"Everyone's gone—she took all of them out!" the techno bawled via speakerphone.

Jose bit his tongue even though he wanted to castigate the driver to the point that he would wish that he never crawled out of his womb-simulated vat. The idiot called from a gas station and interrupted him from his chemical bath, so now Jose was dripping liquid stench all over the study's carpeted floors in a bathrobe that would also soon stink. Miguel handed him a towel as a consolation. Jose dried his hair with it, taking out his aggression on the towel instead.

The study was furnished as Father had left it: oversized mahogany desk with the phone, mid-century modern sideboard with chrome bestial figurines from the Schutzstaffel days, taxidermy wall mounts of animal and human hybrids, the dim indoor lighting of a vampire lair. Father's massive portrait still hung from the wall in its gaudy gold-plated frame, and it towered over everything else as if it were delivering a divine judgment. Jose bristled. He would have it removed.

"—she jumped on the roof dressed like a man so we had our guard down and—"

Jose had ordered that team to follow the blond square-shaped human because he'd lead them to Cybersix. So if some friend of the blond jumped on your car, wouldn't the odds be extremely fucking high that the person was Cybersix? He glared so hard at the speakerphone that it should've exploded, and the fact that it didn't was an act of betrayal.

"That must have been very difficult," Miguel soothed.

"It was."

Miguel nodded at the speakerphone. "I'm sure you did your best,"

"I tried to save them. I really did."

"We believe you."

Jose stared daggers at Miguel. The latter looked down at his shoes and shifted his weight.

"How did you escape?" Jose demanded, ending the imbecilic counselling session.

"I ran away," the driver wheezed.

"You ran away," he sneered.

"Boss, I swear there was nothing else I could do—"

"Where did they go?"

"I don't know… the human was bleeding on the ground and they probably took the car—"

"The Cyber's ally was bleeding and you did nothing?"

The driver whimpered like a kicked dog. "—There were two of them and only one of me. The human is built like a tank too, like he was the big daddy of them Fixed Ideas—"

Jose did not dignify the rambling with a response, and raised his hand to prevent Miguel from flapping his lips.

"Boss?"

He let the silence drag on. Tall windows lined the west-facing wall, showing a panoramic view of the field outside. Jose surveyed the view; frost covered an endless expanse of barren soil, and snow began to drift down from the grey skies.

"… I'm real sorry."

Jose held Miguel's gaze.

"I fucked up real bad but I dunno how things could've been different.

Miguel's jaw tightened.

"Boss? You there?

The large mahogany desk before them was covered in dust. Jose slid a finger down and drew a frowning hangman.

"You're not gonna let me starve out here, are you?

Jose plopped down on the desk chair, which turned out to have four legs and zero swivelling capabilities.

"Boss?

Screw this mid-century modern crap. He would have everything replaced.

"Boss!"

Jose ended the call.

"So we're not sending a crew to pick him up," Miguel glanced down. It wasn't a question.

"Wanna guess why?" Jose observed him—he seemed to be broodier these days. After Father's death, Jose expanded the sustenance rationing system he had innovated in Meridiana to include the legacy crew in The Fortress. Instead of having an unlimited supply of sustenance, now everyone only earned their share if they met the performance indicators set by Jose. Miguel was responsible for enforcing the new system, and they already had a death in less than a week. Dirty looks were being sent Miguel's way.

"I suppose that it would be inadvisable to supply the Cyber with a second batch of sustenance," Miguel said finally.

Jose rose to his feet and clapped. "This is the kind of thinking we need." He wanted to go back to his bath with a souvenir from Father's liquor cabinet, but he paused. Miguel stared blankly at the dreary view through the tall windows, as if the empty landscape around them were closing in.

"Tell me," Jose strode to his side, clasping his hands behind his back. "How smart are technos?"

"Sir?"

"You're a techno. That driver is a techno."

There was a pause. "If I am not mistaken, the cognitive abilities that technos have are comparable to those of humans."

"Go on."

"Their abilities follow a normal distribution: some may perform close to the ceiling previously established by the Cybers, while others may only be a standard deviation above the Fixed Ideas."

"Would you place that driver at the upper range?"

"No, sir."

"Would it be a worthwhile use of resources to retrieve his ass?"

Miguel paused. "It would be unlikely."

"Remember that," Jose a placed a hand on his shoulder. "Remember Father's vision of a superior race. And who knows," he shrugged, "you might see him again if he's smart enough to hitchhike back." He kept his hand on Miguel for a touch too long, and the latter stiffened. Miguel had been his caretaker for the better part of two decades, and it felt good to finally stand at the same physical height as him.

"So we're letting the Cyber go?" Miguel frowned.

Jose's shoulders rose. "Is she free if she has to face me to stay alive? It's just a matter of time. We can set up all the traps we want, and she'll have no choice but to walk right into them."

The frown remained. "But are you not concerned about the timing of her return?"

"What do you mean?"

"Things have been… restless since the implementation of the sustenance system."

Jose's nostrils flared. "The hell does that have to do with anything?"

"The Cybers are very good at inciting revolts." Miguel met his eyes.

Jose saw his twisted reflection in the techno's beady black pupils. "What, you think they'd choose her over me?" He forced a laugh.

Miguel didn't laugh along.

"Why?" Jose sputtered.

Miguel looked away while mumbling something.

"What was that?" He grabbed Miguel's arm.

"—Because you drink sustenance just like rest of us," Miguel said.

Jose saw red. He felt the blood boil inside him like a volcano, rising from his gut to his veins, and it poured over to punch Miguel and shove him to the ground. And like the slimy worm he was, Miguel curled up to shield himself.

"I'M-" Jose delivered a kick to the head.

"-BETTER THAN-" To the crotch.

"YOU!" he ended with a kick to the side, standing tall over the trembling techno.

Jose stepped over him, shaking his head. Out of Father's creations, the intelligent technos were the most indispensable to the operations but also carried the greatest risk. What the fuck could he do with a compromised right-hand man? "Why did you have to bring that up?"

Miguel didn't respond.

"I know people have been turning on you recently, but there's no reason to take it out on me," Jose sighed as he paced the room. "No matter how smart any of you are, Von Reichter made you and I am his clone. Therefore, I own allyou fuckers and nothing will ever change that."

Jose rubbed his temples and took several deep breaths. The rage receded, leaving behind disappointment. "You know better. You know exactly what you can do and what you can't. So get your shit together and things will eventually look up."

He reached out his hand, and then Miguel looked at it warily. For a split second, Jose was concerned that he wasn't going to take it. But when he did, Jose felt proud of him. He pulled Miguel up to his feet, and the techno regained his composure.

"We clear?" Jose said.

Miguel gave a nod.

Good enough. "Now, where were we?" Jose resumed. "Oh, the human—what's his deal? Are they fucking each other?"

He looked at him blankly.

"It's relevant," Jose spat.

"I am… unsure," Miguel cleared his throat, his voice somewhat shaky. "Although he does seem to regularly accompany her."

Jose suddenly felt irrationally jealous of the Cyber—why did she get to have a human plaything while he didn't? His lip curled. "Didn't the driver say the human was bleeding? Would she be stupid enough to bring him along?"

Miguel paused, rubbing the back of his head. Did Jose kick him there? "Somehow, I cannot imagine her coming here without him."

"Then we can roll out the red carpet for all I care. How long has he been out of Meridiana?"

He checked his watch. "About thirteen hours."

"It's settled then," Jose allowed himself to grin widely. "He's her downfall."

Author's Note 2018/01/06

I'm still here! Writing consistently but still slow af. Hey, at least you're guaranteed living fic!

Thank you to the three betas who gave me their valuable feedback. You guys are the best. Thanks for fixing up my tenses, punctuation, and weird overly-hyphenated adjectives (see that!). Without betas, my fics probably would just be nothing but dialogue floating in empty space, so it's nice to be reminded of stuff like settings. My initial draft/word puke always looks super different from the end product (which is usually the third draft). There's 2000 words that didn't make it to this chapter, which is only about 1500. That explains my incredibly slow process. I still value all kinds of feedback though, even if it's just about a comma splice or something. So hit me up, it's cool.

Next chapter will be exclusively following Lucas & Adrian on their road trip. I think we're roughly midway through the fic. The total length shouldn't exceed 30k words because I like writing fics with legit pacing, minimal filler, and an actual ending that it works towards. I had an ending in mind already since day one, so just it's a matter of what the rest of the ride looks like. I hope you enjoy!