The Cyber Chronicles IV - Cyborg (4 page)

Kole wore a
smart dark grey jacket with paler grey cuffs and collar, a white
shirt under it. Black jeans and boots completed his outfit. She had
come to realise that he was quite a wealthy man, with an upmarket
apartment, two expensive vehicles and an extensive wardrobe of
top-quality clothes and accessories. His vehicles were parked in a
garage next to his apartment, with direct access to the airways.
Horwin had called him a hacker, and, when she had asked about it,
Kole had explained that he broke into the computer systems of
high-powered corporations and stole their information to sell to
their competitors. He was the best on Ferrinon Four, he claimed,
although he had been in trouble with the authorities several times
and was now semi-retired.

Kole had
parked close to the building, and she spotted two cybers standing
outside the entrance. They wore black and silver uniforms, and
stood in a typical guard stance, hands clasped behind their backs,
legs slightly apart. Her mouth went dry and her heart pounded. The
prospect of finding Sabre filled her with joy, but the thought of
seeing him back under cyber control, and unable to free himself,
weighed her heart with sorrow. Kole headed for the cybers, then
paused to glance back. She gathered her courage and followed him,
approaching the two warriors. They wore shiny black helmets, and
tinted visors covered their eyes. Their brow bands, however, were
exposed through slots in their helmets, as they must be, she knew,
or the control unit would be blind.

Tassin stopped
in front of the closest cyber and studied his brow band, but she
knew in her heart it was not Sabre even before she failed to find
the hairline crack in the crystals. Although his features were so
familiar that they made her breath catch, the clone was younger,
and had a small scar on his right cheek. The other one was a little
older, but she knew he was not Sabre, either, and the lack of a
crack in his brow band confirmed it. She turned to Kole and shook
her head. He walked up to the doors, which slid open ahead of him,
admitting them into a bright, cool interior. Two more cybers stood
at the bottom of a broad staircase, and she approached them to peer
into their faces. They were both younger than Sabre, and she shook
her head at Kole. He sighed and ascended the staircase. They found
the fifth cyber standing outside an office, apparently of a
high-ranking official, and again, he was a stranger. Tassin turned
away, and Kole led the way back to the car. She wondered if the
cybers stood at their posts all day, unmoving, save perhaps when
they had to relieve themselves or eat. It seemed cruel.

The next stop
was the hire company, deep in the city centre on the ground floor
of a towering skyscraper, as Kole called them. It had a flashing
sign outside, and they had to walk from a parking lot down the
street. A beeping announced their arrival when the door slid open
ahead of them, and a pimply young man with pink hair, clad in a
shiny shirt, popped up from behind the counter. Tassin did not want
to know what he had been doing before they walked in. He smiled and
smoothed his hair.

“
How can I help you?” he enquired.

“
We’re looking for a cyber,” Kole said.

“
Ah, well, you’ve come to the right place. We have just what
you’re looking for. There he is.” The youth gestured to his right,
and only then did Tassin notice the motionless cyber who stood
beside the far wall. He was clad in a grey vest and matching
trousers, standard cyber issue and exactly what Sabre had been
wearing when she had met him. His webbing was full of grenades and
power packs, and a laser-grenade launcher combo was clamped around
his right wrist. Once again, her throat closed with sorrow and her
heart ached as she approached him. He stared over her head, and, if
not for his imperceptible breaths, he might have been a statue. A
glance at his face told her he was a stranger, and she turned to
shake her head at Kole. He asked the youth if they could see the
other cybers, which seemed to puzzle the pimply boy. It must seem
odd to him, Tassin mused, since one cyber was as good as another to
these people. They probably could not even tell them apart, but she
could.

The shop boy
showed them two cybers in the back room, packed in caskets, and
Tassin swung away after studying them for only a moment. As they
made their way back through the front of the shop, she turned to
the youth.

“
Can’t you let him sit down, at least?”

He gawked at
her. “Huh? Who?”

“
The cyber.” She gestured to the motionless man.

“
Him? Why?”

“
How would you like to be forced to stand there all
day?”

“
Uh, he’s a cyber, Miss. That’s kind of what they do, ye’know.
Sometimes we make him do a fighting stance, though.” He turned to
the cyber. “Hey, Cyber Seven, fighting stance!”

The cyber
dropped into a semi crouch, raising his right arm, his left cocked.
The youth grinned. “See? Neat, huh?”

Tassin glared
at the boy, sickened. “He’s a human being, not a damned
machine.”

“
No he isn’t, he’s a cyber.”

“
He has feelings! He must be in agony standing still all day,
and you shouldn’t make him do undignified things like that. It’s
not right!”

The
pink-haired youth goggled at her. “You’re nuts, lady.”

Kole gripped
her arm. “Hey, cool it. You’re wasting your breath. Come one, let’s
go.”

Tassin allowed
him to tug her away, knowing that berating the youth was pointless.
Kole headed for the door, and they left the shop to return to the
air-car. The more she saw of this so-called modern society and its
cruelties, the less she liked it. The thought that such cruelties,
or worse, were being perpetrated on Sabre, and had been for the
past three years, horrified her. They inspected the two cybers at
the large corporation, then returned to Kole’s apartment. He had
given her his spare room to sleep in, a pleasant, airy space with
huge windows overlooking the city and the comfiest bed she had ever
slept in. She had discovered the joy of a hot shower and scented
soap and lotions, and the delights of the sweet foods Kole served
at mealtimes. He had explained computers and air-cars and many of
the other strange mechanical devices the night before, and she
understood most of it. The fact that she was no closer to finding
Sabre, however, depressed her.

****

The following
afternoon, Tassin disembarked from Kole’s air-car for what seemed
like the twentieth time, by now used to this form of high-speed
transport. They were in a rundown part of the city, where old
warehouses with peeling paint predominated, surrounded by parking
lots, some stacked with old boxes and containers. Kole had taken a
picture of the sword in its crystal form and posted it for sale
online, explaining how it all worked. So far, she had received only
one low offer for it, which he had advised her to ignore. Today, he
wore black leather trousers and a natty black leather jacket over a
scarlet silk shirt.

He glanced at
the sign above the door of the warehouse in front of them. “This is
the place. Bartam’s Import and Export. Probably a smuggler. He’s
got two cybers.”

Tassin sighed.
Over the past two days they had inspected fifteen cybers, and this
was the fourth place they had visited that day. She wondered if
Sabre was in the city at all, and the prospect of searching the
entire planet was unappealing, to say the least. She would never
give up, but seeing so many men who looked so like Sabre, but were
not him, was disheartening. They had all stared through her with
unfocussed eyes, and none of them had looked exactly like him. Some
had had scars or tattoos or disfigurements, one had had a milky eye
and another had been missing an ear. All the privately owned ones
had been battle scarred, even the ones who were younger than Sabre.
She dreaded that when she found him, he would be horribly
mutilated. Kole headed for the door, then paused and glanced
back.

“
Coming?”

Tassin nodded
and followed him into a dim, cavernous interior whose farthest
reaches were hidden by piles of crates and boxes. Just inside and
to the right of the door, a muscular man sat behind an untidy desk
in a tatty office with a glass door and big windows, which a
flickering light illuminated. Swirling, abstract tattoos decorated
his bald scalp and a scar pulled the edge of his left eye down. He
wore a grimy sleeveless black leather jacket and tough brown
trousers, a laser strapped to his thigh. Kole shot her a meaningful
glance, and she knew what he was thinking. Such a disreputable
looking man might be dangerous. He munched a sandwich, and looked
up with a scowl as she and Kole approached.

“
We’re closed,” he said.

“
You must be Bartam?” Kole asked.

“
Nah, he’s away. I’m Vorn.”

“
We’re not actually here to buy any goods. We want to see your
cybers.”

“
What for?”

Kole cleared
his throat and glanced at Tassin. “Well, we’re looking for a
particular unit, which has sentimental value to the lady. We’ll pay
top price.”

“
They’re not for sale. Anyway, they’re away.”

“
When are they due back?”

“
They’re not for sale.”

Kole leant
closer. “Like I said, if one of them is the one we’re looking for,
we’ll pay whatever you ask. Price is no problem.”

“
Like I said, they’re not for sale, and they’re not
here.”

“
We’ll wait, then.”

“
What part of ‘they’re not for sale’ don’t you get?”

“
The part where you said ‘at any price’,” Kole
replied.

Vorn, whom
Tassin was now convinced was a smuggler, grunted and returned his
attention to his sandwich. “Why would you want a beat up
second-hand cyber when you can afford to buy a new one?”

“
The lady’s attached, like I said.”

Tassin gazed
through the windows into the warehouse while they argued, content
to let Kole fight the battle. She was tired. Every time she
inspected another strange cyber, her heart sank a little more and
despair took a firmer hold of it. Leaving the office, she headed
back out of the front doors and paused, then went around the side
of the warehouse, drawn by the sound of voices.

Tassin rounded the corner and stopped. A shuttle had just
landed about fifty metres away, and four men climbed out of it. Two
of them were cybers, and her eyes were drawn to one as he slung a
laser rifle over his shoulder, turning his head to scan his
surroundings. Her breath stopped and her heart hammered with a
strange mixture of joy and anguish. She swallowed the lump that
threatened to choke her and walked closer on shaking legs. He was a
little thinner than she remembered and his hair was shorn to
stubble, but she did not need to see the scars from his battle with
the Core or the crack in his brow band.
Vorn
and Kole rounded the corner of
the building behind her, and Kole trotted to catch up with
her.

“
Hey, what are you doing? You’re making these guys nervous, and
that’s not a good idea.”

“
It’s him.”

“
Who?”

The cyber turned his head towards Tassin as she approached. He
wore standard issue grey combat clothes, a holstered laser strapped
to each thigh, power packs and grenades in his webbing. Two
black-edged holes in his vest seeped blood. Her heart ached as she
stopped in front of him and gazed up at his face. He stared over
her head with
pale grey
eyes
, and
she
studied his lean visage with its sculpted lines, level brows,
narrow nose and sensitive mouth. Sweat and dirt made his dark blond
hair spikey. Somehow, he was unique in a way only her heart seemed
to know.

“
Sabre,” she whispered, and several lights on his brow band
flashed.

“
This is him?” Kole stopped beside her, eyeing the
cyber.

“
Yes.” She nodded jerkily, raising a hand to her mouth as it
twisted with grief and her eyes overflowed.

“
How do you know?”

She took a
deep breath and blinked, brushing away the tears that escaped down
her cheeks. “I just do. It’s Sabre.”

He glanced
back. “Okay, well I don’t know how happy these guys are with us
right now. They’re definitely smugglers, and we’re butting into
their operation big time.”

“
We just want to buy a cyber.”

“
Like he said, they’re not for sale.”

“
Everything’s for sale at the right price.”

“
Let’s hope so.”

She stepped
closer and reached out, longing to touch him.

Sabre said,
“You are not authorised to approach.”

Tassin’s
throat closed again at the sound of his soft, husky voice, and she
gulped.

Kole gripped
her arm and pulled her away. “Are you nuts? You can’t go around
patting cybers. They’re not pets, they’re dangerous. Come
away.”

Tassin let him
lead her away, looking around for the bald man, who was deep in a
discussion with the two newcomers. One stepped away from the huddle
and turned to the shuttle to shout, “Cybers! Offload!”

Sabre entered the craft and re-emerged a minute later with a
box and headed for the warehouse. The other cyber did the same, and
Tassin followed them towards the group of smugglers, Kole beside
her.
Vorn
turned to
them as they approached.