Christmas in Zonei - 5. Chapter 5

Kim’s hands shook slightly as he typed. He swallowed hard and managed to refrain from glancing at the camera he knew was mounted on the wall above the desk, recording his every move.

I can’t believe I’m doing this. What will they do if they catch me? The possibilities ranged from losing his job, at the very least, to being arrested and reformed, something he couldn’t even let himself contemplate. He managed to stop the full body shudder—just barely. Just get it over with!

Holding his breath, he typed, “Information on mods.” He had turned off the voice interaction feature on the system and was using the old-fashioned keyboard method. That in itself might raise suspicions, but a conversation with the computer about what he was searching for would surely condemn him.

“Mod: gene-modified human.

“There are twenty-seven known types of mods. They all have the following characteristics…”

Bingo! Finally some real information.

Kim skimmed through the text. Much of the general information he already knew, either having heard it as rumor or from Raeden himself. Mods were bred for various purposes by the corporations. K-Corp held the patents for twelve different mods and bred twenty-two kinds in their top-secret facilities. They had either stolen or negotiated the gene patterns for the ones they hadn’t developed.

Looking through the list of mod-types it appeared that most were bred for warfare. There were assassin mods, espionage mods—those were the ones who could read minds—and warrior mods. Kim clicked on the link to the warrior mods and was brought to a page with pictures of each kind of mod.

The hair on the back of his head rose as he looked through the images. Some of the warrior mods were truly grotesque, not really resembling humans at all.

A thump sounded down the hallway and Kim jumped. Shit! I need to hurry. Representative Kenner could be back at any minute to find him accessing forbidden information on his terminal.

He clicked on the link for one of the more human-looking mods and was taken to page for “Battle Boys.” After examining the images more closely, he clicked back to the main page. The Battle Boys were muscular, but didn’t seem to have the scale patterns that Raeden had.

Scanning down the list, he caught sight of a creature who looked like a weird combination between a lizard and a man. He was huge and muscular and his body was covered with scales—not scale patterns—real scales. Even his face was hidden behind scales which seemed to come out of the sides of his head and wrap around it, shielding all but the eyes, which were sheltered behind the ridges, so deep set they appeared to be just sockets.

Kim shivered, hoping his body’s response to the eerie image would not be picked up by the camera.

Although the creature was not wearing any clothes, his genitalia were hidden completely behind more heavy scales. Kim was so engrossed in looking at the details of the lizard-man, that at first he didn’t notice there was a second creature on the man’s back. It was much smaller but was also covered in lizard-like scales.

The computer identified this creature as a Warrior Pair. Huh! Odd, but probably not Raeden’s mod-type. Raeden didn’t have actual scales, just scale patterns.

Kim searched on, but there was nothing else that came close. Scrolling back up, he clicked on the link to the Warrior Pair page. He just managed to keep from gasping in shock as a photo of Raeden rolled onto the screen.

There were a number of images, showing various Warrior Pairs both with and without scales. Kim read the descriptive text eagerly.

Background:

Warrior Pairs are designed to work together seamlessly as a single unit. They are a trans-mod. (Kim clicked on the definition link to discover that a trans-mod is a type of mod whose physical characteristics transform under certain conditions to something sometimes radically different. They were the most advanced mod-type created to-date.) They excel in hand-to-hand combat.

The warrior pairs are incubated separately and segregated by sex until the age of eight, when the males and females start combined training. Very quickly, they begin to sort themselves into pairs. Within a few weeks, they will have chosen their life mates. Once bonded the pairs are never apart: they eat, sleep, and train together.

When they are old enough, they will engage in sexual intercourse with each other. This is allowed, even encouraged, as a way to enhance their natural life bond. As with all mods, they are infertile.

Advantages:

Warrior Pairs are the most effective battle mods yet developed, with a kill ratio of 142-to-1. The female of the pair, who is bred to be tiny, clings to the large male’s back when they fight. A special harness has been created so the female can stay securely in place in the heat of battle and have both hands free for fighting. As the pair grows, they become mentally linked which allows them to work as a single unit during battle. Like most mods, the pairs have heightened senses and can hear, smell, and see six times better than the average human. They excel at physical activities: they are stronger, faster, and have more stamina than any other battle mods.

They also have an average IQ of 157. Their pairing gives them a distinct advantage over other battle mods, because they can confer with each other over strategy and communicate almost instantaneously, bypassing speech.

Disadvantages:

In spite of repeated attempts to create warrior pairs who are under complete control of the corporation, the pairs have remained fiercely independent. Within their pairing they are monogamous, extremely protective of their mate, and loyal to their mate above all else. The other disadvantage of the Warrior Pair is that if one is injured, it affects the ability of the other to fight. If one is killed, the other part of the pairing becomes useless. They lose their ability to transform into a warrior, sometimes becoming catatonic. Attempts to bond the surviving pair member with a new bond-mate have been unsuccessful. The survival rate for pair-members who have lost their mate is 60% after one month, 0% after six months. Typically they die by their own hand.”

Kim paused and reread the last two statements. That’s not true. He thought back to the first time he’d seen Raeden staggering down the street in Zonem. That had been at the beginning of the summer, more than six months earlier. He would have died if I hadn’t rescued him.

A minute vibration on his wrist snapped him fully into the present. It was the alarm he’d set for himself to tell him to get the hell out of there. He closed the browser window and efficiently erased all trace of his research from the machine. He then logged out of the representative’s account, logged in as an IT specialist, and spent a few moments fixing the security feed problems that were the cause of him being called to the representative’s office in the first place.

It had been a stroke of luck that such a high-ranking official had a network failure just when he was in need of classified information. The fact that he’d volunteered to go fix the representative’s machine when he usually avoided muckity-mucks like the plague might be suspicious, but with the security feed down, his actions could not be monitored. All machines within corpnet were monitored, every action being fed into the security system which sniffed for illicit activity. When the software alerted on something out of the ordinary, one of the security goons would look over the logs and determine if further investigation was in order. Kim had seen more than one person fired or taken away when their actions were discovered. He’d always wondered why they had taken such a huge risk. Now he understood.

Making sure the representative’s system was secure, he logged the repair onto his order book and left the man’s office.

*****

That afternoon, he couldn’t concentrate on his work. His mind continually drifted back to dwell on the information he’d found about Raeden. When he wasn’t mulling over how devastating it would be to lose someone with whom you had a bond closer than twins, he was stewing over the likelihood that he would get caught and what the consequences might be if he was. Then it occurred to him that Raeden was likely to commit suicide. Surely, if what he’d read was true, the mod’s time was up. His mind started down a new and terrifying track of coming home to discover that Raeden had hung himself or had slit his wrists with one of his kitchen knives. Suddenly he couldn’t wait to get home so he could suicide-proof his unit.

It had been three days since he’d had the conversation with Raeden about sex, such as it was. That discussion seemed to have changed Raeden’s attitude toward him. He couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was, but the big man seemed gentler. He no longer complained about their meager fare or the lack of drugs and alcohol. Maybe he’s just come to realize that that’s how things are going to be while he’s living with me.

It seemed like more than that, though. Several times, he’d woken at night to find himself pulled tight against Raeden’s chest, with the mod’s arm wrapped protectively around him. The first time it had happened he’d stiffened in fear until he realized that the big man did not have a hard-on and, indeed, he seemed to be sound asleep. Then he’d reveled in the fantasy that they were a couple, that Raeden loved him and cherished him and would protect him at all cost. At that point, lying warm in Raeden’s arms, smelling the other man’s unique scent, and feeling his heart beating steadily at his back, he had felt contentment such as he hadn’t known in a long, long time.

Careful, Kim, he’d told himself. This is not real. Someday soon, he will disappear from your life forever. Don’t get carried away with your fantasies. He’s incapable of loving you.

With a sigh, Kim glanced at the clock again. Two minutes had passed since the last time he’d checked. It was going to be a very long afternoon.

*****

That night, on his way home from work, he did something he’d never done before: he went into a grocery store in Zonee. Eyes wide, he strolled through the aisles of neatly arrayed produce and other goods, amazed at the selection of items available. Glancing at the cans and jars of exotic foods, he wondered what people made with all of these items. He was tempted by the bananas—he loved bananas and had only had them a few times in his life. Tropical fruit was a luxury that only those in the higher zones could afford. Before he could change his mind and spend his meager income on something for himself, he quickly located the meat department.

The selection and quality of meat on hand was astounding. He found a medium-sized steak, packaged singly, and winced at the price. A brief perusal of the selection of beef told him that it didn’t get any better. He could go smaller, or with a less expensive cut, but really the price difference was not much. Whichever way he went, it was expensive. He wouldn’t be able to charge his PowMon fully if he bought a steak, but if they were careful about their power consumption next week, they’d be all right. He picked the steak up, double-wrapped it in the plastic bags they had available—a luxury they didn’t have in Zonei—and made his way to the checkout stand.

He hoped that Raeden would appreciate this. He didn’t have high hopes that the man would even thank him.

*****

“You bought meat?” Raeden’s eyebrows lifted toward his hairline of blond stubble. “Why?”

Kim couldn’t tell if Raeden was happy or not; he just seemed suspicious. “I thought that’s what you wanted.”

“Since when do you care what I want?” Raeden asked.

Kim shrugged and turned back to the stove, feeling heat rising in his cheeks. Why did I buy this fucking expensive meat? “I’m an idiot is all,” he muttered, not loud enough for Raeden to hear. In truth, he was worried about Raeden. His feet didn’t seem to be healing; if anything they looked like they were getting worse. He was hoping the meat would help Raeden to heal, even if it was just psychological.

“You’re not an idiot. I very much appreciate the meat. I wish I could help you out—with money, I mean. I have a generous stipend: not as much as when I was working, but seemingly a lot more than you make. Once I have an intel again, I’ll pay you back.”

“It’s not necessary,” Kim replied, but he felt better nonetheless.

He pan-fried the steak on high with garlic, salt, and cracked pepper. When it was done, he removed it to a plate and quickly made a sauce with the browned bits left in the pan. He served the steak to Raeden with the sauce and some boiled potatoes and carrots.

He helped himself to potatoes, carrots, and the last of the sauce.

“You’re not having any steak?” Raeden asked, eyeing his plate.

“No.”

“Are you a vegetarian?”

“No,” Kim answered without elaborating. He didn’t want the mod to feel guilty. He glanced over and noted Raeden’s grimace as he struggled to cut the meat with his injured fingers.

“Here, let me help you with that,” he said, holding his hand out for Raeden’s plate.

“Only if you give yourself some of this steak.”

Kim looked at Raeden in surprise. His jaw was set and his eyes were intense as he glared at Kim.

“I bought the steak for you,” Kim protested.

“I won’t eat it unless you share with me,” Raeden said.

“Why do you care?”

“Care?” Raeden let out a bitter laugh. He looked like he was about to say something, but then thought the better of it. He held out his plate for Kim.

Kim cut the steak into bite-sized pieces, but when he went to hand the plate back to Raeden the big man folded his arms across his chest. “Not until you give yourself some.”

Kim rolled his eyes, but scraped a few pieces of the meat onto his own plate. It smelled wonderful and he was suddenly starving.

“More,” Raeden demanded.

Kim decided it was useless to argue with Raeden. As he complied with his order by adding a few more pieces to his own plate, he said, “Pushy much?”

Raeden smirked. “I just like to be obeyed,” he said in a deep growly voice.

Kim shivered and popped a piece of steak into his mouth. Closing his eyes, he savored the flavor as he chewed slowly. When he opened his eyes, he found Raeden watching him intently, a small smile on his lips.

“What?”

“Nice to see you enjoying something. Seems like you don’t have many pleasures.”

Kim’s startled heart started to slam into his chest. What the hell? Does Raeden actually care about my happiness? “Not since my mom died, no,” he said and then immediately wondered why he’d opened up to Raeden like that.

“You should treat yourself more often,” Raeden said.

Kim didn’t know what to say to that. He focused on his meal, and the rest of the evening passed in companionable silence.

The next morning, Sunday, Kim awoke, warm and comfortable, snuggled up next to his mod. He almost dozed off again but something made him open his eyes.

In the dim light that filtered through the window, he saw Raeden staring down at him. The big man’s face was calmer than Kim had ever seen it. Raeden smiled at him, then reached out to brush a strand of hair away from Kim’s cheek.

“You are beautiful, you know that?” Raeden whispered.

Kim’s first reaction was shock, then his heart leapt to his throat, he felt his face grow hot, and suddenly he was blinking back tears. He shifted, putting his back to Raeden to hide his emotions. Am I so starved for companionship that a touch and a kind word cause me to start bawling? he wondered. As he felt a tear slip past his closed eyes, he thought, Yes, I guess I am.