Cade snapped awake Sunday morning for no good reason that he could imagine.
The phone wasn't ringing, nobody was knocking on his door, and the TV was off.
He sat up and glanced around the room and saw no Mandi, but her luggage was
still by the desk. His travel alarm clock -- set not to go off at all -- read
almost eight o'clock on the nose. Hm. What the hell had wakened him?
Feeling ravenously hungry, Cade visited the bathroom and drank several
glasses of water to fill the void. That took the edge off his hunger as he
cleaned up and dressed, then headed for the restaurant for breakfast.
As he left his room, he saw Ray Lewis enter the ops room across the hall and
headed that way to see about some wake-up coffee and a general situation report.
Tony answered the ops door and let him in, and as Cade entered the room, he saw
Beth by the coffee pot.
Beth looked up from stirring her cup and saw him. She paled slightly and bit
her lip. Aw, hell. Was she having morning-after recriminations or was she just
worried that he'd say something about last night?
With a smile, Cade said, "Leave me some of that stuff, lady," as he
approached. He snagged a cup and filled it, then tossed in a few small ice cubes
from the nearby ice bucket.
To the room as a whole, he asked, "Anybody seen Mandi?"
Tony said that she'd gone to breakfast with John.
"Breakfast," said Cade, taking a donut from the tray by the coffee pot,
"Yeah. My next stop." Turning to Beth, he asked, "You had breakfast yet? If you
aren't on duty this morning, we can snag a free paper at the luggage check-in
and read the funnies over pancakes."
Beth seemed to consider the offer, then said, "Sure. I haven't eaten yet,
either. Give me a minute to check my messages," and headed for her desk.
Cade parked his rump on the corner of somebody's desk and sipped his coffee
as he snarfed another donut and waited for her. Beth's hands were trembling a
little, he noted. Well, he'd reassure her that he wouldn't tell anyone. That was
about all he could do, really.
When she stood up again, Beth made a production of searching her purse and
the top of her desk, then went to Cade and said, "I need to get something from
my room on the way," before she led the way to the door.
Cade topped off his coffee and snagged another couple of donuts before
following her. Both donuts and the coffee were gone before he caught up with her
a few doors down the corridor. He used his jeans to dust the sugar off his hand
and followed her into her room.
As soon as the door had closed, Beth spun to face him and asked in an angry
tone, "What the hell did you tell Mandi about last night? About us?"
Shrugging, Cade said, "Nothing. She was already in bed when I got back to
the room. She was gone when I woke up this morning. We haven't talked at all
since just before I gave you that 9mm ammo last night."
Obviously not convinced, Beth said, "When she came into the ops room a while
ago, she had to wait for John. She chose to do her waiting by my desk, Ed."
With a chuckle, he said, "Well gee, ma'am, that does sound pretty ominous.
You were probably the only other woman in the room, Beth, and..."
"She just sat there and stared at me," Beth interrupted, "Just sat there and
stared at me for about five full seconds before she gave me one of those fakey
smiles and said 'Good morning, Beth. Did you sleep well?'"
Again shrugging, Cade said, "I didn't tell her a damned thing, Beth. I swear
it."
As she again studied his face for signs of perjury, Cade asked, "Um... and
did you? Sleep well, I mean?"
Beth's eyes narrowed to gunsight slits. She growlingly snapped, "Yes, as a
matter of fact, I did."
Grinning, Cade asked, "Was it because you were dead tired or because you had
a great time?" As she opened her mouth to respond in what looked like a snappy
manner, Cade raised a finger and prompted, "Honest answer only, please."
Smoldering a bit, Beth sighed and answered in a rather grudging tone, "Yes.
I had a good time, Ed. Is that what you want to hear?"
"Of course that's what I want to hear. Don't you think I was busting my ass
to please you last night? You sure seemed to think so at the time, ma'am,
especially when I..."
"Never mind when," snapped Beth. "Yes, dammit, I had a good time. A great
time, in fact. Now, what about Mandi?"
"What about her? She's got no right or reason to say anything about who I
play with. Or who you play with. Are you sure you're not just having some
morning-after regrets, Beth? Is that what this is all about? Or are you worried
I'll brag around the office?"
"No! I mean... No. No regrets. And you said you wouldn't say anything,
right?" She stepped forward until she was almost nose-to-nose with Cade and
repeated insistently, "Right?"
Cade took Beth in his arms and said, "Beth, I promise. Not a word to anyone.
And I haven't said anything to Mandi or anyone else," and then he kissed her.
Beth stiffened for a moment, then gradually responded to his kiss. Cade used
a finger to sweep a few wisps of her hair out of her face, then let the finger
continue down behind her ear and along the line of her throat to her exposed
shoulder.
Leaning slightly, he kissed her shoulder and trailed his lips up Beth's
throat to her jaw, then kissed his way back to her lips as he again held her
close.
When the kiss ended, he said softly, "You aren't on duty this morning. Let's
go back to bed. Breakfast can wait. In fact, you can be my breakfast. Would you
like that, ma'am?"
Beth's lips were slightly swollen, her face and shoulders were turning
pinkish, and her pulse was pounding slightly. She looked almost ready to say
'yes', but still a bit hesitant.
"Beth," he said, "This job ends today. It could be a long time before we get
a chance to play again. I really want another taste of you before you go. Do you
know that feeling?"
She nodded slowly before she softly replied, "Yes. I know that feeling."
Kissing her again, Cade asked, "Well? Are you going to let me please you at
least once more before you escape? Like last night? Can the pancakes maybe wait
a little while?"
Snickering softly, Beth smilingly nodded and said, "Yeah. The pancakes can
wait," and pulled him into a kiss.
After the third time Cade had helped Beth climb her personal mountain to its
summit, she lay limp and winded on the bed for some moments, then she drowsily
asked Cade to get her a glass of water. He kissed lips, then her breast, and
then her thigh as he slid past her off the bed and stood up.
Saluting her, he said, "Yes, ma'am. One water coming up," and headed for the
bathroom, where he quickly drank several glasses himself before taking hers to
her.
Beth seemed barely awake enough to drink half the water, then she handed him
the glass and let her arm fall to the bed as she sighed deeply.
"I'm gonna take a nap," she said, almost slurring the words. "You?"
Cade's stomach rumbled at him, prompting him to say, "Can't. I'm starving.
How about I come back in an hour or so? Think you'll be up to another round by
then?"
Giggling softly, Beth nodded and said, "Sure. Maybe by then. Take my
keycard. If I'm asleep when you get back, just get into bed and snuggle up."
Leaning to kiss her, Cade said, "A lady with a plan. I like that. Yes'm.
I'll climb in and snuggle."
Beth giggled again, pulled the covers up, and mumbled, "I feel so
incredibly, absolutely used..."
"Excellent," said Cade, putting his pants on, "That's exactly what I was
shooting for, milady."
Laughing softly, Beth adjusted her pillow and said, "It felt like you were
shooting me. From the inside. We have these rooms all day, Ed. I have to catch a
nine o'clock flight, so hurry back. We aren't through yet."
"I'll bring you something from the restaurant."
Nodding, she said, "Thanks. Doesn't matter what it is. God, I haven't felt
like this in ages..."
He kissed her again and trailed his fingers down her blanketed form to her
knees, picked up the keycard, and buttoned his shirt on the way to the door.
Cade stepped out of Beth's room feeling as if he hadn't eaten in days.
Instead of waiting for an elevator, he took the stairs down two flights and
entered the con suite to see what was on the buffet.
The black guy who seemed to be in charge of the con suite every year saw him
coming and waved from behind a serving table as he picked up a large aluminum
tray that still held half a dozen sliced sandwiches.
"Hi, guy!" said Cade. "Still wearing red, huh? Don't you know that's an
unlucky color in Starfleet?"
"No sweat. Ever notice how they never send the cooks on away teams? Crucial
bridge personnel, medics, scientists, security types, and even family members
and practically any-damned-body else who wants to go, but never the cooks."
Grinningly shaking his hand, Cade said, "Good point, indeed. Seems to me,
though, that anybody that valuable oughta be wearing gold and have the keys to
the ship."
The guy laughed, "Damned right, but it'll never happen."
Cade reached for a sandwich, but the guy moved the tray away and said, "Nah,
these have been out there all morning, man. They're stale as hell. I'm supposed
to pull them."
"Got any more behind the bar?"
"Not yet. In an hour or so it'll be time to set out the lunch snackies,
though. Can you hold on that long?"
"No," Cade said firmly, reaching for the tray again and getting a grip on
it. "Stale is fine; I'm starving. I'll bring you the tray in a few minutes. It
won't leave this room."
Sounding a bit like Jim Carey, the guy raised his hands clear and said,
"Well, all righty, then."
"Fanks," Cade said around some ham and cheese.
"No problem. I thought they fed you guys. Or paid you enough to afford food,
anyway."
Swallowing the last of the first sandwich, Cade said, "Special
circumstances," and started on the next sandwich.
Someone reaching for potato chips nudged his arm and the tray tilted
sharply. Cade righted it quickly enough to keep the sandwiches aboard, but there
was a loud 'wunk' sort of noise and the black guy's eyes got big as he looked at
the tray.
Cade's gaze followed his and he thought, 'Oh, shit,' as he saw that his
thumb had heavily dented the edge the heavy aluminum tray, squashing the ridge
around it flat and warping the metal for several inches.
"Um. Sorry," said Cade.
He stacked the remaining sandwiches on a napkin and turned the tray over to
push the damaged area flat, then handed the tray across the table, gathered up
the sandwiches, and said, "Sorry. Really," and turned to go.
"Hey," said the black guy, "Wait."
Turning to face him, Cade indicated the tray and asked, "Would ten bucks
cover it?"
"I buy 'em used. Seven would do it, but that's not..." He waited until
another table-grazer moved away and continued, "How'd you do that? I ran over
one of these trays with my truck once and didn't much more than scratch it a
little."
Setting the sandwiches down, Cade fished ten bucks out of his money clip,
laid it on the tray, and said, "I've had a real workout this morning. That's why
I'm so hungry. Thanks again," and headed for the door with the sandwiches,
detouring to the drink dispenser for a cup of Dr Pepper.
One of the sandwiches disappeared on the way back to the stairwell. The rest
vanished only in a few minutes as Cade sat on the third floor landing and
considered what he'd just done to the heavy aluminum tray with his thumb.
Damn. Mandi hadn't been exaggerating at all. He considered his time with
Beth and shuddered. One wrong move... one unrealizing squeeze while he'd been...
Oh, hell.
He'd been wrong when he'd said to Mandi that he expected to be dangerous to
women in a week or so. But she hadn't corrected his estimate. Because they'd
been arguing, or because she'd figured about the same amount of time?
Was he ahead of schedule or something? Reaching for the bent-pipe safety
railing of the stairs, he squeezed. At first nothing happened, so he squeezed a
little harder. The tubing crumpled in his hand.
Staring at the damaged pipework, Cade knew he couldn't continue with Beth.
He'd been extremely lucky not to have hurt her this morning, no damned doubt
about that.
Then it struck him that he hadn't mashed any of the sandwiches and he
remembered Mandi having mentioned the same phenomenon the night before. She'd
said, 'You didn't squash your burger, did you?' Or something like that.
Maybe he could continue with Beth. If he was very gentle, very careful...
Wait one. He was describing all but a very few moments of their time together
the night before. And this morning had been one long, easygoing, session. No
hard riding at all, except when she'd been on top.
"That's it," he softly said aloud to himself. "Slow and easy unless she's on
top. That ought to work."
He'd been so preoccupied that he hadn't noticed Mandi's presence descending
between the stairwells until his last thought had essentially seemed to solve
his dilemma.
As he sipped the last of his Dr Pepper, she floated to a stop directly
behind him and cleared her throat with a grin, obviously expecting Cade to jump
out of his skin.
Cade drained the cup and said, "Hi, Mandi," without so much as a flinch.
Annoyed as hell that she hadn't startled him and determined not to let him
see her failure, Mandi concealed her irritation as she flitted upward enough to
clear the handrail, then settled to the steps just below the landing so they'd
be more or less eye-to-eye.
Glancing around, she asked, "Is there some reason you're sitting in the
stairwell?"
He pointed to the crumbs on the napkin and said, "I've just been having a
private snack before I head down to breakfast. Care to join me?"
"I've already eaten, but I guess I could stand another coffee." Grinning,
she asked, "What was that 'slow and easy unless she's on top' all about, Ed?"
Stuffing the napkin into the paper cup, Cade stood up and walked downstairs
past her as he said, "Just a kind of safety lecture about dealing with
unconverted women."
Turning to follow him, she asked, "'Dealing' with them, huh? Sounds to me as
if you plan to be doing more than 'dealing' with them. Anyone in particular?"
"Could be. I know some unconverted women. Wouldn't know them very long if I
let myself get clumsy with them."
Chuckling, Mandi said, "Likely so, but in a few days it will be better if
you don't play with them at all."
Glancing back at her, Cade asked, "Why's that?"
Raising an eyebrow at him, Mandi grinningly said, "Think about it. A normal
man can squirt about how far? Three feet? Once you're fully converted, you'd
kill your unconverted lady."
Cade stopped on the stairs and looked at her. Mandi's face was -- 'dead'
serious, you could say -- and she made sense.
To confirm, Cade asked, "You're saying that a week from now, you'll be my
only sexual option?"
Mandi's face turned glowering. "Should I slap the hell out of you now, or
let you explain what you really meant?"
Shaking his head, Cade said, "Sorry. Poor choice of words. But you know what
I mean. No unconverted women, right?"
Not terribly mollified, Mandi answered, "Right."
After a moment, Cade asked, "How many converted women are there at present?"
"Two."
"And where are they?"
"Las Vegas. One's a cop. The other runs her own business."
"And there's another woman like you on Earth?"
"Yes. In California."
Some moments passed before Cade said, "Nope. I don't buy it," and continued
down the stairs to the lobby.
In a sharp tone, Mandi called after him, "Just what exactly don't you buy,
Cade?"
Stopping again, Cade said, "In all this time on Earth, you've only converted
two women? She's converted no women? That's what I don't buy, Mandi. It may be
true, but I don't believe it at this very moment. Later."
With that, he opened the lobby door and left the stairwell. Cade wanted to
eat and haul his ass back up to Beth's room for what might be his last sexual
romp for a long time, the way things seemed to be going.
In fact, he did believe what she'd said about soon being too dangerous for
unconverted women. But he didn't for a moment believe that a woman who admitted
converting two other women would have any hesitations about converting more if
they qualified and were needed.
Mandi had tapped the President for money and a place to train people and
she'd felt it necessary and justified to convert him without asking how he felt
about it, so there was a definite need for convertees. It was as simple as that.
She'd need them in both genders, too, if she were training enough of them to
justify requesting a place to train them. The sense of total alienation would be
too much for many of the convertees, otherwise.
Nope. Either there already were more or there would be more convertees
reasonably soon, and about half of them would be female unless Mandi planned to
spend a great deal of her time servicing all her male convertees herself.
Choosing a booth, Cade told the waiter to bring him one of the lunch
specials. As the waiter left, Mandi came to stand by the booth.
"Mind if I join you?"
"Have a seat. Want me to call the waiter back?"
Shaking her head as she sat down, Mandi said, "No. I'll order a coffee or
something when he comes back."
For long moments, the two of them simply matched gazes across the table,
then Mandi said, "There are only two in Vegas. There are a few others elsewhere
around the country."
When Cade said nothing, Mandi asked, "Since you didn't ask about male
convertees, I'll..."
"I don't give a rat's ass about the men," he interrupted, "I want to know
about the women. Got any in Florida?"
"No. Georgia. They work with the Center for Disease Control and other
agencies. In fact, they've been working with another NIA branch this weekend. As
backups, you could say, in case more happened than I could handle at once. One
of them was even in the look-alike contest."
Sipping his water, Cade said, "Fascinating. Did you convert any of them
without asking first?"
With a sigh, Mandi said, "NO, and you said 'done is done', as I recall. I'm
sorry and that's all I can say. I thought someone your age would be..."
That rankled Cade a bit. "'Someone my age?' Would be what? That someone any
other age wouldn't be, that is."
Gazing hard at him across the table, Mandi said, "I'd very much appreciate
it if you wouldn't interrupt me when I'm speaking, Ed. I thought you'd be
considerably happier about being chosen for conversion."
"That's your word for it. 'Near-total alienation' is what I'm calling it for
the moment."
The waiter buzzed up to the table and asked Mandi what she'd like. She
ordered a coffee and the waiter told Cade that his lunch would arrive shortly,
then he buzzed away again.
Mandi sat back and said, "You crushed that steel rail in the stairwell. If
that's an indication of your progress, you'll be able to stop a tank round with
your bare hands in a week. You'll be bulletproof and no Earthly disease will be
able to touch you. You'll be stronger and faster than you can possibly imagine
and you may develop some of my other powers to a degree."
Pausing, Mandi sipped the water the waiter had brought her and added, "And
there's one more little thing. Our cells replicate, but they don't degenerate
with every copy. Do you understand what that means?"
"Sure. It means I may have time enough to write another few thousand books."
"You don't seem very impressed with virtual immortality."
"Of course I am. I'm just not letting it overshadow the fact that you're
forming teams, which means that something more than you can handle alone is
headed this way, and if it's bigger than you, it'll be able to squash a
convertee in a heartbeat."