004

Dr. Isis staggered in the woods, completely disoriented. She had managed to hunker down, waiting for the damned baby to go to sleep. Three days she had spent waiting for the brat to conk out, with crickets screaming in her ears every night, and birdsong pounding on her eardrums by day. The thunderstorm had been pure torture.

Now, at long last, 001 was asleep and she could stumble into camp. The sound of Jet and Chang bickering was her beacon as she stumbled through the woods. It was the only consistent sound over the shout of squirrels chewing on nuts from miles away.

Finally, she collapsed against the door of the house. As much as it pained her, she forced herself to knock on the door. She then collapsed against it, huddling with the fervent desire to go deaf within five minutes. Instead, the door opened, causing her to fall backwards into the house, staring up at the silver eyes of 004.

Despite the ridiculous distraction of the noise all around her, she managed to stay focused on her mission. "Oh thank God! I've been wandering around these woods for days."

004 looked down at her without a hint of mercy. "Come on in." She knew from his file he was stoic. The fact that he had spoken to her at all indicated she was already playing on his heartstrings.

"Do you have a quiet room where I could sleep? I haven't been able to sleep for days. The woods are so noisy." She was planning to reveal that she was an escaped cyborg. She just couldn't think well. It was true that she hadn't been able to sleep. She had severely underestimated the adjustment period for her heightened senses.

He raised an eyebrow at her, while taking note of her obviously mechanical hands. "Sure, follow me." 002 and 009 observed her gorgeous figure with obvious lust in their eyes. She stumbled behind 004 to a bedroom with soundproofed walls. They did not function as advertised. She could distinctly hear 002 and 009 in the other room.

"Did you catch that girl's figure, Joe? I could stare at her all day long!"

"Francois would kill me if she heard me say anything like that, Jet."

"Yeah, but she wants to kill me already. That girl has a body that does NOT quit."

"She does have a nice body. Completely different build from Francois, though."

"You're just being careful because you know she hears every word we say.... OW! Hey Francois, I didn't see you there."

"I'm sure you didn't. Joe, would you drive me into town? I need a break from the testosterone in this room."

"Sure thing."

Dr. Isis could hear 003 and 009 leave. It was clear that 009 was interested, who wouldn't be? And 002 would be easy to seduce. Finally, she fell unconscious, despite the noise, as 004 checked in on her.

Albert was very disturbed by their new guest. She had machine gun hands, just like his, and complained of noise the way Francois sometimes did. There was no telling what other abilities she had. And with the body of a blowup doll, it was certain she had been sent to either disrupt the unity that barely existed between them, or else take them out, one by one. It was a shame that Ivan wasn't awake. He could have quickly determined what was going on.

He poked his head in to see how she was doing. She appeared to be asleep. Jet had aggravated Francois into leaving with Joe. That wasn't good, if this girl was half the threat he was afraid she would be. The way Jet was talking, you'd think he couldn't see anything besides the ridiculous bosom and hips on her. Then again, it was possible that he couldn't.

Given the fact that she was probably asleep, but might not be, he chose to be careful. He quickly made a note indicating his suspicions, along with an area to indicate agreement or disagreement and showed it to everyone except Jet. Dr. Gilmore, Pyunma, G. Junior, and Chang all agreed with him. G.B. disagreed and showed every sign of being prepared to defend her honor against any accusation. That, or he was just quoting Shakespeare again because he didn't have a clue. It was hard to tell sometimes.