She slashed through two human-metal chests before glaring at the oncoming pack. “Who else wants to rumble?” she taunted.
That’s when they charged.
THIRTY
Renna woke with her head spinning. She kept her eyes closed. Any other motion might have sent her over the edge. She licked her dry, cracked lips, but her tongue felt like it had been coated with glue. Around her, the hum of machines vibrated against her skin. She’d bet her life she was still in Navang’s station.
Slowly, she eased her eyes open. Her head was propped on something soft and white. A pillow. So someone had moved her after the attack.
She had a pretty good guess as to who.
Renna blinked again, trying to clear the fog from her eyes. Everything seemed hazy, indistinct. Even her thoughts felt fuzzy. A series of machines beeped near her head, and her arm itched where a needle was stuck into the vein. It felt like spiders crawling up and down her skin, and she shuddered.
A woman’s voice cut through the room. “She’s awake, Doctor.”
Renna sucked in a breath. She’d had no idea someone was there with her.
“Very good. I’ll be there shortly.” The man’s voice sounded as if it came from an intercom. Though tinny, it was firm and melodious.
The nurse moved around to Renna’s head. “Please don’t struggle. Dr. Navang wants to help you. You’ve been exposed.”
“To what?” she croaked.
The nurse pressed a button, and the head of the bed rose enough so that Renna was propped upright. Then she handed her a glass with a straw.
Renna drank thirstily before sinking back against the pillows. Her heart raced like she’d run a mile. Even sitting up had sent her spinning. What the hell was going on?
The nurse smiled reassuringly at Renna’s expression, her sharp blue eyes softening as she said, “Just try to relax. The doctor will explain everything once he’s here.”
Relax? That was the last thing she wanted to do. Had Finn and Myka made it out? Where was Viktis? And the robots? By her ear, the heart rate monitor beeps increased until they sounded like an alarm.
The nurse frowned and turned down the sound. “Please be calm. I don’t want to have to sedate you again.”
Renna’s muscles twitched and rebelled, but she took a deep breath, trying to get her racing heart back under control. Her head began to ache, and everything had a strange halo of light around it.
What exactly had the doctor done to her?
Her hand drifted to the necklace at her throat, and she squeezed it like a talisman. Panicking was not going to help. This was bad, but she’d gotten out of worse. She was Renna Carrizal, the Star Thief. It was going to be fine.
Across the room, she heard the door slide open and turned her head to watch a man in a white lab coat enter the room.
“Miss Carrizal, I’m glad to see you’ve finally woken up.” His smile didn’t reach his cold, blue eyes. “I’m Dr. Navang.”
“What did you do to me? To Myka?” The effort of talking left her out of breath and shaking. She forced herself to relax back against the pillows. She’d need all her strength to escape these people.
The doctor shook his head, his cropped white hair glowing in the helolights. “I did nothing, I assure you. The people you work for did that themselves.”
Renna rubbed her eyes with a shaking hand. “You’re saying MYTH created these…hybrids? I highly doubt it.”
“Then you’d be mistaken. Let me show you.” He flipped a switch near the door, and the monitors along the wall flickered on.
“Five years ago, the MYTH installation on Banos Prime discovered an interesting element in the soil. It had strange properties, ones that held promise in the medical industry. MYTH sent a research team to investigate and work with the element. Myka’s parents, both MYTH doctors, headed up the project.” He paused and adjusted one of the monitors to display an image of utter destruction. What looked to be some sort of building lay in pieces around a crater. Bodies lay everywhere, along with chunks of machinery.
“Two years into the project, there was an explosion. Many of the MYTH staff were killed or injured, and Myka was caught in the worst of the blast. His parents knew MYTH was developing advanced cybernetic implants in secret in another facility, against all regulations. They proposed an exchange. Use the new implants to save their son and the others injured, and in return, get a real-world test case.”
Renna opened her mouth to protest, but the doctor held up a hand. “Let me finish. MYTH granted approval for the Aldanis to try out the implants, but there was an interesting wrinkle. Myka had been downwind of the mine when it exploded and cast the experimental element into the air. He was exposed for several hours before they could rescue him. Thee others, both MYTH agents and civilians, who were injured in a different area of the mine weren’t exposed.”
He pressed another button, this time bringing up an image of a lab full of bodies on tables. Some were obviously dead, bleeding out of wounds too horrific to fix. Others had the same sort of robotic hands and eyes and legs she’d seen on the mercs back on Banos Prime.
“The child was the only one who survived the experiment. The other human bodies rejected the implants, killing their hosts in days or weeks. But Myka…his body embraced them. Integrated with them until it was impossible to find where the boy left off and the machine began.”
“I don’t understand.” Renna’s head throbbed like her brain wanted to ooze out her ears. She forced her eyes to stay focused on the doctor. “Are you saying Myka was the first hybrid?”
Navang nodded. “Myka’s parents were already familiar with the work Aldani and I had done on an anti-rejection drug. After seeing Myka’s miraculous recovery, his parents hypothesized that the new element they’d found in the destroyed mine had been the missing key. They developed a new formula and tested their theory on other accident victims. Each one was given a cybernetic implant and put on the drugs. Sixty-five percent of the cases were successful. But Myka was the most important because his implants truly became a part of him. They changed him, and he changed them.”
“So where do you come in?” she asked.
“I was part of their team in a consultant capacity. MYTH asked me to step in when the Aldanis were killed.”
She shook her head. “Why you? David Aldani seems like a better choice.”
“He wasn’t given the opportunity. MYTH was afraid his emotions would cloud his judgment, and you must be impartial when running these kinds of experiments.” Navang’s lips curved into a smile. “Besides, they needed the best. Aldani is a washed-up has-been.”