Goss peered at the visual.
“You recommended her, now you take her out.”
Goss frowned. “She could just be playing him.”
“Right, with her hand practically on his cock. The deal was no contact with the mark. If she was made, then she was off this mission.”
Goss glowered, his face an unreadable mask. “As you wish.” He fingered his weapon, spoke several quiet words into his command set, listened to the response and grew attentive.
Mathias gazed off into space.
Goss turned to Mathias. “Sir?”
“Yes, Goss! Do I need to babysit you through this? Go ahead. Do it. I’m not going to backtrack now.”
Goss gave a curt nod. “Just a reminder of pirates, sir. Zikri abound there. No doubt the Mentera, the bugs, too.”
“Standard security procedure.” Mathias waved a hand. “Get alpha wing team to escort us.”
Goss blinked. “Will that be enough?”
Mathias stared at him, as if he were talking to a brick. “They’re an elite force, cream of the crop.”
Goss flinched, as if hesitating to tell him something. “The armada we saw at Phebis—it was non-trivial, sir.”
Mathias sucked in a draft of air, feeling his temper rising. “We’ll risk it, Goss. We can’t always be padding around like mice in granny’s cupboard. We can always warp out if things go sour.”
“Suit yourself.” Goss jerked his head sideways. “As a matter of routine, I would feel better shuttling aboard the Draxen and briefing Captain Adlis and his team personally about the dangers.”
Mathias shook his head, flourishing a hand. Tedious cyborg. He watched the synthetic’s back as he retreated down to the command bridge. Goss was a useful commodity, logical, practical, truly a clever imitation of a human, but without passion and the instinct to take risks. It was doubtful that even his research lab could ever produce the perfect model. Unless the plant-insectoid-butterfly they hooked up to Hresh’s machine accomplished the impossible. He hoped the alien creature could come through. His obsession for finding a true AI brought out the Hyde in him that would never let him rest. Discovering a true AI that could feel, and was instinctually driven and that operated from raw instinct to execute with passion and precision, was a roboticist’s wet dream. He thought back to the feral butterfly as his security men floundered about the lab, finally managing to trap it in a stoppered flask. There would be increased security surveillance from now on to prevent more ‘accidents’. Dez was working night and day to incorporate the creature into one of these Biogron vats Hresh had sketchily engineered in his last months at the company. Time was of the essence. No telling how far along Hresh was in his research. If Vrean failed...
No matter. He would push Dez too to the limit on this one. Already 200 top scientists and engineers were working on the project. The rest of Cybernetics’ operations would be put on indefinite hold for all he cared. This breakthrough must be given absolute priority.
Mathias’s lips curled in a cunning leer as he envisaged the final goal—a superior AI, one the galaxy would gaze upon in awe...
* * *
Mathias woke up from a doze, rubbing his bleary eyes. He coughed, wincing at the fermented taste of liquor in the back of his throat. A sinister feeling ran up his spine, his sixth sense alerted. He hit the wall switch and poked his head down the hall. The corridor was empty, eerily quiet. Where was Goss, and Janson, his security officer?
Surely Goss, the officious sod, must be back from his mission on the Scorpion ships? He called out on his communicator. Nothing. Mathias threw it down on his divan in a sulk. Goss, probably dodging him, afraid to put out the order to kill the bitch who had betrayed him.
A flicker at the edge of his vision: a dark form gliding down the hall, glistening with moisture over its squid-like body.
Mathias blinked in disbelief. He grabbed for his holstered weapon and fired off a round. The shot deflected harmlessly off the thing’s body armour. Squids! How the fuck did they get aboard? Mathias’s heart thumped at the frightening realization of what must have happened. The Rdelnarian shipment! For shit sakes! Goss must not have opened and inspected it. How many times had he warned the dumb fuck to beware of bombs, assassins, the like?
Mathias’s last conscious thoughts faded to dust as he was wrenched from standing position. A thick mass of tentacles coiled around his body, with force enough to crush the life out of him.
* * *
Goss winced aboard the Scorpion flagship Draxen, realizing how unprepared and ill-informed the crew were. “What do you mean Captain Adlis isn’t even here? Is it vacation time for everyone here, including captains? And what do you mean we only have half arsenal?” He shook a fist at Bis, the new security leader who blanched under the android’s glare.
“We were not informed of any offensive manoeuvres, just a routine escort. For Christ sakes, it’s Rdelnar we’re talking about here!”
“Goss, you better look at this,” muttered the helmsman. “Two Mark IV’s bearing down at heading 350.”
Goss dashed over to the console. “You’ve got to be kidding me—Mathias, the critical bastard, said there’d be no—”
“They’re coming in fast, sir.”
“Engage them then, you fools.” Goss shrieked into his headset: “Alert all backups. Scorpions 6 and 7. Where are you? I repeat. Code red!”
“We’d better warn Mathias.”
“Do it!”
“I can’t, sir, signals jammed. It’s like he’s in hyperthrust limbo. Ship’s offline. What the—? We can’t even warp out of here ourselves.”
“What the hell does that mean, Lieutenant? Never mind! Get the targets locked—”
A blast came to forward port. A uro bomb. It knocked out their central visual. Goss and his men lay sprawled on the ground. The navigator leaped up, his hands clawing for the console which
