by Lisa Lace
The old soldier smiled and nodded, head bobbing on a skinny neck. “I understand. Well, good luck to you, son. And thank you again.”
The cyborg turned on his heel, left the room, and headed once more for the staircase. The patient had disturbed him. He should never have deviated from the path that would complete his mission, and he had wasted valuable time talking to the man. Still, he didn’t regret it. There was something about the elderly man that didn’t fit into his operating parameters.
The stairwell was unoccupied for the moment. AD-214 and his other soldiers had assumed that most of the staff and patients would be using the elevators. The stairs would keep them away from people more than any other route. The captain reached the third floor with ease. His body had fully adjusted to life without the support system of Cyborg Sector.
This section of the hospital was as busy as the first floor was deserted. Nurses checked charts on the doors of patient rooms and consulted with doctors. Several patients shuffled slowly down the hall in sock-clad feet, clinging to their IV poles for support and not paying attention to hospital gowns which flapped open in the back. AD-214 held his breath as he studied the activity, but he let it go in a rush of relief as he saw that the only soldier on the floor was a member of Blue Squad.
PD-67 stood in his place next to a patient door down at the opposite end of the hall. He stood at parade rest with his hands clasped behind his back and feet placed shoulder’s width apart. His gaze rested on the wall opposite him.
AD-214 headed through the door and into the hallway. Since it was right before the time for a scheduled shift change, nobody bothered to acknowledge the presence of a second soldier. He marched up to the navigation specialist, and they quickly saluted each other.
Before he let PD-67 go on his way, he touched the inferior officer’s arm and whispered in his ear. “There’s an elderly man in room 158. He can’t leave, but make sure you trigger the alarms on his life support system on your way out.”
The younger officer nodded and headed in the direction of the patient’s room.
AD-214 took up the post at Amanda’s door with tense muscles. He couldn’t enter the room too early. Each stage of their rescue mission brought him closer to her, but the wait made it seem like she was farther away than ever. It was tempting to go in now, but the third-floor hallway was full of people. It was wiser to bide his time and wait until the floor was less crowded.
After what seemed like an eternity of watching the other occupants of the building out of the corner of his eye, AD-214 saw his opportunity. The patients had returned to their rooms, and most of the nurses had followed them or disappeared to other parts of the hospital. Nobody was paying attention to an insignificant soldier at the end of the hallway.
Reaching behind him to release the electronic lock on the door, AD-214 slipped inside. The patient room was much larger than the male patient’s. The light fixture worked, but a long curtain blocked his view of the room. The only thing he could see was an open door to the private bathroom off to the left.
“Is someone there?” Amanda’s voice called from the other side of the curtain.
The cyborg didn’t answer. AD-214 had planned every step and prepared for every possibility, yet he didn’t know what to say to Amanda now that he was finally in the same room with her.
“Yes?” She sounded a little more impatient this time. The curtain whisked aside to reveal the blonde scientist. Tousled hair hung about her shoulders. The slightest remains of mascara clung to her eyes, giving her a smoky appearance that set AD-214 smoldering deep inside. She had been in the process of changing into her night clothes and hadn’t had the chance to button up her shirt all the way. Round breasts peeked at him from between the placket, tempting him to rip the clothing off and carry out the fantasies he had in the cave. The nightshirt hung down to her bare thighs. AD-214’s breath caught in his throat, and his tongue went dry in his mouth.
As soon as she saw him, the hand that had yanked back the curtain immediately went to her mouth. Her feet padded softly on the linoleum as she took two steps back, and her eyes flicked to the door behind him. He knew it was locked. He had secured it personally.
“AD-214?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Amanda blinked warily, expecting the vision of AD-214 before her to disappear. She had imagined this, fantasized about it, and hoped for it, but had never believed it would come true. She reached out an arm to touch his sleeve, just to be sure.
“How are you here?” she asked. “How did you get in?”
The cyborg captain shook his head impatiently. “There’s no time to explain. Get dressed.”
Amanda nodded as she reached behind her to retrieve some pants from the bed. She pulled them on without taking her eyes off AD-214, too caught up in the moment to worry about modesty in front of him. “I’m ready. What’s the plan?”
The soldier produced a sheaf of papers from a pocket. “I have forged orders to transport you to Cyborg Sector. They should get us where we need to go, or close enough.”
“Okay.” Amanda pulled her shoes on as she tried to wrap her head around the situation. It seemed impossible, yet it was happening. Her brain didn’t want to cooperate, however, refusing to think of what she should be doing beyond following AD-214’s orders.
The big cyborg stood before her with broad shoulders and a look in his eyes that meant business. Amanda felt a tingling sensation deep inside her, as though she were coming back to life. She wondered for a moment if this was how the cyborgs felt once they had gained sentience. It felt incredible as the numbness and disconnectedness fell away from her body. During her stay in the hospital, she had been the helpless Amanda Conrad, subject to the whims of Dr. Feldman and the media. But now that AD-214 was back, she was strong and could get through anything.
“I think I’m ready,” she said, taking a final look around the room. There was nothing here for her. She didn’t want to take a single thing with her.
“Good. We spent a lot of cycles coming up with this escape plan. We have to act like we are supposed to be here. Pretend I have authentic orders to bring you with me. Do you think you can do that?”
As far as Amanda was concerned, AD-214 was supposed to take her with him. That part would not be a pretense at all. “Yes. Let’s go.”
The pair emerged into the hallway. It was still relatively quiet. The nurses and doctors were so busy that they didn’t pay attention to the human and the cyborg. Nevertheless, Amanda’s stomach jumped around inside of her. She didn’t know the consequences of being caught, and she didn’t want to find out. They still had to move all the way to ground level before they had a chance to escape.
Even if they got away from the hospital, where would they go? As they advanced down the hall, she realized that she should have asked AD-214 to reveal more of his plan. Amanda never looked at the soldiers who escorted her around the building, and someone might discover her plan if she turned around and started to chit chat with her captor.
AD-214 led her to the elevator bank. There were only two lifts and a line of people waiting for them. They were anxious to go home now that their hectic shifts were over.
Amanda wanted to ask why they didn’t take the stairs and run down to the lower levels. In all the time that she had been here, nobody had ever used the stairs. Even the doctors, who should have been endorsing extra exercise, were content to stare at their phones or study their charts as the elevator carried them to their desired floor. But the cyborg captain had assured her there was a plan, and all she could do was trust him.
Eventually, the scientist and the cyborg piled onto an elevator with two nurses, a doctor, and a janitor. The group all stood facing the elevator doors. Nobody spoke except for the nurses.
“What a day. I swear, I thought I would never get out of here.” The speaker wore pale purple scrubs and had curly red hair piled on top of her head.
“Tell me about it,” replied the other nurse. She had hair black as night, pull
ed back into a sleek bun. Her scrubs had tiny cartoon characters all over them. “I badly need a cigarette.”
“I didn’t think they were allowed to schedule us for so many shifts during a week,” the redhead replied as she rubbed her lower back. “I need to talk to the union or something.”
The dark haired woman gave a tired laugh. “Good luck. It won’t make any difference. There were too many people who quit last week. I don’t know where they’re all going.”
“Must be someplace great,” the first nurse agreed. “They aren’t even giving notice. It’s more like they just disappear.”
“Hang on.” The second nurse touched an earpiece that Amanda hadn’t noticed. She listened for a moment and heaved a heavy sigh. “Looks like I won’t be going home yet. There’s a patient on the first floor who needs urgent care right away. The other first floor nurses are busy in the emergency room.”
“I’ll help you, Fran,” the redhead said. “We’ll get it done together.”
Amanda snuck a glance out of the corner of her eye at AD-214, wondering what he thought about the situation. Being stuck in an elevator with a group of random strangers was a uniquely human experience and not something a cyborg would ever encounter on a regular basis. Since he was caught somewhere in between, she wanted to know how he interpreted this situation, or if he even registered it at all.
To her surprise, there was a small smile on his face. It was just enough so nobody else would have noticed it, but the grave look of a soldier on a mission had faded from his countenance. She would have to ask him about it later.
The elevator chimed and opened its doors, letting the group pour out onto the first floor. AD-214 held Amanda firmly by the elbow. Though she knew it was to keep up appearances and make her look as though she were his prisoner, she liked to imagine it was something more. Could the cyborg ever think of her as his possession?
He steered her to the left, toward the main entrance to the building. PD-4 must have provided accurate surveillance information because the clones always took her through the front of the hospital whenever they brought her out of the hospital room. Things were spot on so far.
They hadn’t even needed to use any of the forged paperwork AD-214 brought with him. No other soldiers had appeared in the hallway to interrogate them. They were almost out of the hospital.
The front doors took up her entire vision as they moved to escape. They were nothing more than panes of glass with the hospital visiting hours printed across them in vinyl graphics. But she could see the parking lot through them, and from there, freedom.
Amanda’s heart leaped in her throat as AD-214’s hand clamped down more tightly on her arm. They were going to get away from all of the madness with Dr. Feldman, Cyborg Sector, and the media. She didn’t know the rest of his plans. Perhaps the cyborg captain only intended to escort her back to her apartment, but she would have a chance to confess her feelings. It might be wrong in the eyes of the world, but if her time here had taught her anything, it was that she should be honest with herself.
Amanda and AD-214 reached the lobby. After they crossed it, Amanda could shove open the glass doors, dash past the two C-class cyborgs stationed on the other side of it, and make her way to freedom.
“Hold it right there.”
The voice coming from behind them sent chills down Amanda’s back. It was a voice she had once hoped would speak to her late at night after a romantic dinner and a few glasses of wine. Now it only meant trouble. Amanda slowly turned to face Dr. Feldman.
He stood a few steps behind them, holding a small device pointed in their direction. “It was a nice try,” Dr. Feldman said, coming slightly closer. He was wearing his typical uniform of a lab coat and slacks. He would have been a handsome figure if Amanda hadn’t known he was such a jerk. “Nobody noticed you were here at first. But it turns out we have some observant nurses — or perhaps horny ones — who noticed some of the cyborgs had suddenly become better looking. I have to congratulate you on your plan, but please realize I have to stop you.” He gave a slick smile.
“Let her go,” AD-214 replied. Standing this close to him, Amanda could feel the rumble of his deep voice in her body. She knew she shouldn’t have been thinking about how sexy the sound was, but she couldn’t help it. He was hot, powerful, and he was trying to save her. She sidled even closer, making sure their bodies touched together.
“You know I can’t do that,” the doctor replied with a shake of his head.
“She hasn’t done anything illegal.” The cyborg stood straight and tall, firm in his stance both physically and verbally. “You have no right to keep her here.”
Dr. Feldman raised an eyebrow. “She hasn’t? Dr. Conrad has allied herself with a group of dangerous, rogue cyborgs. She’s lucky that I’ve kept her in the hospital instead of letting the government cart her off to jail. It’s clear from her speech that her association with you is no accident. How do I know she didn’t change you and the rest of Blue Squad on purpose? It would be easy to convince a jury that a scientist fell in love with one of her creations, and found a way to make it love her back.”
“You know I didn’t!” Amanda protested. “We discussed this back at Cyborg Sector and outside the warehouse. It was a fluke of the software upgrade and something I couldn’t have predicted. What happened is a miracle.”
The doctor shrugged. “One person’s miracle is another person’s abomination. What matters to me is that I have the captain of Blue Squad here again, and I can use him to retrieve the others. Once they are reunited, I can have them destroyed and erase the problem.”
Amanda’s mouth dropped open in horror. Her heart pounded behind her eyes. “You wouldn’t.”
“Why wouldn’t I? A cyborg has no rights and is the property of the United States government.” Dr. Feldman gestured at the other people in the lobby, who had stopped to watch the altercation with widened eyes. “I think the general populace is ready to abolish the threat of independent cyborgs. As the head of the program, the responsibility of executing the order is mine.”
While Dr. Feldman talked, Amanda studied the lobby, looking for the best way to escape. The cyborg clones outside the front door had started to move and were now approaching them from the rear. The false paperwork wouldn’t help them now. Nobody could override what Dr. Feldman had to say when it came to his scientists and his cyborgs. The only other way to leave the lobby was to go through the doctor and out the back door.
She felt AD-214’s muscles begin to tense, and she knew he was thinking the same thing she was. It was easier to get past a single unenhanced human than two biologically engineered cyborgs. They charged Dr. Feldman together, without speaking. Amanda expected the other scientist to shrink away, believing he would let them pass and command the clones to follow him. To her surprise, Dr. Feldman’s face twisted into a grin of satisfaction as the couple ran at him. He held out the device in his hand, something Amanda hadn’t paid any attention to before now. Two tiny barbs shot out from the end, springing on coiled wires as they launched toward the cyborg captain. They buried themselves in his skin.
An electric shock raced up Amanda’s arm where she clung onto AD-214, forcing her to pull away from him. The cyborg crumpled to the floor with a thump, muscles convulsing and twitching. The barbs from the modified taser had plunged into his skin. Strong hands groped at them, trying to pull them out, but Amanda knew what was happening. The electrical impulses were shorting out his biochip. The weapon was not disabling AD-214. It was killing him.
Dr. Feldman released the button on the taser and gave a short laugh. “They look so tough, and yet they’re easy to take down if you know the secret. I’ll have to improve the design for the 2.0 models.”
Amanda knelt next to AD-214 as the clones closed around them, weapons at the ready. Her cyborg was completely motionless. They had failed.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Amanda Conrad didn’t notice how hard her knees hit the floor as she fell next to AD-214. The cyborg cap
tain who she had hoped to save had been killed by a person she once thought was on her side. Dr. Feldman had proved in the last few weeks that he wasn’t the man she thought he was. He stood over them now, triumphant in the destruction.
“Now that that’s over with,” Dr. Feldman said over her shoulder, “I suggest you return to your room unless there are some other Blue Squad members around here. I can take care of them too. It’s completely up to you.”
The clone cyborgs once stationed by the front door were now next to them, holding guns pointed at Amanda’s head. A wrong move would land her on the floor just like AD-214 with blood spilling onto the clean linoleum. Whirling with angry words in her mouth, Amanda turned to Dr. Feldman. “You didn’t have to do this. He wasn’t going to hurt anyone.”
“How do you know?” the doctor countered. “You didn’t think he was going to break out of Cyborg Sector. Or did you? That’s the one thing the media needs to be clarified. They keep acting as though you’re a hero for surviving your time with Blue Squad and speaking out for them. You were the one who changed his programming. You were the one who made him become self-aware. None of these problems would have happened without you. Perhaps you planned all of this.”
Amanda understood what the cruel smile on Dr. Feldman’s face meant. If media coverage about the cyborgs turned negative — and that was certainly possible now that AD-214 had broken into the hospital — he could frame her for everything. Pressure had been on Dr. Feldman ever since Blue Squad’s escape from Cyborg Sector. Some called for the immediate closure of the program, and others wanted the doctor to step down from his position. If he could blame someone else, he wouldn’t be in the hot seat. Amanda would be locked away, paying the penalty for his crimes, and he would be free to continue destroying lives.
Amanda could accept the position of a scapegoat for a good cause. What she couldn’t accept was the cruel treatment of the cyborgs who she had come to think of as friends. Amanda was about to voice her opinion when she noticed a twitch in AD-214’s eyelids. It was barely noticeable, so small that she would never have seen it if she hadn’t been watching him intensely. This minute flicker gave her simultaneous feelings of hope and dread. The cyborg captain wasn’t dead yet. He may have been saved by Dr. Feldman’s overconfidence when he stopped the taser’s electric impulses a few moments too soon. AD-214 must be suffering, either in pain or fighting to regain consciousness.