Fish Swim in the Lake

Part 8.2 | It's time to train yourself

Colin kissed her, and she managed to smile.

She thought, Vas never heard of the Magaz Corporation, but he thought I should know that the Magazes were, are, dead...

He kissed her again and, keeping his arm bent like a wing away from her body, put his hand shakily on her back. She kept her eyes closed. It was easier to read the vog results.

The Magaz Corporation wasn't as old as she'd thought. In high tech, companies are begotten, born and die far faster than in Byzantium. It incorporated just after Vas's group had gone Up There. Made up of a bunch of defectors from a bunch of other companies making net access ware. About a year ago. A little after the last batch of them, including Vas, went Up There under data quarantine. And Vlad Mikhailovitch, Colin's brother, in the core.

Colin kept kissing her. He was shaking. His eyes were shut.

She checked the others Up There with Vas. She hadn't paid attention when he went. She was too angry then. Now what she noticed was people who might have been political dark horses, might have collected power in the Canerican government, being co-opted by mystery and outer space. Being seduced into genocide and necrophilia.

And they knew for ten years? How long had Vas known?

Colin let his shivering arm relax and fall against her bicep. He touched her artificial hair. "You're so beautiful," he breathed.

Vas was floating in the bathtub. He could die. He could be dead.

She didn't have time for this.

She cleared and filed most of her vog inquiries. She flipped Colin over and pushed him down on the loveseat. He squeaked but didn't protest. She pinned his thighs between hers and sat on his knees. She touched over his ankles and his calves. He was jangled as a marionette. She wrapped her arms around his thighs and dragged them up to his hips. Her breasts were pressed into his solid crotch. Fine. Whatever it took. Up to the small of his back. There it was, jammed into his back waistband at an angle like a knife. She pulled out a half-full skinjector. It was orange with Luna's black circle, and a phionine-green tip.

Colin made a distant little sound. She clamped her thighs viciously around his legs.

"What's this, Colin?"

Posted by gtaylor at July 04, 2003 12:51 PM