My eyes snapped open. I was lying on one of the comfortable chairs in the lounge. Shelley was resting her hip on the armrest beside me. Behind her, I could see the others standing around looking anxiously at me. "You're finally awake," she said, smiling. "Wizzit had you in the healing coma for nearly two hours; we were starting to get worried."
I struggled to sit up. "And all of you were waiting here for me all that time?" I asked, prepared to be humbled by their attention.
She shook her head with a tiny frown. "No, of course not. We were with the Commander, debriefing Padma." She leaned forward, and I felt her cool hand caress my cheek. "Sorry to burst your bubble. Wizzit called us back here when he was ready to bring you around. He thought you might like to wake up surrounded by friends." She stood and extended a hand. "Here, let me help you up."
You know, I really like healing comas. I mean, it's great to know that no matter how badly you get hurt during a fight, Wizzit can fix you up again real fast.
That said, I would have liked to have a period of convalescence after this particular mission. Nothing terribly lengthy, just a day or so of lying in bed, being waited on hand and foot by somebody nice to look at. Shelley, for instance. Or Padma, who would be ever so grateful for everything that I had done for her. Or Trina. Mmm, yeah, I could see Trina hovering over me in one of those low-cut, skimpy little nurse's uniforms with the white stockings. Now that might be worth getting hurt for.
Alas, I felt perfectly fine, and everyone knew that I felt perfectly fine, so there was no point in trying to milk it. I sighed and let Shelley pull me up to my feet. "So how did the fight with Bill the monster go?" I asked.
"Oh, it was great!" Padma said excitedly. "I did just what you said. As soon as I landed, I told Wizzit to tune my boots to attack the monster."
"It was an incredible stroke of luck," Nicolai broke in. "I don't know how you discovered it, Trevor, but his base frequency just happened to lie in Seventeen's zero residue class, which meant that setting her weapons to overload his power base was child's play."
Padma smiled indulgently at him, as if she knew that she was the only one in the room who understood what he had just said. "After a few seconds, Wizzit started laughing like I had told him a good joke," she continued. "He said to hit Bill with a jumping sidekick, and when I did, he simply vaporized. I was so surprised that it worked. The whole thing took less than five minutes, and the others were all laughing and cheering for me!"
Shelley pointedly cleared her throat, and Padma looked down, seeming a little embarrassed. "Of course, we didn't forget about you. They were all quite concerned when I told them you didn't make it out with me. And when Wizzit finally pulled you in, and you had been so badly beaten and were half-frozen and bleeding all over -- we were all very worried."
"Yeah, you were busted up pretty bad," Mike put in. He stepped forward and handed me a blaster. "You, uh, dropped this when we were fighting that wolf-thing. So, what happened, mate? Tried to steal a kiss from the Dragon Lady?"
I laughed. "Actually . . . yeah. It was something like that."
"That's our Trevor," Trina sighed. "Always the ladies' man." She gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "I'm glad you're safe."
"We all are," Shelley added warmly.
"Oh, and Wizzit told me why I had trouble activating when we were there," Padma said suddenly.
"Well, yeah!" came Wizzit's voice from somewhere above me. "Voice activation works only when I can hear you and process the request for you. Duh! Otherwise, ya gotta tap in the command yourself."
Shelley rolled her eyes at the ceiling. "You can tell us all about what happened in the kitchen." She gave me a side hug. "Dad's cooking. I imagine you're pretty hungry after such a long healing coma."
She was right. I hadn't noticed it until now, but suddenly it felt like there was a Bill-sized hole in my stomach. In fact, I was so hungry I'd even eat Prime Commander's cooking. "That sounds good. I'll join you guys there in a little bit. I'd like to get cleaned up first."
I picked up a few more hugs and handshakes as the others filed out. Soon there was just me and Padma in the room. She came over and rested her hands on my shoulders.
"I, um," she began uncertainly, "I don't know how to thank you for . . . well, for everything. You saved my life out there, many times over." She hadn't spent all her time debriefing, I decided. She must have found time to shower and wash her hair, because it was still faintly damp, and she smelled wonderful. I, on the other hand, probably reeked of blood and stale sweat. She went on, "But . . . about what I said to you . . . you know, when we were in the cage . . ."
"It's already forgotten."
"Good." She sighed with relief. "I was quite frightened and I felt . . . obliged to you at the time. I suppose I still do, but, um . . ." She laughed nervously. "You're cute, Trevor, and kissing you was quite pleasant, but to be honest, I am not looking for a boyfriend right now."
I grinned. "That's okay; I'm not looking for a girlfriend, either. But I like flirting with you, and the occasional kiss between friends is pretty nice, too, wouldn't you say?"
"Oh, yes, I would most definitely agree," she said. She laid a hand on my chest as I tried to move closer to her. "Um, no offense, but you're a bit of a mess right now. I don't want to get your blood all over my clothes." She wrinkled her nose. "And . . . you do need a shower."
I laughed. "Go on and join the others, then. I'll be out in a few minutes." She left, and I went to my room.
Once I was clean and had changed out of my bloody, torn clothes, I sat down at my desk and pulled out a sheet of paper from one drawer. I had had Wizzit print this out for me after the battle in Russia. It was a full-color image capture of Lily as I had seen her then, lying on the ground bound up in my handcuffs. Not the most flattering image, but I had wanted a picture of her as the Cantonese speaker, the woman who wept in a cage. The woman I now knew as Li Lin-fa.
"I will rescue you some day," I whispered to her in Cantonese. "I will free you from that cage and I will bring you back with me. I swear it, Li Lin-fa." I studied her picture for a moment longer, then I slid the paper back in the desk drawer and went out to the kitchen to join my friends.
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The Attack Doll Series
by
Douglas A. Taylor
Twenty-one-year-old Trevor Chiao is Prime Indigo; he is a member of the fabulous Primes, a group of seven men and women whose mission is to protect the Earth from Enclave, an alien organization bent on taking over the world.
Protected by an indigo-colored force shield that enhances his strength and speed and keeps his identity secret, he travels all over the world with his fellow Primes, battling monsters, Zoinks, and the mysterious Lily Lee, a beautiful Asian woman who refers to herself as . . . the Attack Doll.
Attack Doll 1: Violet Lost
Trevor becomes the mentor of Padma Reddy, a young woman from India who has joined the team as their new Prime Violet. When Padma is kidnapped by Enclave during her first mission as a Prime, Trevor must risk his own life to infiltrate the Enclave base and rescue . . . Violet Lost.
Don't miss the next exciting book in the Attack Doll series:
Attack Doll 2: Junior Prime
Trevor usually gets along pretty well with his younger sister Angela, but when the two of them are taken prisoner by Enclave and Angie discovers Trevor's secret identity, he doesn't quite know how to handle it. What's a guy to do when his kid sister wants to tag along as a . . . Junior Prime?
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