The Cyborg Tinkerer

by Meg LaTorre

  Raising her pistol, Gwen aimed and fired.

  The bullet landed neatly between the soldier’s eyes. He swayed for a moment before collapsing.

  Hearing the gunshot, nearby soldiers turned. Within moments, countless soldiers descended upon them. Far more than Gwen could have fought off on a good day, and there wasn’t time to reload her pistol.

  “We have to get out of here!” Rora grabbed Gwen, hauling her toward the ballroom doors.

  Marzanna ran behind them with the soldiers at her heels.

  With trembling hands, Rora unbolted the ballroom door, and they narrowly missed several gunshots.

  Not knowing where they were going, they turned down countless hallways, desperate to get away from the madness. But the voices of soldiers were never far behind.

  “In here!” Marzanna opened what could only be a storage closet before the three pushed inside and closed the door after them.

  The three women breathed heavily, trying to suppress their gasping breaths as the soldiers trundled past the closed door. When the sounds of their footsteps faded, air whooshed out of Gwen’s lungs.

  Looking around, she noticed a handful of cleaning supplies and a small window in the corner of the room, which let in enough sunlight to see.

  “What happened?” Rora whispered. “Why is everyone acting like that?”

  “And why aren’t we mindless soldiers?” Marzanna added.

  Quickly, Gwen explained her revelation.

  “I have to go back,” Marzanna said. “I have to find Akio.”

  Removing a knife from her boot, Gwen cut the bonds on Marzanna’s wrists. “We will. But we need a plan if we have any hope of saving everyone and getting off this planet alive. Because we can’t stay here. If the Mistress doesn’t kill the emperor, the man will hunt us down after today. If not as retribution for what Emmeline did, he will search for us in his crazy plan to make a weapon to destroy all cyborgs.”

  Rora paled.

  “As if our lives weren’t complicated enough.” Marzanna sighed heavily. “What do you have in mind?”

  Gwen scratched the shaved side of her head. “My last plan failed spectacularly.”

  “Well,” Rora began, “there are only three of us and a lot more of them. We’ll need a distraction.”

  Nodding, Gwen said, “Did either of you see the dragon when the cyborg animals appeared?”

  Slowly, they both shook their heads.

  “You want to free it.” Understanding dawned in Rora’s piercing brown eyes. “I’ll bet it’s still in the stable. The Mistress probably wasn’t able to turn it into a cyborg she could control in time, so she would’ve left it behind.”

  Thank the stars for small mercies. The damage a dragon under Emmeline’s control could have done would have been earth-shattering.

  “I’ll release the dragon,” Rora said. “I can move the fastest and climb through the stable window, if need be.”

  Gwen turned to Marzanna. “That leaves rescuing Bastian and Akio to us. We’ll also need to find Emmeline to get Bastian’s chip back and convince her to set the cyborgs free. If we don’t, all of the performers and watchmen will die in her crazy plan for revenge.”

  “If we don’t,” Marzanna said, “she’s going to start a war.”

  She probably already has.

  “More reason not to fuck up,” Gwen said. “Rora, once you free the dragon, meet us in the palace gardens. We’ll regroup with as many people as we can and head for the docks. Hopefully, we can get Obedient up and running before the city is on high alert and its friendly citizens are upon us.”

  Adjusting the crutch under an arm, Gwen reached for the door.

  “Wait.”

  Stopping, Gwen turned to Rora. “What is it?”

  Shifting past the cleaning supplies, Rora came closer to Gwen. “Before we go, there’s something I need to say.” Pausing, she bit her lip. “I’m sorry. For my part in using you, I’m so sorry. But I care about you, Gwen. And I’m going to prove it. You’ll see.”

  Marzanna cleared her throat.

  Not knowing what to say, Gwen simply nodded. “Alright then. Let’s go save the cyborgs. Shall we?”

  With a racing heart, Gwen watched Rora disappear down a hallway, headed for the courtyard and the stable beyond.

  Checking the hall a second time, Gwen and Marzanna headed back toward the ballroom. As they did, they encountered countless bodies lying in the hallways, both cyborg and human. Reaching down, Gwen picked up a gun and passed it to Marzanna. She then reloaded her pistol and took several knives off the bodies and stuck them in her empty sheaths.

  As they neared the ballroom, raised voices echoed down the hall.

  “Titus! Come out and face me, you coward!”

  Emmeline.

  Gwen and Marzanna hurried toward the sound.

  Down several more hallways, Emmeline and a group of fifty watchmen stood before a massive oak door with metal embellishments. The watchmen had somehow acquired a table and were ramming it into the door. Splinters of wood flew in every direction while the door appeared unchanged.

  As Gwen approached Emmeline, the sound of bells in the city proper sounded through the windows. The city knew something was amiss.

  They were running out of time.

  If they didn’t get the hell out of the palace and soon, there would be soldiers and mobs of angry humans. Neither of which Gwen fancied seeing today.

  “Emmeline! Stop!” Hobbling over to the Mistress, Gwen had to shout to be heard above the city’s tolling bells and the banging of the table against the door. “Look around you!” She gestured to the countless bodies, both human and cyborg, that littered the hallways. “How many good people are you going to kill for your vendetta? If we don’t leave now, we’re all dead.”

  “I’m almost there.” Emmeline spoke as though talking to herself. Sweat beaded on her temples, and her normally immaculate red hair was in disarray.

  “There’s no way you’re making it through that door anytime soon,” Gwen said. “And the longer we wait, the closer the city guard is to filling the palace. The feds will be here soon if they aren’t already.”

  Even though her eyes were trained on the door as the watchmen pounded the table against it, doubt flickered in Emmeline’s gaze.

  “What the emperor did to you and your family is unspeakable.” Gwen leaned closer to the Mistress. “I’m sorry about what happened. But these cyborgs”—she pointed at the watchmen—“are relying on you. They are your creations and your new family. They need you to protect them now. Protect them like you wish you could have protected your other family.”

  Gwen thought of the family she couldn’t remember, her memories of them completely gone.

  Slowly, she dropped her hand to the pistol at her hip. She didn’t reach for it, though. Instead, she waited, watching Emmeline.

  If the Mistress wasn’t going to protect the cyborgs, then she had to be taken down. Gwen prayed she could figure out that damned remote control quickly enough to get the cyborgs to head toward the docks.

  When Emmeline sighed, it was as though the eye of the storm settled over them. Despite the bells in the distance, there was quiet as the group of watchmen stopped and held the splintered table between them, sensing their Mistress.

  Removing a device from her pocket, Emmeline clicked several buttons. Suddenly, the remaining watchmen and performers turned from the door and moved to surround Emmeline, Gwen, and Marzanna.

  Gwen nodded. “Are the performers programmed to know where to go? Or can you return their free will?”

  Emmeline shook her head. “I need to manually work on each chip to remove my override. For now, all of the cyborgs know to retreat to the ship.”

  That would have to be good enough for now.

  “Have them meet us in the gardens.”

  In the ballroom, Marzanna ran to Akio, who sported a number of superficial injuries but nothing fatal.

  Scanning the room, Gwen looked for the one person she lo
nged for most in the world.

  She spotted Bastian at the back of the ballroom, standing at the door leading to the gardens. Hurrying over, she ran a hand over his face, which was smeared with blood. She looked over him before sighing in relief. Thank the stars, he didn’t appear to have any major injuries either.

  “I can’t wait to have you back,” she whispered.

  His gaze was fixed on a far wall, his eyes vacant.

  As the cyborgs filtered into the gardens, Gwen waited beside Bastian at the door.

  Emmeline appeared with the last of the watchmen. Even now, their unmasked faces were startling. Flesh and machine layered over each other as though the Mistress had tried to fit as much of the technology as she possibly could into each person.

  Before Emmeline could walk past her, Gwen caught her arm. Allowing her crutch to clatter to the floor, she removed the pistol from its holster and cocked it. She didn’t point it at the Mistress, but the implication was clear. “I’ll ask nicely only once. Before we go any farther, give me Bastian’s chip. Right fucking now.”

  Emmeline’s eyes narrowed as something primal flickered across her gaze. Slowly, she reached into a hidden pocket on her dress before passing a small object to Gwen. Glancing down, she held a small chip with the strange marbling.

  Slowly, she raised the pistol to Emmeline. “Fuck with Bastian’s brain or memories again, and you’re a dead woman.” Turning from the Mistress, she glanced around at the crowd of unmoving cyborgs. “What the fuck are you all waiting for? Let’s go!”

  As Gwen tucked Bastian’s chip into a pocket, she breathed a sigh of relief. But she didn’t dare to hope. Not yet. They still had to make it out of Allegiant alive. And there was no telling what awaited them outside of the palace gates.

  Skidding to a halt, Gwen looked around as the cyborgs marched through the gardens and toward the main gates.

  Turning to Marzanna, Gwen said, “Where’s Rora?”

  Chapter 36

  Retracing their steps from the night before, Rora ran with everything she had.

  As she hurried through the palace, she stopped many times to duck behind piles of bodies when soldiers stormed by in pursuit of cyborgs.

  Eventually, she made it to the front doors and slipped quietly out.

  The city was eerily quiet as she ran.

  No one stood guard in front of the stables, so she hurried inside. The building was empty of animals and people. Only the empty cages—and the dragon—remained.

  The dragon flashed its teeth in a snarl, clearly agitated. Shaking its head as though trying to shake off flies, it flicked its long tail back and forth. The bars of the cage rang as its scales smacked against it, again and again.

  Swallowing, Rora tried not to think of what happened to her last hand.

  Taking a deep breath, she strode toward the stall at the back of the room where the dragon’s cage was stashed.

  Its claws appeared and retracted again and again as it watched her approach.

  As she neared it, she realized the fireproof cage was locked with a massive chain and padlock. Looking around, she couldn’t see any keys nearby.

  She spotted a pile of tools neatly packed in a massive box.

  The circus crew’s tools.

  Grabbing what appeared to be oversized crimping pliers, she hurried back to the dragon.

  “H-hi,” she began as she approached. “It’s me again. Long time no see.”

  The dragon’s lips peeled back in a snarl.

  I shouldn’t have expected a warm welcome.

  Slowly, she extended the pliers toward the padlock. Before she could get anywhere close to it, the dragon swiped its cyborg talons at her. It couldn’t fit its entire claw between the bars. But several talons swiped so close she could feel air whooshing past her hand. Heart racing, she jumped backward.

  “Quit it! I’m trying to help.”

  The dragon merely snarled.

  Somewhere in the city beyond, bells rang.

  Again, she approached the dragon. Only, as she came forward this time, she tried to soothe it as she once did in the caves. “I’m sorry for what happened to you. None of this is right. And I’m sorry for my part in it. But I want to help you now. We can help each other.”

  The dragon looked rather inclined to swipe at her through the cage’s bars again. But it must have realized its own potential for escape. She latched the pliers onto the padlock and pressed as hard as she could, but nothing happened. The lock didn’t even have an indent. After several more tries, her human palm was slick with sweat.

  Again, and again, she tried, but the damned lock was too big. Or she was just too small. Too insignificant, as always.

  She’d made it to Covenant, but nothing came of it. Nothing at all. She hadn’t even had a chance to perform.

  The emperor hadn’t been the person she’d thought he’d be—a nobleman and consumer of the arts, someone who wanted to change the Cyborg Prohibition Law. Instead, he was a mass murderer aspiring to complete some long-awaited genocide. All he wanted was to use the performers as part of his experiments to kill cyborgs.

  She thought of everything she’d done, everything she’d sacrificed to get here. Leaving her parents, chopping off her hand, joining Cirque du Borge, traveling the Crescent Star System, performing, fighting for every inch during the competition, using Gwen, betraying her friends… It had all been for nothing. It had all been in search of a career, a dream that left her with the same ache in her chest as before.

  Her parents had taught her that her value was in her performance, in being the best. But what good was being the best if it meant standing on the backs of those you loved?

  Tears streamed down her cheeks as she thought of the deaths of countless cyborgs in this asinine competition. She thought of the bodies she’d seen during the obstacle course of the first competition, of the performers toppling off the cliff during the second competition in pursuit of the dragon, and all those who had been shot by the pirates on Jinx during the final competition. So many dead.

  She pushed the pliers until her human hand was raw, but she didn’t stop. They needed a distraction if she and her friends had any hope of escaping. A burning city would be more preoccupied with a loose dragon than a few escaping cyborgs.

  The pliers clacked against the lock’s thick metal.

  Gwen had been right. Rora was wrong, so very wrong. Achieving a dream wasn’t worth it if it meant hurting her friends. She had risked losing everyone she loved by trying to protect herself and her hand. Why couldn’t she see that before?

  Rora’s cyborg hand whirred as she pressed harder and harder. Sparks skittered across her skin and down her clothes, singeing the edges of the fabric. Still, she didn’t stop. Somewhere in the distance, the dragon growled. Letting loose a cry, she pressed down on the pliers with everything she had. The pliers clacked together as the broken lock fell to the ground.

  Before she could get out of the way, the dragon hurled itself into the cage door, and the door slammed into her chest. Flying across the stable, she crashed into the wall of a nearby stall. She fell to the ground, bouncing twice. Gasping, she couldn’t get more than a shallow breath.

  As the room around her spun and her thoughts blurred, she finally managed to take a deep breath. She almost wished she hadn’t. Pain rocketed through her side. Slowly, she brought her hand up to her forehead.

  When she held her hand before her face, it wasn’t the blood on her cyborg fingers that surprised her. It was her limp hand.

  Once again, her cyborg hand was useless.

  Only, this time, it wasn’t quite so devastating. She’d sacrificed everything—her friends, her relationship with Gwen—to get this new hand. Now, she sacrificed her hand to save her friends.

  Heat pricked Rora’s cheeks. Even her legs felt warm.

  Blinking, she looked around. The entire room was alight with bright orange flames as the dragon soared around the stable, wreaking havoc.

  Sharp pain glanced across her ches
t as she forced herself to her feet.

  There was a strange popping sound. Looking up, a piece of the ceiling crashed down, and she dived out of the way just in time.

  The dragon clawed at the window too small for it to fly through with its cyborg talons. More sections of the walls fell away before it bellowed a deafening roar and flew off into the skies—toward the city.

  Guilt mingled with the relief swelling in her chest.

  What have I done?

  Chapter 37

  “We can’t leave yet!” Gwen shouted at the backs of the cyborgs as they trotted through the gardens toward the main gate. “We have to wait for Rora—”

  But even as she spoke, the sound of a dragon’s roar pierced the sky.

  She did it. She fucking did it.

  “Marzanna!” Gwen turned on a heel, heading for the palace. “Go to the stables. Find Rora. Make sure she’s okay.”

  “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Marzanna shouted after her.

  “I have an idea,” she called back. “Head for the ship once you have Rora. I’ll meet you there.”

  She hoped they could get through the city. But with the tolling of the bells, she wasn’t sure. If the city was even remotely organized—and she didn’t doubt the capital would be—there would be feds awaiting them at the main gate. They wouldn’t be able to make it to the docks.

  Moving as quickly as she could, she leaned on her crutch as she hurried back to her room. It took what felt like an eternity before she got to her door. Hurrying inside, she found what she sought.

  Grabbing her skimmer, she moved toward the door but hesitated. Turning, she snatched her pack, pushing the portable mainframe into it along with her tool kit. She didn’t trust Emmeline farther than she could throw her. And thanks to Gwen’s broken leg—courtesy of the woman in question—she wasn’t throwing anyone anytime soon.

  Sparing a glance for her crutch, she dropped it and donned her magnetic boots. Stepping onto her skimmer, she groaned at the pain from the weight on her leg. There would be time to deal with that later.