Page 111 of CHOICE Lover
The way Sable eyes him across the table makes him shift in his seat. “Nothing anymore. And good luck finding her. I have no idea where she is.”
Sable taps her lip, considering. “Interesting. Did you try using facial recognition software to find her? We ran a search based on my partner’s memory of his encounter with you both and identified a fewcandidates that match her description. Freckles are still quite distinct, plus you’re all over the gossip sites sporting two manupartners. Isolating her down to one result that led to a woman running a stupendously successful blog giving out terrible advice was easy. Dear Electra, I believe. But since you don’t care—”
“Her advice isn’t terrible, and she’s off limits,” he barks. Zorg, this is a mess. But what other choice does he have? “I’ll help you. What do I need to do?”
Sable smiles, leaning back in her seat, all too pleased with herself. “We give you DNA samples and you provide blanks for us. It’s that simple.”
“You’re not entering theblanks”—he makes air quotes around the word—“into the fighting ring, I presume?”
She chuffs. “No. It’s really none of your concern. And I’ll need them before GROW’s recall period ends on the 31st, so we need to accelerate their grow period.”
“If I’m going to provide blanks from the organic materials listed in my inventory, then I want to know what my exposure is.” Does this make him a double agent? The last book he read was a romantic suspense, and he can’t remember how it turned out for the spy. It was a romance, though, so he must have survived.
“Since you haven’t figured this out, let me clarify it for you. This is a transactional relationship. You give me something. I give you something. Get it?”
“Yeah, I get it. What do you want now?”
“I want to know what happened with the reincarnate you’ve lost track of.”
Res6 blinks, momentarily stunned. That isn’t at all what he thought she was going to say. “Why?”
Sable shrugs. “Consider this your divine punishment for bringing one of them back, then falling in love with it.” She clears her throat. “Her, I mean. Besides, I’m curious.”
He takes a long inhale and releases it slowly, determined to get through this without his brain melting out his ears. “Why is this happening?” he mutters, and offers a brief explanation. Her column, the half-formed, brother-shaped manupartner she discovered, their communication breakdown—just enough to satisfy her curiosity.
“Okay, but I don’t understand why she would think you’re a monster for creating a manupartner of your dead brother. That seems perfectly reasonable to me. There must be more to it.” Her eyes narrow and go distant for a moment.
He groans. “Please, Sable, can we move on with this negotiation now? You still owe me an answer about what you’re doing with the blanks.”
She frowns. “Our company is called IdenTECH. We’re turning them in for recycling in place of their corresponding reincarnate to get them out of GROW’s system, then providing the reincarnate a new ID.” She clears her throat. “Selling, technically. I thought that was obvious. That is why we need you to make something up to tell Inspector Wanda. I don’t want my new friends concerned, much less aware of her interest in us, until I can figure out how to deal with her.”
His eyes narrow.
She scoffs. “Stop judging. It isn’t respectful or considerate. Besides, I’m sparing the feelings of another—number seven of acceptable reasons to lie.”
The sudden urge to slam his head against the table overtakes him. He grits his teeth instead. It really isn’t his business if Sable hides things from her business partners. He knows from experience that it’s a bad plan. Losing Electra because he hid his Jerme experiment made that apparent. “Fine.”
“There’s still something that doesn’t fit about your reincarnate problem—oh Zephyr, she wasn’t mad because you created a manupartner with your brother’s DNA. You’re trying to bring him back, like the reincarnates!” she cries, bolting upright.
“Good Zorg, keep your voice down,” he chides, picking up a handful of nuts. Casually, he pops them into his mouth, the chalky taste choking him with instant regret. Around them, a few other patrons glance their way, but no one seems bothered by her outburst. “I thought we were done talking about that.”
She leans forward, whispering, “That’s it, isn’t it? But you’ve been unsuccessful, and she found out. I could look at your data if you wanted.”
“I’m not trying to resurrect my brother, and if I were, I don’t need your help.”
She crosses her arms. “You’re a terrible liar. Why don’t you want my help?”
He leans back, utterly defeated by this fiery woman. Maybe he should hire her. He would certainly rather have her on his team than on someone else’s. “You’re a physician, not a researcher.”
A smug grin erupts as she says, “Sounds like you need to take a different approach.”
“Perhaps,” he reluctantly agrees, sensing his hole getting deeper and wider.
“Next time, I pick the location.” She picks up the bowl of nuts and hands it to the server as she skates by. “You know, after you help us, you could message her to show her what a changed man you are. Assuming you want her back.”
“She blocked my number. And I don’t want her back. It’s complicated. How would that show I changed?” If he could get her back, would he want to? Obviously. So, could it be as easy as Sable is suggesting? She seems to have a sharp sense of things—even if she’s currentlyunder surveillance by NHOS inspectors. How did she guess that about his brother?
“Set up a new account and message her on FrogBlog. You said she hates the idea of manupartners. Send her a message showing her you care about real people,” she says. When he stares at her blankly, she shakes her head like he’s an idiot.
