We were violently led to the center of the room, where the henchmen had placed a ruby throne. The robot had positioned me on the right armrest, the cage gates facing the main fountain. Xiao sat down comfortably next to me after adjusting his velvet robe. I could see him through the side ventilation filter of the box.
“My grandsons are now fastening both of you with an explosive necklace unjustly prohibited by the Technocratic Slave Convention,” the giant explained. After these words, he took two remote controls out of his inside pocket and pressed the single button on one of them. When he released his metal thumb, an electric shock caused Ali to scream, and she collapsed to the ground. He reiterated his gesture, without worrying about Zéphyr’s furious protests. Our friend had shut down her holosuit and took back her original appearance. “After three warnings, the collar explodes. Nevertheless…” Against all expectations, King Xiao thumbed the button a third time but this time he didn’t take his finger off it. “Nevertheless, I doubt the Kitty’s crew understands the concept of an ultimatum.”
“Monster!” I yowled behind bars.
“They were armed, Yéye!” shouted one of the men, probably his grandson, after displaying Ali’s caliber.
“Of course, they were!” Xiao snorted. “They’re no entertainers but bounty hunters and data thieves, báichī!”
Another thug threw Zéphyr’s blades into the fountain basin facing me before King Xiao rose from the throne and grabbed the Maiden by the throat. He lifted the cyborg’s metal body three meters off the ground, at arm’s length, without the slightest effort.
“You fools!” started Xiao. “I’ve seen Korolev walk on the moon with a Nazi-designed rusty rocket. I watched an Irishman winning the last American election thanks to the Sicilian crime syndicate. And I’ve witnessed my hometown being turned into glass by a synthesized devil my own country programmed.” The godfather tightened his grip, making the Data Maiden cough white blood. “Nothing can surprise me anymore!” Xiao laughed again, before pointing his electronic pendant with his chin. “Is this what you’re looking for, right? I have a lot of questions for you, Zéphyr the data zéi—about you, the Brokers Guild and that shéngùn of Mancéphalius. But, we will get to that later, won’t we?”
Our friend wished to protest, but Xiao silenced her by slipping Ali’s remote control between the teeth. He then ordered her to clench her jaws if she didn’t want my partner to meet the end he had predicted.
Hell! It was a disaster! By being too self-assured, we had been totally outwitted. Zéphyr had led us right into a trap. Disarmed, tied up and imprisoned in the heart of an underwater bunker, we had no chance to escape. The likelihood of being rescued was equally ridiculous.
I had to calm down. I had my freedom of movement at least in this box. So, I was the one with the most leeway. But what could I do?
“Shackle the ‘borg to these gallows. I’ll keep her for myself,” shouted Xiao, cracking his fingers. “And with a double knot! Because we have a master thief and a real Houdini!”
As he approached Ali, he ordered his henchmen to violently tear off her kimono. My partner wanted to fight and beat her attackers, but the godfather slammed her to the ground with a titanic slap. Her lips had burst in shock. A thin stream of vermeil ran down her chin and pearled on her breasts. She didn’t move anymore, tetanized.
“Ali! Ali!” I shouted again, tearing my lungs out.
Zéphyr tried to do the same, but if she loosened the teeth of the remote control, my sapiens was doomed.
The rest was even worse. Xiao’s henchmen had tied Ali to one of the instruments and I refused to attend such a gruesome performance. While the goons of the Emperor of the Outer Worlds beat her under the demented laughter of their godfather, I gnawed at the steel bars that separated me from the outside. All I knew was that she didn’t scream. She was strong. She was my sapiens.
God Darwin! She had to hold on. I was about to save her!
I finally tried to look at this scene of human madness and wished I didn’t. She was upside down, rushed off with blows until she hung motionless. It was so violent that the leather laces threatened to snap.
“Do you think we didn’t see your marks from that old Lunar tattoo, wáwá?” cried one of the executioners.
“Tak Khunn! The Niku’s not moving! I suppose we finally broke it!” said one of the two cyborgs who had joined the other henchmen.
Tattoo? Niku? No! How would they know about this?
They all laughed in chorus while my partner’s blood flowed on her belly and beaded on her face.
“They don’t mold meat-dolls as strong as they used to do,” joked Xiao. “Don’t spoil it, hóng gùn. Open it enough! I’d like to see what the Gods managed to do with the tech they stole from us. Kuài yīdiǎn!”
“Show time, then!” Unzipping his pants, her executioner chuckled.
But not for long!
Still upside down, Ali had broken her shackles and freed the lower part of her bruised body. I heard her scream. Her legs clamped the shoulders of the grunt who tried to molest her a few seconds earlier. With her thighs around his jaw, she broke his neck which snapped like a dry twig.
On his throne, King Xiao startled. Roaring like a tiger, he immediately ran to Zéphyr to collect the remote control. But the cyborg with the night skin had fled her own chains. A skillful acrobat, she was standing at the top of a column, a sly smile almost erased by rage.
“Nothing can surprise you anymore, uh?” the androgynous thief shouted, holding Ali’s zapper firmly in her free fist.
Meanwhile, my partner took advantage of the chaos. She slipped into the back of her attacker with his trousers down and grabbed the weapon from the belt near his heels. Clinging to the corpse’s shoulders, she fired several shots towards the godfather. She shredded the hand with which he had grasped the second switch.
The last bullet of the salvo pulverized the inorganic brain of the robot butler. A mechanical click followed and I was set free. Free to jump on the Tak Khunn’s neck before furiously ‘snootdiving’ into his sweat-soaked dress. Not without a few scratches, I had reached his feet where I could grab Zéphyr’s remote control after deeply biting his Achilles tendon.
It was time to flee the premises. But that wasn’t the objective of my human. Like a wild beast, she twirled from one henchman to another, throwing them to the ground one by one with her fists and knees. My partner emptied the magazine of another submachine gun into the nearest meat bags. Even the two cybernetic sentries went down without the slightest resistance.
I had never seen her in such a state before. There was no more life in Ali’s eyes. She had snapped the moment Xiao mentioned his link to the Moon and the Niku-dolls. Amid the tornado of fire and blood, my only reason to breathe no longer existed. An incommensurable rage took over.
It was a massacre that the Emperor of the Outer Worlds could only witness helplessly. The godfather was riddled with stray bullets as he tried in vain to take cover. When all his men had fallen, he rushed towards my human to fight hand-to-hand.
ns 15.158.61.50da2
