Marcus 582: Book Three of Cyborgs: Mankind Redefined

by Donna McDonald

  Kyra glanced down at the young man on her table. “Any theory about who created him?”

  “There are only two creators,” Brad recited. “All others are considered replicators per UCN document 98632F87.”

  “Okay. Who replicated him then?” Kyra asked.

  Brad blinked rapidly. “He was not replicated. He was created. He has unique code not found in other cyborgs.”

  “Creator 1 of 2 is dead. Creator 2 of 2 did not create him. Postulate a theory taking these facts into consideration.”

  Brad lifted his head to meet his controller’s gaze. “Creator 1 of 2 is not dead, or there is another creator.”

  “How can another creator exist?”

  Kyra asked the question aloud just to hear the words. Her mind was rapidly rejecting possibilities. Or maybe it just wanted to. Brad continued working on the problem and offered a theory that made her blood run cold.

  “Another creator could only exist if the coder managed to resolve both sets of cyborg creator codes. Only then could some combination of the two be developed as new creator source code.”

  Kyra snorted. “Did you ever try to develop new creator source code?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “What was your success rate for your efforts?”

  “Forty-nine point three eight five percent.”

  Kyra nodded. “Which is exactly why I insisted on there being two sets of code. Jackson and I are really the only two people capable of creating new creator source code. Since he’s dead, and I didn’t do it, ergo this kid is running a very sophisticated hack job. But it’s a cleverly done hack…not quite as good as what you did to Rachel…but at least the person used a registered processor. The kid isn’t dealing with failures all the time even if his life will ultimately end in one if he isn’t restored to normal.”

  “He could be a prototype. Rachel 235 is prototype 1 of 3,” Brad declared.

  “What?” Kyra’s gaze flew to her assistant. “1 of 3? You made more of her?”

  “I did not. I made Gloria. Creator Omega perfected the code used in the others. His prototypes successfully created a demand for Customized Companions.”

  “Who the hell is Creator Omega?” Kyra demanded.

  Brad bowed his head. “He is the ultimate creator. He gets to choose. All great minds bow before his intelligence.”

  Kyra paused, mouth opened. She didn’t know what to say. “Are you in touch with this Creator Omega?”

  Brad tilted his head. “In touch? I do not touch him.”

  “I mean…do you ever talk to him? Does he contact you here at Norton?”

  “He contacts me when he needs my services…just as you do,” Brad declared.

  “Did you open the lab and let him in to see William?” Kyra demanded, forgetting the boy on the table as she came to terms with the fact that she had created her own leak.

  “I have no recollection of it.”

  “Where were you when the lab had its security breach?”

  “My location during that is unknown. I received an order to remove that piece of memory.”

  Kyra leaned her hands on the table. “This is a humbling week and I’m not nearly as smart as I thought I was.”

  “You are the second most intelligent person alive on the planet.”

  “Really? You’ve told me that before. Who is the most intelligent person? You?” Kyra demanded.

  “No. My cybernetic modifications have limited my imagination, which is the ultimate source of a mind’s true power. My intelligence is machine-like now. Infallible logic does not foster genius.”

  “Okay. So who’s smarter than me?”

  Before Brad could answer her, Peyton came through the door.

  “Done yet?”

  “No. I got distracted. Brad has turned into a chatterbox and I’ve learned all kinds of things—like how stupid I am for one.”

  “Your conclusion is inaccurate. The definition of stupid is….”

  “Stop,” Kyra ordered, glaring at him. “I wasn’t being serious.”

  She looked back at Peyton. “I’d like to keep Nathan for more study, but I’m worried about the time we’re losing. We should…” Kyra stopped. She wasn’t going to be stupid again. “Brad, will you ask Seetha if I can borrow her Biomedical Scope Meter? Wait on it and bring it back with you.”

  “Certainly,” Brad said.

  She and Peyton watched him walk to the door. When it closed behind him, Kyra breathed out a sigh.

  “Someone with the freedom to come and go here at Norton thinks he’s made new creator source code. Brad has been in touch with him. I think he’s the one who sabotaged William’s initial restoration. No telling what Brad has been feeding him about our activities.”

  “Want me to kill Brad now? Or do you want to do it?” Peyton asked.

  “No. We need him alive for bait. Our pseudo-creator calls himself Creator Omega. I bet he’s the one Norton has on payroll doing their dirty work. He’s converted kids like this and is involved in making something called Customized Companions. Everything Dan Masterson said seems to be true.”

  “Maybe we should have protected him after all,” Peyton declared.

  Kyra shook her head. “No. That would have just made them go further underground with their efforts. Let’s chip this guy and get him back out in the wild. He’s got to believe his components are breaking down or he’ll never head to home base.”

  “Can you break him a little without hurting him?”

  Kyra snorted. “Sure. Apparently, that’s becoming my specialty.”

  ***

  Nathan woke alone in the middle of the hallway at Norton. His electronics were strewn around him. He saw Peyton Elliott step out of one of the labs and look his way.

  “Hey, dude. Are you okay?”

  The man’s long limbed gait quickly ate up the distance between them. Nathan flinched as the larger, older man grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet. Was that fear he was feeling? Or just embarrassment to be caught in a weak moment?

  “Are you dizzy? Sick?” Peyton laughed and lowered his voice. “Are you hung over?”

  “No. Of course not. I don’t use alcohol. It kills brain cells,” Nathan replied. “How did I get here? I’m supposed to be off today.”

  Peyton snorted. “I never come here unless it’s critical to do so. I hate this fucking place. Look, I’m in sort of a hurry. If you’re okay, I’m going to take off. Let me help you get your stuff so you don’t have to bend over again.”

  “Sure. Thanks,” Nathan replied, holding out his arms to let Peyton pile his things into them. “Have we met?”

  “You’ve seen me on national com shows probably. I get that a lot,” Peyton declared. “Take care.”

  Nathan watched him take off and leave him standing. He stood still while his processor searched his neural implants for data. Nothing seemed wrong, but he still couldn’t understand why he was here. He should have been helping with Rachel 235’s conversion.

  He pulled his portable from his pocket. It was still early morning. Wow. Maybe he had over-indulged yesterday. He’d gone to the sex club and bought time with Trina. He’d headed out…or had he?

  Shaking his head, he turned to go back to his office. He would tell them he was feeling sick and leave.

  Chapter 12

  Eric checked the tracking device. “I lost the signal, but I bet he’s down there. He couldn’t have gone much farther.”

  Peyton nodded. King turned to Vincent and Steve. “No killing. Apprehend only. Use the pulse cannons if needed, but try the devices Doc gave you first. It’s supposed to knock them out.”

  The five of them ran from the airjet to the large metal door. King grabbed the manual opener and started cranking. It groaned under his efforts, but finally began to move. When he’d moved it enough to make an opening to fit Vincent, Steve, and Eric through, he stopped for a breath.

  “Heavy SOB,” King reported.

  “Especially when you’re out of shape from eating your ow
n food,” Peyton declared. “You’ve put on at least fifty pounds the pulse generator hasn’t been able to keep off you.”

  King gave his friend a dirty look as he went back to cranking. “I don’t see your toned, fit ass offering to help crank.”

  Peyton grinned. “I couldn’t have moved that in twice the time it took you.”

  “You got that right,” King said. “Move it, Queenie. They’re getting too far ahead of us.”

  “If you keep calling me that, I’m going to forget how strong you are and kick your ass anyway,” Peyton declared.

  King chuckled and followed him through the opening. At the end of the first tunnel, it branched off to several. Peyton eyed all the directions. “The left one has unswept floors and looks like it hasn’t seen much use. King, you and Eric head down the middle. Vincent, Steve, and I will take the right. Watch yourselves. Our private communication is throttled down here. Use the com radios Eric made to keep in touch.”

  ***

  Rachel glared at the food the two muscle guys had brought to her. She was starved but afraid to eat. Brad had regularly drugged her food and she hadn’t forgotten the shock of waking to find herself naked with him.

  When her white-coated torturer came to get her for whatever he planned to do to her later, she wanted to be fully capable of fighting until he took that power away. She would struggle for herself and for Marcus. She would do it for Seetha who had survived her own hell. She’d do it for people like William Talon, who had been turned into a customized killer at the hands of someone like her tormentor.

  And while she waited for her fate, she would pray to the Goddess that her mind would eventually break through whatever they did to her and do something exceedingly bad to the doctor. She had given up wanting to remain human and now aspired to be more like the female cyborg Kyra and Peyton kept locked away. She hoped she went rogue on their asses and took them all out.

  “Better eat while you can,” muscle guy one told her.

  “Not hungry,” she reported.

  “It will make things easier for you,” he said, receiving a slap from muscle guy two for giving his unsolicited advice.

  Rachel sighed. “How can you two help him do this to me?”

  “Because he did this to us,” muscle guy two bragged, flexing for her benefit. “Look at how amazing we are.”

  “Amazing?” Rachel exclaimed. “You’re two bullies working as some mad scientist’s thugs.”

  When the door opened, she expected to see the doctor in his white coat. Instead, it was worse. An angry Nathan came through the door.

  “Did these guys touch you?” he demanded.

  Rachel snorted and glared. “No. But I’m sure they’re going to get their turn eventually. Brad didn’t have a problem passing me around when it suited him.”

  Nathan frowned. “I would never do that to my companion. I wrote your code. You’re going to be special to me.”

  Rachel shook her head and looked away. “No, I’m not. I’m going to be a robot girlfriend you had to force into having sex with you. But my mind will break free eventually, Nathan. It broke through Brad’s code. It will break through yours…or any other crazy scientist’s. Some humans have more will than others. I have a lot.”

  “Creator Omega said it wouldn’t happen this time.”

  Rachel snorted. “Yes, well, I’ve seen a lot of cyborgs pass through the lab where I work. Nearly all of them were breaking free of their programming in one way or the other. One day, all this programming craziness is going to implode on those doing it. Your Creator Omega is going to face the same fate Jackson Channing did. One of his creations is going to get even just like Dr. Channing’s customized Cyber Wife did with him.”

  Nathan rubbed a hand over his head. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this, Rachel. I let you bump into me in the hall. I did that on purpose. You were supposed to like me. I researched you when you were in college and made myself into the type of guy you liked to date. I tried to be nice in every way I could. I knew you didn’t like being a cyborg. That’s why I pretended to hate them. But customized cybernetics are the future. You don’t have to get everything replaced to be better. You can be like us. We are the new evolution.”

  Rachel watched him wave between him and the muscle guys. “Do you think your intelligence or your muscles are impressive? Without a kind heart, you’re just bullies and villains who are too stupid to know it. And no matter what you do to me, you’ll have to live knowing I willingly chose a real cyborg over you as a boyfriend. Marcus might not be completely human, but he would never, ever hurt me.”

  “We killed your guard dog cyborg. He’s gone, so there’s no use talking about someone you will never see again,” Nathan declared.

  Angry at his declaration, Rachel tapped her chest. “Marcus will never be gone so long as my body breathes. He lives in here, in my humanity, in my heart. He was my choice as a lover and I will not forget him. You—I will always hate—always. Stick that in your advanced neural implant and process it because it is a profound truth. You might do to me what was done to those other women, but inside I will still be the same Rachel Logan who hates you. And no matter how smart or physically fit you get, inside you’ll always be a desperate asshole who abuses females.”

  “You don’t understand. This is the future. It’s a better life. People can be anything they want. They can have the customized life partner they need,” Nathan yelled.

  He shook off the grabbing hands of the laughing muscle guys guarding her. They always seemed amused at him. One day when he took Creator Omega’s place, he was going to wipe that amusement completely away. Then he’d see how funny they found him.

  Rachel snorted and glared. “When they finally find me, Kyra Winters is going to do to you guys what she did to Evil Brad. I just hope I have the sentience to enjoy it when it happens.”

  Furious with her, Nathan slammed his hands on the still humming bars. When he yelped in pain, the muscle guys laughed and grabbed him on either side. They literally dragged him through the door while he yelled at them to let him go.

  Moments later the muscle guys came back. Both were smiling at her and chuckling. Rachel crossed her arms and glared at them like she had at Nathan.

  Then they both lost interest in her. One held up a familiar remote to show the other.

  “What did you do? Did you steal that from Creator Omega?” she heard muscle guy one ask the other.

  “No,” the second one brandishing the remote answered. “I stole it from whiny ass when it fell from his pocket. I guess Creator Omega offered him access to the girls because he was in such a funk when he got here. Fool got hung-over last night and didn’t make it back here. Now he’s all pissy over it.”

  Rachel watched as he pressed the remote. The women woke and stretched their limbs, mildly groaning with their efforts. The muscle guys leered as the women sat up and swung their shapely legs over the side.

  A piercing alarm split the air over their heads, taking their leering attention away from the women. Before she could blink, both muscle guys rushed out the door.

  Was that alarm her rescuers? She fervently hoped so.

  The women on the table suddenly turned to look at her. Their expressions were serene and unreadable. “If you’re waiting for directions about something to do, get me out of this cage,” Rachel ordered.

  To her complete shock, each woman slid lightly to the floor and walked toward the cage. One moved to the wall and punched a code into a panel that stopped the bars from humming. The other punched a code on the cage door and it slid instantly open.

  Continued shock held her in its grip for a few moments more, and then it galvanized her into taking the only chance she was apt to get to escape. Rachel racked her brain as she stepped free. What was it the doctor had said to them?

  “Come with me Companions. I require entertaining,” Rachel ordered.

  She saw them blink rapidly and turn to face the lab door.

  Rachel snuck past them and opened
the door a crack. She saw no one in either direction. She held the door open and let the women walk by her. Looking back, she saw their controller remote lying on the floor where the over-anxious muscle guy had dropped it.

  She picked it up and headed out behind them emerging into some sort of underground tunnel.

  “Take us to the nearest exit to the outside of this building,” she commanded.

  The two women marched forward in their tall-heeled shoes, never wobbling once.

  ***

  Kyra sighed nervously. She and Nero were in her lab at the house because she hadn’t wanted to do the repairs on Marcus at Norton where they would have to be recorded. She hadn’t done Edward’s there either. She and Peyton had agreed they needed to keep this newest challenge to themselves.