Taunting Krell Read online

  He growled at her.

  She hesitated and reached up, cupping his face. “I can help, Krell. Look into my eyes and see the truth. I don’t want any cyborgs to die and especially not you or Mavo.”

  His rigid body slowly relaxed but he didn’t put her down. “Help by giving all the information you know to the females if that’s true. They will relay it to me.”

  “You need me there.”

  “It’s too risky.”

  “I’m your secret weapon against them and I have to be there if shit hits the fan.”

  He stared at her blankly. “Explain.”

  She hesitated. “You thought I was completely human and so will they. We’re wasting time and Mavo is in danger. Please, Krell. Take me with you. I can help.”

  Indecision wasn’t something Krell experienced often but as Cyan pleaded with him he could feel his resolve melting. It would be too dangerous to take her on this mission. He shouldn’t even be going, hated to leave Garden, but owed Mavo too much not to do his best to save him. He’d need to be on scene to help assess the situations so the best decisions could be made according to whatever they encountered when they reached the crippled ship to help them escape the shuttle tracking it.

  Cyan knew more about the Markus Models than they did. He believed her boast and had to concede that she could come in handy if she was at his side. The idea of putting her in danger didn’t sit well with him. She was his female to protect and there was a high probability they’d be captured along with the crew of the Vontage.

  He tried to shut down his emotions to do his job. Taking Cyan made sense, to have to relay information could hamper any split-second decisions that needed to be made and if they had to cut all communications he wouldn’t be able to learn whatever she shared with the females he’d assigned to protect her.

  She was a soldier and she’d proven her worth when they’d tangled on his exercise mats. The small female had gotten the drop on him, something not easy to do, and she wanted to go.

  “It’s dangerous. I’m not sure this is a mission we can accomplish successfully.”

  She licked her lips. “Those metal heads are dangerous but I’m the best chance you’ve got against them. I know more than you do.”

  He wished he could protest her statement but it would be dishonest. They’d learned little about the Markus Models. He’d considered it lucky that the first group of cyborgs who had encountered them had escaped after reviewing the reports that had been filed. His jaw clenched. It angered him but logic dictated he take her.

  “You will follow my every order. That isn’t up for debate.”

  She grinned and lifted her hand, saluting him. “Yes sir!”

  He groaned, releasing her slowly. “Pack quickly, only a few things. We leave in four minutes.”

  Cyan spun, darted for the bedroom, and he watched her go. His fists clenched as he sighed. One way or another, he’d learn more about her. She’d either show him she could be trusted or she’d try to help the androids harm his people. The ache in his chest wasn’t one he could ignore. It made him realize he wanted to trust her, needed her to be the female she represented, and anything less would be…deeply disappointing on a whole new level.

  His eyes closed and his teeth clenched. He was feeling too much for her, too fast, yet he couldn’t seem to prevent it from happening. She had a way of getting under his skin and causing havoc to his peaceful way of life. She mattered.

  Chapter Eight

  Krell glared at Cyan. The shuttle they traveled in wasn’t a big one but it was fast. She could feel the tiny vibrations from the powerful thrusters they used to speed along. She had no idea what classification it was since the cyborgs seemed to worry about her stealing important information to somehow transmit to Earth.

  She sat on a seat with four cyborgs surrounding her. Two of them monitored her for sending any kind of signals if she had remote hacking ability. Krell had ordered her to ignore both males to avoid distracting them.

  “Talk,” Krell demanded. “How do we kill them?”

  “You have to puncture holes in their skin—any projectile will do—and shoot them with energy shots immediately to electrocute them. You retrieved my weapons the way I asked, right?”

  “Yes.” He watched her, seeming to assess her for honesty. “Why quickly?”

  “They heal rapidly if they are fully operational. Electricity is the exception and they won’t heal from that. The Markuses had too many defects for the company who designed them to remove the fatal flaw. It was the only way they could kill them. It’s standard procedure to make a critical blemish in a product in case they go haywire. They won’t heal from electrical burns and their internal guts aren’t shielded to avoid being fried.”

  “You stated you could slow them down. Explain.”

  She bit her lip. “I interrogated one of the Markuses alone. I insisted upon it before I left Earth. I pissed off my boss and he decided to send me on a solo mission to check out Belta Station. I needed to know what I was going up against. I kind of revealed that I’m not totally human to the thing to see what it would do. It had an odd reaction. It kind of shut down while it tried to evaluate what I might be. It’s my secret weapon I guess. I figured if I came up against them I could stun them by doing something inhuman and shoot the hell out of them while they paused to evaluate my origins before trying to kill me.”

  Krell appeared perplexed. “That’s your master plan?”

  “Do you have a better one? You said cyborgs met four Markus Models. Did they kind of shut down while they evaluated you?”

  “No.”

  “They are obviously aware of what cyborgs can do and were prepared to deal with you. They aren’t prepared for me. I’m not something they’ve seen before and no one knew about me except the team who saved me. When the Markus Model came back online after the initial shutdown, he asked if I was the female version of his production line. They’d boxed his abilities until he couldn’t attempt to link to me. I killed it before it could share the information of what it had learned with the other Models.”

  One of the cyborgs she hadn’t been ordered not to talk to drew her attention. “The company allowed that?”

  She flashed him a smile. “No. I did it anyway. I lied and said it tried to get control of the electro pad I took in with me to make notes and that it obviously worked around their attempts to keep it from linking to electronics. What were they going to do? Accuse me of lying? They are in deep shit with Earth Government. They released a deadly threat upon Earth’s citizens and created a hell of a mess. The company never believed those things could escape the plant but they did. It made it everyone’s problem. The employees were bending over backward to be helpful when I came to investigate. They didn’t have a choice. Piss off Earth Government and they shut anyone down fast and hard.”

  “You’re assuming you will get close enough to meet the Markus Models face-to-face to reveal what you are to them.” Krell suddenly gripped her arm. “You will not.”

  The warm and fuzzy feeling she had thinking he might be worried about her quickly faded when he shook his head.

  “You could help them attack us.”

  Ouch. That stung. She took a deep breath and hid her hurt before dropping her gaze. “I’ll say it again. I am not the enemy.”

  The silvery-skinned cyborg who had spoken to her watched her intently with dark blue eyes. He was seriously beefy in the chest and arm department and his black uniform stretched over his bulk tightly. She guessed he stood about six feet tall, maybe an inch more, and his attention was a little too focused as she watched him sweep his gaze down her body before he spoke, glancing at Krell.

  “She looks sincere, Krell.”

  “She’s not totally human, Gene. You can’t evaluate her properly.”

  “I disagree.”

  Krell’s mouth tensed. “Gene is a human lie detector, Cyan. He watches facial expressions, pupils, and keeps track of heart rates along with body temperatures.”