3rd World Products, Book 17

by Ed Howdershelt

Calling up a screen, I had it display a map of the building and said, “If you’ll just tell this where I need to go, I’ll get underway.”

  She eyed me oddly as she said, “If you wouldn’t mind, sir, I’m expected to deliver you both to your rooms.”

  Shrugging, I sipped my coffee and said, “Okay, but do me a small favor, will you? I’m Ed. Stop calling me ‘sir’.”

  Disa gave me a rather direct look, then nodded slightly and focused on her salad. Morely dug into what was left of his meal. I sipped my coffee again and wondered why Disa was so stiff. She had to see I wasn’t the type to need deferential treatment.

  Hm. On the other hand, maybe she’d been burned a time or two by people who’d told her to relax, then gotten snippy. Oh, well. I didn’t expect to be there long enough for it to matter.

  Morely had nearly finished. He paused to sip his drink, eyeing me over the rim of the glass, then asked, “How did… uh… the other man… he never told me his name… How did he get Lane out of that ICU without setting off all the bells and whistles?”

  Meeting his gaze, I replied, “Most likely very carefully. And that’s all I’d tell anyone else, so don’t feel slighted.”

  Ah, but I could see he did, indeed, feel slighted. Sitting a little straighter, he said, “I shared the risk, didn’t I?”

  Again calling up a screen, I watched Tea’s recording of the event in triple-time, then said, “According to this, you signed a form, then you waited outside for a ride to Guyana.” Sipping my coffee, I said, “But I won’t tell you because you flatly don’t need to know.”

  Giving me a fisheye, he archly asked, “Are you serious? Do you really think I’d tell anyone?”

  Giving him a firm, flat look, I replied, “I’m absolutely sure you would with the right pressure. Don’t push.”

  Looking irritated as hell, he yelped, “Push?! Look, I don’t consider a casual question to be…”

  Feeding him theta waves until he sagged and toppled forward, I moved his plate. Grabbing his collar to help his unconscious head meet the table gently, I said, “Disa, I’m gonna head off to bed. What’s my room number?”

  Staring at Morely, she stammered, “Uh… 3823. Turn left in the corridor. What did you do to him?”

  “Theta waves. Lots of ‘em. Thanks and goodnight, ma’am.”

  With that, I stopped feeding Morely thetas as I got up and headed for the drink counter. After topping up my coffee, I left the cafeteria. Disa and a somewhat dazed-looking Morely watched me go; her with a thoughtful expression and him with unconcealed anger.

  A few doors away I realized I didn’t have a keycard and almost turned around, then continued to my room’s door. There was no slot for a card. Linking to my core, I looked for info about the clinic and found I had only to touch the door to make it open. It had been keyed to a record of my DNA on file since I’d first received nanobots.

  I touched the door and it turned translucent. When I moved through it, the door re-opaqued behind me. I wondered what other things about the place might be field effects. Might learn something I could use.

  The bathroom wasn’t unusual and the room had light switches, undoubtedly for guests who’d be unused to discussing their lighting arrangements with a computer. Using a probe, I had a filtered look at the room and discovered most everything right down to the bare concrete walls were field constructs. Kewl.

  After another sip of coffee, I took a shower, brushed my teeth, and hit the sack. Sleep came quickly.

  Waking, however, seemed to take its sweet time. I realized why; I had no place to go, nothing to do, and coffee without having to get up to make some. I ran a warm tendril through my almost-full mug of overnight coffee and sat sipping. Check the news? Later. Email and messages, though. I’d use them to focus a bit.

  There were a few overnight book orders. Twenty spams. Two fan mails. After all that, I checked the news anyway, specifically the news from Dallas, for the so-called ‘public’ view of Lane’s departure.

  Details about Lane’s disappearance were sparse, indeed. One article questioned the actual severity of Lane’s wounds. It seemed to imply Lane had somehow gotten out of bed and walked out of the hospital on his own. It also ignored the fact that no hospital ward or hall cameras had seen him do it.

  Another article speculated he’d been ‘spirited away in the night’ by persons unknown and the doctor who’d signed the release form. Well, at least nobody had made the release form disappear.

  I didn’t bother with videos. None of the news bits contained what I was looking for, which was any official statement that a crime had actually been committed. That didn’t really mean much other than that someone had realized the significance of the release form.

  A quick scan of police and federal databases produced no arrest warrants for Doc Morely. That, too, meant nothing, really. One could quickly be issued. Best of all, there was no mention of me. That didn’t mean they didn’t suspect me, it just meant they had no evidence.

  Sending a ping to Marie, I had time to sip twice before she answered with, “Hi. I thought it best to step outside and I’m not using a screen. Are you okay?”

  “Yup. Just fine, but I think it best to keep a distance for now.”

  She chuckled, “Oh, definitely. Yes, indeed. Some people are very upset right now.” With another chuckle, she added, “Others, not so much. Several are downright happy, in fact.”

  “Glad to hear it. I heard from one of them last night. She seemed to know the situation pretty well.”

  “She does. I was there when he called her. She cut him off at one point and told him to hold the rest, then came here in person to discuss matters during a visit to a range. I was also there when a number of people called him late last night, and I think it might be a while before we can continue our date.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I figured, too. Anything official yet?”

  “Not as of last night, but I haven’t been up there this morning. Hold one, someone’s coming.”

  I waited until she said, “All clear. Need me to do anything?”

  “Thanks, but I can’t think of anything I can’t do from here.”

  “Well, the offer stands. Keep me posted. I’m scheduled for something, so I guess I’ll see you when I see you. Bye for now.”

  “Okay. And thanks for the offer. Bye.”

  Sipping coffee, I reviewed the conversation. It had been pretty straightforward. No special stress to any words, no veiled warnings. The news screen’s ‘incoming message’ icon flashed and I tapped it, then tapped off the screen’s video.

  Disa said, “Good morning, Ed. I… she paused, then asked, “Your screen is off?”

  “I haven’t primped yet, ma’am. Might scare you. What’s up?”

  “I’m calling to invite you to breakfast.”

  “With or without Doc Morely?”

  “Without. He’s attending an orientation.”

  I link-checked the time. Almost ten.

  “Sounds good, ma’am. Give me fifteen minutes or so. I’ll meet you in the mess hall.”

  “The… oh. The cafeteria. Yes, that would be fine. Goodbye, then.”

  She dropped the link before I could say goodbye. I sipped again, sighed, and stood up. After the usual morning motions, I made a coffee for the road, grabbed my pack, and headed for the mess hall.

  My day brightened considerably when I saw Disa. She smiled and waved and her hair cascaded over her shoulders like a golden waterfall. She wore a sleeveless sun dress that would probably have been a few inches below mid-thigh if she’d been standing. Sitting with her left leg over her right, the skirt had pulled up a bit and showed a considerable amount of lightly tanned and well-formed thigh.

  I grabbed a tray and pointed at the chow line and she nodded. When I arrived at the table, she smiled and said, “You look more like your ID photo than you did the first time you arrived.”

  “A good night’s sleep does wonders, ma’am.”

  She chuckled, “Apparently so,” and sh
owed me what she’d been reading on her pad; a news article about Lane’s mysterious departure from the hospital.

  Grinning, I asked, “How soon will Lane be functional again?”

  “Milla said he could probably return to duty in a week or so.”

  “Maybe he could, but very likely won’t. He’ll be the center of lots of attention for a while. Why’d you want to see me?”

  She chuckled, “When I saw you on the flitter last night, I thought I’d somehow been misinformed. I had my pad ID you and it said you were using a holographic overlay. When I told Milla, she cautioned me that you were probably acting covertly.” Glancing around, she added in a confidential tone, “I found that both interesting and even a bit exciting, I’ll confess.”

  Pausing in forking up a bit of meat, I said, “Don’t toy with me, milady. You’re every man’s dream girl. I might get the wrong idea about the nature of your interest.”

  Reaching for one of my french fries, she nibbled the end of it and pretended thoughtfulness, then shook her head.

  “No, I don’t think you’d get the wrong idea. In fact, from the way your eyes locked onto my legs when you walked in here, I think you’ve already had exactly the right idea.”

  Well, damn. Just like that? Really? I tried to keep a lid on my surge of eagerness and had my core scan her. It found she used no form of birth control, but also found her reproductive system returning to normal from having been controlled by a PFM. That meant she’d had it off at least since last night.

  Reaching for her hand, I raised it to my face and sniffed it, then lightly touched my tongue to the back of her wrist. Disa’s eyebrows went up, but she didn’t fight the inspection.

  Pretending to savor the flavor of her, I sat gazing at her for a moment, then said, “No PFM? Wow! You taste delicious, ma’am!”

  Her bemused gaze became a confused stare and she almost blurted, “You can’t have known… That’s impossible!”

  I shrugged. “Okay. Sure. Impossible. Doesn’t matter. I know I’m right.” With a sigh, I added, “You know, a long time ago, that element of risk made things more exciting in a rather dire fashion.”

  “What ‘element of risk’?”

  “Before I had a vasectomy. It took the worry out of being close.”

  With a wry expression, Disa said, “Ed, I’m not ‘worried’ because I know about both your vasectomy and your PFM implants. In fact, I’ve done a great deal of reading about you. I also asked Milla’s opinion of you. She seems to think very highly of you.”

  “I think very highly of her, too. As I understand things, she wasn’t created or assigned to be a robodoc; she requested the job.”

  That seemed to be news to Disa. She said, “I’ll ask her sometime. Returning to you; are we in accord?”

  I chuckled, “Disa, I’ve been ‘in accord’ since you said I had exactly the right idea. I’m so ‘in accord’ I’ll probably have to carry my backpack in front of me for a while.”

  Grinning and nibbling her lower lip, Disa chuckled, then laughed, “Just thinking about me that way had that effect on you?”

  “Oh, hell, yes. You have to know you’re gorgeous. And your accent’s like icing on the cake. I can’t imagine why you’d want to pounce on an antique like me, but I’m definitely not going to question this gift from the gods.”

  She’d been fidgeting and was now actually wriggling a bit. I realized one of her legs was waggling up and down under the table. Nervous energy. Amazing. This young goddess was actually excited about the prospect of bedding me. What did she see that I didn’t?

  As we talked, I hurried my meal a bit, then stood to take my tray to the bus bin. When I turned around, Disa was also on her feet, putting her pad in a big shoulder purse. She shot me a grin as I approached, then walked out of the mess hall with an arm through one of mine.

  I asked, “Um… where are we going, ma’am?”

  Glancing up, she said, “Your room, of course. It’s closer.”

  Of course? Well, sure. Okay. It’s closer. Makes total sense. But the overall situation still didn’t. Counting arrival and dinner, I’d only known her for about an hour altogether. True, she was used to having a PFM and all the immunities that come with one, but… Was I just being somewhat old fashioned? Looking at her, I decided I probably was, and that it just didn’t matter a damn.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Inside my room, Disa set her big purse on the little desk opposite the bed, leaned on the desk as she toed off her shoes, and turned around. With a happy grin, she gathered the hem of her dress in both hands and pulled it up and off like an oversized t-shirt.

  Under it she wore nothing, and I saw she had what appeared to be a natural tan with no tan lines. That was a tip of sorts. If she was enough of a libertine to run around naked outdoors somewhere, it was likely she had her own ideas about propriety in general.

  I found I’d been right about her legs. The rest of her, as well. She filled her skin just about perfectly, which to me means not Hollywood scrawny and not overly padded in odd places. She was toned and trim without the overt muscularity of a hard core gym rat.

  Disa canted her head and chuckled, “Well? Your turn.”

  Moving to unbutton my shirt, I said, “Ah. Yes. I was distracted, ma’am. Very distracted. Do you realize you’re absolutely perfect?”

  She snickered, “I do make an effort.”

  Her fidgeting began again. She nibbled her lower lip. Nervous about something? Or just eager to get on with it? She moved closer as I unbuckled my pants and let them drop, then stepped out of them. As soon as my feet were clear of them, Disa was in my arms and kissing me as she rubbed her belly against my upright staff.

  After some moments she went to one knee for a closer look at it and spent some time fondling and tasting it, then she kept a grip on it as she moved to the bed. On all fours in front of me, she moved to the center of the bed and waited, still grinning at me.

  Okay. Moving into position, I felt a bit deprived that I hadn’t had some time to explore her a bit and taste her in return. She was wet and ready when the head of my dick found her. With very little resistance, I slid completely into her and savored the moment.

  For some reason, it only then occurred to me that she’d need to be somewhere to meet Morely soon. I’d completely forgotten about that, but it explained her hurry to get our encounter underway.

  She groaned softly, “Ohhh, that feels gooood. Just leave it there for now. All the way in.”

  I obliged her, running my hands over her marvelous flanks and thighs and up her back. Goosebumps rose on the backs of her arms when I trailed my nails over them. She giggled, let out a surprised little “Oh!” at the way that felt inside, and then giggled again.

  “Now,” she said, “It’s time to move. Make me feeeel what you’re doing to me.”

  Posting into her, I corrected, “For you, ma’am.”

  Lowering her head to the sheet, she nodded sideways and grunted, “Uh, huh. Yeah. Okay.” One of her hands slipped between her legs and now and then I felt her fingernails bump me.

  She directed my efforts. Faster, slower, harder, more gently. I cooperated fully and marveled at Disa’s ability to let go and revel in what was happening within her.

  A low moan began and her left hand reached back to cup me as she gasped, “I’m ready! Are you close?! Can you do it now?!”

  The intensity of her demand triggered me, of course. The tingling began in my heels and raced upward. My dick grew just a bit longer and stiffer in preparation, and Disa let out a soft keening as she froze in place. I pounded into her another few strokes, then rammed myself fully into her and gushed.

  Disa’s keening seemed to shatter into a deep, animalistic groan and her hands flashed back to grab the backs of my thighs. She held me tight against her for some moments as her belly heaved in soft, grunting groans. When her hands fell to the bed, she slowly dragged them forward and pushed herself up on her elbows.

  From there, Disa simply rolled ont
o her back and lay panting gently. I stretched out next to her and her hand gropingly found mine, then twined our fingers.

  Watching her magnificent body work to calm itself, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude and moved enough to kiss her damp and tangy shoulder. Disa smiled and managed to turn her head far enough that I was able to kiss her lips.

  Relaxing to breathe some more, she sighed, “I wish we could stay like this for a while, but I have to get ready to meet Dr. Morely.”

  “Figured that was why you were in such a hurry.”

  She grinned and chuckled, “That was only part of it.” Turning her head to smile at me, she added, “As you must have noticed.”

  Taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, Disa placed a hand between her legs to contain matters, sat upright and swung her legs off the bed, and then stood up. She gracefully reached to snag her purse with a couple of fingers, then headed for the bathroom.

  Hm. I was something of a mess, too. Easing to the edge of the bed, I reached for my jeans and fished one of my paper towel hankies out of a back pocket. Disa flushed the toilet and started the shower as I was about to mop up a bit, and I had a thought.

  Steam roiled out of the bathroom alcove. Sending tendrils in there to gather water into a field globe, I suspended the globe a few inches above my head. From my backpack I retrieved a small bar of soap. Forming a field catch basin on the floor, I stepped into it. Warming the water in the globe, I made the globe shower me gently to keep the water more or less on me and in the basin.

  And, of course, Disa was one of those people who can shower in less time than I can describe making my own field shower. She stepped out of the bathroom, saw me all soapy, and froze.

  I said, “Hi, there. Just a minute,” and quickly rinsed.

  Disa continued drying herself, walking back into the bathroom and returning with her purse and a fresh towel. She handed me the towel as she went to the desk. Putting her arms through the dress, she let it fall into place around herself, then looked at me.

  “Your shower was interesting,” she said, “And I have questions, but I don’t have time for them right now.” Stepping forward to grab my dick and kiss me, she added, “Never fear, you’ll hear all of them later. Let’s meet in the cafeteria at six o’clock.” Kissing me again and giving my dick a little squeeze and a stroke, she murmured, “Unless, of course, you have other plans?”