Page 11 of True As Steel
“So, youaremilitary trained,” he said between two bites. “I didn’t know if you were officially part of the military or a member of some paramilitary militia.”
“Both,” I said with a shrug. “Originally, I was only part of the army. But Damian quickly climbed the ranks and joined a special unit that was essentially tasked with espionage on behalf of the Emperor. That’s when he started discovering the lengths Shui went to in order to eliminate his detractors. Smear campaigns weren’t enough, he also made sure to sabotage the Prime Ministers, going so far as to plant false evidence against them to incriminate them in corruption.”
“I had heard of that. At the time, we believed it was merely the desperate defense of the guilty caught red-handed,” Jarog said before removing an entire leg off the animal to eat directly from the bone.
“How can you be so lean and eat this much?” I asked, bewildered.
“This much?” he said, after swallowing a mouthful. He gestured at the animal still roasting on the spit. “I will probably polish all of this off tonight. I told you, it takes a lot of juice to fuel this body. But you were telling me about your brother.”
I snorted and shook my head, amused.
“Damian revealed to me what had been going on and described some of the tasks he’d been asked to perform,” I continued. “Spying, he was okay with. Planting false evidence to ruin someone’s life, not so much… He tried to resign, but they demanded he completed his tour of duty first. However, it was out of the question for him to ruin these people’s lives.”
“He deserted?” Jarog asked.
“He considered it, but that would have put him on the wanted list and made all of our lives a living hell,” I said, shaking my head. “Instead, he complied with his orders, but my uncle, my father, and I found ways to inconspicuously warn the targets so they wouldn’t get framed.”
“And thus, you were labeled as rebels,” Jarog concluded.
“Oh no, we were labeled rebels because wedidstart a rebel movement across regions to attempt to depose Emperor Shui,” I countered. “The increasing corruption on Kirs prompted us to resist, but what truly made our movement grow exponentially was Shui’s determination to annex the planet Bionus to Kirs. My parents are originally from Bionus. They came to Kirs because it is a tech head’s ultimate haven.”
“Why didn’t you all just go back to Bionus when you realized how the Emperor had changed?” Jarog asked.
“It was our intention, as soon as we’d both finished our tours of duty,” I explained. “My father and my uncle were going to help build the defenses of Bionus. Damian and I were to help train more soldiers and recruit new ones to be ready to face off against the Emperor, if it came to that. Damian had been talking with some Cyborgs in the hope of bringing them over to our side.”
“And then, you all got rounded up…” Jarog said.
“I was on leave and had just escorted my father to the spaceport so that he could go back to Bionus ahead of us,” I explained, my stomach knotting at the memory. “His ship took off, and I only got arrested while leaving the spaceport. I want to believe he made it home safely. But my brother and my uncle were also arrested. I saw Damian when I was getting branded,” I added, absent-mindedly caressing the R-shaped scar on my face. “I might have seen him on the transport ship to the prison colony of Tyurma, but I can’t be certain. Who knows if they made it off? I have to hang on to the belief that they did.”
My voice broke a little as I pronounced those last words. I hated to display weakness, but we were a tight-knit family. Losing any of them would devastate me.
Jarog opened his mouth to comment, but a distant rumbling announcing the storm he had alluded to interrupted him. He looked up, his enhanced vision probably giving him far more information than what mine could perceive.
“Let’s get inside before it pours,” he said, picking up the display screen of the snitch and the spit on which the remaining meat was still impaled.
A drop of rain hit my forehead just as I was stepping inside the cave. Within minutes, it sounded like a deluge outside. To my surprise, Jarog didn’t finish all the meat after all, but cut the leftovers from the bone and squeezed them neatly into one of the cool food boxes in the backpack. He looked approvingly at the ground that I had previously cleaned to the best of my abilities, lying down on his back next to where I was sitting with my legs crossed beneath me.
Although I didn’t believe he’d done so to give me an eyeful, I couldn’t help but let my gaze roam over his body. Jarog was a fine male specimen. The intense, regular training Cyborgs underwent to maintain their muscle mass didn’t make him bulky, but strong, lean, and well-defined. Even through his dark-grey uniform, I could see the curves of his chiseled muscles. I couldn’t help my treacherous mind from wondering what he looked like without clothes on.
Although his face wasn’t the drop-dead gorgeous type—or even classically handsome for that matter—he was undeniably attractive with his square jaw, plush lips on a wide mouth, strong, Roman nose, and mesmerizing steely-gray eyes. His strong brow gave him a somewhat permanently stern expression—if not a scowl—that sat well with his controlled personality.
“What are your plans, Tamryn? Once you reach Satos, that is?” Jarog asked.
His voice sounded even deeper now that he was lying down with his hands behind his head, and his eyes staring at the low ceiling of the cave.
“Try to contact my brother and uncle to see if they made it, and my father to make sure he’s safe at home,” I said without hesitation. “Then figure out a way to get back to wherever they are.”
He turned his head sideways to look at me, an unreadable expression on his face. Although he didn’t speak the words, I knew what thoughts were crossing his mind—the ones I didn’t want to contemplate.
“What about you? What are your plans when we get there?” I asked, trying to sound relaxed.
The troubled expression that flitted over his face took me aback.
“Truth be told, I do not know anymore,” he said in a tired voice.
Chapter 5
Jarog