Seth: Futuristic Spy Romance (Cyborgs: More Than Machines) (16 page)

Having a naked man, with half his skull a gleaming dull metal,
jump out of bed screaming, “You expect us to fucking invade the company on its home turf? Are you out of your nano-bleeping mind?” was slightly disturbing. Finding herself stepping between the ridiculously muscled, bare-assed male and her idiotic husband, who was laughing, with a sternly said, “Don’t hurt my husband,” was insane. Aramus would probably flatten her, given he probably outweighed her by a few hundred pounds—soldier models were built with more reinforced limbs and, thus, possessed greater weight.

However, the most astonishing part was the
speed with which Seth, the ultimate jokester, took Aramus to the ground, immobilized him, and, in the deadliest tone she’d ever heard from him, said, “If you ever harm a single hair on her head, I will permanently kill you.”

How totally unnecessary
, given she was the one who intentionally stood in the bullish cyborg’s way. How perversely romantic. What a waste of time. “Oh would you knock it off.”

“
For your information, I wasn’t going to touch her,” Aramus snapped. “I don’t hurt women, even ones dumb enough to try and protect you. However, you, on the other hand, could use a few slaps to the head.”

“What for?”

“For your bloody half-baked suggestion we raid an earth facility.”

“What’s wrong with
my idea?”

“Because
, even you have to admit, going to earth, even for the cloaking technology, is bloody nuts.”

Seth grinned.
“Probably. I’d even go so far as to call it suicidal. But, if that’s where the factory is situated, then it makes the most sense. Unless there’s another facility?” He glanced at Anastasia.

She shrugged.
“Not that I know of.”

“And is
there any other way of getting the technology?” Seth asked.

“
There was until tinman here blew it up.”

“It self
-destructed.”

“Whatever
. The fact remains we no longer have access to it unless we go to the source.”

Aramus sighed.
“I don’t like it when you act rationally.”

“Blame it on my wife. She brings out the best in me.”

“If that’s your best, then you have serious issues,” she muttered.

He grinned. “
You say the sweetest things.”

Aramus gagged.
“If you’re done making me want to jam a screwdriver in my ear, can we get back to business? Do you have co-ordinates for this so-called cloak-making factory?”

“Not exactly.
The secret is closely guarded. All I know is ships go into the dockyard for maintenance, disappear for a few months, and when they return, they have the new hardware installed.”

“
Back up a second, blondie. In other words, you don’t know where it is. So why say earth?”

“Because it makes the most sense. The ships disappear while docked planet
-side and reappear there. I’ve also been tracking military and company space routes for the past year now. Those ships don’t appear to be leaving earth to get the modifications.”

“Or they’re hiding it well.”

“Possibly.” She shrugged.

“Do you think this mysterious facility
might also be hiding the cyborg origin?” Seth asked.

“Again a possibility. Given the secrecy behind it all, I’d
say there’s even a possibility we could find the head of the company.” A viperous head that needed chopping.

“Your target.”
Seth stated the obvious.

“
Yes.”

Seth played devil’s advocate.
“But how will you know him? Whoever runs the company never shows his face. We could talk to him face to face and never know it’s him.”

“I’ll know.” Where the certainty came from she couldn’t have said, but deep in her gut, what human instinct remained to her, she knew she’d recognize the source behind the ultimate evil.

“I am less concerned about her vendetta than I am about finding this fucking joint,” Aramus snapped. “Any ideas on how we will find this place. We don’t even have a name for the company. Hell, even its employees don’t know it.”

“
Some do.” Up until now, Riley had remained silent, but when she did finally speak, all eyes veered her way. The human, nervous at all the attention, blushed and ducked her head under their sudden perusal.

“You know
the name?” Forget hiding the surprise in her query. Anastasia had long wondered why the company, who had so many fingers dipped in so many places, never seemed to have an actual identity.

“Maybe. Like you said, everyone calls it the company, but once, when I was in my cell after one of my, um, beatings,
” Aramus growled at Riley’s admission, “I thought I heard Dennison call it by a name. He talked about a corporation titled Advenus.”

Seth
frowned. “That doesn’t sound familiar.”

Perhaps not to
him, but Anastasia certainly recalled hearing it once or twice before. Of more interest, the memory of it was hazy, which meant she wasn’t supposed to know. “I think the doctor here might be on to something. I know I’ve heard that term before.”

“In that case, w
e’ll have to get Einstein to start digging. If there is anything public under that name, or even not so public, he’ll find it. So who’s game to go on a mission?”

Aramus didn’t immediately
volunteer. He looked to the human.

Apparently that bothered Seth because he said, “Since when don’t you jump on the chance to wreak mayhem? Have I entere
d an alternate realm?”

“Perhaps I finally learned that there’s more to life than vengeance.”

Seth clasped his hands to his heart. “I think I’m dying. My best friend, the most murderous cyborg alive, doesn’t want to kill humans. Is it me, or does nothing make sense anymore?”

“Stop it,” Anastasia hissed.

Her rebuke didn’t stop Seth from harassing Aramus, who ignored him to have a discussion with his girlfriend.

“It would be dangerous,” Aramus said
to Riley.

“Yes, but the company has to be stopped. We can’t keep letting them do this, Aramus.”
The fragile human put her hand on his arm, and Anastasia could see the shock on Seth’s face when the big brute’s expression softened.

“I don’t suppose you’d let me put you somewhere safe.”

“I belong by your side,” Riley bravely replied.

“Then, I’ll do my best to protect you,” the big guy replied.

“Hot damn, Aramus is in love. I call being best man!” Seth slung an arm around Aramus and beamed.

“You’ll be
called dead man if you don’t get your arm off me,” Aramus snapped.

“Can you kill him after the mission?” Anastasia asked. “He might be useful
, given we’ll need to sneak in, and of all the cyborgs I’ve known, he’s one of the few who could pull it off.”

A glower creased Aramus’ face.
“Sneak? I hate sneaking. Sneaking leads to ambushes, which leads to shooting, which leads to mayhem. On second thought, I like sneaking. Sneak away. Or we could just try the direct approach. They might not expect that.”

“Remind me to leave bucket head behind when we go topside,” Anastasia said.

“Who you calling a bucket you bleached blonde hussy?” Aramus growled.

“Let’s ditch the name calling and see
whose training is better.” She goaded him with beckoning fingers.

Before they could tango, Seth wrapped a steel band around both of them and beamed.
“How sweet. My wife and BF are having their first fight. This day just keeps getting better and better.”

“Your friend is an idiot.
We can’t just go barging in and expect to make it back out alive,” Anastasia said, trying to be the voice of reason.

“Why ever not?
I’m still here, aren’t I?” Aramus boasted.

“
Says the guy with the metal head.”

“That wasn’t from a mission.”

“Yeah, a girl did that to him,” Seth piped in.

“
I don’t really care. Although, if the lady in question would like lessons on shooting to kill, send her my way. I’d be more than happy to help her amend her shot.”

“Hey, that’s not nice,” Riley exclaimed.

“Neither is he. But, come on, you’re talking about a highly guarded company facility where they’re developing alien technology and who knows what else,” she exclaimed.

“Alien? There’s that word again.
Do you know something I don’t, wifey poo?” Seth crossed his arms and arched a brow at her.

For a highly evolved male, he could be awfully dense.
“I do. You just seem to have a hard time grasping the hints. As I’ve already told you, aliens are real.”

“Bullshit! I thought you were yanking my metal chain.”

“Not bull, but alien shit. And alien artifacts. I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I’d wager heavily that the cloaking technology and some of the stuff the company is working on isn’t of their own making. Or did you really think they came up with the nanotechnology themselves?”

The shocked expression on the male cyborg faces said it all. The human however
? She didn’t seem surprised. “You knew that already?” Anastasia accused.

Riley shrugged. “I’ve suspected it since I got to know Aramus and the others. It makes the most sense. Given the way the company is researching and experimenting
, it makes me think they found something and used it without fully understanding it.”

“Area 51 conspiracies are alive and well,” Seth announced.

“Area 51 happened. Problem was their lack of knowledge and equipment at the time led to them destroying all the viable samples and technology that crash landed. They weren’t so foolish the second time,” Anastasia told them. “From conversations I’ve overhead, and pieced together, I believe they managed to preserve some of the DNA and recover an alien craft. It’s the most logical conclusion as to where the cloaking technology and new metal we’re seeing crop up is coming from.”

“
Descended from aliens. Now that is freaking cool!” Only Seth would think of it that way.

“You’ve seen these aliens?”
Aramus asked her.

Anastasia
shook her head. “No. No one has. What about your doctor friend?”

“
I’ve just seen some of the results on my autopsy table of what seems to be attempts to splice humans with alien DNA.”

“Splices which wouldn’t work.
I seem to recall hearing something about the ET’s being water based.”

“
Are you sure about that? I mean them being water based?” Riley asked.

“No. It’s just conjecture. Why do you ask?”

“Because the stuff I saw in the lab, the alien stuff, it definitely wasn’t from some water-based ET. Do you think it’s possible the company has found a second set of life?”

“Two aliens?” Even Seth sounded scoffing.

Riley bit her lip and dropped her head, but Anastasia wanted to hear more. “Why do you think that? And I, unlike my idiot husband, am asking quite seriously. Like I said, I only heard rumors of a water based alien, and through the same gossip mill about gray aliens with spiny backs. I just assumed they were one and the same.”

“
I guess they could be.”

“But you don’t seem to think so?” Anastasia prodded.

Riley bit her lip before shaking her head. “The kind of genetic modifications I saw weren’t from something that spent extended periods of time in the water. If I had to guess, I would have said the aliens were from an arid planet. Not only that but they share a DNA close enough to ours to splice.”

“We need to find out more,” annou
nced Aramus, who’d dressed while they conversed, Seth providing cover with his body, acting the part of jealous husband.

“Hey, do you think having alien nanos would explain my love of probing things?” Seth leered at her.

Anastasia restrained a sigh. Nope. Seth hadn’t changed. Still a jokester, but a loveable one who was going to get his ass handed to him if he didn’t start taking things seriously. Time to change the course of this conversation. “If we’re going to infiltrate the company on earth, we’re going to need help from the surface.”

“And just who would be crazy enough to do that?” Aramus
asked with a snort.

“Why
, the movement for the ethical treatment of cybernetic organisms of course,” Anastasia announced. “Lucky for us, I happen to know their leader, Adam.”

“Know him how?” Seth asked. “And how do you know we can trust him?”

Nothing like a little excitement to spark a lively conversation. Anastasia lit the fuse. “Adam is a cyborg, and my ex-boyfriend.”

Kaboom
!