He wasn’t wearing an eyepatch. Instead, the man had a metal plate fixed onto his eye socket.
Her pulse quickened.Malik was going to hire a cyborg?
Like most sentients, she wasn’t comfortable around bionics. Droids were different; they were machines, built to be soulless. But a cyborg was something unnatural, a reminder that your essence could be stripped from you, and you could still go on existing.
She recalled the cyborgs she’d seen on the newsfeed storming Mir-Brennan Tower then: rows of blank-faced warriors—half man, half machine. The Mir-Ferrins weren’t the only ones to use cyborgs in their armies though. Cathal had squads of them too; marines who’d been mortally wounded in the line of duty and then brought back from the edge of death and ‘transitioned’ so they could serve once more. Every soldier who signed on to space fleet agreed that his body belonged to the Mir-Brennan clan-lord if he fell.
Vic Mir-Riorde stared back at Jenna, his face expressionless. “Good evening.”
Shoving aside her discomfort, she nodded back. As her shock faded, she tried to see beyond the metal plate covering his right eye. His left eye was hazel. He wasn’t like the cyborgs she’d seen serving in her brother’s space fleet. Their eyes usually had a flat, glazed quality to them. But this one was observing Jenna with the same frankness that she was favoring him with. She noted, too, that Vic was attractive—well-built, with short brown hair, and dressed in military-style cargo pants and a fitted t-shirt.
The cyborg leaned forward so he could make out her features inside her shadowy hood. “You’re the missing Mir-Brennan ambassador,” he murmured after a lengthy pause. “According to the Shadownet, there’s a huge bounty out for you.”
Jenna tensed, fighting the urge to glance around her. She didn’t want her identity announced to the pleasure house. Fortunately, they were talking in a private corner of the common room. “Is that a problem for you?”
Vic held her eye. “Not for me … but you want to make sure you keep your hood up in case the wrong person recognizes you.”
Jenna inclined her head, gaze narrowing. “So, you aren’t the ‘wrong person’?”
“That’s up to you to decide, My Lady.”
Inhaling deeply, Jenna wondered if Malik’s reserve about this individual hadn’t been warranted. Perhaps she shouldn’t have interrupted him. They didn’t know anything about the cyborg, or whether he was trustworthy.
Damn it, her situation was getting increasingly complex. She already had assassins hunting her; she didn’t need bounty hunters on her tail as well. And although this moon was under Mir-Brennan jurisdiction, she didn’t want word getting out that she was here. She’d met the Morith governor once, at a clan-gathering, and hadn’t been impressed. The woman was an ambitious sycophant, and not someone she wanted to confide in about this rescue mission.
She couldn’t afford anyone else recognizing her.
“Vic trades in machinery parts,” Malik spoke up then. “And he also runs a smuggling operation. He’s got clearance to land on Idral.”
“My ship has Mir-Ferrin registration,” the cyborg explained. “They’re only letting their own people through the blockade at present … so that should help us.”
Jenna inclined her head. “And if they scan your ship?”
“I’ve got a hidden compartment in the main hold that is lined with Villum … you two will have to hide in there.”
Jenna glanced over at her bodyguard to find him observing her.
He didn’t look pleased.
Turning back to Vic, she met his gaze squarely. There was no easy way to say this. “You know there’s a price on my head … what’s stopping you from turning me in?”
The cyborg stared back at her. His blank expression frustrated her, especially since his remaining eye was veiled. “There’s bad blood between me and the Mir-Ferrins,” he said after a pause. “They want me for desertion … I’d rather not advertise myself to them.”
Jenna considered his answer. Vic Mir-Riorde didn’t bandy words. “What’s your story then?”
“I used to be a marine in the Mir-Ferrin space fleet, but I took a bolt to the chest during battle and was transitioned. The surgery didn’t go as expected. I woke up half man, half machine … but I could still think for myself. I was still me.”
Jenna sucked in a breath. That sounded terrifying.
“I deserted shortly afterward,” Vic concluded. “Does that satisfy your curiosity?”
There was an edge to his voice, a challenge.
Jenna ignored it. If she was going to put her trust in this individual, she needed to know about his background. “And your crew?” she asked after a pause. “How big is it?”
“There’s just the two of us.” The cyborg’s gaze never wavered. “My fee is ten thousand credits.”
Jenna stiffened. “That’s expensive … for such a small crew.”
