Chapter 476

The General’s Office

...”So, you have some more videos for us to watch?”

“Yeah. It’s obvious those two are keeping something from me, and I normally wouldn’t give a shit. If they want to bang each other’s eyes out, I don’t care one way or the other, but they’re hiding something. First though, I want to show you a couple of scenes that you might find interesting.” That said, he pressed a button on the remote lying on his desk.

As the screen came to life, the video was frozen with Jasmine and Morales sitting near a fire in the cave.

“Pay close attention to what Morales says,” the General instructed as he unpaused the video.

“Jas, this,” Morales said, motioning around him, “is forever. This is my life – my home. The hens, the wolves, Junior – they’re all my friends – all the friends I’ll ever have after you leave. Junior sleeps snuggled against me. The hens come by to be petted, and so do the other chicks. Lobo and Lila, well, you know about them. I guess most people would think I’m a fool for sharing something that I love so much with the wolves, let alone the chickens, but I ... just have to. I guess I can’t really explain it,” Morales finished, his voice trailing off.

They continued to watch as Morales reached over and squeezed Jasmine’s hand. “Jas, I don’t want you getting into trouble on my account. I did a lot of bad things. I imagine that I came pretty close to taking the sun trip with Mr. Mazarella. I killed. Oh, I killed bad guys, all right, and I did it before they had a chance to come after Mr. Mazarella and me, but the fact remains that I did kill. And ... I killed to protect someone who was a killer himself. Again, don’t get into trouble trying to make my life a little easier. I’m not worth it.”

The General paused the video again, both men sitting quietly as they thought.

At last, Jeff cleared his throat. “So? What are you thinking, Sir?”

“None of your damn business,” the General responded, but there was a grin in his voice.

Jeff chuckled. “Well now, jail is supposed to rehabilitate,” he offered, more or less tongue in cheek, just to hassle his superior a bit.

“A couple sentences are not going to get him back to Earth,” Whitworth tried to snarl, but his remark didn’t come across as firmly as he thought it should have.

Jeff could see the change in Morales, and he knew the General could too. Just to jerk his chain a little, Jeff wanted to ask why Whitworth had shown the scene to him, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.

Whitworth sighed, “Looks like he may have changed a bit, but there are other things going on. As I’ve said before, I usually don’t give a damn what the lifers do unless they get together to gang up on the other prisoners. As widely apart as I have dropped them, you would think the assholes would never see each other, but that has proven to not always be the case. So, I’ve maintained a loose surveillance, leaving most of it up to the Sergeant and an AI, with instructions to send excerpts to me if he thinks I might be interested.

“As you know, I allowed this Conners woman to talk me into letting her visit Morales. And, despite what I told her about being on her own, I’ve regularly checked on her – or at least the Sergeant has. But dammit, I’ve found that Morales is interesting to watch, and with the anthropologist there, he’s even more interesting, or rather, they are – especially now that they’re trying to hide something from me.”

“What’s behind the wall in the ice cave,” Jeff guessed aloud.

“Damn right. She knows about the cameras, and she has obviously told him about them. Oh, he had figured it out before she got there, at least to some extent. Remember the way he practically tore the cave apart looking for them? But I think those two have seized on a weakness of the cameras.”

At Jeff’s raised eyebrow, the General went on. “Oh, it’s conjecture on my part, but I think I’m right.” Whitworth picked up the remote again and selected a scene that showed the wall in the ice cave. As they continued watching, Jasmine and Morales slipped under a hide hanging over a section of the wall, obviously being careful to keep the hide in place as much as they could while doing so.

Whitworth froze the scene again. “Remember that the cameras are tiny, but if you know they’re there and you are close enough, you can see, at least, a hint of them. They have to be right in front of your eyes, and you have to have excellent near vision, but they can be seen if you know what you’re looking for. So ... they’re programmed to stay well away and use their optics to zoom in. Bottom line, they’re well back when those two slide under the hide and disappear through that wall. By the time the cameras get there, the hide is back in place. They aren’t programmed to work their way under the hide and pursue. They are programmed to go through a door when the person they are observing does, so they don’t have any problem following either of them in and out of the cave. There are cracks around the hides that cover the front wall and door of the cave, and even if the cameras are locked out, they can still drift through the openings. But the AI hasn’t been told to program the cameras to work their way under a hide to go through an opening in the ice cave wall.”

Before Jeff could respond, the General went quickly on. “It’s just something the AI never expected and, I assume, is easily correctable, but I’m of two minds whether to have the programming changed or not. I can convince myself that intense surveillance of Morales, especially with her there, is necessary, and what the hell, I like to watch him figure out things. But ... it bothers me a bit to think about reprogramming the cameras so I can spy on what the two of them are doing behind that wall. What if they’re just going through there to get away from the cameras so they can fuck without being spied on? She’ll be back one of these days, and she already knows I spy on them, but be dammed if I’ll be called a pervert, or be one,” he growled. “But, I’m beginning to think there’s something going on behind that hide other than fucking. She’s taking some of her equipment with her when they go in there. True, the equipment could just be part of the subterfuge, but if so, she’s going to a lot of trouble to keep her love life secret.”

“You told me the cameras were programmed to allow them privacy when they, uh, answer the call of nature or when they’re nude...”

“They cease their surveillance at night as well. I’m not into watching a prisoner jerk off, or watch whatever Morales and Jasmine do after they go to bed. There’s a small AI camouflaged in a tree next to the cave. It handles the camera’s programming and polls them on a daily basis. I’ve recently changed that to twice a day. The portal opens for a millisecond, retrieves the data from the AI and is gone. Even if someone happens to be looking at the exact spot and the light is good, they would only see a slight distortion that would be gone before their eyes could properly focus on it. I am tempted – damn tempted – to have the AI change the cameras’ programming so that they will go behind the hide and check out what’s past the wall in the damn cave. Something is going on, but what if they are just going through to fuck?”

“You could tell the Sergeant to delete that segment if they are,” Jeff pointed out.

“And ... I would still have violated Conners’ privacy, not to mention the prisoner’s.”

Jeff let out a chuckle. “Sometimes it’s a bitch having scruples,” he told his commander.

Whitworth just glared at him. After a moment, he selected another segment and started the playback. Jasmine and Morales stood locked in an embrace just outside the cave during a gentle snowfall. Their kiss lasted for a long time. After the segment was over, Whitworth began it again, ran the segment a few seconds, then ran it again. “See that?” he asked his Colonel.

“Yes,” Jeff said, “Morales was definitely going to say something before she cut him off.

“She deliberately kissed him to stop whatever he was going to say.” Then with a chuckle, the General went on, “But ... it looks like she got into the kiss a bit more than just stopping him from saying something. That kiss look familiar, Colonel?”

“Yeah, it does, Sir. It reminds me of the way you and your wives kiss,” the Prime responded, teasing his General a little.

“Well, I was thinking more in the line of it looking a bit like you and your wives kissing.”

Jeff grinned back at Whitworth. “In other words, that’s a lover’s kiss. Someone deeply in love.”

“Exactly. I find it hard to believe that the young lady has let this happen to herself, especially considering her background.”

Jeff raised an eyebrow and Whitworth went on. “I mean the lady who seems to be the proverbial ice maiden. She has shut down every guy who has made a run at her, at least according to the background check, and it was damn thorough. So, what the fuck has happened?”

“Well, it looks like she has finally fallen in love,” Jeff offered.

“With a lifer on another fucking planet, no less,” the General added. “This woman is intelligent. Her grades in college are outstanding, and even that pompous ass, Greer, rated her highly. Too bad that SOB is so good at what he does, or I would have run his ass off long ago. Anyway, she fucking knows she’ll have to come back here one day. I can’t have someone living on the prison planet who isn’t a lifer. Not to mention that she’ll probably want kids at some point. Then what the hell happens?”

“So, do you think they’re actually having sex behind that wall in the ice cave?” Jeff asked.

Whitworth sighed again. “If I were certain of that, I wouldn’t be bothered. Hell, let them fuck each others eyes out, but ... what if it’s something else?”

“You could have the cameras continue their surveillance after dark. If they’re making love where they live, you will know there’s something different going on behind that ice cave wall.”

“And ... I will have violated Jasmine’s privacy. What if word gets out? I don’t want to be labeled a fucking peeping Tom.”

“You could, of course, have the cameras check behind that wall without Jasmine or Morales being there. If it is just more of the ice cave, you will have your answer without violating your own rules – or their privacy.”

“Yeah, I know, but dammit, it still seems ... Oh, hell, there’s no other way. I’ll have the Sergeant instruct the AI to have the cameras check out what’s behind that damn wall.”

Colorado Springs, Colorado

The newlyweds had awakened early, made love as usual, and then, shortly after sunrise, stood in their robes with arms around each other as they looked out of the window from the top floor of their five-star hotel in Colorado Springs. When the hotel called to confirm their reservation, both had realized that there was probably a GPS locator in the Escalade that Diana was using to keep track of them. “Hotels don’t do that, do they?” Mike had asked his wife.

“I guess they do if they’re told to,” Marie responded, doubtfully, but by then, they had given in to the fact that Diana was going to spend money on them – lots of money. She didn’t try to interfere with their plans, just made sure they had a great place to stay each night, at least when she knew their itinerary.

“You weren’t sore this morning, were you?” Mike asked his bride after a prolonged kiss.

Marie buried her face against his chest. “Are you implying that I was a wanton hussy last night?” she responded with a giggle.

“No, Baby. I...”

“Well, I was, of course, but it seems that no matter how much we make love, I’m soon ready to go again. A few weeks ago, if we had done what we have done for the last several nights, I would have been in bed with a heating pad and the sorest pussy on Earth. As it is, even if we make love for half the night like we did last night, I’m uncomfortable for a little while, then I’m totally ready to go again. Of course, I have regularly used Diana’s pussy cream as she calls it. But no cream, no matter how good it is, would allow you to screw my brains out the way you have and still allow me to be able to walk the next day. That has to be the enhancement.”