At five o’clock, Turner turned off his computer and decided to call it a day.

It had been a week since he’d started chemo, and it wasn’t going well. It was becoming more and more difficult to put in full days at the office, and even more difficult to actually get anything done.

His brain was foggy, he was nauseous, and his coordination was shit. He’d stopped training and was spending his evenings in front of the dumb tube because he lacked the energy to do anything else.

Even his sex drive was practically gone.

Bridget kept promising that it would get better, that his body would adapt, and the side effects would lessen with time, but he doubted it. Not everyone reacted well to chemotherapy, and apparently, he was one of those unlucky ones who couldn’t tolerate it.

In the meantime, he needed to find a way to put in some work. Maybe if he could set up shop at home, he could take rest breaks in between short bouts of work.

Even driving was becoming challenging, and he’d taken to using the shuttle service for his commute to work and back. Naturally, he still used his evasive maneuvers, going to one of the malls first and taking another service from there.

When the shuttle dropped him off half a block away from the keep, he went into the office building, waited until the guy drove away, and then shuffled the thousand feet or so to the keep.

He was exhausted by the time he entered the elevator, but instead of going up to Bridget’s, he went down to William’s lab.

“Hey, Turner, what’s up?” Roni greeted him.

“I want to set up shop at Bridget’s, and I was wondering if you guys can hook me up with some equipment. I don’t need it for long. A couple of weeks to a month.” By then all his current projects would be done, and in preparation for his attempted transition, Turner wasn’t taking on any new ones.

William lifted his head and adjusted his glasses. “What do you need?”

“I need a secure and independent network similar to what I had at home. I have a list.” He pulled the piece of paper out from his suit jacket and handed it to William.

The guy scanned it in seconds. “Elementary stuff. I can have all of it installed in a day, two max.”

“I need it to be impenetrable. My clients expect nothing less.”

William waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it, I got you covered.”

“You’d better check with Kian first,” Roni said. “He likes to know everything that’s going on in the keep.”

Even though it had nothing to do with Kian and the clan, the kid had a point. “I’ll ask him right now.”

He pulled out his phone and dialed Kian’s number.

The guy picked up almost immediately. “Turner, what can I do for you?”

“I’m in William’s lab. I need him to hook me up with a secure network at Bridget’s. Roni suggested I get your approval first.”

Kian was the only one other than Bridget who knew about the chemo. The question was whether he’d make the connection.

“No problem, you can tell William it’s okay. Take it easy, Turner.” Apparently, he did.

“Thanks.” Turner put the phone back in his pocket. “You heard the boss.”

“Why did he tell you to take it easy?” Roni asked.

The kid could make a good agent. He paid attention to small details, things that most people ignored.

“I’m an old human. That’s why.”

“Right.” Roni snorted. “I’m a young immortal and look at me.” He lifted one scrawny arm and flexed. “You can easily beat me at arm wrestling.”

“You need to stop spending your days sitting in a chair and start exercising. To build muscles, you need to use them.”

Roni grimaced. “I hate weight training, it’s boring, and so is running like a gerbil on a treadmill. The only reason I did it before was to look good enough to get laid. Now I don’t have anything to motivate me.”

William chuckled. “Be careful. Sylvia might lose interest.”

“She loves me, you dickhead. She doesn't care that I’m the weakest dude in the keep.”

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.”

Roni looked as if he had some more choice words for William, but decided to keep his mouth shut. Smart. William seemed like an easygoing fellow, but antagonizing him wasn’t going to do Roni any good. After all, he was sitting in the guy’s lab and not the other way around.

“Is there any physical activity that you enjoy?” Turner asked.

Roni leaned back in his huge executive chair and steepled his fingers. “I liked Anandur’s fake martial arts class.”

“Fake?”

“Yeah. Andrew and Anandur set up this fake class as an excuse to get me out of the agency. Andrew convinced the boss that I needed physical activity to keep my brain sharp. Sylvia and her friends distracted my handler, while Anandur and Andrew tried to activate me. Long story short, it didn’t work because I got sick and they ended up sneaking me out of the hospital. But in the meantime, I sort of enjoyed the fake training. Anandur had based his lessons on what he had learned from YouTube, pulling the rest out of his ass.”

An idea started to form in Turner’s mind. He could no longer participate in the advanced classes, but he could teach a beginner one. At least he would get to move his body a little and not let it deteriorate completely while undergoing chemo. The best part was that it would give him something to do that didn’t involve staring at a screen.

“I can train you and teach you the real thing. I’m a black belt in several disciplines.”

“That would be awesome. Just you and me?”

Turner shrugged. “I don’t mind if others join the class. You can bring Sylvia.”

Apparently, that wasn’t what Roni’s question had implied because he shook his head. “No way. It will be too embarrassing. Until I get in reasonable shape, I don’t want Sylvia to watch me make a fool of myself.”

“No problem. One on one it is. Where do you want to do it?”

Roni took a look around the lab. “Can we do it in here? There is always someone in the gym, and as I said before, I don’t want anyone to see me train while I still suck.”

The room was big, but the equipment was too valuable to mess with.

“Not a good idea. Not with all this equipment.”

“No one is using the room next door. It’s empty,” William said.

“Perfect. Tomorrow at seven?”

Roni nodded. “Do I need to get any special clothes?”

“Anything that doesn’t restrict movement is fine.”

Roni stood up and offered his hand. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it. I’m sure you have better things to do than train me.”

“Right now I don’t.”

Surprisingly, Turner found that he was looking forward to spending time with Roni. According to Bridget, the kid was one of the best hackers in the world. It should be a rare pleasure to talk to someone that bright, and having a super hacker owe him was always good.

Dimly, he was aware that there was more to it than he was willing to admit. From what Bridget had told him about Roni’s history, the kid was a kindred spirit. There couldn’t be many of those in the world.