Glancing once more at the man beside her, Lucy climbed to her feet.
Eric grabbed her ankle. “Lucy… don’t.”
“I have to, Eric. It’s me he wants… that Creator Omega wants. Maybe I can lead him away from here and he’ll leave you all alone long enough to get help. Just make sure you give your scientists the hearing adjustments to fight that damn whistle. They could have them in mass production for all we know.”
“Forget the damn whistle. If you die, we all die,” Eric said, wincing with pain.
Lucy pressed her lips together, then sighed before she spoke. “I know, but I don’t intend to die. Now pretend to be unconscious until your hearing adjustments are finished.”
Pulling free of Eric’s grip, Lucy stepped just a few steps ahead of his body. Lifting her chin, she glared at the cyborg who approached. Seeing the whistle had no effect on her, Bradley 360 finally stopped blowing it.
Lucy counted twenty-three functioning AI units following behind him. With just a look over his shoulder, they all stopped instantly, pausing in formation to wait for additional commands. From what she could tell, he definitely seemed to be controlling them only with his mind. Another Creator Omega advancement she would wager, and one she hadn’t gotten. Too bad. A skill like that could be very useful.
It didn’t even take long to figure out how it had worked. All someone like her or Bradley 360 had to do was disable the units down with the shutdown code Creator Omega had given them. But to gain Bradley 360’s leverage over their behaviors, a second code would be needed to wirelessly reboot them while being neurally attached to their command chain as their section leader.
The rest was easy. Norton’s top of the line bots had been the perfect choice to deal with Peyton’s highly skilled team. AI units functioning as guard bots were specifically programmed to function as a group of fighting machines just the way Bradley 360 had used them.
Simple really. The best ideas usually were. And this one was obviously effective given the number of unconscious and now deaf cyborgs on the ground with still bleeding ears.
It occurred to her that the war might have gone very differently if cyber scientists around the globe had embraced the cybernetic evolution of mankind with Creator Omega’s current zeal for it. The bastard’s obsession with crafting the perfect female probably prevented Bradley 360’s level of neural manipulation from happening until now.
Who would fight the power hungry scientist if she let his latest project take all those fighting him out? Without Eric and this group of extraordinary men, the reformed scientists doing cybernetic restorations didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of surviving such an egomaniac.
Her appreciation for Peyton’s efforts to save her ratcheted up a few notches as she scanned for his body, as did her affection for Eric still lying in wait on the ground. Because of his determination to save her, she was still alive to face down the former Dr. Smith today. She for damn sure wasn’t going to waste the last opportunity she might have.
“Well. Well. Well. If it isn’t Captain Lucille Evelyn Pennington in the flesh,” Brad said loudly, enunciating each word as clearly as he could.
Lucy felt the words ping against something in her mind. Programming commands scrambled, righted themselves when nothing occurred, and then smoothed away as if they hadn’t run at all. Not a bit of pain accompanied any second of it.
The New World Companion code’s failure to launch elated her, but gloating about her freedom from it wouldn’t serve her in dealing with the threat in front of her. No. One more time she was going to have to give him what he had helped program her to do.
Lucy grabbed her ears and screamed obscenities as loudly as she could, while letting her knees hit the ground. She pretended to writhe with mental pain and found it wasn’t all that hard for her muscle memory to recall something she had endured so often.
While she faked the change, she scanned her files looking for a list of symptoms and actions indicating she was flipping programs. Pausing the amount of time she had noted it normally took, she heard Brad snorting as he looked down at the top of her head.
“It’s so obvious to me that Nero did your restoration. He’s too enamored of his own work to be as ruthlessly careful as he needs to be. Now Kyra… Kyra is different. She would have remembered to test your program switch before letting you out of your cage.”
Lucy screamed for good measure, twisting her head to glare up at his grinning face.
“By the way, did I mention that I read all of Nero’s notes about your restoration? He was very frustrated because he just couldn’t turn everything off like he wanted. Too bad I can’t let him keep you as a reminder of his half-ass work. Guess it proves I’m still the most brilliant scientist though.”
“You… fuck… ing… bas… tard,” Lucy yelled brokenly, falling to all fours.
Then she calmed herself just as the file on the companion conversion reported happening. She waited a few seconds to make sure Bradley 360 was still buying the show. When the egotistical freak remained silent, she moaned deep in her throat, activating her companion modulated vocal chords. She made a sound she normally only made during orgasm as she climbed to her feet.
Blinking, she stared at the machine that was once Dr. Bradley Smith, putting all the welcome she could in her gaze. “Hello. I am your New World Companion. It will be my pleasure to service you, Bradley 360.”
It was all she could do not to send a fist through his face when he laughed loudly and long. Satisfaction was in his eyes and his smile.
“Damn, I’m good. Yes, it would be your pleasure and how I wish I could take you with me for that purpose. Unfortunately, your capture is no longer my prime directive. You know what a bitch it is to deny that piece of shit code. Frankly, keeping you is not worth the headache, honey. Creator Omega has perfected far better companions than you could ever be. They might be a little boring at times, but at least they never fight back.”
Lucy blinked, cleared her throat a little. It took all her willpower not to react to knowing other women were now caught in the hell she’d just barely escaped. “Your statements confuses me, Bradley 360. I was made for you. It is my pleasure to service all your needs.”
“Fine. Stand right there and don’t move. That’s all I need you to do,” Brad ordered.
Lucy watched him fish around in his pockets. Somewhere in his escape he’d dredged up a white lab coat. It had someone else’s name on it, but Bradley 360 didn’t seem to care. He looked through the pockets of it. Finally, he pulled an injector syringe out of one.
“We’re doing this short and sweet this time. No messing around with viruses. You have to die because I’ve got a new processor waiting as my reward. Once I get that baby installed in my brain, I’ll be the smartest human alive, and the most powerful. I will then be Creator Omega’s best creation. You—on the other hand—will be wiped from his mistake list. In a month or two the world will forget you ever existed.”
The guard bots lifted their pulse cannons as Brad walked forward to her, injector in hand. He lifted it to her neck, dropping it to the ground when an arrow pierced his arm at his wrist. His scream of pain echoed in the silence. Lucy held firm in her act as she looked around discreetly.
Aja and Meara were both accomplished with bows and arrows. Female cyborgs were extensively trained in manual weapons because all females had been denied technological ones… except bombs like the one she carried.
“Run, Bradley 360. We are under attack,” Lucy announced.
Making a panicked sound of distress, she turned and started to run in an attempt to escape him. Three pulse cannons instantly pointed her direction. The rest of the guard bots with canons dispersed in various directions, no doubt being sent to find the sniping archer.
“
Halt
… aahhh,” he ordered, picking up the injector from where it had fallen.
Glancing around to make sure no more flying arrows were headed his way, he stumbled over to her.
“If you move again, I swear I will have a pulse cannon take you down. No one really knows if you’ll blow up. I’ll take that risk before I let you get away from me again.”
He lifted the injector in his damaged hand, but the presence of the arrow prevented his fingers from depressing it. He moved to switch hands and swore as he dropped the injector again.
Lucy grabbed his hurt arm and twisted until it snapped at the wrist. His additional pain-filled scream split the air. She moved, positioning Bradley’s body in front of hers. If she could dodge the pulse cannon blasts, she’d have ten seconds to run while the weapons built back their power.
Two pulse cannon blasts flew by them. Waiting for the third, she suddenly heard a fierce yell. She glanced around Bradley 360’s body in time to see Eric’s body falling a short distance in front of where she and Bradley stood.
Her ten second freedom clock started ticking loudly, but she couldn’t risk leaving. She couldn’t escape knowing Bradley might use the injector on Eric out of spite.
“No. I can’t fail…aahhh,” Brad said.
Lucy held his pain-wracked body out in front of her. She would keep using him for a shield for as long as he held onto his control of the bots. Pulse cannons turned in their direction, following her walk as she dragged Bradley 360 with her.
She stared down at Eric, who still wasn’t moving. She pushed at him with a foot, but still nothing. He was supposed to come back around quickly. That was his specialty. How long was it going to take?
“You know what he’s like. Creator Omega will never stop until you’re dead,” Brad whispered.
“Seems fair,” Lucy answered calmly. “I’m not going to stop until he’s dead either.”
Deciding she needed to know if Eric was dead, she lifted Bradley 360 as high into the air as she could manage, then slammed him hard to the ground. More of his bones broke, but she didn’t stop to finish the job or assess the damage. She didn’t want him completely dead yet. She just wanted him stopped until she could think things through.
Her feet swiftly took her to Eric’s side. She knelt, feeling for a sign he still lived. It was faint, but still there. The pulse cannon blasts must have been cranked up to full charge.
When she lifted her head, she saw the pulse cannons still locked on her. Her single chance at freedom was long gone. Closing her eyes at her dilemma, she put her forehead on her fist.
She could crawl over to Bradley 360 and snap his neck. Maybe his death would sever his link to the guard bots. But what if it sent out a failsafe kill command?
She was still thinking when her head lifted at the sound of footsteps—human footsteps. Only they weren’t completely human. Aja and Meara were walking towards her. They stopped and looked down at the writhing Bradley 360. Lucy saw two of the pulse cannons move and swing in their direction.
Aja snorted. “Like we haven’t been in this situation a thousand times since we escaped. Don’t worry about us dealing with the pulse cannons, Lucy. We’re experts at ducking them. Just tell us what to do about the broken and yet still not dead, Dr. Smith.”
Lucy shook her head. “I don’t know yet. That’s why he’s still alive.”
“Well, now, that’s not very captain-ish of ya, putting off a decision like that,” Meara teased.
She raised a booted foot and kicked it hard into Bradley 360’s crotch. His balls wouldn’t be coming back down out of him for a good long while—if ever. The man squirmed in more agony and rolled into a fetal position despite his broken bones. His condition made her very cheerful—very cheerful indeed. Not that his suffering made up for all the misery and death he had caused, but nothing was ever going to do that.
“What’s on yar mind other than killing the bastard, Lucy?”
“Exploding mostly,” Lucy answered, noting the single pulse cannon aimed at her still moved when she did. “I’m wondering if Creator Omega might have a failsafe built into Bradley 360 there. If he dies, there’s no reason not to detonate me. He said I was at the top of Creator Omega’s mistake list. Wiping me out of existence is his real goal. He was going to do it via injection, which would also have given him time to save his own ass.”
“You know, we tried to talk you out of getting that damn bomb installed,” Aja complained. She knelt beside Bradley 360, and hauled him into a sitting position. “Now because of it, we can’t risk killing him outright. But then we can’t let him keep ordering the guard bots around either.”
Meara turned and looked at her friend. “Do ya think ya could be precise enough with your blade to take out the neural controller without damaging the processor or logic chip? The bastard’s life support would continue no matter how big a headache he got.”
“You’re always so lenient with them, Irish,” Aja said.
She made a fist with her cybernetic arm and pounded it on the ground. Out popped a sharp, thin blade.
“You know, when I woke up after my conversion, they only showed me the damn fingernail. I was so disappointed. After all the hell of being converted, I couldn’t help feeling cheated that all I got was a giant storage. What I wanted was a weapon.”
“Yeah, well, I got nothing but programming. I’m a freaking library, for cripes sakes. Try being nothing but storage.”