by Cara Bristol
Dale sighed. “All right. Remember the hidden panel I showed you? Take as many weapons as you can so you can protect yourself until I find a way to get you out. Do you think you could create a diversion to distract Obido’s forces?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” She had had no idea how, but she was determined to do whatever she could to help.
She’d wanted to keep him talking because his calm, level voice created an illusion of safety, but, with every passing second, very real danger increased. The android soldier wouldn’t wait indefinitely. At some point, the delay would trigger his programming, and he would come for her. “I need to go.”
“One more thing. You have to blow up the Panthera,” he’d said, and instructed her how to set the self-destruct program.
She’d grabbed some MEDs and all the small blasters and Tasers and rolled them up in the sand dune tapestry that had once been so precious to her.
After donning a scarf, she waltzed out of the Panthera and met up with the soldier bot.
Upon return to the space station, she had slashed her bed open and hidden the weapons inside but had strapped Kai’s blaster to her thigh under her skirt, then made a beeline for Janai’s quarters. Fortunately, the other woman wasn’t there. Using her cosmetics and facial enhancement aids, Mariska had transformed herself into a Lamis-Odg. Then she’d covered her face with the veil again and tiptoed out, only to be caught by Vision and taken to the general. If the veil had loosened…
Mariska left her bedchamber and entered the lavatory. Bracing for what she would see, she lowered her veil. Both cheeks were red and swollen from the beating, but, fortunately, the prosthetic remained intact. With her forehead bulging, her eyes appeared smaller and mean, her nose prominently unattractive, her mouth a thin gash. Kai wouldn’t recognize me. She didn’t recognize herself. This is ugliness. How could I have found it beautiful?
The bruising and swelling from the blows further altered her appearance but wouldn’t draw undue attention. Battered women were not unusual. Mates often bore the brunt of a male’s frustration. Obido—she could not call him Father, nor did she want to—was an evil, cruel man. An iwani. To not originate from his loins came as a relief.
I am not disfigured. “I am Terran,” she whispered in awe. Perhaps her resentment of her ostracism had been rooted in her race, coded in her DNA.
What horror her poor mother had endured. And not a single individual had ever found cause to inform her that her mother was not Lamis-Odg. A mate? Hostage. Her mother, a Terran citizen, had been kidnapped. From what she knew of Obido and had learned of Terran culture from Kai, she was certain of it. If Obido hadn’t abducted her himself, he’d abetted whoever had.
I shall avenge you, too, Mother.
Obido had struck her, and she’d fallen against his desk, giving her a prime opportunity to plant a microexplosive device as a future diversion in case Dale succeeded in rescuing her. The odds of that ranked between unlikely and nil. But the MED was in place just in case a miracle happened.
The detonator was in her pocket. One push of the button, and the bomb would blow. Please, Janai, stay out of his chamber. Mariska had no wish to kill an innocent bystander.
A buzzer sounded signaling someone had entered her quarters. She reattached the veil and hurried from the lavatory. A service bot carried a tray of congealed porridge. Prisoner fare.
“Set it on the floor,” she directed.
He leaned over to lower the tray. Mariska whipped out the blaster and shot him. His body jerked. The tray fell from his hands. Porridge splattered the wall. The odor of burning electrical wiring permeated the air. He pitched forward, his face landing in a puddle of gruel.
She sprinted to the bedchamber, flipped over the bed, and retrieved the rest of the weapons, shoving them into her pockets. Thank the Great One she’d had the foresight to wear a dress with voluminous skirts and deep pockets. Back in the parlor, she dragged the droid’s body to the door.
His feet were weighted, so he was bottom heavy, offering some leverage, but it was a struggle to prop him up so his hand could reach the scanner. With her hip, she held him in place and grabbed his wrist.
Moment of truth. Her heart pounded. Would his deactivation automatically eliminate his computer access?
She planted his palm against the screen. The door slid open, and they tumbled into the corridor, Mariska landing on top of him. Keeping her foot wedged in the portal so it wouldn’t close, she lugged the bot back into her quarters. At the next meal delivery or inspection, they would discover his body, and the hunt would be on. How much time would she have? An hour? Two?
She’d gone too far to retreat. Tearing off the veil, she shoved it into her pocket and stepped out into the corridor. The door slid shut.
Now to find the Artificial Intelligence lab.
In the main quad of the women’s cloister, females milled, chatting in fellowship or relaxing. A few she recognized, and her shoulder blades tensed in fear, but she schooled her expression and strolled through as if she had things to do but had no great urgency to complete them. No one paid her more than a passing glance.
They don’t recognize me! Her plan counted on that, of course, but it came as both a relief and a slap that she had resided on the station for most of her life yet garnered so little attention.
If they had recognized her, it would have been disastrous. She wouldn’t get a second chance to escape. Didn’t know how long she could elude capture as it was.
Dale had promised to rescue her, but no one except Kai had been able to sneak in, and that was before security had been heightened. With defenses on alert, it would be almost impossible to penetrate the station. If Dale could find a way, she wouldn’t be here but would be en route to Katnia.
Never!
She would not march docilely to a horrific death. She would take matters into her own hands. She would reserve an MED for herself. If apprehended, she would detonate it.
Chapter Sixteen
Kai aimed the makeshift blaster at one of the deactivated androids and squeezed the trigger. Sparks shot out of the bot’s chest. A kill? Or merely a nasty electrical burn? He couldn’t tell because the droid was already inoperative. Still, the sizzling sparks looked positive. At the least, a strike might distract an opponent long enough to employ other measures.
He could try blowing out the circuitry of the entry/exit scanner, but a failsafe might deadlock the room, a risk he couldn’t take. Better to wait until somebody entered. It shouldn’t be long, anyway.
Testing complete, he assembled another weapon in case the first one failed to hold a charge. He’d regained full manual dexterity and almost full function of his legs and strength.
Communication systems were coming back online, too, but the signal winked in and out. He’d no sooner achieve a connection than it would cut out and he’d have to start all over again. After several frustrating attempts, he set an automatic timer to send out an SOS signal to Carter every sixty seconds.
He couldn’t remember when a mission had gone so sour.
Guess that’s what happens when you ignore orders.
Still, he’d do the same thing all over again, except he wouldn’t be a stupid fuck—he’d remember his android chip and remove it to prevent tracking. He examined his chest wound. Blood stained his torso in a large, irregular reddish-brown target. Fortunately, the glue and his nanocytes had sealed off the wound, and it had stopped oozing. However, he’d been unable to find a replacement uniform; none of the others fit him. No matter. His Terran features pretty much insured no one would notice his uniform, no matter what its state.
Getting out of the lab was the first hurdle but wasn’t the only item on his list of near-impossibles:
Find Mariska.
Steal a shuttle.
Obtain clearance to launch the stolen spacecraft.
Don’t get killed.
He cocked his head as his cyber hearing detected a shuffling. Somebody was coming.
He dove for cover. Take no prisoners. Shoot first, ask questions later.
* * * *
After several wrong turns, Mariska located the AI tech unit, staffed by a dozen or so workers, all of them males, most androids. While the latter didn’t seem to notice her, she garnered questioning glances from the staffers, but she lengthened her gait to a purposeful stride and pasted a deterring scowl on her face. They let her pass without incident.
Her exploration led her to well-lit hallway lined by a dozen sealed portals. Her heart sank. Kai could be in any one of these rooms. She would have to gain access and search each one. After checking to see she was unobserved, she swiped her palm across the scanner of the first room. The screen remained dark; the door sealed.
This was impossible. Maybe she should find a quiet corner of the ship and detonate—
No! Not till I find him.
Vid placards identified each room, but she couldn’t read. Hopeless. She zigzagged across the corridor, palming five more scanners. The screens didn’t even blink. She clenched her hand into a fist. To come this far…
“What are you doing here?” demanded a Lamis-Odg man, his uniform and insignia revealing his officer status, one rank below Vison. Blood receded from her face in a crawling sensation.
She slipped a hand into her pocket to close around a blaster. Act like you have reason to be here. Except no females belonged in the AI unit. If more staffers and fewer androids had worked the unit, she wouldn’t have gotten this far.
He raked her with a hard, suspicious gaze. “Identify yourself.”
Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. “I’m…I’m…Ionia.” She chose one of the more common female names.
“You are not allowed here. Return to the women’s section.”
“I-I-was ordered to report here.”
“By whom?”
“Vison.”
“To do what?”
“I don’t know. But I was instructed to go to the lab where the android from Darius 4 was taken.”
The officer’s eyes flicked to the portal on the right. There! Kai’s in there! Hope and purpose surged. I can do this. She tightened her grip on the weapon.
His eyes narrowed, and he unclipped a comm unit. “I will verify—”
“I can provide documentation.”
“What documentation could you have?”
“This.” She pointed the weapon at his chest and jerked her head at the portal. “Open the door, or I’ll kill you.”
“You are a stupid female. You think you can fight the entire force of General Obido?”
“No. But I can fight you. And you’ll be dead. Now, open the door. I won’t tell you again.” Her voice rang out strong, but, beneath her skirts, her knees shook.
* * * *
Half hidden behind a workbench piled with robot parts, Kai rested his weapon on an android torso and focused on the door.
It opened.
An officer entered.
Kai fired.
The man’s body jackknifed then hit the floor. A Lamis-Odg woman stood there, blaster in hand.
Armed. Dangerous. But female. He’d never shot a woman before. His finger froze on the trigger.
“Kai!” the woman gasped in a familiar voice.
His human hearing recognized it, and his returning cybersenses confirmed it, but the data from his ears and eyes contradicted each other. “Mariska?” What the hell had happened to her face?
“Kai!” She lowered her weapon, swaying on her feet. He stood up.
“You’re alive!” She flung herself across the room, and he met her halfway, grabbing her in a fierce hug. The lab door slid shut. “I thought you were dead,” she cried. He cradled her, his chest heaving with the realization of how close he’d come to shooting and killing her. Questions raced through his mind, but they could wait at least a few seconds.
“Thank goodness, you’re okay.” He rocked her, his hands tangling in her hair, his body responding to the closeness of hers. The need to celebrate their survival arose as an urgent force. Except they weren’t safe yet. They had to get out of the lab, off the station.
Located Mariska! Check. Technically, she’d found him, but it still counted, and he crossed it off his to-do list.
Her left palm flattened against his chest. She pulled back, her gaze darting from his shirt to her blood-stained hand and up to his eyes. “You’re bleeding!”
“It’s fine. It’s fine,” he reassured her. “It’s healing.” He raked a hand through his hair. “I had to remove a computer chip.” He paused. “Obido tracked me. To fool the scanners into reading me as an android, I had a chip embedded in my chest.”
“They still think you’re an android,” she said. “They’re coming to dismantle you, to find out who sent you.”
“All this is my fault. They found us on Darius 4 because the chip allowed them to track me. I led your…father right to us.” She still needed to be informed of her parentage, but it could wait.
“It’s not your fault,” she said. “And Obido is not my father.” She fingered the enhancement on her forehead. “I’m Terran.”
“You know?” His jaw dropped.
“Obido told me.” Her voice hardened. “I’m glad I am not Lamis-Odg.”
He studied the cosmetic additions; he could also see now she’d been beaten. Her puffy face was not part of the disguise. Anger ignited in his gut. “Who hit you?”
“Obido. He did not accept my explanations.”
New item on list: kill Obido. “What did you tell him?”
“Nothing. I pretended ignorance, but he didn’t believe me. He imprisoned me in my quarters, but I escaped.”
Kai brushed his knuckles over her bruised cheekbone then traced the ridges. Rubbery.
She twisted her mouth. “I always wished I could awaken one morning and be magically transformed. I never thought of using cosmetics, and no one suggested it to me. Now that I look like Lamis-Odg, I hate it. I want to be the Terran that I am. But the disguise lets me move about the station. We can’t remain here much longer. Vison will come to observe the dismantling.”
“Yeah. Let’s get out of here.”
Endez…10…station…ba. Copy? A cryptic, garbled message from Carter shot into his brain.
Kai jerked.
“What’s wrong?” She scanned his face.
“Got a message,” he replied, without thinking. Cybernetics not fully operational. Message broken. Repeat, he transmitted back.
“You mean in your head? Because you’re a cyborg?”
“You know about that, too?”
“Dale told me.”
“When?” He frowned. A lot had happened while he’d been out of commission.
“When I returned to the Panthera to signal for help after you were shot. He had me destroy it.”
She’d been far more strategic and perceptive than he’d given her credit for. He remembered his fear as he’d lain paralyzed that she would lead the enemy to Deceptio. Officially, Dale was no longer with Cy-Ops, but, once a cyberoperative, always a cyberoperative. They were a band of brothers, their tie unbroken. Kai himself would die before he’d sacrifice the life of another cyborg. He’d die before he’d sacrifice Mariska.
He planted a hard, wet kiss on her mouth. She clung to him, and he had to fight the tow of his emotions and his physical needs. They weren’t out of danger. “Smart girl,” he said.
She blushed. “Dale told me what to do…and he said he’d get me out of here.”
“How?”
“He didn’t know, but he said he’d come up with something.”
His friend would try. “We can’t wait.” They couldn’t rely on a maybe.
“That’s why I have weapons.” She raised her hand, which still clutched the blaster, the one he’d sneaked onto Darius 4.
He took it from her. It would be more reliable than the one he’d jury-rigged from android parts. “I don’t suppose you have more?”
She grinned. From the pockets of her skirt, she produced three small blasters and three MEDs. Not a huge arsenal, but damn sure better than nothing.
Ending…ext…Rend at…bay…
Dammit. He took a guess. You’re going to extract?
Affir…
Affirmative. He deciphered that much. Carter would attempt a rescue. But from where? The station had twelve spacecraft launch bays. Repeat extraction location.
Ma...utt...ay….
Damn his cyberbrain. Damn the android soldier who’d shot him. Damn himself. Had he screwed up his communication capabilities when he tinkered with his programming?
“We have to go,” She shifted her gaze to the door. “Vison will be here soon.”
Hanging out in the AI lab wouldn’t promote longevity, but he might as well draw a target on his Terran face. “We’re going to have to run for it,” he said.
If they could elude capture long enough for his microprocessor to fully recover, maybe he could decode Carter’s message. Maybe the room blocked transmissions. He eyed the fallen officer. Maybe the smarter move would have been to have taken him captive and used him to gain access to restricted areas. Like dragging along a hostage wouldn’t attract attention.
Too many maybes, too few certainties to second-guess his actions now.
“There’s an empty storage room in the Waste Recycling Center. It stinks like hell, but it keeps people away.” If I get killed… “If I get…waylaid, go there.”
He hailed Carter again. If something happens to me, get Mariska off the fucking station. I don’t care what you have to do, but do it.
Uc stat? Didn’t copy. Repeat.
Motherfucker! Get Mariska off the station.
“Then you’ll come for me?” she asked.
“Yes.” Either that, or his death might buy the time she needed for Carter and/or Dale to swoop in. Stand back while I blast open the door.” As soon as the electronics crashed, an alarm would sound. If it didn’t seal tighter than an airlock.
“Why not use him to open it?” She pointed at the officer’s corpse. “His hand.”
