The Cyber Chronicles VIII - Scorpion Lord (3 page)

The floating
casket followed on its leash, and he approached a welcoming party
of eager Cybercorp techs who came forward to greet him, shake his
hand and gaze at the casket.

"That's him?"
Vardin, head of Myon Two research and development, asked. He was a
stocky man with black eyes, a lantern jaw and a high forehead that
a receding hairline made more prominent.

"This is him,"
Jorran agreed.

"We're all
eager to see what he can do."

Jorran
inclined his head, and Vardin ushered him into the palatial
reception, where he was logged in by security and given his
clearance and access code. The official business done, he followed
the department head along many smooth white corridors to a bright,
sterile room filled with experimental equipment and monitoring
consoles. The techs gathered around, murmuring, as he deactivated
the antigravity fields and activated the unlock sequence. They
waited for several minutes while the lights changed from red to
amber to green, and the lid unsealed with a faint click. Mist oozed
from the crack, then billowed up as Jorran opened the lid. The
techs crowed around to peer inside as the mist cleared, revealing
the cyber within.

"He's older
than I thought he would be," Vardin commented.

"He's got a
lot of scars," another tech said.

"He's been in
service for eight years," Jorran informed them. "There's bound to
be a bit of wear and tear, but he's in good condition."

"Well, let's
get on with it." Vardin rubbed his hands.

Jorran glanced
at him. "Just remember, this one is dangerous. We'll need a cyber
to guard him, although I have an override with his codes." He
pulled the little black trigger from his pocket.

Vardin
signalled to another tech, who spoke into a communications link.
Moments later, a cyber entered and took up a guard stance just
inside the door. Jorran looked down at Sabre. He had learnt the
free cyber's name from Grundel's records, but refused to use it,
although he found himself thinking of him as Sabre.

"Cyber Seventy
One, stand up."

Sabre sat up
and climbed out of the casket with the lithe ease that all cybers
possessed, turned to face Jorran and assumed a guard stance, legs
apart, hands clasped behind his back. The techs gathered around to
examine him.

"He doesn't
look any different," Vardin commented.

"No," Jorran
agreed. "Until you shine a light on him."

A tech gave
him a hand-light, and he shone it on the cyber's arm, causing the
skin to emit a soft golden glow.

"What causes
that?" one tech asked.

"Reflective
melanin. It has an iridescent quality, so it reflects between
eighty and nighty per cent of heat and about twenty per cent of
light."

Vardin peered
at the brow band. "I thought this one was supposed to be free."

"He was, but
he's put himself under cyber control to avoid painful tests."

"So then a
host really feels no pain while under cyber control?" a young
female tech with mouse brown hair and wide green eyes asked.

"No, we know
they do, but he figured that if I couldn't get any results from my
tests, I wouldn't run them. And he's right; it's pointless now that
he's under cyber control."

"You spoke to
him?"

"Yes, for
about fifteen minutes."

"What's he
like?"

Jorran frowned
at her. "It doesn't matter. He's just a host."

Vardin glanced
at the data record Jorran had given him. "So, all his tests were
ten per cent above normal for an A-grade. It's not much, and we
don't know whether it's due to the changed DNA or just the result
of good training and exercise."

"No, we don't.
But what we're really interested in is the fireproofing, in any
case."

"True. Would
you give us a demonstration?"

"Of
course."

****

Tarl looked up
from the clump of wires, crystals and electrical components on the
workbench in front of him as Tassin entered his lab for the
umpteenth time, her too-frequent visits harassing him. The
diminutive raven-haired Queen looked exhausted, her azure eyes
haunted and her skin paler than usual. Her thick hair was swept up
in a simple braid atop her head, and she wore no jewellery other
than the delicate, elegant engagement ring Sabre had given her a
month ago. A simple dark blue gown clad her slender form, its
sleeves and hem edged with white lace, a paler blue satin bodice
clasping her tiny waist.

"I haven't
made much progress in the last half an hour, so there's no point in
coming to check on me again," he said.

She sank down
on a stool beside the workbench, gazing at the mess on it. "I'll
stay and watch you, then."

"I don't like
being watched."

She sighed.
"It's been more than a week. He must be going through hell."

"I'm sure he
is, and I know how long it's been. I haven't had any sleep for four
days." He put down the tangle of wires and yawned. "Which is
probably why I'm not making any progress. I can't think straight
anymore. I must rest."

"We should
have asked Fairen for another transmitter."

"But we
didn't, so it's no good wishing we had." Tarl rubbed his eyes.
"What about the men you have searching?"

"They've been
through the castle, now they're in the gardens."

"It could be
anywhere, on the other side of the planet, hell, even in
space."

Tassin looked
down at her wrestling hands. "Don't say that, please. We have to
find it."

"We will."

"Soon!" She
bowed her head, biting her lip. "I can't bear to think of him
suffering. It's giving me nightmares."

"Hey..." Tarl
turned to face her, shaking his head. "He's a tough guy, remember?
He's been through it all before. He can handle it."

"Can he?" She
looked up, her expression despairing. "What if he can't? What if
it's just too much this time? What if he doesn't think we'll be
able to help him?"

"Hey, don't
think like that. He knows we'll find a way to reach Fairen."

"What if we
can't?" she wailed.

"We will! We
must. That's all there is to it. Now, I'm going to get some sleep,
so I can think straight, and you should, too. Have something to eat
while you're at it, you're starting to look like a ghost. You're
going to need your strength for when we find him."

Chapter Two

Pain dragged
Sabre from his dark, sticky cocoon. Waves of burning agony washed
over him as if tongues of fire lashed him. Rising through the
layers of cyber control like a dolphin swimming up from the deep,
he burst into reality as if it was the air above the water. He drew
in a deep breath as his eyes regained their focus. Flames bathed
his chest, pouring from the flamethrower that a stocky,
lantern-jawed man with a receding hairline and glittering black
eyes held. The control unit flashed a warning as Sabre focussed on
his target with all the purposeful intensity of a machine-trained
mind.

Diving into a
forward handspring, he attacked through the stream of fire, landed
in front of his torturer and kicked him in the chest. The man flew
backwards with a coughing grunt and a soft crunch of breaking
bones. The flamethrower clattered across the floor, its fire
snuffed out. Sabre leapt at the next closest person in a backward
handspring. His fist smashed the man's skull with a dull crunch and
a spurt of brains. Shouts of horror and terror rang out, and he
turned to his next target, becoming aware of a cyber attacking from
the side. His eyes focussed on his potential victim, noted that she
was female and flicked to the man beyond her. Dropping into a
forward roll, he sprang up in front of him and chopped his throat
with another crunch of crushed cartilage.

The cyber came
within range, but Sabre sprinted towards Jorran as he became fully
aware of his surroundings. Jorran dug in his pocket, his eyes
white-ringed, and gave a shriek as Sabre reached him. Sabre leapt
into a spinning kick that sent the tech sprawling, then whipped
around as the cyber leapt at him. Ducking under his opponent's
lashing leg, he punched him in the underside of his thigh. The
cyber landed heavily, and Sabre spun again, the speed of his
movements blurring his vision. Another man knelt beside Jorran,
digging in his pocket. Sabre attacked in a bound, sending him
rolling with a kick that broke several ribs.

"Hold!" a
female voice shouted, making the enemy cyber stop.

Sabre stopped
too, falling into a crouching stance, as tense as a coiled
spring.

The young
woman he had spared stared at him with wide green eyes, her face
rigid with fear. Two men flanked her, almost hiding behind her,
their mouths open. Sabre forced himself to relax, and straightened
to look down at his reddened chest, raising a hand to touch the
ugly welts. A quick glance around showed him that he was in a
spacious, aseptic laboratory. A wide bench ran along one wall,
screens and keyboards on it, and tables and testing equipment were
dotted around the floor. Turning to Jorran, he went over to the
unconscious tech and took the override trigger from his pocket,
crushing it.

The woman
stepped closer, holding out her hand in an appeasing gesture.
"Please, calm down. No one will hurt you."

Sabre glanced
at the cyber, who had assumed a guard stance, then down at his
chest. "What do you call this? A tanning treatment?"

"A mistake.
One that won't be repeated."

"You expect me
to believe you?"

She looked
shocked. "We didn't think you'd feel it."

"Don't give me
that crap. You know damned well hosts feel pain. You brought me
here to demonstrate my so-called fireproof capabilities, and this
is how you're going to do it to a bunch of pea-brained rich
bastards, probably every day, or as often as you can without
actually turning me into a piece of charcoal." He gave a mirthless
chuckle. "And you really think I'm going to let you do it without a
fight?"

"No... That
might have been the plan, but clearly we can't now."

Sabre
approached her, raking her with a cold glance. "You're a junior
tech. You have no authority to make that decision. You're just
trying to buy yourself some time to call reinforcements."

She stood her
ground, although the two men sidled away. "After this, they won't
be able to do it."

"You think
so?" Sabre snorted, glancing at the fallen men, two of whom were
dead. "They'll just clamp me down so I can't fight back. I know
these bastards. I grew up in a place like this, remember?"

She swallowed
hard. "Normal cyber hosts are unaware."

"They're
aware," Sabre said. "All those little boys in the pens, all those
adolescents in the sensory deprivation tanks, are aware! Look into
their eyes, next time you're in the production centre. Why do you
think they put them in those tanks?"

"To establish
cyber control."

"Because
otherwise the host brain fights for control. I should know, I lived
it."

She shook her
head. "You're different."

"You actually
believe that? How stupid are you, exactly?" Sabre tilted his head.
"Oh, I get it. You're trying to establish a rapport, be my friend,
so you can... what? Talk me into co-operating? Do you think I'm a
complete idiot? What's next, promises to treat me well, give me
three hot meals a day and a nice soft bed if you can trot me out
and burn me once a week?"

"No, I just
wanted to stop you from killing any more of us."

Sabre nodded.
"The truth, at last. Well, I've stopped, so which one of you would
make the best hostage?"

"You killed
him."

He looked down
at the corpse of the lantern-jawed man whose white uniform bore the
emblems of a department head. "So I did. Then I guess my friend
Jorran will have to do; he's only got a sore head."

"You can't
escape from Myon Two."

Sabre paused
to ponder that. "So they brought me home. How nice of them." He
glanced at Jorran again. "You're right, I can't escape from this
shithole planet, but I reckon I can do a whole hell of a lot of
damage before they manage to kill me, and that's what they're going
to have to do to stop me."

"They won't
kill you. They'll tranquilise you. You have no hope. There are over
a hundred enforcers in this centre alone."

"So you think
if you can convince me that resistance is futile, I'll just let you
do whatever you want?" He shook his head. "Think again. I'm going
to do as much damage as I possibly can, and I reckon it's going to
be quite a lot. Myon Two's worst nightmare just came true. You have
a rogue cyber on your hands, at last." Sabre gripped Jorran's
collar and hauled him upright to slap his face.

"They'll stop
you," she said.

"Of course
they will, but not before I've done some damage, and all this chit
chat is just holding me up, so you can shut up and piss off."

Jorran came to
with a gasp and gaped at Sabre, who dragged the tech to his feet
with a bruising hold on his arm. "One wrong move and you die."

Sabre was clad
only in the tight thigh-length shorts cybers wore in their caskets,
which made him feel rather exposed. He indicated the resting cyber
with a jerk of his head.

"Tell him to
get his clothes off."

"Cyber,
undress," Jorran ordered.

While the
cyber stripped off his armour, Sabre studied Jorran with deep
loathing. "You're a spineless worm, aren't you? You're going to
discover what pain is all about today, I promise. And I'll kill you
before they stop me. Until then, you'll live, so do your best to
persuade them to let me go."

"They
won't."

"Then you're
going to die."

Jorran gulped.
"Perhaps there's a way to smuggle you out. There's a yacht on the
Delta landing pad. An administrator is visiting, and -"