Winston wasn’t moving as quickly as he had the day before but she didn’t urge John to have him go faster. The thought of reaching the lab filled her with as much unease as it did hope.
John brought Winston to a halt. “Not much further. The lab should be just behind that next set of outcroppings.”
“How can you tell?” she asked, looking around. The stretch of orange sand, the ridges of red rock—it all looked the same to her.
He hesitated, then raised his arm and pushed back his sleeve to reveal a muscular forearm. Not that she didn’t appreciate the sight, but why was he showing it to her now? Then she noticed a small golden light pulsing on the inside of his wrist.
“What’s that?”
“Proximity alarm. It warns me when I’m about to encounter a manmade structure.”
“That’s… useful.”
He shrugged. “Occasionally. I can usually hear the sound of activity first. Although I’m not picking up anything from this facility,” he added.
Her heart sank. “Do you think it’s abandoned?”
“Not necessarily. I’ve noticed that GenCon likes to hide things.”
As he started to pull his sleeve back down, she put her hand on his arm. His skin felt warm, human, covering the firm muscles she was beginning to know so well.
“Do you have any more secrets under there?”
“Some,” he admitted with a smile.
“Apparently Earth Government didn’t exactly terminate the cyborg program the way they claimed.”
“No,” he agreed.
“Why are you here, John?”
“Because you asked me to come with you.”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
“It’s the truth,” he insisted, his dark eyes warm with amusement. “But if you’re asking why I’m on Mars, the answer is—”
He broke off abruptly, his head tilted to one side. “Someone’s coming.”
Winston too had tensed, and even before John gave the order, he was trotting to the shelter of the nearest escarpment. By the time they were concealed behind the rocks, she could hear the sound as well—the familiar low chug of a rover. They had dismounted and John peered cautiously around the rock, then swore.
“Another hybrid.”
“Why is he here? The lab wasn’t on the list of places to which they were assigned.”
“Based on what your friends said before, that doesn’t seem to matter much. They have their own agenda.”
“But still, why come here? I can understand going after a woman, or even a cure—” She stopped, and they stared at each other. “He thinks there’s a cure here.”
“That would be my guess,” he agreed.
Once again, that little flutter of excitement made her pulse race. Was the hybrid right? Did the answer lie in this remote lab?
“Do you want me to stop him?”
“Can you?”
He grinned, that attractive cocky smile that always made her smile back. “Of course. Wait here.”
Before he could leave, she reached up and brushed a kiss across his lips. “For luck.”
“Thank you, love.”
Then he was gone, loping across the sands with astonishing speed. He intercepted the rover while it was still a long way off. The machine ground to a halt, and a minute later, one of the hybrids stepped out, but he was too far away for her to identify. The two appeared to be talking, but then the hybrid raised his arm and she saw the flash of a gun. John staggered, and her heart thudded against her ribs.
“He shot him,” she whispered. “We have to help him, Winston.”
The horse bobbed his head, then backed up to the rock. Why was he backing away from her? She started to tug on his reins, then realized he had positioned himself so that she could use the rough surface of the stone to climb high enough to mount him.
As soon as she was seated, he leaped forward and she clung to his mane with both hands. John was still upright but he was struggling with the hybrid, and she urged Winston to move faster. Another shot rang out, and both men crumpled to the ground.
Please let him be all right, please let him be all right. The words repeated over and over in her head as they raced across the sand.
She arrived just in time to see John lurch to his feet and she half-climbed, half-fell down off the horse to throw herself at him. Winston was right beside her, nudging John with his big head until John leaned against him.
“Are you all right? Are you hurt?”
“Nothing serious,” he said reassuringly, already looking better. “The wounds are already healing. But unfortunately the hybrid is dead.”
“I don’t care about him. I only care about you.” The words emerged before she could call them back, and she immediately panicked. “That is, I was worried about you,” she added stiffly.
He smiled at her and touched her cheek. “I understand.”
To her relief, he didn’t add anything else but turned to survey the very obviously dead hybrid. “I really didn’t want to kill him. I was hoping for some answers. Do you know who he was?”
She forced herself to look at the body. “Malton, I think. Which would make sense. He was some kind of chemist. He made a lot of money selling a miracle cure that turned out to be even worse than the disease.”
“GenCon sure knows how to pick them.”
“Desperate men with large amounts of money don’t tend to be particularly respectable.”
“No, I suppose not.” He studied her face. “This isn’t just about the hybrids, is it? What kind of answer are you expecting to find at this lab, Serena? Are you sure it’s worth it?”
“Yes,” she said immediately, her hand moving to her stomach before she could prevent it.
“Very well. I’ll follow you back over to the rocks, and we can decide how to proceed.”
He lifted her easily on to Winston’s back and headed for the rover. She had a sudden foolish impulse to call him back, to abandon her search,
