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Raven clutched the tracking system in her hand as she waited for Leith to issue the final instructions to Warren, who he had recruited to lead the enclave while he was at the cyborg base receiving treatment. She was nervous about the trip back to base, worrying about relying strictly on the technology that Patrick had modified.
If it wasn’t completely functional, they could stumble across a group of synthetics, and she wasn’t entirely confident in their odds. It was just the two of them, since it was more discreet to travel in small groups, but she wished she had accepted Davis’s suggestion of a few cyborgs to accompany them. She hadn’t wanted to put her brethren at risk to make the journey to the human enclave, but now she was second-guessing her decision to decline their presence.
Her free hand went to her waist, where she had snugly secured the pulser Leith had given her before they set out that morning. He had another just like it, along with a sophisticated gun she had shown him how to use that was a product of the cyborgs. With their combined technology, they should be able to make the trip to the base safely, but she was still nervous and on edge as they finally left the enclave and headed to the surface.
The wind whipped with extra ferocity as they stepped out of the safety of the caves housing the enclave and into the barrenness of aboveground. Particles of dust stung her eyes, and she blinked repeatedly, wishing she had brought goggles with her when she had made the trek back to the human enclave as the liaison.
They started moving, with her pausing to consult the tracking system every few minutes. From what she could determine, it should beep to alert them if they were about to encounter a synthetic, but she wasn’t willing to trust the system to be designed as Patrick intended until she had verified for herself that it actually worked.
They heard their first beep less than a half-hour after they had started out. She looked down at the tracking system and saw three glowing green dots. Her presence registered as a blue dot, and had been there continuously, and it helped quickly orient her to where the synthetics were located. They were due to cross paths in less than a hundred klicks, and she gestured to Leith to come with her.
They slipped behind a rocky alcove seconds before the synthetics crossed their path. Only the sythns’ legs were visible from their hiding spot. She held her breath, hand on her pulser, as she waited to see if the three synthetics would notice their presence somehow. They appeared to remain oblivious, maintaining the same pace and course that the tracker had indicated to start with.
In less than a minute, they had moved away from the area where Leith and Raven hid, but she couldn’t get her legs to work for another moment to stand up as relief flooded through her. It was nerve-racking taking the tracking device for a field test, but she was starting to become optimistic that it actually worked the way it was supposed to.
Finally, she got to her feet and eased out first before gesturing for Leith to follow her. There were no signs of the synthetics, and they were soon underway again.
Three times, they had to pause when the tracking system beeped, finding hiding places. It was definitely working, but it couldn’t completely save them from a confrontation.
When the device beeped for the fifth time, she winced when she saw four dots on the device. They were in the middle of an open area, with no shelter around, and nowhere to hide. At least they had advance warning, and she paused to put a hand on Leith’s shoulder. The wind was blowing so hard that it was difficult to hear, so she placed her mouth next to his ear. “We’re about to run into four of them. We have nowhere to hide, so have your pulser ready, and then the gun.”
He looked frightened, but resolved, as he held up his pulser. Just before the four synths stepped into view, she started pressing the button on the pulser in their direction. Leith was also holding his out, and she was glad it wasn’t directed at her, or it might’ve scrambled her circuits for a moment too. Cyborgs weren’t impervious to the pulser, though they weren’t as deeply affected, because their brains were a combination of organic and cybernetic components.
The synths stumbled into view, looking disoriented and confused. One was walking into another, taking a step back, and then repeating the same motion. Raven took advantage of the moment to slip her pulser in her belt and lift her rifle.
She eliminated two synthetics in under ten seconds. It was too loud to hear Leith’s weapon discharging, but she could feel the vibrations from it as she stood close. He destroyed a synthetic, and then there was just one left. Together, they turned their weapons on it, destroying the synthetic as a team. It made her vibrate in her own way as sexual arousal swept through her. It was strange, but she couldn’t deny that fighting with Leith to destroy the synth had turned her on.
She turned to tell him that and let out an agonized cry instead as agony consumed her leg. She looked down, recognizing the color of the laser as belonging to a synthetic. It was their new model. It had to be, because it destroyed her flesh and cybernetic components flawlessly. She stumbled, barely maintaining her balance on one leg as she leaned heavily against Leith on his chair.
When she turned around to face the fifth synth, she caught sight of the tracking device on the ground where she had laid it. It showed the presence of the fifth one now, and the synthetic must have come up behind them while they were engaged with the other four. The wind had kept her from hearing the beeping, and she’d been too distracted fighting the others to keep hold of the tracking device throughout. She was paying for it now.
Leith was moving faster than her, unhampered by an injury, and he lifted his pulser to point at the synth. In less than five seconds, it dropped its weapon and started blinking before shuffling around. Raven brought up her gun, but once again, Leith was faster than she was. He destroyed the fifth synth before gathering her into his arms on his lap.
Raven reached down to retrieve the tracking device before resting against his chest, holding it on her lap. She could feel unconsciousness swelling, so she pointed to the device to show him the path to take, unable to manage the energy to shout loudly enough for him to hear her over the whipping wind. With the last of her strength, she lifted her gun so that Leith could use it if needed and then allowed unconsciousness to slip over her, certain that Leith would keep her safe.
***
LEITH WAS THANKFUL he had an affinity with technology, because he was able to quickly adapt to consulting the tracking device that he had strapped to his chair while steering with the other hand, all while keeping his arm around Raven. It made travel awkward, but he could take his hand off the steering mechanism to reach his and her weapons, along with his pulser, should they encounter more synthetics from which they couldn’t hide.
Already, he’d had to take shelter twice with her, and he’d been lucky to find a place to hide the last time. According to the tracking device, they were only a few kilometers from the cyborg base now, and his adrenaline levels had to be at maximum.
Doubt picked away at him, making him question whether he could get her the rest of the way safely or not. What would happen if they ran into another group of synthetics from which they couldn’t hide? Before, with her and the pulser, it had been fairly easy to subdue the four. The fifth one had taken them both by surprise, and he wasn’t confident he would be able to fight a group of synthetics with her on his lap, and only one free hand.
But what choice was there except to press forward? She was badly injured, and her leg had simply disintegrated under the force of the synthetic’s weapon. She needed to reach the base, and he was her only hope of doing so. He was resolved to keep her safe and get her where she needed to be, so when he saw another two synths approaching, according to the device, he looked around frantically for somewhere to hide.
There was nowhere, so he lifted the pulser and waited until they were within range. He started firing before he could see them, and they stumbled out in that state of confusion that had started to become familiar. With more finesse than he would’ve ever guessed he was capable of, he switched from the pulser to the rifle she had given him, firing to remove both threats to the woman in his arms.
Afterward, he pushed his chair past them, spurring the mechanism to give him all the speed of which the machine was capable. His mind was reeling with what had just happened, and though it had seemed almost instinctive to act the way he had, now he was marveling at his quick action and almost disbelieving that he had handled two synthetics on his own.
A few minutes later, the location for the cyborg base was finally before them, and he headed toward it. It was an unobtrusive design, not easily visible from a distance, and not clearly a building that housed hundreds or thousands of beings. He had no knowledge about the true population at the cyborg installation. Even as he was almost right on top of it, he wouldn’t have confidently identified it as a base if it hadn’t been for the tracking device containing the coordinates Raven had programmed into it before they left.
He wasn’t certain how to get their attention, so he used the rifle to pound on the outside of the structure. It looked like stone, but it felt like metal when his weapon connected with it, sending reverberations up his arm.
It only took three pounds before a group of cyborgs appeared. They had their weapons drawn, but he was surprisingly unafraid, though he only recognized one of the faces in the group. JSN hurried forward, taking Raven from his lap. Leith’s first instinct was to hold on to her, to insist on delivering her himself, but he quickly vanquished that urge, realizing JSN could get her to the healer faster than he could.
The other cyborgs surrounded him, guarding his back as they all moved into the base through a door that had opened in the rock face that wasn’t really rock.
It couldn’t have taken more than a few seconds, but it felt like forever before they reached the medical bay, and JSN rushed her inside with Leith right behind him. Now that she was there safely, he wasn’t leaving her side for a minute until her eyes opened again, and he was reassured she was completely healed.
He was fairly certain the cyborg healer could replace her leg and bring her back to him, but he couldn’t allow himself to be separated from her. Clinging tightly to her hand as they laid her on the table, he was almost surprised that no one tried to separate them. They just worked around him as he stationed himself in the least obtrusive place possible to allow them to do what they needed to do to save Raven. Either they didn’t even think about removing him, or they had instinctively realized that he was right where he belonged. It was a realization he himself had just come to a few moments before, and there was no way he was giving up his rightful spot unless it was a life-or-death matter for his mate.