Rachel rolled her eyes at the outpouring of so much precise data. The next guy in her life was definitely not going to be a cyborg, not even one of the nicer restored ones. If—no—when she started dating again, the man she chose was going to be a normal human male whose brain did not function like a com station. She would date no more cyber scientists. No more avid gamers. Definitely no good-looking geeks with hidden evil agendas. And no former Cyber Soldiers. No…simply no. Her libido was going to have to accept it no matter how attractive guys like Marcus were to her.
She glanced at his backside as she followed him out of the airlift. His walk was confident, sure, and it was more than just the fact he was a man and not a boy. But his ass—even in the horrendous jeans he typically wore—was the kind sex dreams were made of, as she had come to know.
There were good reasons she had chosen to study arts and humanities in college…a decision made long before she had been abducted. With her singing voice gone now, and probably forever, she was going to have to choose another career. She had already been an older student at twenty-six. Now she’d be in her mid-thirties before her education was completed.
Too bad she hadn’t gone into some sort of medical field. That career path was ripe with opportunities these days. But every time she went into Norton, all she could think was how it was nothing more than a giant building full of sad situations.
While she was busy processing her rapidly occurring epiphanies, she and Marcus walked to Norton in silence as they always did. She couldn’t stop thinking about Marcus looking at her legs and what it might mean. She also couldn’t push away the realization that this was just one more typical, boring morning in a monotonous life, one she didn’t want. She needed a change—and she was going to have one. Like every other person on the planet, her life had problems and challenges, but only she could really do anything about them.
“Good morning, Rachel Logan. Please place your ID hand on the scanner.”
Rachel smiled automatically in reply to the polite request, pretending as she always did, that the guard was human. The AI bot that asked was a self-aware version who, unlike the bot in her apartment building, always recognized her visually.
He also called her by her real name, at least until she passed through the scanner. When the embedded ID chip turned the scanner archway green, she exited rapidly so she could avoid the guard repeating the UCN mandated clearance statement. If she was fast enough, he’d skip it, and just wish her a blessed day. Today, she could really use a blessing.
Her anxiety over Marcus irritated her. She didn’t like his hovering. He wouldn’t listen to her complaints. Why did she care about his feelings?
Her self-preservation urges had always been strong which was how she’d survived being used as a sex slave, housekeeper, and general science lab lackey for two months. This morning she couldn’t fight the urge to be outright disobedient, especially if it meant the chance to have a life where she finally got to be in control.
Stopping in the middle of the scanner, she turned back to Marcus and calmly lied, using her new tinny mechanized voice to deliver it.
“Do not…come to…walk me home.” She paused to take in a nervous breath. “I have…a date…with an…old…college…friend. He will…see me…home.”
She turned away quickly to finish being scanned, but was not quick enough to miss the flash of disappointment in Marcus’ eyes. Refusing to believe she had crushed some struggling human part of him with her news, Rachel stared defiantly at the AI bot who seemed more taken aback by her unusual actions than the cyborg with his mouth still open in shock over her words.
“You are cleared to enter the building Rachel 235. Please proceed through the scanner.”
Hearing herself being addressed by the hated cyborg moniker, she lifted her chin and strode forward without glancing back. The scanning system could identify her however the hell it wanted, but she was never going to think of herself as a cyborg.
***
“I have a date.”
Marcus repeated Rachel’s statement aloud to see if the words sounded any more believable when he said them. All the woman did was go to work at Norton and return home. How did she make a date without him knowing about it? Rachel had less of a no more social life than he did—unless it was someone at Norton hitting on her.
Back when he was officially monitoring her for Dr. Winters, he’d had Eric set up some discreet surveillance on her living quarters. When the situation changed, he’d left the monitoring equipment in place. He’d done so for complicated and illogical reasons admittedly based on an inappropriate interest that kept getting harder and harder to fight. His reasoning—though it remained vague in his mind—was now causing a sinking sensation in his gut.
At the time he made the decision to keep monitoring Rachel, he’d had enough problems to deal with in his life. He had been working then, and was still working, to get his children not to be afraid of him. Thankfully their stepfather was a decent man who helped ease his way back into their life.
It had also taken him more time than he’d expected to completely accept he’d lost his wife. She hadn’t wanted him to have the Cyber Soldier enhancements done in the first place. They had fought often and bitterly about his decision long before his actual conversion, but he’d been unwilling to send his military unit off without him. In the end, he’d proceeded without her agreement.
Accepting the loss of his one real marital relationship had hurt badly and turned into a pain that had brought tears to the surface during many sleepless nights. The loss had revealed in a harsh way how much illusion had been behind what had kept him sane during the war.
In the last seven months, he’d had to shed many more ideas. The life he’d had before the enhancements was nothing like the life he had now. The war had ripped his real marriage apart with no chance of him fixing it after being put in the Cyber Husband program. Infidelity was infidelity to the mother of his children, whether consensual on his part or not. She had filed all the paperwork to divorce him and married someone else shortly after the war ended. It might have even happened before he’d been assigned to his first contract wife. He’d avoided looking at the dates.
Logically, he couldn’t blame his ex for moving on, but the reality of never again being with his family had still been surprisingly hard to accept. Unlike the memories of the four women who’d bought him—memories he had willfully relegated to data storage—the many wonderful years of his marriage before the war were permanently stored in his human recall.
Today it seemed like he was going to lose another woman. Rachel’s announcement about having a date meant he’d taken too long to make up his mind about acting on his growing attraction to her. Referencing his lingering shock as the most convincing evidence he had about having heard her words correctly, he conceded all incoming data pointed to only one conclusion. He had stayed longer in Rachel Logan’s life than he should have and now he was going to suffer as he watched her move on to other men. He rationalized his inaction as waiting for a sign she was healing from Brad’s abuse.
Eric had been on his ass about making a move, but he’d never figured how to approach Rachel about the possibility of the two of them dating. She was a lot younger than him and a lot less jaded. Plus, she hated him being a cyborg worse than his wife had. Hell, he was nearly a hundred percent sure Rachel still hadn’t accepted the fact that she was a cyborg. Maybe her processor lacked that level of logic circuitry. He had no clue what went on in her human mind or her cybernetic components. No one around her would ever suspect what Brad had done to her anyway. All they would ever see was a short skirt and long legs and…hell. He needed to stop dwelling on the image of having those legs wrapped around him. He didn’t need that kind of torture.
Having regained her capacity for speech, Rachel certainly hadn’t lost any time telling him to get lost. But her announcement about dating still irked him. When had she made the necessary social contact with other men that would have led to a date? It w
as totally illogical to obsess over her having done so, but it was going to nag at him until he discovered how it had happened.
Rachel had been traumatized by the worst kind of cyber geek. Now the woman abhorred most technology and refused to carry a handheld. How in the hell had the guy gotten into contact with her again if she had no device? Even her parents were avoiding her.
There was only one conclusion that made any sense, which was that she was lying, but he couldn’t handle thinking Rachel could be so desperate to get rid of him.
Her announcement had to be a reaction to this morning. He’d slipped up and let her catch him checking out her legs in that damn short skirt. It had been impossible not to gawk like some love struck kid. Maybe he should feel guilty about the discomfort he’d instantly sensed in her, but he didn’t.
Part of him wanted to make her aware…wanted to see how she would react to him. Unless his sensors were malfunctioning, Rachel had liked his masculine attention. Either that or her heightened reaction was because he was the only male she’d been seeing on a regular basis. His cybernetics scrambled trying to analyze the situation, but conjecture about feelings wasn’t the same as hard data proven with action. Short of throwing herself in his arms and demanding a kiss, Marcus didn’t know how the hell he’d know if her feelings were reciprocal.
Groaning low in frustration, Marcus glared at the scanner arch Rachel had disappeared through. His cyborg side pointed out he had the clearance to follow her to her work area and demand an explanation, but his human side leaned toward leaving things as they were a bit longer. Her anger was not something he looked forward to having turned on him.
When the guard bot had addressed her by her registered cyborg name, Rachel had looked ready to dismantle the friendly and competent unit. What would she want to do to him if he tracked her down and demanded she date him?
Contemplating her possible reactions to such a confrontation caused his processor to send flashing lights through his brain. Too many of those would lead to a headache. Sighing in momentary defeat, Marcus rubbed a hand over his face, his human side breaking through completely as a purely male sexual frustration took over every cell in his underused body.
He hated internal conflicts—all cyborgs did. Truthfully, he’d not had one moment of peace since being put back in touch with his emotions.
With the prospect of watching Rachel date men other than him, he didn’t see his situation improving any time soon.
Chapter 2
Seetha lifted her head from her report. Normally her assistant did the data recording, but Rachel hadn’t even stayed in the room while she was fixing their last patient’s arm.
“Rachel, stop what you’re doing and talk to me. You’ve been stomping around the lab and banging tools on every surface since you got here this morning. I think you scared the handsome lieutenant who just left. Shame too—he was staring at your ass the whole time you were stomping. My majorly improved booty didn’t even get a look-see from him.”
Rachel stopped walking and rubbed her forehead. “I…am not…stomp…ing. And I…would…never…date a…cyborg.”
“Oh shit, baby. When did the stammering start? You were talking just fine yesterday. Let me see what’s going on,” Seetha demanded, heading toward her assistant. She had adjusted the resonance prosthetic several times. It wouldn’t stay in sync with Rachel’s processor. She had yet to figure out why.
Rachel held up her hand. “No…no more…fix…ing.”
Seetha braked, snorted, and fisted her hands on her hips. “We are not leaving you in this condition. Don’t give up on me yet. I’m going to figure it out.”
“No one…can...fix me.” Rachel shook her head, more angry than ever that the words weren’t coming out as she wanted.
Walking to the door, Rachel opened it wide and almost ran over Kyra Winters coming into their area. She glared at the infamous cyber scientist who had fixed over a hundred Cyber Soldiers now, but failed to fix her.
Needing both time and distance to get a handle on her emotions, Rachel ran out of the room and into the hallway. She heard Seetha calling her name, but she didn’t look back.
***
Kyra turned her head in the direction of the now closed door. “Did I interrupt something?”
Seetha sighed, shrugged, and then laughed. “No. Not anything serious. Rachel’s been in a snit since she got here this morning. I was trying to figure out why when you walked in on us. Her resonance implant is still malfunctioning…and it’s getting worse.”
Kyra sighed. “I suspected that was going to happen. It won’t stay in sync with her processor.”
Seetha nodded vigorously. “I know. She’s frustrated with my efforts to tweak it. I know you’re still trying to find a permanent solution.”
Kyra turned her head and stared at a spot on the floor. “Actually, I’ve figured it out, but the solution is not one Rachel wants to hear. She’s avoided having the conversation.”
Seetha’s gaze came to rest on her boss. “Okay—you’ve got my full attention. What’s the real fix?”
“Installing an upgraded processor,” Kyra stated flatly. “The one Brad used was a hacked up model. He probably didn’t want to risk being labeled as a corporate thief, so he used an unregistered prototype. Worse, he added his own special touches like a wireless remote to activate her pain controller across moderate distances. From what I can determine, Brad’s success in silencing Rachel was actually an accident, no matter how much credit for it he claimed. I’m not saying a new processor would fix her voice without some delicate calibration, but the one she has makes her more defective than any of the cyborgs we’re restoring.”
Seetha sighed. “A new processor would require some rewiring and different chips. Rachel is never going to go for becoming more cyborg. She doesn’t want to be like the guys we work on.”
Kyra snorted. “Well, she never will be, so that much can be guaranteed. As brilliantly evil as Dr. Smith was, his work on Rachel appears to have been unique and somewhat unrepeatable. Brad was always tinkering with devices and technology. With Rachel, he applied his love of tinkering to an actual person. Nero located his records. Pretty much everything he managed with her was dumb luck.”
“Are you saying her cybernetic issues are happening because she’s a fluke?” Seetha declared, rubbing a frustrated hand over her face.
“Yes, but she’s still mostly a human fluke. I think she would rather be that than a fixed, normal speaking cyborg. That’s why I haven’t said anything. What worries me more than her speech problems is that her unique processor will eventually fail badly enough to cause her other problems as well. At that point, all we’ll be able to do is install a new one. I hope she comes around to accepting that solution before we have to take the decision from her hands.”
Seetha chewed her full bottom lip as she nodded in reluctant agreement.
Kyra sighed. “My concern for Rachel wasn’t the reason I came to see you though, Seetha. I have another uniquely wired cyborg who could use your calibration expertise.”
Seetha’s eyebrow rose at her boss’s tone. “Isn’t every cyborg we see a challenge?”
Kyra nodded. “Yes. In one way or the other. Cybernetics and human parts don’t work together naturally, so some tweaking is always needed. But in this particular case…I know what’s wrong. We just can’t get close enough to physically fix it. This cyborg is wired strategically and it would be extremely dangerous to tinker with that too much.”
“What do you mean?”
“This Cyber Soldier is a failed program reject who’s been kept in isolation. If we try to do anything to the onboard cybernetics, the explosives wired to them are going to detonate. The person who converted this cyborg built in a failsafe to prevent easy dismantling. Hypothetically those measures were done in case the soldier fell into enemy hands. If the cyborg ends up insane from all the blips of botched or half-ass upgrades, that’s just as much a danger.”
“What do you want me to do? I’
m no bomb expert.”
Kyra drew herself up and held Seetha’s gaze. “I know you aren’t. What I want is for you to look for a way to scan the onboard cybernetics for abnormalities and sync the processor code without requiring any touching. Peyton and King have calculated the minimum safe distance for the procedure is 100 meters in case of failure. The explosives installed in the cybernetics have a much wider range, so we’d have to put the cyber scientist into a bomb suit for protection. We would not expect you to do the actual calibration. The risk is far too high. We just want you to help us build a safe way for one of us to attempt it.”
Seetha rubbed her forehead. “While I’m no ballistics programmer, even I know the remotes they use to blow up things are wireless. If the calibration device sends out the wrong signals…well that would make his life a moot point.
“Not his life—hers—her life would be moot,” Kyra said softly. “The cyborg is a woman in this case. She was a Special Forces military person who I suspect was put involuntarily into the Cyber Wife program. She was contracted to my ex-husband as his wife, and part of the reason he and I never reconciled. Dr. Brad Smith counter-programmed her to kill Jackson—or so Brad told me. In this case, I happen to believe him. The woman became so unstable she had to be isolated.”
Marcus 582: Book Three of Cyborgs: Mankind Redefined Page 2
