Black Eyes

Chapter 8

Zayfir for a moment unbalanced on her heels, but got back on her feet at almost inhuman speed. She charged at Nakir who found the tip of her heel planted in his chest. The woman pressed and pressed. Nakir felt his sternum crick before grabbing the tip and pulling with his right arm until he freed himself and in the meantime took off Zayfir's shoe before throwing her across the room. He twisted her ankle and the woman fell onto her back without a noise. Nakir threw himself at her with a feline leap, punched her on the cheekbone, but her face looked like it was made of metal so that Nakir began to bleed from his knuckles.

What the hell? The boy thought as the woman looked towards the silenced gun a few steps away from her.

"Hell no!" Nakir shouted before throwing another punch at her, but she didn't even feel it and dragged herself under the weight of Nakir's body towards the gun. He grabbed her hair, but she arched her back and reached for the weapon with her left hand. Nakir's heart was beating wildly, that woman seemed indestructible. Nakir was out of breath while she, relaxed as if she had just woken up, rolled her torso hitting Nakir with her shoulder and making him unbalance until she was on top of him, gun in hand, her shiny dress slightly tattered.

"A last wish?" Zayfir asked, the barrel of the gun pressed on Nakir's forehead.

That's when he saw it.

"I will cooperate with you!" Nakir shouted through clenched teeth.

Zayfir looked satisfied. A grin formed on her face and a second later she found herself thrown to the ground. Nakir saw only the familiar mass of blonde curls in the commotion.

Eva had landed on Zayfir's body and with her thighs locked she was immobilising her hips. The gun had slipped from her hand, but Nakir ignored it. He got up and ran towards the two intertwined bodies and with a well-executed kick of his iron-toed boots he completely smashed Zayfir's face. What he saw left him dumbfounded.

In the hole he could see cables, tubes, a glass eyeball connected to a platinum endoskeleton. A blue liquid, the posir, the same one that flowed in Eva's tubes and capillaries, was starting to form a small puddle next to the android's smashed head.

"It was foreseeable that she would have sent an android" said Eva, standing up "She would never have locked herself in a room with you without first testing your powers and abilities"

Nakir observed Eva for a moment. She was essentially naked. Her body was a tangle of tubes and rotors, engines powered by the posir that kept her "alive" and the titanium endoskeleton where the carbon fibre muscles were wrapped was covered by ivory-coloured plates and only on the joints the blue light of the interior shone through.

Her body was slender, suitable for fitting into pipes and ventilation circuits, and the plates were arranged so that it could be as flexible as possible and make unnatural twists, a great advantage on the battlefield. On the ivory chest where a small breast had been shaped like a mannequin appeared the logo of the Kwer, but it had been as if... erased in a rudimentary way. Nakir found himself admiring that masterpiece of biotechnology for a few seconds, then Eva spoke.

"I know I made a mistake" she murmured, approaching Nakir and looking up "Let me fix it"

Nakir gave a small nod but added.

"We need to hurry before the Zarka sees the android. She just called reinforcements"

Could he really trust Eva? The boy wondered if this was all a charade cooked up by the Kwer, but Eva looked... scared, in a way he had never seen her before. Perhaps she too was eager to escape from that place as soon as possible.