UNIT 78: RESCUED (CyBRG Files Book 2) Read online

  “I don’t fucking think so,” Rich growled and suddenly the entire amphitheater was plunged into pitch blackness.

  There was immediate confusion with shouting and the sounds of scuffling coming from the seats beyond the stage. But Rich didn’t seem a bit worried. He only held her tighter against his chest and began to run with a smooth, mechanical stride that kept her from being jostled too much. He jumped and there was a sudden feeling of falling but he didn’t stumble once—only kept going.

  “Oh!” Kyrin gasped and realized the big cyborg must have jumped off the stage. Then there was a thumping sound and a feeling of something whooshing by her head. She realized he must have kicked the door open and they were now out of the Breeding Chamber and moving through the compound.

  The feeling of moving swiftly through the pitch blackness was terrifying but there was nothing she could do about it—nothing but trust that Rich knew what he was doing and that this time he would get them out of there.

  He must be able to see in the dark, she thought. Enhanced vision must be part of his modifications.

  From every corridor came sounds of confusion and the scuffling of feet—cries and calls and once or twice, the sound of sobbing. Kyrin didn’t allow herself to pay attention to any of it. She just clung to the big cyborg with all her might and tried to control the hope that rose in her and the fear that tried to strangle it.

  “Guards up ahead,” Rich murmured in her ear. Amazingly, he wasn’t even breathing hard. Was it his cybernetics that made him so fast and gave him such stamina?

  “What…how…” She was trying to ask what he was going to do and how they would get past the guards in the dark, but before she could get the words out, there was a metallic clink from his metal arm.

  “Halt! Who are you? What’s going on?” a voice shouted from the corridor ahead of them.

  Suddenly the pitch-black air was filled with blindingly brilliant laser blasts and the deadly hissing sound of a pulse pistol firing. Screams and cries rose all around them but as before, Rich just kept running.

  For a moment something that felt like a flailing hand caught in her hair and Kyrin cried in pain as it yanked several strands from her head. Then they were past it and pushing through what she knew must be the scuffed, dirty white double doors that led to the outside world and freedom.

  They burst out into blinding daylight and she cried out, hiding her face in his chest.

  “Hey, now, it’s all right, sweetheart,” Rich murmured, but Kyrin noticed he didn’t stop running.

  “Where…where are we going?” she panted as his mechanical legs ate up the dry desert ground, taking her further and further from the Breeding Compound.

  “My ship.” He sounded grim. “Left it in their docking area. Fuckers better not have tampered with it.”

  “I hope not!” Kyrin gasped fervently. If the cultists had disabled his ship in some way…if they were unable to get out of here…

  Then we might as well be dead, she thought and shivered. They’ll kill us both for trying to escape. I might last longer than Rich but as soon as they determine I’m not pregnant…

  How do you know you’re not? whispered an insidious little voice in her head. He shot about a pint of his seed inside you. What if you are pregnant? What if the cultists recapture you and find out you’re carrying a “holy child”? What then, Kyrin?

  She had no answers. All she could do was hang on to the big cyborg and pray he could get her safely off this hell hole of a planet.

  Behind them, she heard a voice shouting but it seemed far away and unreal.

  “Halt! Stop in the name of Tr’Low. You cannot take the bride—she belongs to—”

  The shiny hatch opened in the shoulder of his arm this time and a pulse pistol aimed at the guards behind them. After some rapid shots, there were no more shouts or orders—only coughing and gurgles. Kyrin wasn’t sure how he was aiming, but clearly the big cyborg was a lethal shot.

  She closed her eyes again as his feet hit the cracked perma-crete of the docking area.

  Almost there, she thought. We must be almost there. If we can just get on his ship—if we can just get free of this horrible place—

  And then there was the high, hydraulic whine of a ship’s gangplank lowering. Then metal boots hitting said gangplank. Were they really to Rich’s ship? Were they really getting out of here?

  After so many false hopes and dreams, Kyrin had a hard time believing it. But finally she couldn’t stand the suspense and opened her eyes.

  They were in a small, but comfortable space craft and Rich was still holding her tightly in his arms.

  “Welcome home, sweetheart,” he murmured as the gangplank drew in and the hatch closed behind them. “Make yourself comfortable while I get us the hell off this fucking rock.”

  Chapter Nine

  What the fuck had he done?

  Shame filled Rich, his cybernetic half allowing him to seamlessly pilot them up into the upper atmosphere like a shot while his human half berated him endlessly, all at the same time. His hands moved smoothly on the controls of the shuttle as the air around them filled with the surface-to-air laser fire from the compound’s cannons. Considering the Tr’Low claimed to be a peaceful cult intent on spreading their religion through their children, they sure weren’t bothered about killing off anyone who disagreed with them.

  Hooked into both the shuttle’s systems and those of the compound, he avoided the laser bolts with the first, and wreaked havoc with the other. His focus was as sharp as the lasers attempting to rip them apart. His digital half invaded the labs and the breeding chamber, racing through their systems to find all the ventilation systems he could. Then, with a savage grin, he dumped a jury-rigged antidote made from what he could find in the labs right into them.

  He grinned. Give that a couple of minutes and then the fanatical nuns and their leadership would have far more to think about than a small shuttle desperately trying to make orbit. Assholes. He hoped the reawakened breeding males, once freed from the drugs that had been pumped into them, ripped the fuckers apart.

  “We’re nearly there, sweetheart,” he called over his shoulder to where Kyrin was cuddled up on the crew seats in the back of the shuttle. “Almost out of the atmosphere and then we’re home free.”

  “Hey, bud, you need a hand there?” The comms crackled and Rich grinned at the sound of Unit 80, Jake Wilkins’, voice as it filled the cockpit. Almost at the same moment, two orbit-to-surface fighters sped past him, heading for the compound.

  “Sure do. Thanks, man,” he replied, smiling as both fighters waggled their wings and sped off. “Careful down there,” he added in warning. “They’ve got artillery defenses and there’s innocents in there. Just take out their ability to fight back and their power. We’ll need to send in IPKA to clean up this fuckup.”

  “On it,” a second voice grumbled, that of Josh Harper—Unit 85. Rich wasn’t surprised he was Jake’s wingman. The big cyborg could fly anything ever invented. Hell… the amount of hardware he was carrying they could probably just strap wings on him and he’d be a fighter all on his own. “Boss man’s waiting just outside the system.”

  Relief hit Rich hard and fast. If their leader, Unit 77, formerly Captain Fisher of the Space Corps, was here, that meant so was his little female, Doc Chambers.

  “Thanks, man. Happy hunting.” He cut the comm and set the little shuttle on in intercept course with the transport that pinged him from just outside the system. As soon as he did, he slid out from the pilot’s seat and turned to Kyrin in the back of the cabin.

  “Nearly home, sweetheart,” he said quietly, approaching her warily. She was curled up, still naked, where the seating turned ninety degrees. His breath caught in his throat as he saw his seed trickling down her thigh. Gods, how much had he come in her?

  “Kyrin, sweetheart?” he reached up to one of the overhead lockers and recovered a blanket. Perhaps she would feel better, not so exposed, when she wasn’t naked?

  Per