3rd World Products, Book 16

by Ed Howdershelt

  Goggling at me, Tanya yelped, “You’re damned right I do! Don’t you realize what we’re up against here?! The whole goddamned US government!”

  “Hah. Hardly. Just a few elements of it, and I have a feeling they’re after the same thing we are; eventual repeal of the Amaran medical field bans.”

  “But you don’t know that, do you? Not for absolutely sure. They could be looking for some examples to hang as a warning to others. In other words, us.”

  Shrugging, I said, “Moot point, ma’am. Capture works for either side, so the case would have to be air-tight. Both sides would love to catch us in the act and get this part of the election year game underway. Tell me something, milady; are you aware you were carefully issued the clues that guided you to contact me?”

  Tanya froze in mid-sip and stared at me as she slowly set the juice pack on the table. By her expression I could almost see the gears turning in her head in a fairly obvious effort to refute my statement.

  Shaking her head slightly, she softly said, “No.”

  “Think, ma’am. Will and Connie might have dropped by to validate Marie’s accident, but they had no good reason at all to tell you a damned thing about your mom’s spooky past. They definitely had no reason to mention me or anyone else of that era by name or even use their own real names during their visit. In fact, when I’ve investigated a few other deaths, I’ve been required to use fake credentials as a claim investigator. What made you special? That you were the daughter of an old team member? Uh-uh. Nope. Daughter or not, you wouldn’t qualify to hear details about the Leipzig op under normal rules and procedures. Someone saw an opportunity to create a fuss and make it look like someone else’s idea.”

  Her stare continued and narrowed to a glower, then Tanya asked, “Why didn’t you mention any of that earlier?”

  “Remember when you asked if I wanted to know you were for real? You were right, but long before you started stripping, I wanted to see if you were for real.”

  She growled, “What the hell does that mean?!”

  “It means you told a good story, but parts of it didn’t ring quite right. I wanted to know why, so I played along while I checked things out. Once I saw Marie’s condition, I didn’t care whether you were a user or a usee. The only goal became getting your mom fixed.”

  “You actually thought I might be using my own mother in some kind of political scheme?”

  “I’ve encountered much worse than that along the line and I’d never so much as heard of you before. Tanya, my skin is fairly important to me. I wouldn’t want it nailed to some asshole politician’s office wall.”

  After a moment, she said, “They aren’t all assholes.”

  “The ones who’d want my skin are. So are the ones who keep Robodocs out of the country. Even the least harmful politicians you can name couldn’t survive and succeed in politics if they weren’t devious and conniving weasels.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Tanya abruptly stood up and put her juice pack in the fridge, then straightened up the sink area. She said nothing as she worked for a few minutes, then she turned around, leaned on the counter, and crossed her arms.

  After regarding me for another few moments, she said, “I was going to tell you to come back in the morning, but I’ve changed my mind.”

  When she said nothing else for a time, I just nodded and said, “Thank you.”

  Another couple of moments passed, then she said, “I’ll get you a towel. Anything else you need?”

  “Can’t think of anything.”

  With a small nod, she went to the hall closet and took a blue towel into the bathroom, then returned. After dithering by the table for a moment, she sat down and seemed not to know what to do with her hands. Putting them together, she examined them rather carefully.

  “Tanya,” I said, and when she looked up, I said quietly, “You don’t look as if you feel very romantic. I could sleep on the couch. Or even go home.”

  She studied me briefly, then shook her head. “You’re right. I’m not feeling romantic at all, Ed. Not in the kissy, huggy, snuggly sense. But having you around today woke up something else, so I decided to do something about it.”

  “Ah.” I nodded in a politely enlightened manner.

  “Do you have any rubbers with you?”

  “Nope. I could run out and…”

  She shook her head and held up a hand. “Let me see if there are any in the night stand.”

  Going to the bedroom and returning, she tossed three small packets on the table and said, “This is all there are.”

  Giving her a small grin, I replied, “You said that as if you think three might not be enough.”

  With a droll look at me, she moved to the fridge and opened the freezer. Taking out two glasses that had disappeared when the NIA had arrived, she set them on the table and said, “I don’t remember which glass was yours or mine, but at least the drinks will be cold.”

  As she retrieved the gin from a cabinet and poured some in each glass, I chuckled, “That kiss on the dock sort of made which glass is mine a non-issue, ma’am.”

  Sipping her drink, Tanya said, “That kiss on the dock is why you’re still here, so treat it with respect, okay?”

  Hoisting my glass slightly, I solemnly agreed, “Oh, yes, ma’am. No disrespect intended, I promise.”

  She chuckled, “Good. You don’t mind using rubbers?”

  “Nope. Whatever makes you happy. But for your peace of mind, you ought to know that my own nanobots prevent diseases. Nothing gets past ‘em.”

  “You have nanobots?”

  “Yup. Got a dose on the big ship years ago. Not the thirty-day kind, either. Employees get the permanent ones. And PFMs prevent conception. That’s one of the main reasons the preachers and right-wingers have been against them.”

  Canting her head, Tanya said, “I’d heard that, but I thought it was just religious propaganda.”

  I shook my head. “Nope. Not propaganda. PFMs provide protective fields. It was decided that until people stopped breeding indiscriminately, using PFMs would prevent fertility. Male and female fertility. Things start working again about a week after you take off a PFM.”

  Looking thoughtful, she asked, “What about boards? They use fields too, right?”

  “Yeah, but people don’t wear boards all the time. The protective field is only on when they’re on the board.”

  Her eyes flicked to each of my forearms, then to my face and she said, “I don’t see a PFM on you.”

  Tapping behind my left ear, I said, “Surgically implanted,” then sent an emerald green tendril to pick up the gin bottle and ‘hand’ it to her. Tanya let the bottle hang there and instead touched the tendril with her fingertips.

  “It’s cool,” she said, and I replied, “I always thought so.”

  “No,” she said, “It’s glowing, but it’s cool to the touch.”

  Feigning disappointment, I sighed, “Oh.”

  Tanya giggled, “Oh, don’t look so sad! It’s cool in that sense, too. Why isn’t it warm?”

  With a shrug, I said, “It doesn’t need to be, I guess. I haven’t thought about it.”

  Looking from the tendril to me, she asked, “How can I get a PFM? I know they can’t sell them.”

  “Sign on with 3rd World Products. Join one of the agencies that are allowed to issue them.”

  “Why do they have them if regular people can’t?”

  “Probably because they’re safer than stun guns and Amaran stuff can’t be used to injure or kill people. And because someone realized selling to cops would open the door for selling to the public.” Pointing at the silver spot on her arm, I sent, rather than said, “Are you going to wear that to bed?”

  Tanya reflexively glanced at it and then very apparently realized I hadn’t spoken aloud. Her eyes locked on mine for a long moment, then returned to the silver spot.

  She muttered, “Oh, my Gawwwd! We could each feel what the other feels, couldn’t we?”

  “
Seems likely. Don’t know yet. None of the others had the nerve to try using one that way.”

  Her head came up. “What others?”

  “You aren’t my first, ma’am. They were women who had scooterboards, but didn’t have nerve enough to link during sex. You’d be the first.”

  Tanya’s gaze narrowed. “Why wouldn’t they?”

  “One said she considered her sexual experiences too personal. Another said she’d be embarrassed to have anyone in her head during sex.”

  I sipped coffee and watched her expression turn from awed to wary. “What about you? Would you do it?”

  Shrugging again, I said, “It’s worth a try. We can turn it off anytime we want.”

  “You’re saying you wouldn’t be embarrassed?”

  “Ha. I’ll be all over your naked gorgeousness like a happy puppy, ma’am. Sniffing and licking and soaking up everything about you like a sponge. There’s no reason to think you’d find anything different inside my head while I’m doing it.”

  Tanya snickered, then laughed softly. After a sip of gin, she laughed again and said, “That’s an… interesting… visual.”

  Some of my ice had melted and the gin didn’t taste quite so strong. I sipped some of it and said, “Glad to hear it, ma’am. I hope you like lots of close attention to detail, ‘cuz I’m gonna try to memorize everything about you.”

  She grinned and shook her head as she chuckled, then gulped the last of her drink. Standing up and pushing her chair under the table, she said, “That could take a while and tomorrow comes early, so we’d better get started.”

  I tossed back my own drink and took our glasses to the sink. Tanya put the gin away, scooped up the rubbers, and said, “C’mon,” as she strode toward the bedroom.

  I watched the roll of her hips and her long strides and grabbed my pack to follow her.

  She saw the pack and asked, “You think you’ll need that?”

  “No, but it gets lonely.”

  Her left eyebrow arched. “And the real reason is..?”

  Setting the pack by the closet doors, I said, “Old habits. Luggage stays with you or in sight, no matter what.”

  Nodding as if vaguely enlightened, Tanya toed off her shoes and began unbuttoning her blouse. She said, “Mom was like that, too. When she carried a purse, she never seemed to set it down. In the car, the purse sat on her lap. And there was a brown jacket… when she wore it, she wouldn’t take it off, even if it made her sweat. One day when I was about eight, the bedroom door was open just a crack. The jacket was on the bed and she was adjusting a strap on a shoulder holster. And she used to do some other little things that don’t seem so odd now.”

  Toeing off my own shoes and unbuttoning my shirt, I asked, “She never told you what she was doing?”

  “Not then. A couple of years later, a man and a woman came to the house and talked to daddy, then they took us all to a farm. A few days later, mom came to the farm and we all went home. My brother and I practically badgered them about what was going on and dad finally told us mom was a special kind of undercover policewoman. He swore us to secrecy, of course. Warned us how dangerous talking could be.”

  I draped my shirt over the back of a chair as Tanya hung her blouse on the back of the door. Stepping close to her, I met her gaze as I hooked my thumbs under her bra straps and slid them down. She seemed surprised when I gently massaged the lines they’d made atop her shoulders.

  Without taking her eyes off mine, she unfastened the front of her bra. Letting it slide off one arm completely and catching a strap as it slid down the other arm, she glanced away long enough to hang the bra over her blouse. When she turned back to me, I ran my fingers lightly up her neck and traced the outlines of her face and jaw, then her lips.

  Tanya’s hands found my chest and did some exploring of their own. Her fingers occasionally pressed lightly where she expected to find muscle and I knew I was being tested and evaluated after a fashion. After some time at a distance that barely allowed the tips of her breasts to touch my chest, Tanya moved into a firm embrace.

  A kiss can be many things; a beginning, an end, or even a signal that things will proceed, after all. Ours became all of those things as moments passed. An end to tentative exploration and the beginning of real passion emerged.

  When Tanya reached down to unfasten her jeans, I simply loosened my belt and let my jeans drop. They landed with a hefty thump when my belt knife hit the floor.

  Tanya froze for a moment, then eyed the jutting staff that pointed at her. As she continued to wriggle her jeans down, she said, “I wish I could get out of these that easily.”

  Watching her hips emerge, I said, “I’m glad you can’t. I really liked the way you filled those jeans.”

  Her jeans weren’t the skin-tight style that had recently come back into fashion, but they fit her closely enough that they didn’t just drop off her legs. I knelt to help get her jeans off, then lightly ran my hands back up her legs. With a gentle, kneading grip on her butt, I pulled her forward a bit and buried my tongue in her bush.

  Tanya wasn’t expecting that. Her legs and belly tensed delightfully and she swayed backward a bit, then her back found the closet door. I let my hands roam her legs to see if her hips would remain in position to receive my tongue’s attentions. They did. She made almost no sound at all for some moments, then her breathing became quick and harsh and her hands flew to grab my hair.

  Her knees began to tremble and she suddenly exuded slick dampness and a low groan as she pulled my face tighter against her bush. I enthusiastically belabored her for a few seconds and Tanya came hard, her left knee folding as she buckled forward and groaned again.

  Pushing her leg straight to keep her in place, I gave her several more licks and heard as well as felt her response to each of them. That suited me fine; there were a few more in there. But as I dove back in to look for them, Tanya’s hands pulled my head back and she shook her own head.

  “No,” she said breathlessly, “Later. Let’s move to the bed.”

  Shakily gathering herself upright and stepping past me, she stopped to lean on the bed’s footboard and reach between her legs. Withdrawing slick, wet fingers with a look of vague surprise, she stared at them a moment too long.

  I’d stood up and turned around to find Tanya leaning on the footboard and shocking herself with her moment of discovery. Moving close behind her, I guided myself into position against her nether lips and pushed.

  A moment later I was delightfully buried to the hilt in her with my fingernails trailing down her back. Tanya gave a gasping groan and got a grip on the footboard. She looked back once with what seemed like a very startled expression, then she simply rode with my gentle lungings for a time. I reached around her to tickle her magic button and she snickered as she straightened slightly to allow better access.

  In almost no time she came hard again, then lowered her face to the bed and laughed a long, slow, soft laugh that ended with, “Oh, Gawd, I wasn’t expecting this! You don’t know how long it’s been since…” She took a deep breath and laughed again, then asked, “Um… Are you going to… finish soon?”

  I stopped and sort of examined my range of sensations, then said, “Doesn’t feel like it. Need to stop for a while?”

  Nodding against the blanket, Tanya said, “Yes. I think so. For a little while, anyway.”

  Withdrawing myself, I stepped back a pace and said, “Damn, it’s cold out here.”

  Tanya chuckled, then laughed as she straightened and turned around. Perching her butt on the footboard, she reached for me and sat studying the object in her hands.

  After a few moments, she said, “I think I discovered a couple of things tonight.”

  “Already, ma’am?”

  She looked up and chuckled, “Yes, already.”

  “Care to elaborate?”

  Leaning forward, she took me into her mouth for a time and did interesting things with her lips and tongue, then she released me and sat straight.

&nb
sp; “Well,” she said, “First and most obviously, I shouldn’t go so long without. It’s been over a year. Almost a year and a half. Second, a little surprise at the start seems to enhance things. I felt almost ambushed — but in a good way — when your tongue… when it got me. I think it pushed me past something, but I’m not sure exactly what to call it.”

  “Give it a fancy title. Call it ‘the last vestige of hesitation’.”

  Apparently startled, Tanya studied my face and said, “That’s almost exactly what I was about to call it! I was going to say ‘the last curtain of hesitation’.”

  Shrugging, I said, “Well, guys don’t think a whole lot about things like curtains, but it sounds fine to me.”

  Tanya gave me a highbrow and chuckled, “You’re saying guys think a lot about ‘vestiges’?”

  I made a show of pondering that, then admitted, “Well, no, not really. That’s a good point, ma’am.”

  Abruptly standing up, she checked the spot where she’d sat, then said, “Meet me in the kitchen,” and padded across the hall to the bathroom.

  Picking up my jeans, I set them on the chair with my shirt. I didn’t really know what to do with her jeans, so I set them on top of mine. After punting our shoes near the bed and placing my pack where I could see it through the doorway, I waited in the short hallway for the bathroom.

  The toilet flushed and water ran in there, then Tanya emerged wearing a towel. She seemed surprised to see me as I said, “My turn,” and passed her with a quick kiss.

  I didn’t bother closing the door all the way and heard her bare footsteps head for the kitchen. After a leak, a rinse with mouthwash, and a rinse of other regions, I wore the blue towel she’d issued me as I stepped out.

  Tanya stood splendidly naked by the sink, her towel draped over a chair. I placed mine over a chair as I joined her and eyed the new gin she handed me.

  With a grin, she asked, “Where’s your backpack?”

  I pointed. She saw it and nodded.

  “Don’t worry,” she said, “I don’t usually drink this much. In fact, I don’t usually drink much at all without an occasion.” Sipping, she said, “And the last occasion wasn’t much fun.”