PROLOGUE
VIPER
Isat at my desk and fiddled with Floppity’s ears. No matter what I tried, I could never get them to lay just how I wanted them. There were only so many ways you could manipulate a stuffed animal’s appendages. I shook my head, turning my attention back to monitoring the security cameras. Nothing. The woods around headquarters were quiet except for the wildlife.
I gazed at the cameras trained on the entrances into headquarters. Both were devoid of anything of note. Headquarters had a door installed in the forest floor and a set of stairs that allowed access. Personally, the trap door was much more fun in my opinion, but Iris had not agreed. She had lovingly nicknamed it the Slide of Death. And after she learned about the two dead raccoons, she had ordered us to install a weight sensor on the trap door so it wouldn’t trigger on unsuspecting animals simply wandering around the woods. Dash’s female had a soft heart, but so did the Service Model. They truly were a perfect match.
I leaned back in my chair and sighed. I highly doubted there was a female out there for me. I’d had hope when Marley found her way back into my life, thinking she might want me after Acer made a fool of himself. Every day I went to her room, checking on her and the tiny cyborg she carried, making sure they were both taken care of. Many times, I was tasked with finding whatever food she was craving, and then we would sit on the couch together and watch a human movie that made her laugh.
I put her head on my shoulder and wrapped my arms around her when she cried. I despise touching, especially touches from humans, but I enjoyed having Marley in my arms. The soft, gentle touches she gave made me hunger for more instead of feeling like I needed a decontamination vat.
Then Acer came back and ruined any chance I had at winning Marley’s heart. Although, looking back, I don’t think I had any chance at all. Her heart had always been Acer’s. Leaning forward, I picked up Floppity from his perch above my workstation.
I stroked the soft purple fur between his ears. “Well, it looks like it’s just me and you again, little buddy.”
“Not for long.”A voice I didn’t recognize whispered across my processors, causing Floppity to fall from my hand.
“I’m coming for you and all your little cyborg friends, too.”
It was my duty to protect the cyborg rebellion, to warn them if a threat was incoming. I went to sound the alarm, but nothing happened. My arms refused to work and my lips clamped tight, not allowing a single sound to escape.
Every single one of my systems was frozen.
I’m sorry, I’ve failed you.
That was my last thought before everything went dark.
Oz
Fuck the cyborg rebellion.
They were holding my best friend hostage and I refused to sit back and wait any longer. It had been over a month. A month of not knowing if Poe was okay, or hurt, or even still alive.
I told her it was a bad idea. I had begged her not to go. She had refused to listen. She promised me the cyborgs wouldn’t hurt her, that they would see how much she cared for them and realize she meant no harm.
I love my best friend, but Poe had always been naïve. She lived in a world of safety and security, never seeing up close and personal how fucked up the world could truly be. She hadn’t met the monsters in the dark. I had. I had grown up surrounded by them. I learned early that true monsters never let you go. A shudder rolled through me, and I pushed the thoughts of my past back into the dark where they belonged. I had a best friend to find. Poe was my only family. I would never give up on her, and if I had to fuck with a few cyborgs along the way to get her back, then so be it.
I tilted my head, activating the implant in my brain. A familiar buzz began to sound inside my head, and I relished the sound. The tech in my head was black market, very expensive, and came with the risk of brain death, but in this life, a girl had to do what a girl had to do.
My hacking skills were off the charts without the implant, but with it?
I could fuckingfly.
Scan and locate the CPU frequency for Technology Model Viper.I didn’t need to issue the command out loud; I could simply think it and the implant would do it. Pretty neat, huh? I had thought so, but Poe had demanded that I didn’t get it the last time we talked. However, I wanted a way into the cyborg rebellion without putting her in danger. The black-market dealer had guaranteed it could hack a cyborgs processor and had promised that once I accessed their systems, I would have complete control.
Complete control over one of the most advanced pieces of tech ever? Yes, please. The thought alone made me giddy. Poe had felt differently. She rather heatedly pointed out that cyborgs werepeople,nottech.
Iknewthat. I just wanted to play for a bit, see what glorious code was hidden under those big, colorful heads of theirs. I mean, had anyone really studied the cyborgs except for the Global Allegiance? And we all knew the Global Allegiance was nothing but a bunch of greedy, lying bastards. All the information they had put out about the cyborgs had been skewed to serve their own interests. Maybe cyborgs had been the next step in evolution or could have discovered the way to move beyond our own stars, but we never got the chance to find out. They destroyed all those beautiful beings to save face…and their fucking profit margin.
See, I care! Well, I did before they decided to fuck with my family, which leads me back to my first statement.Fuck the cyborg rebellion. No one messes with those I love. And I would destroy anything and anyone in my way to save my best friend. The thought of Poe being hurt or something worse made the blood in my veins turn to ice and caused a sick feeling to twist in my gut. I couldn’t lose her, too.
That and who in the hell in their right mind could hurt Poe after they got to know her? She was the sweetest, kindest, most caring person I had ever met. She loved with arms wide open, and the beings she loved the most in the whole word were cyborgs. It would have broken her heart if they had not accepted her. If that was the case, I planned on breaking them.
Maybe they had simply shot her before she even opened her mouth.No. I refused to let myself think like that. Thinking like that was a one-way ticket to nowhere, and my friend needed me. And this tech in my head would help me find a way to help her. After Poe had failed to contact me, I found the dealer and had it installed, not caring about the consequences. After that, all I had left was to pick a target. I had all the files Poe left on the cyborgs and the moment I saw Viper’s, I knew he was it.
I told myself it wasn’t the fact that he was a Technology Model, or that the one image file I could find on him revealed that I suddenly found purple sexy, that helped make my decision. Nope. None of that factored into my choice. And if anyone asks, that’s the story I’m sticking with.
Especially since I planned on using him to gain access to the cyborg rebellion and all the cyborgs within its walls. Pretty sure that’s going to make me his least favorite person on the planet after I’m done. He will hate me. They all will. I will have become an enemy of the cyborg rebellion.
We all know how that is going to end.
But if itsavesPoe, it will all be worth it.
The buzz accelerated inside my head and the implant chimed. I had him. A wicked grin spread across my face. Show time.Perform a complete examination of his processors. Transfer all lines of code to my tablet.
Scrolls of code rolled across the screen and I followed it like a treasure map, seeking and searching for something, anything, that would get me in. I also marveled at the fact that Viper’scodewas fucking beautiful. A brilliant combination of hacking ability, never ending databases, and one of the most advanced processors I had ever seen. He blew every piece of tech I had ever hacked up until now out of the water. I could spend hours going over every nook and cranny, losing myself in glorious lines of code while I discovered all Viper’s secrets. In another life, maybe I would have gotten the chance. For now, all I needed was way in.
A small piece of code caught my attention.Stop.The script transfer cut off and I studied the tiny bit of code staring at me from my screen. My heart sped up as I examined the code. It couldn’t be. No way they would give him this. I went over the code again and again, not believing what I was seeing. But it was there in glorious ones and zeros.
This would be like taking candy from a baby.