Peyton 313 (26 page)

Startled by what she’d seen, she had even revoked Peyton’s military control of the man’s enhancements. Though in retrospect, she could only hope it was the right action to take, since she couldn’t consult the military person who helped make Kingston 691 into a weapon. Personally she hoped Master Sergeant West would never again have to activate his enhancements. Since she wasn’t an expert in explosion devices, removing them completely was out of the question. She had refused Brad’s help with the restoration precisely so he wouldn’t alarm Nero with her discoveries on their very first captive.

“It surprises me you’ve watched this whole time and haven’t asked me a single question,” Kyra said finally. Her voice was husky for not having talked much while she worked.

“Well, I do have one question, but I didn’t want to distract you while you were fixing King,” Peyton said.

Kyra glanced once last time in the cybernetics compartment. Then she slid the processor into position before using an electron knife to turn it on. Kingston West’s body flinched with the power surge, but his eyes remained closed.

“Now the hardest work begins,” Kyra declared.

Then she walked to a chair and dropped her exhausted body into it.

“What’s harder than what you just did?” Peyton asked, truly surprised at her statement. Kyra had never stopped once she’d started and hadn’t taken a single break. She had every right to be exhausted.

Kyra tiredly met Peyton’s curious gaze, wishing she had his sustainable energy. “The hardest part is waiting to see what Sergeant West will be like when he wakes up.”

Peyton pondered her statement as he rolled an extra chair over and put it next to hers. He sat beside her, still dealing with his awe about what she had done. “Can I ask my question now?”

Kyra snorted. “My mind is mush, and I thought you just did. I thought I answered it too.”

Peyton shook his head. “No. That was just regular conversation. I have a serious question that’s been on my mind since you started working on King.”

“Sure. Ask. But I doubt you’re going to get an intelligent answer out of me. My brain is fried right now. Being that careful takes a lot of energy. Mine doesn’t last as long as yours, no matter how many booster pills I take.”

Peyton lifted one of her hands and linked her fingers with his. “I just wanted to know if you cried the whole time you worked on me too. I don’t think you had a dry moment while working on King.”

Kyra tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her go. “Maybe I cried a little,” she said finally, not really wanting to admit the truth.

Peyton snorted at the understatement. “I already saw the recording of you fixing me, so I knew the answer. I just wanted to hear you admit it, and I want to hear why it happens.”

“You know why it happens.” Kyra swung her free hand toward the operating chair and the man strapped into it. “Your friend’s condition is my fault and not just the restoration. If it wasn’t for me, that man might not be in that chair.”

“Why is it your fault?” Peyton asked, letting her hand go. “I read your file. You created code that allowed prosthetic arms to be calibrated with a person’s brain. Did your discovery have to be used to create a killer’s cybernetic arm? My records don’t show that as part of your invention.”

Kyra shook her head. “Well. . .no. Of course not.”

“So let’s agree that cybernetic abuse—such as wartime application to weapon prosthetics —is not an innate part of the technology. If there is evil, don’t you think it is in the people who want cyborgs to make them money, bring them power, or win wars?”

Kyra lifted her gaze to his. “Is that some kind of cyborg philosophy you’re developing?”

Peyton snickered at her sarcasm. Him laughing at her was as unkind as what she said. And he didn’t need any sensitivity chip lighting up to warn him to be nice, even though his immediately did just that. He could ignore such things now without fear of painful consequences. Kyra had made that possible. But he paid attention to those warnings because he found it helpful with her. His cyber scientist was a lot more sensitive than she realized.

“Yes. Philosophy is my new hobby,” Peyton said dryly. “And I’m sorry for laughing at your comment. Mostly I just wanted to offer you another perspective. You need to stop feeling guilty and become the heroic person you want to be.”

Kyra gave him the look she reserved for her younger techs. “You’re just saying nice supportive things so I’ll keep having sex with you.”

“Maybe,” Peyton admitted. He registered her free hand smacking his arm and chose to interpret it as only mild frustration with his teasing.

“How long are you going to keep verbally torturing me with that word that I do not use as often as you say I do?” Kyra demanded.

“Doc—you need to face the facts. You’re just not the evil science bitch you think you are. Last time I checked, the bad guys don’t usually cry over their victims. Only the good guys ever cry, and they do it even more when no one is around.”

“You don’t cry,” Kyra said.

Peyton laughed. “That’s because I have cybernetic eyes. Plus I’m male. My first response to most trauma is to beat on something until the situation improves.”

Kyra glared, but her exhaustion made it too weak to make a dent in Peyton’s rapidly growing ego. “Can you not see that is the exact reason people are scared of cyborgs?”

“Well they should be. Just like they should be scared of people with guns and invisible biological weapons that can wipe out an entire population. Fear is a reasonable reaction to beings who are more powerful than you are. But if I wasn’t a good guy I would never have gone into the military in the first place. I wanted to save people, not hurt them. All the people I hurt were bad.”

Kyra dropped her gaze, stared at the floor, and sighed. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right. I’m just tired and thinking irrationally.”

Peyton laughed softly. Leaning over he scooped Kyra up and tucked her into his lap while she yelped.

“Stop. I’m working. What do you think you’re doing?” Kyra demanded.

He reached up and tucked her head under his chin. “I’m holding you. Holding a woman who is tired and frustrated is the fastest way to restore her energy. The affection activates her hormonal responses and gets endorphins flowing. After a sufficient amount of time—which varies by female—she will start to smile and level out.”

Kyra snorted against his shoulder, but had to admit Peyton holding her was helping her feel better. “If you keep this up, I don’t think I’m ever going to remove your Cyber Husband chip.”

He hugged her closer and kissed her forehead. He was already getting hard. The woman did that do him every time he touched her.

“Dr. Winters—we’ve already had this discussion. I don’t want you to remove it. But even if you did remove it, or it got accidentally zapped, I would be fine. I’ve been routinely backing up the data on it to my long term storage. All that information about you is too important to me to lose.”

Kyra laughed. “Sometimes I think you’re learning to be a much better human than I could be no matter how long I live. I hope that tendency exists in all cyborgs. We did a psychological profile on the soldiers we were converting, but those don’t account for what they endured during the war and the last decade.”

“I can only vouch for the motivations of the five we have rescued so far,” Peyton said, kissing her forehead again.

A groan from the chair had her sliding from his lap and hustling over.

“Yep. This is just like the old days. King made a point to interrupt every conversation I ever had with a woman. It was his fault that I almost never got laid. Sometimes I’d even see him with the woman later. If he tries that shit with you, I’m going to kick his cyborg ass. I don’t care how much bigger than me he is.”

Kyra checked the restraints and then checked his vitals. “Wear steel-toed boots so you don’t break your toes. What’s a prosthetic ass look like? I can definitely see this giant having one.”

“It was figure of speech, Doc.”

“I know. I was making a joke, Peyton.” She looked up at his chuckle and smiled. “I like you, Captain Elliott. I like your sense of humor and your ethics. You make me be a better person when I’m around you. That’s a serious comment on my part.”

Peyton crossed his arms and grinned. “Nice to hear. Are you flirting with me, Doc?”

Kyra nodded, but didn’t look back. She didn’t want to see his satisfaction when she admitted it. “Yes. Yes, I am definitely flirting with you this time.”

“Good,” Peyton declared. “And it’s about damn time you admitted it.”

There was silence as they watched the man in the chair open his eyes.

“Master Sergeant West?” Kyra asked.

“Yes. That’s me,” King said. “Did I hear Captain Elliott just now or was that just some nightmare I was having?”

Kyra smiled into his worried gaze. “My answer depends on how freaked out you’re going to be when I say yes.”

King’s laughter made his head hurt. “You’re pretty funny for a medic, Doc. You’re pretty cute too.”

“You make one move on this woman and I will kick your ass to hell and back, King.”

“Oh God—I knew it.” King squirmed in the chair, finally realizing he was strapped down. “What the hell is going on, Captain?”

Peyton clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Hell is a good word for it. Just know you’re safe for the moment and Doc here is fixing you up. Going to get a little rocky before it gets better, but eventually it’s going to be better than it’s been for a long damn time, King. Trust me on that one.”

“
Semper Fi
,” King whispered.

“
Oorah
,” Peyton answered.

Shortly after, he heard Kyra uttering the shut-down codes in King’s ear.

Kyra reached out and gently removed Peyton’s hand from the man’s shoulder. “Master Sergeant West can go back to his cage now. I’m going to leave him recuperating from the modifications until we’ve gotten this far with the others. There’s no use telling the horror story more than once. We’ll wake them and tell them all at the same time.”

Peyton nodded. “Can I carry him?”

“He’s a bigger man than you are. A transport chair would be easier,” Kyra offered.

Peyton shook his head. “No thanks. If King’s anything like I was, he’ll get this memory back later. I want him to know that I cared enough to make sure he got treated respectfully.”

Kyra swallowed, fighting tears. “Okay. Whatever you want to do is fine with me. Bring back the next guy you want me to work on. I’m going to get some food and take a booster. I have at least one more restoration in me today.”

She watched Peyton gently pull the giant out of the chair and lift him over one shoulder. Then he walked out of the lab, pretending that he wasn’t straining under the man’s greater weight.

She blinked hard and didn’t let the tears trickle down her face until Peyton was completely out of sight. Regardless of her discussion with Peyton, at the moment she didn’t feel much like a good guy at all.

Chapter 18

Nero knocked on Brad’s locked room door impatiently. “Brad? I know you’re in there. Open up.”

The door slid silently open. As he walked in, a very attractive brunette was climbing off Brad’s lap. She was straightening her skirt as Brad was zipping up his pants. As cited, the infamous Gloria was very hot and frankly seemed pretty far outside his friend’s dating league.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Nero said flatly, but he wasn’t. Brad was in goof-off mode, which meant nothing the man committed to was getting done. “I waited all morning, but you never showed up. Kyra hasn’t taken a break yet. She’s down to fixing the last one and is trying to get him done today. I thought you were going to help her with the physical restorations.”

“Dude—I offered. Dr. Winters said she would call me if she needed my help. I was so bored watching from the observatory that I came back to my room for some actual entertainment. You have that top of the line game system in the lounge, but no access outside. What the hey? This is the longest I’ve been away from my gaming in years,” Brad exclaimed.

“You know why we can’t have outside access wide enough for gaming. I open a data pipe only for what’s necessary and it’s hard enough to keep that secure. Don’t be such a whiner about everything, Brad. If you want to do something productive, Kyra asked me to get the schematics of each soldier’s enhancements. Your system access at Norton Industries has been wider than mine since you helped double-wire that woman.”

Brad held up a finger. “Wait—hold that thought.” His gaze shifted to his companion. “Gloria, scram. Nero and I need to talk some business. Go fix your hair. . .or do something else girlie.”

Nero watched Brad stare at the brunette for almost a full minute. Her eyes finally blinked a few times, then she gave a disgusted grunt as she left.

Nero directed his gaze at the ceiling as she disappeared. “You never pick the intellectual winners, Brad.”

Brad snorted. “I know. But what Gloria lacks in intelligence, she makes up for in many other pleasant ways. It’s a decent exchange, Dude. You’ll just have to take my word on it.”

“Whatever,” Nero said, bringing his attention back. “Are you going to help me or not?”

“Sure,” Brad said, running a hand over his hair. “Sorry I’ve been slacking. I’ve just been. . .I don’t know. Apprehensive, I guess. Kind of nervous about Borg Man having full run of the place. Aren’t you worried about Kyra removing all the cyborgs’ controllers? Frankly that scares the shit out of me. What happens if one goes nuts on us? How would we stop him?”

Nero snorted. “Why would one go nuts? Peyton seems to have adapted well enough. None of the others have been double-wired so far. I think we’re in the clear with this set.”

“Captain Elliott was a prototype—same with the others you collected. The last couple hundred that were done—well, they probably won’t be so nice.”

“What makes you say that?” Nero asked, surprised at Brad’s comments.

Brad frowned and shrugged. “Let’s say I have a hunch, but what do I know?”

Nero frowned back and clapped a hand on Brad’s shoulder. “Tell me about it. I’ve had a weird feeling for days but nothing bad has happened yet. I think it’s just this whole rescue venture is riskier in reality than we could anticipate back when it was just an idea.”