How can an opponent who was significantly weaker than you do anything but try? He felt a small smile twitch at the corner of his lips. It was a hard smile to keep hidden.
There was a reason he liked being out in the wilds alone.
“I get attacked every day. If you don’t need me anymore to bring in the beasts, then, by all means, send down a spy. I’m sure you could find someone to replace me,” Dommik warned.
His fist hit the button at the door and he strode out of the room. He didn’t make it three feet when the clatter of heels sounded behind him. He sighed and kept walking.
Mia.
“Dommik, wait, please. It’s not what you think.” A slender hand clutched his forearm. The man’s assistant rattled to a long, awkward stride next to him. His arm was her crutch. “We’re not trying to spy on you.”
He looked down at the cleaned up and tight blond. He towered over her slight, put-together frame that wore a pencil skirt and white blouse as accessories. Eyelashes thick with black mascara and cherry red lips parted as she met his eyes.
“I work alone.”
“You don’t have to be alone. Hire me. I’ll stay out of your way, I’ll stay quiet. I’m sure we could come to a mutual agreement.”
“I work alone, Mia,” he repeated. “I don’t have time to babysit.” Her bust strained against her shirt as she inhaled. Dommik looked away and kept walking.
“Don’t be like that, Cyborg, I’m the best bet you can have. I know the job, I know the people, and I know you,” Mia continued. Her argument was sound but the idea of having her smell up his ship with heavy perfume hurt any chance she might have had. He imagined how it would stick to him as he went out on hunts. The smell would give him away.
Beasts from nearby planets would know of his presence.
“You don’tknowme, Mia, and you’re not getting on my ship.” He peeled her fingers off his arm. “I’m not your free ticket to see the universe or a way to sleep yourself into a better position. All you would be is bait up there. You’re pretty enough, find someone else to throw yourself at.”
“Fuck you, Dommik, I actually liked you. I would have been good by your side. Good luck with whoever they send you, you sure as hell will regret it.” She stopped following him.
“I’ll make sure to send you a missive when I do.”
“Dommik, wait!” Mia called after him, her tone changed. He sighed and turned around.
“What?”
“Please be safe out there.” She waved her hand at him and without a second glance, walked back toward the quarantine facility.
Dommik could only think of her rancid perfume as she vanished around a corner. Mia may have been his best bet as a co-worker but he had an even better bet in mind, no one.
He passed back through the gates that led to the last working terminal at the port. If he made it fast enough, if he left without being fully restocked, he may escape with the Molucs without another creature in tow.
Another human that would stare at him like an oddity. The denizens of the port stopped and gaped at him, moving out of his path and whispering behind cupped hands.
He wasn’t just a Cyborg in their eyes. He was a miscreation. Dommik knew all the names that people called him behind his back. It was easy to hear whispers, even those from across a room, with the technology built into his ears. His work required the best in perception enhancements and he took it seriously.
The money that he didn’t funnel back into the ship went straight into his head as newer waves of cybernetic enhancements rolled out. Scope sight, hearing, a keen sense of smell. It made him the hunter he was today.
He wouldn’t call himself the best. There were other Cyborgs that hunted, other Cyborgs he would even callfriends, that did what he did. Sometimes he was called in on a special project or asked to help out on another hunt. Sometimes teamwork was a necessary evil. One he took better than other Cyborgs.
Dommik wasn’t afraid of cutting the throat of a corrupt politician. Or even taking a side job every once in a while to take out a person he thought deserved it.
Even humans were monsters. They just hid it behind a suit of flesh and honeyed words. He owned up to his crap.
The sticky smell of human musk, potent lotion, and processed food made him hurry his steps. Even as his tech reconfigured for the increased speed; silence was always on his mind. Dommik left the semi-busy terminal behind, seeing his gate at the end of the hall.
He also saw a girl sitting on a drab suitcase next to his exit to the field.
How? It’s been three minutes since I turned down Mia.
As Dommik got closer he recognized the female from earlier. The brief eye contact they made as she became one of the many gaping bystanders. She didn’t breath when she looked at him. He hadn’t understood why. The girl was quiet.
