Page 92 of Her Lawless Prince

Rick’s voice was urgent as he broke into Nyle’s thoughts. He couldn’t blame the pilot for not wanting to hang around a virus-infested lab.

Nyle went to a wall and ran his hand over a small seam in the white-coated metal. After several attempts to open it, he sighed. “This is the most secure room in the facility. It can’t read my biorhythms through the suit.”

“You’re not taking it off,” Payton said. “Rick shook the wall.”

“No, hold on,” Nyle lifted his hands to stop the man. “Just wait.”

Nyle returned to the robotic arm and rolled its table to wave the metal in front of the seam. A click sounded, and the wall popped open enough for him to push it aside.

The storage facility lights activated, which he expected. But there shouldn’t have been a steady hum of storage units. There would have been no reason to leave them all on. A narrow walkway was flanked on each side by metal storage containers and shelves. The room was the largest in the building.

Seeing a handheld reader, he handed it to Payton before giving her Yevgen’s disk. “Try this while I check the storage logs.”

Payton glanced around and then set it on the floor. She placed the recording disk on top. And stood back to watch. The holographic image of Yevgen’s head in a crown fluttered, and the sound of his voice warbled as the message started.

“Greetings. You are watching this in honor of me, a fallen hero, having courageously sacrificed myself on the pyre of destiny. You have ventured to the land of the dead to hear my royal message. Henceforth, the day of my sacrifice will be known as Prince Yevgen Day, a day where all must sacrifice in honor of my greatness.” His tone lowered, adding, “A yearly ball at the Var palace would be in order where all the cyborgs in the land are invited. All except a cyborg named Harriman from the Vortexian District. If he shows up, turn him away from the planet. His transmissions are subpar.”

Yevgen’s image paused. Other devices on the storage rack and down the walkway picked up the signal of his recording, creating several holographic Yevgen heads. The privacy glitch in the device would have been an issue with a full lab, but now it hardly mattered.

“Are there more cyborgs on Qurilixen?” Rick asked.

“A few Shelter City sweeper borgs left over from the Federation’s rule. They’re powered down,” Payton answered.

“Is that all?” Nyle asked, nudging the player with his toe.

“To my beautiful wife, my forever princess,” Yevgen continued as images of Payton appeared with a mild delay to all the linked devices. The cyborg’s voice sounded like an echo as the other players repeated him. “I am sure you have received my many messages by now—”

The message stopped.

“What is he talking about? Messages?” Payton frowned.

“Maybe he left them at the palace?” Nyle suggested. “He was in the palace system.”

Payton lightly tapped the device with her foot.

“—and know what you must do,” Yevgen continued. “Now please take a moment of silence to honor my sacrifice.”

Regal music played as images of Yevgen and Shelter City showed on the holograms.

A soft laugh sounded through the comms, only to grow louder as Payton leaned over. Her shoulders shook, and he wasn’t sure if she was laughing, crying, or both. “His important message was to establish Prince Yevgen Day. That is so like him.”

Rick motioned at his air monitor and then toward Nyle to keep working.

Nyle tried to draw up the storage areas for the corresponding lab, looking for samples whose reference numbers had been deleted. The problem was that there were too many of them.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Nyle whispered, trying to reboot the log.

“What?”

“The files are corrupted. It has designated too many samples to that lab.” He watched the screen reboot only to show the same information.

Yevgen’s show continued to play. Nyle ignored it.

“Or maybe there are more samples than you thought?” Rick surmised.

“Suit check,” Jackson reminded them, his voice crackling.

“We’re good,” Rick answered, not bothering to look at his controls.

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