Aja nodded. “I’m sorry for you Meara, but this is my story, so let me tell it. They waited three days before they showed me this weapon. The problem is putting it back isn’t as easy as taking it out. It’s thinness penetrates like a very sharp needle, but also breaks off in my victim. The only option to restore it is to undergo surgery to have it replaced. Like Lucy’s bomb, it was meant to be a last resort. Outside of my training, I’ve never used it, not even when I killed those other scientists.”
She jerked Bradley 360’s head around and positioned the blade. “How about here, Meara? What do you think?”
Meara nodded. “Looks about right to me. They put the neural controllers in the right frontal area. Lucy, what do you think?”
Lucy leaned down and kissed Eric softly. Sometimes you couldn’t see a way to clearly win the war. Sometimes all you could do was try to survive the current battle. That had been their story since they were converted. Corrupt cyber scientists, and a more corrupt government, had kept them all occupied with battle after battle. And they’d never won many. Today had to be different. They needed to send a loud message to Creator Omega, but not a bomb loud one.
She raised her head and looked at her truest friends. “Aja, use his body as a shield. If we don’t all get taken out by pulse cannons, will you at least make sure the fucking bastard can’t be rebuilt again before you drop him?”
Aja pulled the blade away and hoisted Bradley 360 into a seated position. She saw Meara step in front of her, heedless of both pulse cannons moving to point at her. “Trying to increase my chances, Irish? Or gloating in your sainthood because Lucy’s boy-toy really did turn out to be a hero?”
Meara laughed at the jovial surprise in Aja’s tone. Thank the gods. She was not going to die frowning. She’d meet them with her best smile.
“Just saving what’s left of my soul, Aja. Maybe if I save yar arse in the process, the true creators of this world might forgive and forget my other trespasses. I’ve not lived the most exemplary life, but I’d like a chance at another one if I do end up dying today.”
“I love your non-exemplary ass, Irish. Did I ever tell you that?”
Aja screamed the war cry of her people and sank the blade through bone and brain in one plunge. She screamed a second time, like a wounded animal, when the blade broke from her wrist. Bradley 360 struggled for a couple seconds and then went still in her arms. A quick check of his vitals showed he still lived, even through all that he’d endured.
But the pulse cannons hadn’t fallen. Aja looked up in defeat, cursing herself most for putting a worried frown on Meara’s face.
Lucy shook her head and held out a hand as she stood. “It’s alright. I expected this could happen. They’re probably defaulted to follow their last command, which was to keep us from getting away. We’ll know shortly.”
She searched frantically through her files. Please let Nero have left it.
When she found what she searched for, Lucy sent the shutdown virus out to the bots. The three in front of them fell instantly to the ground and started their shutdown process. She hoped she had sent it along their link to the others. If so, there would be a slew of inactive AI units around the area to collect later. Norton was going to have a bit of a PR problem when word got out that their high security bots had been so easily compromised.
Relieved at last, Lucy reached down and dragged an unconscious Eric up by his collar. Aja and Meara could handle the rest. She was going to put Eric in their bed and crawl in beside him. When he woke, he could go back to protecting her until her bomb removal surgery could be done. She would no longer let herself be used as a bargaining tool against the good guys. If she died… she died. Nero had made sure no one but her would and that was all that mattered.
She stopped by the two women. Aja still held Bradley 360’s slumped form in front of her.
“Now make the bastard completely dead,” she ordered.
“Yay.” Meara nodded with glee. “Wait. I see just the thing. No sense in carving out his entrails when we can do this nice and easy. There will be less of a mess for the authorities.”
She ran to retrieve the injector from the ground. She brought it back and deployed it into the side of his neck. Bending down, she put the now empty syringe in one of Bradley 360’s pockets.
“Best keep the container for evidence. Dr. Cyberstein might need reassurance this particular monster won’t be coming back from the dead ever again.”
Aja stood and let Bradley 360’s dying body fall to the ground. “That injector shit satisfy you, Irish? Don’t you want to at least take his balls for a souvenir after all he’s done to us?”
Meara laughed. It felt damn good. “Ooooh… Shiva’s handmaiden is still bloodthirsty. Why yes, I would like his balls, Aja. But I don’t have a knife and I’m not pulling yar blade from the bastard’s head. I might cut myself in the process. Plus, with our luck, he’d turn out to be a fecking vampire and come back permanently.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Meara. The blade’s made of titanium, not silver… and I didn’t put it through his heart.”
Meara shrugged. “Heart. Head. Same difference. No sense in taking any chances—that’s all I’m saying.”
Aja looked at Lucy. “She never, never gets any story right. It drives me crazy. Can I please take back what I said?”
“Did your declaration come from your human side or your cybernetics?” Lucy asked. Aja’s silence brought a smile to her face. “From what I hear, your human side is in control now. It would take a lot of time and a lot of misery to stop loving her. Probably best you just accept the inevitable and work around it as well as you can.”
Aja snorted. “Aye, captain. I hear you.”
Meara looked around the field. “Are we carrying all these heavy blokes ourselves or calling for help? I vote we contact Nero and Kyra. They’re going to have to replace all their eardrums anyway. That damn whistle. I knew it had a fairly long range, but without my calculator, I couldn’t do the stupid math to figure it out. We’d have been here sooner, but we had to stay outside of the battle scene until he stopped blowing the fecking thing.”
Lucy nodded. “We’ll call for help with this. The only cyborg I’m dragging out of here is the one I’m dating.”
“Dating?” two voices asked, exchanging looks before grinning.
“Yes… dating. And I don’t want to hear any shit about it. Eric’s programmed to wake up from the cannon blasts. He’s already adjusted his hearing against the whistle. Make sure Nero gets that device intact so he can reverse engineer it. You two can explain where Eric and I are. We’re going back to the dungeon so people don’t get accidentally blown up.”
“Wouldn’t you rather have a pet dragon to guard you than a prince who can’t take a cannon blast?” Aja teased, hoping to bring the light back to Lucy’s eyes.
Snorting, Meara turned a gaze to her friend. “Another fecking joke. I swear, life just keeps getting better and better. And I love you too, Aja Kapur. Every bloodthirsty, Indian inch of ya.”
Sighing at how lucky they all were to be alive, Lucy stopped listening to their banter, laid Eric back down, then knelt beside him. She shushed them as she lifted his wrist com to her mouth.
Chapter 27
The lab at Kyra’s house was packed with people who’d come to watch the interview. For the cyborgs and their spouses slash girlfriends, it was a sort of celebration to see the story go public.
Lucy looked at the cage in the room and felt a curl of dread in her gut. She rubbed a hand over her abdomen. At least she wasn’t feeling the square box in there anymore and that was a good thing. She never figured she would be thanking one of the original creators for her liberation… and Jackson Channing’s ex-wife no less.
Like Aja, she had her reservations about the reformed cyber scientist and those who helped her. But the woman hadn’t blinked an eyelash in rebuke when Lucy had confessed to not remembering having killed her abusive ex-husband.
Not that she accepted that she had killed him yet, but research had shown her what everyone else believed.
“Look at my fecking red hair. It’s ghastly under those bright lights they used. I’m thinking I might get some color and try raven tresses like yars, Aja. Ya look like Shakti’s daughter with yar sleek hair, gold sari, and serene face. No one would ever guess ya felt like carving out that interviewer’s tongue every time he seemed to be doubting one of Lucy’s statements.”
“Hush, Irish,” Aja ordered. “No one can hear anything but your yapping.”
Meara laughed, her smile spreading at Aja’s rapt attention to the interview. It was like the woman hadn’t even made her find the bloody unauthorized copy and download it. Aja had already watched the fecking thing a dozen times at least. What more could she learn from it?
“Did Dr. Cyberstein help ya pick out that outfit, Aja? Maybe I should consult with him. Nero might not let me steal the dress he chooses, but it’d be worth wasting my money if I ended up looking like ya do on the big screen.”
“Quiet—both of you,” Lucy ordered, listening to Eric laugh beside her. “Why are you laughing? The interview is not funny, is it?”
Eric shook his head. “No the interview is not funny, but your friends are. I’m so used to them bickering that I didn’t notice they were even talking until you fussed at them. I’ve learned to tune them out.”
Lucy snickered and turned back to the com again. She squeezed Eric’s fingers which were looped through hers. Their dating had turned into living together because he wouldn’t hear of her living alone in one of Norton’s temporary placements.
Last night they’d finally acted on the sexual tension that seemed a constant between them. He’d been so careful the first time it had nearly driven her insane. She had purposely and joyfully erased that line of carefulness the next two times they sought each other’s bodies for pleasure.
They’d woke up wrapped together in the wonderful sunlight pouring through his bedroom window. While Eric was still sleeping, she had taken an unauthorized snapshot of their naked bodies for her private files. She looked at it now, endlessly amazed at how evidence of their sexual relationship did nothing but please her. After all she’d endured, it was the greatest of gifts to be able to find pleasure in the arms of a good man—and a good-looking man.
Lucy sighed in longing and leaned close. “Can we leave as soon as this is over? I want to go home. I’ll even eat an MRE if it means we can get to bed faster tonight.”
“It’s called a frozen dinner now—not an MRE. One of us is going to have to learn to really cook if we’re going to cohabitate. And we can’t leave early tonight for two reasons. First, you’re the guest of honor. Second, Peyton wants to talk to us. That’s why we’re here where it’s private.”
Lucy sighed again. “Okay. We can stay to hear his speech. I just wish this wasn’t happening in a cyber lab. Don’t you people ever use a sitting room to watch the com? This place gives me the creeps.”
“We’re here because no one can hear us in here. It’s checked all the time. The UCN has ears and spies everywhere. We never forget that, nor do we take our privacy for granted.”
“Fine.” Lucy squeezed his fingers again and quieted down.
“I like how you’re thinking though,” he whispered, sneaking a kiss on her cheek. “I promise we’ll leave as soon as we can.”
Lucy reluctantly put her attention back on the com. The UCN’s attempt to blame Kyra Winters for Brad’s “rogue” behaviors had drawn an important line for her in this fight. Before her very public interview, the UCN had been in complete bullshit denial of there even being a Creator Omega. They had also totally absolved Norton from any responsibility for what happened. Hearing they were pursuing an injunction against Kyra Winters to stop her work had been the last straw and the reason they were now watching the com broadcast.
It hadn’t surprised her when Rachel Logan had insisted on standing with her and the others during the interview. The girl had survived Bradley Smith’s private hacking and seemed to be rebounding—not that everyone would consider the tattooed man hovering over her as an indication of mental health. Bradley Smith’s death had made her happier than the girl probably wanted anyone to know, but it made perfect sense if you’d ever been helpless at the end of his hacking.
One thing Lucy had figured out quickly after going public with her story was that even restored, none of their futures held any certainty. They were human and machine, and the world didn’t intend to let them forget it.
No one could undo the atrocity of what they had each become because of the cybernetic changes. They would all need occasional fixing by engineers like Seetha Harrington. They would all need modified code by those like Nero Bastion who aided Kyra Winter’s restoration crusade.
She had lost herself to one war. She might one day lose herself to the quiet one happening around them. But now that she didn’t have to hide herself to save people, Lucy planned to do the rest of her fighting out in the open.
So even though she hated exposing any of them to more ridicule, she had not balked at showing Kathryn and Lynette’s fates to the world in their currently limited conditions. Their nearly non-sentient reality could have been hers… or Aja’s and Meara’s. Kyra had shared she was almost ready to try her new prototype processor on them. Lucy was going to be by their sides when it was time for that experiment. Aja and Meara would be with them as well. For once, she would guard what remained of her military team and make it count.