Page 127 of CHOICE Lover
“Good point. But what about Electra?”
She shrugs. “Since NHOS is publicly hunting down reincarnates, maybe they’re harder to find. Tracking your and Electra’s whereabouts was easier?”
But that would mean he’d put her in danger again. “Fuck. And somehow this is connected to the robbery?”
“You said they stole the pre-2050 DNA and got Electra’s remaining samples?” she asks.
“Yeah.”
She grins. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
He shakes his head. “Sable, I’m certain we’re never thinking the same thing.”
She laughs, brushing off his comment. “What if they weren’t after Electra’s DNA? What if they were looking for someone else and CHOICElover just happened to have it in their catalogue?”
“But who?”
A message quickly appears on the screen, and she sends it before he can even read it.
Her brows furrow. “No idea. Someone who died pre-2050. Do you think they have her at ManuMATE’s headquarters?”
His stomach dips. “I don’t know, but we need to figure out something to send to them. Zorg, it’ll take me hours to pull all of this together.”
“We have all night,” she reassures. “There’s no need to give them your proprietary information. The last thing we need is for them tofigure out how to bring back people from the past intentionally—I’m assuming that’s what this is about.”
“Sable, this is Electra’s life we are talking about. I would risk anything. Give up anything to save her.”
She shakes her head. “What is it with reincarnates that makes sensible modern humans fall so recklessly in love? Zephyr, I hope I never get stuck with one.”
A message from Oro1 pops up on screen.Can’t find any untraceable sparklers.
Res6 stands, clutching his stomach as he begins pacing.
“What’s wrong with you? You need to start compiling documents so we can send them to Oro1 to falsify.” She points to his chair.
He obediently sits and gets to work. Time flies by as he collects and organizes the required data. Several hours later, when he finally has the files packaged, he glances up from his screen. His intense focus shielded him from his panic, but now that he’s finished with his task, dread floods in.
“What if it doesn’t work? What if they’re lying? What if they discover we tried to trick them? What if we give them everything and they kill her anyway?” He reaches up, brushing his damp cheeks. Fuck. The last thing he needs to do is start crying in front of his reluctant new friend. Somehow, he can’t stop the overwhelming urge to double over and collapse to the floor. Sheer will is the only thing keeping his spine straight. The prospect of losing Electra is too similar to losing Jerme all those years ago. If they kill her, he isn’t sure he’ll survive it. “I can’t lose her.”
Sable’s eyes are wide as she cautiously approaches him, like he’s a prey animal. She gingerly pats his arm. “It’s OK. Everything is going to be OK. If you don’t like my plan, what do you think we need to do?”
His vision blurs as he stares past her, quickly calculating the possibilities. He can’t come up with a solution that wouldguarantee her safety. The best option he can come up with scares him almost as much as the prospect of losing her. Because it could mean revealing the truth about Electra and losing the only other thing that he cares about. The thing that has given his life meaning for nearly a hundred years: CHOICElover.
He takes a deep breath, steeling himself. “I think we need to call Inspector Wanda.”
44 – Risk and Compromise
Res6
January 21, 2391.
Inspector Wanda walks into his office an hour later wearing her usual gray uniform jumpsuit, clutching a silver mug. “What was so important you had to drag me all the way over here at this hour?” Her long blonde hair is in a neat bun atop her head, and she looks strikingly youthful without her normal full face of makeup.
“I’m not tired, so don’t even ask. It’s called makeup for a reason,” Inspector Wanda says, evidently having noticed him assessing her.
“I wouldn’t dare,” he says.
Sable chuckles, and when Wanda’s eyes land on her, they go wide.
