Page 7 of A Cyborg for the Alien Mercenary

Frustration rolled through her. This was just bland drivel. Perhaps she should describe the pattern on the curtains or the wallpaper. They would read this, she realized, so writing about the cameras was out, as was the fact she knew she was being lied to.

The pen paused over the paper, and all she could think about was the scar on her forearm. The fingers of her free hand traced over it absently, feeling the familiar groove where a chunk of flesh had been gouged out and then healed. That at least feltreal,something she could rely on as true.

Her vision blurred, and the pen felt heavy in her hand. The room around her faded until she was no longer sitting at her desk…

Gunfire roared in her ears, almost deafening her. The burning stench of smoke and something metallic filled her nose and mouth, and she fought back the need to gag. She was crouched behind a low wall, shouting orders.

“Get him stabilized! We need to move now!”

Her hands moved with a precision that spoke of long experience, working on a soldier with a leg wound even as she barked orders to others around her. Lazer bolts filled the air around her, the snap and crack making her duck every so often.

Someone was next to her, their face obscured by a helmet. They shouted something, but she couldn’t hear over the din of battle. Then they were helping her, the two of them working as one unit to stabilize the soldier and get him ready for transport.

Then, between one heartbeat and the next, she was back in her room. Sat at her desk. Her heart pounded in her chest as if she’d just run miles under heavy fire, the pen gripped so tightly in her hand that she was surprised she hadn’t bent it as she looked down at the page in front of her.

Written across the page in neat script was a sequence of letters and numbers, each of them biting so deep into the paper that they almost tore through it.

J10-10M3E.

Over and over. Written so precisely they looked identical, like they’d been printed out.

Had she written this? She frowned as she brushed her fingertip over the ink. It smudged, so she must have. Confusion filled her as she traced the symbols. What did it mean? It meant something to her, obviously. She’d written it over and over again.

“What are you?” she murmured softly as she searched for some kind of sense in the message. “A clue? Some kind of code?”

The numbers, the letters—they had to mean something, but she couldn’t think of what the sequence could be. J10 could be a date, maybe June 10? But that didn’t make sense with the rest of the message.

Could the second part be coordinates, maybe?

A sound outside her door brought her head up sharply. Whatever it meant, she couldn’t let her family know about it.Tearing the page free from the journal, she folded it and slid it into her pocket. She knew her mom… Amanda had been in here earlier… she couldn’t leave this lying around for her to find.

This was her secret… and it could be a lifeline to finding out the truth about herself.

Sitting back in her chair, she closed her eyes again and tried to focus on the memory that had surfaced earlier. The battlefield, the gunfire, the wounded soldier… There had to be a connection somewhere. Something she was missing.

She almost jumped out of her skin when her comm unit buzzed on the nightstand. Levering herself from the desk chair, she headed over and picked it up. She saw a message from Penny.

Are you okay?

Jesh stared at the screen. Shit. Did Penny know she’d just phased out? Her fingers hovered over the keys rather than answer. Penny seemed much more approachable than Amanda. She might not think Jesh crazy in the head if she tried to explain what was going on… but then, maybe that was the point? Maybe Penny was thereforher to confide in.

I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?

Penny’s response was swift, the three dots flashing on the screen as she typed.Bit touchy, aren’t you, crash girl? Come downstairs? Mom says I have to watch out for you and I wanna watch a movie. It’s the one you were waiting to see.

Jesh hesitated. She had no idea what movie Penny was on about. She couldn’t actually remember ever seeing one, but that wasn’t surprising since her memory only extended back a week, and most of that had been in a hospital.

She tapped out a reply:Sure. Be down in a minute.

Steeling herself with a few deep breaths, she opened her door and made her way downstairs. She had to act normal and getalong with her family… at least until she could figure out what was going on and get the hell out of here.

She walked into the living room to Penny already in place on the huge couch, blankets and pillows around her, holding a huge tub of popcorn.

She grinned as she saw Jesh.

“Thought we could watch this one,” she said, triggering the entertainment unit to play the film. A flashy title sequence began. Jesh shot it a glance as she crossed the room. It looked like some kind of action film.

“It has that blond guy in it you like,” Penny added, her barfing motions proving that she didn’t share Jesh’s apparent attraction to the actor.

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