Reba settled down in the far corner of the hospital pharmacy's back storeroom.  It was the only place where she was reasonably assured of having some privacy.  Her habit of bringing munchies for the pharmacy staff on a semi-regular basis helped a lot too.

She glanced at her watch, "Should be finishing breakfast by now..." she muttered as she pulled out her cellphone and punched in the number that engaged the encryption algorithms and dialed the Compound.

"Hello?  This is Dr. Von Richter." he answered after a few rings.

"Hello Father!  It's me, Cyber 5000."

"Reba!  How are you doing?" he asked cheerfully, "Your mother and I were wondering over breakfast how Cybersix was doing in Meridiana, and the conversation turned to wondering how YOU were doing."

"I'm okay."

"You sure?" a tone of slight disapproval came over the line, "That kidnapping attempt-"

"Was stopped cold in its tracks, father.  Please don't worry about me.  Besides, I have a problem I'd much rather have you worry about.  A professional problem."

There was a pause, "I see." he said in a more serious tone, "I'm sitting at the table with your mother.  Do I need to move to my office?"

"I'm sorry!" Reba said apologetically, hearing Maria's voice in the background, "I didn't mean to-"

"She was getting ready to go anyhow.  Just wait a minute." there was another longish pause, then "She's gone.  Quaren might overhear, but she's quite trustworthy.  Nobody will get a thing out of her."

"Nobody would dare." Reba replied, with a smile.  She then got serious and opened up the charts that were sitting on her lap, "Here's the problem.  I've got four kids in a mini-ward, all with the exact same symptoms: Extreme loss of bone integrity.  Each one came in with bones broken in trivial accidents that would NOT have broken normal bones in normal kids.  I set the bones and sent them home, only to see them a few days later with ANOTHER broken bone.  I finally inserted pins and confined them to bed here at the hospital."

"How bad is the bone loss?"  Von Richter asked, his voice full of concern.

"X-rays showed 50% loss generally, spotty in places, up to 90% in the areas adjacent to the breaks."

"Are the children related in some way?  Perhaps its a faulty recessive gene from a common ancestor?"

"I checked that.  Negative.  Besides, I know it's acquired because-" she paused, "-because after I visited them, I overheard them debating, and then deciding, not to tell anyone about the 'bad men who stuck us with needles'.  I was outside the door, making notes."

She heard an audible hiss over the line, which gave her the shakes: If Father got mad at you, you were in Deep Shit.

Father just got mad.  Somebody just got themselves into Deep Shit.

"What did pathology see?"  Von Richter finally asked.

"Those idiots?" Reba chuckled bitterly, "I'm waiting on Dr. Zack to get back to take a look at them."

"You know you can always sneak a sample out and ship it here." Von Richter said a tad reprovingly.

"Uh huh.  And exactly how is Cyber Batch 13 coming along?"

"Touche." Von Richter rolled his eyes.  Cybers 6001 through 6500 SHOULD have been growing in tank building 1 by now, but Von Richter had insisted that the technos of the Genesis section perform the entire operation themselves, WITHOUT his active involvement.  It was the very first hint he had ever given that he and Maria were getting their family ready to carry on without them. After the initial panic attacks had worn off, the technos were taking, in his opinion, damn too much time doing quadruple checks of the genetic sequences.

Von Richter thought for a long moment, then said decisively, "Prep a sample and ship it out to us."

"But the technos will just use it as an excuse to-" Reba started.

"-to drop the work on the Cybers to tackle this problem, yes, yes," Von Richter acknowledged, sighing, "It’s not as if the Cybers were actually waiting, you know."

Reba chuckled, "I’ll do that.  Can I bother you with another question?"

"In a situation like this, I'll stay on the line all day."

"Do you think this condition is going to be fatal or not?"

"Oh, without a doubt, yes." Von Richter said definitely.

Reba felt another chill go through her "Why?" she asked.

"The jump from Technos to Cybers didn’t just involve upgrading the muscles. The human skeleton can handle only so much stress. The bones and ligaments had to be upgraded, or they would snap also, even under as mild a stress as stretching your arms and legs.  If the ribs of these poor children get too weak-"

Reba understood immediately, "-the chest cavity would collapse, and they would suffocate." she  finished.

"Correct.  I think wrapping their chests twice in chicken wire fencing and sewing or stapling their skin to the wires would buy them some time."

Reba shook her head, "Cybersix was right."

"She was? About what?"

"That you were the world’s expert on organ system interactions."

"Oh? And what else has she said about me?" Von Richter pressed, curious.

Reba chuckled, "Oh, she said you let yourself get bogged down in the details.  Administrivia, she called it.  She felt you needed to use your talents and your final days doing something more worthy than deciding what's going to be on the menu next week.  Like say, figuring out what's wrong with four very scared kids and coming up with a cure."

Von Richter shook his head slowly in admiration, "I think I remember something in the literature, or perhaps at a conference.  Let me start looking through my notes.  In the meantime, I had better get Type 37 to step up-"

"You can't!"

"And why not?" he asked, a tad angrily.

"How can you tell him without telling him why you know its an emergency?"

"Oh, right."

"Besides, I told him about the kidnapping, and he's aware of the situation, and he's already working on the problem.  Thing is, there seems to be a judge who's letting the crooks go as fast as his men catch them.  The situation is very bad."

"How do you know?"

Reba chuckled again, "I had talked to Six about this, remember?  I was waiting for her in her apartment when I overheard her and Type 37 talking.  I have no idea how come they were together, and didn't hear exactly what they were saying, but by the tone of his voice 37 was trying to convince Six of something."

"Wait a minute." Von Richter logged onto his computer and checked his E-mail, "There's an E-mail from 37.  Let me read it."

After a long pause, Reba heard a gasp, "What does it say?" she asked.

"Cybersix captured a mugger who threatened her, Bethany, and her nanny.  37 reports he asked her to work for him part-time, but she turned him down, citing concern about exceeding her mission orders." Von Richter sounded disappointed.

"Hmph!  She's keeping her nose clean so she has some chance at getting back on the roster and into the field as a soldier." Reba said decisively.

"Oh."  He'd forgotten about that little detail, "I'll fix that later.  In the meantime, get that sample and send it here."

"Will do.  Love you, Father."

"Love you too, dear."

Von Richter broke the connection, and dialed another number.

"Hello!  Trodden Import Export.  What can we get or ship for you today?" came the cheery answer.

"Hello, I need something shipped here high priority." Von Richter said, smiling slightly, aware of the chain of events he was about to start.

"Father!" Techno 1392 breathed, "What is it?"

"A medical sample from Meridiana General."

"We'll get started on that right away!  From whom do we pick it up from?"

"Reba."

Techno 1392 gasped, "Children?" she asked.

"Four.  Not critical, but will be very soon."

He put his cellphone away, then glowered at the bookcase, "Quaren!"

The door opened and Quaren walked in, "Yes Father?" she asked.

Von Richter pointed, "Grab those three grey volumes up there for me?"

Quaren stepped up on a lower shelf and pulled the notebooks down, "Anything else?"

"Yes, a puzzle for you to solve.  Suppose we have a Cyber that's not on the duty roster, but put on special assignment.  Suppose this cyber is offered a law enforcement opportunity, but feels she can't accept it because its outside her mission orders.  Without exactly ordering her to accept, how do I get her to accept it?"

Quaren thought a moment, "By being sneaky, of course."

"Of course.  What do you suggest, my dear?"
-----------
Reba put her cellphone away, got up, and went to get the necessary hypo and needle for a bone core sample.  She then went to the mini-ward, went inside, listened for a moment, and went to Kiara's bed, since there was no snoring coming from that one, "Kiara?" she whispered, "are you awake?"

"Dr. Pearce?" Kiara answered, "Yes I am."

"I need a bone sample from you to send in for analysis.  You're in the most advanced state, so we're sure to find the cause.  Are you game?"

Kiara smiled ruefully, "Sounds like it will hurt."

"It'll hurt like hell." Reba confirmed, "I may crack, split, or break something too.  But the sample will be going to the best pathology lab I know of.  Everyone there are going to drop everything they are doing and will work very hard to help you."

"Okay." she said, "What do you want me to do?"

"Whatever you do, don't grit your teeth or stiffen your muscles to fight the pain.  I don't want you to snap or crush anything.  Accept it and roll with it.  Got that?"

Kiara nodded and licked her lower lip nervously.

Reba wasn't normally superstitious, but it had to be a good omen that taking the sample from the young girl's pelvis didn't crush or split it, although judging from the look on Kiara's face, it hurt as much as promised.  She injected some painkillers, carefully bandaged the wound, gently patted the brave girl's hand, then left with the precious sample.  As she headed to Pathology, she pulled out  her cellphone and punched another speed-dial button.

It was answered almost immediately, "Hello, Reba?"

"What?" Reba asked, astounded, "but how-"

"Caller ID and a heads up from father.  Got the package?" Techno 1392 asked.

"I have the sample, but it's not packaged.  I need about 10 minutes to prep it."

"The pickup will be at the curb in front of the hospital main entrance in five."

"Thanks!" Reba hung up just in time to kick the double doors to Pathology open and yell at everyone to keep the hell out of her way.

She took a test tube full of agar-agar and gouged a cavity in it with a spare needle.  She unscrewed the needle and dropped it, the sample still in the tube, into the cavity.  The tube was sealed and went into a fist-sized carton stuffed in a handful of cottonballs, then taped securely.  She scribbled "Genesis Section, C5000" on the label as she headed out.

She got outside, looked around and wondered who the pickup was.  She frowned and wrinkled her nose at the racket and fumes emitted by a motorcyclist waiting at the street curb balancing and revving what looked like the biggest and fastest Harley Davidson in Meridiana.

As she walked up to the curb, the rider saw her and lifted the visor on the helmet, "Trodden Import Export Maam!"

Reba blinked, "ERIN???"

Erin grinned, "Hot to trot and ready to ride!  Got the package, Doc?"

Reba wordlessly handed the package to Erin, who tucked it into her leather jacket.  She winked, pulled the visor down, gunned the cycle, and took off, hitting 75 KPH in seconds and weaving wildly through the traffic.

"Damn." Reba breathed, "That is one hell of a big hog!"
---------
"Hey Adrian!  Wait up!"

Cybersix, dressed as Adrian, stopped and turned to watch Lucas catch up to him, then fell in step with him as they walked to school, "Lucas!" Adrian remarked, "Don't you live about fifteen blocks west of here?  Isn't this street out of your way?"

"Oh, I just wanted to make sure you got your overcoat!" Lucas said, "You left it at the cafe, you know."

"Ah, yeah. Thanks."

They walked in silence for a few moments.

"You never told me you had a sister." Lucas finally said.

"Ahh, yeah." Adrian grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, "She just, umm, dropped in.  She'll be around only for a few days."

"Uh huh.  A few days." Lucas looked up at the sky, "She seeing anyone?"

"What did you say?" Adrian asked, startled.

"She seeing anyone?"

"Uhh, no!  Nobody!"

"Too bad.  Seems nice enough."

"Yeah, she is." Adrian agreed, blushing a little.

"Hey buddy, I, ah-" This time, it was Lucas' turn to rub the back of his neck sheepishly, "You think it'd be okay if I, ah, showed her around town?"

"You want a DATE with her?" Adrian stopped and looked at Lucas.

"Well, yeah!  Yeah!  Unless, of course, you object-"

Adrian blinked for a few minutes, then smiled and laughed, "Sorry Lucas, for the reaction!  I mean, she's my sister, so I just didn't think, well, you know how it is between brothers and sisters!"

Lucas laughed, relieved, "I don't have a sister myself, so I wouldn't know first hand, of course.  But I did have friends who reacted the same way you did when informed their sister was dating material!"

Adrian shrugged, "You'll have to ask her out yourself, of course, but-" here, Adrian grinned and winked, "I think you piqued her curiosity."

Lucas looked startled for a moment, then seemed rather pleased.  He was about to say something when the roar of a loud engine and a loud screech of tires made him jump.

"Ahh CRAP!" The rider of the huge motorcycle that had screamed to a halt in front of them while they were crossing the intersection lifted her helmet visor and glared irritatedly at the red light, "Shouda picked the smaller model.  Too much damn metal to wrestle around corners." she muttered.

Adrian glanced at the cyclist, and nearly stumbled.  The cyclist, for her part, glanced down at him, looked startled herself, winked, and pulled her visor down.  Adrian hastily got out of the intersection as the light changed and the cyclist shot across the intersection and roared down the street.

"Know her?" Lucas asked, "It looked to me as if you knew each other."

Adrian glanced down the street, "I THINK so."

Lucas glanced down the street too, "Big bike in a big hurry.  She seems a bit small for a cycle that large, though."

"Um hmm." Adrian nodded.  He then frowned.

Lucas noticed it, followed his friend's gaze, and saw Lori with her gang at the far corner looking down the street and pointing, obviously admiring the bike and its rider too, "Uhhh, you've seen Jacinta yet?"

"Not yet." Adrian said, "Tonight, though.  Tonight."
---------
"What the hell are they WAITING for on strip 2?" the manager of Meridiana International yelled as he stomped into the Control Tower, "That Learjet's been idling there for twenty minutes!"

The Tower controller flicked his mike off, "Emergency.  Clause 12."

"What?"

"Clause 12." The controller repeated.  Something came over his headphones, and he snapped his mike back on, "Lear 18 oh 8, we confirm package is on gounds.  Repeat, on grounds."

"Tower, this is Lear 18 oh 8.  Thank you.  Starting roll."

"Lear 18 oh 8, confirming you are starting roll."

"Finally!" The manager exploded, "And what the hell did you mean by a clause-"

"Shut up." The controller leaned over, "See it?" he asked his assistant.

The assistant looked for a moment, then pointed, "There."

"What the-" the manager gasped, "What's that motorcycle doing on the tarmac??  And why isn't that Lear jet's door closed?  What's going-"

"SHUT UP!" The controller snapped at his boss, "And just WATCH!"

The manager gaped as the motorcycle caught up with the Learjet racing down the runway.  The rider reached inside their jacket, pulled out a package, and swerved toward the open door.  A butterfly net came out the door and received the package that the cyclist released.  The net was pulled inside.  This was immediately followed by an arm that pulled the door down and closed just as the jet's rear wheels lifted off the runway.  The Cyclist pumped their fist in the air and roared off the tarmac.

"Damn!" The assistant controller shook his head, "You don't see that every day!"

"What was-" the manager sputtered.

"Clause 12." The controller repeated, "Check the airport charter.  Trodden Import Export, if making a medically related delivery, can commandeer a strip for 30 minutes at a time, at most six times a year.  Now get the hell out of MY tower.  I've got an airport to run."
----------
"Whew!" Dr. Anthony Zacharias moaned as he pulled his bags toward the curb, "Last time I'll take a redeye from Berlin!" He glanced up and down the street, trying to see around the bustle of people entering and leaving the airport terminal, "Never a taxi around when you-"

There was a loud roar and a screeching of tires.  Dr. Zack leaped away from the curb as a positively gargantuan motorcycle pulled up next to him, "I SAY!  WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!" he shouted.

The cyclist turned his head and lifted his visor, "Why Doc!  Is that any way to greet a friend?"

"Erin!" Dr. Zack blinked, "What are you doing here?"

"Dropping off a high priority shipment for Trodden Import Export.  Pick it up from Reba, they say.  Get it to the airport ASAP, they say.  Don't sweat the cops, they say.  Kids lives at stake, they say.  Take the boss's boss hog, they say.  No shit? I say.  No Shit, they say." She shook her head, then grinned and patted the handlebars, "A beaut, isn't it?"

"Yes, quite." If motorcycles were dinosaurs, it would have been a T-Rex.

"Hey, ya heed a lift home?"
----------
"We're over!" the Pilot of Lear 18 oh 8 yelled toward the rear.

"Damn.  So near and yet so far." complained Techno 1527 as he hastily strapped himself into the seat next to the ejection lever.  The Learjet suddenly pitched and dove sharply to the left.  He felt himself trying to come out of the seat as the jet buzzed whatever lived in the Amazon Jungle under clouds that always seemed to be there.

"See anybody?"

"I'm looking!  I'm looking.  Try it ag-No wait!  There at 8 o'clock!" the co-pilot shouted as he caught a glint of iridescent green wings coming up out of the cloud cover, "Dropping it now!  Gawd, I HATE these high priority delivery jobs." he muttered as he yanked on the lever that opened the specially installed ejection chute, and out of which fell a package tied to a long streamer, "No time to land, chat, have a bite to eat."

"You MISS the cafeteria food?" the pilot, Techno 2011, said skeptically as he pulled up and away from the falling parcel.

"I miss the company."

"Ohhh.   So what's happening?"

Techno 1527 watched as the package was snapped out of mid-air by Cyberdragon.  She wagged her wings to signal success, then folded them and dropped like a rock down and through the cloud cover, "She's got it.  Coming forward!"

He made his way back to the cockpit, "Was it just me, or does she still have bandages on her wings?" he asked as he slipped into his seat.

2011 shook his head, "That's monoregular wing armor mounted along her leading wing edges.  Something put together by Jose himself.  She can gut a C-5A transport in flight and not lose a scale."

Techno 1527 whistled, "What's Jose doing now?"

"Flying robot monkeys.  A two headed robot snake." 2011 shook his head again, "Nobody has the damnedest idea what he's up to."
--------------
Cyberdragon glanced at the label on the package, "Genesis Section, C5000.  This is what they're expecting." she thought, dropping out of the cloud cover.  She extended her wings and began the long glide toward the building where the DNA and embryos for almost all of her adopted family had been forged.
--------------
Von Richter watched as Cyberdragon braked in midair and seemed to hover before dropping out of sight on the other side of the Genesis section building.  A few moments later, his cell phone rang, "Hello?" he answered it.

"We have the sample and are looking at it now."

"Reserve a piece for me.  I think I've found something, so I'll be along later."

Von Richter put his cellphone away, then glanced again at the photocopy of the page he'd found in his notes of a conference he had attended in Montreal, "Sorbie.  Dr. Charles Sorbie of Canada." Von Richter thought, "Did some work on a patient that might apply here.  Brilliant, but nervous sort of chap if I recall.  Acted as if he'd made a pact with the devil.  Or someone like him."
--------------
Cybersix, dressed as Adrian, unlocked the door and walked into her apartment, sighing, "Now where did I put that visitation sheet?" she muttered, dropping her books onto the table and going through the pile of notes on the table, "Aha!  Here we are!"

Her eyes glanced down at her answering machine, and noticed that there was a phone call recorded there.  She wasn't in that much of a hurry, and still hadn't decided what she wanted to say to Jacinta and her mother, so she punched the playback button to delay the inevitable.

"Hello Adrian!  This is your old man calling."

"Father?" Cybersix blinked and leaned down to catch every word.

"I hope things are going fine, and that you're making progress.  Just heard from a relative that he'd offered you a part-time job but that you turned it down.  Now I know that I asked you to concentrate on one thing at a time and finish what you started, but you should know that I've always intended you to move into that line of work sooner or later.  Well-" here, he paused, and Cybersix dropped to her knees and grabbed the answering machine, as if threatening to wring the next words out of it, "-actually better things than that.  Nevertheless, I think the work experience, however brief, would be a good break from the routine, prove beneficial to that relative, and help you along toward what I've got planned for you.  Sorry to miss you, but I had to make sure you got my message.  Don't rush calling back, for I'll be very busy on something that just came up.  Love you."

"Better things?" she wondered, "Something planned for me?"

She glanced at her watch.  She could think about the strange message on her way to Jacinta's.

-------
Dr. Reba Pearce (C) Queen of Mars
Bethany, Cyprus, and Serena Trodden, (C) Bethany Trodden
Maria Schweitzer Von Richter (C) Genesis Seidelman
Quaren (C) Anay
Dr. Charles Sorbie, introduced by Freak Of The Universe.
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Chapter 10