Chapter Thirteen

Wrath had heard enough. There was no point in trying to get anything out of the woman. Even if what Rachel said was true, it would not influence his decisions.

He had tried to listen and understand what she wanted to tell him. Everything seemed like a lie, but he wanted to do the right thing for all the cyborgs. He didn’t want to make choices that put them in danger. The crossroads in front of him was different than asking them to go into battle. They were built for combat and programmed to follow orders without question.

Turning themselves over to Cyborg Sector, an organization they knew was their enemy, wasn’t going to happen.

Wrath could feel Rachel’s watery eyes staring at him although he wasn’t facing her. She was constantly at the back of his mind even if he couldn’t see her. He knew he wouldn’t kill her. But what was he going to do with her?

“Give me an update,” the leader called to the entryway of the cave. Wrath needed something to distract him from thinking about the woman.

Watcher stepped inside. “The van hasn’t moved at all. They drove through the debris and packed some of it in their cargo hold, but it looks like they didn’t do anything else.”

Wrath acknowledged the guard with a dip of his head. It was nearly dark. The humans wouldn’t make a move until dawn. It would have been easier if the second contingent had merely driven up the mountain and attacked them. The cyborgs could have easily wiped them out and never thought about them again. Now they were stuck in their den, waiting for the sheriff and his team to come to their location. Wrath didn’t like waiting. Patience wasn’t part of his nature. But it wasn’t strategic to charge down the hill when they could lose everything.

“Good. We’ll need extra eyes out there to make sure we see everything they do during the night.” Wrath turned and motioned for two other cyborgs to head out the door. “I want you to report on anything suspicious. Even the smallest movement might be significant. They’re not going to catch us by surprise.”

As Wrath sat down to eat the remaining snake meat, he thought about cooking the food? Why would anyone do that? A quick scan of the hunk of flesh revealed that it contained vital nutrients. Excessive heat would remove beneficial vitamins. Were humans so stupid that they would prioritize taste over nutrition? He closed his eyes in disgust and tore hungrily into the meat.

Hours later, the cave was quiet. Wrath could hear the slow, deep breathing of the cyborgs who were not on guard duty and had permission to sleep. The noise provided a uniform background against the more restless, discordant sounds of the humans as they drifted in and out of consciousness. Clayton had fallen asleep quickly after eating, but Rachel had been anxious. She sat with her back against the wall and watched all the cyborgs until there was not enough light left in the cave to use her weak human eyes.

Wrath could hear her now and quickly picked out her noises from the sounds of everyone else. She slept fitfully, falling into mild slumber and periodically jolting herself awake. With her breath filling his ears, Wrath could imagine the way her chest rose and fell every moment she inhaled. He visualized the soft curves of her body as he listened to her shifting uneasily on the rough ground. Though he was nowhere near Rachel, he thought he could feel her heat radiating to him.

Wrath rolled over and pressed his stomach against the ground. The sand in the cave was usually cool because it was out of direct sunlight. During the night it was freezing. The more he thought about Rachel, the warmer he became. Right now, Wrath’s thoughts made his skin feel like it would fry off his body.

He didn’t like to think about the human at all, but there was something about her that was irresistible. Her hair, lush and shiny despite her travels, made him want to reach out and run his fingers through the soft curls. In his mind’s eye, he grabbed the ends of it, caressing her hair as he gently pulled her head backward. She looked up at him, green eyes soft but challenging. Wrath ran his hands down her creamy neck, pressing his body against her. Rachel gasped, but she didn’t try to stop him. She wanted him as badly as he wanted her. The cyborg bent his head to taste her, biting her soft lips and flicking his tongue into her mouth. His cock grew hard at the thought of what they would do next. Rachel would be his.

“Sir!”

The voice of one of his men cut through Wrath’s dream like a knife and jarred him awake. He had only meant to rest, not fall asleep. He tried to stop thinking about Rachel as he jumped to his feet. He was lucky that something had pulled him out of his fantasy. “What is it? Has the van moved?”

“No, sir.” The young cyborg was not an observation specialist like Watcher, but Wrath knew he could count on him to give an accurate report. “The van is still in the same position, but someone else is approaching.”

Wrath moved toward the cave entrance. He heard Rachel draw in her breath as she realized something was happening, but he was determined not to look at her. She wouldn’t be the same in real life as she had been in his dreams. He wanted to see her pliant and desirous, not curled up in a ball with fear. On the other hand, he did not want Rachel to understand what he had been thinking and use sex to change his mind. Watcher had also roused and stood alertly at the entrance, awaiting instructions from his captain.

The young cyborg was still giving his report and pointed at the horizon. “They’re in the distance, but we’ve picked up movement from several armored vehicles five miles away and coming directly to our location. It sounds like a helicopter is also approaching.”

Wrath decided to take a quick look for himself. Far off in the distance were three armored vehicles kicking up a cloud of dust that would be invisible to humans in the nighttime darkness. They raced over the land trying to get to the cyborgs before anyone noticed them. He heard the steady beat of helicopter blades as well.

Wrath turned to Clayton angrily. “You didn’t tell me about this,” he said through his teeth. “How long have you known they were coming for us?”

The human scrambled to stabilize himself. He stood in front of the cyborg, shaking slightly. “I didn’t know. I told you everything they said to me, I swear.”

The cyborg gave a single shake of his head. “I have been patient with you both and tried to give you opportunities to prove yourselves to me.” He spoke to Rachel but didn’t look at her face. “The arrival of the convoy shows I should never have believed anything you said.”

Clayton trembled as he folded his hands in front of him, trying to look as unintimidating as possible. “Please don’t kill me.” He wasn’t too proud to beg.

“If I wanted to, I could have killed you hours ago. Don’t worry. I won’t kill you yet. You still have value as a bargaining chip.” He turned to the other cyborgs. Those who had been idle became vigilant and started watching their leader for instructions. “Pack up everything you can carry. We’ll leave through the tunnels as soon as we gather all the equipment. We’re not going to wait around here for the bombs to—”

“They’re not going to use bombs or missiles,” Clayton spoke frantically. “They know there are humans here. Before resorting to violence, they’ll come and talk to you, just like we tried to.”

“If you think I’m going to believe that, you’re a fool,” Wrath snapped. “Cyborg Sector no longer considers this a retrieval operation. They’re prepared to take military action. They wouldn’t have brought heavy equipment unless they planned to use it.” Wrath stopped talking to the consultant. The idea that he had to explain himself to a human again made a disgusting feeling creep down his spine.

“What do we do with the prisoners?” Weapon asked eagerly. The fingers on his right hand covering the plasma gun started to twitch. His left hand fondled a large knife stuck into the belt of his pants.

There was no doubt in Wrath’s mind that Weapon had chosen his name and specialty well. He didn’t know if Cyborg Sector had a reason to download information on armaments into the soldier’s system, but there was never a moment when the scarred soldier didn’t want to use a knife or gun. Weapon lived for blood, but Wrath couldn’t give it to him yet.

“Tie their hands but leave their feet free. We’re taking them with us.” Wrath shifted his gaze before Rachel could catch his eye.

Green Squad had been trained to work fast. Every scrap of edible food and all weapons were quickly gathered from the cave and packed for carrying. The hostages watched helplessly as the evidence of the cyborgs began to disappear. When the military contingent arrived, they would know that someone had been in the location, but they wouldn’t be able to tell if they were cyborgs or not.

The cyborgs fell into a defensible formation, herding the hostages into the middle of the arrangement so they could protect them from all sides. When Wrath believed everything was ready, he summoned the cyborgs on guard duty back into the cave and inspected his men from the front.

It had been a long time since he had ordered Green Squad to explore the tunnels. The first pair that stepped into the murky darkness at the back of the structure was gone for days, making wrong turns and recording the routes to different caverns. When they finally returned, they had mapped out the entire cave system and stored it in their memory banks. Due to the biochip malfunction affecting shared files, they had been unable to distribute the information to the rest of the squad. Instead, the two explorers had taken groups of soldiers through the tunnels until the paths were firmly imprinted in everyone’s brains. Wrath had believed the passageways would be useful but hadn’t wanted to use them unless it became imperative.

Today they needed to use them.

Wrath stood at the head of the double row of soldiers and descended into the rocky depths.