Insidious by Michael McCloskey Page B

made a good team before,” Bren said. He took a step closer to Nicole.
    “Then we’d better work closely together,” she grinned. “Where are your quarters?”
    “Right this way, ma’am,” Bren said. He led her to his quarters, pleased with the turn of events. Bren realized it had been some time since he’d enjoyed the company of a woman incarnate. And he’d often reflected on his time with Nicole.
    “Nice space,” she said as she walked into his room.
    “You know what they say. Rank has its privileges.”
    She laughed. “I do recall hearing that once or twice. So you’re a powerful man now?” She slipped into his waiting arms.
    Bren looked into her eyes. A flood of memories from his academy days came back to him—meeting her in the wilderness of Pike National Forest, playing cat and mouse with her at the dorms, trips to Colorado Springs, and their many torrid encounters.
    She pressed against him. Although she felt familiar, he experienced the heat of a new beginning. He kissed her and she responded immediately. They took a quick circle of the quarters, kissing furiously while leaving clothing behind at every step. They finally found his bed. Bren gave the lift command through his link, elevating the net from its base to create an acceleration web.
    He rolled her onto her stomach so she lay suspended on the web with her legs and breasts hanging through it in disarray. His fingers interleaved through her silky hair and then tightened into a grip. Then he lost himself to primitive impulse.
    Her cries rose in the small room. Bren felt the thrill of her body again. It was as good as he’d remembered it … better.
    After their urgent coupling, he collapsed next to her in the webbing. The atmospheric controls had compensated for their sweat, drying the air and circulating it to keep them comfortable. Bren became quiet.
    Nicole smiled. “It never takes you long after we’re done to start thinking about work again.”
    “Sorry.”
    “No, I like an ambitious man,” she said, propping herself up on one elbow to face him “What’s on your mind?”
    “Well, you have me curious about your spy,” he said. At least here, they could talk aloud if they felt like it and not raise suspicion.
    “She is beautiful, isn’t she?” Nicole said.
    “No, I mean about what she was up to.”
    Bren linked into the ASSAIL unit databases with Nicole tagging along as an observer. In his PV, he filled out a match request against all the face models observed by the robots during the Thermopylae raid. Bren used the normal face model provided by Nicole and didn’t get a match.
    “Nothing for the naked face,” he mumbled.
    Bren started to run the second model. He realized Nicole had said something.
    “Excuse me?”
    “I said what about the suited face?”
    “Sorry. I’m running that now.” He felt the blood rush to his face. She knew about his link bias, and now she knew it hadn’t improved in the time they’d been apart. He had been absorbed in the match interface details and hadn’t heard her question.
    Bren got a hit from Meridian’s module for the second model. He brought up a few seconds of footage from Meridian associated with the match. He ran the clip and watched a familiar sequence of events: a gunman popped out from behind a sliding door and fired a sonic weapon at Meridian. The robot pursued the assailant and plucked the weapon away. Then it evaluated a medical machine for a moment before pressing onward.
    “Ah, that guy,” Bren said.
    “That girl,” corrected Nicole. “She’s a courier for Black Core. Been here before, according to the records we have from off base.”
    “She got the same amnesia?”
    “I don’t know. She made it off the station during the raid. We’re following up with Black Core, but they’re stalling us. They claim she wasn’t on the station at that time and that she’ll be in space for several weeks.”
    “She got off the base? Damn. That gun she used took out the ASSAIL’s