Page 33 of Cyborg's Tether
With a burst of speed, he charged toward Zorn. The admiral’s eyes widened in surprise as Xavier closed the distance between them. Zorn reached for a weapon at his hip, but Xavier was faster. He tackled the admiral, sending them both crashing to the floor.
“This ends now.” He pinned the man down.
Zorn sneered. “You have no idea what you are dealing with, cyborg. Project Guardian is bigger than you can imagine.”
A triumphant shout from Amaya interrupted their confrontation. “I’ve done it. The control chips are deactivating.”
Around the room, the mind-controlled cyborgs began to falter. Some collapsed to the ground while others looked around in confusion, as if waking from a long dream.
Zorn took advantage of Xavier’s momentary distraction, landing a solid punch to his face that felt stronger than a human’s should, making him suspect the admiral was enhanced. Xavier reeled back, his systems momentarily disoriented. Zorn scrambled to his feet, making a dash for the exit.
“Stop him,” shouted Xavier, struggling to regain his footing. Unfortunately, the cyborgs remained too disoriented to act.
Dr. Vex’s voice cut through the chaos. “Download complete. We have everything.”
Xavier’s tactical subroutines quickly assessed the situation. They had what they came for, and Zorn’s escape was secondary to their primary objective. “We need to leave now. Grab any subjects who can move and follow me.”
Amaya and Dr. Vex rushed to help the disoriented cyborgs to their feet. Xavier’s enhanced hearing picked up the sound of approaching soldiers. They were out of time.
“This way.” He led them toward an emergency exit he had identified earlier. He smashed through the door, and the metal crumpled easily under his cybernetic strength.
They emerged into a harsh, dusty landscape. Wind whipped around them, carrying stinging particles of sand. In the distance, his enhanced vision could make out the outline of Zorn’s ship.
“Run,” he ordered, supporting two weakened cyborgs as they stumbled forward.
Behind them, alarms blared, and shouts reverberated from the facility. His sensors picked up multiple heat signatures in pursuit. Zorn’s voice sounded over a loudspeaker system. “You can’t escape. The future of humanity is at stake.”
Xavier ignored the threats, focusing on their escape. The ship seemed impossibly far away, and the rescued subjects were slowing them down. His tactical systems calculated their chances of reaching the ship before being overtaken. The odds were not in their favor. If they did get aboard, they would have to crack through firewalls to gain control of the ship, which would also take too much time.
He examined the harsh landscape before them, calculating their dwindling odds of survival. The ship waited in the distance, a tantalizing promise of escape that now seemed impossibly far. Behind them, the shouts of Zorn’s soldiers grew louder, accompanied by the rhythmic thud of heavy boots on sand.
“We can’t reach the ship,” said Xavier with urgency. “Our only chance is to go deeper into the planet’s interior.”
Amaya’s face was streaked with sweat, sand, and dust. “Are you insane? We don’t know what’s down there.”
“It is our only option,” he said firmly while turning the rescued cyborgs, their faces a mixture of confusion and fear. “Can you run?”
One of them, a woman with silver skin and glowing blue circuitry, nodded shakily. “I think so.”
“Good. Follow me and stay close.”
Without waiting for further discussion, he set off at a brisk pace, his enhanced legs easily traversing the treacherous terrain. The others scrambled to keep up, their breaths coming in ragged gasps in the thin atmosphere without breathing masks. Only some of the cyborgs had mechanical lungs. Those were the ones keeping up with him.
The landscape changed as they ran, the open desert giving way to jagged rock formations. Xavier’s sensors detected a network of caverns beneath their feet—tunnels that could provide both shelter and peril.
“There.” Dr. Vex pointed to a narrow fissure in a towering cliff face. “That could lead us underground.”
He nodded, adjusting their course. As they neared the opening, the sound of pursuit grew fainter, swallowed by the wind and the vastness of the desert, but he knew better than to assume they had lost their hunters.
The fissure was barely wide enough for Xavier to squeeze through, his broad shoulders scraping against the rough stone. The others followed, with Amaya bringing up the rear, casting nervous glances over her shoulder. He wanted to reassure her, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie to her even if it was to provide comfort.
Chapter 13—Amaya
AMAYA EYES ADJUSTEDto the dim light of the abandoned mine shaft. The air was thick with dust and the acrid scent of rusted metal. She crouched beside a makeshift pallet, where one of the rescued cyborgs lay motionless. Her fingers moved deftly over exposed wiring and circuitry, searching for signs of life.
“How is he?” asked Xavier from behind her.
She shook her head, her throat tight. “Not good. The neural pathways are degrading faster than I can stabilize them.”