Free Peyton 313 by Donna McDonald Page A

remember the incident, but I’m fairly certain I would never try to harm a woman unless it was a life or death situation.”
    Kyra sighed and studied her feet. It was always hard to explain because it was wrong—simply wrong. “At this time in our country, there’s no legal punishment for any human damaging a cyborg. This is especially true if you own the cyborg or they work for you. If you happen to actually kill a cyborg belonging to someone else, you can only be sued for a shit ton of restitution money. Cybernetically enhanced individuals are little more than high-priced commodities these days. They are treated the same as non-organic robots.”
    Peyton continued to look through the file. “What recourse is there for a cyborg when a rich crazy woman gets hold of him?”
    “None,” Kyra answered flatly, knowing he was including her in that comment. “But you’ll be happy to know I never did anything with you worthy of that glare you’re trying hard not to give me. I’m not one of those women, even though I used their process to obtain access to you.”
    “Really? I think you are one of them. You kissed me and gave me hope before you cruelly took it away with your story. If you ask me, that’s a pretty lousy thing to do to a man who can’t remember the last decade of his life.”
    Peyton sifted through more pages, but stopped when he came across the advertisement for him. It was surreal to see such a large fee next to his photo.
    “I swear I didn’t kiss you to add to your torment.” When Peyton didn’t answer back, Kyra returned to silently waiting until he had flipped through the rest of the documentation.
    Finally Peyton looked up from the folder in his lap. “None of this makes any sense to me. I served my country as best I could. Hell, I gave them everything they wanted, including several normal working parts of my body—like my damn eyes for instance. I used to have blue eyes. Why the hell would the military betray me by taking my free will away?”
    “For the same reason I have you in a cage, Captain Elliott. Everyone in the world is afraid of what you might do with your cybernetics if your human side ever gets angry enough. Norton made you as much of a human robot as they possibly could because they figured out exactly how to control the cybernetic side of you.”
    Kyra swiveled in her chair as she tried to find words to describe the reasons she had felt the need to take such drastic measures with him. Finally, she turned back.
    “I’m afraid too, but in the last seven years, I’ve learned that controlling another human being is just one illusion piled on top of another. Before your processor fried, you confessed you had been seeking your own escape. Somehow you were teaching your human mind to connect organically to your cybernetic chips. I think it’s only a matter of time before it starts to happen for other cyborgs. A quiet revolution is most likely underway, Captain Elliot. When it really gets going, the cyborgs are going to need a leader to help them fight for their remaining humanity.”
    Peyton shook his head and wondered who might have helped her create all the content he was reading. If it was a lie, she had some talented hacks working with her.
    If it was the truth—?
    No, it couldn’t be . It was too hard to believe.
    “How much did you pay for me, Dr. Winters?”
    Kyra ignored the question. She saw no purpose in him knowing what she had spent. “Just so we’re clear with each other, I only kissed you yesterday because I wanted to kiss you. It’s been a long damn time since I kissed anyone. Judging from how good it was, I have no doubt that your sexual training is as top notch as advertised. The reason I didn’t indulge completely was because I didn’t want to become just another woman taking advantage of you. My bigger purpose is far more important than any passing attraction I might be feeling.”
    “I assure you the only sex training I have was gotten on my own. Me