Ambasadora (Book 1 of Ambasadora) (31 page)

He found her mouth again and kissed
her with an urgency spurred on by her quivering body and the brilliance of the
dots lighting her arm. She was tight when he first pushed into her and she wasn’t
used to a man his size. Her fingers pressed into his shoulders, and she squeezed
his hips with her thighs. He took the hint and eased himself the rest of the
way in. After a few slow strokes, she relaxed and called his name because she
liked the sound of it. The encouragement urged him on, as though he had been
waiting for her permission to give into his instinct and passion without
restraint. This was not at all like the techniques they acquired at school. He
excited her with his unpredictability and daring. She was surprised and
delighted to find his shyness went only as far as his smile. The feel of him
thrusting deep and steady into her was matched only by the words of adoration
he whispered against her neck and her lips. He spoke of her beauty, of how much
he needed her and wanted her, how much he cared about her.

She felt an intimacy with Sean that
she had never known with any other coupling. He helped her to remember what it
meant to be Sara. To physically feel Sean’s desire and share his pleasure
empowered her. Opening herself to him, meeting the rhythm of his hips, she was
more alive than she had ever been in her entire life. She was happy he could
see her arousal, exposed and naked, as it burned bright and furious in every
dot pulsing up her arm. His intensity increased with the bio-lights’ brilliance
until Sara panted, trying to catch her breath.

When she couldn’t hold back any
longer, she gave into rolling waves of ecstasy. The sensation came from deeper
inside her than before and was exponentially a greater sensation. Nothing could
better erase the horrors she had known than memories of this moment, spread
open to Sean’s pleasure, the feel of him on top of her, inside her, wanting her
and needing her as much as she needed him.

“You may have to wait
another year before going rogue,” Chen told Faya as she adjusted the bone
mender on her arm. “To keep the Sovereign’s suspicion down and avoid
retaliation.”

Chen linked Tennor’s decrypter to
the hotel’s small black viewer unit on the night stand. If it couldn’t bypass
the Sovereign’s codes on his personal transmissions, Chen would break all of
Tennor’s fingers before shooting him.

“I might not want to go
rogue if I can have Rainer’s job,” Faya said. The bone mender emitted
several beeps as she adjusted the cast’s pressure again.

A viewscreen pixilated and
stuttered to life in the air in front of them, accompanied by Rainer’s
irritated voice.

“I’ll have to fix that
glitching for next time,” Tennor said.

Never count on a next time.

Although, Chen was loathe to
admit that Tennor proved his brilliance time and again. Not that all the
brilliance in the system would let him jump castes.

There seemed to be quite a few
bright Lowers surfacing recently. If the Uppers allowed exceptions for all of
them, then soon the beautiful among the Lower Caste would want exceptions made
for them as well. This type of caste jumping became more common with each
generation, an affront to the History and a threat to the Uppers’ superiority.

Dahlia, Faya’s sister by a
different father, walked in from the hotel balcony with three of the rogues
from Chen’s original group, leaving the remnants of their room service dinner
on the outside table. A jade-colored bird had already taken the opportunity to
swoop in for a bite.

“Are you sure they won’t
know we’re eavesdropping on them?” Chen asked.

“They don’t have a
clue,” Tennor said.

Rainer’s face looked strained as
he explained what happened at the Robbins’ estate, including Faya’s role.

“I need a cure,
Contractor Varden, not excuses.”

“Then blame Faya
Renault.”

Faya snickered. “Our Head
Contractor is scrambling now.”

“I’ve already spoken to
Contractor Renault, and the details of her story are quite different from
yours. She knew that searching Archivist Robbins’ private tapes was a
ridiculous idea. You wasted time and gained nothing.”

“You would take her word
over mine?”

Chen glanced at Faya, who looked
a bit nervous to hear the answer.

“Her mind is on the task
at hand, not some emotional fallacy. I’m giving Contractor Renault the task of
lifting my curse.”

Rainer’s jaw set and his voice
had an angry tone.
“That’s a mistake.”

“The mistake was not
doing it earlier. Your new assignment is to bring Ambasadora Mendoza back to
me. You can stand beside me while she takes her own life in shame. Or put her
out of her misery when the irradicae eat away her insides.”

So the rumor was true. It
surprised Chen that the Sovereign would be so bold and irreverent as to hijack
Sara’s lineage. The part of him who had foolishly taken her on as an amour
after a night of too many neons and too much coupling felt a modicum of
compassion for her, but losing her family rights was her problem.

“Sara’s dead. Killed at
the Tredificio.”
Rainer’s tone betrayed him, but the Sovereign never
noticed.

“Then you are useless to
me.”

The transmission ended.

Chen swiveled his chair around.
“Rainer’s not quite the liar he believes he is. Must be letting his emotions
get the better of him.”

“Rainer having an emotional
fallacy for anyone is absurd.” Dahlia laughed, but her eyes were hard as
forged metal.

“You didn’t see the footage
from the surveillance monitors back on Palomin,” Faya said.

Dahlia’s breathing deepened,
baited by Faya’s lie. Chen scrutinized the interplay between the sisters, his
cousins on both sides of their family circle. The women’s dislike of one
another would be useful later.

“They showed it all, how he
went to Sara after every modification session, coddling her back to health,
docking her every chance he got.”

“Data can be
manipulated—”

“Not on the Sovereign’s
personal surveillance monitors,” Faya said. “When are you going to
wake up, little sister? Rainer is a grand deceiver, one of the reasons
Prollixer hired him as Head Contractor, but he’s slipping. He just lied to the
Sovereign’s face to protect Sara again.”

“How do you know?”
Dahlia asked.

“Our contacts had a visual
of Sara and Cryer disembarking here at the Hub some time yesterday.”

Dahlia paled slightly. “Why
didn’t you tell me?”

Chen and Faya shared a look.
“You were seen pretty often with Rainer before he ran off to chase his
ambasadora around the system,” Chen said.

“I don’t care what the
monitors showed,” Dahlia said. “He has no interest in her.”

“Why? Because he’s married
to you and six other women?” Faya circled her sister. “Mother told me
about your secret ceremony. She was concerned for the family since rumors have
Rainer falling out of favor with the Sovereign.” Faya stood in front of
Dahlia and stroked her hair. “You can keep secrets from the whole system,
but you have to trust your family. That’s why I’m giving you the opportunity to
choose your family over your prime amour.” The warning in her tone left no
doubt she’d make Dahlia pay for any type of betrayal.

“I would always pick family over
everything,” Dahlia asked.

“Good,” Chen said.
“Then you’ll come with us to find Sara and her fragger. If we can get to
Simon’s anti-virus before he does, we have the key to the system.” Chen
hoped to gain a full pardon from the Sovereign as a reward, or a high place
among the new governing ranks if he died.

“Tennor, I just hired you
for another job. You can be our guide in the Underground.”

“I’m better with the
tech.”

Chen leveled a cender at Tennor’s
narrow nose. “I think it’s time you put all of that V-side combat training
to practice, unless you’re afraid Zak will kick your ass in the real
world.”

Like just about every morning
since he started dosing, Sean woke to ringing in his ears, but this morning he
wasn’t alone. Sara lay naked and beautiful, folded in his arms. This was how he
wanted to wake up every morning from now on.

Her purple-streaked black hair
hung loose around her bare shoulders. The bio-lights twisting down her arm
glowed steady and calm. Last night their rhythmic pulses, quickening in time
with her heightened arousal, nearly drove him mad. He couldn’t remember having
to exert so much control in his life. Every time he felt sure he would come, he
forced himself to slow down— and not look at those lights. That night was for
Sara’s pleasure. It was the only way he knew how to help her with her pain. In
his mind she transcended being just a pleasant intimacy. He saw her as an
irrevocable part of his life. He hoped she felt that way, too. Part of him
worried her attraction came as a side effect from the dew drops. It was enough
that she had asked him to share last night with her, to use his touch to forget
her time at Palomin.

Studying the curve of her body
made him want to wake her up with a trail of kisses down her back. He became
hard at the thought, but slipped out of bed without waking her, then grabbed
his clothes from the floor before heading into the bathroom. He zipped up a
pair of comfortable worker’s pants and tugged on a light blue shirt.

Life had changed during these
past few days. Sean had changed. The emotions Sara stirred within him were the
most intense he had felt since losing his brother. Except, these feelings were
beautiful and amazing, better than any drug he’d taken, and so much better than
the lonely life he lived before. It was the perfect example of an emotional
fallacy, according to their society—basing life decisions on what the world
considered to be nothing more than fleeting moods and sentiments biased by
hormones.

Sean didn’t care if all of that
were true. He would do anything to keep feeling this way. Of course, that meant
making sure he had no more secrets that could ruin things later. Secrets like
his family background.

When he returned to the bedroom,
he was disappointed to see the bed empty. He heard the clanking of metal and
ceramic coming from the kitchen area. Sara sipped on a cup of tea, already
dressed in the clothes he
borrowed
for her from one of the shops
yesterday. The short white sari looked like something Soli would wear, only
Sara had managed to wrap the scarf around her more modestly than Soli would
have preferred. Soli had insisted all along that Sean needed someone in his
life. It saddened him that he couldn’t tell her she was right. Thinking of her
grief, made him resolute in this one last confession to Sara.

She offered him a cup of tea. He
took the mug and sat it on the counter. “I need to tell you
something,” he said.

Her smile faltered a little, but
she kept a light tone. “I already know you’re a fragger. You know I was
sent to kill you. And you know what makes my lights flash.”

He smiled at that one.

“What other secret could
possibly matter?” she asked.

“Your intel was right about
the operative being Armadan, except I’m only half, on my father’s side.”

“Oh.” She seemed relieved
and not at all surprised. “I guessed you had Armadan blood in you after last
night.”

“You did? Why?”

She hesitated for a moment, and
he thought she blushed a little. “You’re a little taller than the average
Socialite, your shoulders a little broader, your…
hands
are bigger.”

He looked down at his hands, having
never really thought about it before.

She seemed a little flustered and
quickly added, “You’re also much stronger. You hide that strength from
people, though, don’t you?”

He had for as long as he could
remember. “I guess so, but not as much as I hide the fact that my mother
came from the Lower Caste.” The words came out of his mouth like he’d been
waiting to say them his entire life. He sat down on one of the plush dining
chairs, wishing he could take it back. He looked at the steam rising from the
mug of tea on the counter, avoiding her face, afraid he might see rejection or
judgment there.

“That’s why your forced
handling of the Lowers at the Tredificio caused you so much conflict,” she
said.

“Probably.”

“And, why you feel so
comfortable here in the Underground.” She said it more to herself.

He didn’t say anything.

She ran her hand through his
hair, then slid onto his lap, forcing his gaze upon her. “I don’t know
about you, Sean Cryer, but I’m tired of pretending to be someone I’m not
because society dictates it.” Sincerity showed on her face. “Does
your mother care about you?” she asked.

He was taken aback by the
question. “Of course.”

“Then be proud of that, no
matter who she is.” Sara kissed him on the forehead, but he pulled her
lips to his. Their kiss was different this time. Instead of just playful or
passionate like those hundreds they shared last night, this kiss was a promise
of the future they meant to share. He could have stayed in that kiss forever, but
they weren’t safe yet. He slowly broke away.

“I’m not sure how much
longer we can remain here,” he said.

“Maybe Simon, the Embassy,
the whole system thinks we’re dead,” she said.

“Everyone might, but it
won’t stay that way for long. We passed too many voyeurs at the Hub, and I’m
sure we didn’t hide your bio-lights as well as we should have.”

“What do we do?” She
looked nervous for the first time.

“We’ll bargain for our
freedom.”

“With what?”

“The cure for Simon’s curse,”
Sean said.

“You have it?”

“I can get it.” At
least he hoped he could.

Their trip in the elevator this
time was uneventful. It stopped at the ground floor and opened onto a
sub-street. They exited Carnal Escape and headed across the way to a v-game
parlor called Shocker’s. All v-game parlors smelled the same, the spicy tang of
dosed air drifting above the metallic notes of conductor and cleaner fluids.