“Ha! I win. I made ya look at them finally, didn’t I?” Meara taunted.
When Nero sighed in consternation, his tormentor laughed long and loudly. Embarrassed, he turned to face her.
“Please don’t try to escape, Corporal MacDonald. In another three hours, you will be free to walk around the facility and check out everything I have said. Captain Pennington is damaged beyond our ability to repair her as easily as we have the two of you. We are truly hoping you can help us. That is a very small thing to ask in exchange for freedom from your cybernetic chains.”
Meara smirked as she studied his concerned gaze. “That’s a very pretty speech, Dr. Bastion, but who do ya think ya’re fooling? Ya just took my friend down with something that looked like a fecking wall com remote. That isn’t the action of a bloody noble world scout, now is it?”
Nero walked out of Aja’s cage and over to get a large manual padlock. He walked back and affixed it to Aja’s door after closing it. He made a mental note to document Aja Kapur’s anti-security capability which was evidently equal to Captain Pennington’s.
“Yes, well tranquilizing Eric didn’t make the two you look like good guys either at first. I don’t even know whose side you’re on in our restoration campaign, but I don’t get to make that judgment. I just remove code that should never have been used on cyborgs in the first place. I don’t expect much thanks for my work, but I damn well deserve a little cooperation from those I’m helping.”
Meara held up her hands. “Okay. Okay. No need to get ya pressed skivvies twisted. Ya can put one of those big-ass locks on my cage too, if it will make ya feel vindicated for Aja’s bad behavior. I think ya know by now that I’ve already decided to play yar game until I see for myself if ya’re lying. I’ll be right here when ya come back to let me out. Ya have my word.”
Nero snorted. “Try to escape if you wish. My remote has a range longer and wider than this building. If you go missing, a single button press will incapacitate you until you can be found. There is also a force field in the surrounding forest that would have the same effect if you tried to cross it now. Causing trouble will only work against you. Cooperation is the logical course of action and the only one that will lead to your true freedom.”
Meara sighed and went back to lie down again on the cot. “Well, ya’re certainly in for a rude awakening if you expect to get cooperation out of my friend there. Aja doesn’t know how to cause anything but trouble. I believe I will pass my time just fine on this bed while I wait out my three hours.”
Nero walked to the work bench and picked up a portable com. He carried it back to her cage and reached through the bars until she took it from his fingers.
“Here. Entertain yourself. It will make the time go faster. This is standard issue for all newly restored cyborgs. Normally, they have a lot of current events to catch up on. I don’t think you suffer from that lack of knowledge. I suppose you can watch a vid or play a game or go online shopping or something.”
Meara smiled. “Why look at this lovely gift. And better yet, I didn’t even have to steal it. Thanks are certainly coming to ya for yar generosity, Nero. Do ya have a secure connection to the outside in this place? I certainly would appreciate a little browsing time.”
Nero nodded wearily at her sarcastic gratitude. The female cyborgs had worn him completely out today, just with her endless talking. He was going to need a booster to get through the rest of his research notes this evening.
Knowing one of them could walk out of her cage any time she wanted, Nero gathered up all their weapons into his arms, hoping none went off accidentally. Resigned to finding a proper hiding place for them until they could be returned or confiscated by Peyton, he walked down the hall with a woman’s laughter over his precautions following him.
Chapter 11
Aja stretched as she woke, moaning when every muscle in her body hurt. Her skin tingled like she’d been prodded a million times with a shock stick. What kind of sick games had her latest contract played with her while she was knocked out?
Then she remembered. The man had confessed to being a cyber scientist. She should have guessed as much with him looking all medical and haughty in his white doctor coat. He’d smirked at her resistance and knocked her unconscious with some kind of stun device at short range.
“Well, it’s about time ya woke up, lazy arse. We’d likely be leaving this fecking place already if it wasn’t for ya sleeping yar life away.”
“Meara, when my muscles stop twitching I’m going to kick your taunting, slang throwing, Irish ass all the way back to your homeland. If the gods support my prayers, you’ll find people there who talk nonsense exactly like you do… and just as incessantly.”
Aja rolled her head against the cot and saw Meara casually sitting in a chair outside her cage. Meara was also calmly swiping what appeared to be a portable com, reading who knew what, but she was processing it as fast as her eyes could take in each screen.
“Irish? Why are you out there and yet I’m in here?”
Meara didn’t look up. “Because ya’re bitchy to everyone you come across and too hard-headed to listen. There’s a good reason I cultivate my charm, Aja. It gets me a lot farther. A little while ago, it got me a meal and a couple of decent beers. I’m quite contented now.”
Aja rolled her eyes before rolling her feet to the floor. The movement helped shake off the lingering spasms. That stunner really packed a punch. “How long was I out?”
Meara shrugged. “My time tracking is still sketchy as ever. Apparently that problem isn’t in my logic chip. But if ya aren’t wanting a precise number, last time I checked the com in my hand, ya had been prone for nearly five hours.”
“
Five hours?
” Aja slapped the door that wouldn’t budge now. Reaching around the bars she felt a giant metal lock holding it closed. “I see the bastard secured me good, didn’t he?”
“Absolutely. And if ya don’t want Nero to zap yar arse again, I’d advise you to keep a civil tongue around him. He’s rather old fashioned about respect. And the man doesn’t have a kind word to say about ya, if ya must know. While I was feasting, I overheard him explaining yar lockup to the others that are here.”
Aja rattled the cage again. “Why haven’t you done anything to remove this lock?”
Sighing, Meara set aside the portable com. “A body can’t get any reading done around ya. Ya’re always slamming, and banging, and screeching.”
Meara rose and walked to the desk, coming back with the key to the lock. She held it up until she saw a pair of angry chocolate eyes zero in on it.
“See this, Aja? I’ll use it to let ya out, but first ya have to swear on all six of Shiva’s arms that ya will act normal whether ya feel like it or not. Nero wasn’t lying to us. Captain Pennington’s in worse trouble than our connection to her indicated. I’m going through the code Nero downloaded from her damaged companion chip now and helping him look for what varies from what yars currently. We kind of borrowed a copy from ya when I told him ya were the only one of us who managed to break its fecking hold on yar brain. And no… I didn’t tell him about the other, but I think ya should.”
Aja snorted. “So let me out then if things are so dire. We’ll see what needs to be done.”
“No. Swear first.”
“Meara…”
“Swear, Aja. I know how ya are. There’s only one way ya won’t break ya word.”
Aja took a deep breath. “I cannot swear by Shiva, but I will swear by all that is Shakti that I will not retaliate until I determine if there is a need to seek revenge for our unfair incarceration. And if they have done anything bad to Captain Pennington, I will kill them painlessly rather than making them suffer. How’s that?”
“No Aja… that will not do. Don’t think I won’t leave ya in there until ya have a real change of heart. Ya won’t believe what I’ve told ya until ya see for yarself, and I can’t let ya act against them now. If he considered you a threat, the one we shot would rip ya apart before ya could choke on that heathen death yell of yars. He calls her
Lucy
and seems to genuinely care about her.”
Deflated, Aja stumbled backwards and sank to the cot. “Holy Mother Goddess, I haven’t thought of the woman like that in over ten years. I trained my tongue not to say her real name and it won’t form it anymore.”
“I know. Neither will mine,” Meara declared. “But it fairly melts as it slides off his. There’s a ring of genuine caring in the way he speaks it.”
Aja sighed wearily. True help was impossible to find, but they had to trust now and again despite the odds. They had learned it was the only way to survive. “Very well, Irish. I swear by the six arms of Shiva I will do them no harm. Now let me out.”
Meara nodded and walked to the lock. She opened the cage door and swung it wide. “Welcome to the first day of the rest of yar free life, Aja Kapur.”
Aja rolled her eyes as she exited the cage. “No one is ever free, Irish. There’s always a catch. And where in the world did you get those clothes you’re wearing? You look like a school girl in them. That skirt barely covers your bottom.”
Meara looked down and smiled. “Well, at least I feel a little more normal. I hated being wrapped all in black like a fecking mourner. There’s a whole closet full of pretty things in Captain Pennington’s room. They wouldn’t fit her, of course, but I squeezed into these. I’m sure ya could find something there as well.”
Aja sighed. “Have they brainwashed you, Irish? Wait… how would you even know?”
Meara snorted at the insult, but then she thought about it and finally nodded. “I guess they have sort of brainwashed me if ya consider the fact Nero turned every code prompt off from both the Cyber Wife and the Companion programs. The stuff is all still in there, mind ya. But I can ignore it if I choose. Soon ya will see for yarself what I’m saying is true. Nero doesn’t know why I can’t do complex calculations though. He said we’d have a bit of a look at that wee problem later.”
“Have you forgotten they throttled your cognitive abilities because they thought you were too smart? They damaged your organic brain, Meara. Unless the man can help you grow it back, I’m not sure anything can be done. Don’t get your hopes up.”
“Yes, I know all that, but even so, I’m still more intelligent than most. I just express it differently. The whole math thing is highly over-rated as a problem solving strategy. There’s a world of answers you can get to by merely guessing. Haven’t I come up with some clever escape plans over the years?”
Aja nodded as they walked down a hallway devoid of guards as well as people. She had to fight every urge she had to drag Meara with her to the unsecured front door. “Yes. I will grant that you have come up with some very clever answers to our dilemmas at times.”
Meara laughed. “Right then… that’s why I choose to stay as I am. If the great and powerful Aja thinks I’m perfect, who am I to argue with her?”
Aja snorted. “I did not say you were perfect.”
And then she saw they had entered a room where their captain was stretched out on a normal bed. For once, Meara had not been exaggerating. The blonde bodyguard watched their approach warily. He really did look like he’d launch himself at her if she tried to further harm the injured woman.
“Eric, this seething woman is Aja Kapur. Aja, this is Eric Anderson. He’s Captain Pennington’s latest contract—accidentally as I understand it—but she processes him that way. He’s been watching over her.”
“Hello,” Eric said, looking at the woman. “I’m guessing you’re the one who shot me with the tranquilizer dart.”
Aja lifted a shoulder. “I can’t apologize for it. I was trying to save my captain.”
Eric chuckled and shook his head. “Yes, so I heard. And Lucy took you down trying to save me in return. Guess I can’t hold your efforts against you under those circumstances.”
Aja shrugged in apology instead of stating it. “They enhanced Captain Pennington more than us… but not because she was our military leader. The scientists who worked on us didn’t care about rank. Every time one of the women died in a failed experiment, Captain Pennington would volunteer for the next one to spare someone else. It was the only way she knew to try and save us.”
“Sounds like the version of Lucy I met this week.” Eric felt his lips tighten. That hodge-podge testing probably explained why she was always malfunctioning. “You two seem to have dealt with your restorations well.”
Aja shrugged again as she walked closer. Trying to seem more casual than she was, she leaned down to look at her unconscious military superior. She hadn’t seen her captain up close in years. She raised her gaze and caught Eric’s sad one.
“There’s not another woman in the world like this one, which is why Meara and I never stopped looking for her. I don’t know where they’ve been hiding her all these years, but she pinged for us when you brought her to this location.”
“You must have been close by to have found us so quickly,” Eric said.
Aja shook her head. “No. Not really. We had to sneak across the Canadian border and past a couple of very impolite guard bots. After getting into the US territories again, tracking her down to this facility was the only easy part. Captain Pennington is pumping out code to draw us to her even like she is. But the pinging stopped when she was inside this building. I can tell she’s still making it, but I no longer ping back. I guess Dr. Cyberstein was more talented than he seemed.”