Montgomery was there in his twin guise, lounging against the counter and looking like a wolf on the hunt. He looked, if anything, even more dapper and sexy than usual.
Maybe Lilia was just glad to see him.
Her heart certainly was. It skipped and cavorted at the very sight of him. Montgomery smiled and beckoned as if he'd just spied exactly what, or whom, he wanted.
Lilia could relate to that.
There was at least one norm behind the counter, so Lilia shuffled toward Montgomery, trying to look dull. It was a challenge, given that she felt so alive in his proximity.
"You're late," he said when she reached his side. He pulled her close, as if not expecting an answer, and kissed her leisurely. Lilia hung onto his shoulders and surrendered to sensation.
It was all too easy to forget that they had other things to do.
When he lifted his head, he had the same look of intent as he had had that morning. "Are you ready for your lesson?" he asked, his words low and silky.
The proprietor chuckled. "Keep it clean, would you? I've got a license to protect."
"It's your mind that's in the gutter," Montgomery said, as if affronted. "I'm teaching her to read."
"Right." The proprietor rolled his eyes. "I don't want to know the details."
Lilia glanced between them, keeping her expression blank.
Montgomery opened his hand and there was a datachip on his palm. He spoke slowly, as if she might not comprehend his words. "This is the daily download. The news. Do you know what that is?"
Lilia nodded, playing her dumbest dumb bunny for the audience at hand. The shades were disinterested in whatever games she and Montgomery were playing, but she didn't trust the norm behind the counter. The eyes of the Republic were everywhere.
The proprietor watched, glowering, as he washed cups.
Montgomery held Lilia close against his side as he guided her to a public reader. She doubted it was a coincidence that it was the very end one, located in the darkest corner of the beverage bar and the farthest one from the proprietor.
Montgomery sat down at the reader and pulled her onto his lap, keeping one hand locked around her waist. She could feel the strength of his thighs beneath her, and his reevlar codpiece pressing into her buttocks. She wriggled and Montgomery caught his breath. "Easy," he muttered and she smiled at him.
The proprietor would see Montgomery's cloaked shoulders and a whole lot of frilly petticoats. Even the display would be blocked by the two of them. Montgomery furthered the illusion of his seduction by locking his hands around her waist. She arched her back, wanting more.
Montgomery chuckled against her neck. "Behave," he counseled.
"Behaving is no fun," she whispered.
"I thought you were being demure."
"I don't think I have a talent for it."
"You can say that again," he teased. "How about we try for innocent?"
She met his gaze, understanding that he was casting her own words back at her. His gaze was steady, his eyes that vivid green. "I'm not sure I want to be amateur again," she murmured.
He didn't blink. "I'm not sure we make the choice."
Lilia's heart pounded at his implication. She studied him, knowing it would be very easy to fall for Montgomery. Maybe too easy. Dangerous.
But it was a tempting proposition all the same.
He leaned closer, watching her carefully, then kissed her. It was a teasing kiss, one intended to persuade her. His tenderness, the hint of his own vulnerability, nearly undid her.
She dared to imagine a future with Montgomery.
She liked that fantasy a lot.
Montgomery broke their kiss and she watched him catch his breath. She wasn't the only one affected.
He smiled at her and arched a brow. "Time for the business at hand," he murmured and cupped her breast in his hand. He caressed her through her clothing, bolstering the illusion that she was no more than an instrument of pleasure.
She probably shouldn't have enjoyed it as much as she did. There was something exciting and forbidden about being fondled in a public place. When Montgomery reached under her skirts, she wondered how far he would take things.
To her disappointment, his hand went into his own boot.
He did caress the inside of her left knee en route, though.
"Tease," she whispered and his grin flashed. He retrieved a thin film from a receptacle hidden in his boot, then spread it on the daily download datachip. "What's that?"
"It's a scrambler, a film that degrades when exposed to air," Montgomery breathed the words in her ear, disguising what he did by kissing her. Lilia shivered. "It also messes with the central databanks." He pushed the download chip into the port, then nuzzled her neck provocatively. "Start reading."
Lilia scrolled through the news, pretending it was much harder for her to read than it was. Montgomery certainly complicated the matter, distracting her with his touch as he did. "Maximilian Blackstone's presidential campaign received a boost yesterday, although not from his own efforts," she read carefully and slowly. "The president announced a new treaty neg, neg-—"
"Negotiated," Montgomery supplied, his hand easing beneath her skirts. The smooth faux leather of his glove eased over her bare thighs and Lilia had a hard time concentrating on the news. "You shouldn't," she murmured.
"We have to keep up appearances," he insisted, his fingertip on the top of her thigh. Lilia caught her breath and kept reading.
"Negotiated with China on his official visit there, but the agreement fell far short of expectations in the Republic." She caught her breath as Montgomery's fingertip caressed her most tender spot. He smiled against her throat. Lilia swallowed and read on. "Blackstone's polled popularity rose 10 percent yesterday alone, even as the president began his return journey to New D.C."
Lilia noticed that the download had opened another window on the screen, one that usually wasn't there.
"Where's your datachip?" Montgomery asked in an undertone. "We don't have a lot of time."
"It's in my corset," Lilia confessed. "I'm thinking maybe you should get it" She spared him a challenging glance and saw his eyes brighten. "Left cup near the middle."
She should have known that he'd leave her gasping when he removed it. He unfastened the back of her dress in record time, his exploring hand sliding up the front between corset and bodice. Lilia read the news with increasing difficulty as Montgomery caressed her nipple, slipping his finger and thumb between the corset's cup and her flesh. He had the chip, passed it to his other hand, pushed it into the ancillary port, and continued to stroke her skin.
"You are frightening," she breathed and he chuckled.
"Experience," he teased. Montgomery fastened the back of her dress again, his fingers making quick work of the fastenings.
A spreadsheet abruptly displayed in the extra window, distracting them both.
"It must be Gid's research results."
"Keep reading," Montgomery advised and Lilia read aloud the details of the new treaty.
Meanwhile, she studied Gid's spreadsheet. It documented the population of shades in both raw numbers and as a percentage of the total population of the Republic, every year for the past seventy years. Gid had starred the data from the first decade as being incomplete.
"So what?" Montgomery murmured.
It did look innocuous. "We're missing something." Lilia had never been good at interpreting statistics without Gid telling her the answer.
Which presumably was what he was trying to do.
Montgomery scrolled up and down, and they both sought patterns or significance. The numbers of shades increased dramatically after each major emission of radiation. Gid had separated the most recent fifty years regionally and all the familiar hits were there. D.C., Houston, Mexico City, Seattle, Gotham.
"Big spike after Gotham," Montgomery said.
"No surprise," Lilia whispered. "Really dense population there at the time of the hit."
"Then the num
bers drop after each big hit."
"It's a cycle: radiation has the greatest effect on babies who are in utero when the mother is exposed. Mutations peak about five months after the detonation. After that, defects diminish at a steady rate until they reach normal levels."
"Or until five months after the next hit."
"Pretty much."
"So this isn't news."
"But maybe the quantification is." Lilia knew she wasn't the only one who failed to see Gid's point.
"Someone palm-raped you to get this," Montgomery muttered, his frustration clear.
"And Gid anticipated that." Lilia glanced over her shoulder as someone entered the beverage bar.
It was the shade from the front desk of the hotel. They weren't anywhere near the hotel, which meant that Lilia had heard a footfall on the stairs.
The shade had followed her.
"What's the matter?" Montgomery asked.
"That's the shade from the hotel. She followed me."
Lilia pushed to her feet. "I need to find out who she's working for."
Lilia got up, but must have looked somewhat adversarial.
The shade took one look at her and ran.
To Montgomery's dismay, Lilia bolted after the shade from the hotel. He retrieved both datachips in a hurry, shrugging at the proprietor's knowing smirk.
"They keep them on electronic leashes, just because of wolves like you," the proprietor shouted, but Montgomery wasn't listening.
He was running after Lilia.
Again.
That fog was sliding through the netherzones, making him shiver when it touched his boots. Montgomery ignored it and ran after Lilia.
The shade went down one walkway and turned abruptly down another. Lilia chased her, yelling, for all the good that did. They navigated alleys and broad thoroughfares. The fog got thicker and deeper, more silvery and sinister. Montgomery didn't like it one bit. The shade dumped trash cans behind herself, leapt over open grates by swinging from the pipes overhead, disappeared into the steam of local power generation.
Lilia followed suit, Montgomery right behind her. Lilia pulled her laze, but Montgomery shouted at her to put it away.
She grudgingly did what she was told.
He doubted that would last.
The shade knew the labyrinth, Montgomery realized quickly. She was fast, agile, and evasive. He suspected he would hear later that the shade had an unfair asset in her flat shoes.
But maybe Lilia was more motivated. She slowly gained on the shade. The two were maybe fifty paces ahead of him when Montgomery saw the shade's hair slip from her braid.
Lilia pounced. She grabbed the shade's hair and wrapped the length of it around her hand, hauling her to a stop. The shade screamed, then spun to fight, kicking at Lilia like a wild dog. The fog was waist deep in this corner, swirling about Lilia and the shade like a tornado.
As if it would pull them under.
But fog didn't do stuff like that.
Lilia had the shade against the wall in record time. "Why are you following me?" she demanded as Montgomery drew closer. "Who are you working for?"
The shade glanced around herself, panting, then whispered.
Lilia shook her head and leaned closer as the shade whispered again. "Maybe she has a voice box mutation." Lilia muttered and bent her head even closer.
Montgomery was still half a dozen steps away when the shade lunged for Lilia and bit her ear.
Lilia shouted, then loosed her grip for a precious second. That was all the shade needed to wriggle free, as lithe as a fish. Montgomery bolted after the shade, but she squirmed through a space too small for him to follow.
And disappeared from sight. The fog closed after her, disguising her figure as surely as if she'd planned it that way.
Lilia swore eloquently as she came to a halt behind him. She exhaled with frustration as the fog wound sinuously around them. "Zero for two, Montgomery. You're screwing with my legendary good luck."
"You shouldn't have just run after her. It's dangerous."
"I'm used to solving things alone."
"We're supposed to be working together, Lil." Montgomery was irritated and didn't care if she knew it "Maybe I was wrong when I thought we'd make a great team."
"Maybe you weren't." Lilia smiled at him and things didn't seem so bad after all. "Sorry. I've never worked with a partner I could trust."
"Well, maybe that should change."
"Maybe it is." Her smile broadened and her eyes lit and he could have spent the day staring at her. The fog cosseted them, closing them off from the world in their own little cocoon. It was chilly though, its touch slithery.
Montgomery shivered. "This fog is so strange."
"I feel as if it's following me," Lilia agreed. She flicked a hand at it, but it didn't disperse. "Do you get it a lot here?"
"I've never seen it before. It's unnatural."
Lilia shuddered and looked at the fog with revulsion. "It touches like a date with fast hands. I don't like it."
He stared at her for a moment, surprised at the accuracy of her summary. "Let me see that ear," he said then, and wiped the blood from her lobe. She leaned her forehead against his shoulder and he felt her shiver. His arms closed around her protectively. "You could take fewer chances, Lil."
"I have to solve the puzzle. Why is that data so important?" She frowned, then looked up at him. "We're in New Gotham. Gid died in Gotham. Maybe that's where we can find the key."
"You're not going back into Gotham without a better plan than that."
"No. Not yet anyway." His palm chimed and she glanced up at him. "You're late for work." The bruise on her cheek was becoming more purple with every moment.
"Is it too much to ask you to try to stay out of trouble?"
That impish grin wreaked havoc with his pulse. "Probably. I'll try, just for you."
Montgomery didn't believe it. "I'll try to get the security vid from the hotel, and find out who came to your room." Gratitude lit her eyes and sent heat through his veins. "Don't go back to the hotel. That's where they'll be looking for you."
"Whoever 'they' are." Lilia shrugged. "I'm not going to run and hide, Montgomery, not until I figure out who killed Gid."
As much as he admired her determination, it terrified him. "It's risky ..."
"Life is risky. If I'm not going to take any chances, I might as well be dead." She reached up and touched her lips to his before he or could argue, sending a blaze of desire to his toes. He closed his arms around her, ignoring the pervasive fog, remembering the heat of her locked around him.
And a man laughed in close proximity.
Montgomery broke their kiss and pulled his laze. Lilia had pulled hers as well and they stood back to back, staring into the fog. "Who's there?" Montgomery called and the laugh came again.
Louder.
Darker.
"Just like in the old city," Lilia muttered. At Montgomery's inquiring glance, she continued. "I heard this laugh in my helm when I found the dead shade."
"In your helm?"
She nodded.
"No wonder you were spooked," he said. "There are no stray frequencies in the old city."
"That's what I thought."
Montgomery surveyed the area around them as the fog withdrew slightly. There was no evading the sense that it was sentient, and evil. "Lil, you need to be careful," he began, knowing that he was wasting his breath.
Lilia smiled at him and her eyes were dancing with that vitality he found so intriguing. "You know, Montgomery, my mother would like you just fine." She put one hand on his chest and leaned closer to whisper. "Funny thing is that I kind of like you myself."
She'd never change, and he was glad of it. Montgomery abandoned the argument and kissed Lilia as thoroughly as she deserved.
But not nearly as thoroughly as he wanted to.
His palm, after all, was chiming an imperative.
From The Republican Record July 16, 2069
Officials
without Leads in Horrendous Attacks on Gotham
New GOTHAM—This morning, in the daily press update, the head of Republican Security admitted that they are no closer to naming the culprits responsible for the attacks on Gotham just five days ago.
Lucas O'Shaunessy, appointed Chief of Republic Security just three months ago, acknowledged the possibility that the mastermind behind the coordinated attack might never be known. "It's not unlikely that he or she participated in these suicide attacks. If nothing else, the majority of people who do know who planned this assault are dead, which makes investigation difficult."
It has been determined that no less than fifty synchronized assaults were launched more or less simultaneously upon Gotham on the morning of July 11.
At this time, it is known that the assault began at approximately 9:05 a.m. when suicide bombers exploded nearly thirty dirty atomic bombs in central Gotham's public transit system, spreading radiation and chaos throughout the city at the peak of morning rush hour. Dirty bombs are conventional explosive devices surrounded by radioactive material, and are small enough to be carried in backpacks or briefcases. Officials now speculate that these bombs, even given their number and the damage they caused, were only a diversion. It is unclear how many citizens were killed by this phase of the assault.
Almost simultaneous to the detonation of the dirty bombs, it appears that atomic bombs were detonated on Gotham's streets. Although mushroom clouds were observed, as well as fireballs and a subsequent surge in radiation emanating from the city, it is unclear precisely how many devices were detonated or what method of delivery was used. They were not dropped from aircraft, as Gotham remains a no-fly zone and no aircraft were observed overhead. According to a representative from the Society of Nuclear Darwinists, the radiation levels recorded indicates that the cumulative blast was in the vicinity of forty kilotons, or roughly equivalent to three times that released upon Hiroshima in 1945. The Society representative also said that there were differences in the pattern of the blast, which indicates that the devices were detonated on the ground. He refused to speculate upon survival rates within the city.
Additionally, sixteen small aircraft targeted nuclear reactors in New Jersey and Pennsylvania between 9:00 a.m. and 9:15 a.m. Although two planes were shot down within the restricted air space over each reactor, the others succeeded in crashing into their targets by 9:30 a.m. The damaged reactors include four at the Susquehanna nuclear facility, one at Hope Creek, two at Oyster Creek, and three at Limerick, Pennsylvania. Radioactive material has been confirmed to be leaking into the atmosphere, although the Republic has yet to release an accounting of the extent of the damage sustained or the current status of the reactor cores. Journalists have not been allowed into the controlled access space surrounding any of the reactors, but all residents are being evacuated from a potential fallout plume stretching from Philadelphia to Hartford.
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