But he looked forward to finding his information another way.
He leaned forward and drooped, forcing his systems to shut down and go into stasis. His skin immediately cooled off and his brow broke into a sweat, and his shoulder sagged to the side. He looked at the android through his bangs.
A man walked through the opening and kneeled before him. Unlike the guards, he was dressed a little nicer, and by nicer, Gunner eyed the pistol at his side.
“They say your name is Gunner. I’m in charge of the patrols, and in charge of your fate. I’m your god.”
Really?Gunner mumbled. The man grabbed Gunner’s hair and yanked his head up until their eyes locked.
“We can make this quick.”
Can we?“That so?” Gunner said. “God?”Really?
His tormentor smiled and jerked his head further back. “Give us your ship.”
“Thought you already had it.”
The man’s smile only grew. It made him want to smile back. “Ah, so we do, why else do you think I’m asking?”
“To set me up.”
His hair was let go and Gunner leaned back into the chair, watching the guy. He couldn’t tell if he was just another guard or if he was the captain. He’d settle with a member of the bridge crew if he had a clue. Pirates didn’t wear name tags...only governmental workers did, and although he worked for the EPED, he never wore one either.
“Why would we set you up?”
“Because you don’t know who I am,” Gunner countered. “That’s a problem isn’t it, God?” he mocked.
The man’s grin fell and he knew he guessed correctly.Because I have the same fucking problem.He had no idea who attacked him and his patience for that information quickly waned.
A metal rod came down on him again, and he was prepared for it, even without the numbing effects his nanocells provided and the accelerated healing, he endured.
It slammed into his gut and the tops of his thighs in an effort to break something inside his body. Nothing would break. At least not for long. His only problem was if the man truly wanted to kill him, he wasn’t good at playing dead. His jackal had its limitations on tricks.
“Please,” he sputtered, groaning, and laughing a little through it, but his laughs sounded like painful moans. “Please stop.”
He was hit several more times for good measure before the man leaned in and got in his face. “Do you want to die?”
Gunner licked his teeth. “No.”
“Do you know how a man like me comes to beating a fuck like you?”
Hrrmm...“No?”
“Because men like me don’t tolerate shits like you.”
The man rammed his fist into his dislocated shoulder.Fuucck.Gunner fell into a brief void of pain before he could react, and stopping his systems from kicking back on in retaliation. The man raised his fist again and the lights flickered, stopping him, and stopping Gunner right before he killed him.
The android in the corner moved forward on his behalf, sensing a threat to the guard it was programmed to protect. The android could read his violence better than any human, the signals were hard to fake even for a Cyborg, harder still for one who was tempering his strength.
“Why does a guy like you have a ship like that?”
“Luck, I imagine.”
The smile returned. “Oh come now, luck has nothing to do with it. You have cybernetics in your body and not the second-hand shit. Only a rich man without a background can get that done to himself. And you’re not a Cyborg, no Cyborg would be dumb enough to get his ship stolen from right underneath him.”
Gunner kept his mouth shut and his anger under control.
“No, but you’re something or somebody special, and I’m going to find out one way or another. I don’t have to torture it out of you, yeah know. We could work together.” The man walked around him in circles as he spoke but stopped at his back. “Or we don’t and I can have a little fun...”
