Specimen

“Perks of the job!” Isaac says. He reaches over and punches me in the shoulder. “With all the extra drugs you have in your system, you have to be all over Dr. Grace all the time.”

I can’t help the grin that spreads over my face. There is no denying it. Since the first time she let me f

uck her, I’d been inside her as often as possible. I try to wait until she isn’t busy, but sometimes I have to resort to distraction techniques. I’d come up behind her when she’d be working on the computer, slip my arms around her, and kiss her relentlessly until she’d let me fuck her on the desk.

Pike laughs loudly when I don’t offer a verbal response. I’m not comfortable talking about my sexual relationship with my doctor, so I try to steer the conversation in a different direction.

“I’ve got information on several defectors,” I say. “When Riley uploaded historical data into my head, there was a bunch of stuff on technical people who went rogue last year.”

Isaac and Pike both pause for a moment, retrieving the information for themselves.

“She didn’t give me a name,” Pike says. “I don’t know which one it might be. Have you done any virtual training on recovering people?”

“No,” Isaac and I say in unison.

“Huh.” Pike frowns. “I’ve done two of those.”

“I thought most of our training was on the same timeline,” Isaac says. “Are there any other anomalies?”

We discuss the types of virtual missions we’ve done, but the schedule is identical with this one exception.

“Weird.”

“Maybe you have another one going on today,” Isaac says as he nods toward the entrance to the lounge. Dr. McCall is heading in our direction, but she doesn’t acknowledge me as she retrieves Pike. He leaves with a quick “See ya later” in a tone too low for his doctor to hear, but she gives him a stern look anyway.

“Three likely candidates,” Isaac says.

“Candidates?”

“Defectors.” He leans forward again, and the legs of his chair bang against the floor. “Spencer Cannon from the medical division. He fought against Project Mindstorm from the beginning. Annabel Jarvis, also from medical is a likely candidate.”

“She made claims against synthetic food production.” I tilt my head as I access the information. “I understand Cannon—he knows a lot about the drug treatments for Project Mindstorm. Why Jarvis?”

“She’s Graham Mills’ goddaughter, for one. Having someone close to him run to the other side is embarrassing, if nothing else. There’s some report indicating she may have had some information about the assassination of Robert Grace.”

“Riley’s father?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t have any intel on that.”

“Maybe an oversight?” Isaac shrugs before he goes on. “Errol Spat from the tech division is the last one. He developed our implants.”

I nod as I retrieve the information.

“Any of those could be the target,” I say. “There are countless others as well.”

“Those are the most likely,” Isaac says, and I agree with his assertion.

“I guess we’ll find out eventually.”

We hang out in the lounge all day. When we run out of topics to discuss, I begin to get restless. Riley has been gone a long time, and I wonder what is keeping her occupied. She’s left me to attend meetings before, but they usually only last an hour or two. She’s been gone for six hours and seventeen minutes now.

“Long meeting, I guess,” Isaac says as if he’s reading my mind.

I can’t hear the thoughts of my comrades, but I can definitely sense their presence and mood. The closer they are physically, the stronger the sensation. When we’re linked for a training exercise, the feeling is emphasized.

“I wonder if they’re talking about the mission Pike mentioned. Wouldn’t Dr. McCall be in the same meeting? I wonder why she didn’t leave Pike here.”