Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55375 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55375 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
“That fucker!” K-lx growled, feeling a surge of anger and fierce protectiveness. “Stabbing you in the back while you were grieving—that’s fucking low!”
“That’s Silas,” she said matter-of-factly. “He hates women and thinks we all belong ‘in the kitchen or in the bed.’ Not that he can find a woman who’s willing to sleep with him,” she added dryly. “He couldn’t stand that there was an ‘inferior female’ in a position of authority over him.”
K-lx shook his head.
“I’ve never understood the attitude that human men have towards human women. Always trying to put women down and make them feel weak and inferior. What the fuck is wrong with them? Males and females should be equals.”
She looked at him in surprise.
“Is that how the Kindred feel or is it just you?”
“That’s all of us, baby,” K-lx told her. “I might have forgotten a lot, but that I remember. We Kindred believe that every woman has a little piece of the Goddess inside her—a little spark of divinity. And every woman is worthy of love and respect and equal treatment.”
“I like that.” She sighed and snuggled against him. “I wish the Kindred hadn’t left the Earth, though I can’t say I blame them. We really fucked things up, I’m afraid.”
“We could still go find them,” K-lx remarked. “I bet if we found the old lab and got into their database we’d find some wormhole charts and star maps too. They might have even left some coordinates we could follow to get to them.”
He felt a surge of interest from her…followed by guilt again.
“I really can’t, K-lx! I’ve still got a year left on my contract. And if the Company caught us…”
“They wouldn’t catch us if we went through a wormhole,” he pointed out.
She shook her head, regretfully but firmly.
“No, we can’t. It just wouldn’t be right…and it wouldn’t be safe. Let’s just try to ride out the year and then maybe I can get us reassigned to a different post.”
K-lx wanted to get off the station and away from the shadow of the all-powerful Company that owned it. But he wasn’t going anywhere without his Mistress.
“Whatever makes you happy, baby,” he murmured and leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead. “Go or stay, I don’t care as long as we’re together.”
And he really meant it…but he had no idea what was about to happen.
25
CORINNE
“Sorry, Virelle, I can’t spare a long-distance hopper for a trip to Earth right now.”
“What?” Corinne frowned at him. Silas was sitting in his office—which used to be her office—with a self-satisfied smirk on his narrow face. “We don’t have any long-range missions going on right now,” she pointed out. “The next supply run isn’t scheduled for two months. The hoppers are just sitting there.”
“And that’s where they’ll stay. Because I said so.” He leaned forward, hands flat on the desk that used to be hers. “I’m the head of the Division, not you and I do not give you permission to leave the station.”
“I need to get more information on K-lx,” she argued, trying to keep her temper. “I need to visit the lab back on Earth where he was first assembled and activated to avoid future problems.”
“No you don’t, because none of us will be having any problems with your new Cyborg in the future.” He leaned back and gave her an evil smirk. “Because, as Director of the Cybernetics Division, I have decided that it’s in the best interest of everyone aboard the station to decommission and dismantle K-lx, as you call it, for research purposes.”
“What?” Corinne felt as though she’d swallowed a fist-sized lump of ice. “You can’t be serious! K-lix isn’t like an ordinary Modern Cybernetic Unit. He’s a person. He has a personality and cognitive functions just like any human member of the station.”
“It’s nice that you think that,” Silas said loftily. “But I think that hunk of junk will be of more value to the Company if we take him apart and see how he works. We might gain some valuable scientific insights.”
“I’ll give you a ‘valuable insight’—taking K-lx apart would be murder!” Corinne was so angry now she couldn’t keep her voice from rising. “You can’t order him disassembled anyway,” she added, trying to regain her calm. “You might be the Director of the Division but I’m his Handler. I have the final say over him and you know it.”
“Not if I get the Company to agree with me,” he snapped. “Tell me, what kind of power source does it use? It spends every night in your room and seems to charge up there but we never found a Docking Station in its Stasis tube. How is it charging at night?”
Corinne felt herself go cold all over again. If Silas could make the case to the Company that the big K-Unit was more valuable taken to pieces than kept alive, he really would be able to have K-lx killed—with or without her permission. And if he had figured out that the Kindred Cyborg had an internal power source, which was something the Company had been trying to develop for years…