Mae remained silent as the Extraktors locked arms through her elbows and led her away. It helped cover up the fact that she’d dipped away for an instant. The recollections were becoming more vivid, but she only held on to a sensation this time: fear. When she’d returned to herself, her captors were dragging her away on her toes. They made no comment as she regained her footing.
Rather than fighting them, she was determined to give nothing away. Instead, Mae listened, carefully cataloguing what they said.
Lenny, a few steps behind her, was also smart enough to keep his mouth shut. The synthetics that restrained them marched them rapidly down the private dock, away from the Icarus. They also said nothing, but the human members of the team were not as circumspect.
They weren’t laughing and joking, but they still exchanged some victorious words. From the “Gonna get paid,” she garnered greed motivated them, mixed with machismo. As for their leader, Captain Warrae, she had his name, but it was hard to study him closely since he took up the back.
She overheard him mention “leverage” to his sergeant. That was obviously Lenny and his family. In the moments since they’d subdued him, Mae’s urge to fight back leaped to life. Her body tensed, muscles ready to react to some unknown training. She’d already picked the targets. The grinning sergeant would be the first. He might be enhanced, but he clearly hadn’t augmented his intellect. He hadn’t tightened his helmet. She would easily reach his jugular before he reacted. The visual chart of how this might play out was as real to her as the opponents before her.
However, then there was Lenny. Even with all the logistics in Mae’s head, there was no way she’d be able to reach him in time to prevent Warrae from making good on his promise. Without a weapon, his odds were nil.
So, Mae surrendered. It might well be a weakness, but she couldn’t bring herself to be responsible for the death of those who rescued her from the void. Instead, she waited; there would be another moment. Although she didn’t know where that certainty came from.
If the Extraktors stepped into the elevator together with Mae first, then she’d chance it. In the confines of the small space, their pulse rifles would be more of a hindrance than a help. She calculated she would subdue them within acceptable parameters. However, as the elevator doors slid open, only Lenny and his synthetic guards stepped in. The doors closed and their captors whipped him away—along with any remaining hope of escape.
Warrae stepped up next to her. His eyes narrowed within his strangely stilled face. Whatever augments he possessed, they must be significant. “Can’t have you injured trying to help the boy.”
“Yeah, those cuffs would do a number on you. Two thousand volts.” The chuckle in the sergeant’s voice was disturbing. That was well over a lethal dose for a human. Mae was right to judge them as capable of anything.
The elevator doors reopened, and they loaded her in with a sharp shove.
“If we don’t reach our destination, the synthetics will kill him anyway. Isn’t that right, Homolka?” Warrae’s tone suggested this outcome would please him.
“Yes, sir, Captain. And not quickly, either.” The sergeant straightened, and Mae detected the faint whir of limb augments. Some of these ‘humans’ were more synthetic than actual androids.
Whoever she was, Mae realized she must be important. Did she once know something vital? Had she killed someone worth sending these troopers after her? A thousand possibilities ran through her mind.
I hate to say it, but logically, the boy doesn’t matter.
Mae ignored the dry voice in her head. It already suggested leaving Lenny in the moments before she surrendered. She hoped he hadn’t detected that hesitation before she’d given herself up. She was not about to take the advice of a hallucination.
The elevator completed its ascent and the doors opened.
“Welcome to Extraktors HQ. It’s temporary, but it’s home. You’re going to love it.” Sergeant Homolka was a pure sadist. The excited pitch to his voice was a dead giveaway that they were most definitely not going to have a good time.
Posters on the wall urged Guelph citizens to ‘Follow the commands of your local garrison.’ These suggested the Extraktors requisitioned the space from the station security service. It was all cheap chairs and crowded desks, although the powerful odor of bleach wafting from the back rooms suggested something worse.
“Sergeant Raytheon, please make sure the equipment is ready.” Warrae dismissed his junior as the synthetics pushed Mae to sit in a metal chair.
From there, she got a good view of the holding cell across the sparsely decorated room. It was a barren chamber illuminated in stark blue-white light. The Pope family huddled in a corner, since there was no furniture in the cell besides a stained toilet. William leaned against one wall, arms crossed, his gaze fixed on his wife and children. Morgan stared back at Mae, his expression a blank slate. Daniella didn’t seem to notice the woman they’d rescued, since her attention remained fixed on Lenny. She clasped her youngest son tight, one hand cradling his head. He didn’t fight it.
Mae watched them for only a minute. It seemed awkward to gaze at the family, like observing bugs about to be crushed. Anguish built in the back of her throat until she couldn’t breathe.
“You have me. They have done nothing.” She stared up at Warrae. “They’re innocent.”
“Au contraire, I think you’ll find the boy tried to steal a Combine ship, one with a significant dollar value attached.” Warrae pulled up a chair and sat fractionally out of reach of Mae. “Twenty years on a penal colony will certainly make him less pretty. Tell me, do you think his mother would recognize him—if he survives, that is?”
Mae would have more luck dealing with a synthetic mind; at least she could’ve used logic. “What do you want with me? I remember nothing, so whatever your bosses want, I don’t have it. If they—”
A puzzled frown settled on Warrae’s face. “Really? Not even that?”
The synthetic guard behind her spun her chair around to face the wall. Warrae flicked his wrist-pd, and it projected an image there. It was from a security camera and displayed all the wreckage the Eumenides found with her, as well as the cryo escape pod itself.
“No. Not even that.”
Now his expression became one of interest. Warrae tapped his fingers on his knee. “That is quite strange. In all my time doing this, I’ve never encountered a case like yours.”
He wasn’t making any sense.
Homolka appeared from a back room. “We’re ready for her, sir.”
Warrae sighed and flicked off the image. “Well, as wonderful as this conversation has been, it’s time to crack that nut open and see what we have.”
Mae wanted to swear or scream, but she didn’t.
He’d like that. That voice in her head returned. Don’t give him the satisfaction.
The synthetics pinned her arms tight against her body and dragged her into the room at the back. It was likely the sergeant of the security force’s office, at one time. But the Extraktors had transformed it into a horrifying place of clean, white nightmares.
It also contained horrors. Spread out on a medical bed lay Pelorus.
Mae swallowed back nausea. They’d removed his face and laid it on an instrument table. His piercing silver eyes locked onto her as they dragged her past. He couldn’t say anything because they had already torn his jaw off. Two far less complex medical synthetics stood at his table, their hands buried in their fellow synth’s insides.
At her horrified expression, Warrae made a tutting noise. “Yes, it looks quite a mess, but it is the best way to jack the system. The access nodes in the mouth make our entire process much easier.”
Pelorus might not be a human, but in those eyes and in the twitches of his fingers, Mae understood he was in pain. Synthetics of his complexity experienced the world as clearly as a human. Pelorus was a kind being, trained to look after people with sympathy and gentleness. It was a complete outrage that he was being treated in this way. They’d flayed him apart. Mae swallowed hard as bile welled up in her throat.
Warrae’s mouth spread in a grin that contained not a drop of humanity. “Don’t feel too sorry for Pelorus. He’s the one that noticed what you are. Micro-expressions—they give away something like you to a trained medical android. Still, he wouldn’t have told a human except under the most extreme duress. Tried to initiate a fatal shutdown, but luckily we caught him before he managed it.”
The words that came out of Warrae’s mouth confused Mae. She blinked and tried to focus. “What… what do you mean, micro-expressions? Gave me away? What are you talking about, you fucking madman?”
The captain tilted his head. “Can you really not know what you are?” His gaze flickered back for a second to where they’d locked up the Pope family. “How interesting. The mother did mention something about memory loss.”
Another two medical androids appeared, wheeling a cart over. On top of it lay a variety of sharp instruments and probes.
Mae lurched to the right, overcome by the primal instinct to get away. Her captors tightened their implacable grip on her, dragging her towards another operating table.
“I’m a citizen, a human being!” she screamed as they lifted her off her feet, up onto the table, and restrained her limbs.
I’m here. I’m with you. The voice in her head sounded sad. Nice to know her madness possessed a conscience, because Warrae certainly did not.
He could have let the medical synthetics do their work, but a flicker in his eyes told Mae that he enjoyed her panic and very much wanted to be the direct cause of it.
Immediately, she clamped those reactions down. Through a tense jaw, she ground out, “You like hurting people.”
“People? No, never. Things like you, well, they can’t experience hurt any more than this table can.”
She wasn’t the only mad person in the room, then. “Fucking psychopath!”
“Enough name-calling. How about we cut to the chase?” Warrae picked up a long, sharp probe from the cart with a cord that connected it to a computer. “I very much want to find out exactly what you are.”
While her eyes remained fixed on the partly human captain, the other medical android behind her moved. His merciless and powerful grip clamped down around her jaw. Her blind terror was immediate and distant at the same time. Before her garbled scream reached full strength, in one smooth, terrifying move, he ripped her jaw free. Dark blood sprayed everywhere, splattering Warrae’s cheek.
He blinked, and his eyes widened. Warrae thrust the probe in behind where her jaw had been, and everything was blasted away in a mist of pain and white light. Who she was ceased to matter.