Rising Tomorrow (Roc de Chere Book 1) by Mariana Morgan (essential reading txt) 📕

A wrist-comp scanned the wearer’s DNA with nano-probes that burrowed deep into the tissue and all the way into the bone marrow in the radius. The process was completely painless—in fact, it couldn’t even be felt. Technically, the transformation of only part of an arm was required to fool a wrist-comp. While the process was quick, since it didn’t need to deal with complex internal organs, it created all sorts of other potential problems. And discomfort. Plenty of it.

There was a syringe with powerful nano-meds on the table next to Gonzalez, but the man didn’t even look at it. A dose of painkillers big enough to deal with the ripping and slashing sensations in his arm would make him groggy, and he couldn’t have that until he knew the data transfer had begun successfully. And even then, he felt the responsibility to see it through and be able to act in case there were any problems.

His eyes misted as he forced himself to breathe, and Ingram winced as she watched. She would have volunteered in a heartbeat if she believed Gonzalez would let her take his place. After all, it didn’t matter if the pain made her pass out or the meds turned her into a vegetable for a few hours. She wasn’t needed to operate the comp. Gonzalez was. Him and Tilly.

Somewhere alongside the short-term concern about her CO’s physical distress was a more pronounced, long-term worry. Wagner had tried to get under Gonzalez’s skin. To make him feel guilty for putting others at risk, to force him to recognise he had no choice but to put himself on the line next time.

By, for example, performing a partial nano-transformation on his own arm, without any nano-anaesthesia and doing it in only a few minutes to save time at the expense of his own suffering.

Of course, Gonzalez was clever enough to see through Wagner’s efforts, but the blows Wagner had landed were low. Ingram knew that some of them had to have scored, wounding him inside, and who knew what his subconscious was concocting now.

She had only just got back a couple of minutes before, when it had finally become clear she couldn’t have achieved much more in Givors. She had dodged a couple of missiles an XLF had fired at her, but when her sensors started flashing unidentified signatures, she hadn’t stayed around long enough to find out what the enemy Stealthies, or similar, had been armed with, or how many of them there had been. As a goodbye gift she blew up the south corner of the residence, which had somehow survived the carnage until that point, cutting off any easy access to Wagner’s unconscious body. That had probably bought them another hour or so until they brought in nano-cranes to deal with the rubble. But that was not enough time to allow them a slow and luxurious approach to hacking Wagner’s comp.

She winced again. For a second, it looked like she would have no choice but to slam the syringe of painkillers into Gonzalez’s neck, whether he wanted it or not, but then the transformation, and the pain it was causing, must have reached a steady level. Gonzalez stirred slightly in his chair and exhaled deeply.

‘Partial nano-transformation completed,’ Tilly announced grumpily, and Gonzalez fumbled for Wagner’s comp, but Ingram was faster.

‘Sorry,’ she mumbled as the man groaned in pain when she handled his arm too roughly. Her agile fingers snapped the band around Gonzalez’s wrist with ease, and within seconds the comp extended its nano-probes, activated and flashed positive identification.

‘Complete back-up,’ Gonzalez instructed. His other hand shot to his face and he gripped hard, his fingers splaying wide, trying to reach both temples at the same time. The partial transformation was finished, but now the rest of his body found itself in conflict with the tissue it could not recognise or communicate with on a cellular level. He had injected himself with a heavy dose of immunosuppressant nanobots to delay the onset of rejection, but that would only go so far.

Depending on what Wagner had on his account, it could take anything from a handful of minutes to a few hours to copy it all. Assuming, of course, that the connection wouldn’t be severed by Wagner deactivating his stolen comp.

‘Talk to me, Carlotta,’ he gasped, looking desperately for a distraction. The syringe was starting to tempt him, but it was too soon.

‘Wagner’s security guard count is down by twenty-seven, assuming all life signs were genuine,’ she replied instantly. ‘The residence is a total ruin, but Wagner’s life signs were stable when I left. My Stealthy is out of missiles, but suffered no damage that I can see without taking it apart. When Tilly is finished, she should probably run a diagnostic to double-check that the energy from the shutters didn’t damage anything I can’t see.’

‘I can do it right now, Sergeant Ingram,’ Tilly replied.

‘No,’ Gonzalez gasped. ‘Focus on transfer!’

‘The transfer will not be compromised if I—’

‘Transfer!’ Gonzalez growled through gritted teeth, and Tilly sighed.

‘Yes, Colonel. May I recommend using the nano-painkillers?’

Tilly was used to Eloise being stubborn, but this was a new level of crazy.

Ingram reached for the syringe, but Gonzalez slammed his hand on top of hers, pinning it down.

‘Sir…’ Ingram began softly. ‘You need your strength. Tilly doesn’t need you anymore—you can rest now. Because this isn’t over. Who knows what we’ll find on Wagner’s account and what we’ll have to do tomorrow.’ She hated having to play him like this, but it was true.

Gonzalez gripped her hand even harder, refusing to let go, but he lifted his head and looked Ingram in the eye. His own were full of tears, and it was only a matter of time before they spilt. Those tears had little to do with the physical pain, and Ingram knew it.

‘You think he meant it, about Megan?’ she asked quietly. ‘That he killed her?’

‘No,’ Gonzalez replied, and he didn’t even try to