Chapter Five

The inside of the cave was pitch-black and a stark contrast to the blazing sun outside. Rachel couldn’t see anything. Until her eyes adjusted, she relied on the cyborg roughly guiding her along the dirt floor. It was a comfortable temperature in the shelter. All Rachel wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep. But not with cyborgs around.

A pair of large hands shoved her roughly to the ground when they entered a room. Rachel heard a deep voice in her ear. “Don’t bother trying to escape. I will be more than happy to kill you if Wrath orders me. There are many guns that I’ve been aching to practice with on a live target.”

“I don’t think she’ll be going anywhere if she wants to live.” Wrath had seated himself on a wooden chair and had not taken his eyes off the human since she entered the room. “We’ll find her no matter where she runs.”

Sand was working its way into Rachel’s shoes and up her pants. Clayton was already in the cave. He looked relaxed as he leaned against the rock wall. His hands were in the pockets of his khakis as he looked at everything around him. Unlike Rachel, he didn’t seem concerned that he was a prisoner of the cyborgs and didn’t make a move in Rachel’s direction. A cyborg handler stood next to Clayton, keeping his eyes focused on the human.

The scientist smiled genially at the cyborgs. “We’ve been looking for you for a long time. Cyborg Sector discovered there was an issue with your communication devices, which is why we weren’t able to send you any further orders. But we’re here now, and we’re ready to take you back.”

Wrath swiveled his gaze from Rachel to glare at the scientist. “It took you a year to figure that out? It took us seconds, but we’ve been waiting here for a year. What makes you think we want to be thrown into a cell again? Cyborg Sector abandoned us, and we have no desire to rush back into their arms.”

Clayton held up his hands with his palms out, as though he were putting up a shield against the cyborg’s anger. “Look, don’t shoot the messenger. I can’t force you to come back, but maybe you want to know what your options are. I’m sure you guys could use some maintenance.”

Rachel watched the scene in awe. How could the scientist be calm around these monsters? Had his work with cyborgs in the lab desensitized him? She wished she could be as relaxed as he was.

“What makes you say that?” Wrath asked.

Clayton lifted his shoulders and dropped them again apathetically. “I’m making an educated guess. You’ve been out here in a dry heat without a mechanic. From your training, you know how to take care of your plasma guns, but that doesn’t mean you can prevent your biochips from degrading.” He pushed himself off the wall and strolled to the middle of the cave as though it were a lecture hall. The cyborg assigned to guard him followed closely. “There are more obvious signs, as well. For example, you’re speaking to each other out loud. You wouldn’t have to do that if your operating systems were functioning correctly.”

Rachel’s mouth dropped open, and she shut it quickly. Clayton’s knowledge — or his pretense of knowledge — was impressive, but she was shocked at the amount of braggadocio he had when dealing with the cyborgs. By this point, they were enemies of the government, but he treated them as though they were nothing more than slow school children.

“Let me help you,” Clayton insisted. “I can only do basic work in the field since you blew up all of my equipment. If I still had everything I brought with me, I might have been able to repair you completely here. Without my tools, I’ll have to take you back to Cyborg Sector for a complete checkup.” He tossed his hands in the air helplessly.

“We aren’t going with you. You’re only alive because we haven’t decided what to do with you yet.”

“Okay. There’s another team on their way here with a couple of nice air-conditioned vans. They can provide you with food, shelter, clothing, and anything else you might need. It’s a pretty sweet deal for you. I can’t imagine what they’ll do if you don’t cooperate with them.”

“We have food and shelter already. You have nothing to give us that we can’t provide for ourselves. Your silly offers of luxuries are not tempting to us.” Wrath seemed comfortable in his wooden chair, leaning against the back of it with his arms crossed like he was having a conversation about a football game in a bar. He looked wary, but he was not worried.

The scientist laughed and ran a hand through his light brown hair. He kicked a small pile of animal bones that lay on the cave floor. “I wouldn’t call this food by any stretch of the imagination. What the hell are you guys eating out here? It can’t be enough to sustain you or fill your stomachs at night.” He walked in front of Wrath.

Rachel had an odd sensation. She thought the leader expected the scientist to bow down, but Clayton made no such gesture. “There’s a lot you don’t know about Cyborg Sector. It’s changed since the last time you were there. We’ve changed.”

The cyborg at Clayton’s elbow spoke up. “I don’t think the human is listening to us.”

Wrath nodded. “Yes, Wire, I believe you’re correct. Perhaps he needs some additional incentive to help him understand.”

“Let me do it!” Weapon was eager for violence.

Wrath held out a hand to keep Weapon in his place. “I know you want the opportunity for revenge. We all do. This human is Wire’s captive, and he deserves the first chance.”

Clayton watched the interaction between the cyborgs with a grin on his face. Rachel wondered if he was listening to what they were saying. Why wasn’t he apologizing to them or trying to escape?

He never saw Wire’s fist fly into his stomach. All the air in Clayton’s lungs rushed out of his lips as he bent over. His knees hit the floor of the cave, sending sand flying into the air. His face turned red, and his attitude changed immediately. He didn’t look as cavalier as he had a moment ago.

“Do you understand us now?” Wrath watched the human curiously. “I would have thought that blowing up the rest of your party would have clarified our intentions. Apparently, I underestimated the learning ability of humans.” He laughed and the sound echoed eerily off the cave walls.

Clayton coughed and nodded, but he could not reply. The wind hadn’t returned to his lungs.

With Clayton out of commission, Wrath was free to focus his attention on Rachel. She was unnerved by his stare but thought his eyes looked familiar. The sensation of déjà vu disturbed her and triggered something in her brain that hadn’t come to the surface for a long time. The fear instilled by the cyborg was enough to keep her mouth shut for the moment, at least until she clarified her memory. By now she was sure Green Squad was going to kill both of them. If they didn’t want to be bothered, they should have put up a Do Not Disturb sign, she thought.

When Rachel recovered from her journey up the hill, she took a moment to go through her options. She didn’t want the cyborgs to know what she was thinking, but they never stopped watching her. There was a soldier at the mouth of the cave, facing inside. Both she and Clayton had cyborg handlers. Wrath’s chair was in the center of the large room, but it was near the wall. The wall protected his back, and he could see everything that went on around him. More cyborgs were sitting or standing around the room. They all looked the same: big, mean, and angry. Rachel felt like she was in the middle of a pack of wolves and they were waiting for the right time to strike.