Page 43 of Operation Iron Heart

Marci couldn’t believe her eyes when she spotted Silver’s black speed glider in amongst the confusion of departing gliders and fighting soldiers, coming in to land right next to her. He leapt out of the cockpit and rushed over to her with a laser pistol at the ready, but found himself threatened by Max and his hybrid colleagues. Quickly, Marci explained to them who Silver was, and together they helped lift a still-unconscious Jack into the black glider. Silver gave Max and his men the contact details they needed to find a safe refuge but didn’t reveal the location of Hunters Lane. Even in emergencies like this, Cathrin and her team insisted on conducting an extremely thorough check on every new arrival before they were allowed to enter the rebel organisation’s inner sanctum.

As Silver started up the glider, several explosions could be heard from the underground facility, and the smoke rising up told him that the site’s anti-aircraft defences had been completely destroyed.

On board the glider, Silver instructed Marci on how to link Jack up to the lifesaving treatment that would offset the energy he had lost.

“Will Cathrin be able to fix him?” asked Marci anxiously. She was less worried about the serious burns on his arms and legs, and the pale ceramic skeleton glimmering between the scorched flesh, than the fact that the fake Dr Tanaka had interfered with Jack’s brain.

“Don’t worry,” Silver reassured her. “Physically speaking, it’ll be easy getting him back on his feet again.”

“Physically speaking?” asked Marci in alarm. “What about the rest of him? Will there be a problem with his mind?”

Silver pressed his lips together, which Marci took to be a bad sign.

“I don’t want to give you false hope,” replied Silver. “I don’t know what Tanaka did with his hard drive, but if he tried to copy the emotional source code in his brain, that might have deleted Jack’s personality. We need to see what Cathrin has to say.”

“She has to fix it,” whispered Marci, stroking Jack’s stubbled cheek gently. “I don’t want to lose someone else I love with all my heart.”

“Cathrin can do it,” Silver said calmly, as Marci resorted to the faith her Mexican grandmother had taught her and began to silently pray.

Marci held Jack’s motionless, ice-cold hand for the whole flight and didn’t let go even after they landed at Hunters Lane where a couple of strong assistants stretchered him onto a wheeled frame and took him straight to the rebel base’s operating theatre. Cathrin Porter and a team of scientists, who specialised in repairing serious injuries in both humans and robots without leaving a mark, met in the sterile room full of advanced robot technology.

“Are you OK?” asked Cathrin, looking at Marci in concern. “I can give you a calming agent that will work immediately and it’ll last for a while.”

“I don’t want a sedative,” replied Marci, her voice breaking as she suddenly processed the fact that they could all have been killed. “I just want Jack to be healthy again.”

“He will be,” said Cathrin reassuringly as she connected Jack’s unconscious body to a series of machines that looked strikingly similar to Dr Tanaka’s. “I suggest you leave me to do what I must and go to your boys. They’ve been desperate to see their mom.”

Marci took a deep breath and looked around helplessly. Silver gestured for her to follow him, took her hand and led her to a lift.

A few minutes later, they stepped out of the lift onto a lower floor and Marci felt dizzy. “Sorry,” she murmured to Silver, who was holding on to her, “I’ve completely lost my sense of direction. I can’t remember which way our apartment is.”

“It’s not where it used to be,” he explained, leading her along the corridor to an area painted in sky blue that she didn’t recognise at all. “Cathrin gave instructions that you should be moved to a family apartment. It’ll be more suited to your needs, and the children, in particular, will have more space. There’s a separate children’s room and a large living-dining area. It’s normally intended for six people.”

Silver asked her to open the door to the apartment using the iris scanner and Marci thought she was dreaming when she stepped inside. Compared to her housing in the slums, the rooms were huge. The sleek white cabinets looked practical, and the cream sofa and chair in the living rooms looked incredibly comfortable. The adjoining kitchen had a smart fridge stocked with everything they needed and it all looked like total paradise.

“Cathrin wants the families who live here to feel comfortable,” Silver assured her with a friendly twinkle in his blue eyes.

As he said this, Logan and Willie Junior came rushing in, followed by a pleasant-faced robot nanny. Silver greeted her with a smile; her name was Luelle and she was a young woman with an engaging smile whom Marci liked immediately.

“I’ve made pancakes,” she said, as if this was the most natural thing in the world. “We can eat straight away.”

“Mommy?!” cried Logan and Willie together, almost knocking her over and then wrapping themselves around her as if she’d been gone for years. Marci’s eyes filled with tears, particularly when Logan looked at her and declared that she looked so different. That wasn’t surprising as they hadn’t seen her since her transformation more than a week earlier. “Where’s Jack?” he asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

“Jack’s fine,” Silver replied. “He’s got stuff to do, but he’ll see you tomorrow.”

Marci gave a deep sigh, hoping fervently that Silver would be right. Willie Junior wasn’t interested in Jack; he simply stretched up his skinny arms, wanting Marci to pick him up, and then clung to her like a little monkey when she did.

Luelle ordered the boys to sit down at the table and behave nicely while they ate their pancakes. Marci was offered one, too, but she found herself unable to eat despite being starving. She wouldn’t be able to keep anything down until she knew how Jack was doing.

“You haven’t offered me any,” Silver complained to Luelle with a faint smile, but he didn’t mean it seriously. Robots only ate when their batteries were empty and there was no other energy source available, but he clearly enjoyed flirting a bit with Luelle. She responded with a humorous comment and laughed.

“I have to go,” he said to Marci, shrugging at Luelle, who looked disappointed that he was leaving so soon. “Cathrin wants my full report when she’s finished in the operating theatre.”

“Do I need to submit a report as well?” asked Marci in confusion.

“I think so, yes,” confirmed Silver. “Jack’ll take care of it once he’s able to. Cathrin will also want to call a meeting for all of us so our findings can be analysed.”

“OK.” Marci nodded, feeling suddenly incredibly empty and alone.