Soon, all became silent. A deep and impenetrable silence that comes only after the most cataclysmic of events. Darius looked to CURL, who gave him a look of assurance that she was okay. Then he looked to Preature, who was heaving P-Sec bodies off of himself. Tinker ran to Preature to check him over.

“I’m fine.” Preature rumbled and groaned to his feet.

Tinker checked on CURL and Darius, then himself, but where was Leary?

The team moved to Leary’s post, saw the cut wire, and the spatter of blood on the ground where Leary had last been.

“They… they took him!” Darius shouted.

Preature wiped a smattering of gore from his face. “They took him.”

CURL walked around to the various bodies, checking their cybernetic registries for anomalies like the ones she’d originally found in Darius. “There’s nothing here! None of the parts are here!”

“Damn…” Tinker whispered under his breath.

“There were so many of them. How could none of them have the parts?” CURL asked aloud.

Darius came to a shocking realization. “Because they weren’t installed in these guys. The doctor lied.” He walked off to stand alone for a moment. Tinker went to follow, but Preature stopped him with a gentle hand on the shoulder.

“Let him have a minute. You see if you can patch into Leary’s tracer.” Preature said to both CURL and Tinker.

Darius walked alone to a wall and stood with his head resting against the cold concrete. He held there for a moment, frigid tears running down his cheeks as a well of vulnerability rose within him. He turned around to slide down the wall with eyes closed, but when he opened his eyes, he saw a P-Sec sitting against the opposing wall. The blood trail led from the middle of the large room to where this man now sat. He was holding a handgun up to Darius, but slowly let go of the handle, allowing the gun to fall clattering to the ground.

“S… ssmmmart b…boy,” the P-Sec struggled to get the words out. He was near death, and he knew it. “The d… doctor must have l… lied. Like you s… ssaid.”

“What do you know about it?” Darius snapped.

“J… Just what was in the brief from Del. I h… hate that guy. Bastard got me killed,” he smirked.

“What do you know?” Darius asked again, softer this time.

“I know that Del wants you for the files in your cybernetics… ann… d… he has the encryption key for them.”

“What files? Encryption key?”

“Files for some top secret p… roject.”

Darius’s mind went back to the secrecy of his newfound friends. It made sense now. They knew about the files already. They wanted all of the parts so that they could get the complete set of those secret project files.

Preature rounded the corner and saw the man. “Good, one of you is still alive.”

With a look at Preature, Darius’s insides boiled, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak. He walked away instead.

Preature watched, knowing something was wrong, but allowing Darius to leave anyway. He looked at the man on the ground. “You’re going to tell me everything you know.”

“I… had, s… started telling the boy. He seems to be upset about s… sssomething.”

“Where are the parts that didn’t get installed into Darius Byun?”

“They… were installed… in Geracht. He’s more machine than man. They could do it without DNA recoding.” The man coughed and wheezed, getting weaker. “Do me a favor… Make it happen quicker...”

Preature ended the man’s suffering with a well placed bullet and returned to the group. Darius was now stewing in his rage there with them.

“The parts are in the giant, Geracht,” Preature announced.

“Can we trust the source?” CURL asked.

“No, but it makes sense. No need to DNA encode parts that way. We couldn’t figure out the DNA stuff, and it sounds like the surgeon couldn’t figure it out either.”

“I see,” Tinker said disappointedly. A part of him had wished to be able to find the secret to decoding Darius’s cybernetics.

Darius looked at all of them. Feelings of betrayal soaking deeper into his heart.

Preature fell to one knee, clutching his side.

Tinker ran to him, “Why didn’t you tell me you were hit?”

“Adrenaline, I guess,” Preature said, confused.

“We have to get you back. I’ll take a look at this there.”

“Darius, come help!” CURL called. Darius moved up to help support Preature’s weight as they headed to their getaway IFV.

“What do we do about Leary?” Darius asked.

“Preature first,” Tinker grunted. “We don’t even know where they would have taken him.”

“You’re right. They wouldn’t have taken him to their HQ,” Darius agreed. He still felt the seething inside, but for now, it was more important to help with Preature.