Chapter Two

                                    

                                          
  
                          
Chapter Two
                          

                          
Mandy followed the stranger’s instructions. Her eyes scanned the darkened street, and she saw the half-man, half-robot with his back against one wall and a spray can sized object she presumed was a weapon in his hands. The cyborg looked ready to have a heart attack as she joined him.
                          
“Human, you were supposed to wait there!” he said, pulling her against the wall with him. “They’ll pick up on your DNA!”
                          
“I don’t think it’s possible for someone to just randomly figure out my DNA,” she said. “Is it?”
                          
“Yes, it is!”
                          
Her head was starting to hurt.
                          
“Quiet. We have to wait for the patrol to pass.” He motioned overhead, towards the dense dark fog clinging to the city. She followed his gaze, waiting to see something to indicate there was a patrol. Nothing happened for a full five minutes, but he said at last, “We’re clear. We must go.”
                          
“Wait,” she said, taking his arm.
                          
He paused.
                          
“Are you Urik?” she asked.
                          
“No. We are going to him, if you don’t keep impeding our progress,” the cyborg replied crisply.
                          
Mandy sighed and released him.
                          
He jogged across the street and between two more buildings. She considered walking away before realizing she had nowhere else to go. The cyborg didn’t go far and disappeared into one of the buildings. They entered a building as labyrinth-like on the inside as the city. He ascended a set of stairs and waited before indicating for her to enter a large chamber resembling an auditorium. Small clumps of half a dozen or less men in black gathered sporadically around the auditorium while a couple dozen were gathered in the center around a light that glowed like a fire but produced no flames.
                          
She trailed the cyborg down gigantic steps that reached her hip in height. She took one at a time while he leapt deftly. When she’d climbed down the last of them, the cyborg and two men stood waiting for her. One of the men looked normal while the other appeared more like the half-man, half-lizard, Gonor. Her eyes lingered on the normal man, whose brown hair was close-cropped and whose eyes were like green gems. His features were rugged, his body muscular and wide. If Akkadi was built like a panther, this man was a bear.
                          
“Stand still,” the cyborg directed her, pointing to a spot on the floor.
                          
She went nervously.
                          
The lizard-man stepped forward with a wand in hand and ran it from her head to her feet. He looked at a watch, as if reading the results of the odd test.
                          
“One hundred percent,” he said with some surprise. The bear-like man beside him twisted his forearm towards him to double-check the results.
                          
“Purebred human,” the man said, sharp gaze on her. “Our source was right.”
                          
“Purebred human?” she echoed. “What else would I …” Her eyes went to the half-lizard beside her, who gave a lopsided, toothless grin.
                          
“How many were with you on the craft?” the man asked. He stepped forward and took one of her hands in his gloved one. He peered at her fingernails. She was once again distracted by how real his leathery gloves were.
                          
It wasn’t a dream.
                          
“A couple hundred, I imagine,” she said. “Gonor said … most were dead.”
                          
“The city gods would have stripped their tissues and bled them for their pureblood.”
                          
She stared at him. Sensing her distress at his words, the man looked at her from her hand. The skin around his eyes softened.