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

to see the scars from his battle with
the Core or the crack in his brow band. Vorn and Kole rounded the corner of
the building behind her, and Kole trotted to catch up with
her.
    “ Hey, what are you doing? You’re making these guys nervous, and
that’s not a good idea.”
    “ It’s him.”
    “ Who?”
    The cyber turned his head towards Tassin as she approached. He
wore standard issue grey combat clothes, a holstered laser strapped
to each thigh, power packs and grenades in his webbing. Two
black-edged holes in his vest seeped blood. Her heart ached as she
stopped in front of him and gazed up at his face. He stared over
her head with pale grey
eyes , and she
studied his lean visage with its sculpted lines, level brows,
narrow nose and sensitive mouth. Sweat and dirt made his dark blond
hair spikey. Somehow, he was unique in a way only her heart seemed
to know.
    “ Sabre,” she whispered, and several lights on his brow band
flashed.
    “ This is him?” Kole stopped beside her, eyeing the
cyber.
    “ Yes.” She nodded jerkily, raising a hand to her mouth as it
twisted with grief and her eyes overflowed.
    “ How do you know?”
    She took a
deep breath and blinked, brushing away the tears that escaped down
her cheeks. “I just do. It’s Sabre.”
    He glanced
back. “Okay, well I don’t know how happy these guys are with us
right now. They’re definitely smugglers, and we’re butting into
their operation big time.”
    “ We just want to buy a cyber.”
    “ Like he said, they’re not for sale.”
    “ Everything’s for sale at the right price.”
    “ Let’s hope so.”
    She stepped
closer and reached out, longing to touch him.
    Sabre said,
“You are not authorised to approach.”
    Tassin’s
throat closed again at the sound of his soft, husky voice, and she
gulped.
    Kole gripped
her arm and pulled her away. “Are you nuts? You can’t go around
patting cybers. They’re not pets, they’re dangerous. Come
away.”
    Tassin let him
lead her away, looking around for the bald man, who was deep in a
discussion with the two newcomers. One stepped away from the huddle
and turned to the shuttle to shout, “Cybers! Offload!”
    Sabre entered the craft and re-emerged a minute later with a
box and headed for the warehouse. The other cyber did the same, and
Tassin followed them towards the group of smugglers, Kole beside
her. Vorn turned to
them as they approached.
    Kole gave him
a cheerful nod. “Well, we found the one we want.”
    “ Have you now?”
    “ Yes; the one with the two wounds on his chest. Name your
price.”
    Tassin gazed
past them at the doorway through which Sabre had vanished, wishing
he would come back. The other cyber strode out and went back to the
shuttle to fetch another box. Faint scrapes and thuds came from the
warehouse’s gloomy depths, as if Sabre packed crates or moved
boxes, and she was drawn to the sounds. She needed to see him
again, desperately, to assure herself that he was not just a dream
of a figment of her imagination. Having found him after all this
time, she could not bear to let him out of her sight for another
moment. She headed for the door.
    Behind her,
the Vorn said, “Hey, you can’t go in there.”
    Tassin walked
down one of the untidy aisles between the crates. Towards the back
of the building the illumination increased, overhead lights casting
a harsh glare. As she rounded a stack of crates, her breath caught.
Sabre moved a pile of boxes from one side of the warehouse to the
other, his golden skin gleaming in the lights. Her vision blurred
as fresh tears seeped into her eyes. Swallowing hard, she stopped a
pace away and gazed at him, her heart aching with profound joy. She
had found him. It seemed as if she had dreamt of this day for an
eternity, perhaps because she had spent so much time lost in
impossible imaginings that she had not thought would come true. Now
he was right there, within reach, and she longed to touch him.
    The cyber
crossed the warehouse, picked