His last thought was of Serena.
Chapter Sixteen
When the knock sounded, Serena hurried to the door, foolishly anxious to see John despite their argument. But when she thrust open the panel, a strange woman stood there. She was neatly and expensively dressed in a tailored silk shirt and well-cut wool pants, pearls gleaming at her neck and ears. Serena instinctively drew herself up, assuming the icy composure she had learned so well.
“May I help you?”
“I believe so, Ms. Gatling.” The woman swept past her into the room. “I’m Louisa Bradbury. I am the Chief Executive Officer of GenCon.”
She swayed dizzily. “Louisa…”
“Yes.” The woman frowned. “Have you heard of me? Very few people are aware of my identity.”
A hysterical laugh threatened to erupt. Not know her identity? Not know the identity of the woman who had killed her child and almost killed her? Who had left her barren and alone?
“No,” she managed, years of acting coming to her rescue. “I didn’t know. The corporation documents list Louis Boudreaux as the CEO, not you.”
If she had known, she would never have taken a job working for GenCon. Taking a deep breath, she studied the woman who had destroyed her life. They were almost the same height, although Louisa was built along more generous lines. Her straight dark hair was gathered into an elegant chignon and her skin glowed a healthy pink. She could have been any of a thousand socialites Serena had met over the years. But then their eyes met and a chill skated down her spine. She had never seen a face so completely devoid of emotion except for the hybrids.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“Because you’re about to become very useful to me.”
“No, I’m not.” She took a step back, then another, until she had backed herself against an end table. Her hand reached behind her, searching for a weapon, and closed around a lamp base.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Come with me.”
Louisa clamped cold, strong fingers on her arm. Serena couldn’t pull away from the painful grip, but she brought her other hand around and smashed the vase into Louisa’s skull with all the strength of fifteen years of hatred.
Blood spurted from Louisa’s scalp but she didn’t fall. She didn’t even release Serena’s arm, and Serena watched in horror as the blood trickled to a halt and the wound began to heal before her eyes. Louisa laughed. “You didn’t think I would be that easy to get rid of, did you?”
Louisa backhanded her, sending her flying across the room to land in a dazed heap against the wall.
“You’ve done it,” Serena whispered. “You’ve discovered how to integrate the nanites without utilizing artificial parts. You’re Patient 236.” That meant that there was a chance… The wild hope that sprang up in her chest almost shattered when she looked up and saw Louisa smiling the coldest smile she had ever seen.
“Aren’t you a clever little thing?” Louisa asked mockingly. “I read your file, you know. Before I came here. So pathetic. So focused on having a child.”
“It’s easy to say that when you have one.”
“Me?” Louisa raised an eyebrow. “I don’t have any children. I had that taken care of as soon as I was old enough to consent to the operation.”
“But I… I heard that you were pregnant. A long time ago.”
Louisa’s eyes narrowed, then she laughed. “Now how did you hear about that? It wasn’t true, of course, but my husband at the time was getting a little too interested in some wretched creature from the slums so I had to… refocus his attention. He was so disappointed when he found out it wasn’t to be.”
“Your husband at the time?”
“Yes. Once he found out I wasn’t pregnant, he started all over again with another little homeless waif, and I didn’t feel like playing the game a second time. He had a rather unfortunate accident.”
She couldn’t find it in her heart to feel sorry for Justin, but the complete lack of concern in Louisa’s voice made her shudder.
“But that makes you perfect for my needs,” Louisa continued. “I had actually intended to send for you and here you are.”
“Perfect?”
“To become Patient 237, of course. Renfrey has been blathering on about being the next in line but really? That antiquated old man? He wouldn’t be much of an advertisement for the program. You, on the other hand…” Louisa surveyed her impassively. “They’ll sit up and beg when they see you.”
Serena’s aching head only added to her confusion. “Who will?”
“My clients, of course.”
“What clients? I didn’t think there was anyone on Mars with enough money to tempt GenCon.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not talking about this godforsaken planet. I—we—will be returning to Earth.”
“But you can’t!” Aside from the expense involved, the settlers’ bodies were too adapted to the conditions on Mars to handle life on Earth.
Louisa raised an eyebrow. “Why not? The expense? All of GenCon’s considerable resources are at my disposal.”
“But…” Her protest died away as a chill swept across her body. Her hands flexed.
“I see you finally understand. With the nanites in my system, I don’t need to worry that my body has been weakened by the time on Mars. I’m stronger, better, now than when I left.”
The chill intensified. “And what are you going to do with that strength?”
“Whatever I want. Everyone is so eager to come to Mars and start over again.” Louisa’s patrician nose wrinkled. “But it’s just a dusty rock. I much prefer Earth. And now I have the power to… modify it to suit me. I don’t think I’ll have any difficulty finding associates who share my goals. But that’s where you come in—in case I need any help… persuading them.”
“But I don’t want to go back.”
“Nonsense. Your looks and brains are completely wasted up here. I’ll have Renfrey start the treatment before we leave, and by the time we get back to Earth, you’ll be perfect.”
Perfect. Able to have a child at last. And locked in hell with the woman she hated. Mars—John—out of reach. She had thought she was willing to pay any price, but this one was too steep. She pulled herself painfully to her feet.
“I’m not interested,” she said coolly.
“You don’t have a choice. Now are you going to come with me voluntarily or am I going to drag you? It makes no difference to me.”
She had no doubt the other woman meant it. Physical resistance would be pointless—she would have to rely on her brains instead. “I’ll come.”
“How disappointing. I do hope you find some spirit, or it’s going to be a very boring trip back to Earth.”
Boring? she thought hysterically. It wasn’t the word she would have chosen. But she kept her face calm and followed Louisa through a lab they had visited that afternoon, then through a concealed panel into a much larger lab.
If only John had known what was going on. She had no doubt that he never would have left her if he thought she was in danger. But at least he was free and safe.
Dr. Renfrey was bent over a lab table when they entered but he jumped up and scurried over to them.
“This is your next candidate, Doctor,” Louisa announced.
“But I thought…”
“I told you it would be my decision. And an attractive woman is a much better advertisement that a doddering old man. Now, get started. I want to be ready to leave the planet as soon as possible.
The doctor seemed to wilt. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I’ll tie her down for you. I doubt you have the strength to restrain her.”
Those icy fingers clamped down on her again, and nothing she did made any difference. She was breathless and bruised by the time Louisa fastened her to a lab table, and the other woman didn’t have a hair out of place.
“Now get started,” Louisa ordered and swept out of the room.
Renfrey avoided her eyes as he bustled around setting up e
quipment before diffidently approaching her.
“I need to take a blood sample.”
“To which I do not consent,” she said coldly.
He made a distressed noise but he still took the sample. To her surprise, he was both quick and gentle.
“Why are you doing this? You have to know it’s wrong.”
For a moment, she thought he wasn’t going to answer her, then he sighed and tapped his skull. “Brain tumor. Inoperable. This is my only hope.”
“But how did you pass the physical for the trip to Mars? Oh, of course, Louisa.”
“Exactly. She made sure that our physicals looked perfect even while she made sure that every one of us had something to gain.” He twisted his hands together. “Either for ourselves or someone we… care about.”
“Which is why you’ve been experimenting on your own staff.”
He shrugged nervously. “They all volunteered.”
“What if they changed their mind?” she asked quietly.
“Most of them didn’t. You’d be surprised what kind of decisions you’re willing to make when you’re desperate.”
“What about the ones who did change their mind?”
“I said they volunteered!” His voice rose. “They signed an agreement. Backing out wasn’t an option.”
She shuddered. “How could you?”
“I didn’t have a choice! I’m desperate. I can feel the tumor eating away at me, feel it slowing my thoughts. If it had just been something physical, I could have taken it, but this is my mind. It’s what makes me who I am.”
She still thought he was crazy, but she understood.
He must have seen the momentary flash of sympathy on her face. “You’d do it too, wouldn’t you?” he asked eagerly. “You’d volunteer because you want to be fixed. Because it matters more than anything else.”
A month ago, even a week ago, she suspected she would have said yes. But now she found herself remembering John’s voice when he told her that he loved her, when he told her that she didn’t have to be alone.
“No,” she said softly. “I’m not going to volunteer.”
“I already told you that it is no longer your choice.” They both looked up to see Louisa standing in the doorway once more.
“Is that true?” Serena asked Renfrey. “Are you going to proceed even though you know I haven’t volunteered? When there isn’t any paperwork to show that I agreed, no matter how briefly?”
“Of course he is,” Louisa mocked.
She ignored the other woman and focused on the doctor. “Why haven’t you taken it yourself? Why are you still testing? You’ve proven that it works.”
“Because he’s a coward,” Louisa answered for him. “He’s afraid that something will go wrong with me the way it went wrong with all the others. So he’s going to wait until I give him permission.”
The sense of dread strengthened. “What went wrong?”
“The transfusion can have a… negative mental effect,” he said reluctantly.
She shuddered as she remembered the hybrids and the way each of them seemed to lose touch with their humanity. Was that what he meant?
“Nonsense,” Louisa snapped. “They were simply weak. I’m perfectly fine.”
Or had Louisa simply not had any humanity to lose?
“I’ve taken the blood sample,” Dr. Renfrey said softly. “It will take a few hours to prepare the transfusion.”
“I’ll be back then. In the meantime, perhaps I’ll amuse myself with the cyborg.” Louisa shot her a malicious glance.
“No,” she whispered. Not John.
“Oh, yes. I’m sure he’ll prove most amusing.” The other woman smiled as a tear slid down Serena’s cheek. “Not so calm after all. But you’ll learn. The nanites will teach you.”
Louisa departed in a swirl of laughter, and Serena gave in to despair.
Chapter Seventeen
John regained consciousness with a jerk. Thick darkness surrounded him and even his enhanced vision couldn’t penetrate the gloom. He tried to move and found that he was chained to a table of some kind. The feeling brought back painful memories of his transformation into a cyborg. But at least his nanites were working again, however sluggishly. He could feel them moving through his system, attempting to clear away the lingering traces of whatever they had used to drug him.
Serena, he thought desperately and yanked at his chains but to no avail. Titanium, he decided. Not unbreakable but time consuming to escape, and he had a horrible feeling that he didn’t have any time.
Who was that woman, and what did she want with Serena?
Since his vision was no use, he used the sound propagation enhancement, trying to get a feel for where he had been imprisoned. Solid rock surrounded him on three sides, but there was another room on the other side of the fourth wall. That was the way out. He just had to get free of his chains first.
He began straining at his bonds, working each one methodically despite the frantic sense of urgency beating at him. Time passed with agonizing slowness, but just as he thought he detected a slight give in one of the chains, he caught a noise from the outer chamber. He froze as the door was flung open and a blinding light filled the room.
His nanites worked frantically to clear his vision, and it cleared enough for him to see the woman from the corridor, the one who had threatened Serena.
“Where is she?” he demanded. “What did you do to Serena?”
“Now, now. No need to get excited.” The woman strolled casually into the room. “She’s perfectly fine. In fact, soon she’ll just be perfect.”
She tittered as her own joke and his skin crawled. There was a maniacal edge to her laugh that reminded him of the hybrids. But she didn’t look like a hybrid. She looked like a normal woman, an attractive one even, although not in Serena’s class.
“My but you are a big boy.” She gripped a bicep with icy fingers and he tried not to shudder. “We’re going to have fun with you.”
“We?”
“Serena and I. She doesn’t understand yet, but she will.”
“What are you doing to her?” he repeated.
“I told you—I’m making her perfect. A few nanites, a little pain, and then a brand-new woman.”
“And she agreed?”
“Rather surprisingly, she didn’t. I read her file and thought that ridiculous desire for a child would convince her.” Louisa’s brows drew together, then she shrugged. “But no matter. She’ll come around.”
“You’re forcing this on her?” he asked, horrified.
“Force is such a harsh word.”
A clanking from the outer room drew his attention, and he looked over in time to see a robot transporter enter.
“Ah, there we are. The transporter is going to take you to my ship.”
“No!”
“Now don’t be silly. This way you’ll be reunited with your precious Serena—although I suspect she’ll be a little different than you remember.” She tittered again, before sliding the table to which he was fastened onto the bed of the transport with unnerving strength. “It’s a shame we don’t have time to play now, but we’ll have six months together on the ship.”
She squeezed his bicep again, harder this time, but he refused to let her see how much it hurt.
“Oh, this is going to be fun. Bye now.”
With a girlish wave, she left him. He started straining at his bonds again but even though one of them seemed to have loosened slightly, it wasn’t enough to free him. The transporter clanked through a series of tunnels before emerging onto the surface. They were nowhere near the entrance to the lab but, as he had theorized, a small supply train was waiting. The transporter trundled up on the bed of one of the cars, and a minute later, the train began to move—carrying him over the desert and away from Serena.
Serena tested her bonds again, but it was no use. Her thoughts chased each other in frantic circles. Where had Louisa gone, and what was she doing with John? Did she really have him?
“Was she telling the truth? About John?”
Dr. Renfrey started to ignore her, but then he sighed and nodded. “Yes. She used one of the paralytic darts.”
Serena winced but she felt a spark of hope. The darts wore off relatively quickly. Perhaps he would be able to get away. No. If he did get free, he would come back for her. The knowledge settled over her with absolute certainty. What a fool she had been. He loved her. He would never desert her. Just as she would never desert him.
“I love him,” she whispered, as the truth rushed over her. God, she was a fool.
“What’s that?” the doctor asked.
“Nothing.” Nothing that he needed to know anyway.
“I don’t think it was nothing.” His hands stilled as he looked over at her. “You know, I had a girl once, but I was so busy with my work that I let her slip away.”
“What do you think she would think of what you’re doing now?”
His mouth twisted. “Not a lot. She had a very kind heart.”
She didn’t say anything else, content to let him think about what he’d said as she tried to come up with a plan, any plan. She was so lost in her desperate attempt to find a solution that it wasn’t until she heard the low murmur of voices that she realized that they were no longer alone. The handful of scientists that remained had all gathered in the lab. Great. There was going to be an audience for her unwanted transformation.
But then Dr. Renfrey began talking.
“We have waited long enough,” he announced to the other scientists. “It’s time we cured ourselves.”
“But what if it doesn’t work?” a small, bespectacled man asked.
“We know it works. It’s only fear that has been keeping us back. Louisa is leaving, and she won’t return. I doubt she’ll even continue to fund the lab. This is our last chance.”
There was a babble of voices, but eventually, every one of them nodded.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked when Dr. Renfrey came over to collect more supplies.
“Because it’s the truth.” His eyes were infinitely weary. “She won’t continue to support the lab. And I know I don’t have much time left. I might as well at least try and fight.”
The Outlaw Cyborg (Cyborgs on Mars Book 5) Page 10