by Maya Carnage
THE REBEL’S CYBORG
BY
MAYA CARNAGE
Dedication
Writing a book is tough, so thank you to everyone who makes it easier.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to lie and say that writing is fun and easy and that I never lose motivation or creativity, if I said that I would be lying. Sometimes it's hard to sit down and keep typing, but all of you who read my books and say such wonderful things keep me going. In truth, I write for you as much as I write for myself. Thank you to all of my readers for giving me an audience and a reason to write.
DISCLAIMER
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
COPYRIGHT by Maya Carnage
Cover Art by: Kasmit Covers
Chapter One
Kayla
Kayla stands back up as sweat drips from her body, and her lungs labor with each breath. The muscles in her thighs tremble with fatigue. It's been a hard day. She hasn't slept in over twenty-four hours, and it looks like it's not going to happen anytime soon.
Yesterday there was a mishap with one of the other rebel wards. Kayla's boss sent for her to handle the mess, and it was one hell of a mess too. The Malviks circumvented another ward's security, hacking into their comms. They found out about a rescue attempt they'd planned for one of the agriculture farms in Montana. The Malviks' militia executed the group that was sent in. It's terrible, and Kayla had to wrangle the remaining six members, calming them down. It took her hours to do it. It shouldn't have been them in the first place. What was Stanley thinking? That ward isn't cut out for rescue attempts, hell, they're barely able to take care of themselves. That's why they're on the lowest rung of the ladder.
Kayla shakes her head, remembering the argument she got in with the rebels' leader. He's an ass, and Kayla can't stand the fucker. But what else is there for her to do? Distracted by her thoughts, she doesn't see her sister's foot until it's too late.
"Ah, fuck." Kayla stumbles, falling to her knees. The side of her left thigh aches from where Dawn kicked her. "Did you have to hit that hard?"
"Nope, but you weren't paying attention. What's up?"
"Nothing," Kayla said, trying to get to her feet.
Dawn rests her hands on her hips, staring down at her older sister. "You should have blocked that. Even the recruits would have seen that coming. What were you thinking about?"
Kayla scrubs at her face. She doesn't have to look in a mirror to know how worn out she looks. She can feel it, and all she wants to do is go to her room and soak in a warm bath. Maybe she'll even add some bubble bath. She deserves it that's for sure. "Stan."
"I can't believe he gave them that assignment in the first place. It didn't make sense. Everyone knows the second ward isn't cut out for the hard stuff. That's why we let them handle all the cyber work because they're good at that."
"It's stupid, and I said as much to him last night. We got into a fight." Kayla blows out a breath of air, bending over to touch her toes. She groans as the back of her legs begin to burn from the stretch.
"I can handle the rest of today on my own. You look like shit, so go take a nap and get something to eat. Okay?"
"I'm going to ignore the part where you insulted me because you're right." Kayla grabs her bottled water off the bench and chugs the rest of it down. "Make sure you have the recruits run through the drills this afternoon and don't take it easy on them, Dawn. I'm serious."
Kayla leaves the training room, and the sound of her sister complaining about her being a hardass fades away into nothing as the door shuts behind her.
She pushes back the few strands of hair clinging to her sweaty forehead. The back of her hand brushes the thick scar lining the side of her face, and she grits her teeth, remembering the sting of the Malvik's claw as it raked her face. It was a long time ago, but she's forgotten nothing.
The Malviks are enemy number one. The cyborgs might be their puppets for destruction, but the rebels need to focus their attention on the ones exerting their control over the humans. They're the true monsters. Stanley wants all the wards to pull back, turning their energy toward staying alive and keeping the Malviks at bay. That's not good enough for Kayla. She wants to see the Malviks crumble, and there's only one way to achieve that. The rebels need the cyborgs. It's that simple, but it's still a pain in the ass working with them.
Another rebel comes running around the corner of the hall and collides with Kayla. "Shit! I'm sorry." Rosalind grips her arms, raking her gaze down Kayla to make sure she's all right.
"Relax, damn, I'm not that easy to break." Kayla steps back out of her hold. "Why are you running?" It's a stupid question. Kayla's known Rosalind for eleven years, and she's never seen her come close to a slow gait. That's unless speed walking counts.
"There's a message on your comm from him." Rosalind looks behind her nervously. She hastily tucks her springy, brown curls behind her ears, leaning closer to Kayla. "Have you told Dawn yet?"
Kayla smothers a groan, and shakes her head, earning a disapproving frown from her friend. "I'm going to do it soon. I haven't figured out what day. I don't want her to know too much, but I know Dawn. She's not going to let me get away with saying nothing. I'm not going to put her in danger. That can't happen."
"Make sure you tell her soon." Rosalind gives her a quick hug before jogging to the training room.
Kayla shakes her head. One of these days she's going to get herself hurt if she doesn't slow down.
She sighs, resting her back against her closed door. She was lucky she didn't get interrupted anymore on the walk over here. It always seems that someone needs her when she's about to rest. They're all probably in on some crazy ass plan to drive her insane. Dawn's probably the leader too. She chuckles and pushes away from the door, walking over to her comm. The red light on the device flashes, alerting her to a new message. She cracks her neck from side to side. She types in her password, waiting for the screen to load. It takes a minute. She huffs out an annoyed breath, but finally, the message appears on the two-inch screen. Pressing it, she reads what the cyborg wrote to her. After she's finished, she deletes the message and plops down on her bed. Her head falls into her palms.
She massages the sides of her head, sighing deeply. Things have become too complicated. It was simple six months ago when the man messaging her was anonymous. Now she knows his name and that he's a cyborg who's willing to betray the Malviks. It sounds too good to be true, but Kayla can't imagine that he's playing her, even though there's a possibility that he is.
Shaking her head, she gets up from the bed and goes into the small bathroom attached to her quarters. It's nothing but a toilet and a narrow shower. She turns the hot water on, and steam begins to fill the room. Yanking her damp tee shirt off, she wastes no time in getting rid of the rest of her clothes, and steps into the shower. The hot water beats down on her aching back.
Kayla glances down at her toned body, soap suds swirling around at the drain between her feet. She spends hours working out to make sure she's strong enough, but no matter how many push-ups she does there's no chance of her defeating a cyborg in hand-to-hand combat. That's why it's important that Rodrick's not fucking with her, and that he's serious about joining the rebellion.
Three weeks ago, he told her he needed her on Teraz. That they need more than one cyborg to defeat the Malviks, and the perfect place to re
cruit would be Teraz. The cyborgs' home. Plus, there aren't any Malviks on it, and that means it's the best place for them to come up with a plan.
Kayla sighs, walking over to the small set of drawers to grab a pair of loose-fitting pants and a long sleeve shirt to wear to bed. It also means that she has to let Dawn take over the rescue mission. Her sister would be the one to get imprisoned on The Gregory, and it'd be up to her to successfully rescue their father and the other eighth ward rebels. Kayla knows that Dawn's capable enough to achieve it, but that doesn't lessen the worry gnawing at her gut.
Dawn's a hothead. She charges into battle without a care, and most of the time she wins, but she still gets hurt. Kayla would get destroyed if something happened to her baby sister. She knows that she's too hard on her at times, but she wants to make sure Dawn can take care of herself. The Gregory isn't a friendly place. It rips apart the weak, but luckily Dawn's strong and she'll be all right. Maybe if she says it enough, she'll start to believe it.
Kayla pulls back the covers, slipping into bed and punching the pillow by her head.
She's tired of fighting every day. She's thirty years old, and she joined the rebellion when she was a teenager. All these years she's directed her anger at the Malviks for creating this terrible world where humans are nothing but dispensable. They toss them away without a single care. It pisses her off, but she's never felt pure, unadulterated rage until she found out that her leader was working with the Malviks.
Stanley's a rotten bastard, and Kayla can't wait until she's able to put a bullet in his head. But that has to wait until after the cyborgs join them. It better not take too much effort to convince them, Kayla doesn't have the patience for that. Rodrick probably does, but he's more machine than man. It's why he can so easily ask her to drop her plans, handing them off to her sister, and meet him on Teraz.
She shifts beneath the blanket, struggling to find a comfortable position. It's unlikely she'll get any sleep tonight. She'll be too busy thinking about what she'll say to Dawn in the morning. She can't put it off any longer, not if she wants to make it to Teraz by the designated time. Kayla sits up in bed and looks at the door. Dawn would be pissed if Kayla left without saying goodbye and giving her an explanation. She can't believe she's considering doing it anyhow. She draws her knees up and wraps her arms around them, hugging them to her chest. There will be plenty of time to sleep on the ship to Teraz, she thinks to herself, as she stares at the door. The hours tick by, and by the time her comm's alarm rings, she's made up her mind on what to tell her sister.
Hopefully, Dawn will be all right with knowing nothing.
Chapter Two
Rodrick
Rodrick leans back in his chair and rests his hand on the table. Kayla sits across from him, glaring at him. Rodrick can't help but smirk at the woman's anger. Everything makes her mad, and in the seven weeks since arriving on Teraz, she's spent more time irritated with him than working with him to get the other cyborgs to join the rebellion.
She doesn't understand why he needs to lead the mission. No matter how many times he explains to her that the others will be cautious around her because she's a rebel. It's for the best if he takes control for right now, but she's too hardheaded to let him do that.
"Who are we meeting today?" Kayla crosses her arms over her chest.
He sighs, having already answered this question first thing this morning. "Patton. He's the head doctor at the medical center. All the cyborgs go to him at some point. There's a rumor that he might be sympathetic to the rebels' cause, and he could know of others who'd be willing to meet with us."
"Yeah, us, not just you."
"It's a rumor." Rodrick pinches the bridge of his nose. "It could cause trouble if you go with me. What if he's against the rebels? Did you think of that, and what it would mean if he tells the Malviks about a human on Teraz?"
"I've spent most of my time here! There are more important tasks for me back on Earth, but I came here because you said you needed me. So far that's been a fucking lie."
"You're needed here when the time's right, and I don't know when that will be, but it could be any day now."
Kayla pushes back from the table and heads for the front door.
"Where do you think you're going?"
She stops, turning back to him. Her stare lashes at him, and when she steps closer to him, he has to suppress a grin. She'd kill him if she thought he's laughing at her. He's not, but he does find her amusing. A long time's passed since he’s found something worth smiling at, and since meeting Kayla, he finds himself doing it often.
Kayla stands in front of him with her hands braced on her hips. Even with him sitting down, he's still taller than her, and she breathes her annoyance at having to look up at him. "I know when I'm not needed. So, don't worry, I'm not going to march over to the doctor's place with you. I have something else planned for today."
"Like what?"
"It's really none of your fucking business."
Rodrick sinks further down into the chair, letting his legs spread out. "Does it have something to do with the rebellion?"
"I'll let you know later." With that said she stomps out of the house. The door slamming shut behind her.
He shakes his head, laughing as he gets up. She's a pain in his ass, that's for sure. They've been butting heads since they started communicating six months ago. He doesn't know how they'll manage to work together, but it's nice having someone challenge him. The cyborgs who work under him in the military are too afraid to stand up to him. They do exactly as their told, and it's irritating.
He grabs their mugs, forgotten in the heat of their argument, and carries them over to the sink, washing them out before placing them on the rack to dry.
Resting his hip against the counter, he glances around his cabin. He bought the place years ago. It was just an empty plot of land for the longest time, overridden with the wild beasts native to Teraz. It wasn't until ten years ago that he decided he wanted to stay here when he wasn't working. He built this small cabin for himself, but now that Kayla's staying with him, he regrets making the place minuscule. She takes up a lot of space for such a small woman. Rodrick sleeps out on the couch, giving her the bed. His back would have been killing him by now if he wasn't a cyborg. He leaves the kitchen and goes into the bedroom to get dressed.
There aren't many options, but he likes it that way. Most of his clothes are in dark colors, and he yanks one of the brown shirts and black fatigue pants from their hangers, slipping them on. His boots rest at the end of the couch, and he slides the closet's door shut, leaving the bedroom. He tries not to grimace at the mess of clothes strewn about the room. Kayla's not a neat person. That shocks him because from her uptight personality he thought for sure she'd like things tidy. He heaves a sigh of relief as he shuts the door behind him. He might have to bring it up to her, but that's not going to be easy, she takes everything as an insult. Kayla's always raring for a fight. He will have to mention it to her delicately.
His comm flashes red right as he finishes tying his boots.
He knows it's the doctor without having to check it. Patton's a nervous man, and since agreeing to meet with him, his anxiety's doubled.
"I'm about to leave now, Patton." Rodrick rests his hand on the wall next to the comm.
"All right, I wanted to make sure you were still coming." Patton gulps. "There aren't any patients scheduled to visit until the afternoon. The nurses will be here of course, and so will the other doctor."
"We've been over this already. It's all going to be fine. There's nothing to worry about because I'm only coming in for a check-up. Remember?"
"Yes, right. I'll see you in an hour." Patton hangs up, but not before Rodrick sees him mop at the sweat dotting his brow.
There's nothing to worry about, Rodrick's not lying about that. The Malviks won't find anything suspicious about Rodrick visiting the medical center. It's about time he had a check-up, and it's not strange for Patton to be the one to look him over. He'
s the best doctor on Teraz. Rodrick would only want the best.
Outside, parked next to his cabin, is his older model rover. Kayla must have taken the new one, chuckling he strides over to the rover and gets in.
The rover rocks as Rodrick maneuvers it over the bumpy terrain leading out of the forest. He takes his time driving until he hits the main road, revving his engine he speeds down the road, heading for the city.
The thirty-minute drive is over quicker than he'd like. Whenever he's stressed, he'd take one of the rovers out, thrumming his fingers on the wheel and watching the woods on either side of him fly by, it's calming.
He pulls the rover into the parking lot. The five-story building that's the hospital sits in front of him. It's a frightful sight with its grey bricked structure and small, black framed windows. It's one of the uglier looking buildings in the area. Patton designed the place years ago, and Rodrick doesn't know what he was thinking to make it so unwelcoming.
His fingers tighten on the wheel before letting go, getting out of the vehicle. Patton's finicky, and Rodrick didn't want to admit it to Kayla, but he's uncertain about what the other cyborg's going to say today. Patton would be a valuable asset to them in the coming weeks. He'd be able to point them to those willing to join their cause. Rodrick knows they'll manage without him, but it'll be harder, and they'll have to be cautious. He can do that just fine. Kayla might find it difficult though.
Behind the desk in the waiting room is a male cyborg. His hair is cropped short, and he's wearing a blue collared shirt. He smiles at Rodrick as he walks into the waiting room. "Dr. Patton's been expecting you all morning. He wanted me to let you know that you can go on back whenever you're ready."
Rodrick nods, pushing the swinging door open that leads into the back where the examination rooms are.