Kingston 691: Book Two of Cyborgs: Mankind Redefined (25 page)

“Captain Elliott, you don’t know what you’re up against,” Dan said quietly. “You can’t change the evolution that has begun. Cyborgs—organic robots—customized companions—these are the future. There’s no stopping people from having what they want.”

“Watch me stop it from happening,” Peyton declared. “Now why were you studying King?”

He saw Dan hesitate, but could sense the man’s physical relief when he caved.

“Kingston 691 returned to normal on his own. When Norton finally wrestled him away from his high profile wife, who comes from an obscenely wealthy family, he was on the verge of a complete personal reboot. Such an event is only a theory, but the odds of its success were too high for us to risk letting it completely happen. Given the data we’d collected from watching him with Seetha Harrington, we knew he was mostly there. Each year he missed his maintenance, he became less and less controllable.”

Peyton shrugged. “King wasn’t the only one. I was doing that as well. Many cyborgs are in some process of breaking free of their cybernetics.”

Dan nodded. “You’re right—but he was the most complete—and we were studying the limits. Nobody’s motivation was to merely enslave the Cyber Soldiers. The money from the Cyborg Husband program funded nearly all global rebuilding after the war. From the UCN’s point of view, the soldiers were just continuing to serve their country…even if it was involuntary at that point.”

Peyton turned his back so Dan wouldn’t see how upset the information had made him. “Norton collected King, took all his data, and returned him to Seetha Harrington. Why?”

“To prove they could undo it, but I think it only worked because he was completely overhauled. He came out of the data drain in mid-operation and busted free of the medical chair. It was alarming that he could free himself while under creator control, but the emotion behind his destruction efforts was even more shocking. Kingston 691 became in reality the renegade cyborg the war propaganda people had falsely presented to the world. In the process of stopping his rampage, his original compartment was severely damaged. So his cybernetic compartment was…downgraded…or upgraded…depends on how you view it. Afterward, he was like a newly converted cyborg…only his risk factor remained high. His brain activity indicated immediate reversal efforts even though they didn’t manifest in his actions.”

Peyton turned back. “Why didn’t you rig his military chip?”

“Self-preservation. When his enhancements were all working, he was a walking bomb. For reasons we never understood, the UCN wouldn’t let anyone remove his explosive capability. So Kingston 691 was assigned a watcher…someone who could monitor his reactions to life and report anomalies. My mistake in my task was growing complacent after he bought the furniture from Seetha Harrington’s auction sale. He had no clue what he’d purchased. That was the best report I ever turned in. Everyone was quite pleased with the results of that test scenario.”

Peyton glared. “Didn’t you feel bad for helping the UCN fuck up King’s life? He was probably in love with Seetha Harrington when you yanked his life away from him.”

He watched Dan try to shrug against his ropes. “Love? Seetha Harrington bought him…just like Kyra Winters bought you…it was just for different reasons. Women always fall in love with men they like to fuck. It’s how they’re made. Men don’t organically come with those sensibilities. The unhappy couple found their way back to each other anyway. That’s sappy enough. I thought for sure when Seetha Harrington saw her old furniture she’d freak out too much to deal with him. Kingston must be super talented in the sack. Too bad the man likes women…that’s all I have to say.”

Peyton took two steps in Dan Masterson’s direction, wanting to knock the cynicism out of him the hard way, but stopped himself when the man flinched in anticipation. “Norton needs to amend it’s employee application. All they ever seem to hire is screwed up assholes. Make it happen, Dan. Do something decent for once.”

“Are you going to keep me here all day? I told you what you wanted to hear.”

Peyton felt his jaw tighten. Power corrupted and copious amounts of money could convince a person like Dan Masterson to ignore the pain of others. He had sold out to Norton and the UCN long ago. The man wasn’t capable of real redemption, which made him not worth their time to try and save.

“King wanted to talk to you, but I don’t think you’d make it home today if I let him have a go. However, there is one more person waiting a turn. We’ll see what he says before we cut you loose.”

Peyton manually coded out of the lab. He didn’t look back, but he felt their captive visibly wilting in the chair. Men like Dan Masterson were the reason the UCN had succeeded in enslaving the Cyber Soldiers. Who knew how many other weak-minded versions of him existed?

He shook his head as he walked to the kitchen where Kyra and the others were watching Dan on a monitor.

***

King held a weeping Seetha in his arms. What they’d heard had only cemented his determination to marry her. And it explained his sense of rightness in being with her. He was glad as hell to hear how hard he had fought against their efforts. This time he’d do more than rampage. This time he would kill any Norton dickwad who dared try to interfere.

He wasn’t sure what Seetha felt about it all, but she was clutching him like she was never turning loose…which was fine with him. He tightened his hold on Seetha as he looked at the pacing woman across the room.

“Doc, are you okay? You’re breathing kind of heavy over there.” He was learning all kinds of polite ways of informing people their stress indicators were off the charts.

King’s eyes widened as she lifted an antique ceramic teacup from her sink and hurled it as hard as she could into the hallway. It smashed into a thousand pieces on the composite tile floor. As fucked up as watching Doc get so angry was, he still wanted to laugh his ass off when an equally wide-eyed Peyton carefully stuck his head around the corner.

“Any other teacups heading my way?” he asked.

King snorted at his quiet question and shook his head. “No teacups, but I think the tea kettle is next. Doc’s still looking pretty pissed.”

King smiled when Peyton tiptoed into view.

“Those manipulating sonofabitches…” Kyra screamed. “It was always a lie, Peyton. The constant code was a smokescreen for what the military was doing. Plus, it was only
temporary
…and it was
breakable
. There was never any reason for any of the soldiers to suffer. If Jackson was still alive, I’d kill the bastard all over again. He knew about this—I just know it. It was one more freaking side deal he made with his fellow dickwads at the UC-fucking-N.”

She paced by a counter and shoved two storage canisters against the wall before smacking a cabinet door.

Peyton crept into the kitchen and softly came up behind her. He saw Kyra’s latest pet project scoot down the counter he leaned against to give Kyra more pacing room, and him room to maneuver around to his irate wife. Finally, Kyra put her face in her hands and sniffled. Seeing the lightning and thunder recede to let the rain fall, Peyton knew it was finally safe to turn his hurting wife around until he could tuck her against him.

His gaze went to the wide stare of Captain William Talon. “If you want a chance to talk to Masterson, this is the time. What I told him wasn’t a joke. He’s going to be a dead man the moment he’s set free. Your attempt to kill Seetha went automatically into Norton’s database from the security camera in the lab. If he was the one who programmed you, his failure is now on record.”

William nodded. “What if I can’t keep from killing him?”

Kyra sniffled and lifted her head from Peyton’s chest. “I have an organic recycler on speed dial. We’ll mail his ID chip to the other side of the planet before we get rid of the organic body.”

Startled by her immediate response, and clever planning, William snorted. He rubbed a hand over his head. “After the assimilation, I was scared of nearly everything. Now I think all I’m really scared of is your wife, Captain Elliott.”

Kyra blinked. “I’m not really scary,” she said, sniffling hard. “At least not usually.”

William felt a grin stretching mouth muscles that hadn’t been used in years. He rubbed a hand over his face to massage it. All he’d been allowed to feel was anger which fed the fear and aided the pain response.

The only good thing—if you could call it good—was that large chunks of time were missing from his recall. Like Kingston West, much of his past was simply gone forever. God only knew what had been done to him during those blank times. But from what he’d been discovering, his fucked up story was just one of many.

And he still hadn’t contacted his family. He couldn’t conceive of it until he knew his mind wasn’t going to snap again. After the atrocities he’d committed, they might not want anything to do with him. He could barely tolerate himself.

Kyra sniffled. “Don’t kill him, William. He’s not worth becoming that kind of memory.”

William snorted, but Kyra Winters was correct. His confirmed kill list was long enough.

“There’s still some shit we don’t know that I bet Masterson does. Let me in, Peyton. I’ll try my best not to do Norton’s dirty work for them.”

Peyton kissed Kyra on the head and turned loose, so he could let William into the lab.

***

William walked into the space and felt his stomach plummet to his feet. It’s sterile white walls and metal surfaces made every muscle tighten. He was probably going to hate these places for the rest of his unnatural, cybernetically extended life.

He slowly walked to face the man tied to the chair who looked at him with wide eyes.

“William 874.”

William lifted his chin. “No. I’m William Alexander Talon. Army Captain. Newly restored cyborg. You were lying to Captain Elliott.”

“Only partially…I’m not Creator Omega…but I’m still authorized to give you orders.”

William narrowed his gaze. “Don’t think so, Dan. You’ve been demoted.”

“Emergency override authorization Z11JM5. Protocol DRJ-780. Command is as follows...you will release me from this chair and help me escape.”

William raised hands to his head. There was a fierce buzzing sensation in his brain. It was quite strong, but it wasn’t painful any more. His eyes winced at the annoyance.

“No Dan…I won’t help you. Now stop this damn buzzing in my brain before I beat you to death. You helped Norton turn me into a heartless bastard. Do you want me to prove to you I am one?”

He watched Dan Masterson’s eyes get wider, but the man remained silent. The buzzing continued. He reached out and smacked the man’s jaw lightly. Of course, lightly for a cyborg was like a slow punch from a normal guy. The resounding tap echoed loudly in the silent lab.

“Fuck you—that hurt,” Dan said, his head swinging to the side.

William grinned. “I know. You bastards made me an expert on what hurts. Are you trying to make me kill you, Dan? Because I can tell you…it wouldn’t take much. Now stop the damn buzzing in my head before I forget my promise to Kyra Winters to spare your fucking life.”

Dan’s silence almost sent him over the edge, one he was too used to walking. They had made him an unfeeling machine in every way possible. He’d killed dozens of people on their orders. Violence felt natural to him. He grabbed Dan by the hair of his head and pressed his foot down on top of his outrageously expensive leather shoes.

“Dan, you’re making me very angry.”

“
Orders rescinded…orders rescinded
,” Dan yelled.

Just like magic, the buzzing stopped. So the bastard did have control of him.

William turned loose and walked away, before he did something to cut his interview time short. “Now Dan, if you want to walk out of here, and not crawl out, don’t try that shit again. Understand?”

When Dan nodded, William got a workstation chair and rolled it over so he could sit.

“I don’t know how you were raised, but my mother and father did a pretty decent job of instilling right and wrong in me. What you…and others like you…have done to cyborgs like me is very wrong, Dan. It is so wrong that if it ever got out to the world, there would probably be a cyborg revolt. Think of what a cyborg revolt would be like, Dan. All the members of the UCN would be killed. Norton would be blown the fuck up during the first hour it was known. And men like you would be turned into dust for the simple pleasure of indulging the violence you so thoroughly programmed into us.”

“I’m sorry…sorry, Captain…Talon…”

William nodded. “As you well should be, Dan. A reasonable fear of consequences is very healthy. Sometimes it might even keep you alive. But if you’re not willing to do the right things, then your life is already not worth anything to me…or to Dr. Winters, who seems to be the only non-cyborg person worth a shit. Well…maybe Engineer Harrington…but you bastards made damn sure I got on her shit list. If I’d killed her, Kingston West would have killed me, but then…
oh wait
, that’s what you bastards wanted all along
, wasn’t it?
”

William stared at the frightened man. “Dan…it’s rude not to answer my question.”

“Yes. It was all part of the plan. Kingston would have been declared rogue. The world would have believed cyborgs were uncontrollable again. The military chips would have been used to bring them back under UCN jurisdiction and Norton control.”

“Sounds like a pretty involved plan for code monkeys to have come up with. I’m thinking there is a strategist behind you guys. There were only two original creators. Who’s
Creator Omega
, Dan?”

“I don’t know. No one does.”

“Oh, someone does. He visited me in the lab. I don’t remember him, but I remember the orders. They’re still in my chip and coded to him. Didn’t you let the man in?”

“No. I didn’t. I swear.”

William nodded. “Okay. I have one more question. What kind of ore are they removing from the mine where I was being held?”

“I don’t know for certain,” Dan said.

“Then fucking guess,” William ordered.

Dan hung his head. “Titanium. It’s being used on all the new cyborgs. It’s lightweight, weapon worthy, and titanates convert electricity into sound.”