I'm a Cyborg's Pet (girl X cyborg)

Chapter 19/Danger on Level 42

A/N Picture - 12-20, not that we under described her or anything....

It had been a difficult decision. My first response was that it was some kind of trap, but I thought that knowing that might help me. So I decided to check out Level 42 with Kayla. The area was abandoned and dark; my stiletto heels clicked on the bare concrete floor. It was dark and with minimal surveillance systems. Although with a camera in my collar I was a walking surveillance system.

"Stop!" said Kayla.

"Why?" I whispered.

"The signal-strength light on your collar just went from green to red. One more step and you will lose WiFi signal. Hold your arms out and slowly move backwards," Kayla whispered back.

My stomach felt like someone was using it for Kinbaku-bi. Level 42 wasn't technically outside the e-Slave zone, but losing WiFi on my collar would trigger both an alert and the Big Wasp-Sting, as we called it. So far I was safe, my collar hadn't issued any warnings, so I could argue that I was on legitimate ground. Standing, arms out like a kid pretending to be an aeroplane, I stepped slowly back.

"OK, you've gone to blue. Try moving towards the wall," said Kayla.

"I've got a better idea, why don't you try moving to the wall?" I said.

"Because I'm the Return here. You screw up and you lose a warlord for an owner. I screw up and I'm next week's bolognese sauce," Kayla told me.

It was a very convincing argument. I acted like a blind man's stick and gradually probed the area. The wall seemed to have a stronger signal. The floor was tiled, so I moved from tile to tile, testing the invisible landscape around me. Perhaps this was 12-20's plan to trick us into a WiFi minefield. I pressed my collar button, "Cortona where is 10-66?"

"10-66 is in Sector Level 41, <beep>," Cortona whispered to me. That was fascinating: the system had got the floor wrong.

"This," exclaimed Kayla.

"What's wrong?" I said, not willing to turn around.

"I'm down to 10% battery. I need to get me recharged. Pronto," Kayla said.

"OK. Let's just move slowly back, follow the path back to the stairs we came down. I guess 12-20 isn't showing up."

"Yes?" said another voice in the gloom.

"Is that you 12-20?" I said. 12-20 came over and reached the wall where I was. "How are you doing that?" I asked. 

"I charged up before I came, the weak signal really eats batteries but hides your true location from the network," said 12-20.

"We haven't got much time, I'm on about 15% myself," I warned.

"Look. I felt sorry for being mean to 13-27, but you've got to understand, I need to make sure I have a good social network," she said. 

"You're a Return?" I asked. I'd discovered that being a Return was as close to leprosy as it could get with e-Slaves. You could get returned through no fault of your own, but the voodoo which drove the e-Slave world meant that people would not associate with you for fear that you might contaminate them with 'low value' or, worst still, 'returnedness-ness'.

"So you understand! Look I need to be close friends with '88. She's a fantastic networker and has followers coming out of her ass. I need to be on her good side. If '88 discovers I'm a Return she'll drop me faster than a radioactive cupcake and I'll be unfriended to death. I NEED POSITIVE COMMENTS. The only thing that keeps you visible here is positive comments. If I don't get more soon I'm going to die here, I can feel it," said 12-20 

"OK. I said I won't tell. My name is Jenny, by the way."

"Look, if '88 drops me, you and your friends can't save me. Shit, '88's looking for me," 12-20 said.

When you asked your collar to locate someone, it told them you were looking for them.

"I haven't got much time. I was sold to Rockwood. I'm told he's the strictest Master in Washington. Takes great pleasure from breaking any slave who shows the slightest will power to an obsequious kiss-ass. I was told I was lucky, he doesn't just break you, he sticks your soul into a blender until you belong to him unconditionally. They said even the other Cyborgs are scared of him. He knocked down half of Chicago to build his packing factories. He's got a massive sexual appetite: he has this massive harem which he uses to soak up his impulses. No one knows what he does to them as everyone is forbidden to talk to the harem girls. And he's a picky ba$tered too he rejects anything that's a hair less than perfect. I'm delivered all the way to Washington 2.0, and I'm still in the shrinkwrap. He takes one look at me, says I looked different from the profile photos and I'm out," she said.

"Was he a man or a machine?" I asked.

"Man. Man-ish. He was a Cyborg, but nothing obvious. He wasn't some brain in a tank. I mean if he was an A.I. he would have kept me purely for leeching off me. I spoke to a couple of e-Slaves and they said he was pretty fussy. Kept disappearing and kept to himself."

"You're sure the guy you saw was him?" I asked.

"Tish! It's her. Kiss me! Kiss me, like I'm going to die!" said 12-20. She pulled me close and wrapped her hands around me, pulling my body to her.

"'20?" said '88's voice. I realised what 12-20 was doing. '88 had come down and was hanging on the steps near the strong signal. We were in the dim light and in our e-Slave uniforms we could have been anyone.

"Call me '66," 12-20 whispered urgently.

"I love you '66," I said, between gasps and loud kissing. I hadn't felt this scared since I was out one night looking for cans in a grocery store and had run into a bunch of hunter drones. It felt weird as our breasts collided.

"Oh... sorry... I'll just..." said '88 apologetically. We heard the click, click, click of her stilettos retreating up the stairs.

"She's gone," whispered Kayla.

"5% battery remaining. Lie down and do not move, <beep>," my collar told me.

"I'm on low battery, I've got to go," I said. I could see my collar's red LED flashing against 12-20's face.

**** 

A/N Will Jenny & Kayla escape? Will they get to a charger in time, before their heads blow up? Will Joe be jealous.  All will be revealed next Tuesday! 

RK,  I thought we had agreed about the panning for comments stuff?  Reb. 

The plea for comments was purely in plot and and no similarity between this mechanism and another mechanism either living nor dead should be inferred. RK.