Containing Malice (Rebel Cyborgs #1) - Cynthia Sax Page 0,17

paid no attention to her and they didn’t notice the deactivated monitoring equipment. They were too wrapped up in their own problems, their own agony.

Medic Febris waited for her outside an unmarked door. Her friend leaned against the wall. Her too-thin form trembled. Bits of a cleaning cloth were stuffed into her nostrils.

Illona’s heart squeezed. Her friend must be in tremendous pain.

The female looked at the monitoring equipment fixed to the ceiling above the door. “You came.”

“I said I’d be here.” She didn’t share how a certain cyborg could have prevented that from happening. Her friend had enough trials of her own. “You don’t have to do this.” Illona gently grasped one of Medic Febris’ shoulders. “There might be a cure.”

Malice’s enhanced nanocybotics had healed her. They might heal her friend also.

“That cure won’t give me absolution. It won’t undo the damage I’ve done.” Medic Febris pressed her shoulder against Illona’s palm. They were all starved for touch, for caring. “If I’m cured, I’ll be forced to hurt more beings. I want this to end, Medic Illona. I want my last act to be healing someone.” Her smile held a universe of sadness in it. “That isn’t possible, unfortunately. The Humanoid Alliance isn’t interested in healing others. But I can do this. I can make this one sacrifice for another being.”

Medic Febris’ words echoed Illona’s thoughts. “You made a difference in this universe…to me.” A swell of love swept over her, chased by regret. Their friendship, kinship, would soon end. “I wouldn’t have survived this long without you. I look forward to our brief conversations in the hallways. I live for one of your grins.”

The grin her friend gave her was strained. “I feel like a medic when I’m with you.”

“You are a medic.” Illona hugged her. “And you and I will save two more beings before we die. We won’t heal them.” Someone else would tend to Malice’s emotional wounds. Regret filled her. She would have liked to witness that healing, to see her cyborg happy and whole. “But we will set them free, allowing others to do that task.”

“You might survive this.” Her friend hugged her back.

“I won’t survive this.” She drew away from the female. “I’ll live a mere shift or two longer than you do…if we’re fortunate.” Both Malice and the Humanoid Alliance wanted to kill her. “And I’ll require every one of those moments if we are to liberate them.”

“Then we do this now.” Medic Febris turned toward the door.

“We do this now.” Illona nodded.

Her friend lifted one shaky hand, pressed her palm against the control panel.

The door opened. Medic Febris entered the space first. Illona followed her. The door closed behind them.

No one was inside the chamber…as she had suspected. The lab was operated mostly by the machines lining the walls. They and other beings were watched by the Humanoid Alliance through the monitoring equipment.

The surveillance devices inside the space had also been deactivated. It had taken her almost a solar cycle to collect the information needed to access their captors’ systems, to teach herself how to breach their security.

That type of technology was regretfully not her strength. She was a medic, was skilled at healing, not hacking into programs. Everything she now knew had been stealthily self-taught.

“I thought this would be more dramatic.” Medic Febris sighed as she sank into a chair. “Alarms would sound and males with big guns would barge into the chamber.”

“Once the Humanoid Alliance figures out what we’ve done, we’ll have plenty of excitement.” Illona smiled and reached into a pocket of her jacket, extracted four small containers. “These are pain inhibitors.” She placed them in her friend’s pockets. “Inject yourself with at least one every half a shift. Take more if they’re needed.”

“I’ll be higher than a battle station.” Medic Febris summoned a smile. “Did you save some for yourself?”

She saved none for herself. Pain inhibitors were difficult to obtain. She’d hoarded the meager supply she’d given the female. “I’m injecting you with a container now.” She pulled out an already-loaded injector gun. “Lower your jacket.”

Medic Febris complied with her order, baring her bony shoulder. “You should be focusing on deactivating the transmission blocker, not worrying about me.”

“You’re my friend.” Illona’s voice was gruff with emotion. “I’ll always worry about you.” She injected the female with pain inhibitors.

“Ahhh…yes. That’s the good stuff.” Medic Febris’ face softened. The lines around her lips dissipated.

“Use the rest on yourself.” Illona placed the injector gun back in her pocket, pulled out a