Programmed To Protect (The Tau Cetus Chronicles) (16 page)

Carron had obviously passed his first test with Theus by producing the robot soldiers on time and at cost. Today’s capitulation by Egidia was testament to his army’s enormous value. Regulator Jaqan was now undeniably in Carron’s back pocket after Carron’s soldiers had protected him from Egidia’s aggression, and soon, other regulators would follow Jaqan’s lead or be destroyed by Carron’s soldiers instead.

There was just one little obstacle standing in the way of Carron’s master plan.

Tau Cetus’ High Council.

He leaned forward in his chair, and punched a button on his communication device. “Veraine? Get your ass in here.”

Fifteen minutes later, the programmer was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes when he stumbled into Carron’s office. The whine of activity from the factory floor was deafening, but Veraine quickly closed the door behind him, shutting out the squeal of machinery.

Carron jerked his thumb in the direction of the noise. “Is everything up and running out there?”

Veraine looked at his boss blearily. “From what I just saw on the way in, yes. But why? I expected we’d be taking it easy for a while now that the robots for the Terra Acer project were completed. Hell, I didn’t get to sleep until well past two o’clock this morning, after sending agent Wyatt home with Ginger. But I dragged myself out of bed as soon as I got your message. What’s going on?”

For an answer, Carron slid his personal communication device across his desk.

The programmer picked it up, read the screen, and whistled softly.

Carron smiled. He wondered if there was a way to print out that life-altering message and frame it. Maybe mount it on the wall behind Theus’ desk – along with Theus’ severed head – as a memento of the moment the power on Tau Cetus shifted.

Veraine looked up, a question in his eyes.

“Phase two of our plan is about to go into action, Titus,” Carron explained. “I’ve ordered agent Wyatt to come join us.”

“Phase two?
Today?
But I thought we were going to wait until—”

“There’s no time like the present. Strike while the iron’s hot. Take advantage of your opportunities.”

Veraine took a leery step back as Carron continued to spout clichéd inanities, but hell, Carron couldn’t help himself. He was practically light-headed with excitement. He’d expected his plans to take much longer to come to fruition, but given this morning’s turn of events, he could almost taste victory on his tongue.

Fortune favors the bold.

And Anson Carron was nothing if not bold. “Do you think agent Wyatt is adequately… how shall we say…
pliable?”

Veraine hesitated before answering. “Well, he certainly seemed all hot-and-bothered to take Ginger home last night, but I was hoping for a bit more time to get him addicted to her before we tried to subvert him to our plans.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Carron responded with a smile. “Ginger’s good. Damn good. Agent Wyatt sampled her, what, three times while he was here? And now he’s had the entire night to play with her. To fulfill any fantasy he could dream up. I wouldn’t underestimate the influence our most popular model of sexbot can have on a man.”

Veraine shifted on his feet. “But that’s just it. Agent Wyatt is not just any man. He’s the High Council’s man. You said it yourself, he holds himself to a higher standard than most. I’d think we’d need to work on him a while.”

“Doubt not, he’ll soon be
our
man,” Carron said confidently. “There’s more than one way to convince him. Now. How long before five new robot soldiers are complete?”

Veraine glanced at the time readout on the wall behind Carron’s desk. “How long have the machines on the factory floor been running?”

“I called everyone in just over half-an-hour ago.”

“Then it’ll take a little less than five hours.”

“And how long for you to program them with exactly what we want them to do?”

“That will take longer. A couple of days. And then we’ll have to… test them.”

Carron smiled. A slow, twisted, determined grin. “Not a problem. But I want you to be the only programmer working on this phase of our operation, Titus. I’ve waited my whole life for events to align like this. Nothing will stop us now.”

“But… shouldn’t we take things a bit more slowly? Make absolutely sure we’re ready?”

Carron rocked back in his chair. “Titus, by the end of the week, I promise you that you’ll be the second most powerful man on the planet. Trust me.”

The ominous words hung in the air for a moment, until a knock on Carron’s office door signaled Leith Wyatt’s arrival. Veraine moved to stand by Carron’s desk as the police agent entered. Despite the early hour, Wyatt looked awake and alert, not a hair out of place, his day uniform inspection-ready.

Carron really hated men like Leith Wyatt.

“Agent Wyatt,” he cooed. “Come in.”

Wyatt glanced uneasily around the room before stepping into Anson Carron’s office. Only Titus Veraine seemed to be with him, and the programmer looked as sleep-deprived as Wyatt felt.

But hopefully, Wyatt didn’t look quite as bleary-eyed and rumpled as Veraine did.

“Come in and close the door,” Carron ordered. “That god-awful noise is getting on my nerves.”

Wyatt shut the door behind him, blessedly muffling the whine of the factory floor machines. He’d been shocked to find that the facility was back in full operation mode when he’d arrived a minute ago. What the hell did Carron need more robot soldiers for so quickly? It didn’t bode well.

Neither did the message from Carron coming so close on the heels of the surrender by regulator Egidia.

Carron was up to something.

Wyatt forced an obvious note of uncertainty into his voice. “You wanted to see me?”

A lascivious grin spread across Carron’s face. “Yes. Titus and I want to know how your night was, agent Wyatt.”

Wyatt arched an eyebrow. Surely Carron hadn’t summoned him so early in the morning simply to fish for explicit details of his sexual escapades with Ginger? No, that could have waited until a more reasonable hour of the morning. So then, this was more likely a case of Carron wanting to prove that Wyatt was under his control, that Wyatt would come running when Carron called. Or was it already time to pay up on the debt Carron felt Wyatt owed by being allowed to take Ginger home?

The best strategy was to play along for right now.

Wyatt looked at his boots, as if embarrassed by Carron’s question. “Ginger’s incredible.”

“Are you blushing? Come, come, agent Wyatt. You deprived Titus and me of our plaything when you took the Doll home. The least you can do is give us specifics of your first night together, to…
satisfy
us. Vicariously, that is. You owe us that much.”

Wyatt felt a sour taste in his mouth. Of course he knew that Ginger must have serviced both Anson Carron and Titus Veraine – and possibly other men – during her five years of existence, but Wyatt didn’t want to think about that. If he had to think about her past at all, he was determined to consider her a woman who’d had previous relationships. Just like he’d had. Hell, he certainly knew she was no virgin.

Neither was he.

“Specifics, agent Wyatt. We want specifics. Did she try the padlock position on you? The plow?”

Wyatt looked up. Padlock? Plow? Dear God, those were two more positions for his sore cock to look forward to. Meanwhile, he knew he had to give Carron and Veraine something. “One position she called The Pair Of Tongs.”

Carron smiled, and slid a hand below his desk where Wyatt couldn’t see it. “Ah, yes. No one squeezes the juices out of a man quite as deliciously as our Ginger. What else?”

Damn him.
“There was one with bamboo.”

“Split The Bamboo,” Veraine supplied. “One of my personal favorites.”

“Ha,” Carron scoffed. His face was turning an odd shade of red, and Wyatt prayed he wasn’t jerking off below his desk. “I beg to differ. There’s nothing better than fellatio two. She’s a fucking vacuum cleaner when she performs fellatio two. Sucks the orgasm right out of you. Hell, I remember once when she took us both—”

“She’s amazing,” Wyatt said quickly, desperate to put an end to the discussion of Ginger’s past sexual history. “I’m looking forward to discovering everything she can do. Thank you for letting me take her home. But why did you need me here so early?”

Carron’s face was even redder now, although Wyatt suspected his sexual excitement might have just segued into anger because Carron wasn’t used to being interrupted. He reluctantly withdrew his hand from under his desk, and gripped the armrest of his chair. Wyatt forced himself not to look at that hand.

Pervert.

“You’re no fun, agent Wyatt,” Carron complained.

Next to him, Veraine let out a derisive snort. “Agent Wyatt doesn’t like to talk about sex. He’s a gentleman.”

“A gentleman, eh?” Carron blew out a long, slow breath. “Well, then. A gentleman respects a lady. Tell me, do you
like
Ginger, agent Wyatt?”

Wyatt frowned. Where was this going? And what did it have to do with the demand that he come in early?

“She’s amazing.”

Carron waved the hand Wyatt had tried so desperately not to stare at. “Yes, she’s amazing. So you said earlier. But Titus and I have noticed that you might actually… like… her.”

Oh, no. They couldn’t possibly know how I feel.
Wyatt kept his face intentionally blank. “What do you mean?”

“That sickeningly sweet little habit you enjoy of kissing her neck, and biting her earlobe,” Carron answered.

Wyatt arched both eyebrows in feigned shock.

“Yes, you were right, agent Wyatt, Titus and I were recording your sessions here with her. We saw everything.”

The news wasn’t a surprise to Wyatt, but he watched Carron carefully.

“Hmm,”
Carron continued. “Your gesture was definitely… romantic, I suppose. But not a common one. When my company, Beautiful Dolls, was still up and running as a business, clients used our Dolls for sex. Wild sex. Kinky sex. Sadistic sex. My Dolls did things their husbands or wives or girlfriends or boyfriends would never agree to do. My Dolls fulfilled every client’s fantasy.”

Wyatt grimaced. “I know that. My ex-partner was subjected to a few of those sick fantasies during her undercover assignment with Marque Callex.”

“Right. Jai Turner and Tau Cetus’ washed-up arms dealer Marque Callex. An interesting case.” Carron tapped his lips with his finger thoughtfully. “However, that incident notwithstanding, I can’t recall a single time a client of mine ever sweetly trailing a line of kisses up their Doll’s neck.”

Wyatt needed to try to downplay this. He’d only kissed Ginger’s neck to be able to whisper a message in her ear about his planned rescue. “I…” He shoved a hand purposely through his hair. “Listen, Carron. As a Tau Cetus police agent, I don’t exactly have much time for a love life. What’s the big deal if I want to pretend that Ginger is an actual woman? It doesn’t mean I really believe it. It’s my own personal “fantasy” – just less kinky than your usual client’s, that’s all.”

Carron steepled his fingers and regarded Wyatt for a long moment. “Very nice, agent Wyatt. Very…
heartfelt.
So then, I’m right. You like her more than just as a sexual plaything.”

Wyatt closed his eyes. He might have been trapped into the admission, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. He wanted Carron to believe he was at Carron’s mercy. He wanted Carron to play his hand so he’d know what the real game was. “Yes. All right. You win. I like her.”

“And you’d like to keep her for a little longer.”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re going to have to do something for us, agent Wyatt.”

Wyatt shifted on his feet, in a pseudo-nervous gesture.
Finally. Finally Carron is getting to the point.
“What?”

“It’s not much, really,” Carron said, straightening in his chair. “I believe you saw a demonstration of the physical power of my robot soldiers in Titus’ lab last week.”

Wyatt remembered the faceless soldier crushing a concrete block. He nodded.

“I want to be granted an audience with the High Council in order to demonstrate for Theus – and the entire Council – what my soldiers are capable of. What they can do for Tau Cetus. I’m very proud of my work, agent Wyatt, and I’m an ambitious man. I want Theus to use my services for all his defensive needs. I want to become the Council’s right hand.”

Wyatt frowned. “That’s a lot of
wants.”

Carron shrugged. “Get me that audience. With the entire Council. That’s really all I want.”

“Impossible. For security reasons alone, members of the High Council never gather all together in one location.”

“You will convince them to do so for our demonstration. I know how close you are to Theus, how he trusts you. If anyone can arrange it, you can.”

Wyatt shook his head. “It’ll never happen.”

Carron gave Wyatt a pointed look, then turned his head. “Titus?”

Veraine crossed his arms over his chest. “Remember the self-destruct feature of the robot soldiers I mentioned in Terra Acer? The one we can invoke to prevent the soldiers from falling into enemy hands?”