Broken Protocols (12 page)

There was a long silence while everyone stared at Charmin.

He preened.

Dani couldn’t believe it. “Those must be some enhancements,” she murmured, then turned her attention to Milo. “There are a couple of other problems with your logic.” He raised an eyebrow. She shook her head, overwhelmed at the casualness of his actions. “First off, what if you did choose the perfect partner for him and destroyed her in the process?”

He blinked.

She snorted. Such a thought hadn’t even occurred to him. “Did you even think about failure?”

He laughed. “No. Nothing is a failure in life. There are just times where I’ve learned something didn’t work. And if this didn’t work, no one would know. You’d have just been vaporized or something.”

“And what if only half of me made it?” She felt sick inside. “What if I was lying from the belly up in a gory pool of blood on your floor?” she said in an ominous voice.

His skin took on a greenish tinge. Then his lips twitched. “Nah. It was either all of you or none of you.”

“And how could you know I wasn’t some kind of serial killer you were bringing for your brother?”

He grinned. “We have all kinds of DNA markers for that sort of thing. Serial killer material you’re not. You actually pick spiders up and put them outside so they don’t die.”

She frowned, a little weirded out that he knew that about her. “But I won’t touch them with my hands.”

He laughed at that. “See, that’s perfect. Caring, but careful.”

“And a personality profile?” she asked. “There’s no way you could have done one of those on me. Not when I lived hundreds of years ago.”

“We have advanced profile markers for many traits today. Sure, it was a gamble, but you had the same general look that he loved, you fit the other parameters I needed, so it was a good gamble.” He straightened. “And you’re here all in one piece, so it’s time to move on.”

Move on? What did that mean? She tilted her head. “Move on?”

“Time to adjust. Time to adapt. Time to deal.” Milo levelled a look her way. “This is your life now.”

And he walked out.

Levi moved closer. “Time to go back into the pod. Tomorrow could be stressful.”

“More than my life already is?”

“Unfortunately,” his face turned grim. “Yes.”

B
ack in the
pod, Dani and Charmin slept, woke, and slept some more. When Levi walked in the next morning, she felt much better. Until he said her specialist was here. He dropped a stack of clothes on the bed and walked out.

Like what the hell was a specialist? And why was he hers?

She frowned at his retreating back but struggled upright, gasping at the lingering aches and pains. “I’ll be there in a minute,” she called out as she stumbled to the bathroom. Once out, she dressed in the unusual but cool clothing. That they fit like a glove was a little disconcerting. How had he known her size? Still, they looked good on her. She smoothed her fingers over the silky black material of the cropped top, loving the exotic feel. The half skirt along the back of the shorts was like nothing she’d ever seen before. Then neither were the interesting gem-like diamonds decorating the top.

She made her way down the hallway, doing a quick twirl to watch the back flare out. Nice. She grinned. Not only that, she was grateful that although hungry, she didn’t feel like she was going to die anytime soon.

She walked into the kitchen. As she caught sight of the stranger, her breath caught at the back of her throat. Two hundred years into the future made no difference. There was a specific look to those that walked the shady side of life. Not saying anything, he motioned at her to sit down. She glanced over at Levi uncertainly. Immediately, he stepped closer and motioned to the chair, a gentle smile on his face. “Sit, Dani. It will be over in a moment.”

Uncertain but willing, she took her place. And waited. Behind her, the specialist was unpacking a bag and laying items out on the counter.

She looked over at Levi, and whispered, “Is it going to hurt?”

He shrugged, his gaze on the man behind her. “Maybe a little. You can go back into the pod afterwards.”

Dani twisted around, but the specialist showed no signs of hearing their conversation. Considering he hadn’t said a word yet, he might be a deaf mute. She turned back and waited.

She shifted restlessly when nothing happened after several moments. She twisted around again to see what the stranger was doing, but this time Levi stepped in her line of sight. She glared at him. Just then, the specialist stepped forward and grabbed her arm. He searched the soft tissue above her wrist, the rough skin of his fingers almost scratching hers. After a moment, he dropped her hand and checked the other one.

She frowned. “Anything wrong?”

He never said a word and just returned behind her. She opened her mouth to speak again when Levi picked up her hand and pressed her fingers into the same place on his wrist. And she felt some kind of hard material inside.

Her gaze widened in fear as she understood. This specialist now knew she didn’t have one. Her mouth fell open and she leaned in close. “But now he knows?”

Levi nodded, bent lower, and with his lips against her ears, murmured, “He’s here to give you one.”

“But isn’t that dangerous? For you?”

“More for you. Don’t say anything to him. Cry if you need to, the pod will fix any damage afterwards.”

“Oh God, it’s going to hurt, isn’t it?” And her heart started to race. She clenched her fists. She was such a baby with pain. Tears burned in the back of her eyes. She couldn’t do this.

As if understanding, Levi wrapped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed gently. “Easy.”

She swallowed hard. There was no choice. She had to have whatever that thing was Levi had. She couldn’t even ask for details without letting the specialist know the extent of her ignorance. And that would only bring more questions. And more problems. She hated the subterfuge, the necessary lies. She’d never been any good at those.

Not to mention the way words tended to blurt from her mouth without warning.

Levi started to massage her shoulders, making her realize she’d frozen in place, her muscles locking down.

Just when the wait seemed interminable, the specialist walked over again – holding a gun of some kind in his hands. She gasped in shock, and Levi gripped her shoulders. Not quite forcing her to stay in place, but letting her know he could if needed.

She didn’t want to watch what happened so she kept her gaze forward. The stranger snagged her arm and turned it palm up.

Something cold was placed against her skin.

She closed her eyes and held her breath.

There was a hard pinch then nothing. She frowned. Was that it? All that worry over nothing. Just as the thought filtered through her brain, her head lolled to one side and she blacked out.

*

Levi let his
breath escape slowly when Dani’s head drooped to the side.

“Hold her still,” the stranger said.

Levi grabbed her shoulders to stop her from slumping down in the chair, then crouched down and slid his arm under her head, his other arm wrapping around her ribs to hold her still. “I’ve got her, go ahead.”

The specialist nodded and proceeded to do the quick laser surgery to open her wrist. Levi knew he was taking a chance doing this. At birth, the newborns were tagged within the first hour of life. When they hit sixteen, the tags were switched to the ones they’d have for the rest of their lives.

At birth, it was easier as the bones and tissues were soft, pliant. The initial tags were easily replaced as the body was already well accustomed to their presence. Dani had never had a foreign object implanted under her skin. Her nerves were fully grown. Any damage at this stage and she could lose the use of her hand. Scar tissue was yet another problem. He could only hope to get this over with and get her back into the pod quickly.

He watched the man work fast and efficiently. When Dani’s wrist was open, he had to look away. There was little blood with the high intensity laser, but holy crap. He gritted his teeth, and being unable to help himself, he dropped a kiss on her head. After another long moment, he risked a second look at the surgery, relieved to see the tag lying nestled in the muscles. He could only wonder how the body adapted to such a thing. But his society had been using ID implants for a long time. They appeared to be the answer. They couldn’t be lost, transferred, or stolen – when removed from the body, an alert was automatically sent to the Registrar.

“Is this going to work?” Levi asked. At least the specialist appeared to be competent.

He nodded. “Should.”

“It’s registered?” He couldn’t help asking questions. If this didn’t work, Dani’s life was in danger. And that was unacceptable.

The specialist nodded again. “It is. When I get this closed up, I’ll start the programming.”

Ah. Right. The whole computer world that his society ran off of. Dani had to be included or else she’d always be an outsider. A fugitive. And that would be very difficult. There were fringe groups in his world, as there have been in every century. They lived free of the government restrictions and regulations but barely eked out a living, always on the run from the military. He sighed, staring down at the gentle soul in his arms. She didn’t deserve that. She didn’t deserve any of this.

“Done.”

Levi looked up, relief flooding through him. “Are you?” He studied Dani’s wrist. The laser had closed the wound. It was red and puffy but surprisingly healthy looking. The man waved a healing wand over it, and that improved the look of the skin again. He exhaled. “Will she be in pain when she wakes up?”

The specialist shrugged. “It’s possible. The body needs time to adapt. Her wrist will ache. The fingers could go numb off and on and could potentially swell.”

All things the pod could help her with, so it was minor in the scheme of things that could go wrong. The specialist stood and collected his instruments. He repacked his bag then opened a side pouch and removed a comp unlike anything Levi had seen before. The man pulled a chair forward and sat down. Using an odd-looking antennae, he angled the comp so it faced Dani’s wrist. He clicked a few buttons and a series of lights under her skin lit up. Levi’s eyebrows shot up. He hadn’t realized how much programming went into this.

But the stranger seemed to relax back into his chair now that he realized the system was active. He bent his head and worked his thumbs on the keyboard. The lights on Dani’s arm continue to beep and flash, then settled down to a steady pulse.

Levi looked down at his own arm. There were no lights. No beeps. But if he bought anything, there was a series of lights as the system went through its security checks. He wondered how long this would take and how much information he’d need to give to make Dani a history. She had to have a full background for the databanks to be happy.

He waited quietly for the stranger to work.

The man looked up. “Her name?”

“Dani Summerland.”

The stranger keyed it in. Without looking up, he asked for her birth date.

Doing the math quickly from the little he knew, Levi picked July 1st, 24 years earlier.

There were several other questions as to gender, which he could easily answer. Then came the harder ones. Family history. He stalled. He could give Dani’s real parents’ name. He’d seen their names in Milo’s file, but he had no dates for them. He gave up their names willingly enough and waited, hoping more wasn’t required.

“We’ll put down that the records were destroyed in the Felonia Crash, shall we?”

Relief washed through Levi. So much information had been lost in that disaster. It was the perfect answer. “That works.”

The specialist switched to a series of questions about her medical history. He, of course had no idea, but the pods hadn’t found anything major so he presumed she had none. At least as far as the database was concerned, she was incredibly healthy.

He had no idea what other information was being placed in Dani’s fake background. And he didn’t care as long as it was neutral and wouldn’t raise any flags if checked. She needed to have flaws, just not big ones.