Page 30 of Her Cyborg Commander
Veth. Jens had to be on that shuttle. Whatever had happened to Edge, the asshole doctor knew about it and was coming to collect his prize.Her.
She groaned as that realization led to another one. If Jens thought he’d captured her, he couldn’t know that Edge was here.Fraxx-to-the-max! The bastardhadtracked her somehow. She wasn’t sure if she was more pissed off over the fact he’d managed to find her despite all her precautions or that Edge had been right all along.
“Eddi, how long until we’re back in contact if you stay where you are?”
“Three hours and eighteen minutes.”
Which meant either ordering Eddi come get them now despite the risk of the corvette in disguise blasting their only ride into oblivion or staying put and fighting. There was only one choice.
“Do everything you can to avoid detection and contact us again as soon as it’s possible.”
“I will do so. Stay safe. Pilot Rem would not be pleased of something happened to either of you.” The AI paused. “Or to me.”
“I’ll do my best to make sure all of us get home safely. I promise,” River said.
“Thank you for that reassurance. Communication blackout now commencing. Good luck.”
Something about Eddi was definitely odd. She’d never heard of an AI wishing anyone good luck before, and the program seemed to have a keen interest in its own survival. That hinted at a level of self-awareness no artificial intelligence was supposed to have.
If she survived this current cluster-fraxx, she’d have to ask Sevda about it.
Turning her attention back to the needs of the moment, she shifted positions so that she was between Edge and one of the cisterns. It was time to try and wake him up again. If she failed this time? Well, she’d have to find a safe place to stash him while she dealt with Jens and whoever else was in that shuttle.
River got to her knees and cradled Edge’s head in her hands. “I love you, you big stubborn idiot. Come back to me.”
Nothing. But she hadn’t really expected that would work.
“Okay then. Since romantic declarations of love aren’t getting through, let’s try something else.”
She reached back with one hand and groped for the tap she knew was embedded halfway up the container. Once she found it, she cranked it open and let a torrent of water wash over them both. The contents of the cistern weren’t chilled, but compared to the heat outside it was like being doused in ice water.
“Wake up!” she shouted at him, repeating the message at the same volume over their internal link.
She called to him several more times before accessing the file she’d hoped she’d never need. The one containing every piece of code she could find that pertained to putting the cyborgs into a dormant state along with the codes required to bring them back online. Countless hours of work had gone into this collection. It had started as a way of taking back control and had grown into a determined need to find some way to fight back if they ever came for one of her friends again.
She used their link to transfer it all to Edge. She didn’t even know if it could be done this way, but it was all she had left to try.
“Please work,” she whispered, not even sure who she was talking to. Maybe to the bits of code themselves, as if she could compel them by willpower alone.
A week ago, she’d wanted nothing more than to confront Jens on her own. To face her fears and the man who had inflicted them on her and make him pay. Now, things were different.
She still wanted revenge, but she didn’t want to do this alone. She wanted Edge at her side. Was he perfect? The idea made her laugh. Hardly. But neither was she. After her surviving batch-siblings had turned their backs on her without even trying to get her back, she’d stopped trusting everyone. Until now.
Minutes ticked past as she waited for Edge to wake up. Hope kept her at his side long past the time she should have given up and gone on without him.
Finally, she leaned over him again. First, she brushed a tender kiss to his lips. Then, she filled her lungs and shouted at him one last time. “Edge! Wake up. I need you.”
It was a foolish impulse that should never have worked.
But it did.
16
Someone was shouting.Maybe at him. What the hell did they want, and why were they so loud?
“Edge! Damn it, open your eyes.”
They were definitely yelling at him. Rude. Who was that?
