Late that afternoon

Nigel and Jet checked into their complementary suite that Melissa had arranged for them at the Roxy Hotel.

“I’ve never stayed anywhere this fancy before. Look at this tub!” Jet said.

“Do you want to take a bath?” Nigel asked.

“You mean together?”

Jet took a clump of Nigel’s hair with one hand and pulled his head into position.

“I’ve got you now,” Jet said as she kissed him.

Sometime later, Nigel awoke from a dreamless sleep. Since the shooting incident in Milford a couple of years ago, Nigel had been having constant nightmares about the various people who had tried to harm him. Hunter had scared him the most: the scar, the cold, calculating eyes, and that malevolent grin gave him the chills. When he slept with Jet those feeling went away. He shifted his gaze to the girl he had fallen for, and the woman he hoped he would spend the rest of his days with. The young lovers ordered room service and watched movies from their hotel room for the remainder of the evening.

Nigel shook off the feeling as the first rays of sunlight reflected off nearby windows. The city was waking up, and he would be ready for it.

An hour later, the room phone rang. Nigel was getting out of the shower and Jet was still asleep. Nigel answered the phone; it was Melissa.

“Are you ready?”

“For what?” Nigel said.

“To meet the twins, the cyborgs I told you about. They require some technical help, Nigel.”

“What’s wrong with them?”

“One cyborg was shot point-blank in the face. There was significant damage, and she’s still offline.”

“You said something about technical help. Is that repairing her?” Nigel asked.

Melissa was silent for a long moment.

“Has she healed . . . by herself?” Nigel continued.

“It appears that way, Nige. Her biology is advanced. I have a doctor coming, but he will need some technical help. I was hoping you could—help, I mean.”

Jet stirred as Nigel spoke.

“Who is that, Nige?” she asked.

“It’s Melissa,” he mouthed to Jet.

Nigel watched Jet lying in bed as he spoke. His eyes were drawn to the cleavage that had grown since he’d met her; a tingling sensation spread to various parts of his body. Jet smiled and gave him a tired smile, then made her way to the bathroom.

“We can be there in an hour, or perhaps a little later,” Nigel told Melissa.

“We will pick you up in an hour, don’t be late,” Melissa said as she disconnected the line.

About ninety minutes later, Nigel and Jet met Melissa in the lobby of the Roxy Hotel.

“We’re late. The doctor is already onsite,” Melissa said.

An enormous-looking bald man in a suit helped Nigel, Jet and Melissa into the large sedan then got into the driver’s seat.

“This is George. He is here for your safety,” Melissa said.

“Hello George,” Nigel said cheerily.

George responded with a grunt.

After an hour of driving in New York city traffic, the driver made it to a nondescript Brooklyn warehouse. Nigel and Jet followed Melissa inside. The warehouse was vast and occupied with various crates, boxes, and other containers. The afternoon sun glistened off the East River, and it was almost too bright to look at. The musty smell of rotting cardboard assaulted Nigel’s nose.

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Melissa’s driver whispered something in Melissa’s ear. Moments later, the man motioned for the group to follow. He led them through a maze of boxes, crates, and barrels that were stacked to form rows.

Where are we going? Nigel wondered. We must have walked several city blocks by now, but we are still in this warehouse? This place is massive.

The man stopped abruptly at a door in a wall as featureless as the warehouse; no windows or any other distinguishing features were apparent. They had painted the door the same color as the walls: a ruddy brownish-gray that camouflaged it.

“You may want to prepare yourself before we go in—it’s not a pretty sight,” the bald man said.

Jet gave Nigel a worried look and gripped his hand, but said nothing.

“I am prepared,” Melissa said.

Nigel nodded.

“Will your girl be okay?” the man asked. “She looks nervous.”

“She’ll be fine,” Nigel said in a tone that lacked confidence.

How bad can it be?

The bald man opened the door. Nigel thought he could hear whimpering, but he wasn’t sure. He followed the bald man, and Melissa followed behind.

Jet entered last. She took a few hesitant steps toward the center of the room. She seemed more uneasy now that she was inside. Bloodstains and drag marks were visible. It looked like an animal had gotten injured and dragged itself into the darkness.

Nigel tried looking into the blackness. He could see the faint glow of an illuminated desk lamp in the distance.

“Did you bring help?” a female voice said.

Nigel tried looking for the source of the voice, but a man was examining a woman who was lying on the ground while another woman—who looked like the first—held her close, staring down at the lifeless body.

Is she dead?

An older man with a salt-and-pepper beard looked up. “Good you’re here. Did you bring the hacker?”

Melissa motioned Nigel over.

“I’m going to wait here,” Jet said.

As Nigel approached, he looked at the girl, who was lying faceup. She was perhaps a year or two older than Nigel, was pretty, and had a blank stare. Half of her face was peeled away. Bone, metal, and caked blood could be seen. The other, similar-looking woman was still looking mournfully down at the fallen compatriot. There were slight differences between them, but Nigel could tell they were related.

“Are you here to help us?” the female cyborg said.

Nigel gave her a sorrowful look but said nothing. The female that was alive was in terrible shape. One of her eyes was missing, and he could see rope burns on her wrists. Her black leather outfit was ripped in several places. Nigel could see pale flesh and metal in areas around her waist where the outfit was ruptured.

“Yes, I’ll help if I can,” Nigel said without thinking about it.

“What I need is a reverse engineer. A hacker who can reverse engineer code would be perfect, but I’d settle for something less,” the old doctor said.

“Who are you?” Nigel asked.

“My name is Brody,” the doctor replied.

“Nigel Watson. And don’t worry, I have the skills you require.”

Nigel held out a hand, and Brody shook it with some reluctance.

“We need others, but with your experience with Delta, we thought you could also help in other ways. At least until we get more trusted advisors,” Melissa said.

“What happened to them?” Jet said as she approached the group.

“The dead one was shot point-blank with a special weapon,” Brody said.

“Special? In what way?” Nigel asked.

“A normal gun would have caused more physical damage. When a bullet hits bone, it shatters. More tissue damage would also be visible if it were a conventional weapon.”

“So you think they designed this weapon for cyborgs?”

“Yes, all the evidence supports that theory. There is a lot of damage to the underlying electronics in the head. But it affected other unseen areas. For example, the gunshot also affected some circuits in the torso area.”

“What kind of weapon is it then?” Nigel said.

“If I had to guess, I would say it was an EMP, but I don’t for sure.”

“I didn’t know it was possible to harness a full electromagnetic pulse into a gun,” Nigel said.

“Not a full pulse, but something strong enough to cause a great deal of localized damage. A full pulse would have wiped out all electronics in the area,” Brody said.

“Can we revive Meeka?” the cyborg said.

“Who’s Meeka?” Jet asked.

“Her sister,” Brody said, looking down at the fallen cyborg.

Brody placed a finger under the functioning cyborg’s chin. She looked up into his eyes. He continued examining her as if she were a piece of meat on display.

“What’s your name, sweetheart?” he asked.

The cyborg looked away for a moment before answering.

“My name is Treeka.”

“Treeka, would you be willing to submit to an examination?” Brody asked.

“What kind of examination?” Melissa said.

“A full-body examination. You said they assaulted her. Besides being a geneticist, I’m also a medical doctor. Here is a list of items I need to perform the examination,” Brody said as he handed a piece of paper to Melissa.

“Some items on the list require a proper medical lab, so I suggest we get an office that either has some of that equipment, or we build our own. To speed things along, I would recommend we rent space in an existing medical facility. Away from high-traffic areas like the entrance or near the building’s pharmacy,” Brody said.

“What do you need me to do?” Nigel said.

“We need to examine Treeka right away, because her programming may include a ‘phone home’ mechanism. This room is shielded, but we need to make sure whatever office we get is too.”

“That’s a lot of work to set up a new medical office. Are you sure we can’t examine her here?” Jet said.

“I can perform a basic examination, but I’ll need a proper lab to do any serious work.”

“You will have all of that. How long will it take to decode her programming?” Melissa asked.

“It depends how good of a hacker Nigel really is,” Brody said.

“He’s the best I’ve seen,” Melissa said.

“He practically brought down the Collective, a reclusive hacker group, all by himself,” Jet said.

Brody nodded. “Good, because everyone will need the best and brightest to solve this puzzle.”