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“I’m not military.” Axe’s declaration was almost a snarl.
“You were a soldier, though.” She raised a hand placatingly. “I know it wasn’t your choice. Maybe that’s why Amun chose you despite your past.” She was musing aloud now, working through possibilities. “Or maybe it’s because the two of you have so much in common.”
“What the fraxx could I have common with a bird?” Axe demanded and then immediately glanced down at Amun. “No insult intended.”
Amun cocked his head and fluffed his wings in a way that somehow conveyed annoyance.
She laughed softly. “I think he’s insulted anyway.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
To her surprise, Axe lowered himself to the ground and sat down beside the psy-hawk. Then he reached out with one huge hand to stroke the bird’s back. “I’m going to need some time to wrap my head around this, Amun. I’ve been on my own for a long time. The only voice I’m used to hearing is mine.”
Amun chirped softly and closed the distance between them until he was leaning against Axe’s thigh.
“It appears I am forgiven.” Axe glanced up at her again. This time, both the uncertainty and the anger were gone. In their place was a look she could only describe as bewildered contentment. Like he was happy but wasn’t sure what to make of the feeling.
Without even thinking about it, she sat down beside him and shot him a reassuring smile. “It’s a hell of a shock. Isn’t it? One minute you’re alone in your head and the next you’ve got someone else in there projecting thoughts and feelings that aren’t your own.”
He snorted with laughter. “I don’t do feelings. They’re messy and lead to bad decisions.”
“Spoken like a typical guy.” Fraxx. Had she said that aloud? What a time for her filters to fail. She needed to be at her professional best. After all, this was exactly what she’d hoped for when she’d come to Haven, and she wanted to document everything that happened from now until she had to leave.
Axe shot her a wry look, somewhere between amused and insulted. “I’m not typical and I’m not a guy. I’m a cyborg.”
“I figured that out.” She raised a hand and ticked off each point she made on her fingers. “You have medi-bots. You said you turned off your pain receptors. Oh, yes, and you’re fraxxing huge. I swear I’ve seen Torskis smaller than you.”
His smile widened, transforming the hard planes of his face into a portrait of breathtaking male beauty. “You’re exaggerating. The only members of that species smaller than me are juveniles.”
Several important parts of her brain shorted out when he smiled, and she had to struggle to form her next words. “You’re right, but my statement is still technically true.”
“Now you sound like a corporate executive.” His light, teasing tone indicated he was joking, but the words still hit her like a slap to the face.
“Now I’m insulted. I’m not affiliated with any of the corporations. I do freelance work for them from time to time, but that’s it. I won’t compromise my integrity for a paycheck.”
His eyes widened and Amun made a show of pecking his leg in disapproval while Hera hopped to the ground and positioned herself so she could glare at the cyborg.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.” He scowled and raked a hand through his long hair. “I mentioned I’m often alone already. Too much time solo and my social skills get rusty.”
“It’s fine. I just wanted to make it clear I’m not on any corporation’s payroll. Not that most of them would have much use for an ornithologist.”
“I don’t imagine many of them care much about birds,” he agreed. “But I would have said the same thing about the IAF, yet here you are.”
Rin paused for a moment to collect her thoughts and confirm that nothing she was about to reveal was classified. Douglas would have her head if she gave away military secrets. When she spoke, she made sure her voice was low enough the recording drone wouldn’t catch what she said. “I assume you know where the corporations acquired the original genetic material used to create the cyborgs?”
He nodded and dropped his volume to match hers. “They stole it from the Vault of the Fallen. I gather that’s some kind of genetic vault the Interstellar Armed Forces has hidden away on a secret base somewhere.”
Rin confirmed his statement with a silent nod that would give her some wiggle room if she was asked what she’d revealed about Victor Base and the secrets hidden inside its walls.
“Recently the IAF reviewed a number of projects and materials from that location and discovered that one of the former scientists had been running a project off the books.” She gestured to Hera and Amun and then to the others still circling overhead. “The notes are encrypted, and so far the IAF hasn’t been able to read them. All they had to go on were the eight fertilized eggs stored in a cryo-tube.”
Axe curled his lip in disgust. “Let me guess. They decided the best way to figure out the experiment was to hatch the eggs and see what came out?”
“Uh. Yeah. Not the way I’d have done it, but they didn’t bring me on board until later. The subjects were all full-fledged adults by then, and Hera bonded with me immediately. Until then, they had no idea that was one of their abilities.”
“They’re fraxxing lucky Amun and his kin weren’t dragons or something equally dangerous.”
Amun chirped at him before lifting one foot to flex his talons and then looking pointedly at Axe’s bloody shirt.
