He sighed in frustration, stretching his limbs, and returning to his body briefly. His eyes sought the moon and found it behind a thick cloud of city-smog. He was pushing too hard and failing. He hated to fail, wanting only to return to Clara with the news her attacker was no more. Time wasn’t on his side, though, and he was beginning to regret getting out of bed that evening before and leaving her.
I should never have left—
There!
His mind left his body and flooded back into digital space. He had Santino. And straight from the source, the prison. Leave it to other humans to do his dirty work. Reid experienced a twinge of glee as he started his flyer and shot up into the smog-filled sky.
The target had been arrested. It wouldn’t last if he had anything to do with it. Even bars couldn’t stop Reid from seeking out his target.
His only problem: Santino had been apprehended on his own turf. In no man’s land, in the town nearest the breeding facility. He lifted his gaze to the bleak world around him, and away from the channels of the network. The gears in his cyberware vibrated with anticipation. The night was still middling.
He called up the guard outside his facility, speaking into his wristcon.
“Yes, sir?” No greeting was needed.
“I need you to head to the local station. Bring a weapon and delay any further processing of Santino.”
“Sir?”
“It’s personal,” Reid added, hoping that would answer all further questions. His guard was the only human in his employ and the only one he could stand long-term before Clara.
“This isn’t about...? I don’t think I can do that right now. There’s been a security breach at the facility.”
The muscles in his arm tightened uncomfortably and the connection to the guard wavered for a moment. Without a will of his own, he readjusted the route of his flyer, forgetting all about his target. Forgetting everything. Already, his feelers flooded back into his home.
“Sir? Is something wrong?”
Reid’s jaw twitched. “Where are you?”
“At my station.”
“Where’s the breach?” He looked for it as he asked.
“Internal. Unusual activity within the mainframe. I assume it’s not because of you?”
Reid felt the red flags as soon as the guard spoke.Unusual activity.It was there. How could he have missed it? The vehicle sped up past ground law and went higher, closing the distance between him and Clara.
His world was crumbling in the small confines of his quiet flyer and he experienced something he hadn’t truly felt since he was newly created. Dread. So many secrets that were at the tip of a filled dam, waiting to flood over its sides. Secrets he wasn’t ready to reveal or deal with—ones he didn’t want anyone else to know. Not even her.
“It’s not me.”
“Do you still want me to go to the station?”
“No. Shut it down. I’ll be there soon.”
“Do you mean—?”
“Everything.”
“Sounds like we’re in for some fun,” the guard loosed a small laugh and hung up.
His eyes flashed with dark light and his canines popped out his teeth. His eyes zeroed in and searched the wastes for the facility. The old city pollution dissipating behind him. The threads of his suit snapped under the bulging pressure that demanded release.
With his sharp teeth abrading the tissue of his lips, he lifted his wristcon once more, calling into his security room.
“Clara.”
He heard her, heard the sudden stiff shift of her body as she was caught trespassing into his space, his fucking territory.
