“Mr. Somber, I am Alexander Berke. The explosions were getting a little too close to my properties,” he said. “That was just a warning. You may have noticed the com-net here is down. It’s been down since the first attack of the Mesaarkans.”
“Of course, that’s why I sent you a drone. I came here in person to inform you that our demolition is nearly finished in this area. We won’t be coming any further east with it, so your property should be unaffected,” Jolt told him. “I want your assurance that your gangers will cease attacking my men.”
“You mean your cyborgs,” Berke asserted.
“We are cyborgs, yes. But we are genetically human, created from human embryos,” Jolt said calmly. He’d faced such ignorance his entire career. “I believe you will find the addition of a starport adjacent to your businesses beneficial.”
“I have to agree, a starport would benefit my business. But won’t that also bring enforcers to try to shut my enterprises down?”
“They will only have authority inside the starport city compound. It will be a walled city protected by Federation Enforcers. As long as your business remains outside the wall, they won’t bother you.”
“Is that why my enforcers found four of my men hanging dead from a tree inside the starport site?” Berke asked bluntly.
“They assaulted and defiled a female. She was almost dead when I found her,” Jolt’s calm tone belied his raging emotions, emotions that he had never felt until he discovered Iris.
“How do you know they were the ones who hurt the woman?”
“Genetics. They left their DNA all over her,” Jolt said.
“Why does a cyborg care what happens to a street fem? They fuck for food.”
“That is their choice. Our code of conduct imparts in us that females have the right of choice whether to breed or not,” Jolt said with deceiving calm. “They beat the female unconscious before they bred her. There is no honor in that.”
“So, you are protecting those sluts?”
“The females have been transported to the Enclave where they will no longer have to ‘fuck for food.’” Jolt remarked.
“I wish you’d let me know. With the starport coming, I could have used some more fems in my pleasure houses.”
“We had to move them from the demolition area,” Jolt replied. “We don’t have Federation support for anything but the starport city. The rest of Farringay will remain as it is until funds are available.”
“Will you be staying in Farringay when it’s completed?”
Jolt could see that Berke was hoping they would not. Were he in charge, he would wipe Berke’s regime right out of Farringay. He doubted the providers in Berke’s pleasure houses served of their own free will. The gangers here were better organized than in old Chicago, better armed too.
“No, we leave when the starport and terminal are done. Materials to build the city are coming from off-world. It’s going to be very expensive,” said Jolt. “The sooner we get it done, the sooner we’re gone.”
“Good to know,” Berke said a little too smoothly.
Jolt’s team wasn’t just facing a few thugs with armor-piercing weapons. Berke’s men were well trained and armed better than the cyborgs. He sensed hundreds of them moving in behind Alex Berke’s estate even while he’d been speaking to the man. He let Berke think he was unaware of the gangers positioning themselves to fire on his force.
Jolt stood staring at him, resting his hand on his sidearm, considering whether he should just kill him or not. Berke stared at him.
“Does that mean I can expect you to allow us to finish our demolition without your men attacking them?” Jolt demanded.
“You can,” Berke said cryptically.
Right.Jolt thought.But it doesn’t mean it will happen.“Thank you for your time, Mr. Berke” Jolt inclined his head as a formal sign of respect. But didn’t say anything more.
As Jolt turned to leave, he re-engaged his armor helmet. As he walked toward the front doorway, he signaled the rest of his teams to move in. He strode down the short hall and exited through the open door and started walking toward his shuttle about twenty yards from the front of the mansion.
Immediately as he stepped off the front step, Jolt had a prickly feeling in the back of his neck that someone was aiming for him.
Jolt, incoming!Axel’s warning through their internal network came as he dove for the ground, too late. Two rounds hit him in the back, one between his right shoulder blade and his spine and one in his lower left back. The force slammed him to the ground. The pain was blinding for a few seconds while his smart armor injected him with nanites and painkillers.
Once they kicked in, he levered himself back on his feet and took up his rifle to start firing back as all hell broke loose. They were good at fending off the armor piercers, but a few got through and wounded some of his advance team.
Jolt knew Berke was using semantics rather than a straight out lie, and the overlord was good but not good enough to evade the cyborg’s lie detection skills. It was more a sixth sense that made him expect deceit. Obviously, Berke’s apparent agreement to the project was a ruse, Jolt wasn’t sure why.
