Raphael stared at her, stunned into silence.
“Fine,” Kailynn said, walking away. Even though she was upset by the way Raphael had reacted, she was not about to let that get in her way. With Isa’s small victory of getting the medical center approved in Trid, Kailynn was ready to push harder and do something for the district where she had grown up.
Kailynn made a brief stop at Companion, getting a crazy notion in her head about a way to celebrate with Isa that night. But when she got to the Elite’s level of Anon Tower, there was no noise.
“Hello?” she called.
Since Tarah was almost always in the kitchen, Kailynn poked her head in to see both Tarah and Rayal chatting and cooking. Rayal looked up when she walked in and smiled.
“Hello.”
“Hey,” she greeted. “What are you doing?”
“Making dinner,” Tarah said with a wide smile. “The medical center got approved. That’s huge.”
“Isa must have sold it just right to Venus,” Rayal chuckled. “But that’s what she’s good at.”
“Is she home yet?”
“No, not yet,” Tarah said. “She had to work on some things, but she should be back within the hour.”
“Okay, need any help?”
“No, we’re fine,” Tarah said cheerfully. Kailynn glanced at Rayal and saw him smile at the happy tone of Tarah’s voice. Kailynn also smiled and excused herself from the kitchen, going to hide the duffel bag she had brought with her in Isa’s room.
“Seems like I taught you well,” Rayal chuckled, elbowing Tarah lightly when he saw her properly preparing the food.
“You think so?” Tarah challenged with a smile, picking up the sliced carrots and turning to put them in the pan.
“I do,” Rayal said.
Tarah glanced down at the oven and stopped.
“You forgot to preheat the oven!” she gasped, laughing.
Rayal turned around and glanced at the oven.
“You didn’t tell me to do that,” Rayal said, turning back to his task, trying to hide his guilty expression.
Tarah’s jaw dropped and she let out a broken chuckle, grabbing a rag from the counter and twisting it, snapping it so that smacked Rayal’s rear.
“Hey!” he gasped, jumping away, laughing. “Don’t touch the merchandise!”
“Why not? When that merchandise,” Tarah snapped the rag again, hitting the side of Rayal’s thigh as he tried to awkwardly hop away, his hands raised, covered with flour, “doesn’t do what he’s supposed to!”
Rayal darted forward and gently patted Tarah’s cheek, causing flour to puff up into her eyes and nose. She stopped, coughing and laughing as she tried to wipe the flour from her face.
“Sorry! Did it go up your nose?” Rayal laughed, stepping forward again. He turned sideways. “Here. Use my sleeve.”
Tarah shook her head, laughing as she sneezed. She bent down and picked up the rag, using it to wipe her face.
She glanced up at the smiling Rayal and her cheeks flushed again. She averted her eyes quickly and turned away, returning to what she had been doing.
When Isa came home, she seemed tired, but relieved. She kissed Kailynn and over dinner discussed the fundraising and where they were going to build the medical center. She explained the details, though most of it went over Kailynn’s head. Still, she watched Isa speak, enthralled by how easily the words flowed from her lips and the brightness in her eyes. She found herself smiling without meaning to.
When everyone went to bed, Kailynn took both Isa’s hands and pulled her into the bedroom.
The Elite chuckled and swooped in for a quick kiss.
“I brought us something to celebrate with,” Kailynn said.
“Oh?” Isa asked, stepping into the room and hearing the door close behind her as she shrugged off her uniform jacket. Kailynn leaned down and extracted the duffel bag from under the bed, setting it on the frame with a mischievous smile.
“Come sit down.”
Isa smiled, suspicious. Slowly, she walked forward and sat on the bed, watching Kailynn open the bag. When she got a glance inside, she stopped, blinking a few times.
“What the hell did you bring those for?” Isa laughed.
In the bag was an assortment of dildos.
Kailynn laughed, pulling one out and wiggling it.
“Honestly, I brought them on a whim.”
“I fear what your other whims make you do,” Isa teased.
“Nothing to worry about. They’re all brand new.”
“That’s hardly the issue…”
Kailynn got a mischievous look on her face.
“I’m curious about something,” she started, setting the first dildo down on the bed and picking up another, holding it upright. “How big is Remus?”
Isa’s eyes shot wide at the question, startled. Kailynn barked a triumphant laugh and pointed at the Golden Elite with the dildo.
“Ha! I broke your poker face! Finally!”
“That’s because you asked about the penis size of my closest friend!” Isa gasped, picking up the dildo on the bed and playfully smacking Kailynn’s arm with it.
“He’s also your ex-lover,” Kailynn stated, rifling through the bag again. “So you would know the information.” She grabbed a smaller dildo. “Is he about this size?”
Isa gave her an exasperated look, but did not answer.
“Or…considering how tall he is…maybe…” Kailynn rifled through the bag and pulled out the largest dildo she had. “He’s closer to this.”
Isa’s eyes widened further.
“That thing is horrifying,” she chuckled brokenly.
“So, he’s not this big…”
Isa rolled her eyes and watched Kailynn pull out the various toys she had brought. The Elite did not know what some of them were for, and she glanced over them with startled and confused eyes. As more dildos joined the three on the bed, Isa looked among the various colors and shapes, amused. She finally grabbed one, taking Kailynn’s hand and placing the dildo in her palm to stop her from pulling out more sex toys.
“There.”
Kailynn’s eyes looked at the size of the toy before her eyebrows rose.
“Oh…” she said slowly. “That’s…can’t really compete with that…”
“Believe me,” Isa said, taking the toy from the Significant, “this is no great benefit to males. In fact, it’s a hindrance, even to Elites like Remus.”
Kailynn laughed and grabbed another toy, raising it.
“But isn’t this the reason for everything?” she teased. “I thought, at one time, men ruled everything.”
“These things certainly have caused problems in the past,” Isa agreed.
“Like war?” Kailynn asked with a laugh, smacking her toy against the one Isa was holding. “It’s really just a cock-measuring contest, isn’t it?”
“It is,” Isa said, also attacking with the dildo she held in her hand, smiling. “It’s such a shame that a large army indicates a small dick.”
“Oh?” Kailynn asked, playing along with the sword fight as they stood, laughing. “Then shouldn’t your army be among the largest?”
“As it would happen, I actually have the largest dick in the system,” Isa said, poking Kailynn in the side with the dildo. The Significant yelped in surprise and tried to move away, giggling. “The difference is, I can control mine.”
The two leapt about the room in fits of laughter as they smacked the toys against one another in mock-battle. Finally, Kailynn succeeded in toppling them both to the bed. Isa chuckled, reaching under her and pulling the largest toy from under her back.
“We don’t really need these, do we?” Kailynn asked with a smile.
Isa glanced at the one in her hand.
“Well, certainly not this one,” she laughed.
Kailynn looked over Isa’s relaxed face, still finding herself enthralled in everything about the Golden Elite.
However, she was too curious to keep the words from bub
bling out of her mouth.
“Was Remus a good partner?”
Isa’s face became confused.
“How do you mean?”
Kailynn sighed, tossing the toy aside and resting her body atop Isa’s, folding her hands over Isa’s belly and resting her chin on them. Isa folded an arm under her head to look at the Significant, puzzled.
“Was he good to you?”
Isa was silent and still for two long seconds. She finally sighed and looked away, pursing her lips.
“Remus has, and always will, support me and protect me to the best of his ability.”
“That doesn’t answer the question,” Kailynn pressed.
“Why are you so interested?” Isa evaded.
“I keep hearing about how horrible things were five years ago, but no one ever tells me what happened,” Kailynn said. She could feel Isa’s body tense under her, though the Elite’s face remained stoic. “I’m not going to ask you to tell me unless you want to tell me, but I’m trying to understand how that changed you. Why it changed everything so much, including your relationship with him. I’m trying to figure things out.”
Isa sighed heavily and lifted a hand, rubbing it over Kailynn’s shoulder tenderly.
“What happened five years ago…” she started slowly, “was extremely difficult, for everyone. I was not the only one changed. Remus has never been the same, neither has Rayal. Every Elite in the Syndicate changed to some degree.” Isa closed her eyes and moved her arm back to her side, letting her head fall back to the bed. “If you want to know how it changed me…”
Isa hesitated.
“Getting the medical center approved in Trid is something I have wanted since coming to power,” she explained. “I always wanted to grant citizenship to Trids and integrate the district into the rest of the planet. For years, I fought against Venus, though she would hear nothing of it. I wanted to do so many things for this planet, and its people, but I had a very large, corrupt mess to clean up when I first came to power. Then, about six years ago, almost seven, I started to gain some ground on cleaning the planet up as I wanted.”
The Golden Elite fell silent for several long moments.
“But five years ago…when…” Isa took a deep breath, “when everything happened, I felt like I was the least powerful being in the universe. It felt like everything I was, everything I believed in…was all taken from me. I didn’t know who I was…there are many days I still don’t know.”
Kailynn heard the pain in Isa’s voice and lifted her head, shifting to crawl up the Elite’s body so that her face was even with the Elite’s.
“The hospital is approved in the Walking District,” Kailynn said quietly, trying to cheer the Elite up. “It was something you always wanted, right?”
“It was,” Isa agreed. “But I did not think I had the strength to fight for it.”
“Clearly you did,” Kailynn chuckled lightly.
Isa smiled, one hand going up to Kailynn’s face and brushing her cheek.
“I have you to thank for that.”
Kailynn could only stare at the Elite, trying to figure out how to respond. She was too shocked to think of any words. She was not sure how she felt about the words, either. It was a strange mixture of surprise, embarrassment, and happiness.
Rather than speak, she leaned in for a long, lingering kiss.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Umana had only been in service of Bronze Elite Maki for seven months. He was still in training under Tauren, Maki’s retiring caretaker, and even though he knew everything there was to know about caring for an Elite, he was still nervous whenever Elite Maki was around.
His anxiety doubled when any other Elite came to visit.
Therefore, when Tauren was out of the house running errands, and Elite Chronus showed up, Umana was a trembling mess as he opened the door.
He bowed his head deeply.
“Good morning, Elite Chronus,” he half-mumbled, his voice breaking at the end of the sentence.
“Good morning.”
Umana stared at the brown-haired, blue-eyed Elite for three, very long seconds before he remembered that he needed to step out of the way and let in the Elite.
He hurriedly stepped aside and Elite Chronus entered, the door shutting automatically behind him. Chronus turned his strong eyes onto Umana, who flinched away, trying to still his shaking.
“I’ll be right back,” he said quickly, keeping his head down and darting into the house, trying to remember where he had last seen Elite Maki.
Chronus sighed and resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
He was not sure how he always managed to make Maki’s new caretaker so nervous.
Chronus walked further in, looking around the pristine condition of the living room. Through the open door off the living room, Chronus could see the Maki’s personal NCB chair.
What confused Chronus was the severe state of disarray in Maki’s office. The chair stood untouched in the middle of the room, but around it were books and files and parts of computers scattered on the floor and desk.
Chronus stood in the doorway, looking over the mess, confused.
His office in the Syndicate Building was across from Maki’s. He could often see the other Bronze Elite working through the glass walls. Maki was notoriously neat. He did not like things to be disorganized. He had been that way in school and had carried the habit with him into his time at the Syndicate.
Seeing the other Elite’s office so disheveled alarmed Chronus.
“Looks like a bomb went off, doesn’t it?”
Chronus whirled around, startled. Maki was behind him, smiling at the other Elite’s surprise.
“You startled me.”
“Sorry about that,” Maki said with a teasing laugh. “What did you see in there that had you so focused?”
“Nothing,” Chronus said. “It’s just a mess in there.”
“I know,” Maki said with a sigh. “I’ll get to it eventually.”
The words sat uneasily with Chronus. Decades of knowing Maki would have told him that Maki should have been upset about the mess in his office.
“What brings you here today?”
Chronus reached into his pocket and pulled out a removable drive.
“I ran a few more tests on the power management program in Isa’s old NCB chair. I thought you might find some of this interesting.”
“Oh,” Maki said, taking the drive out of Chronus’ hand and walking into the office. “Let’s take a look, then.”
Chronus followed Maki into the office, his eyes passing over the piles of books and files. As he glanced around, he immediately saw the pattern. The stack on the left side of the desk was on NCB chair programming—which was not alarming, since both Maki and Chronus had been assigned to determine how Isa’s chair had been vulnerable to a Pulse Virus. In the middle of the desk was a personal terminal that had been taken apart, different parts scattered by the dismantled casing. On the left side of the desk were medical articles on Elites by Dr. Michael Busen.
On the floor next to the desk was a very tall stack with years etched on the metal casings of the files. Chronus picked up the first file, flipping the protective cover open and tapping the screen to life. Immediately, information on the previous Golden Elite, Gattriel, appeared.
“Chronus?” Maki called.
The other Elite looked up.
“Are you alright?” Maki asked, confused.
“Why do you have this?” Chronus asked, lifting the file.
“I was just curious about something.”
“And the other files?” Chronus pressed. “These are not easily accessed. Does Isa know you have these?”
“Remus knows,” Maki said, turning back to the NCB chair and plugging the drive into the correct port, tapping a display button on the back of the chair that lifted the panels on the side of the chair to make a functioning, interactive screen. “What tests did you run?”
“I ran a few more decryption scans on the codin
g for the power management. I also ran a few tests on power allotment and priority settings.”
“I thought we did that already,” Maki said, touching the icons on the screen to pull up Chronus’ test reports.
“Yes, but…” Chronus stood next to Maki, touching one of the report files, “those were on all active faces. We didn’t run it on background processes.”
“Why would we? The chair did not malfunction.”
“It had to in some way, otherwise the Pulse Virus would not have been able to get past the security codes,” Chronus disagreed.
“You think the hardware and original manufacture coding was corrupt?” Maki asked skeptically. “She had that chair for seven years. The only two that ever do maintenance on it are Isa and Remus. No one else has access.”
“I know,” Chronus said. “That’s why this,” he motioned to a part of the coding on the screen, “is so disturbing.”
Maki read over the lines of code, his eyebrows furrowing as he continued reading.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” he murmured. “Why are the outgoing transmission security codes missing? For an attack, they would need to destroy the security for incoming transmissions. That would be the only way to get a Pulse Virus to the chair.”
“That’s what I didn’t understand, either,” Chronus said. “I know you have the log on Isa’s chair. I think we need to review all outgoing transmissions from her chair and see when the codes were deleted and how they were able to get into the chair’s central processor.”
“I agree,” Maki said, turning away to search among the stacks of filed in his office. “I just don’t know how anyone could remotely access it,” he muttered. “You have to be physically at the chair to mess with this kind of stuff. Unless you’re Venus. But no one knows how to hack her.”
“Well, those who have access to the chair are pretty limited. We both know that Remus would sooner shoot himself in the head than cause Isa harm. Rayal, too,” Chronus said, looking over the lines of code, his brain trying to create explanations for the problem. “I don’t think Isa’s trying to kill herself, and Tarah would never hurt her, either.” Chronus turned to Maki. “What about the Significant?”
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