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seeing the awareness in your eyes.
You faked it wel , but you couldn’t completely hide it. You are one of the reasons I campaigned to
have you destroyed.”
“You failed.” Joe couldn’t hide his smug tone, and Chloe wondered at it.
“A temporary setback, but now that we’ve created a weapon to control you, we shal rectify it. Who
would have thought, with a little more power, an old fashioned taser could prove so effective?”
“If they work so wel , why did you sacrifice so many of your men?”
“Because the damned crystals that power them are expensive and rare. Given they only work once
before shattering, we thought it best to save them for use on a select few. Why start from scratch when
expensive models are available for use?”
“Lucky us. What are you plans now?”
Chloe could only wonder why Joe kept drawing out information from the loquacious general.
“You are going back for some hardcore reprogramming and wireless transmitter removal, while the
little lady here is coming with me to do what she does best. Suck some cock.”
“No,” she whispered. “I’d rather die.”
“You won’t touch her,” Joe snarled. “I’l kil you if you try.”
“Good luck with that, cyborg. In case your faulty neural net hasn’t noticed, I have the upper hand.” As
the general began spitting out some numbers and letters, Chloe shook, dread hugging her tightly. How
can I escape what he plans? How can I escape what I’ve become?
Before the vile general could finish reciting his code, Chloe did the only thing she could think of to
escape the nightmare. Without giving herself a chance to think twice about it, she grabbed the
electrified bars with both hands, then screamed at the pain that coursed through her limbs.
Screamed until she knew no more.
*
“No!” Joe could only shout helplessly as Chloe fel to the floor, her eyes blank and her limbs
twitching with the residual power she’d absorbed. Growling, Joe raised his head to meet the
general’s smirk. “Prepare to die.”
“That would require you getting out of that cage. And I’m not stupid enough to shut off the power, not
when I know, given enough time, you can snap those bars in half.” The man laughed. “You know what
might be entertaining? How about watching me give it to your girlfriend’s corpse over here? Heck, if
we’re lucky, she might reboot in the middle of it. Wouldn’t that be fun?” Hope blossomed in his chest.
Chloe lived? The news of her cybernetic status was so new it didn’t occur to him that electricity
would act the same on her as him. Shut down her BCI and force a ful system reboot. The knowledge
didn’t change his plan. The human would die.
Joe stepped up to the bars. “Seth?”
“Almost there, boss. In three, two, one.”
The hum of electricity stopped, and for the first time since he’d met the man, Joe saw trepidation in
the general’s gaze.
“What have you done?” General Boulder asked. “I removed al wireless access on the ship. You can’t
control the computer.”
“The wonderful thing about being a cyborg,” Joe stated, his lips curling into a taunting smile, “is we
can always update our programming and hardware.” He raised his hands and placed them on the stil
warm bars. He pul ed. With a groan of metal, they parted, although with more effort than expected, his
nanos not having had enough time to truly weaken their structure.
“Son of a bitch. You shouldn’t be able to do that. The geeks assured me the cages would hold you.”
“Looks like they were wrong,” Seth said with a chuckle. “Now, are you going to make this fun and
run?”
“Please do,” Joe added, stepping from the cage. “As hunters of humanity, especial y the military type,
we enjoy a chase.” The general backed away, fumbling at his waist for his taser. He pul ed it out and
aimed it at Joe, who cocked his head, but kept going, his pace slow, his chuckle menacing.
“Stop or I’l shoot.”
The scream of bending metal caused a drop of sweat to rol down the side of the human’s face.
“Go ahead and shoot one of us,” Joe offered in a soft tone. “You said it yourself; each taser unit can
only fire once. Even a child could do the math on that one.” With a roar born of rage and revenge, Joe
rushed the corpulent human, his brothers charging up behind him.
The general, his eyes wide with panic, shot Joe. The volts of electricity coursed through his body in
what was now becoming a tiresome familiarity. He slumped to the floor, his eyes blinking twice,
taking in Chloe’s perfect features before he shut down and rebooted.
When he came to, he lay in a bed, and he wasn’t alone. Chloe lay beside him. Pale, and with her eyes
shut, he would have thought her dead if not for the gentle rise and fal of her chest. Given his lack of
restraints, it stood to reason his brethren had managed to complete their takeover of the ship.
He opened his neural net and sent out an inquiry.
Solus immediately replied. “About time you rebooted.”
“What did I miss?”
“The general pissing himself when we took him down.”
“You killed him?”
A pause before Solus answered. “No. He knows things, Joe. If we ever want to know more about
our origins, we need the information in his head.”
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