Battleborn (The Weapon Book 1) by Richard Fox

Author:Richard Fox [Fox, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2024-05-21T00:00:00+00:00

Tivoli unplugged a data core from the back of Revenant Five’s ear. The Revenants were laid out on shaped foam mattresses in a vault. The heavy metal door was locked behind her as she double-checked the diagnostics read out from a slate. She looked up at a mirrored observation deck overhead, unsure if Schofield was up there or not.

She let out a slow breath and scooted her chair over to Kadish. She plugged the core into the small input buried beneath a skin slit and pulled as far back from Kadish as she could and began the diagnostics.

Tivoli touched the breast pocket of her lab coat and cursed when it was empty of cigarettes. She set the data core next to Kadish’s head and started toward the door.

“Hello,” Kadish said.

Tivoli let out a scream and fell to her knees. She scrambled to Revenant Ten’s gurney and hid behind it.

“I can hear you, but I can’t move,” Kadish said. “What’re you doing to me?”

Tivoli reached into a thigh pocket and gripped a kill switch.

“You so much as twitch wrong and I’ll end all of you,” she said, trying to sound as serious as she could while being terrified.

“I don’t think I could hurt you if I tried,” Kadish said.

“That’s…” Tivoli decided against elaborating any further, as the less Revenant Six knew about his programming, the less he could do to circumvent it.

In theory.

“What’re you experiencing right now?” Tivoli stood up and moved toward him slowly, one hand still jammed in a pocket.

“Memory flashes from the last mission. It’s like someone’s rummaging through my thoughts. I don’t like it,” Kadish said.

“It’s necessary. Sorry if it’s uncomfortable. Least there’s no pinch to deal with at the same time, right?” she turned the screen attached to the data core toward her and confirmed that he did have all his motor capabilities below the neck disabled.

“You’re a doctor,” Kadish said.

“M.D. neurologist,” Tivoli said. “Which is also a doctor, but I don’t want to be lumped in with all those chiropractor or homeopathy quacks. Nice to meet you, I’m Carol Tivoli.”

“I’m… Dead Man. You did this to me?” Kadish asked, his mouth barely able to move.

“Uh, which ‘this’ are you referring to?” she asked.

“Did you cover me with plastic skin and put metal in my muscles and bones?” he asked.

“No, no, everything about your body was done at the off-site. I’m the Imperative lead. The thing in your brain that makes you… do what the Imperative needs you to do,” she touched his forehead and waggled his head from side to side.

“Like a lobotomy?” he asked.

“No, that’d be in the forehead,” she tapped him there, then lifted her hand away. “Sorry.”

“Did you give the memories too? Are you the reason there’s… anything else to me?” Kadish asked.

“Memories are not a program requirement. So what you remember is all you. The Imperative… might inadvertently access more as it—does it really matter? I thought you soldier types would just ‘salute and execute.’ Or something like that.” She swiped to an ongoing brain scan.

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