Chapter 33
A moment later I realized the roar had been the recording of Kane’s mighty orgasm.
Heart hammering, I shuffled toward the sound of my own subsiding moans as rapidly as I could, completely blind after the bright light of the hallway.
Goddamn this giant room; I had no idea where…
My toe smashed into something hard and I bit down a yell of pain. Found the chair.
Bed would be to the left and farther along…
Limping hurriedly in what I hoped was the right direction, I panted open-mouthed, trying to keep silent. The moans were fading now. In a few more seconds the recording would end.
My knee slammed into the edge of the mattress and I pitched forward onto the bed.
Kane’s strong arms found me, pulling me under the covers. His naked skin burned against my sweat-chilled body, and he held me closer to run hot hands over my arms and back.
“So…” His voice was a sexy tease. “Ready for another round yet?”
I gasped out a laugh of sheer giddy relief. “Not quite yet.” I pressed my head under his chin, clinging to him until my galloping heart slowed and my breathing steadied.
As soon as I’d regained a measure of control, I slipped out of bed again. My eyes had adjusted enough that I could make out my laptop’s power LED glowing on the desk, and I vectored toward it and fumbled the portable network generator into the USB port by feel, then padded to the bathroom to generate a convincing toilet-flush.
When I slipped back into bed, I reached for Kane’s hand. This time I pressed it a little more firmly over my mouth.
Come on, John, figure it out. Keep me quiet when I come out of the network.
I felt his nod against my hair.
Steeling myself against the upcoming fear and pain, I closed my eyes and concentrated on finding the familiar white void.
When I stepped into it, I paused, suddenly uncertain. Was I in Harchman’s network or my own?
Did it matter?
Theoretically if Spider’s backdoor program was working, I’d be able to find the Sirius network either way.
I gave a virtual shrug and dissolved into the vast complexity of the internet.
Once again I left a trail of markers behind me, but Sirius’s servers remained elusive. My path looped and crossed, leaving a confusing maze behind me while I hunted.
At last I found Sirius. Hovering in the data stream, my consciousness felt thin and weak, attenuated by distance and fatigue. Data packets rushed by, buffeting me in their slipstream while I braced myself for the shattering effort of breaching their server.
Do it.
I flung myself at the firewall, imagining bodysurfing with all my might.
Tumbling into terror and chaos, I anchored the tiny remaining spark that was me, then sought out my scattered remains one bit at a time.
This time I’d make it.
I tried again, then again. Each time regrouping was more difficult; my reactions slower.
Electric fear shivered through me.
I was exhausted, my control fading. What if I couldn’t do it?
And the more time I spent battering myself against this implacable wall, the harder it would be to find the path back to my physical body.
I could be trapped forever…
Panic swelled and I fought it down.
Maybe I should explode into Sirius’s network in a holocaust of destruction while I still had enough energy. It was possible; I’d done it before. But that time Spider had been able to roll back the damage. Who knew what critical data I might accidentally destroy?
I couldn’t chance it.
Try again.
Again…
At last I made it through, my consciousness diminished to a thin thread wavering in the smooth stream of internal data. When I found the comforting familiarity of the file repository at last, I oozed into an invisible puddle in the corner and simply existed in mindless gratitude for long moments.
Finally I regained enough composure to create a visible avatar and a chair. Flopping into it, I leaned my head back and waited for Spider.
Only a few minutes later he appeared. With a superhuman effort I managed to control a spurt of hysterical laughter.
“Hi, Spider,” I said, my voice coming out slightly strangled despite my best efforts. “I’m sorry I woke you.”
Smothering a yawn behind his hand, he mumbled, “It’s okay…”, then glanced down at his rumpled Star Wars pajamas and bare feet, his eyes widening and face flushing crimson. “Omigod!” His hands flew down to cover his crotch despite the fact that his modest pajamas provided complete coverage. “I’m sorry…” he stammered. “I’m sorry, I’ll fix it… right away…”
His flush deepened to purple as his pajamas slowly faded away, exposing a scrawny torso and bony knees.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he cried frantically. “I can’t…”
I stood and turned my back, partly to give him privacy and partly to hide the laughter I couldn’t suppress any longer. “Spider, take a breath,” I commanded. “It’s only a sim. You’re fine. Just think of being at work.”
“Oh… Oh, right…” A moment later he let out a breath. “Okay, you can turn around now.”
When I faced him again, he wore his usual work garb of khakis and button-down shirt. His cheeks were still glowing with embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I just… I wasn’t quite awake yet.” His flush deepened again. “It was like those dreams where you have to write a final exam but you’re naked-”
“Don’t say that,” I interrupted. “Or it’ll be like trying not to think of a pink hippopotamus and we’ll both end up…” I stopped myself before I could repeat the word ‘naked’, and a large pink hippo popped into existence in the corner.
I banished it with a stern chopping motion. “Spider.” I spoke firmly to focus our attention. “I just finished loading your backdoor software over at Harchman’s. Can you get into it?”
“Oh, awesome!” he exclaimed, waving a laptop into existence. In moments he was clattering keys, his poise completely restored.
I drew a breath of relief and tried not to think of being naked. Or of anybody else being naked. Especially not Kane…
A suspiciously flesh-coloured cloud formed in front of me, and I hurriedly thought about a pink hippo.
Spider looked up at the sound of its grunting and laughed. “You must be tired, too.”
I fell back into my chair. “You have no idea.”
He sobered. “Are you… safe? I mean… right now, where your physical body is?”
“I think so. John’s with me, so if there was an emergency…” I trailed off. “Shit. If there was an emergency he’d have to choose between dragging my useless body around with him or pulling me out of the network by hurting me, and having me thrash around and scream my head off.”
I jumped to my feet. “I need to get back there. I don’t even know how long I’ve been gone. What time is it?”
“Quarter to four. I just need you to stay until I get this connection. It’ll only be a minute…” Spider’s voice faded as he resumed his rapid typing.
“Okay.” I sank back into the chair and tried not to fidget.
A few minutes later Spider gave me a smile. “Perfect. My programs are working. I’ll get Brock and Tammy to go through Harchman’s data tomorrow, so you shouldn’t have to go back into the network again.”
“Thanks, Spider,” I said with sincere gratitude. “See you later.”
As I faded into invisibility he cried, “Wait!”
I popped back into existence. “What is it?”
“Just…” He hurried over to throw his skinny arms around me. “Be careful.”
I returned his hug, my heart warming. “Thanks. Talk to you soon.”
The return trip through the internet was almost as long and frightening as the outbound one. When I finally stepped through the portal, the pain seemed magnified by my stress and fatigue.
Involuntary profanity spewed from my lips as I hugged my splitting head. As the suffering slowly eased I realized that Kane wasn’t muffling me as I’d hoped.
Instead, his rough angry voice pounded my aching eardrums, spitting ugly abuse.
White-hot rage detonated behind my eyes.
In an instant I was kneeling astride him, my forearm crushing the repellent words to silence in his throat.
My face inches from his, I snarled, “Don’t you EVER talk to me like that again!”
His hands clamped onto my elbow and wrist, effortlessly bench-pressing my weight off his throat. “You said that’s what you wanted.”
My voice came out in a menacing growl. “If you ever even think that shit again, I’ll rip your balls off and shove them down your throat.”
“Arlene.” The reminder of my cover identity and the warning in Kane’s voice jolted me out of my berserk rage, but fury still boiled in my veins. “You asked me to dominate you,” he said evenly. “You said you liked it.”
“Maybe we should switch places.” I spat the words at him like bullets. “See how you like it.”
“Is that what you want? You want me to play submissive?”
Something in his voice snuffed out my anger. With the bug active, he would probably do it if I said yes. I imagined his pride broken, his dignity violated, his gaze downcast while he begged…
Nausea twisted my stomach and I slid off him, propping my throbbing head in my hands.
“No.” My voice came out small and weary.
Remember the bug. Be Arlene Widdenback.
I snorted. “I can make any man crawl. There’s no novelty in that. But I’m done with the dom stuff, so cut it out. It was only fun for a while after we scammed Harchman.”
“All right.” Kane sounded cautious. “But maybe next time you could say something like, ‘By the way, John, this isn’t working for me; let’s not do it anymore’ instead of crushing my throat and threatening to castrate me.”
Be hard-ass Arlene.
“By the way, John,” I mimicked him mockingly. “We’re not having a relationship here and I don’t do touchy-feely talks. You’re good for exactly two things; and if you’re not fucking me silly or supplying me weapons, I have zero use for you. Remember that.”
“I will,” he said stiffly. “Maybe I should go back to my own room now.”
“Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.”
Clicking on the lamp, he got out of bed and dressed, his expression cold and remote. After he had put on his shoes and departed I listened for the sound of his door closing down the hallway, then activated the bug detector.
Green light.
I buried my face in the pillow and fought the urge to burst into tears.