Seth: Futuristic Spy Romance (Cyborgs: More Than Machines) (2 page)

Fuck me, I still love her.
He’d probably never stopped.
Actually, I know I never did.
And it wasn’t for lack of trying.

Once he’d come to grips with the fact he’d never see Anastasia again, he’d tried to erase her from his mind—and heart. He’d slept with other women. Human women. Enhanced women.
Even droids in brothels. He came. It wasn’t as if losing her meant he’d gotten impotent or unaffected by erotic touch. He easily eased the needs of his body, but nothing cured the needs of his heart. No one else could compare to the beautiful, maddening, highly intelligent, oh-so-dangerous woman before him.

Curse her for being so damned glorious.

And curse him for being unable to stop himself from saying, “I’ll help. I just need to tie up a few things before we go. Why don’t you follow me back to our base so I can let my brothers know I’m taking off.”

She shook her head.
“No pit stops to the base. We don’t have time. We have to leave now before anyone notices I’m here.”

“
What’s the rush?”

“I can’t say.”

“You won’t even allow me a moment to pack a bag?”

“Everything you could possibly need is already on board.”

“What if I need to water my plants?”

“The only thing growing in your home is
the mold in your bathroom.”

“You seem rather well informed.”

“It’s my job.”

Anastasia still spied?
More and more curious. “I can’t just up and leave. My friends deserve to be told.”

“We don’t have
the time it would take for you to go back and explain things.” She tapped her foot in impatience.

“Maybe not in person, but I can at least send Joe a wireless BCI to BCI message.”

“If you must.” She didn’t utter a long-suffering sigh, but the tone of her reply adequately relayed her annoyance at his insistence.

“
You’re too kind,” was his sarcastic reply.

As Seth followed the familiar swagger of Anastasia’s ass
as she weaved through the trees—while recalling said ass in less-clothed circumstances—he sent a mental probe out to Joe, the de facto leader of the cyborg liberation.

Hey
, boss.

Seth. Where are you? We’re having a bit of a mini party here
, and I, for one, could use your brand of humor to counteract Aramus’ scowl.

Nothing short of a lobotomy will fix that man’s attitude.
Although Seth often did wonder whether Aramus would lighten up if he met the right woman. Of course, said woman would have to be deaf, and of the blow-up variety, else she’d never tolerate his acerbic tongue. Fingers crossed the one he’d ordered his ornery friend for Christmas would brighten his outlook on life. She could supposedly suction a golf ball through fifty feet of hose and was programmed to say only three things. “Yes, dear.” “How may I serve you?” And a specialty phrase Seth specifically requested the sex shop’s bestselling girlfriend model to say after sex, “Seth’s dick is bigger than yours is.”

Seth couldn’t wait to hear Aramus’ bellow of outrage the first time he heard it.

Where are you?
Joe asked, interrupting his train of thought.

Off in the woods, a
bout to leave the planet.

Leave
? With who? And on what ship? My processor shows no active missions on the roster.

That’s because this is a secret mission.

Secret from me?
Joe might have spoken only in his mind, but Seth could imagine the growl.

An old friend showed up and asked for
my help.

Wh
ich old friend and what kind of help?

I’m not
sure yet. They haven’t said much, just that I’m needed.

It didn’t take long for Joe’s analytical mind to grasp the most important facet of their conversation.
Wait a second. When you say old friend, are you implying someone off planet has requested your aid?

Depends what you mean by off planet.

Seth!
Joe practically shouted his name.

The person in question is not a current member of our community and made the r
equest in person.

You mean you’re with them?
Right now? But how? I’m showing no vessels in the immediate area. Actually, none of our reports show any activity other than from our own ships. What the hell is going on, Seth?

Hearing the irritation in his friend
’s voice, Seth frowned. He liked Joe and respected him. It didn’t sit well keeping secrets from him. He’d kept enough secrets already. “Oh, wifey poo, Joe wants to know who you are and how you got past our detection systems. What should I tell him?”

“First off, I am not your wife.”

“I never signed divorce papers.”

“It only takes one well aimed bullet to become a widow.”

“What a waste of ammo though.”

She tossed him a glare. “Secondly, you can’t tell him anything.”

“I have to tell him something.”

“Tell him
it’s classified information.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to fly. And Joe deserves better than that from me.”

She sighed. “You and your friends. Can’t you ever just say no?”

“Lucky for you I can’t
, or I wouldn’t be following you on the basis of your so nicely put request for my aide.”

“Lives are at stake.”

“If that’s the case, then all the more reason why we should enlist Joe and the others to help.”

“We can’t. Where we need to go, they won’t fit i
n.”

“What do you mean not fit i
n?” Understanding dawned. “We’re going undercover and posing as humans.” The ability to blend in was one of the main reasons cyborg spy models got to retain their humanity instead of undergoing the reprogramming and desensitization the other units went through.
Or I could call it what it was. Torture.
Intense bouts of torture and sensory deprivation, along with memory wipes and strict programming, took perfectly good people and made them machines, tools for the military to use. Expendable forces that would march to their deaths and not say a word in protest. Until the day their programming failed and the machines fought back.

“I can understand why you can’t use them, but I need to tell Joe something. Surely there is something he and the others can do so they don’t come looking and digging for me. He won’t just accept my l
eaving without some kind of answer.”

“
Actually, there is one thing he and the others can do because it doesn’t look like I’ll have time to take care of it myself. Tell him to go to the following coordinates.” She rattled off a stream of numbers, which he stored.

“
What’s there?”

“Answers.”

“Just that? Answers. He’s going to want more than that.”

“I can’t tell you more than that.
”

Seth made a face. “Let me guess, it’s classified.”

“Just tell him to go. And quickly. Oh, and he might want to do so carefully. He’ll find some answers there, but they won’t come easy.”

Now Seth was intrigued.
A mystery adventure with danger. Sounded like fun. Pity he already had plans elsewhere. Then again, given his current companion, he doubted his mission would lack for fun and games.

Joe, my contact says if you want answers
and some action you should head to …
He recited off the coordinates, only once. Their BCI had perfect recall. Once told something, it remained stored in their databanks forever.

Got it, but
do you mind telling me what we’re going to find?

No idea.
My contact says it’s classified info.
He couldn’t quite hide his disgruntlement.
Apparently, though, you should expect resistance, so tell whoever’s going to be careful.

Funny how even a wireless transmission could relate
a snort of amusement.
Subtlety isn’t Aramus’ strong suit, but if there’s something to be found, then he’ll ferret it out. Are you sure you’re okay? If you need me to come rescue you …

I’m fine, dude. You just take care of my cyborg family while I’m gone. I’ll be back before you know it.
Hopefully with Anastasia. Make that definitely with Anastasia.

Seth made a vow in that moment, an unspoken promise to himself that there was no military or force in the universe that would keep him from her side.
Whether she liked it or not. He’d almost wager on the not.

Anastasia resisted the urge to peer over her shoulder, even though the skin at her nape prickled. She could feel Seth following, feel him with every extrasensory perception she had. Even without looking, she’d have wagered one thing.
I’ll bet he’s checking out my ass.
It was what he always did, and once upon a time, she’d loved it. Until she realized hers wasn’t the only ass he kept an eye on.

Jealousy was a vicious bitch. Anastasia
had never met the emotion until Seth, and once she and the green-eyed mistress got acquainted, she found her hard to shake, especially when it came to the handsome recruit.

Young and
usually so focused, Anastasia couldn’t help but find herself flattered by Seth’s ardent attention—who wouldn’t? He was the equivalent of the captain of the football team. Tall, fit, blond, good-looking, with a smile to charm even the most hardened of battle axes to give him a free pass when caught outside of the barracks after curfew.

When he turned his attention to her,
Anastasia couldn’t help but blossom, and crave it. Not that she gave in easy or let him know. The fact that she’d found herself instantly attracted to him from the first moment they met made her suspicious. What kind of idiot sat on a wall and waited to help others in a race to see who was best? Seth did. Or would have if she’d not teased him with the knowledge of a prize for the top winners that day. When he blew past her on the endurance course with a cockily thrown, “See you at the finish line”, she became determined to show him she was just as good as him. Maybe even better. The end result?

They’d both
been chosen for a special mission. As a matter of fact, they became an unstoppable duo, in the field and the bedroom. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until after they tied the knot that she realized hers wasn’t the only bedroom he visited.

Set
up my ass.
She couldn’t believe he clung to that lie even after all these years. She’d seen the proof. Heard it as well in full moaning embarrassment. Nothing like getting handed a video of your husband naked in a bed with a beautiful woman straddling him to shatter a dream.

When her commanding officer gave her the order to terminate
Seth’s lying ass, she’d gladly jumped at the chance to do something to hurt him back. The pain, oh god, the pain of his betrayal had cut her to the bone. Heart ripped out, stomped on, set on fire and burnt to ash, she’d thought herself cried out when she went to deliver his punishment. Wrong. Tears ran down her cheeks the entire way there. She’d sobbed despite her anger.

She blamed her eventual failure to terminate him on her emotional weakness. She’d hesitated, and
he ended up getting away. For the first time in her career, she’d failed a mission.

Returning to base, dejected and head hanging in shame, s
he’d expected to get severely reprimanded for not completing her task. But the same military officer who showed such sorrow at breaking the bad news of her husband’s infidelity showed an almost smug satisfaction when she announced her inability to take out the traitor.

She never knew what happened to her cheating jerk of a hus
band other than he lived. Despite her determination to pretend he’d never existed, she still heard through the grapevine that the military ended up canceling their plan to kill him. He got reassigned to a different base. After only a little argument on her part, she had her defective heart removed and replaced with a newer mechanical one, one that, despite its efficiency, still emitted the occasional ghostly ache. Time passed, and despite the fact they worked in theory for the same government, she never saw Seth again.

She also n
ever officially got a divorce either but more because things went to hell in a hand basket after her voluntary decision to join the cybernetic special ops group. As an integral part of the cyborg program, and nosy when it came to certain inconsistencies that began cropping up, she caught wind early on of the plan to eliminate all cyber units.

The nerve. And after all she’d given to the military.

Before they could send a force to exterminate her, she wiped herself out. She faked her death. It wasn’t that hard, not with the resources and skills they’d given her. Determined to survive, she proceeded to remove every trace of her existence from every single database and hard drive she could hack into. She set fires to rooms with hard paper copies. She eliminated a few key players, military asshats she’d never cared much for in the first place. Anastasia cleaned the slate and started over.

Anna Kline was born. And Anna
followed a new prime directive. Contrary to what Seth and the others did, which was to find and free as many cyborgs as possible without getting caught, she went after bigger fish. She wanted the ones who’d created the program in the first place. The ones who’d bankrolled the project, ordered the unlawful recruitment, and pulled the plug when their toys didn’t behave as told.

She went into deep undercover and
, in the process, discovered more than she bargained for. In an odd twist, she also stumbled upon Seth’s file. It seemed her
husband
had been a busy machine. Part of the cyborg rebellion force. A wanted criminal by the human federation, the military, and pretty much everyone who wanted to eradicate the cyborgs. A man to admire. A man capable of making her metal heart malfunction.

He was also the perfect tool to get her to the next stage of her operation.

Much as it galled her, she knew of no one else with the skills to help her. Or who could be counted on to protect not just her but also certain cyborgs in custody.

“How did you get to the surface without Joe and the others detecting you?” Seth asked, derailing her thoughts.

“Cloaking device.”

“The new one the military’s been using?”

“You’re aware of it?”

“We’ve encountered it. And some of their new damned tracking bugs. What gives with the technology?
Einstein’s never seen anything like it. We can’t even detect the shit unless we’re looking right at it, and even then, our processors insist it’s not there.”

“There’ve been some breakthroughs since your group splintered off.”

“Say it like it is. We escaped execution.”

“I prefer the term mutiny.”

“And you’re ignoring my initial query. The cloaking tech. Something like that was probably years in the making. How did we not hear of it? Even now, there’s not a whisper anywhere, not even in hacker circles. It’s like these new abilities to cloak bugs, and even ships, came out of nowhere.”

Seth wasn’t asking the right question. “Not
nowhere.” Just elsewhere.

He didn’t catch her implication
, so she didn’t feel a need to explain.

“So who did you steal your
device from?” he asked.

“I didn’t have to steal it. I borrowed it.”

His rich laugh sent shivers dancing in places that hadn’t felt a quiver in so long she’d forgotten they existed. “Okay then, where did you
borrow
it from?”

“Let’s just s
ay my current mission gives me access to certain things, like this ship.”

“What ship?”

She sent a mental command to her vessel, and in the seemingly empty clearing, it shimmered into existence. Hovering above the ground, the stasis field, which kept it aloft, barely stirred the lush aqua colored grassy fronds topped with speckled green and white flowers.

“Holy shit. I never even knew it was there,” Seth exclaimed.

“It’s a great feature, but it requires a lot of power to maintain, just like keeping it off your planetary radars sucks up juice, so, if you don’t mind, we should get going.”

“Your wish is my command, wife.”

“Would you mind not calling me that?” she snapped. “I’d rather the crew not know about our marital situation, which I intend to resolve by the way.”

“Crew? What crew?”

“I’ll debrief you once we’re away from the cyborg planet and on our way to the rendezvous point.”

“More and more intriguing. You know how I enjoy a good mystery and a challenge.”

Indeed she did. After all, it was how they’d ended up together in the first place.