Rogue Theta

An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

www.ellorascave.com

Rogue Theta ISBN 9781419911163 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Rogue Theta Copyright © 2007 Bernadette Gardner Edited by Briana St. James. Photography and cover art by Les Byerley. Electronic book Publication June 2007 This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 443103502. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

Content Advisory: S – ENSUOUS E – ROTIC X – TREME Ellora’s Cave Publishing offers three levels of Romantica™ reading entertainment: S (S-ensuous), E (Erotic), and X (X-treme). The following material contains graphic sexual content meant for mature readers. This story has been rated E–rotic. S-ensuous love scenes are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination. E-rotic love scenes are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high in volume per the overall word count. E-rated titles might contain material that some readers find objectionable—in other words, almost anything goes, sexually. E-rated titles are the most graphic titles we carry in terms of both sexual language and descriptiveness in these works of literature. X-treme titles differ from E-rated titles only in plot premise and storyline execution. Stories designated with the letter X tend to contain difficult or controversial subject matter not for the faint of heart.

ROGUE THETA

Bernadette Gardner

Trademarks Acknowledgement The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction: Kevlar: E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company

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Chapter One “This kind of thing isn’t supposed to happen.” The words slipped out unbidden as Lilliana Jarmok reached across the stark metallic desk and accepted the mission data chip from Sub-Commander Veros. The sour expression on the man’s face told her he had little appreciation for her opinion on the subject at hand. “No, it’s not supposed to happen. That’s why your job is to make the problem go away before Central Command finds out. Or worse, before the news webs get wind of it. Do you think you can handle that without a litany of snide remarks, Lieutenant?” Veros’ slate blue eyes were as cold as the artificial hand that held the data chip out to her. His thick lips pursed in a disapproving sneer. Lilliana sighed and tucked the chip into her scanner, then let the boxy piece of equipment drop to dangle from its shoulder strap. “Yes, Sir. Not a problem, Sir.” “That’s where you’re wrong, Lieutenant. It’s a very big problem. The Theta Series Infantry are unbeatable. At least, that’s how they’re designed. You’re going to have to destroy your target to stop him. This isn’t a rescue mission.” An icy tingle settled at the top of Lilliana’s spine. She didn’t need to ask Veros for clarification of his orders. He’d just told her to kill the rogue Theta. Her stomach clenched a little at the thought. Of course she could do it. She’d taken out a Beta last year when its programming had been compromised by a Resectionist terrorist group. She’d practically trained the Gamma Series soldiers herself, though none of them were capable of independent thought. The Thetas were different, though. They weren’t fully cybernetic like the Gammas, and thus they were supposed to be harder to kill.

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She held the Sub-Commander’s gaze for a moment longer and silenced her inner monologue long enough to give him the reply he wanted. “Understood, Sir. I’ll take care of it.” “Use any means necessary, Lieutenant.” “Yes, Sir.”

***** An hour later, Lilliana paced the Spec-Ops flight deck, her eyes trained on the scanner readout in her hand. Grissom. She read the name of the planet that was to be her destination. Why did it sound so familiar? Was that the world where the colonists had tried to ban all weapons before the war? Lilliana shook her head. No wonder they’d fallen so fast. A broad shoulder bumped hers before she could move to the next data screen and Lilliana whirled around. “Gil? When the hell is my ship going to be ready?” She tried to sound stern, but amusement tugged at the corners of her lips. It wasn’t easy to be stern with Pan Gilroy. Spec-Op’s best flight mechanic gave Lilliana his trademark wicked grin. “Almost done, sugar. It wouldn’t have taken so long if you’d had a proper overhaul after that last crash.” Gil winked one sparkling blue eye at her. Unfazed by his shameless flirting, Lilliana jammed her scanner into her supply pack and twisted her lips into a full smirk. “I wouldn’t have crashed if you hadn’t tried to pass off that secondhand stabilizer as new.” Gil clutched his broad chest with a grease-smudged hand. “I’d never give my best girl secondhand parts. Only the finest hardware for you, Lil.” As he spoke, Gil circled Lilliana’s transport. She fell into step behind him where she had an excellent view of his tight butt. Obviously aware of her perusal, he sauntered along the flight deck, caressing the hull of her ship as one would a lover. “You’ve got a lot of ammo stocked today. Trouble?” 6

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“Some.” Gil glanced over his shoulder. “Nothing you can’t handle, right, peach?” “Flattery will get you everywhere.” Lilliana winked. Gil leaned against the ship. He crossed his long legs at the ankles and gave her a dark look. He hadn’t been named for the ancient god of lechery for nothing. “If that’s the case, how about when you get back, you and I get a room on Tanax and set off the fire sensors?” Lilliana laughed. It wasn’t a bad offer. Gil had a reputation for being well-hung and infinitely skillful with his hands. He certainly wasn’t hard to look at and it had been an awfully long time since she’d engaged in some uncomplicated fucking. She licked her lips and considered his offer. “We’ll talk about it when I get back.” “I’ll be waiting.” Gil shrugged and slapped the hull. “She’s ready to go whenever you are. All systems are check, but wherever you’re going, be careful.” Lilliana ignored Gil’s suddenly serious tone. This was no time to get caught up in his deep stare and start believing he felt any more for her than he did for any of the other female Epsilon Force agents he’d nabbed in the last few months. She tapped the airlock controls and entered her security code. “I’m always careful, Gil. That’s why I’m still around.”

***** Seven hours later The terrain speeding by below Lilliana’s transport could have been part of a nature preserve on Earth. The brilliant canopy of a tropical rainforest gave way to a grassy plain that stretched for hundreds of kilometers to the north. Golden grass waved in a warm easterly wind as she nudged her ship a little lower to the ground and began scouting for a suitable landing site.

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She had to remind herself that this teeming landscape had been nothing but dry, frozen space dust less than a decade ago. The terraformers had done a good job with Grissom, though they could have picked a better name. All this raw beauty deserved a more fitting moniker, like Haven or Eden Prime. After all, that’s essentially what the terraformers had wanted to create. Their mission was to build a paradise, a new place for humans to settle. They’d succeeded—too well. When the Viliri discovered the humans’ ability to terraform worlds, they’d swooped in and started trying to take over. They needed a new paradise just as much as humans did, but they lacked the common decency to ask for help. The war had decimated a dozen Viliri worlds and hundreds of human colonies and made it necessary to create soldiers like the Betas, Gammas and Thetas. The terrain scanner beeped as Lilliana banked to the south. She decided to set the transport down at the perimeter of the jungle to take advantage of the tree canopy as cover. A Viliri raid was unlikely with the skimmer patrols working overtime in this sector, but she didn’t want to take any chances. According to the scanner, the Theta was nearby. He’d be in the jungle, looking for deep cover. With one eye on the scanner and one on the tree line, Lilliana initiated landing. The soldier was tracking her. He’d seen the transport and was keeping parallel to her course, moving like the wind. His programming marked any bipedal organism as the enemy and any ship as a potential crew carrier. He’d be ready when she landed. Ready to kill her, because that was his only function.

***** The whine of a D70-Bradic engine assaulted his ears and made him want to jump in the river and dive under the cold water to mute the sound. Like everything else, it flooded his heightened senses, quickly reaching unbearable proportions. The screaming of the wind, the rush of his own blood in his ears, every rustle of the branches overhead sounded like a never-ending battle. He couldn’t make it stop. There’d been a time when 8

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he’d reveled in his own abilities and superhuman perceptions, but now they just made him feel raw and used. He sensed the ship approaching, saw its shadow snaking through the underbrush, and felt the change in ionic pressure around him. The atmospheric disturbance caused by the Bradic had a three-kilometer radius. He knew that because it had been programmed into the cybernetic implant they’d shoved into his brain. The implant told him all manner of things he really didn’t want or need to know, including the estimated time of its own imminent malfunction. He had thirty hours left before the computer that ran his autonomic functions shut down, and the clock was ticking faster than normal. Before sunset tomorrow, he’d be blind and paralyzed, gasping his last breath as, one by one, his nerve endings went dead. At least the end would be painless. The transport’s wake passed him by and he had to pick up speed to gain on it. He wanted to be there when the soldiers came for him, ready to die. He hated that he’d probably kill a few of them before they ended him. That wasn’t how he wanted to go down, but the chip didn’t give him a choice. His programming was clear. The fact that he could distance himself from it, disengage a part of his hotwired brain from the search and destroy subroutine, only made it harder. Despite his programming, he should have run away from the transport and tried to preserve his own life, but he couldn’t allow his desire to live to cloud his judgment. There was only one choice for Theta Series Nine Bravo Delta Delta One. Kill and then be killed.

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Chapter Two Lilliana switched off her mission log recorder the moment the transport touched down. She wouldn’t be recording this mission. In fact, her duty roster listed her as being on personal leave already. The details of how Veros would fudge her vacation time to make up for the false leave were foggy, but she planned to pin him down on the particulars as soon as she got back to base. She didn’t care what her record said, as long as she didn’t get gypped out of her next shore leave. Heaven knew, she needed a little R&R desperately, and she’d probably need it even more after this. She thought of Gil’s offer and how nice it would be to have a big, hard man to play with for a while. One she wasn’t duty-bound to kill. She grabbed her field scanner and flipped on the holo-projector while she rummaged through the weapons compartment. Gil hadn’t been kidding when he’d said she had a lot of ammo. Veros had requisitioned enough firepower for her to take out a regiment of Thetas. Her Sub-C wasn’t taking any chances with this one. Pleased with the selection, she strapped a phase disruptor and two semis to her belt, along with all the ammo she could fit in her pack. When she turned back from the weapons locker, a full-sized, three-dimensional image of her target took shape before her in the cabin area. Like all the Thetas, not to mention the Betas and Gammas before him, her target was a mountain of toned muscle. She thought it strange that no cybernetic implants were visible from the outside, even though the holo showed him stark naked. Lilliana walked around the image of Theta Series Nine Bravo Delta Delta One and gave an appreciative whistle. The Cy-Ops engineers didn’t dare take credit for this work of art. Six five and physically perfect, his body was a masterpiece of Mother

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Nature. He’d been born in the image of Adonis, and his lack of surgical scars bore evidence that all that male beauty was completely genetic. He had black hair, cut in severe military style. His stormy gray eyes radiated intelligence, and his mouth had a sensuous curve to it that softened the granite set of his jaw. Lilliana let her gaze linger over every inch of rippled muscle on his back, his thighs and his narrow, rounded ass. She told herself she was just looking for identifying marks, memorizing his features, in case she had to identify his body. What a waste of a gorgeous body. He had everything she liked in a man, from the bulging biceps and long fingers to a cock you could hang a ten-pound weight from. Mmm. A familiar heaviness settled in her belly and her clit gave a little involuntary pulse. Even the thought of Gil’s well-packaged equipment hadn’t given her a rise so quickly. She hadn’t seen a man so well made in a long time. “Right. No scars or tats. It’s not like I’ll have to pick you out of a crowd, now is it?” she asked the hologram. That thought sobered her and calmed her sudden attack of libido. Right now, she and Nine Bravo Delta Delta One were the only sentient beings on Grissom. The Viliri had decimated the colony more than a month ago, leaving only a few battered survivors and a handful of Thetas to evacuate. She had to wonder what programming malfunction had made this soldier stay behind after his regiment had shipped out. Alone on a big planet with no one to kill, no one to hunt, he’d probably burn himself out, but that wasn’t the point. The point was Epsilon Force had taken a lot of heat from Central Command over the Betas, and there were still activist groups protesting the systematic destruction of the Gammas. She primed her phase disruptor and headed for the airlock as she contemplated the ramifications of a rogue Theta. If anyone outside Cy-Ops or Spec-Ops found out that a Theta, one of their perfect

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soldiers, had malfunctioned, every last member of the Epsilon Force would face execution. That included Lilliana.

***** A normal human would have noticed nothing over the scent of decaying foliage on the jungle floor, but Nine Bravo Delta Delta One smelled the residual fuel burn and the exhaust from the Bradic. It nearly choked him. He wondered if that was how animals perceived human intrusion into their world. Did they hear the sound of human footsteps like thunder and taste the combined scents of fear and self-righteousness as the higher beings took over their world? He shook away the thought, refusing to think of himself as an animal. After all, he’d asked for this. He’d wanted to turn himself into a killing machine so that the Viliri would never again do what they’d done to Kiana. His colony had been one of the first hit and he’d lost everything there. His family. His home. Even his name. For a long time he hadn’t been able to remember what he’d used to call himself or what his friends had called him. He couldn’t even remember if he had friends. One thing came back to him with perfect clarity, though, the moment he heard the sharp hiss of air exchange as the transport’s hatch lock popped open. He remembered the scent of a woman. Her musk reached him on the breeze and it stopped him, stunned him. There were no females among the Thetas. His regiment was all-male for a reason. Their heightened senses went awry in the presence of the opposite sex. The data chips had been designed to suppress the libido and eventually destroy the sex drive all together. That portion of his chip, however, was one of the areas that was damaged, so he felt her, sensed her, practically tasted her the moment she set foot on Grissom’s loamy jungle soil. He advanced through the trees until the silver hull of the transport became visible. The Epsilon Force logo gleamed crimson against the little ship’s metallic finish. A

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brilliant reflection of Grissom’s yellow sun almost blinded him and he growled, shielding his eyes and shifting his head for a better view. Sensuous, almost feline in her movements, she stretched her lean body as she stepped out of the open hatch. Her white uniform bore the Epsilon symbol above her left breast, and even from this distance, just below the stylized, three-pronged mark, he could make out the taut peak of a nipple. The Kevlar-enhanced fabric of her uniform hugged her curves, leaving little to his heightened imagination. His heart slammed into his chest as her green eyes scanned the tree line. She sensed him as clearly as he sensed her. She’d find him in no time if he didn’t run now, but he couldn’t look away. Her blonde hair swung in a golden braid down her back and he imagined clasping the silky rope of hair and pulling her head back, exposing her neck to his mouth. What would he do if he actually got close enough to touch her? He’d caress those jutting breasts, fill his hands with the warm mounds of flesh and revel in the sensual scrape of those hard nipples against his palms. He’d bend her backward, pressing her chest against him and putting her just off balance enough that she’d need to wrap her arms around him to maintain her defiant, wide-hipped stance. With her braced against him, he’d tear open her uniform and expose those pert breasts to his inspection. He’d taste her creamy skin and push her down on the deck plating, where she’d open for him, ripe and ready. He’d take her hard and fast and, when he was finished, he’d beg her to kill him. For the first time in months, an erection grew between his legs. He had to quell his sudden desire and get away from this huntress as quickly as possible before he did something he’d regret with his dying breath. With a roar of frustration, he bounded away. This was not right. The man he’d been when they injected the chip into his skull had honor. What had their malfunctioning electronics done to him?

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“I can hear you breathing.” Her voice reached him before he’d taken five steps, and it echoed in his fevered brain. He processed the sounds, the chip storing the data so that he’d be able to pick out her voice in a crowd of hundreds. He turned back just long enough to allow a full body scan. He processed her height, calculated her weight and musculature, allowing for the slightly higher than normal gravity of Grissom. In the space of a few seconds, the complete and perfect shape of her lithe body joined the voice data. She was burned into his memory now. “Come on out, soldier. Let’s make this easy. I have a tranq gun here. It’s quick and painless. Or I have a blaster. Do you want to go home in one piece or two?” He ran.

Lilliana heard the Theta moving through the dense underbrush. She followed his movements with her scanner, which picked up his increased body temperature. God, he was hot. At almost forty degrees Celsius, his state of perpetual fever would burn out the cyber-chip in no time. It was amazing he’d lasted this long. She shook her head and strolled a few yards away from the ship, drawing a bead on him with her semi. One shot would short out the chip and leave him spasming on the ground. A second shot would end his misery. How come mercy didn’t feel merciful? A microsecond before she squeezed the trigger, he took off. She cursed and lowered her weapon. Why couldn’t anything be easy? Vibro-enhanced thigh muscles carried Lilliana into the jungle at a pace that matched the Theta’s. She pounded away half a kilometer before she stopped to take another scan. He stopped when she did, just south of a babbling waterfall. A tumble of volcanic rocks, leftovers from the terraforming process, hid his body from her. She didn’t have a shot at this range. “Come on. I’ll give you a head start. Take a run at me, Theta, and this will all be over fast…I promise.” 14

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A dark head peeked above a boulder. Lillian’s chest heaved with her own exertion, coupled with a sudden surge of adrenaline. Come on. That’s it. Take a good, long look. She held her semi out to the side, creating a larger target. Her scan had showed no external weapons on him. He’d probably exhausted his ammo long ago, shooting at imaginary enemies. If he wanted her, he’d have to take her, hand to hand. She had to make him think he had a chance to win. “Come on out, big boy. Show Mama what you’ve got.” Thetas had been programmed not to respond to verbal taunts, but Lilliana couldn’t help herself. She’d fought too many non-cybers and found the easiest way to draw out a man was to tempt him with something he wanted. When chasing her human marks, she’d offered money, the false hope of freedom, even sex. Of the three options, she’d had the best luck with the third. Thetas had no sex drive, though. At least the functional ones didn’t. This one… That might be part of his malfunction. From where Lilliana stood, he certainly looked interested in more than just tearing her apart. He watched her with unbridled curiosity, no doubt gauging her ability to continue following him on his grueling flight through the jungle. She decided to play. If she couldn’t catch up to him, she’d let him catch her. She took several deep, chest-expanding breaths and swiped the sweat off her brow with the back of her forearm. His gaze never wavered. Neither did hers. She dragged the zipper of her uniform down a little, exposing cleavage. She’d often laughed at how much money women spent to have their breasts vibro-enhanced these days, when all it took to get a deep, dark valley between them was a standard-issue Epsilon Force uniform. She had to practically pour herself into the Kevlar-threaded bodysuit each day. She hated that everything showed, even the extra vitamin wafer she’d had for breakfast. She loved the fact that the suit squeezed her in all the right places, though.

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Her finger never let up on the trigger of the semi. If he lunged, she’d take him down in a heartbeat. But she didn’t expect him to attack. She expected him to assess, to calculate. The tactical part of his chip worked perfectly, even though the rest of it was shot. If she waited long enough, the chip would malfunction and she’d find his corpse in a day or two, but Veros wouldn’t have given her the assignment if he wanted to let the rogue Theta expire naturally. Lilliana swept her gaze over the rocks. She felt his eyes on her, zeroed in on her partially exposed breasts. She had his attention right where she wanted it. One step backward took her just inside the tree line. Another put her out of his direct line of sight. She heard him scramble over the rock he’d used for cover. She had him and she was going to lead him by his long, hard cock right into her clutches. Two more measured steps back and she turned, tucked the semi against her side and ran. She didn’t stop until she reached the transport.

Bait. He turned the word over and over in his head. The female was bait. She’d been sent to entice him back to the transport where the others waited to ambush him. That’s what the tactical computer in his brain told him, but his human instincts disagreed. The organic part of his brain told him she was alone. His very existence was classified, so chances were slim that Epsilon Force had sent a team to neutralize him. His tactical programming told him to retreat. Fake her out by moving in the opposite direction. Draw her away from her team. What remained of his human brain said find her. Talk to her. Could he still do that? Could he make her see that he didn’t want to kill? His human brain said use her as a means to an end. Let her destroy me. Ask her to make it quick and painless.

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He followed her back through the jungle to where the fuel residue from the Bradic flavored the wind. The hatch of the transport was open and she stood inside, a slim silhouette against the bright interior lights. Twilight had colored the sky a deep aqua green and the jungle began to stir. By morning he’d be dead, but he wanted to use the time he had left. He wanted to make a difference and see that none of the others went through this. If he could just talk to her… While he watched, she dragged the zipper of her uniform down a little lower, revealing a taut abdomen. She pouted into the encroaching darkness and his tactical chip screamed danger at him, but he didn’t listen. She wanted him to get close. If he obeyed, he might have a chance. “That’s right, Theta, come and get some. I don’t bite, much.” She cocked her hip and rested her hand on the enticing swell of her backside. The semi hung from her other hand. “Look, I’ll even put this down.” He watched her chuck the weapon behind her into the transport. It landed with a hollow thud. The sound told him she’d taken the ammo out. Smart girl. He never considered running past her into the ship and grabbing the gun, but she had. He moved forward just to the edge of the tree line. “Identify.” He croaked the word out. A day without water had left his throat raw. The survival program in his chip continually flashed a warning about the state of his electrolytes. Food and water might replenish him enough to let him live another day. Another agonizing day. When he spoke, her head jerked to the right, pinpointing his position instantly. He wondered if she had a chip too. Maybe she was the next generation—a Chi? He’d heard rumors that Epsilon’s next project would be female cyber-spies. She certainly used her sex appeal as though she’d been trained for it. A man was most vulnerable when his dick was exposed and if a woman could get him to drop his pants… That was certainly the way he’d want to go, if he still had a choice. The firebrand of a laugh arced through him at the thought. How long had it been since he’d laughed? 17

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A hint of a smirk tilted her upper lip. “Jarmok, Lieutenant. Serial number Twelve Twelve Alpha Twelve. Identify.” She wanted to play. So he would too. “Theta Series Nine. Bravo Delta Delta One…Gaige, Benjamin.”

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Chapter Three Lilliana froze. The emotion that sluiced through her had no name. Guilt? Anger? Had the Theta called himself by name? Even the data chip Veros had given her didn’t identify him by name. Who he might have been before the cyber-implant was completely irrelevant to Epsilon Force and to Central Command. They didn’t see him as human anymore. He was nothing more than an organic framework in which to embed their tactical computer. Yet, he’d come to remember his own name. Her heart took up a skittering, uneven beat as she zeroed in on his location. A dark shadow crouched at two o’clock, less than twenty meters from the ship. “Gaige, Benjamin, state your rank.” Good God. What should she ask him next? His birth sign? Favorite color? “Lieutenant Commander, subdivision Charlie, Echo Base, Kiana.” Kiana. One of the first colonies to fall. The Viliri had stripped the place bare, leaving nothing but smoldering corpses in their wake. Lilliana shook away the disturbing images she remembered from the news webs. “What’s your mission, Lieutenant Commander?” And he outranked her besides. Jeeesusss! “Lead the colonists on Grissom into the caves in the foothills of the Jerrathis Mountains. Secure a stronghold.” “The stronghold was seized and destroyed. The remaining colonists were evacuated months ago, Commander. Where have you been?” “Here. I missed the transport. I was…” His reply was lost in a shuffle of limbs. Lilliana tensed. “Identify!”

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Shit. He’d lost coherence and fallen back into a program loop. She should have known not to hold out hope for this one. So there was a little bit of human memory left in him. That didn’t change the fact that he was nothing more than a machine. “Lieutenant Commander Gaige? Can you hear me?” “Identify!” Lilliana stepped back, reaching for her semi. The game was over. Before she took a second step, a mountain of muscle exploded from the tree line. He ran like a leopard, stretching his body out full as he pounced on her and toppled her onto her back just inside the transport. Fear slammed through her, allowing her to draw in only one breath. She remembered he didn’t have any weapons. But she did. Hovering above her, he looked feral and hard. His eyes blazed with an inner fury. He held her motionless with his body, his pelvis pressed against hers, the bulge of his hard cock jutting against her thigh. His chest practically crushed hers and with each breath he drew, she exhaled to give her flattened breasts more room. “Theta, retreat!” She gave the command in a loud, even voice. “I’m not here to hurt you.” Fortunately, Thetas weren’t mind readers. The lie probably showed in her eyes, but the words were what counted right now. He dipped his head to sniff her neck and her hair and ground himself against her. Her body tingled from the intimate contact, and involuntarily, she arched her hips. “Hurt me,” he breathed hot in her ear. “Kill me, Lieutenant. Before I kill you.” “Benjamin? Gaige, is your chip malfunctioning?” Stupid question, but she had to keep him talking while she maneuvered her left arm just a little higher. Each miniscule movement she made seemed to cause his hard muscles to press deeper into hers. Her concentration faltered.

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“Failure in…twenty-nine hours.” One of his hands came up fast as a bullwhip and circled her wrist. He dragged her arm down to her side and shifted one massive thigh to trap the limb flush against her body. Lilliana stiffened. She’d never been this powerless with a target before and it made her mad as hell at herself. Her fascination with the Theta had cost her this time. “Gaige, can you hear me? Stand down.” Not a hint of desperation colored her voice as she issued the command. Above her, his eyes seemed to lose focus. She wondered if his consciousness was becoming dominant or fading into the background. “Gaige?” His hand came up again and Lilliana braced. Would he snap her neck? He plunged his fingers inside her open uniform. The rough pads of his fingers grazed her breast and flicked her nipple, which became erect at the touch. Back in familiar territory, Lilliana’s tension eased by half a degree. Her voice became silky and sweet. “You like that, Theta? You want more? You can touch all you want, just back off a little and let me breathe.” He held her gaze, contemplating. His dark eyes were solemn. His Adam’s apple bobbed reflexively when he swallowed and she saw that his full lips were dry and cracked. He’s dehydrated, she thought. That’s going to increase the chip’s rate of decay if it’s damaged. She wanted to reach up and cup his head, feel for an injury that might explain the strange malfunction, but in all honesty, there didn’t have to be one. The programming was defective. Cy-Ops had rushed the project to impress Central Command. They’d made mistakes and covered them up sloppily to prove to Earth’s government that they deserved the largest military contract ever written. He backed up no more than a centimeter and her chest heaved against him. She moved just enough to give him a little friction of her breast against his palm. “That’s good, Commander. Very good. Ease up a little more and I’ll show you things that will make your last twenty-nine hours very memorable.” 21

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He obeyed and the sudden confusion in his eyes stung her. This was a man, flesh and blood mostly, with a little bit of vibro and silicon thrown in. He had a heart that pounded against her breasts, a cock straining between her legs and, somewhere behind those gorgeous eyes, a soul begging for release. Veros’ cold metallic hand, holding her data chip, flashed in her mind’s eye. She remembered the mission. His momentary confusion gave her the advantage she needed as well as just enough wiggle room. With a flick of her left wrist, the tranq stick she’d secreted in her sleeve slid into her palm. She jammed it into the hard knot of muscles in the side of his thigh and squeezed off a double dose of Narcon, enough to down a bull elephant—if they still existed. Surprise flickered in his eyes along with a hint of grudging admiration. “Nitro?” he asked as his body went momentarily rigid. “Narcon.” “Why?!” Disappointment flared in his stormy eyes. He growled at her, then tore his body away from her and lurched to his feet. Cool night air rushed in where the heat of his body had been. She remained still, resisting the instinct to roll toward her weapon. From his position, he’d beat her to it, anyway. “I don’t have Nitro. I wasn’t sent here to poison you. I was sent here to blow your goddamned head off.” “Why didn’t you?” Now he reached for the semi lying a foot away and Lilliana twisted her body toward it. She grabbed the handle a second before he did and aimed. No ammo, shit. He knew it too. “I will, Theta. Give me a minute to reload and I will be glad to take you out.” “I was going to make it easy for you…” He gave her a hard look of betrayal and Lilliana felt it in her gut. Why should she feel guilty for not killing him?

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Rather than attacking, he lurched down the landing ramp, his gait uneven. How could he still be on his feet? The Narcon should be clamping down on his lungs by now, putting him into a near coma-like sleep. He reached the bottom of the ramp just as Lilliana popped a cartridge into the semi and sat up. She took aim at empty space. “Shit!” If Veros could see her now, he’d shoot her himself. She’d never, ever had a mark that close and let him get away. Was she going soft? Developing a conscience? Or had his confession that he still remembered his name thrown her? She hadn’t been sent to murder Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Gaige. She’d been sent to neutralize a rampaging war machine. The fact that the two were one and the same gave her pause, but Lilliana Jarmok had a job to do and she’d be damned if she let personal feelings get in the way. With another curse, she flung herself out of the transport and ran after him again.

He ran toward the water, his thirst finally overwhelming his desire to end his miserable existence. The Narcon made him sluggish. His left foot dragged a little and his left arm hung limp at his side, but he kept moving. With any luck at all, he’d fall into the water and drown. Why the hell hadn’t she killed him? She had the weapon, had the opportunity. She should have blown him away without batting an eye. Damn, he’d been so horny lying on top of her, her thighs open beneath him, her breast in his hand, all she had to do was kick him the groin and the pain would have killed him. But she’d writhed under him, pushed her pelvis up toward his, and she’d arched her back to bare those incredible breasts to him. She wanted him blind with lust, ready to come, then she’d kill him. She had to be a Chi. This must be her training exercise and he was a perfect mark. The waterfall loomed ahead. The smell of the water made him salivate. He fell to his knees at the edge of the pond and scooped the cold liquid into his mouth. Denied 23

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too long, he drank until his stomach hurt and his survival chip flashed an H2O overload warning. So much for death by dehydration. His own weakness made him sick. Maybe his lady assassin didn’t think he was worth killing. Wet and muddy, he dragged himself across the sandy bank and rolled onto his back. His human brain told him to lie facedown in the water, and when the Narcon finally knocked him out, he’d quietly drown. The chip wouldn’t let him die in peace, though. It shut down his motor functions, paralyzing his arms and legs, and he lay there panting at the sky, remembering the musky scent of her skin and the delicious scrape of her hard nipple against his palm. If he made it through the night, he promised himself he’d go back for more.

Lilliana stalked her prey step by step through the darkening jungle. The Narcon had simulated a stroke, shutting down half his brain, but he kept moving, stumbling along like a wounded animal. She held back when he reached the water and fell into the clear pool. Would he drown? No. He drank and drank. Why had he been dehydrated with water this close? He’d been trying to kill himself. Trying to end the misery before the chip took everything away piece by piece. Something squeezed in her chest when he rolled over and crawled to the bank. One shot would end it and he wouldn’t even see it coming. She took aim, but held her fire. She watched him through the sights, watched his lips moving in rhythmic time. What the hell? Was he praying? She held her position until his breathing grew regular, then approached. Lying flat on his back, beads of water glistening in his hair and on his thick, dark lashes, he slept. One shot to the chest and her mission was over. Come on, make it swift and painless. He deserves that much, doesn’t he?

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Lilliana knelt beside him, her weapon hand limp. What if he were baiting her? He could have her on her back, her head under the shallow water of the pond in a heartbeat. Hating herself for letting her curiosity get the best of her, she nudged him. Dead weight. At least the Narcon had finally kicked in. “Now what?” she asked him. “Damn you, Gaige. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t shove the barrel of my gun in your mouth and put you out of your misery right now. Tell me why, soldier. Tell me why!” The only response was the cry of jungle birds and the rasp of his steady breathing. She set the semi down on a rock and reached across his chest to feel for a pulse at the base of his throat. Strong and even. His implants were fighting against the Narcon, keeping him in an almost natural sleep rather than a coma. She’d have to be careful not to disturb him enough to wake him. With quick, measured movements, she felt for the head wound she expected to find. His close-cropped hair was thick, but it hid nothing that would explain his malfunction, nothing that would hint at why he had memories he wasn’t supposed to have. Rather than give her a reason to complete her mission and be done with him, her examination only heightened her curiosity. Benjamin Gaige was a puzzle, one that Lilliana had to unravel.

Gaige smelled gyian flowers. Their heavy, musky scent reminded him of a woman and made him instantly horny. He remembered the heady aroma of the flowers that had permeated the air when he’d spent an idyllic summer with his family at a quiet lakeside cabin on Kiana. He’d been seventeen and horny was a natural state of affairs for him, but the gyian flower pollen had made things even worse for his teenaged libido.

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The summer had been beautiful, but frustrating. The only girl within ten kilometers was his cousin Beatrice, and even if they hadn’t been related by blood, he couldn’t stand her. She whined and twirled her stringy brown hair in her fingers all the time. Unfortunately, that hadn’t stopped him from entertaining forbidden thoughts now and then about skinny-dipping in the lake… The sudden realization that he wasn’t on Kiana anymore dissolved his reminiscence. His feral jungle huntress replaced those annoying thoughts of Beatrice and piqued his curiosity almost as quickly as the scent of the flowers had caused a hard-on. She stalked him through the trails around the waterfall. She was dressed in a half-sized version of her white bodysuit that barely covered her breasts and left her midriff enticingly bare. It seemed that every move she made exposed more skin. Every step she took brought him deeper into the erotic haze of the gyian pollen. After eluding her for what seemed like hours, he asked himself why he wanted to get away from her. She looked like heaven and smelled like sin. For once, maybe he could find some sweet relief for the erection that strained against his fatigues if he’d only let her catch him. After a brief, breathless chase through a tight copse of trees, she caught him, threw him to the ground and straddled him. It never occurred to him to wonder where her tight little uniform had gone. It just seemed natural that she’d be naked, rising above him to mount his painful erection. She eased the throb of blood in his nether organs with the silky glide of her own hot channel. One good thrust and he’d come hard but he wanted the amazing sensation to last a while longer. He arched his hips and she tightened her inner grip on him, squeezing his cock in the silken glove of her pussy. He moaned and when he reached up to cup those perfect breasts in his hands, he felt nothing except the sting of returning circulation. The tactical chip set off a warning in his cerebral cortex. Rest period over. Limbs still immobilized. Awake and assess. 26

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He opened his eyes and flexed his fingers and wrists against the pain. They felt like clubs at the end of his arms. The side effects of Narcon were residual numbness, pain and fatigue. She hadn’t killed him, just made him wish she had. Sunlight streamed through the crossed branches above him. Was it dawn? He accessed the survival chip and it told him he had twenty hours left to system failure. He tried to roll over onto his stomach and the aroma of wet grass reached him, then he heard the crackling of a fire and smelled…oh God, was it coffee? “Welcome back, Lieutenant Commander.” Her shadow fell over his torso and he looked up into her face, haloed by the rising sun. His gaze traveled down from her eyes to the open neck of her uniform. She’d zipped up, but not all the way, and the curve of her breasts met in the middle between a V of white Kevlex. He licked his lips. “Looks like you’re getting feeling back in all your extremities.” One of her perfectly arched eyebrows rose. He didn’t need to look at his crotch to know that the massive, unrequited hard-on from his dream still tented his fatigues. At least his cock wasn’t tingling like his arms and legs. That sensation would have driven him insane. She turned her back to him and instantly the tactical chip came on, urging him to take advantage of her momentary distraction. Fortunately, his body still wouldn’t respond to commands from his nervous system. He lay still, watching the curve of her small, round ass as she bent over a low fire. Her graceful movements both lulled and enticed him, making him want to run his hands over every smooth curve. When she turned back, she held a steaming silver field mug in one hand and her semi in the other. “Can you hold a cup?” He nodded, forcing himself to concentrate on the task at hand.

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She handed him the mug and his thick fingers just managed to wrap around it. The heat seeped through the therma-luminum and warmed his palms, adding to the painful pins and needles, but he didn’t care. He sat up, rolling his well-trained ab muscles, and hunched over the cup. “Why am I still alive?” he asked before taking his first tentative sip of something other than water. Nothing substantial had hit his stomach in days and the coffee burned going down. The empty pit in his gut protested the bitter taste of the thin brew, but he reveled in the heat. “Beats the hell out of me.” She crouched down in front of him, eyeing him like a lab specimen, her head cocked in curiosity. “I think it’s because I need to understand what happened to you. You’re an anomaly.” He sipped the coffee and sighed into the rising steam. How long had it been since he’d tasted anything? Thetas didn’t taste. The survival chip accessed a database of foodborne poisons and calculated if a meal was safe to ingest, but beyond that, he hadn’t been able to tell hot coffee from cold piss in months, maybe years. “When is it? How long have I been here?” “Earthdate June seven, twenty-three oh five.” “Accessing…” The word slipped out and he wanted to bite his tongue. What was he now? A machine or a man? Or a failed experiment? “I’ve been here for seven months.” “Apparently you’ve been alone for three. It took Central Command this long to figure out you were missing and not dead. A recon pass picked you up three days ago and I was dispatched to…dispatch you.” She chuckled at her own pun. “And you didn’t.” “Not yet.” She waved the semi. “I will.” “Lieutenant, I order you to complete your mission. Destroy the rogue Theta, now.”

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Lilliana sat back on her haunches, and pursed her lips. He sounded just like Veros, though without that sickening affected lisp. “If your rank was still valid, I’d comply, Lieutenant Commander. But you don’t exist in the system as anything other than Theta Nine Bravo Delta Delta One.” “So what are you going to do? Sit there watching me until my chip fails and I start having seizures? Or do you like it rough, Lieutenant? Do you want to let me go? Force me to run from you so you can enjoy the rush you get from chasing down your prey? What are you, anyway? You’re not fully organic.” Lilliana sighed. “As much as I enjoy the chase, I don’t intend to make sport of you. When the time comes, I promise you, I’ll take you out fast and clean. I think Central Command owes you that.” “They owe me a hell of a lot of things. I never considered a dignified death would be one of them.” “True. Now, to answer your second question.” She patted her thigh with her free hand. “I’ve got vibro cords in here and along my spine. I also have a Regen chip. But that’s all. No software.” She hated admitting that synthetic muscles gave her this fabulous shape. It hadn’t been a choice for vanity, though. A Viliri bomb had nearly killed her five years ago, broken her back and tore her legs to hell. Those thin ribbons of vibroflex arthroid enhancements saved her life and made her whole again. “It looks like that’s all you’ve got. I have a scan of you in my transport computer and it doesn’t show any vibro at all.” “I’m one hundred percent organic. Want to feel?” He cocked one brow at her and for a moment she forgot where they were. She imagined herself at the officer’s club on Tanax, sipping contraband wine and letting him flirt with her until she decided to take him back to her quarters and fuck him senseless. “Oh, soldier, I’d love to touch all that unadulterated flesh you’ve got, but right now, I have more pressing interests. Like what the hell happened to your chip.” “Does it matter?” 29

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“To me, it does. If this is going to happen to the rest of the regiment, maybe I can save some lives if I figure out what went wrong. Heads will roll at Central Command if you’re not the last Theta to wig out.” “I won’t be the last. I’m not even the first.”

Her moss-colored eyes widened and her body stiffened. Her finger tightened on the trigger of the semi at his confession. “What?” “Theta Seven Alpha Nine Three Two suffered a malfunction two days before the last Viliri raid. He rampaged and killed two colonists and a supply clerk at the base.” “Is he still…?” “We neutralized him.” “Where are his remains?” “Vaporized. We put him in the trash incinerator.” She shot to her feet, became a column of white indignation. “That’s not procedure.” He wanted to laugh. Procedure? Watching Nine Three Two commit murder hadn’t been “procedure” either. “I already knew then,” he said, fighting to keep his voice steady. “I knew he wasn’t going to be the only one. Some of the other Thetas had…problems. So did I.” “What kind of problems?” “Memories. Names, places. They were experiencing sex drive and hunger…in cycles and flashes, sometimes uncontrollable. There were fights in the barracks every night and the colonists were getting nervous around us.” “Holy shit.” She swung herself in a frustrated circle, her semi at arm’s length. Tactical told him to grab it, shove the barrel against her chest in between those creamy mounds of flesh and pump a hot charge of plasma into her heart. He struggled against the urge and his hand shook, sloshing coffee on his leg. The Narcon was wearing off and the impulses from his chip were getting harder to ignore. 30

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“You’re telling me the whole fucking regiment went nuts?” “Not all. Ten out of the fifty of us.” “A twenty percent failure rate at four years of operation.” She rolled her eyes. “Epsilon Force is going to fold on this one.” “I only wish I could be there to see it.” “We’ve got to get your chip out.” Theta Nine Bravo Delta Delta One got his legs under him in a lightning-fast move that had her backpedaling and taking aim with the semi. “Narcon’s worn off. Dose me again now or—” She pulled a tranq stick out of her uniform. Where she’d kept it was beyond him. He hadn’t seen a stray bulge anywhere on that sleek body. She came at him and he dodged, the programming taking over everything all at once. She twirled around, delivered a kick to the side of his left knee that stunned him with the pain. Weak from hunger, he stumbled. She wasn’t kidding about vibroenhanced legs. “Theta, stand down!” The command hit his central processing unit and his arm stilled in the middle of a roundhouse swing at her head. “Theta, at ease.” That one didn’t compute. His tactical programming wouldn’t allow him to stand at ease in the middle of a battle. The enemy had been engaged. The only outcome had to be victory. He swung around under her outstretched arm and lifted her off her feet. His first instinct was to throw her against a nearby rock and break her back, but his human brain remembered the vibro-enhanced spine. She might have been lying, but if she wasn’t, tossing her away from him would give her the advantage she needed. Instead he dragged her against him and pinned her arms. He bent her forward, his thighs holding hers in place as she struggled against him.

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“Keep me partially sedated at all times, Lieutenant. Or you will regret it.” “I already regret not blowing you to hell.” She kicked back viciously and his already weakened knee collapsed. They fell together into the soft earth and he rolled on top of her to keep her from reaching up to snap his neck. With her body heaving beneath him, he thought of their similar predicament yesterday. She’d practically invited him to fuck her, and heaven knew he still wanted to. “Do it now. You’ve got the Narcon.” He panted into her ear, ran one hand along her torso to her breast and squeezed. “What’s running in you?” she whispered back and he felt her hand come up with the hypo behind his head. He fought the urge to grab her arm and snap the delicate bones of her wrist. “Tactical says kill you. Survival chip says fuck you.” He laughed in her ear, then pressed his lips briefly against the fluttering pulse in her neck. By God, she really did smell just like gyian flowers. “Does that vibro extend to your—” She plunged the hypo into his neck and he stiffened at the rush of liquid fire that traveled down into his chest. She bucked beneath him, but only to push his body over onto the ground. When she rose up above him, straddling him with those steel cable thighs of hers, snippets of his dream came back to him. “When you wake up, Lieutenant Commander, you’re going to pay for that remark.” Her face faded into the mottled background of trees and sky and her voice drifted away on a cool breeze. Blackness descended and he was grateful for it. Maybe this time, he wouldn’t wake up.

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Chapter Four Lilliana hated leaving Gaige alone, but he outweighed her by at least forty kilos and with him semiconscious, she could not carry him or force him to walk back to the ship. She thought about waiting until he woke up again, but she’d given him only half a dose of Narcon and she didn’t have much left. If he went tactical on her again during a twokilometer run through the jungle, she’d lose him for good. Worse, she might be forced to kill him, and she’d decided the moment he’d told her about the other Thetas that she didn’t want to do that. If twenty percent of the Theta chips failed, and that was a conservative estimate, then there were other places among the colonies that were experiencing problems with their Thetas by now. Veros would know. Central Command would get wind of it. They might already be aware of the problem. That meant mass extermination. But if she could find out what went wrong and save Gaige from total system failure, maybe there’d be a chance to save the others. If they gathered the surviving Theta force and repaired them, turned them human again and gave them some kind of compensation, Epsilon Force might be able to salvage the situation. The extermination of another class of cyber-soldiers would only further denigrate the operation. Some news web would find out—probably already had—and Earth’s government would crack down. There were plenty of people who were

vehemently

opposed

to

cyber-enhancements

already—freedom

fighters,

conservatives, spiritualists. Even vibro caused a stir among activists and there were factions that thought its use should be discontinued, even in the cases of medical emergencies such as Lilliana’s. If vibro were outlawed, they’d come for her and everyone else whose life had been extended by cyber-muscles or unbreakable synthetic

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bones. They’d take away her legs, break her back to get the enhancements out and leave her helpless. She’d rather face execution for disobeying her orders. Veros would kill her with his synthetic hand if he could see her now. She didn’t care. There was more at stake than Commander Benjamin Gaige now, but his survival was first on her list. The trip back to the transport went fast. She ran all the way without breaking a sweat, then collected all the supplies she could carry and strapped them to her back. Before he woke up, she’d need to set up a makeshift operating table, excise the tactical chip from his skull and dose him with Drenaleen to keep his autonomic functions working long enough for his organic brain to take over from the electronics. He’d probably die. But at least he’d never regain consciousness. She owed him that. Once she had the chip, maybe she could figure out what went wrong. Standing in the cockpit of the transport, she eyed the comm console and thought of Veros. He’d be waiting for a report. Any other mission, she’d be done by now, on her way home and bugging him about when she could put in for her next shore leave. Her options sucked. She ran through various plans in her head as she secured the interior of the ship. One, lie to Veros. Tell him you made your objective and you’re on your way back. Two, lie to Veros, tell him your mark is already dead—but he’ll want verification. Three, lie to Veros, tell him you can’t find the mark and you’re widening your search parameters. All her options had one thing in common. She sat down in the pilot seat and activated the comm. She’d send a pulse message and keep it as clean as possible. “Jarmock, L. Twelve Twelve Alpha Twelve. Report. Target dispatched at 0900 hours this morning. Cleanup complete. I’m experiencing minor engine malfunction, expect to lift off before dark. Jarmok out.”

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By the time the pulse reached headquarters, she’d be off-world, with a rogue Theta by her side if she had anything to say about it.

When Gaige lay prepped on the silver thermal blanket she’d set up as an operating table, Lilliana began to have second thoughts about her plan. The laser scalpel from the transport’s medical kit vibrated in her hand, and beneath the thumb and forefinger of the other she had a clear view of the nearly invisible white scar where the cyber-chips had been implanted just above his temple. She could do it fast. He’d feel nothing, at least until the Narcon wore off again. Then, if his brain still functioned at all, he’d probably be mad as hell. She took a deep breath and let her gaze wander down his half-naked body. She’d cut off his uniform shirt to expose his smooth chest. A stat monitor, no bigger than her fist, lay over his heart recording the staccato beat. She placed her palm next to the instrument and took a moment to soak up the heat of his fevered skin. He looked like a sculpture, beautiful lines and perfect curves. She could trace the path of every one of his muscles with her fingers. One wrong move and she could leave those muscles slack and useless. What the hell was she doing? She’d taken out dozens of rogue agents since Veros recruited her. She’d used every trick she knew, and a few she’d invented, to get close enough to her targets for them to stare down the barrel of her gun before they died. One thing she’d never done was torture any of them. Every kill she’d made for Epsilon Force was quick and clean—spotless, in fact. Lilliana didn’t much care for blood, unless it was the dirty brown kind that came from the Viliri. Now she stood poised to slice into a man’s skull, maybe leave him worse off than he already was, just because she wanted to know—thought she had a right to know— what made him tick. Her gaze tracked to her semi lying on the ground nearby. Why couldn’t she just put Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Gaze to rest? 35

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The answer was clear. Because that’s who he was—what he’d become. He was no more a machine than she was. If she deserved to live when there’d been nothing left of her but half a body, he deserved it even more. As much as she would have liked to complete her mission and walk away guilt-free to join Gil and his magnificent cock in a big, round bed on Tanax, she couldn’t. She had to do this and face the consequences or she’d always wonder who Benjamin Gaige really was and what he could have become. Her hand shook as she began to cut.

Pain lanced through his skull like a hot knife dipped in hornets. With each breath he took, the throbbing above his right ear seemed to squeeze his brain harder and tighter. His heart raced. It felt like it was bouncing back and forth in his rib cage, and a coppery tang coated his tongue. The taste was either blood or the aftereffects of a massive dose of Drenaleen. Jesus, had she succeeded in removing the chip? He searched for tactical, scanning the crimson insides of his eyelids for anything at all that resembled orders. Nothing. The survival chip warned him of the Drenaleen overdose and of impending infection. Seek medical treatment, it flashed in the dark spot in his head. Seek medical treatment for head wound, occipital lobe function may be impaired. What the hell had she done to him? “I’m Lieutenant Commander Gaige, Benjamin M. Subdivision Charlie, Echo Base, Kiana. Serial number Echo Nine Seven Twelve Beta.” He remembered. He remembered the entire thing. His identity was still there, buried in the hidden recesses of his ravaged brain. He sat up and the blood rushed to his head. His vision pulsed purple and his stomach protested, but he held it together and gained his feet. Where was she? She’d done it and he had to thank her.

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Lilliana stripped off the top of her uniform and let it hang around her hips. She stretched the kinks out of her shoulders and neck and knelt by the edge of the rippling pond to wash his blood off her hands. She worked up from her fingertips to her wrists and forearms, massaging away the ache and the nervous tension. Beyond that, her pale skin was clean, but she washed anyway all the way to her shoulders. Then she splashed water on her chest and let the cool droplets race down her skin to be absorbed by the fabric of her uniform. She wanted to strip completely and dive into the water, but there wasn’t time. He’d wake up any minute and she didn’t want him stumbling around the camp looking for her. “Lieutenant?” Her skin rose to gooseflesh at the sound of his voice. It held a timbre that hadn’t been there before, a cadence that belonged to an accent of some kind, as well as a notso-subtle hint of lust. She turned, but didn’t pull her uniform up to cover her breasts. Her nipples stood out hard in the sultry jungle air and her breasts felt heavy under his scrutiny. “Commander. I didn’t expect to see you on your feet so soon.” “The last dose of Narcon is dulling the pain and I think I have enough Drenaleen in me to reanimate the dead.” She laughed, but the sound stuck in her throat. “That’s pretty much what I had to do. Your heart stopped for a minute after I took the tactical chip out. You’ve still got the survival chip. It’s in there too deep.” She rose slowly, straightening her trembling legs. Like her, he was naked to the waist. His perfect pecs drew her attention. God, her hands would fit so well over those mounds of muscle. He raised his hand to his head. “I can’t even feel the stitches.” “I glued the incision shut. Don’t rub it or the sealant will break down.”

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“Now what?” he asked. “My countdown has stopped. It looks like I’m going to live. Do you take me back to Central Command so they can jam some more electronics in my head?” She shook her head. “You’re dead.” He tensed and she smiled. “According to my boss, you’re dead and buried. Unfortunately, you’ve got to forget your name again, pick another and disappear. I’m going to take the chip to someone I know on Serilon and have it analyzed.” “I want the survival chip out too. I can’t always control the impulses.” “What is the chip telling you to do?” She threw her head back, forced her breasts forward and slid her fingers along her hips into the open waist of her suit. He advanced two long strides and her body arched toward him instinctively. Her pussy tightened, anticipating his touch. “Do you want me to say it?” She nodded. God, yes, she wanted him to say it. The relief that she hadn’t killed him made her giddy. Warm tremors spread through her lower body and her clit pulsed. “The survival chip is telling me you’re a female in heat and I should fuck you now.” “The chip isn’t programmed with mating instincts, Lieutenant Commander. That’s your own horny, organic brain telling you what to do.” He smiled. “You’re right. The chip says get something for this god-awful pain in my head. My cock says punish the one who put it there. Come here.” He reached for her and she surged forward. “Right here on the ground?” “There’s the sleeping pack over there.” He jerked his head back toward the makeshift bed where he’d woken up. Her silver sleep pack was narrow, but it would certainly accommodate two bodies joined together. After a moment’s contemplation, she twisted out of his grasp and sprinted toward it. He growled and came after her.

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The thrill of the chase worked both ways. Lilliana liked being the hunted once in a while, and it had been a damn long time since she’d let a man catch her without the intent to use his interest against him. She considered leading the chase for a while longer, but her body couldn’t wait. Truth was, she’d dreamed of him taking her and she wanted to know if reality would measure up to the good, solid fuck her unconscious mind had played out for her last night while he lay nearby in a Narcon-induced cocoon. Eager for his touch, Lilliana threw herself on the sleeping pack. Gaige was only a step behind her. When he landed on her, she moaned. Her body rebelled against the weight, but she reveled in the solid feel of all those male muscles poised to give her pleasure. Immediately his hands found her breasts and kneaded the flesh. He drew a nipple into his mouth and sucked hard. Electric heat arrowed down to the wet spot between her thighs and began to sizzle. She let him play for a bit, enjoying the instant connection between her clit and the nipple he twirled against his hot tongue. If he kept this up, she’d come without him even getting her clothes off. That wouldn’t do. She wanted to be naked with all that smooth, hot skin of his pressed against her. She pushed her uniform down over her hips with one hand while he snaked his fingers against her bare skin and over her hairless pussy. Surprise halted his advance until she gave him a clipped explanation. “Side effect of the vibro—no working hair follicles below my waist.” He gave her a wicked look as he parted her folds with his fingers and delved into her heat. “Hmmm…” He slid two of his fingers into her, tentatively at first. Her muscles clenched hard around him, effectively stopping his thrust. Those muscles could crush a man’s cock. She’d nearly done just that, once—left the guy singing soprano all the way to a Central Command holding cell for interrogation. All right, so maybe she had tortured one or two of her targets after all. 39

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“There’s something else you should know…” She surged her hips forward slowly until she felt the resistance inside her. His eyes widened further as his fingers tested the strength of her hymen. He retreated, but she grabbed his wrist and held it against her mound, keeping his fingers in place inside her as her own juices coated them. “Another side effect. I was…a virgin when they implanted the cybernetics so my Regen chip creates a new hymen every time I…” “You’re a virgin every time?” She nodded. She could have lied. Men loved it when they found that barrier of unbroken skin inside her and she led them to believe they were the first to forge new territory. She knew how to play it up good too, with the moaning and that sexy little gasp when they broke through, even though she’d been through it so many times that she barely noticed it anymore. She held his gaze for a moment, figuring he’d think she was lying. He dropped his head with a chuckle and nuzzled her ear. “Then this will be something amazing for both of us.” He pushed deeper against the barrier and Lilliana tensed, not from nerves, but to increase the sensation. The vibro in her thighs extended up into her abdomen and when those synthetic muscles caught the buzz of an orgasm, GOD. That was another secret she kept from the average woman. Forget vibro breasts and butt. New pelvic floor muscles were the real ticket. With five times the tensile strength of organic ones, even childbirth wouldn’t dull their elasticity, assuming she were able to conceive anymore. She’d been on reproductive suppressants for years, probably for the better. There was no room in her life for a dependent of any kind. She pushed that sobering thought aside and concentrated on the sensation as he spread her inner walls. She clenched tighter around the intrusion of his fingers and he thrust upward quickly, clearing his path of conquest.

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On cue, she gasped, but this time it wasn’t for effect. It felt good and it set off a rhythm that started her climax already. She eased beneath him, opening deep, demanding more. “Come on, you know what you want, soldier.”

Gaige slid his slick fingers out of her body and trailed her cream along the impossibly soft skin of her pussy. He felt every fold and nuance of her sex and it made him harder than he’d ever been. “Take this off.” He helped her pull her uniform off and shed his own fatigues, freeing a rock-hard erection that ached almost as badly as his head. If he didn’t use it soon, he’d go tactical all by himself. She spread her thighs and beckoned him. God, she looked like sin on a silver platter. How long had it been since he’d feasted like this? He delved inside her with his fingers again, partly because he liked the feel of that slick skin, and partly to collect her silky cream. He used her own moisture to lubricate his cock and when it glistened with her essence, he plunged inside. Her heat engulfed him, her juices easing his way. As he thrust into her, something in his brain came back to life. The mating instinct was his own, shut off years ago when it was at its peak. He had a lot of time to make up for. Once he’d seated himself to the hilt, he began to move, hard and fast. He levered his hands under her tight butt and tilted her hips, driving in deep. She urged him on, panting, her short soldier’s nails raking the skin of his back. The survival chip told him to seek medical attention for elevated heart rate and blood pressure. He laughed and she moaned under him. “What’s…so funny?” She punctuated each word with a commanding upward tilt of her hips. “The chip says I’m dying.” “I wonder what it will say when you come.”

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He drove himself deeper, harder, amazed that such a seemingly delicate body could accommodate all of his length. She felt like heaven under his hungry hands and he decided he’d only just begun to sate himself. “Don’t hold back,” she whispered between sensuous moans that had his cock surging. “I’m stronger than I look.” Her accompanying gasps of pleasure proved her point. He had years of desire built up inside him that needed someplace to go, and thankfully she could handle it. She curled around him, her body taut. “That’s it, soldier—God, yes.” When those vibro-enhanced muscles closed around him in the first spasm of her orgasm, it wrung a grunt of pain from him, but the resulting surge inside him washed it away. After another deep thrust, he exploded in his own climax, his first in longer than he could remember.

Lilliana shuddered as Gaige came, her own body almost spent. Her legs quivered as she lifted them to wrap around his narrow waist and cross her ankles over his ass. She nudged him deeper, reveling in the hot river of his come that flowed into her. It had been a while—too long—since she’d had sex for the sake of it, for pleasure or release. The last few times had been for work, undercover literally and figuratively. This felt so much better. It felt so good to know that once their bodies cooled and her internal quaking ceased, she could roll over and kiss him, taste him on her lips, work him up again if she wanted to and never have to think about how she was going to kill him.

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Chapter Five Sated for the time being and feeling strangely at peace, Gaige watched his huntress. With his head propped on one arm, he let his gaze wander down her body and took inventory. Her dark nipples remained taut, even as her muscles relaxed. They stood out, a dusky mocha color against her light skin. Her abdomen was tight and concave, dipping to a small slit of a navel that begged for his touch. He indulged himself by running one finger down the center of her belly and into that sweet, seductive hollow. She smiled and closed her eyes, throwing one arm over them to shield her from the sun beating down through the trees. “That hole doesn’t lead anywhere, soldier.” “Oh, I don’t know about that. I might have to send in a recon team…” He drew a gasp from her when he lowered his head and slid his tongue into that delicious little valley. At the same time, he clamped his hand over her smooth mound and began to rub his fingers over the slick folds of her naked pussy. She sighed and writhed under his ministrations. “I’m not ready,” she purred. “I haven’t regenerated yet.” “How long does it take?” He kept up his movements, eager to make her come again so he could watch. “I can feel it sometimes…put your finger inside.” His cock grew instantly hard at her suggestion. Like a good soldier, he obeyed, extending one finger gently into her channel. The walls of her sex closed around him tight and hot and as he pressed upward, she grew more narrow inside. “Feel it?” She panted the words, her head thrown back. She snaked her hand down to guide him in a gentle upward thrust that brought the tip of his finger against a new,

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thin barrier within her. She eased him against it, letting him test the strength of the newgrown hymen. His balls tightened. A drop of his own moisture beaded at the tip of his cock and broke against her inner thigh. “Can you feel it?” She bucked her hips, as if daring him to break her again. “I’m almost new again.” “My God, me too.” He laughed. “Will it hurt? If I fuck you again so soon?” “It only hurts for a second.” Her dark look challenged him. He withdrew his finger and mounted her, seating the tip of his cock against her barrier. “Barbarians at the gate,” she said. “You want it?” She nodded and locked her legs around his ass. He surged forward and claimed her again, plunging into that hot, tight spot where her synthetic sex squeezed his cock mercilessly. Her thighs trembled and her cry of triumph echoed through the jungle when he rode them both to orgasm with a dozen hard thrusts. She laughed when he collapsed on her, pumping his long unused seed deep inside her body. “Another conquest, soldier.” “You surrendered.” “This time, yes. But next time I might not give it up without a fight.” She winked and slid her body out from under him. While he lay panting, she rose and snatched up her uniform. She turned her back and sauntered toward the waterfall, and again he took inventory of her luscious curves. Those legs could kill a man. Her rounded ass made him want to tackle her and take her from behind. As she strode away, his eyes traveled up her body and zeroed in on the twin scars that rose from the base of her spine at an angle up to her lower rib cage like a V. The evidence of her vibro surgery branded her smooth skin with two clean white lines. Even her imperfections were beautiful. “Hey, wait for me.” He rolled to his feet and raced after her.

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Gaige caught up to Lilliana under the waterfall. He filled his hands with her breasts and surged against her wet body. Pressing the mounds of flesh together, he bent to lick luscious drops of icy water from her skin. She wrapped her legs around one of his thighs and rubbed her still warm clit against him. The heat of it contrasted with the freezing spray of water dashing over them from the rocks above. “I thought I was finished, but I need more,” she whispered into his mouth. Cold water met with her hot tongue as she dove into him for another kiss. “Make me come one more time, soldier, before we have to go.” Gaige certainly couldn’t disobey a direct order. His cock protested the icy shower, but not for long. With her perfect ass in his hands, it didn’t take much convincing to get it to salute despite the cold water cresting at his waist. Grasping her hips, he lifted her and set her up on the flat top of a nearby rock just beyond the frigid spray of the waterfall. “Lean back.” He gave the order in a voice thick with desire. She obeyed, arching back on her elbows, jutting her tight nipples into the humid air. He spread her thighs for her and leaned in, darting his tongue against the dark pink nub of her clit. Her body shuddered at his first incursion and her hips canted forward, begging for more. He gave her what she wanted, dipping his tongue into her folds and thrusting into her tight slit. Her gasp of pleasure was almost enough to set him off. She pushed herself against his mouth, daring him further. Never one to ignore a challenge, he rose up, grabbed her ass with both hands and pulled her toward him. He lapped at her, alternating thrusts of his tongue with teasing brushes against her clit until he finally felt it. A rush of sweet cream burst onto his tongue and she writhed against him, her heels digging into his shoulder blades while her body stiffened in ecstasy. “Oh, soldier boy. You have skills,” she panted when her tremors finally subsided.

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“Armed or unarmed combat,” he said, hoisting himself up on the rock to stretch out beside her. “That was unarmed, I suppose?” She licked her luscious lips and reached down to caress his still unsated erection. A few pumps of her hand would have finished him off, but she had other plans. She gave him a dangerous look and stood, stretching her impossibly long legs for his perusal. He made a startled grab for her a split second later, but his fingers fell short of preventing her from diving off the rock into the deepest section of the pond, just below the thundering cascade of water. Gaige rolled to a crouch and searched the foamy cascade of water for her. He tried to ignore the surge of relief he felt when her head broke the roiling surface of the water. “I suppose you’re not worried about breaking your neck, huh?” She gave him a puzzled look. “It’s deep enough for a dive. Come on.” The survival chip warned him not to, but he ignored it. One heart-stopping moment later, he bobbed up through the water, his skin sliding over hers like steel against silk. Immediately, she anchored her thighs around his waist. “Now it’s your turn.” She mounted his still rock-hard erection easily, sheathing him in heat. This time, no barrier stood between him and ecstasy. He grasped her hips and brought her down hard, thrusting upward as he did. With a gasp, she threw her head back and the water spilled from above over her breasts and down between them, cooling the places where their bodies joined. She rode him hard, her muscles squeezing his cock to an explosive climax that left his legs weak. He held on until she came, milking the last of his seed with her orgasm, then together, they sank into the cold pond, exhausted and sated and free.

***** Loading the transport took barely an hour. Lilliana surveyed the lockers and storage bins and made final adjustments to the Bradic while Gaige cleared away all the 46

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evidence of their encampment by the waterfall. He met her on the ramp, looking fit and clean and human, dressed in a new set of fatigues from the emergency supplies on board and a white, uni-size Epsilon Force uniform shirt that stretched sexily over his biceps and pecs. Lilliana squeezed her thighs together to tamp down the urge to join him in one final fuck before they took off. There was no more time to indulge their passions, though. Veros would be looking for her and she had to be gone…long gone when the Sub-C sent a recon team to track her down. “I’ve done what I can to disguise the engine signature,” she said, hitting the airlock controls as Gaige strolled into the transport. “We’ll fool long-range scans, but not detail arcs. So I’m going to dump this baby in orbit around Gavrel and we’ll hitch a ride on a hyper-ship to Serilon.” “We?” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “I thought I was on my own.” “I don’t own you, soldier, but if you want the rest of that hardware out of your head, your best bet is my friend on Serilon. After that…” “What happens to you? Your Sub-C is going to figure out you didn’t fry me.” Lilliana shrugged. “It’s a big galaxy. I’ll stay out of his way.” She turned her back and headed for the cockpit, but he caught her arm and pulled her toward him. No other man would have laid a hand on her like that and lived. “Would it be harder or easier for you if you had someone to watch your back? After all, I’ve got to keep a low profile too.” “Harder.” No lie. Looking out for herself would be a full-time job. She could chuck it all now, drop Gaige on the nearest asteroid mining colony and limp back to headquarters with some cock-and-bull story about a gummed-up alternator. With no evidence to the contrary, Veros would have to buy it. Gil would help her fool the Sub-C for the price of a fuck and she’d be home-free.

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Unfortunately, what would normally have seemed a reasonable price to pay for the mechanic’s assistance now seemed too high. Why didn’t Pan Gilroy’s attributes interest her anymore? She played out Veros’ reaction in her mind. Maybe she could live with his suspicions for a while and she might even be able to collect her vacation pay. Logic told her that was her best course of action. But logic wasn’t ruling her life right now. Her orders were coming from a spot a little lower than her brain and slightly to the left. “I’ve never shied away from a challenge,” she said finally. Gaige put his lips on hers, drew her in and slid his hands down her back to cup her ass, reminding her why she suddenly wanted to give up her commission and join a rogue Theta on the run. “Good, because the hard part has only just begun.” “Well, then we’d better get moving, soldier.” “Aye, aye, Lieutenant.” Gaige smiled as he released her. His lips quirked in a sly grin and he raised one eyebrow. “First order of business, let’s discuss who outranks who, now that we’re both civilians.”

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Chapter Six The space station at Gavrel filled the forward viewport of Lilliana’s transport ship. The silvery web of bio-steel corridors joined by bulbous habitat domes was a man-made planet complete with forests, mountain ranges and even a small ocean. A fleet of skimmer patrol ships kept it safe from the Viliri. The small darts circled the massive station in complicated formations, effectively running off any unauthorized visitors. They gave Lilliana’s ship, with its Epsilon Force ident-code, a wide but friendly berth, though. Next to Gaige, she sat in the transport’s pilot seat, stiff as a porcelain doll, her breathing shallow and her sensuous lips clamped tight. He wanted to ease her worry that they’d be caught once they set foot on the station, but he didn’t know what to say to reassure her. At a loss, he remained still and silent while they sailed through docking procedures and she transmitted a bogus flight plan to Gavrel’s Port Authority. “I don’t like being here,” she said after docking was complete and she shut down the transport’s engines. “It won’t be long before someone tracks us here.” “If we move fast enough, we can outwit them, right?” Gaige hoped he sounded confident enough. He’d been out of the world so long he had no idea if they stood a chance at all of eluding any other members of Epsilon Force’s Special Ops. Lilliana swiveled her seat to face him. “That’s the plan. Give me a minute to corrupt my flight log and then we’ll be out of here.” Gaige nodded. His tactical chip would have told him to watch her, make sure she didn’t leave an electronic trail. He had to force himself to get up and walk away, to busy himself with raiding the ration locker for a protein bar. He had no reason to trust her, after all. He still couldn’t be sure she wasn’t out to make an example of him, but something in the middle of his chest told him to give her the benefit of the doubt. 49

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Maybe it was his heart. The last time he’d checked, that, at least, was still made of flesh and blood. She joined him in the narrow cabin a few minutes later, her jaw tight with apprehension. “I fried the nav-com. Not only will they not be able to trace where we came from, they’ll never get the ship out of dock without a complete overhaul. I can’t chance Gil getting his hands on the data packs too soon.” “Gil?” Gaige tossed the protein bar he’d just unwrapped into the recycling bin. Funny, he’d gone weeks without a nutritious meal and now he couldn’t muster enough of an appetite to take a single bite. “My mechanic. He’ll know. He can make this ship tell him anything.” Gaige nodded, surprised by the grudging admiration in her voice. There was no reason that statement should have made him jealous, but it did. Hell, he’d known enough mechanics to understand that the good ones treated every ship they worked on, from shuttle to starliner, like a virgin lover. Not only would this “Gil” be able to coax the transport’s secrets from her muddled brain, he’d probably be mad as hell about the damage Lilliana had done. She knew it too, and regret colored her eyes a darker shade of green. “What’s next?” he asked, shaking off the disconcerting feeling of possessiveness that had welled up in his chest. He had no right and no reason to feel this way about the woman who stood before him. This was no time to start demanding an account of her relationships with other men. After all, she no more belonged to him than this transport did. She let out a deliberate breath. “Strip.” Faint amusement washed away his momentary pique. “Is that an order, Lieutenant?” She cocked a brow at him and her lips quirked. “Yes. Let’s put anything with an Epsilon insignia on it in the recycler. I’ve got some civvies in one of these bins. Once we

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pop the hatch, we need to move fast and avoid any nonsense with the dock merchants. We’ll need to book passage on the first thing leaving the system.” Gaige peeled off the uniform shirt she’d given him and shamelessly let his eyes wander up and down her curves as she unzipped her own skintight jumpsuit. She climbed out of the Kevlex like a sleek, naked butterfly emerging from a cocoon. Before dumping her outfit in the recycler, she stretched to her full height before him, a daring gleam in her eye. His hands ached to cup her breasts, to thumb her nipples to erect little points, but he held back. Was she testing him to see if his mating instincts would take over before he could put his brain in gear? He held her defiant gaze and tore open the fastenings of his fatigues, freeing the erection that had grown the moment she uttered her command to strip. Her gaze dropped to his crotch and she licked her lips. “We don’t have time for any R&R right now, soldier.” “We could call it a training exercise. Penetrate enemy defenses and lay down cover fire.” She laughed, but the sound was clipped and stiff. “I bet you’d come through with flying colors, but it’ll just have to wait.” “Hmm.” He rolled his eyes and dumped his shirt in the recycler. “Next question, Lieutenant. Just how are we going to pay for passage on another ship? Last I heard, military spending accounts are linked to Central Command’s finance computer.” Lilliana shrugged, then bent to retrieve some clothing from a lower storage bin. She handed Gaige a new shirt, a sleeveless tunic in a shade of beige that almost matched his skin tone. He let the garment dangle from his fingertips while she shimmied into tight black pants and pulled on a loose-fitting top that covered way too much skin. “We’re going to barter.” She tossed the answer over her shoulder and grabbed a silver thermopack. While Gaige squeezed his broad chest into the formfitting shirt, she began dumping ammo packs into the bag. “I’ve got enough here to buy us our own starliner if we negotiate well.” 51

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“It looks like enough to send you to a holding cell for life, plus a few decades, if you get caught.” She laughed again, this time with genuine amusement. “If I were really worried about being caught, you’d be in a shallow grave on Grissom right now, soldier. Come on, watch what I’ve been trained to do.” Admiration battled with apprehension as Gaige followed Lilliana out of the transport. He’d seen her nervousness when they docked. She wasn’t lying when she said she didn’t like being on Gavrel. The only thing that made the space station marginally safe was the sheer size of its bustling population. If they were careful, they’d make it, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t someone looking for them already. With the ease born of strict military training, she slung the thermo pack over her shoulder and sauntered past the dock guards like she owned the place. For all Gaige knew, she did. He followed her, not because she was his lifeline right now, but because with an ass like hers poured into those tight black pants, any man would follow her anywhere.

***** Arrogance is the key, Veros had told Lilliana during one of her earliest days in the Spec-Ops training program. Display your confidence to the same advantage that you display your body and the average citizen will never question you. It seemed like good advice at the time. She’d just come off eleven months of physical rehabilitation, three of them before the vibro surgery, and the last thing she possessed was confidence in herself or her body. She could just about put one foot in front of the other and Veros wanted her to be arrogant and self-assured. She’d clung to that bit of instruction, poured it into her speech, her walk and every one of her movements until she finally believed it herself. The Sub-C had rewarded her hard work and determination with a plum assignment and from that moment on, Lilliana Jarmok became an Alpha, inside and out.

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After those early days of training, her resolve had never faltered, until now. Striding through the wide, crowded corridors of Gavrel Station with Gaige at her back, every step took her farther and farther away from the comfortable world of SpecOps and Epsilon Force. There was no turning back from this. She was seceding from her tenuous union with Central Command, and for what? A man. A mark who made her body shudder with waves of electricity every time he touched her. She’d had good sex before, plenty of it once Zed Lantrell and his Cy-Ops team restored her body to working order. Why, then, would the thought of her rogue Theta taking her ass in his hands and licking her pussy until she came against his mouth leave her instantly wet for him and shivering in anticipation? Why couldn’t she wait to be alone with him again, somewhere safe from intrusion, where she could let him wrap his arms around her and make her feel things she only pretended to feel with other men? She shook off the counterproductive thoughts and picked up her pace. It had been a while since her last trip to Gavrel, but her contacts here would remember her. If she played it right, she and Gaige would walk away with enough untraceable cash to buy a small moon, preferably one with an atmosphere, so they could lie out under the barren stars and fuck until this aching need in her belly went away. “The people we need to see are below,” she said, halting their trek through the merchant corridor with a sharp nod toward an unguarded access tube. “We go in there.” Gaige’s fingers closed over her arm. Rather than feeling annoyed, she tingled at his commanding touch. “How do I know—?” He stopped mid-sentence and clamped his lips shut. She tensed. “You don’t have to trust me, soldier. Pick a direction and disappear. I won’t follow you. I’ll even give you enough ammo to get you passage on a freighter.” She held his steely gaze for the space of a dozen heartbeats.

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Finally he sighed and ran a hand over his short hair, careful to avoid the healing incision on his temple. “I’m sorry. I wish I could blame it on the tactical chip, but this is just me being paranoid.” Lilliana let out a breath. “Don’t apologize. If you weren’t a little doubtful of my intentions, I’d assume I dug a little too deep with that laser scalpel. Just know this, I’m not ordering you to do anything. Any time you want to walk away, go. There won’t be a semi pointed at your back.” It pained her to say it, but she had to. She didn’t feel for a second that he owed her anything. In fact, maybe she still owed him a swift and painless death. She had no idea if he’d be able to find himself a safe haven with the war still on and Central Command chewing off its own foot to escape the ramifications of the botched Cy-Ops programs. Everything she’d done so far had been to feed her own sense of duty to something higher than Central Command. She’d told herself several times already that it wouldn’t matter to her if he went his own way. She’d given him that at least, and she certainly wouldn’t begrudge him his freedom, such as it was, if he decided to take advantage of the opportunity. “Lead the way, Lieutenant,” he said before breaking eye contact. In that one second before she turned to enter the access tube with him close behind her, she thought she saw something in his eyes she’d never seen before, not in the eyes of any of the men she’d worked with, and certainly not in the eyes of those she’d hunted. For the briefest second, Benjamin Gaige looked at her with respect.

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Chapter Seven The war with the Viliri had changed a lot of things, not the least of which was the way humans interacted with one another. Up until the day the first Viliri raid lit up the skies over Kiana’s capitol city, humans had no one to fight with but each other. They’d done it well and often since the first Homo erectus picked up the femur of some dead animal and used it to crack his tribemate’s skull. Wars had ravaged the landscape of Earth and left their scars on countless other worlds as a matter of course. If nothing else positive came from the Viliri invasion, at least humans had learned to be a little more tolerant of each other. Not much, of course, but just enough to cause everyone Gaige and Lilliana passed during their sojourn to the sublevels of Gavrel to look away and not engage the strangers with questions or suspicious glances. With their hairless skulls and bulbous eyes and the cumbersome rebreathers that pumped noxious gases into their trio of lungs, no Viliri could ever pass as human. Therefore, anyone who stood under eight feet tall and breathed oxygen could usually go about their business unmolested. Despite the seeming lack of interest in their arrival, however, Lilliana kept herself and Gaige to the shadows. She walked quickly between the rust-covered support stanchions with her head down and her thermo-pack clutched close to her body. Gaige mimicked her gait and did his best to ignore the flashes from his survival chip that told him there were potentially dangerous trace elements in the stale atmosphere of the space station’s cavernous “underground”. “It’s not much farther.” Lilliana’s measured whisper echoed, bouncing off what appeared to be stagnant puddles that dotted the corroded deck plating beneath their feet. 55

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“Why is it like this down here?” he asked, feeling like a green recruit. Even before he’d volunteered for the Theta program, before the death of Kiana, he’d never been to any of the massive habitat stations. He’d heard amazing stories from the men of Charlie Company, but he’d always assumed these leviathan feats of human engineering were pristine from top to bottom. In the half-hour he’d been following her through the subterranean levels of Gavrel, he’d been wholly disabused of this notion, not to mention he’d seen things that made his skin crawl. “It’s like this because the people who do business down here like it this way. It keeps out the riffraff.” “It keeps the riffraff out?” “Yep. Tourists, thrill-seekers, Central Command patrols. Watch your step—” Gaige pivoted at her warning just in time to avoid sinking ankle-deep into a puddle of something that didn’t look at all like water. “Where are we exactly?” “I don’t know exactly, and even if I did, it would be bad form to announce it out loud. Judging from the amount of water and other…liquid, I’d say we’re under the ocean. It leaks a little.” “There’s an ocean above our heads right now?” Gaige refused to look up. “Yes. It’s forty meters deep and fifty kilometers wide—more like a lake, but it has artificial tides, saltwater and a population of just under a thousand full-time Underwater Maintenance Engineers.” “You mean water-breathers? They have gills?” Lilliana nodded. “Cy-Ops didn’t make them, though. They’re a product of BioCon, the bioengineering conglomerate. Can we save the science lesson for later? It’s coming up on time to negotiate.” She held up one hand and stopped in her tracks, then cocked her head to the side as if listening for something.

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“Negotiate with whom?” Before Gaige finished his whispered question, they were surrounded. A dozen men dressed in tunics and pants that mimicked the gray and brown hues of the under-level closed ranks around them. Everyone was armed.

Lilliana held her ground as the “committee” closed in. Gaige’s warm breath tickled the back of her neck. The timbre of his coarse whisper would have been sexy if it hadn’t been laced with alarm. “What the fuck?” “Relax. I know them.” “Medea? You sai’t you’t always come alone,” the committee’s leader said in his halting Gavrelian accent. “He’s no one.” She dismissed Gaige with a wave of her hand. The layer of humid air between her back and his chest prickled with his annoyance at her dismissal, but this wasn’t the time or place for lengthy introductions. He’d just have to understand. She’d apologize later. Maybe. The leader stepped forward into a pool of gray light that filtered down from the narrow spaces in the plating overhead. Lilliana recognized him, but hid her surprise at his haggard appearance. Delfrin called himself the Sage of Gavrel, and though at their last meeting she’d have placed his age at somewhere below thirty, he’d grown into the part in the intervening months. Life below was harsh. The deep lines around Delfrin’s rheumy eyes attested to that. “He steps back then. State your business, Medea.” Gaige obeyed Delfrin’s command without prompting. The committee closed around him a little tighter, their weapons primed, but slung low. A false move would get him blasted in the kneecap for now. She hoped she retained enough carte blanche from the last time to keep him from getting slashed if he got any more antsy than he already was. Thank goodness she’d gotten out his tactical chip. A rampaging Theta would turn this little meeting into a bloodbath.

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Rather than reply, Lilliana thrust her hand into the thermo pack and pulled out a semi cartridge. One of the committee members, obviously a newbie, made an appreciative sound. “Best offer for two kilos of live rounds.” “No guns?” “This was all I could get.” Delfrin stepped forward and Lilliana handed him the pack. Behind her, Gaige made a microscopic shift forward which drew the committee’s weapons up to the level of his waist. “So he’s a bodyguard?” Delfrin chuckled. “And what a body he has to guard.” Lilliana grinned, pretending she found Delfrin’s crude remark flattering. “We’re discussing ammo, not my assets.” Delfrin’s head practically disappeared into the bag. The dozens of clips clicked together as he rummaged through them, counting under his breath. When he looked up, his thin lips parted in a smile and one graying eyebrow rose. “Best offer…ten mil.” “Ten? That’s all? These are fresh rounds, not stolen from an abandoned outpost like the last batch, and I got fifteen for those.” Lilliana stuck one hip forward and widened her stance. Ten million rads would be more than sufficient to get them where they wanted to go, but if she accepted too quickly, she’d look suspicious. She had to give Delfrin what he expected from her. “Ten is generous. These are half-clips for the smaller weapons.” “But there’s double the amount in that bag.” “Harder to sell.” She scoffed at that. Delfrin would make forty mil easy on this stash. He’d have a dozen competitors eager to slit his throat even before he unloaded them. “Give me a break.”

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The Gavrelian made a show of checking the merchandise again. When his head came up, he wore an exasperated expression. “Thirteen, no more.” “Let’s make a deal. I’ll bet you two mil that I can get an offer of twenty before this cycle is over.” She leaned forward and gave him a hard squint. “That’ll put me way in the black and you looking to make a retail purchase.” Delfrin’s mouth twisted, but he slung the thermo pack over his own shoulder. “Fourteen.” “Give me my bag back. I’ve got other places to go.” She held out her hand and with a rough sigh, Delfrin slapped a trio of rad chips into her palm. “That’s fifteen. You’t never get twenty and you know it.” Lilliana closed her fingers over the chips. They were ice cold and a little grimy, but the weight of them told her they were the real thing. “If you really believed that, you’d have let me go try, wouldn’t you?” She slid the chips into a pocket of her shirt, glad she wasn’t wearing her uniform. She turned on her heel and Gaige and the committee members backed out of her way. “Always a pleasure.” “Medea. If you come back with another batch of full clips an’ a couple of guns, I can get you seventeen any day.” She laughed. “Now you tell me. Well, I’ll keep that in mind. You keep this—I’d have let this batch go for eight.” She sauntered away, exuding confidence she wished she felt. Now they just had to get back to the merchant level without anyone slashing them for their rads and they’d be on their way to Serilon. After half a second, Gaige followed. “Just keep moving,” she told him when he drew even with her. “No questions.” He didn’t respond. His eyes were focused ahead, his gait purposeful. She had no doubt he’d grill her later, but for now, he played the part of the perfect soldier, silent and obedient. She couldn’t for the life of her figure out why that bothered her so much.

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Gaige kept his mouth shut and his eyes open during the perilous trip back to the access tube and beyond. When they emerged from the grimy depths of Gavrel’s underworld, Lilliana turned to him, a questioning look on her face. She obviously expected him to rant or complain about being relegated to the position of mute observer during her exchange with the black-market ringleader. When he made no comment, she swung around and strolled away, her pace steady and sure, through the throngs of travelers and locals that clogged the space station’s merchant corridor. He followed, not because she expected him to, but because he wasn’t ready to cut loose yet. Maybe in time he would leave her. Deep down, he had to admit that splitting up would probably benefit them both in the long run. Nevertheless, something made him stay. When the crowds cleared and the corridor opened into one of the expansive habitat domes, she slowed her pace and dropped back even with him. Here, the deck plating and harsh lights of the merchant corridor gave way to a lethargic suburban development, heightening the illusion that they had made planetfall. A park stretched beyond the division between the corridor and the platform and above the lush green of deciduous trees, the artificial sky was pale blue and dotted with gauzy white clouds. Rather than step on the dark pavement that butted up against the metallic deck plating of the merchant section, Lilliana turned left and skirted the row of exchange windows and dealers’ booths that lined the edge of the habitat dome. “Over here.” She motioned for Gaige and with a wistful, final glance at the artificial sky, he joined her at an ornate window set into the gray, bio-steel bulkhead. She smiled at his approach for the benefit of the woman inside the dealer’s booth and placed one of the rad chips she’d been given on the gleaming countertop. “We’d like passage on the next available bullet ship to the Canaris system.”

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“A double or two singles?” The woman’s watery gaze bounced from Lilliana to Gaige and the corner of her thin upper lip lifted in a knowing smirk. He wished he were in on the joke. “Your choice,” Lilliana said, nudging him with her elbow. “Do you feel like bunking with me for eight hundred light-years?” That was certainly a trick question. He shrugged. “Sure.” “A double, then.” The woman took the chip and dumped it into a cash sorter. Her computer console beeped and with the old-fashioned chunk-chunk of a ticket dispenser, it spit out two boarding passes and a smaller rad chip that she returned to Lilliana. “The Falstaff, dock six. Better hurry,” she said. Lilliana pocketed the items and handed one pass to Gaige. “You go ahead. I’ll meet you.” He reached for her wrist and, once again, she tolerated his possessiveness. He wondered how long that would last. “Why aren’t we going together?” “I want to pick something up in the merchant section.” “Don’t you think we should stick together?” He lowered his voice, aware of the dealer’s scrutiny. To avoid the woman’s interested stare, they walked away before Lilliana answered. “You’ve got your ticket. If I don’t make the flight, you’ve got what you need to get where you’re going. Here.” She handed him one of the larger rads she had left from the ammo deal. “This will get you anywhere you want to go. On Serilon, go see a man named Zed Lantrell. He lives in Yebec, near the river. Tell him you know Medea.” “Who is Medea, anyway? Why did that man call you by that name?” “It’s just a name. It doesn’t mean anything.” The look in her eyes told him it meant a lot more than she was willing to divulge, but he had no right to press. He glanced at the chip in his hand. If it wasn’t for the one still in his head, which right now measured

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a rise in blood pressure and heart rate consistent with mild anxiety, he’d have walked away with thoughts of all the places in the galaxy he hadn’t seen yet and never dreamed he’d get the chance. “Zed Lantrell. Is he Cy-Ops?” “He was, but he defected. He’s safe. You will be too, but don’t worry. I am planning on meeting you on the Falstaff. This isn’t an elaborate brush-off.” He wanted to challenge her, but something told him there was little he could say to change her mind about this impromptu side trip. Trust her or don’t. Those were his options. The former had gotten him this far, but there had to be a limit. Without his tactical chip ramping up his paranoid instincts, he found he wanted to believe everything she told him. She held his gaze for a moment. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk after we board the ship,” she said. He nodded. “I guess I’ll see you on board, Lieutenant.” “Yes. You will.” The conviction in her voice gave him some hope and he had to wonder why it mattered so much to him to be able to believe she’d come back. Without a kiss, or a touch, or even another word, she turned away and wove into the crowd that spilled out of the mouth of the merchant corridor. Gaige hesitated only a moment before checking his ticket. Dock six wasn’t far, but the Falstaff would be leaving soon. Ignoring the regret that settled in his gut, he headed back into the crush himself, determined not to try to catch a glimpse of his jungle huntress before she disappeared again.

***** Lilliana didn’t waste any time completing her objective. She hadn’t lied to Gaige about her intention to join him on the Falstaff, but that didn’t stop her from considering the alternatives. She might be a liability to him in the long run, and he certainly would be to her. Separately, they’d be harder to track, but all she seemed to be able to think about since they’d emerged from Gavrel’s underground was how they’d be together.

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By the time she reached the passenger freighter with her purchase tucked under her arm, her heart fluttered in her chest with a schoolgirl’s anticipation and her pussy had begun to ache. She hadn’t felt that way in a long time and she grudgingly admitted to herself that it felt good to want him. To need him to touch her again. She suffered only a moment’s uncertainty when she arrived at the double berth she’d purchased for them on the Falstaff’s mid-class level. What if he’d taken her offer and left on his own? A functioning Theta would have seized the opportunity to escape from a possible threat. Perhaps she shouldn’t have given him the chance, but he understood that he wasn’t her target anymore, nor was he a Theta. It was a human brain that controlled him now, not a tactical chip. Therefore he had free will to function illogically, irrationally, and on the whim of his sizable cock, which is what she hoped he’d decided to do from the moment she mentioned sleeping together. Without preamble, she pushed her boarding pass into the security lock, prepared for the possibility that she’d be making the journey to Serilon alone. “You came,” he said when the door of the compartment slid upward. Gaige stood, bathed in the pale blue light associated with preflight. He’d stripped off the too-tight shirt she’d given him and his flat, male nipples stood out stark and tight against the smooth planes of his pectorals. His fatigues hung open at the waist, revealing the upper limits of the swirl of dark hair that arrowed down to his more interesting parts. Lillian’s clit gave an appreciative pulse. “Not yet, but I plan to.” She squeezed her thighs together against the sensation before stepping over the raised threshold of the compartment. He laughed and when he spoke, she imagined she heard relief in his voice. “Launch is in five minutes. We’d better get comfortable.” “You look like you’ve already started.” She bent over and scooped up the tunic he’d removed. “There are storage bins in the starboard bulkhead. I’ll put this away, along with my package.” 63

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“A package?” He leaned over her shoulder and the press of his naked flesh against her back sent her spiraling into a brief, torrid fantasy, one she planned to make reality once they launched. “What did you pick up?” She deliberately left the package unopened, but gave him a tantalizing look at the opaque plastic wrapping before she deposited it into the storage bin along with his tunic. She turned to him. “It’s a decent shirt for you.” The gratitude in his eyes surprised her and made her wish she’d had time to buy him more necessities. He’d been without personal possessions for so long that owning something, even a simple article of clothing, would help him feel human again. She’d been there once and she understood how disconnected he must feel. She nodded toward the far end of the tubular compartment. The aft wall was contoured and padded and would become a comfortable resting place when the ship launched. The floor on which they now stood would become a wall and the spin of the ship’s passenger rings would provide enough artificial gravity to keep them supine on the aft surface for the duration of the high-speed flight. “I figure you won’t be needing anything to wear for a while, though.” She shrugged out of her own shirt and began pushing her tight pants down her legs. “I prefer to do this naked. How about you?” “Do you have to ask?” He stripped off his pants and together they shoved their clothes into the storage bin. By the time the two-minute warning sounded, they stood naked at the aft wall, ready for the shift in orientation. They didn’t touch yet, but the air between them crackled with electric heat. Lilliana didn’t need to look. She sensed his arousal, then felt the hot shaft of his penis brush her thigh. He bent his head and his breath tickled her shoulder. Her nipples tightened in response. “How long is this flight?” “Long enough.” She sucked in a nervous breath and locked her knees. Could he smell her arousal? Did he realize that since the moment he’d touched her on Grissom she’d become addicted to pure pleasure, to sex that she didn’t use as a weapon? 64

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“How exactly does this—” His question was lost in the tumultuous grind of the Falstaff’s engines. Launch rattled the entire ship and the compartment shuddered around them. The icy blue glow of the deep-set running lights above them changed to hot red, bathing them in crimson and deep black shadows. In the next instant they fell against the cushions of the aft wall which had now become their floor and their bed for the duration of the flight. Gaige’s arms had come around her at the first deep rumble of the engines and Lilliana’s body went taut. He landed on her, his muscular weight pushing her into the springy foam contours. “Damn. I think I like this.” He nuzzled her neck and spread her body beneath him, working her thighs apart with his knee and dragging her wrists up above her head. She tried to hold back a moan, but a feral sound escaped unbidden. She’d longed for this since the moment he’d thrust one searching hand into her uniform back on Grissom. She’d lain beneath him then in much the same position, at his mercy, completely open to him. And she’d fantasized even then. They had eight hundred light-years to fuck and she intended to enjoy every one of them. “Now, let’s talk about penetrating enemy territory and laying down cover fire.” She punctuated her sentence by rubbing her naked pussy against his thigh, searching for the hot, wet tip of his cock. “I think I’ll need to do some recon first,” he responded as he circled both of her wrists with one thumb and forefinger. She allowed him this position of power and reveled in it, playing at full surrender. She gave a gasp of surprise when he sucked one nipple into his mouth. He drew long and hard on her flesh, and each pull of his hot tongue against the tight nub seemed to draw her clit up tighter within her folds. She spread her thighs wide, urging him to take her, begging him to ease the ache, but he held back. Instead, he used his tongue and teeth to tease her nipples, to lick the soft skin beneath her collarbone and nip at her jaw. “Come on, soldier, I’m ready.” She hated to beg, but God, she wanted him inside her.

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“No, you’re not even close. I want you to come before I break you open again, and I want to make it take a while.” “Oh!” Her eyes widened and she let out a startled sigh when his free hand closed over her mound. He stroked her soft skin, and the vibro muscles in her thighs and belly contracted in response to the tease. She cried out and arched her back, fighting the need to curl forward. “How long can you hold out?” he asked, dipping just the tip of one finger inside her slick channel. Even that small intrusion felt massive. “I can come just by thinking about it.” Yet another secret of vibro enhancements. Those micro-threads that Zed Lantrell had laced through her lower body all connected to her central nervous system. Her pleasure sensors went wild during sexual stimulation and a mind-blowing orgasm required little effort if she let herself go that far. Normally, she kept her full responses in check and played the men she fucked, only letting them think they gave her that much pleasure. This was different. Gaige pulled back, arching his dark brows. “So I don’t even have to keep touching you?” “You could breathe on me and I’ll go off. Try it and see.” She brushed her fingers against his arm and watched the fine, dark hairs stand up as his flesh prickled. She wouldn’t let him forget that she had power too. “Oh that’s a challenge I can’t resist.” In a swift movement, he let her hands free and shimmied down her body. With one hand, he spread her pussy open and cool air rushed against her swollen clit. She bucked at the sensation and tensed when he lowered his head between her thighs and blew a stream of air over her wet flesh. A pulse started deep in her core, but she fought it. “Try again…” She squeezed her eyes shut when he complied. A stronger rush of air hit her clitoris and the damp skin of her mound. Lilliana held out as long as she could against the rising tide within her, but her body rebelled. When she broke, her laugh of frustration sounded more like a sob.

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“That’s it.” Gaige eased the almost painful contractions with gentle strokes of his fingers over her sex. He pressed on her clit, drawing a few fast pulses from her and worked one finger just a few inches into her spasming pussy. “Let me feel it.” She let her vaginal muscles tighten around his finger and more contractions rocked her sex until she whimpered with the need for something more. She panted. “Now?” His smile was wicked. “Not yet.” “Come on. You want it as badly as I do.” “You’re going to have to ask nicely.” “Fuck me, dammit!” He laughed. “Nicer.” “Fuck me, please?” Lilliana bit out the request. She wasn’t used to asking men for sex and she certainly wasn’t used to needing it from them. “Come for me again. Then we’ll talk. You’re the master negotiator. I’m sure you’ll be able to convince me.” Gaige obliged Lilliana’s aching need by inserting one finger inside her. He pushed in gently, and she tensed against the intrusion, milking a few more languid pulses from her orgasm. He stopped at her ever-present barrier and pushed against it, teasing, creating a friction that caused her muscles to clamp tight again. “So, where did you learn how to handle black-market weapons deals?” “It’s part of my job.” She wiggled and arched, but he remained aloof to her desperation. “This isn’t an interrogation, is it? Because I’d talk a lot more with your cock in my—” He gave a hard little thrust, not strong enough to break her, but enough to draw a pleasurable gasp before he increased the rhythm of his strokes. “I’m just curious. I like how tight you are. When you come around my cock, it almost hurts.” “It’s a gift.”

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He plunged. She tightened. Again he stopped short of tearing through her regenerated hymen. Already she was nearing the brink again and this time her hypersensitive nerve endings would send her straight to hell if she didn’t get some relief. “You’ve been to Gavrel before.” “Many times. You’d be surprised how many marks hide out there.” She sighed and stole a glance at his face. His eyes were heavy-lidded as though he were enjoying the sensation as much as she was. “Come on, do it!” “One more question.” “Oh God, anything! What?” “Who is Medea?” Lilliana closed her eyes and concentrated on nothing but the feel of his long fingers sliding in and out of her tight pussy. She clenched, and held tight as the wave built to an uncontrollable level, then she cascaded over the edge. Her climax hit hard and she rode with it, breathing hard, undulating her hips with the electric current that coursed through her. In the aftermath, she shivered when he drew his fingers out and stroked her cream over her quivering thighs. When the tremors subsided and the only force moving her body was the distant, intermittent rumble of the engines, she blinked up at him. Bathed in red, he looked like a war god, with his gray eyes dark and his cock high. She’d have given him anything then and worried about the consequences later. “Medea is who I used to be, before I died.”

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Chapter Eight Gaige rose up on his knees and rested his hands on Lilliana’s thighs. She lay still, her lips thin, her breathing now hardly noticeable. Her perfect body looked like pink marble in the crimson glow. The pulse of the Falstaff’s engines felt like a heartbeat beneath his body, seeping up from somewhere far below them to infuse his bones. “How long?” His throat had gone dry and the words came out tight and scratchy. “Less than a day, so they tell me. I’d been working in an apothecary on Brandys. I was seventeen. The Viliri had landed the night before on the far side of a ridge. Two ships. They waited until daybreak to attack and they hit the vital organs first. Security stations, hospitals, water treatment plant and medical supplies. The place went down like someone shoved the whole building into a hole that was a size too small. Everything closed in around me. It was hot and dark and I couldn’t breathe. It seemed like hours before I felt any pain, though…and then…” She squeezed her eyes shut and Gaige winced. He hadn’t meant for her to relive something so terrible. He’d expected a wild story about a saucy alias. He stroked his hands up her damp skin and laid them on her belly. “You don’t have to go on.” “I bled out. I can’t figure out why they bothered to pull me out of the rubble. I was no one, just some girl who handed out bandages and painkillers to the miners. I wasn’t a soldier.” She paused and turned her head to the side like she was looking into the past. “Zed was on the search and rescue detail. He got to decide who could be repaired and who couldn’t, and apparently he thought he could put me back together.” “What was it like—being dead?” Gaige shook his head and put up a hand. “God. Don’t answer that. It was a stupid question. Besides, I think I know what it’s like. After 69

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my tactical chip went active, my mind sort of dissolved. I was gone for a while and I don’t remember anything.” Lilliana sketched a wan smile. “I didn’t either, but when I came back, I wasn’t me anymore. I didn’t feel the same. I didn’t look the same, either. So much of me was missing.” She lowered her lashes. “You don’t want to hear about that.” “If you want to tell me…” She sat up, letting his hands ride up her torso to her breasts. She was warm to the touch. Her nipples, which had gone soft and full in the aftermath of her release, tightened again at his gentle touch. He wanted her, but not like before. When the door of the compartment had opened, relief at seeing her had given him an instant hard-on. He’d wanted to play with her and punish her for leaving him alone to wonder if she’d abandoned him. He’d wanted to sate his lust with her like he had on Grissom and feel like flesh and blood again. That urge was gone now, replaced with a different desire, something deeper and more intimate. He took her hands in his and tugged her toward him. Their bodies met, thigh to thigh, chest to chest, and he brought his hands up to cup her jaw. She obeyed the subtle command of his movements, tilting her head to accept him when he claimed her mouth. The sultry scent of gyian flowers engulfed him. She tasted sweet and innocent somehow, and that flavor made him harder than he’d been before. She let him in deep and met his tongue with hers. This time, though, she didn’t battle with him for dominance as she had before. Her kiss felt more like an embrace, a joining. When he lowered his arms and gathered her against him, she seemed to melt and he molded her soft form to fit against him. They remained like that, locked together, drinking each other in until the red warning lights were replaced by a soft amber glow.

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The churning of the engines seemed to recede and the press of heightened gravity lessened just enough to let Gaige breath a little easier. Cradling Lilliana, he lowered her to the soft cushions and settled above her. He let his fingers dance along her body. She shivered. He slid inside her, slow and deliberate, reveling in the stretching of her hot, wet pussy around him. In one long stroke, he breached her barrier again. She tensed for a second, then eased into his embrace and brought her legs up around his waist. She matched his easy rhythm as if they’d rehearsed it, undulating her hips to meet each thrust with one of her own. Little sounds from deep inside her throat urged him on until his balls were hot and tight. His orgasm seemed to barrel through him from a million miles away, another lifetime when he’d learned the difference between having sex and making love. Buried to the hilt between Lilliana’s taut thighs, Benjamin Gaige shattered. She tightened for him and came when he did, rocking beneath him to the rhythm of their hearts. When he was finally spent, he rose up and kissed her again. “Thank you…for bringing me back.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Don’t thank me until you’re sure you want to be back.”

***** In their compartment, while the Falstaff raced toward Serilon, time slowed and twisted. The slightly increased gravity kept them comfortably tired. It required too much effort to sit up, so they remained lying in each other’s arms, exploring with lips and tongues for what seemed like decades. With her back pressed against Gaige’s chest and his endless erection nestled between her thighs, the tip teasing her clit, Lilliana felt sated and safe.

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The small part of her brain that still functioned logically cautioned her against becoming too complacent in his arms. How easily she could get used to the feel of his muscular chest against her back and his cock buried between her legs. His warm breath tickling the crook of her neck and his heartbeat steady and strong against her spine just felt right—as close to normal as she’d ever come. She’d spent plenty of time with a man’s naked body wrapped around hers, but she’d never indulged in the fantasy that he belonged there. She shifted, uncomfortable with her thoughts more than her physical condition. He stirred and one large hand traveled up from her waist to cup her breast. “Are we going to stay like this forever?” she asked after one experimental thrust of his hips against her ass. “I don’t have any objections. But won’t they kick us out when our boarding passes expire?” She laughed. “What I meant was, we have a few hours before system-fall. Do you want to get something to eat?” “Do they have actual food on board, or just supplements?” “Both.” His arms tightened around her and he sank his teeth into her shoulder. Her body tensed and a jolt of sexual electricity arrowed to her clit. “You just reminded me how hungry I am. Let’s go.” “Ugh. I knew you’d say that.” He rolled himself over to straddle her. “You’re not hungry?” “I don’t know if I have the strength to eat.” That was a lie. She wasn’t sure she had the willpower to leave their perfect little pocket universe. Here in their private compartment, no one knew or cared who they were or what they were doing. There were no rules, no orders. They were human, completely and joyously human.

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“Come on, Lieutenant. You mean to tell me standard maneuvers have worn you out?” “Mmm. I’m spent.” She stretched beneath him, delighted with the feel of skin against skin. Before she could suggest a long nap, he positioned his hands on her hips and flipped her over onto her stomach. Startled but intrigued, she ignored her fight reflex and braced for his invasion. Rather than making use of his erection, though, he slapped her ass. “Ow! You struck a superior officer!” He did it again, harder. Though she’d never been into the rough stuff, her clit tingled as much as her backside. She’d played along with a few of her marks, even letting one of them tie her up for his own pleasure before she brought him in. She’d have been willing now, but Gaige didn’t seem to have sex on his mind. “What are you going to do about it, Lieutenant?” The humor and mischief in his voice tugged at her. She gave him a saucy grin over her shoulder. He was on his knees, working the controls that caused a rung ladder to protrude from the flat wall of the compartment. She rolled over onto her back and squinted at him. “You’ll pay for that, soldier.” He began tossing clothes out of the storage bin. “I bet I will. Get dressed and buy me dinner.” She caught her shirt and pants and held them while he shimmied back into his fatigues and the new, better-fitting tunic she’d bought for him on Gavrel. While it was certainly a shame to cover up that magnificent body of his, she couldn’t argue that he looked good in the dark, formfitting shirt. “Look who’s giving orders. I thought we established that since you don’t technically exist, I outrank you.” “All right, get dressed and buy me dinner, Sir!”

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Lilliana shook her head. She could have argued, but her stomach had begun to complain about the inadequacy of the last protein bar she’d eaten. She pulled on her clothes and joined Gaige on the rungs that led up to the top of the compartment. He activated the hatch and they climbed out into the revolving ring that joined their berth to hundreds of others on this level. Together they sailed across the gravitational dead spot in the center of the ring to the hatch on the far side that led to the common areas of the ship, such as the dining compartments, observation decks and the ever-present casinos. “We should still keep a low profile,” she said when they emerged into one of the crowded dining areas. The smell of prepared food flooded her senses and her stomach growled. She thought of the skintight uniform she’d never wear again and decided it was time to indulge. Gaige surprised her by taking her hand and squeezing before he led her across the cavernous room to the serving stations. “As far as I’m concerned, this is just a refueling stop. I’ve got better things to do than socialize right now.” “And what would they be?” He gave her a dark look. “We’ve got a lot more maneuvers to practice, Lieutenant, don’t you think?” She had to agree. “Well, then, we’d better get started. We only have four hundred light-years left.”

***** When the Falstaff docked at the Canaris Ring Station, Gaige fought a surge of regret at leaving their compartment. With his various hungers sated for the time being, he’d reached a level of comfort he hadn’t thought he’d ever feel again. He’d have been content to remain sequestered with Lilliana forever, but the ever-present knowledge that his survival chip still controlled some of his responses, such as the sudden

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undeniable urge to find food when he would rather have made love again, kept him moving. Now, with the taste of humanity on his lips again, he only wanted more. He would stop at nothing less than complete freedom from the atrocities he’d permitted Central Command to visit upon him. That meant giving himself over to Zed Lantrell, trusting Cy-Ops one more time to give him the last shred of his dignity back. A small, cramped shuttle ferried them from the docking ring to Serilon, where daytime temperatures that soared over seventy degrees Celsius kept most of the population underground. There he followed Lilliana through an air-conditioned tunnel of clear, molded plastic that looked out on Serilon’s golden desert. The brilliant vista seared his eyes and, for a moment, he recalled the burning light of the first of the Viliri bombs that had lit a tranquil night on Kiana so many years ago. He forced the memory down, locking it away with the remnants of a life he’d never be able to retrieve and turned his attention to the future. “You said Lantrell lived by the river,” he said when Lilliana directed him toward a ramp at the end of the tunnel that descended below the surface. “The underground river,” she replied. “Yebec is a cavern, not a city. Come on, it’ll be cooler down below.” They descended through a tube of naked rock. The strata of millions of years colored the walls in varying shades of brown and muted purple. The overly clean scent of re-filtered air filled Gaige’s lungs, replacing the stale aroma of the shuttle atmosphere. “How many people live down here?” “About twenty thousand in Yebec. Garond is twice as large. It’s an hour downriver and the views are spectacular. I can take you there—after—if you like.” Her voice sounded hopeful and suddenly much younger. He realized now that he’d assumed his jungle huntress had a few years on him. Her tracking skills and her rank seemed to 75

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intimate she’d served in Epsilon Force for a long time, but her bright eyes and flawless skin, her mischievous smirk and her enthusiasm for pleasures of the flesh told him she might be much closer to the seventeen-year-old Medea than he had imagined. When the rock walls opened outward and the slant of the polished rock floor beneath their feet leveled off, Gaige’s step faltered. Yebec opened before them almost as large as Gavrel’s habitat dome, but its sky was black rock lit from below by the glow of streetlamps and colorful neon arcs that bridged the shadows between the flat rooftops. Low buildings in shades of brick that blended with the surrounding rock filled the cavern. The underground space seemed to stretch forever into the shadowy distance, and through the center of the place ran the river. Muddy from boat traffic, it seemed to churn in ribbons of color—browns, rusty reds and tongues of inky black. Gaige guessed pollution was responsible, though he detected no unpleasant odor from the water, even when they crossed it via an arching pedestrian bridge. On the far side, the roadway sloped down again and Lilliana followed it along the low wall that edged the river. Though the narrow passages between the buildings were crowded with people, no one seemed particularly interested in the newcomers. The few glances they drew as they made their way to Zed Lantrell’s home were neither hostile nor particularly friendly. Here and there, Gaige noticed evidence of Viliri vengeance in the faces and bodies that passed him. Burns and missing limbs were common here and he guessed that even with a defected Cy-Ops surgeon living in their midst, many of Serilon’s inhabitants couldn’t afford to reconstruct their war injuries. The street grew more narrow and the lights dimmer as they progressed, until Lilliana finally stopped in a gray-walled alleyway. A door covered in peeling green paint seemed to provide the only outlet. She strolled up to it and knocked and, after a moment’s silent wait, the world exploded. Blinding light and pain erupted behind 76

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Gaige’s eyes. A piercing arrow of heat shot through his skull, followed by a wave of nausea that brought him to his knees. His last awareness was of Lilliana leaning over him, her face blurred and pinched. He heard her voice, distant and muddy, asking if he was all right, but before he could muster a reasonably sarcastic answer, blackness closed over him.

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Chapter Nine Lilliana forced her anger into check and managed to keep her voice even when she addressed Zed Lantrell. “There are other security systems you could have used, you know.” Upset as she was at seeing Gaige floored by Lantrell’s neural-dampening EM field, she couldn’t blame the former Cy-Ops engineer for being overly cautious. “What would you say works better than this? If your new lover had been a functioning Theta here to rip my vibro-arthroid heart out of my chest, what better way to neutralize him while I escaped?” Zed’s self-satisfied smile had never seemed quite so sardonic. Lilliana remembered her dubious savior as a taciturn man at best, self-effacing and often humbled by the extent of his own skill at restoring life to the lifeless or nearly so. He’d changed dramatically in the years since she’d seen him last. His brown hair had streaks of gray and the piercing blue of his eyes had dulled to a dusky shade. He seemed less muscular and not as tall as she remembered, though, except for the last few weeks of her rehabilitation, she’d only ever looked up at him from a chair or a bed. His dark tunic hung on him and a leather belt was cinched tight around the top of his loose trousers. “What makes you think he’s my lover?” She didn’t like the way her voice trembled on the word. “Come now, my sweet Lilliana. We both know what you are. The ability to stiffen any man’s cock and lead him around by it isn’t something Veros had to work too hard teaching you. I’d be shocked if you hadn’t fucked him. And if it wasn’t part of your natural ‘programming’, shall we say, I’d have known by the way you looked when he fell at your feet.” 78

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“What I’ve done with him isn’t important. What I need you to do for him is.” Lilliana crossed her legs and leaned back on the free-form cushions of Zed’s sitting room. At least the décor hadn’t changed. From where he sat, she could see into the open door of Zed’s lab where Gaige rested in an exam chair. Stat monitors registered the fact that the neural blast that had temporarily overloaded his survival chip had left no permanent damage. He’d wake in an hour or two with a headache and his chip telling him he’d died and gone to hell, but beyond that, he’d be fine. Zed crossed the room and sat down across from Lilliana. He spared Gaige a disinterested glance. “You took out his tactical chip with the tools in a shuttle med-kit?” Lilly didn’t have time to be flattered by the admiration in his voice. She hadn’t spent eleven months in his care without learning a thing or two. “It was a sloppy insertion, too close to the surface, like it had been done in a hurry. The survival chip is in properly, a little too deep for me to dig it out without killing him.” She handed Zed the chip she’d removed from Gaige’s skull. “Can you analyze it and locate the problem? He tells me a number of Thetas have malfunctioned. My theory is—” “I don’t need to analyze it. I know why it malfunctioned.” Her eyes widened and she wondered if she should be relieved or worried that he had the answer so readily. “Don’t look shocked. I was still with Epsilon Force when the Theta programming was developed. This chip is a lot older than it looks, and it was mass-produced.” Zed shifted and held the small piece of hardware up in the jaundiced glow of the round globe light that hung above them. “Therein lies the fault. Central Command wanted a fast way to create their next phalanx of super-soldiers. The Alphas and Betas had to be built from scratch and, with twenty specialized models, each one became a work of art. The Gammas had to be grown. An organo-synthroid body takes months to generate properly. The Thetas represented the next step. With thirty billion humans strung out

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across the galaxy, they could round up an army in a week or two, shove this and a survival chip into everyone’s cranium and program them all remotely.” “But the Thetas are volunteers—there are only a few full regiments of them.” Zed laughed. The sound grated on Lilliana’s raw nerves. He’d never sounded so jaded. “The first batch was. Yes. The whole point, though, was that eventually every human serving Central Command would become a Theta. Some of them wouldn’t even know it until they were needed. The chips can be shut off and programmed to activate or deactivate as necessary. The Cy-engineers on the Theta project never considered the subtleties of human biochemistry, though. These chips needed to be customized like everything that had come before them.” “How could Cy-Ops not take that into consideration?” “They didn’t take it far enough. Though many are similar, no two humans are exactly alike. Even identical twins have some biochemical differences. Some are present at birth and some develop over time with exposure to the environment. Central Command wanted to treat human beings like ready-made organo-synthroid bodies, since humans are cheap, expendable and hundreds of planets are swarming with them.” Lilliana sighed. The problem, then, wasn’t correctable. Not that she’d planned to march back to Central Command and present them with a software patch for their pesky little Theta problem. This meant more than twenty percent of the Thetas might eventually malfunction. Not all, of course, but most. Central Command—and more importantly, Epsilon Force—would crash and burn and most likely the Viliri would swoop in and dance among the ashes.

***** Tactical offline. Fall back and assess damage.

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The command repeated over and over in Gaige’s brain until he finally forced his heavy eyelids open. Every muscle in his body went taut immediately, ready for combat, though he couldn’t remember the mission specs. He sensed movement to his left, though he wasn’t able to focus on anything. On instinct, his hand shot out and closed around the enemy’s wrist. He twisted, bringing a familiar face into view. “Gaige, it’s me—” It wasn’t until she gasped in pain that he recognized Lilliana. He released her wrist and forced himself to sit up. She stood before him, rubbing her arm where his fingerprints marred her skin. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t remember—” “Don’t worry about it. How do you feel?” “I can’t see shit. What happened to me?” Details leaked back into his conscious mind and his temples throbbed in memory of the searing pain that had knocked him out. “Where the hell did you bring me?” “You’re at Zed’s place. You’re safe. His security system weeds out undesirables.” “Soldiers.” She nodded. “It temporarily fries your software.” “Uh. Fried, scrambled, sautéed and poached.” She placed a hand lightly on his arm and her expression made him tense up all over again. “Until your survival chip is removed, you can’t leave or it will happen again.” “Great. Why didn’t you just take it out while I was unconscious? It’s not like that could’ve hurt any worse.” “Zed wouldn’t do any procedures until he got a chance to talk to you. He still maintains a shred of ethics.” She laughed, but the sound was harsh and disparaging. “He insists on having your informed consent.”

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Gaige wanted to say Zed had that in spades, but thought better of an instant agreement. He trusted Lilliana, though he still wasn’t certain why, but he wanted to meet Zed Lantrell before he let the man dig around in his skull. “Where is he? Not that I’m eager to be unconscious again, but I’d like to be able to leave here without my brain exploding.” Lilliana sighed. Her smile this time was genuine, but faint. “I’m sorry about that. If I’d known…” He shrugged. “I’ll live.” Thanks to her, he would live, which he’d come to realize was better than the alternative. He’d come a long way since he’d watched her transport land on Grissom and wished for a swift end to his existence. He put his hand on her wrist, covering the fading marks he’d made. “I’m ready. Take me to him.” “No need. He’s here.” A deep voice interrupted Gaige and he turned in the exam chair to see his host come through an open door. Now that his vision had begun to sharpen, the details of the place came into focus. The center of the room was dark around the chair in which he’d been placed, but all along the curved walls were countertops piled with medical equipment and lit with small strips of fluorescent lighting. The man who entered seemed to fit in the cluttered, oddly lit space. His brown clothing hung on him, suspended from bony shoulders and a narrow waist. His graying hair was straggly, but neatly kept and his thin lips formed a rueful smile that bordered on insincere. Zed Lantrell looked as though he might have been a larger man once, handsome and sturdy, but time and perhaps life underground hiding from Epsilon Force seemed to have deflated him. Before greeting Gaige with a nod, Lantrell turned an appraising glance at Lilliana. “The lieutenant tells me you were a Theta.” “Yes. She tells me you can remove my survival chip.” Lantrell nodded, then turned to rummage among some of the accumulated flotsam. “Can you tell me how long you’ve been programmed?” 82

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Gaige shrugged. He remembered the date he’d volunteered. It was imprinted in his memory as clearly as the tactical commands he’d grown so used to seeing in his mind’s eye. “It’s been four years.” “You know there will be a recovery period. Your body is used to the survival chip telling it what to do. Your brain has forgotten a few things and you’re going to feel like shit until those neural pathways reform.” “I figured as much.” Gaige sat forward in the chair, his eyes on Lantrell’s back. “But I’ll eventually be back to normal, right?” Lantrell hesitated, his hand on what appeared to be a bundle of vibro synapses. When he turned, his thin smile was less than reassuring. “Eventually.”

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. You can live with the survival chip in place.” Lilliana tried not to sound worried when she confronted Gaige after Zed left the lab. What had seemed like a matter of course a few hours ago—the removal of his survival chip—now seemed like an unnecessary risk. She trusted Zed…enough to let him do the surgery, but some irrational part of her that she’d thought was long-dead was fixated on disaster. What if he didn’t pull through? What if there were complications Zed couldn’t handle in his lab of spare parts? She hadn’t brought Gaige this far to see his brain permanently scrambled. Though she wasn’t quite sure why she’d brought him this far at all. “I won’t take the chance that it will malfunction one day too.” He’d risen from the exam chair, stripped off the shirt she’d bought for him and now paced around the room. Zed had seemed amused by the notion that the “lovers” might want a few intimate moments before he began his work and had gone off to prepare himself, even though everything he needed was already in the lab. She’d told Gaige Zed’s theories about the tactical chip and seen a righteous glint in his stormy eyes. Now that she’d decided it wasn’t her place to take down Central Command, the crusade had acquired a new leader. 83

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Gaige wanted to save the Thetas, if there were any left to save. Not only had she given him his life, she’d unintentionally given him a new purpose as well, one that would more than likely just get him killed a little later than Central Command had originally intended. “What will you do afterward? Where will you go?” The question sounded silly and insipid coming from her. She’d held a semi pointed at his chest only a few days ago, poised to pull the trigger, and now she didn’t want to think of him wandering the universe by himself. What was wrong with her? “I’ll have to work that out. Wherever I go, you’ll be welcome.” She smirked. “I already told you, we’ll both be better off alone. I’ve got to get as far away from everything as possible. I need to go somewhere Central Command can’t find me and God knows they’ll be looking.” He nodded. “The invitation is open.” She’d consider it, but she had no desire to be a crusader. The last thing humanity could afford right now was a civil war. “I’ll be here when you wake up.” He turned and stepped close. His scent enveloped her, and her body reacted to his heat. “You’ll do what needs to be done, right?” He leaned close and Lilliana’s breath stilled. “What?” “If…there’s a problem. You’ll take care of it.” She didn’t have to ask any more questions. Cold dread skittered over the warm flush he’d caused in her skin. “I’ll make it quick and painless.” “Good.” He tilted his head and surged forward the last few inches to brush his mouth over hers. Her body clenched, every muscle alert and begging for his touch. “As soon as I can, I want to be inside you again. Can we get away from here and find a private place? Is there somewhere we can be alone before we…go wherever it is we’re going to go from here?”

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She nodded and let him kiss her again. His tongue invaded her mouth and she suckled, wishing she could draw every part of him inside her. She arched, pushing against him, and she gasped when his hand closed over her breast. Beneath her flowing shirt, her nipple tightened against his palm. She’d have taken him now—on the floor or up against the wall—but the thought of Zed watching, taking pleasure from their arousal, made her back away a fraction. “We’ll find a place.” Zed seemed to appear out of nowhere then, and they broke apart like teenagers caught making out by a stern parent. He gave them an indulgent look. “Are you ready, Mr. Gaige?” “I’m ready.” “Lie down on the chair. Put your head back. Lilliana, you’re welcome to stay, if Mr. Gaige prefers, or you may wait outside.” Lilliana’s gaze hardened on Zed. “I’ll stay.” “Then let’s begin.”

***** “He’s in perfect physical condition, except for a few vitamin deficiencies,” Zed told Lilliana an hour later when the procedure was finished. She’d reluctantly left Gaige alone in the lab to sleep, a number of stat monitors reassuring them both that he’d survived the surgery. “He was on Grissom for a few months without proper rations,” she said as she lowered herself onto the cushions in the sitting room. Her muscles ached and she hadn’t realized she’d been sweating until she rubbed her temples to ease the dull throb of a headache. “I can give him some supplements that will have him back to normal in a day, once he’s up and around. He’ll sleep for a while and when he wakes up…he may not be in any condition for traveling, or even talking. You may not recognize him for a while.”

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She nodded. “As long as he comes through. Thank you, Zed. I appreciate you doing this without any notice.” Lantrell’s thin mouth lifted in a faint smirk as he handed Lilliana a glass of amber liquid. “Local scotch, from Garond. It’s quite good,” he said when she gave the drink an experimental sniff. He sat down opposite her and leaned back, relaxing into the soft cushions and sighing as he sipped his own drink. “You needn’t thank me, Lilly. This wasn’t a favor as much as it was my taking advantage of a fortuitous turn of events.” She tensed. She’d expected to offer him payment, but never thought he’d ask for it. She should have known better. This wasn’t the man she remembered. Whatever had changed him had leached away the kindness and generosity that had brought her back from beyond the brink of death. “What do you want?” He laughed and studied his swirling drink. “What I want—ah. I want to peel you out of that unflattering outfit and run my hands along the sleek lines I gave you. I want to feel your hot little pussy clenching around me and let you fuck me blind, just like you used to.” Lilly swallowed reflexively. The scotch burned going down, attesting to the fact that it hadn’t been aged very long. His crude words didn’t offend her. In fact, there’d been a time when she’d welcomed his raw, sexual appetites because it made her feel whole and human to be wanted. She was over that now. She crossed her legs at the knee, conscious of the message the movement sent. No admittance, at least not on his terms. “That’s your price? A final fuck?” Years ago, she might have considered it a bargain. She’d ridden Zed enough times during her rehabilitation and eventually surpassed him in his own teachings of the finer points of sexual pleasure. “No. That’s not my price. You asked me what I wanted, and by God, I’d love to feel you again. If you must know, I was a little jealous when I saw your soldier boy. The thought of you luring men to your bed for a living never bothered me, but I envy him that he’s something you do for enjoyment. You actually care about him, don’t you?” 86

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“Would that surprise you?” It surprised the hell out of her. She couldn’t recall feeling genuine affection for anyone or anything since she’d gasped her first breath in Zed’s Cy-Ops lab all those years ago. “Reanimates tend to be somewhat emotionless. That’s why you’re so good at your job, and why I never asked you to come with me when I left Central Command. I wanted to, Lilly. I wanted to own you so badly, but I knew you would never love me.” Lilliana’s fingers tightened on the glass in her hand. Reanimates. She rarely heard that word these days, but it gave her a chill, nevertheless. She hated being reminded there was a name for what she was. Lantrell continued after another long draught of scotch. “It bothers me to think that a mindless Theta could touch your heart when I couldn’t.” “He’s not mindless—” She dashed the scotch down on the table between them. “You didn’t…” “I didn’t.” Lantrell held up a hand. “I need him functional as much as you do.” “What for?” “My payment.” Lilliana let her look of disgust linger for just a second, then began pulling open her shirt. “Let’s get this over with now, before he wakes up.” Lantrell’s mouth dropped for just an instant, then clamped shut. “No.” “No? Come on, Zed. I’ll pay. I don’t have to like it, but I’ll be a good sport. I’ll even moan like I used to so you think you’re getting me off. I can fake an orgasm that will rock your world. But then again, you already know how well I can fake it.” Lantrell’s eyes blazed for a second. She’d stabbed deep and hit him in the center of his artificial heart. Another swallow of scotch seemed to dull the fire in his eyes a bit and he glanced up at her. “This impromptu visit is worth a little more to me than a piece of ass, even if it’s an ass I designed myself. I told you what I wanted, but that’s not my price. Now I’ll tell you what I need.”

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Chapter Ten Blank. Nothing. Gaige woke to the dark insides of his own eyelids, and for a moment he searched in vain for the ever-present instructions from his survival chip. No air! The burning in his chest became overwhelming and he opened his mouth and sucked in cool air like a drowning man. He coughed on the exhalation and his teeth crashed together around the lifeless blob of his tongue. He tasted blood and coughed again when the warm, coppery liquid hit the back of his throat. “You’ve got to tell yourself to breathe.” The familiar voice sounded exasperated. Gaige searched his scrambled memory and came up with a name. Lantrell. He tried to move his mouth enough to form words. The sound that came out bore no resemblance to human speech and he still couldn’t open his eyes. “Pay attention, Mr. Gaige. You have to concentrate on breathing before you can talk. Your mouth is too dry to form words and if I give you water right now, you’ll drown in it because your swallow reflex isn’t back online yet.” With the help of Lantrell’s fingers, one of Gaige’s eyes opened. The Cy-Ops surgeon smiled at him and then flashed a blinding light into his eye. Gaige protested with an incoherent moan which grew louder when Lantrell repeated the procedure with the other eye. “Good. Your pupils are reacting to light on their own. Once you figure out how to make your eyelids work, you’ll be able to see clearly.” Another moan, this one questioning.

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“I assume you’re asking about Lilliana. I know she promised she’d be here when you woke up, but she fell asleep. If you like, I’ll wake her when I’m done checking your stat monitors. For what it’s worth, she’s been very worried that you wouldn’t recover. I hope you realize that you’re a lucky man, Mr. Gaige. You possess something I’ve only ever fantasized about.” Now Gaige managed to pry open one of his own eyelids. It felt like lifting a lead weight. Lantrell hovered on the edge of his field of vision, flipping switches on the monitors that surrounded the exam chair. “What? Oh no. I’m not talking about her body. It is magnificent, though, isn’t it?” Gaige couldn’t have commented if he wanted to. It was hard enough not to swallow the dry lump of his tongue, much less vault off the chair and cuff Lantrell for his insolent tone. “I take full credit for her amazing prowess, you know. I designed those legs. No doubt you’ve had them wrapped around you a few times. When I rebuilt her, I wanted to make her pussy even tighter, but I also wanted her to enjoy getting laid. If sex was too painful, she would have been useless to Central Command…and to me.” Gaige flexed his fingers. At least they still worked. He turned his head to follow Lantrell’s movements around the lab. “You didn’t know I was her first? Of course, every man is her first, thanks to the Regen chip. I had to insert that first to help rebuild some of the damaged nerves before I could begin the rest of my work. The first time I had her, I thought it was quite a bonus. Tell me, did she pretend with you? Did she gasp and arch her back in that way she has when you broke her open?” This time, Gaige managed a growl. “Uh-uh, Mr. Gaige. I’m just making conversation. Let me assure you, Lilliana is quite special to me. I’d been putting soldiers back together for two solid years and she was the first woman they allowed me to…work with. Did you know she is the prototype of the Chi series? Maybe you’ve heard of them. Your ilk would call them sex89

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bots. It’s a crass term and totally inaccurate. They’re not cybernetic at all, except for minor cosmetic enhancements where necessary. Do you know why the Chi are not robotic?” Gaige looked away, but Lantrell drew close and continued his self-serving monologue. “Organo-synthroid bodies don’t feel pain or pleasure. They can’t be brought to orgasm, so a convincing ‘sex-bot’ has to be human. It must possess the proper hormones to initiate an authentic sexual response. The technology involved in reproducing an erect nipple, a drop of female ejaculate…it just takes too long and becomes far too expensive.” Lantrell smiled and turned away. “Lilliana was my first master work. I made others, though. When she turned out so well, they asked me—they begged me—for more, and I obliged.” Gaige drew in his first unconscious breath. His nostrils flared. “Only one of the others meant as much to me as Lilliana did. Her name was Onika.” Lantrell sighed. “She was beautiful beyond description. Like an angel. I gave her a face. Perfectly symmetrical. Her eyes are works of art. Her mouth—I could come just looking at her mouth and imaging her lips on me. You’d want her if you saw her, Mr. Gaige. Regardless of how you feel about Lilliana, you’d want Onika. Every man does. Which is why I want her back. I want Onika Ramos brought back to me. Will you do that for me, Mr. Gaige, as payment for removing your survival chip?” Gaige tried to shrug. How hard could it be retrieve a girl for Lantrell? “Is that a yes or a no?” Gaige managed a nod. “Good. A yes. Lilliana was somewhat reluctant when I explained what I wanted. I believe she thinks my intentions with Onika are illegitimate in some way.” Gaige had given up trying to converse with Lantrell. He’d let the man talk and save his strength for a better time. He might owe the man something for removing the last of

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Central Command’s hold on him, but he wasn’t about to get involved in some sick personal quest to retrieve one of Lantrell’s creations. He closed his eyes again, biding his time. Lantrell hovered close for a moment and Gaige wished with every cell in his body that he had the strength to reach out and circle the man’s neck with his hands. “She was willing to pay with her body, you know. She offered to fuck me and I thought about accepting. It’s been too long since I rode between those creamy thighs of hers, but Onika means even more to me. Unlike Lilly, Onika is capable of love. So, I’ll leave Lilliana to you. Enjoy her while you can, and think of me whenever you slide into that perfect pussy of hers. Remember that I’m the one who taught her how to use it.” Gaige reminded himself to breathe. His fingers clenched so hard that his blunt nails dug into his palms. He welcomed the pain. This was payment enough. Lantrell would get nothing more from him, except, very possibly, a crushed skull. After a few agonizing moments, Lantrell left the lab. Gaige exhaled and he managed his first coherent words. “Fuck you.”

***** Lilliana stretched and tried to stifle a yawn. She hadn’t meant to let herself fall asleep, but her exhaustion had become overwhelming. Her first thought was of Gaige and she curled forward, sitting up on the bed she’d crawled into after Zed had outlined the terms of his payment. Mild discomfort shot through her lower back and she winced. Her fingers went automatically to the surgery scars that arrowed up from the base of her spine to her lower rib cage. She hadn’t experienced phantom pains in a long time, but every once in a while she remembered a brief snippet of the agony she’d endured. Agony that Zed had alleviated for her. She owed him, a traitorous voice told her. He’d given her a working body that was smooth, shapely and beautiful. She hadn’t asked for it, but she’d enjoyed the rewards of her second chance at life.

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Her fingers traced the taut lines beneath her shirt and she frowned. A small, raised ridge met her fingers on the left side a few inches above the waistband of her pants. It was slightly tender to the touch, like a day-old scratch. She cursed and twisted around, trying to see what the bastard had done to her while she slept. His voice froze her heated blood. “Don’t strain yourself. I’ll get you a mirror so you can see the mark. It’s very small and it will heal in a few days.” He leaned against the wall across from the bed, his thin arms crossed over his chest. “What did you do to me?” Her voice was low and deadly. She’d never wanted to hurt Zed before, even when he’d worked her broken body to the brink of collapse. Even when he’d forced her to move her battered limbs and relearn simple movements she’d always taken for granted, she’d respected him and obeyed him. Cold hatred now replaced any feeling she might have had for the man. “I wouldn’t have done it. I would have trusted you to help me, but I can see the contempt in your eyes, Lilliana. From the moment you arrived here, you’ve regarded me as some kind of necessary evil. I don’t understand why. We were friends once, mentor and student. I hesitate to say lovers, though, in the technical sense…” She sat forward and put her hands on her thighs to steady their trembling. Rage choked the words out of her. “You’re not the man I remember. What happened to you, Zed?” His response was ragged, his voice raw for an instant. “I lost everything that mattered to me. That changes a man.” “Why did you leave Cy-Ops if it mattered so much to you?” “I didn’t leave voluntarily. I was sent away because of you. Because of Onika. My personal feelings for my…subjects became a liability.” “They fired you?” Lilliana’s laugh was a harsh bark. “Why the security system, then? Why are you hiding in the bowels of Serilon?” “I’m not hiding. I actually like it here.” 92

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“You told me you were in exile. You told me you left because you couldn’t stand to see your patients misused by Central Command anymore.” “That was true. I couldn’t stand it, but I would have stayed forever if it meant being near the ones I loved. You and Onika in particular, though all of you were special to me.” Lilliana squinted at him in the dim light of the bedroom. “What did you do to me?” “The scotch is much more potent than you’d imagine—a few sips on an empty stomach and you were virtually comatose. I injected you with a capsule full of an interesting solution of amino acids and peptide salts. It’s harmless to human tissue, but after a number of hours— several hundred to be more specific—it begins to break down vibro.” Lilliana released a breath. Her jaw dropped. “Why?” “To make sure you’ll come back to me. I can reverse it, and I will, when you and Mr. Gaige return here with Onika.” “What if she doesn’t want to come with us?” Lantrell shook his head. “I won’t force her to stay with me. I just need to see her again, to be with her and tell her how much she means to me.” Lilliana rolled her eyes. “If you’re not on the run from Central Command, what’s the problem? Send her a message. Hell, go see her yourself. I can tell you where she’s been assigned.” “They won’t let me. You see, Central Command wants me as far away from them as possible.” “Zed, you’re irrational. Why can’t you contact Onika? Why would you need us to bring her to you?” “She won’t come on her own. I’ve tried. She likes what she is, what they made her into, but she resents me and my interest in her. She may even hate me for the things I did to her. And I’m sorry. I want to see her again so I can make things right before I

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die.” He paused for dramatic effect, probably waiting for Lilliana to register shock or sympathy. She merely stared him down, torn between pity for the man she’d once thought of as her savior and disgust for the sniveling coward he’d become. “Yes, I’m going to die. I designed the heart myself.” He thumped his chest with his fist. “My own creation turned on me. It’s sucking the life out of me, corrupting my cells.” “So you’re going to blackmail me into bringing Onika back to you.” “I see no other way. I knew once you left here, you and your soldier would disappear. You’d have to run far and fast to survive for any length of time and you certainly wouldn’t willingly traipse back to your old territory on my account.” “And what if we’re caught?” Lantrell laughed. “I know you too well, Lilliana. You can complete any mission you’re assigned.” “What if we just kill you and be done with it?” Gaige loomed in the doorway behind Lantrell and Lilliana’s heart lurched. He looked dull and hollow. His eyes were haunted. For a moment, terror pinched Zed’s features and Lilly was glad of it. “If you kill me, Lilliana loses everything I gave her. Paralysis will set in around three hundred hours from now, unless you bring Onika back to me.” Gaige’s arm circled Lantrell’s neck and he drew the other man into a deadly embrace. “Do you want to die now? Reverse whatever you did to her or I’ll—” “If you kill me, she’ll never be cured. It’s a standoff, Mr. Gaige. You can hurt me, but I won’t give until I see Onika again. I need her. Please, if you care about Lilliana, you will do this for me.”

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Lilliana met Gaige’s stormy gaze over Zed’s shoulder. “You don’t have to be involved. I can get Onika and bring her here. You go wherever you want. Get lost so Central Command can never find you.” “No.” He released Lantrell and shoved the other man across the room. “I already told you, I’m not running. I’ve got business with Central Command. We’ll go together and get this girl for him, then I’ll bring the tactical chip to one of the news webs.” Lilliana shook her head. “I don’t think you should do that.” “The Thetas are men like me, most of them are from Kiana. I owe them a chance.” “Most of them are probably dead by now. Exposing Cy-Ops and Epsilon Force will only start something we don’t want to finish.” Lilliana gave a selfish thought to her reconstructed body. If Central Command was compromised, backed against a wall like that, they’d all suffer. Gaige ignored her. “Reverse the process now and we’ll take care of what you want. If Lilliana won’t go, I’ll do it myself.” Lilliana rose and marched past Zed. “We’ll go together.” She swung around and glanced at him. “But you won’t see Onika until you reverse this. We’ll bring her as far as the Canaris Ring Station. She’s yours only after you reverse the process.” Zed nodded and his smile widened. “Who taught you how to negotiate, Lilly? It wasn’t me.” She turned her back on him and sidled past Gaige. “Let’s go. Time’s running out.”

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Chapter Eleven The shuttle ride back to Canaris was silent and tense. Gaige stole glances at Lilliana, who sat staring out the small round portal next to her seat at the golden brown globe of Serilon beneath them. “We can find someone else to reverse the dissolution process,” he said finally. “There must be someone.” “You think that’s what’s bothering me?” Her response was brittle and terse. Her sharp gaze touched his for an instant and shifted away. “That’s what I’d be worried about if it were me.” “A long time ago I decided that I’d die before I’d go back to that. Lantrell won’t win. He won’t have the satisfaction of seeing me beg for his help.” Gaige leaned back in his seat and let out a breath. He certainly wouldn’t allow Lantrell to win. If anything happened to Lilliana, he’d make the surgeon pay. “Then what—” “What’s bothering me? Everything else. We’re rushing back to Central Command to find Onika for him. Why? What right does he have to her? She’s like me, a victim of the Viliri who got lucky, if you can call it that. Zed turned her into a Chi and maybe she likes it that way. Maybe she doesn’t, but either way, it’s his sick fantasy to see her again. Why should we play his game at her expense?” The conviction in her voice made Gaige’s lungs contract and his chest hurt. “That’s why I’m saying we need to just find someone else. To hell with Lantrell and his wet dream of getting his favorite creation back.” “There is no one. I know Zed. I know what he’s capable of and there won’t be anyone who can formulate an antidote to his poison in less than three hundred hours.” “How do you know he isn’t bluffing?”

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“He’s not. I told you, I know him. I also know this solution exists. He created it years ago, though it wasn’t perfected then. Originally it was to be used to safely dissolve malfunctioning cybernetic implants—not chips, but vibro-arthroid muscles and organs and synthroid bones. The idea was it would reduce trauma to the body if replacements were needed. Tearing out malfunctioning implants might cause nerve damage, but the dissolution wouldn’t.” Gaige brightened at the notion. “So the muscles that dissolve can be replaced?” “Yes. In a Cy-Ops lab. Of course, even if I could stroll into Central Command and ask for replacement vibro surgery, once the news webs get wind of your malfunctioning Theta chip, all of Epsilon Force will likely be shut down permanently.” The thread of accusation in her tone stung. He thought of the chip he now carried in his shirt pocket. If he alerted the news webs to Epsilon Force’s plan to mass-produce Thetas regardless of the danger of malfunctions, the Theta project would end immediately. How many lives depended on the truth coming out? How many depended on it remaining hidden? “So what are we going to do? I can’t stand around and watch Lantrell’s solution destroy you.” Lilliana shrugged. “I didn’t say I wasn’t going to find Onika. I just don’t have to like it. She’s the only card I’ve got to play, so I’ll do like I said and bring her to Canaris Ring. Once Zed reverses the process, she can do what she wants.” Relief surged through him. If she’d said she wasn’t going to cooperate with Lantrell’s plan, he would have gone after the mysterious Onika Ramos himself. At this point, he realized he’d do more to protect Lilliana than she was willing to do to protect herself. “So how do we find her?” “We don’t. We pay someone else to do it for us.”

*****

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The half-circle of poised weapons aimed at his vitals didn’t seem to bother Gaige as much this time. He hung back, making small talk with the silent, stoic members of Delfrin’s committee while Lilliana negotiated. The Sage of Gavrel drove a hard bargain, but in the end, she possessed something he thought valuable enough to agree to arrange for the kidnapping of Onika Ramos from her current assignment on Tanax. When she’d finished her tense discussion with Delfrin, he offered his hand. “It’s goo’t to see you back so soon, Medea. I always find your visits entertaining.” “I’m flattered. I know good entertainment is hard to come by down here.” Delfrin sketched a distracted smile as he released her hand. He cocked his head to the side, as if listening to the distant, unidentifiable sounds that filled the dark recesses of Gavrel’s underground. Lilliana watched him, expecting one of his profound decrees to follow the moment of unscheduled meditation, but instead he lifted his head and walked past her toward Gaige. The committee members lowered their weapons as their leader approached and over Delfrin’s shoulder, Lilliana gave Gaige a nod. “What you search for may be foun’t here, my friend.” Gaige arched a brow. “What do I search for?” “When you find it, you will know.” Gaige glanced at Lilliana, who shrugged. Delfrin liked to play at telling fortunes. He’d told her plenty of cryptic things in the past, mostly harbingers of doom that she’d ignored. “Well, on that note… Medea, shouldn’t we be going?” “Actually, I’ll be staying here.” She tensed for his reaction. She didn’t expect he’d be pleased about her decision to remain below in Delfrin’s territory. “Part of our bargain was a place for me to crash until Delfrin’s operative gets back here with Onika.”

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He stiffened and squared his shoulders. His eyes seemed to darken. “You’re staying?” She nodded. The committee members backed off now, their weapons disappearing into the folds of their clothes. Delfrin moved off also, leaving the two of them in a small, dim circle of privacy. “This is the safest place for me. Once Zed’s solution starts to work, I’ll be protected here. This is the safest place to die.” Lightning-fast, Gaige grabbed her shoulders in a grip that startled her with its intensity. “You’re not going to just give up and die in this godforsaken—” “I’m not giving up. I’m laying low. I don’t know when the first symptoms will start, but I don’t want to be on the run when they do.” She held his gaze, wishing she could fold herself into his arms and stay there, but she didn’t want him around to see her succumb to Zed’s poison. He’d risk his life for her, the life she’d mostly given up for him. She couldn’t let him throw that away. “Besides, you have a job to do, soldier. Go to the news webs. Save the other Thetas if you can. They need you.” “But you don’t?” His question was laced with sardonic humor. A cold smile tilted his lips. “Why drag me this far just to cut me loose? You could have said goodbye on Canaris.” “I could have, but I didn’t know how far I was going to go then. I might not have been able to make a deal with Delfrin. I might have needed you, but now I don’t, and you sure as hell don’t need me. So it’s time to part ways.” Lilliana held her ground against the tearing pain in her chest. She wanted to reach up and put her hands on him, to feel that strong heartbeat that had lulled her to a peaceful sleep in his arms on the Falstaff, but she didn’t dare. If she’d learned one thing from Zed, it was to never show weakness. The way she felt about Benjamin Gaige was dangerous to both of them, so he needed to go. Slowly, his grip relaxed and his fingers trailed off her arms. He took a step back. “You don’t have to go through this alone.” There was a cold edge to his soothing words and Lilliana knew he’d already given up. He wasn’t going to fight it out and she 99

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thanked whatever lowly God might have created her for that. She was in no mood for a confrontation or a lengthy emotional goodbye. “I won’t be alone. Delfrin will keep an eye on me and he’ll do what needs to be done if the time comes.” That stung him. His eyes widened for a second, then became dull. “You don’t trust me to do that for you?” Lilliana turned her back so he wouldn’t see the lie in her eyes. Her voice was low and even and she didn’t care if he heard her or not. “I don’t trust anyone. Haven’t you figured that out yet, soldier?” He said nothing more and Lilliana kept walking. She strolled past Del and his committee members lounging in the rubble that passed for landscaping in his underworld kingdom and she kept walking until she found the private alcove the Sage of Gavrel had assigned her. There she found a seat on the beat-up flight cushion of a torn-up transport. She pulled her knees under her, wrapped her arms around herself and hung her head. She’d done her job. Her mission was complete. She’d done all she could for the rogue Theta and for herself and now she just wanted to sleep and forget that for a short time he’d made her feel completely human.

***** Gaige watched his jungle huntress stride away in the murky darkness. It took every ounce of strength he had not to run after her and demand that she let him stay with her. Partly, he understood why she wanted him gone. Alone, it would be easier for each of them to disappear. They’d be safer that way. Together, they made a larger target. Mutual obligation would keep them tied to each other even when it wasn’t safe. They’d drag each other down. She was right, of course. She’d saved his life and now the least he could do for her was let her go with some dignity. If Lantrell’s poison left her paralyzed, her pride wouldn’t allow him to watch. If it killed her, she didn’t need him mourning for her.

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He turned away and started walking. His lungs hurt more with each labored breath as he ambled toward the access tube that led above. The air down here was toxic, he reminded himself. That’s why it hurt to breathe, why his eyes stung and his throat felt dry and tight. How did she expect to survive down here in this filth? The place reeked. The people who lived here were criminals at best. How could she believe Delfrin would take care of her? He pushed the errant thoughts out of his mind. She’d left him with a job to do. He needed to stop the Theta project. And then he needed to make use of the life she’d given him. He made it all the way to the access tube before he turned around.

***** The Sage of Gavrel sat on his throne, surrounded by his most loyal men. It had been a good day. Profitable and, for the most part, quiet. He’d dispatched Roxx to find the girl in question, secure in the knowledge that the job would get done properly and with little of the nonsense that usually accompanied kidnappings. He was about to turn in for the night, retire to his grand salon and close his eyes against the visions that plagued him during his waking hours, when Medea’s cybersoldier came back. The man was large and powerful. He walked with a confident gait that put Delfrin’s best rangers to shame. The soldier stopped before Delfrin’s throne. He didn’t flinch when five weapons locked on him. His steady gaze met Delfrin’s and he spoke. “I want to make a deal.” Delfrin saw what the soldier wanted. He’d seen it before when he’d touched Medea and felt her pain, the pain even she had not yet begun to feel. He sat forward. “And you shall have what you seek. If you can pay for it.” “I have this.” The soldier reached into the pocket of his shirt, prompting Delfrin’s men to edge closer with their weapons. In his palm lay a small electronic chip.

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“What does it do?” Delfrin didn’t like puzzles. It bothered him that he wasn’t readily able to identify the object. “It does nothing. It’s been disabled. What it means is more important, though. It can damage Central Command if put in the right hands. I’ll give it to you and you can sell it, once Medea and I are long gone from here, and only if I get what I need.” Delfrin hesitated to touch the chip. Once he put his hands on it, he’d know where it had come from and where it was destined to go and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. The one bit of knowledge that came to him unbidden when he fixed it in his mind, though, was that it was indeed as valuable as the soldier believed it to be—as valuable as the soldier needed it to be. He reached for it, but the man closed his fingers over it and pulled it back toward his chest. “Let me tell you what I need.” “You already have. I can find someone to help her, but the cost to you may be greater than this.” “This is all I’ve got right now.” “No. You have more than you know. And trust me, you will be willing to give it when the time comes.” Delfrin held out his palm and waited for the soldier to place the chip there. “We have a deal. Now go. She won’t allow you to be here. You’ll be summoned when she needs you…and she will.” The soldier nodded curtly and strode away, confidently turning his back on the weapons before they were lowered. Delfrin sat back and admired his new prize, though the visions it caused made him shiver. There would be no rest for the Sage of Gavrel tonight.

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Chapter Twelve Lilliana heard the singing in her fevered sleep. The wordless melody seemed to reach inside her like fingers gently turning pages in her thoughts, reading her like a book. She snapped awake, her finger tensing on the trigger of the black-market semi Delfrin had included in their bargain. The music was gone now, but the memory of the lilting chimes that had accompanied the sweet, but eerie, voice still lingered. Lilliana let her gaze sweep the confines of the darkened alcove. Nothing moved and no sound reached her except for her own rasping breath. Gaige. Her thoughts turned to him immediately once her heart settled in her chest. He’d been gone two days and the emptiness she felt was overwhelming. She’d wanted him to go and would have been angry if he’d refused her demand. So why did it hurt so much that he’d obeyed? She threw the light thermo blanket aside and pushed herself up, bending her knees under her. The pain that shot through them doubled her over. A tingling, pinching sensation crawled from her knees to her thighs and she had to bite her lower lip to stifle a shocked gasp. She hadn’t hurt this bad since she’d taken her last breath back on Brandys. She cursed Zed, then cursed Gaige while she was at it for making her miss him so much. Hissing through clenched teeth, she pushed herself to her feet. The return of circulation to her weakening muscles felt like fire flowing through her veins. She

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reached for the flimsy wall to steady herself and a delicate hand emerged from the darkness and closed over hers. In a flash of movement that tore a yelp of agony from her, Lilliana grabbed the dainty wrist and swung the intruder around into a chokehold. “Who are you?” Dewey skin slid against hers and damp hair that smelled of salt clung to her cheek. The fragile body in her arms quivered. “I’m Juria, messenger of the Ley.” “The what?” Lilliana tightened her grip, but the girl’s fey body slipped from her grasp like liquid. In a flash of blue-blonde hair and skin so pale it almost glowed, the intruder turned to face Lilliana. “The Sage called me to you to help ease your pain.” Juria’s aqua blue eyes were luminous and larger than human eyes should be. She blinked them languidly and held her fingers out, revealing delicate webbing between the digits. Lilliana backed up a step. She hadn’t expected a mermaid. She eyed her semi which lay on the cushions that served as her bed. This was not one of the drone-like UMEs that inhabited Gavrel’s ocean. “You have no need of a weapon. I could no more harm you than you could sprout wings and fly.” “What do you want?” The lithe creature before her blinked again and Lilliana swore she saw a clear, nictating membrane wash across the huge blue expanse of her pupil. “I want nothing. The Sage told me of your pain and asked me to help you.” Lilliana let out a sigh of annoyance. She’d told Del nothing and, in the two days she’d been here, she’d done everything possible to hide her growing discomfort. “He’s mistaken. You should go.” “The Sage is never mistaken.” Juria smiled and reached beneath the folds of the clinging shift she wore. Beneath the damp material, her pale body was just visible in the

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ambient light. Small breasts were tipped with bluish nipples, and a triangle of dark curls capped the V of her thighs. Lilliana thought immediately of the men in Del’s employ and the reason why he’d given her the semi. “You shouldn’t be here dressed like that. It’s not safe,” she said. Ignoring Lilliana’s warning, Juria held out her hand again. “Come with me and I will take you to the Ley.” “What is the Ley? And why would I want to go with you?” Having sized up the girl’s height, weight and delicate bone structure, Lilliana decided she posed no physical threat. Her breathing slowed and her concerns turned to how to get rid of her in a polite, but efficient, way so she could go back to sleep. “The Ley are the water people. You’ve seen them in your travels.” Yes, she had seen them during a brief visit to the Gavrel Aquarium where a small exhibit provided a short glimpse into the underwater world they maintained. She hadn’t known they had a name other than Underwater Maintenance Engineers. Juria looked too human to be one of them, though. As Lilliana recalled the UMEs had elongated limbs, spinal fins and gills along their slender torsos. “I am one,” Juria said, as if in response to Lilliana’s thoughts. “And I am both.” “You’re some kind of hybrid?” “Born of a human mother and a Ley father.” “How is that possible? The UMEs can’t reproduce. They’re bioengineered to be sterile.” “They can and they do reproduce. I am one and I am both. Come with me and let them ease your pain.” “No. I don’t need their help right now.” “You do. And if you wait, the man who betrayed you will not be able to help you, either. The Sage has seen him fail to heal you.”

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Lilliana rolled her eyes. “Del has predicted my demise a dozen times. He’s always been wrong.” “The Sage is never wrong. His predictions all come true in time.” “Please.” Lilliana held up a hand. “The first time I met him he told me I was born in the sea and I would die there. If he’s always right, I shouldn’t go with you, should I?” “You will die in the sea and be born there. Trust it.” “Okay. Fine.” Lilliana sat on the cushions and crossed her arms over her chest. She set her jaw against the pain of strained muscles and bit out a response. “Again, a great argument to stay here.” “If you come now, you will spare yourself great agony and the one you love will not see you suffer.” “The one I…” Lilliana refused to allow thoughts of Gaige to cloud her mind. Love was not the issue. They’d shared something that felt good, something she missed. But it wasn’t love. “He’s gone. He won’t be back.” Juria only smiled. “Besides, I’m waiting for someone and I really need to be here when she arrives.” “She will be too late. If you don’t come soon, your pain will overtake you.” “I’ll make it, thanks. I appreciate the offer, but I’m not going anywhere with you.” Juria stepped back and tilted her head as if listening to something distant, the same way Delfrin usually did before he talked about his visions and predictions. “If you will not allow the Ley to help you, then see me safely back to them.” The simple request had trap written all over it, but Lilliana couldn’t shake the stab of guilt she felt at the thought of the barely clad girl wandering alone through Del’s territory. She seemed utterly defenseless and her big round eyes made her look like an innocent child. “I’ll walk you to the edge of Del’s territory. After that, you’re on your own.” 106

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Juria inclined her head in agreement, then slipped past Lilliana in a silent, fluid movement. Lilly turned, her semi ready at her side, and followed the girl out of the alcove. A few heads turned as the two made their way through the squatters’ camp, but the unwritten rule of Gavrel’s under-level remained unbroken. No one asked questions. Lilliana quelled any excessive curiosity with stern looks and a slight tilt of her semi in the direction of two of Del’s committee members. The men obeyed their leader, but since the Sage was suspiciously absent at this hour of the night, there was no telling what they might try to get away with. Lilliana kept her eyes on the girl as they picked their way through the maze of debris that ringed Del’s territory. She moved like water, her movements flowing, silent and efficient. She drew ahead easily and when she finally reached the broken stanchion that marked the edge of familiar territory, she held her ground while Lilliana caught up to her. Juria wrapped a thin arm around a damp pylon and hummed. The strangely evocative melody made Lilliana shiver. This was the music she’d heard in her dream. “This is as far as I go,” she said, casing the immediate area. The shadows were deeper here and a few meters beyond the pylon, the blackness closed in completely. Juria seemed unconcerned. “Just a few more steps and the Ley will come to us. You may find relief in their arms.” “I doubt it. You go and don’t come back this way. It’s not safe for you over here.” Lilliana backed up one step at a time, reluctant to leave the girl alone, but determined not to be drawn farther into unfamiliar territory. She knew far too much about the Gavrel’s lower level and far too little about the Ley to want to chance any encounters with them. Juria continued humming long after her frail figure was lost to view. The sound echoed and seemed to follow Lilliana, repeating in her mind until she found her herself 107

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humming the same tune. She shifted and turned, stifling a curse at the sudden pain and fatigue that had her limping back to her alcove. Delfrin met her at a juncture in the maze. His bloodshot eyes were hooded and seemed full of regret. “What’s going on, Del? You’re sending mermaids to bother me in the middle of the night?” “You should have gone with her, Medea. The next time she comes, you’ll be too weak to make the choice.” Something that felt strangely like panic fluttered in Lilly’s chest. She raised the semi just enough to communicate her displeasure to the Sage. “I don’t know who told you about what’s going on with me, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t spread it around anymore. You should know better, Del. Any sign of weakness can be exploited down here, or are you trying to get me killed?” “You will never be killed, Medea. Not again.” She laughed. “You always said I’d die at sea. What happened to change your mind?” “You will die one day, but not at the hand of another.” “Did Gaige tell you? Is that how you know?” Once again, Lilly ignored Del’s cryptic words. “He sai’t nothing.” “Well, whatever you heard and wherever you heard it, keep it to yourself or our deal is off. And keep that little girl out of here. This is no place for her with your men leering at her.” “Little, but not young. Juria has nothing to fear. But you do.” Lilliana stiffened. She held her ground for a moment, her finger tight on the semi’s trigger. “Don’t push me, Del. I’m going back to get some sleep. I don’t want anyone else prowling around trying to help me.”

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Before she finished speaking, the Sage of Gavrel was gone.

***** Two days passed during which Gaige did everything he could to distract himself from thoughts of Lilliana. He hated having to trust Delfrin, but the man was right. Lilliana wouldn’t want him around. Twice he’d said to hell with it and headed for the underworld access tube and twice he’d dragged himself back from the brink and into the sunlit fields of Gavrel’s park-like habitats where he watched the clouds rolling across the artificial sky and dreamed of lying in the cool grass with Lilliana. In his fantasy, she wore her hair loose and flowing in waves around her bare shoulders. She sat astride him, riding his cock, her back arched and her full breasts heavy in his hands. He ached to see her like that, to feel her coming around him. He wanted to taste her and smell the erotic scent of gyian flowers on her skin. He wanted to take her somewhere they’d both be safe forever, safe from Central Command and from the Viliri, but no place like that existed yet. Maybe it never would, but he wasn’t about to give up looking for it. She had a hundred hours left when Delfrin’s operative summoned him. He only hoped there was enough time left.

***** Zed Lantrell had lied to her. He’d said the solution he injected her with wouldn’t harm organic tissue. When the pain in her legs, her back and belly became excruciating, she knew. Briefly, through a haze of agony, Lilliana wondered if it had all been a ruse just to punish her. Did Zed really want Onika Ramos back to make amends in some pathetic way for what he’d turned her into? Or did he just seize an opportunity to punish Lilliana for not loving him, for choosing to stay with Epsilon Force rather than follow him into his dubious exile? 109

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As she lay panting out shallow, focused breaths against the fire that burned beneath her skin, she contemplated this. It kept the small part of her brain that was still lucid occupied while the rest of her consciousness floated in limbo. Vaguely, she registered Delfrin hovering nearby. She tried to turn away from him and ignore the whispered warnings, but the pain had already immobilized her. When a cool hand brushed across her forehead, she jerked fully awake for a moment. The blue-green eyes of Juria bored into hers and the distant sounds of chimes and melodic song tickled her memory. “You will die at sea and be reborn. Let the Ley help you.” “No.” The word came out unbidden, an automatic response that Lilliana had no control over. She’d taken her Spec-Ops training seriously. Never show weakness. Never admit defeat. Somehow, Delfrin must have understood that she didn’t want to refuse help any longer. He whispered something to Juria and leaned over the cushions that held Lilliana’s body off the cold, damp floor. “It’s all right. I won’t summon him until he’s needed.” Gaige. How did she know that’s who Delfrin meant? Again she opened her mouth to protest, but Juria covered her lips with a delicate finger. “No more protests. Let it go. Give your mind a rest and let your body heal.” Lilliana closed her eyes and nodded. Nothing mattered anymore. If she woke again or not, it didn’t matter. Strong arms snaked beneath her body and lifted her. The soothing melody grew louder, more rhythmic, and she swayed in the arms of the Ley as they carried her off to their watery depths. Beyond that, she knew nothing.

*****

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Gaige followed two of Delfrin’s men deep into the cave-like darkness of the underlevel. Apprehension dogged his every step as they pushed farther and farther beyond the outer limits of the Sage’s territory. For the first time since he’d woken up on Grissom after Lilliana had removed it, he actually missed his tactical chip. Though he’d accepted the limits of normal human sensory perception again, he hadn’t realized how much he’d come to rely on the software that had dictated his responses to real or imagined danger. He missed being able to see in the dark and to gauge violent intent by an imperceptible rise in blood pressure or perspiration. He missed hearing footsteps from half a kilometer away and knowing instantly how tall an opponent stood or how much they weighed. Having to rely on Delfrin’s two lieutenants made him feel weak and a little too human, but he endured because he could no longer bear to let Lilliana suffer alone. “How much farther?” he asked after what seemed like hours marching in almost total darkness. “The station doesn’t look this big from outside.” “Beyond that arch, the Ley will come for you. She is with them,” answered one of his escorts. This cryptic shit was starting to get to him. Everyone in Delfrin’s little kingdom spoke like a fortune-teller and dressed like a mercenary. The man was no more than a blurry gray shadow, but the charge light on his laser blaster that he wore in a low-slung shoulder holster shown like a beacon in the blackness. He had no desire to test the man’s readiness to use his weapon, so he held his comments until they stopped walking at a spot well beyond the limits of Delfrin’s territory. “I’m supposed to go on alone?” he asked when they turned in unison and moved away from him. “They Ley make the rules here. Only you are permitted to go any farther.” “Great.” “You won’t need weapons.”

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“I hope you’re right about that.” The man held out his hand, palm up. Gaige shook his head. “Nope.” “You won’t go any farther with a gun in your pocket.” “Why should I trust you?” The man laughed. His nameless partner shuffled closer and Gaige sensed the man reach for his own hidden weapon. At least some of his natural survival instincts still worked. “Go or stay. The choice is yours. The Ley won’t bring you anywhere if you’re armed.” Gaige sighed. What choice did he have? Tactical programming would have prevented him from giving up his weapon under any circumstances. As a Theta, he’d have been forced into armed combat with the two men. For better or worse, he had the choice now, and he could only rely on his human brain to make the difficult decision. “Here.” He handed over the compact plasma charger he’d purchased in Gavrel’s merchant sector. “You’ll get it back,” one man said with a faint, untrustworthy chuckle. Before Gaige could voice a suitable response, they were both gone. He stood alone in the cavernous blackness for a full minute before something happened. A pale, ghostly figure emerged from the abyss in front of him, holding out a webbed hand that was so white it seemed to glow. “I’m Juria,” she said in a voice that seemed to echo in his mind. “Messenger of the Ley.”

***** Pure sensation replaced the pain, though Lilliana could not have said exactly when the transition took place. She might have been at the mercy of the Ley for days, weeks perhaps, or only a moment. Warm darkness surrounded her, muffled sounds soothed 112

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her, and the gentle pressure of long, thin fingers caused her ravaged muscles to tense and release in an undulating rhythm. When those skillful hands massaged feeling back into her feet and ankles, she hummed with gratitude since she couldn’t seem to form words. The gentle strokes worked their way up her calves, replacing the irritating tingle of near paralysis with something close to bliss. At her thighs, the touch grew more insistent, then more intimate and Lilliana gave herself over to their ministrations without reservation. She purred her acquiescence each time the stroke of flesh on flesh moved higher. Her muscles flexed and tightened, stretched and contracted under the expert stimulation. Somehow she managed to writhe against the exquisite pressure until those fingers brushed against her mound. Her body responded to the touch and, though she still could not see, she felt her nipples tighten. Please, she thought, touch me! I will. The deep, masculine voice echoed in her head. A vision, dreamlike and ethereal, accompanied the words. She saw him, pale skin, blue eyes and his long neck and torso striated with curving gills. I am Bejorin, healer of the Ley. You needn’t fear me. I don’t. Where am I? You are in a place from which you will soon emerge. You are safe. Bejorin’s long fingers stroked her body again and she shivered despite the soothing warmth of her surroundings. She shuddered with wonderful sensation as the healing power of the Ley touch coursed through her body. How is this possible? We are much more than we were made to be. We have evolved quickly. Save your questions. You need your energy to heal.

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Bejorin surged against her, his cool skin igniting a soothing fire in her core. She accepted him and, despite herself, she pleaded for more.

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Chapter Thirteen The girl, Juria, took him farther into the darkness to a rung ladder that actually led deeper into the bowels of the space station. There, the dim lights had a bluish cast and everything was cold and damp. He walked with her to an area where huge, glowing tanks of blue-green water sat amid pulsating coils of thick tubing. Water and other unidentifiable fluids ran through the clear tubes in a rhythm that Gaige recognized as the heartbeat-like surge of an engine. When the lights came up suddenly, he blinked in surprise and, when his vision cleared, the scene before him nearly stopped his heart. “What the hell is he doing to her?” Gaige rushed forward in shock. Lilliana hung naked in a huge vat of clear liquid. Her hair flowed loosely around her shoulders on invisible currents. She looked angelic and far too pale to be alive. With her in the glowing tank was what mythologists would have called a merman. He was tall and slender, all arms and legs and long blond hair that flowed like Lilliana’s. He held her in an intimate embrace, pressing her hips against his with long, thin fingers spread against her ass and flexing in an unmistakably sexual cadence. Her legs were wrapped around the merman’s narrow waist, ankles crossed tightly over his buttocks. With his head bent toward her, he seemed to be suckling her neck and his faint, but steady, undulations rocked their entwined bodies back and forth in the sealed tank. A stab of fear and disgust mixed with jealousy tore through Gaige’s chest at the sight. Had they brought him here just to watch this bioengineered nightmare fuck Lilliana against her will? “Get her out of there—get him off her now!” He pushed the little girl aside and ran forward to slap his hands against the cold glass of the tank. 115

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The pair inside seemed oblivious to his shouts. Lilliana’s eyes were closed, her lips parted and her head tilted back as if in the throes of sexual ecstasy. “That is Bejorin. He is healing her.” “With his dick? I don’t think so.” Gaige banged on the tank, but Juria intervened. She pulled his hands away and wrapped her own long, webbed fingers around his. “His very touch can cure her. Trust him. She is aware of his methods and she feels no fear or pain, only pleasure. She has not been touched against her will.” Gaige backed up, his jaw set. He tore his gaze away from the disturbingly erotic scene. Was it a sense of helplessness that made him so angry, or was it jealousy? “Do I have to watch?” Juria tugged him away from the tank. “Soon she will need you. Come and I will help you prepare.” “Prepare how?” “To join with her. She will need your strength to recover completely.” Gaige allowed Juria to pull him a few steps away from the tank. He couldn’t resist another glance upward though and a pang of possessiveness assaulted him. Bejorin raised his head then. His blue-green eyes were wide and questioning as he pulled his lips away from Lilliana’s skin. With their legs tangled together and his long arms wrapped around her waist, they looked too much like lovers for Gaige’s comfort. His heart hardened at the thought. Had Lilliana really agreed to this? Did she want the Ley healer’s hands on her, his pale cock buried inside her? Gaige looked away. He could have left then and given her over to the apparently capable hands of the Ley, but he didn’t. He still wasn’t ready to let her go. Juria smiled up at him. “Come. Trust the Ley. They mean no harm.”

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Her body convulsed with the force of an orgasm that seemed to have been building for ages. Bejorin’s long fingers had teased a galvanizing response from her body and she would have cried out from it, but she still couldn’t make a sound. She called to him with her mind, but he was gone. In his place floated Gaige, rocksolid and strong. His body was warm where Bejorin’s had been cool, rough where the Ley healer was slick and smooth. She tried to communicate with him the way she had with Bejorin, but he didn’t respond. He merely wrapped his arms around her and drew her naked body against his. His erection intruded between her thighs, brushing her clit and teasing the swollen flesh into another spasm. She arched, grateful for the touch and the ability to feel it. She opened to him eagerly, locking her legs behind his back the way she had with the healer and reveling in the sensation of his hot, thick shaft sliding into her. Without gravity to hold them together, she had to clutch his body tightly. His thrusts were slower than she remembered, but deep and sure, amazingly satisfying. Every nerve in her body responded to his incursion. If she could have made a sound, she would have panted his name and begged him to fuck her harder. She used her body to tell him, willing him with her hands and her legs to sate her needs. He steadied her against him and clutched her ass. She tilted her hips up and opened wide. With no barrier left to him, he dove deep, touching her womb, fitting perfectly where she needed him to be. When his fluid muscles went taut beneath her hands, she braced for his release. The rush of hot come set off another incredible orgasm that rocked her body in wave after wave of electric pleasure until she knew nothing but the feel of him against her. Her mind blanked and, finally, her body went limp in his arms. They called it the little death, she recalled. And now she knew why.

*****

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Benjamin Gaige was certain he would never again feel the desire to go swimming. He’d probably have to force himself to bathe after what the Ley had put him through. If he never saw water again, it would be too soon. Aside from his new aversion to all things wet, he had to admit that whatever their strange healer had done to Lilliana seemed to have worked. She slept peacefully now on the woefully inadequate cushions in the alcove Delfrin had assigned to her. Still naked and covered with a tattered thermal blanket, she once again looked like the innocent Medea whose life had been shattered by a Viliri bomb. Each time Gaige allowed himself to look at her, his lungs seemed to contract, squeezing his heart and forcing it into a rapid beat. It made no sense, but maybe it was time to admit why he wouldn’t leave her. He was in love with the woman who’d been sent to destroy him. If he’d had the strength, he would have laughed at the irony, but he’d given her everything he had. Now he could do little more than watch when she began to stir. She stretched with the same feline movements he remembered from watching her on Grissom. The blanket fell away, exposing her supple body and taut breasts and, despite his overwhelming fatigue, Gaige’s own body reacted. When her eyes fluttered open, he smiled. “Welcome back, Lieutenant. You’ve been AWOL for quite a while.” Confusion clouded her eyes for a moment, and to his surprise, after a moment’s contemplation of the circumstances, she actually blushed. “My God, they—” “Bejorin. His touch heals, so they say. He sucked Lantrell’s concoction out of you and kept your muscles moving so they wouldn’t atrophy.” At least that was Juria’s explanation of the disturbingly sexual healing ritual of the Ley. “And you. I remember you…there.” She snaked one hand down and pulled the silver blanket up. Her sudden modesty was both alluring and worrisome. “Just how much do you remember?”

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She ran a hand through the silky strands of her still-damp hair. “I remember I could talk to Bejorin, but not to you. I thought it was all a dream at first.” “Apparently the UMEs are telepathic. BioCon designed them that way.” Lilliana nodded. “Have you seen my clothes?” He balled up the shirt and flight pants that lay on the floor next to where he sat and tossed them to her. “I’d get up, but to be honest, I’ve never been so tired in my life. The fluid in the tank, so they say, helped transfer my energy to you to help you heal.” “I remember Bejorin explaining that to me. Are you…going to be all right?” Color still rode high on Lilliana’s cheeks and Gaige found it odd but endearing that his jungle huntress would be self-conscious about what they’d just been through. “I’ll be fine. So will you. We don’t have to go back to Lantrell now.” Smirking, she rose and shrugged into her shirt. She left the garment open, though, while she pulled on her flight pants. Gaige indulged in watching her breasts sway as she dressed. He longed to caress her again, but he knew if he touched her now, he might confess his weakness for her. Would she be flattered or further embarrassed by his revelation that the life she’d given him wouldn’t mean nearly as much to him without her in it? Nothing had changed, after all. They would still be safer apart. “I still have to go back. In fact, more so now. My debts to Zed aren’t paid in full yet.” Gaige watched her from under lowered brows. He forced his exhausted limbs to stretch while she fastened her shirt and smoothed her hair into dark golden ringlets. “Why risk your life for revenge? How do you know he won’t set another trap for you?” She rolled her eyes. “Don’t try to logic me, soldier. I know I can’t trust Zed, but I just don’t think I can stand not seeing the look on his face when I tell him he’s not getting Onika.”

*****

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Roxx appeared before Delfrin with the woman in question. She wore silver, a dress so short and tight that she might as well have been naked. She stood silent and very still, forced into obedience by the waist cuffs Roxx had used to bind her hands and by the long barrel of his plasma charger pressed against her spine. Only the vicious fire in her deep blue eyes gave away her true disposition. Delfrin smiled. “Release her. The lady is our guest.” Roxx’s stubbled jaw dropped, but he obeyed. The woman moved complacently, lifting her wrists so her captor could release her. Deflrin tensed in gleeful anticipation and, just as he predicted, the moment Roxx stepped back, the cuffs dangling from his hand, she whirled around and delivered a powerful blow to the side of his head. The flat of her hand against his clammy flesh made a satisfactory slap that Delfrin relished. “That’s for feeling me up in the transport, you rutting animal!” Roxx actually cowered when she raised her hand for a second assault. Delfrin sat forward in his throne to watch, but the arrival of Medea and her soldier interrupted the fun. Roxx slunk away and the woman turned her acidic gaze on the newcomers who strolled out of the darkness. Delfrin noted they moved in unison, like lovers, but with enough distance between them to insinuate that their emotions ran high. The woman’s long, black hair swayed and her perfect lips curled into an alluring frown when her gaze lit on Medea. In one swift step, she moved to confront the pair and her hand arced up toward Medea’s face. The soldier tensed, instantly ready to defend the one he now thought of as his woman, but he needn’t have bothered. Medea caught her assailant’s wrist a split second before her palm would have connected.

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The two women stood locked in a private battle of wills for a tense moment before Medea forced her opponent’s arm down to her side. They split apart, wisely putting a few feet of distance between them. “You bitch. Why did you send that filthy bottom-feeder to kidnap me? I was in the middle of an assignment!” “Which, roughly translated, means you were in the middle of getting laid.” Medea’s response drew a snicker from Roxx, which Delfrin silenced with a stern look. “It’s good to see you too, Onika. I love the dress. It shows off your…assets.” “If you brought me all the way from Tanax to insult my outfit—” “No. I didn’t. I’m embarrassed to admit, I had you brought here because my life depended on delivering you to Zed. That’s over now and you’re free to go.” Delfrin felt the stab of recognition that coursed through the one named Onika. The name produced a visceral response in her and he read her anger and betrayal as clearly as if she’d given her feelings voice. Though the conflict was far from over, he felt the necessity to excuse himself. Little would be learned with a leering audience. He summoned Roxx to his side, who held one hand pressed against his reddened jaw. Together they took their leave. The Sage’s work was done here, for now.

***** “I’m free to go?” Onika Ramos made a disparaging sound. She whirled around, hands on her shapely hips and paced in front of Gaige and Lilliana. “You screwed up weeks of background work and had me dragged out of bed with a mar—a man who will probably never trust me again—and now I’m free to go?” Onika’s voice broke in an odd way and Lilliana had to fight to keep from rolling her eyes. Zed’s first true Chi did have something Lilliana didn’t, a perpetually bleeding heart. She was known throughout Epsilon Force for having an annoying habit of actually falling in love with the men she fucked. Apparently, it made her sexual 121

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performance much more believable. Fortunately, she never lost the ability to do her job, and her odd infatuations faded over time, but in the middle of an assignment she was loyal to the bone to whatever man happened to be…boning her. Lilliana almost felt sorry for her. “For what it’s worth, I hated doing it. I admit, I was motivated by self-preservation and a morbid desire to see you tear Zed a new asshole once I got you to him. I can’t say as I’m still not curious.” Onika’s shoulders heaved in an angry sigh. “He’s not even worth it.” “He loves you.” Lilliana blurted the words out with a shrug. “So he says. You were always his favorite.” “So fucking favorite, he left me to fend for myself at Cy-Ops. They sold me to—” Onika stopped mid-rant. She seemed to swallow her words. After a moment, she composed herself and her expression became one of eerie calm. “So you don’t need me anymore.” “No. I’ll pay your transport back to Tanax and I’ll even spring for a dress that fits.” Onika glared. It had been far too long since Lilliana had a chance to tease her old nemesis, the one who’d been her rival for Zed’s capricious affections all those years ago. “Ladies—” Gaige stepped in then and stepped back out just as quickly when they both leveled razor-sharp glances at him. “I’ll…just be waiting over here.” “He’s not a mark, I gather,” Onika said. Her gaze followed Gaige for a few steps before returning to Lilliana who shook her head. “No.” It didn’t even feel like a lie. “So…where is Zed?” “He’s on Serilon. In Yebec. He claims Cy-Ops fired him, but I don’t know if I believe that. I don’t have access to those records and I don’t have the inclination to sift through all the bullshit he fed me while I was there.” “Serilon.” Onika’s blue eyes lost focus for a moment as if she were staring into the past. “And he wanted me?”

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“He claims he’s dying. He had a vibro heart put in a few years ago and it’s malfunctioning. He has this final request—or demand—to make things right with you.” Onika laughed, then rubbed her hands over her bare arms to ward off the pervasive chill of Gavrel’s under-level. “He could never make things right with me, but maybe he could do me one last favor. He certainly owes me a few.” “You mean you’d go see him?” Guilt tickled the back of Lilliana’s mind. Zed still had power over her. He’d forced her to turn on Onika for nothing. She hated him more now than ever, but not as much as she hated herself. Onika shrugged. “There might be something he could do for me.” “Don’t trust him. If you can use him, do what you have to do, but don’t let him fool you. He’s changed. He’s lost his last shred of integrity.” Onika cocked her head. “He had integrity? Look, Lil, you’re the one who used to want his approval. Not me. I always took him with a grain of salt. He can’t hurt me any more than he already has. I’m over him.” “I’m just saying, if you go back to him, be careful.” Onika nodded. “If I go back to him, I will. Now what about you? Is there any way I can fuck up your next assignment?” Lilliana laughed. “No way in hell.”

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Chapter Fourteen After an exchange of rads and a few more catty remarks, Lilliana escorted Onika to the access tube and away from Delfrin’s territory. She told Gaige she’d be back and he took her at her word. Nevertheless, he was relieved when she appeared, striding through the dim pools of light that trickled down from above. “I’m surprised you came back,” he said casually. “I thought you wanted to have the last laugh on Lantrell.” She shrugged. “I got over it. You were right. I don’t need to risk my life for him. He’ll get what he wants. Onika’s going to see him. And he’ll get what he deserves. She’ll use him for whatever purposes she has and he’ll die alone. Maybe I’m losing my touch, but that’s revenge enough for me this time. What more could I do except kick his ass?” “I might have enjoyed watching that.” She arched a brow. “I’m sure we can come up with something else you’ll enjoy watching. Have you got your strength back?” Gaige liked the mischievous glint in her eye, but something told him to beware. In addition to the genuine concern, he thought he heard a hint of regret in her voice. He might have been a robot for four years, but he still knew the sound of an impending brush-off. He ignored the cold, sinking feeling it gave him and smirked up at her from his comfortable spot on the absent Delfrin’s throne. “What did you have in mind, Lieutenant?” “I was thinking, after I finish a little business down here, you and I could get a luxury stateroom up above for a day or so and get this…” She waved her hand between them. “Out of our systems.” “Ah. You mean fuck until we get tired of each other?” 124

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“That might take a while, but yeah.” Her voice wavered just a bit. “What business do you still have down here?” She had to know he’d go for it. He’d spend every last minute that he could with her before she finally sent him on his way. Nevertheless, he didn’t want to seem too anxious. “I’d like to visit the Ley before I go.” “Oh?” Jealousy pinged in his gut. He had no right to it, but it was there anyway. “A kiss goodbye for Bejorin?” Her eyes hardened and her jaw set. “I owe them a thank you at least. The fact is, Zed miscalculated. I probably wouldn’t have ever made it back to Serilon alive.” “That’s true.” “For what it’s worth—” She hesitated and the uncertainty in her deep green eyes gave him hope. “When he…touched me, when he was inside me…” “Don’t.” “I wanted it to be you.” He nodded. There were a million responses running through his head, but he didn’t trust himself not to make it all come out sounding petty and sarcastic. He settled for mundane. “Do you want me to go with you to see them?” “Are you up to it?” She smiled. Despite his desire to remain aloof from her, it warmed him. She held her hand out and he accepted her help to climb to his feet. Every muscle protested, but he straightened without giving in to the discomfort of overwhelming fatigue. “Sure. As long as I don’t have to get wet.”

***** Lilliana felt a stab of apprehension when she and Gaige finally reached the far border of Delfrin’s territory. The Sage had told her she would die and be reborn in the sea and, in a strange way, he’d been exactly right, but that didn’t completely rule out the possibility that the Ley posed some type of threat. They’d somehow outgrown their biological programming and had developed their own agenda beyond simply caring for 125

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Gavrel’s all-important ocean. She would not have been surprised if their healing ritual came with a price she might not be prepared to pay. Nevertheless, she couldn’t walk away without expressing her gratitude to them for ignoring her selfish desire to suffer. In addition to analyzing her personal need for penance for allowing Zed to take advantage of her, all the way to the border she’d also battled with her conflicting emotions about Gaige. She wasn’t used to this—feeling obligated to share her decisions with anyone, or caring what someone else wanted or needed from her. She still harbored some self-consciousness about her time with Bejorin. If not for Gaige, the intimate healing ritual would not have been an issue. Logic told her that, despite the intense orgasms she’d experienced in the Ley healer’s arms, it wasn’t sex in the traditional sense. He’d been stimulating her to keep her muscles active and alive. Once he’d drained Zed’s poison from her bloodstream, he had turned her over to Gaige, knowing she’d prefer to have the man she loved—the man she… Goddammit, that couldn’t be it. She didn’t have the ability to love, or the need for it. That’s what had kept her sane all these years working for Spec-Ops and indentured to Central Command. A reanimate’s lack of emotion made her job easier, enjoyable in fact. The moment she’d looked into Benjamin Gaige’s stormy eyes, she’d lost all that objectivity. She stole a glance at him as they made their way into the all-consuming darkness. When had she stopped seeing the rogue Theta and started seeing the man? When had her desire for him become need? She shook off the disturbing thought and turned her attention to the ghostly figure that appeared out of the void before them. Juria smiled at them and bowed her head. “I’m pleased to see you both well. The Ley are grateful to have been able to help you.” “Grateful…” Lilliana stumbled on the word. “I’m the one who’s grateful. I’ve come to thank Bejorin and ask if there’s anything I can do to repay you for what you’ve done for me.” 126

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Juria’s liquid gaze settled on Gaige. “He has made payment. He has given the Ley something they covet. You owe us nothing.” Lilliana slid a sidelong glance in his direction. “You did?” He shrugged. “I never even met them until yesterday.” “The Sage gave us your payment. Your tactical chip has been turned over to our leader. Meydala will know how to use it to the advantage of the Ley.” “You gave Del your chip? What for?” Gaige gave her an evasive look, but she saw right through it. “You traded your chip so Del would find someone to help me, when you could have gone to the news webs with it.” The air seemed to rush out of Lilliana’s lungs at her own revelation. “What about the other Thetas?” “I’m not going to give up trying to find a way to help the ones that are left. But I realized I couldn’t sacrifice you. I couldn’t take the chance that once word got out, Central Command would have all of Epsilon Force destroyed to cover the mistakes.” Forgotten, Juria faded into the darkness, leaving Lilliana and Gaige alone. He put his hands out, found her fingers and squeezed. “I know what they’d do to you. I can’t let that happen.” “You don’t owe me anything. Don’t think you owe me—” “I do owe you, but that’s beside the point. I love you and I’m not going to let you get hurt.” Lilliana stood completely still for the space of one heartbeat, then some invisible force drew her into his arms. She wanted to respond, to say something that would make him understand she didn’t trust herself to know how to love him back. Whatever she felt for him consumed her, but she was terrified to define it. Instead she held on, wishing she could put herself inside him and remain there, safe in the quiet darkness where nothing could touch them. With the force of her embrace, she hoped he understood that, for whatever it meant, she loved him too.

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“Let’s get out of here,” he whispered into her ear finally as they broke apart. “I believe you said something about a luxury stateroom and keeping me entertained.”

***** Onika Ramos raised her hand to knock on the chipped, peeling door to Zed Lantrell’s home in Yebec. She couldn’t believe he’d ended up here, in a dark rat hole at the ass end of the galaxy. The man had practically given birth to Cy-Ops. He should have been living in luxury with Central Command worshipping at his feet for the things he’d given them. Disgusted with herself for even thinking he might have deserved more than he’d gotten, Onika steeled herself and knocked. The door swung open on a broken hinge. Fortunately, she’d taken the time to arm herself after leaving Gavrel and she nudged the door farther open with the barrel of a black-market pulse charger. “Zed?” She hated the taste it left in her mouth to say his name, but seeing him again might be worth it if he could give her what she wanted. He was very likely the only one who could. “It’s Onika. I’ve come like you asked. Lilliana sent me.” She’d play coy. Make him worship her the way he used to and when she had what she wanted, she’d go back to Tanax, back to the man she belonged to for the moment. She didn’t see the blood until she stepped in it. A crimson puddle spread across the stone tiles of the kitchen floor. It had been there so long the edges were already darkening to brown. In the middle of it lay a body. Onika had to lean over and stare at the sunken face to be sure, but it was indeed Zed Lantrell. He looked different. Older and smaller than she remembered him. And much less alive. Someone had ripped the vibro heart out of his chest and left it lying next to him on the floor. Onika clamped her lips shut and straightened. Shit. Now what?

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There wasn’t time to formulate an answer to that question before a Serilon security team swarmed into the room behind her. They had her up against the nearest wall, legs splayed, and her arms once again cuffed behind her back before she could say a word. “You’ve been remanded into custody of the Governor of Serilon on the charge of murder,” their leader said, all businesslike and seemingly unfazed by the carnage on the floor. “I didn’t kill him. I just got here myself and he’s obviously been dead for at least a day.” Her protest provoked nothing more than a repeat of the previous sentence and a sharp tug on the tight cuffs as she was dragged away from the kitchen wall. “I swear I didn’t kill him. I don’t even have any blood on me.” Even as she uttered the words, she knew. It didn’t matter what she said. She’d been set up—waltzed right into a trap and, fuck it all, she had no one to blame but herself.

***** To Bejorin’s credit, every muscle in Lilliana’s body still worked perfectly. Gaige gave silent and grudging thanks to the Ley healer as he worked his own way down Lilliana’s perfect body, touching, tasting and nipping at her sweat-damp skin. She spread her legs for him and he settled between them and splayed his hands across her flat belly. He worked his thumbs into the swollen folds of her pussy and massaged her clit until she begged him to fuck her. With a wicked grin, he did just that, thrusting his tongue into the tight, hot flesh and tasting her cream. She bucked against him, her body arched and taut on the wide bed of the suite they’d rented. After booking passage outsystem to the farthest colonies, they had enough left over for two days of bliss in the best stateroom money could buy. Those two days were almost up and they’d barely left the bed. While he suckled her, she moaned and panted. “I need…I need…” She hadn’t been able to complete a sentence in hours and he liked it that way. He loved seeing her like this, drawn up like a bow, shivering with need and completely under his command.

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“Come on, tell me. Tell me what you need.” He thrust his tongue inside her again, drawing a gasp of pleasure from her. One more taste and he’d be ready. She was trying to hold out, but in a moment she’d come and, when she did, he’d be there, ready to take her the way she wanted to be taken. “I need you.” She finally got the words out. Just before her thighs tensed, Gaige shoved his hands under her ass. The muscles there were clenched rock-hard with her determination to stave off her orgasm until he filled her. She moaned through gritted teeth. “It’s all right, here I come.” He bent his head for another incursion with his tongue. He planned to thrust in deep while just teasing her clit with his teeth, but she would not allow it. She fisted her hands in his hair and guided him up. “No, I need you up here. Hold me!” As much as he wanted to play, he couldn’t refuse her demand. He crawled up the bed, steadying her quaking body beneath him before he drove his erection home. She came around him, gasping deliciously as he once again breached the barrier of skin that her Regen chip continually renewed. This time he’d wanted to be gentle, to ease her to her climax and tease her with it as she’d teased him for hours the night before. He’d held out too long though, and now, driven by lust, he took her hard and fast. In moments he reached his own end, spilling into her womb while she curled around him, shuddering with the last of her own electric waves. “I need you,” she said again when the reverberations stopped. She drew his mouth to hers and kissed him deeply. “Only you.” “Let me taste you one more time, then we have to go. We have a whole galaxy waiting for us, you know.” She kissed him again until he was breathless from it and, despite his release, he felt his cock pulse for more as she tightened around him. “The galaxy will just have to wait.”

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About the Author Drawn to spicy tales of adventure from an early age, Bernadette Gardner made the leap from writing hard science fiction to writing erotic romance in 2005 and has never looked back. Now

multi-published,

Bernadette

also

writes

paranormal,

fantasy

and

contemporary titles under the name Jennifer Colgan. When not exploring distant galaxies or alternate universes, Bernadette can be found at home with her husband of fifteen years, two children and one slightly neurotic Dalmation. She spends her spare time reading, quilting and haunting the local craft stores and looks forward to bringing steamy stories to her fans for decades to come.

Bernadette welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.

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