“I must … but then I’d assumed we all had the second, ‘mystery’ locator.”
Amaryllis nodded, but she was more puzzled, not less so. “The tech found two on me, too. Which was almost as curious as the fact that I don’t even remember them planting that second one.”
“That second one—the one none of us knew about—was a termination chip.”
Amaryllis felt her jaw go slack with stunned surprise. “You don’t mean … you can’t mean….”
He smiled faintly, but the amusement didn’t reach his eyes. “I do mean exactly that. When we’d finished, they would’ve had no further use for us, and I have to assume they figured it would be too risky to leave any of us ‘in service’ … unless they had something against me in particular.”
“You’re positive?”
“Did I take their word for it, you mean?” he asked, jerking his head fractionally in the direction of the cyborgs that were watching from above. “I don’t trust anyone that much. No. I checked it myself.”
A wave of nausea washed through her. Anger followed it. “This is … outrageous! Who the hell died and made them God!”
He shrugged. “The government. They’ve been dipping deeper and deeper into big businesses’ pockets. It was only a matter of time before power shifted. The government wields very little control over anything any longer.
“The situation with the cyborgs threatened to become far too big for a cover up, however. If word got out, terror would follow and mass hysteria is beyond anyone’s control. I feel sure the government and Robotics, Inc. were in agreement that it would be far better to sweep it under the rug as quickly as possible than to risk having a public outcry widespread enough to threaten toppling them from power. Robotics, Inc. depends upon having their puppets in place. Then, too, hysteria is contagious. There’s no saying but what knowledge of what they had done wouldn’t cause rioting, which in turn could cause a great deal of damage to the property and profits of Robotics, Inc.”
Amaryllis realized he was probably right, but it didn’t make her any less angry. “In other words, we really don’t have anywhere else to go, whether we want to stay or not?”
Cain released a sigh that was tinged with exasperation. “I don’t precisely relish the thought of becoming a colonist, but fortunately, I learn fast,” he added with a trace of amusement, referring to the ease with which he could assimilate additional programming. “I feel confident that I could find a niche for myself that would satisfy me. And I have to admit there are certain incentives that appeal.”
Recalling her life as the child of a colonist, Amaryllis wasn’t sure she could agree with him, but then her own experiences, she had to admit, had been tainted by her situation. She supposed she’d never given much thought to what she would be when she retired from active service in the militia. Maybe she hadn’t expected to live to retire?
A death wish?
She didn’t think so. She thought it was more a matter of never having had any expectations of having a life like her parents had had. Who would want a freak as a companion, after all? And since that was the only life she was intimately acquainted with she either hadn’t wanted to imagine spending the end of her days alone or she just hadn’t been able to envision it, having come from a large, loving family.
“Such as?” she asked finally.
“The family units they will need to build a society. I hadn’t given much thought to what I would do if I lived to retire from active duty, but now that I have been retired from company service, the idea of a companion and children holds a good deal of appeal.”
Amaryllis blinked at him in surprise. “But … cyborgs can’t….”
He shrugged. “Dalia is pregnant … proof that the cyborgs are evolving into a unique species.”
“Or that Dalia is actually human,” Amaryllis pointed out dryly.
“And yet it was you who pointed out that no human would have the speed, strength, or agility to best a cyborg. If that is true then Dalia, who has had more kills than any other, would certainly fit that criteria. Besides, Reuel claims the child as his own.”
Amaryllis’ eyes widened at his mention of the most feared, and sought after, cyborg of all. “Reuel?” she whispered in a voice threaded with awe.
He shrugged. “I don’t know what the likelihood is that we will find we have all evolved the ability to procreate, but it certainly isn’t impossible if it has already happened once.”
“Making plans already?”
Amaryllis and Cain both turned to look at the huntress who’d joined them.
Cain’s lips flattened into a thin line of irritation. “Merely discussing possibilities. You know my partner, Violet?”
In pretty much the same sense that she knew all of the hunters. She recognized both the name and the face. “We didn’t train together,” Amaryllis said non-committally.
Violet divided a look between Cain and Amaryllis and smiled thinly, then fixed Amaryllis with a significant look and jerked her head in the direction of the observation booth above them. “I just thought you might be interested to know that the dark twin has been released from the brig at last.”
Amaryllis’ heart skipped a beat as she instinctively glanced in the direction that Violet had indicated. Dante was standing at the front of the observation booth. Beside him stood Reese. Her heart did a back flip when she saw that both were looking directly at her. Disconcerted, Amaryllis looked away again quickly, trying without success to keep the blood from rushing into her cheeks.
Violet, she saw, was smiling like the cat that ate the canary.
