“A female cyborg told us her military chip was being used to torture her. We didn’t see how it was possible, but she was very adamant and loudly insistent it was the truth.”
Seetha snorted. “Given what I’m seeing here, I would say she’s right. The back of William’s military chip is wired directly into his brain with enough amperage to cause the mother of all headaches. Who the hell would do that to anyone?”
Kyra rushed into the room, her face color turned ashen when she saw Marcus on the floor unconscious. Peyton stood and grabbed her as she clutched her portable to her chest with both hands.
“What happened?” Kyra demanded.
“We’re all good now. Calm down. I need you to come here and look at this,” Seetha ordered. “I think we may have found the source of William’s headaches.”
Kyra took a deep breath to steady her nerves before going to kneel by her newest, and most unhappy, restoration. She peered at the wires on the back of his military chip and then met her engineer’s gaze. “How much amperage is being passed through them into his brain?”
“Less than point one, thank the Goddess. Not enough to kill him, but definitely enough to cause the mother of all headaches. Problem is…I don’t know what’s going to happen if we snip the connection.”
“I do,” Kyra said firmly. “The chip pulls power from the solar generator for his cybernetics. The wires need to be removed altogether, but cutting them should sever the connection for now without harming the individual too much. Don’t put the military chip back. His return to consciousness would reboot it. Captain Talon would end up looping through the commands on it again.”
“We can’t let that happen. He shocked the shit out of Marcus. The current passed through one of his hands. He still had some reserve left afterward. He was coming after me when Rachel zapped him in the back with our high voltage discharger.”
Kyra swallowed, fought her burning eyes, and sighed. She should have listened to her instincts and never left William alone with Seetha and Rachel. “Cut the wires and get that damn chip out of him. God only knows what he’ll be like without it, but we need to look at the coding on it right away.”
“Any of the original military coders still around for consulting purposes?” Seetha asked. “It might make your deciphering a lot easier.”
“Yes, but not on my team. They were all reassigned after the war ended. But one of them works for Norton fairly regularly. He’s in the resources department.”
“I suggest contacting him or her. If it’s okay, I’d like to sit in on the meetings,” Seetha said, snipping each wire carefully. The man’s body went completely still when the last wire was cut. She looked down at William in horror. “Did I just kill him?”
Kyra felt for a pulse. It was slow, but still strong enough to sustain life. “No. I think you just cured Captain Talon’s constant headache. I hope for all our sakes you did.”
Seetha let out a sigh and stood with the chip in her hand. She was staring at it when Kyra stood to peer at it too.
Kyra frowned and rubbed her forehead. “Fine. I’ll give Dan a call and see when he’s scheduled to be on site again.”
“Dan?” Seetha’s alarm system went off. She met King’s equally alarmed gaze. “His name wouldn’t be Dan Masterson, would it?”
“Yes. That’s right. He did your background check. It’s his new job now, among other things. No one really knows what he does when he’s not investigating new Norton employees.”
“That secretive bastard,” King declared.
“We don’t know it’s him, King.” Seetha said sharply, but she looked at Kyra. “Don’t contact the man. King and I know exactly where he’s going to be tomorrow night. Is there any way you can hide what’s happened here for a day?”
“She can’t…but I can,” Peyton declared. “You two going to tell me what’s going on?”
Seetha nodded. “Yes. We need to make sure Dan doesn’t cut and run on us until we can talk to him.”
Kyra sighed heavily. “I think when William comes around, I’ll run his assimilation again. I bet it happens this time. Given what we know though, I almost wish I could spare him from the memories.”
Seetha sighed. “William said he had orders to kill me. I believe he did. I think his headache would have magically stopped after my life had ended because that was part of the programming. What’s scary is that they used his military chip. How the hell did they get around the failsafes of your new processor?”
Kyra bit her lip, then covered her mouth with her hand.
“What?” Peyton demanded. “What’s that look on your face for?”
“I left military chips in all the cyborgs. I didn’t want to take that part of their identity from them. I wasn’t sure if they would keep their military status if I removed it…and you used yours to talk with your team. Oh my God…I haven’t fixed any of the soldiers. How many of them are wired this way?”
“We don’t know this shit is the case for all of us. Not all cyborgs were double-wired,” Peyton declared.
Kyra nodded, closed her eyes, and prayed before opening them again. “You’re right. We’ll just have to…check them all.”
“Damn straight,” Peyton said briskly. “Now let’s get Nero working on the coding and see what he can find out. It’s probably best if he does it at his other facility and away from Norton. At the very least, he needs to use our lab at home. We’re being looked at harder than we realized, Kyra.”
Kyra nodded numbly, having no choice but to agree. They all glanced down as Marcus moaned. Rachel stooped and put a hand on his face to pat it. They watched as Marcus opened his eyes and blinked up at her.
“I fucked up and he took me out,” he said.
Rachel shook her head and patted his face again.
Seetha rolled her eyes and wondered why Rachel wasn’t talking to Marcus, but didn’t call her on it. She figured her savior must have a good reason for keeping her new voice a secret from her cyborg keeper.
King snorted and leaned over to look down into Marcus’s face. “You saved Seetha. Rachel saved you. You all got damn lucky, Mr. Hero.”
Marcus winced. “Well don’t gush so much, King. You know I hate it when you get all mushy. I’m fine now…just got the shit kicked out of me…no biggie.”
Seetha went over and stooped down to him. She leaned over and kissed Marcus full on the mouth. “Never mind what Kingston says. You’ll always be a hero to me, Marcus. Thank you.”
Marcus chuckled at the glare King was giving the woman. “You’ll always be welcome, Seetha.”
“Hey—now. You never kissed me when I helped save you,” Eric declared.
King swung his glare from Seetha to the smiling Marcus to a grinning Eric whom they’d all pretty much forgotten was there until he spoke.
“Seetha’s not kissing you, Moron.” He turned back to Seetha. “You aren’t, are you?”
Seetha snickered and stood. “Jealous much, King?”
King sighed. “Yes…damn it.”
“Good. I turn down hot cyborg dates every day because of you. It’s only fair for you to suffer a bit as well,” Seetha declared.
King rubbed his head and sighed. “I’m feeling violent again. Doors and walls are now at risk. Got any bad guys I can kill, Peyton?”
Peyton slapped his friend on the back. “Not just yet…but I think the fight is coming in the near future.”
King nodded and reached down a hand to help a still laughing Marcus to his feet.
Chapter 18
Seetha came out of the bathroom and walked to the bed where a completely naked King sat in the middle of it. He took up nearly all the space.
“I don’t get it. There’s no room for wild monkey sex here. Why didn’t we just go to your place? If we’re being watched by Peyton’s invisible bad guys, it is probably at both residences. Shit—we might as well be comfortable while we’re being spied on.”
King snorted at her swearing and held out his hand, grinning when Seetha snort
ed and ignored it to walk away. The two of them were finding a new balance with each other.
Sometimes it was easy—sometimes it wasn’t.
He decided all that really mattered in the end was that he’d be inside her before the night was over. It was just a matter of how emotionally hard he would have to work to get there when she was feeling so resistant. At least she wasn’t curled up on the couch and crying about what happened today. Any reaction was a better one as far as he was concerned…even belligerence.
As women went, Seetha wasn’t a hard one to figure out. She liked flirting and laughing, but she also liked not being judged for having a sharp mind. The woman was bossy and demanding everywhere. In a blink of an eye, she could morph from a mild-mannered lab nerd into a long-limbed contradiction who held nothing back between the sheets. If anyone had told him years ago, someone like Seetha would be the kind of woman he’d settle down with, he’d have called them crazy. Now he never wanted her to leave his side.
After her shower, she had stolen his damn t-shirt. She wore it to cover a body she was still uncomfortable with, but which looked better than she realized. He was going to smell like her tomorrow when he had to steal his shirt back because he hadn’t gone home for new clothes. Thinking about wearing the shirt and smelling like her all day brought a smile to his face. He had it bad for the woman and for once didn’t need Nero to validate his feelings.
When Peyton found out how he felt about Seetha, King knew he was going to catch hell for also falling for a contract wife. Wherever his don’t-give-a-shit was hiding, he was going to need to get it out and polish it before he admitted his intentions to his friends. He focused his attention back on Seetha, and tried to remember what the last thing she asked was—damn missing husband chip would have helped there.
“Eric and Nero swept Annalise’s for bugs and it’s completely clean. My place isn’t, honey. We can’t move their listening devices without alerting whoever is watching me.”
Seetha frowned and shook her head. “So you were always the real target. I was just part of the research on you.”
King frowned and shrugged. “We don’t know that for certain yet. Peyton and Kyra will eventually figure out what’s going on—they always do. The only one of our team of guys who had a wired military chip was Peyton. Kyra had apparently yanked the chip loose from its wires during one of her altercations with him where he tried to arrest her. Peyton said he wasn’t aware of feeling any different before or after that, and his military chip is still functioning. Her theory is without the pain, a soldier wouldn’t be able to be programmed. She thinks it could be resisted. I hope like hell she’s right.”
Thinking about the military chips bothered her, so Seetha didn’t comment. She picked up her clothes from where she had shed them into the floor and carried them to the wall to shove them into the clothing sanitizer. She set it for quiet, overnight cleaning. Glancing to her right, she saw King’s neatly folded clothes hung over the back of the only chair in the room.
“On my best day, I’m only half as neat as you are. Were you raised by neat freaks or did becoming a cyborg do it to you?”
“It was the military more than anything. When you’re in a war, keeping your shit straight can keep you alive,” King explained, watching her pace the tiny room like a prowling cat. Her prison cell must have truly been a torture for her. His own time trapped in a POW cage had been all he could stand.
Seetha smiled and stopped walking. “You spending the night with me here certainly made Mother’s day. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her happier, but our situation is still surreal to me, King. Think about it. We were together for years, and yet we’re sometimes like strangers. It sounds dumb to say this, but it feels like I’m just now getting to know the real you. I admit I like being able to ask you questions about your past and actually get an answer.”
King chuckled at her honesty. “Good. I like being able to answer your questions.”
Seetha laughed. “Yes, you say that now. Let’s give it a while and see how you feel about me. I have a large amount of curiosity. It tends to put people off, especially men.”
King laughed hard at the concern in her statement. “Honey, the first night you came to the restaurant, I saw you in your short pink dress and had a major epiphany.”
“Is that your charming Kingston way of saying I aroused you?” Seetha joked.
King narrowed his gaze. “No. Stop teasing and listen for a minute. When I saw you, I realized if it had been the first time I laid eyes on you, I’d have still noticed you talking and flirting with other men. I would have asked you out when you looked at me and not at them. I am sincerely attracted to you, Seetha…even without the Cyber Husband chip. I even get why Nero refused to put it back in because liking you organically is much more satisfying.”
Her husky laughter over his confession echoed inside him. It would have been a moment exactly like one of their vid recordings, if it hadn’t been for the look of utter devastation on Seetha’s face. Inside he was sighing, even though he didn’t let it escape.
“What’s wrong with what I said?” he asked. “Freaking tell me so I don’t do it again. I hate the look you have on your face right now.”
Seetha turned, smiled, shook her head. “It’s nothing, King—you said nothing wrong. It’s just part of me can’t believe you meant what you just said. The more I work on restored cyborgs—the more I see the wrongness of my former relationship to you.”
King shook his head. “It wasn’t just you. It was everyone. At least you cared about me.”
“The actions our government took made some kind of sense at the end of the war. We were all just tired of the fighting and the violence and all the symbols of it. Cyborgs more than anything else represented the worst of our natures. You should have seen the videos of cyborgs destroying things—they were very convincing evidence. None of what I’m saying is an excuse…or a justification. Like you, I’m dealing with my own epiphanies.”
“Why are we talking about this tonight? Are you trying to rationalize William’s attack on you?”
Seetha sighed. Was she?
“I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe I’m trying to be worthy of your forgiveness by forgiving him. Acknowledging my part in our lost past keeps me from being genuinely mad at William. He’s not the real evil—his programmer is.”
“Yes, but I still want to kill him for trying to kill you. My vitals are elevating just talking about it. So no more discussing this tonight unless you want me to head back to Norton to avenge you like I wanted to this afternoon.”
Seetha grinned. “Avenge me?”
King crossed his arms. “Got a better way to phrase it? You’re my woman. No one is going to hurt you when I’m around.”
Seetha chuckled. “If this is your true nature, I may have to rethink my plans to seduce you into keeping me. I’m not sure I like you this way. Might be too much competition between us. I’m bossy too.”
King patted his thighs. “I know you are and it doesn’t bother me. Now quit talking and climb up here. I need to tell you something important and I’ve put it off too long already.”
Seetha gave him a look, but climbed on the bed and moved over to him. He hoisted her the rest of the way until she sat astride his lap. Two seconds later, his shirt was off her and flying across the room to land in the chair near his other clothes. It made her laugh.
“If you remembered how much I used to weigh, you’d be laughing at how much lighter I am now.” Her small breasts were flush against his massive chest and she was face-to-face with his talented mouth. Between her legs, she felt his interest growing. She closed her eyes and sighed in happiness. “I’m glad you don’t seem to care what I look like. Enjoying this moment was worth surviving the work camp for. Can I just stay here in your lap forever?”
King nodded as he studied the bliss lighting her face already. They hadn’t even done anything yet. Color was high on her cheeks and her eyes were sparkling. She bit her lip nervously…or in exci
tement. He could read her stress indicators, but determining the exact cause might always elude him with this woman.
“Seetha, I wish it was different, but I still don’t remember you. Nero found the data file they pulled from me. I’ve been using it for reference. That’s how I knew so much about our past.”
When the confession tumbled out, his low grade headache immediately eased. To his utter surprise, Seetha reached out a hand and patted his cheek.
“It’s okay. I knew you were lying the day you pretended to remember. Mother knew it too. You’re forgiven, but why did you do it?”
King snorted. “I was panicked at the thought you really didn’t want anything more to do with me.”
Seetha laughed, shook her head, and patted his face again. She had arrived at a moment between her and King, where it was more clear than ever she needed to let go of the past and embrace the present. Maybe it was a form of penance to have to wait until King fell in love with her for real. In the meantime, she’d just love him all she could.
Since the starting point for her resolve was growing more and more obvious, she reached between them and guided him inside her where he belonged. He shifted and let her have her way, his body eager for hers as always.
When they were connected as completely she could get to happen by herself, Seetha placed both hands on King’s shoulders and looked into his troubled gaze.
“Kingston West, I love you. Your restoration has made us like every other couple on the planet with no guarantees about tomorrow. But I promise you are never going to find another woman who appreciates you as much as I do. I’m going to do everything I can to stay in your life.”
Seetha leaned forward as she rose, and kissed his cheek as she slid down on him again. His hands quivered as they pulled her closer and then traveled up her spine. She was conscious of the fact King was a cyborg who could hurt her…but he could also protect and cherish her as he had before. At least what happened in the future was his choice now too, and she would always know what he felt for her was real. This was the time to be grateful King was giving her a second chance.
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