Free Kingston 691: Book Two of Cyborgs: Mankind Redefined by Donna McDonald Page A

enough, but thank you, Mother.”
    Annalise hugged her hurting daughter tightly. “You’re welcome. He’s welcome too…though I’m not sure he completely understands I had his best interests in mind when I bought his contract.”
    Seetha shook her head again. “King may never figure it out. He’s…strange now. I’m still the invisible woman to him though—I saw it for myself. He’s nice and polite, but there’s nothing there, just like when Norton returned him.”
    Annalise petted her daughter’s hair. “I’m sorry then. I hear the hurt in your voice. I promise you one day you’ll love again and this loss will fade to something you can manage. Life has a way of going on even when you don’t want it to.”
    Seetha nodded and felt her mother tip her chin up.
    “King may be very different, but some of the man you loved lives on in who and what he’s become. After Kingston was restored, he opened a restaurant.”
    “ He did? Good,” Seetha declared, honestly pleased. It was like hearing the news about his human decision making being restored. All she could feel was elation and relief that no one would ever take his life from him again.
    “Yes, I thought it was good too.” Annalise squeezed hard. “Then one day I went to see him at his new restaurant and told him the truth about why I had bought him. He was very kind…just like you saw. When I told him you were missing, Kingston promised he would find you and bring you home to me. And he did just exactly what he said he would, even though he didn’t remember his time with you. Though I will miss him being a real part of our lives, I will always be grateful to him for bringing you home.”
    Seetha nodded. “Yes. So will I. He came just when I needed him most. I guess I should count my blessings instead of mourning for what I’ve lost.”
    She hadn’t shared the fact she’d almost been killed with her mother. No charges would be made against Norton’s negligence, or the UCN’s faulty database, so there was no need to pass along to her mother the same nightmares she kept having over and over. What she had endured in the work camp was a burden she would bear alone. She would consider it penance for all the pain she’d caused the woman who raised her.
    “So…how is the food at King’s restaurant?” Seetha asked, trying to shift her mind to the positive.
    Annalise laughed. “Actually…I don’t know. I didn’t stay to eat anything after I talked to him. The bread is good and the wine is excellent. Kingston sources locally so most items on the menu are very healthy and cost worthy. Maybe we can break in your new wardrobe and go try the food together.”
    “Sure,” Seetha declared, but the idea depressed her. She didn’t know if she had enough emotional fortitude to watch King being happy in a life that was never going to include her.

Chapter 6
     
    “Play the next vid,” King ordered, staring at the display which had just finished playing back one of his many erased files. “I want to see all of the recordings.”
    “Are you sure, King? We’ve been at this for hours now. What I’ve shown you so far is just a random sampling of what was captured in long term storage. It took me nearly a full work week to look through all the material. You can read the data files on a handheld, but the videos have to be watched at the same speed they were recorded for the language to be properly heard. And keep in mind—these are not really your memories—not in the normal sense. They are short recordings of what your processor sporadically deduced was significant enough to collect through your vision and hearing implants. We didn’t know you had those until we saw these vids. Now it turns out your entire team got both even if those weren’t part of the official records. Only Peyton’s implants are official. He has nearly everything Norton ever put into a cyborg.”
    King was numb…and somewhat in shock...over Nero’s reduction of what he was seeing