Chapter 17

Day 3—Suki

Suki sat alone in her office. It was a tiny, one-woman closet, with barely enough room for the narrow desk, chair and computer that occupied it. Three monitors covered the wall above the desk. All of them displayed reports, graphs, annotations from the interviews with every member of Richard's and Perry's family. In her mind, it was all one big immediate unit. Two brother-sister pairs, each marrying the other was highly unusual. Both lived near each other, in a medium-sized city. Went to the same church. Children attended the same school.

She correlated information, attempting to understand. Perry and Candice's family, the Johnsons had fully embraced everything they did at the Resort. It seemed they'd arrived half-prepared, been model guests. Hopefully, model members. Richard Young, on the other hand, represented an anomaly. He retained cognition when nearly anyone else wouldn't. His sense of 'self' was unshakeable.

Whatever it was, it seemed genetic. Duke young retained the same level of cognition. Luckily for her, he embraced her efforts instead of resisting, like his father did. She'd made sure their contract included bringing his wife and son for his monthly visits. She didn't really care about the wife, there wasn't anything they could learn there. She'd resisted a tiny bit more than normal, but well within a standard deviation. No, it was the father and son who mattered.

Both had succumbed to temptation, once proper psychological levers were applied. That was good. It demonstrated they hadn't lost their way. If she could use that, perhaps the two males could provide powerful allies in their network. Suki drummed her fingers in thought. Yes, a church full of all members would allow them to do things in the US they wouldn't be able to do as a corporation. Churches enjoyed special protection from government intrusion.

That could very well prove to be a boon to their plans. She would have to talk to the Chairman about it sometime in the next week. She set a calendar appointment request to talk to him. This could work. She would make it work, dammit!

She glanced at the clock. Nearly midnight. She still had a couple hours of work to finish. The entire Young/Johnson file needed proper correlation before the morning. Right now, all nine individuals lay in their baths. Analysis nanites studied them, down to the genetic makeup. In the morning, when all the technicians arrived, they needed to each have their correct instructions.

She sighed. Not for the first time cursed them ensuring all the supervisor desks were too narrow to allow anyone to kneel underneath them comfortably. What she wouldn't give for Fuki to come down and lick her while she worked.

It would make things go much easier, if not faster.

Steeling herself, she dove back into the data.

It would be a long night.