The Cyber Chronicles IV - Cyborg Read Online Free PDF Page A

Kole called them. It had a flashing
sign outside, and they had to walk from a parking lot down the
street. A beeping announced their arrival when the door slid open
ahead of them, and a pimply young man with pink hair, clad in a
shiny shirt, popped up from behind the counter. Tassin did not want
to know what he had been doing before they walked in. He smiled and
smoothed his hair.
    “ How can I help you?” he enquired.
    “ We’re looking for a cyber,” Kole said.
    “ Ah, well, you’ve come to the right place. We have just what
you’re looking for. There he is.” The youth gestured to his right,
and only then did Tassin notice the motionless cyber who stood
beside the far wall. He was clad in a grey vest and matching
trousers, standard cyber issue and exactly what Sabre had been
wearing when she had met him. His webbing was full of grenades and
power packs, and a laser-grenade launcher combo was clamped around
his right wrist. Once again, her throat closed with sorrow and her
heart ached as she approached him. He stared over her head, and, if
not for his imperceptible breaths, he might have been a statue. A
glance at his face told her he was a stranger, and she turned to
shake her head at Kole. He asked the youth if they could see the
other cybers, which seemed to puzzle the pimply boy. It must seem
odd to him, Tassin mused, since one cyber was as good as another to
these people. They probably could not even tell them apart, but she
could.
    The shop boy
showed them two cybers in the back room, packed in caskets, and
Tassin swung away after studying them for only a moment. As they
made their way back through the front of the shop, she turned to
the youth.
    “ Can’t you let him sit down, at least?”
    He gawked at
her. “Huh? Who?”
    “ The cyber.” She gestured to the motionless man.
    “ Him? Why?”
    “ How would you like to be forced to stand there all
day?”
    “ Uh, he’s a cyber, Miss. That’s kind of what they do, ye’know.
Sometimes we make him do a fighting stance, though.” He turned to
the cyber. “Hey, Cyber Seven, fighting stance!”
    The cyber
dropped into a semi crouch, raising his right arm, his left cocked.
The youth grinned. “See? Neat, huh?”
    Tassin glared
at the boy, sickened. “He’s a human being, not a damned
machine.”
    “ No he isn’t, he’s a cyber.”
    “ He has feelings! He must be in agony standing still all day,
and you shouldn’t make him do undignified things like that. It’s
not right!”
    The
pink-haired youth goggled at her. “You’re nuts, lady.”
    Kole gripped
her arm. “Hey, cool it. You’re wasting your breath. Come one, let’s
go.”
    Tassin allowed
him to tug her away, knowing that berating the youth was pointless.
Kole headed for the door, and they left the shop to return to the
air-car. The more she saw of this so-called modern society and its
cruelties, the less she liked it. The thought that such cruelties,
or worse, were being perpetrated on Sabre, and had been for the
past three years, horrified her. They inspected the two cybers at
the large corporation, then returned to Kole’s apartment. He had
given her his spare room to sleep in, a pleasant, airy space with
huge windows overlooking the city and the comfiest bed she had ever
slept in. She had discovered the joy of a hot shower and scented
soap and lotions, and the delights of the sweet foods Kole served
at mealtimes. He had explained computers and air-cars and many of
the other strange mechanical devices the night before, and she
understood most of it. The fact that she was no closer to finding
Sabre, however, depressed her.
     
    ****
     
    The following
afternoon, Tassin disembarked from Kole’s air-car for what seemed
like the twentieth time, by now used to this form of high-speed
transport. They were in a rundown part of the city, where old
warehouses with peeling paint predominated, surrounded by parking
lots, some stacked with old boxes and containers. Kole had taken a
picture of