Her parents had always blamed what had happened to her on defective shields. The doctors had refused to be cornered one way or the other, but did that mean they didn’t know? Or that they didn’t agree? Or that theydidknow that it was the shields, but were afraid to say so because of the company? And if it actually was the shields, did that mean it wasn’t something she could pass to her offspring? Or had the radiation damaged her chromosomes?
She wished that she could see the child. If she could just look at it, assure herself that it was developing normally, she wouldn’t be driving herself crazy worrying about it.
There was no hope of that, of course. The cyborgs had made great strides in building this place, but they hadn’t anticipated that they would have families. From what she’d heard it wasn’t until they’d discovered Dalia had conceived that they realized they were evolving to a point where they would be able to bear young. Rumor had it that they’d been disastrously unprepared for Dalia’s labor and delivery and they were still collating and gathering information. They were certainly not advanced enough in that area to have what she needed.
It plagued her mind throughout the day like an aching tooth, impossible to banish once more to a safe distance no matter how hard she tried. Time seemed to hang on her hands, but she found herself moving restlessly about the house, unable to concentrate on anything long enough to accomplish it.
It wasn’t until she heard the scrape of feet in the foyer that she managed to compose herself even a little, but she was more relieved than sorry when she realized that it was her free night—she could spend the evening alone in her room worrying herself sick.
By the time they’d eaten, she was exhausted from her anxiety. Feeling somewhat hopeful that she might at least escape her worries for a little while, she excused herself and went up to bed. When she woke, the house was as dark and silent as deep space.
Chapter Twenty Seven
Amaryllis lay listening for a time to the tiny creaks and groans of the settling house. Slowly, it dawned upon her that everyone was asleep … unless someone was standing guard. It also occurred to her that this might be her only opportunity to try to find out what she could about the baby, to find out positively one way or the other so that she could make an informed decision instead of one driven solely by her fears.
Since she now knew there were native inhabitants, most likely a guard was posted about the city around the clock, but she doubted very much that anyone would be in the med center. The cyborgs had so little need for such a thing she’d actually been surprised to see one at all, but she supposed it was probably geared more toward research anyway.
If she could get in, she could at least find out what they had. She could operate a scanner if they had one. She doubted she’d be able to make heads or tails of a lot of the information, but she only needed to find out one thing—was it normal.
She’d fallen asleep in the clothes she was wearing so she had no need to stumble around in the dark looking for something to wear.
She just wished she had her uniform. As lightweight as it was, it was made out of a material that was surprisingly protective. There was no hope for it, of course. She hadn’t seen her uniform since she’d been captured. She removed the skirting from her clothes, however. It wasn’t any sort of protection, but it could hamper her movements and she needed to be prepared to defend herself, or run.
Which brought her mind to weapons.
She didn’t have one and didn’t know where to find one.
The cyborgs primarily carried swords. She didn’t know why they seemed to prefer to carry swords instead of lasers, but they did, which meant it was highly unlikely she’d find a laser even if she took the time to look, and even swords weren’t readily available. Until and unless the cyborgs began to trust, hunters weren’t allowed to arm themselves at all, and she had a strong feeling that Dante and Reese kept their own weapons close to hand.
She was desperate or she wouldn’t even have considered going out unarmed.
She’d just have to be careful she didn’t get caught.
After very little consideration, she decided not to try to leave by way of the stairs. She wasn’t that familiar with the structure and it was made of natural materials. Cyborg hearing was acute. One creaking timber and she’d have some explaining to do.
Moving from window to window, she checked the perimeter carefully. The moon had just cleared the tops of the trees and brightened the rear landscape, casting deep shadows in the lee of the stonework and plants, but she couldn’t see any movement that indicated anyone was about. There was nothing below any of the windows to use to climb down, but no obstacles to clear either.
Calculating the distance, she decided she could make the jump without damaging her bionics and slipped the window open. She hovered on the sill for several moments, trying to decide what to do about the window, but finally realized she would either make it there and back without being caught, or not. If her mission was successful, then she would still need to get back into the house undetected. If they checked on her, it wouldn’t matter whether the window was open or not. They’d immediately notice that she was missing.
Balancing herself, she pushed off of the sill, landing in the soft soil of the lawn in a half crouch. She held her breath, listening intently, but she could hear no movement that indicated she’d been heard.
Getting her bearings, she decided to take the most direct route. A roundabout route wouldn’t help that she could see and it would take more time.
She jogged until she neared the edge of the city. Slowing, she drifted into the shadows and kept to them as much as possible, stopping from time to time to listen and study her surroundings. The streets were deserted. Here and there, light spilled out of the window of a building, but she could see no movement inside.
She almost ran smack into a pair of cyborg guards on patrol, but managed to squeeze herself into a tiny corner and waited until they’d passed out of sight before she moved again.
More cautious now, she moved from one hiding place to another, scanning for some sort of cover each time before she moved on. There were a few lights on in the med center. For security, she wondered? Or was someone working the night shift?
She circumnavigated the building before she found an unlocked window that she could reach. Pushing it open as far as she could, she hoisted herself up and over the sill, then dropped into the room, catching herself with her hands.
Light from the corridor outside filtered into the room. Glancing around, she saw that it looked like an examination room. It seemed doubtful that she would have chanced on a room with a scanner, but she looked anyway, pausing from time to time to listen. As she’d expected, she turned up nothing.
Moving to the door, she pressed her ear to it to listen. When she heard nothing, she eased the door open and glanced up and down the corridor. The heels of her boots clicked on the tile floor when she stepped out of the room and she froze, listening once more. When she was certain she hadn’t alerted security, she moved quickly down the corridor to the next examination room and ducked inside.
To her great relief, she found a scanner in the fourth cabinet she checked. Moving to the gurney in the center of the room, she lay back on it, switched the scanner on and moved it slowly over her abdomen. She sat up again when the light blinked, indicating the scan was complete.
The scrape of a heel on the tile floor startled her so badly she almost dropped the scanner from suddenly nerveless fingers. She managed to recover it just in time and clutched it against her frantically pounding heart, trying to determine whether the footsteps were coming in her direction or not.
