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“I don’t think we have long,” Daniel said gruffly. “We need to get ready for an attack—it’s coming. Ican feel it in my bones, and I’m never wrong about these things.”
“How much time do you think we have?” she said softly.
“It’s safest to assume it could come at any moment. And I’m not going to tell you what to do, but I really think you should go to the mountain.”
“I’mnotleaving you.” She took the hand that had touched her so tenderly. “And I’m not leaving Gus or C.P.”
Daniel took a deep breath. “That’s what the guards are for.”
“Then they can guard all of us together.”
A hint of a smile teased his lips. “I had a feeling that’s what you were going to say.”
“Guess you know me well, huh?”
“Yup, and I’m not going to argue with you. In the words of Forrest Gump, ‘I’m not a smart man, but—’?”
Abruptly, there was a metal-on-metal shifting sound, and they both turned to the vault entrance, reaching out at the same time for the latching system.
“I’ve got it,” Daniel said.
And he did. He grabbed on to the handle, and then sank into his lower body, using his weight more than strength to open what was clearly a heavy load.
On the other side was… an octagonal room paneled in what appeared to be stainless steel. Alighting system was mounted in cages in the ceiling, and the too-bright light reflected off of every angle in the space, creating a high-tech aura.
Wow. And yet could she be surprised?
Only C.P. Phalen would buy a property where the listing included, in addition to 8 BR, 9.5 baths, professional-grade kitchen, detached heated garage, and in-ground pool, a “Counterterrorism Escape and Containment Area.”
At least that was what a little plate read on the inside of the doorjamb.
And then she didn’t think anymore about labels. It was all about what was inside: On a stainless slab in the center, a human-form collection of nuts, bolts, and mechanicals was orientated as a body would be on its back. The arms were flush with its sides, its legs out from the sockets, the feet splayed wide at the ankles. There were no clothes on the unit, and patches of its skin-like covering were intact in some places.
“Holy… crap,” she breathed.
The face had been dissected, the fibers that seemed like swaths of muscles pulled off the metal cheeks and put in glass dishes over on a series of shelves, the eyes already gone because Daniel had taken them to make sure the cyborg couldn’t function. Parts of the neck had likewise been examined… and the chest as well.
There was no heart at the sternum—and sheshouldn’t have been surprised by that. She was, though.
It was so… human-like, and yet utterly manufactured.
A work of man, not God. A killing machine with no conscience.
“I hate this thing,” she said, as she approached it cautiously. “And I keep expecting it to come alive.”
Joining Daniel next to the table, she felt a creeping tension at the back of her neck. When Daniel had told her that he’d spoken to a friend of his, she hadn’t asked a lot of questions. But now that he’d taken her here? She wondered what kind of conversation had been had.
“Help me roll this fucking thing over?” he said. “Toward us.”
Lydia didn’t hesitate, but she hated touching the cool metal, and the feel of the flexible wires, and the sticky, corded connections between the “bones.” Gripping the rib cage, she dropped down into her legs and shifted backward. The unit was very heavy, heavier than a human of the same size. And as soon as the cyborg was balanced on its side, she started running through scenarios where it suddenly woke up on the attack.
What the hell are we doing?she thought to herself.
With a fumble in his pocket, Daniel took out apenlight and triggered the beam into the nape area. “Okay, got it. Can we roll things all the way over so it’s facedown?”
“Yup.”
Sinking down into her thighs again, she circled the torso at the ribs and shoved forward at the same time she flipped it back with a yank. The jerky maneuver worked okay—but it was like tossing a pancake that weighed as much as a sofa. That was slippery. Fortunately, Daniel caught the thing and kept it from falling off the other side onto the floor.
