Her stomach flip-flopped. She couldn’t see the guards’ features past their reflective helmets. They’re not after me, she assured herself.
The other two crewmen glanced awkwardly over their shoulders, and when the doors opened again, they exited in a hurry. One guard turned and held up a hand at a woman waiting to board. “Please wait for the next car.”
Attie edged forward, nerves crackling. “I’d like to get off here, too.”
The guard still facing her raised an arm to bar her way. “We need you to come with us, Private Swan.”
Nebulas, they are after me. The doors slid closed, and she gulped as the lift continued its descent. “Why? Is there something wrong?”
The silence hung so heavily, she was sure they could hear her pounding heart. It’s going to be all right. She’d been to the brig before. It wasn’t pleasant, but she could ask for counsel before answering any questions. The car stopped, and the doors slid open.
Dread clamped around her chest like a vice.
They weren’t at the brig. This was level three.
The guard facing her said, “Come with us.”
The hall to the lab’s security office stretched before her like a gauntlet. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak. The guard took her arm, forcing her to stumble forward from the car. She clutched the rucksack against her side, following along like a fish on a line. “Where are we going?”
The guards didn’t answer. The taller one passed his hands over the biometric scanner to open the door at the end of the hall. Inside stood the man who’d given her the Consort clothing, arms crossed over his all-black uniform and chin down. In the chair at his desk sat the same doctor who’d come upon her and Doug kissing, shiny black hair and pristine white lab coat making him appear more artificial than any of the cyborgs. He raised his gaze from the computer monitors to assess her with dark, cold eyes that reminded her of a lizard’s.
Nebulas. This must be the man Doug said ran the lab. The scientist who would dissect Twerp. The monster who experimented on human test subjects in Syndicorp’s name.
A guard shoved her toward a chair and forced her to sit before wresting her bag from her grip. He set it on the desk beside the doctor.
Attie licked her lips, trying to look innocent and praying Twerp remained silent. The last thing she needed was the mouthy AI to try to help right now. “If I’m under arrest, I’d like to speak with my counsel.”
The doctor stared at her with his fingers steepled under his chin. “Syndicorp’s laws don’t apply here. You’d do best by cooperating.”
“This is a Syndicorp ship, and I’m a Syndicorp citizen. I have rights. What you’re doing is reprehensible and it needs to stop.” She snapped her jaw shut, realizing she may’ve said too much. “I want to talk to the admiral.” She attempted to rise, but a guard placed a heavy hand on her shoulder, keeping her down.
The doctor tapped his fingers against his mouth. “We traced a transmission coming from your quarters. You’ve been on quite an adventure in corporate espionage, haven’t you, little private?”
She swallowed, mouth dry as desert air. It hadn’t occurred to her that someone might trace the heart chip transmission back to her and Twerp. But all she could do was continue to deny what he was saying and hope he had no concrete evidence to hold her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, I think you do.” He let his gaze travel down her body and back up again, lips twisted into a mirthless smile. “Gaining access as a Consort was a bold move. It took us a bit of digging to recover your original files. Excellent cover-up, by the way. I can appreciate that type of thoroughness. If we hadn’t terminated the nanite project, I might’ve considered you for a test subject.”
Her heart leapt into her throat. She couldn’t take a full breath as what he’d said sunk in. Terminated the nanite project. Doug was dead? She’d been so certain Twerp’s code would save him.
He waved a hand. “That phase of the project is over, however. You have what I want.” With a dismissive sneer, he opened her rucksack. “Jinson, search her.”
The guards yanked her back to her feet as the man who must be Jinson moved forward with a scanner.
“I demand you bring my counsel in this moment.” Attie squirmed in the guards’ grip. “You have no right to search me or my belongings.”
The doctor pulled everything from her bag, piece by piece, while Jinson ran the scanner along her body. Prodding her obscenely between her legs until she spread them, he muttered, “I knew there was something strange about you the first time you came through my office.”
She wanted to spit in his face, but her mouth was too dry to summon any moisture. This was the man who’d drugged her and stuffed her in a room to be raped. “This is all a mistake. I’m not supposed to be here—which I tried to tell you the first time, if you recall.”
Suddenly, the doctor exclaimed, “Ah!” and held the wristband holding Twerp up to the light as if regarding a precious gem. “What have we here?”
Shit. The very thing she was supposed to keep safe. It had obviously been a mistake to use the heart chip. But what else could she have done? Please stay quiet, Twerp, she thought as she forced herself to laugh. “That’s what you’re after? A broken service AI?”
“Do you think I’m a fool?” The doctor released an offended breath. “This thing is a trojan horse in reverse, uploaded with all my hard-earned research. Well, let me assure you, it’s not that easy to steal what I’ve worked so hard to accomplish. Jinson, scanner.”
The guards
