Free Emma: Part Three by Lolita Lopez

of his chest. Like a child caught playing with something forbidden, Rio hastily stepped away from the radio. “Sorry! I should have asked first before I touched it.”
    “It’s fine,” Emma said. “When I get it fixed, you should come over and talk to the outside world with me.”
    “Really?” Rio perked up with eagerness.
    “Don’t get too excited about that possibility,” Adam warned. He shot Emma a warning glance. “You need to get that contraption of yours cleared by SICO. The last thing Max or Jack needs is Gage and his boys rousting them out of bed in the middle of the night and dragging them in as suspected Faction sympathizers.”
    “That’s crazy,” Rio protested. “Emma didn’t even know what Faction was until, like, half an hour ago when I told her, and Jack and Max are the most rah-rah-cyborgs on the post.”
    “SICO doesn’t just show up and take new wives into custody for no reason,” Adam retorted. He pinned Emma in place with a warning look. “If there’s something you haven’t told Max and Jack about your family or your connections or your history, you better spit it out now. I can’t help you if you’re lying.”
    “I’m not lying!” Panicked, Emma wrung her hands. “I don’t know why anyone on this base would be interested in me.”
    “Well we’re about to find out, aren’t we?” Motioning toward the door, he said, “Let’s go.”
    “I’m coming with you,” Rio decided and grabbed Emma’s hand.
    Adam looked like he wanted to argue, but Rio wore such a determined expression he must have known it wouldn’t work. “Then come on.”
    Trailing Adam and holding tight to Rio’s hand, Emma silently wished Max and Jack were with her, but she was infinitely grateful to the new friend she had made and the scarred protector who had come to her rescue.
    A sick feeling twisted her stomach as she climbed into Adam’s vehicle. Like a bad premonition, her earlier fears that something terrible was coming had come true—and it had come for her.

5 Chapter Five
    Filthy and haggard, Max stepped off the helicopter and kept his head low until he had cleared a safe range. Every muscle in his body ached, and he had to physically force each step, his boots feeling heavier and heavier with each passing moment. Torn between his desire to see Emma and his duty, he exhaled roughly and motioned for one of the soldiers to hold a spot in an idling transport vehicle. He jumped into the front passenger seat, leaned back and rested his eyes.
    He wanted to block out the radio traffic banging around his head to get a few moments of peace, but he was on duty. Messages from command flashed across the lens implanted in his eye. General Adamson had been called away on urgent business, and Colonel Monroe had command of the post.
    Damien Monroe was a stand-up soldier and had the respect and loyalty of every cyborg on the base, but Max had never warmed to the man. Monroe had earned his call-sign “Silver” as an interrogation specialist with a long-disbanded SICO squad. He used that silver tongue of his to get cyborgs to talk—and was a known and firm believer in enhanced interrogation techniques. Every time Max shook Monroe’s hand, he wondered how many cyborgs had been tortured by it.
    Too soon, the vehicle slowed to a stop. Max thanked the driver for the ride and hauled himself out of the front seat and onto the pavement. A fine mist had started to fall and the temperature had dropped a few degrees, not enough to chill him but enough that it made him think about Emma and the coming winter.
    The weather spurred his memory of Chloe’s description of the cold winter nights filled with hunger and fear. Had it been that way for Emma? He tried to imagine her alone and freezing in that house of hers. It would have been difficult to keep warm and the amount of work required to keep her small farm going would have kept her outdoors for long periods of time. There were so many ways she could have been hurt. He