by Milana Jacks
“How do you feel about clones?” I asked.
Jordan looked at me like I’d grown horns. “Who the fuck cares how I feel? And you should mind your feels if you’re gonna make it in the Elite. I follow orders. Period. If I don’t, I get the streets.”
Jordan meant he could become a brainless level-five machine and patrol the habitat streets. We sat in silence. No noise came from inside the pod, only from outside, where dogs barked at the activity. The ice on the lake made me want to ice skate. “Can I ask you something?” I said.
“Shoot.”
“If the Elite is for dragon defense in the habitat, why’re we out here?”
“He’s been sighted here.”
“He who?”
“The yellow one.”
I gulped.
Jordan glanced at his implant, presumably reading my heart rate. “Dragons scare you. You should’ve chosen another team.” He chuckled. “We’re here just in case he shows up. A precaution.”
I doubted he’d show up, because he was in bed with another woman. And there I went again. The Elite were the best, and I wanted training with the best, never mind that said training included trying to contain a dragon. Or maybe this wasn’t such a great idea. I acted on impulse sometimes. Well, I was here now. Might as well stick with it.
The first home went down and the pods ascended as the dust rose. Hangars cracked and fell, stray cats ran, a few dogs got out and barked but gave up and bolted out of there. Jordan pulled up a scanner and directed it above us, but the wind carried the debris and blocked a clear view.
Next to us, a pod exploded.
I covered my head. “What the hell?”
“Here we go. Took them fuckers a while.” Jordan reached in the back and put on a helmet. The pods descended, and I peeked down, trying to see past the debris. No shooters, but I knew outlaws must live here, and we’d just demolished their homes. “When I jump, you take the ride back up. This”—he pointed to the shield forming round the pod—“is gonna repel any ammunition.”
“Why didn’t the other pod use the shield?”
“They don’t have one.”
“Why not?”
Jordan opened the door at the same time as a Cy-356, a compact heavy-duty machine gun, popped out of his thigh. It expanded and adjusted, then beeped, telling its owner it was ready to engage. Jordan slung the gun over his shoulder. “Because shields are not cost effective.” He jumped out, and the door closed.
Bullets flew past the windshield. Shit. “Engage shield.”
A circle popped up on the dashboard and filled with green. “Shield at one hundred percent,” the pod’s voice said.
Smoke rose from the pod across from me as it fired at someone on the ground. Obviously, we’d encountered resistance, but I couldn’t see the shooters. Debris clouded my vision. Jordan had said I should move up and observe.
I bit my lip, thinking, but then remembered the helmet could clear my vision. I turned and dug in the back. Jordan’s equipment was labeled with his name and number, but I knew there had to be spares somewhere. I lifted off my butt and bent over the seat, opening and closing the latches, checking under the seat, but found nothing. I moved on to the driver’s seat so I could see behind the passenger seat.
A rocket whistled.
The pod tilted.
I banged my head against the window, bounced, and hit my face on the backseat.
The pod had taken a hit. Everything started beeping, so I took control of my ride, praying those few driver-ed classes were enough to command this thing. The pod took another hit and rolled, the centrifugal force keeping me in my seat. My head spun with the pod, and my stomach rose. “Manual!”
The dashboard popped up, and I pressed my implant’s palm on it.
The pod read the print. “Manual access granted.”
From the corner of my eye, I spotted a parked airplane. We headed for it.
I pressed numerous buttons, thought with my head chip to the pod, hoping the tech would do something on its own, then finally just hit every red warning sign on the screen. The pod commands died out, and I scraped the airplane’s tail, bounced, and crashed in the middle of an airfield. Beeping continued, smoke rose, but at least I landed. Now I was a sitting duck. I glanced outside. The only cover I found was inside an abandoned airplane, maybe twenty yards away. Even I knew that was a bad idea. The cyborgs outside the habitat would get ripped to pieces.
The reality slammed into me. I was a cyborg. I belonged inside my habitat, not out here with people who preserved the flesh on their bones at all costs.
I thought to the pod, trying to start up its emergency power.
The voice came on. “Initiating in three minutes.”
Three minutes. Why so long? I leaned back and waited, watching the battle unfold in front of me. Clusters of outlaws fired upward. Pods fired down. Lasers crisscrossed the sky as if we were celebrating something with fireworks.
A shriek pierced the noise of the gunfight, and a dragon’s tail swung at me. It hit my windshield. I covered my head. The force of the impact sent the pod flying, then crashing again. My teeth rattled, and stars played over my eyes. Liquid tickled down my nose, and I wiped it. It was blood. I sniffed and swallowed, the copper taste nasty as it traveled down my throat. “Assess damage,” I groaned, trying to see out the window where I’d landed. The pod rattled off all the different ways I couldn’t fly, but hey, the shield held at thirty percent.
I tried to move, then realized I couldn’t. The dashboard had dropped and pinned my legs. I pushed at the dashboard with my implant hand. A helmet popped out and landed on my lap. “There you are.” I slid the stupid thing on my head and kept pushing the dashboard, slowly withdrawing my right leg. Almost there. I pushed harder and groaned, sweat breaking out over my brow. The dashboard cracked, and I wiggled out of the metal vise. With my arm, I banged the door. It didn’t budge. I leaned all my weight into it and pushed. The door hit the ground, and I followed, banging my head, the unfastened helmet rattling my brain. Blood trickled down my nose again, and I snorted it back up, nearly choking on the liquid. I contemplated taking off the helmet, but I couldn’t because it detected heat signatures and enabled me to see better through the debris.
Shouts reached my ears, and I looked around. “Oh God.”
All around me, humans and cyborgs engaged in hand-to-hand combat. I sat up and stared. I’d always known what enrolling into the cyborg military meant. In the habitat, we were supposed to engage the humans, namely the outlaws who refused implants, and generally hated our way of life. The outlaws were desperate and dangerous.
Right now, I felt desperate, bruised, and battered. A sitting duck. I scrambled back inside the pod and, behind Jordan’s seat, found guns. Those would do me no good in hand-to-hand. I needed something cold and small. Jordan had nothing. No knives, not even a fucking wooden stick.
Wind brushed against my leg. I jerked and spun around.
A dragon landed next to my pod. His foot lifted and smashed it to pieces.
7
Arthur
If allowed an inch, Colonel Strain would take an acre. That was the kind of man he was, and since I’d had the pleasure of his company, I knew this. He was also the kind of guy who needed recognition for what he accomplished. Today, he’d accomplished nothing. The high cyborg death toll must have bugged the crap out of him, while other politicians scratched their heads as they sat in the nice outdoor auditorium and awaited the colonel’s speech.
Ms. Keane and I sat in the back, near the refreshments. She’d gotten started on her liquor earlier in the day. I’d missed the brunch with Ms. Keane and the ladies. While she excused me for that offense, she now made sure she didn’t fail to point out any nice single cyborg women. Under the bright red dome, we babbled about bullshit for half an hour, as did other cyborgs sitting around us. Colonel Strain didn’t make a habit of being late, so his aides climbing the podium and canceling the speech altogether surprised me. Even if he didn’t have anything to boast ov
er, he should have come to speak in honor of the lives they’d lost today.
Ms. Keane’s screws groaned as she stood. “Oh well. At least we ate and drank for free.” She popped something that looked like a mini apple into her mouth and crunched.
Pursing my lips, I surveyed the crowds. I expected the colonel to show, especially after I’d blocked his demolition attempt. He couldn’t expand without the outlaws’ territory, and I’d give him none of mine. The habitat took up plenty of space, and soon, I’d conquer that too. Excusing myself, I rose from my seat and made my way to the edge of the roof. The night settled over the horizon with stars twinkling and a full moon shining while a flurry of pods picked up the departing guests. I checked the nearest megatron ad space and waited for the clock to show. Ah, there we go. Nearly six. On my left, a transport tube’s door slid open. For all of five seconds, I debated taking it down, then caved in to my cravings. I felt like eating pizza. I took the tube down to the ground level and grabbed a pizza from the first open vendor. The people down here didn’t have pepperoni or even real cheese, but I’d bet my left nut the pizza tasted better than the plastic-tasting shit in containers I forced myself to eat up there.
Large pizza in my hands, I braced inside the tube as it shot me back up. Then I stood on the platform, my gaze drifting toward Rose’s house. I lifted a hand for a cab, thinking I should’ve gotten two pizzas instead of one. Rose and I had parted on bad terms, and it’d bugged the crap out of me all day long. My mood over Rose showed as I crushed and devoured half the cyborgs out there today. I had released control of my dragon today so completely, I barely felt like I owned a dragon creature anymore. I had hoped he would want to fly back into the habitat because Rose lived here, but he nudged me to fly away. After I finished off the cyborgs, mentally, I wrestled back the control from the beast and landed as a man. It worried me that I could fly away from the woman I’d believed was his spirit. He’d confused me. I didn’t know what to make of my beast.
At Rose’s house, the light in her bedroom shone from the window. I paid the robot driver, and the cab left. I knocked on the door and waited.
Colonel Strain opened the door. “Craig.”
We stared at each other. I didn’t know which of us was more surprised by the sight of the other. “Evening.” Fuck. What’s he doing here? He was supposed to give a speech. People had paid thousands of roges for the bogus charity event today, and the dude was chilling at his kid’s house.
“Come in.” He waved me inside, and the door slid closed behind me. In the cramped hallway, the colonel stared at me, probably wondering what the fuck I’d come here for. I glanced outside.
Well, at least it was too early for booty calls. I had that going for me. I lifted the pizza box. “I brought pizza.”
“What are you doing here?”
I lifted the pizza higher. “Delivering.”
He blinked.
I wasn’t making any sense. “I thought I’d check on Rose.”
“Why?”
Good question. “Because she called me.” Rose wouldn’t leave me hanging. I knew this in my heart.
“Ah. So you’ve heard,” he said and walked into the kitchen. “I’d hoped to keep it quiet.”
I followed and cocked my head, dropping the box on the counter. “What’s there to hear?”
“There was an incident outside.” Outside meant anywhere outside the habitat, as if the habitat was their planet and everywhere else was space they didn’t yet occupy.
“The expansion plan didn’t go as planned.” Now I fished for answers.
“Not quite. But it will.”
I doubted that. “I’m sure you’ll make it work.”
He smiled, a stretch of the mouth that looked painful on his already stretched face.
“Hey, is that pizza I smell?” Rose came from the bedroom and leaned over the bar. A lump protruded from her forehead, and she sported a bruise on her cheek, a swollen nose, and gauze over her chest covering God knew what kind of wounds.
“What the hell happen to you?” I asked.
She opened the box and got a slice of pizza, put the triangle tip in her mouth, and walked away.
I sure wished she’d fucking acknowledge me.
Colonel Strain was watching us like a hawk, his eyes darting from Rose to me. He was gonna figure out something wasn’t right, namely that I hadn’t saved his kid from the dragon because I wanted to be in the colonel’s favor, but also because I might wanna get into Rose’s pants. This would not bode well for me, but I was here now, and I couldn’t walk out. So I ignored him. Rose ate the pizza and called up the screen, then folded her long legs under her butt. A movie was starting.
Now she was pissing me off. “I asked you a question.”
“I got smashed,” she said, eyes on the screen.
“Smashed how? Drunk?”
She packed in a mouthful of pizza and didn’t even chew before she swallowed.
From the kitchen, I grabbed a bottle of water. Rose extended her human hand, and I threw the bottle across the apartment. She caught it, drank, and burped. “Excuse me.”
I sighed. I knew this Rose. The rebel one.
Something peeped, and the colonel tapped his implant. His gaze went vacant, so I knew he was listening before he lowered his arm. He strode across the room and kissed Rose on her head. “Move back in with your old man.”
“I really like it here, Dad, but thanks.”
“Dr. Hayes’ll visit before the night’s over.”
“Tell him I’m fine. I’m gonna go to bed now.” She looked pointedly at me. Again, I ignored her. She wanted me to leave.
Colonel Strain opened the door for me. He believed I was due to leave with him. No fucking way. I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the wall, knowing full well getting on his bad side was unwise. But I wasn’t leaving before I found out what had happened to Rose today. I was already here. I’d brought his daughter a pizza, for fuck’s sake. He should understand something was going on.
“Craig, can I see you outside for a minute?”
“Sure.” The door slid closed behind us, and we took a short walk to the edge of the platform. Colonel Strain searched the sky for one of his units that’d take him wherever he needed to go. My gaze slid down as I contemplated pushing him off. Half my problems would be solved. Before I did something utterly reckless, I reminded myself that he was Rose’s dad and therefore not killable. Even if I pushed him off, another ambitious asshole would rise to take his place.
“I was wrong, you know,” the colonel said.
“About what?”
“Putting Rose in the pod. That was a mistake.”
“How so?”
“The dragon couldn’t see her inside the pod. He nearly killed her.”
I gritted my teeth. “How so?”
“He smashed the pod she was in.”
Jesus! Rose must’ve been inside one of the pods that I, indeed, had destroyed. I cleared my throat. “Why…” I couldn’t form a single coherent thought. “Interesting.” I ran a hand through my hair. “I thought the new Elite team got sent out. What was Rose doing out today?”
“She’s in the Elite.”
Stunned, I turned to him. “She’s a level-one cyborg. How did she make the Elite?”
“I put her there.”
“Why would you do that?” Should I, the dragon, invade the habitat, the Elite would come after me. For the first time, I wondered what the hell the squad had been doing out there today. It was a simple demolition gone wrong when the outlaws opened fire from the ground and I’d attacked from above. Later in the afternoon, after I’d returned to the habitat, I heard about the Elite team and the rumors they’d failed their first mission.
“I prohibited Rose from enrolling into a martial arts class,” he said. “I wanted her to marry into power. Back then, I didn’t know Rose has power in her own right. She takes after me in that respect.”
“So you let her risk her life when she’s not even tra
ined?” What the fuck was wrong with this guy?
“You don’t know Rose the way I do.”
I clenched my fists. The truth of his words slayed me.
The cyborg continued. “When she sets her mind to something, she’s a bulldog. If I don’t direct her in the right path, she’ll choose any path to get what she wants. Do you know how Rose got sick?”
“Not the entire story, I’m sure.” Truth. I hadn’t communicated about Rose with Knight since I’d taken her away. Knight’s bird had come to check on Rose, but that was the extent of it.
“Rose went to the ground level and hired a man to teach her hand-to-hand combat. She got into a street fight and ended up arrested. The flu took her after, and the only way to save her life was with the implant. I almost lost my daughter. It changed everything for me. Besides, the Cy had said Rose is talented. She uses twice as much brainpower as the average human. She has extraordinary gifts, and the Cy are intrigued. She’s the future of what a cyborg can do, and I won’t hold her back.”
A cigar popped out of his finger. It lit up, and he took a drag. “I wish I could find more of these.” He smoked, testing my patience. “The Cy want the dragon, Craig.”
“Mm-hm.”
“I intend to give them the one who nearly kill my daughter.”
“As do I.” I wanted to meet the fucking Cy. It was time to tell them to fuck off and never return.
“I recovered the tape from Rose’s transport ship in Pittsburg. The yellow dragon ripped out the roof and snatched her. I have to wonder, why Rose? Is it because she’s mine, and I’m the enemy, or is it because of her brother?”
“I can’t be sure.”
“I believe it’s because of her brother. Knight gets protective of Rose. The yellow one snatched her right before Knight destroyed the habitat. Pulled her out of harm’s way.”
The colonel thought I gave a shit about his theories, but I was still stuck thinking about the Elite unit. “I don’t think she belongs in the Elites. She’s not ready.”
“Rose will draw him out. He won’t hurt her.”
Huh? “You enlisted her with Elites on purpose.”
