Steel Beneath the Skin Read Free Page A

outside the window. Instruments and machines of various types she had no clue about could be seen beyond those. There was no one out there watching, though she had to figure there were cameras she could not see in the room, so someone could have been monitoring remotely.
    Then there was Ella. She was a pretty girl. Cute might be the right term. Asleep and not smiling she looked kind of sad. Aneka found herself wanting to see the girl smile again; she had a really cheerful smile, it made you feel better seeing it. Her breasts were on the smallish side, her body slim without any excessive muscle, but still toned. The suit she was wearing was clearly some sort of spacesuit. It was very thin, but there were ridges in the fabric which suggested some structure. The fabric itself looked like plastic, but it clung to her skin more like rubber. It really clung, following every contour.
    Reaching out slowly, Aneka put her finger on Ella’s knee, which happened to be the closest available body part. The suit felt like plastic, slick, like polythene. When she pulled back and looked up, Ella was awake and smiling. She really did look so much better when she was smiling.
    ‘You’re awake,’ Ella said, stating the obvious. ‘We were a little worried I’d broken you.’
    ‘Broken, yeah. So, I watched my start-up sequence this time. I guess you’re right. I’m a robot.’
    ‘Not a robot exactly,’ Ella said urgently. ‘Well, yes, a robot, but you’re more than just a hunk of metal.’
    Aneka lifted her hand, watched as she curled and straightened her fingers. ‘No, this looks like living flesh. A cyborg? I’m a Terminator Series sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor?’ She gave a half-hearted grin. ‘My brother was so into sci-fi. He’d think this was great… except he’s been dead for a thousand years.’
    Ella jumped on the positive. ‘Fridgy! You remember you had a brother? Your memory’s returning?’
    ‘Fragments. I remember I had a younger brother, and I remember getting “The Terminator” for him on DVD and getting told off because my dad thought he was too young. I can’t remember what he looked like, or his name. I still can’t remember my name.’
    ‘I can help you with that.’ The voice was male and it came from the speakers. Aneka looked up to see a man standing at the window. He was tall, powerfully built, good looking, and dressed in the same sort of one-piece suit as the Ella. His head was bald, but he had the kind of skull that looked good on. He held up a plastic card. ‘Aneka Jansen. While you were out a couple of us went over to check the room we found you in for any evidence. Assuming this isn’t just some faked ID, you were working for a company named Anderson Security Consulting. We found a little booklet too, a “passport,” in the same name. That says you were a citizen of “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”’
    ‘That’s a terrible picture. The passport photo was worse. I nearly went back to the shop to get it done better.’
    ‘What about this consulting company?’ Ella asked. ‘Consulting sounds technical, maybe you were a programmer, researcher?’ Considering the muscled body it seemed unlikely, but you never knew.
    Aneka’s eyes narrowed. ‘We did private security and hostage rescue. I was a soldier… later a mercenary, basically. Yeah. I was working in… Iraq! My team and I were sent in to pull out four engineers taken hostage by insurgents…’
    Iraq, May 16 th , 2011.
    The enclave consisted of four mud-brick buildings within a low wall. The squad of six moved in on it by twos, keeping low. The guard on the south side died silently when his throat was slit. Another two guards died just as efficiently before the team swept in toward the buildings.
    There were lights on in only one building. Aneka pointed Sims at the window. It was boarded shut, but his grenade launcher would make short work of that. Perry and Quinn were motioned to the