Page 15 of Her Lawless Prince

Now she was here in the flesh.

“How did you know?”

Nyle stopped studying the tubing in Yevgen’s hip and glanced at her. The nanomaterial from her previous outfit remained scattered over the floor. His shirt hung over her like a short dress to reveal the long length of her legs. She leaned on the platform, resting her shoulders and neck against the wall. The position left her in half-repose. The image did nothing to calm the thoughts swirling in his brain.

“How did you know that Yevgen was in the Federation database?” she clarified when he didn’t answer.

Nyle paused to check his wristband for any new signals. When he was reasonably sure no one was listening, he answered, “I’ve always known what he was doing. When I stowed him on the Federation ship, I made sure I had a link to him. I piggybacked off the—”

“Piggy-what?”

“I hid a signal in the Federation’s inventory report transmissions,” he explained. “Whenever they sent in their reports, I received information from Yevgen. It was the only system I had time to infiltrate while the Federation loaded citizens.”

Nyle liked that he didn’t have to guess what she was thinking. Everything was right there in her expression—suspicion, determination, exasperation, slight annoyance, and judgment, but also curiosity. What he didn’t see was fear.

Yevgen’s recordings of her had given Nyle insight. Though outspoken, she was also tender. She cared deeply for her people, for the Cysgodians, for her family. Any decision she made would be in the best interest of others.

But why half mate to a cyborg?

“Then?” she prompted.

“When the footage in those transmissions became much clearer, I realized those files were no longer compressed and tied to harmless inventory reports. Yevgen had gotten into secure channels and the directive automatically reprogrammed to an optimized route. Not surprising, since he’s always improving his processes. I knew it would only be a matter of time before he was discovered. That discovery would lead them to me. I had planned on shutting down my surveillance, but then one of the last transmissions I received had the last Cysgod newspaper chip publication in it. That changed everything.”

“You were worried that someone would go after the...” Payton kept her gaze steadily on him, refusing to say the word virus. “Did you make it? Was it yours?”

Nyle hated that she felt the need to ask. But she didn’t know him. He couldn’t blame her for her questions.

Nyle again checked the wristband, making sure they weren’t being listened to. He lifted it to show her. “All clear. They didn’t appear to know what we talked about before they checked on us.”

Payton nodded that she saw it. “Was it yours?”

“No. It came from the organ-growth lab of one of the senior project leaders. I worked more with programming.” Nyle had spent years trying to forget those days. “But itismy fault. And my responsibility to make sure it never gets out.”

She sat forward, eyes sharp. “You released it?”

“It was my organs they were cloning and putting into the new cyborgs. Something about my parents’ genetic mixture made my tissue optimal for accelerated growth. They quickly had a surplus and began experimenting with resistant alien viruses.” Nyle’s hands shook as the echoing cries from the past filtered through his brain. If he closed his eyes, he’d be tortured with the agony of bloody memories. The nightmares had never really gone away.

“Why would they do that?”

“Money. Cysgod wanted dominance over the cyborg technology market. We were competing with Galaxy Playmates.”

“The sex dolls?” Payton arched a brow skeptically at Yevgen.

“We had to scrap the female models because the buyers kept wanting those functions. The amount of processing power needed for a pleasure droid’s various skills worked against what we were trying to accomplish. We were more interested in creating intelligent servants—pilots unafraid to fly dangerous missions while passing as humanoids, soldiers who could pass bio scans, ash minors who could withstand the temperatures on Bravon, and eventually doctors we could deploy to dangerous regions of the galaxy. Live carriers for organs and antibodies. The possibilities were endless. We could save lives by not having to risk them in the first place.”

“How does that explain the virus testing?” Her attention stayed focused on him.

He hated that she knew the truth, that he’d had a part in what had happened on Cysgod.

He hated more that he was the one to tell her that truth. But he couldn’t lie.

Nyle stood to stretch and directed his attention back to Yevgen. “The thing that gives a cyborg an advantage also gives them a very humanoid disadvantage.”

“Living tissue can still get sick,” Payton concluded. “But you didn’t get ill? You put Yevgen on the Federation transport, so you were there during the height of the outbreak.”

He went to pick up the compression suit controller and swept the scattered nanomaterial toward Yevgen’s injured side with his foot. “This will stop more fluid loss when we move him.”

“And give me a reason not to be wearing it when they return,” Payton said. “Not that I would be.”

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