The Kabul Incident(17)
“But, Jason…”
“No. Arguments.”
May’s voice went cold and hard in the technician’s ear. She couldn’t believe he was cutting her off like that…especially after the recent physical turn their relationship had taken. The late nights in the office after the rest of the staff had gone home. The weekend in Lake Tahoe last month. Still, she knew enough about the man not to push things too hard. No matter how much Talborg thought Gauss deserved the coveted system upgrades from Doctor Ryan, she knew May would never be bullied into changing his mind. The best she could hope for was to…influence it.
“Sir.”
The temperature dropped a few more degrees with May’s response. “What is it now?”
“Might I suggest a full mem-wipe to go along with Designate Cestus’s upgrade?”
“Damn it, Grace, you know that’ll take a full rotation from the tech boys. We’re under the gun with our overtime and budget as it is.”
An idea formed somewhere just beneath the line in Talborg’s brow.
“It’s a matter of the unit’s active memory. The nanotech is going to require at least fifty percent of the Designate Cestus’s core system memory to load in and initiate…right now, he’s operating way under that.” The grunt from May nearly eight-thousand miles away told Talborg she was on the right track. Working the tech was the way to get to him. “A clean system will give us the best integration with Ryan’s nanobots. Otherwise, we’ll risk systemic rejection and have a crashed Prime on our hands…or worse. Remember what happened with Designate Siege in Japan? None of us needs another mess like that, do we?”
Ten seconds of dead air had Grace Talborg worried that she’d lost her boss. That she’d pushed too hard.
“You do it,” answered May finally, allowing the blood to rush out of Talborg’s ears where it had been pounding harder than a college drum-line. “Any overtime is on your head.”
“Of course, sir,” grinned the tiny beauty to herself. “And maybe we can finish that…project we started in Tahoe—”
“Hardwired out,” said May an instant before the line went dead.
She had him and when she got back to the states she’d make sure to do whatever it took to bring him all the way around to her side again. She and Designate Gauss would get the recognition they deserved, Cestus and his incompetent handler be damned. They were owed the top spot.
“Gauss, Cestus…pull the gear and get yourselves into the stasis pods. We’re heading stateside in sixty.” To Cestus, the engineer added, “And don’t forget Brazier’s pack. The lab rats are going to want to go over his data with a fine toothed comb and see where you two botched up.”
Nodding, the blood-covered cyborg responded, “Yes, Engineer Talborg. I have Engineer Brazier’s files ready at your convenience.”
As the tall cybernetic soldier turned away to leave the darkened confines of the tent, Talborg caught something in his eyes. Something predatory and alien. Something that seemed to be watching and waiting. For what, the young engineer had no idea. Whatever it was, she couldn’t wait to get the bastard back to headquarters and get him erased. Even if she had to go in on her own time to get it done she’d make sure there was nothing left of the monster when Doctor Ryan’s staff took over. Hopefully whatever personality construct they built for him next wouldn’t be such a creep.
“Yes,” thought Grace Talborg as she finished packing her own gear. Everything would be better once they got home.