“About the caffeine.”
Stryker laughed but it came out hollow. “I have more if you want more.” He offered. “If one could be addicted to anything, it would be caffeine.”
She narrowed her eyes. He missed her full ebony irises immediately. “Why?”
“Caffeine is energy–albeit stolen energy–and energy is life. Addiction to life is not such a bad thing, is it?” he asked as he scrutinized her, monitoring and reading her bodily functions through his scanning tech.Fever is down.Stryker rested his head back against the tree.Her functions are normal.
“Why do you have a band around half your face?”
He closed his eyes.
The one question he hated, yet the one question that was always asked. He had noticed Norah eyeing it since the laboratory but circumstances had left conversation...lacking.
Maybe she won’t care. Won’t judge me. Will see me as a man instead of an abomination.
He opened his eyes and looked at her, the last crystals of rain still caught in her hair glittered at the end of her loose curls.
“You’re a scientist. You’re smart. You have to be to work on a colonization expedition.” Stryker leveled with her. “I’m sure you’ve seen things...things that don’t make sense. Creatures, plants, abominations.”
“The shriekers.” She nodded and kept her eyes on his face.
“Yeah, those. You know I’m a Cyborg already.”
“Yes. And a damned hard one to kill at that.”
Stryker smiled under his mask. “Ever heard of Project Lycan?”
Her curls moved as she shook her head. “No. Are you a werewolf?” They both laughed at the absurd question.
Until a tense quiet stopped them. He noticed Norah’s hand grip the dagger and shuffle it under the plastic crinkles of her poncho.
“No,” he gleamed and set his rifle aside. He kept his radar spinning around them. “Werewolves are not Lycans. Werewolves can’t shift on command while Lycans can. Lykànthropos. They date back to Ancient Greece. So far back in human history, none of that civilization remains in existence. Project Lycan was undertaken after the first waves of Cyborgs were produced. Top secret at the time.” The memories came flooding back.
Unthinking machines. Wires. IVs. White rooms and vats. Humans everywhere in shrouds of white.
Stryker continued, “Until it was a success.” He pointed his thumb at his face.Successtasted bitter on his tongue. “I’m a product of that project.”
Norah’s hands moved from beneath of her poncho. She crawled several paces closer to eye his deformity better. His metal spine stiffened under her perusal. The smell of sweet berries and soap filled his nostrils.
Control. Control. Control.
“You can shift? Like a lycanthrope? I thought I saw something back there, when your flyer was sinking into the mud and when we crashed. What do you shift into?” Scientific curiosity and awe filled her voice.
“I have a compacted metal frame, enhanced with nanocells that are spliced with man and animal. Or reptile in my case.” He held her eyes, pinned her to her question and to the spot, letting her know that if she tried to run, there was no place to go but down. And down was death. “I’m a snake.”
A bubbly giggle came from her lush lips. Stryker sat forward.
“A snake? Really? Why the hell would they need a snake Cyborg? I mean, really, Stryker, I’m not a fool. Just lift your mask.”
“You don’t believe me? What happened to our trust?” he played along.
“Oh, I trust you with my life now, you’ve proven yourself beyond a shadow of a doubt. But believing you blindly is another thing entirely. And you haven’t told me why you wear metal around your head.” She hitched another step toward him. They were only a few feet apart from each other and the band on his head had never seemed more necessary than now.
He was a snake. And snakes liked to strike.
His lips peeled back behind his teeth. His eyes kept the rest of his face secret.
“I guess I have to prove myself once again to you.” He rose up and kneeled before her. His erection was semi-hard and right in front of her eyes but he didn’t try to hide it.Make of it what you will, little Norah dove.The drums of the turbulent storm raged around them, a constant symphony to remind them that at any moment, their lives could be snuffed out.
