Time Lost

by C. B. Lewis

  There were a dozen evidence packs. Most of them, Kit could identify at once. Tom had his signature techniques, and once you’d watched him work up close, it was difficult to forget them. A couple were trickier, but when he cautiously opened them up, Kit could recognize Tom’s handiwork on the inside.

  With each packet, the panic receded.

  Jacob was watching him as he opened each sample out and examined it. He stopped paying attention to the older man, putting all his focus on the objects. They were his domain after all, and the ones he hadn’t seen before were brand-new designs.

  There was something exciting about laying hands on a new piece of tech, enough to make his heart race, and sometimes, when it was something really special, he would get a head rush that made him weak at the knees. He’d ended up hiding a hard-on the first time he saw the temporal gate.

  The metal, the wires, the fragile and the solid pieces all molded together. They passed through his hands one by one, some cool to the touch, some warm, most familiar.

  “Yup. Another of his,” he said, setting another back in the packet. “That one’s a transceiver, or it will be when it’s finished.”

  Jacob nodded. He was holding the last packet in his hand. “This one, we’re very puzzled by.”

  Kit held out his hand demandingly and opened up the packet. There was a small object in it, an orb, and he tipped it out into his hand. It was off-white with wires emerging from one side, and when he turned it around with his fingertip, he almost yelled in shock. “An eye?”

  “Apparently.”

  Kit looked at Jacob. The man’s expression showed nothing. He had his arms folded, and Kit realized this was why he was really here. The police were suspicious about this thing and wanted him to look at it, but didn’t want him to realize how significant it was.

  “Where did you find it?”

  “At the scene,” Jacob replied. “We need to know if Sanders designed it.”

  “This?” Kit shook his head, carefully turning the eyeball over. He picked up the magnifier, focusing the light on the pupil. It contracted and he whistled softly under his breath. An automated focusing lens reacting to light like a pupil would. The movement was slow, as if it was running low on power, but still functional.

  It was an incredible piece of work. The material of the cover had the same tension and elasticity of an eyeball. The iris was an intricate array of data receptors. Kit sank down to sit on one of the stools, looking more closely. Inside, he could make out the processing filters, so tiny and delicate he wanted to cry at the beauty of it.

  “Is it one of Sanders’s pieces?” Jacob prompted several minutes later.

  “No.” Kit turned it over to examine the wiring. If it were attached to the optic nerve with delicate enough connections, it would be able to provide better images than a natural eye. “Tom never went for biological stuff. Too messy.” He traced the tip of one of the wires. “Have you downloaded the data from the memory yet?”

  Jacob’s breath hissed between his teeth. “What?”

  Kit looked up. “The data? There’s a memory chip inside it. Not any kind I’ve ever seen before, but they all work in a similar way.” He turned the eye beneath the magnifier, peering in at it. “It’s smaller as well….”

  Jacob was suddenly by his side, so close Kit could smell his aftershave. “Show me.”

  Kit tilted the magnifier over the pupil, turning the eye away from the light to let the pupil dilate. “There,” he said. “That gold gleam just at the left side. Do you see it?”

  Jacob’s hand pressed low on Kit’s back, broad and warm. “I could kiss you.” He was so close, Kit could feel every breath against his ear. It sent a pleasant twist in his belly.

  He should have kept his eyes on the business at hand.

  Instead, he made the biggest, stupidest mistake he could have, and turned to look at Jacob.

  Jacob’s face was so close to his, and all it would take was half an inch and their lips would be flush. They stared at each other and Jacob exhaled, a short, nearly silent gasp of air.

  Kit darted his tongue along his lower lip.

  “Camera.” Jacob’s voice was hoarse and regretful.

  Kit leaned back at once, which didn’t really help since it pushed him back against Jacob’s hand. He swallowed hard. “Anywhere without a camera?”

  Jacob’s breath hitched. “Yes.”

  Silently, Kit slipped the eye back into the packet. He stripped off the gloves as he rose, and Jacob strode out ahead of him. Kit’s heart was racing, and Jesus, what a prime idiot he was being, in a police station with a police officer. He felt light-headed and he hoped to Christ his jeans didn’t look like they were struggling.

  There was a small meeting room, three doors down.

  Jacob swiped it open. “In,” he growled, and the rumble of his voice made a shudder run all the way down to Kit’s toes.

  Kit almost tripped over his own feet in his haste, and before the door was even completely closed, he had Jacob pressed up against the wall beside it, his mouth crushing against the older man’s. Jacob’s fist was in his hair, and he swallowed a groan, his hips pressing demandingly against Jacob’s.

  Jacob tasted of coffee and sugar, and Kit couldn’t keep from sliding his tongue along every inch of Jacob’s mouth. One hand wrapped into Jacob’s tie, the other squeezing at his hip, and he bit down on Jacob’s lower lip.

  Jacob jerked back, panting. “Shit.”

  Kit knew that feeling. “Seconded.”

  They were staring at each other again, too long, too intent, and Jacob was the one to pull Kit’s mouth back to his. It was urgent and hungry and Jesus… they were in a police station full of people, and he was in little more than a cupboard, making out with the detective in charge of the investigation like they were a pair of teenagers.

  They could be caught at any moment.

  They could be caught at any moment, and the thought of it, the risk, sent a spike of heat right through to Kit’s groin.

  He twisted his hand into Jacob’s tie and pressed his hips forward.

  “Need to take care of that,” he panted. “People’ll notice.”

  He was amazed the heat in Jacob’s eyes didn’t singe him on the spot. “Back up,” Jacob growled. “Desk.”

  Kit glanced back and nodded with a grin. It took three steps—never relinquishing his grip on Jacob’s tie—to hit the edge of the desk with the back of his thighs. He raised his eyebrows in challenge and tugged downward on the tie.

  To his shock and delight, Jacob went to his knees. His hands were on Kit’s thighs, pushing his knees apart, and then those big, firm hands were undoing his belt. Kit had to brace his other hand on the desk to keep himself from slipping.

  This couldn’t be happening. Not here. Not in a police station. Not with the scarier official version of Jacob.

  The button of his jeans was popped open, his fly slid down. Jacob looked up at him with that dimpled smile and a flash of his white teeth, and then his mouth wrapped around Kit’s cock, and Kit had to bite on his lip to keep from yelling.

  There were footfalls in the hall and voices outside the room. Kit whined low in his throat, tugging urgently on Jacob’s tie. He moved his other hand, shuddering, to cup the back of Jacob’s head, urging him to hurry, to take him deeper, to move just that… oh God, that way. His tongue was curling just right, his cheeks hollowing, and Kit was panting at the ceiling, his feet scudding against the polished floor.

  Laughter in the hall. Someone right outside the door. Detective Inspector on his knees in front of him.

  Kit jerked his hand up from Jacob’s hair to bite down on his knuckles as his hips jerked against Jacob’s mouth and he came so hard his legs shook under him. Jacob held his hips hard and sucked and licked and made sure not a drop fell to show what they had been doing.

  When Jacob sank back on his heels, breathing hard, his lips swollen, he didn’t look up at Kit right away. His hands dropped to his thighs, clenching into fists.
/>   It took Kit a moment to gather his wits and tug on Jacob’s tie, his breathing coming too hard to ask anything.

  Jacob looked up at him like a kicked puppy on a leash. He rose so suddenly that his tie was pulled free from Kit’s grip, and he ran a shaking hand over his mouth, as if it could hide the evidence of what he had just done. “Shit.”

  That was never a good reaction. Kit stared at him, heart sinking. He reached down and tucked himself back into his jeans. “Not my usual response.”

  Jacob didn’t look at him. He passed his hand over his eyes, exhaled. “We have work we need to do,” he said abruptly. “This was a mistake.”

  Kit did up the last button on his jeans. “Just what every man wants to hear.” He straightened up from the table without looking at Jacob. “Let’s get back to work.”

  “Kit….”

  For a moment, Kit could almost believe Jacob sounded regretful, but he was right. It was a mistake. A bloody good mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. He pulled on his best smile and met Jacob’s eyes. “You’re right. It was a mistake. Forget it.”

  Jacob looked at him, then jerked his head toward the door. “Come on.”

  Silently, Kit fell into step behind him.

  Chapter 15

  THEY WERE back in the main lab, and had been for nearly half an hour.

  Jacob could still taste Kit on his tongue.

  Kit was acting as if nothing had happened, which was the best idea in the situation. His face was still flushed, but otherwise, no one would be any the wiser.

  It was outright stupidity and recklessness that got them in that room. It was the same idiocy that got him on the balcony, stark naked, the night before. It was the potential break in the case and the look in Kit’s eyes, the challenge, pushing Jacob to push back. It was feeling the buzz of adrenaline and excitement and lust for the first time in almost four years.

  He sipped his coffee. It was covering the taste, but didn’t change the fact his throat was feeling pleasantly abused from an overeager blowjob.

  “Well, I’ll be….” Temple murmured. “Look at that!”

  They’d broken open the eye, and Tisha Glenn, one of the technical team, was carefully removing the memory chip from its settings. It was tiny, barely the size of a grain of rice, and so fragile that Tisha was using tweezers.

  “You know how to connect to that?” Jacob asked as she placed it carefully on the magnifying slide. “Do we have anything that small?”

  “There’s hardware for these kind of chips,” Tisha murmured, watching the screen as she carefully turned the chip over. “I’ve never seen anything quite this intricate before. It may be a special model.”

  On one of the stools, Kit leaned forward. He had only been permitted to stay due to his part in locating the chip. “That looks like it could be a variant of the Arcon data chips.”

  Tisha glanced at him. “You think? Do they do them this small?”

  “Could be they’re developing them.” He shrugged. “It’s a similar shape to some of their more recent models. It would definitely be sturdy enough.”

  “Arcon?” Jacob inquired.

  “They do a lot of work in advanced robotics and engineering,” Kit replied without turning or glancing at him. His voice was terser than it had been, and the back of his neck was still red. “They push for smaller memory units, so more space can be used on power and motion.”

  “You work with them?”

  Kit shook his head. “Not as much as I would like. I’m less about robotics.”

  “I don’t think this is one of theirs,” Tisha said. “Unless their tech has advanced by at least ten years.”

  Jacob was standing right behind Kit. He saw the color on the younger man’s neck vanish. It was as if all the blood had drained away from him.

  “What did you say?”

  Tisha peered back at him, through the magnifying lenses. “That their tech is too advanced?”

  “Oh.” Kit leaned forward, staring at the chip. His face was reflected on the magnifying screen. “Where did you say this eye came from?”

  Jacob hadn’t, but Temple helpfully replied, “From Mr. Sanders’s assailant.”

  Kit sat back on the stool. He looked gray in the face. “That’s a man’s functioning eye?”

  “It’s been slowing down since it was disconnected from the body, but yes,” Temple said. “Why?”

  Kit looked awful. Jacob caught him by the shoulder. “You okay?”

  “I feel a bit sick,” Kit said, staring at the screen. Jacob didn’t blame him for that. He remembered the empty eye socket and the wires all too well. “You didn’t tell me where it came from.”

  “I didn’t think it was necessary.”

  Kit put a hand to his mouth as if he was going to be sick. “It’s amazing how often I’ve been hearing that lately,” he said, a note of bitterness in his voice. “How long until you can download any data?”

  “Could be five minutes, could be five days,” Tisha replied. “All depends on the software and format.”

  They all sat in silence, watching Tisha work. A secondary screen illuminated on the wall, and she placed the chip onto the hardware under the magnifier. Jacob wasn’t one for working with technology, but he knew enough to recognize the way she was lining up the chip with the receiver.

  Kit made a small, awed sound.

  “Wow….” Tisha leaned closer to the screen.

  “Wow good? Wow useful?” Jacob prompted. “What are we looking at here?”

  “Hell if I know,” Tisha breathed. “Look at that coding.”

  “Tisha,” Jacob said impatiently, “for those of us who don’t speak computer?”

  She glanced up at him. “This is way more advanced than anything I’ve ever used, boss. I expected it to be simple. Data storage this size normally is.” She nodded to the screen. “This isn’t just data storage. It’s coded. Could be one of the controllers to the eye.”

  “It looks like it has audio and video looping,” Kit said. He sounded breathless, almost like he did when someone had their mouth on his dick.

  “Audio looping? In an eyeball?” Tisha peered at the screen and scrolled through screeds of coding. “Oh. Oh, yeah. There.” She shook her head in disbelief. “If someone is making these, do you have any idea how many people this will help?”

  “Not the subject at hand,” Jacob said tersely. “Tish, is there anything here we can use to identify Mr. Smith?”

  “If there’s audio and video, we should be able to get a glimpse of the last things Smith saw and heard.” She frowned, looking at the code. “It’s pretty complex, though. If we put in an incorrect function, we could wipe everything.”

  “Let me try?” Kit said. He turned to look up at Jacob. “I work with coding. I can crack this.”

  Jacob glanced at Tisha. “What do you think of your chances, Tish?”

  “Not good,” she admitted. “He saw the audio when I didn’t. He’s probably the better bet.”

  Jacob hesitated. It was the one piece of evidence they had. It was true they could probably call in experts from Arcon, but that would take time, and there was no guarantee it was one of their chips. Sanders had been missing for over a week already. Time was of the essence.

  “Be as careful as you can,” he cautioned. “If you can open anything, do it. We need to see what’s there, if anything.”

  Kit nodded. He was pale, but he slid into Tisha’s seat, a look of determination on his face.

  When his hands started moving on the illuminated keypad, it was a blur of motion. Jacob had seen people typing fast, but this was something else. The codes on the screen were changing and shifting rapidly. Kit was staring at it, the pale glow from the projection casting his face shades of green and blue.

  Tisha looked impressed.

  “What’s he doing?” Jacob murmured to her, not wanting to distract Kit.

  She pointed at a row of code that looked like it was unraveling. “There are security protocols to manage the data,” she w
hispered. “He’s basically unlocking the safe so we can see what’s inside.”

  “He’s good?”

  Tisha didn’t even look away from the screen as she nodded. “God, yes. I don’t know how he’s seeing the patterns so fast.”

  They watched as the screeds of codes moved and changed. Kit’s full attention was on it, his lips parted and his breathing coming harder.

  Jacob had seen that look on Kit’s face before: it was the expression he was wearing as he stared at the projection of Sanders’s whiteboard in the office last week. Maybe he hadn’t cracked the code then, but he must have been giving it a try.

  Seconds turned into minutes, minutes into an hour, and Kit’s hands were still moving.

  “Maybe he should take a break,” Jacob said, frowning. Temple had already headed back into the main office to do some work, but Tisha was still sitting at Kit’s side, watching with fascination.

  “Not yet,” she said. “He’s almost….”

  The screeds of letters and codes winked out.

  They were replaced with a row of images. Kit touched one of them at random. It expanded into a video of a room, a large one. The walls were metal. Industrial, maybe? Jacob leaned closer, looking for some hint of where it was. No windows. No defining features. Standard warehouse design, really.

  The owner of the eye turned. There was someone there in front of him, a glimpse of a face before John Smith looked down at the other person’s hand, shook it, and from the movement of his head, nodded. No audio yet.

  “Looks like someone sent him,” he murmured.

  John Smith turned around, and Jacob half expected to see a vehicle or the open doorway of the building, but instead, there was only an empty doorframe. It was heavy, metal, but before Jacob could look closer, it blazed with light, brilliant enough that John Smith held up his hand to shield his eyes.

  “What the hell…?” Jacob growled.

  “Oh God….” Kit whispered. He was frantically typing.

  John Smith moved forward, toward the light, and just as suddenly as it had appeared, the light was gone, and instead of a warehouse or a factory, or anything that looked like an industrial estate, there was a glimpse of a field.