Page 12

There’d been a moment when I was on top, when the soft curves of her body were pressed to mine, and I was transported back to that alley, and the moment when everything seemed possible.

Tonight, she’d been flushed, eyes shining with anger and frustration, but there’d been arousal there too on the edges.

Her memory might not recognize me, but a traitorous part of my heart insisted that her body did.

I was trying to scrub that thought out of my head even as I could still feel her against me, smell the spice of her hair oils. She was a distraction at worst, a job at best. That’s all…

Her voice is the same though older, deeper and richer. Her eyes…I could never forget them. Amber flecks in dark pools, a mouth that could make me laugh and groan in turn.

The moan that came out of my mouth was equal parts frustration and pain as I struggled to reconcile the past and the present.

This had to be controlled before I saw her again.

There was no going back to the way things were.

Daisy and Jacen had been an illusion, a temporary fix for two lonely children that didn’t know any better.

We both did now, though. And it would do no good to dredge up the pain of that broken relationship.

Our lives weren’t compatible now any more than they’d been when we were younger.

As soon as I was able to save Zephyr from herself, I would walk away. She could go back to her illustrious career in the GIB and I could go back to…

The warning light in my cybernetic CPU was flashing, telling me I needed sleep.

I had advanced systems that allowed me to stay awake up to forty hours. Past that, however, and my systems started to shut down, I got loopy and sloppy.

I ran a tired hand over my face and made my way to my sleeping quarters. The lush, soft bed, the temperature sensors built into the mattress, the soothing sounds of my favorite vacation destination, it was all meant to keep the dreams at bay. It never worked, but I kept trying it all anyway.

I refused the infusion of sleep drugs that my internal AI offered. If Zephyr dropped out of her current speed and arrived at some place earlier than I expected, I would need to be alert. And that crap always made me drowsy for a few hours post sleep.

My mind ran in circles as I slipped under the covers, my body had started to ache.

I’d pushed myself too far this time, but it had been necessary.

Even so, it took forever to finally calm the swirl of thoughts and memories.

When I finally started to drift off, it was with Daisy’s voice in my head telling me that I wasn’t alone.

The alarm yanked me from the smell of burning flesh and the screams of my dreams.

I sat up in a tangle of sheets, skin and cyber units coated in sweat. The skin along my facial implant itched and I half expected to reach up and feel flames crackling my skin into a blackened wreck. But it was just cool metal.

I tapped on it, three times, then two, then three; my one flesh and blood hand following the rhythm that my cyber one was drumming on my thigh.

I’d forgotten to slip into a pair of sleep pants and the strange, muted sensation on my upper thigh was at odds with the visceral feel of metal on my face.

The scars on my leg were red and white, garish similes of the flames that put them there.

They were a morbid map of where the fire had ravaged me, down my thigh, to my knee, which was technically also cyber, though it was under my skin.

I had dozens of implants under my skin, in places that had been burned as well as those that had somehow remained untouched.

It was partly for pain regulation, the type of fire that had done this left the nerves in a constant state of tenderness.

The implants made it so that I could ignore the ice pick like stabs across half my body.

The other implants under my skin were to regulate my less than legal cyber units. But the trick was keeping the illegal mods from fighting each other and creating toxicity in my body. It had taken years for my guy to figure it out, but it was worth it.

I pressed my cyber hand to a wall unit, and the palm opened to expose ports and cables that would enable me to interface with my ship. We were nearing the Olympus space station, like I thought we would.

I’d have to play this smart, careful. Let Zephyr see me at the right time, when she couldn’t avoid me.

We were near enough to have our transponder and docking codes requested.

I chose the one that I’d used here last time, knowing that my reputation should precede me.

I would be Sherrod Monroe, trust fund brat that liked to descend into the gutter and spend his money without limit.

It was nauseating how many things I could get away with as long as I spread enough credits around.

Seconds after I sent the codes, I had a message asking if I’d like my room from last time and if I wanted tickets to the main event tonight. An image flashed up on the 3D screen I had in my room. A huge Valtoshan and a…

“Holy shit,” I barked out with a laugh.

He was missing his crest and his scale color was wrong, but I knew that scar pocked face.

He’d bought more than a few of my fake IDs back in the day, along with contraband food supplies and building materials.

I never asked what a K’Tavi assassin and bio weapon engineer wanted with all of it, and he never said.

Now he was here, the main event in a dangerous cage fighting scheme.

It couldn’t be coincidence that the GUP was having K’Tavi issues, their golden girl spy was enroute to here where, surprise surprise, there’s a rogue K’Tavi obviously trying to hide. What’s the fucking connection to Cypher and that drive?

I accepted both the room and the tickets to the match, asking for an extra and private seating.

It was all granted, along with promises of a masseuse waiting for me, which meant prostitute.

I refused, spinning a bullshit story of getting Macabrin herpes last time and asked for privacy.

I tipped the messenger generously and was assured I would have anonymity.

The Olympus didn’t give a shit if I was a Cyborg, but with the stigma attached to it, there’s no way a rich family would allow one of their own to be out as one.

I could’ve selected a disguise, but a masochistic part of me wanted Zephyr to recognize me from the bar, so all I did was opt to hide the cyber units on my face and arm.

I packed carefully, three suitcases full of weapons hidden under some of the multitude of clothing from one of my four closets on board.

I packed mostly blues and greens with a few jackets in red, all haphazardly thrown into the suitcase, in spite of how it made me cringe.

Sherrod Monroe didn’t give a shit about his clothes, he could just buy more.

But just plain Sherrod Vasquez? He like order and precision and this was already driving me crazy.

My hair was already mussed, and my eyes blood shot so I found some wrinkled pants and shirt that were made of rare Toos silk.

Then I snagged a pair of Morav sunglasses, each pair cost more than a family on my home planet made in a year.

I slid a gaudy pistol into my holster that was made up to look useless but was really a modified GUP blister gun that would shoot non-lethal rounds.

One look in the mirror and I knew I had it right. My posture slinked to the side and a little slouchy, like I couldn’t be bothered to stand up straight. The suitcases were on a hover rig and I signaled for it to follow me.

When the door to my ship slid open, a familiar, oily faced alien that was at least eight feet tall and thin as a rail greeted me.

His smile stretched across his long face and showed rows of flat teeth and a purple tongue.

He had thin white hair slicked back and a hand with three extremely long fingers.

The alien bowed at the waist and I stumbled past him like I hadn’t seen him.

“We are so happy to have you back, Master Monroe.”

I answered with a belch and a nod.

“I have your room prepared, and tickets are on their way for the main event. Can I send you some dinner prior to the match?”

“After,” I said with a thick voice.

“Very good.”

I followed two shorter aliens that were of a species I couldn’t identify.

They were gelatinous blobs that seemed to communicate through colors that changed inside their bodies.

I glimpsed some organs, but no bones and I wondered if they were really good at slipping between doors and frames to break into places.

I’d have to make sure not to leave anything incriminating in the room.

I kept my eyes on the halls, rooms and shops we walked through and past, my eyes hidden behind the sunglasses.

There was no one of Zephyr’s height or build.

My cyber unit had a mod that allowed me to tell if someone was wearing a mesh, and while there were several, none of them were Zephyr under their disguises.

Either she was already in her room, or she was waiting on her shuttle for something.

It was a relief to get to my suite, sabotage the video and audio bugs and shed my persona.

In a matter of minutes, I’d hacked into the station systems and found out that Zephyr had passed herself off as a talent scout for some inter galactic fight team.

She was looking for talent and would be at the match tonight.

“So it’s the K’Tavi she’s after. Alright then.”

I upgraded her ticket for the match so that she’d end up in my VIP booth. Then I had her room switched to next to mine as a surprise upgrade. The closer I could keep her, the better.

Next, I tried to find out where the K’Tavi was staying but information about the fighters was surprisingly difficult to get into. The only thing I knew was that he was contracted through this fight and had booked passage for two on the next ship out of the system.

He wasn’t mated last time I talked to him, no family to speak of. I wonder who the other passenger is.

It took me another hour to find out where most of the fighters were quartered.

It happened to be in relatively nice rooms all things considered, though they were many levels down from me.

I could scope out the area, see if there was a way to contact the K’Tavi before Zephyr got to him.

But a better way to do it would be the reception before the fight tonight.

Less chance of getting caught snooping. I checked to make sure Zephyr had an invite to the reception and began making plans on how to get her off this stupid mission of hers.

Maybe I could talk to Varnok at the reception, find out what his connection to Cypher was, and get him out of here before Zephyr found him.

Then it would just be a matter of getting her back to Earth.

“Easy right?” I snorted.