A Complicated Web

Chapter Twenty-Nine: All Due To Genetics

When Hiro next came to, his head felt clearer, the dizziness reduced to a faint discomfort. He also found he could move more freely, without fear of the previous nausea. It was a nice change. But he also knew that meant his captors, whoever they were, would soon come around and start ordering him around or doing something much worse. He didn't want to think about the possibilities, but they didn't look good.

Kally was likely kept somewhere in the same facility he was in. At least he hoped she was. It would make future escape easier. But he also knew that guy hadn't been playing around with his threats of cooperate or she'd suffer. So he had to tread carefully with this, see just what they wanted him to do and figure out why. He doubted they'd tell him the why part. He just couldn't immediately come up with any ideas of what they might want from the both of them.

Okay, maybe that wasn't strictly true. Kally was a brilliant programmer. She'd created her own AI for crying out loud! Not that he hoped they knew about that. He was actually hoping they didn't. And then there was him. He was a robotics genius. So whoever these guys were, they probably wanted him to build something and her to program it. Somewhere down the road, they'd have to work together, which meant they were going to try and cow them both into cooperation. It wouldn't work. He'd gone through too much crap to give in, but he wasn't sure if Kally would or wouldn't.

Kally was still pretty much an unknown, for all the time they'd spent together over the last few days. And there were apparently things about her she didn't even realize yet, or hadn't, like being some kind of partial human. Did these kidnappers know that? Or were they just as clueless about that as everyone else had been? Being clueless about that would be a good thing, just as he was sure they didn't know everything about him.

Hiro hoped it would be the clueless thing. They could use it to their advantage if that were so. He just hoped there wasn't some kind of secret trigger to put her into combat mode and that she could somehow control it, though part of him thought it might be something like fight or flight mode. For both their sakes, he hoped not. He doubted she could take on the entire building, regardless of how many people were inside. And getting her killed wasn't part of his plan.

The door opened, but this time Hiro was better prepared for visitors. He'd sat up, with his back facing the far wall so he was looking directly at the door. Except the person who entered wasn't a man. Instead, it was a woman. He blinked in confusion, not sure what was going on, though he supposed it stood to reason there were female antagonists in all this as well as male. He'd just figured they'd send another guy, in case he tried anything.

"I see you're awake," the woman said without preamble. "Good." She moved into the room as she spoke, her high heels clacking on the floor. And, despite the stiletto heels, Hiro felt she was more than capable of giving him a run for his money. He'd fought too many villains not to know. They had that certain feel to them that he never could put into words, no matter how much he tried.

Hiro found he'd stood without thinking, possibly in an attempt to not feel small while this woman towered over him. She was a bit taller than he was, though not as tall as Honey Lemon was. The heels didn't help either. "What do you want with me?" he asked, trying not to let his voice give away anything he might be feeling. This woman was dangerous, but he couldn't help but feel like he'd seen her somewhere before. He just couldn't remember where. And because of that, he had to be careful, turning on the whole innocent act or she might know he was more accustomed to dealing with her kind of people than she should.

The woman stopped a few paces away from Hiro, looking thoughtful at his somewhat scared looking expression and her lips turned up into an almost menacing smile, which she quickly smoothed over. "Hello, Hiro. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. You may call me Ms. Kendrick." She reached out a hand as if to shake his.