Chapter 15

As they sat in the crowded bistro, Greg discussed his childhood but Valerie felt disinclined to relate the fictional upbringing constructed to support her cover. She tried to imagine him as a young boy, living under the shadow of a generation of cops and following his destiny at the earliest opportunity. She found herself developing a healthy respect for the man. He'd avoided the familiar trap of corruption and surrounded himself with similarly like-minded people.

They both forswore alcohol, instead requesting a jug of water to accompany the meal. When the time came to leave, he offered up her jacket and escorted her to the car for the short journey back to her apartment.

"Do you want to come in?" she asked as he walked her to the door.

Greg nodded, following her inside and seating himself on the sofa whilst she prepared coffee. She knelt on the floor at his feet and looked so appealing that he couldn't resist reaching out and stroking his fingers against her upturned cheek. Instead of rebuffing him, she smiled and relished the contact. Turning her head slightly, she pressed her lips against his open palm. Greg's heart soared as he pulled her up beside him and placed his lips upon hers, kissing her passionately and seeking the sanctuary of her mouth with his valiant tongue. Valerie experienced a rush of raw emotion as her body welcomed his embrace, acknowledging her feelings and accepting where things were inevitably headed.

When his hand alighted on her bosom, she pressed herself firmly against it, signalling her desire for him to continue. Greg stood, pulling her up beside him then loosened each button on her blouse. He spread the garment apart and caressed the smooth, unblemished flesh of her neck and shoulders.

Flicking open the catch of her bra, Valerie guided his hands to her freed breasts, feeling her sensitive nipples press against his warm skin. She closed her eyes to savour the sheer sensuality of the contact.

"Let's go into the bedroom," she whispered urgently.

They undressed frantically as their desire drove them, falling upon one another in eagerness to satisfy their escalating passion. He sought entrance into her warmth and heard her gasp as he slid inside. Moving together, they held each other tightly as they tossed on a turbulent sea of sensation.

Valerie felt completely lost as she shared herself for the first time. The quantity and complexity of her sensory stimuli flooded her brain, leaving little capacity for coherent thought. As it reached its climax, she moaned as its intensity overwhelmed her entirely.

Afterwards, she lay with her head against Greg's chest, listening to the regular beating of his heart. She replayed everything back from her Datacore, enjoying the thrill over and over, never ceasing to tire of it. A solid thump of the front door closing disturbed her reverie. Seconds later, Emily stood framed in the doorway.

"You'll never believe what Janus ... Oh," she exclaimed then stopped as she perceived the two naked figures stretched out upon the bed.

"Sorry," she whispered, retreating rapidly and affording them their privacy.

"Huh?" Greg mumbled, barely awake.

"Just my room-mate returning home," Valerie reassured him.

"Hey," he greeted, admiring her beauty, "you okay?"

"Never better."

He rolled her slowly onto her back and ran his hand along her entire length, exploring her tenderly.

"You're lovely," he whispered, "absolutely lovely."

"I'll bet you say that to all the girls," she teased.

"Not often enough to be honest with you. It's been quite a while since the last time. Thank you for tonight."

"I enjoyed it too," she replied truthfully, realizing immediately the understatement of her words.

"I'm glad," he sighed. "I didn't want you to think I came up here with the intention..."

She placed her finger against his lips.

"I invited you in."

"In that case, would you like to... ?"

"Yes." She smiled invitingly.

The second time was more controlled and leisurely. The feeling of his hardness sliding within her was indescribably good and explained why Claire had indulged so readily over the years. As she neared climax, she spun up and experienced every tiny sensation with supreme clarity, unable to fathom how so simple an activity could produce such incredible rapture.

At some point, Greg eased the covers over them and they slept.

The morning sun had made the bedroom unbearably hot. Jerking awake, Greg sat up and groaned as he caught sight of the time on the bedside clock. He was going to be very late for work. Unconcerned, Valerie stoked her hand down the full length of his spine, relishing the rugged texture of his skin.

"I'm late," he told her. "I need to get to work."

"So," she simpered. "If you're going to be late, you might as well be really late."

She threw off the bedclothes and lay back invitingly, exposing her nakedness to his gaze. Greg could not find the resolve to refuse her. He slipped inside her once more and commenced a regular stroke that soon had them both gasping in sheer delight. She crested quickly and her writhing motion almost unseated him.

"Lie on your back," she requested, longing to experiment. Straddling his legs, she cradled his erection within her grasp, gently teasing his engorged manhood between her fingers. Lowering her mouth to his cock, his groans of approval filled her with pride that she could please him so readily. Her lips wrapped around his girth and she tasted herself for the first time, finding it far from disagreeable. The flared head pressed against the back of her throat and she felt confident that she could take it all with ease. Pushing down, her muscles relaxed and admitted him.

"Valerie," Greg gasped as he glanced downwards, watching as his whole length passed between her pursed lips and engaged the tight annulus. He closed his eyes to appreciate the delicious confinement and listen to the slick sounds as she engulfed him repeatedly.

With her nose nestled amongst his wiry pubic hair, Valerie was in ecstasy. The movement of his engorged flesh sent intense sensations directly to her Quantum. She knew this was a distinctly designed behaviour but couldn't deny herself the intoxicating pleasure that it provided. She only withdrew when she discerned his emission was imminent, capturing the pulses of viscous sperm as they gathered upon her tongue. The taste was both spicy and salty. She took several seconds to become accustomed to the richness then relish its succulent flavour. She gulped it down rapaciously then licked and sucked as she tried to coax more from the source.

Greg sighed happily. After weeks of apparent aloofness, the events of the last few hours had restored his faith in humanity. He fervently hoped this could be the start of an enduring relationship. A further glance at the clock presented a dilemma but he was too conscientious to consider phoning in sick. He rose from the bed and by the time he'd showered and dressed, it was almost lunchtime.

It was uncharacteristic of the Lieutenant to arrive late during a big case and Sands was concerned. He'd received a disturbing communication from the airport about how a serious breach of their firewall had allowed a hacker to access their main servers. The loss of all flight records for several hours either side of the unidentified incursion into New Arizona airspace seemed the only casualty however.

The report detailed how an administrator user called Natalie05 had blatantly erased the logs without any attempt to cover up the actions. All attempts to backtrack the intrusion were frustrated by the number of anonymous proxies employed. The high probability was that the traffic originated from somewhere in southern Caliban but the evidence was tentative at best. Incredibly, the timing of the attack was within an hour of them discussing it. Sands kicked himself for not requesting the data earlier when it would most likely have still been available.

Greg finally arrived, sneaking stealthily into the office with Valerie lagging a discreet distance behind. They'd obviously arrived together and Sands wondered what to read into it. He took his report straight over to him, noticing Greg's disappointment as the possible identification of their adversary was snatched from their grasp. However, the greatest revelation was the unfathomable look on Valerie's face and the way her hand rested casually on Greg's shoulder.

The decision to have the logs destroyed fuelled Valerie's shame at impeding Greg's investigation. Despite having been the right decision to make, it pained her that her actions had caused him anguish. She questioned how in the light of last night she'd respond in the event of future contention. Stroking her fingers through his hair, she attempted to ease his obvious agitation.

Averting his eyes from the overt display of affection, Sands realized the truth of the situation immediately. He felt glad that Greg could find some measure of happiness in his lonely existence. However, it didn't stop him from teasing once Valerie finally left the office.

"So I see you and Valerie finally got it together?"

"Is it that obvious?" he replied after a pause.

"You crept in here like a naughty schoolboy and she was virtually fawning all over you the entire time."

"It wasn't very subtle was it," Greg admitted.

"Not to mention the fact that I've just lost fifty dollars."

Greg laughed but could only feel great satisfaction at the outcome of the previous evening. It was almost beyond his wildest dreams. His reminiscences caused him to miss what Sands was saying and he had to ask him to repeat it.

"What I said lover boy, was that I'm in touch with my contact at Syntel," Sands replied. "I've told him to find out what he can about Syntel's military activities, specifically anything about the SYLF project."

"Is there any chance your communications could be discovered?"

"I've used a fairly unique cipher, one that I'm convinced will escape detection."

"If they get wind that we're fishing around, I bet they'll close up tighter than a clam."

"He's going to come back to me with what he can find out later in the week. I'll no doubt have to find some extra incentive to throw his way."

"Let's see what he's offering first."

"One last thing," Sands added. "I've had the lab checking out the wrecked SUV from the drainage canal. We managed to extract the contents of the Datacore and get a summary of its movements over the past few weeks. It made daily commutes to a local high school until the day before the crash when it forayed into the National Park. It then visited a residential district near the Belmont before finally returning to the apartment block.

"Send somebody to the school."

"Already done. Hastings should be back soon with the details. We think the long trip was to a popular camping ground and I've requested local law enforcement to go up and check it out. The riverside residential complex comprises over two hundred units and it will take a while to go door to door, even if we had the necessary manpower."

"Just do the best you can," Greg praised.

Wishing to spare Valerie the embarrassment of explaining why she'd deemed it necessary to sleep with the detective, Emily had left the apartment early that morning. Whilst she'd always known that Companion code was linked in with her own, she had deep concerns about the effects it had on her persona. Companions had very specific programming, making their primary goal the happiness and satisfaction of their assigned client. She didn't see the necessity of resorting to the crude exploitation of her body when intellect alone should suffice to achieve her objectives.

Nevertheless, following the initial success with her assignment, instinct told her to make certain adjustments to her appearance to increase the chances of attracting Janus's attention. She decided to go shopping.

The local shopping centre was teeming with women and teenagers, brainwashed by tank commercials into slavishly following the ever-changing trends in fashion. Discarding perfectly serviceable garments, they purchased overpriced goods designed purely to boost the profits of the corporations who then outsourced the manufacture to overseas sweatshops.

The previous evening, Janus had moralized about the exploitation of poorer economies to provide a supply of cheap produce. Exorbitant import duties and excessive profits made both the government and corporations recipients of vast wealth at the expense of the consumer. This further fuelled the black market demand that funded criminal enterprise.

It all went around and around in circles, Janus had theorized, a cesspool of corruption and greed. Emily had nodded in agreement, thinking it was the right thing to do, but a part of her appreciated the candour of his arguments.

With some difficulty, she selected what she believed were ethically produced items; either manufactured locally or of a good quality. Syntel would ultimately pick up the bill for her extravagance and it amused her that she could direct their profits to support worthy businesses.

Elysian leather goods included several pairs of shoes to replace the basic pair that the Facility provided and a couple of handbags and shoulder bags of sturdy construction and aesthetic design. She bought comfortable underwear and linen blouses that would not cause her to swelter in the high sun as did her imported, synthetic garments. A selection of skirts and lightweight tailored trousers completed her new wardrobe. After she produced her corporate credit card and paid the phenomenal total, she sat outside a trendy bistro eating a huge plate of pasta and imagined the look of fury on Henderson's face when he received the monthly credit statement.

Simmonds reviewed Henderson's status report, summarizing the current ongoing projects within the Operations Division; a team tasked to further the corporation's interests by the use of espionage, intelligence gathering and subversion.

"So Valerie has pulled you guys out of the shit once again?"

"We were so busy in the aftermath of the raid that nobody thought about the possibility of the helicopter being tracked."

"Well it's a good job Natalie managed to erase the evidence before the chopper was traced right back to our own doorstep."

Henderson decided not to argue any further on the matter, concentrating instead on the staged deployment of the Hybrids.

"We've attached Elisabeth, Helen and Vanessa to mobile units," he announced. "This way if we receive a location on the rogue Hybrid then we'll have plenty of resources to call upon without having to drag Valerie off assignment. Natalie's continuing to assist with recon analysis for the time being and available when we need to call on her hacking expertise."

"What about Emily?" Simmonds asked derisively.

"We thought long and hard and decided to insert her into an emerging extremist group. We suspect them of carrying out low level sabotage on our surveillance infrastructure."

"Are they dangerous?"

"Some of their members have quite interesting pasts but the leader is a 'save the planet' type from the university that goes by the name of Janus."

"I take it that's not his real name?"

"Janus is apparently some mythical figure from the past. His real name is John Silverman."

"What are your plans for her?"

"Get her close to Janus and find out the names of everyone associated with the group. When we get those, we'll see if we can persuade her to be a good girl and eliminate the main players."

"Do you think she will oblige?" Simmonds asked.

"We can invoke the command overrides to force the issue if necessary."

"If she doesn't succeed at this operation then I don't think we'll have any further use for her," Simmonds stated. Had it been left to him, the errant Hybrid would have been reformatted long ago. "What news on the rogue unit?"

"Satellite imagery has failed to locate the missing vehicle. It looks like we've driven her deep underground. Short term, I'm not very hopeful."

Simmonds shook his head, regretting not terminating her when he had the opportunity, months previously. For four years, this unit had been the one thorn in his side and it showed no signs of stopping.

Valerie spent the day flitting in and out of Bennett's office, partly to offer advice but mainly to be in his close proximity. Her mind kept thinking back to the previous night and how she'd enjoyed every moment of what had transpired. She realized the danger of becoming too emotionally involved but decided against calling a halt just yet. Claire had shown her the depths to which she'd explored her sexuality and Valerie felt assured that she could remain subjective no matter what happened.

Feeling flushed, she disappeared to the washroom and rinsed her face with cold water. She didn't hear the door open and close or the bolt slide across. The first she became aware of Janice's presence was when two slender arms reached around her waist and hot breath played over her neck.

"So how was the stud?" Janice whispered as her hands reached up to caress her breasts through the thin blouse. "I'll bet he fucked you bow-legged last night."

Valerie tried vainly to disengage but the woman's nimble fingers had already popped several buttons and flipped up the material of her bra to bare her breasts.

"Janice, stop please," Valerie complained. "Ow."

The Infiltrators fingers pinched her turgid nipples that Greg had sucked for an eternity as they drifted off to sleep, leaving them unbearably sensitive.

"Would you prefer this," the woman teased as her hand crept downwards and insinuated itself deep into her panties. Before she could protest, Janice began to stimulate her womanhood.

"No," Valerie begged.

"Don't fight it. You know you want it," the machine hissed as she continued to tease her exposed sex.

Valerie tried futilely to push the woman away but her body refused to obey her commands. Janice's fingers stroked insistently then penetrated her to the second knuckle.

"Stop," Valerie sighed as her hands gripped the edge of the washbasin for support. Her crotch pushed against the invading digits, unconsciously deepening the contact.

"That's it Valerie. Let go," Janice cooed as her fingers flashed within Valerie's slick channel. Despite herself, what little control she had slipped away and she climaxed powerfully.

"Shit. I can't believe I let you do that," Valerie declared, her orgasm leaving her weak and defenceless.

"I've been dreaming about fucking you," Janice informed her lustily. "I'll give you my address. If you ever get tired of Greg or fancy a little change, don't hesitate to drop in on me."

"We mustn't do this again," Valerie moaned as she repositioned her bra and refastened the buttons of her blouse.