FICTION: Cyborg Sleeps part 3

Part 1

Part 2

I don't have many notes to add about Part 3, except to add that the "bespectacled monolith" of Director Gattell is intended to be read as tall and broad. It'd be quite scary for a human woman if he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her around! Asira is not (fully) human.

With that, here's the story:

Part 3

Director Samuel Gattell was waiting for Asira outside the conference centre of the complex. His expression was ominous. The fact that he was there at all was ominous, too – normally, a newly woken cyborg would simply ask at the reception desk which conference room he or she was scheduled to attend for her briefing and planning. For the Director himself to be anxious to meet her before she attended the briefing, meant that something was seriously wrong. Asira didn't let this observation change her stride, but she did privately wonder what it could be.

“You and I need a little talk!” growled the bespectacled monolith of a man, taking Asira by her mechanical left arm. She scowled as he did so, well aware that she could kill him in an instant with that arm if she chose, but he was doing it to emphasise his rank and importance relative to her. He was not, in Asira's opinion, an evil man, but he was a skilled manipulator and he had to be to run the facility effectively. He was not ashamed of using his skills always. He guided Asira through the sliding doors into the reception area. Asira noted that there was no receptionist – Gattell had set this up deliberately.

“That little stunt you pulled on Priestess Wainwright was absolutely NOT acceptable, Asira! Good recruits to this facility are hard to find, and I do not need you or anyone else making life difficult for the new girl. You WILL keep your attitude under control, do you understand?” His voice dropped for the last sentence, but the anger in his tone was heightened by this.

Asira turned her cold, mechanical eyes on him, colouring them a deep red as she regarded his face.

“She is NOT a good recruit. Her lack of control is not acceptable to me, and would not be acceptable to any of us. What if she had been startled in the midst of the invocation spell, instead of after it was completed? I would have been better off dead, and you know it. If my 'stunt' shakes her into getting her act together, it was well worth it!”

“Priestess Wainwright, though young, has excellent skills and is as deserving of respect as everyone else on my base. You will remember this, and you will act accordingly. Do you understand me, Agent Asira?”

“I understand you, sir!” Asira spat the last word.

Gattell released her arm, and simply said, “Conference room D.” He left the centre and Asira scowled after him, but passed through the inner door heading for conference room D and her briefing. Behind the inner door, she found the receptionist, a young man named Connell. He quailed visibly as he caught sight of Asira's expression, and scurried to attend his desk once more. Asira ignored him. She had a mission to carry out, and conference room D was where that would begin.