I gazed up at him with a pleading look on my face. “I think we should believe the I/We.”
“The thing is starting to make sense,” Cyburn agreed.
“I know all too well what it’s mentioning.Iwas one of those abducted humans.” I place my palm to my heart. “Icould have ended up just like the others.”
“You escaped,” Cyburn mentioned.
I gave him a look of chagrin. “Others weren’t so lucky — orwon’tbe so lucky in the future. If we team up with these robots, we might have a real chance at taking down the Belic once and for all. It really sounds like they want justice against the Imperialists.”
“They have given a legitimate reason to hate the Belic and seem genuinely hellbent on wanting to break away from them,” Cyburn added.
“You heard them,” I mentioned. “They are basically independent anyway.”
Cyburn tossed an introspective glance at the robot over his shoulder. “If we were to agree to join efforts with you, what would your plan be to take down the Belic? We have to start somewhere to destroy them.”
“We have ideas,” the I/We declared.
“Oh yeah?” Cyburn’s eyebrows lifted. “Let’s hear them.”
“We need the assurance that you will join forces with us, first,” the robot declared.
Cyburn’s upper lip twitched. “When you say things like that, it makes me want to walk away from you.”
“You will never walk away from us if you don’t agree to help us.”
“Why is that?” Cyburn asked.
“Because we will give you away to the other robots, who will either destroy you, or imprison you. What happens to you from there shall be none of our concern.”
“So, what you’re saying is you are going to blackmail us?” Cyburn asked, his voice pitching with irritation.
“We prefer not to view it that way.”
Cyburn let out a gruff and aggressive, backed into a corner type of laugh that made me nervous. “Of course not. How convenient for you.”
“We don’t mean any offense,” the robot assured. “We are just asking for mutual cooperation and assistance.”
Cyburn glanced at Nix. “What doyouthink?”
I wasn’t offended that he asked Nix for his opinion. Cyburn alreadyknewwhereIstood on the situation.
Nix took a deep breath, stepped backward, and rubbed his jawline with his hand. He lifted his eyes to the sky in contemplation.
“I think we have nothing left to lose. We should just go for it. If it turns out the little bastards are lying or trying to trick us, then we’ll just kill them.”
Cyburn nodded after a moment of hesitation. “Agreed.”
He swiveled on a heel and looked at the I/We. “You have yourself a deal. Don’t try anything funny. You’ll regret it if you do.”
The hovering robots were reserved in their response, and for now, stayed true to their word not to immediately give us up to the Belic as soon as we’d made the agreement.
“Our first order of business will be to infiltrate the mainframe sector.”
“Alright.” Cyburn nodded, sounding like he was on board. “Let’s say we are successful in doing that. What happens next?”
I knew that Cyburn was already well aware of the fact that we would have to take over the mainframe sector, but he was just fishing to see what the I/We would have to say about it, feeling the robot out to make sure they were on the same page.
Even if Cyburn wanted to test the waters, I had more confidence about this plan already. I knew that the more allies we had on our side, the better chances we had to succeed in this mission that sometimes seemed impossible.