Heart of Steel by Elizabeth Einspanier

Author:Elizabeth Einspanier [Einspanier, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2015-02-17T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter

TEN

Julia was almost certain her heart had stopped when she saw the huge shape lumbering towards the two of them. That it turned out to be Scarface the shark-man was not, in her book, much of an improvement over Homicidal Cyborg Ex, not even when he spoke to Mechanus.

“Master... okay?” he gurgled.

“Yes,” Mechanus replied, maneuvering himself deftly between Julia and Scarface, “Master is relatively uninjured—see?”

Julia didn’t think it was as obvious as Mechanus tried to make it sound, considering his lab coat was torn and his face and one sleeve were smeared with blood, but decided that now was not the appropriate time to point out blood to the shark-monster.

Scarface regarded Mechanus for a few seconds, and then gathered the mad scientist into a bear hug. Mechanus grunted at the impact, and then patted Scarface on one beefy shoulder. It was weirdly touch-

ing to see such a gesture of affection from a shark, but she’d heard of lions and tigers who still remembered people from rescue centers, so it made a very weird sort of sense.

Then he released Mechanus and looked at Julia, who had a sudden, terrifying mental picture of Scarface trying to hug her as well, and she put her hands up in a warding gesture.

“I’m fine!” she squeaked. “No need for hugging, thanks! I, uh... Thank you for your concern!” It wasn’t the most coherent she’d been since coming here, she had to admit, but Scarface nodded his understanding and patted her gently on the head with one leathery hand.

That was close.

“Scarface,” Mechanus said, “Have you seen Jim recently?”

Scarface nodded and pointed with one webbed hand. “Back that way, headed here. Looks pissed. Caught Anubis.”

Anubis... Julia remembered that was the jackal-man who had brought her and the horse-ape back to her room before all this went down.

Mechanus let out a small groan of dismay. “Is Anubis okay? Did he manage to get away?”

Scarface shrugged. “Didn’t see. Still fighting.”

Mechanus sighed, his face clouded with concern. “Well, there’s nothing we can do for it, I suppose. Are you aware that Arthur’s...?” His face twisted and he fell silent. Julia reached out and squeezed his arm.

Scarface tilted his head and considered this at length, and then nodded. “Not hear him lately. Bad man get him?”

“I... hope not. Julia and I were just about to see if we could find him. Perhaps he was merely deactivat-

ed rather than... deleted.” His tone when he said deleted made the word sound a lot like dead. He took a deep breath and straightened up a bit. “Fortunately,” he said, his voice sounding steadier, “Arthur is quite clever. I’m certain he managed to get away to one of the auxiliary storage facilities.”

Scarface nodded readily, but Julia thought Mechanus was just trying to convince himself. She’d seen that a lot at the E.R.—people who were convinced the doctors could try one more thing to save their loved ones, or that a D.O.A. patient was just a case of mistaken identity. After all, doctors were miracle workers. Doctors had amazing powers to bring people back from the brink of death.

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