Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Just where do you think you’re going with that couch?”
Eve’s frantic voice echoed through the bunker. Audra and David stopped chopping vegetables for dinner and hurried to see what the ruckus was about.
Adam and Gage each held a couch from one of the many sitting areas above their heads, carrying them through the bunker toward the door like they weighed nothing. Adam swung around to answer Eve, nearly colliding with Gage’s couch, and both men laughed like it was some comedy routine.
“Adam, what is going on?” Eve plunked her hands on her hips. “Are you drunk?”
Adam snorted. “I’m a cyborg, darlin’. The only thing that intoxicates me is you.”
“Hawks is scheduled for a live press conference in twenty. Operation THOT is about to commence.” Gage beamed like he was announcing the winner of the Super Bowl. “Audra, bring that sweet ass up to the lab. This is going to be the best show around.”
“Somebody get Luann.” Adam headed out the door, shouting over his shoulder. “And David, we need gametime snacks!”
The door shut behind them to thunderous silence. Eve, David, and Audra stared at each other for a shocked moment, not believing this day had actually arrived. A few unbelieving blinks between them, and then they burst into a flurry of activity.
“Luann’s up top. I’ll get her. And the beer.” Eve sprinted toward the door with Apollo at her heels.
Audra and David raced to the kitchen. David pointed toward the pantry. “You get the snacks, I’ll finish putting the roast in the slow cooker.”
“Thank god, I might cut off my own fingers if I had to handle a knife right now.” Audra’s heart hammered in her chest and energy zinged along her nerves.
This was nothing like the moments of abject fear she’d experienced over the past couple of months.
She hadn’t been this excited since… well, since she’d asked Gage to fuck her on Higgenbotham’s conference table.
Two enormous trays heaped with chips, dips, crackers, cheeses, slices of cured meats, and piles of vegetables David insisted on—something about required crudité—later, she and David marched up the stairs behind Luann and Eve as they carried another couch, this one piled with beer and throw pillows.
They burst into the lab, which had transitioned from mad-scientist-slash-night-raid-command-center to a casual theater rivaling even the most hi-tech movie cinemas.
Adam stood next to Charlie, his arms waving as he bragged about the surround sound and definition more enhanced than a cyborg’s ass.
Everett and Doc worked with swift efficiency at the computers against the wall.
Gage lounged in a large chair to the side, his CPU access plate hanging open and wires exiting the back of his neck and trailing over to the servers near Everett and Doc.
Audra stumbled at the reminder that the man she loved was part cyborg—part computer—and she nearly dropped her tray. Her stomach lurched at the sight of him plugged in and looking so mechanical. So much like… an appliance.
David saved the tray from her useless hands before it dropped its contents and nudged her toward Gage’s side of the room with a nod. “Gage, dude.” He called out in his teasing way. “That’s waaaay more of you than I ever want to see.”
Gage blew a kiss and winked. “You’re just jealous of my accessories.”
Audra eased onto his lap, careful not to dislodge any of the wires attached to his port console. She couldn’t help her worried expression as she traced his face with her fingertips.
“Am I that disgusting?” He smiled and his tone was light, but his eyes were filled with concern. He was very observant, and no doubt noticed her hesitation.
She shook her head. “No, not disgusting at all. But this”—she circled her finger to indicate the back of his head —"looks like something out of a horror movie. Does it hurt?”
He carefully shook his head. The wires swayed gently. “Not at all. It just feels weird to have extra weight back there.”
“This will connect you to Hawks? Will he know it’s you? Will he be able to hurt you? Get back at you?”
Gage’s broad hand rested against the small of her back while the other squeezed her thigh to reassure her. It didn’t work. Neither did his answer. “Yes. Probably. Not unless I leave Doc’s perimeter.”
“We could have set him up to do this wirelessly.” Everett explained to Audra. “But there’s too much risk of a dropped or scrambled signal that way. If my theory holds, Hawks requires an external source to monitor and command cyborgs, which he won’t have access to during the press conference.”
She braced her hands against Gage’s muscular chest. “You’re not going to reprogram Gage to bark like a dog whenever anyone says the word cyborg, are you?”
“Not at all. But that’s a good suggestion for our game.
” Doc laughed. Then he clapped for attention.
“Welcome to the War Room, my dears. For whoever wants to play, we’ll give suggestions and Gage will send the command.
Nothing too wild or violent. We don’t want the interview cut short, and we don’t want to scare anyone. We just want to discredit Hawks.”
“Operation THOT, Objective Alpha: Make Hawks look like an idiot.” Adam nodded, a triumphant smile on his face. “Reporting for duty, sir. And I’m damn glad to be here.”
Everyone settled in with snacks and a beverage.
Gage shooed Audra off his lap with a swift kiss and a pat on the ass, but she merely moved next to him on the edge of the nearest couch and reached for his hand.
Doc and Everett were extremely smart, but she wasn’t taking any chances with the man she loved.
Not that she could do much if something went wrong, but being near him eased her tension.
This might be fun for everyone else, Gage included, but Audra wasn’t ready to drop her guard.
The screens flickered on, providing a wall-sized image of a press conference room somewhere in the bowels of a D.C.
building. Red, white, and blue curtains draped in the background and the podium sported a nameplate for Department of Cybernetic Oversight.
A few screens on the perimeter were hacked into peripheral cameras aimed at the audience, so they could watch the media reactions as well.
Members of the press milled around and murmured, waiting for Hawks to step to the podium.
“Does anyone know why he’s having this press conference?” Luann asked, then pulled on a long sip of beer.
“It’s Richard Hawks.” Everett’s voice held a laughable note of over-acted breathy adulation. “When he speaks, the world listens.”
“My sources say he’s going to announce a strategic alliance with China.” Charlie accepted the plate of goodies Eve handed him. “A beneficial sharing of technology, between two advanced world leaders, or something like that.”
Snorts and chortles rang through the room. Beneficial sharing and advanced world leaders were repeated, followed by more cackles. “Charlie, you can’t say shit like that.” David laughed. “I just shot beer out my nose.”
“Can I make a pre-game suggestion?” Luann turned to Gage. “Make Hawks trip walking to the podium.”
“Oh, good one.” Adam tossed a chip in his mouth. “At some point, he has to pick his nose.”
“And eat it.” Eve added.
A round of Eeewws, then more suggestions were tossed around.
Rubbing his crotch. Sniffing the American flag.
Coughing the word bullshit every time he said something about China.
Twisting his nonexistent moustache like an evil villain.
Do-si-do-ing around the podium. Cheesy flirting with the press corps with lines like “Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk past you again.” Breaking out into song and dance with jazz hands.
Each suggestion brought on more laughter until everyone in the room wiped away tears and held their stomachs.
Even Charlie was smiling and laughing, and that brought joyful tears to Audra’s eyes.
Her brother had earned this lighthearted time, surrounded by friends and people who cared about him and understood him enough not to force him to do anything he didn’t want.
Just like Gage and all the other cyborgs here had also earned that right.
If only every cyborg could enjoy a moment like this.
They’d all earned it. She turned to Gage and smiled.
“Is it too soon to have him confess he’s also a cyborg, and China is controlling him as readily as he controls cyborgs?
That he’s the puppet master pulling the strings when cyborgs go rogue? ”
Gage shrugged and squeezed her hand. “I don’t know. We’ll have to play it by ear. We’ll have to read the room and see how far we can push it.”
Someone stepped up to the podium to introduce Hawks, and both the press corps and Doc’s War Room hushed in anticipation.
This was it. Time to see if Operation THOT could work.
Greeted by polite applause, DCO Director Richard Hawks walked toward the podium.
And tripped. Over nothing. Stumbling the last few steps, he looked back to glare at the floor, then adjusted his jacket and faced the recorders.
Clicking and camera flashes punctuated his words as he greeted the media and the American citizens at home.
“I’ve come before you today with excited news on the cybernetics front. ”
Hawks picked his nose, looked at his finger, then wiped it on his jacket. A chorus of boos rose from the couch area and chips flew at Gage. “He was supposed to eat it” someone complained.
Hawks continued as if he didn’t realize what he’d just done.
The cameras on the media showed several disgusted expressions.
“I know the American public has a deep-seated distrust of cyborgs. That’s because as Director of the DCO, I’ve worked hard to instill that fear, with the compliance of Hollywood and reporters such as you. ”
“Good one.” Doc murmured as panic flashed across Hawks’s face and the media members gasped.