Cyborg Nation by Kaitlyn O'Connor (english readers TXT) 📗

two paces across and three back. When he reached his cot, he threw himself down on it. “They took her to the med center. They will have treated her,” he said finally.

“Why did you argue with her that last day? What did you argue about?” Jerico demanded from his cell on the other side of Gabriel’s.

Gideon swallowed against a hard knot that felt like a fist in his throat. “I was angry and she became angry. I do not recall why.”

“You can not have forgotten unless your memory chip was damaged in the crash,” Jerico snarled angrily.

“It will do us no good if we are at each other’s throats,” Gideon growled. “We are already accused of a complete lack of discipline!”

“This is worse than being confined on the damned ship for months on end!” Jerico said irritably.

“Aye, else I would have knocked your teeth down your throat long before now,” Gideon snapped.

“You may have tried!”

“What I do not understand is why she has not tried to come to see us,” Gabriel put in. “She must still be angry with you.”

Gideon sat up abruptly, dropping his feet over the side of his cot and caught his head in his hands. “I accused of her of being in breach because she would not say what she thought was wrong and she said that I should break the contract.”

Neither Jerico nor Gabriel spoke for several moments.

“She did not mention that she would break with me and Jerico, though, did she?” Gabriel asked.

Gideon dropped his hands and slid a narrow eyed glare at Gabriel in the cell across from him. “Gabriel, I will strangle you with my bare hands....” He broke off abruptly. “It would not matter what she had said if that twice damned tablet had not broken! Now she is angry and we do not have the contracts!”

“I do not believe they tried to recapture the missing data!” Jerico put in, instantly diverted by his anger over that matter. “I would not put it past them to have tampered with the tablet and destroyed the documents before we could record them with the hall of records! They took one look at our beautiful Bronte and decided that she would suit them!”

“They will guard her.”

“But not for us. They will guard her from us!” Gideon growled.

A prolonged silence fell. “I miss cuddling with her,” Gabriel said morosely. “I had not thought I liked it that much but now I can not think of much else when I try to sleep. It is like something is gone that should be there.”

Gideon shot from his cot and began to pace again.

“Do not start that again, Gabriel!” Jerico snarled. “Or I will help Gideon throttle you when we get out of here!”

“They will not allow her to come,” Gideon said finally.

“Why would they not?” Gabriel demanded indignantly.

“Because we have claimed and we have no proof,” Gideon retorted tiredly, returning to his cot and settling on it again.

“If you are right, and it is not that Bronte does not want to see us, then mayhap we can convince her to sign with us again when we get out,” Gabriel said hopefully.

Gideon dropped an arm across his eyes. “Mayhap—if we have not already lost her before they allow us to leave.”

* * * *

It was all very well to tell herself that she must be calm, cool, and collected when she finally got her chance to speak for her men. It was another matter entirely to spend the better part of two weeks agonizing over the situation and the disaster she’d be facing if she failed and then still be calm.

She thought she might have handled it better if they hadn’t brought Gideon and Gabriel and Jerico into the chamber wearing prison uniforms and manacles. Seeing them at all was enough to throw her completely off kilter, but to see them like that, as if they’d already been convicted of what they’d been accused of, made her long to leap from her seat and rush from the room to cry her eyes out.

Because she could not cry in front of the investigating committee, she told herself angrily.

By the time she had regained her self-control enough to venture a peek at them, all three had been seated and were staring stonily at the men presiding over the hearing.

Caleb, seated beside her, divided a look between her and the men. She refused to meet his gaze when she felt him studying her, but she knew what was running through his mind. He thought she wouldn’t look at them because she was afraid of them, not because she was afraid she would ruin everything.

She was afraid the men sitting in judgment on them would think the same thing, but at least they would still doubt.

Maybe if she leapt to her feet and ran to embrace them, she thought a little wildly? Wouldn’t that prove she wasn’t afraid of them? And if she wasn’t, then nothing they’d thought could be true?

Or would they just think she’d lost her mind?

She calmed somewhat when they began by asking her questions about the crash. She’d thought through everything, over and over, carefully piecing her memories together until she was certain she could answer all of their questions without getting rattled. She had decided, after Caleb’s nasty remark, that she would be very careful to tell the absolute truth in every instance.

Unless things seemed to be going badly and then she would lie through her teeth and tell them whatever sounded good.

There were three men sitting on the committee—the three highest ranking of the entire colony according to Caleb—who’d been kind enough to point out that this was the one and only opportunity to settle the matter, one way or another. They looked hard, and cold, and completely uncompromising.

She had a bad feeling that being human wasn’t going to make points with them.

It was first time since she’d arrived that she’d felt completely alien. The fact that they were all cyborgs had never been far from