“Do you know the layout?” he asked quietly.
“Only the basics, but I know where Serena’s office is located.”
“Yes, I remember. Upstairs. Do you think she’s still in her office?”
“No.” Sam shook his head. “But I think it’s the best place to start looking.”
“I suggest we don’t go up the main stairs this time.”
A slight smile twisted the other man’s lips. “It’s a good thing I have you along to advise me.”
“Yes, it is. What do you suggest?”
“Let’s find the backstairs.”
Wyatt threw out his hand. “Lead on.”
Fortunately, the stairs proved easier to find than he had expected. A door on one side of the storage room opened out into a narrow corridor, and they could see a set of stairs through another door at the far end. They took the steps two at a time, then paused to listen. Even using his enhanced cyborg hearing, he couldn’t detect any signs of movement.
“Sounds deserted.”
“I agree.” Sam frowned. “This building is usually full of people.”
They opened the door to find another narrow corridor but this one ended at the wide landing at the top of the main stairs. Serena’s office was off to one side but the other was open to the floor below. He and Sam exchanged a glance and then made their way quietly across the landing. As they crossed the space, he darted a look down below. The main hall was completely empty, the only noise the splash of water from a central fountain.
The reception room outside Serena’s office was also deserted, but the double doors leading into her office were closed. Sam gestured to one side and Wyatt moved into position, and then Sam threw the door open. Wyatt caught a brief glimpse of Serena, her hair tangled and her blouse torn. Her eyes widened at the sight of them and her lips parted. “Look—”
A giant figure appeared from behind the door and caught Sam in a stranglehold. As Wyatt rushed to assist him, he realized that the man attacking Sam was another cyborg, and his heart sank. He had been so sure that none of the rangers were involved in whatever was happening, but the man with his arm around Sam’s neck had no resemblance to the white-faced abominations.
He grabbed hold of the stranger’s arm, trying to pry it loose from Sam’s neck, but it was like wrestling with a titanium bar. He reached for his gun, hoping that the threat would be enough to make the giant cyborg back off. If he had to use it, the noise would alert the entire building. As his hand closed around the butt of his gun, he felt a slight prick on his wrist and looked down to see Serena had one of the paralytic darts pressed against his skin.
Fuck. It had been a trap after all.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Don’t you dare pull a gun on him,” Serena hissed, pressing the dart threateningly against his arm. “Drop it.”
“I’m not going to let him kill Sam.”
“He’s not going to kill him.” Keeping the dart against his wrist, she put her free hand on the corded muscles of the giant’s arm. “It’s all right, J-100. I think this is supposed to be the rescue squad.”
“You don’t need him,” the man grunted.
“I know that now, but they’re here to help. Please let him go.”
Shocked, he watched as the man obeyed, releasing his arm as Sam bent over, gasping for breath.
“Who the hell are you?” Wyatt demanded. He’d never seen the cyborg before.
“Be quiet,” Serena ordered, reaching past him to close the outer doors to the office again. As she rejoined them, he realized that the crumpled body of one of the hybrids was lying in the corner. Since his head was lying next to him, he didn’t think he needed to worry about it coming back to life.
Sam stood up, giving Serena a hard stare.
“Was this a setup?”
“No,” she said, her voice lacking its usual composure. She lifted her hand to her hair and her torn blouse gaped open, revealing a small white breast marred by red marks.
“What the hell happened to you?” he asked, stepping towards her.
J-100 growled and stepped in front of him, shoving him back. “Don’t look at her.”
“It’s all right, J-100. Despite his lack of tact, I’m sure he meant well.”
A moment later, she appeared at the big cyborg’s side, a tailored navy jacket covering the damaged blouse and her hair neatly combed. She could have been mistaken for any corporate executive except for an unusual flush of pink along her high cheekbones.
“What’s going on, Serena?” Sam asked
“Do you remember that I told you I had no choice in who was being sent to Mars?”
“I remember.”
“These new… recruits appeared on the last transport.” She waved a casual hand at the headless body in the corner, for all the world like she was gesturing at a dead insect. “They had allegedly been fitted with chips that would control their behavior.”
“Control them to do what?” Sam demanded.
Wyatt saw her hands flex as she looked away from them.
“GenCon is putting certain plans in place. Plans to control activity on Mars.”
“Really?” Sam looked more resigned than shocked. “Never mind, we’ll come back to that. You said allegedly?”
She sighed, suddenly looking almost vulnerable, and J-100 gently placed a huge hand on her arm.
“You should sit down.”
Instead of ignoring him as Wyatt expected, she actually smiled up at the giant, the smile totally unlike her usual cool smirk.
“I’m fine. They need to know.” Her smile vanished as she looked back at Sam. “The chips malfunctioned this morning—all of them at once. I don’t know why. The next thing I knew, they were taking over the building. That’s when I called you.”
She looked to the body in the corner again and an unreadable expression crossed her face. “He’s the one who interrupted the call. He said he was going to teach me a lesson. But J-100 showed up.”
“Didn’t get here soon enough.”
“Yes, you did.” The icy Serena Gatling patted the big man’s arm reassuringly.
“And who are you, J-100?” Wyatt asked.
“Miner.”
They waited but he didn’t say anything else.
Sam sighed. “And you were here because?”
“He was coming to arrange a deal for some minerals,” Serena said smoothly.
He has no reason to doubt her, but he was convinced she wasn’t telling the entire truth. Sam looked equally skeptical but didn’t press her. Instead, he returned to the original subject.
“How many of these things were on that ship?”
“Twelve. Eleven now, I suppose.”
“Ten,” he corrected.
She arched a brow. “My, you have been busy.”
“Where are the rest of them?”
“Three more here in town. The others were going to their… assignments. Although I don’t know if they’ll stick to them.”
“What assignments?”
For a moment, he didn’t think she was going to answer. Then she sighed again and her shoulders sagged a little.
“I don’t suppose there’s any point in hiding it now. They have to be stopped.”
She moved over to her desk, J-100 a huge, silent shadow at her back, and pulled up a holographic map.
“The company has been quietly building cities at certain key strategic locations. Each of the new arrivals was assigned to take command of one of them.” She indicated the eight locations and he wasn’t surprised to see that Tom’s valley was one of them.
“Did you—they—really think they’d get away with this?”
She lifted a slender shoulder. “Probably. Earth is mired in problems of its own, and who was going to complain?”
“You mean other than us?” he asked dryly.
“Hence the new breed of cyborgs.” Her gaze returned to the body in the corner. “Perhaps not the wisest choice.”
“Where did they find them?”
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“Prison, usually. Or on the verge of going. A surprising number of very wealthy men are willing to do almost anything to avoid it.”
“And someone was stupid enough to think they should be put in charge?”
“It certainly wasn’t my idea.”
“But you knew.”
J-100 bristled at Sam’s accusatory tone, but Serena returned his gaze without flinching.
“It is perhaps more accurate to say I suspected. I told you before that I would continue to work for them.”
“Because they have something you want.”
Her shoulders sagged again. “Which is now beyond my reach.”
A certain unwilling sympathy touched him. Despite her attempt to keep her face composed, sadness radiated from her. J-100 silently put a big hand on her shoulder.
Sam was still staring at the map. “We need to send rangers out to those sites to try and intercept them.”
He nodded and headed for the communicator, but Serena shook her head.
“I think they’re monitoring communications. That one appeared right after I called you.”
“Fuck. That means we also don’t have any way to warn anyone about the ones here in the city.”
“Is there some other way to signal them?” he asked, striding to the window. The plaza below was empty, and Cyrus was no longer lying there. He hoped that meant the man was safe. From this angle, he couldn’t see the front of the building, but he assumed that the hybrid who had been guarding it was still there. If they could take him out…
“We need another decoy,” he said.
Sam studied him. “What do you have in mind?”
“Go back out the way we came. I’ll go to the left while you circle the building, then I’ll distract him, and you can hit him from behind.”
J-100 snorted. “Don’t need two men to take down one of them.” Then he ran his eyes over them and shrugged. “Or maybe you do.”
“I would prefer to take it alive,” Sam growled with a meaningful look at the body in the corner.
“Why?” J-100 demanded.
Wyatt had to admit that he agreed with the big cyborg.
“Has he killed anyone?” Sam demanded.
There was no response, and he nodded. “Exactly. Also, you can’t answer questions when you’re dead.”
“I must admit it would be nice to get some answers,” Serena said.
J-100 nodded. “Right.”
He spun on his heel and left the room.
“Where the hell is he going?”
“I think he intends to bring Serena a present,” Sam said, already heading for the door. “I better make sure he remembers the alive part. You stay here with her.”
He nodded and turned to Serena, unable to resist teasing her.
“That’s quite an admirer you have there.”
She ignored him and turned back to her desk. Was she blushing? Before he could decide, she picked up a tablet and started making rapid notations.
“This is a list of the sites. As soon as we know it’s safe to communicate, I’m sure you will wish your rangers to investigate.”
“Does GenCon know what’s happened?”
She shook her head.
“When do you expect them to contact you?”
“They will be expecting a report in the next day or so.” She sank back in her chair, her face unreadable. “It might be advisable to contact Earth Government about their plans.”
“Why should we tell them anything? You know we want to declare our independence.”
“Exactly. What better argument could you offer than your ability to uncover such a dastardly plot without their assistance?” She raised an eyebrow.
“What’s in it for you?” He had no doubt that multiple plans were in process behind that smooth face.
“It had occurred to me that if GenCon is forced to deal with the government, they would have no time to investigate the circumstances under which their plans were discovered.”
“And you’ll come out of this smelling like a rose?”
A slender shoulder lifted. “It wouldn’t hurt, if your plans don’t work out.”
“And if they do?”
“Then I expect I would have the gratitude of the new Martian government.”
He suspected that she was correct. A turmoil outside the room interrupted their conversation. The door was flung open and one of the hybrids stumbled inside. Wyatt’s hand automatically went to his gun, but then he realized that at least one of the man’s arms was broken and J-100 had a firm grasp on his shoulder.
“He’s alive,” he said as he shoved the man to the ground and kept him there by the simple expedient of putting one enormous booted foot across his neck.
Sam followed them into the room, shaking his head. “I can’t say I agree with your methods, J-100, but I must admit they’re effective.”
He turned to the man on the floor, his face hard and ruthless.
“You will have one chance to cooperate with me. If you fail to do so…”
He left the punishment unspecified, but even Wyatt shivered at his friend’s icy tone. This was the Judge in full war mode.
“What do you want to know?” Another snarling voice from behind an expressionless mask. The combination was distinctly unnerving.
“What happened to your control chips?” Serena asked, moving back around the desk, regarding the man as if he were a piece of dung beneath her heel.
“Wouldn’t you like to know, bitch?”
There was a distinct crack as J-100 pushed his boot down. The man held up his working hand.
“Okay, okay! We overrode them. Sheldon figured it out on the journey out here. He’s some kind of hacker. He said it was easy to bypass the protocols, but the bastard insisted on waiting until we got here before he’d override them. He said we’d do something stupid if he released us earlier.”
“And then what?”
“He waited a few days. Said he needed to get the lay of the land first. Then he released us.” The man’s shoulder moved in what Wyatt suspected was the beginning of a shrug, then he grunted in pain as J-100 bore down on his neck again. “Four of us decided to stay here and take over the city.”
“What about the others?”
“I don’t know. Some of them decided to take over the sites that GenCon so kindly prepared for us. One of them was babbling on about some woman. I don’t know about the rest.”
“You sure?” The boot descended again, not relenting until the man waved a hand again.
“I heard something about some scientist woman. Sheldon said she was some kind of expert and maybe she could make us more normal. I said fuck that—I’m not letting another fucking scientist near my body.”
Sam was no longer listening. His eyes met Wyatt’s, and he could see his own horror reflected there.
“He’s after Addie.” Sam reached down and shook the hybrid. “Does he know where she is?”
“I just heard something about some lab.”
They both turned and raced for the door.
“Watch him, J-100!” Sam called over his shoulder. “Try not to kill him.”
They didn’t bother with the route along the wall this time, shooting straight down Main Street to the supply depot.
“Do you think he meant the lab at your home?” Terror gnawed at his insides at the thought of their women alone and unprotected.
“Addie is still listed under the first lab where she worked. But the other scientists know. If he gets there and questions them… I don’t know how long they could hold out. And even if they did, there may be records in the computer that would lead him to them.”
“What’s the plan?” The horrifying scenarios that were playing through his head made it hard to think. Not only the memory of Cherry bleeding out into the desert sand, but the other deaths still so fresh in his memory.
“We have to get back there.” Sam’s face was haunted. “We can’t even warn them as long as the hybrids are monitoring communications.�
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They raced into the supply depot and found Blackie and Maverick waiting for them. Cyrus, one side of his face horribly bruised, was standing next to them.
“Thank you for your help, Cyrus,” Sam said, flinging himself into the saddle. “Lie low and stay out of trouble until we return.”
Wyatt mounted as well and urged Maverick towards the exit.
“Can’t promise anything. Trouble tends to find me.”
Cyrus’s words floated after them as they ducked through the doorway and took off.
Chapter Twenty-Three
As soon as the men departed, Addie hurried over to the communicator and started making calls. She reached Clint first, and he promised to get Morgan and head for town immediately. Her second call was to Jonah and Bill. Jonah also agreed to make the trip to New Arcadia, while Bill stayed behind and continued to reach out to the other cyborgs. Each of the men assured them that everything was under control and they would take care of everything from now on.
Addie sat back down and gave Cherry a rueful grin. “I hate waiting.”
“I do too.” Even though she had full confidence in Wyatt, seeing him leave brought back all of the painful memories of his first disappearance.
He’s so much stronger now, she tried to tell herself, but the memories still tormented her.
“Do you like living out here?” she asked Addie, trying to distract her thoughts. “Wouldn’t it be easier to be closer to other scientists?”
Addie shrugged. “Yes and no. It can be helpful to exchange ideas but right now my main focus is on controlling how much information makes its way to GenCon headquarters. Technically, I still work for them.”
“Why? They don’t exactly seem trustworthy.”
“I have a deal with them. If I can discover how to introduce nanites into normal human beings, they promised that they would make the process available to any settler here on Mars.”
“And you think you’re close?”
The Magnificent Cyborg Page 15