by K. F. Breene
“Shut up. You’re coming.” Mr. Gunner shifted Marie on his hip.
Mr. McAllister’s shoulders bowed. “Yes, of course. Although, it is possible that we’re all going to die.”
“At least we’ll get to see the sights before we do. Let’s go.”
A moment later, they were jogging down the silent corridors.
“Turn the lights off, Marie,” Mr. McAllister said in a gentle voice. “Your mommy is safe.”
“Since when did you acknowledge my real role in her life?” Millicent said as she checked her wrist screen. So far, Mr. Gunner was leading them in exactly the direction she had planned.
“Since I was taken hostage by a man who wants nothing more than to end my life as soon as I say something he doesn’t like. I’d also like to point out that I don’t run very fast, or for very long. I’m below the Curve in athletics. It would probably be best if you just left me behind . . .”
“Shhhh.” Mr. Gunner held out his hand for silence as they neared the front of the building. Beyond the check-in area, a single body lay facedown halfway between Millicent’s waiting craft and the entrance. Mr. Gunner waited with Marie’s arms tightly around his neck, her legs wrapped around his middle. She sure hadn’t waited long to trust him, even though he’d just been fighting Millicent.
“Okay, we’re—what? What’s wrong?” Mr. Gunner paused near a corner, looking down at her.
“Nothing. Just wondering how you won her over so fast when she should be terrified of you.”
“She’s not nearly as jaded as you are. Let’s go.” Mr. Gunner jogged around the corner and then quickly crossed the open space.
“She is a child with survival in mind,” Mr. McAllister whispered as they reached the bay. “I’m not sure which of you she gets it from. But she obviously senses that Ryker is her best bet against a physical attack.”
“Ryker?” Millicent asked with a quirked brow.
“Thanks for ruining the surprise, bub,” Ryker said as Millicent thought, Open. “I wanted to whisper it to her right before I took off her clothes.”
“Oh.” Mr. McAllister’s face turned red. “My apologies. I’d thought . . .”
“She’s playing hard to get.”
“I’m not playing. Your chances are stuck on impossible.” Millicent moved so the others could file in.
“We’re saying the same thing, sweetheart. This thing have a trough for hot beverages? Or better yet, anything with a bite to it? I’ve had a long day.” Ryker settled Marie into a seat and put Bunny solidly in her arms.
Millicent ignored him. “Who killed that guy?” She jerked her chin toward the heap of human right before the doors closed.
“I did when I got here,” Ryker said. “He was on his way to inspect your craft. You’d missed one with your program.”
“The craft would’ve checked out just fine.”
“He’ll never know.”
“I am astounded,” Mr. McAllister said. “The ingenuity of you two, not to mention your ability to work together, is . . . exceptional. This must be why I was warned against using people of your caliber in natural births. Although, in my defense, you did create a fantastic product.”
Quick as lightning, Ryker grabbed Mr. McAllister by the throat and slammed him against the wall.
Fear twisted Mr. McAllister’s features, and his hands flew out to the side. “Just to be clear, am I inside or outside your new protection bubble?”
Ryker’s biceps bulged as he lifted Mr. McAllister off the ground. “You’re lucky I didn’t kill you along with the security staff.”
“Outside of the bubble,” Mr. McAllister wheezed. “I am outside. Got it.”
“Dada, no.” Marie buried her face into Bunny’s light-pink fur.
Like melting wax, Ryker’s muscles relaxed, and he slowly lowered Mr. McAllister to the ground. Ryker looked over at Marie, shock and adoration transforming his features. Something soft squished in Millicent’s middle.
“Yes, she called you Dada,” Mr. McAllister said, licking his lips. “I have no idea where she heard the term, but she knows you are, indeed, her father. I suspect she is able to access records, although she can’t read yet, so I really have no idea—unless she saw your picture next to Milli—Ms. Foster’s. In which case, her deductive reasoning at age—”
“Shut up,” Ryker said, pushing Mr. McAllister out of the way.
“Yes, sir. Of course, sir.” Mr. McAllister sank into a chair with a pale face. “But . . . if I may . . . I did treat her better than any child has been treated in that facility. All five of the children under my care. My superiors indulged me like they have indulged Marie and Ms. Foster. Marie, directly stemming from you two, with my enhancement, is the next leg in evolution. I am nearly certain. So I was given liberties with regards to hugging, additional story and play time, and other things that they usually wouldn’t get. I—”
Ryker gave Mr. McAllister a look that finally shut him up. Then he stalked over and pushed Millicent away from the controls.
“What are you doing?” She shoved back, but moving him was about as easy as shooting him.
“We’re meeting someone who will help us.” His brow furrowed as he stared at the screen for a moment. “Here, put in these coordinates.” He touched his wrist and then flicked. The information slid onto the screen in front of her.
“Who is this person?” Millicent said, waiting for him to step away before tracing the point on the map.
“He works for an organization that is aiming to tear down the conglomerate structure. Most of the work is for a good cause, but they do take money to fuel their efforts. That’s where we come in.”
“Can we trust him?”
“Yes. The leader of the organization is wanted by the conglomerates, as is everyone who works with him. It won’t be pretty if any of them get picked up, especially the leader. Unlike them, the two of us would probably be mind wiped instead of killed. Especially when they trace some of the tech you’ve developed specifically for breaking out of their security. That won’t make the conglomerates sleep easy, I can assure you.”
“What about you? What have you done to save yourself except kill people?” she asked, finally putting in the destination.
“I’ve guided and manipulated you, not to mention kept tabs on your efforts. I bet I’m the only one to have accomplished that.” Ryker sat down with a smug air before grabbing Marie around the middle and hauling her into his lap. He hugged her close with a protective arm around her.
“Just fantastic. It is as I said. Your sphere of protection has changed, now encompassing something like a family unit.” Mr. McAllister scooted until he sat opposite Mr. Gunner, staring at him with excited eyes. The man had no sense of self-preservation. “We’ve come a long way from our time of swinging in trees, but certain instincts die hard. Humans will protect their young at all costs.” He sat back and put an ankle over his knee. “I’d love to take notes.”
“I’d love to rip your arm off for constantly causing my child and her mother aggravation, whatever your claims about fair treatment.” Ryker’s voice hadn’t raised, but malice dripped off each syllable. Marie’s arms tightened around his neck, and Mr. McAllister’s lips formed a thin line.
“How have you guided, manipulated, or kept track of me?” Millicent settled into a chair near the door, just in case someone tried to stop the vessel and scuttle her daughter off of it.
“That security loop you’ve been accessing is illegal. And I’ve never stopped monitoring it.”
Millicent’s mouth dropped open. “But I pulled up the logs.” Scrunching her nose in irritation, she swiped a console into the hologram in front of her. The air shimmered as the image solidified in the aisleway. “See? It says it hasn’t been in use except by people who don’t exist—my creations, obviously.”
“I didn’t say I’ve been using it, I said I’ve been monitoring it. I have a mirror program running that alerts me when activity has been logged. Being that I could never track the use
rs, I knew it was you. No one else can get past this conglomerate’s security without raising red flags. I can see what you do when you go in and tamper. I knew about your message before it flashed across my wall. And yes, I had to look up the Latin. Although, half the surprises in my apartment were still surprises. You use a level of finesse I’ve never seen before. I think you should be tested against the Curve again.”
Millicent waved the thought away. What did it matter? “That was an illegal loop?” she asked, somewhat mystified. “How did I not know that was possible?”
“Because you haven’t spent a lifetime learning all the tricks.”
“So how did you find out about it?” Mr. McAllister asked Millicent, with confusion evident.
“I wanted a private conversation, so I showed my hand.” A grin teased Ryker’s lips as he watched her. “I didn’t realize she’d pick up on what I’d done so fast. I didn’t install the mirror program until after she’d messed with my living space.”
“You deserved it,” Millicent said sullenly. “So what about guiding and manipulating?”
“Would you be here if not for me?” Ryker asked in seriousness.
“I don’t know,” she answered quietly. “I’ve been researching available solutions for the past year. You made certain things easier, I will admit.”
“I rest my case.” Ryker shifted with a smug smile.
Millicent rolled her eyes. “Oh, really? You randomly spout your mouth off, I happened to head in that direction when I could find no other alternative, and to you that constitutes guiding and manipulating?”
He shrugged. “Whatever works, princess. I got you here, and you can still breed. So can I. We can have as many children as we want.”
“Oh, interesting.” Mr. McAllister rested his chin on his fist.
“You’re forgetting. Without a lab at your back, you’d need coitus to procreate, and I’m not interested.” She held up a finger. “And if you try to force yourself on me, I will fry your chip, use your inability to move to my advantage, and cut your dick off. That’ll end your breeding days for good.”
A smile curled Ryker’s lips. “I like when you talk violent. It gets my blood flowing.”
“Not mine.” Mr. McAllister crossed his legs. His face had gone a worrying shade of white.
“How much Clarity did you bring?” Ryker asked with twinkling eyes.
She blinked in the face of that knowing stare, realizing she hadn’t even thought about it. All the doses were stored in her bedside table.
“Oops. Forgot those, huh?” Ryker stroked Marie’s hair and said down to her, “Mommy is going to beg Daddy to give you a baby brother or sister. What do you think about that?”
“Don’t say things like that to her.” Millicent got the mad urge to jab forward with a knife. Being that her daughter was in the way, she was forced to refrain. “And I’m not the normal girl you find in a bar. I think I can resist your barbaric advances.”
“I’m going to wrap you around my little finger, sweetheart. You’ll never want to come up for air.”
“This is making me a little uncomfortable.” Mr. McAllister looked out the side window.
“What can we expect from our next stop?” Millicent asked, tired of her companion’s monstrous ego and infallible confidence.
Thankfully, that wiped away Ryker’s grin. He looked at his wrist. “This is the last bit of comfort we’ll have for a while. Things are about to get hairy. We’ll be traveling through the dump the conglomerate has created. Getting myself through is no problem. Getting a woman like you through—marginally harder. But with the baggage of a clumsy weakling and a small child, we won’t have an easy time of it.” His hard glare hit Millicent. “I need you hardened for this. You’re softer than your paperwork says, and that’s fine in general, but today I need the woman they bred to glorify their defensive might. I need the woman who has kept that company impregnable from the other two conglomerates. The woman the other conglomerates have sent people to kill three times. The one who retaliated for those attempts by creating huge holes in their infrastructure.”
“Trust me—I’m way ahead of you.” Millicent mentally checked all the horrors she’d prepared.
“The guy at the next stop is supposed to make us invisible to the conglomerate,” Ryker said.
“How?” Millicent asked.
Ryker shook his head. “They have some tech that they’ve proven works.”
“Not to be the bad guy or anything . . .” Mr. McAllister cleared his throat. “But how long do we have before they realize Marie is gone?”
“They’ll have to do a physical check, which will be at dawn.” Millicent worked her console.
“We don’t have much time, then, right? Because as soon as they realize their biggest prize has been stolen by two expensive assets and the creative expert that brought it all together, they’ll launch the largest manhunt we’ve ever seen.”
“I didn’t need the reminder . . .”
Chapter 12
“Let’s get ready.” Ryker put Marie in Mr. McAllister’s arms and then leaned over them. “You’ll guard her while I speak to our contact and Millie watches our rear. If you do anything stupid, particularly anything to jeopardize her, I will rip your insides out, got it?”
The sound of Mr. McAllister’s gulp filled the room.
To Millicent, Ryker said, “Your suit can handle the weather, correct?”
“Yes. The reports say so anyway. I’ve never been outside.”
Ryker flinched, and a look of pain crossed his face. “We’re going to have a better life, okay? All of us.”
“As long as Marie does, that’s all I care about. Now stop being so sensitive and let’s get going.”
“I’ve never been outside, either . . . ,” Mr. McAllister said.
Ryker ignored him. “Let’s go.”
The door opened onto a platform deep in the thick acidic fog. They were on the twentieth floor somewhere in the middle of the city. Hovercrafts large and small flew around them, using the multilayered travel ways. Harsh wind whipped across the open space, the cold in the air biting the exposed areas of Millicent’s skin. She did a quick check to make sure the baby’s wrappings would stay on, and then followed Ryker out. Immediately she peeled off to the side, seeing that he’d peeled off to the other side, and provided cover as the other two exited.
“Where to?” Millicent yelled above the thrush of environment and continual roar of the passing vehicles.
Ryker pointed with two fingers off to the right, indicating a sprawling ramshackle building with a failing roof and decaying walls.
Close.
The doors to her craft glided shut. Ryker started at a fast pace. Millicent pushed Mr. McAllister in front of her and followed him, trying to watch everything at once. Out in the open like this, with vantage points all around them, relying on the measly senses of a human was a terrible idea. They’d be captured before she even knew they’d been spotted. She needed to rig something up. A halo of some sort to deaden nearby tech and hide them beneath an electronic blocking canopy or something.
Sure, get all that going while running for your life in this pit of filth, with no tools or work pod. No problem.
“Through here.” Ryker pointed them into a dark tunnel made out of rubble and bent metal.
Millicent eyed Ryker warily. She was putting a lot of faith in a man she could not, for the life of her, read. She was going solely on his word. The latest word, at that, since he’d verbally changed his stance a time or two.
“He won’t do anything to harm you unless he develops a new bubble of protection,” Mr. McAllister called above the environment’s hum.
“Be quiet, you moron!” Millicent hissed.
“I just saw that you hesitat—”
Millicent slammed her gloved hand over his mouth.
Ryker waited for silence before leading the way into the murky darkness. They came to a fork made up of twisted metal with gleaming edges, the only thing in this rubbl
e that looked moderately new. A purple-pink glow illuminated their surroundings as he checked his wrist screen. After a quick glance behind them, he headed right.
They took two more turns at forks, all made of that same engineered metal, and then slowed when the tunnel opened up into a moderate-sized space covered with piles of debris caught in some sort of fencing.
“Knock, knock,” Ryker said in a voice that sent shivers up her back.
“Who’s there?” A tall, lanky man skulked in from the left, holding a large orange gun with double barrels, like a shotgun on growth hormones.
“The big bad wolf. I’ve got a contract with Roe’s people. You Jesse?”
A beam of light clicked on, highlighting swirling particles in the air. It flashed down to Ryker’s face before playing across his shoulders and down his body. “Holy sh—” The light darted to the side, covering Millicent’s face next. “Wow.”
Ryker shifted, a tiny action that somehow spoke volumes and brought the light back to his body. “She with you?” Jesse asked.
“Yes.”
“All right, man, take it easy. Just asking.” The light swept over Mr. McAllister and then quickly highlighted Marie. Back to Ryker. “You’re Tate?”
“Yeah. You need ID?”
“No. You got a kid. That’s enough. Ain’t no conglomerate operation going to risk a kid. Come with me.”
He crossed the space and stepped through a normal-looking doorway into a room that smelled like mildew and sweaty socks. In the corner, a light highlighted various tech that looked like it had been retrieved from a recycling bin a decade ago. Jesse pointed to a chair next to the desk as he adjusted the light. Ryker picked up Marie and then motioned for Mr. McAllister to take the chair.
“Why? What’s he going to do?” Mr. McAllister pulled his hands toward his chest and looked over the various instruments. “Is that rust?”
“I’m going to blank out your implant.” Jesse picked up a block of metal before pushing a greenish button covered in dirt and grime.
