Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Holy Hell, is this actually happening?” Eve mushed her lips together and leaned into Adam as he rested against the oxblood leather arm of one of the sturdy wing-back office chairs scattered around.
The small room was decorated with all the pomp and importance a waiting room for a congressional hearing should have.
Rich wood. Rich upholstery. Rich men in paintings hung on the wall.
Three years ago, Gage might have been intimidated by it. Not today.
“It’s taken over two years for us to get here, my dear. You better believe it’s actually happening.” Doc’s words assured, but he was similarly nervous, pacing the room like a wild animal suddenly caged.
“Babe, you’re gonna wear yourself out with all that walking,” David patted the seat of the couch and waved Doc over to sit next to him. “Come find your Zen before you’re a nervous wreck.”
They were all nervous, as well they should be.
Today was a momentous day for the rights of cybernetic individuals.
A momentous day for their little band of rebels.
They were going to speak in front of ninety percent of the elected American federal government, including many of the top brass at the Pentagon.
They were scheduled to speak in front of Congress, the proceedings livestreamed throughout the world, in support of cyborgs and a proposed law that would secure their safety.
There was a slim chance it was merely a ruse to lure their group into the open for arrest. Or worse.
Gage sidled up next to Valor, where he stood at attention in his Army greens.
“Tell me one more time that this is all legit, Loverboy.” Gage murmured.
His own experience with ordnance had him on edge; what they were about to walk into could be highly explosive, and he didn’t have the skills to disarm it.
Valor smiled. “Trust your intel, Python. Trust your troops. You all have been instrumental in this proposed legislation and deserve to be here. And Hawks has been decommissioned as a cyborg and will spend several lifetimes in a cozy white-collar jail cell enjoying all the amenities of the real world with the exception of his freedom and his influence. You’re all heroes. ”
“You know I don’t care about that asshat or about being called a hero. Just promise me, if something happens in this hearing, you’ll get Audra to safety.”
“That’s funny.” Valor a smile breaking through his on-duty expression. “Your wife came up to me earlier and asked I do the same thing for you.”
“You’re not going to listen to her, are you?
” Why was he not surprised Audra would seek out his safety.
For such a little pixie, she was powerfully protective of him.
Of course, the feeling was mutual. In fact, this hearing had taken so long to happen because Gage had insisted a few other laws be changed first. Audra had stolen government intelligence, a crime which came with a hefty penalty and prison sentence.
Everett and Doc had worked with the ACLU and a few key cyborg-sympathizer senators to pass the Cybernetic Systems Hindrance Act which helped incarcerate Hawks.
Then they got it added to the federal whistleblowers law to keep Audra safe for having shared government secrets.
Ultimately, her intel saved America from giving an enemy nation access to its cybernetic technology and undue influence over a powerful federal employee, which also helped assure she wouldn’t go to jail. But Gage wasn’t taking any chances.
Now that they were married, Gage would definitely go rogue if he couldn’t have her in his arms every night.
Valor pfft’d. “If things go south, you’re on your own. I’m grabbing that Rolex and leaving town.”
He nodded toward Everett, who chatted quietly with Audra at the other side of the room. Gage elbowed Valor. “You realize that’s just a basic-level Rolex. It’s not worth much.”
“I don’t want to sell it.” Valor shrugged. “I just want to impress the ladies with it.”
It was Gage’s turn to pfft. His friend hadn’t gotten his moniker as a joke. “Yeah, right. Because they’re looking at your wrist, Loverboy.”
He walked over to join Audra and Everett, sliding his arm around his wife’s waist and nodding his head to indicate Valor. “He’s eyeing your watch there, Dean.”
“What… this old thing?” Everett rubbed his hand over the watch. “He can have it. Luann says it make me look too bougie.”
“What does that even mean?” Gage frowned.
Everett shrugged. “Not sure. I think it’s some historical romance book jargon she gets in her head. She also says I’ve got W Rizz, Charlie had a glow-up with his haircut, David’s cooking slaps, and the media’s attempt to spill the tea on our rebel base location is so cringe.”
Audra stared at him, slowly shaking her head in disbelief. “None of that makes any sense.”
“Yeah, no cap.”
“Speaking of Luann, how are she and the baby doing without all of us around?” Audra gravitated into Gage’s arms like she did whenever he was close.
It was as instinctive as breathing, and it stole his breath every time.
Not a day went by he didn’t give thanks for having this woman in his arms. In his life.
“She and Atlas are doing fine.” Everett beamed whenever he talked about Luann or their son that she’d birthed last summer thanks to an external uterus he and Doc had designed. Atlas was the luckiest baby around, with eight aunts and uncles to spoil him rotten.
“Of course, she’s doing fine.” Eve interjected. “She has the bestest boi as a nursemaid.”
Everett laughed. “Yes, Apollo is very attentive. Charlie is there with this girlfriend to help Luann, and David made them enough food to eat for a year—”
“Remind Luann she can’t live on leftovers alone. She also needs to eat fresh veggies!” David interrupted from where he sat on the couch rubbing Doc’s temples. “Babe, tell him to remind her.”
“Kids, do as your mother says.” Doc murmured, perhaps a little too relaxed from David’s ministrations.
“Mooooom, she knows.” Everett stomped his foot and whined in jest at the ongoing joke. Then lowered his voice for just Audra and Gage. “She’s gonna live on brownies until we return.”
A gentleman opened the doors to the hearing chambers and ushered them into the large room filled to bursting with members of Congress, the DOD, cybernetic CEOs, and the media.
Gage held Audra close to his left side as they all walked to their seats.
His leg wasn’t armed, but he could make a threatening stance with it if he needed to.
His fingers brushing against the scar on the back of her neck where Doc had removed her tracker and implanted cybernetic systems to filter out cancer cells and boost her immunity.
At her request, he’d also filled in her breasts with some sort of synthetic gel that didn’t require an incision and wouldn’t be absorbed into her body or move around.
Gage didn’t understand the technical explanation; he just knew he’d been tasked with shaping Audra’s breasts by massaging the gel into place, and the experience had nearly converted him away from being an ass man.
Honestly, he didn’t care what her breasts looked like, and would have been perfectly satisfied with them in any form. But Audra had cared. And their new fullness had boosted her confidence.
“You’re checking out my cleavage, aren’t you?” Audra murmured in his ear as she sat and he bent to push her chair in.
“I’m checking all of you out, all of the time, beautiful.” He kissed her temple and settled in the chair beside her as the others took their seats.
Then began the dog-and-pony show.
It was an absolute farce and required all of Gage’s self-control to refrain from rolling his eyes or snorting in disdain as the hearing committee preened and pandered in front of the cameras, claiming heartfelt desire to help the plight of cybernetic individuals through compassion and acceptance and blah blah blah.
It was all bullshit to make them look good for the barest effort that was a decade too late.
And Gage, along with the others, had to play along—their answers and statements supportive and grateful for the proposed legislation—to ensure the forward progress of the law and societal acceptance.
Where had any of these people been when the first phases of cyborgs were being tossed away by the same departments that had received outrageous amounts of funds to have them in the first place?
Where had these people been when medical support had been stripped and they’d been left to self-medicate their failing hi-tech parts?
The motto by which Gage had lived his adult life thrummed in his head, contradicting the insipid words of these spineless individuals. This we’ll defend.
The hypocrisy grated on Gage’s nerves. A quick glance at Valor, who was positioned at a far corner of the room and rolling his eyes with each pandering statement, proved the other man thought much the same as Gage.
A warm hand covered and squeezed his. He turned to look at Audra, who leaned toward him and whispered so the mic wouldn’t pick up their conversation while Doc was answering another insipid. “I lost you there for a moment. What’s got you so distracted?”
He turned his hand and threaded his fingers with hers, then brought her hand to his lips for a quick kiss. “I’m trying not to yawn. These proceedings aren’t what I thought they’d be.”
Her brows furrowed. “What did you think they’d be like?”
“I don’t really know.” He shrugged, frustration beating at his chest. “But I didn’t expect this circus tent performance. I thought it would feel more meaningful, ya know. Less of a circle jerk.”
Crap. That last part echoed in the relative silence following the end of Doc’s answer.
All eyes turned to Gage, and the hearing committee looked irritated at his disrespectful words.
The chairman leaned toward the microphone, spearing him with a raised eyebrow and lips pursed as if he’d swallowed a lemon.
“Staff Sergeant Austin. Care to enlighten us on your opinion?”
Gage released Audra’s hand to fold his arms across the table in front of him.
It was an instinctive move to protect himself, yet pathetic.
He was an ordnance specialist; their munitions were words.
His skills were utterly useless here. He cleared his throat.
“Uh, Chairman, please address me simply as Gage Austin. My standing as a staff sergeant was effectively stripped when I disobeyed my orders to return Audra Muir to her supervisor. I’m just a civilian now. ”
It was true. And throughout their battle to help bring forth this legislation, other than ensuring Audra wouldn’t go to jail, none of them had asked for a return of property or pension.
That hadn’t been the point of their fight; the future of all cyborgs had.
But Gage was stalling for time. His mind had blanked the moment the chairman had a bead on him. And the chairman seemed to know it.
A slow, triumphant smile spread across his face. “Fine. Mr. Austin.” Special emphasis on his name. “Would you care to enlighten the room on your particular opinion of these proceedings?”
The entire room waited with bated breath. It reminded him of the few, surreal heartbeats after a bomb has been disabled but the nerves fracture and the mind wonders what if? What if it still detonated? What if he hadn’t actually disabled it?
Audra’s warm hand spread atop his thigh, reminding him this wasn’t a life-threatening situation. And he wasn’t alone. He had her. He had their rebel alliance. He’d been in active battle, his life and limb at risk, and these proceedings were nothing in comparison.
“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.” Her whisper was for him alone, giving him permission to retreat and let the others speak for him. Gazing into the peaceful waters of her Caribbean blue eyes, and seeing nothing but love and acceptance, he knew exactly what to say.
“Mr. Chairman, I’m sorry you heard my offhanded comment about these proceedings.
But I regret nothing. Look, I got my leg blown off by a bomb, and a fake one put in its place.
If it had been merely a prosthetic leg, I could have lived the rest of my life like everyone else.
But because my leg’s technology tips it into cybernetic territory, I had to hide it like it was Anne Frank. ”
Murmurs washed through the room. Gage uncrossed his arms, but leaned forward as an exclamation point to his words.
“I just want to go home and live my life. That’s all any of us—cyborgs and regular citizens alike—want.
We want the freedom this country allows us so that we can live our lives and love who we love and build a family in whatever form we define it, as long as none of that hinders anyone else’s right to do the same. ”
Louder murmurs. The hearing committee didn’t look pleased that Gage had inadvertently derailed their self-love fest. The chairman glared at him. “Are you saying you don’t care about the legislation being proposed? After all the time and effort the legislative branch has expended on it?”
“I do care about the legislation, and greatly appreciate Congress’s time on it.
” Ugh, that was as much ass-kissing as he could stand.
“But that law is nothing more than a reminder of the rights we cyborgs should already have by the sheer fact we are also American citizens. I am an American citizen. Getting a cybernetic leg didn’t change that.
The rights that you enjoy are also my rights.
And I shouldn’t have to come here and symbolically suck your dick to get them. ”
The microphone rang an echo a moment before the room exploded.
Cheers and jeers and boos and applause all raised in a passionate cacophony.
Gage might have single-handedly derailed the efforts of the law…
or he might have cemented it. He couldn’t tell, but one look to the side proved the others in this rebel alliance—the members of his newfound family—were in lock-step with his sentiments.
“I wouldn’t want to suck that dick, either.” Audra smiled at him.
Gage laughed and tucked a willful curl. “Thank god for that!”
He glanced up at Valor. The man smiled at him, then saluted.
The hearing committee dismissed the proceeding in face of the riotous reaction.
Gage and the rest stood to take their leave, and he once again tucked Audra close to his side.
Doc patted him on the back. “Whether or not that legislation goes through, what you just said will reverberate through the country. Which means we still win.”
Gage smiled at Doc, then down at Audra. She was his reason for living and fighting. She was the culmination of his life and love. This we’ll defend.
And he would. Every. Damn. Day.