Page 4 of A Cyborg for the Alien Mercenary

Tell shrugged. “There are layers within layers of human society, specifically in the darker spheres, shall we say? The organization I worked for has a standing mandate to track downAnselm’s off-the-records facilities and find out what they’re hiding.”

Ryke pierced him with a direct look. “So you know the layout of this kind of facility.”

Tell nodded. “One thing about Anselm is that they think they’re clever. And they are. They’ve hidden in plain sight for fucking years. But once you put the clues together and have seen past the illusion once, they’re pretty easy to work out. This design is used for assets they need to control. They create a false reality, that this is a real town with real people, when in reality, everyone apart from the asset is an Anselm operative.”

Reaching up, he indicated areas on the schematic. “So… the weak point is here. But they’ve been using this design for years, so they know about the weak point, and it’s heavily guarded. Which means our best way in is actually over here.”

He pointed to a section of the wall that looked unassailable.

Covak looked at him like he’d grown another head. “Are you freaking crazy? That’s at least twenty feet thick!”

Tell inclined his head.

“It’s heavily fortified, yes, but if you look at these columns, the service elevators run down here, hidden between these two points.” He looked at Rann, the team’s heavy gunner. “If Covak hits hard and fast there with the big gun, we can break through and get into the service shafts. From there, we should emerge in one of these two buildings here. Then we can make our assault into the main house, which is usually here. That’s where they’ll be holding her.”

Covak nodded. He was grateful for the intel. A rescue mission like this required precision and brute strength in equal measure. His claws flexed and he grinned viciously. These Anslem humans wouldn’t know what hit them.

“So, backstory. Jane was supposedly involved in some kind of accident that altered her DNA—radiation, sickness, changes tothe genetics, somedraanthlike that,” Ryke explained. “But we know that’s a cover story.”

“What else do we know about her?” Anson demanded.

Ryke sat back, obviously expecting the question. “The human scientists with the Warborne say she has a substrand of genetic DNA, but they can’t figure out what that’s for yet. One of them thinks it’s some kind of genetic storage, which means she could be a repository of information—but for what or whom, we don’t know. One of the scientists notes that there were regular deliveries from the facility she was held in to another facility that specializes in advanced weaponry, but we have no idea what those deliveries might have been.”

Covak grunted. “They couldn’t get any more information than that?”

“No.” Ryke shook his head. “The scientists who were part of the programs were at different facilities. When they started asking too many questions?—”

Covak dropped his head back. “They made themselves a target. What happened?”

“Exactly what you’d expect,” Ryke said, his eyes hardening. “Their employers decided to tie up some loose ends to keep everything under wraps. Fortunately for them, the Warborne managed to rescue them, and they’ve been working with us ever since.”

“And we’ve nothing else?”

Ryke shrugged. “Just one thing… As far as we can work out, Jane could be genetically related to Zero.”

Trall. “So she could be like him? A cyborg?”

Ryke nodded, his expression grim.

“One with amnesia. So depending on thetrallthey’re feeding her, we could be facing a well-trained, lethal, andveryhostile target.”

2

She was awake, but she kept her eyes shut and feigned sleep. Her body was relaxed, and she kept her breathing deep and measured even though she couldn’t hear anyone else in the room.

She was alone. Physically.

But she knew she wasn’t unwatched.

From the moment she’d woken up in the hospital a week ago, she’d known they were watching her. A buzz at the back of her skull warned her she was being watched through some other means, but try as she might, she’d never been able to see their cameras.

They were there, though. She knew they were.

But that begged the question… who weretheyand why were they watching her?

And how the hell did she know they were?

She made a show of beginning to stir, stretching her limbs out and yawning as she burrowed into the softness of the pillows for a few minutes. One thing she had to say, since her “family” had collected her from the hospital, the bed she’d slept in was way more comfortable.

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