Page 20 of Max
“Have you told Thrix what happened in Los Angeles?”
“Yeah, he didn’t like it. Have you seen the kid?”
“Eddie? Yeah, he came in yesterday to work, and he’s staying at his old hovel.”
“Okay, good. I’ll com him after I check inventory to make sure someone didn’t slip Tessa into one of the holding areas or one of the harems.”
“You don’t think Thrix would tell you if he had your woman?”
“He might not know he does. But I already went through both the harem and the brothel. I didn’t find her,” Colton mused. “I don’t know where else to look. Anyway, how soon will Gergis get here?”
“End of the month, give or take whether he gets harassed by the Federation.”
“He shouldn’t. His incoming cargo is absolutely legit. The trick is sending a second shuttle down here and uploading our livestock,” Colton said, hiding his distaste.
Despite the fact he’d gone rogue on his undercover assignment, he found selling humans into slavery to aliens abhorrent—especially to Mesaarkans. Colton dealt with Thrix as little as possible since he’d seen the equipment in the alien’s little playroom. He didn’t want to think about how it was used. Thrix had alluded the equipment was quite versatile.
While he’d had run-ins with the Enclave cyborgs, he wanted them to put Thrix out of business. He’d help if he could, as long as it didn’t jeopardize his quest to find Tessa. He’d known Tessa nearly his whole life. They were best friends long before they became lovers and married. No way would she have left when he was on his way home.
Someone took her, and he believed Devlin White orchestrated her abduction. Tessa was exquisitely beautiful and probably valuable for human trafficking. Colton didn’t regret killing White; he just didn’t care anymore that the Federation knew about it. The sleazy overlord was scum. Colton’s only regret was that he didn’t suffer enough before he died.
“Gergis better hurry up, Enclave cyborgs are moving in. We may only have half that time to get the merchandise offworld. They will run out all our people and retrieve our stock.”
“I will let him know,” Driscoll said.
“Do it ASAP. I’m going to find Eddie. See you later.” Colton said on his way to the door. “He didn’t have much use for Driscoll either. Eddie was the only person he cared about besides Tessa.
Max was outside waiting when five transporters filled with cyborg protectors, equipment, and supplies arrived at the old prison that was now their base. Protector Sergeant was the first to emerge and approach.
“SergeantRexas Strong and company reporting for duty.” He dipped his head in salute as he came to stand before Max.
Max returned the gesture. “Welcome. This building will be our headquarters and barracks. Each man will have his own room. We’ll section off the rest for the refugees we relocate from the ruins and ready more buildings as we need to accommodate them.”
“We brought a medical team with us. Do you have a location for sickbay?” Rexas asked.
“That building over there.” Max pointed. “A large section served as a medical infirmary. It also has a large mess hall. For now, I want to concentrate on preparing these two buildings for use and equip additional spaces as needed. The Enclave will send auxiliary personnel when we anticipate the refugee’s arrival.”
“Once the word gets out, we can expect people to come of their own accord,” Rexas added. He then relayed how their supplies should be disbursed between the two buildings Max had designated.
“Were you informed that I recently found my genetic mate?”
“I was. Does this mean you will be taking leave?”
“Some, but not extended leave until we get things moving. You will be in charge during my absence, though I will be available through our network and only twenty minutes from here.”
“Congratulations, Max. It gives us all hope whenever one of our own finds his mate.”
“Plus, our genetic database of females wanting a cyborg mate is expanding. I expect a few to randomly find their mates during our operation here.”
While the cyborg protectors unloaded the supplies and their gear into the two buildings, Max and Rexas discussed how they would tackle the city ruins to the west. At the time of the Mesaarkan bombings, the San Francisco Bay area had grown to a megalopolis that extended east to encompass Sacramento, Stockton, north to Santa Rosa, and south of San Jose.
Areas that were once farmland were gobbled up by the expansion. Homes were carved into the hills with bays and garages for parking hover flyers. It wasn’t like the small towns with their own little governments surrounded by rural areas. Max’s friend Stalker discovered in Los Angeles that trying to sort out the factions and finding the leaders was inefficient.
Once Stalker figured that out, he’d requested a hundred Protectors to assist in rooting out the gangs and overlords along with the survivors. The quicker they moved them out of the ruins, the sooner they could clear them off and start rebuilding. Some of the overlord’s gangers in LA had advanced Mesaarkan weapons that were higher tech than the cyborgs’.
They didn’t have internal scanners that could locate the enemy or survivors. No hand-held devices were as quick as the cyborg’s internal ones, which fed the info straight into their brains. They could react many times faster than the swiftest human.
As Max and Rexas discussed the strategy for taming the megalopolis, they walked around the huge compound, checking out the buildings for expanding the housing and training of the refugees from the ruins.
