Adam (5 page)

“It won’t be unknown for long. Obviously the military, or this factory, has access to samples that allow manipulation and splicing with the human genome. We need those samples. Perhaps they’ll give us the answer to restarting Avion’s nanos, or perhaps we can find a way to transfuse the nanobots without them dying.”

Despite what the media and ill-informed human public thought, nanotechnology wasn’t contagious. Yes, their blood carried millions of the little bots. However, as soon as the blood left their body, within minutes, all the nanos died. No one knew why. Some theorized they required life to animate them, but if that was the case, then why didn’t re-injection reactive them? Nothing brought back even the slightest blip from the tiny suckers once they died.

Given their information, much of it new and some of it reinforcing his own hypothesis, Adam deemed it time to reveal some of his secrets. “This factory with the secret lab, I don’t suppose it’s called CyberGlys Technology?”

“Have you been eyeballing the joint too?” she asked.

“More than eyeballing. You’re looking at one of the guards assigned to the lower level. But I’ll tell you more about my scintillating occupation later. We’re home.”

Exiting his parked car, Adam took a moment to enjoy Seth’s incredulous look.

“You live here?”

“Yup.”

“But-but, it’s suburbia,” Seth sputtered.

“Yup. White picket fence and all,” Adam agreed, unable to hide his grin as he led them to the front door.

Anastasia having seen his home before—as well as his bedroom—didn’t gawk as she ushered Avion inside, but Seth couldn’t help examining the mundane life he’d created for himself.

“Dude, this place is”—the spy model turned in a three-sixty, taking in the living room with its matching black leather recliners, chrome glass table covered in remotes, magazines, and even a classic empty pizza box, and finally stopped turning, eyes riveted on the huge plasma screen bolted the wall—“awesome!”

Pride made him puff his chest, an odd mannerism he’d fallen into the habit of. Adam could claim it was acting. However, in truth, the human ego he’d cultivated came to him much too naturally. “Thanks.”

“Is that an Xbox One and a PS4?” Seth asked in almost reverent awe as he snagged a remote.

“Yup. I’ve got the latest
Call of Duty,
too, if you’re into shooter type games.”

“Am I ever.”

“Um, boys, I hate to break this super bonding, bromance moment, but don’t we have more important things than video games to discuss?”

He and Seth shared a look that said it all. Women! Never letting them have any fun.

“You guys must be tired after your flight,” Adam said aloud for the benefit of any possible bugs he might have missed, which, after their conversation in the car, now posed a worry. “Let me show you to the guest rooms.”

In short order, Adam had them supposedly abed, their sleeping units modified like his in that they did a body flip and sent the occupants careening down the chute, leaving behind an inflated lump under the sheets meant to represent them. It wouldn’t fool any but the most cursory looks, but it was better than nothing.

Conducting one final check that didn’t raise any mental red flags, Adam arrived last, popping out the bottom of the slide and landing on his feet. It was only as he saw Seth hauling Avion from his sprawl on the floor that he belatedly thought of the broken cyborg’s status. “Shit. I didn’t even think to warn you about the ride.”

The blinded cyborg managed a rueful smile. “Not your fault. Even I’m having trouble remembering this body doesn’t work the way it used to. No harm done.”

No harm, but given his fragile state, it could have hurt. Adam would have to keep that in mind.

Moving from the arrival chamber, they entered Rosalind’s domain, where screens flickered, flashing data and images too fast for the human eye but just right for cyborg ones.

Nothing jumped out.

“I see you found our guests.” Rosalind ignored her computer keyboard and swiveled in her seat to greet them. Only to find herself crushed in a hug as Anastasia smothered her.

“So nice to see you again,” Anastasia enthused.

“Apparently. Good thing I don’t need to breathe,” Rosalind managed to say once she extricated herself.

Seth frowned at his wife. “You knew Adam had another female unit? Why didn’t you tell me? You know Joe and the others have been looking for them.”

Shrugging, Anastasia moved aside and leaned against a console. “Completely slipped my mind. I guess once we get out of here, we should let the others know.”

“Ya think? Chloe’s been pestering Joe about doing more to find her cyborg sisters.”

“You mean there are more than just me and Ana?” Rosalind asked.

Seth, for once not leering or joking, took Rosalind’s hand in his. “Yes. We’ve managed to rescue three so far, four if you count my wife. Do any of these names sound familiar? Chloe, formerly C791, her blood sister, Bonnie, once B785, and F814, Fiona.”

“I remember them, especially Bonnie. I thought she was dead. Last I heard the military had her slated for termination.”

“We were all supposed to be terminated,” Anastasia reminded. “Lucky for us, greed kept some of us alive, and cunning saved the rest.”

“Speaking of cunning and saving, now that we’re all gathered, I think it’s time we discussed what you’re doing here and what you hope to accomplish.” Taking control early on, Adam hoped to circumvent any jostling for position. Perhaps it wasn’t the most altruistic thing of him, and not in keeping with the cyborg hive mind, but he’d damned well built this resistance movement from the basement up, and he wasn’t about to hand over the reins to anyone.

“Our primary objective is to see if we can find a cure for Avion. If the military has found a way to disable our nanotech and render us impotent, then it is imperative we discover out how they’re doing it, devise a way to stop it, and figure out how to reverse it.”

Funny how none of them raised the question of keeping the nanos inactive. Becoming human again would in some respects make their lives easier. They could live in the open. Resume mundane human lives. Problem was, once you’d lived with almost superhero powers, the idea of returning to something less was unfathomable.

“And the second objective?”

“Either steal the blueprints for the cloaking technology or destroy the factory creating it. If we can’t adapt it for our own use, then we need to make damned sure the military can’t use it either.”

“Aramus is going to be extremely pissed if there are explosions involved and he doesn’t get a chance to play,” Avion remarked.

“When isn’t Aramus pissed?”

“Good point.”

“Our third objective is to glean any information about our possible origins. Any files we can scan, any rumors, pretty much anything at all relating to our creation is welcome. The more we know about how we were made, the better we can handle anything the military throws at us.”

“And maybe we could reproduce and increase our numbers,” Adam added, all too aware of the lives lost since the revolution started.

His statement startled his guests.

“Are you suggesting little cyborg babies?” Seth ogled him. “Dude. That is a seriously whacked-out idea.”

“Is it? What race doesn’t want to see its species continue? Why should we be any different?”

Anastasia, who’d not heard him expound this before, shook her head. “I thought the males had their sperm sterilized to prevent it from happening. I know the women have had their ovaries removed.”

“Advances in science can replace just about any organ,” Adam reminded.

A seriously discomfited Anastasia veered them back. “This isn’t the time to debate procreation for our kind. We have our three objectives. We need to concentrate on those.”

“Make that four.” Avion, leaning against a wall listening, startled them all.

“Four? What do you mean four?” Seth frowned at the blind man. “Did I miss something during the briefing? If I did, I blame my wife. She’s very distracting.”

“Says the guy who was trying to feel me up during it. But I’m with Seth on this one. I don’t remember a fourth objective.”

“That’s because I didn’t want to say anything before now. We need to add rescue to the list. We have someone we need to save.”

As they exchanged glances, Adam realized no one knew what Avion was talking about. “Who? A captive cyborg?”

The wounded male shrugged. “I don’t know who she is other than she spoke to me while on our way here.”

“Spoke? How is that possible? I don’t recall us getting any transmissions.”

“She spoke in my mind.”

As a cacophony of questions ensued, Adam held up his hand for silence. “Rewind, Avion, and help us out here. When you say she spoke to you, do you mean mind to mind?”

“Yes.”

“But I thought your wireless capabilities were incapacitated when you lost your nanos?”

“They were, and still are, yet she still managed to speak to me. She called herself One. We didn’t talk long, but from what I gleaned, I believe she’s a prisoner and, given the fact that she could communicate with me, an important one to us all.”

“And you’re just telling us now?” Anastasia accused, hands planted on her hips in a very human gesture Adam doubted she consciously noted.

“I wasn’t sure you’d believe me. I wasn’t even sure I believed it myself. But since we’ve arrived planet side, it’s almost like I can sense her.”

“What do you mean by sense?”

“I guess the most apt comparison is a magnetic pull. I feel drawn to a certain direction. I don’t know how to better explain, other than I believe she is the one pulling me.”

“Dude, if I hadn’t been with you the entire trip, I’d think you smoked some seriously hallucinogenic drugs.”

“Or he’s suffering delusions brought on by his body shutting down because of the dead bots,” Anastasia mused aloud.

“Or,” Adam interjected, coming to Avion’s rescue, “his condition has made him susceptible to contact with someone important to our cause. Whatever the case, if we’re ready to believe in aliens, then we shouldn’t discount what he says. So we have four objectives and, by the sounds of it, most center around CyberGlys Technology.”

“Where apparently you work as a soldier,” Seth added.

“I do, and it wasn’t easy I’ll tell you. I’ve been boot licking and yes sirring for the last two years now. I’m a corporal on guard rotation for a science lab under the factory.”

“I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say, how the fuck did you manage that? I thought the military had screening in place to weed out cyborgs.”

Adam smiled. “I’m just that good.”

Rosalind snorted. “He means I’m that good. All screening protocols rely on computer programs. With the right hack, you can get scanners to ignore certain things, say like the metal in a certain dumbass’ body when he goes through security.”

“Why can’t we implement that for every cyborg?”

“Because one reroute attached to a single ID is easy to slide by, but when you start adding in more…” Rosalind trailed off.

“Gotcha,” Seth replied. “So, we’ve got an inside set of eyes and ears. And?”

“And there is definitely something going on below the main factory. Something to do with the nanos. I just don’t know what yet. My current mission has been to find out more, which, I’ll admit, hasn’t been easy. That place has got some hardcore security in place. But I’ll let my expert tell you more about that.”

Rosalind took over as they entered into her world of expertise—observation. “We’ve been watching this installation for some time. On the surface, it’s a military protected manufacturer. They make toys, cool ones that aren’t available to the public, although I’m sure they’ve sold a few on the side to those with deep pockets. But what those toys are has been unclear until your arrival. I’ll admit, my sources didn’t know about the cloaking tech or bugs.”

“Not even rumors?” Seth couldn’t hide his surprise.

Rosalind shook her head. “They are definitely keeping tight-lipped, and we’ve had little success discovering anything. Our biggest issue is their security is tight. Real tight. We tried to get a cyborg onto their production floor a few months ago. It didn’t go so well.”

A sobering reminder that, in their quest for liberation, sometimes casualties occurred.

Poor Simon, the guy who’d volunteered for the assignment. The special filter Rosalind added to him, a direct copy, or so they’d thought, of Adam’s, didn’t fool the scanning machine CyberGlys ran everyone through before entering their premises.

Before Simon could fake a breath, walls shot up around him, and the next thing anybody knew, he was gone. Vanished without a trace.

The same fate had yet to befall Adam, even though he worked on the even more secure lower levels. What made his programming different? How did he manage to bypass the scanners? None of his team could figure it out. But they kept trying to replicate it.

While a discussion arose about possible points of entry and weaknesses in the CyberGlys network, Adam’s mind split off and pursued another line of thought. Just how far would he go to help his off-planet brethren?