The Cyber Chronicles VIII - Scorpion Lord Read Free

rather
disreputable smuggler’s garb, but now he wore well-cut but
comfortable black jeans and a grey T-shirt under a dark blue
flannel shirt, since the lab was a bit nippy.
    "He didn't
leave of his own accord,” he said. “He's not taking a sabbatical on
a distant mountain top, he was abducted."
    "How do you
know that?"
    "I had a look
in his room, particularly on the wall outside his window. Someone
climbed up that wall. You can see the scratches. It's not like him
to disappear in the middle of the night, and he's been gone for two
days now. You're sure you didn't see or hear anything?"
    Tassin shook
her head. "How could someone abduct a cyber?"
    "Shoot him
with a tranquiliser dart from the window, then carry him off. The
scanners can't penetrate stone, so the cyber wouldn't have warned
him."
    "A
tranquiliser?"
    "Yeah. Cybers
are immune to most poisons and incapacitating drugs, but not all.
There's one in particular that Myon Two uses, called endronate.
They couldn't make cybers immune to it, so they bought the patent
for its production and banned its use by anyone else. Only Myon Two
produces it now, because it incapacitates a cyber in less than two
seconds if it's injected into the jugular. It kills a normal human
in even less time. I think they've got him, and if they do we've
got to find him."
    "How?" Tassin
swung to gaze out of the window. "We don't have a ship. And if this
happened, why hasn't Fairen rescued him yet?"
    "I don't
know... unless..."
    "What?"
    "If Myon Two
had taken the bracelet, Fairen would have noticed that the locator
beacon had moved, and gone to investigate... Well, in theory. Or if
they had broken it, he would have come to see why the beacon had
stopped. But if they took the bracelet off and hid it somewhere,
but left it switched on, Fairen wouldn't know anything had happened
to him."
    "That bracelet
can't be removed, and if it was cut it would set off the distress
signal."
    Tarl nodded.
"Then they must have found a way to unlock it. Myon Two are nothing
if not resourceful. Maybe Ramadaus helped them. I don't know, but
I'm sure he was kidnapped."
    "So what do we
do?"
    "Well, you're
right; we're stuck here without a ship. But if I can find the
bracelet, I can trigger the distress signal."
    "I'll dispatch
men to start searching immediately," she said.
    "Okay, good.
I'm going to see if I can rig something to pick up the beacon. I'll
use the equipment Fairen sent. I'm sure I can make some sort of
receiver out of the parts. We know it's a high frequency
sideband."
    She turned to
face him, her heart filled with dread. "Please hurry. God only
knows what they're doing to him."
    "I know. I
will."
    Tarl left, and
Tassin turned to stare out of the window again, her eyes blind to
the budding spring shoots on the trees outside and the bright
sunshine that bathed the peaceful land. When Sabre had vanished two
days ago, she had not been unduly alarmed, thinking he had gone out
for an early walk. He had not returned that night, however, and she
had started to worry, but told herself that he was merely camping
out perhaps, and needed some time alone.
    When there was
still no sign of him the next day, she had dispatched search
parties, but continued to hope that he was only spending some time
alone with his thoughts. This morning her worry had grown further,
for he would not have stayed away for so long without telling her.
He would know she would be worried. Then again, who, or what, could
harm a cyber? For two days she had comforted herself with the
knowledge that he was bound to be safe, now she was no longer so
sure.
    If Tarl was
right, Sabre was in grave danger, and undoubtedly suffering at the
hands of sadistic Cybercorp technicians. The thought made her bile
rise, and she gulped. He had warned her that this would happen, but
she had not wanted to believe him. Would he never know peace? Was
her dream of a happy, carefree life with him just a fantasy? How
long before Tarl or her men found the bracelet, and