Under the Skin

Under the Skin by Kannan Feng

Torquere Press www.torquerepress.com

Copyright ©2011 by Kannan Feng First published in www.torquerepress.com, 2011 NOTICE: This eBook is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution to any person via email, floppy disk, network, print out, or any other means is a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines and/or imprisonment. This notice overrides the Adobe Reader permissions which are erroneous. This eBook cannot be legally lent or given to others. This eBook is displayed using 100% recycled electrons.

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Under the Skin by Kannan Feng

CONTENTS Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three ****

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Chapter One Padraic was running on three hours of sleep when his cousin convinced him that going to Japan was a good idea. After an emergency overnight shift, Padraic opened the door to his apartment and found his cousin inside, looking over the plans on his desk and murmuring softly to himself. "This looks good, Padraic," Arch said finally. "You been working on this long?" Padraic blinked at him. "Off and on," he said vaguely. Arch traced a finger over the schematics, following the long and graceful lines of the monofilament strands as they looped a path from an interface jack in the chest up through the neck to snug directly into the brain. "Neural netting at its best," Arch said happily, and despite his exhaustion, Padraic felt a swelling of pride. Arch was a courier, and he saw some of the best tech up close and personal every day. Padraic spent his time working in the lower echelons of an anonymous hardware developer, and he had been lucky to scrape together enough money to fund his current project. "Got a buyer yet?" Arch asked casually, and Padraic could only laugh, touching the still-raw implants in his chest gingerly. "I've only had it in for a week or so. I'm still working out the..." "Hmmm." 5

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"What?" "So there's this company in Japan..." Arch waved it away and took another look at Padraic. "You look like shit," Arch said, not unkindly. "I do?" Like his cousin, Padraic was pale and blond, but where Arch had a whipcord-tough body, Padraic was much more slender, with green eyes that currently had deep purple circles underneath them. "Catch some sleep. I've got some calls to make." **** That was just Arch. He made connections, he put two and two together, and from the four that came out, he took a generous ten percent for himself. He waved away terms like "testing" or "safety regulations" and made the right calls while Padraic gave up and went to bed. Padraic slept for four hours, almost enough to convince himself that he was human again, and then his alarm went off. Padraic reached for it blearily, only to flail at empty air before Arch handed him a cup of tea. "No work for you today," Arch said cheerfully. "You're really, really sick." Padraic sipped the coffee while Arch's words sank in. "Arch, you can't do this..." "Sure I can. You have plenty of sick days saved up, and when you come back in a week, you can go back to being a good little paper-pusher if you want to." Arch grinned. 6

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"Though, you know, you may have enough cash to say goodbye to that hellhole." Collufex was the best place that Padraic had worked yet, but he didn't tell Arch that. Instead, he drank the rest of the coffee that his cousin had given him and asked when he was getting on the plane. Arch leaned over and ruffled his hair fondly, though, Padraic noticed, he came no closer than he had to. "What kind of cousin would I be if I were going to sent you off on your own?" **** When they were children, Padraic had moved into Arch's family's house, and Arch had adopted him, becoming a combination of best friend, brother, father, and manager. When Arch's mother had finally thrown them out, Arch was the one who looked after Padraic and got him enrolled in a university. "You've got the brains, and I've got everything else," Arch would say, and the only thing that kept it from being a stinging insult was how proud Arch always looked, how he would boast to anyone who would listen about what kind of genius his baby cousin was. Padraic always felt that working as a nameless designer for a long run of go-nowhere companies had been a poor way to repay his cousin's efforts, but Arch had waved it off. By then, Arch was working as a courier, and he had become something of a mystery to Padraic. Padraic suspected that they had 7

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always been like this, and it was only Arch's fierce loyalty that had held them together this long. It was a mixture of desperation and genuine desire that had led him to drunkenly kiss his cousin not so very long ago, and Arch's look—shock, bewilderment, and yes, disgust as well—was something that Padraic would never forget. Since that night, they had drifted even further apart. Padraic didn't want to go to Japan, didn't want to talk to anyone about his tech, but he wanted to disappoint his cousin even less. Arch set it all up, and inside of two hours, Padraic was at a coffee shop in downtown Milwaukee, meeting with a welldressed man wearing an entirely untrustworthy grin. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Dahl," said the corporate bodyguard with a pleasant smile. When he shook Padraic's hand, Padraic could feel the dull heat of constantly moving cybernetics just under the skin of the man's palm. Arch had mentioned how deadly and effective the man was, but he had neglected to mention that Jenner was also as short as a teenage girl and had a grin like a jack-o'-lantern. "Pleased to meet you, too, Mr... uh, Jenner?" He laughed, and Padraic caught another glimpse of toosharp teeth. "Just Jenner, please, Mr. Dahl. Mr. Jenner is... someone else entirely, I suppose." He took a long slurp from his orange soda, never taking his nearly black eyes off of Padraic or losing the faint smirk. 8

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"Now, I want you to tell me all about what I'm going to be protecting and how much of you needs to survive in order for me to do so." In all honesty, Padraic couldn't say that all of him needed to survive. His brain and the delicate ports at his breastbone could keep the system functioning even if the rest of him was gone, and with a faint feeling of reluctance, he told this to Jenner. "Hmm," Jenner said thoughtfully. "Of course it would be a lot better if you could keep me in one piece," Padraic said hastily. "My, er, meat cushions the leads, and pulling the inputs from my breastbone would be problematic to say the least. The system would be quite pricey to replace." "Exactly how pricey?" Jenner asked with interest. "Um. Very?" Jenner made a face. "Everything's about accurate accounting these days. I like to know what my incidentals might be." "Right. Um, continuing on, at the most basic level, the neural net is an information storage and retrieval system, coupled with a basic capacity to execute software. Practically any amount of data can be uploaded almost immediately, and it can be retrieved just as fast. For security purposes, there's an extremely high level of encryption that can be engaged. I was originally thinking that it could be used in-house..." "Spies." "Beg your pardon?" 9

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"You're carrying espionage cyberware," Jenner said flatly. "How much information can you store? "Enough to handle all of the information that a company would need stored," Padraic said. "Like I said, it's specifically intended for storage and transfer purposes..." "And with data transfer still instantaneous? Package that with some really good code-breaking software, give you a good team to work with..." Jenner grinned. "In the right hands, you'd be one dangerous little brat." "It was really made for in-house use," Padraic protested, but he could see where the other man was going. Jenner patted his arm reassuringly. "Don't worry. I'll make sure that nothing happens to that gorgeous little piece of hardware that you've got netted to your brainmeats." Look reassured, look reassured, Padraic tried to tell himself. "Thank you," he said numbly. "No, really, thank you so much." **** It turned out that traveling with Jenner ensured one of the most trouble-free check-ins that Padraic had ever experienced. He was relieved when he didn't set off any of the security portals, and Jenner didn't go through them at all. "Too much weird gear," said Jenner easily. "It would just freak them out." "What about freaking me out?" Padraic muttered. He realized that he would have to sprout another hand to really 10

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hang on to his carry-on and find and present all the documentation that the security officer was demanding. It was the first time that he had flown first class, and the presence of the free alcohol would have been a comfort if Jenner hadn't pulled it from his hand. "Nope, we need you sharp if you're going to hit the ground running in Nagoya." "Hit the...?" "Yup, Arch booked you for a late meeting with an Inoue rep. It's a long flight," Jenner continued. "Why don't you take some time to learn the language?" Padraic took the language download that Jenner was offering and automatically thumbed open the secondary port behind his right ear. "Aren't you going to...?" Jenner made a face. "I hate those things," he said, settling in for a nap. "Go on. Nineteen hours ought to be just enough time to get you up to code." The small yellow fish on the side of the module was friendly at least, and Padraic was almost beginning to hope that things were going to go smoothly when a shoal of bright blue sparks flared through his head. "Oh, fuck me," he muttered, holding his head as it tried to break in two, but then the mind-bending pain was gone, leaving the first gibbering notes of a download in progress behind them. He had had easier downloads, but he had had worse ones too, and he tried to shove the pain aside. He 11

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grunted and put his head between his knees, feeling suddenly ill. Jenner rubbed his back solicitously. "All right?" asked Jenner, and Padraic waved him off. The pain was gone, but the other symptoms of a truly epic migraine were definitely in the works. Padraic let the static sounds of the download lull him into a state that he could pretend was a nap and tried to get comfortable. **** The landing in Nagoya would have been fine if the Japanese language module hadn't spat at the last moment and left a feeling like frying eggs in Padraic's brain. He stumbled off of the plane with his carry-on in a death grip and stared around the airport. They had landed in the middle of what promised to be one hell of a snowstorm, and the people who could were getting out of the terminal as fast as possible. "Over there, over there!" Jenner pointed, and Padraic could see a slim young man in a crisp black suit holding up a sign that said "Dahl." Padraic glanced at his companion, but Jenner seemed content to trail along in his wake. Apparently, Jenner wasn't going to be useful until and unless assassins attacked, so Padraic took a deep breath and started walking. The man with the sign tucked it under his arm and bowed to them. Caught unawares, Padraic tried to bow in return but stumbled slightly. When Padraic glanced up, the Inoue representative was smiling in a way that could have meant anything. 12

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"Sharp" was the only word that Padraic could find to describe him, from his brisk, white smile to razor-sharp neatness of his black hair. Despite that, Padraic found himself putting on that familiar nervous smile that he usually wore when confronted with handsome men. When he spoke, his voice was warm, albeit as crisp as a good linen sheet. His words, on the other hand... "The fact that welcome, as for me your flight feeling is good is relied on to Japan. I am above the well, bearing fruit." Padraic stared. He heard Japanese words, but his brain insisted that they meant... something that he wasn't sure was English. "Going, does preparation do?" "Er, to the Inoue Corporation?" The driver smiled again before switching seamlessly to English and allowing the rather tender portion of Padraic's brain that was responsible for language to rest. "Yes. You are meant to be at the corporation within the hour. Are you ready to depart?" He reached out to take Padraic's bag, and Padraic automatically handed him the one with his clothes, taking a firmer grip on the one that held his tools. Their hands touched, and Padraic had time to think how warm the other man's hand was before he pulled back nervously. The Inoue representative only nodded, turning away and leaving Padraic feeling oddly bereft. The young man guided them through the airport and toward a sleek, black car in the underground garage. Jenner 13

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ran an appreciative hand over the hood and smiled at the driver. "Nice," he said, sliding into the back seat behind the driver. Padraic clung to his side of the back seat; there was something distinctly unnerving about being that close to Jenner with nothing between them. Nagoya passed by his window in a sleety, gray-blue blur, and Padraic could make out peaked roofs interspersed with high skyscrapers. The car ran like a cloud over the road, but it couldn't block out the roar of the traffic. Padraic remembered belatedly that Nagoya was one of Japan's busiest cities. In contrast to the more modern structures that surrounded it, the Inoue Corporation buildings were unrepentant throwbacks, with thick, whitewashed walls and tall roofs tiled in green and trimmed with red. The gate was completely modern, though, and as the reinforced steel clanged shut behind him, Padraic shuddered a little. "Matsumoto Castle, right?" Jenner said suddenly, snapping his fingers. "That's what the design is copied off of." The driver glanced back at them. "The design is inspired from the style of Matsumoto Castle." "The Inoue like to live it up, I guess," Jenner said, grinning at Padraic. "These castles, they were kinda banned when feudalism was. Anyone who puts one up after something like that is—" "Oh-look-the-gate-is-opening," Padraic said frantically. He tried to make a cut-off gesture at Jenner; he wasn't sure 14

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what insulting his host's architecture was going to do, but he was fairly sure that everything they said was going to go right from the car's built-in recording device to whoever handled that sort of thing. "What are you flailing at?" asked Jenner, but they were mercifully interrupted by the door opening for him. Getting into the facility was more straightforward than Padraic had imagined. Security passes were made up for them in under five minutes, including a fingerprint and a DNA analysis from a cheek swab. It would have taken even less time if the machine had been up. The security guard apologized profusely and left Padraic and Jenner to their own devices in a plain white room while she ran to fetch the passes from another machine. "This is going fairly quickly," Padraic said hopefully. "Not really," said Jenner, perched on the chair next to him. "They could honestly just take the DNA, figure out who we are, and let us in or shoot us, depending on whether we are who we say we are. I figure this 'machine is down' stuff is just to be polite." "Wait, what?" "Not like we flashed ID to the driver or anything," said Jenner, absently looking around the room. "They just want to make really, really sure that you're Padraic Dahl and I'm William Overfit. Arch must have sent over our DNA in advance." "William Overfit?" "Yup." 15

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Padraic had no idea how Arch would have gotten hold of a DNA sample from him, and made a firm note to ask his cousin about it when he was back in the States. The door opened and they were handed their passes. Jenner's was indeed made out to "William J. Overfit," and Padraic resolved to keep things on a need-to-know basis—he himself did not need to know unless it was vitally important. The driver appeared again, and this time Padraic managed a bow that at least didn't tip him over. For his part, the driver smiled encouragingly and led them into the Inoue Corporation. Padraic was a little surprised when the small room that he was taken to was identical to any small conference room he might have seen back in Milwaukee. "My apologies," the driver said. "It seems that the men who are going to be attending your presentation are a bit late." "Oh, that's no problem at all," said Padraic vaguely. "I mean, it was all pretty short notice and..." "It's unforgivable," said the driver, making Padraic blink at his vehemence. Padraic belatedly remembered someone telling him that apologies were customary in Japan, but this seemed like something more than politeness. "No, really, it's not a big deal," he hazarded. "I can wait." The look that the driver gave him was distinctly unfriendly, making Padraic take a step back. "Please think better of yourself," the other man said, and something about the way that he said it made Padraic take a closer look at him. 16

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The driver looked like he was about twenty, making him a few years younger than Padraic himself. He easily matched Padraic's five feet, eight inches of height. Padraic found himself staring into black eyes that met his own sharply and with more than a touch of aggression. He looked like nothing so much as a hunting cat on the scent, muscles wound a notch too tight and ready to pounce. For some reason, Padraic found that his mouth was dry. He was certain that he couldn't have made a sensible reply if someone put a gun to his head. "Incoming," said Jenner, saving the day as far as Padraic was concerned. The door opened and two older men walked in. The driver bowed deeply to them, and Padraic matched him without embarrassing himself, at least. "Go ahead and give your presentation," the driver said quietly. "I'll translate for you." "Um, oh, well, good afternoon, er, evening maybe? I'm not sure anymore..." Padraic tried to smile at his audience, who were sitting rigidly at attention in their chairs. "My name is Padraic Dahl, and I'm the designer and developer for this method of data storage and retrieval. I hope you'll find it, um, helpful and something that your company will be interested in..." If it was one thing that Padraic could do, it was talk about his tech, and he could feel himself relaxing a little. The two men still wouldn't make eye contact with him, but they were nodding along encouragingly enough. Occasionally, his drivercum-translator would make a slight gesture, letting Padraic 17

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know that he needed to slow down, but his presentation went quite smoothly. "... and that's about it. Do you gentlemen have any questions?" The men stood up, almost in unison, and bowed slightly to Padraic before turning toward the door. The door clicked behind them with a decisive snap, and the driver gazed after them, his mouth tight. "I think that went well," Padraic said hopefully. "I mean, they didn't ask any questions, but maybe—" "Severely criticize those entirely in hell" was what Padraic's translation program insisted the driver said. "Umm." "Those goddamned, motherfucking sons of bitches," the driver said, switching to English. He dropped into one of the chairs, rumpling his hair in his hands. "Well, um..." The driver looked up him sharply. "You're brilliant." It was fascinating how the man could make "brilliant" sound like "You had frenzied and violent sex with my mother." "Thank you?" "You are completely fucking brilliant, and those assholes on the top floor decide before you even get here that they are going to screw themselves over by ignoring you." "Ignoring me?" Jenner snickered, making Padraic startle. He had almost forgotten that his bodyguard was in the room. 18

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"Totally. Didn't you notice, Padraic? They were practically snoring." Jenner turned to the still-seated driver. "Oi, Inoue, if they weren't going to give us a fair shake, why ask us all the way out here?" "Inoue?" Padraic blinked and looked at their driver again, slowly realizing that he had missed something important. "Oh, they're going to listen; don't worry about that." Inoue straightened up in his chair, a stubborn set to his shoulders. "I'll cram your tech down their throats and make them choke on it." He glanced up at Padraic. "Is there a reason that you're looking at me like that?" "Your name is Inoue, like the company?" "Exactly like the company." Jenner coughed. "In case you weren't listening the first time, Padraic, this is Inoue Minoru-san—I'm guessing he's the son of the company's CEO." Padraic could feel a hot blush come to his face, and he quickly looked away. "I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I honestly thought you were—" He fumbled for something that wouldn't make him sound like a complete moron, and was spared by Minoru's quick laugh. "You thought I was completely irrelevant. Not to worry, it is a belief that is shared by many in this company." He sighed and stood up. "You're going to be here for a week. We'll have another chance tomorrow. For now, I'll show you to your room, and you can rest." He looked Padraic up and down. 19

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Padraic was suddenly torn. On one hand, he wanted to drop his eyes because he wasn't used to someone staring that directly at him. On the other hand, well, he simply didn't want to stop looking at Minoru. There was a quality about the young man that made Padraic want reach out and touch, then run and hide. Stupid, stupid, he thought numbly. What kind of prey animal didn't know how to run from something dangerous? The answer was whatever he was, and Padraic found himself staring at a long, faint scar that ran from the corner of Minoru's lower lip to his chin. There was something almost shockingly sexy about Minoru's scar and suddenly, with a sinking sensation in his stomach, Padraic realized that he wanted to kiss Minoru very badly. "It's a shame that you're so pretty," Minoru said bluntly. At first Padraic thought he had misheard, but at Jenner's laugh, he realized that he most certainly hadn't. "I—" "They might have taken a more mature-looking man more seriously." Minoru shook his head. "I suppose it can't be helped." **** "So was he being pointedly rude, or was he hitting on me?" It was true that something about Minoru made Padraic sit up and take notice. Hell, that was being kind. Something about Minoru made Padraic want to roll over and beg. There was a certainty and decisiveness about Minoru's movements 20

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that was completely absent from his own awkwardness, and the thought of what Minoru might look like when he was engaged in more intimate activities sent a shiver up Padraic's spine. He realized wryly that it was men like Minoru who had always given him problems. They all had a confidence that bordered on arrogance, and an understanding of the world that Padraic suspected he lacked. Arch had it, and the last few men he had been with had had it. That quality had gotten him into trouble in the past, and he realized that consciously staying away from such men had led to his current long dry spell. Jenner cocked his head at Padraic's plaintive question. "Was that an invitation to speculate, or are you just thinking out loud?" "The first one." The suite they were staying in was actually a part of the Inoue Corporation's compound, and Padraic had discovered the alcohol that was kept discreetly at the back of the refrigerator. He was not regularly a drinker, but it had seemed like a good idea today, and at the very least, it had given him something to do while Jenner swept the room for bugs. "Honestly? I don't know if there was a difference for that guy." "Oh? Please continue."Padraic tried to gesture magnanimously but banged his hand hard into the back of the couch instead. 21

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"You're an incidental," Jenner said bluntly, running his hands over the wooden trim in the room. He smiled suddenly, and there was a short blue spark that arced from his fingertips to the wood. Padraic frowned. "You've used that word before." "Mm. The more you're able to plan, the more you have to take into account what's important and what you're going to leave by the wayside if it comes to an all-out explosion. So for Inoue-san, you've got to figure that his number-one priority is going to be your tech, and that somewhere down near, oh, let's say twenty-six or twenty-seven or so, is the fact that you get his dick hard." Padraic blushed and looked away. The mention of Minoru's dick made him shiver a little, and he had a moment to reflect on how long it had been since he had had anything more intimate than a brief and furtive one-night stand. He supposed he should have been irritated, if not downright alarmed, by Jenner's assessment of his status with the man, but it was oddly comforting. At least he had some value to Minoru; at least he had some right to talk to him. "Thank you, that was... completely without tact." "Trust me, they really, really do not pay me for tact." Jenner grinned and got to his feet. "So all of this slumber party stuff is nice, but unless we're going to, I dunno, get out Popsicles and practice blowjobs on them, you should turn in. I'm going to put down some basic security for the place." Padraic got to his feet and gave Jenner a look. "So what kind of slumber parties have you been to?" 22

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Jenner just shrugged and smiled, and Padraic turned toward his room. "If only Minoru weren't so hot," he found himself muttering. At Jenner's snicker, he reddened again and shut the door behind him. **** The fact that he fell asleep almost immediately surprised him. The fact that he dreamed of Minoru surprised him even more. The dream was a dark and murky thing, with hands that grasped at him and plucked his clothing. He was on the edge of panic, and suddenly he found himself firmly caught by the Inoue heir, one strong hand gripping his wrist and pulling him back. "I can't," he tried to say. For some reason, he gestured at his head and heart, to the neural net and the interface over his breastbone. "I can't, they'll..." "It doesn't matter," Minoru said, running a hand that felt all too real up his side. "It doesn't matter to me at all." Minoru's hand brushed Padraic's away from the jacks, touching them briefly before sliding lower. Somehow, Padraic's clothes had fallen away, though Minoru remained perfectly dressed in that sharp suit. Minoru's bare hand fondled him briefly between the legs, stroking Padraic's cock twice before reaching down to cup his balls. Padraic remained as still as he could, as silent as he could, but then Minoru stepped closer, wrapping his slender fingers tightly around Padraic's cock. 23

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"It's all right," Minoru said softly. "Let me take of this, yes?" Padraic meant to make a reply, but then Minoru's hand started to stroke his erect flesh, ignoring Padraic's startled moan to pick up a rhythm as steady as a heartbeat... **** Padraic awoke, certain he could hear an echo fading in the air. He listened for a moment and heard only his own light breathing. With a sigh, Padraic lay back down and turned over, trying to get back to sleep. It had been a sexy dream, but it wasn't the distinct arousal that made him sorry he had awakened too quickly. In the darkness, his hand slid up to the jacks in his chest, stroking lightly. "Tell me it doesn't matter again," he whispered hopefully, but the dream was gone, and he fell into a fitful slumber. **** "It's time to get up." Padraic opened eyes that he wasn't even aware he had closed. He found himself looking up at Jenner, who was peering down at him like a hungry owl. "No, it's not..." "The clock and the Inoue heir at the door say otherwise." "Inoue—oh, fuck." Padraic sat up and promptly wished that he hadn't. His body felt like it had been beaten with a sack of oranges. He staggered to his feet and then glanced behind him at the bed. 24

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"Just a good dream," Padraic muttered, and apparently Jenner had good aural enhancers, because he grinned widely. "I'll say," Jenner agreed enthusiastically. "Wait, how did you..." "You are loud when you have sexy dreams." "Oh." "And explicit." Jenner paused. "Like, I came in to make sure you hadn't sneaked someone in, or, I don't know, they hadn't sent you a complimentary hooker I wasn't aware of." Padraic ended the conversation by walking into the small bathroom and closing the door between them. "Hurry it up, too," Jenner called through the door. "Inoue looks unhappy." **** Padraic was convinced that the second presentation actually went worse than the first. The three men came in, and after short bows that felt cursory even to Padraic, they sat down and looked at him expectantly. He forced himself to ignore what his translation system was insisting that Minoru was saying and forged ahead. They let him finish, but it seemed like a near thing. The three shook their heads sharply when he asked if there were any questions and then filed out again, as if pleased to be getting away. The other two had already left the room before the youngest of the men stopped and looked at Minoru. "The very lucid person, it is Inoue. Try to brag about your father." 25

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"Your word, uncle, truly thank you." The door closed behind them, and Minoru immediately started pacing back and forth across the small meeting room. If Minoru were the sort who threw fits, Padraic had a feeling that he would be ducking chairs and diving for cover. Apparently Jenner felt the same way, because he swiftly put himself between Minoru and Padraic. "Okay, so they're not interested, and it sounds like that last guy took a cheap shot at you. Not the end of the world," Jenner started. "That's what you say," Minoru retorted. "Not the end of the world? I know what this company is like—" "—and we don't," Jenner finished meaningfully. "And unless we get a clue, we're going to be like anchors around your neck, right?" Minoru blinked and regarded Jenner more carefully. "I had thought you were simply Mr. Dahl's bodyguard." Jenner shrugged. "Well, I'm that, too." This was the first that Padraic had heard of the "something more," but he managed to keep a straight face when Minoru looked over at him. "I think it's time that we sat down and planned a strategy, all three of us together. It is my fault. I thought they would be won over by the merit of your work alone, and I apologize." Padraic wasn't sure why he found himself smiling. "Thank you. I'm not sure that I've ever received as many compliments on my design from one person, ever." 26

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"That is a shame, because it deserves it." Minoru nodded decisively. "And we'll make this company see that it deserves it yet." "We need to get out of here and have some space to think," said Jenner thoughtfully. "Outside of company walls." "My apartment," suggested Minoru. "It's on company property, but—" "Out of the question," Jenner said cheerfully. "Some of the bugs that you had installed in our rooms were good enough that I couldn't get to them. I just knew that they were there. I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts—or is that going to be yen to takoyaki?—that yours aren't any more accessible." Padraic blinked. He had assumed that Jenner had disabled the bugs during the sweep. He remembered Jenner's comment about Minoru being hot and the noises that Jenner said he had made, and he felt heat rush to his face. He sneaked a glance at Minoru, but the Inoue heir only looked thoughtful. "So what this all boils down to," Jenner continued, "is that I've heard about these maid cafes that you've got over here." **** Forty-five minutes later, they were seated in a very comfortable restaurant that looked no different from the latenight diners that Padraic frequented back home. The booths were the same, the menus were practically the same, and even the smells of grease and coffee were the same. The cheerful girls in the Alice in Wonderland costumes, Padraic granted, were new. Jenner looked at the menu and 27

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randomly pointed at a line of text, smiling at the waitress. Padraic, feeling less brave, pointed out a picture of a cheeseburger. He wondered briefly if he was going to be eating American food for his entire stay. Padraic risked a glance at Minoru, who, with his jacket off and his sleeves rolled up, looked even handsomer than he usually did. Idly, Padraic wondered how it would feel to run a finger up along that bare arm, up to the crook of Minoru's elbow, but even something as innocent as that made Padraic redden and look away. He couldn't imagine that Minoru would thank him for thinking thoughts like that on company time and resolved to be better about it. He forced himself to pay attention to what was going on. "We need to think bigger," Jenner was saying. "They aren't hearing what we want them to hear when it's just Padraic up there talking, so we need to find a way to really talk to them on their level." "Unfortunately, that might involve interpretive dance and a month-long series of negotiations over dinner." Minoru shook his head. "I don't have the time, and I really don't have the patience." "Well, maybe we should start by cornering someone further up the food chain, you know? They got there for a reason, and there ought to be someone who can see what we've got. We could get them alone and then..." Minoru made a small, impatient noise. "They're all aware that they are only as good as their last success. That means that they'll be polite enough to listen to 28

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the president's son and dead terrified of making a decision that is going to reflect poorly on them." "Which means more bowing and even less work getting done, huh?" "We could give them a demonstration," Padraic suggested. "I mean, it seems like the most obvious thing, right?" "I'm glad you said it and I didn't," Jenner grinned. "From me, it just sounds so calculated." Padraic blinked, but Minoru was nodding. "I think," he said slowly, "that my father's company is going to be much more influenced by negative consequences than positive reinforcement." His comment was punctuated by the arrival of an undersized hamburger and what appeared to be a sampler of nine varieties of pie. "Work on your timing," advised Jenner, digging into the slice of blueberry. "Saying something like that usually needs thunder and lightning, not the magical appearance of pastry." **** [Back to Table of Contents]

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Chapter Two The apartment was tiny, and Padraic was certain that if he really tried, he could touch the opposing walls with his fingertips. The sensation of claustrophobia was made much worse by the bank of glowing computer interfaces and screens that were built directly over the window. When he glanced up, he saw that the bed had been rigged to the ceiling on a pulley system, though he had no idea how far it would actually lower, given the tightness of the room. Jenner had decided that the place was safe enough and was currently checking out the snack selection in the grocery store on the ground floor. If Jenner hadn't closed the door behind him with a final click, Padraic might have bolted. Instead, he stood as still as he could and watched as Minoru talked to their eyeless hostess. Minoru turned to Padraic, and for a moment, Padraic thought he was going to be introduced. "Take off your shirt," Minoru said, and turned back to the eyeless woman without even waiting to see if Padraic obeyed. Padraic swallowed hard and found his hands automatically starting to undo his shirt. Never been here before, have we? Padraic shook the thought away, but it clung like dirty plastic, making it hard to move, making it a little hard to breathe. He must have been more pent up than he thought if 30

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Minoru ordering him to expose himself in a grimy room was doing it for him. The buttons above his interface were surprisingly hard to undo. He reminded himself that it was just one more piece of tech, just as inert as any of the machinery that lined the walls, but he couldn't convince himself of it. It might be metal, but it was him. He undid the final buttons, exposing the interface to the cold light of the room. He forced himself to breathe slowly. When Minoru and their hostess turned back to him, he could almost call himself calm. He shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, trying not to flinch whenever someone's hands came too close to his interface. Spidering software would get him into Inoue security systems, remove what it found there, and destroy any copy left behind. It was incredibly effective, and even possessing it was a misdemeanor, with greater penalties for selling it or buying it. The conversation between the woman and Minoru got increasingly intense. The translation program spat out words from time to time, and as much as he told himself that it was only a faulty download, another part of Padraic knew that he was just lying to himself. His hardware would need attention, and need it soon, but then Minoru turned around to introduce him to Yuuka. Padraic tried not to stare at the electric blue orbs that had replaced her eyes. They wired her to a network of cameras and visual imaging devices all over the world. The feedback 31

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must have been intense, but she nodded at him calmly enough. "She says it's nice," Minoru translated for him. Padraic tried to smile, but then her fingers were trailing over the inputs in his breastbone, causing him to shudder involuntarily. Bio-jacks never really healed up thoroughly, and the small amounts of static that radiated from her fingers— scoping radiation? Simple magnetic fields?—made his skin tingle unbearably. The pads of her fingers were rough and calloused, and when she ran them against skin that was already overlysensitive, he wanted shake like a dog just to get her off. Padraic thought that he had been in hardware design too long; an attractive person touching his chest was making him feel tampered with instead of aroused. Her touch was more violating than he thought it would be. Minoru said something to her sharply, and when she ignored him, he gently but firmly took her hand and pulled it away from Padraic's chest. Padraic felt his hands unclench and let out a breath that he hadn't been aware that he was holding. "I'm sorry," Minoru said in annoyance. "She is very good at what she does, but she does not always remember that people are connected to her precious toys." That sounded more than a little ominous to Padraic, especially when Yuuka handed him a small black lead. At Minoru's nod, he plugged the lead into the input jack in his chest, flinching a little at the buzzing sensation. After a moment, the buzz resolved to a more bearable hum, and he 32

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relaxed. His neural net was designed for data storage, but for actual software installation, he could expect a wait. After a few hushed words and some money pressed into her hands, Yuuka walked out the door, leaving Padraic alone with the Inoue heir for the first time. Gingerly, Padraic sat down on a narrow workbench that was shoved against the wall. His weight on the bench caused it to shift slightly, and a small stack of comic books that had been leaning against it went sliding down to the ground. Before he could reach for them, Minoru was kneeling on the ground, fastidiously stacking them up again. "You shouldn't move, you might dislodge the lead." "Can't have that," Padraic muttered, and even he was surprised by how irritated he sounded. Minoru regarded him a little warily. "If you had a problem with this course of action, you should have said something earlier..." "I don't!" At Minoru's eloquently quirked eyebrow, Padraic sighed. "I really don't," he insisted. "I just don't see why it's necessary." When Minoru tried to speak, he cut him off. "I mean, I know why this is going to prove to your family beyond a shadow of a doubt that they want this software, but I just don't see why this has to be so difficult. You and Jenner seemed to figure it out quickly enough, and even if you aren't the one running things, I would have thought that people who really knew about these things would figure it out, too..." 33

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"But you didn't know," Minoru pointed out. "I seem to remember your bodyguard saying something about you planning it for in-house data transfer...?" "Yeah, but I'm just a hardware junkie." Padraic gestured emphatically, causing another tower of comic books to waver. Minoru caught it handily and propped it back up, even straightening it a little before taking his hand away. "It's about potential, Mr. Dahl," said Minoru softly. "Is that your polite way of saying that I'm short-sighted and lack ambition?" Padraic laughed self-consciously. "It's been said before." It had, and it had been screamed at him as well. His aunt was never very shy about saying what a waste of breath Padraic was, but it was nothing compared to the hurt that he had felt when Arch said it. Arch was Arch, and even if he delivered it with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, he could be relied on to spit out something like the truth. "You're not going anywhere," Arch had said with complete candor, and even all those years ago, Padraic had known that he could only hang his head and agree. Other people traveled fast, moved forward, and to some extent, Padraic always knew that he was going to be left behind. Arch had also said that Padraic had a way of laying himself on the chopping block for any handy executioner to come by. Minoru sighed and crouched down in front of Padraic. He had taken off his jacket and his tie, and his shirt sleeves were shoved up, showing forearms that were hard with muscle. 34

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"Has it? It would not surprise me in the least." Minoru smiled, and Padraic realized that it was a private smile, one that he could never have imagined Minoru using in front of the Inoue company, or even in front of Jenner. "You have a habit of discrediting yourself before others can do it." Padraic wanted to laugh nervously, but it caught in his suddenly dry throat. What could he even say to that? "I imagine it happens to you a great deal in your life," Minoru continued seriously. "Both professionally and personally." Padraic attempted a laugh that sounded tinny even in his own ears. "That's... astonishingly direct of you." "And true, I imagine." Minoru reached out a hand and touched the lead running to Padraic's chest. He didn't touch the skin, but he might as well have, and Padraic stiffened at the altered vibration that coursed through his body. "I imagine," Minoru said deliberately, following the cord up to the input, "that you have often asked your lovers why they are with you." The truth hurt, and it was enough to jar Padraic from the sensual spell that Minoru had created. "So?" he asked, more coolly than he thought he could have. Minoru seemed to know that he had made an error because he took up Padraic's hand and started nuzzling the palm. The gesture, sweet and surprisingly gentle, made 35

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Padraic catch his breath, and that was before Minoru grazed the sensitive skin with his teeth. What else does he see? Padraic wondered, trying not to float away on the soft pleasure. He wondered if Minoru could really sense every wound, every small hurt that had driven Padraic into living underground, only coming up for the latest tech news and spare parts. He wondered if Minoru knew anything about lonely days and even lonelier nights that were as much a part of him as his height or the color of his eyes. Padraic wondered if Minoru knew what those gentle, soft kisses were doing to him. Padraic whimpered through gritted teeth. He knew that he should push Minoru away, but he didn't think he could stand it if the other man stopped touching him. He didn't know if he could stand it if Minoru kept it up. "You should never say such things," Minoru said, almost casually. "When you invite people, particularly your lovers, to doubt you, they will." Minoru's hand paused, and then he traced one clean fingertip to the edge of the metal input, where it met flesh. This time, Padraic did whimper, and Minoru smiled a little at the sound. "If you didn't tell them to doubt you, doubt your expertise, your designs, your good looks, they never would." "What... what are you doing?" Minoru's fingers left off playing with the input and started wreaking a different kind of havoc by scratching gently down Padraic's bare chest, leaving pink marks on the fair skin. 36

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"I suppose you could say I'm proving a point," Minoru mused. "Or you could simply stop doubting me and let me do exactly as I please." With no more warning than that, Minoru leaned in and kissed Padraic flush on the lips. Padraic heard a soft moan and realized that it had come from him. His hands were rigidly planted on the bench, but his whole body leaned in for more. Minoru tasted surprisingly sweet, and he seemed to have no problem taking his time. His inquisitive tongue was exploring Padraic's mouth with a shocking thoroughness, and the thought of that deliberate, careful mouth traveling elsewhere made Padraic squirm. Minoru kissed the point of Padraic's jaw and then his neck before running soft lips across Padraic's pulse. Together, or so it seemed to Padraic, they counted out three beats of his heart before Minoru was sucking on the skin there, hard enough to make Padraic flinch, before nipping firmly. "You're lovely," Padraic managed to say fearfully. He was terrified of breaking the spell that Minoru had woven, but Minoru only chuckled, grazing Padraic's erect and aching nipples with a gentle sweep of his palm. "I should be saying the same thing to you," Minoru murmured between soft bites. Padraic would have laughed at the idea of anyone calling him lovely, but then Minoru was trailing soft, wet kisses down his chest. Padraic shivered and tentatively reached up to 37

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stroke Minoru's hair. It was thick and coarse, and his gentle touch made Minoru growl.. "Oh, you can be much rougher than that," Minoru murmured. When Padraic tugged timidly, Minoru responded by biting more firmly at his chest, hard enough to make Padraic squirm on the hard bench. He could also hear the hitch in Minoru's breathing. That sound, almost more than the touching and the kissing, made him hard. Minoru wanted him, and that halting breath told him that fact more clearly than anything else had. "Data upgrade's done," Jenner said casually, and Padraic pulled away. Padraic might have dislodged the cable entirely, but Minoru held it in place as he rose gracefully to his feet. Before he turned away, Padraic saw an unmistakable bulge in the other man's pants and blushed with desire and arousal. Somehow, Jenner had gotten back into the apartment without either of them noticing and was wedged between two stacks of comic books, flipping through something that featured a lot more tentacles than Padraic was comfortable with. "I'll let Yuuka back in," Jenner said, putting the comic book back carelessly. "I just figured I'd wait until the two of you were done." "We're done here," Minoru said with a finality that was oddly crushing. Padraic watched as Minoru shrugged back into his suit jacket, checked the glowing screens on the desk, and essentially did everything except meet Padraic's gaze, even when Jenner was answering the door. 38

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There was nothing in the younger man's manner that even hinted at what a good kisser he was, or that just moments before, he had been on his knees. The disappointment that Padraic felt irritated him, and he drummed his nails against the bench impatiently. "So that's all that I need, huh?" he asked. Yuuka detached the lead from his chest, and Padraic flinched. It hurt more than he was used to, and he rubbed the area around the input absently, jerking his fingers away when he found skin that was still damp with Minoru's spit. Yuuka nodded and spoke a few words to Minoru. "I think we'll be all set to show you off to the company tomorrow," Minoru said with satisfaction. "Just make sure that you get some sleep." **** Minoru escorted them back to their suite without a word. Jenner said that he had some calls to make and disappeared into his room. For few moments, Padraic contemplated taking a drink from the restocked mini-fridge before pushing the thought away with disgust. Though it might serve him right to drink himself maudlin and earn a hangover, the thought simply did not appeal. He realized that some small, silly part of him still wanted to remember Minoru's kisses instead of blotting them out, and he could have slapped himself.

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How many times did he have to go through this before he learned? How many people had to walk all over him before he stopped lying down for it? His dreams that night were darker. As he had in Yuuka's apartment, Minoru brought Padraic in for a kiss, his fingers lightly pressed over Padraic's interface. This time, though, he dug his clean fingernails into the plastic edges, at first just pressing, but then tearing. "We'll get rid of this," Minoru was saying, "and then you'll be fine." No, no, Padraic wanted to say, It's the only damn thing that makes me any good at all.. "Stop doubting me," Minoru muttered. He tore out the interface entirely, making Padraic's body arch with pain and wringing hoarse sob from his body. "There now," Minoru said, pushing Padraic onto his back. "Now we'll get to what we really want..." **** "So are you ever going to get up?" Padraic jerked up, aware of a low, dull heat that threaded through his body like veins of tin, and a thudding in his head that would not stop. Jenner stood there, fully dressed, hair still damp from the shower, with a speculative look in his eyes. "I... um, yeah." Padraic started to step out of bed until he realized that he was still naked, and he wrapped a sheet around his hips instead. 40

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"Funny," Jenner remarked. "I mean, you don't mind shouting the house down, but you won't flash a little bit of skin." "I was what?" "Shouting. Moaning. You know, fuck me, fuck me harder, that kind of thing." Jenner smiled gamely. "You're kind of a one-man show." "Christ, I'm sorry." Padraic pressed his hand against his throbbing temple hard. "I slept really... badly." Jenner took a closer look at him and lost the smile. "You look like shit." "Well, thank you..." "Go look in a mirror." Something about Jenner's tone made Padraic look up, and he staggered to the bathroom. The harsh fluorescent light in the bathroom wouldn't have done anyone any favors, but it washed his skin out until it was just a few shades more lively than the minty green toothpaste. "Oh hell." "Say that again," Jenner agreed tersely. "Crap, and we've got another meeting with the Inoue today." "But I thought that—" "Open your mouth." He did, but Jenner didn't bother looking into it. Padraic realized that Jenner was just getting him to shut up without saying so for the microphones, and reddened with embarrassment. "I'm worried about that hardware of yours." "Well, we all are..." 41

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"No, seriously worried. It's been acting up since you tried to do that Japanese language download." Padraic thought back and remembered the sparks that had filled his head. "My head's been aching on and off ever since," Padraic admitted. Not all the time, his mind amended, but Jenner didn't have to know that. "You're lucky it didn't hollow you out," Jenner said bluntly. "We've got to tell Inoue." "Minoru... wait..." His head was aching badly enough that his vision was trying to double, but he still managed to grab Jenner's sleeve. "It can wait. I can take some time, look at it. I can fix it before Minoru has to hear about it..." Jenner gave him a rather prim look. "We need to be honest about this," Jenner said clearly. "His reputation's on the line, and he needs to be able to decide whether he wants to keep pushing this one. The Inoue aren't a nice family, okay, Padraic? Nice bites, by the way. Inoue does good work." Padraic looked down and noticed that the sheet was puddled around his ankles. By the time he looked up, Jenner was out the bathroom door, closing it gently behind him. "Get cleaned up as best you can, and whenever you're ready, meet me and Inoue at the door." Padraic sighed and wished the throbbing in his head would go away. He slumped against the door of the bathroom and quickly became aware of a different kind of throbbing. His whole body was sore, and all he wanted to do was go back to 42

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bed, but he already knew that the adrenaline in his system wouldn't allow it. If only his head would stop hurting. He brushed his teeth, turning off the lights because they were too bright for him and simply standing for a moment in the darkness. Now he could feel but not see the inputs that were planted in his chest. Placing them on his chest had allowed him to work on them without reaching awkwardly for ports on his neck or in his skull, but there were drawbacks. Hesitantly, he brushed his fingers over them. For such new implants, they had healed fairly well, but he knew that if he tried hard enough, he could dig his fingers into the hard plastic edge and tear it out, dragging out the half a yard of connection that was connecting it to his brain. Of course, when the pull got to the cerebral net that was in place, that would be... "Fatal," he whispered. Padraic shook his head and stumbled into the bedroom, finding his clothes by feel and practically tripping into them. **** He knew that he was pissing off both Minoru and Jenner, but when push came to shove, he flat-out refused to let either of them handle his tech. "I cannot believe that you expect to handle this yourself," Minoru said with frustration. "If something should go wrong, you'd be dead in a matter of minutes." "I can," Jenner said in exasperation. "Fucking techies, love their toys, love getting their fingers into 'em, can't wait until they short themselves out." 43

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Jenner had given up talking any sense into Padraic, and now he just seemed content to stare into space and growl. Minoru had taken them to a small hotel in a slightly seedy area of Nagoya. Padraic briefly wondered how Minoru knew the place, but then another sharp pain coursed from his chest to his head and he forgot to ask. "I'm sorry," Padraic said doggedly. "You aren't going to open it up. That's final, and you're going to have to accept it." "Of all the fucking things," Minoru said with disgust. "You come to Japan, you do as you're told, you're meek as a child, and now you simply dig in your heels." Padraic found the spirit to smile wanly, peeking up at Minoru through his hair. "Sorry," he said again. "I think it's a tech thing. It's... it's really me, you know?" Minoru shoved one hand through his own hair, which actually seemed to be losing some of its rigid discipline. Padraic realized that this was an altogether inappropriate time to enjoy that fact, and managed to turn the small, appreciative smile into something much more appropriate. What was Minoru saying? "If I didn't know better, I would actually say that you were enjoying this," Minoru said accusingly. For some reason, that cheered Padraic up even more. "Maybe a little," he said, this time knowing that he was enjoying the look on Minoru's face more than he should. "It's a hardware problem," he hastened to explain when it looked as though Minoru was going to explode. "I'm a hardware guy. This is something I can fix." 44

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A language barrier that was actually made worse by the software and a crush on the Inoue heir—those were bigger problems. Wait... Crush? "Anyway, I know this stuff and you don't. Simple as that. I'm going in, you're staying out." He must have hit home, because something made Minoru sit up and look sharp. **** Padraic supposed it meant something, the way he felt about his tech. It was just metal and plastic fiber, but even without the specter of burnout and corrosion, it was something that felt entirely his. In many respects, it was literally a part of him, and he could no more hand it over to Minoru or another technician than he could cheerfully hand over his arm. His heart, on the other hand... As he took off his shirt, Padraic glanced at Minoru, who was still staring out the window. The Inoue heir stood ramrod straight, more steel than flesh. Padraic knew firsthand, however, that Minoru was flesh and blood, and he felt a sympathetic ache. He knew how it felt to be so tense that bending was unimaginable. Minoru's hands were fisting tightly at his sides, and Padraic was suddenly tempted to go over there and kiss them. The image was surprisingly sensual. If Jenner hadn't been in the room, if his poorly developed sense of self-preservation hadn't stopped him, Padraic might have done it anyway. 45

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He couldn't help a very small, bitter smile, though, when he realized Minoru could have just about every part of him except the tech. **** When he realized that Padraic wasn't going to budge, Minoru made sure that the American technician at least wasn't going to be fumbling with poor tools. He produced a set of diamond-edged instruments that looked like a combination of surgical scalpels, dentist's equipment, and beauty supplies, all rolled together, and Padraic recognized enough of them to feel confident in starting. "Okay, do either of you know CPR?" Jenner sullenly raised his hand, and Minoru nodded. "How about emergency treatment for seizures?" Jenner's hand stayed raised, and Minoru shook his head. "I don't suppose either of you have nitroglycerin on you?" "This is ridiculous," Jenner spat. "No," said Padraic, feeling remarkably calm. "If my blood pressure skyrockets, nitroglycerin can keep it down to a manageable level. I've used it before." "It's not ridiculous because you might need it," Jenner growled. "It's ridiculous because you shouldn't be doing this at all." "I disagree." Padraic shrugged and took off his shirt. Was it his imagination, or were the metallic parts of the jacks hotter than they were before? He pressed the pads of his fingertips against them, but he couldn't tell. He wished he were back in 46

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his apartment in Milwaukee, but then he glanced at Minoru almost instinctively and realized that that wasn't true. Padraic looked around and dragged the other empty chair up to the full-length mirror in the bathroom. He sat down and pulled as close to the mirror as he could. He was skinnier than he thought he would be, and the violet rings under his eyes made him look half-dead. He glanced up and caught a glimpse of Minoru hovering in the doorway. He smiled at Minoru's reflection and managed to surprise one out of Minoru himself. Look sharp, he told himself. One wrong move here and you're going to be roasted from the inside out. One jittery twitch and your brains are going to be splattered across the inside of your skull. The thought made him feel surprisingly giddy, and that was normal at least. He pried the interface off, and without it in the way, he could definitely feel the heat from the small set of wires and chips that were so neatly arranged there. It wasn't a dry electric heat, either; he thought it felt kind of... "wet" would be the best way to put it. That could be tricky. That could be bad. Padraic shrugged internally. It didn't have to be either, really. He picked up a tool with a threadlike rubber probe and started to work. He started with the basics: connectors to leads, pins all unbent, no physical barriers interfering with the data transfer. When the working surface was slightly smaller than a playing card, there just wasn't much to check. He sighed and realized 47

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from the crick in his neck that more time had passed than he thought. There was no sign of infection, either. The skin around the interface was a little pink from the pressure he had been exerting on the plate, but it didn't have the hot-to-the-touch feeling of a bio-jack rejection. Working while looking in a mirror was something that Padraic had had to perfect. He realized that he was leaned in so closely that his breath was fogging up the glass, and he pulled back, hearing his back pop a little. Playing with his own organics, trusting his life to his own reflexes and his own ideas of what bioware could and should be, those were certainly normal enough. The audience, however, was not. Jenner was staring out of the window, but in the mirror, Padraic could still see Minoru's gaze locked on his body. It was a strangely intimate moment, and he realized that it might be the first time that he could look at Minoru all he wanted to. Underneath his fingertips, his tech thrummed, but he couldn't erase Minoru from his mind. When Minoru wasn't guarded, when he wasn't strutting in front of other executives or trying to remind them that of course he knew what he was doing, there was something almost achingly young about the Inoue heir. Padraic thought he could see the man that Minoru would be in a few years, slightly taller, perhaps slightly broader. That arrogance could turn into pride and confidence, but Padraic would have bet good money that Minoru's mouth would be the same: painfully sharp but almost ungodly sensual. 48

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He glanced up again and found that Minoru hadn't moved; the Inoue heir was still hovering in the doorway, watching him with intent black eyes. There was something intense there that caught Padraic's gaze, and he didn't realize that he was staring until Minoru frowned. "What?" Minoru asked. Padraic started to respond, and then he realized he was hearing an extremely faint hum in the air. After making sure it wasn't coming from him, he looked at Minoru again. "Are you calling for a pizza?" Minoru looked somewhat embarrassed but showed him a small phone, flipped open and active. Padraic was surprised; everyone he knew had a temporal communication implant located behind the ear. "I have emergency services on speed dial," Minoru said. "They can be here inside of six minutes." Padraic smiled. It was something that Arch might have done for him, but even Arch had never stirred the same feelings in him that Minoru did. "Thank you." **** An hour later, Padraic's fingers were sore and red, and he was no closer to figuring out what was wrong. "It's not hardware." He looked up at Minoru and Jenner helplessly. "For something like this, it should be hardware... but it's just not."

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"Then we move on to the next thing that it could be," Jenner said. "At least if it's software, there's less of a chance it'll blow your brains out." "Software mostly can't hurt your organics," said Padraic automatically. Something about Jenner's smile made Padraic uneasy, but then his bodyguard was looking thoughtfully at his chest. The plate was still off, exposing all of the delicate wiring and circuitry that made up Padraic's sum worth in Japan. "We need diagnostics," Jenner said finally. "Once over, from the beginning." "But software wouldn't..." Padraic trailed off as his head throbbed again. "Did you check the hardware thoroughly?" "Yes..." "Would anyone know it as well as you?" "No..." "Then we go to software." Jenner snapped his fingers. "I'm heading to that little free-zone kiosk I saw down the street. I can grab something from my home server and be back inside half an hour." Jenner was already putting on his jacket and slipping into his shoes. "Don't go anywhere," he said, smiling. "Some bodyguard," was all the rejoinder Padraic could make while his head was hurting so abominably. "Leaving me here all alone..."

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"I expect Inoue-san to protect you with his life," Jenner said over his shoulder as he walked out the door. "If you lose yours, I'm going to make him replace it with his." "He's joking," Padraic said in the silence that followed. "No," said Minoru approvingly. "He's not." **** The bed in the hotel room was soft enough that Padraic sank several inches down into it. He nearly moaned at the pleasure of lying down, but choked it off when he remembered that Minoru was still in the room. Minoru just laid a cool washrag on Padraic's forehead, smiling a little. "When I felt ill, my father would do this for me." With his eyes closed, Padraic could feel his body start to relax. Even in the hotel bed, in a room that smelled strongly of chemical cleaners, it felt good. Minoru was somewhere close by, and for some reason, that comforted him rather than making him nervous and tense. By all rights, he should have been edgy as a cat, but there was something intimately soothing about the other man's presence. It was odd; an hour ago, hell, ten minutes ago, he wouldn't have said that Minoru was someone he could relax with, but now he was letting the man treat him like a sick child. Padraic might have objected if it hadn't felt so good. The bed dipped when Minoru sat down on it, and that was fine, too. Having him close enough to touch was certainly a pleasant thought, but then Padraic uncomfortably realized how very pleasant his body found it. Christ, how long had it been since he had gotten laid? 51

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Despite Minoru's presence, his eyes drifted closed. He was exhausted... and he realized that he couldn't sleep. In his head, he counted backward from one hundred, something that usually worked, except when it didn't. Padraic opened his eyes again and found Minoru still sitting at his bedside, looking at him with that familiar, intense gaze. "Sorry," Padraic said. "I'm not very entertaining..." Minoru laughed softly. "No one said you had to be," he said reassuringly. "In any case, I find you completely engaging." Padraic self-consciously touched the replaced interface on his chest, and Minoru shook his head. "Not just because of that," he murmured, "though it certainly does add to your appeal." His finger hovered over the interface, not touching, but close enough that Padraic could feel the heat from his hand. "Is it sore?" "A little," Padraic admitted. "Not much. My body doesn't like it when the gear's jostled too much." "May I touch?" Padraic stiffened, and Minoru pulled back. "I won't open it, I promise. I just..." Minoru looked so wistful that Padraic found himself nodding. Minoru ran his fingertip over the rounded corner of the silver plating. Padraic's breathing hitched, but then he held himself still, letting the other man gently trace the edge before just lightly touching the connection points. "I've wanted to do this since I first saw them," Minoru admitted, almost to himself. 52

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"In the board room?" Minoru smiled, glancing up to meet Padraic's eyes. "Before that," he said. "When I first saw the images that were sent to me by your cousin, I knew that I had to get my hands on it." "So you've been thinking about this for more than two weeks?" Padraic smiled even as he turned a little red. "Thinking about it... I suppose you could say that." Minoru's fingers were so gentle that it took Padraic a moment to realize that they were no longer playing over the edge of metal. Instead, they were skating delicately over Padraic's chest, making him shiver with something between cold and fear. "Minoru..." The name felt strange in his mouth, and Padraic realized that it was the first time that he had said it. It was curiously intimate, and Minoru smiled almost tenderly. "I like the way you say my name," Minoru said softly. "Say it again." "Minoru," he said obediently, and the other man dropped his head to Padraic's chest and kissed it, leaving just a trace of wetness and a spot of heat. "I shouldn't," the Inoue heir said with real regret. "If something I do causes you harm, your bodyguard will have my head." "Do you really think a little bit of kissing is going to hurt anything?" Padraic laughed shakily. "I mean, I was just messing with my own organics. A little bit of kissing..." Apparently Padraic was more convincing than he thought he was, because Minoru leaned over him and kissed him 53

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deeply. Padraic was acutely aware of the fact that Minoru's hand was situated right below the interface on his chest, and he blushed. "Do... do you like it?" he found himself muttering shyly. Minoru laughed shakily. "Oh, I more than like it..." he said. Minoru leaned closer and circled the interface with an extraordinarily gentle touch. "I can't stop looking at it." Padraic was enchanted by the blush on the Inoue heir's cheeks. He reached up dreamily and touched the side of Minoru's face. Minoru felt warm to his touch, but he couldn't tell if it was from desire or embarrassment. "I don't want you to stop looking," he said. Minoru was flesh and blood and fire and temper, and then his fingers were just a hairsbreadth from the inputs themselves. When Minoru's finger touched the small opening, Padraic almost yelped in surprise. The metal was warm, and Minoru's touch made it feel hot. He almost wished he could tell Minoru to stop. "It's an opening into your body, into your mind..." Padraic half-smiled. "Into my soul, too?" Minoru laughed a little. "I hope not." Padraic watched with fascination as Minoru bent his head and licked the edge of the plating, where it met with flesh, and he almost arched off of the bed. "No..." he whimpered, and he felt Minoru nuzzling against the over-sensitized flesh comfortingly. "Better?"

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"Almost, ah, God, no, stop..." Padraic planted his hands against Minoru's shoulders and pushed, and after a moment Minoru relented, sighing. "It feels... weird," Padraic said lamely. "Scary." The moment he said that, he felt dumb as hell. Scary? Nothing that Minoru was going to do was going to hurt his tech, he knew that, but it was still hard to stand. Then again, when he thought of the look of intense desire that crossed Minoru's face whenever the Inoue heir laid eyes on good tech, maybe he had every right to be concerned. "I apologize," Minoru said, looking faintly irritated with himself and sounding genuinely remorseful. "It is an intimate thing. I took liberties." Stiffly, Minoru got up and put away the tools that Padraic had strewn all over the floor. Padraic was alone in a bed that suddenly seemed far too large. He stared up at the ceiling, his fingers lightly touching the plate of his interface. He found himself wondering how it would have felt to let Minoru actually work with it, to have those long, lean fingers touching wiring that touched him more intimately than any human hands could. Because he didn't want to think about Minoru's intense gaze and maddening touch, he thought about his tech instead. He was surprised where he had ended up. Padraic realized that he couldn't remember the last person who had ever so clearly seen his tech and his body. The first implants that he had gotten were from a small clinic in the Third Ward, with Arch practically holding his hand. Arch had 55

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taken him for a drink afterward, and that was perhaps the most sweetness he had ever gotten from his tech. There were also men who had frowned and told him to keep his shirt on, for the love of God, and one man who had simply pushed him away and gotten dressed when he had brushed against the plate. He remembered how it felt to be left alone in that hotel room, wondering whether it was worth it, and deciding that even if people always left, his tech was still there. As a matter of fact, he had gone back to his apartment and started working on an upgrade. He was slowly coming to realize, however, that having tech and being with someone weren't necessarily mutually exclusive. He turned over to look at Minoru, who was peering between the window blinds at what Padraic guessed was nothing at all. "Minoru?" "Yes?" "I'd... like it if you took more liberties." Minoru simply looked at Padraic for a moment before reaching for the interface. Padraic stifled a flinch, but Minoru's touch was only considering. "I'll cap these," he said quietly. "You deserve my full attention." When Padraic reached for the soft caps from the tool kit, Minoru brushed his hands away. "Let me." It was a sort of penetration, a shockingly personal act, and Padraic couldn't stop himself from whimpering.

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Minoru finally finished with the plugs, and then he leaned over, cupping Padraic's face with a cool hand and holding him steady for a deep kiss. Instead of submitting meekly to the kiss, Padraic halfdragged Minoru into bed with him. "Don't stop kissing me this time," he admonished, surprised at his own boldness. "Not if Jenner comes in, not if my tech starts to smoke..." Minoru laughed a little shakily."I'm not sure that I could stop for either," he admitted, and started kissing Padraic again. At first, Padraic was content to lie receptive under Minoru's touch, but then he was reaching for Minoru imperiously, holding the other man precisely where he wanted him. Padraic's hand drifted between Minoru's legs, stroking gently until he could feel the other man's cock, already hard, start to strain against his touch. "That's nice," he muttered, and blushed to the roots of his hair when Minoru laughed at him. "So very bold," Minoru said, undoing Padraic's pants. "I hadn't expected it of you after the other day." "Yeah, well," Padraic arched his hips up so that Minoru could pull his pants off his body with a smooth, practiced motion. He was completely naked except for his tech, if you could even count that, and Minoru sat back to look at him. For someone else, the way Minoru's eyes kept returning to the inputs on Padraic's chest might have been unnerving, but the idea of being seen as something wanted, as a piece of tech that was beautiful and important, made him ache. 57

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"Please don't make me wait," Padraic said softly. He couldn't stop his body from squirming restlessly on the sheets. He knew how it must look, how desperate he must seem, but he wasn't sure that he cared. Minoru laughed again, unsteadily, and he stretched out by Padraic's side, sliding a heavy hand from just below Padraic's breastbone down to his aching cock. He stroked it gently, and when Padraic writhed up against him, he increased the pressure. "That's lovely," Minoru said quietly, and he leaned down to kiss the curve of Padraic's hip. Padraic whimpered past gritted teeth. To his own surprise, he found his hands tangled in Minoru's hair. The Inoue heir reacted as though Padraic's light touch had been a slap. He shot up and pinned Padraic's wrists to the mattress on either side of his head. Padraic, still lost in his sensual daze, blinked up at eyes that were surely too dark and aggressive. "No," Minoru said silkily. "Not unless I tell you." Padraic swallowed and nodded. He knew that he should protest, or at least point out that no one had explained the rules to him beforehand, but instead he let Minoru drag his hands up to the headboard. "Hang on," Minoru instructed him. "Don't let go until I tell you." "I wouldn't dare," Padraic murmured. He meant for the words to be at least a little sardonic, but they came out breathless and shaky instead. 58

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Still, all he could do was watch in fascination as Minoru pulled the surgical lubricant from the tool kit. It was stuff that was found in biotechnician's tool box, not the bedroom, and Padraic started blushing all over again. Minoru quirked an eyebrow at him even as he squeezed some of the liquid into his palm to warm it. "Don't tell me this is the first you've seen it used it like this." "No, not at all. Just the first time with someone else instead of..." "Instead of?" "Instead of using it on myself," Padraic said, closing his eyes briefly so that he didn't have to see Minoru's smile. "That's certainly something I wouldn't mind seeing," Minoru murmured. He brushed the back of one hand against the length of Padraic's cock, watching it twitch in response. "Did you touch yourself here?" "Ye-es..." Padraic said, gripping the bars of the headboard and trying not to beg with his hips for a more firm touch. "But not only there?" Minoru guessed, and Padraic was forced to nod. "Pretty little technician." Minoru laughed, wrapping slick fingers firmly around Padraic's cock and stroking. "Did you like thinking about parts fitting together, closing around each other perfectly?" That was so close to the truth that Padraic groaned out loud before remembering himself and stifling it. Minoru was everything that he had dreamed about when he was sitting 59

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alone in his lab, rewiring his own nerves and so aroused that he could cry. Minoru's voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper, making the hairs on the back of Padraic's neck stand on end. "And did you do more than just think about parts, Padraic?" he asked softly. "Did you ever find... parts that might fit you?" His hand was getting rougher, and it felt so good that Padraic might have agreed to anything to make him finish. "Yes, yes," Padraic whimpered, but Minoru pulled his hand away, wiping it off with a towel that lay nearby. "Don't... don't stop..." Padraic panted, but he quieted under Minoru's cool gaze. "Later, perhaps," Minoru said mildly. "Your bodyguard is due back soon." A few days—hell, a few hours ago, Padraic would have mumbled something apologetic and lain back down, trying to get his erection under control. Now, maybe because of having his inputs adjusted, maybe because of something else, Padraic decided that that wasn't going to stand. "Not for a little bit longer," Padraic said, kneeling up on the bed and taking Minoru by the shoulders. Minoru looked startled, and before that startled could change to dismay or disapproval, Padraic was kissing him, pushing his tongue between Minoru's lips and refusing to let the Inoue heir move until he had had his fill. Padraic pulled back, dragging the back of his hand across his sensitive and slightly swollen lips, and found Minoru staring at him. 60

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"I'm sorry," he said, feeling slightly abashed. "I just... didn't feel like being something that you can kiss without consequences." Minoru shook his head, and Padraic realized that the other man was staring directly at Padraic's lips. "It's not a matter of being kissed without consequences," said Minoru, "it's more trying to decide if the consequences are worth it." That was all that Minoru said before he pushed Padraic back on the bed, and this time when he kissed him, it was more purposeful and with an edge of violence. Padraic shivered. As close to Padraic as he was, Minoru couldn't have missed it. Minoru was kissing him hard enough that Padraic felt bruised and breathless. He barely had his breath back when Minoru started attacking his chest with a hungry mouth. The Inoue heir seemed to be paying special attention to the bruises and bites that marred Padraic's torso, making them ache and throb all over again. Something about Minoru's roughness made Padraic less careful, and he put his fingers into Minoru's hair and tugged— hard. Minoru's breath caught, and he said something that Padraic's translator couldn't decipher as either a curse or a prayer. "Pull harder," Minoru said more clearly, and Padraic put both hands in Minoru's hair and yanked as Minoru braced himself above him. The motion brought Minoru up to a kneeling crouch over Padraic's body. Minoru's hips brushed 61

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against Padraic's bare skin, and Padraic realized that Minoru was hard. The thought of making Minoru so aroused that he squirmed like an unruly puppy made Padraic's breath catch in his throat, and somehow he found words. "You want me," he said, using his grasp on Minoru's hair to drag him back up. Their faces were two inches away from each other. "Gods, yes," said Minoru intently. "Your body, your tech, all of it..." "Do it then," Padraic said, bringing his hips up to meet Minoru's. Even with a layer of cloth between them, the sensation was enough to make him lightheaded, to make his vision swim. Then he realized that his vision wasn't just swimming because of Minoru. That was all the warning he got before the top lifted off his head and there were small explosions of color behind his eyes. "Oh, oh fuck, oh God," he moaned, rolling away from Minoru and clutching his head. One hand slapped against the interface on his chest, but the other was applying as much pressure as it could to his left temple, where he was sure that something was going to come pushing its way through the skin. When his vision cleared, he was sitting up and he could taste blood in his mouth. Gingerly, he ran his tongue around the inside, wincing when he found the raw spot that he had chewed open. 62

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Minoru was crouched on the bed like a gargoyle, eyes intent, and though he was breathing hard, he was calm. "Shall I call an ambulance?" he said seriously, and Padraic waved him off. "No, no, I got it," Padraic said. Something about trying to talk made another wave of nausea pass over him, and he had to stumble for the bathroom. He made it just in time to vomit with what he felt was inappropriate violence. Distantly, he was aware of Minoru kneeling next to him, rubbing his back and murmuring in a language that Padraic could no longer say was definitely Japanese or English. The tile of the floor was cool under his hands, and the coolness was so nice that Padraic ended up lying flat on it, willing some of it to enter his own overheated body. He concentrated on making his body take air in and then force it out. Breathing. He knew how to breathe, and a soft, almost unnoticeable echo made him look up at Minoru with a ghost of amusement. "You don't have to breathe with me," he said, his voice a harsh croak in his ears. "I'm not having a baby, you know." Minoru smiled wanly at him, and Padraic believed for the first time that Minoru was concerned about more than just the technology he was carrying. The thought was soft and warm as wool, and Padraic tried to hold on to it. He figured that he had lost track of time again because the next thing that he heard was Jenner talking with Minoru. "You didn't call an ambulance." "No, he said he didn't need one." "Oh, so we're taking his word for it..." 63

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"I would rather avoid the hospital if at all possible. Some of the software we put on him—" "Would get him dropped into a room with barred windows in two heartbeats. Yeah, probably just as well." Padraic sat back on his heels and stared at the paneled ceiling until his body calmed down. He thought his stomach was empty, which was just as well, and after a long moment, he half-tripped to the tiny bathtub. He managed to lever half his body into the tub and thrust his head under the faucet. After letting the water run icy cold for a full minute, he felt almost human again and pulled away, narrowly missing gouging his scalp on the sharp spout. "We can't do this," he said, coming back into the room. "Oh, come on..." Jenner started, but Padraic kept talking. "The neural net just can't handle it," he forced himself to say. "Not like it is, not without some serious repairs. Maybe after I do some more work in Milwaukee," he offered lamely. "Maybe..." "Or maybe you'll just do it anyway." Jenner said cheerfully. "It's still holding information, isn't it?" Something about his tone made Padraic bristle. "The way I see it," Jenner continued, "it works just fine; the only thing that we're really worried about here is migraines and some stomachaches." "That's not it," Padraic insisted. Why couldn't they see?. "It's not supposed to do that; that means that something's wrong."

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"It's not like you can leave," Jenner said offhandedly, and that, more than anything else, made Padraic retrieve his shirt and head for the door. "Where are you going to get plane fare?" Jenner asked with interest. "I'm going to whore myself outside the hotel door," Padraic snapped automatically. "No, please." Minoru snagged him by the crook of his elbow, and because it was Minoru, he stilled. "This is not going to happen," he said, speaking to Minoru directly. "I'm leaving, and we are not doing this." "Then we call the police and tell them that you're leaving the country with Inoue corporation secrets," Jenner said. Padraic turned to Jenner slowly. He expected that Jenner, who had just casually revealed something breathtakingly violating to him, would look different, but no. Jenner looked just the same. The same smiling friendliness, the same casual slouch. He turned to Minoru, who refused to meet his eyes. For the first time, Minoru wasn't as straight as a soldier. Instead, he looked like his strings had been cut. The betrayal was so sharp that at first it didn't seem to hurt. "Is he telling me the truth?" Padraic asked, and flinched when Minoru nodded once. "When Yuuka Whatshername did the transfer," Jenner supplied helpfully. "Good luck finding it. Good luck getting it off." "This is a nightmare," Padraic said softly. "This is a complete and utter nightmare..." 65

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"No," said Minoru, turning to face him. "It's only necessary." Padraic laughed with disbelief. There was a sharp edge of hysteria in it that was noticeable even to him, and he cut it off. "You absolute bastards," he said wonderingly. "You put stolen information in my head and God knows what else on me—don't touch me." Minoru drew back his hand, looking unhappy about it but obeying Padraic's wishes. Well, not the ones that really mattered, Padraic thought savagely. Just the ones that will keep Padraic in line. "Take me back to the Inoue Corporation," he said, as evenly as he could. "Let's get this over with." "There's no need to go to the presentation," Minoru pointed out. "I canceled it." "That's not what we're going to be doing," Padraic said. "I'm not doing any more presentations. I'm just going to do what you tell me to do, and then I want you to take this software and cram it up your ass." [Back to Table of Contents]

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Chapter Three It hurt more than Padraic had thought it would. Despite all of his mental preparations, despite every way that he had tried to keep Minoru from getting inside his head, it had happened anyway. Why was it always the same? It looked as though he could change names, change jobs, reorganize the tech inside him, leave the damn country, and it was all the same. Padraic felt hot, as if he had a fever, and he couldn't tell if it was pain or humiliation. Then again, it might have been the malfunctioning tech that he was wearing, so add failure to the list. He didn't know if he was actually angrier with Minoru's betrayal or more angry with himself for never knowing better. Other guys he knew could bounce back from a bad deal with a shrug and go right back to work. It always sent Padraic for a tailspin, and after the shock came rage. It didn't matter whether he had just realized that his name had been "forgotten" on list of codewriters, or if he'd found out that the great new guy he was screwing was very married with a wife in Greenfield. At least I'm consistent, he thought furiously. It's like I can't throw a rock without hitting an asshole. The image of lobbing a rock, or at least the box of tissues in the back seat, at Minoru was such a tempting one that Padraic clenched his hands in his lap.

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The thought that this was all his fault drifted up in his mind. He stamped it down so hard that it died without a whimper. Minoru was holding the car door open for him with completely misplaced courtesy, and Padraic looked at Minoru for a long moment. No, I know whose fault this is. **** The ride back to the corporation was made in stilted silence. The moment he was shown back to the suite, he walked rapidly through his bedroom door and locked it behind him. After a moment's consideration, he dragged the heavy nightstand in front of the door as well. The set of tools that he had brought along was nowhere near as complete as what he was used to working with, and though Minoru's diamond-tipped implements would have been a little more thorough, he'd be damned if he was going to ask for one more thing from the Inoue heir. It's a lot like shutting the barn door after the horse is already out, his mind supplied helpfully, but he pushed the thought away. A thorough search of his own internals didn't reveal anything that hadn't shown up at the hotel, but the painstaking process, conducted alone and with the requisite attention to detail, did serve to calm him down a little bit. Padraic didn't have the same knack for software that he did for hardware, but he looked anyway. The small interface screen that he had brought along showed him every program 68

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that he had picked up, from the Japanese language program to the spidering software, but there was nothing resembling a packet of stolen, encrypted information. He hadn't thought that Jenner and Minoru would make it so easy, anyway. Padraic thought about trying to uninstall the spidering software, but he dismissed the idea. Hell, they would probably just knock him out and put it back on. Buttoning his shirt back up, he lay down on the bed. He didn't want to sleep, he didn't want to dream, and he especially did not want to dream of Minoru, but his mind saw fit to betray him yet again. This time Padraic could feel the bed sink under Minoru's weight, feel the weight and the heat of the other man's body as he stretched out on the bed. Minoru's hand was cupped around Padraic's shoulder gently, not stroking, just holding, and it was so comforting, Padraic could have cried. "Oh, thank God," he muttered and turned onto his back. He reached out blindly and found strong shoulders and skin that was deliciously warm. Instinctively he nuzzled his face into the chest above him. He could hear a quick intake of breath, and he reached up, suddenly afraid that Minoru would leave. "Please don't go," he whispered, appalled at how naked his words and his needs were. But instead of pulling away, the phantom figure only gathered him closer, pressing warm lips to Padraic's face. Kisses like rain, Padraic had time to think, and he caught the other man's mouth with his. Minoru's kiss was soft and wet, achingly hot, and Padraic realized with a start that he 69

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was no longer dreaming. For a long, guilty moment, he indulged the kiss, and then the memory of what Minoru and Jenner had done to him lit up in his head like a firecracker. With more anger than he thought he would be able to muster, he shoved Minoru hard in the chest and sat up. A glance at the door showed the nightstand slid backward on the floor, and he glared at Minoru even harder. "I didn't find a Do Not Disturb sign, so I figured a barricade would be just as eloquent," he said with more than a little bitterness. Minoru at least had the grace to look a little embarrassed, even as he said, "A 'Do Not Disturb' sign wouldn't have stopped me either." "So what would?" Padraic said, moving farther away from him on the bed. "A punch in the face? A barbed wire fence? Or do you just call that foreplay?" "I'm not a rapist," Minoru said, and frowned a little. "Why are we suddenly talking about sex?" "Because..." Padraic gestured uselessly, finally just looking at the floor. "Because it always seems to come up when you're in the room," he muttered. He could feel his face heat up. He could hardly believe that he was saying these things, but they were coming out of his mouth and Minoru didn't seem to mind at all. Minoru laughed a little, shaking his head. "What a strange thing," he said, seemingly to himself. "I was already hot for your tech..." "What, and the body's a nice bonus?" "More than that." 70

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At Padraic's raised eyebrow, Minoru amended it to, "It's more than nice." Padraic shook his head. "I can't believe you." Padraic let his breath hiss through his teeth, feeling his anger with Minoru rise and rise. Suddenly Padraic wondered what would happen if he simply struck Minoru. Arch had taught him to defend himself, but Padraic had never actually had the urge to strike someone before. It was a new and unpleasant feeling, and he pushed it away before turning back to Minoru. "You've got nothing to say to me, not now and not again, as far as I'm concerned. No," he said sharply when Minoru started to interrupt. "And you're not going to do anything else. Get out." "I would rather not." "I. Do not. Give. A fuck." Padraic said distinctly. "You don't mean that." Minoru said it so calmly and decisively that Padraic got up and started pacing just to put some distance between the two of them. "Maybe I don't," Padraic said, talking to himself as much as he was talking to Minoru. "Maybe I'd like nothing better than to lie down and fuck. Maybe I should stop saying the word fuck so much, I don't know. "All I know is that right now, I don't want to give you the satisfaction." At Minoru's raised eyebrow, Padraic managed a bitter smile. "In bed or out of it, okay?" Minoru looked thoughtful for a few moments, his eyes roaming from Padraic to the bed and back again. "I'm sorry." 71

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Padraic stared at Minoru, briefly sure that he must have simply hallucinated the other man's contrite words. "I'll go, then." Minoru was halfway to the door when Padraic managed to find words. "What?" Minoru looked at him curiously and without reproach. "I apologize. I really never intended for this to happen, any of it, and I'm sorry I failed to make a better impression on you." "Yeah, that's kinda what it sounded like..." Padraic said blankly. Minoru sighed, and for a moment, he looked exhausted. "This is not fair to you, and... I should not have done it. It was thoughtless, cruel, and it could mean a great deal of trouble for you in the future. I'm going to do everything in my power to make it right for you, I promise." Minoru looked genuinely sorry, and the resolve that Padraic saw in Minoru's direct gaze might have moved mountains. The thought of being so well taken care of filled Padraic with a warm feeling that he didn't want to think about. I'm exhausted, I'm tired, I feel fucked up beyond all belief... Suddenly it didn't matter at all. It was like some infinitely more powerful part of him simply took all of those fears and inhibitions and quietly put them to bed. "Would I completely negate every self-respecting thing I just said if I asked you to kiss me?" 72

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Minoru was quiet for a long moment. Then he carefully crossed the floor to where Padraic was standing and picked up Padraic's hand, bringing it to his mouth and gently kissing the palm."You smell like metal and solder," he said. "Is that bad?" "Not even a little." This time when Minoru kissed him, Padraic realized that they were precisely the same height. I should have figured that one out sooner, he thought briefly, but then he was figuring out all over again how thoroughly Minoru's mouth could obliterate his capacity for reason and higher thought. Minoru took his hand and led him back to the bed. Maybe it was because the last time that they had done this, Padraic had started screaming, or maybe it was because the apology he had given Padraic was sincere, but he was much more gentle than he had been in either of their previous encounters. Minoru reached over and carefully loosened Padraic's clothing, baring the naked inputs and then removing his shirt entirely. "Pale," Minoru said appreciatively. "Pretty." Minoru ran his fingertips over a nipple, making it tighten before turning his attention to the other. Traveling between them, his hand slowed gently over the inputs that had so captured him before, but he didn't stop. Padraic released a breath that he had been holding and reached up to tug Minoru down beside him. 73

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Even through their clothes, he could feel the heat from Minoru's body. People with implants and cybernetic modification tended to run at a slightly higher body temperature than people who didn't have the mods, and Padraic suddenly wondered whether the Inoue heir was more modded than he was. It was a strange thing to think about when the person in question was lapping at his neck, and he must have squirmed a little because Minoru paused. "Are you all right?" Padraic nodded, biting his lip. He was suddenly unsure why it was important to him, but it was. "Could you take off your clothes for me?" he asked, and was relieved to see Minoru smile. "I had intended to," Minoru said, and sat back on his heels. Padraic had expected that he would like what he was going to see, but he certainly didn't expect to be so turned on by Minoru simply stripping to the skin. Minoru took off his clothes slowly, as if he had all the time in the world, and he didn't meet Padraic's eyes. It gave his actions a strangely intimate feel, as though he were all by himself, and it made Padraic ache with desire. When Minoru had his shirt off and tossed on the floor, and when his pants had been unzipped but not otherwise removed, Padraic couldn't help himself. He ran an appreciative hand up Minoru's flanks, nearly purring at the feel of Minoru's skin. Minoru's body was lithe and strong, solid as marble against Padraic's touch. Minoru's skin was smooth under his hand, and the Inoue heir murmured with pleasure as Padraic turned his gentle touch into a caress. 74

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Padraic suddenly remembered what he was looking for. His gaze flew between the center of Minoru's chest and the curve of Minoru's hip. Those two most common areas for interface were bare, and he looked up at Minoru's eyes, questioning. "Completely green, I'm afraid," Minoru said wryly, and Padraic flinched. It was a word that he heard too often from guys like his cousin and himself, and the implications weren't kind. Green, unmodded, primitive, simp—they all amounted to the same thing. "It's not a bad thing," he said insistently, and though Minoru seemed too polite to disagree, Padraic sat up and wrapped his arms around the other man's waist, kissing the strangely bare place on Minoru's sternum with care. "I don't care," he said between kisses. At first Padraic thought that he was going to get pushed away, and then it seemed as though the Inoue heir would never let go. "Nice," Padraic murmured appreciatively. Minoru let Padraic pull off his shoes and socks clumsily, and then his sharp black trousers were discarded on the floor, where they mingled with Padraic's clothing. Under Padraic's searching hands, Minoru's skin was smooth and unmarred, and when Padraic put his tongue to it, Minoru moaned, wordlessly begging for more. The feeling of being in control thrilled Padraic, and he kissed Minoru more firmly, tilting his head to bite at Minoru's earlobe and then to nibble along his strong jaw.

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Padraic kissed the scar on Minoru's face, the one that ran from his lip to his chin. Minoru flinched, and Padraic wondered if he was sensitive about the imperfection. "It's beautiful," Padraic said softly, and even if Minoru flinched a little, he returned Padraic's kisses with a passion that took Padraic's breath away. Padraic's fingers tangled in Minoru's hair, tightening instinctively. Pull harder, Minoru had said, and Padraic suddenly couldn't stop himself from doing just that. He pulled back until Minoru's throat was bared to his mouth, and then he couldn't get enough of that either. Padraic could feel Minoru's pulse underneath his lips, and it was all delicious, all sweet. Padraic made a noise, or at least he thought that he did, and suddenly Minoru had him flat on his back on the bed. He found himself staring at the ceiling while Minoru worried at his throat with a ferocity that would have scared him if he could remember that he had a life to be protective of. Minoru's body was warm, and Padraic had to remind himself that it was nothing but flesh, nothing but soft skin and sweet muscle. "You're beautiful," Minoru said, and there was an intensity there that Padraic had never heard before. He wondered if Minoru thought that he was as beautiful as his tech. Then that clever tongue curled around Padraic's nipple before sharp teeth bit, and Padraic half-jumped off the bed. "Stop..." he muttered, but then he cut it off because that wasn't what he wanted at all. He wanted more and Minoru knew it. Minoru chuckled a little bit and ran a warm palm down Padraic's stomach to grasp his cock firmly. 76

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"Ah, Christ," Padraic moaned, arching up before forcing his body to be still. Minoru chuckled, sounding a little strained even to Padraic. "Keep moving," he said, stroking Padraic firmly. "Show me how much you like it." Padraic moved fitfully, finally lacing his hands into the headboard behind him and thrusting up into Minoru's accommodating hand. The friction was delicious, and he could hear his own gasps and whimpers. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Minoru touching himself. Somehow, Padraic found the strength to pull away, and before Minoru could protest, he was on his knees on the floor, looking up at Minoru with a small smile. "Please?" Padraic said, sounding coy even to himself, and Minoru, looking less and less restrained by the moment, came to the edge of the bed. Minoru spread his legs, but Padraic spread them wider. Minoru grabbed a fistful of Padraic's hair, making him squirm and writhe. Experimentally, Padraic tried to pull away, and the only result was that Minoru tugged sharply and brought him forward. The sensation managed to blot out any reservations that Padraic might have had about the situation. Minoru's cock was pressing against his lower lip, almost hard enough to bruise, and Padraic opened his mouth and gratefully started licking. Minoru tolerated the long, wet licks for a few moments, but then he tugged at Padraic's hair again. "You want to be careful about that," said Padraic, pulling back and wiping his mouth. "I might bite." 77

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Minoru's smile was cool, but he stroked Padraic's face tenderly. "If you do that, I'll make you wish you hadn't." "What are you going to do?" Padraic wasn't sure if he was hopeful or not. While keeping a tight hold on Padraic's hair, Minoru ran down Padraic's chest. Padraic shuddered convulsively when Minoru flicked the capped interfaces, but Minoru's hand kept going until it was stroking Padraic's erection again with deceptive gentleness. Padraic heard himself purr, but it turned into a yelp when Minoru tapped those perfect nails against his hard flesh. Minoru did it again, and Padraic would have fallen back if Minoru hadn't been holding his hair so firmly. "You would like it," Minoru said with just a hint of a growl in his voice. "It would take a little while, but you would like it." Padraic could recognize a threat when he heard one, and he thought about making Minoru prove it, but when he swallowed he could still taste Minoru on his lips and against the roof of his mouth. He was ready, more than ready, to be a good boy. Willingly, he settled down again, and there was no teasing this time. He took Minoru straight down his throat, swallowing to take more than he thought he could, and he was rewarded by hearing Minoru groan. He knew that he would gag if he let himself think about it too hard, but he couldn't seem to stop himself from doing just that. The thought of having his throat full, of letting Minoru fuck his mouth, was wildly arousing, and blindly he reached 78

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for his own erection, stroking in time with each thrust of Minoru's hips. Padraic could have made himself come, but for some reason he held off. He wanted to see Minoru climax first. He didn't want to miss seeing the man that out of control, that needy, and for a moment, pulling with his lips and nearly choking, he thought he was going to get it. With a deep growl, Minoru pulled him off, and there was a hiss of pain when Padraic inadvertently drew his teeth too hard across the sensitive skin. "Your own fault," Padraic said when Minoru had to breathe for a moment. He regretted it when Minoru looked up with a sharp glint in his eyes. "Not like that," Minoru said with that same precise diction. "Not down your throat, not right now." The direct way he said it, and the calm, matter-of-fact way that he reached for the tube of lubricant by the bedside, made Padraic stammer a little. "Safe sex?" was all he could squeak out, and he was gratified by Minoru's raised eyebrow and slightly scornful look. "Please," Minoru said, already sliding a condom on his cock. "I was fucking in the soaplands when I was eighteen." "What was that, five, six years ago?" Padraic said wryly. Minoru frowned, for all the world as if he were being told something he didn't want to hear about a new software program or that he couldn't get a table at his favorite restaurant. It didn't seem like a look that he should have had 79

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on his face when he was sleeking a palmful of lube on his cock. "Hm, I don't think I like your attitude toward my age," Minoru observed mildly, scrubbing his hand on the bedspread before resuming his grip on Padraic's hair. Padraic's eyes closed, but Minoru wasn't handling him roughly. Instead, he brought Padraic's face up for an insistent kiss. "Safe is good," Minoru said. "It's just fine..." Padraic started to climb back on the bed, unable to keep his body from pressing against Minoru's As urgent as they both were, Minoru paused to kiss him firmly on the mouth. It melted him, and suddenly he was clinging to Minoru, stuttering and completely unable to tell him what the other man wanted. "It's fine," Minoru said soothingly. "I'll give you want you want..." Could you tell me what that is first? Padraic thought, and then he was being pushed onto his back. Minoru eased his legs open. He found himself staring straight up, and then Minoru was gently demanding his attention again with nips and bites on his neck and chest. The feel of Minoru's body against his, the weight of Minoru's body on top of his, so lean and hot, made him lightheaded. Padraic pressed up, rubbing his erection against Minoru's, relishing how slick it was. "You're beautiful," he murmured, and then he whimpered as Minoru's slicked fingers pressed against his hole. Padraic had an image of Minoru's fingers, nails so neatly trimmed and 80

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prim and yet still doing something so sexy, and he forced himself to relax. "That's right, just like that," Minoru said, and soon he was fingering Padraic faster and harder. "Surely you can take more than this..." Minoru's encouragement made Padraic want to do exactly that, made him want to be a good boy for Minoru, and soon he was writhing, showing Minoru how much he wanted it and how good he was.. Minoru's hand was surprisingly hard on Padraic's hip, and Padraic's legs flailed ungracefully in the air for a moment before locking tight around Minoru's waist. He could feel the head of Minoru's cock pressing at his entrance before thrusting in, fast and hard. "God, oh God, fuck..." Padraic moaned, and Minoru's grip tightened savagely on his hips. "Should I stop?" Minoru demanded, and Padraic could only grin at the half-murderous, half-tormented look on Minoru's face. "Not for the world," Padraic promised, and he grabbed onto the headboard behind him. This display of willingness and submission made Minoru's eyes go dark with lust, and he started pushing into Padraic with a kind of desperation that made Padraic's whole body respond. Minoru's movements were smooth and experienced, but his mouth was unexpectedly soft. With the blood pounding in his ears and his body bent to offer Minoru everything, it took Padraic a moment to realize that he was hearing the word "please" over and over again. 81

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Though Minoru's hair covered his eyes, Padraic could see that lovely proper mouth shaping those pleas. If possible he wanted to give Minoru even more. He came hard, clinging to the headboard, feeling his own come on his belly. It had lasted a long time in his head, but when he looked up, Minoru was still moving over him, filling him, and he felt a smile spread across his mouth. Minoru looked up sharply, and Padraic could barely quiet the laughter that was bubbling up in his throat. To take the sting out of it, Padraic wrapped his arms around Minoru's shoulders and pumped his hips up against the other man encouragingly, wanting to give Minoru the same release that Minoru had given him. When Minoru came a moment later, Padraic purred encouragement into his ear. **** With his eyes closed and his breath rough from climax, Minoru looked younger, and for the moment, almost innocent. Minoru had eyelashes so long they brushed his cheeks, and lazily, Padraic reached out and touched a small freckle that graced his cheekbone. What a strange thing to notice, he thought, but he was feeling too good to care. Under Padraic's touch, Minoru murmured softly but didn't open his eyes. Padraic's hand traveled from the other man's cheek down his chest to his lean stomach. Padraic smiled at the fact that the skin on the back of his own hand was paler than Minoru's belly. 82

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With his eyes open, Minoru was as sharp as a sword and aggressively striking, perhaps too much so to be really handsome. Sweet and quiet like this, he was beautiful. His mouth was surprisingly soft and pink from their kisses, and Padraic couldn't help but brush him again. Liar. The word drifted like a malicious wind through his mind, and Padraic shifted uneasily. With a soft, annoyed sound Minoru draped an arm across his chest, possessive even in sleep. The gesture made Padraic nervous. He got even more nervous when he realized that he wasn't nearly as scared as he should have been. Liar. Liar. Liar. The beauty was still there, so much so that it was heartbreaking, but all he could see was that ice-cold core of Minoru, that refusal to bend. Minoru was so sharp and so brittle that it was a toss up whether Padraic would be cut in half or Minoru would shatter. I wouldn't mind seeing him shatter, Padraic thought, and he knew that he had to get Minoru out of there. The entire situation was crushing, and he didn't know if he wanted to cling to Minoru and hope that neither ever had to leave the bed again, or whether he wanted to shove Minoru right out. It was ridiculous, it was absurd, and he started laughing so hard that it woke Minoru with a start. "Are... are you all right?" Minoru asked, sounding more uncertain than Padraic had ever heard him. 83

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"Fine, fine," said Padraic, wiping his eyes. "Don't worry, I'm not really laughing at you in a bad way." Minoru stilled, and that smooth mask was back on. Padraic wondered if the Inoue heir was used to being put on his guard like this. "Is there a good way to laugh at someone?" "Of course." At Minoru's dubious look, Padraic's smile grew slightly rueful. "Or at least I didn't mean for it to be malicious. It's just..." "Yes?" "Just then? When you were still fucking me? It wasn't the tech you wanted." Minoru stared at him, and this time, Padraic met his gaze levelly. "It's okay," he said gently. "Go on, I'll see you tomorrow." **** Padraic was almost getting used to the wakeup calls, and even though this one came around four a.m., he only flailed for a moment before quieting. Instead of the completely unmemorable suits that he had been wearing up until now, Jenner was dressed in dark clothes that clung to his body. After a moment, Padraic could see the tell-tale smartwire that wove through the dark fabric. "Time to go." The flatness of the tone made Padraic look up, unsettled. In the dim light, Jenner's eyes were dilated, black and buttonlike. "You're flying on something," Padraic said, even as he started pulling on a pair of pants. 84

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"The best high Denebrian Jet has to offer." Jenner grinned. "Now get dressed and make sure that you don't leave behind anything that you can't spare." At Padraic's questioning look, he rolled his eyes. "C'mon, do you think the Inoue are gonna be happy when we prove your boyfriend right?" Padraic frowned. "He's not my boyfriend." "He's also right outside the door, so get your ass in gear." Whistling, Jenner waited while Padraic got dressed, and then they met Minoru at the door. Minoru was showered, but he was dressed in the same version of the bland suit that he always wore. He looked a little askance at Jenner's get-up. "Why are you—" "Let's go," Jenner said cheerfully. "Haven't got all night, do we?" He spoke loudly enough that Padraic winced, and Minoru hurried them down the hallway. Padraic was surprised when a doorway led them to an open-air courtyard. It was small and there were a number of other intersecting pathways that met it. After a few turns, Padraic was sure that he couldn't find his way back. "Nice," Jenner said, more quietly this time. "It's a labyrinth in here." He smiled at Minoru's back, and Padraic realized with a start that Jenner didn't like the Inoue heir at all. "You could get someone lost in here. You could trap them in any one of these courtyards, couldn't you?" Even when Minoru didn't respond, Jenner kept going.

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"Block off both entrances before and behind them, shoot them full of arrows from the platforms that are sitting behind those lovely, decorative dragon screens, huh?" Padraic looked up in surprise and realized that Jenner was right. The Inoue compound was the size of a small town, and there was nothing that said that if you went in, you would get back out again. "You've read a lot of books," Minoru was saying. He hadn't stopped walking, and every time he got them through a doorway, Padraic heard and felt a small puff of air that told him that their presence was being marked, if not noticed. "I like your country, Inoue," Jenner said with a small laugh. "Hello Kitty, rice, fish, yakuza, Pocky, and all." They had to go underground to get to the final stage of security, and even as the steel doors slid open, Padraic wondered out loud where the guards were. "Most of the human element has been taken out of this security system," Minoru said. "Human error turned out to be much more disastrous to Inoue security than machine error." The main control room, the beating, whirring heart of the Inoue corporation, was much plainer than Padraic thought it would be from the tiered and whitewashed exterior. This area had a retinal scan, and behind them, Padraic felt the hiss of the pressure locks. The air took on the stale, recycled quality that was so familiar to him from labs and basements. He looked up, and Minoru was handing him a simple lead. Padraic took it. For a moment, he looked at them both: Minoru and Jenner, dark and fair. Jenner had a small smile on his face, and Minoru was looking at Padraic with an 86

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expression that Padraic just couldn't read. Suddenly he was furious all over again. "I'd just like to say that you're both completely disgusting." He plugged himself in and immediately fell to his knees. After an agonizing moment, he went over on his side. There were colors exploding behind his eyes, and if he had eaten anything at all that day, he would have thrown up. "All good?" Jenner asked. Padraic nodded and quickly wished he hadn't. The pain was lessening by degrees, but there were still bright dots in his vision. "Very cool." Jenner sounded cheerful, even enthusiastic, and Padraic had a simple and strong urge to strangle him. "All right," said Minoru, "Let's... what the hell are you doing?" Just as casually as he did everything else, Jenner reached out a gloved hand and pulled the lead from the bank that it was connected to. Before the machine could do much more than spit, he sealed his palm over it. When he removed it, Padraic could smell the eye-searing stench of melted alloy. "Sorry," Jenner said to Minoru, gently resting his hand on Minoru's chest. Minoru's eyes went wide, and then Jenner pushed him hard, throwing him to the ground. "What the hell are you doing?" Padraic gasped. Even talking made his head break open again, and it was made even worse when Jenner effortlessly pulled him to his feet. "What does it look like I'm doing?" Jenner sounded genuinely curious, even as he was hanging on to Padraic's elbow and bending over Minoru's prone body. 87

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He's not... he's just not, Padraic had time to think blankly, and then Minoru groaned like a wounded animal. There was a smell of charred flesh in the air as Jenner's hand came up, gently cradling something that Padraic's brain somehow refused to acknowledge as a human eye. "It's cauterized," Jenner told him gently. "He's not going to die." Jenner turned toward the retinal scan. After a tense moment, the door opened with a hiss and Padraic found himself pushed through it. Framed in the portal, Padraic saw Jenner slam his hand against the scanner with that same startling strength. There was a twisting of golden wires and an awful light before Jenner stepped lightly through the door and sealed it behind him. Almost as an afterthought, he crushed the panel and dropped the eye to the ground. He didn't step on it, as Padraic was afraid that he would do, but he did gently scoot it into a corner with the side of his foot. "Let's go." Jenner said cheerfully. "No." "Really?" Padraic clutched his head with both hands. The pain had never really stopped, and it was reaching a crescendo when he heard Jenner say, "Then I blow up your new boyfriend." "He's not my boyfriend. Jesus!" Padraic exclaimed, but when he looked up and saw that Jenner was ready to put his gloved hand against the door, he straightened up. "Don't pray to Jesus," Jenner said brightly. "Try praying to me instead." 88

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At that moment, completely alone, with an eyeball gathering grit on the floor and his head threatening to burst, Padraic finally realized that Jenner was completely insane. As they walked through the halls that were deadly quiet, Padraic felt the tidal wave of pain recede a little, allowing him to do more than just focus on Jenner's back and follow halfblindly. "How long have you been planning this?" he asked, and then he felt sick, thinking of who might have set it all up. "Is Arch in on it?" "That would be telling," Jenner said briskly, without breaking stride. "But no. This is all me." The next twinge of pain brought a memory with it, Jenner handing him a disc on the flight in. "You son of a bitch," Padraic moaned. "You fucked with my tech..." "Nope, that was all you," Jenner said, stopping to smash an interface. "Gave me a great excuse to go set up some deals while you were fucking Inoue in the hotel room, though." Abruptly, he turned to look at Padraic. "Do you know what they're going to do once they catch you, Padraic?" "Huh?" Jenner laughed. "Me, they're just going to shoot. You know, pow, down like a dog. You..." Jenner grinned. "You have seven, eight hundred feet of monofilament in your skull. "They can keep you alive while they pull it out, inch... by inch." Jenner's snicker was high-pitched, and Padraic could 89

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almost see the man's heartbeat ramp up a notch. "But we are not going to let that happen." There was an electric blue light skittering over the surface of Jenner's eyes, and that was only marginally less alarming than the possessive gleam in them. "I'm not going anywhere with you." Jenner blinked. "Really?" "Yes, really," said Padraic, all too much aware that he sounded like Jenner. It was funny that the more he suspected he was in shock, the more he thought he sounded like his bodyguard, who turned out to be nothing of the kind. "There's only so many people you can fucking blow up." "That's actually true," Jenner said reasonably. "However, did you know that I have absolutely nothing beyond a marginal interest in keeping you whole and sound?" Before Padraic could answer, Jenner's hand grabbed his, crunching the bones painfully tight. Padraic could feel the whir of metal underneath Jenner's skin. Jenner's hands could rip flesh, pulverize bone, and he was suddenly dead sure that Jenner wouldn't stop at just a crushed hand. He wasn't getting the idea quickly enough, though, and Jenner tightened his grip, forcing a groan from Padraic's throat. It was pain, just pain, but it could be so much worse. Jenner looked at him, no more concerned than a man looking at a howling stray dog might be. "You can carry that thing and still be... damaged," Jenner said softly. "Makes no never mind to me."

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Padraic got up, throat still raw from screaming and face damp with tears, and staggered after Jenner's swiftly retreating back. **** They weren't stopped; every few doors, every few levels— hell, every time he could smash something, Jenner used the control panels and then crushed them. Before Padraic knew it, they were in the Inoue underground garage. It was well insulated and completely immune from the winter chill, but Padraic was still shuddering. The light of the garage was blue and watery, making the whole scene look unreal, but maybe that was the shock again. The pain wasn't so raw anymore, and when he finally looked around, he saw Jenner standing openly in the middle of the garage, concentrating on apparently nothing. He bit his tongue on the obvious question just as a low, black car wheeled around the corner. There was no one in the driver's seat, and he realized how distracted he must have been, because now it seemed obvious. Jenner's fingers were sketching configurations in the air, turning the wheel, tapping the accelerator, and bringing the car to a gentle stop. Jenner ran his hand over the hood of the car, and Padraic remembered him making the exact same gesture over the exact same spot that very first day. "You bastard, you've been planning this all along." Jenner didn't even bother to look smug or embarrassed; he only opened the passenger side door for Padraic. 91

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"It's what I do," he said earnestly. **** The pain had gotten steadily worse, and then he had blacked out. Padraic dreamed of light, and of a voice telling him that there was an end to all things but that this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. "No, really," he was saying. "I can't do this..." Of course you can. One foot in front of the other. Padraic woke up with a gasp and felt a pulling at his skin. When he looked down, gaudy green tape held a crude cardiac monitor to his chest. Padraic pulled it off and was going to do the same for the lead that was still dangling from his interface, when Jenner turned to him. "Hang on for just a moment," Jenner was saying. He glanced at Padraic. "If you get off the bed, I'll shoot you." Jenner gave him a big thumbs-up and didn't even wait for Padraic to settle back down on the bed before resuming his conversation. The room only spun briefly when Padraic sat up, but that was as far as he felt like going. It was a basic hotel room, his third in Japan so far. There was the same complimentary universal connection wires, the same snow-white sanitary wipes to ensure cleanliness, the same surgical mask, the use of which he could only guess at. He had nothing to look at, and so he looked at Jenner. Jenner looked no different, but it was so terribly clear that the person he had been talking to before, the person he had 92

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come to think of as, not quite a friend, but certainly more than a bodyguard, was a complete fake. "You're giving me that look," Jenner said, his back still turned. For a moment, Padraic thought he was talking to his contact, but then Jenner turned those earnest dark eyes toward him. "Is there anything I can do for you, make you more comfortable or something?" Jenner asked with concern. "Don't kill me?" Jenner considered for a moment. "Okay. Yeah, I can definitely do that." Padraic lay back down on the bed gingerly, not comforted in the least. Jenner got back on the phone, but now he seemed to be speaking Mandarin. Padraic wondered where Minoru was, and whether whatever kept him from getting mods in the first place would stop him from getting a new eye. Some of the technicians that Padraic knew got them as a matter of course, but he never had, as easy as it would make some of the more photosensitive tasks. He wondered why he cared, and then he wondered why he wondered. "I'm going into the bathroom," Padraic said tentatively. Jenner had a tolerant expression on his face, and he waved Padraic on like a fond parent. On one hand, there was the humiliation of asking permission to take a piss, and on the other, there was the clear consequence of getting his hand crushed to a pulp if he did not. 93

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The bathroom looked startlingly sane, and Padraic found himself contemplating the normalcy of things like towels and sinks before sitting down cross-legged on the floor. It was lovely there, cool and white, and even with only a flimsy door between himself and Jenner, he found that he could think much more clearly. The trouble was, the more clearly he could think, the more hopeless he felt. His resources were down to the tech that he was carrying and the clothes he was wearing. Padraic twisted the lead between his fingers, letting the wire cut against his flesh before loosening it. He thought wryly that if he hadn't been carrying stolen Inoue information before, he certainly was now, and that made him think about Minoru again. Padraic flinched. Minoru had screwed him over, but... there was Minoru with an eye torn out of his head. If I see him again, we might just call it even, Padraic thought. He realized that he could hear voices in the outer room. "Well, that was just stupid," Jenner was saying. "Honestly. Did you just show up to get your ass handed to you again?" There was a muffled explosion and then a sizzle of ozone, and the hair at the back of Padraic's neck stood on end. Padraic could tell from Jenner's startled yelp that he was nowhere near as sanguine as he had been in the Inoue stronghold. Padraic opened the door just in time to let Jenner's smaller, compact body hit him square in the chest. They both 94

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went down on the floor, Padraic cracking his head hard enough on the edge of the tub that he saw stars. "Oh, there we go, the next thing," he heard Jenner mutter, and then he was being pulled to his knees in a hasty headlock. "Wanna see me pop his head off, Inoue?" Jenner panted. Padraic felt something hot and wet hit the crown of his head, and he realized that Jenner was bleeding on him. Jenner hauled him up with one hand twisted behind his back. Padraic was facing Minoru, who was pale as a ghost and armed with what looked like a better class of taser. The bandage over Minoru's eye was shockingly white. "I'll let you have him back, no worries," Jenner was saying, "I will, don't worry..." Padraic found that he was holding the loose end of the lead in his free hand. He hadn't let go of it—had, in fact, wound it around his fingers so tightly that it was just beginning to twist free. An image of the jack located directly behind Jenner's ear popped into his mind clear as day. It was far too much of a risk. He would have to reach behind his own head and shove it into Jenner's jack without looking, and that was assuming that Jenner didn't see it coming and crush his hand again. "Or, you know, I could just kill you both and scavenge your bodies for whatever I want; there's that, too." Padraic reached back and neatly plugged the lead into Jenner's jack. He had a split second to appreciate how easy it was and how goddamned lucky he was, and then his brain split into a thousand painful fragments. 95

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Padraic knew he was screaming, and distantly, he could hear Jenner groan. Then they both hit the floor like dead bodies. This time, though, Padraic scrambled to his feet and Jenner stayed down. Minoru stepped back to allow Padraic through the door, and then he stepped close to Jenner, the small device in his hand sparking an ominous blue. "No!" Padraic managed to croak out. His voice was as rough as sandpaper. "Why not?" Minoru asked, never taking his eyes off of the man on the floor. In that instant, Padraic knew that Minoru could kill Jenner and that very little was stopping him. "Fucking spidering software," Padraic panted. "He's got plenty of nasty little toys on his system that need software to run. Software's not there anymore." The pain flared again, briefly and intensely, but then Padraic felt it recede. He sat down on the bed, and it was only then that he noticed Minoru sitting quietly just outside the bathroom door. "If I had known that you had matters well in hand, I would have spared myself the ride over." "I actually didn't have matters well in hand," Padraic informed him, not altogether steadily. "I was very much afraid he was going to shred my brain like a cheese grater to get the neural net out. How did you find us?" Minoru smiled briefly. "Redundant tracer in the car. His preliminary scans probably didn't catch them." 96

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Padraic shook his head and got to his feet. Jenner was still on the floor in the bathroom, and Padraic went over to kneel beside him. Jenner was down for the count, but he was breathing and his pulse felt steady. Padraic figured that the force of all of his systems failing simultaneously would take him out for a bit, but unlike some information thieves, he hadn't simply replaced every essential system with top-of-the-line tech. That caution had probably saved his life, because whether Padraic was comfortable with the idea or not, Jenner would have been dead if software that regulated his heart or his lungs had been cut. Shaking his head, Padraic stood up and shut the door behind him. Jenner was out for at least a little while, but he would probably be up sooner than Padraic would like. "Let's get out of here and call the police," Padraic said. The thought of leaving Jenner alone even long enough to summon help made him queasy, but he knew for certain that he didn't want to be in the room in case the man started coming back around. "No need. He likely has plenty to say that the Inoue Corporation would love to hear, and frankly, given how much trouble he's caused, they're going to make what you and I have gone through look pleasant." **** The car that Minoru was driving was enough like the one that Jenner had stolen to make Padraic flinch, but he was 97

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honestly too tired to react. Padraic stretched out in the back seat and was almost drowsing off when a series of tremors hit his body. Suddenly, he saw Minoru's eye getting torn out with ruthless and efficient savagery. He remembered Jenner's completely empty smile. He felt Jenner's hand wrapped around his as his bones ground against each other, threatening to shatter. He thought of Jenner waking up in that hotel room, life spared, but possibly not as grateful for that fact as Padraic hoped he would be. He imagined those flat eyes actually angry. "Ah, Christ," he said, shivering like a sick and scared puppy. "What?" Minoru met his eyes in the rearview mirror and pulled over. Padraic had no idea how far they had gone, and suddenly all he knew that he was very far from home. Minoru climbed in the back seat with him, and Padraic suddenly noticed that the bandage rucked up Minoru's hair like a surprised bird's feathers. That struck him as absurdly funny, and he simply sat in the seat, laughing until he cried. The reaction, what he had learned about Minoru, what he had discovered about himself—it was all too much. It was as if everything around him had gone dark and now he was lost. He tried to gain control of himself, but found that abruptly, he couldn't. It was humiliating, and his breath came even harder. "Please, please," he kept trying to say, and he didn't even know what he was asking for or whether anyone could give it to him. 98

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"It's all right," Minoru said in a voice was stilted and halting. He obviously didn't have much experience with things like this, but the faint tremor in his voice said more than his awkward words ever could. Carefully, Minoru put his arms around Padraic. Minoru felt as steady as the ground, and Padraic held on to him until the sobbing stopped and the world started to make sense again. **** With his faulty language program finally fixed, Padraic was able to communicate with the Inoue executives in a way that was at least marginally meaningful. He answered their questions over and over again until he could recite the story without pause, and he submitted to a number of different and variously painful scans that showed that the information he had inadvertently taken had never been uploaded anywhere else. Minoru, lost eye replaced with a perfect copy of his old one, was at his side for most of it at first, but as the days dragged by, Padraic saw him less and less. Halfway through the questioning, Padraic remembered the information that Minoru and Jenner had threatened him with, the stolen information that they had implanted along with Yuuka's spidering software. When he brought it up, he had been met with blank stares and a request for more scans. Those scans turned up absolutely nothing of the sort, and Padraic found himself laughing at that. If Minoru had been around, he could have cheerfully wrung the man's neck. Liar, he thought helplessly. Liar and worse than that... 99

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After the first flash of rage, though, he found that he simply couldn't keep it up. He could be angry, swear revenge, and spit in the man's face... or he could just let it go. Letting it go also seemed to mean letting Minoru go, though, and as the days drew on, he became helplessly sure that that was what he would have to do. One night, gazing out over the Nagoya skyline, he dreamed about Minoru again. This time it was slow and sweet, and in his dream, he turned to Minoru and put his mouth to the other man's ear. "I know you," he whispered. "I know you very well." He woke up in the morning ready to search Minoru out, but there was an Inoue representative at the door with an excellent offer for his tech and a first-class ticket back to Milwaukee. **** Getting on the plane gave him a strange feeling of deja vu, and he thought of Jenner again Padraic wondered what the Inoue were planning on doing with the man. He wondered if he was ever going to sleep properly again. He nodded distractedly at the man who settled into the seat next to him, and then he did a double-take. Minoru was dressed as conservatively as ever, but for the first time, he had a slightly sheepish expression his face. "I am currently out of favor with my father," he said. "I have been sent away to consider my faults and to meditate on how to be a better son and heir." "And so you're getting sent to meditate in Milwaukee?" 100

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The smile that Minoru flashed him was bright. "No, I am being sent to Beijing." "By way of Milwaukee?" Minoru sighed and looked down. "My father had a great many things to say to me. Some of what he said... affected me very deeply, and so I like to think that I am fulfilling the greater part of his directive in this fashion." Padraic was still uncertain about Minoru heading to Milwaukee, but then he realized that the Inoue heir was uncertain as well. From the way Minoru held himself, the way his hands rested too casually on his lap, Padraic could tell that he was terrified. "You can crash at my place until you get a place of your own," Padraic said finally. "A week, two weeks, tops. Then... then we'll figure it out." Minoru looked blank for a moment and then smiled. He leaned over to kiss Padraic, and it was sweet, lovely, and light. Padraic smiled. For once, he was the one who was going to make things tangled and complicated, and he didn't mind that at all. There was going to be a lot to learn for both of them, and finally, Padraic felt completely ready.

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