Chapter Twelve

An uncomfortable silence descended over the cave once Wrath smashed the phone. Rachel thought she could hear a steady ringing in her ears even though she knew the phone would never play a sound again. She’d had little hope of escaping before, but a tiny spark of anticipation had grown when Clayton’s phone call reminded her they weren’t completely cut off from the world. The loss of the phone extinguished her hope. Once again, they were entirely at the mercy of the cyborgs.

Wrath paced the cave floor and ran his hands through his hair. Rachel wondered if it were possible for cyborgs to feel nervous. She knew they built cyborgs from human bodies, but she hadn’t realized that they might retain human emotions. Perhaps the cyborgs were exhibiting odd behavior because of their isolation, or maybe Clayton wasn’t bullshitting about their biochips degrading.

A noise erupted from Rachel’s stomach that was so loud she was sure everyone else could hear it too. Wrath and the other cyborgs made no indication that they had heard anything. If the rumbling had reached their ears, they had decided to ignore it. Would they care if she starved?

“Could I have something to eat?” she asked weakly. She tried to remember the last thing she had eaten. It was an unpleasantly crusty bagel topped with flavorless cream cheese from an airport restaurant that charged three times the reasonable price. It had been unsatisfying, but she would have given anything to have another one.

Wrath paused and stared at her, insinuating that Rachel might have invented hunger to make herself as inconvenient as possible. He glanced briefly at Weapon, who hovered over the prisoner and looked ready to pounce at any moment. Wrath’s curious stare fell on the other men around the room. Each was busy either guarding the humans or watching for new intruders. Coming to a decision, he nodded and strode to a dark corner of the cave.

Now that she had succeeded in getting her desires met, Rachel wondered what the cyborgs had been eating for a year. Cyborg Sector fed their inhabitants a liquid diet through a set of tubes connected directly to their bodies. The nutrient fluid had everything the cyborgs needed to keep them healthy. She had studied the cyborg diet for a story on her local news channel several years ago. When the soldiers went into the field, they carried dense rations that were high in calories and protein. A scientist she had interviewed over the phone told her the rations were completely tasteless to humans and the texture was unpalatable. Apparently, the cyborgs never complained.

When Wrath returned, he wasn’t carrying any rations. He held a chunk of meat in his hand. It was cylindrical, pale, and glistening. The meat had the imprint of tiny bones pressed into the flesh, and a few grains of sand stuck to it.

Rachel stared at it uncertainly. The churning in her belly could have been either hunger or nausea. The 'food' he presented her with was less appealing than the old, overpriced fare at the airport. “What is it?” she meekly asked as she held out her hand.

“It’s our breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Rattlesnake.” He slapped the meat into her palm without ceremony.

The reporter couldn’t take her eyes off the substance in her hand. Was this a trick? Was she supposed to eat it, or were the cyborgs playing a joke on her? Were cyborgs capable of joking? She had no doubt that they would be pleased to make her uncomfortable. On the other hand, Wrath had wanted to keep her alive so far. Rachel had never been a particularly picky eater, but she did prefer her cuisine to have preparation.

“Can we cook it first?” Cyborg Sector already knew their location. It was getting late in the day, judging by the shadows at the entrance to the cave, but they wouldn’t be giving anything away by lighting a small fire.

“Why would we do that?” His scowl deepened as he spoke.

Rachel glanced up at him, then back down at the food with an impatient motion of her free hand. “For one thing, it would remove any germs.” For the first time in her life, she wondered if snakes could have parasites.

“We irradiated it.” The cyborg touched an area of his skull behind his ear, indicating that blasting food with nuclear radiation was a function built into the cyborgs. “There are no germs.”

“But it will taste better.” She groped for an explanation. “Cooking it will change the texture.”

Wrath glared at her again. “Eat it or don’t, that’s up to you. What you see is what we have.”

Rachel took a small bite of the rubbery meat. It tasted disgusting, but it was edible. She couldn’t understand how people could order snake in fancy restaurants. The cyborg nodded his head, looking satisfied.

“Will you sit with me?” She was feeling bold. She hadn’t intended to invite Wrath to eat with her. It seemed out of place, especially when the cyborgs knew enemies were right outside the door. Rachel couldn’t help acknowledging the intense feelings she still had for Robert. They had been locked away inside her heart for years. She knew he was a cyborg now, but that wasn’t how she saw him.

“Why would I do that?”

Rachel quickly ran through a list of potential answers in her head. She couldn’t tell him that it was because she missed him. She imagined that if they sat down and ate together, it would remind him of the awful burgers they used to buy from the local gas station on their lunch breaks at school, but she didn’t want to say so. And she couldn’t explain that eating together was a thing that humans did.

“I want to cooperate with you,” she finally said. “I’m happy to tell you anything I know. It might not be as much as Clayton since I’m only aware of declassified information released to the media. But I want to live, and I want to make things as easy as possible for you.”

The cyborg eyed her warily, turning his head slightly to the side like it would give him a different perspective. It was a human response, but he wouldn’t want to hear that.

“I’m exhausted and I want to speak with you face-to-face. Sit with me, and I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

Wrath dismissed Weapon with a nod of his head. The scarred warrior strode across the cave and stood on the other side of Clayton. The consultant seemed to shrivel back against the rocks. His right eye was practically swollen shut, but he still managed to shoot a dirty look at Rachel from across the room.

She ignored him, focusing instead on Wrath as he squatted down on the sandy ground next to her. Wrath rested his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. He watched every one of Rachel’s movements as she nibbled rattlesnake meat out of her palm.

“I won’t sit,” he said stubbornly. “I have to be ready to defend myself. But I will listen to you.”

The reporter glanced at the other soldiers to see if they were paying attention to her. They were acting as though they couldn’t hear the conversation, probably out of respect. There could be no privacy in an open cave like this. She decided to tell the truth. “I’m sorry if I upset you with all my talk about being human.”

It had distressed her to see Wrath so confused and angry over the truth. She had no way of knowing if the pain he experienced was because of something she had said to him or a result of his memories. Either way, she felt responsible. “I don’t know what else might convince you, but I promise you that I’m not trying to fool you.”

The cyborg didn’t say anything, but Rachel could see the emotion in his expression. Most of the cyborgs held a grim, neutral look on their faces. Wrath slightly pursed his lips, and his eyes burned into her. He looked concerned, which seemed more appropriate for a human than a cyborg.

“I won’t say another word about it if that’s what you want, but I wish you could understand that I’m not a spy. I’m not here to harm you, or gather information on you, or convince you to go back to Cyborg Sector.” In the back of her mind, Rachel believed it would be the best thing for everyone if the cyborgs returned peacefully, but she would have to argue the point later. “What can I do to get you to trust me?”

“As I told your colleague, I have no reason to believe either of you. All you’ve done is try to confuse me.” His voice was naturally deep and rumbling, and Rachel could feel the vibration in her body when he spoke in low tones. “I doubt you have any information I would find valuable.”

Rachel nodded and took another bite of the meat. If she ever made it out of here alive, she would never look at rattlesnakes again. “It’s possible, but isn’t it worth a try? Ask me something.”

He considered her a moment, tilting his head and squinting at her. “What do you think they’re going to do to us at Cyborg Sector?”

Rachel nearly choked on a piece of the rubbery meat as it almost slid down her throat before she was ready to swallow. Coughing and sputtering, she finally recovered enough to answer. “All I know is the same things they’ve told you. They want to get you back into the lab so they can rehabilitate you and let you live out a civilian life. I know that’s probably a frightening idea if you’ve only known the life of a soldier.” She knew there was more to him than fighting but didn’t want to get into another argument. “But going through rehabilitation doesn’t mean you have to sit around on your ass all day. Maybe they can find you a different position in the military. My point is they don’t intend to harm you.”

“That doesn’t help me at all,” Wrath growled. “If I refuse to go with them, I will die. If I willingly go with them, it is like death for me. They will turn me into a human, and I would rather perish in a blaze of glory than turn into a soft lump of flesh controlled by Cyborg Sector.”

Rachel felt a burning sensation at the back of her eyes. There was no way to reason with an irrational cyborg. “I wish you could see that going with them is your best choice. Why would you throw your life away? They want to help you.”

The cyborg shook his head. “No, they don’t. You just think they do. I considered it for a moment. Perhaps my men would be better off if they didn’t have to fight for their survival. But one thing is consistent with humans: you are notoriously unreliable. You want me to trust you but don’t explain why I should.”

Blazing hot tears swelled in Rachel’s lower eyelids. This man whom she had cared for so much was going to keep running. He would never have a chance to live a normal life again, and she wasn’t sure why. Something must have happened to him after he joined the military and donated his body to Cyborg Sector. She wanted to ask him if he remembered any of that. Did he know how he had been injured or even killed? But speaking about his death seemed like even more treacherous ground than his childhood. More importantly, if she pressed Wrath and hurt him emotionally, he would never understand that she wanted to be his ally.

“Please, I’m not your enemy. I’ll do anything to make you believe that. Anything.” She didn’t miss the dart of his eyes down her body. Rachel wondered what thoughts were running through his head. Rachel had not come here to become a sex slave for a cyborg. Had she?

Wrath’s eyes became hard again as he shook his head. “There is nothing you can do. You are my captive and my enemy. It doesn’t matter if you’re a spy or not. I know I cannot trust you.” Wrath pushed himself up from the ground with a swift motion of his legs. He looked down at Rachel with a cold, cruel look on his face. “I suggest you finish eating.” He gestured toward the remaining food in her hand. “It’s the last sustenance you’ll be getting for a while.” The cyborg returned to the other side of the cave, and Weapon took up guard duty once again.

Rachel couldn’t choke down any more of the snake. What was the point of eating if she was going to die? The tasteless meat lodged in her throat as she choked on tears, and she spat the contents of her mouth onto the sand.