The System Security team led Sandra and myself out of my apartment and down the hall to the lift.

“I can't believe we have to call for a crawler.” One of the men said.

“I don't know what happened here; but, if this guy only has to speak and the System AI responds, then I'm not questioning it.” Another man said and then chuckled. “That means this situation is way above my pay grade.”

“I hear that.” The deep baritone voice said and hit the button for the lift. “All that comes up when I query about him, is Jack.”

“Just Jack? No last name?” One of the men said as the lift arrived and Sandra and I were ushered into the elevator car.

“No name. No rank. No nothing.” The baritone voice said as he took up position by the panel.

“That would mean there is something.” I said absently.

“Excuse me?” He said and looked at me with squinted eyes.

“The phrase 'no nothing' is a double negative, which means they cancel each other out and implies that something is there.”

“What is he talking about?” One of the other men said as they all arranged themselves to guard me. “Doesn't everyone say 'no nothing' when something is missing?”

“Yeah, and it's wrong.” I said. “It's just like when they say it's a near miss.” I chuckled. “A near miss, unlike popular belief, means you actually hit something because you 'nearly missed' it.”

The guards were genuinely confused by the time the elevator door closed. We reached the surface and went out of the lobby wordlessly, and didn't have to wait long for a crawler. It was called a crawler, because unlike the customized rover I had rented to drive to my parent's vacation house at the falls, this one was twice as big and didn't have the more powerful engine or the spare battery backup.

“All aboard!” A computerized voice said as a cybernetic hand opened the door on this side of the vehicle. I helped Sandra climb in, using my normal hand of course, and she sat down where the cyborg directed her. I sat next to her, and the System Security personnel sat themselves at a respectable distance from us. Close enough to restrain us if they had to, and far enough away that they could react if their prisoners tried to attack or escape.

Because of it's size, the crawler actually had an AI assistant that guided it around the outside of the community square, and the actual driver poured on the speed after the manoeuvre and went back the way it came. He stayed in the crawler's designated area of operation, just because it was easier to do that than to take the chance that some random pedestrian might take the chance to test the driver and the AI's reflexes.

It wasn't that long of a drive to the closest System Security building, mainly because there really wasn't that big of a need for them and there was only one in each section. Of course, when you compare an hour drive in a large rover to the same ride that lasted only a few minutes in an underground Tube car, most people preferred the Tube. It honestly didn't matter to me.

“You know you didn't have to do this.” Sandra whispered. “I would have been fine in the Tube.”

“I wasn't taking the chance.” I whispered back and glanced down at our clasped hands. She had taken my hand as soon as we sat down, and I hadn't dissuaded her. I knew she needed something to hold on to because she was so nervous, and I could feel her shivering. “Of course, that could have been a better distraction than the one I made.”

“Wh-what?”

“They were ready to shoot us if we made a wrong move, like sneezing without permission.” I whispered. “Projectile vomiting might have made them think twice about shooting us.”

“H-how can you remain so calm?” Sandra asked. “We're being treated like criminals!”

“That's because we are.” I said, and she stared at me. “Conspiracy, Espionage, Spying... just to name a few.”

“But... but... but...”

“I know, it was just harmless talk between lovers, right?” I asked, and she nodded.

“Only, it wasn't harmless. Whatever it was you told him over these last two years was enough to compromise System Security and allow the infiltration of a rogue faction.” I said. “Assuming it was a rogue faction and not a different department of the higher-ups.”

Sandra took in a deep breath and let it out. “Jack, I... I'm so sorry.”

“You know, if you had just told me about this when it first started happening...”

“I couldn't.” Sandra said. “It was a part of the game to keep it a secret.” She thought about what she had just said and started to cry. “Oh, Jack! I was so stupid!”

I let her hand go and put my arm around her shoulders. Sandra leaned in close and rested her forehead against the side of my head and her tears dropped onto my unitard. I didn't correct her statement of fact, and she cried harder as the crawler arrived at the System Security building.

“Welcome to Club Security, where all your prisoner's needs are joyously met!”

“Geez, Frank.” The deep baritone voice said from behind us. “Do you have to say that every time?”

“I sure do.” Frank said and smiled. “It's just part of the door to door service!”

“You say it when we take the Tube, too.” One of the others said as he stood up and motioned for Sandra and I to follow him.

“It's my job.” Frank said as I helped Sandra stand up.

“Self-appointed job.” The deep baritone said, and Frank laughed.

“Hey, this might be the only levity these two are going to experience for a while.”

“You aren't supposed to tell them that.” One of the other men said.

“Like they don't know that.” Frank said and nodded to me, and I nodded back. I stepped out of the vehicle and reached back to help Sandra, and we crossed the short distance to the front door of the System Security building. I scanned my hand and it beeped as the door opened, and Sandra put her hand on the scanner. It didn't beep, and the System Security men put their hands on their laser pistols.

“Stupid scanners are always so finicky.” Sandra said and slapped the pad, then rested her hand completely flat against it. It beeped, and the men relaxed slightly. I led her inside, and none of the security team mentioned my odd walk or complained I was going a little too slow for normal walking. If they had, I would have told them I was having trouble with walking with one synthetic leg, despite the advanced interface that should have adjusted for it's use.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The System Security man at the front desk hit a button, and a loud buzz was heard as the first of our escorts stepped through the security gate. I let Sandra go next, since she wasn't hampered by synthetic parts, then in was my turn. I sighed as I stepped through, and felt a sharp pain on the side of my head.

“ARGH!” I yelled as I grabbed my head and turned away from the pain, then smashed my forehead against the side of the security gate. The dull thud sound of my skull hitting solid metal was loud in the silent lobby, and I fell to the floor with my face covered in blood.

“Oh, hell!” The deep baritone voice exclaimed. “Medic!”

“What happened?” One of the other men on the detail asked as a Medic ran over to tend to me.

“I don't know.” The man at the security desk said. “It's just a standard scanner.”

When the Medic saw my odd-looking synthetic parts and checked his HUD, he shook his head. “I can't touch this.”

“What? Why?”

“It doesn't say.” The Medic said. “All the Medical AI says is to wait.”

“You can't just stand there! He's bleeding all over the place!”

“I'm sorry.” The Medic said. “It's not worth losing my practising license to touch him.”

“Dammit, give him a piece of gauze or something!”

“I'm not allowed.” The Medic said. “Sorry, sir.”

“You are on report, soldier!”

“This isn't the military, and I'm not a soldier.” The Medic smiled. “Sir.”

“Goddammit!”

“I'm here!” A familiar voice yelled out when the door to the building opened, and Nurse Deloris ran over to the security station. “Give me room! Now!”

The security guys stepped back a single step, and Nurse Deloris stared daggers at them.

“Back off, or you'll be unconscious on the floor next to him.” Nurse Deloris said. “Now.”

The man with the deep baritone waved his hand, and the group spread out to a much farther distance. She nodded slightly and looked down at me as she opened the special medical kit she had brought.

“Jack, what happened?”

“IIIIII... donnnnnn't... knnnnnnow... whhhhhat... happennnnned.” I said in severely drawn out speech.

“Oh, no!” Nurse Deloris gasped. “Someone get me a portable maintenance kit! RIGHT NOW!”

The Medic jumped up and ran from the lobby as quickly as he could, and Nurse Deloris cleaned my face up from all of the blood. She found the source of the bleeding on my forehead and carefully examined it.

“It's not too bad.” Nurse Deloris said as she dabbed at the next spurt of blood, sprayed it with a topical anaesthetic, then used her immense skill to suture the wound closed. She put a bandage on it just in time, because the medic stumbled back into the lobby and almost threw the portable maintenance kit at her. She took it from him and set it up, and attached the leads to the jacks behind my ear. Right away it beeped a warning at her, without her even hitting the diagnostic button.

“We have to get him to General Medic right now!” Nurse Deloris said. “Medical emergency! I'm commandeering the vehicle outside!”

“Lady, you can't do that.” The man with the deep baritone voice said. “He's our prisoner.”

Nurse Deloris stood up and got right in is face. “He can't be your prisoner if he's dead, you ignorant fool!” She nearly shouted. “You can come along if you like; but I'm telling you, if he doesn't get into surgery soon, none of us are going to care if he's under arrest or not!”

“Fine, fine!” The man said and waved to the squad, and they picked me up.

“Sssssssstopppppp!” I said, and they looked at me. “Nnnnnnooo... Sssssssssssscannnnnerrrrrr.”

“Take him around!” The guy at the security desk said, and we went through a side door and came out the other side.

“Ssssssssannnnnndra.” I said.

“She's right behind us.” One of the men said. “There's no way we're breaking a directive from the System.”

I smiled as I closed my eyes, and they carefully loaded me back into the vehicle I had just left. I felt a soft hand touch mine, and I opened my eyes to look at Sandra.

“Jack...”

“Isssss... fiiiiinnnnne.” I managed to say, and then her image started to waver. “Blurrrrry.” I mumbled, then I lost consciousness.

I woke up in a hospital bed, and I felt well-rested. Everything was bright and sharp, very unlike the last image I had seen, and I wondered what the difference was. I called up my HUD, and the new highly responsive interface dazzled me.

“Wow.” I said out loud, and the curtain around my bed was immediately moved out of the way as a woman stepped around it.

“How do you feel?” Nurse Deloris asked me, and I smiled at her.

“I feel great!” I said and looked at my hands. My real one made a fist, and the other was a solid lump. I tried to initiate the startup protocols, and nothing happened. “Then again, my limbs aren't responding.”

“They're locked out for now.” Nurse Deloris said. “Can you tell me what you remember about what happened?”

“Sure.” I said. “I entered the System Security building, and when I tried to walk through the full body scanner that detects weapons, I had a severe headache, whacked my forehead on the side of it, then fell to the floor.”

“That matches the security footage.” Nurse Deloris said. “What was the last thing you saw?”

“A very blurry Sandra.” I said.

Sandra stepped around the curtain and came over to the bed.

“Hey, beautiful.” I said and held a hand out to her. Sandra glanced at the nurse, then back at me as she took the offered hand.

“How are you?” Sandra asked, her voice filled with concern.

“I'm fine, except for this dead weight.” I said and nodded at my immobile arm and leg. “How are you?”

“Tired.” Sandra said and fought off a yawn. “I've been here since you were brought in.” She said. “You were in surgery for-”

“There's no need for details yet.” The doctor said and cut her off. “How are you feeling?”

“I feel like I could kick your ass for interrupting my girlfriend.” I said.

The doctor had a worried look on his face for a moment, then he smiled. “I just saved your life.”

“I don't care.” I said. “Interrupt her like that again, and you'll find out how well I can balance on one foot and still beat the hell out of you with one hand.”

“Well, someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” The doctor joked, and no one laughed. He was never disconcerted that no one ever did, though. “Anyways, we had to pull a lot of your firmware and replace it, thanks to that outdated interface you had.” He said. “When the security scanner probed it for any unregistered modifications, it searched for everything and scrambled up the software that ran everything, then overwrote most of the main processor coding.” He smiled. “Which, as you know, will fry any hardware that isn't strictly regulated.”

I frowned and looked at Nurse Deloris, then back at the doctor. “I hope you didn't charge me for the procedure, or for the replacement parts.”

The doctor looked at me strangely for a moment. “Of course we charged you. Those were expensive parts.”

“It's your fault I still had my old interface, you quack!” I said right away, and let my anger show.

“Your old interface worked, and your brain was used to it already.” The doctor said. “At no point did we even suspect something like this could happen.”

“And that's my fault, isn't it?” I asked.

The doctor started to nod. “If you hadn't gotten arrested...”

My normal hand darted out and grabbed him by the collar and I pulled him in close. “If you had screened your personnel better, I wouldn't be here right now.” I spat in his face. “I'd still be living my normal life, with all my normal human parts, and I would have no clue that the woman I love could hurt me so much by betraying me so completely.”

The doctor's fear was palatable as he trembled, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Sandra tremble, too. I held the doctor for another moment, then let him go.

“I'm tired of being kept in the dark.” I said. “You will have a copy of all the files related to your research project delivered to me securely, and I will be the one to judge what is and what's not possible where I am concerned.”

The doctor just stood there and stared at me.

“I'll have an official requisition order sent to you, if you want.” I said. “You may leave.”

The doctor looked at the nurse and Sandra for a moment, then turned and left without a word.

“Damn, that was ballsy.” A woman's voice said, and I turned my head to where the next bed would be. The curtain pulled aside and the cyborg I had saved when I was hurt sat on the bed.

“Hi, Cali.” I said, and a smile spread across her face.

“So, you do remember me.” Cali said. Her long dark hair was still positioned to cover her cybernetic eye and ear.

“I saved your life.” I said and smiled. “Before you complain about it... yes, I know exactly how hard you must have hit the pavement when I tipped the gurney over.”

Cali chuckled. “Personal experience?”

“Unfortunately.” I said. “What are you doing here?”

“Upgrades.” Cali said and moved her hair aside to show me she had a more normal-looking eye.

“Please tell me they used my visual protocol updates.”

Cali nodded. “A cute little thing named Astra gave me the rundown.”

“Oh, no! You didn't say that to her face!” I gasped in exaggeration.

Cali laughed as she pointed to a red mark on her face in the shape of a small hand, and I laughed, too.