“See! That ‘borg grabbed a human! Shoot him, too!”
Danika grasped Seth’s hand, struggling to wrench it loose. “Oh hell no!” she yelled against the gag of his palm when she couldn’t dislodge his hand.
“Cyborgs! Out of the cavern! Now! Assemble outside!” Master Sgt. Felton roared.
For several moments, everyone remained frozen. Abruptly, Seth released Danika and stepped away. Almost as if that was a signal, the cyborgs all turned and began marching toward the entrance to the cave.
As fearful as Danika was for her own safety, as difficult as it was to find her voice in the face of that fear, she couldn’t remain silent. She surged forward to intercept Felton. “They haven’t mutinied. Master Sgt. Felton! You know they haven’t! They’ve followed every order!” she said in a low, shaky voice, hoping to avoid a confrontation with the lieutenant. “Try to reason with him! You know Hill sent Reuel and his men out to patrol!”
“Can it, soldier!” Felton snarled at her.
A harder jolt of fear went through Danika, but she wasn’t about to stand by and keep her mouth shut while they ordered the cyborgs outside for destruction! As the cyborgs moved swiftly toward the entrance to the cave and started to file out, she stepped into Felton’s path, trying to block him from following. “You have to reason with him! This isn’t necessary or reasonable!”
“Shut the fuck up!” Felton bellowed, lifting her bodily and tossing her to one side.
Someone caught her, preventing her from slamming into the wall or floor, and Danika looked up to discover that it was Dane. His expression was grim. “Do not say more,” he whispered harshly. “He will order them to shoot you, as well!”
Danika met his gaze and knew abruptly that what Brown had ordered was murder, plain and simple. The sense that she was in the grips of a nightmare increased. Her entire body felt stiff and unresponsive. Her lips felt numb, as if she’d forgotten how to form words. “Run!” she whispered, glancing from Dane to Seth, who’d stopped and turned and looked undecided as to whether to go or stay. “As soon as you get outside, run like hell! All of you!”
“We have your back, Danika,” Seth said quietly. “Do not forget that.”
Danika felt her throat close as she watched them march toward the entrance. Who hadtheirback? That crazy lunatic was going to shoot all of them!
Just run, please, she thought.
But where would they go? They were all marooned on this hellish ball of ice!
Reuel, she discovered, hadn’t led the way out. He’d stopped at the entrance and waited to be sure all of the cyborgs were out. When the last stepped outside, he turned and narrowed his eyes at Lt. Brown and Master Sgt. Felton. “I did nothing to deserve these accusations … humans! But so be it!” he bellowed. “I sever my ties and loyalty to the Confederation of humans! You may call me rogue in all truth, now!”
Turning away even as Brown and Felton brought their weapons up to fire, he slammed both fists into the ice wall at the entrance in a piston-like motion and leapt out as the entrance began to collapse. Danika screamed and leapt back as she saw the chunks of ice showering down.
And then there was darkness.
* * * *
Seth felt a blinding haze of rage and fear engulf him as he heard the ominous roar of cracking ice. For a split second he stared at Reuel in disbelief. Uttering a roar of rage, he surged toward Reuel and caught his throat in his hands, trying to choke the life out of him. “I will tear you limb from limb if you have harmed her!” he growled.
Reuel grasped his wrists, trying to pry Seth’s hands from his throat. “They can dig themselves out!” he roared. “There was no other way to give our men the chance to escape! They would have forced us to kill or be killed! I did it to savethemas much as to save us! I have no more desire to kill humans than you do, but I will not allow them to kill me or my men when we have done nothing to warrant it!”
‘Dig’ was the only word that truly penetrated Seth’s rage and it instantly diverted him from his need to kill Reuel. Hope surged through him that he might yet save Danika if he moved fast enough. He flung himself away and dove toward the rubble, clawing at the powder and pebbles of ice and grasping the larger chunks and flinging them aside.
“They will kill you for your troubles,” Reuel said tightly. “Come with us!”
“Go,” Niles said coldly. “You have the diversion you need to escape. We will stay.”
Reuel shook his head. “You are nothing but machines to her—to any of the humans—a tool to use … and to discard when they have no more use for you.”
Dane paused as he lifted a huge chunk of ice, glaring at Reuel. “That is not true! She is loyal to us! If she cared nothing she would not have ordered us to go!”
Reuel turned away and scanned the faces of the other cyborgs standing at attention, waiting, he thought with disgust, for Seth and his men to free the humans so that they could execute them. “Those of you who wish to live—who wish to be free of human tyranny, come with me!”
Chapter Six
“Danika!” Seth called as soon as he saw that they had cleared away enough rubble to unearth a small opening into the cavern.
“I’m alright, Seth!” Danika called back.
Seth hesitated, meeting Niles’ and Dane’s gazes for a long moment. “The traitors have gone. We will remove the rubble. Everyone must stand back in case there is another cave-in when we remove the ice blocking the entrance.”
