The Missing Number: A Cyberpunk Science Fiction Novella: The Cyborg Sectors Series, #4

By Alex Leu

Completing his last mission will break Julie's heart, but Cap can't escape his actions because he is a cyborg who must always follow orders.

When his master dies, the tragedy leaves Cap with one last mission — to deliver the news to the master's wife Julie. But when Cap realizes that Julie won't survive the truth, he must learn to disobey his programming before Julie breaks down completely.

"The Missing Number" is a cyberpunk suspense romance thriller with a male protagonist, the fourth book in a cyberpunk sci-fi series that features compelling A.I. characters, raw emotion, nail-biting suspense, forbidden love, and surprising plot twists.

If you loved Westworld, Blade Runner, or Ghost in the Shell, then you'll love to join the characters of "The Cyborg Sectors" on their page-turning adventures.

Buy "The Missing Number" to discover this exciting new sci-fi series today!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alex Leu
• Release date: Sep 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386478348

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THE MISSING NUMBER

The Cyborg Sectors Book 4

by Alex Leu

1

THE DISTANT MELODY of a piano woke him from a deep sleep and Cap knew he was dead, or in his case, retired.

The melody persisted. It even got louder. But there was no reason for Cap to hear any music or anything at all. Still, he didn’t fight the beautiful piano sounds because he was hearing Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy. His favorite. And at that moment, Cap really needed something to hold on to, something he enjoyed, because he was in hell.

He knew it because he read about hell and was told about it by other much smarter cyborgs, and humans. He even saw images of it, or as some would say, artistic representations. And now Cap was definitely in one of those representations as he lay down in a hot desert, paralyzed, unable to remember how he got there, and burning. Oh, how the heat burned him. The hot rusty sand burned his entire body to the point of melting his inner circuits.

The light faded in and out of his vision as Cap lay on the sand in peace, ready to accept whatever happened to him. But he realized that his eyes were fine and that the fading was caused by shadows. Shadows moving around him, in pairs, dancing to the music. What a beautiful way to retire, he thought, and it immediately triggered his self-preservation system.

The system ran a diagnostics of his vitals, the lowest they had ever been, and some parts of his body were even missing. Cap partially regained his moving abilities and looked around for shelter from the ruthless sun. He reached out and pulled a rusty old car door laying next to him over his head. As his circuits and chips slowly cooled off, enough for his memories to push their way through his entire body, Cap realized that he made a terrible mistake. That he should have let the sun melt him, because the pain, the burning pain from the heat was nowhere near the pain he felt from what he remembered.

The visions and the music faded away and left Cap stranded and alone, on a journey that he dreaded with every metallic molecule in his body. A journey to complete his last mission, one that would force him to admit that he was a failure.

He never thought he would ever wish it, but now the idea of being caught by the retirement squad and shredded into pieces, recycled, seemed much more appealing than completing the request of his late master.

Cap pushed the car door away and struggled to get up on his knees. His body sent him constant signals, demanding small pauses of rest between major movements, so he remained kneeled in front of the immense decaying vastness before him for some time, up until the moment he was afraid of melting into the hot sand.

He pushed himself up to his feet and got closer to the burning sun. The distance was only a few inches,