling his hair. She patted the bed beside her.
“Come and sit, so I can tend to your wounds.”
He settled beside her, and she dug the tube of antiseptic cream out of his medical kit and smeared it on the burns, then stuck dressings on them while he stared into space. Remembering his painkillers, she shook two onto her palm and ordered him to take them, then gazed at him.
“I know you can hear me,” she said. “It’s safe to free yourself now. I found you, just as I promised. Come on. Sabre? Free yourself.”
“Order not understood.”
She leant closer and stroked his cheek, tracing the tiny white scar that ran along it, a legacy of the brutal operations he had undergone to implant metal on his bones. “What did they do to you? Sabre… I’m going to free you. Do you hear me? I will free you. Just show me you can hear me.”
“Order not understood.” The cyber stared into the middle distance for several seconds, then his eyes closed in a slow blink.
Tassin’s heart pounded, and she smiled through her tears. “You heard me. I know you did. Can you free yourself? Will you at least try? Please?”
Several more seconds passed, a longer interval than the first one, and she wondered if he was trying or just thinking, or if he was listening to her at all. Now she wished she had paid more attention when he had explained what he could do and sense while under cyber control. She was sure he could hear, and see, but not focus, and he could not move at all, except, apparently, he could make that slow, almost seductive blink. He did it again, and a mixture of joy and anguish swamped her.
“Tell me how to fix you, Sabre.”
“This unit is operational. Bio status: seventy-nine per cent.”
“Oh, shut up, I’m not talking to you.” Tassin sighed and lay down, patting the covers beside her. “Lie down, Sabre.”
The cyber obeyed, and she pulled his arm away and cuddled up to him, rested her head on his shoulder and held him tight with a bittersweet mixture of bliss at being close to him again at last, and sorrow that he was unable to respond. Now that she owned the cyber – she refused to think of it as owning Sabre – it would do anything she ordered, but that thought only added to her sadness. She raised herself on her elbow and leant over him to kiss his cheek.
“I hope you don’t mind this. I missed you so much. I’m going to find a way to free you.”
Tassin gazed at him until his eyes closed in a slow blink that she took to be agreement, or at least acknowledgement, then lay down again with a sigh and hugged him.
Chapter Three
Tassin hefted the hammer, chewing her lip. Her plan made perfect logical sense, but putting it into practice was difficult. The brow band had lost control of Sabre last time because it had been damaged in a fall from a cliff, so it stood to reason that to free him again she had to damage it again, the same way. Although Myon Two had re-established its control over him, the crack in the crystals was still there. If she could break the brow band again, he would be free. Hitting him with a hammer was hard to do, but she had to. She had ordered the cyber to lie on the floor in the middle of Kole’s computer room, which gave her the best shot at the brow band, and she knelt beside him. Kole had gone somewhere earlier, and she was alone with Sabre in the apartment.
The night before, after he had eaten dinner with her and Kole, the hacker had provided an extra mattress for Sabre to sleep on in her room. She wanted nothing more than to be close to him, but refused to order him to do anything he might not want. She was determined to preserve his dignity at all costs and ensure that he was comfortable and as content as was possible, under the circumstances. Only once she had broken the diabolical thing that controlled him, would she be truly reunited with the man she loved. Bolstering her cowering resolve with this thought, she raised the hammer, aimed at the control unit and brought it down.
Sabre’s hand flashed up and caught her wrist. “That action may result in damage to this unit,” he intoned.
“Release me.”
He obeyed, and she frowned at him. “You will not impede me again, understood?”
“Understood.”
“I hope this doesn’t hurt too much,” she muttered, raising the hammer again.
Her first stroke bounced off the control unit with a crisp click, and barely seemed to jar him. Much more force was necessary, she knew. Her second stroke cracked into the control unit with a satisfying clack, and she bent to peer at the crack, but it looked the same. She raised the hammer again and brought it down with more strength, and again it clacked against the black crystals, bounced off and jarred her hand. Still there seemed to be no damage, and she chewed her lip, discouraged. Just how hard was she going to have to hit it? What if she missed? That did not bear thinking about, so she put it out of her mind. Don’t miss. Tassin hit the control unit with the hammer five more times, each impact harder than the one before, but the crystals remained intact. With growing frustration, she raised the hammer and brought it down in the hardest stroke of all. It clipped the brow band and smacked into Sabre’s forehead with a dull thud.
Tassin dropped the hammer and clamped her hands over her mouth, her eyes filling with tears. A red mark blossomed on his golden skin, and his eyes closed in a slow blink.
“Oh, god, I’m so sorry, Sabre,” she said in a strangled voice.
Tassin stared at him, aghast at what she had done. If he had been free, he would have been telling her how foolish she was, she was sure. She did not know how to free him. The possibility that there was no way to free him made her tears overflow and run down her cheeks. She buried her face in her hands.
“Hey, what’s going on?”
Kole’s voice made her rub the tears from
her cheeks and raise her head. He stood in the doorway, a bag of shopping in one hand, frowning at Sabre. His eyes flicked to the hammer on the floor and then to the small red swelling on the cyber’s brow.
“Have you been trying to break the control unit with a hammer?” He sounded incredulous.
“Have you a better idea?”
He snorted. “You’re nuts, you know that? You can’t break a control unit. Daft chick.”
“His is already broken,” she pointed out.
“In a fall off a cliff, you said. That, I can believe, if he hit a rock. Okay, that might weaken it a bit, but not enough so you can now break it with a hammer.”
“I have to free him!”
Kole sighed and put down the bag. “Yeah, so you’ve said. Look, he’s a fighting machine; he’s designed to be tough. You think a little girl like you has a chance of hurting him? Except maybe a little bruise, unless you hit him in the eye. Then you might very well kill him. But smash the control unit? Cybers use those things as weapons. They bring a whole other dimension to head-butting in the form of control unit-shaped indentations in the skulls of the unsuspecting sods who are stupid enough to tackle a cyber. Hitting it with a hammer won’t even rattle its circuits.”
“There has to be a way.” she said, her eyes growing moist again, to her annoyance.
Kole sank into a chair. “If there is, I don’t know it. As far as I know, it’s impossible.”
“It is possible. He was free on Omega Five for almost a year.”
“Well, we’re nine floors up. You could chuck him off the balcony. That might work.”
“That’s not funny, Kole.”
Sabre sat up. “There are ten enforcers outside the door.”
“Enforcers?” Tassin asked, puzzled.
“Correct.”
Despite his warning, the thunderous banging that came from the door a moment later made her jump.
“Shit!” Kole leapt up. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
“Why?” she asked, surprised.
“When enforcers rock up on my doorstep, I run first and ask questions later. Come on!”
The Cyber Chronicles 04: Cyborg Page 4