by Regine Abel
“I said I didn’t want to be disturbed and would let you know when I’m done,” the doctor exclaimed without looking up from what he was doing. “Clearly, I’m not done. So, please fuck off.”
Tamryn and I exchanged a look and lowered our weapons.
“Well, you need to be done now, and then we’ll gladly fuck off with my brother,” I deadpanned.
The doctor’s head jerked up and snapped towards us. He gave me a stunned—and then amazed—once over before casting a glance at Tamryn. The way he quickly dismissed her confirmed he’d realized she wasn’t a Cyborg like me.
“Wonderful! A fully functional Cyborg! You’re exactly what I need, right now,” Dr. Timmons said, so focused on his project he appeared oblivious to the reality of the situation.
“No, what you need to do is revive him and to remove his restraints so that we can get out of this place before things turn bloody,” Tamryn replied in a harsh tone. “We would really rather avoid killing people. And you want to swallow this before the sorium currently pouring in through the ventilation system knocks you out,” she added, extending a pill towards him.
Timmons recoiled, his eyes flicking up towards the air vents in the ceiling before looking back in turn at my woman then me. Understanding finally dawned on him. There was something fascinating about passionate—almost fanatical—people like him and their ability to tune out reality when they were in the zone, until it bitchslapped them back to the here and now.
Frowning, a troubled expression on his face, he raised a shaky hand towards Tamryn. She approached him and dropped the pill in his palm. The doctor tossed it into his mouth while eyeing me warily as I came to stand next to the table. To my shock, I recognized the Cyborg from my cell who had escaped alongside me. I should have guessed it would have been him. His escape pod had shot out shortly after mine. The same blast wave that had messed with my escape pod would have fucked up his as well.
Naked but for his underwear, the Cyborg wasn’t showing any physical injuries, aside from a very thin scar along his sternum. This hinted at either a serious wound or the traces of a major surgery he had recently undergone. In the next 24 to 48 hours, the nanobots in his system would have erased any sign of it. However, his missing right eye, currently sitting in the surgical tray next to the operating table, revealed what the doctor had been up to.
“What’s his status?” I asked in a menacing tone.
“He… he has sustained some damage to his neural processor and to some of the cells surrounding it,” Timmons explained. “I tried to fix the broken part, but something eludes me. It’s like he’s trying to reboot and then gets stuck halfway through the process.”
I had plenty of questions as to how he had sustained those injuries. Now, however, wasn’t the time. The clock wasn’t ticking in our favor.
“Step aside,” I ordered.
He obeyed, casting a nervous glance at Tamryn, who was watching him like a hawk, her hand on her holstered blaster. Circling around the table, I leaned over the Cyborg. Using my enhanced vision, I zoomed in on the neural piece visible through the optical cavity. I scanned it and my neural processor analyzed it against my own implants. Within seconds, the heads-up display of my retinal implant showed me the defective piece and the fix required.
I turned around and slapped my hand on the computer next to the operating table. Wirelessly interfacing with it through my palm, I projected the fix onto the monitor.
“This is what you need to do,” I said, gesturing at the monitor with my head. “Get moving.”
The doctor stared at the monitor in awe, worry giving way to excitement as his scientific mind marveled at the solution.
“I said move!”
My harsh tone snapped him out of the daze he was about to fall into again, and he jumped into action. While keeping an eye on him, I sifted through the files on the computer, downloading all the data on both what Timmons had done so far to the Cyborg, but especially everything I could find about the Cyborg development project Grellik had been running in this facility.
“Guys, you’ve got incoming,” Miko suddenly said through my earpiece. “A unit is on its way to the elevator. It’s only four of them, but well-armed. They don’t have gas masks, so they don’t know what’s going on, only that something’s fishy. I can try to go in after them—”
“No, stay put,” I replied, while Tamryn was bringing the Cyborg’s uniform next to the table. “We can handle four. Don’t blow your cover just yet. But we need our getaway vehicle ready.”
“Shalla is on standby. She can be at the loading dock in forty-five seconds. You just say when,” Miko responded.
“Good, stand by,” I replied.
“Acknowledged.
“You have one minute, Timmons,” I snarled at the doctor, while finishing downloading the files.
“Almost done! I only need a few more seconds,” he stammered.
In the meantime, Tamryn moved a few large items in front of us to provide cover and to break the line of sight of any intruder who could irrupt into the room. Weapons drawn, she took cover behind a large cabinet in a position that would give her a perfect shot at the entrance.
“There! Okay, that did it,” the doctor said with relief after casting a glance at the computer monitor next to him.
He carefully picked up the Cyborg’s right eye and reinserted it in the empty socket.
“Revive him,” I ordered as soon as he was done.
The doctor complied, picking up a hypospray and pressing it to the Cyborg’s neck before injecting him.
“Assuming everything went well, he’s likely going to be quite weak,” the doctor cautioned. “If you’re trying to break him out of here, he’s not going to be able to run or fight. Grellik will never let you get out of here with his prize.”
“You let us worry about that,” I replied dismissively, my focus shifting to the stirring Cyborg. “You worry about finding a place to take cover before Grellik’s goons break through this door.”
I didn’t have to say it twice. Timmons looked like he would be sick any minute, his brown skin taking on an ashen tinge as his black eyes widened in understanding. Without another word, he hastened to the back of the room to take cover.
The Cyborg’s eyelids fluttered.
“Hello, I am Jarog Kaijo, formerly a Major of the Cyborg Military Elite,” I said to the still waking Cyborg. “You’ve been captured after our escape. We’re breaking you out. Are you operational?”
His eyes snapped open, recognition brimming the moment his gaze landed on me. He sat up a little groggily.
“Running diagnostics,” he said before glancing at Tamryn, who was still watching the doors. “That’s the female you rescued off the ship.”
I nodded. “Her name is Tamryn.”
“I am Lieutenant Loreus Edojis,” the Cyborg replied. His nostrils flared, and he frowned.
“Sorium,” I said as sole explanation while fishing out of my pocket the last antidote pill I had on me. “This will counter it.”
Loreus took it without a word and popped it into his mouth. His eyes flicked towards the door as he swallowed. “Four people incoming,” he said.
“Yes, I hear them, too,” I replied, handing him one of the blasters Tamryn had given me. “They’re not allies. Avoid casualties.”
He nodded and took the weapon. I went on to take position near the door.
Chapter 12
Tamryn
Heart pumping, adrenaline coursing through my veins, I braced for what would follow. Although the Cyborg—correction, Loreus—looked like he’d recover, he was clearly too weak to make a dash out of here. He could barely sit straight on his own. That meant Jarog would pretty much have to carry him out of here, leaving me to protect us all. I could probably handle the four incoming by myself, but not the welcoming party that undoubtedly would greet us by the time we reached the ground floor, and maybe even before then.
A major sense of unease washed over me when Jarog simply handed one
of his blasters to Loreus. Clearly, they didn’t know each other. Granted, we were rescuing his ass, but how did we know if he could be trusted? Then again, we didn’t have time for a proper interview to assess him. We were jumping headfirst into an epic shit storm.
I was beginning to question our decision not to use lethal force. I didn’t particularly want to kill anyone, but I also didn’t want to get my butt handed to me because someone didn’t get knocked out quickly enough.
All such thoughts flew out of my mind seconds later as the doors slid open, revealing four guards in full defensive gear. Three of them were taking cover on each side of the door frame while the fourth stood smack in the middle with a raised energy shield. One glance sufficed for him to realize what was going on. He opened his mouth, likely to issue a warning, but never got a chance to speak a single word. From the angle I stood at, with my blaster set at maximum stun, I fired at him. My shot struck his side with sniper precision, just below the arm keeping his shield raised before him. His body jerked, and he collapsed onto the floor, unconscious.
I barely had time to take cover behind the cabinet before the three remaining guards showered me with a barrage of fire. In their knee-jerk reaction, they’d advanced into the room, leaving themselves open to Jarog, who didn’t blink, taking out two of them in a heartbeat. The last guard threw himself back outside before either of us could get him.
“You’ve got a whole lot of people heading down,” Miko said in my earpiece. “They’re trying to lock the place down. I’m blocking them, but it won’t last. Get your asses out of there now!”
I cast a worried look towards Loreus, trying to silence the panic that wanted to take root. My jaw dropped, seeing the Cyborg slice his arm open while half-drunkenly stumbling towards an empty stasis chamber.
“What the fuck is he doing?” I exclaimed.
“Recharging,” Jarog said, grabbing the shield from one of the unconscious guards as well as his weapon. “Stay with him until he’s good to go, then come out. I’m going to hold them off.”
“Wait, what?”
He didn’t respond and dashed outside instead. A loud sound made my head jerk back towards Loreus. He’d torn out one of the electric cables hooked into an empty stasis chamber. Before the electrical sparks had even dissipated around the exposed live wires, the Cyborg jammed the latter into the cut he’d sliced into his arm.
“NO!” I shouted, running towards him only to stop dead in my tracks.
Loreus’ body jerked under the effect of the massive current coursing through him. However, they weren’t the violent spasms of someone being electrocuted, but the subtle tremors of someone cresting, on the verge of an orgasm. Even his face—quite handsome at that—had taken a borderline sensuous expression.
“Recharging… right…” I muttered while my heart tried to settle back down in my chest.
For a moment, I thought the Cyborg had gone suicidal and tried to nuke himself after we’d gone through all this trouble to get him out. Fighting the urge to run outside to assist Jarog, I rifled through the unconscious forms of the other two guards, recovering their respective shields and weapons. Like I had done with the first weapons I’d lifted from the guards manning the station outside this room, I replaced their crystals with the zomoran ones I’d brought with me, which would significantly enhance their power.
It took me barely a minute. To my relief, Loreus was already done recharging—no freaking wonder with the kind of voltage he’d zapped himself with—and was finishing putting on the Cyborg uniform he’d worn on the transport ship. I brought him a shield and a second weapon. He took them quietly while shoving his feet into his boots.
“Ready,” he said, activating the shield.
My uneasiness still lingering, I locked gazes with him. He stared back without flinching. My eyes flicked to the brand on his face. Yeah, he was a rebel like us, but that didn’t mean he had truly rebelled against Shui.
Jarog had not either, and yet…
And yet, I trusted him with my life, shared his bed every night, and hoped he’d settle down with me here and wherever I would go next.
“Let’s go,” I said, lifting my chin defiantly.
The subtle smirk that stretched Loreus’s lips hinted that he’d guessed what troubling thoughts about him had crossed my mind.
“We’re coming,” I told Jarog through the com.
“Go out through the same route you came in,” he ordered. “They’re trying to pin me at the opposite end.”
“Understood,” I replied.
We stormed out of the room, shields raised. The alarmed voices and blaster fire covered the sound of our footsteps. As an elite soldier, Loreus adapted to me with frightening ease, understanding my instructions with a simple glance or gesture. We slinked around the far corridor in the hope of sneaking up on them from behind. As we approached the corner, the Cyborg gestured for me to hold back. He raised three fingers, indicating the number of targets, pointed at his eyes to tell me to watch, and then pointed at the wall on the opposing side of the corridor our enemies were standing in.
It took me a second to realize he was pointing at their reflection in the large window of the room in front of which they stood. His face took on this slack expression I’d seen on Jarog’s face before. He then silently mouthed a three, two, one countdown then, moving at lightning speed, he erupted into the hallway. Before I could even complete two steps, he’d already shot the three guards. I knew he’d calculated the precise aiming on each target before attacking, but it still left me reeling.
Nevertheless, I ran in after him. He raised two fingers and pointed to my left. Without hesitation, I raced to the corner of the next intersection, flattening myself against the wall. My heart almost jumped out through my mouth when I leaned forward to take a peek only to find myself nearly face to face with a guard backtracking into the hallway. I instinctively punched him in the throat. As he doubled over, choking, I slammed the handle of my blaster on the back of his head. He collapsed with a muffled grunt. A few meters away, the second man Loreus had mentioned took aim at me.
I dove into a roll while firing at him. Carried by my momentum, I got back to my feet, shield raised, and rushed him. He tried to back away, but I jumped and kicked him in the chest, sending him crashing backwards. I shot at him again, stunning him before his body even hit the floor. I spun around to see Loreus lifting a guard by the neck with one hand, smashing him against the wall while firing at someone I couldn’t see with the other. The guard went limp and slid down to the floor when the Cyborg released him.
“Go to the lift,” Jarog’s voice said through the com. “I’m barreling through the stragglers, and I’ll meet you there.”
“Acknowledged,” I replied, drawing an inquisitive look from Loreus. “To the elevator,” I told him as sole explanation.
An eerie feeling descended over me as we ran the long stretch of the corridor, countless people lay unconscious on their desks or sprawled on the floor where they had collapsed. The shouts and pleading cries in the distance spurred us on. As we neared the intersection, a loud thud and a huff resonated right around the corner before a guard slid on the floor in front of us. Two shots and a couple of shouts later, a troubling silence settled in the underground base, only disturbed by the sound of our footsteps.
Jarog ran past us just as we were merging into the main corridor behind him. He shot the guard that had slid in front of us, stunning him and didn’t slow down until he was inside the elevator.
“Getting out through the loading dock is going to be a clusterfuck,” I warned.
“Correct, which is why we’re not,” Jarog said. “Miko, take us up,” he ordered through the com. A light lit up on the control panel of the lift, indicating our destination to be the top level. “Shalla is on her way to the roof. Yelena and Lanish are nearby to give us cover if needed.”
“Miko?” I asked.
“With Shalla. He has taken over the control of the lift, but the handful of guards they ha
ve left here are running up the stairs,” Jarog explained.
Loreus snorted and glanced at the control panel. We were flying through the eleven floors at breakneck speed. The elevator doors opened after what felt like ten seconds. Shalla’s shuttle seemed to appear out of thin air as she dropped her stealth shield. We raced inside, the vessel taking off even before the ramp had finished retracting and the door closing.
In the distance, a number of vessels were dashing towards our location. Having resumed our stealth mode, Shalla sped away from the development facility. Although our camouflage wouldn’t fool their radars for long, it would be enough to get us out of range. But that was only because most of their units had been dispatched to the spaceport. Yelena released a dozen stealth drones that would emit misleading signals, causing the radars to pick them up as camouflaged shuttles. They would serve as decoys that would further cover our escape. By the time they figured it all out, we’d be long gone.
As we settled into the passenger seats of the shuttle, I cast a glance out the window. Even from this distance, we could see the darkness that had overtaken half of the spaceport where power had gone down.
“Well, that was an interesting way of waking up,” Loreus said, turning his hazelnut eyes towards Jarog. “How the fuck did I end up on Xyva?”
His eyes were a shade lighter than his skin, the color of the desert’s sand. Just like Jarog, Loreus was broad-shouldered, lean and muscular, with a drool-worthy body, and short-cropped hair, military style. Except his was black. Where Jarog didn’t fit the classic canons of beauty, Loreus might as well have been a model. However, as much as the woman in me enjoyed the eye candy, he didn’t draw me the way my man did.
“You can thank the shockwave that sent us here as well,” Jarog replied with a shrug.
He proceeded to summarize the events of the past ten days to the Cyborg. I doubted I would ever get used to anyone taking such news with as much stoicism as Loreus did. He listened intently, only asking the occasional question here and there.