Machine Man (serial)

My legs slowed. We came to a halt not far from a small, elderly woman struggling up some steps with bags of groceries. She came to a halt, too, when she saw my hooves. Her eyes bulged.

Lola Banks was back at Better Future. Probably in her suite, waiting for me to return with the scanner. Her fingers maybe touching her chest, then pulling away; trying not to wonder what it was the company had put in her chest. Trying to concentrate on what she knew: that I was coming back.

“Diablo,” whispered the woman.

On the other hand, Better Future had guards. Guards with guns. Guns they weren’t shy about using. What was I, an idiot? I couldn’t go back there. They would shoot me dead.

“Diablo!”

I imagined Cassandra Cautery knocking on Lola’s door. Smiling as Lola opened it. Charlie sent me to fetch you. He wants you to come down to the lab. Because Cautery would have to assume that when I came back, I’d be bringing the government. That she had a small window of time in which eradicate all evidence of wrongdoing. I saw Cautery placing a hand in the small of Lola’s back, steering her toward the elevators.

“Diablo!”

“Quiet,” I said, because that was making it really hard to think. Plus my wounded bicep was beginning to transition from comfortably numb to distractingly sore with hints of impending agony. Concentrate. Maybe there was a back entrance. A door not protected by armed security guards on high alert. I scanned floor plans in my mind. No. There wasn’t.

But Lola. But Lola.

“Diablo!” the woman shrieked. She dropped her groceries to alternately point at me and clap her hands to her cheeks. “Diablo!”

“Then why am I going back?” I shouted. I wasn’t really angry with her. I was just emotional about my own likely death. The Contours began to hammer the sidewalk, bearing me back to Better Future.

93.