Heart of Steel Read Online Free PDF Page B

let this prevent him from being a gracious host. He would repair Jim and make him better than he ever was before—better than nature could achieve by itself—and then Julia would be happy and... and...
    ...and Mechanus would not have her. She would be with her handsome fiancé, and they would be happy together, leaving Mechanus himself alone.
    He sank down into a chair, now troubled by the expression that had crossed her face when she looked upon him for the first time. She’d been staring at him—staring at his face in... horror? Yes. She found him horrifying, and he suspected he knew why.
    He reached up and touched the metal plates on the left half of his face. What had happened to his face? It seemed things had always been this way. He could almost remember—but as he reached out for the memory it danced away, agonizingly close but still just out of reach. He had a brief flash of heat and agony, and someone—two people, he thought, a man and a woman—screaming, but then it was gone. He’d had the plates in his face for as long as he could remember, just like the other limbs and the metal plates that covered the lower two-thirds of his torso. The scars, too, come to think of it. So many scars...
    He sighed. He had so many plans—after all, Earth wouldn’t be conquered in a day—but now all
    he wanted was to see her smile. She was the first real human company he’d had in ten years, the first companionship that he hadn’t made with his own two hands. He hadn’t known how much he’d craved another human being until he’d laid eyes on her. It was a palpable physical ache originating in the region of his cardiac pump, caused as much by her presence as by the certainty that right now she wasn’t happy.
    He would have to set a few things aside for now, but he was determined now to make her happy. He would fix her fiancé with all the skills he had available, and make him the perfect companion for her. Then she would stay, and be a light in his life as he set about with his other plans. Then when he was the world-emperor, he would quietly eliminate his rival, and marry her, and everything would be perfect. She would learn that he was no monster to be feared.
    He had another flash then, an impression of—
    — a beautiful blonde woman brushes his cheek with her fingertips, followed by a gentle pressure on his lips—a soft kiss. He sees more this time—they are standing together in the shelter of a gazebo, while red and gold maple leaves swirl around them. She wears a close-fitting tee-shirt, black with a diagram of a caffeine molecule stretched gently across her breasts—he knows this is so, but she is too close for him to see it, wrapped in his arms while she twines her fingers through his hair—
    He grasped desperately at the details, trying to tease out more information, but when he tried the vision started to dissolve.
    “No,” he whispered urgently. “No no no please no—”
    But it was gone, and he stood alone in the corridor. What the deuce was going on? Was his
    fractured mind starting to break entirely? And who was this blonde woman? He was certain that he’d known her, loved her, wanted to marry her, but...
                         “Sir?” Arthur’s voice came with a certain degree of calm concern.
                         “Yes, Arthur?”
                         “Miss Julia is back in her room. Are you all right, sir?”
                         “Yes,” Mechanus said, “I’m... I’m fine. I got lost in my thoughts for a bit there.” He shook his head, scattering the last few shards of the mystery woman, and then stood, focusing his mind on the task at hand.
    Limb replacement was child’s play to him, but replacing an entire lower half would be more of a challenge—and a delightful one at that. He had detailed files about the particulars, collected from his work on himself. He would need to reinforce the spine, wire