If I thought my screams would bring someone, I was wrong. Time passed, nothing happened, and I calmed down because I had no choice. I sat with my back to the window, arms looped around my legs, resolutely determined to avoid looking outside. I could only take so much. No need to kick-start a freak-out all over again.
So what did I know? Novi had kidnapped me. Her husband, or whoever, worked in the off-world mines and had a grudge against Alexei. The miners were rioting so I’d probably been taken as a hostage to negotiate a compromise; otherwise I’d be dead. However, this assumed Alexei wanted me back and that wasn’t a certainty. Not after the look I saw on his face when he’d launched himself at Brody. No, best not to dwell on that part.
Back to Novi. Obviously she had access to significant resources if she could crash One Gov’s charity gala, grab me, and stash me in a cell on Phobos. Somehow Brody knew about it and had attempted to save me. The end result—me on Phobos in jail. Why hadn’t he just told Alexei what he knew? Why couldn’t they have worked together to prevent this? And what kind of angle was Brody working for him to know I was in danger? Did he have some connection to Novi and the miners? I had too many question and absolutely no answers.
I swore and resettled on my cot. None of this made sense. Worse, I hadn’t run my cards in ages so I was completely in the dark. Maybe I wasn’t a hostage. Maybe I’d just been removed from the picture and I’d never leave this cell. No, I couldn’t think like that. Alexei would find me. I had to believe that or I’d go crazy. But did he know where I was? With my bracelet smashed, I was completely off the grid. All I could do was wait.
So I waited. And I dozed, stretched, paced, shook the cell bars just to be sure they were still locked, used the toilet, paced more, braided my hair, finger-combed it loose, rebraided it, and started the circuit over again. Out of sheer boredom, I looked out the window and could see Space Station Destiny anchored above the space elevator. I wondered how much time had passed since my abduction. Phobos circled Mars three times a sol, but also had its own rotation, enough to give the tiny moon its own gravity. How many times had Phobos orbited Mars so far? There was no way to know.
My first visitor came soon after that. Male, tall, and built like a brick, with short, dark hair and deeply tanned skin. It could have been Tru-Tan, meaning his skin had been artificially pigmented to protect it against the sun, but I didn’t think so. He carried a tray of food, and when he bent to push it through an opening between the bars and the floor, I noticed tan lines on his muscular arms. Whoever this guy was, he wasn’t a miner. He didn’t have the pale, lanky look that came from spending a lifetime in low to zero-g and no time in the sun. This was guy was hired muscle.
Dinner was watery stew with sketchy-looking meat, a plastic cup of water, and a moldy bun. Disgusting, but I was hungry and who knew when I’d get my next meal? I picked off the mold and dug the carrots out of my stew because I’d never been a fan of anything orange. The water I gulped greedily, wishing I had more.
My guard watched me eat, following my movements. He was recording me—something I wouldn’t have realized if not for hanging out with Mannette Bleu’s human PVRs. Either someone was watching me via live feed, or I was being recorded and the images would be downloaded from his memory blocks later. I wished I had something clever to say, but my mind was blank. Whoever the intended audience was, I was determined not to give them the show they wanted. Instead, I ate my food with all the poise I could muster. When I finished, I kicked the tray back through the slot. Then I lay down and studied the wall, running my finger along its cracks.
I knew my visitor was still there. Moments passed until finally he spoke. “They want you to say something.”
Oh, did they? Funny how I couldn’t feel much more than tired apathy. Too bad they’d caught me in between panic attacks. I rolled over, raised myself on an elbow, and said, “My fiancé will probably kill all of you for this.”
Granted, I wouldn’t be so cocky later if they tortured me or cut off body parts, but in that moment, it completely summed up my disdain. Then deciding it was the ultimate insult, I lay down, rolled to my side, and drifted off to sleep.
I woke to hands dragging me from the cot. That, and an annoyed male voice I didn’t recognize.
“She really is a piece of work. Nothing but a spook but she’s got the whole planet in an uproar. Rise and shine, princess. Time for her majesty to present herself.”
Any other time, I would have dazzled my captors with a smart-assed comment for their enjoyment. However, I found that waking from a terrifying dream where I was locked in prison then rediscovering it was my new reality robbed me of the most basic comebacks.
I was placed on my feet in the ugly canvas slip-ons with my hands secured by unbreakable carbon ties. I shook my hair off my face so I could see what was happening. There were three other people with me—the asshole binding my hands who’d brought my dinner, the man who abducted me from the gala, and Novi. All wore black stealth gear and were decked out with a variety of weapons. They were clearly some kind of military unit, even Novi, who I’d once thought so young and naïve. Not anymore. She looked tough and merciless, making me wonder how I’d been so wrong about her. My cards could never lead me this far astray. I had to be missing something.
“Let me guess. The miners are hiring mercenaries to do their dirty work now?” I threw out, just to see what I’d hit. “They must be really desperate to get back at the Consortium if kidnapping me is their big plan.”
The asshole who’d bound my hands snorted a laugh. “As if they could afford us.”
What? I shot a look to Novi. “You’re not connected to the off-world mines?”
“Nice to see you’re follow along, princess,” said the asshole. He tapped the side of my head. “Was wondering if there was anything up in there.”
Novi smirked at me. “We’re connected. Just not the way you think.”
That shook me. “But your husband…”
Another smirk. “So much for being a big-deal fortune-teller. Guess you don’t know as much as you think you do.”
I knew I should have been worried about whatever was happening next, but having Novi smirk at me just pissed me off. I tried to remember the reading I’d done for her all those weeks ago. “Okay, so not your husband. But I know there’s a man controlling you, and you do whatever he tells you.”
“We’re all controlled by somebody, princess. Our somebody just happens to have access to a lot of gold notes.”
I blinked. Mercenaries? Someone had hired mercenaries to abduct me and stash me on Phobos? And Brody had somehow known and tried to prevent it. What the hell was going on?
“Who do you work for? Who’s paying you?”
Novi rolled her eyes like I was an idiot, then looked at the other two men. “Bring her. Let’s go.”
“At least tell me what happened to the baby,” I blurted out before she could turn away.
That seemed to catch her off guard. “Not really something you need to concern yourself with, is it?”
No it wasn’t, but her response did make me hate her. Well, I hadn’t liked her after she’d tried to kill me; this was just icing on the cake.
I was jarred from my thoughts as my captors jerked me down the hall by my carbon ties and past a row of cells, all empty. Then we went through a series of locked doors and the cells were full.
It was here where the reality of my situation staggered me: The Phobos penal colony housed the most violent and reviled criminals in the tri-system. Their lives were regulated by a special branch of One Gov’s AI queenmind that dictated all aspects of their pitiful existence. It was completely automated with little human interaction from the outside, because once you were on Phobos, the human race was meant to forget you existed.
The overhead lights were dimmed and the cells darkened to simulate night. I could hear light snores and heavy breathing as our little parade passed. However some cell occupants were awake and watched us with interest. Explicit sexual suggestions were shouted, so crude they made me cringe. I tried to keep my eyes forward, back straight, and not look as scared as I felt, but I don’t think I succeeded. Based on the catcalls, if I somehow ended up in one of those cells, it was unlikely I’d be heard from again.
“Why am I here?” I asked, tugging on my arms and digging in my heels. “How long are you planning on keeping me prisoner?”
No answer. Instead, I was yanked forward. My already aching arms screamed in protest and it took everything in me not to cry. Gods knew it wouldn’t help and I wasn’t letting these assholes know they were getting to me. Maybe it was time for false bravado to show up.
“I may not know what’s going on, but I know you’re going to fail. Whoever’s paying you and whatever your plan is, you won’t succeed. Everyone involved will die. I remember the final card now: the Tower. Everything you value in your life is shaking apart right now whether you acknowledge that or not.”
From the asshole: “Shut it.”
And to think he’d actually wanted me to talk earlier. Some people were never satisfied. For good measure, I threw in, “By the way, I’d like to add my predictions are never wrong.”
That earned me a punch in the face. Not a hard one, more like a close-fisted slap, but enough that my head snapped back, I tasted blood in my mouth, and felt pain—stinging and sharp—spread across my upper lip, nose, and cheek. I saw stars when I went down. Wow, if my gut could warn me about exploding bombs, you’d think I could get a heads-up about a punch in the face. Apparently not.
“You weren’t supposed to touch her,” one of the men said. I couldn’t tell who since my ears were ringing. “They wanted her unmarked.”
“Amateurs. That’s not how you get attention. You send back body parts and blood splatters, not pictures of her eating soup.”
“I’m going to edit it out.”
“No, leave it. Besides, she had it coming. I’ve wanted to do that for the past month,” Novi said, sounding angry. “Slap a web-compress on her and she’ll be fine. The orders were to subdue her. What does it matter how I did it? It’s not like she’ll leave here alive anyway.” A pause, then, “Someone pick her up. Make sure you record that part too.”
I was hoisted to my feet and thrown over someone’s arm. Novi made a disgusted noise as if this was somehow special treatment. All it did was make my head hurt and spike the awful throbbing pain in my cheek.
The rest of the trip passed in a blur of pain and shock. Whoever these people were, I was nothing to them, and when this was all over, I would be dead. They were going to kill me. I couldn’t get my brain to overcome the hurdle of that realization. Couldn’t even figure out how to come up with a plan. And my gut…Forget it. No help whatsoever. Where the hell was my luck gene now?
I was dropped in a pathetic heap on the floor, and that upset me too. I always thought I was tougher. After all I’d been through, I really thought I could handle myself better. In fact, it annoyed me I couldn’t. I tried consoling myself with a reminder that I was having a bad couple of weeks, but that didn’t help. Well, maybe being annoyed at myself was better than nothing. Maybe it was better than crying.
I looked up, wiping blood from my lip with the sleeve of my prison uniform, wincing at the tender feeling on the left side of my face. Directly in front of me, at eye level, were bent knees. Someone was sitting and I’d been dropped at their feet. I pulled back and refocused. A floating chair. Then as I thought about it for a bit because apparently I wasn’t at my most brilliant, I realized I was looking at a mobile-assist chair.
I tipped my head back to see Konstantin Belikov seated in front of me: my real life King of Swords. Gods, how could I have forgotten? That card had figured significantly in Novi’s reading. At the time, I assumed it meant something else and now…I almost laughed, but didn’t since the joke would have been on no one but me. The answer had been staring at me the whole time. I just hadn’t realized it until now. It had always been Belikov pulling the strings and controlling the game. Always that fucking Russian kingpin.
With him were a couple of chain-breakers, two male members of the Consortium I vaguely recognized as having arrived on The Martian Princess, another handful of black leather military types, and Brody—who took looking furious to a level I’d rarely witnessed. Betrayal lanced through me. He’d said only he could save me, but now he was there working for the enemy. There could be no doubt of his connection to Belikov, even if I didn’t know how it all fit together.
“She was supposed to be intact,” Belikov said, throwing an annoyed look to one of the mercenaries—dark-skinned, close-cropped black hair, imposing build, lots of weapons.
“We know our job. We get results. If she’s hurt, she brought it on herself,” came the answer in a rough, gravelly voice.
“She was mouthy.” This from Novi.
“You haven’t even heard mouthy yet,” I muttered, wiping at my face with my sleeve again. Still bloody, though it seemed to be just a trickle from my upper lip.
“You should have tortured her. Torture recordings have a guaranteed success rate,” the man in black advised. “I don’t care who they are or how many t-mods they have, there isn’t a person alive who can stand by when they see a loved one being hurt.”
“While I don’t disagree, I need her intact,” Belikov repeated. “That was my only stipulation. If this damages the negotiations and the experiments fail, your people will pay for it.”
“Someone should pay,” Brody said, staring daggers at Belikov.
“That’s enough from you, Brody,” Belikov said. “Your actions are becoming a hindrance. It would be a shame if everything fell apart when you’re so close to achieving what you wanted.” I didn’t like the sound of that. I hauled myself to my feet. Now wasn’t the time for lying on the floor when I needed to get ahold of my fear and get out of this mess.
“What does he get out of this? What the hell is even going on?” I demanded. “You kidnap me and bring me to Phobos and…Whoa.”
I stopped talking. Now that I stood, the view had suddenly become much more interesting.
We were in a large industrial space, full of machinery. I could see robotics and what looked like an assembly line, filled with thin metal frames hanging upright on a relay track, being fed into a series of machines. The frames looked human sized, but from my vantage point, I couldn’t see what happened once they disappeared into the machines. Whatever the Consortium was building, they were making a lot of them. A lot of people-sized lightweight metal frames that needed nothing more than a coating of skin and hair to make them more…human. I gasped, putting the pieces together. A factory on Phobos where the rest of the tri-system couldn’t see, with a pool of unmonitored labor—or raw material, depending on how you looked at it—to draw from. Human-sized machines. And since I was summing up the equation, for good measure I added in Alexei’s programming subroutine that could connect a human mind to an AI and download it into another body.
I was looking at a damned homunculus assembly line.
Then I saw the black box, the one I’d watched the chain-breakers unload from the space elevator. Except now, the lid was off.
To be honest, I expected to see Mr. Pennyworth with his bowl-shaped haircut, sexless features, gray-black hair, and the all-purpose pantsuit. Not so. This homunculus was quite obviously male, naked with genitals fully intact, a muscular build, and short blond hair. Apparently some significant upgrades had been made, but it was no less horrifying.
I shot a look to Belikov. “I’m guessing you decided to renovate your new home.”
“The homunculus you interacted with was a prototype,” he said stiffly. “This is closer to the ideal we originally envisioned.”
“Good enough for you to dump the dying human body you have now and live in it full-time?” I asked.
He gave a sharp, angry bark of a laugh. “Didn’t your cards show you that?”
“They show me a lot of interesting things. You think I got this bloody lip from telling her everything would work out all sunshine and rainbows in the end?” I jerked my head in Novi’s direction.
Belikov laughed again, a real one this time that ended in a cough before he settled. “It’s such a shame Brody wasn’t able to recruit you for the Consortium when he was given the task. As for occupying the homunculus on a full-time basis, we’ll know better once Alexei conducts the appropriate field tests. I’ve grown tired of his delaying tactics. With you here on Phobos, I think he’ll be properly motivated to perform.”
He floated away on his mobile-assist chair while I stood rooted to the spot. I had no idea whether I was meant to follow. Instead, my mind kept looping back to what he’d said, trying to reconcile the words in a way that made sense. Brody was supposed to recruit me for the Consortium? Recruit me? My eyes flew to Brody, who was looking at me so hard, it was a wonder his words didn’t project actual thoughts into my head.
Brody was a member of the Consortium? Had always been a member? But Felipe had said he was a rising star in One Gov.
“Is it sinking in yet?” Belikov asked in a tone of long-suffering patience from where he floated by the homunculus. “Do you understand what I’m saying, Felicia?”
The anticipatory look on his face sickened me, like he was enjoying smashing his favorite toy. The meaning in his words was clear, even if Brody’s eyes said otherwise.
“Brody tried to recruit me for the Consortium in Nairobi?” I asked. But there had never been any mention of that between us.
“Yes, Nairobi. Don’t forget: Your mother came to us first. She wanted the Consortium to support her research. We turned her away, but when the time was right, one of our operatives approached you. It was thought your luck gene might prove useful. Obviously he failed. In fact, it seems everyone I send after you fails. It’s also shown me the luck gene can’t be trusted. Its inherent selfishness and desire for self-preservation override everything else. And that’s why, when this is done, you need to die. It infuriates me to no end that a woman as insignificant as you constantly ruins plans that have taken centuries to implement and finalize.”
He waved one of the men forward and said something in Russian, too fast for me to catch. The man nodded, looked in my direction, and snapped his fingers. I was pushed to my knees in an unshakable grip.
“Years of bioengineering and genetic research all wasted because of you,” Belikov continued, warming to his theme. “First Brody. Then Alexei. Then the homunculus project. The quantum teleporting. Everything that came near you was sucked into your orbit until it failed. It was as if you were One Gov’s greatest weapon against us and they didn’t even know it.”
I looked at Brody, stricken. I’d always thought he’d been the one to help me get over Dante’s rejection. And now to learn he’d been using me? That recruiting me had been his test to assuming the Consortium leadership just as Alexei’s had been to win the Mars transit bid? Was it once again all lies? Gods, was there a man in the tri-system who wasn’t lying to me?
“When he failed with you, he thought he could leave this behind. What he forgot is no one walks away from the Consortium,” Belikov chided, throwing a glance in Brody’s direction. “He may call himself Brody Williams and not bear the Consortium’s markings as Alexei does, but inside, he’s the same. He just happens to come from an earlier genetic stock.”
I gasped softly. How was this even possible? Brody and Alexei were both experiments bred by the Consortium? And I’d been thrown into each of their paths. Suddenly I had to ask even if I dreaded the answer: “Vieira said Brody had three years of time unaccounted for. Where has he been?”
Brody’s lips pressed together in a thin, hard line and he said nothing. Not that it mattered because Belikov was more than willing to share. “Why, here on Phobos, locked in a cell. As I said, no one walks away from the Consortium. Punishment was required for his failure. Since Siberia disappeared under the waters on Earth, we don’t have gulags anymore. This penal colony was the best I could arrange under the circumstances, until I had Alexei break him out when I needed him again.”
And now I had the answer to the question I’d forgotten I asked: Alexei had been on Phobos the night I’d witnessed the explosion in the sky. He’d been breaking Brody out of prison at Belikov’s request.
“Why would Alexei agree to that?”
“Even I concede I created a tangled web for myself,” Belikov lamented. “Sometimes my ideas don’t always bear the fruit I anticipate so I thought it best to revert to the original plan. Alexei was taking the Consortium down a path I didn’t want it to travel. I couldn’t control him any longer nor stop where all this was heading. Brody convinced me he regretted his past failures, so I decided a second chance was in order and brought back the only credible threat to Alexei’s hold.” He gestured to Brody. “Alexei may have suspected there were others out there like him, but he couldn’t know for certain. I worked hard to keep them unaware of each other.”
“So you told him some bullshit story that the Consortium needed Brody and Alexei broke him out of prison for you?”
Belikov looked impressed. “Despite your uselessness, you really do have flashes of surprising insight. You must get that from your mother.”
“Except with less crazy,” I said between gritted teeth.
“But more annoyance,” he added, laughing as if he’d just told the most hilarious joke. “Of course, Alexei mightn’t have been so willing if he’d known he was freeing his rival. But after it was done, it was easy to keep him occupied. The threats to you, the unrest with the mining unions, and off-world tunnels collapsing—all carried out by mercenaries Alexei couldn’t link back to the Consortium.” He gestured to Novi and all the others dressed in their black leather and loaded down with more weapons than seemed necessary. Then he made another gesture to the factory and the machines with the half-assembled homunculi. “I couldn’t have put this together if he was watching, could I?”
“And if Alexei is out of the way, does Brody know he’s only holding the reins until you get your robot body and can take over the Consortium?” I asked, loading the statement with all the sarcasm I could muster.
Belikov looked thoughtful. “You’re better at this game than I gave you credit. There may be something salvageable in you after all. We’ll see in the next round of breeding templates.” Then he sighed and murmured, “I’m tired of explaining myself to children. Someone silence her before her nattering kills me.”
My nattering? I was immediately gagged by either Novi or one of the two men with her. My gold notes were on Novi.
With the bloody lip, pain throbbing through my cheek, and my fear cresting hard, it was nearly impossible not to hyperventilate. Looking at Brody hurt. I thought our time together had meant something. And now to realize how big and twisted this game was and how high the stakes were—it was frightening.
“Why isn’t this working? Does Alexei need more incentive, or was I wrong about her importance to him?” Belikov mused, sounding frustrated.
“We could try it my way.” That, from the leader of the mercenaries.
“Fine. See what your people can do.”
A hand grabbed my hair, using it to yank my head up. My pained scream was muffled by the gag, but it didn’t stop the hot, prickly tears from rolling down my cheeks. I was dragged face-to-face with the asshole who’d recorded me earlier. Only now, I understood the purpose: I was being recorded in all my pitiful misery as a personal invitation to the only person in the entire tri-system who could pilot the homunculus but, so far, much to Belikov’s annoyance, had refused to do so.
The other two Consortium members were muttering softly with Belikov while they stood over the black box. Abruptly, they jumped back. It didn’t take long to figure out why.
The homunculus had opened its eyes and was slowly rising out of the box.
Everyone watched with a muted awe as the thing rose from its coffin. I know I was mesmerized as it pulled itself up on two feet. It stretched, as if its muscles were cramped from lying in the same position too long. Then it shook itself the way I’d seen dogs do when they were wet, before settling to stare passively at all of us.
It…He? I wasn’t sure what to call it. I knew Alexei piloted the body and the body was obviously male, but it was still an it to me. It was tall—not as tall as the chain-breakers, but certainly tall enough. The skin was a smooth, golden color, and I could see the eyes were deep blue. It was decently muscled throughout and almost too well endowed. Definitely a step up from the Pennyworth model; Belikov had certainly gone for flashy the second time around.
“You took your time,” Belikov murmured.
“There were issues with the connectors,” was the answer, said in a low, deep voice.
“How do you feel?”
“Tolerable.”
“Does it feel as if you could pass for human?”
It looked down at its hands, legs, and whatever else it could see of itself. “Perhaps. I can’t be certain yet.”
Belikov nodded with approval. “The key at this stage is to make the homunculus as human as possible, or the mind won’t accept the transition. That was the problem with the previous model—it wasn’t human enough. And of course, the toxin buildup from the energy source,” he said, giving us all a science lecture nobody wanted. “Both are overcome this time. The energy source is self-contained and rechargeable, with built-in power nodes that link directly to the Consortium’s net-interface. This model also has biological imperatives that give the pilot a sense of its own humanity. It will still feel hungry, though there is no need to eat. Food will be consumed and the by-products voided. Some energy will be gained, but it won’t be the primary source.”
As he spoke, the homunculus examined its surrounding. I couldn’t take my eyes off it, unable to reconcile that this…thing was Alexei. I was having Pennyworth flashbacks, sickened by the wrongness of it. If I lived through this, I was going to put myself into the best therapy I could afford.
When it spotted me, it fixed me with a look so penetrating, I felt it creep along my skin. It made its way toward me, the gait unsteady, then moving with increasing confidence and speed until it stood in front of me. I shrank back into the hands holding me captive. The fist in my hair tightened and I felt a metal tube pressed to the base of my skull. Great, if I moved, Novi would blow my brains out.
I tried not to flinch as the thing touched me, moving a hand over my hair, along my skin, carefully grazing the tender area around my cheek. Fingers went under my chin, lifting my face. Its own face was expressionless, as if it hadn’t figured out how to move the muscles. Even though the hand didn’t feel like Alexei’s, the way it tilted my head and the tenderness as the fingers trailed over me were the same.
I heard rather than saw Belikov float up beside us. “Do you want her?” he asked. “Physically? Emotionally?”
“Yes,” it said honestly. “I want her very much.” And it seemed to be the case too because at my eye level, I caught twitching in the genitals. Wonderful. I was giving it a hard-on.
Belikov clapped his hands, thrilled. “Then we were successful in replicating the human sex drive. This is excellent news,” he said to anyone who cared to listen. I personally wasn’t one of them and would have said so if I wasn’t gagged.
As if reading my mind, the homunculus removed my gag, carefully lowering the cloth until it fell around my neck. When the hand pulled away, I saw my blood on its fingertips. The homunculus looked at it too, staring hard.
“I said she was to be unharmed,” it said.
“So you did, but you can’t anticipate every detail.”
“No, you can’t,” it agreed.
As it spoke, it brought its other hand up to touch me, as if it couldn’t leave me alone. This was familiar behavior—these constant touches and little strokes along my skin. Alexei did that when we were in public, silently communicating that he wanted me and planned on having me at the soonest opportunity. That the homunculus did it now freaked me out, yet it also reassured me Alexei was in there somewhere.
“Don’t touch me like that,” I whispered, trying not to flinch from its fingers as I gazed up at it.
“I’m sorry. The synthetic hormones running through this body amplify its responses so they’re stronger than anticipated. Every urge and emotion feels magnified.”
I nodded as if that actually made sense. “Don’t let them turn what we have into a field test they can analyze after they kill me.”
That stopped the touching. It nodded, then caught my hands and scowled, the facial muscles finally working as it gazed down at the carbon ties binding my wrists.
It turned to Belikov. “So this is the direction you’ve chosen?”
“I will do whatever is necessary to ensure this project succeeds. Prosti, but it means using whatever resources are available.”
“Then we have a problem, Konstantin. I was unanimously appointed head of the Tsarist Consortium. That means all issues are brought to me first. All projects come to me for approval. You have input, as do all members, but the final decision is mine.”
The homunculus snapped my carbon ties as if they were nothing. Circulation resumed as blood rushed back into my hands, the tingling almost painful. I flexed my numb fingers, trying to shake off the sharp, itchy ache.
“Do you believe your decisions outweigh the wisdom of nearly five centuries?” Belikov scoffed. “An organization as old as ours shouldn’t be led by one so easily manipulated by a pretty face. There are billions of others like her who would willingly spread their legs for you. When you realize where your real responsibilities lie, maybe you’ll be ready to truly lead the Consortium.”
The homunculus shook its head, a scolding look on its face. “You may not be aware of this, but I cracked your memory blocks a week ago. I also spent considerable time sifting through the data.”
I was pulled to my feet in one swift movement. The tube pressing against my neck and the fist clutching my hair disappeared, and I heard shouts around me. Next I heard the sounds of a weapon being discharged dangerously close to my head. A second later, the homunculus held a plasma disrupter in its hand, looking at it in annoyance. Had the homunculus just shot everyone with Novi’s weapon? From the sound of the groans behind me, the answer was yes.
“Seems like overkill,” it said.
“How did you move so quickly?” Belikov asked. “The limiter should have prevented it.”
“Did you miss the part where I said I cracked your memory blocks? I’ve disengaged the limiter. This homunculus has some impressive features I’m interested in using. Allow me to give you the field test you wanted. Brody, take her,” it said, letting me go.
I felt arms around me, dragging me out of the way. I struggled against them, twisting enough to see Brody.
“Stop fighting me, Felicia!” he barked. “We need to get out of here!”
“I’m not going anywhere with you, you lying scumbag!”
“We’re leaving, even if I have to knock you out and carry you. Who do you think will rescue you while Alexei deals with everybody else?”
“Drop her!” shouted Novi, rounding on us and pulling something from her belt. Probably another plasma discharger.
Before she could fire, the homunculus was already there, knocking it out of her hand. Everybody scattered. At the same time, I saw movement on the other side of the warehouse space. The lightweight frames on the assembly line were climbing down from their racks. If they had legs, they walked. If not, they dragged themselves across the floor using their arms and tugging their torsos behind them. It was a terrifying sight watching all that machinery creep toward us on its own, like some robotic army intent on humanity’s destruction.
“What’s happening?” I asked, eyes widening as the crawling frames slinked closer.
“Alexei’s got this,” Brody murmured. “He’s sniped into the override protocols and activated the homunculi with motion capability. They’ll subdue anyone he can’t.”
“Leave, Brody,” it said over its shoulder. “And if you lose her in the penal maze, you’ll answer to both myself and the Under-Secretary. It will not go well for you.”
“Don’t worry: I don’t plan on losing her again,” Brody said, hauling me after him.
I kicked at Brody’s shin, trying to free myself. “Let go, asshole! I’m not your property!”
“Go with him, Felicia.” This from the homunculus as it cast a final look at me. “I need you to leave.”
I met the thing’s eyes, and in that moment, I realized it…he…Alexei didn’t want me to see what was coming next. Whatever his plan, it would be horrific and he would do things that couldn’t be unseen. Things that would keep us safe, but would scar me if I witnessed them. Things I might not understand or forgive. He tried to be human for me, but to save us now, he needed to be a monster. So I gave up fighting Brody and went limp in his arms.
“Frankly, I don’t want to see him in action either,” he said in my ear.
“It shouldn’t have to be like this. This is bullshit.”
“If it gets us out of here, I’m not complaining,” Brody said. “Now hold on, sweetheart, and save some of that earlier energy for later.”
Sweetheart? “Why should I do anything you say?”
“Because the next few hours will be crazy what with our daring prison break and the trip back to Mars.”
Finally something that made sense! So I shut up, and let him lead me out.