Free Eric 754 by Donna McDonald Page B

as being genuine, so she activated the neural scrambler. The woman jumped and then fell from the air just short of landing on Eric 754. Aja writhed on the ground like an electrified snake as she attempted to crawl away.
     
    One attacker down, Lucy now turned her attention to the other.
     
    “Bloody hell, Captain. What have they turned you into?” Meara exclaimed, taking off at a run after she glared.
     
    Lucy considered letting her go, but wouldn’t the runaway just return to attack again? The Other seemed to think so. She and Eric 754 could never take another walk outside without the threat of her return.
     
    Decision made, she stretched out her arm and shot a beam of electricity from her fingertips downing the woman mid-run. The one named Meara screamed, fell forward, and then rolled around, moaning at the neural distress.
     
    The one named Aja was now screaming at her to stop hurting them both. Part of what the woman said was a plea, but the rest was pure vitriolic threats. All of it was highly distracting and needed to stop from Lucy’s point of view.
     
    She carefully stepped over Eric 754’s body and walked the short distance to where Aja lay.
     
    “We were trying to rescue you, you stupid wank,” Aja declared through gritted teeth.
     
    “You attacked me without provocation. You took down the contracted male who I am programmed to protect. These are the actions of an enemy, not those of an ally. You have given me no choice but to take the following action. By special order of CompanionX01, run system shut down protocol 5Omega78AJA on Aja 490. You are to enter hibernation until called into service.”
     
    On the ground Aja seized when she heard the command. “No. I can’t believe you’d take me down with the very code the bastard named for me. Where is your soul? Have the bastards suc… ceed... ed?”
     
    Soon Aja was silent. Looking off to her other attacker, Lucy noticed the one named Meara was trying to crawl away. Sighing at the total loss of her peace, not to mention the interruption of the first time her new contract had allowed any pleasure between them, Lucy walked wearily in the escaping woman’s direction.
     
    Eric 754 had generously allowed her to make a recording of the trees. She would replay it later to restore her mood before he woke from his sedative. In the meantime, she would neutralize the final threat.
     
    After both women were in hibernation, Lucy walked back to where Eric 754 lay unconscious in the grass. She certainly couldn’t carry a man as large as he was, but she needed to get him inside where she could care for him properly. Reaching down, she grabbed the back of his shirt and started dragging him toward the facility entrance. He was not hard to drag, which she found helpful in the circumstances. Heaviness was never a challenge for her anyway, but the size and height of an object often were.
     
    All locks in the facility were now in perfect sync with her anti-security device. The door clicked open instantly when she was three feet away—a responsive distance that suited her.
     
    She eased through the opening, dragging Eric 754 inside with her. Like the well-trained companion she was, she would return to clean up the rest of her mess after she made sure her contracted male was on the mend.
     
    ***
     
    Eric woke up moaning, his head throbbing like hell. No one should get this hung over from drinking three wimpy-ass beers with dinner.
     
    Then he remembered. Fuck. He wasn’t hung over. He’d gotten tranquilized.
     
    Eric rolled in the bed until he could sit up. That’s when he noticed he was completely naked. The room spun as he blinked, but when it righted itself, he saw precisely where he was.
     
    Oh hell. Had he done anything he shouldn’t have with Lucy?
     
    She appeared in the doorway as if conjured by his thoughts—and with a medical plunger in her hand. Had she knocked him out without him realizing it? The last he remembered was kissing her like she