For the next few days, 77 tried to avoid the little doctor—tried not to even see her though it seemed she was somehow constantly on the edges of his vision everywhere he went.

They had reached the base without further incident and to 77’s relief, it had been relatively intact. Once 86 and 87, who were tech specialists, had gotten the generators going, they’d been able to power the massive perimeter fence. The fence was a good one, built before they’d decided to abandon the base. Its blue, glowing bands of energy extended seventy feet into the air and had overhead power-arcs to keep out any high-flying hoppers that decided someone inside the compound looked like a tasty snack. Once it was up and running, 77 felt much more secure.

But it was a temporary kind of security. Though the fence kept the base safe from the monstrous insectoids, its low, buzzing hum also seemed to draw them closer. Almost every night they clustered around the perimeter, their compound eyes glowing in the artificial blue light, their teeth gnashing hungrily. Every so often one of them would take it into its dim-witted head to charge the fence—which resulted in a burst of energy as the blue power bands wrapped around the invading creature and fried it until it popped like a kernel of corn in a too-hot skillet.

The result was most often an unpleasant shower of half-fried hopper guts and the nauseating smell of burned rubber and rotting garbage permeating the air.

If that was the only problem, though, 77 thought they could have lived with it. But when one area of the fence was attacked, the rest of the perimeter was weakened considerably as all available power was thrown into killing the intruding hopper.

“Ya know, boss,” 80 remarked, as the two of them watched the fence dim and flicker while yet another hopper fried. “We’re damn lucky those things are dumb as dirt and don’t seem to have any kind of a hive mind. All it would take to bring this place down is if more than one or two of them got it into their heads to attack at the same time. We’ll be some done Tom Turkeys if that ever happens.”

77 didn’t like it, but he had to admit it 80 was right. He nodded his head reluctantly.

“We need to go clean out their nest,” he told 80. “Slip in during the day when they’re less active maybe.”

“Hell, yeah!” 80’s eyes were shining. “Throw some death-charges down into the center of their hive—blow the damn things sky high!”

“You think we have enough fire power?” 77 asked, raising an eyebrow. “They’re a fucking lot of them down there, 80, and we don’t just want to stir them up. We want to eradicate as many as possible.”

“You leave it to me, boss—I’m a munitions expert, don’t forget,” 80 said. “I’ll wire a few things together—blast the buggers to Kingdom Come. I swear it.”

“Well…” 77 sighed. He didn’t like it but what choice did he have? The fence couldn’t hold up to this kind of nightly assault forever. “Fine,” he said at last. “Do it. We’ll go tomorrow at dawn—they’re most sluggish when the sun is coming up or going down.”

“You got it, boss!” Grinning in anticipation, 80 hurried away.

As another hopper fried itself, 77 knew he had things to do to get ready for the coming attack on the nearby nest. And one of those things was something he’d been putting off. He needed to check on 78.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see how his old friend was doing. It was just that Claudia was most often at the med shack where he was recuperating. Still, if they were going out on a bug hunt, he had to see how 78 was before he left.

Reluctantly, he turned toward the hut, arriving just as the dinner bell rang. There was a good store of MREs as well as plenty of nonperishable ingredients in the base’s stores, and Unit 82 had taken over the cooking. When he rang the bell, the others knew they’d better get to the mess hall quickly. 82 had been the company chef before he was Cyber-ized and he still had considerable skill with rations. The food he made went quickly.

Tonight 77 decided he would just have to eat a protein bar. Knocking on the med shack door, he poked his head in and looked around. Claudia was missing, though he could still smell the faint feminine scent of her skin hanging in the air. Good—she was probably in the mess hall with everyone else.

Breathing a sigh of relief, 77 made his way to the back of the shack. There was a table to one side with the half-dissected CyBRG device lying on it. Rows of instruments lined the edge of the table and a microscope as well as a laser spectrometer were set up on the end. Clearly Claudia had been hard at work. She claimed she was trying to find a way to turn off the agony waves the CO still occasionally sent through them—though why she bothered now that they all knew she was a spy, 77 didn’t know.

Just the thought of it made him feel even more broken inside so he pushed it away.

Toward the back of the med shack, six intensive-care cots were set up, three on either side. The only one that was occupied at the moment was on the far right where Unit 78 lay sleeping.

77 frowned as he went to stand over his old friend. Because, 78 had been his friend… before. Lately he didn’t even need the little voice in his head to tell him. It seemed that more and more memories were coming back to him—77 didn’t know if that was a good thing, or a bad thing but he did know it troubled the hell out of him if he thought about it too much, which he tried not to do.

Damn it, 78…Rich, he thought as he looked at his old friend’s face. He’d been healing well back at the tree base but the run through the jungle and up into the mountains hadn’t been good for him—despite the fact that he’d been carried most of the way on a backboard. His face was pale under the scruff of beard and his broad chest rose and fell shallowly.

77 was about to turn away when 78’s eyelids fluttered open and piercing blue eyes focused on him.

“Captain.” 78’s voice was weak, his cheeks pale. “To what…do I owe the honor?” He coughed and winced, as though it hurt him.

“Just checking on you,” 77 told him gruffly. “I wanted to let you know I’ve decided we have to make a raid on the hopper nest at dawn. The perimeter fence can’t hold up to these constant attacks forever. We need to thin the bastards out some.”

“I’ll be ready.” Despite his pallor, 78’s eyes blazed.

“No, you won’t. You’re not coming,” 77 told him. “I just came by to see you and let you know what was going on. In case…”

“In case something happens and you need me to look out for Doc Chambers?” 78 raised an eyebrow at him.

77 frowned. Was that why he’d come to see his old friend? Surely not—he just needed to check on Rich—make sure he was doing all right. After all, the man was his second in command, even if he was out of commission at the moment. He deserved to be kept in the loop.

“Don’t bother trying to deny it,” 78 said when he opened his mouth to do just that. “I’ve seen the way you look at her, Drew. It’s the way you’ve always looked at her.”

“Always?” 77 frowned at him but his friend seemed unperturbed.

“You want her,” he said simply. “The longer we’re away from base—from the CO—the more I remember. You used to look at her like a starving man looks at a steak, Drew. If the rest of the guys called her ‘MILF’ or tried to joke about her, you shut them down fast. She’s been your ideal from the minute you saw her.”

“What do you know about my ideal?” 77 growled. “And even if she was, you think she’d want me now? I’m a fucking monster, 78. So are you. So are we all.”

“Call me Rich, like you used to,” 78 said quietly. “I know we’re made of metal now—or parts of us are—but that doesn’t make us into monsters, Drew. It just makes us…different.”

“Speak for yourself,” 77 said shortly. “I only came to inform you of the raid as a courtesy. If I bite it, you’re next in command.”

“Then you’d better not bite it because I’m weak as a kitten,” 78 informed him. “In fact, I hate to say it but maybe you ought to leave someone else here along with me to help guard the doc. Wouldn’t want anything to happen to her if the perimeter gets breached while you’re gone.”

77 didn’t like the idea—but he had to admit it was probably a good one. Still, who could he leave that he trusted to take care of…Claudia…of the base while he was gone? Who—?

“What’s this about a raid on the hopper nest?”

Claudia was striding down the center of the med shack, a frown on her delicate features. She marched right up to 77 as though she wasn’t a bit afraid of him, despite their vast size difference.

“None of your fucking business,” he growled and started to leave.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Claudia moved quickly to plant herself squarely in his path. “You can’t just take everyone on a raid like that and leave me here! What if you need a doctor?”

“There’s no way you’re going so don’t even start,” 77 told her. He tried to sidestep her again but once more she blocked his path.

“Is it because you still think I’m a traitor?” she demanded. “Is that why you won’t let me go? Please, Drew…” Her voice dropped a little and she looked at him pleadingly. “You have to believe me. I had no idea that tracker was in the med bags! Pike is crazy-paranoid. He puts trackers everywhere. Please take me with you—please!”

“I’m not taking you with me because I can’t protect you out there, all right?” Drew roared. The sight of her, so lush and curvy—the scent of her so close when he’d been avoiding her for days seemed to break something inside him.

“But—”

“I almost lost you twice,” he growled. “I won’t risk it again!” Grabbing her by the shoulders he dragged her close, meaning to shake her to make his point.

But somehow he found he was kissing her instead.

Claudia gasped and then she was kissing him back, reaching up to wind her arms around his neck and press her soft little body to his as though she couldn’t get close enough.

Goddess, she tasted sweet! Drew wrapped his arms around her waist and backed her against the wall of the med shack. Though part of him shouted that he needed to stop, he found he couldn’t. Instead he went on ravaging her mouth, taking what he wanted so desperately—what he had wanted for days, ever since he’d tasted her sweet pussy and made her come for him.

Claudia gave herself up to him with no resistance at all, molding herself against his much larger body and parting her thighs eagerly when he pressed forward, letting the bulge of his aching cock rub against her pussy. She was making soft, needy little sounds in the back of her throat and running her fingers through his hair as she thrust her hips up shamelessly to meet him. Goddess, she was driving him fucking crazy!

That’s exactly how you’re acting—crazy! whispered the little voice in his head. She’s a fucking traitor and you’re a fucking monster. You don’t belong together and you know it, Drew! You need to leave her the fuck alone!

Reluctantly, he pulled back from the kiss and pushed Claudia away from him.

“What…why?” She looked up at him, her eyes drugged from the kiss, her lips swollen and red from his assault. “Why did you stop?”

“You know why,” 77 growled. He was in control of himself again. He was 77 again, he told himself. The CyBRG device at the back of his neck clicked and whirred, as though agreeing with him.

“Drew—”

“I have to go.”

He turned but she stopped him with one soft little hand on his arm.

“What?” he growled, turning back to her.

“At least let me turn off the pain sensors in the device before you go,” she whispered. “I…I think I finally found a way.”

“Why should I trust you?” 77 demanded. “You might hamstring me—shut down the parts of me you added.”

“I added them because someone had to replace the parts that got blown away when that landmine exploded in the middle of your company!” she flared. “And you should trust me because I care about you! What if you get out there in the middle of that damn hopper nest and that asshat Pike decides it’s a good time to send out an agony blast? What then?”

“She can do it on me first, if you want.” 78’s voice from behind them was weak but certain.

77 whirled to face him. Somehow in his hunger for the soft little doctor he’d managed to forget his best friend was right there in the same room. Goddess, what a fucking mess!

“I don’t—” he began but 78 (Rich) was speaking again.

“Let her disable the pain sensors while you watch and see what she does,” he said. “If you still don’t trust the doc, at least you’ll know how to do it yourself. She’s right. You don’t need to be going on a bug hunt with that damn pain sensor still enabled.”

77 wanted to refute him, wanted to shout and curse or to simply turn silently away as the CyBRG device in his neck demanded. Instead he ran a hand through his hair.

“All right,” he said in a low voice. “All right—I’ll watch her do it.” He looked at Claudia. “I’ll watch. And you’d better not fuck it up.”

She lifted her chin, her gray eyes gleaming like silver.

“I know what I’m doing, soldier. Don’t ever question my medical expertise again.”

It reminded 77 (Drew) of how she used to be back before he’d rescued her from the first hopper and broken down her walls of resistance. The memory was almost too bitter-sweet to bear. He pushed it away and went to sit by 78’s cot.

“All right,” he said. “Do it.”

Claudia nodded sharply, not sure if she wanted to kiss him or slap the cold look right off his damn face. Biting back the rest of her tirade, she moved to the benches where all her equipment was laid out and collected what she needed.

Her movements were efficient as she set up a trolley next to 78’s bed, lifting the cot to the right height for her to work with a touch of her foot on the controls.

“Okay, handsome. Going to need you to turn over for me,” she said with a smile for her patient, totally ignoring the glowering presence of Drew… no, sorry, he preferred Unit 77, she thought with a sniff… hovering at the other side.

“Sure thing, Doc.” 78’s reply was instant but she knew he was still in pain by the way the lines bracketing his mouth tightened. Her hard gaze flicked up to Drew.

“If you’re going to hover, you can be of some use. Brace him as he turns. It hurts less that way,” she ordered, already reaching for sterile clothes to drape over the back of 78’s broad shoulders and neck.

Drew didn’t reply, a grunt in the back of his throat as he helped his friend shift into position on the cot. 78 lay motionless, his forehead pillowed on his hands. Had he been human, she’d have been concerned about him moving, especially while she operated on his spinal column, but he wasn’t human. He was something more. Something… better.

“Okay. Hold still for me,” she murmured, but more for her benefit than his as she made the first incision. As soon as she felt his skin give under the scalpel, everything else fell away and she was in a world she understood. A world of flesh and blood, and everything that made up the human body. Carefully peeling back the skin and underlying structures, she revealed the CyBRG unit nestled against 78’s spine.

“Rich, I need you to shut down automated defense protocol three five seven,” she said, her voice still low. She could have made it an order, had done so many times in the past, but the rogues had locked all base staff out of their voice protocols. “Confirm?”

She paused, scalpel hovering over the protective mesh that covered the implant. If she tried to pry it up with the defense protocol still active, it would dump power from Rich’s neural-connective core and shock her. That amount of power arcing through her? She’d be dead, burnt from the inside out, before she hit the floor.

“All defense protocols offline, Doc,” Rich replied. “Don’t worry. You’re safe.”

“Thank you.” Her murmur back was grateful and a little surprised. Taking all his defenses offline was a level of trust she hadn’t expected, given they considered her a spy.

But she didn’t have time to think about that. Leaning forward, she dropped the optical enhancer down over her eyes from the headband and carefully slid the edge of the scalpel under the mesh.

Prizing it up, she carefully peeled it back, using grippers to keep it out of the way as she moved to the surface of the CyBRG unit itself. It blinked and whirred at her, although the sound was more in her imagination than something she could actually hear. Nestled against the vertebrae, it reminded her of a squat black spider, it’s legs curling around to bury themselves in the spinal cord, unseen tendrils connecting to the other cybernetic systems within Rich’s body.

Working quickly, she removed the cover plate to reveal the inner workings of the implant. Now that she’d actually managed to take one apart, she was appalled at the thing. It was a slave device, designed to subjugate the carrier and replace all higher brain functions. Not a problem if the subject was brain dead, as the project had originally intended. Unfortunately, all her investigations pointed in one direction; half the soldiers Pike had put on her table, Drew and his men at least, hadn’t been.

They’d still been alive. She’d killed them when she’d cyber-ized them.

Murder by implant…

Shaking the thought off, she found the receiver for the agony blasts. Her lips compressed into a thin line as her scalpel hovered over the area. It was tiny, definitely not there on the original device plans, and in a delicate area. Without an eagle eye, it would have been easy to miss the nano-threads that linked it directly into the brain pathways to cut them.

As grisly as it had been, she’d actually been fortunate that Drew had literally ripped the device and part of that soldier’s spine out in one section. She’d been able to study how that function had attached itself to the pathways. It had to be an automatic function after implantation, the threads snaking out to link in after she’d closed up.

“Not working, doctor?” Drew asked, his voice cold. She looked up to find him watching her and gave him a look all of her own. He didn’t trust her, she knew that, but it still hurt.

“Do I need to remind you about questioning my medical expertise again, soldier?” she said, ice in her voice. “This part requires a steady hand unless you want me to paralyze him right here on the table.”

Turning her attention back to her patient, she picked her mark and took a deep breath. Holding down the side of the receiver to cut its signal with the edge of one blade, she sliced the tendrils in quick succession. As she cut through the last one, Rich breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank fuck for that. That goddamn awful buzzing is gone!”

She smiled, her hands moving quickly as she replaced the cover plate and then eased the mesh back into place. Closing up took seconds, her movements automatic as she looked up at Drew.

“Did you catch all that?” she asked, knowing full well he’d have been recording the whole thing. “Remember, you need to press down on the corner of the receiver before you cut the tendrils in the correct order. If you don’t, you’ll trigger a pulse to fry your patient’s brain.”

He nodded, once. “Got it.”

She wiped her hands clean and patted 78’s shoulder. “You’re done, big guy. You want me to help you turn over?”

“No, Doc, I’m good,” he replied, his voice tired and muffled. “I’m just gonna chill out like this for a while if it’s all the same to you. Savor not having woodpeckers in my head for a change.”

She chuckled, feeling sorry for the big guy and squeezing his shoulder. Drew’s eyes tracked her movement, his expression icy.

“Okay, Captain. You’ve seen me perform the procedure. Do you want me to do it on your men or are you going to?” she asked, holding out the now clean scalpel.

He elected to do the surgery himself. Or rather, perform it once while other units observed. Then they fanned out and within half an hour, all of them had been treated. Then they left the base to clean out the hopper nest. Claudia watched from the doorway, her arms folded.

She was a doctor. How could he not see she’d never harm her patients?

“Fucking asshat,” she hissed under her breath and pushed off the doorframe to return to her work on the bench. The CyBRG device was partially dismantled on a tray as she worked out what the hell else the other asshole she knew, Pike, had had added to it.

“He wouldn’t hurt you, you know?”

She looked up at the deep voice to find 78 watching her with sleepy eyes. He’d turned on his side now, arms crossed loosely in front of him. The lines of pain were absent from the corners of his mouth and his color looked better. How much pain had Pike been subjecting them to?

“What do you mean?” She turned on her stool to face him.

The corners of his lips quirked.

“He’s a growly bastard at the best of times, but you always brought out the best in him. As soon as he met you… god, it was all ‘Doc this’ and ‘Doc that.’ Drove us all fucking nuts, especially when on R&R. Gonna be crude doc, but all a guy wants on a twenty-four-hour leave is to get wasted and get laid. After you? All we got was a drunk cap rhapsodizing about your eyes, or your hair or…” he coughed and looked away.

Her eyes got wider and wider as 78 spoke. “Other stuff?” she couldn’t stop herself asking.

“Yeah, other stuff. Like not getting laid on leave type stuff. He was mad for you from the moment he first saw you. Trouble was, he didn’t think he was good enough for you. And nothing’s changed. Apart from the fact he thinks he’s a monster now.”

Her words froze in her throat, heart aching for him… for all of them.

“D-d-” She cleared her throat. “Do you all think like that? That you’re monsters?”

Her hand lifted to her face on autopilot, covering her mouth as she fought back the tears that stuck hot needles into the backs of her eyes.

“You must all hate me,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

“Wai… what? Hate you?” 78 frowned. “Why on earth would we hate you?”

She bit her lip and tried to control the waver in her voice. As a result, it came out very small and soft. “Because I did this to you all. I implanted all your cybernetics… turned you all into what you are now.”

78, Rich, smiled. “You’re also the reason I’m still breathing. The reason I can look up and see this god-awful shitty ceiling, but I know there’s a blue sky above it. You’re the reason that one day I hope I look at a woman the way the cap looks at you…”

“You mean a cross between frustration and constipation? Kinda like this?” she snorted in amusement and made a face, crossing her eyes.

Rich’s deep laughter joined hers to fill the interior of the med shack. “He does look like that a lot. It’s mainly because you confuse the fuck out of him. Give him time. He’ll figure it out.”

She sighed and ran her hand through her hair. “Why can’t he be a little more like you?”

“Awww, Doc, you’ll make me blush. I guess I’m just gifted.”

As she smiled again, feeling happier than she had in a while, another unit appeared in the doorway. She turned, the smile still in place as she placed him. 97, one of the quieter of the rogue units.

“Doc. Get over here.” Rich’s order was hard and flat, his eyes locked onto 97 as he sat up. “Now!”

Her smile faded as she noticed the look in 97’s eyes. Flat and emotionless, tracking her movements as she slid off the stool and backed away toward Rich. The big cyborg had levered himself off the bed, swaying slightly as he tried to shove her behind him.

“What do you want?” he demanded of the other cyborg, his hand reaching around to the medical trolley behind him as he palmed a scalpel.

“The female comes with me.” 97’s voice was as flat and mechanical as his eyes and she wondered why she hadn’t seen it before.

“You’re not a rogue,” she said flatly. “You’re one of Pike’s.”

“Infiltration was necessary. The CO wants you back,” 97 marched toward them, a gun in his hand but not raised. He didn’t need to raise it. The threat was implicit.

“Not a chance!” Rich snarled, starting to step forward, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“If I go with you, will you leave now and not hurt anyone?” she asked 97 directly.

His gaze didn’t waver from her but she had no doubt he was monitoring Rich’s vital signs.

“Leaving an enemy behind is not a sound tactical move.”

Buggar. He had her there. She tilted her head slightly to the side. “Neither is taking on two adversaries who could potentially damage you badly and force you to fail your mission. The only logical move is to negotiate for peaceful surrender. This unit will not stop you leaving with me. Will you, Rich?”

The big cyborg snarled, his expression unhappy, so she tightened her grip on his arm. The message was clear. In his current condition he couldn’t take on 97 and survive, and she needed him to stay alive to tell Drew what had happened.

“Will you, Rich?”

He shook his head, stepping back.

“If either you or Pike hurt her,” he promised 97 as the unit stepped forward and grabbed her by the upper arm, “you’d better believe I’m coming for you, and death’s coming with me.”

Unit 97 was a machine, so his hold on her, while firm, was not cruel as he carried her back to the main base. She was tired, scared and her stomach hurt from his metal shoulder digging into it by the time he dumped her into the middle of the base’s central square.

At Colonel Pike’s feet.

“Welcome back, you traitorous bitch,” he snarled, grabbing her hair at the back of her head and hauling her upright. “Been having fun with your rogue friends, have you?”

His foul breath washing over her face made her feel sick, but she managed to keep a frightened, but innocent look on her face.

“Oh my god, thank god you managed to get me out,” she gasped, trying for terrified and relieved. The first wasn’t a stretch, but the second she really had to work at. “I really thought they were going to kill me.”

Pike grunted, his grip so tight in her hair tears of pain sprang to her eyes. “Why would they do that? You ran off quickly enough to join them.”

“Please!” She grabbed at his wrist as he held her just up on her toes, trying to alleviate the pressure on her scalp. “They grabbed me, from right in here. Took me prisoner. You had to have seen the guard they k-k-killed. They tore his spine out… right in front of me.”

“Grabbed you, did they?” Pike’s expression didn’t relent, a cruel gleam in his eyes. “A prisoner, you say?”

“Yes, yes!” She couldn’t nod her head but pleaded with her eyes instead. She needed to get him softened up enough that she could try and plan her escape. She didn’t know how… just somehow she had to get away from Pike and his cyborgs. Now she’d seen the CyBRG device properly, she realized that the cyber soldiers that had been created using it weren’t Corps property—not anymore.

They were hard-coded to obey one man—Pike himself.

Pike’s face split into a grin that made her shiver, and not in a good way.

“Nice try, Doctor. Might even have worked… if I didn’t know you were fucking one of them.”

“W-w-what? No, I’m not!” she stammered, but the bright red banners that flared across her cheeks made Pike snort with amusement.

“Yeah, sure you’re not, Doctor. 97 here saw it with his own eyes. You practically climbing that big bastard that leads them… but you always did have a thing for him, didn’t you?”

Pike hauled her up closer, the insistent press of his pudgy body against hers making her feel sick to her stomach.

“What was it? Pathetic, dried up old thing like you couldn’t get the hot guy while he was alive, so you thought you’d try it when he was dead?”

Guilt and shame hit her at his words, and he laughed as he shoved her from him into the dirt at his feet.

“Pathetic,” he sneered, pulling his handgun from its holster. “You know what’s even funnier, Doc? I killed him…”

She gasped, scrabbling backward as he raised the gun to point it right between her eyes. “Y-you did? Why?”

He laughed. “Because the dumb fuck was in my way. Too noble, too by the book, to let his men take a fall to fill out the Cyber program ranks even when I offered him a cut. Reported me… me! Who the fuck did he think he was?” Pike ranted and then stepped forward and pressed the muzzle against her forehead.

“But I got the last laugh. Set that mine up just for him… then got his lady crush to turn him into a metal monster. Was he a better fuck as a machine, Claudia? But then… you probably wouldn’t know the difference. I doubt you had a real man in all your life—just your toys. And now you’re not even going to have toys to play with. You know too much. I’m afraid it’s time for you to check out.”