“Most of them didn’t. You’d be surprised what kind of decisions you’re willing to make when you’re desperate.”
“What about the ones who did change their mind?”
“I said they volunteered!” His voice rose. “They signed an agreement. Backing out wasn’t an option.”
She shuddered. “How could you?”
“I didn’t have a choice! I’m desperate. I can feel the tumor eating away at me, feel it slowing my thoughts. If it had just been something physical, I could have taken it, but this is my mind. It’s what makes me who I am.”
She still thought he was crazy, but she understood.
He must have seen the momentary flash of sympathy on her face. “You’d do it too, wouldn’t you?” he asked eagerly. “You’d volunteer because you want to be fixed. Because it matters more than anything else.”
A month ago, even a week ago, she suspected she would have said yes. But now she found herself remembering John’s voice when he told her that he loved her, when he told her that she didn’t have to be alone.
“No,” she said softly. “I’m not going to volunteer.”
“I already told you that it is no longer your choice.” They both looked up to see Louisa standing in the doorway once more.
“Is that true?” Serena asked Renfrey. “Are you going to proceed even though you know I haven’t volunteered? When there isn’t any paperwork to show that I agreed, no matter how briefly?”
“Of course he is,” Louisa mocked.
She ignored the other woman and focused on the doctor. “Why haven’t you taken it yourself? Why are you still testing? You’ve proven that it works.”
“Because he’s a coward,” Louisa answered for him. “He’s afraid that something will go wrong with me the way it went wrong with all the others. So he’s going to wait until I give him permission.”
The sense of dread strengthened. “What went wrong?”
“The transfusion can have a… negative mental effect,” he said reluctantly.
She shuddered as she remembered the hybrids and the way each of them seemed to lose touch with their humanity. Was that what he meant?
“Nonsense,” Louisa snapped. “They were simply weak. I’m perfectly fine.”
Or had Louisa simply not had any humanity to lose?
“I’ve taken the blood sample,” Dr. Renfrey said softly. “It will take a few hours to prepare the transfusion.”
“I’ll be back then. In the meantime, perhaps I’ll amuse myself with the cyborg.” Louisa shot her a malicious glance.
“No,” she whispered. Not John.
“Oh, yes. I’m sure he’ll prove most amusing.” The other woman smiled as a tear slid down Serena’s cheek. “Not so calm after all. But you’ll learn. The nanites will teach you.”
Louisa departed in a swirl of laughter, and Serena gave in to despair.
Chapter Seventeen
John regained consciousness with a jerk. Thick darkness surrounded him and even his enhanced vision couldn’t penetrate the gloom. He tried to move and found that he was chained to a table of some kind. The feeling brought back painful memories of his transformation into a cyborg. But at least his nanites were working again, however sluggishly. He could feel them moving through his system, attempting to clear away the lingering traces of whatever they had used to drug him.
Serena, he thought desperately and yanked at his chains but to no avail. Titanium, he decided. Not unbreakable but time consuming to escape, and he had a horrible feeling that he didn’t have any time.
Who was that woman, and what did she want with Serena?
Since his vision was no use, he used the sound propagation enhancement, trying to get a feel for where he had been imprisoned. Solid rock surrounded him on three sides, but there was another room on the other side of the fourth wall. That was the way out. He just had to get free of his chains first.
He began straining at his bonds, working each one methodically despite the frantic sense of urgency beating at him. Time passed with agonizing slowness, but just as he thought he detected a slight give in one of the chains, he caught a noise from the outer chamber. He froze as the door was flung open and a blinding light filled the room.
His nanites worked frantically to clear his vision, and it cleared enough for him to see the woman from the corridor, the one who had threatened Serena.
“Where is she?” he demanded. “What did you do to Serena?”
“Now, now. No need to get excited.” The woman strolled casually into the room. “She’s perfectly fine. In fact, soon she’ll just be perfect.”
She tittered as her own joke and his skin crawled. There was a maniacal edge to her laugh that reminded him of the hybrids. But she didn’t look like a hybrid. She looked like a normal woman, an attractive one even, although not in Serena’s class.
“My but you are a big boy.” She gripped a bicep with icy fingers and he tried not to shudder. “We’re going to have fun with you.”
“We?”
“Serena and I. She doesn’t understand yet, but she will.”
“What are you doing to her?” he repeated.
“I told you—I’m making her perfect. A few nanites, a little pain, and then a brand-new woman.”
“And she agreed?”
“Rather surprisingly, she didn’t. I read her file and thought that ridiculous desire for a child would convince her.” Louisa’s brows drew together, then she shrugged. “But no matter. She’ll come around.”
“You’re forcing this on her?” he asked, horrified.
“Force is such a harsh word.”
A clanking from the outer room drew his attention, and he looked over in time to see a robot transporter enter.
“Ah, there we are. The transporter is going to take you to my ship.”
“No!”
“Now don’t be silly. This way you’ll be reunited with your precious Serena—although I suspect she’ll be a little different than you remember.” She tittered again, before sliding the table to which he was fastened onto the bed of the transport with unnerving strength. “It’s a shame we don’t have time to play now, but we’ll have six months together on the ship.”
She squeezed his bicep again, harder this
