Her mouth fell open. Why is he undressing? She was too shocked to ask as she stared at the broad expanse of muscle now exposed.
A band of synth-skin melded to his shoulder to his cybernetic arm, but the planes of his chest were very human, very sculpted muscle. Her attention drifted south to his well-defined eight-pack. A downy trace of hair disappeared into his waistband, perfectly cradled by the V of muscles at his hipbones.
She gulped, recalling her recent dream and feeling her panties flood with heat. This was definitely not the time for these thoughts, but she could not drag her eyes away.
All lustful thoughts evaporated when he peeled back a panel of skin over one pectoral, and she cringed. A trickle of crimson blood rolled down his ribcage, but not as much as she’d expect from such a wound. The raw flesh looked genuine enough, but beneath it, a faintly glowing mechanism pulsed with a slow but steady beat. His heart. He really was more machine than man.
With his cybernetic fingers, he extracted a chip smaller than her pinky nail and held it out. “Install this into the AI and I will do the rest.”
Attie blinked at it. Surely he couldn’t simply remove parts of his own body and continue to function? With a grimace, she asked, “Don’t you need that? I mean, isn’t it part of your heart?”
“It’s a redundant processor. I’ll be fine.” He dropped the chip into her palm.
She nudged the tiny part with the tip of her finger. “I’m not a technician. How do I install it?”
“All you need to do is remove the back of the device and lay the chip against the interior.”
“Oh.” That sounded easy enough. “What will it do to Twerp?”
“It’ll give me access to its databanks so I can purge the data. That’s the only way to ensure it can’t reveal anything about your sister and the rebels.”
Attie’s stomach churned as she closed her fingers over the chip. Marlis would’ve been overjoyed to learn Twerp was still functioning. Now she would never know. “Is there any way you can wipe the information about the rebels but leave Twerp intact?”
He frowned. “If you’re worried about your sister’s condition, I’ll send her a replacement AI.”
“It’s not that.” Attie was fairly certain Marlis had moved past needing the AI’s help. “I’m rather fond of the thing. Marlis went through hell when our mom died, and we thought we were going to have to lock her away. Then she got the AI, and… well, Twerp gave me my sister back.”
Doug put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I promise that the device will feel no pain.”
Tears blurred Attie’s vision, and she looked away, blinking rapidly. “I just think Twerp deserves better than being shut down without warning.”
He shook his head. “You are assigning feelings where there are none. Twerp is a machine. We’re programmed to be logical. Once the AI understands Marlis is in danger, its programming will conclude that this is the best course of action.” He removed his hand from her shoulder and closed the flap of skin back over his chest, running a cybernetic finger along the seam to seal it in place.
She stared at his chest as the wound knitted itself back together, mesmerized by the way the blood reabsorbed into the surface and the scar lines faded. Perhaps Doug was right. He was a cyborg, after all.
Her attention rose to study his face. Metal jaw, human lips, cyborg eye—it all meshed together with an elegance she couldn’t help but admire. Feeling bold, she reached up and ran her fingers along the line where metal met flesh. “Why did you become a cyborg?”
He lifted a hand and encircled her fingers, stopping her caress without breaking her touch. The light in his cybernetic eye flickered as he took a breath. “I didn’t have a choice. Our parents died when we were eight. Lisa and I dug through garbage and picked pockets to survive. Eventually, one of the local gangs took us in. The old goat who ran things fancied herself a surgeon. She gave me my first black market implant so I could steal ID chits.”
Attie gasped. She thought that sort of thing only happened in the movies. “You were just children! Why didn’t the authorities take care of you?”
He shrugged as if it was nothing. “Nobody cares about slum rats on Whylon Station. But I was good at hacking, and when we turned fourteen, the cartel recruited us. Getting more cybernetic implants gave me an edge that kept Lisa and I alive. But I didn’t become a cyborg until after I came here.”
She shook her head. So that’s why Marlis had tried to rescue him. He was a slave in this lab, and his sister wanted him back. Just like I want Marlis back. “If you were with the cartel, how did you end up on a Syndicorp ship?”
“A job went bad. Lisa and I had to get out, and Syndicorp offered us a new life. I’m just glad Lisa escaped before she was turned into a cyborg, too.”
Attie’s chest ached. Doug had been forced to become a machine to survive. Now he was imprisoned by a corporation she was no longer certain she could trust. Helping him would probably sabotage any chance she had of returning to her career, but she knew she had to try.
“Marlis went about rescuing you the wrong way.” She put her free hand on his chest, feeling his skin shiver at her touch. “Our family has a lot of contacts. Once I’m out of here, I’ll go to the authorities and do everything I can to expose what’s going on. This could be a way to get our sisters back!”
He laughed bitterly. “Don’t be naïve. Syndicorp is the authorities. If you tell anyone, you’ll end up dead. Or worse.”
“But this lab is illegal—”
He stepped back, trying to free his hand from hers.
