Chapter 20

Luke hated techs.

Worse than he hated doctors. Because the techs didn’t think anything they did caused pain. It did. More than they could imagine.

And while letting this Novian programmer mess with his brain went against everything he knew about what should or should not be done, what choice did he have? He already felt bizarre in the black skin-tight suit she’d made him put on to cover his parts while she worked.

Dumol was going to use him whether he was up for it or not.

The assassination program was on sleep mode now, but ready to be released if she felt it was necessary for him to fulfill the plan. He couldn’t see all the details in this mode, but he knew, from past experience, all Dumol had to do was wake the program, and it would go on a kind of standby until the opportunity came about.

Then he’d kill, yet again, for someone else.

He was done being other people’s puppet.

He glanced at Morrigan—Mori, this gal had called her—she lay on the nearby bed, dozing off.

Looking like an angel sent from heaven.

Far better than he deserved. He knew he shouldn’t get to be happy. He’d torn apart too many other lives to be given that luxury. He’d walked into The Colony, not expecting to live.

He’d had no reason to.

At least until now.

“How are you doing? Any incoming control signals?”

“Not that I’ve felt yet,” he said. He’d had to tell her how they came in first like pains before they engaged.

“Good.”

A green light passed over the side of his head, flashing in his eye. “Hey. I do have to see.”

And live.

He had to live...

“You have a HUD in your head,” Ula said, unbothered by his comment.

“Yes.”

“Do you use it?” she asked.

“No.”

“You can connect with all the systems in The Colony. You could know who everyone was that walked by at any given time. Like everything that’s in the systems. About everyone.”

Just thinking about it gave him a headache. “So?”

“You would know everything,” Ula said, her eyes sparkling again.

“I can’t access it. Has to be engaged remotely.”

She ran something over his ear and it buzzed. “Want me to turn it on for you?”

“Only if I can control it.”

She did a few more things, and he felt something, a nudge inside him. Not pain, but almost like triggered cervo had been triggered. He felt a surge through his body that a dormant system had kicked in.

“You’re on. Blink three times fast. That’ll bring the display up. Same to shut it down.”

He tested it.

Sure enough, there was the display, with data from his location, to what was on the other side of the walls, even people outside, walking by.

Felt like he was back at war.

He blinked three times again, shutting it down.

“How did it feel?” she asked.

“Controllable.”

Ula smiled. “I take it that’s good, right?”

He nodded. “Yeah.” A thought occurred to him. “Is there anything else?”

She nodded. “Yep. You’re only using about forty percent of what you can do. Evidently, your systems weren’t programmed so you could have autonomous control. If you did, you could be deadly.”

“I already am.”

“Well, there’s that,” she said and sighed. “Though I have a feeling you’re going to need all the systems you have to get through this mess. Want me to power you up?”

“As long as I can control what turns on and off.”

“Done.”