Kingston 691: Book Two of Cyborgs: Mankind Redefined (16 page)

“Well, hail to the Goddess for the best compliment I’ve heard in years. Now I truly need a drink. Lead the way to the bar, good sir,” Seetha mock demanded, motioning in the bar’s direction.

A grinning Franco strolled alongside her and deposited her on the same stool she had used before. Only this time, her dress inched up a smidgen past the decent zone when she climbed on her perch. She tugged at the hem, but finally gave up and tucked her legs sideways for discretion.

Greg, King’s attractive bartender, greeted her, and offered her the same drink she’d enjoyed before. She smiled and answered in the affirmative, but asked for some snacks to soak up some of it. She wasn’t going to let herself get inebriated again.

“Pardon me. Is the stool next to you available, Ms. Harrington?”

Seetha turned and saw the man she’d met the night before. “Hello, Dan Masterson. King’s still straight I’m afraid. I’m sure you probably figured that out by our floor show last evening.”

She heard him laughing as he climbed up on the stool. “Yes, I did. Damn my luck…” he said dramatically.

The bartender brought her drink and some pretzels lightly coated in a green salt. She picked one up and bit, shocked to find it spicy and hot, instead of just salty. She gulped her drink, downing half of it to put out the fire.

“Water please,” she called loudly, smiling at the bartender who put a glass in front of her almost instantly. She downed the water and sighed. “I should have known. King loves his damn wasabi.”

“Sounds like you know him well…
oh right
. You were married to him once.”

Seetha nodded. “Yes…I was. But he doesn’t remember me.” Appalled at what she’d just revealed to someone still mostly a stranger, Seetha chastised herself internally and popped another blazing hot, wasabi-coated pretzel in her mouth to shut herself up.

“His loss,” Dan said firmly. “I don’t know how he could have forgotten you.”

Seetha shrugged, shook her head, and sipped more water as she thought of a plausible lie.

“King had a relapse from a head injury he got during his military service. After he recovered from it, his memories of our relationship were gone—forgotten like an amnesia victim’s. It was one of the reasons we didn’t last the first time around. I guess we’re shooting for a do-over. Ever have one of those, Mr. Masterson?”

By the time she’d finished spilling her guts, she was nearly sweating.

Dan nodded and sipped his own drink. “Do-over? Oh yes. Many times. None have taken.”

When the heat finally receded from her throat, Seetha breathed deeply. “Wow, those pretzels make me a little afraid of the food. How often did you say you come in here?”

Dan looked around and shrugged. “Nearly every night in the last few weeks. I’m working on a project. The atmosphere of this place helps me figure things out…and the food is amazing.”

Seetha sighed and shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I didn’t stick around long enough to eat anything last evening.”

“
Oh?
Well, that’s a shame. It’s always amazing. Tonight the special is a protein stir fry served with a mixed salad. It sounds like something off a fast food menu somewhere, but it’s probably one of the best things coming out of the kitchen. I feel like
a king
after I’ve eaten it.”

“High praise indeed,” Seetha declared, remembering quite well the dish Dan Masterson was describing. “His grandmother owned a diner. He worked there when he was a child and she was the one who taught him to cook. She died from the Mageda Plague during one of his summers with her. It was a wonder King didn’t get it too.”

“Nasty stuff. Worse than cancer. Now we know all that pollution from the twentieth really did a number on our food and water sources. Such irresponsibility would be severely punished these days.”

Seetha lifted her drink and sipped. “My mother is a Conservation Campaigner. I grew up being careful with resources. I think for my generation and beyond, genuinely conserving resources is just a normal way of life.”

Dan’s arrogant look swung to meet her defensive one. She didn’t like people insulting her family, even through stereotypes.

“Your family remains one of the wealthiest in this urban area, Ms. Harrington. Money can buy decadence. It seems like the natural order for it to do so.”

“My parents never used their wealth to harm a single person, or this planet. My brother is a conservation engineer. His wife works on improving solar power harnessing. My sister and her family volunteer at local recycling events. At least our branch of the family holds such things dear. I can’t speak for everyone named Harrington.”

Dan squirmed in his chair. “Now I’ve offended you. I’m terribly sorry. How did we ever get to talking about such a gloomy subject?”

Seetha started to say she wasn’t sure why they were talking at all, but politeness stilled her tongue. She decided to make him squirm for a while. “So Mr. Masterson…
Dan
…did my background check out when you ran me for the Norton job?”

“Oh, yes. You’re clear to start your job on Monday. Your email about it should arrive shortly. I’d also like to say I’m sorry for what you endured at the work camp. I know it’s indiscreet of me to mention it directly to you after merely reading your personnel file…but seeing you now…no one would ever believe you were there. You seem to have survived the trauma quite well.”

She heard Dan laugh at his own statement, his gaze on his drink now and not her. Even having scored a shot back to him, Seetha narrowed her own gaze. Her inner alarms went off louder than ever. She was going to have to ask Kyra Winters about Dan Masterson’s role at Norton. The man put her on guard.

“Working there will be a bit ironic since it was Norton’s database error that put me in the camp in the first place. I look at this job as their way of making things up to me. They’ll get their money’s worth though…until I find something better. I’m a damn good engineer.”

Dan swallowed a big gulp and winced. “Your record shows it. No one could blame you for wanting to get even with Norton for their mix-up.”

Seetha snorted and turned back to her drink. “There is no getting even—that’s not possible. No one can ever give me those years back. I lost over a hundred pounds while in the camp. I was forced to work and tortured when I didn’t. I didn’t even have clothes to fit or decent shoes. I barely had living quarters and a way to clean myself. It was like being a prisoner of war and that’s how I will always think of it.”

“Well, lucky for you, your ex decided to break you out. I read he and his old military group are doing that for cyborgs too. It’s like their hobby now. They run businesses, have families, and in their spare time, they steal cyborgs.”

“
Rescue
,” Seetha corrected, irritated at his verb choice. “They
rescue
cyborgs from their enslavement.”

“Of course,” Dan said, frowning at his now empty glass. “Sorry for my phrasing. I think the drinks have gone to my head tonight.”

Seetha shrugged, unwilling to let him know how he unnerved her. “At least Norton seems to be doing the right things by the cyborgs these days. It makes me believe I can work for them. Calibrating cybernetic enhancements isn’t my dream job, but it will do until I find something better.”

Franco appeared at her elbow and ushered Dan to his table. Seetha sighed in relief to be rid of his company. A short while later, her second drink magically appeared and her water glass got refilled. Mere seconds after, King slid a plate of stir fry in front of her.

“Hi. You look amazing tonight. There are no tables, so you’ll have to eat at the bar. Are you doing okay? I can sneak away in about an hour. Franco said he would close. Quit smiling at my bartender before I have to fire him.”

“Perfect,” Seetha said breathlessly, as King leaned into her and brushed her lips. “And I wasn’t flirting with your bartender. I was begging for mercy and trying to survive your wasabi pretzels.”

“Greg has plain ones available too, but you have to ask for them.”

“Now you tell me,” she said.

She watched King wink before tearing off through the restaurant without bothering to say goodbye. A sigh escaped her as she turned back and put a fork into her food. Two bites later and she’d confirmed the dish was just as good as it had always been back when he’d made it only for her.

***

“Why did you buy such a small airjet? I can barely get in and out of it. How the hell do you do it?”

King laughed. “It’s takes some finagling. I admit I enjoyed seeing you struggle to keep those sexy legs together on the ride here.”

“I am not buying that as the reason you didn’t spring for something big enough to fit you,” she said, finally getting free of the passenger seat. Her dignity had been gone the moment she’d folded herself into a vehicle space meant for someone half her height. “And just so you know…I’m taking a pod cab home. This tiny thing is not meant for a tall woman like me.”

King pushed his body free of the driver’s seat, grateful the garage wall didn’t sustain any damage when he hit it pretty hard on exiting. Seetha stared at him in disbelief, and then bent forward laughing.

“It’s not that funny. This model got the highest rating of any economy airjet. I’m saving a ton of money using it to get around.”

“You are at least six feet seven or eight. This airjet is sized for someone under six feet tall. Those extra inches you’re packing around have no place to go.”

King laughed and stared. “Well, that’s why I brought someone like you home. So those inches would have some place to go that fit.”

Seetha snickered at his dirty joke. “Goddess save me…you’re a cheap ass, and you think I’m going to be cheap too. Boy, are you going to be surprised.”

King grinned as he walked to her. “Cheap—no. As desperate as I am—yes. When was the last time you had sex…with another person?”

Laughter died as she turned away. “I don’t think I want to tell you.”

“Okay, I’ll go first. I did the research. It was with you…just before you returned me. You cried afterward and sent me back the next day. My time with Annalise was like a mother taking care of an invalid son. I haven’t dated…or been with a woman…since my restoration. This really wasn’t too hard to figure out.”

Seetha shook her head. “You just aren’t going to let me keep any pride, are you?”

King pulled her into his arms. “Did anyone take advantage of you in the camp?”

She shook her head against his shoulder and tried not to think about how good he smelled, even if it was like food. It was a familiar thing to smell aftershave, King, and whatever they’d had for dinner. He’d done most of the cooking.

“No one took advantage, not that I ever consciously knew anyway. They fed me prepackaged food bars for every meal. If one had been tainted with knock-out drugs, I think I would have figured it out. The AI’s had no reason to assault me and William barely remembered I was there from day to day. Honestly, I worried more about being killed than sexually assaulted.”

King nodded. “I’m both relieved and appalled. The more I’m around you, the more I hate thinking of you there for so long. I still want to destroy something every time the subject comes up in one of our conversations.”

Seetha sighed and pulled out of his arms. “You’re like a stranger
and
like the man I knew—both at the same time. Who are you, Kingston West? Who are you really? I can see now I never really knew.”

King shook his head. “I don’t know. No cyborg knows. I can tell you the ambient temperature of the air around us. I can instantly calculate the area of this storage without needing tools to do it. I can lift this airjet and throw it through the wall if I get motivated. But I don’t know what to tell people about the how confused I always feel. I am aware that I am both man and machine. The best I can do most days is set the confusion aside and focus on the restaurant.”

Seetha stepped back into him and lifted a hand to his face. “Vulnerability doesn’t take a damn thing away from you…that’s what shifted things between us before. You rushed away from me one day to rescue a chained up dog who was tangled on its leash. When you came back, you said you used to have a dog when you were a child. I realized then you weren’t just Kingston 691. I instantly regretted every moment I had spent thinking of you as something less than a person who was just as real as I was. I think I fell in love with you that very moment. Afterward everything between us changed. I fought Norton about your upgrades because I didn’t want you to forget the things you’d started remembering about your past.”

“I remember them again now. I did have a dog as a child. His name was Merlin. He was a pound rescue. He died of old age just before my parents were killed. I was away at college when my mother called crying over his death. I remember skipping class and sitting in a stairwell to bawl like a six year old. Dogs just don’t last long…not compared to humans anyway. No life I’ve had since then has been the kind where having a pet made any sense.”

“Now you can have one if you want. Having an animal is a small luxury every person should have a chance to enjoy.”

King chuckled at her sincerity. “The restaurant takes a lot of my time. I’d end up hiring a dog caretaker for him. No—I think I’ll wait until I have time to devote to the animal personally.”

Seetha nodded. “Guess you’re right. I wouldn’t want anyone raising my pet either.”

“Come on,” King said. “We’re being sad tonight and that was not my intention. Let’s go inside and get comfortable. I want to slide my hands up your legs and find out what you have on under that skimpy dress. I’m excited to do what all those other men spent the night dreaming about doing.”

“You mean all three of them?” Seetha teased.

“You’re being modest,” King said.

“Not really. And you can’t count Dan Masterson. He’s way more interested in you than me. Every conversation I’ve had with the man comes back around to you. He’s one step short of being a stalker.”

Ignoring her comments about the man who had gotten to chat with her two nights in a row, King took her hand. “I find you easy to be around, entertaining to talk with, and sexy to look at. This…
us
…it just seems like it should be. That’s why I brought you home with me. I hope I can talk you into staying.”