Kingston 691: Book Two of Cyborgs: Mankind Redefined Read Online Free PDF

didn’t complain again because there was really no other choice but let Peyton and the rest of his old team help him free his former wife.

Chapter 3
     
    Nero scratched his head as he walked back into the lab. It was late and he should be home sleeping, but Eric hadn’t left the facility in three days. The man would shut down for short periods of time right in the chair, then pop back up a short while later and start work where he left off, as if he’d had a full night’s rest.
    Nero shook his head, yawned and stretched, while envying how alert the cyborg managed to stay. “How did you get around the satellite security to redirect its lens?”
    Eric laughed. “Easy. I didn’t get around anything. Since I didn’t know how long the search would take, I looked for a more legit tactic. So I’m pretending to be a new com station. I paid their yearly fee from money King gave me, got the control coordinates to manipulate the satellite, and now I can point its most excellent high-powered camera anywhere I want on earth. I can even point it into the work camps and watch who comes and goes. The problem is I can only do one damn camp at a time. It’s taking forever to check them.”
    Nero stared, fascinated by the man’s cleverness. “Can’t you record instead of watching? Seems like it would be less taxing and we could enlist some help reviewing the records.”
    Eric shook his head. “No. Just the opposite. I’m pretending to broadcast which means I have to keep sending the bogus signal constantly. If I stop sending it, their monitoring service might suspect I’m not exactly what I say I am.”
    “I see. How many camps have you watched in three days?” Nero asked, amazed by the man’s focused dedication to the task.
    “I’ve watched six of the sixteen so far. Not many. I’ve been hoping to get lucky. Five were in the mountains, all mining camps. Bots went in and out of dark holes in the ground. Very boring. This afternoon I’ve moved to the jungle for a change of scenery. This camp digs for gold. It should be much more exciting to watch them go in and out of holes in the ground surrounded by jungle plants.”
    Nero snorted at the self-effacing humor. “This camp must be deep in the jungle. Most of the gold was mined out of the earth by the end of the twentieth. I’m afraid mining for gold there is nothing but a waste of time and AI units.”
    Eric blinked, zoomed in, and turned his head to grin at the skeptical scientist. “Or this camp could have the very gold we’ve been looking for. Does that look like a human female to you? She’s awfully skinny—almost looks like a man to me.”
    Nero stared at the screen. “Whoever it is has a hefty escort. There’s a cyborg walking behind the AI bot.”
    “Really?” Eric adjusted the zoom on the satellite, moving in for a closer shot. “This is as good a feed as I can get. Can we do face recognition on this com?”
    “Absolutely.” Nero swung to his com and pulled up the photo Kingston West had given them of him and Seetha. He typed a few commands to send it along to Eric. “Just pull it up and put it in the top right corner of the screen.”
    They both watched as the photo landed in place.
    “Now highlight her face and drag over it. Then drop the cropped photo of her face on top of your video. The system will do the checking for you. We use the feature to identify rogue cyborgs.”
    “Rogue cyborgs…right. Bet that’s got you working your ass off these days,” Eric declared, smiling when he heard the scientist tiredly chuckle.
    “Yes. I’m up to my neck in rogue cyborgs and the bastards never fucking sleep. They make me look bad when I have to crash once in a while.”
    Laughing at Nero’s reply, Eric dropped a copy of the woman’s face over his video feed. “Now look at my satellite, sweetie. I need to see that pretty face of yours.”
    Another five minutes went by as they watched her walk toward a building. If she went inside, they’d lose her