“Hi Edward,” Rachel said, smiling at the sound of her voice. It was very nice to talk.
“Hi sweetie. Sure is good to see you,” he said.
“Hi Seetha. Your husband is down the hall. Please don’t let him catch you with your head in Edward’s lap. He almost broke my back when he hugged me earlier. I can only imagine what he could do to Edward.”
“Oh My Goddess. Your voice. It’s so beautiful,” Seetha declared, climbing to her feet. “And for your information, I was working on his damn knee. I don’t care what it looked like.”
“It sure didn’t look like knee repair from where I was standing,” Rachel declared.
Seetha laughed and took two steps. Rachel met her halfway and flung herself into her boss’s arms for a hug. They were still wrapped together when King walked through the door. He smiled at the two of them.
“Holy crap. I’d heard he was the size of a mountain, but damn…he’s really big. Thank you, sweetie. I think you just saved my life,” Edward declared, blinking up at King from the chair.
Rachel giggled at Edward’s comment as she pulled away. “My voice is fixed, but that’s all the good news I have. I don’t know what else they did to me. All I know is that it wasn’t as much as they intended to do.”
“It doesn’t matter. Kyra will find out what they did and make it right,” Seetha said.
“Not today though,” King said quietly, touching his wife’s back. “Peyton found Kyra in her office, staring off into space. He says that usually means she has a sick headache. Since Rachel seems mostly okay, I’m going to walk her home and make sure she’s secure for the evening. Marcus said her apartment is locked down and secure again. When I get done delivering and checking, I’ll be back to get you.”
Seetha nodded. “Okay.” She looked at Rachel.
Rachel smiled. “I feel fine—truly. I want to go home. I want to…”
“See Marcus?” Seetha finished.
Rachel nodded and smiled again. “Yes. Peyton says he sent a message to him that King was taking me home. I’m sure he’ll be there soon. It’s okay. I won’t be alone long…and I need the space to think about things.”
“It’s okay, baby girl. You don’t have to justify anything to me. I get the whole alone time thing. Wow, your voice is wonderful. It’s so good to hear you speaking normally.”
“You and Kyra were right about me needing a new processor. I wish I had listened to you and let Kyra do it. Apparently that was the source of my speech problem.”
Seetha hugged her again. “Well, whatever…you’re fixed and that’s all that matters. Kyra will make sure it’s all good.”
“Yes. I believe that now,” Rachel said. “And I’m going to let her. Maybe I’ll even ask her to make me smarter. I’ve learned that can be done without changing much else. I met several smart geeks with no morals whatsoever.”
Seetha lifted a hand to her friend’s young and still innocent face. “Anything is possible, but some things are not so wise. Be careful of what you ask for. Sometimes it's hard to live with what you get.”
“It’s okay. I was mostly teasing,” Rachel declared. She hugged Seetha one last time, then ran over and hugged Edward. “Get well. I want to do dinner again soon…without the bad guys showing up.”
Edward snorted. “Can I bring my pulse cannon?”
King looked at his wife’s intriguing patient. “You have a pulse cannon?”
“Yes. One I built myself. It’s not registered, but it works just fine. It has two settings—human and cyborg. Next person to point any kind of device at me I don’t recognize is going to get a hell of a surprise.”
King laughed. “I hear you.”
“Were you this big before…you know…the change?” Edward asked.
“Let’s just say they didn’t have to work very hard to make me into what they wanted. Now though, the cybernetics just keep me trim. I run a restaurant, so that’s a very good thing in my case. There’s no telling what size I’d be otherwise. I love to eat.”
Rachel grinned when Edward’s mouth pursed in surprise.
“A restaurant, eh? I’ll have to check it out sometime.”
“Do that. It’s a great place to bring a date,” King said.
“Great place to pick one up too, Edward. Have Franco seat you in the last seat at the bar while you wait. There’s magic in that chair,” Seetha supplied.
Rachel ducked her head and giggled when King turned to his wife and growled. She interjected trying to save Seetha from her own mouth. Her teasing about other men didn’t always sit well with her possessive husband.
“I think I need to go home now, especially before Seetha gets into more trouble. I can’t take any more violence today.”
She grinned when her comment made Seetha and King both laugh.
She almost choked on her tongue when King lifted Seetha up to his mouth and had his way with it in front of Edward and her. The man did not spare anyone’s sensibilities in the sensual attack. Her own face was flushed and her gaze wide when King finally let Seetha go. Her boss was glassy-eyed with lust, but not one whip embarrassed. Rachel fought the urge to sigh and lost.
“Well, okay. I guess that’s one way to settle an argument. Now I really miss Marcus.”
“At least you’ve got someone to go home to, sweetie. I think I need a damn cold shower,” Edward declared, grinning as he complained.
As King grinned back at Edward, he also nodded to the door with his chin. Rachel waved at a still smiling Edward and a smiling Seetha before happily following him out.
Chapter 15
He and his team were all still wirelessly connected, a fact that Marcus appreciated most days. Because of it, he felt Eric arrive even when his friend was still a good distance away. He didn’t automatically turn to greet him. Instead, he continued facing forward to stare at the upscale building. It was full of luxury private residences where he was pretty sure he was going to find his target getting ready to disappear from his cushy life forever. The chip Kyra and Peyton put in Nathan was still pinging.
“Sorry to pull your ass out of its comfortable seat at Nero’s com, but I needed help taking down the geeky cyborg. You lost the fire team coin toss…again,” Marcus joked.
Eric’s laughter held so much relief in it, Marcus actually got choked up. He might have lost one family because of the war, but he’d gained another during it. The man beside him was as close as any brother could possibly be.
He finally turned and met Eric’s curious gaze. “I don’t remember everything, but I think I remember all the important stuff. And I heard what you said to Kyra about me…so thanks. I didn’t want to act in that stick-up-my-cybernetic-ass way but I couldn’t help myself. That level of mind control is completely fucked up and I can’t believe we lived like that for a decade. It’s like being half-alive.”
Eric nodded. “Yes, I agree. It is completely fucked up that changing out a few parts can do that to a person. You are always a pain in my ass, but at least you’re a lively one. Cyborgs in the condition you were are actually scary. I’m glad I never was one like that.”
Marcus laughed at his friend’s bragging. “Uh…I hate to break the news to you…but we’re both about as real as cyborgs get.”
He turned and leaned his head in the direction of the building. “But that guy up there isn’t a real cyborg. He’s just got delusions of grandeur about big muscles making him more talented in the sack. I called you here to keep me from killing him for being stupid.”
Eric grinned. “Who’s to say I won’t kill him myself?”
“Will you?” Marcus asked.
Eric snickered and then laughed. “No—probably not. Actually, I feel kind of sorry for him. For all his intelligence, he hasn’t got a clue about what he’s done to himself. Doc thinks whoever did this to him put some invisible strings in place. My guess is that’s she’s right. Now that’s scary.”
Marcus looked at the building and nodded. “Damn right it is. And you can feel sorry for hi
m all you want. He almost killed me and Lieutenant Jensen. He took Rachel. I have no objectivity here. I definitely want to kill him.”
Eric slapped his friend on the back. “Good thing you called me then. I got gobs of objectivity. I think you develop it from sitting at a com so much.”
They walked into the building and approached the guard desk. The unresponsive AI stared straight ahead. All other security was deactivated except for a guard gate blocking off the scanner path.
“Shit. Somebody is up to something,” Marcus declared.
They each took hold of the crisscrossed metal and pulled at it until it gave way and broke off completely.
“That gate is not very effective,” Eric declared. “It needs to be stronger.”
“I don’t think it was made to keep out cyborgs.” Marcus snorted at Eric’s evaluation of their security and headed to the airlift. “I also don’t think the geeky versions of us understand the value of stealth.”
On Nathan’s floor, they headed down the hall to his residence. The light over his door wasn’t flashing with an illegal breach, but the door was still cracked open. Marcus took one side position as Eric took the other. Then he eased the door open and glanced inside. All he saw was a serene, well-maintained living space.
Treading quietly across the threshold, Marcus walked through the main living space and into the kitchen. He saw a duffle full of electronics on the dining table and pointed it out to Eric.
Eric nodded at the geek’s predictability, and then looked around and up. There were no signs of conflict…no evidence of break-in. Whoever came inside didn’t have to work very hard to do so.
Then they went to search the bedroom.
“Uh oh,” Eric said, running to the silent man’s side. He felt his neck. No pulse. “Somebody beat you to it, Marcus. The geeky dude’s dead.”
Nathan 180 lay prone on his bed, staring at the ceiling. His still mostly innocent eyes were wide open and showed shock. His cybernetic compartment was completely empty—no processor or chips remained. All that was left were a few dangling wires running out of a metal box.
“Someone was certainly covering their tracks. They intentionally didn’t leave him hooked up for life support. His brain would have died within an hour. The rest would have followed shortly after.”
Marcus reached out and pulled down Nathan’s eyelids. They moved easily. Rigor mortis hadn’t set in yet. Nathan’s death hadn’t happened long ago.
He turned to Eric. “Any idea who could have taken out our target before I could?”
Eric nodded. “Actually, I sort of do. Rachel said there was a doctor at the place where she was being held. She said he’d turned a couple of women into human robots. My theory is that it’s the same guy who’s been converting geeks. He seems to be into experiments. Rachel said he kept referring to her as a prototype he had created.”
Marcus nodded and frowned. He hoped King was still with Rachel, but knowing Rachel, she’d run him off. Her instincts for danger were not very high. “Can you stay and call this in to Peyton? I need to get to Rachel’s. He might go after her next.”
Eric nodded. “Of course. Go. I’ll see you later.”
Marcus turned and literally ran out the door.
***
After King left, Rachel let herself finally breathe. It was good to be back in her own space again. It was also good to be alone and not in fear of her life.
Some kind soul had removed the remnants of her botched dinner from the kitchen counters and stuffed the spoils into the recycler. Unused dishes and silverware remained on the table, waiting for the next meal to be served.
She looked around and sighed at the signs of normality littering her living area. Through the bedroom doorway, she noticed the bed was trashed, probably from her last sex-a-thon with Marcus. They had gotten a little more energetic than usual from what she recalled of that day.
She pulled off and hung up the spare jacket she’d found in the lab. Beside it was her other jacket and her carryall. Reaching into the bag, she felt around until she came up with the handheld Nathan had tricked her into accepting. It was still on and still working, even though she’d never bothered to recharge it. Though she had never heard of an unlimited power source, the thing had been live for almost two weeks now without a recharge.
She suddenly looked at the hated device with new eyes. Rolling it over in her hand, she studied the pulsing power indicator. No doubt the device had been used to track her to her residence. How else could Nathan have so easily known where she lived?
Feeling the need to rectify her mistake, she walked to the kitchen and promptly dumped the expensive geek toy into the recycler on top of the spoiled food. She started the machine and winced as the handheld got crunched and died a violent death.
In retrospect, maybe she should have taken the handheld into the lab for Seetha to analyze. There may even have been hazardous materials in it. Guilt over what she may be doing to the environment warred with her liberation to be free of one more symbol of her stupidity. She stood in her kitchen, chewing on her lip, and wondered if she was ever going to feel mature.
The notifier announced a visitor, but didn’t say who it was. Suspicious, Rachel looked at the recycler and sighed. Now she was almost wishing to have it back. Her rebellious decision making had always suffered from the single worst timing in the world. Sighing again, and reluctant to deal with the unwanted visitor on her own, she still hoped to get a peek at who had come calling. It certainly wasn’t Marcus. He had his own key now.
On her way to the door, the security override dinged to release the lock. Her worst nightmare walked inside, making her instinctively back up.
“No…” Rachel said, even though he’d yet to make any demands. His smile was coldly confident. It was the same look he’d had when he announced he was her creator and could do whatever he wanted to her.
“Hello, Rachel 235. You keep getting away from me when we have some important unfinished business. I must say it was very accommodating of you to shrug off your cyborg bodyguards. You made my task much easier.”
“They’re coming back soon,” Rachel declared.
“Yes, I’m sure they are. But they will be too late to stop me this time. I need all the chips from your cybernetic compartment and I need them now. You can’t be walking around with evidence of my work in your head.”
“Well, you can’t have them back,” Rachel said firmly.
“Your rebellion, based on nothing more than blind stubbornness, is precisely why turning you into a Customized Companion made so much sense. The delights of your body would never outweigh the tediousness of your constant resistance to intelligent suggestions and orders that potentially might save you from yourself. However, I have no more time to waste. Instead, I have conceded that converting you is not to be my destiny. But I also can’t let you take all my hard work back to Dr. Goody-Two-Shoes for her inspection. Kyra would take one look at the logic chip and instantly know who I am. That does not suit my needs at this time.”
Rachel shook her head. She didn’t want his stuff in her, but she didn’t want him taking them out again either. “Your muscle guys aren’t here to help. You’re not taking anything from me. I’ll fight you and do whatever it takes to keep you from stealing my…cybernetic components.”
His long-suffering sigh made goose bumps rise on her arms. Her eyes widened when he pulled a remote from his pocket.
“I am your creator, Rachel 235. Everything in you is mine and always has been. We didn’t get to test your controller remote before we left the lab. We’re just going to have to settle for testing it in real time.”
Rachel felt the buzzing in her head return. It was steadily rising to eardrum splitting proportions.
“Stop,” she begged, her hands going over her ears when she could no longer bear the loudness of the sound.
She saw him swipe at something on the remote. The pain level shot higher and the sound got louder than she imagined possible. Stars danced over he
r eyes and she felt her knees give way. How could anyone bear this kind of sonic pressure inside their skull?
By the time he reached her side, the pain was so great she couldn’t even feel what he was doing to her. Her cybernetic compartment sprung open and the motion startled her slightly. She felt a tugging, several snaps, and then a flash of lighting raced through her head unchecked as it electrocuted her entire body. Blessedly the buzzing stopped, but it was replaced by the most profound weakness in her limbs she’d ever experienced.
She opened her mouth to yell at him only to find she couldn’t. Once again, it appeared she’d lost the power of speech.
Marcus 582: Book Three of Cyborgs: Mankind Redefined Page 16