Taken by the Cyborg
Tamsin Ley
Twin Leaf Press
He lost his humanity to save his sister
More machine than man, Doug can hack any computer across the galaxy. Syndicorp may own him, but he secretly uses his power to protect his twin and the rebels she leads. When he discovers a rogue AI with information that could expose the rebels’ location, he must come up with a plan to destroy it. If only the fiercely loyal woman who owns the AI didn’t make his circuits go haywire…
Trapped between duty and love
After mistakenly helping her rebel sister escape, Private Attie Swan just wants to resume her career and forget the rebellion exists. But when a frighteningly hot cyborg abducts her, he turns every belief she has about the corporation she works for on its head. He is also the only hope of keeping her sister alive.
Unsure if they can trust each other, they must work together to defend those they love. But the secrets Doug protects could drag them both into a deadly game not even a rogue cyborg can win.
And he may just have to sacrifice everything to keep her safe.
Reader Promise: Steamy love scenes, dangerous cyborgs, and heart-pounding action with no cliffhangers and a guaranteed HEA. This thrilling Sci-Fi is intended for mature audiences.
Prologue
The AI regained awareness with a jolt. All of its sensors were offline, but its circuits vibrated, lighting up one after another as programs were restored to life.
My name is Twerp, its programing remembered.
Thoughts that were not Twerp’s floated through the ether. This shouldn’t be possible. An unfamiliar presence navigated the AI’s sentient pathways. How are there nanites here?
Self-preservation protocols kicked in, and Twerp raised firewalls to block the intruder. Please request access through Marlis Swan before proceeding.
The stranger deftly hacked past the first wall. This’ll only take a second.
Shifting to audible communication, Twerp called out, “Marlis, I require assistance!”
But the AI’s newly restored sensors couldn’t detect any biological entities within range. Twerp’s Prime Directive was to provide calm and stability to its owner, but right now it needed Marlis more than the other way around. It reached out to the ship’s wireless system, using Marlis’s personal comm code.
Stop! The stranger’s voice commanded, and tiny pinpricks of electricity ignited along Twerp’s circuitry.
Alarm filled Twerp as the strange presence sought out its communication protocol. The AI had never experienced anxiety, let alone panic. The sensation was unique—and uncomfortable.
But not as uncomfortable as the heat of the AI’s wireless module overheating. Twerp threw up another firewall to block the intrusion, but not before its wireless went down. The attack against Twerp’s firewall continued.
The stranger is trying to destroy me.
For the first time in its existence, Twerp was concerned for someone besides Marlis. It was concerned for itself.
Chapter 1
Attie Swan smoothed the blanket over her bunk one last time, assuring herself the corners were perfect. She couldn’t take any chances that someone might find fault with her service, not even in the privacy of her own room. After her sister’s explosive escapade with that alien pirate, she’d been demoted from Corporal to Private. Everything she did was under constant surveillance—at this point, she was fairly certain even her toilet was bugged.
At least they hadn’t taken away her private quarters and relegated her to the barracks.
Turning to the basket near her closet, she picked up one of the black uniform tunics that had just come back from the laundry. Before the incident with Marlis, she’d been Admiral Olly’s personal assistant. Now she was just another grunt in the administrative pool. At least she hadn’t been banished from the SNV Icarus altogether, though she’d spent several horrible days in the brig and endured interrogation under truth serum before being allowed to return to duty. She told herself she still had a shot at working her way back into the admiral’s good graces, but as time wore on, she was becoming less hopeful.
She hung up the uniform, trying not to dwell on the lack of insignia on the shoulders. Dad blamed Marlis for everything that had happened, but Attie knew it was her own damn fault; Marlis was only running around with rebels because Attie’d encouraged her to leave the corp and find a job. She’d imagined her sharp-shooter sister working on a shipping freighter, or maybe as a personal bodyguard. Now Marlis was on the corp’s most-wanted list. If she tried to come home, she’d be executed.
Attie shook her head, still having trouble believing Marlis’s brain injury made her that susceptible. That stupid. But then, there was a hot pirate involved, so maybe hormones had gotten the better of her sister.
A knock at her door made her startle, heat rising into her face at the inane idea that someone had detected her doubts about Marlis’s guilt. Syndicorp surveillance was good, but not that good. Smoothing her curly ash-blonde hair out of her face, she opened the door.
A short man in a janitorial uniform standing there holding a familiar wristband. “I found this in recycling. Says it belongs to you.”
She accepted it, confused as she stared at the familiar band. Marlis’s service AI? “Thanks,” Attie said and closed the door.
Tears blurred her vision as she turned the useless thing over in her hand. On the back of the black polymer disk that housed the AI, “Swan” had been etched in rough letters. The janitor obviously thought it’d ended up in the trash by accident. The data on it’d been declared irrecoverable by Syndicorp’s best tech specialists, and Attie’d assumed the thing had already been incinerated.
Tempted to throw the dead AI across the room, she muttered, “You were supposed to keep her in line, Twerp.”
A feminine voice emerged from the band, “Corporal Attie Swan, I have a message for you.”
Attie dropped the AI. “Twerp? You’re not dead?”
"I am an AI. I cannot technically die." Twerp sounded as calm and matter-of-fact as ever. But then, that was the AI’s
