“No better. Da didn’t react.”
“He’s still in denial.”
“I can tell. I’m sorry, Rylie...”
“Why’re you sorry?” Rylie knew she wasn’t going to like whatever Janet had to say next...what she was apologizing for.
“There’s only two of them,” Janet said.
“Two officials? That’s a good thing isn’t it?”It can’t be that bad.Some of her anxiety lifted. Some.Maybe it is just about the crops.“I don’t understand why you’re sorry. I expected a dozen or more based on the ship I saw outside.” She stepped out of the washroom no cleaner, but presentable.
“Cyborgs.”
Rylie stopped.
“What?”
“The two here are Cyborgs.” Janet let out a short laugh. “They’re intimidating, that’s why I’m sorry. But can you believe it? We never had aCyborgin the house, let alone two of them. Remember how Da used to tell us stories about them? Heroes, we have war heroes in the house!” She shook with excitement. “I could fuck a hero!”
Why would Cyborgs be here?
Her sister’s humor didn’t make Rylie feel better. And her disbelief was thrown out the window when Janet gripped her arm and pulled her into the house. Everything she had previously guessed turned to dust.
“One of them is very attractive,” Janet continued as Rylie dragged her feet.
“Stop!” she yanked her arm out of her sister’s grip. She needed to temper the excitement that radiated from Janet. “You can’t treat them like the men here. You’ll get yourself hurt,” she pleaded, snapping her fingers in front of Janet’s face. “The stories also mentioned how dangerous they are. They’re killers, mechanical killers. Don’t tempt one, please. Promise me.”
Rylie noticed how dressed up Janet was then, hair piled atop her head and gloss on her lips. She whiffed and her nose wasn’t filled with salt water and sunscreen but lavender, cloying lavender from Earth.
“Who do you think I am? I’m not a fucking slut,” Janet hissed.
“Then what’s with the perfume?”
“None of your god damned business.”
Janet turned toward the closed door that led to the kitchen, her hand stopping at the handle.
“Don’t make us look like fools.” She was through the door in the next second. Rylie sucked in her stomach, her back going straight.
The smell of lavender vanished under the wafts of food that came through. The sound of Janet’s receding steps and several unknown voices inundated her.
What’s Da hiding?She knew the only way she would get answers was to join the dinner party. And in that moment she hated Quinten Montihan with every anxious fiber of her being. Rylie gritted her teeth and went through the door.
And stopped short at the sight of the giant, truly gigantic, blue-grey man hunched over the kitchen island.
In an instant, she turned around and escaped before the door had a chance to close, her Ma’s voice lost under her heavy breath.There’s a large blue man in our kitchen.Rylie closed her eyes and counted to ten before going back through it again.
The stranger was now staring at her with a knife in his hand.
“What’s gotten into you?” Ma frowned at her. “This is one of our guests. Netto, this is my daughter, Rylie. Rylie, this is Netto. He’s been sent here by the government and has come a long way at your father’s request.”
Her mother’s voice faded into background noise.
“You’re blue,” Rylie said lamely.
“Yes.” The man turned away from her and focused back on what he was doing. Her eyes followed the knife as he ran it across a whetstone. She vaguely heard her mother apologizing, but it fell on deaf ears as she looked at the bizarre man.
He was the largest human she had ever seen, towering, and so incredibly out of place in her ma’s kitchen that she forgot he was anything more than a badly-created machine. Rylie joined him at the island and watched him sharpen the knife.
