He hugged her tighter. “I’m just glad it wasn’t you sending out signals.”

“I’d never do that.”

“Ice? The enemy shuttle adjusted course for the bots and is not following us,” the male in control stated.

“Disaster averted.” Megan blew out her breath. “I bitched about being bored but I could have totally done without that bit of excitement today.”

Ice chuckled. “I wasn’t bored once I reached my quarters.”

She grinned up at him. “Me neither.”

“I’m returning to my room now.” Onyx sighed. “I was sleeping and I wish to finish my rest cycle.”

Chapter Nine

“Megan? Wake up now.”

The urgency in Ice’s voice broke through her sleeping haze and Megan forced her eyes open. She frowned at Ice, bent low over her. Alarm spread through her as she saw the look on his face.

“The council?”

He shook his head. “That shuttle picked up the bots and is now attempting to follow us. Do you know why they would do that? We returned their bots.”

She sat up and rubbed her eyes. “No clue.”

“They may be coming after us to retrieve you next.”

She shook her head, dropping her hands to her lap. “I’m not worth the cost or time.

Programmers are easy to replace.”

“They are attempting to follow us, Megan. You are the only reason that is logical.”

He paused. “They are sending out a coded message and we think they are sending it to you.”

“Me? Why?” She frowned.

“I don’t know. Get dressed. We’re going to Control.”

She nodded and when Ice moved back, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

Ice held out clothing for her and she dressed quickly. She was confused and alarmed.

She could think of no reason for the retrieval team to come after her. It just didn’t make sense. It wasn’t cost effective and her company believed in making money, not wasting it.

Minutes later they entered the control center—the large shuttle’s navigational room.

Two cyborgs were at the control panel and both males stared openly at her bare legs.

She ignored them, keeping her attention on Ice as he pulled her to a terminal.

“What is your code to access incoming signals? Don’t respond but access the message.”

She stared at the screen and then reached for the control pad, typing in her employee code in full view of Ice. “Okay.”

The screen suddenly filled with a tan face and Megan gasped in utter shock.

“Miss Bellus, this is Markus Four-Ten. Please respond to our signal. This is urgent.”

“Shit,” Megan muttered.

“You know this human?” Ice leaned in closer, staring at the face on the screen.

“It’s not human.” Megan hesitated, stunned and disturbed at the same time. “That’s a defense model.”

She met Ice’s confused gaze. “Defense model?”

“You’ve met the female sex bots. Meet one of the latest male defense models that my company created. It’s a Markus Model, number four hundred ten. They look real unless you saw two of them standing next to each other. They used one mold to form them so they are identical in appearance. The female sex bots have more molds so they have a few different faces, body types, and sizes.”

“What the hell is it?” Onyx approached and frowned at the screen.

She turned in the chair. “It’s a hybrid of cutting-edge medical technology meeting up with robotics, kind of. Their minds are cloned human brains with a new artificial growth material that is constantly regenerating along with their exterior skin. Their programming is completely different though from other bots because they don’t have many circuits or memory chips, more organic than machine. You could bomb their bodies and only damage the exterior skin but not the bot interior. Their bones are a classified metallic substance and their internal systems are shielded with that stuff as well. I heard all their organic materials are that special rejuvenating substance. I worked on their programming extensively before I took the job on Folion but jumped at the chance when I got the better offer.” She paused. “They scared me.”

“Why are they trying to contact you?” Ice touched her, staring into her eyes.

“I have no idea.”

Ice gripped her neck and she kept her gaze locked with his. “I have no idea, Ice. I swear. I’m not lying to you. They got the bots back so they should have been ordered to return to Barcarintellus, mission accomplished.”

He released her. “She’s not lying.”

Onyx cursed. “So if you worked on their program, what exactly are they designed to do?”

“Security, retrievals, anything the company wanted that they didn’t trust humans to do.” She shrugged. “They are programmed extensively with weapons use, fighting skills, and have artificial learning capabilities but I have no idea what the hell they are doing out in space on a shuttle. They were still in testing mode when I left for Folion and they weren’t expected to go fully online for at least a year. They had some serious kinks in their programming so it wasn’t even a certainty that they’d ever be used.”

Ice crouched next to her. “What kind of serious kinks?”

“They are advanced, more so than any of the other bots that Barcarintellus built. I heard the company had an issue with espionage over these models, you know?

Someone on the inside selling information to competitors, they were that hush-hush and advanced. Cutting-edge technology at its best. The sex bots are a big profit for the company and they had wanted the defense models to be state-of-the-art too but hell, they made them too damn good. There were rumors that they used too much organic material. Their brains are too humanlike to be considered stable and reliable for programming. They were learning things too quickly, changing their own programming, and it was impossible to reprogram them with the humanoid structured brains they were given.”

“What do you mean?” Ice leaned closer.

“They wanted them really smart so they could actually think the way a real human would and catch dishonest employees. There were even rumors that they wanted them to take over a lot of the jobs us programmers had. Bots monitoring bots. It’s a damn stupid concept if you ask me but that’s what people were whispering about in the designing departments. Some employees quit and they were the ones who brainstormed the Markus Models.”

“What kinks did they have?” Onyx leaned in, staring at the screen. “I never would have guessed that face wasn’t human. The eyes look too real.”

“It’s the organic materials. They are real human, cloned eyes created in a laboratory.

They learn too fast,” Megan said softly. “Some of them had human trainers they ended up killing. The defense models switched themselves from learning mode into taking the learning exercises as a real threat when bruises formed on their skin. Then when the trainers attempted to shut them down after the incident, the models really thought their lives were in danger. The company had to fry the models to stop them when they attempted to escape the testing areas. After that they disabled their motor functions so we could work on their core programming to make sure it didn’t happen again. I’m telling you right now I didn’t want to work with them on that job anymore. They couldn’t move from the neck down, could only speak, but they argued with me.

Sometimes I swear I had nightmares about how they’d get around the shutdown system in their necks that made the area below inaccessible.” She swallowed. “I’m talking real arguments on everything I tried to teach them as though I were talking with a real person. They thought I was pretty damn stupid.”

Onyx snorted. “You had to be compared to a computer.”

“I’m talking about moral issues.” She shot him a dirty look. “I’m not a genius and would never argue with a computer on certain subjects but we were attempting to teach them basic ground rules that would stick, like how murder is wrong. All bots have that basic programming so they don’t kill humans. The defense models would twist that information we fed them around to suit their own needs. Without basic building blocks they were totally unstable. Everyone thought the problem was the organic material but the company wouldn’t listen. They wanted them to be able to think human so they made them as close as they possibly could.”

“You’re sure that’s the same model?” Ice frowned.

“The Markus Models are distinctive and they are the only ones with that face.”

“Maybe they are male sex bots,” Onyx guessed.

“Nope. I’ve programmed those as well and they have different faces. I’m telling you those are the defense models, the Markus line, and they are unstable as hell unless they totally wiped out the organic brains and replaced them with something less advanced.”

“I was kidding.” Onyx frowned. “They have male sex bots?”

“They are only popular on Earth.” Megan shrugged. “The female bots are quite a bit more popular for deep space since women aren’t too common out here.”

Ice stood. “Can we have her answer it and hide where our signal is coming from?”

The cyborg at navigation hesitated. “Possibly but they will get a general idea of what direction we’re coming from.”

Ice stared at Megan. “Find out what they want but do it quickly. If you can stop them from hunting for us that would be ideal.”

“You trust her?” Onyx stood as well, glaring at Ice. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Ice glanced at Megan and then stared intently at his friend. “I trust Megan enough to do this. She doesn’t want us caught. I fully believe that.”

Raising both hands, Onyx backed up. “Fine. We’re already in deep shit so what is more?”

“Do it, Megan. Find out why they are searching for us and stop them if you are able to. Just keep communications short.”

“Ready,” the cyborg at the navigational seat said softly. “Under two minutes or they are going to home in on our signal. I’m bouncing it off a few natural satellites on nearby planets.”

“Understood.” Megan took a deep breath and her fingers flew over the keyboard to open a channel. In seconds she knew she’d contacted the other ship when the feed came alive.

“Miss Bellus?” The Markus Model tilted his head.

“What do you want? Why are you searching for me?”

He paused. “You are with our targets. State target location so we may retrieve them.”

“You have the bots.”

“The bots were our primary target but our secondary target is the ship you are currently on. State location please.”

“What is your secondary target?”

“Cyborg males.”

Ice cursed loudly.

The color drained from Megan’s face. “Why? How did you know about them?”

“We downloaded the female bots information,” the Markus Model stated. “We want the male cyborgs.”

“Why?” Megan tensed, afraid. “Have you reported their existence to Earth? It is against Barcarintellus policy to share any client information. They are clients.”

“Confirmed,” the male stated. “We did not breach confidentiality.”

Megan hit the mute button to hide what she said and lifted her hand to cover her mouth. “They can read lips and he’s stating they didn’t turn you in. I have no idea why the company wants you.”

“Ask,” Ice demanded.

Megan dropped her hand and hit the on button for the microphone. “Why do you want the cyborg males? What does the company want with them? What are your direct orders concerning the cyborg males? Authorization beta-one-four-four-six.”