“The other way around.” Gunner circled his cell. Three walls of bars surrounded him with a full wall at his back. The tip of his boot toed the vent that dipped and ran directly across the center and into the units on either side of him. There was a grated hole in the middle of it and one in each cell as well. He looked up to the paneling above, which he was sure opened up into restraints.
Without giving himself away, he couldn’t reach up high enough to touch or take it apart.
“They use those sometimes,” Royce said, interrupting his perusal. “The guards trigger them from the panel on the other side of your unit door, opens up to restraints.”
“Figured out that much,” Gunner muttered.
“Never a good sign when that happens. The last guy they chained up didn’t make it and it took a while for him to die too. When they were done, they left his corpse for days before androids came and cleaned up.”
“What’d he do?”
“Refused recruitment. They made an example of him.”
It’s what I’d do. String someone up and make an example out of them.
Gunner moved to his cell door and studied the metal paneling outside the bars. He couldn’t fit his hand through to reach it but he could feel the electricity and connection regardless. He eyed the mechanism on the empty unit opposite of him and memorized the interface, the order of the numbers, and then mirrored it in his head. He threaded his fingers through the one-inch opening and felt around.
“We’ve tried everything. Those panels are unreachable and indestructible. Even wasted good water gels trying to short-circuit them,” Royce said.
Idiots. Of course they’re indestructible. You should see my brig.
His could hold a Cyborg, at least for a time, depending on who. He once locked Dommik in it and it took the spider almost a full day to get free. Mainly because he refused to shift. Gunner mused at the memory and the hundreds of images he had of his brethren in his ‘other’ form now. It took Dommik that long to transform and slip his winding, metal arms out from the laser barricades to reach the other side of the room and release himself.
There was nothing quite like making a man live with his most hated self and capturing it on a hard drive for future use. Sometimes he even sent the images marked ‘high priority’ to Dommik for fun.
It’d been worth it. Until then, Gunner had never seen the spider as an actual metal beast.
Dommik’s new assistant is going to have quite a fun time when she finds out.
He wondered how the redheaded girl managed to get on an EPED Cyborg ship in the first place. His eyes trailed back to Ely.
Kat looked like a woman. Even from across the universe and on a fuzzy feed, he knew instantly that Dommik’s assistant was a female. But within feet of Ely, he was unsure. His jackal said female, his machine said male, and the man couldn’t quite rationalize either.
Ely was tall and slender from what he could tell despite his oversized clothes. He acted like a man, tried to at least, but there was a certain type of...vulnerability about him. The kind of vulnerability that made him want to poke and see what would happen, and possibly protect it. Maybe it was because Ely appeared to be too young to be in such a shitty situation, or maybe it was because he was really ashe. And this place was no place for a woman. Especially one without agun.
Gunner drew in a breath. His nose filled with the worst smells of humanity again as he turned back to Royce. “Have you tried blood?”
Royce canted his head and looked at his cell door. “Blood? Blood can’t do anything that water can’t and no one’s giving up that amount of blood to pour over it.”
“Water doesn’t conduct electricity, Royce,” he said. “Blood has shit tons of salts and metals in it and is a, let’s just say, a very good conductor.”
Suddenly, Ely stood and moved to his cell’s locking mechanism. The action drew Gunner’s attention. He watched as Ely threaded a slender hand through the bars to feel around. Just like he had moments before.
Royce huffed. “No one’ll risk dying to get their door open.”
“No, I suppose not. Ely, what do you think?” Gunner cocked his head, taking in the scene. Ely’s fingers stretched out and felt around the interface.Thin hands, long fingers, steady despite the situation.His visual honed in.Not weak, but searching specifically.This wasn’t the first time Ely had played with the locks.
A twitch was Ely’s only response.Ignored.
Smiling, Gunner walked to the grated hole in the center of his cell with his eyes still on him. “Royce,” he called out without looking at the man, “what’s recruitment?”
“Keep your mouth shut!” Kallan fired out. “Don’t tell him shit.”
Gunner’s smile grew. Royce hesitated.
“Tell me, Royce, and you can have my jacket.”
“What the fuck!” Kallan shot to his feet.
