Cyberdrive

Threatening

Everyone else was asleep. That woman had hit them with some kind of tranquilizer. Mel picked up a the backpack with her working right hand and crawled along the floor to the front so she would not be seen.

Mel heard footsteps outside the van. She saw the woman in a mirror. The woman was wearing a deep red long leather trenchcoat and matching hefty boots. She was also carrying a very mean looking gun. Mel hoped that was still the tranquilizer.

"If anyone's in there," the woman said as she stopped by the side of the van and peered into the meshed-over window. "This is your last chance to come out."

Mel thought about surrendering. Maybe Ashton was right. He could get YCS to release them if he agreed to their demands. But is that what Mel wanted? Her son a slave to YCS? But what was the alternative? Hiding out in the Contested Region somewhere? To even do that she'd have to get rid of this woman somehow.

Rummaging around in the backpack Mel's heart stopped for a moment when she nudged the smart charge and a red light on it flashed. Then she found a taser and pulled it out of the bag.

Mel ducked between the front seats as the woman walked along the side of the van peering in. Luckily the mesh and all of the mud and dust on the windows obscured the inside well enough.

Finally, the woman came to the front where Ashton was lying. THe front door was still hanging open, and Mel would not be able to hide for much longer.

Mel pushed herself up into the passenger seat that the woman was approaching. She pointed her gun straight at the woman.

"Oh, there was someone else still in there," the woman said. She smiled as she put her hands up with her elbows bent, like someone might do if a child pointed a toy gun at them. She kept her gun in her right hand.

"This is a taser," Mel said. "Make one move and I will shoot."

"I know what that is. You're the owner of the garage. You're my target's mother."

"Your target's name is Ashton. He's not a target, he's a person."

"He's a person who is lucky enough to be recruited by the YCS Research and Development arm. You should be proud." The woman smiled with a grin that would only look natural on a vampire.

"He will never work for you," Mel said, clenching the taser tightly.

"Your son is a grown man who can make his own decisions," the woman said.

Something dawned on Mel. "You could hear our conversations in the van."

The woman's smile broadened. "Of course. Now, what's a life out here in the Contested Region compared to the money and benefits of a job at YCS?"

Mel fired the taser.

Two metal darts flew out of the taser with wires streaming behind. The darts stuck into the woman's coat. The woman looked down as the darts started crackling and buzzing, then she looked back at Mel and smiled again.

"I believe that taser only has a single shot," the woman said as she leveled her own gun at Mel. "Mine, on the other hand, has at least ten."

Mel dropped her gun and put her hand up.

"The other two as well," the woman said, eyeing Mel's left arms."

Mel shook her head. "They're not working right now. The one hand is all you get."

"You know, your son would be able to get you a deal on a new YCS model once he starts work."

"I would rather die."

The woman shrugged, then pointed her gun at Mel's heart. "Suit yourself," she said.

Mel heard the low rumble of a large vehicle coming from the opposite direction they came, from the heart of the Contested Region.

The woman looked in the direction of the sound and frowned. "I'll be back for you and your son," the woman said. "I'll bet he'd rather work for me than whoever is coming. Remember this offer. You'll all be pardoned. The service debt on your garage's account will be waived. All you have to do is get your son to agree to work for us for at least five years. The offer will stand until we get synthetic neuron healing working on our own." Then the woman lowered her gun and walked quickly back to her truck. Mel got out of the van and started trying to drag Ashton back into it with one working arm. She was not successful.

The rumbling noise grew louder, and in the distance she saw a large black truck driving up the decrepit road, a dust cloud billowing up behind it. It would not be long before it got here. Mel lay Ashton back on the ground as comfortably as she could manage and waited for the vehicle to arrive.

The truck slowed as it pulled up to the van and stopped right in front of it. It was much larger than it looked from a distance. The truck was huge, larger than a military truck, and all black where it wasn't covered in dust.

A man got out of the front seat and climbed down a ladder onto the ground. Mel recognized him immediately.

"Riker?" she said. "What are you doing here?"