Enhanced

  “They will? But what if what they were feeling at the time they got the implant was bad?” Mei-Li asked.

  Malak shrugged. “Then it will feel three times as bad. It is not a pleasant prospect but such is the price for emotional freedom.”

  “I guess I can see why they would want to keep their implants in good working order in some cases, then,” Mei-Li said, thinking again of Six. What emotions would he have to deal with times three if his implant failed? Judging from the way he’d reacted to her looking at even his happy memories, she was certain they wouldn’t be good.

  “Actually, that is very rare. Most of us are grown in tubes. But those of us with pure Kindred DNA often choose not to have our implants replaced or fixed when they go bad. Of course, we cannot get our other enhancements fixed either if they break.” He nodded at his own cracked ocular scope.

  “Oh, because if you go up to the medical barges they’ll see that your implants are broken and want to fix those too,” Mei-Li said, understanding.

  He nodded. “Of course, what we would like to do is get them removed completely. No male with an emotion damper implanted—even a broken one—can bond with a female, which is what we all wish for.”

  “But…there aren’t any females here, I thought,” Mei-Li said.

  “No. But if we could rid ourselves of our implants, we could take a ship and chart a course to another planet—one with females to care for and bond with.” Malak sighed wistfully. “Ahh, it is only a dream. The Tollegs would probably help us—they are a sympathetic and feeling race. But the Collective would never allow it.”

  “So…does the Collective know that this happens? That the implants go bad?”

  “They have an idea,” Malak said grimly. “Why do you think they told the Tollegs to stop mixing pure Kindred DNA some years back? And why else would they have the Purge Squads?”

  “Purge squads?” She knew she’d heard that before.

  “Teams that go around to find people committing Feel-crime.” He looked suddenly worried. “My lady, you will not tell Twelve…I mean Six, the details of our conversation, will you? I fear my tongue has been much loosened by your beauty and I spoke too freely.”

  “Don’t worry,” Mei-Li said quickly. “Your secret is safe with me. I think everyone should have a right to their own feelings. I know I wouldn’t want to give mine up!”

  “Oh, thank you, my lady.” Malak looked relieved. “It used to be that longer hair was all one needed to hide a bad implant and the fact that one was having emotions or “committing Feel-crime” as the Collective and their agents call it. Now, of course they have other methods of finding us. They have the sniffers.”

  Mei-Li frowned. “I’ve heard that term several times. What are ‘sniffers?’”

  “Mechanoids with special sensors that smell pheromones—the chemical scents one’s body emits. They grow stronger with strong emotions,” Malak explained.

  “I met a man on the medical barge that claimed to be able to smell those too,” Mei-Li exclaimed. “He had the most awful, metal…” Her voice trailed off as something just past Malak’s broad shoulder caught her eye.

  Standing there, not ten feet away, was the man with the metal teeth she had met on board the medical barge. He was dressed in the same long, black leather coat that buttoned at his boney throat and went down to his ankles. At his feet were two things that looked to Mei-Li like some kind of weird robot Doberman pinschers. He was looking away from her at the moment, with his head raised high in the air as if he was sniffing for something.

  “Oh my God,” she whispered softly. “That’s him.”

  “What is it, my lady?” Malak turned his head to look at what she was staring at and turned back, his faded blue eye wide. “That’s Two, my lady—the Eyes of the Collective. He is on the Purge Squad and he has sniffers with him!” He took her by the arm. “Come, we must get away before he sees us!”

  But it was too late. Even as he spoke, the man with the metal teeth turned his head. When he spotted Mei-Li, that wide, frightening grin she remembered so well spread across his mouth showing every single one of his steel teeth.

  She was trapped.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Six strode back to his domicile with a swift, steady pace. After a day of work, his mind felt calm and clear and the sensations he had been troubled with earlier were all but eradicated. He was well prepared to deal with Mei-Li now, he thought to himself and his strategy was simple. He would simply keep his distance as he had the night before. He would eat with her, as the Claiming Contract demanded but he would not sleep in the sousa with her. He wouldn’t technically be sleeping at all—he would be spending his night in his recharging station. Six felt this neatly sidestepped the issue of sleeping every night in the same bed. If one of them wasn’t sleeping, the contract technically had not been violated.

  He wasn’t sure how he would deal with the Tasting Week, which would begin tomorrow evening. Part of him—a part he had endeavored to bury—still longed desperately to part Mei-Li’s lovely thighs and taste her pussy. That part thirsted for her sweet honey, longed to feel her pull his hair and call his name as he made her come again and again with his tongue and fingers…

  But Six feared the sensations such an act might cause. Once he had thought he could touch her and still remain cold and unmoved. Mei-Li had proved that he was wrong about that the moment she showed him the meaning of a kiss. An act she had refused to repeat no matter how often he had asked for it. If only he could taste her sweet lips and feel her body pressed to his once more…

  No! Six shook his head. Enough of such thoughts. Now he was wiser. He knew that he needed to keep his hands off her—to keep as much distance between them as possible—if he didn’t wish to experience the troubling sensations that his emotion damper had so much trouble handling.

  Though he didn’t like to admit it, even to himself, Six knew he was in dangerous territory here. The small, seemingly helpless Earth girl he had claimed was like a bomb—one which would trigger an emotional explosion in him if handled incorrectly. Or no, maybe she was more like acid—eating away at his self-control and restraint, making him want her even when he knew she was the one thing he should never have.

  Well, either way he was determined to leave her alone. And he would deal with the problem of the Tasting Week when it came. Thankfully even though he was tempted, he couldn't taste her tonight—it was against the rules of the contract to do any of the proscribed erotic activities early unless the female specifically consented to them and agreed to bonding sex. In fact, forcing early contact of any kind before the contract allowed it was grounds for immediate termination of the Claiming Period.

  It would have been an easy way out of their contract and Six might seriously have considered such a thing but he couldn’t bring himself to actually hurt Mei-Li, no matter how…disturbed he had been by her actions the night before. Also, One wanted the Claiming Period to run its normal course for some still undisclosed reason which he had promised to divulge soon.

  Six would have liked to disclose some of the difficulties the claiming was causing him—in a very understated and careful way, of course—but One and the five males highest in the rubric were very busy just now. Six wasn’t sure, but he thought there might be a conquest on the wind—some small nearby planet with natural resources the Collective wished to harvest. Probably One would be more communicative when it was accomplished.

  Musing on this, he opened the door to his domicile and went in, expecting to see Mei-Li using the nature emulator. She wasn’t in the living area, however. Walking further into the domicile, he looked for her in the food prep area. She wasn’t there either, though the bag of tresh was over half gone and a large pile of strange garments was sitting on the counter. She was also absent from the sleeping room and his recharging area. Though he searched and called her name, Mei-Li was nowhere to be found—not even the fresher.

  She’s gone.

  A strange sensation started in th
e pit of Six’s stomach. A burning, clenching feeling that made his entire body tight. Where could she be? Had she run away? But how would she manage out on the streets of a strange, alien city all by herself? A city filled with males who were all bigger than she was? She might get crushed by a wheeler or mangled if she got too close to the gears of a grinder or—

  “Ter,” he called, trying to keep his voice steady. “Where is Mei-Li?”

  “How am I to know that?” the mechanical voice said stiffly. “She does not speak to me except to issue commands.”

  “Well, did she command you to give her directions anywhere? To let her communicate with anyone?” Six demanded.

  “Negative. As I indicated, she did not talk to me at all this solar day. After you left, she sat in the living area and moisture leaked from her eyes for some time. She made small sounds of pain at this time but no words.”

  Six felt a twinge. “That was…crying,” he said hoarsely. “She was crying after I left?”

  “Yes,” Ter affirmed. “After that she wiped her eyes and went into the food prep area. There she used much of your tresh in failed attempts at new clothing.”

  “I told her she could use the simulator to make whatever she wanted,” Six said. “But where would she go afterwards?”

  “She muttered something to herself that my sensors barely caught,” Ter said. “Shall I play it back for you?”

  “Yes—at once,” Six snapped.

  “Very well. Here it is.” Suddenly Mei-Li’s soft, high voice came from the speaker. “Damn it, I’ll never get to the spice market at this rate. By the time I finally make something decent to wear, the whole damn place will be closed!”

  “The spice market? She went to Serlix Market on her own?” Six exclaimed. “Ter, why did you not play this for me earlier? It’s a clear indication of where she went.”

  “How was I to know you would wish to hear such a thing?” Ter countered. “I cannot anticipate your every desire, Six. I am only an Artificial Intelligence, not a mind-reading machine.”

  “Fine," Six growled. He was wasting time berating Ter, anyway. He had to get to Serlix Market and find her before something happened. In fact, hadn’t One said something about Two and the rest of the Purge Squad taking a tour through the area where the market was located this evening?

  The Purge Squad and all of Two’s Goddessdamned sniffers… Surely they wouldn’t hurt or purge Mei-Li though—she had a dispensation. But still… the idea of Two and his squad finding her made the burning, tight sensation in his chest grow exponentially. There was another sensation too—a feeling of protective possessiveness that seemed to fill his entire body when he thought of Mei-Li. A need to be with her, to hold her within the circle of his arms and know that she was safe. That no other male could touch or hurt her.

  The thought of Two and his ruthless grin rose before his mind’s eyes again. Six felt the burning in his chest which he now knew was panic. He had to get to her before it was too late!

  Turning, he bolted out the door.

  * * * * *

  “Well, well, my dear—so here you are at last! I was wondering when I might see you again.” Mr. Metal Teeth, whom Malak had called Two, came strolling over with his two robotic dogs sniffing at his heels. Actually, the closer they got, the less they looked like dogs to Mei-Li. Though they had sharply pointed ears and snouts, their bodies were more low slung and their mechanical paws ended in knife-like claws that would have been better suited to a mountain lion. Their teeth were a nightmare—gleaming silver daggers which would have made a shark shudder. Ugh.

  It was too late to run so Mei-Li decided to brave it out.

  “Hello,” she said pleasantly, stepping forward. “It’s nice to see you again. Do you live in this area?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do. It is my job to search out and eradicate those committing Feel-crime and as there are so many offenders in this area, I like to stay close. It makes a very short commute to work, you know.” He grinned at her, showing all those horrible metal teeth, as though it was a big joke.

  “I…see.” Mei-Li nodded. “Well, I was just sightseeing myself but I should probably go now. Six will be wondering where I am.”

  “As a matter of fact,” Two continued, as though she hadn’t even spoken. “I do believe that I smell some Feel-crime happening right here.” He lifted his head, inhaled deeply, and then looked directly at Malak. “Have a faulty emo-damper do we? They can fix that on the medical barges, you know—if you go of your own volition and ask. But I’m afraid letting an implant lapse without seeking help is a purging offense. Such a shame.” He nodded at his sniffers. “Go on—dispatch.”

  The two robotic dogs advanced on the old Kindred, growling low in their throats. The buzzing, artificial noise they made and the way their glowing red eyes glared at their intended target was enough to make Mei-Li’s blood run cold.

  “Wait!” She stepped out in front of Malak, her heart beating in her throat. She had never liked big dogs and robot dog-lion-things with shark teeth were even worse. But she didn’t want the old Kindred to get hurt.

  “Heel,” Two told the sniffers. They stopped at once and sat at his feet, staring up at her with eyes like hot coals. Their menacing silence and intent gaze was very unnerving but still Mei-Li held her ground.

  “I…” She licked her lips which were suddenly very dry. “I…you can’t…”

  “I can’t what? Do continue,” Two said, raising an eyebrow at her.

  “I’m certain the only feelings, er, pheromones, you’re smelling are coming from me,” she said firmly as she finally found her voice. “And as you remember, I have a dispensation to have emotions here on Z4.”

  “Ah yes, a dispensation. Where is it, may I ask?” Two inquired.

  “It’s right here.” She gestured to her forearm and started to pull up the sleeve of her robe to show him.

  However, Two stopped her. “Ah, so you have it covered. How unfortunate.”

  Mei-Li felt a cold shiver go down her spine. “Unfortunate? Why?”

  “Why because, my dear, a dispensation for emotions must be displayed prominently at all times. If it is covered up, hidden, or obscured in any way, it shall be considered null and void. Which makes you guilty of Feel-crime. Very guilty, indeed.”

  “What? But that’s ridiculous!” Mei-Li objected. She was beginning to get a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, the same feeling she’d gotten when her father had called and told her there was a problem at the hospital. A feeling of abject fear and disbelief. Surely this can’t be happening… But it was.

  “I assure you, it is not ridiculous at all. It is the law. Didn’t Six explain it to you?” Two shook his head and made a tsking noise. “What a pity! I’m sure he’ll be most put out when I tell him that the little female he claimed had to be purged because he forgot to go over the rules before letting her off the leash.”

  “Why you…you wouldn’t dare!” Mei-Li felt like all the blood was draining from her face. He wouldn’t really sic those awful dogs on her, would he?

  “You won’t hurt the lady of the prophesy—I won’t let you!” Suddenly Malak jumped in front of her, crouched in a fighting stance.

  “Really? This is how you wish to end your days? Very well—dispatch,” Two said to the sniffers, pointing at Malak.

  They sprang forward like two sleek missiles made of death. Before the old Kindred could move, one of them had clamped onto his right arm and the other had him by the throat.

  “Oh God…oh my God!” Mei-Li gasped as the low, mechanical growls buzzed through their long, silver bodies. The noises they made were loud but not loud enough to cover the sound of tearing flesh and the old Kindred’s choked cries of pain.

  Malak was gasping for breath and trying with no success to get them off him. He might have stood a chance if he was twenty years younger or if there hadn’t been two sniffers at once but as it was he was clearly losing the battle.

  “No—let him go! Let him g—” But before
Mei-Li could finish her sentence, there was a low ripping sound and a gout of bright red arterial blood spurted from the old man’s neck. She gasped as it sprayed outward, coating Two’s long black leather coat and spraying his thin, cadaverous face in a patina of crimson droplets.

  Malak gave a choked gurgle and fell to his knees. Mei-Li watched in horror as the old Kindred’s single faded blue eye rolled up into his head…and then he slumped over on his side. A pool of dark red blood which looked black against the gray metal pavement spread around him.

  Mei-Li stared down at him in horror. The old Kindred who had been so excited to see her was dead.

  “You…” She looked up at Two, her voice shaking. “You…killed him! Or let your dogs kill him. You monster.”

  “Well, really my dear—what did you think purging meant, anyway?” Still grinning, Two ran out a long, pale tongue and deliberately licked the flecks of blood from his thin, liver-colored lips. “At any rate, this is good—now you can see exactly what is in store for you. Sniffers,” he barked. At once, the two mechanical dogs left the body of Malak to come stand by his side.

  “You wouldn’t,” Mei-Li whispered, backing up. “I’m here because Six claimed me—we have a contract.”

  “Which is none of my concern,” Two said. “I am simply charged with controlling Feel-crime in our fair city. Which, you are committing right now.” He inhaled again and grinned at her fiercely. “Ah…I can smell your fear. It’s quite delicious—much better than any spice.” Then he pointed one long, skeletal finger at her and said to the dogs, “Dispatch!”

  Mei-Li stumbled backward, tripping over Malak’s prone form in her attempt to get away. It was probably the only thing that saved her. Her sudden fall put her throat much lower than the leaping sniffers had expected.

  She fell, hitting the ground hard on her back, knocking the breath out of herself. Looking up she saw, as if in slow motion, the sleek silver body of one of the robotic dogs flying over her head.