“I don’t know. Sabre said the Core was a power crystal from an ancient power station that was bombed during the war on Omega Five.”
Kole sank back onto his chair, gazing at the sword. “A neosin storage crystal bombarded with nuclear radiation. Huh. That might cause some weird stuff. Who knows? Anyway, it’s definitely valuable. Priceless, even. Will you sell it?”
“I will do anything to free Sabre.”
“Okay. I’ll put an ad up on the Net and see how much you’re offered. It will take a while, though. It’s not the sort of thing we could flog to a scientific institution; they’d take one look at it and laugh, and the chances of making another one with the same properties are probably slim to nil. There must have been some really weird factors at play when that thing was created. But it’s an oddity, and a pretty impressive one. There are plenty of filthy rich guys who would pay a lot to own something as unique as that. In the meantime, we can look for your cyber. And, since you do have the means to get your hands on a lot of money, I’ll take you to look for him. You can reimburse me when you sell it.”
Tassin smiled and sheathed the sword. “Thank you.”
“Sure. Where are you staying?”
“Staying?”
“Yeah. Do you have a room at a hotel in the city?”
She shook her head. “I only arrived this morning.”
“Okay, well, you can stay here if you want. I have a spare room.”
“Thank you. When can we start searching for Sabre?”
“Ugh, tomorrow, I guess.”
She sat on the other chair, studying the screens and strange boards. “I have much to learn about your world. Will you teach me?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Chapter Two
Tassin climbed out of Kole’s sleek silver air-car and gazed at an imposing structure with sweeping white walls and tall panels of pink-tinted mirror glass. It towered over them, fifteen storeys high, and three multi-coloured flags flew from its uppermost floor. The building was just outside the city, surrounded by a sizeable parking lot. This was the Ministry of Defence, which owned five cybers, and the name was emblazoned above the double doors at its entrance in shiny, metre-high steel letters. Kole came to her side, studying a small flat silver device that he had explained was a sort of portable computer, which he used to store and access information.
Kole wore a smart dark grey jacket with paler grey cuffs and collar, a white shirt under it. Black jeans and boots completed his outfit. She had come to realise that he was quite a wealthy man, with an upmarket apartment, two expensive vehicles and an extensive wardrobe of top-quality clothes and accessories. His vehicles were parked in a garage next to his apartment, with direct access to the airways. Horwin had called him a hacker, and, when she had asked about it, Kole had explained that he broke into the computer systems of high-powered corporations and stole their information to sell to their competitors. He was the best on Ferrinon Four, he claimed, although he had been in trouble with the authorities several times and was now semi-retired.
Kole had parked close to the building, and she spotted two cybers standing outside the entrance. They wore black and silver uniforms, and stood in a typical guard stance, hands clasped behind their backs, legs slightly apart. Her mouth went dry and her heart pounded. The prospect of finding Sabre filled her with joy, but the thought of seeing him back under cyber control, and unable to free himself, weighed her heart with sorrow. Kole headed for the cybers, then paused to glance back. She gathered her courage and followed him, approaching the two warriors. They wore shiny black helmets, and tinted visors covered their eyes. Their brow bands, however, were exposed through slots in their helmets, as they must be, she knew, or the control unit would be blind.
Tassin stopped in front of the closest cyber and studied his brow band, but she knew in her heart it was not Sabre even before she failed to find the hairline crack in the crystals. Although his features were so familiar that they made her breath catch, the clone was younger, and had a small scar on his right cheek. The other one was a little older, but she knew he was not Sabre, either, and the lack of a crack in his brow band confirmed it. She turned to Kole and shook her head. He walked up to the doors, which slid open ahead of him, admitting them into a bright, cool interior. Two more cybers stood at the bottom of a broad staircase, and she approached them to peer into their faces. They were both younger than Sabre, and she shook her head at Kole. He sighed and ascended the staircase. They found the fifth cyber standing outside an office, apparently of a high-ranking official, and again, he was a stranger. Tassin turned away, and Kole led the way back to the car. She wondered if the cybers stood at their posts all day, unmoving, save perhaps when they had to relieve themselves or eat. It seemed cruel.
The next stop was the hire company, deep in the city centre on the ground floor of a towering skyscraper, as Kole called them. It had a flashing sign outside, and they had to walk from a parking lot down the street. A beeping announced their arrival when the door slid open ahead of them, and a pimply young man with pink hair, clad in a shiny shirt, popped up from behind the counter. Tassin did not want to know what he had been doing before they walked in. He smiled and smoothed his hair.
“How can I help you?” he enquired.
“We’re looking for a cyber,” Kole said.
“Ah, well, you’ve come to the right place. We have just what you’re looking for. There he is.” The youth gestured to his right, and only then did Tassin notice the motionless cyber who stood beside the far wall. He was clad in a grey vest and matching trousers, standard cyber issue and exactly what Sabre had been wearing when she had met him. His webbing was full of grenades and power packs, and a laser-grenade launcher combo was clamped around his right wrist. Once again, her throat closed with sorrow and her heart ached as she approached him. He stared over her head, and, if not for his imperceptible breaths, he might have been a statue. A glance at his face told her he was a stranger, and she turned to shake her head at Kole. He asked the youth if they could see the other cybers, which seemed to puzzle the pimply boy. It must seem odd to him, Tassin mused, since one cyber was as good as another to these people. They probably could not even tell them apart, but she could.
The shop boy showed them two cybers in the back room, packed in caskets, and Tassin swung away after studying them for only a moment. As they made their way back through the front of the shop, she turned to the youth.
“Can’t you let him sit down, at least?”
He gawked at her. “Huh? Who?”
“The cyber.” She gestured to the motionless man.
“Him? Why?”
“How would you like to be forced to stand there all day?”
“Uh, he’s a cyber, Miss. That’s kind of what they do, ye’know. Sometimes we make him do a fighting stance, though.” He turned to the cyber. “Hey, Cyber Seven, fighting stance!”
The cyber dropped into a semi crouch, raising his right arm, his left cocked. The youth grinned. “See? Neat, huh?”
Tassin glared at the boy, sickened. “He’s a human being, not a damned machine.”
“No he isn’t, he’s a cyber.”
“He has feelings! He must be in agony standing still all day, and you shouldn’t make him do undignified things like that. It’s not right!”
The pink-haired youth goggled at her. “You’re nuts, lady.”
Kole gripped her arm. “Hey, cool it. You’re wasting your breath. Come one, let’s go.”
Tassin allowed him to tug her away, knowing that berating the youth was pointless. Kole headed for the door, and they left the shop to return to the air-car. The more she saw of this so-called modern society and its cruelties, the less she liked it. The thought that such cruelties, or worse, were being perpetrated on Sabre, and had been for the past three years, horrified her. They inspected the two cybers at the large corporation, then returned to Kole’s apartment. He had given her his spare room to sleep in, a pleasant, airy space with huge windows overloo
king the city and the comfiest bed she had ever slept in. She had discovered the joy of a hot shower and scented soap and lotions, and the delights of the sweet foods Kole served at mealtimes. He had explained computers and air-cars and many of the other strange mechanical devices the night before, and she understood most of it. The fact that she was no closer to finding Sabre, however, depressed her.
****
The following afternoon, Tassin disembarked from Kole’s air-car for what seemed like the twentieth time, by now used to this form of high-speed transport. They were in a rundown part of the city, where old warehouses with peeling paint predominated, surrounded by parking lots, some stacked with old boxes and containers. Kole had taken a picture of the sword in its crystal form and posted it for sale online, explaining how it all worked. So far, she had received only one low offer for it, which he had advised her to ignore. Today, he wore black leather trousers and a natty black leather jacket over a scarlet silk shirt.
He glanced at the sign above the door of the warehouse in front of them. “This is the place. Bartam’s Import and Export. Probably a smuggler. He’s got two cybers.”
Tassin sighed. Over the past two days they had inspected fifteen cybers, and this was the fourth place they had visited that day. She wondered if Sabre was in the city at all, and the prospect of searching the entire planet was unappealing, to say the least. She would never give up, but seeing so many men who looked so like Sabre, but were not him, was disheartening. They had all stared through her with unfocussed eyes, and none of them had looked exactly like him. Some had had scars or tattoos or disfigurements, one had had a milky eye and another had been missing an ear. All the privately owned ones had been battle scarred, even the ones who were younger than Sabre. She dreaded that when she found him, he would be horribly mutilated. Kole headed for the door, then paused and glanced back.
“Coming?”
Tassin nodded and followed him into a dim, cavernous interior whose farthest reaches were hidden by piles of crates and boxes. Just inside and to the right of the door, a muscular man sat behind an untidy desk in a tatty office with a glass door and big windows, which a flickering light illuminated. Swirling, abstract tattoos decorated his bald scalp and a scar pulled the edge of his left eye down. He wore a grimy sleeveless black leather jacket and tough brown trousers, a laser strapped to his thigh. Kole shot her a meaningful glance, and she knew what he was thinking. Such a disreputable looking man might be dangerous. He munched a sandwich, and looked up with a scowl as she and Kole approached.
“We’re closed,” he said.
“You must be Bartam?” Kole asked.
“Nah, he’s away. I’m Vorn.”
“We’re not actually here to buy any goods. We want to see your cybers.”
“What for?”
Kole cleared his throat and glanced at Tassin. “Well, we’re looking for a particular unit, which has sentimental value to the lady. We’ll pay top price.”
“They’re not for sale. Anyway, they’re away.”
“When are they due back?”
“They’re not for sale.”
Kole leant closer. “Like I said, if one of them is the one we’re looking for, we’ll pay whatever you ask. Price is no problem.”
“Like I said, they’re not for sale, and they’re not here.”
“We’ll wait, then.”
“What part of ‘they’re not for sale’ don’t you get?”
“The part where you said ‘at any price’,” Kole replied.
Vorn, whom Tassin was now convinced was a smuggler, grunted and returned his attention to his sandwich. “Why would you want a beat up second-hand cyber when you can afford to buy a new one?”
“The lady’s attached, like I said.”
Tassin gazed through the windows into the warehouse while they argued, content to let Kole fight the battle. She was tired. Every time she inspected another strange cyber, her heart sank a little more and despair took a firmer hold of it. Leaving the office, she headed back out of the front doors and paused, then went around the side of the warehouse, drawn by the sound of voices.
Tassin rounded the corner and stopped. A shuttle had just landed about fifty metres away, and four men climbed out of it. Two of them were cybers, and her eyes were drawn to one as he slung a laser rifle over his shoulder, turning his head to scan his surroundings. Her breath stopped and her heart hammered with a strange mixture of joy and anguish. She swallowed the lump that threatened to choke her and walked closer on shaking legs. He was a little thinner than she remembered and his hair was shorn to stubble, but she did not need to see the scars from his battle with the Core or the crack in his brow band. Vorn and Kole rounded the corner of the building behind her, and Kole trotted to catch up with her.
“Hey, what are you doing? You’re making these guys nervous, and that’s not a good idea.”
“It’s him.”
“Who?”
The cyber turned his head towards Tassin as she approached. He wore standard issue grey combat clothes, a holstered laser strapped to each thigh, power packs and grenades in his webbing. Two black-edged holes in his vest seeped blood. Her heart ached as she stopped in front of him and gazed up at his face. He stared over her head with pale grey eyes, and she studied his lean visage with its sculpted lines, level brows, narrow nose and sensitive mouth. Sweat and dirt made his dark blond hair spikey. Somehow, he was unique in a way only her heart seemed to know.
“Sabre,” she whispered, and several lights on his brow band flashed.
“This is him?” Kole stopped beside her, eyeing the cyber.
“Yes.” She nodded jerkily, raising a hand to her mouth as it twisted with grief and her eyes overflowed.
“How do you know?”
She took a deep breath and blinked, brushing away the tears that escaped down her cheeks. “I just do. It’s Sabre.”
He glanced back. “Okay, well I don’t know how happy these guys are with us right now. They’re definitely smugglers, and we’re butting into their operation big time.”
“We just want to buy a cyber.”
“Like he said, they’re not for sale.”
“Everything’s for sale at the right price.”
“Let’s hope so.”
She stepped closer and reached out, longing to touch him.
Sabre said, “You are not authorised to approach.”
Tassin’s throat closed again at the sound of his soft, husky voice, and she gulped.
Kole gripped her arm and pulled her away. “Are you nuts? You can’t go around patting cybers. They’re not pets, they’re dangerous. Come away.”
Tassin let him lead her away, looking around for the bald man, who was deep in a discussion with the two newcomers. One stepped away from the huddle and turned to the shuttle to shout, “Cybers! Offload!”
Sabre entered the craft and re-emerged a minute later with a box and headed for the warehouse. The other cyber did the same, and Tassin followed them towards the group of smugglers, Kole beside her. Vorn turned to them as they approached.
Kole gave him a cheerful nod. “Well, we found the one we want.”
“Have you now?”
“Yes; the one with the two wounds on his chest. Name your price.”
Tassin gazed past them at the doorway through which Sabre had vanished, wishing he would come back. The other cyber strode out and went back to the shuttle to fetch another box. Faint scrapes and thuds came from the warehouse’s gloomy depths, as if Sabre packed crates or moved boxes, and she was drawn to the sounds. She needed to see him again, desperately, to assure herself that he was not just a dream of a figment of her imagination. Having found him after all this time, she could not bear to let him out of her sight for another moment. She headed for the door.
Behind her, the Vorn said, “Hey, you can’t go in there.”
Tassin walked down one of the untidy aisles between the crates. Towards the back of the building the illumination increased, overhead lights castin
g a harsh glare. As she rounded a stack of crates, her breath caught. Sabre moved a pile of boxes from one side of the warehouse to the other, his golden skin gleaming in the lights. Her vision blurred as fresh tears seeped into her eyes. Swallowing hard, she stopped a pace away and gazed at him, her heart aching with profound joy. She had found him. It seemed as if she had dreamt of this day for an eternity, perhaps because she had spent so much time lost in impossible imaginings that she had not thought would come true. Now he was right there, within reach, and she longed to touch him.
The cyber crossed the warehouse, picked up another crate and carried it over to the stack beside her, placing it on top of the previous one. She reached out, her hand brushing his arm as he swung away.
Tassin had known it would be difficult seeing him returned to cyber control, but this was far worse than she had imagined. His face was so familiar, so dear, yet blank and uncaring. A strange mixture of elation and grief tore her heart, and she scrubbed the tears from her face as footsteps approached from the direction of the door. She turned to face Vorn as he marched up, quailing a little at his thunderous expression.
“You’re not allowed to be here,” he said.
Tassin followed him back to his ratty office, where Kole waited, looking worried. Vorn returned to his seat and picked up his cup of coffee, slurping it.
“That’s the cyber I want. We will buy him,” she said.
The smuggler raked her with hard brown eyes, snorted and pushed a button on a device on his desk. “Cyber One, come to the office.” His voice boomed around the warehouse.
After a minute, Sabre appeared in the aisle between the stacks of crates, striding towards them with his lithe, graceful gait. He entered the office and stopped in front of the desk, assuming a guard stance, hands clasped behind his back, legs slightly apart.
Vorn jerked his chin at him. “You sure this is the one you want?”
“Yes.” Tassin gazed at Sabre, wanting to hug him, but acutely aware of Kole and Vorn watching her. “How was he injured?”
The Cyber Chronicles IV - Cyborg Page 3
