circle filled bottom to the back of the display.
He couldn’t be packing up and leaving. Not after casually announcing he had infected me.
“No.” The chair’s legs screeched against the tile as I hopped sideways toward him. My muscles jiggled and my joints creaked but I didn’t care. He wasn’t going to leave me like this. “No. I won’t allow it. You put them in me; you need to get them out. Out, out Spam dots!”
I flinched at my father’s favorite interpretation of Shakespeare.
His mouth turned down at the corners. And for a moment, his blond eyebrows met in a vee above his nose. Clearing his throat, he turned away and tucked the MP4 player in his back pocket. “Can’t.”
“Yes. You can.” I’d become his personal cheerleader if he’d change his mind. I really needed him to change his mind. I sniffed up the unmentionables tickling my nose. I’d had a cold like this only once before and I’d ended up in the hospital for three weeks. This time I didn’t have insurance. “You created the Spam dots. You get them out or turn them off. Surely the fancy pen or cell phone can do that.”
I jerked my head toward the brass pen. He hadn’t used that yet. Surely Big Brother had a cure for something they created. Unless… Oh God. I stopped moving my chair. Unless they sterilized the infected.
“UED didn’t create the CeeBees. We stumbled across them on our first contact.” Tobias set his cold hand on mine. “As far as we know, they created themselves and keep on making more of themselves, improving and adapting with each generation. Although we’ve used them for nearly a thousand years, we have yet to understand how the CeeBees work.”
He lifted his hand and wiped it on his jeans.
First contact. A thousand years. Had the Spam dots effected my hearing now? Was I beyond curing? Tears stung my eyes. My fever disappeared under a wave of chills. “I don’t understand.”
“I know, obecht .” He tucked the pen into his shirt pocket, right above the city logo. “And maybe we could have left you alone but now that you’ve become involved with Konstantin…”
“I’m not involved with him!” My voice became hoarse as a dozen frogs played Cirque du Soliel with my vocal cords. Geez, if Mr. Tall, Dark and Latino stood between me and the cure… “I’ll give him up, swear off men, join a convent or take a vow of celibacy. Just don’t let those things kill me.”
Silently, he picked up his cell. He tilted his head to the right while turning the Smartphone round and round in his hand. “I’ve never heard of the Cee-Bee’s killing anyone.”
I collapsed against the chair’s wooden slats. Praise Buddha . I was going to live. My internal celebration died a quick death. Tobias didn’t actually seem filled with warm and fuzzy thoughts at the news. What was he not telling me? “But?”
“Given your association with Konstantin, UED cannot allow you to carry the CeeBees.” The screen of his phone lit up. He glanced at the name and ran his fingers through his short hair.
I sniffed. And that got him upset? Seemed like a win-win situation to me. “So they’ll remove the Spam dots and I’ll be okay.”
“The CeeBees can’t be removed.” Using his thumb he accepted the call and raised the phone to his ear. “The only viable solution will be your immediate termination.”
Chapter Four
“Killing me is not a viable solution.” I shouted at Tobias’s back. Despite the waves of fever crashing over me, I was clear-headed enough to know that I wanted to live a long and happy life. “Look it up in the dictionary. Viable is the opposite of death.”
Tobias Werner UED shrugged his broad shoulders. Instead of responding to my shouts, he spoke into his cell phone and faced away from me into the living room. “Werner.”
Pretentious douche bag! Answering with only his last name like everyone on God’s green Earth knew who he was. I jerked my wrists but the light bands holding me to the
He couldn’t be packing up and leaving. Not after casually announcing he had infected me.
“No.” The chair’s legs screeched against the tile as I hopped sideways toward him. My muscles jiggled and my joints creaked but I didn’t care. He wasn’t going to leave me like this. “No. I won’t allow it. You put them in me; you need to get them out. Out, out Spam dots!”
I flinched at my father’s favorite interpretation of Shakespeare.
His mouth turned down at the corners. And for a moment, his blond eyebrows met in a vee above his nose. Clearing his throat, he turned away and tucked the MP4 player in his back pocket. “Can’t.”
“Yes. You can.” I’d become his personal cheerleader if he’d change his mind. I really needed him to change his mind. I sniffed up the unmentionables tickling my nose. I’d had a cold like this only once before and I’d ended up in the hospital for three weeks. This time I didn’t have insurance. “You created the Spam dots. You get them out or turn them off. Surely the fancy pen or cell phone can do that.”
I jerked my head toward the brass pen. He hadn’t used that yet. Surely Big Brother had a cure for something they created. Unless… Oh God. I stopped moving my chair. Unless they sterilized the infected.
“UED didn’t create the CeeBees. We stumbled across them on our first contact.” Tobias set his cold hand on mine. “As far as we know, they created themselves and keep on making more of themselves, improving and adapting with each generation. Although we’ve used them for nearly a thousand years, we have yet to understand how the CeeBees work.”
He lifted his hand and wiped it on his jeans.
First contact. A thousand years. Had the Spam dots effected my hearing now? Was I beyond curing? Tears stung my eyes. My fever disappeared under a wave of chills. “I don’t understand.”
“I know, obecht .” He tucked the pen into his shirt pocket, right above the city logo. “And maybe we could have left you alone but now that you’ve become involved with Konstantin…”
“I’m not involved with him!” My voice became hoarse as a dozen frogs played Cirque du Soliel with my vocal cords. Geez, if Mr. Tall, Dark and Latino stood between me and the cure… “I’ll give him up, swear off men, join a convent or take a vow of celibacy. Just don’t let those things kill me.”
Silently, he picked up his cell. He tilted his head to the right while turning the Smartphone round and round in his hand. “I’ve never heard of the Cee-Bee’s killing anyone.”
I collapsed against the chair’s wooden slats. Praise Buddha . I was going to live. My internal celebration died a quick death. Tobias didn’t actually seem filled with warm and fuzzy thoughts at the news. What was he not telling me? “But?”
“Given your association with Konstantin, UED cannot allow you to carry the CeeBees.” The screen of his phone lit up. He glanced at the name and ran his fingers through his short hair.
I sniffed. And that got him upset? Seemed like a win-win situation to me. “So they’ll remove the Spam dots and I’ll be okay.”
“The CeeBees can’t be removed.” Using his thumb he accepted the call and raised the phone to his ear. “The only viable solution will be your immediate termination.”
Chapter Four
“Killing me is not a viable solution.” I shouted at Tobias’s back. Despite the waves of fever crashing over me, I was clear-headed enough to know that I wanted to live a long and happy life. “Look it up in the dictionary. Viable is the opposite of death.”
Tobias Werner UED shrugged his broad shoulders. Instead of responding to my shouts, he spoke into his cell phone and faced away from me into the living room. “Werner.”
Pretentious douche bag! Answering with only his last name like everyone on God’s green Earth knew who he was. I jerked my wrists but the light bands holding me to the
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