The Cyber Chronicles IV - Cyborg by T C Southwell

through the port without a problem, due to Kole’s
new false identity. He hired an air-car, and they headed for the
resort where the Myon Two department head, Previd Malatar, was
staying. Tassin was glad she had found and befriended the hacker;
she would have been lost without him. He was not quite so pleased
with their association, due to the trouble it had caused him, she
knew. She wondered why he continued to help her.
    Kole parked
the air-car outside a plush resort and they passed through a
glamorous black marble foyer where a giant golden palm tree seemed
to uphold the ceiling and uniformed employees tended to the needs
of well-dressed guests. They crossed a massive, bright lounge full
of tinkling water features, lush tropical plants and soft blue
couches around low wooden coffee tables. They exited through
sliding doors in a glass wall into the gardens at the back, where
palm trees shaded loungers and waiters served drinks to the people
who splashed in the pool and lay under the umbrellas around it.
Kole had hacked into the hotel’s database, and, according to that,
Previd was not currently in his room. The hacker had an image of
him, which he had shown to Tassin. The technician was a short, wiry
man with a receding hairline and a bulbous nose, and she gazed
around in search of him as they wandered amongst the hotel’s
patrons.
    “ There he is,” Kole muttered, pointing.
    Tassin looked
in the direction he indicated and spotted the scrawny executive
sprawled on a lounger, shirtless, a bright blue drink in one hand.
Kole led the way back to the hotel’s glass-walled rear entrance,
which Previd would have to pass through to return to his room.
    “ Now we wait.”
    About an hour
later, Previd finished his drink, rose and donned a loud pink
shirt, then headed for the hotel, and Tassin turned to the
cyber.
    “ Cyber, when that man passes us, I want you to take him
prisoner, and prevent him from making an outcry.
Understand?”
    His blank eyes
stared through her. “Understood.”
    Tassin chewed
her lip as Previd approached. He smiled and winked at a couple of
bikini-clad girls, who giggled. She tensed as the technician drew
close to where she, Kole and Sabre stood. Kole pretended to read a
brochure he had picked up off the reception desk earlier, and she
hoped the three of them did not look too conspicuous, being fully
dressed in a tropical leisure resort, with an armed cyber, to boot.
As the senior technician was about to pass through the doors beside
them, Sabre stepped forward. Previd gaped at him in the instant
before the cyber pulled him into a throat hold, clamping a hand
over his mouth. Previd mumbled and flailed, but Sabre dragged him
to her side. Kole turned and led the way around the side of the
hotel, since they could not pass through it while dragging the
struggling Myon Two department head.
    They piled
into the air-car in the parking lot and the hacker guided it into a
skyway, heading for the spaceport. Previd sat quietly beside Sabre,
which, she assumed, meant he knew the futility of trying to fight.
Most people did in this modern society, but Myon Two techs probably
more than most. He did not look all that scared, though, which
bothered her.
    In the ship,
Sabre pushed Previd onto a sofa in the lounge and Kole ordered
Striker to take off.
    The tech
frowned at Tassin. “What do you want?”
    “ My cyber had a software patch installed three years ago.
You’re going to remove it.”
    Previd studied
Sabre, who had assumed a guard stance beside her. “And if I
don’t?”
    “ We start blowing bits off you.”
    “ I see. What does the patch do?”
    “ That’s none of your business. Just remove it.”
    He shrugged.
“All right, whatever you say. I’ll need his serial number to update
his software.”
    Tassin looked
at Kole. Previd’s agreement seemed too easy, but then, perhaps he
was just exceptionally cowardly. He still did not look all that
scared, though, and she was unable to shake off her