Machine Man (serial)

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

The Better Future guards bundled me into the back seat of the town car and slammed the door. I noticed it wasn’t locked, so I opened it again. A guard looked down at me and pushed it closed. This repeated twice more. By then he was frustrated and said, “What are you doing?” I felt satisfied, because the answer was: Being trouble. I didn’t need legs for that.

“Stop that,” the driver said. My door locked with a thunk. I saw his eyes in the rear view mirror: condescension, from a guy with one foot resting on the accelerator of a 200-horsepower vehicle.

The opposite door opened. Cassandra Cautery slid her gray-skirted butt onto the leather seat. “Go,” she said to the driver. As the car pulled out, she twisted around to look out the rear window.

“Where’s Lola? What’s happening?” I got no reply, so turned around to see for myself. The white van doors were being pushed closed; then the vehicle peeled onto the road behind us. At least two gray-uniformed guards were left behind, scuttling toward Angelica’s open garage. “Who’s coming?”

Cassandra Cautery’s eyes moved onto me. I realized something: apart from Lola, Cautery was the only person who ever looked at me with no hint of revulsion. “She ruined your legs, didn’t she?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” While my mouth was dropping open with outrage, she checked out the back window again. “All right. Let’s catch you up.”

134.