Freaks Under Fire by Maree Anderson

deep connection, he knew his sister was thinking the same thing. Intellectually, they both knew their dad’s five-year absence had changed him. But at times—like now—it was a little shocking to be directly confronted by evidence of those changes.
    “Now I know what to expect, I can handle Sixer,” Jay said. “He caught me unawares—hence the reason he could so easily exploit my vulnerabilities. Next time I will be better prepared.”
    “If he lays a hand on Danny again, I don’t care what he is, I’ll take him apart.” His mom sounded so fierce and implacably determined that Tyler shivered.
    “If he touches that child again I will render him immobile, and give you step-by-step instructions on how to dismember him,” Jay said. “And then I will crush his components to dust, and obliterate every particle that remains of him from this earth.”
    “Sounds good to me,” Caro interjected. “Guy’s a loose unit.”
    Tyler attempted to hide how freaked out he was at the prospect of confronting Evan Caine’s cyborg again by snorting. “Loose unit. Yeah, that’s one way of describing him.”
    “I have not given up on Sixer entirely,” Jay said. “However, what he will ultimately become, and whether he proves too dangerous to allow complete autonomy, still remains to be seen.”
    “You have a containment plan,” Tyler’s dad said, clicking his fingers at the inquisitive pup to draw his attention from Jay’s shoelaces.
    “I have been experimenting with various projectiles along a similar vein to those used to disable me. Before long I will have developed projectiles that are far more efficient than those Sixer used on me.”
    Tyler’s dad nodded tersely. “Any weapon that takes two shots to disable, and three to fully immobilize the target, should be considered a last resort. Relying on it, or having it as the only weapon in your arsenal, is a ticket to your own funeral.”
    “Agreed.”
    Tyler darted a gaze at his mom and inwardly winced. His dad had slotted seamlessly into his old life, and was back teaching computer science. He’d, frankly, always been a bit of a nerd and old habits died hard. Now he sounded like a total badass: harder, more capable, ruthless—someone you wouldn’t want to mess with. Talk about smack you upside the head with a total world-view shift.
    Tyler’s mother shifted Danny from the crook of her left arm to the right, and flexed her shoulder joint.
    “I can hold him for you if you’re getting tired,” Jay offered.
    “If you’re sure?”
    Jay’s smile was the merest bit lopsided but it was only really noticeable if you knew her intimately, like Tyler did. “I’m sure,” she said, and held out her arms for the sleepy infant.
    It was a start. A real good one considering his mom had shot down Caro’s earlier offer to put Danny in his cot. Not that anyone could blame his mom for not wanting to let Danny out of her sight even for a moment.
    Tyler watched the soft smile curve Jay’s lips as Danny yawned, snuffled, and settled back to sleep in her arms. And felt a glimmer of hope that the pain of never having a child of her own would be lessened somewhat by access to his baby brother.
    “So, let’s recap.” Tyler’s dad scrubbed his face and blinked twice, scrunching and relaxing his facial muscles as though shedding fatigue and stress by strength of will alone. “There’s a Beta unit somewhere out there, but we have no idea where. We don’t know whether she’s compos mentis or the cybernetic equivalent of comatose. Nor do we know who’s caring for her. Some unidentified party with a hidden agenda has seen fit to make Jay aware of the Beta unit’s existence via the photo. The same, or possibly a different unidentified party, also with a hidden agenda, is now in possession of Jay’s decoy cybernetic hand. And at some stage, Jay expects a visit from a rogue cyborg whose agenda we can’t even begin to fathom. I’d say we’re pretty much screwed until someone