How to land the perfect job in 2065

 

The people of the world had progressed from being community-focused to self-absorbed. It all started when people could simply state they were something other than they were and the government made that belief legally binding. As time progressed and science improved, people could truly alter themselves for a fee. At first, the changes concentrated on real physical gender changes. As technology advanced, people could become furries if they wanted catlike or doglike features. Cyber modifications gave people enhanced strength, speed, or access to entire libraries in their head.

Over time, these genetically and technologically altered people had children and unbeknownst to the scientists at the time, their procreation created an environment where mutations became frequent. The world government stepped in to prevent the loss of the core of humankind. The Global Security Agency, or GSA for short, the Global Government, and the World Modification Forum, or WMF, all worked together to control the world’s population, trade, economy, setting and enforcing laws, and regulated the proliferation of mods, which is what the public called any form of personal modifications.

“If you could be anything you wanted, Brandon, what would it be?”

My best friend Toby sat across from me. His furry brown ears twitched towards any sound in the restaurant. He was born that way and if you asked him, he would tell you he was pleased he never had to pay for the enhancement. He enjoyed having more acute senses and the girls loved scratching his soft ears.

“If I could be anything, it would not be plain old boring me.”

Toby laughed. “That wasn’t what I was asking. We just graduated, but I still don’t know what career I want. What do you want to do with your career?”

“I don’t know either. It’s all so downright depressing. How can I compete in the job market these days? As an unenhanced person I can’t become a lawyer when other lawyers have memory implants and brains connected to every judicial ruling in history. Robots are replacing doctors. Heck, even if I wanted a job as a chef, I must contend with people like you that have enhanced senses like smell and taste. I have no special enhancements.”

“I do have a slight advantage in that I can use my enhanced sense of smell, taste, and hearing to get various jobs where those would be of benefit. Have you thought about getting mods?”

“I can’t afford anything.”

“What about the unlicensed market?”

I laughed. “And wind up as a rodent? No thanks. I’ve seen all the commercials warning against the unlicensed market and heard too many horror stories. Besides, I have no money for that either.”

“You have no upgrades or genetic DNA alterations, right?”

“None. Nada. Zilch. As far as I know, no one in my ancestry had any alterations.”

Toby smiled. “You may have more money than you think. I heard scientists are clamoring for original DNA. They will pay you for it.”

“Why would they do that?”

“Unaltered DNA is a rare commodity these days and there are people that have gone so far in their modifications or are born barely human that want to reverse their alterations. Having original DNA is what they use to dilute them back to some form of humanity.”

“You think I can get money by selling my DNA?”

“Lots of it. I bet you could easily get enough for any alteration you want.”

I considered Toby’s words carefully as I gazed out the window at a couple walking down the street. The man was enhanced with cybernetics, and the woman must have had hyper-shaped body modifications. I was certain they both had jobs.

“What alterations would you want to get, Brandon?”

“Wings. I want to fly.”

Toby rolled his eyes. “That’s the most expensive upgrade there is. There aren’t many people with them, and they are still being developed. Most people that have them can’t even fly. The muscles required for flight would look grotesque on a human unless you could find a way to alter the body’s physiology more.”

“But if I had wings, I could at least be a courier. I would be special. Unique.”

“A flying pizza delivery guy. I could use a friend like that.”

***

My conversation with Toby got me thinking. I was surprised to discover he had been right. My plain ordinary DNA was in high demand. I made an appointment the next day and walked into a tall glass structure that acted as a science research center.

I was greeted by a doctor who whisked me back into the examination room.

“I just need a small sample of your blood, Brandon.”

I held out my finger and he pricked it, then spilled a drop of my blood into a whirling contraption. A monitor in the room began displaying information about my DNA and summarized the results with a green flashing checkmark.

“Does that mean I’m special?”

The doctor grinned. “It does indeed. I can offer you ten thousand credits for a pint of blood. Less than one percent of the population is considered pure. You could come back once every two weeks and I’ll take all you got.”

I held out my arm. “Go for it. Take five if you want.”

***

I walked out of there with ten thousand credits as apparently taking any more than one pint would be hazardous to my health. Having more money than I ever had before, I excitedly went to the alteration and mod shops. I found many stores offering basic alterations, but I wanted none of the common ones. I wanted something unique. What shocked me were the prices. Fifteen thousand for a dog nose alteration. Seventeen for a tail. It would cost me almost as much for a new wardrobe after I got a tail as the tail mod itself. Not a single store sold even non-working wings. Toby was right. Working wings were just not available.

After nearly a dozen stores, I was dismayed and began walking home.

“Pssst! Over here.”

I spun around and spotted a hooded man in a back alley. Skullduggery in action no doubt. I slowed but kept walking.

“I’ve been watching you. Don’t pay high prices for boring generic mods. I can get you something better than those stores for less than half the price.”

I stopped walking. “Are they legal?”

His eyes narrowed. “The government only cares if they get their cut. Few alterations are illegal these days except for iris manipulation, but I can tell you the government takes well over fifty percent of the mod fees. By avoiding the approved stores and the government taxes, I can offer you much more for less. What are you looking for?”

“I… I don’t know. I’ve heard bad stories about unlicensed mods.”

“Suit yourself.” The man turned to leave.

“Working wings.” I spat out under my breath.

The man paused. “Real working wings are still in prototype. I can get you fake wings.”

“No. I want real working wings.”

“Too risky.”

“Why is it risky?”

He just shook his head and turned to leave.

“Wait. Can you get me wings?”

The man looked around as if making sure no one was nearby. His voice lowered to a mere whisper. “I have one mod with working wings. It will cost you four hundred thousand credits.”

I gasped. “I only have ten thousand.”

“Look, it’s a risk for me to even have this mod. You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to get it. I need to rid myself of it quickly. Enforcers are breathing down my neck. I’ll give it to you for two hundred thousand. It’s your lucky day.”

“I said I only have ten thousand. I sold my blood just to get that much.”

The man’s eyebrow shot up. “Did you now? How does that work?”

“I’m a pureblood.”

He scratched his stubbled chin. “I think I can get you what you want. Follow me.”

“You can get me working wings?”

He nodded.

“And I won’t turn into a lizard with the unlicensed mod?”

“This mod I have is government licensed and registered. It was generously donated to me. Do you want the wings or not?”

I hesitated and pushed aside my thoughts about the shadiness of the whole deal, then nodded. I followed silently after the man until we came to a dark street with old flickering neon lights. The man looked up and down the street before unlocking a rickety old wooden door. I was worried about the sanitation of the place, but the short hallway beyond the outside door was spotless and there was another door further inside with far more sophisticated locks. It was some of the highest tech I had seen. When the door opened, lights came on automatically revealing several large sterile rooms beyond.

We stepped inside and the heavy door closed behind us. I heard numerous clicks and metal sliding indicating it relocked itself.

“Stay here.”

The man moved into another room, and I could hear him rummaging around. He came back with a memory chip and a blood analyzer. He pricked my finger much like the doctor had. When he was satisfied that I was pureblood, he told me to follow him into a side room.

“This is where you will wake up after the procedure.” He set the memory disk on a table. “That’s the owner’s manual for your mod. The side door will lead you outside. The door to my lab will be locked. You will never seek me out again or mention where you got the mod. Are we clear?”

“Yes. Of course.”

I fumbled for my credit exchanger, and he waived me off.

“Keep it. You may need it for clothing afterwards. I’ll get my money from you another way.”

“How?”

He must have been enhanced because his hand shot out so fast, I couldn’t react in time, and I felt a jab on my neck. Within seconds the room twisted and went dark.

***

My head was pounding and every muscle in my body ached. I opened my eyes to find myself in a dark, damp alley. I groaned as I pushed my way to a sitting position. Long stringy blonde hair dropped in front of my eyes.

Oh no! It must be a horse’s or lion’s mane. The mod must have been faulty, damaged, or I was duped into receiving some else!

Inwardly I screamed. I leaned forward and caught a glimpse of my face in a puddle. That’s when I screamed for real.

I tried to catch my breath for what stared back at me was the face of a beautiful woman with long blonde hair that dripped from the rain. I glanced down to find my old shirt was pressed outwards. My hands were delicate and feminine. I reached between my legs to find nothing. The man had given me a gender change mod. I growled and yelled up into the rain.

I stood shakily to my feet. I was extremely weak and tired. My hand moved to my chest and sure enough, whatever was pressing outward was attached to me and lay barely hidden under the wet, sticky shirt. I looked around, wanting to identify my location but could find no landmarks I recognized. I needed to get out of the rain and find someplace safe. I needed to get home. I checked my pockets and everything I had before was still there. I even had my credit transfer device still.

I was tremendously tired as I moved down the alley and towards a busier street. I had to frequently stop and lean against building walls to keep from falling over. When I stepped into another street and spotted a sign, I finally knew where I was. I was miles from home and not even close to the shops I had been looking for mods in.

I shook my head, feeling my long damp hair tug at my back. I couldn’t believe I had been so stupid. The only thing I could do to undo what happened would be to get a gender change mod, but they started at forty thousand credits. It was at that moment that the realization of my situation hit me like a fist to the stomach. My blood was altered now, and I no longer had a source of income for selling my blood. I was no longer a pureblood.

At least I had money and could get a ride. I pulled out my communicator and it failed to recognize me through iris detection. My credit transfer device also failed to recognize me. I hissed. My eyes must have changed effectively wiping out my identity and making me a criminal.

I slowly made my way toward my apartment, surprised at just how exhausted, weak, and sore I was. At least with the tiredness and pain, I wasn’t focusing on the changes to my body. I was, however, chastising myself over and over.

When I finally reached my apartment, I tried three times to unlock the door only to receive access denied beeps. Frustrated, I walked several more blocks to get to Toby’s apartment. He wasn’t in so I curled up next to his door and drifted off to sleep.

***

“Get up. You don’t belong here.”

A foot was nudging me, and I looked up to see Toby staring down at me. His eyes immediately softened.

“Sorry. I didn’t know…”

“Toby…” My voice sounded strange to my own ears. “It’s me… Brandon.”

“Is this a joke?”

I shook my head and tried twice to stand. Toby helped me up.

“It’s really me… I… got a mod.”

“You’re not Brandon.”

“I am… I’m in so much trouble… It wasn’t from a store and… look at me.”

“It’s really you, Brandon?”

I nodded.

“Come in. How come you didn’t give yourself access? You’re on my access list.”

I pointed to my eyes. “They changed.”

“That’s illegal!” Toby looked back and forth making certain the hallway was clear before closing the door. “What the hell did they do to you? I need more assurance you are Brandon.”

I sat down on his couch and sighed. “Yesterday, we met at a restaurant and spoke about careers. You asked me what I wanted to be, and I said anything but me.”

“That’s… Let’s say I might believe you are Brandon, but that was three days ago.”

I put my head in my hands. “Three days?”

“What happened to you?”

I peeked up at him through my matted hair. “You were right about my DNA. I found a scientist that wanted my blood. He took a pint and gave me ten thousand credits. I looked for mods in the stores and they were all too expensive and no one sold working wings. That’s when some guy in an alley said he could help me.”

“What guy?”

“I don’t know. I never got his name.”

“You gave him credits, right? Check your transaction logs.”

“He never took any credits. I can’t get into my communicator or digital wallet because my eyes have changed. I can’t get into anything I own.”

“How did you get…” He pointed to my body. “… this mod? I mean, you’re absolutely gorgeous if you wanted to be a girl.”

“I asked for wings. Working wings. He said he had a mod for that, but it would be four hundred thousand credits but would give them to me for half that since enforcers were looking for him. He wanted to unload the mod.”

“I’m not following you. Why would he give you a mod worth so much for nothing?”

“I told him I didn’t have that kind of money and I only had ten thousand from the sale of my blood. That’s when he became interested and said I could have the mod.”

“Of course, he would be interested. You got paid ten thousand for a pint of blood. Each pint can be broken down into multiple products that sell for over one hundred thousand credits when combined.”

“He told me I could get the mod and when I went to pay him, he said he would get it from me another way. The next thing I knew, everything went black. I woke up in an alleyway looking like this.”

Toby paced back and forth. “I guess you’re not you anymore. That’s what you wanted.”

I shook my head. “I’m so stupid.”

“Do you know if it was just a gender change? When I look at your face, I can’t see any resemblance to the old you. Gender change mods remake you, but it still uses your core DNA giving you a resemblance to who you were before, and they never change your eyes.”

“I’m so sore, tired, and weak. I can’t even focus on what I might have been given.”

“You need to rest then I suggest you go to the enforcers.”

“I can’t go to them. I broke the law.”

“You need to get a new identity and access to your money and things. You can’t avoid the enforcers and it will go easier on you if you just went to them. Let’s get you home. I can get you into your apartment at least.”

I stood, feeling slightly stronger, but I was still weak and shaking. “Thank you, Toby. I just don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“You need to rest, eat, and get changed. Your old clothes look terrible on you.”

“Not like anything I own will look good on me now, but at least they will be dry.”

We walked slowly back to my apartment and Toby was about to let me in when enforcers surrounded us.

“What’s going on here? Are you both trying to break into this apartment?”

Toby spoke up. “I have granted access.”

“Step away from the door. We received notification that an unregistered person was trying to access this apartment.”

We knew better than to mess with enforcers. We stepped back and one of them held up a scanner. Toby registered fine, but when the man turned and scanned my eyes an alarm sounded.

“Hold out your hands. You need to come with us. You have illegally modified your eyes.”

I held out my hands as I shook my head. “It wasn’t intentional.”

Toby stepped forward and one of the enforcers pushed him back. “You have a clean record. I would encourage you to not interfere.”

“He… she’s my friend and she hasn’t done anything wrong. She was kidnapped and was changed against her will.”

Toby just called me a woman. I shook my head. “It’s all right, Toby. The truth is…”

“Step aside! We have jurisdiction here.”

Two men and a woman came down the hallway towards us. The woman held up a holographic symbol.

One of the enforcers stepped forward. “What does the Global Security Agency have to do with a simple illegal mod case?”

“We have no need to disclose the reasons why the GSA is pulling jurisdiction on you with this case. We will take care of this.”

The enforcers tossed their hands up, turned, and left.

The woman stepped in front of me. She looked none too happy. “You’re coming with us.” She turned to Toby. “You too.”

Toby stammered. “But I didn’t do anything!”

“That has yet to be determined.”

***

The room looked like any interrogation room you would see in the movies, except this one was all too real. Toby was separated from me, and I was locked inside a room with the GSA woman. She had introduced herself as Adaline Wessex.

She placed her hands on both arms of my chair and leaned in close. “Where did you get the mod?”

“I told you everything. I was looking for a set of wings and this guy said he could give me them. Instead, I woke up like this and my irises were modified.”

It was all too much. Lack of sleep, food, and being dragged around the city had taken its toll on me. My chin dropped to my chest, and I struggled to focus. “I don’t feel very well.”

Adaline pulled back. “When was the last time you ate?”

“Toby said I was missing for three days. I guess that was when I had my last meal.”

“I need to get a doctor to check you out.”

The room spun and I blacked out.

***

I fought to open my eyes but was still very tired. I was aware of people around me and their voices drifted to my ears.

“How did she get my mod?”

“Two weeks ago, the mod was stolen from our lab.”

“We spent years developing that mod. How do we get it back?”

“We don’t. She now has everything. We have a second one we were putting together, but it’s not quite ready yet. You can use that one once we modify it for you.”

“What do we do with her? Technically, she didn’t do anything wrong. No credits were transferred.”

“Offer her a job.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

***

I slipped in and out of sleep, finally feeling refreshed but very hungry. I opened my eyes to find I was handcuffed to a bed with blood flowing from a bag into my arm. I pushed myself up into a sitting position. I was still in my old clothes, and I was still female.

It hadn’t been a dream.

A doctor walked into the room and silently removed the IV before leaving. Adaline came in and tossed a bundle of clothes on the bed. She unlocked my handcuff and pointed to the bathroom.

“Get yourself cleaned up, get changed, and meet us in the next room. We have food for you.”

I rubbed my wrist as my stomach growled. I felt immeasurably better. I grabbed the clothes and walked over to the bathroom. I was drawn to the mirror. Even filthy and bedraggled, I was beautiful. I was a convict with no identification, no access to my apartment or money. I was completely at the mercy of the GSA.

Closing the door behind me, I pulled my clothes off and stared at myself. My clothes had hidden the slender form of my new body. I was shapely, yet lean. My hair was long and fell to the small of my back. 

I took my time in the shower having a hard time adjusting to the feel of my new body. I was still chastising myself. After drying myself and running my fingers through my hair, I picked at the clothing. It was a dress, shoes, bra, and panties. My stomach growled loudly, and I determined I needed to wear something, and my filthy old clothes were not an option. I slipped the items on and gawked at myself in the mirror. How could I be turned on by what I saw?

Tearing myself away from the mirror, I gathered up my old clothes and stepped into the next room. Adaline’s eyebrow raised and she offered a small smile as she looked me over. She pointed to a seat with a full meal on the table in front of it.

I sat down and bit into a sandwich. I let out a small moan as the first calories began hitting my system. I looked from person to person, finally stopping with Adaline.

“How much trouble am I in?” I managed between bites.

Adaline looked to a man with a white beard who merely nodded back to her. 

She stared at me a moment before speaking. “You will find out eventually, so let me fill you in.” A holographic image of a man appeared before me.

I pointed at it. “That’s the man that did this to me.” I mumbled between bites.

“His name is Victor Wahlen, a second-rate unlicensed mod seller. He is a small part of a larger crime ring working on new mods that could alter society as we know it. Their goal is to create mods that once installed in someone could be used to control the person. Imagine an army of strength-enhanced people controlled against their will to fight against the government.”

I felt myself pale. “The mod I was given has this control mechanism in it? Is this why I am here?”

“It doesn’t have the control mechanism. The mod that was installed into you was stolen from our laboratory. It is a prototype mod the GSA has been working many years on. The mod altered your irises, and its’ signature alerted us when you tried to scan your way into your apartment. We recognized the signature as being our stolen mod and came to find you.”

I paused my eating. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. Can you remove the mod?”

Adaline shook her head. “Like it or not, this is you. Your DNA is effectively encrypted, overwritten by our prototype. It is our guess that Victor didn’t know what he had and with the GSA and enforcers hunting him down, he was anxious to offload it. You happened upon him at the right place and right time.”

“You’re saying I can’t undo this change? Not even with another gender mod?”

“Mods require binding to your DNA. Your DNA is now encrypted and incapable of binding to anything new.”

I swallowed and stared at my hands. I struggled to breathe. “I thought… maybe…”

Adaline pulled up a chair next to me. She reached out and pulled my long blonde hair and tucked it behind my ear. “We are unsure what to do with you. You illegally sought an off-market mod, but technically you committed no crime because no money exchanged hands.”

One of the men at the table shook his head. “That would be debatable as a transaction of sorts did occur.”

Adaline stared at the man. “I’m quite certain taking someone’s blood while they are rendered unconscious would be considered theft, not a transaction. By our estimation, Victor took four pints of blood from Brandon before installing the mod. That’s why Brandon has been so tired and weak. The only reason he didn’t die is that the mod made him a smaller female, and he had just enough blood left to survive even if his blood pressure was dangerously low. If anything, Victor could be charged with attempted murder.”

“That’s why I was so sore and tired and why you gave me blood.”

“That’s why we gave you blood, Brandon. You are sore because every cell of your body was transformed by our mod.”

“Why didn’t Victor know the mod would change my gender? Or maybe he did, and it was just a scam.”

“This GSA mod includes working wings and is most likely why it was targeted for theft. I suspect whoever stole it and those it got handed to have no clue what the mod truly was.”

“So, he thought he was giving me wings, but when I changed completely, he dumped me in an alley because he was scared of what the mod actually did to me.”

“That’s our theory as well.”

“Why don’t I have wings?”

“The mod enhancements are designed to be inert without activation. It is a protection mechanism for just such a case as this. Only we have the keys to unlock the enhancements.”

“I have wings that are dormant then and only if you choose to activate them will I gain their use?”

“Exactly.”

“Are you willing to activate them?”

“That depends on you, Brandon. This prototype is only one of two. We have spent many millions of credits crafting this mod for use within the GSA. Your mod was designed for me which is likely why the female encoded DNA altered your gender. We can’t have just anyone using these enhancements.”

“Enhancements? It’s more than just wings?”

Adaline nodded. “There is a criminal element in the world that is constantly trying to wrest control of the population and the monetary system. At the GSA, we are striving to stay one step ahead of them. You have two options before you, Brandon. Option one, you leave here as is with no enhancements activated. For all intents and purposes, you will remain an ordinary girl with no ability to ever install another mod or enhancement. We will assist you with creating an identity. The GSA will consider the mod lost. Option two, you work for the GSA using the enhancements of the mod to protect the citizens of the world. This way we keep the investment we made in the mod and you get your wings. I won’t sugarcoat this. Working for the GSA is a lifelong commitment. It is not for the faint of heart. There will be real risks of physical harm to you, especially as your role here would be determined by your mod. The mod will place you front and center with the criminals.”

“If I don’t join the GSA, I will be in the same situation I was in before. Someone without mods can’t compete in the job market. I would have few opportunities. That’s why I sought out a mod in the first place. Yet, the alternative is frightening. I just changed genders. I have no training. No skills.”

“I can’t disclose any more. I’m sorry. We can’t expose GSA secrets. I can say we would not throw you to the front line without some training and mentoring.”

“You will also help me with my identification?”

“With either choice you make. Yes.”

“And there will not be any ramifications to me seeking an unlicensed mod?”

“None.”

“I’m in. Option two.”

“No turning back, Brandon. You must be one hundred percent certain.”

“I am.”

Adaline looked over at the white bearded man who stood.

“I’ll start on the documentation. I just need a name unless she wants to use Brandon.”

“How long do I have to decide?”

“You have thirty minutes. Adaline, introduce her to the team.”

Adaline stood and I followed suit. I was feeling much better after the extra blood and food but looking at the scowling faces around the table was unsettling.

Adaline first introduced me to the man that questioned whether I had committed a crime.

“This is Craig Brueckner. He manages communications.”

I extended my hand in greeting and he got up in a huff.

He pointed a finger at me. “I don’t like this one bit. We all worked hard to get where we are and this trollop with no training or experience gets to join this team. I don’t think so.” He stormed out of the room.

A heavily muscled man was introduced to me next.

“He held my hand with his thumb making small circles against my skin. It creeped me out. “Kyle Cramer. Front line soldier, fighting trainer, and male sex god.”

Adaline rolled her eyes before pulling me away to another large man with cyber enhancements. “This is Mark Wagner. Weapons specialist.”

“Nice to meet you.” I shook his hand. He seemed a bit quiet and aloof.

That was all the people who had been in the room. Adaline took me to a small conference room.

“Have a seat, Brandon. Not everyone will be pleased with the method you joined the team. There are more people I will introduce you to, but I need to provide you with more details about your work here. Everything we do here is secret. You are not allowed to discuss what we do, who we are, or what you see here with anyone outside of the GSA. While you were sleeping, we performed a complete background check on you. We investigated your background, school records, parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. We performed checks on your friends and used artificial intelligence to examine all your published communications. We were very thorough.”

“That’s…”

“No doubt, disquieting. We would never have given you an option of joining us if your grades were not high enough, you demonstrated any poor behavior, or were exposed to people that could negatively influence you. Had you applied for work with us, we would have examined all these things, but I want to make sure you know the main reason we are offering you work is because of your mod.”

“What is so special about this mod?”

“Until your paperwork is completed, and you go through orientation, that information will be kept from you.”

“I’m sorry if I have caused you all trouble.”

“You were not the one that stole the mod. That is where this problem began. If anything, we are lucky it was installed into someone we think we can train and mold and one we could get to quickly.”

I looked beyond my breasts to my long, lean legs and the hem of the dress. “I can’t believe I’m a woman. I don’t even know how to live like this let alone be a GSA agent. I don’t even have clothes.”

“Once we get your identity figured out, you will have access to your credits. I know this is crashing down on you at the same time. Do you have an idea of a name for yourself? I need a first and last name and not a name that can tie back to your parents. You will have a completely new identity. Brandon Butler is now effectively dead.”

“I don’t have a lot of friends. Mainly just Toby. My parents are dead, but I gather you already know that.”

Adaline nodded. “You will be able to tell Toby you work for the GSA, but that you will be a desk clerk doing research. Your official start date will be next Monday. Tell him after we let you go, you spotted an advertisement for a position and applied. We interviewed you and hired you on the spot. You can also tell him we aided you getting your new identity as it is important we don’t have unregistered people roaming the streets.”

I took a deep breath and noted how my chest pressed outward. “Okay. Won’t people recognize someone new living in my old apartment?”

“You have a new apartment. Your things, except for clothes and other identifying items that link you back to your life as Brandon, are being moved now.”

“I have a new apartment…”

“And a new bank account, digital wallet, and new communicator.”

“Why go to so much trouble?”

“All agents go through the same process. Our agents have no prior history. Their previous lives have been wiped clean. It helps protect everyone. The mod you have is significant in allowing us to take the fight to our enemies. It would be a shame to lose our investment.”

My fingers ran along the hem of my dress. “I need a new name then.”

“I have several you can choose from, or you can make up your own. Hanna West. Nova Cozemius. Emily Fox. Marta Ellis. Rachael Hunter. Jordan Hart.”

“I’m grateful you have some name options as I can hardly think straight. Which name do you think best suits me?”

“It’s your name. You should choose it. That said, I think you look most like a Jordan or Nova.”

“I like the sound of them both, but Nova stands out to me.”

“Nova Cozemius then?”

I scrunched my nose. “How about Nova Hart?”

“You only get one chance at this. I want you to be certain.”

“Nova Hart. I like it.”

“From here on out, I will introduce you as Nova. I’ll send a communication to our boss, Director Walter Owens.”

***

I was introduced to dozens of people; few I could remember their names by the time I finished shaking their hands. I met with the director and filled out a barrage of electronic documents. My iris registration had gone smoothly and by the end of the day I was officially Nova Hart.

I was given my new address and as I left the building, Toby was waiting for me outside.

“Hello, Miss Hart. You sure clean up nice.”

I frowned as I was not sure how to take that. “You already know my new name.”

“They just let me go but not before being sworn to secrecy about your new identity. Apparently not many people go through what you went through with an iris change. Hey, they offered me a job. Still deciding whether I want to take it, but it seems like it would be a great place to work.”

“They offered me a job as well. I start Monday.”

“That’s great! Who would have thought you could get a job the way you did?”

“No one that was sane, that’s for sure. I still can’t get over this.” I waved my hand up and down my body.

“All I can say is your old clothes hid your shape. You look amazing in that dress.”

“Adaline found the dress for me to wear. It’s not what I would have chosen, but it’s very comfortable.”

“I guess I am immune to people changing everything about themselves even though I never pictured you as a beautiful woman.”

“Beautiful?”

“Smoking hot. Easily the prettiest girl I have ever seen. I’m grateful you are at least better looking than you were. Having you around will boost my viability as a male furry.” He grinned.

I bit my tongue, but blurted out, “What will it do for me?”

Toby laughed. “It will demonstrate to everyone you have low standards. You going to change back?”

I almost said I couldn’t but corrected myself. “It’s going to be a long time until I can afford to switch back and even if I do, I won’t look like I used to. I’ll cross that bridge when the time comes.”

“You seem so calm. How do you feel?”

“I’m in shock, Toby. That and I am so tired. I learned that the guy that did this to me took my blood first. I barely had enough left in me to survive.”

“That’s rough. You hungry?”

“I’m not too bad. They fed me.”

“Seems odd they are helping you so much when your broke the law.”

I nodded. “I’ll touch base with you in a couple of days. I need to get myself settled and do some shopping for clothes.”

Toby grinned. “Try on some lingerie and send me pictures.”

“I can’t believe you just said that.”

“You might be the closest I will ever get to seeing a model in lingerie.”

I rolled my eyes and pulled my hair back over my ear.

“That was just like a girl, Nova! So cool!”

I sighed and started walking to my new apartment. “See you, Toby.”

“Let’s get together on Saturday.”

I quickly checked the address for my new apartment and realized it was nearby. Everything felt different as I walked the two blocks. I was still struggling with my transformation and every step I took emphasized the changes that had taken place in my body. Mentally, I fought the urge to scream. In a moment’s lapse of judgement, I lost my identity, my body, and my apartment.

I stopped and double-checked my address as I looked up at the ultramodern high rise. The entry foyer was secured and required iris access. As soon as I brought my eyes to the scanner, a welcome message appeared. Welcome Miss Hart. The door opened and I moved to an elevator. I was on the twelfth floor out of forty. Upon exiting the elevator, a sign indicated I needed to turn right, and I soon came to the shiny stainless-steel door of room 1208. Another iris scan and greeting were all it took before my new apartment opened before me.

This was far from the dark space with exceedingly-used furniture I used to call home. The floors were highly polished espresso-stained wood. Tall white walls and a white ceiling matched the modern white-leather furniture. I noticed my personal trinkets were thoughtfully placed around the space as if a designer had purposefully focused on clean lines and keeping the modern feel without cluttering it.

There was a media wall the L-shaped couch faced if you sat on one side or sitting on the other side offered views through the floor to ceiling glass windows. A sleek kitchen was off to the left and a large bedroom to the right. I rummaged through the kitchen to find food, some of it my own, and some of it new. The bathroom had a massive walk-in shower and enough mirrors that no matter where I looked, I kept seeing the beautiful blonde woman that was me.

A large bed dominated the spacious bedroom. The drawers and closets were empty. I stepped back into the living area and sat down on the couch.

“Greetings, Nova.”

I jumped up so quickly that I almost fell onto the coffee table. A holographic female virtual assistant walked between the kitchen and the couch.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Although partially transparent, the realism of the virtual assistant was remarkable. I could even hear her shoes on the floor. “I’m not used to…”

“You can call me Megan. I’m here to help you adjust.”

“Adjust?”

“You have gone through many changes. The GSA wanted me to keep an eye on you and assist you where I could.”

“You’re a virtual psychologist?”

She chuckled. “I like to think of myself as much more than a simple psychologist. Sit down. Relax, Nova.”

My mind was numb as I processed everything. I was a woman with a new identity, living in a fancy apartment with a holographic assistant. I sat down heavily on the couch.

“Might I offer a suggestion, Nova?”

“What if I say no?”

“Then I will not offer a suggestion, but I think you might find my suggestions helpful for you to cope. All I ask is that you give me two days before you turn me off.”

“How can you possibly help me, Megan? Have you lost your life?”

“No, but neither have you. I have the cumulative knowledge of assisting thousands of people adjust to new circumstances in their life.”

“How can you tell me I have not lost my life? I used to be a man. I had my own place. I had a name.”

She shrugged. “You are still living, which I would assume is preferable to the alternative. People change genders all the time these days so what you are going through is more common than you think. You are a healthy, beautiful young woman that has a home, a name, and a job.”

“I shouldn’t try arguing with a computer.”

“I’m not a computer but rather a sophisticated neural network layered with artificial intelligence. I understand there is no going back or changing from your current form. Is that correct?”

I nodded.

“You must therefore learn to live as you are. Correct?”

I nodded again.

“I can help you. Right now, you feel disconnected from this life. Your body feels different. It moves differently. You wonder how you will live like this and what others will think about you when they see you.”

“Yes. I feel all those things.”

“You have a new body and a new identity. Apart from those nearest you, no one will know you for anyone other than who you choose to be.”

“Why do you say choose to be and not who I am?”

“You have an opportunity to become anyone you wish, within the confines of your current body, of course. A week ago, you were Brandon Butler. Today you are Nova Hart. Do you know who Nova Hart is?”

“I didn’t know who I was when I was Brandon. I have even less confidence in who I am now.”

“Then I will suggest you start with some basics while you think about who it is you want to be. Since there is no going back to being a man, you need to become confident in how you feel as a woman. Be aware of your posture, how you sit, and how you walk.”

“But I don’t know how I should do these things.”

“If you give me permission, I will correct you when I see that you are not appearing as a woman would.”

“Okay. You have my permission.”

“Put your legs together and sit up straight, Nova.”

I glanced at my reflection and was dismayed at how I sat. I looked like a gorgeous young woman that was sitting like a guy. I shuddered and sat up straight and clamped my legs together.

“Very good, Nova. It is important to maintain focus on how you sit, stand, and walk for the first weeks. Your muscle fibers and neural pathways have all been rewritten and have no muscle memory. How you align your body now will establish new muscle memory. The process will take very little time in your current state.”

“Thank you, Megan.”

“The GSA has supplied you with food, but you will need to shop for clothing. In my experience, people that switch genders on purpose already know what they want to wear. In cases like yours where the change was unexpected, selecting clothing can be challenging because you still have no idea of who you are, who you want to become, and your residual self-image lingers making it difficult for you to picture yourself in different styles of clothing. Additionally, you should be aware of pseudo projection.”

“What is pseudo projection?”

“Pseudo projection happens when you project yourself into another person’s thoughts. You might question your choice of clothing by trying to guess what your friends or associates might think of you if you were to wear it. Experience shows that people who focus on what they want, ignoring the thoughts and concerns of others, will be happier and have a more balanced mental health. The key in doing this is for you to choose what makes you happy and comfortable.”

“It helped that Toby didn’t seem to care I became a woman. He probably won’t care what I wear. The world is open to people changing everything about themselves. If anything, not changing makes people more different than changing these days. You’re right. For my own sanity, I need to focus on myself and how I want to look.”

“I took the liberty of scanning you. Watch the media wall.”

The media wall displayed an image of the new me standing as a three-dimensional lifelike model complete with body movements. I looked beautiful in the dress it showed me wearing now.

“I’m going to cycle through clothing options so you can see how you will look wearing them. Stop me when you see something that triggers an emotional response in you.”

The image shifted to me wearing baggy pants and a top. “Stop.”

“Why did you have me stop on this representation?”

“It looks horrible. Sacrilegious even.”

“Why sacrilegious?”

“I’m having a hard time seeing the person on the media wall as me but seeing such a beautiful woman hidden under such baggy and ugly clothes would be a shame.”

“Thank you for that insight.”

The image shifted to me wearing a long, black, sequined, formal dress. My hair was pulled up. I gasped.

“That’s me?”

“The model is ninety-nine percent accurate as to how you would look should you put your hair up like this and wear the makeup and clothing the model is wearing. Tell me what you see.”

“I have never seen anyone so beautiful. The model takes my breath away. She is poised, elegant, and refined.”

“Knowing this could be you, do those thoughts appeal to you?”

“Very much so. The clothing would not be practical for day-to-day use, but for a fancy event…”

“Is this who you want to be? Poised, elegant, and refined?”

“At times.”

“Very good, Nova.”

I sat forward, as I found this fascinating. I glanced at my reflection and adjusted how I sat. The image changed to show me in tight fitting jeans and a white blouse.

“Stop.”

“What emotional response are you having to this outfit?”

“She appears carefree and confident.”

“You have seen several outfits. Some dresses and now your model demonstrates what you would look like in pants and a blouse. What is your preference?”

I stood and carefully walked back and forth. The dress I was wearing felt amazingly comfortable. “From purely a comfort perspective, I enjoy the feel of the dress. Dresses tend to be slightly more formal and might not be as appropriate for all situations. I see myself wearing both. The dresses suggest more femininity to me.”

“Are you concerned about looking feminine?”

“I love women that are feminine in their look. I enjoy long hair styles on them.”

“That was not my question, Nova.”

I walked over to a mirror and stared at myself. “Femininity can demonstrate both confidence and vulnerability. I want to be confident, yet I feel vulnerable. I think dressing feminine would make others feel empathy or concern for me.”

“Choose what you wear for how it makes you feel, not for what it does for other people. You can’t control what people will think of you or do. However, there are times when you will want to dress to elicit a response in someone else. Have you considered your sexual preferences?”

I turned around and stared at Megan’s holographic image. “No.”

“You should think about it as it is a part of who you are and who you want to become.”

Megan quickly moved onto another topic, probably realizing I had just become defensive. “Imagine yourself going to the GSA offices on Monday. What will you be feeling? How will you interact with other members of your team? What will you choose to wear?”

I thought of Craig first and how angry and rude he was to me. I imagined I would be nervous around him. Mark was ambivalent to me. Kyle, I shuddered as I recalled his thumb stroking the back of my hand. Adaline. I hadn’t realized how beautiful she was or how she seemed to have a genuine care about my wellbeing. I looked at the model of me wearing jeans and a blouse, then back at my reflection wearing a dress.

“I’ll be nervous. Unsure of myself or my place in the GSA. I know little about what I will do for them. I want to appear thankful for the opportunity. I see myself looking professional, like I belong there as long as I don’t come across as arrogant.”

The media wall showed six of me all wearing different outfits. The one that stood out to me was wearing a dark skirt with a light blouse, leggings, flat shoes, and my hair was done up in a ponytail.

“I see your eyes moving between outfits but lingering on the skirt outfit.”

“It feels like the right outfit to me for Monday.”

“We could review many other clothing options and order them from here to have them delivered, however, I recommend you at least purchase several from local stores first.”

“Why? I kind of like the idea of not going out in public.”

“This is precisely why you need to go out. You must come to terms with who you now are and interacting with people will help that.”

“It’s Thursday night. I can go in the morning. Show me some more outfits please. We could make a list of clothes I think I might need to buy.”

“I can also search the local stores to see which ones have stock in the items you are looking for.”

***

I had an amazing sleep even if it had taken me a while to fall asleep. My body felt so distinctly different that I found it hard to get comfortable and to stop running my hands over myself. Once I fell asleep, I slept soundly. 

As strange as it was to have a holographic psychologist watching me, I found her advice to be very helpful. She had even given me suggestions for taking care of my long hair. After my shower I dressed in my only outfit, ate some breakfast, and sent a communication to Toby making sure he had my new communication number. He replied with a message about me finding something sexy to wear as we would go to a new club Saturday night. Toby was all about having fun and the nightlife.

Megan gave me lessons on sitting and walking before I left to go shopping. I went from store to store and was astounded at the service I received. I never garnered much attention as Brandon. As Nova, people clamored to make sure I was well taken care of.

By lunch, it was clear that my new body attracted a lot of attention. In a world where more than half the population was bisexual and monogamy was frowned upon, I had more than my fair share of solicitations. At first, I was appalled, and the increased attention was frightening. As the morning progressed, I used the interactions to examine my own preferences. I found men far less attractive than women, although I would not rule out that I held a slight fascination for them. A pretty woman, however, would turn my head far quicker.

I purchased ten outfits by the time I arrived back at my apartment later in the afternoon. The majority were dresses, including a slightly more daring one where the hem came to mid-thigh. It was dark sequined fuchsia and by no means as daring as the common nightlife clothing options for women. I would appear quite conservative while wearing it, but I wasn’t looking to drag anyone home to bed.

I was proud of myself and while at first, I was tentative and skittish, by the end of the day I found I had gained a small margin of confidence in myself. No one had told me I was a man, walked like a man, or sat like a man. I was careful to check myself out in reflections to adjust my posture. I began enjoying myself and even caught myself smiling a few times. Life as a woman was enjoyable so far.

When Saturday evening arrived, I slipped into my fuchsia dress and matching shoes. I didn’t need to carry anything as my eyes would be all I needed to get transportation, buy food or drinks, or unlock doors. I got a ride to the club and didn’t have to wait long for Toby.

As his eyes looked me up and down, I had an urge to pull down the hem of my short dress. He must have thought I was crazy, and I began to wilt and wanted to run away.

“You look stunning, Nova.”

“I do? Thank you, Toby.”

“Are you doing all right?”

“Yes. It’s been a lot to take in and adjust to.”

He nodded and guided me inside. The place was hopping, and the techno music blared. By the time I moved halfway across the club at least a dozen people had asked me to dance. I ignored them and stayed close to Toby. He found a pair of stools to sit on and ordered a pair of drinks for us.

He leaned close to my ear and shouted. “The crowd loves you. You’re the prettiest one here tonight.”

The warmth of the alcohol filled me with courage. “Let’s dance.”

Toby grinned and for the next hour we were not really dancing with each other as with everyone that bumped into us. Three women and a guy were dancing next to me when someone’s hand slipped into mine and pulled me away from them.

I was having fun, forgetting all that had happened to me. I couldn’t see the person until we stopped.

“Adaline?” I looked her over. She looked breathtaking in a much more stylish and revealing dress than I was wearing.

“Dance with me, Nova.”

I just nodded and soon I completely forgot about Toby and the crowd. Adaline’s attention never once slipped from me. Every time she touched me, I was left breathless. After thirty minutes, she dragged me to a private corner.

Adaline leaned in close, her lips brushed against my neck. “I would not have expected you here at a club.”

I had to bury myself in her hair to reply and became deliriously lost in her sweet scent. “Toby invited me, and I was forcing myself to socialize to help me cope with the changes. It’s been an exhausting mental challenge.”

“You seem to be enjoying yourself.”

“Especially the last dances with you.”

“Go home, Nova. You shouldn’t be exposing yourself to these people.”

I had no idea how to respond to that. Was she spying on me? Did she dance with me to get me away from others?

“Fine!” I shouted and pushed away from her.

I spotted Toby dancing with several women, and I moved close. The two women shifted from him to me and started bumping up against me.

“I’m going home, Toby.”

He nodded. “Thanks for coming! I’ll see you Monday!”

I felt Adaline’s eyes on me as I forced my way through the crowd. When I stepped into the cool air, I took several deep breaths and decided to walk home. I was confused and angry.

When I got home, Megan materialized before me.

“You’re showing signs of anger, Nova.”

“How much of what you see and hear is being reported to the GSA?”

“Nothing I see or hear is being reported. My programming only allows me to send information if you allow it or in the event you are in danger. Did something happen tonight?”

“Adaline happened.”

“That does not help me understand, Nova. What did Adaline do?”

“She danced with me, then told me to go home.”

“You were angry because of this?”

“Yes!”

“Could you have misinterpreted her actions or motives?”

“Actions like when she ran her hands along my hips or brushed her lips against my neck?”

“You were sexually aroused?”

“I’m not talking about this anymore. I’m going to bed.”

“Goodnight, Nova.”

***

I stayed in the apartment all day Sunday. Toby called and gave me the graphic details of him going home with two women Saturday night. Normally I would have been thrilled for him, but the new me not so much. It felt cold. I couldn’t picture myself having a threesome or any night of sex with no ties to a lasting relationship.

Megan wanted to talk, but I didn’t.

Monday morning, I arrived early at the GSA. I wore the skirt with leggings and blouse outfit, and even put my hair into a ponytail just like the model had done. I recalled Toby saying he would see me Monday, but I was still surprised he showed up for orientation.

“Hey, sweets! That’s a sexy outfit.”

“You do know that statements like that could be construed as harassment.”

“Yes, but you would never say anything. Besides, I’m encouraging the new you.”

We were the only two people for orientation that day and the lady began by telling us the entire boring history of the GSA. After several hours of mind-numbing ‘this is who we are and why we exist’ monologue, she finally got down to business.

“Since you both will be working in the same team, it is safe for me to outline your roles. Toby, you will be mentored by Craig Brueckner for your position in communications. Nova, your mentor will be Adaline Wessex for your position as agent.”

Toby whistled. “You get to be an agent? How does that happen? I thought you had to be enhanced. I mean, you are far more enhanced than you were before as…”

“Shush.” I hissed.

Toby laughed as Craig and Adaline came in. I couldn’t even look Adaline in the eyes.

“Craig, Adaline, they are all yours.”

“Nova and Toby, follow me.”

Adaline led all of us to a conference room. Several members of the team were already there.

Adaline pointed to a seat, and I sat down. Once the conference room door was closed, the meeting began.

“I have invited Nova and Toby to this meeting because they need to get acclimated with what we do on a daily basis.” The media wall came to life and a picture of Victor Whalen was displayed. “Victor Whalen is a small piece of a much larger organization. I will take Kyle and Nova with me, and Nova will guide us to Victor’s lab. We will then try to gain entrance and gather any intel we can. Victor is not our target, but he was seen stalking Nova on Saturday night. He is speed enhanced and should be considered dangerous. Craig and Toby, you will be our eyes and ears. We leave in twenty minutes.”

The room emptied leaving Adaline and me alone.

“You want to say something, Nova?”

I bit my lip and shook my head.

Adaline raised an eyebrow. “We need to stop by our lab before we go.”

I nodded, unsure of what to say. Did Adaline send me home to protect me from Victor? Why was Victor stalking me?

I followed Adaline from the room and down to the basement. Before we entered the lab, she paused and faced me.

“Why are you being so quiet, Nova?”

“I…” I shook my head.

“We are going to be partners and you will be open and honest with me. If something is bothering you, then I need to know. You can’t let your emotions control you in this line of work. You must be always ready for anything.”

She pushed her way into the lab.

“How’s it going, Fred?”

“It will take another couple of days to insert your DNA into the second mod. Did you bring Nova here to activate her?”

“No. We will give her a few days of field training first, then wait for my mod to be installed. We will activate together.”

Fred looked at me and smiled. “You two are going to be amazing together with these mods.”

“Thanks, Fred.”

I followed Adaline out and to another room. She opened a locker and pointed at some clothing and gear. “Put these on.”

“What are they?”

Adaline pointed at each item. “Bullet-proof jumpsuit. Communicator. Knife. Gun. Augmented reality eyeglasses.”

Adaline moved around the corner, and I could hear another locker open. I slipped out of my skirt and leggings, unbuttoned my blouse, and slid into the skintight jumpsuit.

“Without your bra and panties on, Nova. The suit work best without them.”

I sighed, feeling like a complete idiot. When I was dressed, Adaline came around the corner in her outfit. She looked very sexy in her body-hugging clothes.

“I’ve never shot a gun before.”

“There is no safety on that gun. Use it only as a last resort. Let’s go.”

Adaline led me out into a garage, and we met Kyle. He was leaning against a small transport.

“Damn. You two look hot.”

Adaline gave him the finger. “You get the back seat. Nova rides up front with me.”

“When we’re done, maybe the two of you can ride me in the hot tub.”

“When are you getting your pecker enhanced, Kyle?”

“It already is.”

Adaline giggled. “I never noticed. Get in, Nova. Lead the way.”

We drove through the city until we came to the mod shop district.

“Slow down. We’re getting close. There… That’s the alley.”

Adaline parked and we continued on foot. I managed to lead us to the old building.

“The front door leads into a hallway that has another very modern door. There were many locks on it, and it was very heavy metal. Beyond that door is the lab.”

“Kyle. You’re up.”

We all crossed the street, and I began to follow Kyle up the front steps. Adaline held my arm.

“Not yet. Wait until he gets through the first door, then we will assess. Keep your eyes open and watch the street. I will watch Kyle’s back.”

Kyle didn’t bother with the lock, but just shouldered his way through the rickety wooden door. He was clearly strength enhanced. Kyle disappeared into the hallway. I looked through the shattered old door to see him placing electronic devices on the steel door.

“Eyes on the street, Nova.”

I looked back and forth, not noticing anything out of the ordinary.

I heard Kyle’s deep voice. “That should do it.”

I looked across the street and up the next building. A glint of sunlight flashed from the roof just as Kyle stepped back out of the hallway behind me. Cold dread washed over me. “Run!”

I shoved Kyle and Adaline to the side before diving for cover near the cement stairs to the old door. The ground shook, an ear-splitting boom sounded causing glass windows to shatter, followed by a wall of flame and debris as Victor’s lab exploded into a million pieces. The shockwave rolled me into the street, and I was pelted with bits of flying building.

“Nova!”

Adaline’s hands were on me pulling my arms away from my head. Kyle was dusting himself off as if what happened was an everyday occurrence.

Adaline pulled me to my feet. “Are you all right, Nova?”

“Yes. I think so.”

Kyle smacked me on the butt. “Good eye, rookie. Drinks on me tonight.”

Adaline kept me close as we turned to look at the wreckage. “We’ll send in a crew to look for clues. Craig!”

“Yeah, boss?” I heard his voice through the communicator.

“I thought you were watching out for us.”

“We had the satellite on you guys. Right, Toby?”

“Yes. It was right on you.”

Adaline growled. “Send in the crew. We’re on our way back.”

Back at the GSA building, Adaline stormed inside and took the stairs up six flights. Kyle and I scrambled to keep up with her. She slammed open the operation center door and yelled at Craig and Toby.

“Playback. Now!”

The media wall replayed the scene but for the minute preceding the explosion they had been zoomed in on my butt.

She pointed at the two of them. “You almost got us killed!”

Craig shrugged. “It was a good experience for Nova and Toby needed to see how the controls worked. It was a win-win.”

“We’re not done here.”

Adaline grabbed my arm and dragged me back to the locker room. “Get showered up and changed back into your clothes then go home. Be here first thing tomorrow. You did good today. I’m proud of you.”

Before I could say a word, Adaline stormed out of the room.

***

The next day I entered the operations room as Adaline was speaking to Director Owens.

“She’s perfect for tonight.”

“She’s your charge, Adaline. Watch out for her.”

“I will.”

Director Owens passed me on the way out. “Good job yesterday, Nova.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Adaline walked over to me. She got very close and looked at me up and down carefully.

“You have the day off. Meet me tonight at 8:00pm in the Excelsior Hotel lobby.”

“The Excelsior? That’s the fanciest hotel in the city. Why are we going there?”

“I need to be there, and I need you with me. You’re perfect.”

“But…”

“Just meet me there. Now scoot.”

***

I wore a nice dress, but the nicest dress I had was nowhere near good enough for the Excelsior Hotel. I passed expensive, real gasoline cars as I walked across the pavement towards the stairs. I felt like a beggar and knew security would throw me out, but no one did.

To say the foyer was grand would be a severe understatement. Enormous golden chandeliers hung from impossibly high ceilings. Marble floors glistened like black and white mirrored glass. Opulence was everywhere.

“There you are, Nova.”

I spun around and stared open-mouthed at Adaline. She was wearing a red formal gown. Her hair was done up. Jewelry glittered from her neck and ears. She looked like she belonged in that world of wealth.

“Wow! You look… Is there a defibrillator nearby? I might need one.”

Adaline smiled. “Let me take you to our room.”

“We have a room?”

Adaline nodded and casually took my arm in hers and brought me to the elevator.

“Why do we have a room?”

“Why wouldn’t we want a room?”

When the elevator stopped and we exited, Adaline used her eyes to grant us access to our room. Once inside, she pointed to the bedroom.

“I left a dress for you on the bed. Use the assistant to help you do up your hair and makeup. Meet me in the ballroom in thirty minutes.”

“The ballroom… The ballroom?”

Adaline had already left.

I wandered into the bedroom and let my fingers slide over the satin blue dress. A pair of two-inch high matching heels were next to it.

“Shower…” I whispered to myself.

I was excited and overwhelmed. I rushed my shower, cleaned my hair, and dried it well. I slid into the silky formal dress and almost moaned at my reflection. The dress was perfect and reminded me of the one Megan had shown me.

I called up the assistant and after it demonstrated various hairstyles, it stepped me through arranging my hair. With subtle makeup, I had been transformed.

I looked wistfully at the bed as I thought about how beautiful Adaline had looked. I slipped on the shoes and tried hard not to fall over. I made my way through the hotel and back to the lobby. I didn’t have to look too far to find the ballroom. As I stepped up to the large double doors, an usher on either side opened them for me.

I paused at the top of the steps leading down to the ballroom floor. It was magical. A band was playing off to the side. People danced close together. Tables were lined with fancy food. Waiters walked between people carrying crystal flutes of champagne.

I scanned the room and found Adaline standing in the middle of the dance floor. She was staring at me as were quite a few other people. Taking a deep breath, I steadied myself on my teetering shoes and pulled up my dress slightly to make my way down the stairs.

It was my movie moment. I spotted my ‘date’ across the ballroom floor. She looked radiant in her red dress. I felt very unworthy to be where I was. Many people were staring at me, but my eyes never left Adaline. I was drawn to her and imagined this might be what it felt like to be a princess moving towards her betrothed amid a sea of people.

I made my way as gracefully as I could. People parted for me as I moved forward. I was thankful I had not made a fool of myself and began to relax when my traitorous shoe went one way, and I went another. I tried to right myself only to look like an ungainly foal and nearly fell flat on my face had it not been for Adaline’s quick catch of my arm.

I was almost on my knees and some hair had broken free and drifted in front of my eyes. I looked through my blonde tresses and into Adaline’s sparkling eyes and whispered to her. “Ooops.”

Adaline smiled and pulled me to my feet. She moved some hair from my eyes with a tender touch. Her fingers lingered on my cheek.

“I was waiting for my date to arrive when this vision of pure beauty wrapped in blue satin entered. I have never seen anything so beautiful.”

“You have a date? I better leave then as I would not wish them to get the wrong impression that I am taking you away from them.”

“Perhaps I would rather you stay with me.”

“I don’t want to embarrass you, Adaline.”

“Nothing you could do would ever embarrass me. You look stunning, Nova. Every eye was upon you as you entered. Dance with me.”

“I can barely stand in these shoes.”

Adaline rested her hand on my shoulder, lifted her foot, slipped off her high-heeled shoe, then did the same for the other foot. She tossed her shoes to the side. I grinned and did the same.

She slipped her hand around my waist and pulled me close to her. Her touch filled me with a growing warmth from the core of my being. We slowly began to sway to the music.

“Relax, Nova.”

I didn’t realize I was so stiff. Adaline pulled me closer, and I melted into her, burying my head in the crook of her shoulder. She smelled heavenly.

“What is this that we are doing, Adaline?”

“Dancing.”

“I meant tonight. The room, the dress, and dancing. Why am I here with you?”

“Would you rather be someplace else?”

“No! Sorry. I am just unsure of myself. I find myself very attracted to you, but I’m not ready to sleep with you, or anyone.”

“You’re attracted to me?”

“Very much. God… I’m embarrassing myself.”

Adaline smiled and brushed her lips against my earlobe. The warmth of her breath sent desirous chills down my body. “You’re adorable, Nova.”

We danced a few dances in silence. I was mesmerized.

“Look over my shoulder, Nova. You will see a staircase leading up to a balcony. In a minute, I want you to slip your shoes back on, and walk up those steps. When you reach the top, walk down the balcony a short distance and wait next to the railing for me.”

“We can’t just keep dancing?”

“We can dance more later. Can you please do this for me?”

I nodded.

“Good girl.”

Those last two words snagged me. I found them endearing and I wanted to hear them again. I wanted Adaline to be proud of me.

Adaline stopped dancing and I winced at the loss of her touch. I had to lean on her to put my shoes back on. By the time I was standing again, Adaline was holding two flutes of champagne.

She handed me a glass and lifted hers. “To the most beautiful woman here tonight.”

I blushed and quickly took a deep sip of bubbly champagne. It tickled my throat and warmed my stomach, easing the butterflies that were there.

“Go on, gorgeous. I’ll meet you up there.”

I made my way across the floor and paused at the bottom of the stairs. All eyes were on me again. I scanned the crowd looking for Adaline but couldn’t find her. I made my way up the long, curving stairway, then down the balcony. I took another sip of champagne as I gazed across the ballroom.

“Nova.”

I turned to find Adaline standing in a hallway behind me. She waved me to her. I moved quickly to her side, and she looped her arm in mine. We walked down the hallway, pausing near an ornate door. An armed guard made his way towards us.

“Kiss me, Nova.”

“Kiss you?”

“Kiss me.”

I stared into her eyes and looked at her delectable red lips. I pressed forward and kissed her passionately. Her champagne flute clinked as she dropped it onto the carpeted floor. She wrapped her arms around my neck to hold our kiss. Her back hit the wall with a thud.

I felt the presence of the guard but was deliriously lost in the heat of the moment. Adaline broke our kiss as the guard reached down to pick up the champagne flute. She kneed him in the head with enough force, his head snapped back, and he collapsed on the floor in a heap.

Adaline hiked up her dress, pulled out a gun and handed it to me. She also took out an electronic device she placed on the door lock. Moments later the door clicked open. 

“Help me with him.”

I stood there in stunned silence.

“Nova!”

I grabbed the guard’s arm and with Adaline’s help, pulled him inside the room. Adaline looked both ways down the hallway and closed the door.

I was incensed. “What the hell is going on?”

“Shhh. Keep your voice down.”

Adaline moved over to an ornate framed panting. The place looked like an old-styled office with dark paneled wood walls, books on shelves, and a large desk dominating the middle of the room. The painting moved on a hinge and opened to expose a wall safe.

“This is a mission? I should have known. I’m such a fool.”

“Careful with that gun, Nova. It’s loaded.”

“I should shoot myself with it. God, I’m so embarrassed.”

Adaline placed the electronic lock picking device on the safe and faced me. “It was required you didn’t know what this was all about.”

I was about to say something when the device beeped and the safe opened. Adaline reached inside and tossed me a black felt bag. She pulled out a memory chip as well which she tucked into a strap on her thigh. She removed the electronic device, closed the painting, and moved close to me.

“Keep that bag safe. Things are going to get messy. If we get separated, meet me out front of the hotel.”

She grabbed my hand and I pulled away.

“I need the gun, Nova.”

I handed her the gun as she cautiously opened the door to the hallway. She looked back at me and whispered. “Stay close to me.”

I sucked in a breath and pulled my shoes off, holding them in one hand. She slipped into the hallway, and I was right behind her. We ran down the hall as quickly as we could in long formal dresses. She turned the corner and bullets crashed into the wooden wall next to her. She fired back, spun around, and pointed back to the ballroom.

“Run! Get through the ballroom and back to the front of the hotel. I’ll hold them off and give you some time.”

I didn’t want to leave her even though she had just used me. “I don’t want to leave you.”

“I’m fine. Now go!”

I hesitated, then turned and ran as bullets rang out. I flew down the ballroom stairs, hiking my dress up to give my legs more maneuverability. The gunfire had caused a panic and people were squeezing to get out of the ballroom and hotel. I was pushed aside a dozen times as I tried to get through the doors into the lobby. It took so long with the throngs of people that I was certain Adaline was either dead or long gone by then.

I started heading down the front steps of the hotel when I heard Adaline calling me.

“Get in!”

She was in a low, sleek, black sports car and the passenger side door was raised already. I looked back towards the hotel as a gunshot rang out. I ran down the remaining steps and dove into the car. I was immediately thrown into the back of the passenger seat as Adaline floored the car. Tires squealed as I scrambled to pull my dress inside and get the door closed. As soon as the door shut, the passenger side mirror exploded from a bullet.

“Put your seatbelt on, Nova.”

I attempted to do that several times as we careened around corners. We were well out of the area when we ditched the car in a back alley and walked several blocks towards the GSA building.

“You’re very quiet, Nova.”

“I don’t even have the words to talk to you right now.”

Adaline turned a corner and instead of going to the GSA building, we headed into my apartment building. I just ignored the fact that Adaline followed me to my apartment and when I stepped inside and the door was closed, I unleashed my anger on her.

“What was all that about? You used me! You lied to me! For what? A memory chip and a black velvet bag? I can’t believe I kissed you!”

“Nova…”

That’s when I saw it. As Adaline collapsed on the floor, her hand uncovered a blood-red stain above her left hip.

“Adaline!” I rushed to her side and put pressure on her wound.

She jerked at the pain. “…it wasn’t all… a lie.”

“Megan!”

“Yes, Nova.”

“Can you communicate with GSA headquarters?”

“Yes.”

“I need them to send a medical team here immediately.”

“Done. Might I add, you look beautiful tonight.”

I cradled Adaline in my arms and applied pressure to her wound.

After several long minutes, Megan spoke. “The medical team is here. May I open the door for them?”

“Yes.”

The medical team came in and I was pushed aside. Toby and Craig entered right after the team got to work.

Craig looked at Adaline and told me she would be fine and that it wasn’t the first time she had been shot. The entry wound wasn’t in a bad location. The medical team would have her up and about in short order.

Toby looked around the room and smiled. “Nice place. The two of you were so hot tonight.”

“You watched?”

“It was a mission. Of course, we watched. Who do you think guided Adaline out of there? We also mobilized the medical team.”

Adaline moaned as the medical team plunked a lead bullet into a metal jar. They sprayed something on her wound, and it began sealing itself up. Her eyes fluttered open.

“Nova…”

I rushed to her side, and she lifted a weak hand to my cheek before falling asleep.

“We gave her something to put her to sleep, and it will help us move her comfortably. She will be up and about tomorrow. We have her from here.”

The medical team produced a levitating gurney and carefully moved Adaline to it before taking her out of the apartment. 

Toby started digging through the food in the kitchen and I yelled at him.

“Get out! Take him with you!” I pointed to Craig.

Toby shrugged. “What?”

“I need you both out before I do something illegal!”

“You’re cute when you’re angry.”

“Get out!”

They headed to the door.

Craig paused. “Debrief is at 0800 hours in the operations room.”

The door closed as I paced and fumed.

***

The next morning, I was at the GSA building first thing. I hardly slept worrying about Adaline and my anger had only increased. I burst through the doors of the operations room to find Adaline sitting on a desk. She looked worn and tired, but otherwise fine.

“You should be resting.”

“I owe you an apology, Nova.”

Hearing her voice and knowing she was all right, only made me angry again.

“An apology? You want to apologize? Would that be for lying to me, getting us shot at, using me, leading me on, kissing me, or almost dying on my apartment floor?”

I crossed my arms over my chest.

“She was only doing as she was ordered.”

I spun to see Director Owens. He was sporting a very red cheek. When he noticed me staring at his cheek, he rubbed it tenderly.

“Adaline hits very hard.”

I shook my head. “I need answers.”

Toby and Craig walked in, and I ignored them.

“I’m waiting, Director Owens.”

“After the explosion at Victor’s lab, the GSA team uncovered clues that linked the owner of the Hotel Excelsior to the crime ring we have been trying to take down. We found a communication that suggested Redmon Calloway would be using a sizeable sum of diamonds to procure the control code. That code could be used to control the minds of people.

“It was a spur of the moment mission. We learned the exchange was to take place tomorrow night and we assumed Redmon would keep the diamonds in a safe in his office. We found out about the gala ballroom event and knew the ballroom was located near Redmon’s office.

“We needed a distraction so Adaline could deactivate the office security before breaking in. By retrieving the contents of the safe, the exchange would be foiled.”

“I was the distraction? That’s what this was all about?” I tossed him the bag that must have held the diamonds.

“That blue dress was spectacular. Guards came to the ballroom just to see you.”

I glared at Toby and threw up my arms.

“You don’t know how beautiful you are, Nova.”

Adaline looked like she was about to get sick.

“Why didn’t you all tell me?”

Director Owens shuffled over to a chair. “After the explosion, we felt it was best you didn’t know. If you knew it was a mission, you would have been nervous and anxious. It had to look real.” He paused. “There had to be… chemistry.”

I paled. “I’m… I need a minute.”

I rushed from the room and heard Adaline yell at them to stay there.

She followed me down the hall and I kept waving her off as she followed me. I found an empty conference room and stepped inside. I couldn’t wipe my tears fast enough. I heard the door click behind me.

“Nova…”

“Don’t say my name like that. Don’t say my name like you care one iota about me.”

“But I do care, Nova.”

“I exposed my feelings for you. I kissed you. It was all a lie.”

“The mission details were withheld from you. The kiss… was real. Very real. When I told you I had never seen anything more beautiful, that was real. When my heart pounded in my chest when we danced, that was real. I have never cared about anyone, or anything more than I care for you. I can’t even explain it. From the moment I first saw you, dripping wet, frightened as a rabbit, I knew I was in trouble.”

I felt a tentative hand slip into mine.

“Nova… Please say something.”

I sniffed. “I was so angry with you and then I saw you were shot. I felt such a loss. I couldn’t sleep last night wondering if you were all right.”

“This won’t happen again. I will never let anyone withhold mission information from me. As for us… I want you to know I will forever cherish that first kiss and can only hope it is not the last.”

I wiped my tears again and turned to face Adaline. I kept my fingers laced with hers. “How would this work? You’re my mentor. Isn’t a relationship on a team frowned upon?”

“Is that what you want, Nova? A relationship with me? Because I would like that very much. I would like to know more about you and about how we could be together. I can’t look at you and not yearn for you.”

“I want to get to know you too. I’ve never had a relationship with anyone before. Suddenly, my world has been upended and I’m adapting to many changes in my life. Director Owens said there had to be chemistry. I had it last night. I wanted the world to disappear so we could dance the night away together.”

“And now? Do you still feel chemistry now?”

“Kiss me, Adaline.”

Without hesitation, Adaline pressed my back up against the window of the conference room and crushed her soft lips against mine. When she pulled away, I gasped and nodded.

“Definitely chemistry. But I think we should go slow. What does the GSA feel about two members of a team being involved with each other?”

“They don’t care if it does not get in the way of our mission. Can we have dinner together tonight, Nova?”

“I would like that.”

She kissed me again. “You taste so sweet, Nova. We should get back and have the debriefing. Are you all right?”

“I’m still angry I was left out of crucial information but understand why the decision was made. Certainly, I would have been more on edge, but that does not excuse anything. I’m frustrated that Craig and Toby had a front row seat to my infatuation with you. I made such a fool of myself. And I can’t, for the life of me, understand why any of you thought I would make a good distraction.”

“That’s what is so special about you, Nova. You don’t know how beautiful you are. You’re this down-home goodness wrapped in a model’s shell. You’re intoxicating to be around.”

“So are you.”

Adaline pulled me back to the operations room and did not let go of my hand after we got settled. Everyone noticed and didn’t say anything. Toby gave me a thumbs up sign.

Director Owens pushed back his chair and stood. “Does anyone need to say anything before we begin?”

“I do.”

“Go ahead, Nova. Speak freely. We’re a team and we should be open with each other.”

“I understand why the decision was made to keep me uninformed about the mission, but that can’t happen again. I know I am new here and my agent role was created because I have the GSA mod, but these missions are clearly dangerous, and I should have my wits about me. I could have helped Adaline and she might not have gotten shot if I was better prepared.”

Director Owens nodded. “Agreed. For the record, you were not hired just because you have the mod. You had top scores in your classes and a good character except for one blemish trying to secure a mod illegally. Without the mod, we would have likely pursued you for other agency roles. About mission details, you need to understand there will be times when not all the information will be provided to you. This is necessary in case you are captured, or in the event of coordinated roles where the information is too great or not necessary for the role you may play. Regarding training, that changes as soon as you are both activated. Adaline’s mod is ready and once she has recovered, you will activate you both. For those in this room only, these mods are unique and represent the very latest in cutting edge technology. It is why we are keeping a close eye on Nova. We must believe that the GSA has a mole and Nova is likely a target for reverse engineering. While that would be very difficult to do since her DNA is encrypted, that doesn’t mean someone might not try.”

Toby leaned forward. “What’s so special about these mods that Nova and Adaline will both have?”

“The mods include working wings that are fully retractable to the point that no one could tell they even have them. The bones are altered to be lighter, like avian bones, but also stronger than steel. They will be as fast and strong as anyone cybernetically enhanced and can extend and retract razor-sharp nails that can cut through most metals. The mods allow the owner to change their eye color, iris pattern, and hair color in three variants aside from their base. This will give them four unique identities.

“The base mod comes with combat skills and knowledge, modifications to their eyesight to display satellite-based information data that we relay to them. The satellite data superimposes on their vision in a form of augmented reality helping them identify heat signatures and see through walls. The mods include enhanced senses and internal communications to each other as well as to base operations without the need to use a communicator. Their brains are tuned to encrypted radio frequencies of the GSA. Finally, they can connect their minds to the online world or our data systems and download skills as needed.”

“Wow…” I bit my lower lip. “Can all that stuff going through my brain be turned off?”

“At will.”

I looked at Adaline and she read my mind.

“What about our privacy?”

“There is a privacy mode you can activate.”

“I can see why it is important to not let the mod get into someone else’s hands.”

“We need you both activated as quickly as we can so that you can protect yourselves. Any other questions?”

I sat there stunned. I had only wanted wings and I got a whole lot more than I bargained for.

“Last night’s mission was a success. We recovered one hundred million credits in diamonds and a data chip that we believe will contain contact information and detailed specifics on the DNA code that can be used for mind control. It will take weeks to decode, but we will find a way to gain access to that data. We have more leads to follow up on, but our priority is to get Adaline’s mod installed and then Nova and Adaline into activation and training.”

The meeting broke up and I went with Adaline to the lab.

Fred waved at us as we entered. “Adaline. We’re ready for you.”

***

I was told I could go home, but I didn’t want to leave Adaline. I watched them put her to sleep, then installed the mod. For two days, I sat at her side as she convulsed, screamed, and tore her sheets to shreds. It was painful to watch, and I had numerous questions for the designers and Director Owens.

After she had settled and was sleeping peacefully, I curled up next to her on the bed and fell asleep.

It had only felt like minutes that I was asleep when Adaline whispered in my ear.

“Good morning, gorgeous.”

“Adaline! You’re awake!”

“I feel sore and tired.”

“I know how that feels. At least you still have all your blood. The mod made additional modifications to you. I asked Fred about them, but he said he didn’t know.”

“What do you mean, Nova?”

“It enhanced your beauty.”

She nodded slowly. “We discussed the possibility of doing that, but seeing how you turned out, I can only guess they found a way to do it. Do I still look like me?”

“Yes, just… I was enamored with you before, but it’s hard to tear my eyes off you now. You still have the same brilliant blue eyes, but your brunette hair is longer and more luxurious. Your breasts are larger and your legs longer.”

Adaline got up from the bed and rushed into the attached bathroom. “Oh my… My cheekbones are more pronounced, and I have fuller lips as well.” She stepped away from the mirror and ran her hands along her trim waist. “I see what you mean. I’m bigger up top, my hips are a little wider without being fat, and I’m a little taller. I really need a shower.”

Fred knocked and came in. “I figured you would be up by now. Nova didn’t leave your side for more than a few minutes. Just so you know, it’s Friday evening.”

“It took two days?”

“A little longer than that. You will need to rest through the weekend. Director Owens will oversee the activation of you both on Monday morning. I’m recommending you get some good food and relaxation in.”

Adaline looked at me. “I’ll take that as an order. Does the same go for Nova?”

“She only slept once you were comfortable, and she barely ate anything. I would say she needs the same.”

***

Adaline’s apartment was a stunning spacious top-floor slice of modern style and luxury. I felt her presence and turned to have her arms snake around my neck. She kissed me and I was more than tempted to untie the robe she had changed into.

“Thanks for dinner, Adaline.”

“It was easy. I just placed an order.”

“Are you all settled now?”

“I’ll have to go shopping tomorrow. None of my bras fit me anymore and I’ll need to add a few clothing items. You should join me. I’m sure you could use more clothes. Your dress was lost in the hotel. We couldn’t send anyone in to get it after we shot up the place and stole from the owner.”

“I don’t have much money and I don’t have a budget for my new place yet. I need to be careful.”

“Your room is paid for by the GSA. You should be paid soon as well.”

“You’re a little taller than you were. I must look up more to gaze into your eyes, Adaline.”

“I kind of like it. It makes it easier to know who leads when we dance.”

I squeezed her hand. “I should go and let you rest.”

“Stay with me tonight. Having you close is comforting.”

“In the same bed?”

“You can keep your dress on. I’ll be a good girl.”

“It’s not you I’m worried about.”

She tugged on my hand, and I offered no resistance.

***

I stayed that night and the next two. We were mostly good, and I slept well with Adaline cradling me in her arms all night. We spent the entire weekend together. I cooked as Adaline relaxed and recovered. We went shopping and she insisted on paying for several new outfits for me. I was glad we refrained from having sex as it allowed me to spend more time learning about her. I was surprised to find out she was only four years older than me.

Monday morning, we walked arm-in-arm to the GSA building. Director Owens met us in the lobby and led us to a large gymnasium just off the lab.

“I see you got your mod installed, Adaline. I gather you found out we added a bit extra.”

“She was already beautiful.” I said defensively.

The director looked at me and smiled. “You received them as well. As you discovered, Nova, outstanding beauty such as yours is rare and will be a distraction. Having two stunningly beautiful agents will provide us ample opportunities to get places we have struggled to get into in the past.”

Adaline kissed me on the cheek. “In other words, sex sells.”

“As long as I’m never asked to sleep with someone as part of a mission, then I’m okay with it.”

Director Owens waved Fred over. “We’ll start the activations with Nova.”

I was led to another small room with a heavy door, padded walls, ceiling, and floors.

“Go inside, Nova. We will be activating your mods with a series of lights and radio frequencies.”

I was nervous. “You’re expecting me to need padded walls?”

“It’s just a precaution and for your own safety. Most of the padding is laced with metal fibers to isolate the frequencies we will transmit, confining them to the room. It’s designed like a faraday cage, but more in reverse, allowing inbound frequencies but restricting anything we transmit.”

I walked inside, reasoning with myself that they would not have spent so much money building the mods only to melt us down into a puddle.

The door closed with a loud echoing boom. Over a speaker, Fred told me they would begin shortly. Lights began strobing and I felt a buzzing in my head. They cycled up and down the sounds in the room and then they abruptly stopped. Everything was fine. I took a calming breath and then screamed.

My head erupted with chatter, noise, and incredible amounts of data. My eyes could spot the smallest thread in the padded walls, and I could hear Adaline shouting. White, feathered wings erupted from my back then retracted painfully. My eyes fluttered and changed as did the color of my hair. I collapsed onto the floor, convulsing.

“Relax your mind, Nova.”

The speakers were so loud, I held my hands over my ears.

“It’s too loud!” I shouted.

“Turn the damn volume down, Fred!” Adaline’s voice was tense.

“Nova.” Adaline whispered. “Breathe slowly. Focus on your breathing. Calm your mind.”

The speakers turned off, but I could still hear Adaline.

“I want in there now!”

“It’s too dangerous. She must adapt.”

“Open the bloody door!”

“I won’t be held liable…”

“Open the door, Fred.” It was the Director.

The door opened with a whoosh, and I felt Adaline’s warm hands on me.

“I’m here, sweetheart.” She whispered very softly.

I grabbed her hand.

“Ouch! Gently, Nova. Gently. You have enhanced strength now.”

“It hurts…”

Adaline crawled around to face me. “Each mod can be deactivated by you. You should be able to feel the individual types in your head. Focus on them one at a time, isolate them, and shut them down.”

I started with the voices. They became clearer as I focused on them, then I imagined turning it off and the voices went away. I shut down the data. My head hurt less.

“I see you relaxing. That’s good. You can do the same with your enhancements. Strength, speed, hearing, vision, wings, nails.”

My nails extended and cut through the padded floor like it was warm butter. “Sorry. I turned them on by mistake.” I retracted them, and slowly sat up still holding my head. “That was horrible.” I turned the side and dry heaved while Adaline held my hair back and stroked my back.

“I don’t think they knew how anyone might react to it all at once, but a little theorizing and warning would have been nice.”

The door opened and Fred and the director came in.

“How do you feel, Nova?”

“Like someone put me through a cheese grater, but I think I will survive. When will you activate Adaline?”

“Right now.”

“I’m staying with her.”

“It’s too dangerous. She will be experiencing strength and other enhancements that are unpredictable.”

I glared at Fred. “Unless there is a direct order from Director Owens, I’m staying. It was her calming influence that helped me through it. It’s the least I can do for her.”

Fred began to speak but was cut off from Director Owens. “Don’t even talk about liability, Fred. Nova stays if she wants to stay.”

“Can you get Adaline some hearing protection? Until she turns off her enhanced hearing, it’s extremely painful.”

Fred stepped out and came back a few minutes later with some ear protection. “We will begin as soon as we close the door.”

I sat down with Adaline and placed the hearing protection on her ears, then leaned forward and held her head next to mine. The door closed, and seconds later, the lights and sounds began.

Adaline stared into my eyes as the activation started unraveling inside of her.

“I’ve got you, Adaline.”

Adaline began to shake. Tears formed in her eyes, and she ground her teeth together. Her wings erupted from her back. Her wings had brown feathers, like a hawk. As they retracted, Adaline screamed, but she focused on me.

“Try to shut things down as you hear them in your head.” I whispered.

Her eyes dilated and she closed them hard. I felt her strength cycle and mine instantly responded to hold her flailing arms back. Her nails extended and sliced into my arm. I winced but held her steady. Slowly her shaking subsided and she collapsed on the padded floor. I cradled her head in my lap and held my bleeding arm with my other hand.

“Deep breaths, Adaline. It’s over. Just relax.”

She snuggled into me and moaned softly. The door opened and I glanced back at Fred and the director.

“You’re bleeding, Nova.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Adaline opened her eyes but stayed where she was in my lap. I stroked her long brunette hair and removed the hearing protection.

“How do you feel?”

“The cheese grater analogy is very apropos. I’m not sure I wouldn’t have made it without Nova.”

“Let’s get you both up so we can bandage Nova’s arm.”

Suddenly concerned, Adaline became frantic. “Did I hurt you?” She gently pulled at my fingers to check my injury.

When my hand was removed, I was surprised to see the cuts already healed. I took a chance and opened access to the data in my head. The sudden onslaught caused me to gasp, but it settled down rapidly and I could see the information in my head almost as if I had studied it for years. I looked for data regarding the mod and found it.

“You failed to mention quick healing, although the mod documentation suggests it comes with a price. Large amounts of energy are redirected to heal, and a grave wound could lead to unconsciousness to allow the body to regenerate. It suggests even a bullet would be ejected from the body without medical intervention. In addition, we have photographic memories, capable of recalling anything with complete accuracy that we saw, heard, tasted, smelled, or touched.”

Fred grinned. “Everything we worked so hard for is proving accurate. We need to move you both to testing.”

Adaline stood and pulled me to my feet. “Give us a moment of privacy, please.”

The director and Fred looked at each other, smiled, and stepped from the room.

“I’m so sorry I hurt you, Nova.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

She ran her fingers over my arm. “Move in with me. I don’t want to be away from you. I want us to be together.”

“It’s a good thing I don’t have a lot of stuff. What will we do with Megan?”

Adaline’s eyes darkened. “Who is Megan?”

“The virtual psychologist in my apartment.”

She chuckled. “She can find someone new. I’m putting my claim in on you as long as you also want me.”

I cupped her face and kissed her for my response. We both came apart breathless.

“That’s settled then.”

With a grin, she took my hand in hers and led me from the room.

***

The entire team had gathered in the training gym. I sat next to Adaline and kept my hand in hers while the director spoke to everyone.

“Nova and Adaline have both their mods activated. We need to fully test them and all of you will need to learn about their unique abilities.”

Craig huffed. “Nova is a rookie, and she can’t possibly be a viable agent without years of training. We have studied protocols, strategy, hand signals, and fighting skills.”

“Nova?”

“Yes, sir?”

“I will have you fight Kyle, our most advanced soldier. He has both cybernetic strength and speed enhancements as well as years of martial arts study.”

“But…” I knew I had knowledge of fighting as provided by the mod but wasn’t certain knowledge would translate into real skills.

“You won’t know unless you try, Nova. Even though the avian modifications to your bones make you twenty percent lighter than another woman your size, they also make you stronger. Your bones might as well be made from titanium. At the very least, you should be similar in strength and speed as Kyle and the mods contained dozens of fighting styles and techniques to use at your disposal.”

Kyle grinned and walked out to the center of the gym floor. “Come on, little girl. Show me what you got.”

I had changed into training clothes so was dressed appropriately. My hair was pulled back into a ponytail. I looked nervously to Adaline, who merely nodded.

I stepped up near Kyle and he lunged at me, striking me across my cheek with his fist. The strength and power of the hit sent me sprawling and spitting blood onto the floor.

Craig laughed. “See? I told you.”

I pushed myself up, my cheek and lip already healing. I activated my strength and speed, having forgotten about them in my nervousness. I closed my eyes and settled myself, touching the fighting skills I knew existed in my mind. When I opened my eyes, Kyle was already barreling towards me.

I spun lightly away ducking his blow and retaliated with a back kick sending him tumbling across the floor. My eyes sharpened and my hearing increased granting me better perception into his moves. He got up and closed the distance between us. He unleashed a flurry of strikes with his fists, but I managed to dodge, weave, and block them with ease. He leaned too close, and I smashed my fist into his jaw. He rocked back on his heels and almost fell over. I could tell it had hurt him, but he shrugged off the pain.

“Lucky hit, girl.”

He rushed me and gave a burst of speed he had not shown earlier. He managed to grab my wrist and threw me with a spin. With his enhanced strength and my lighter weight, I was tossed nearly forty feet.

My wings opened, tearing the back of my training shirt. They immediately caught the wind and brought me to a stop in the air. I took a moment to marvel at them. They were white and glorious. I dropped lightly to the floor and retracted them with no pain.

The few minutes I had fought had given me confidence that I could hold my own and not be too badly injured. I placed myself into a solid stance and smiled. “Come on, big guy.”

Kyle rushed me and fought furiously, but for every attack, I was there, and I pushed back even harder. My vision caught the slightest twitch in his muscles and my hearing the subtle movements of his feet. Before long, I was pushing him back around the room, landing punches and kicks with nearly every throw. I was faster, more agile, and surprisingly stronger than him.

Still, he took the beating in stride and while he was wounded and barely standing, he kept trying. I wanted to end this for both our sakes. I pushed myself even faster, broke through his blocks, grabbed around his shoulder, then used my wings to thrust forcefully upwards. I lifted Kyle right off the floor and with a push of my wings rolled over top of him and threw him thirty feet. He landed hard, tried to get up, and collapsed in a heap. Conscious, but exhausted and beaten.

I retracted my wings and helped him to his feet. “Damn, Kyle. You’re amazing and have a lot of stamina. Good fight.”

Kyle shook his head and smiled. “I’ll never live this down. Beaten by a bloody angel.”

Adaline’s voice sounded in my head. “You are stunning to watch, sweetheart. Breathtaking.”

“Is this the private channel you and I can share?”

“It is. I’ve been testing various attributes out.”

“I want to kiss you so badly.”

“Mmmm. This is better than sexting.”

“Nova, well done. Next, we will pit an entire GSA squad against Nova and Adaline. This will confirm their ability to follow protocols, communicate without communicators to our team, and utilize satellite imagery. For this we will head to our warehouse training ground.”

Toby stepped up next to me and glanced at my hand in Adaline’s. “So, you and Adaline are a thing?”

“We seem to be becoming one.”

“It’s fast for you. You have never had a relationship before that I remember.”

“My preferences never changed, Toby. I always wanted a long-term relationship and was never interested in one-night stands. She is everything I have ever dreamed of and more. I hope you will be happy for me.”

“I am, but I also thought that maybe your preferences had changed, or you were at least bisexual now. I thought maybe you and I could…”

I paused and stared at him. “You were interested in me before my change?”

“No. That would have been wrong because I’m heterosexual. But we have a lot in common and now that you’re the hottest woman I have ever seen, even more so with those angel wings you have, I thought we could at least try.”

“If I could get interested in any guy, it would be you with those cute furry ears of yours. I’m just not into guys.”

“Maybe I could get Fred to slip a little something extra into your next code upgrade.”

“My what?”

“Code upgrades. While your DNA is locked, your brain was reconfigured to be adaptable to new code enhancements. Skills and things that can be transmitted by us or pulled by you as needed. Let’s say you needed advanced medical training. We can push that skill to you. Anyways, I thought it would be cool to push code to make you both bi.”

“Don’t even think about that.”

“I was just joking. But really, it would be so hot.”

I turned away and caught up to Adaline.

“Did you catch any of that?”

“Yes. I turned up my hearing.”

“I like the concept of skill enhancements, but I dislike they can push new code to us whenever they want.”

“Only when we are set to receive it, but I agree with you. We should establish protocols to always have that disabled without us being able to peruse the code first.”

“I don’t know how to read and interpret the code.”

“Neither do I, but we can tap into the library and absorb the entire language they are using.”

“I say we only allow pulling of code, never letting them to push new stuff to us.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t trust the GSA, Nova?”

“I don’t have your experience with them yet.”

“I would say your intuition is spot on. We have a mole in the GSA. Someone had access to steal your mod in the first place.”

“I guess we can discuss more when we get home.”

“It makes me flush with warmth to hear you say ‘we’ and ‘home’ together.”

“Me too.”

“We’re here, Nova.”

We entered a long room that had glass windows which looked out into a large warehouse. Spread out on tables were several weapons. I picked up what appeared to be a knife handle, but once in my hand, a holographic blade appeared.

“That’s cool.”

The director instructed us. “This room is equipped with communication technology you will normally be connected to when you are in the field. Toby and Craig will work to provide goals, targets, and manage general communications. If needed, they can relay satellite information to you as well. The opposing team is already positioned. All of you will wear a vest that will transfer shot or strike information. If you sustain critical damage, it will take you out of the training event. You will have handguns with simulated bullets, knives, and an explosive light-emitting grenade. Go ahead and put on your vests.”

I noted our vests had slots on the backs. “We can use our wings?”

“Not for this simulation. We want to safely test your wings for flight first.”

Adaline asked Craig to send us the satellite infrared imagery. I opened my channel to the satellite and when Craig activated it, I struggled with what I was seeing.

“This will take some getting used to.” Adaline spun in a circle.

“Tell us what you see, Adaline.”

“I see normally, but I’m also seeing overlaid translucent shapes. I can see the floor I am standing on, but also floors beneath us and red body-shaped heat signatures of people moving about. Would that explain what you see, Nova?”

“It does. When I activate my enhanced eyesight, I can also zoom inside a building. It’s almost like x-ray vision.”

“Radio check.” Toby called out.

I heard his voice easily since he was in the room, but also inside my head. “Got it.” I replied, sending my words through a mental channel back to him.

Toby raised his thumb.

Director Owens told us both to move out to our starting position. Adaline and I grabbed our weapons and headed downstairs into the warehouse.

The director spoke to us through the radio channel. “Your goal will be like the other night. There are twenty guards ordered to disable you. You need to get inside the office and secure a file from a safe.”

“Where is the office and the safe?”

“We are turning on satellite imagery and pinpointing the location of the safe.”

I blinked and looked towards the far end of the warehouse. The warehouse boxes and walls became almost transparent and red guards patrolled at various locations and levels. At the far end of the warehouse, a blue beacon glowed on the second floor of a back room.

“We have the location. Commencing engagement.”

It felt strange to have Adaline next to me and speaking in my head at the same time. She then spoke to me through our private channel.

“We will keep up our private communications. Let’s split up. I’ll go left, you go right.”

Adaline started to move. “Wait.”

I reached out to Craig. “Craig, can you mark Adaline and me? I don’t want to accidently shoot her.”

“We don’t have that capability.”

“Yes, you do. You have our current locations, touch your screen over our heat signatures and mark us.”

Adaline lit up as green for me in my satellite view. “Thank you, Craig.”

“I didn’t even know we had that feature.”

Adaline sent me a thought. “Great thinking on using the satellite to mark us. Enhance all your senses. Let’s move.”

I split off to the right. The satellite created a form of augmented reality that made me feel I could shoot through a container or box separating me from the guards. I had to stop myself from simply open firing into a bunch of wood. I could see a row of stacked boxes with small pathways between them. I jumped up, and lightly landed on the top box about twelve feet off the ground. I made my way along the top of the boxes and spotted my first guard walking below me.

“I have a guard beneath me. I don’t want to skip one and have them come up behind us in case they are alerted to our presence.”

“Use your knife.”

I pulled my knife and dropped silently behind the guard. The guard was out of commission before he even knew I was there.

“One down.”

With my enhanced eyesight, I spotted Adaline take out two guards.

“With my two, that makes three.”

“Craig, mark our takedowns in a different color please.”

“I’m on it.”

Around the corner from me were three guards. Adaline had another two.

“Time to use our guns. This will likely alert the others so be prepared.”

“I’m ready. On my count. Three. Two. One.”

We rolled out from behind the boxes and fired. I gave three quick taps, and all three guards went down. Having never fired a gun before, I was impressed at the skills that were shared with me through my mod as each shot was perfect.

“Another three from me.”

“My two are down as well.”

Alarms blared and lights began flashing. I had to quickly reduce my hearing as it was so loud it was almost disabling. Guards spilled out from the back office.

“Throwing my grenade.”

I hunkered down behind a heavy wooden box as the grenade light flashed. Six guards dropped to the ground from the blast.

“Adaline. Didn’t Director Owens say there were twenty guards?”

“Yes.”

“We just took out fourteen, but I am only spotting four more. Where are the other two?”

“Good catch. Our enemies might know we have satellite technology in use. They could have two or more guards wearing heat-diffusing outfits. Keep your senses up and expect more than twenty.”

We converged on the doorway to the first floor of the office. Just as we were about to enter, I heard the rub of metal on metal. I dove and rolled, coming up to my feet as a flash of light and gunshot indicated that a bullet had been fired right where I had been. I spotted movement in the rafters and fired, satisfied I had critically hit the guard that was hidden up there.

“Let’s pause and get our bearings, Nova. Try tuning your hearing to eliminate the alarm frequency. I managed to do it already.”

I made mental adjustments and the alarm sound faded. The adjustments also knocked out all other sounds in those frequencies, but they were overridden by the alarm anyways. It was deathly silent except for the electric hum coming from the lights inside the office. As if we had worked together for years, Adaline and I moved as one. Once inside, we each covered various portions of the room.

“Clear.”

“Clear as well. I see two moving towards the stairs in the next room. Looks like they are retreating up to the main office. They know that is our only entry.”

“Is it? I spotted two windows that opened into the warehouse.”

“What are you suggesting, Nova?”

“Why get into a firefight at the top of the stairs? I suggest we backtrack and get up onto the boxes. We both run and jump, crash through the windows, come up and take out the last of the guards from behind.”

“Gutsy move, but I like it. This isn’t like the movies, Nova. Your suit covers everything but your head. Raise your arms to let the suit protect your head as we go through the glass.”

We slipped back into the warehouse and jumped up onto the boxes and crates. Adaline took the window to the right, and I was on the left.

We sprinted and dove at the same time, crashing through the windows, rolling, and shooting the four remaining guards. We should have paused and listened, but we stood and dusted ourselves off. A vial shattered against my arm. It was a non-lethal shot that came from the back corner of the room. By the time I was moving, Adaline had located the guard that had been concealed by a stealth suit and shot him.

We scanned the room and found no more guards.

“Well done.” Came the Director’s voice into our heads. “We will assume you can break into the safe and retrieve the document. Regroup in the lab.”

***

We met in the lab to debrief the training we had done. The next day would be focused on flight, identities, and skill downloads. It had been a long day by the time we went to my apartment and took what little I had, boxed it up, and moved into Adaline’s apartment.

Director Owens had adjusted my address and access for Adaline’s apartment. He seemed to be enjoying the fact we wanted to be a couple.

After a large order-in dinner, Adaline sat on the couch and had me lie down with my head in her lap. She stroked my hair as we talked.

“I want you to know, Nova, that I am not subject to flights of fancy. I know our relationship feels sudden, but I have never in my life been so attracted to anyone as I am you. I don’t sleep around. Never have. I feel a need to protect you and keep you safe. I didn’t suggest you move in with me on a whim, I just feel happy and content when you are near me. You probably think less of me because of this.”

I rolled slightly so I could stare up and into Adaline’s eyes. “Here I thought you would think less of me because I used to be a man and now, I am a clingy woman. I don’t like being apart from you. You make me feel protected and cared for. I felt that the first day we met. I don’t want to disappoint you or either of us get hurt.”

Adaline continued to stroke my hair. It was so loving and gentle.

“You and I are unique, Nova. No one else will know what we have gone through and what it is like to have been given what we have. Even if I never felt the pull of my heart towards you, I would want us close to watch out for each other. We are valuable commodities for our world, but also for our enemies.”

Her fingers slid gently down my cheek. “Mmmm.” I reached up to hold her hand against my face. “I wish you could feel what I feel right now. To know just how much you mean to me. When I woke up in the alleyway, I thought my life was over. That was so far from the truth. My life feels like it has only just begun.”

“And my life was completely dedicated to my work. I didn’t have relationships. I didn’t have a life. These past days with you have me rethinking everything about my priorities.”

“I would love to continue this discussion, because I know it would lead to me kissing you, but since our activation, I have had concerns.”

“What kind of concerns?”

“Fred cautioned us to use our enhancements sparingly and cautiously. I think that is a mistake. I think we should always have our strength, speed, and enhanced senses operating at full capacity.”

“How come, Nova?”

“A dog has incredible hearing and yet they can’t turn off that hearing. They don’t like loud noises, but they do learn to adapt to their hearing, and it increases their awareness. If we suddenly needed our enhanced senses, we could be overwhelmed by the sensations. I think we need to adapt to them, so we are always aware and ready.”

“You’re right, Nova. That makes sense. I was thinking about Toby’s comments about them pushing new code into us. I don’t like that one bit, especially with control code floating around out there.”

I smiled. “You wouldn’t want me to have that code so you could control me? I could do anything you ever asked of me.”

“Mmmmm. I might have to if you spurn my advances. Not sure I could handle being rejected by the love of my life.”

I sat up quickly and stared into her eyes. “What did you just say?”

Adaline looked away and bit her lip. “I don’t think I said anything.”

“I have very good hearing, Adaline.” I tenderly pulled her chin, so her eyes met mine. “I’ve been afraid to say it out loud, or even in my own head because it feels rushed, like there is no way I could possibly feel for you what I know I am feeling. Megan would also tell me to stop pseudo projecting. That I worry what others might think of me because I can tell you now that I am helplessly in love with you.”

Adaline’s eyes sparkled and pulled me into a series of delicious kisses.

“Pseudo projection.” She whispered. “I like that phrase and I don’t care one iota about what anyone but you thinks about us. I have loved you from the moment I first saw you. When I heard you went to the club and knew that Victor Whalen was in the area, I was frantic and wanted to make sure you were safe. When I saw you dancing next to that guy and those girls, I was so jealous. I was angry and pulled you away, but then I could not keep my hands to myself. I remembered what I came there for and realized my folly and sent you home to keep you safe.

“The next day when you saved our lives with the explosion, I could only think about how devastated I would be if you were hurt. I was incensed that Toby and Craig were delinquent in their duties and that they were camming your butt. That cute and sexy butt I wanted to belong to me.

“Director Owens pulled me aside that evening and wanted to know what was going on. He thought I was overly harsh with them. He was right. I was. When we had the next mission, I was determined to keep my distance from you. I thought there was no way you could love me, and I must have been delusional. My work was suffering. When I had you alone in the hotel room and saw how you looked at me, I melted. I had to get out of the room as otherwise I would have taken advantage of that bed.

“Later, when I saw you coming down the stairs of the ballroom, I lost all reason. When I told you I had never seen anything so beautiful, I meant it from the bottom of my heart. When you tripped at my feet, I fought every desire to pull you straight into my arms. When we danced… It was magical. And our kiss… I almost abandoned the mission, but we were so close to retrieving what we needed and setting back the very people that tried to kill you, I knew we had to keep the mission going.

“I saw the hurt and anger in your eyes, and it broke me. I wanted to run away and cry. None of those things were lies. Not telling you about the mission was the greatest failure and heartbreak I have ever suffered. Even in your anger, you came to my side. You cradled my head and were so concerned for me. You stayed by my side during the mod installation. You demanded to stay with me during the activation. No one has ever made me feel so special before.

“To hear you tell me you love me is the greatest gift anyone has ever given me. It brings me so much joy that I want to scream my undying love for you from the rooftop to tell everyone. I am so proud to know you are mine and it pleases me to let others know it.”

I was crying. It all made sense now. I stood and pulled her to her feet. “Teach me to dance. I want to do this every day with you for the rest of my life.”

Adaline wiped my tears. “I have a theory. Skills are mapped from the brains of people that already have the skills. I have been trained in dance for many years. Before the GSA, I wanted to become a dancer. After I went to work for the GSA, they trained me more in dancing because it helped my balance, and you never know when it might be necessary for a mission. We are connected. How hard would it be for you to pull my dance skills from my brain?”

“You think that will work?”

Adaline laughed. “If not, then I will suffer more bruised toes until you learn it the old-fashioned way.”

“What do you mean, more bruised toes? I never stepped on your toes the other night.”

“I was limping the rest of the night.”

“You were not!”

“It was horrible.”

“You lying…”

Adaline giggled and I tackled her back onto the couch, tickling her like crazy. She squealed and tickled me back. It was total mayhem until she cupped my face and kissed me so passionately that I almost passed out.

“You make me so happy, Nova. Try it. Spare my toes.” She grinned. “I’ll push images of my dance training to you, and you seek out that dance training and try to pull it from me.”

“Okay.”

I closed my eyes and focused my thoughts. Our channel to each other was always open. I thought about dancing skills and could feel her pushing it as well. I pulled it towards me, and it felt like any other skill that was now in my head.

I opened my eyes and grinned. “I think I got it.”

“Show me.” Adaline turned on some romantic music and waited for me in the open space of the living area.

I took her hand in mine and she slipped her other one onto my hip. She began the steps for a waltz. How I knew that it was a waltz, I had no idea, but I stepped effortlessly in time with her.

“Oh my! It worked!”

Adaline’s smile kept getting larger as she switched music and dances. “You’re amazing, Nova.”

“You taught me. Can you teach me more things?”

“Like what?”

“How to walk in high-heeled shoes? How to do my hair and makeup?”

“Hmmm. Doesn’t seem right to give you a free pass on wearing high heels. Women suffer for years learning to live with them, but it would be useful for you on missions, so all right. Same with makeup. But not your hair.”

“Why not hair?” I pouted.

“Some things are worth learning on your own. Besides, I like the idea of running my fingers through your incredible hair. I want to teach you that the old-fashioned way.”

“There are other things I want to learn the old-fashioned way as well.”

“Oh? Do tell, Nova.”

I blushed furiously. 

***

The next day we entered GSA headquarters arm-in-arm. In the heat of things, we had enough wits about us to cool things down a little. It was very difficult to stop, but we both felt it was for the best. Before we came to work, Adaline transferred her walking in high-heels and makeup technique skills to me. We tested them before we came. I even pushed my cooking skills, as limited as they were to her. I considered asking her for all things related to being a woman skill but was too embarrassed.

The director met us and took us to the mission operations room. The first item on the agenda was to discuss identities.

“During activation, Fred and I noticed that your wings were different colors. Go ahead and open your wings.”

We both did and Adaline reached out to stroke my feathers.

“That is very sexy, Nova.”

The director smirked. “Change your hair and eyes. Fred has a theory that your hair and wing color are linked.”

It took me a moment to think about how to change my eye and hair color, but I got it. I altered my hair to black and my wings also turned black. When I shifted to red hair, they turned red and brown for brunette. Adaline’s wings did the same. When she became blonde, her wings turned white.

Director Owens nodded. “Excellent. If you need your wings at night, you can have your hair and wings black to be stealthier. Your base iris was the only one programmed into the mods so that the mod could be tracked in the event it was stolen. That’s how we found Nova. What we need to do is establish your registrations. For now, we will register only one alternate for missions and leave the other two blank. I will leave that decision up to you both which alias you want to register.”

Adaline plopped herself down in front of me. “Let me see your red, black, and brunette changes again.”

I cycled through them slowly.

“Black hair. I love the gray eyes you have with it. It makes you look like a Russian model. I think I should register my blonde alias. What criminal could resist two sexy blondes? Also, if we need to pass for each other, having one set of aliases be the same hair color makes the most sense. Is that all right with you, Nova?”

“Makes sense. Do we have to pick new names?”

Toby flipped up his holographic display. “Here are some Slavic names I generated. Olga Morozov. Mila Petrov. Lena Andreev. Nikita Ivanov.”

“I liked two. Mila Petrov or Nikita Ivanov.”

Adaline stood and walked around me. “Switch to your black hair again, Nova.”

I did and Adaline ran her fingers through my hair. “Definitely Mila.”

I smiled. “Let’s swap the last name. Mila Ivanov has a nice ring to it. I assume I will receive a backstory for my alias?”

Director Owens nodded. “We should have that within the hour. We will provide the AI system with pertinent details and the system will build your profile while introducing historical records in the data streams around the world. Mila Ivanov will have a full background as does Nova Hart.”

“I should review them both. Your turn, Adaline. Go blonde for me. Toby, do you have name suggestions again?”

“She looks more European. Anna Fischer. Chloe Thomas. Cora Rossi.”

“How about Anna Ivanov?”

Adaline blinked and then smiled. “What are you suggesting, darling?”

Toby rolled his eyes. “Oh, please. It’s bad enough neither of you like men but flaunting your blossoming relationship is nauseating.”

“You’re no fun Toby.” I pouted. “And for the record, I’m not sure either of us said we weren’t interested in men, but look at her… Who could fall in love with a guy when she is around?”

Toby waved his hand. “Life is simply not fair.”

Adaline squeezed my hand. “Anna Ivanov it is. Tell the system we are a married couple. That could come in handy for missions and travel.”

Craig crossed his arms and leaned back. His eyes locked onto Director Owens. “This is ridiculous. I thought we ran a legitimate organization, not a school for teenage lesbians.”

Kyle laughed. “Jealous, Craig? Maybe you and Toby could be partners. You both seem to have good chemistry between you.”

Craig lunged but was no match for Kyle’s enhanced strength and speed. Kyle held Craig down easily.

“Enough!”

All eyes turned towards the director.

“If their relationship gets in the way of our work, then we will adjust. No one can deny the success of the last mission and that was because the two of them made their relationship look real. We can use this to our advantage and treating Mila and Anna as a married couple isn’t such a bad idea. What’s really got you fired up, Craig?”

Craig pointed at me. “I dislike that she got here by trying to buy an illegal mod. It’s like she cheated to find her place. I should have been the one to get the mod and moved into the agent role. The second mod was designed for me. I have years of experience in the agency that have just been wiped out by a sniveling upstart.”

I spoke to Adaline through our private connection. “So, there it is. The reason he has been so antagonistic towards me from the start. I can understand his situation. He isn’t enhanced and that has limited his career opportunities. How come he didn’t get the second mod?”

“I was always the first choice. I had been groomed into the agent role for many years and they refused to let me acquire any enhancements knowing this one was in the works for the past few years. When mine was stolen, it was a decision the director made to alter the remaining mod for a female and give it to me.”

“How long will it take to build a new one?”

“Years.”

Director Owens nodded. “I understand this decision has impacted what you have been working towards, Craig. If we start now, it will take three years to generate a new mod and we can’t do that without a year of evaluating the mods Nova and Adaline have. I will authorize strength, speed, and eyesight enhancements and have you promoted to agent status. If that is acceptable to you, then I would need you to spend as much time with Toby to get him capable of taking over your role in communications.”

“It’s not great, but it is better than nothing. I accept. Toby is sharp. He can take lead on the next mission, and I will back him up.”

“Good. We have a mission we will need Nova and Adaline for coming up very soon. We recovered some data from the memory chip. It held contact information for the control code creator. The man is a very wealthy playboy. He is extremely dangerous as he has enhanced himself beyond most people on the planet. We know for certain he has strength and speed enhancements, but beyond that our information is limited. He has a thing for pretty women, and this is where Nova and Adaline will come in. We need to get close to him so we can discover the location of his lab or the control code. I’ll give you all additional details soon. For now, we need to make sure Nova and Adaline are fully tested and prepared.”

I squeezed Adaline’s fingers. “What does ‘getting close’ mean?”

“If I am picking up what the director is implying, then he will want us to get the man alone so we can extract information from him. Getting him alone might require us to act like we are interested in him sexually.”

I shuddered.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I have no desire to see anyone touch you that way but me.”

“Next on the agenda is data access and skill enhancements. Nova and Adaline, please accompany me to the lab.”

We followed silently and I began scanning data on the skills and enhancement coding language. I downloaded everything and it gave me an instant knowledge set and a general understanding of how to decode and translate what is being sent or pulled. I relayed this to Adaline and received a nod from her.

“Don’t mention that we can give skills to each other, Nova.”

“I won’t.”

Fred was waiting for us in the lab, and we all sat down around a conference table. Fred began by outlining the process by which they could push skills and code and we could also pull code from a library.

Adaline tapped her fingers on the table before speaking. “Knowing that we had a theft of Nova’s mod, I think it would be prudent to not allow pushes of code to us. I recommend that any new skills or code changes be placed into the skill dataset library. This would give us a gate that only Nova and I could open. What would happen if we left code pushes open and our enemies used that to alter our code? It is a huge risk.”

Director Owens scratched his beard. “I agree this is a necessary safeguard. You both should be able to block inbound code and skills. We still need to verify your ability to learn a new skill.”

Mark Wagner entered carrying a rifle and a handgun. “You’re ready for me now?”

The director nodded.

Fred gave us additional information on the test. “You were both provided expert marksmanship skills as part of the mod. What you were not given is the ability to breakdown and reassemble weapons in the field. Adaline will have some experience, but we thought this would be a good test. We will measure your speed to disassemble and reassemble the weapons before and after the skill addition.”

I was useless as I knew nothing about weapons. Adaline was proficient and with her speed enhancement made short work of it. There were areas she still struggled knowing what went where on the rifle.

“Go ahead and pull the weapons maintenance skill.”

I found it in the library, reviewed the code carefully, then added it to my skills. During my next attempt at disassembling and reassembling the guns, my hands flew over the weapons, producing record times. My record lasted only until Adaline did hers.

Fred smiled. “That was definitive. We are not certain if you will have limits to skill retainment. We recommend you go slowly and test various skills to verify that nothing gets overwritten. Are there any skills you think would be beneficial to take right away, Adaline?”

“Not knowing what the next mission might include, I think a thorough understanding of known enhancements and how to counter their effectiveness, demolitions in the event we need to destroy something, and decryption methods in the event we run into any datasets that are locked. Anything to add, Nova?”

“Flight dynamics and since I have never driven before, maybe high-speed driving.”

The director looked pleased. “I suggest you divide and conquer. Both should get flight dynamics before we test your flight enhancements. Nova, you take driving and decryption. Adaline demolition and enhancement knowledge. Remember we are starting slow with adding skills until we know how you will react to them.”

As we wrapped up the meeting, I grabbed what I needed. It was disconcerting that I had spent so many years in school when I could have learned everything in seconds. I was surprised this wasn’t a mod that was freely given to everyone to help their basic education.

“We don’t want anyone outside of the GSA to witness your flight enhancements yet as this mod is highly proprietary. We modified an internal space between buildings. We have a large outdoor swimming pool, and we enclosed the space up to a height of eighty feet. Based upon your bone enhancements, a fall from that height into water should be fine.”

“That’s encouraging.”

“Fred has some new bulletproof outfits to wear that have seams along the back to allow for your wings to open and retract without tearing the material. They are in your lockers. Go and change, then meet us in the aviary.”

“The aviary?”

Director Owens chuckled. “We thought it appropriate.”

By the time the door closed in the locker room, Adaline had my back pressed against the wall and her lips were on mine.

“You have no idea how sexy you are and how difficult it is to not kiss you.”

“I have thought about taking you home and forgetting all about work.” I shifted my hair to black. “Just call me Mrs. Ivanov.”

That comment got me another round of kisses.

“Adaline, I am a married woman. What would my wife think about you kissing me?”

“Let’s ask her.” Adaline turned her hair blonde.

I smiled and kissed her. “Hello my beautiful wife.”

Things became very heated before Adaline pulled away and went back to her brunette hair. “Hearing you call me your wife sets my heart fluttering. We are not doing ourselves any good by making out in the locker room. We better get changed.”

***

Director Owens checked the clock as we entered the aviary. “What took so long?”

“We had to check the new clothing to make sure the wing openings were properly aligned.”

“Why is Nova flushed then?”

At that I blushed furiously and coughed. “So… What exactly will you have us do?”

Fred shook his head and pointed at the space over the pool. “At first, I want you both to fly in circles staying no more than ten feet above the water. We need to check your endurance.”

My wings opened and I tested them serval times by beating them against the air. Adaline waited until I was hovering over the water before she joined me.

While I had used my wings, I hadn’t really flown. This was a new experience, and it was everything and more than I could imagine.

“That’s it. Now start circling the pool.”

Cornering took some thought as to how to maneuver my weight and adjust my wings. After ten minutes, Fred had us fly figure eights. After another ten minutes, he checked on how tired we were before telling us to speed up.

It was an hour into our first flight that I started getting tired and Fred told us to stop.

I was giddy. “That was amazing! I’m going to feel a lot of muscles I never used before though.”

Fred checked the clock. “That was very good for a first flight. Beyond my expectations. Go get something to eat and be back in an hour. With your regeneration and some food, we should be able to get another hour of flight time in.”

Adaline seemed insatiable as while we ate lunch, she kept sliding her foot against my calf. I loved that she was so attentive and seemed to thrive on touch. After lunch we headed back to the aviary. Fred outlined a series of maneuvers to test us. This included flying high, dropping from various heights, and stopping our descents, linear speed, and high-speed turns.

I could not get enough of flying. I loved every second of it. It was with great joy that Fred gave us one last test. For fifteen minutes I would chase Adaline, then we would switch for another fifteen minutes. I smiled more and laughed more than I had in years. Flying felt like freedom.

***

The next morning, I slipped from bed and stood before the tall mirror in the bathroom. I glanced over my shoulder to see Adaline still sleeping peacefully before returning my gaze to my reflection. My posture was like any woman’s now. My bright, blue eyes sparkled with life. My eyes followed the gentle curves of my body. I was wearing a short nightgown that barely hid anything.

I pondered my incredible fortune. My mistake that caused me to lose my old life had given me one that far exceeded my expectations. Although I had never considered the possibility of being female, I felt incredible freedom and joy every time I looked upon myself. I no longer felt like Brandon. Nova had completely taken over. I was enjoying myself so much that I wondered why more men didn’t make the gender change.

The slightest shift of Adaline’s breathing brought me to her side. I laid down next to her and stroked her silky-smooth cheek. Just being near her caused my heart to swell.

Before her eyes opened, she inhaled softly and smiled. “You smell heavenly, Nova.”

I brushed my lips against hers. “How do you know I am Nova and not Mila?”

She smiled again as she kissed me. Her eyes were still closed. “Nova is my angel, all light and sweet. Mila would have me pinned underneath her by now.”

She reached for me and pulled me close. Her hair changed to blonde, so I changed mine to black and on a whim, rolled her onto her back as I straddled her. I kissed her more passionately.

“Mmmmm. Good morning my sexy wife.”

Her eyes opened and her hands roamed over my body. She pushed her hips up putting pressure between my legs. I moaned and rocked against her.

“I have such a strong desire to make love to you right now, Mila. I want our first time to be special.”

I sighed and groaned. “It’s special anytime I touch you, Mrs. Ivanov.”

“I want to treat you like a beautiful woman should be treated. Have a date with me tonight. Dinner, dancing, and then we will see what we are in the mood for after that.”

“I love that idea. Of course, we can skip all that and see what we are in the mood for now.”

“I don’t want to rush making love to you.”

I kissed her again and rolled off her. My hair changed back to my normal blonde.

“No… Let’s stay as Mila and Anna all day today. I want to see how long we can maintain our alter aliases. It doesn’t seem like it takes much energy, but it would be good to know if we are traveling or need to maintain it for a few days.”

My hair turned black again. “Anything for you, my sexy Anna. Care to join me in the shower?”

“You’re a temptress.”

“Just trying to get into character.”

“That’s actually a good idea. We should try to change our personalities a bit. Who do you think Anna is?”

“Super-hot and sexy, but with a slight edge to her. How about Mila?”

“With that dark hair and gray eyes… I could see you wearing dark, body-hugging leather. More possessive and aggressive. An air of dangerous intent.”

I laughed. “As if I could pull that off.”

“You can. As an agent, sometimes we must play a part or a role. It helps if you can dress the part and think about what would make you feel the way the character portrays herself.”

“I don’t like it if anyone touches you, especially if it is to hurt you or in a sexual way.”

“Now imagine that happening, Mila. How would you react? The trick is to not overindulge in possessiveness. We must assume we will be trying to get the attention of this man Director Owens spoke about. If he sees you only have interest in me, he won’t be interested in us as a couple.”

“Got it. But, for the record, I am only interested in you.”

After a few more kisses, I wandered into the bathroom to shower. When I came out, Adaline, as Anna, was dressed in a tight, short, burgundy dress. I bit my lip as she sauntered over, playfully nipped my ear, and whispered to me.

“I left you some clothes on the bed, Mrs. Ivanov.”

My hand moved to her butt and squeezed her to me. She purred in my ear, then spun away giggling.

“This is going to be a very long day.” I whispered to myself.

“I heard that!”

On the bed was the outfit she had picked out for me. I should have known.

***

The operations room went dead silent when we entered as Anna and Mila. I had my arm around Adaline’s waist keeping her close against me. The outfit Adaline chose for me was a black leather jumpsuit. It made me feel incredibly sexy and powerful. The front dipped dangerously, exposing ample cleavage. It was sleeveless, but my hands wore matching black fingerless gloves.

Toby choked on his drink. “There is no justice in the world.”

Kyle had a grin on his face and started to say something, but I interrupted him.

“Kyle, if you even hint of saying something about sex with either of us or both of us, I’ll not be as gentle as I was in our last training fight. Anna is mine and I don’t plan on sharing her.”

Kyle laughed. “What happened to our timid Nova?”

Adaline kissed my cheek. “My wife, Mila, and I are working on our alias identities. Doesn’t she look hot in her outfit? I could just eat her up.”

Toby put his head in his hands and mumbled over and over. “No justice… no justice.”

The director walked in and raised an eyebrow at the two of us before activating the media wall.

“We have a new mission. Data collected from the memory chip recovered at the Excelsior Hotel has given us some new leads.” A picture of a handsome man floated before us. “Meet Alexsi Chernovic. He owns ModGlobal Industries and numerous other companies around the world that research and develop new mods. It is estimated he controls twenty-five percent of the global mod market. These operations are a front for his unlicensed mod market.”

I leaned back against the wall, keeping my arm around Adaline’s waist. “He must be incredibly wealthy. Why sell on the unlicensed market?”

“Good question. For every hundred licensed mods he sells, he can earn the same profit from a single unlicensed mod.”

“I thought pretty much anything goes these days. What or who defines what can be licensed or not?”

“The global government dictate licensing, but they defer to the dictates of the World Mod Forum. The WMF defines what mods benefit humanity and what mods detract from humanity. It is important to note that our human bodies establish the limits of most modifications. For example, our eyes limit our ability to see some wavelengths. Mods can push our eyesight only so far. The WMF reviews each mod to make sure humanity does not lose itself. They want to make sure we don’t alter ourselves too far or combine the human body with cybernetics to the point where we become more machine or animal than human.

“People will pay handsomely to achieve modifications that can help them steal, kill, or gain power. The two of you both have mods considered illegal, but because they are used by the government in protection of the WMF guidelines, they are allowed. Your nails and connectedness to our data systems are considered a violation. Even your ability to change your identity is outlawed. In the hands of criminals, you can imagine what they might do with them.

“Back to Alexsi Chernikov, he is trying to sell the control code to the highest bidder. We need to gain access to that code to first prevent the sale, but we also need to be prepared if we are already too late. We could engineer code to block control.

“In four days, Alexsi will be holding a lavish party at his estate near Palma, Spain.”

“Like the gala event at the hotel?”

“No Nova, I mean Mila. Alexsi’s parties might be closer to historical Roman emperor events.”

He paused as I perused online databases. I felt my eyes widen.

“You’re kidding me.”

“Not in the least, Mila. Every form of debauchery known to mankind will be going on there. In the days leading up to the party, we want to strategically place the two of you in Alexsi’s path. Our goal is to have him take notice of you so that you can be invited to his party. Once at the party, we want you both to get him alone to extract the location of the control code.”

Adaline slipped her hand into mine. “How do you expect us to get his attention?”

“You will lure him with your wings. Real working wings are incredibly rare and none of the current mods even come close to the sophistication of yours. We know that in two days he will be at one of his nightclubs in Paris. You will both be there.”

I kept imagining all kinds of things, none of them good. “What does extraction involve?”

“Whatever it takes. We will provide you with drugs, but if those fail to work, you will need to be ready to improvise. The team will leave tomorrow for Barcelona. We will use your Anna and Mila aliases as a married couple. You will travel as you are straight to Paris. Fred has a modified facial recognition skill he wants you both to add. It will allow you to receive instant information on anyone you see. It is in the staging data library waiting for you both to access it.”

Adaline displayed a map of the island of Mallorca where the city of Palma was. “Where is Alexsi’s estate?”

The director manipulated the three-dimensional map and zoomed in on a massive home southwest of the city of Palma. “Assuming you have the code or the location of the code, your exit strategy is to fly southwest over the ocean until you reach Ibiza. Fred estimates that would take you two hours to fly there so it would be best to quickly build your stamina. If you only get a location for the code, then Kyle and Craig will head to wherever it is located.”

The meeting continued another two hours before we were all sent to prepare. Adaline and I went to the Aviary to see if we could fly nonstop for two hours. We learned ninety minutes was the longest we could fly. We spoke to Fred, and he suggested we could take concentrated energy bars to give us the added calories to make it further and each day we were to fly to increase our stamina. We were both worried about the wind and flying in the wrong direction. If we were off course, even by a degree, we would be over the open ocean when we exhausted ourselves.

We spoke to the director and revised the plan to fly to the opposite side of Mallorca to get out of harm’s way.

***

Later that night, Adeline and I went to dinner as Anna and Mila. I wore the same sexy dress I had the first night I went to the club with Toby. Adaline was wearing an even sexier outfit that barely covered her butt. We sat across from each other in a romantic dining location. Adaline slid her leg along mine under the table.

“I want you to know, Mila, that I find myself further drawn to you. These days have been the happiest of my life and I can think of no one else I would rather be with.”

“It’s a good thing we are married, Mrs. Ivanov, as otherwise if you kept speaking such romantic things to me, I might be forced into marrying you for real.”

“You hardly know me.”

“I know no one else on this planet sets my heart on fire like you do. I know you are caring and kind. Incredibly smart. It might be impulsive on my part, but I can safely say that I have fallen in love with you and can’t imagine my life without you.”

“I’m sorry, and this may hurt you, but I’m in love with Nova Hart.”

“You’re going to throw this all away? Our marriage? Our life together? For some pretty blonde?”

Adaline shrugged. “The heart wants what it wants. I intend to marry her.”

My mouth hung open. My voice turned to a mere whisper. “You do?”

“Without any question or hesitation.”

Adaline reached across the table and wiped a tear that had fallen down my cheek.

I grabbed her hand and kissed it.

“Let’s go home, Mila.”

As soon as we were in the door to our apartment, we dropped our aliases. Adaline became the aggressor and began kissing me. Her hands moved over my body until one found my breast. I moaned loudly at the incredible sensation. Neither of us could be satiated and before we realized, we were both nearly undressed. Adaline kissed me passionately until the back of my legs hit the bed. I fell backwards and she collapsed on top of me.

She pushed me back until I was fully on the bed, then straddled me.

“I want you, Nova. I want to make love to you, but I don’t want to rush you. We can stop now if you want.”

“I don’t want to stop.”

“I’m not sure I could.”

With that, she reached back and unhooked her bra.

***

Between being up late into the early hours of the morning and going to the aviary to continue to strengthen our flying muscles, we were exhausted and slept on the plane to Paris. Having never flown in an airplane before, I was amazed at the luxury, but Adaline informed me that our seats were far better than the ones further back in the plane.

Our aliases of Anna and Mila were supposed to have real chemistry between them and after the previous night of love making, we might have needed to reduce it some. For the entire day, except for flying training and airplane bathrooms, there wasn’t a moment that we were not touching each other.

Having slept on the plane, we were quite refreshed when we got to the hotel and tested out the bed thoroughly before Adaline took me out shopping, and then for a late dinner.

The next morning, we were directed by the team to be at various locations throughout the day. Their goal was to place us in the line of sight of Alexsi. Anna and I used the opportunity to sightsee.

When evening came and it was time for us to go to the nightclub, I grew nervous. This was partly due to the tiny scrap of material someone had the audacity to call a dress, and not wanting to let anyone down in drawing the attention of a known philanderer. 

“Relax, love.”

“Do I look all right?”

“Sweetheart, you could wake a mummy. Just keep your attention on me.”

“That I can do.”

Our transport dropped us off at the club and there was a long line of people waiting to enter. We stopped near the door and Adaline complained we got there too late. I cupped her face and kissed her right in front of the guards.

One of the guards near us looked up into a camera and nodded. “You two want in?”

I nodded. “I told my Anna that I would take her someplace special for a date. Guess we will have to come back another day.”

“It’s your lucky day. In you go.”

The waiting crowd shouted angrily, but we ignored them and squeezed our way through the crowd. The music was so loud, I was forced to drop my hearing to below normal. By the time we got near the dance floor, I was already in shock. The club was filled with beautiful people, most of them had less clothing on than me. People rocked back and forth against each other. It was closer to an orgy than dancing. Anna clung to me, keeping up with the impression of our aliases, but I knew I was hanging onto her for dear life.

“We got this, love. Bring up your virtual overlay.”

I did and the room became even more confusing. Faces that came into view appeared normal, or with a green highlight around them. Names and information were relayed into my head.

“I have it on. The green indicates someone from Alexsi’s organization. There are a lot of them.”

“Look up towards the balcony. Use your enhanced eyesight. Alexsi is there.”

“Found him.”

“Remember our roles. You’re the one taking the lead.”

I nodded and kissed her. “Let’s dance!”

I dragged Adaline behind me until we were closer to the center of the dance floor. I tried to tune out our mission and focus on her. As she bumped and brushed up against me, dancing very seductively, I reciprocated with more passion than I expected under the circumstances.

Periodically, I would glance up and spot Alexsi looking at us, but he would turn around as someone else got his attention. After a half hour of dancing and fighting off people that wanted to dance with us, Adaline wanted us to take our dancing to the next level.

“Ready, sweetheart?”

“Just like we practiced?”

“Yes.”

I thrust out my black wings at the same time Adaline pushed her white wings out. Some of those close to us got knocked aside, but the crowd went wild and gave us room. I reached for Adaline and pulled her tightly against me. Her thighs parted to let my leg in between. While holding her, we beat our wings and rose a few feet off the dance floor. We spun slowly as we kissed. The crowd became completely silent then cheered.

We lowered ourselves back to the floor and retracted our wings.

“Let’s get something to drink!” I shouted.

Adaline nodded. As we turned, several employees intercepted us.

“The owner would like to invite you to his table.”

“Who is the owner?”

The employee cast his gaze up towards the balcony. I followed his gaze and could see Alexsi staring at us.

“Would you like that, Anna?”

“Oh yes. He’s very handsome.”

“Come with us.”

We circled the crowd and went up a flight of stairs. At the top of the landing, guards stopped us and directed us to an iris scanner.

“Is this necessary?”

“No one gets past here without one, doll.”

I looked into the scanner and a holographic image of me came up with my details.

The guard dropped his hand to Adaline’s butt to push her towards the scanner. I grabbed his wrist and twisted, pushing him up against the wall.

“Touch her like that again, and you’ll lose your hand.”

The action didn’t go unnoticed by Alexsi. He smirked but did nothing.

“It’s all right, Mila.” Adaline scanned her iris and the guard growled at me when I let him go.

“Sisters?”

“Married.”

“You take extras to your bedroom?”

“We do… just not you.”

The other guard directed us to Alexsi’s table. “This one…” He pointed to me. “… is strength enhanced.”

Alexsi’s voice was smooth and commanding. “They’re fine. Thank you for joining me, ladies. Before you sit, perhaps you would indulge me and show me your wings.”

Adeline and I opened our wings and stretched them out.

“May I touch them?”

I nodded and Alexsi stroked my feathers.

“They work? You can fly with them?”

“Yes.”

“Brilliant work. Some of the best I have ever seen for any mod. Thank you. Please, sit. Would you like something to drink?”

We nodded and with a motion of his hand a waitress appeared with some glasses of blue liquid.

“What is this?”

Adaline picked up the glass and took a long sip. “It’s a modified wine. Very expensive. I’ve only heard about it, never tried it.”

I put the glass to my lips and sipped. The blue liquid warmed my insides and gave me a burst of energy.

“It’s wonderful.”

Alexsi stared at us as he lounged back in his seat. “My name is Alexsi Chernovic. Who might you be?”

“I’m Mila and this is my wife, Anna Ivanov.”

“Very pleased to meet you both.”

I tried to keep the conversation going. “This is your nightclub?”

“I own a few.”

“There are so many beautiful people here.”

“It is what makes it popular and without a doubt as to why you both were let in before the waiting line. You outshine everyone tonight and with your glorious wings… I might just say you may be the most beautiful women I have ever seen.”

Adaline smiled and leaned forward, sliding her hand along my bare thigh. “My gorgeous wife brought me here as a special treat tonight. The night just keeps getting better and better.”

I leaned over to her and kissed her neck. “Just wait until tonight.”

Every touch and caress we made to each other did not go unnoticed by Alexsi.

“Do you live in Paris, or just passing through.”

“We are traveling and tomorrow we head to Barcelona.”

Alexsi sat up a little and patted the seats next to him. “Sit with me. Please.”

Adaline smiled seductively. “I’m game.”

We moved to sit on both sides of him and I cringed when he wrapped his arms around us both pulling us closer.

“Careful, Nova. We’re here to get him interested in us. We need to get him alone.”

Alexsi rubbed the small of our backs as he chatted. Inside I was seething.

Adaline leaned across Alexsi’s lap and started kissing me. Her hand even moved to my breast. I moaned, ignoring the world around us, and leaned into her. As I leaned, I lost balance and placed my hand down into Alexsi’s lap to keep from falling over. It landed right onto his growing desire. I was flustered and very grateful to Adaline for saving me.

Adaline stood and pulled me up against her. “It has been a pleasure, Alexsi. We have an early flight and I want to take advantage of my lovely wife. If I may be so bold, would you care to join us?”

Alexsi stood and kissed Adaline, then me on the cheeks. “It has been a pleasure, and what person could possibly turn down such an offer, except the one that must leave for business within the hour.”

Adaline tugged my arm. “It was nice meeting you.”

We were almost to the top landing when Alexsi appeared next to us again.

“If you are in Barcelona tomorrow, might I invite you both to my home near Palma. It is a short ferry ride from Barcelona. I am having a party the day after next and would love it if you could both make it.”

Adaline looked at me. “I want to go, love.”

“Anything for you.”

“Wonderful. Take the afternoon ferry from Barcelona and I will have my staff pick you up.”

“We will be there.”

I didn’t say another word until we were well away from the nightclub.

“I want to kill him!” I seethed.

“You’ll have to get in line. I wanted to pull off his fingernails one at a time before gouging out his eyes. I have never felt so much jealousy as when he touched you. I hate this!”

“I thought you might chastise me for not playing my part well.”

“You were wonderful, and the slip of your hand probably sealed the deal for us. I could never chastise you especially when I was so revolted by his touch as well. I want to take you back to the hotel, have a shower with you to carefully wash off his touch, then make love to you all night.”

“I love you so much, Anna. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

***

The next day we traveled to Barcelona, met up with the team, and debriefed our encounter with Alexsi. We spent hours reviewing building layout plans of Alexsi’s estate and maps of Mallorca. Adaline took me shopping for more scandalous outfits for us both. It was difficult finding clothing that would work with our wings, but with the right modifications, we were ready.

We ordered our late dinner to be delivered to our room and we sat out on the balcony overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Soft music drifted from our room as we chatted about anything but the next night.

“Mila… Nova… Nothing has thrilled me more than to act like a married couple. I wake up in the middle of the night frantic that you might not be there next to me, that I merely dreamed of your existence. In weeks, I have gone from being completely independent to knowing that my life is meaningless without you. It seems rushed and I understand if you want to wait…”

“Yes!”

Adaline’s eyes went wide. “Are you certain you know what I was going to ask?”

“I was going to wait until we got back from this mission, but I was going to ask you to marry me.”

Adaline smiled. “I wasn’t going to ask that. I was going to ask Mila to move in with me.”

For a moment I thought she was telling the truth before she jumped up and wrapped her arms around me. “I couldn’t resist. I do want to marry you!”

“You make me the happiest person alive.”

“When we get back, I want to get married the old fashion way. I want to have someone officiate the wedding. I want to see you wearing a white dress and walking up and aisle towards me.”

I was bubbling with excitement and kissed her over and over.

***

In the morning, we met with the team again. Director Owens handed us both rings. I stared down at mine and wondered if he had heard our conversation from the night before.

“They are injection rings, Mila. Press the ring next to a neck artery and it will inject a solution to temporarily make someone very compliant.

Adaline got down on her knee and took my hand in hers. “Will you marry me, Mila?”

“But we are already married.”

Adaline’s hair changed to brunette, and I made mine blonde.

“Will you marry me, Nova?”

“Absolutely. Can we give Toby a gender change mod so he can be my maid of honor?”

Toby shook his head. “You two are too much.”

Adaline and I kissed then altered our hair and eyes back to our aliases.

“Keep your communications channel open tonight.”

“We will.”

For the rest of the day, we walked and saw the sights of Barcelona, ate snacks in quaint little shops, and dipped our toes into the Mediterranean. We stopped back at our hotel to change clothes, then made our way to the ferry. It felt like every eye was upon us.

My outfit consisted of a tight black bodice that was more like a sports bra and tight black miniskirt. Silver chains and accessories added to the stylish look. Combined with over the knee black leather boots I thought I looked extremely sexy and dangerous.

Adaline was dressed in a matching outfit, but hers was pink. I tried hard not to run my hands over her body but failed.

Upon arriving at the port on Mallorca, we were greeted by Alexsi’s staff and a black SUV. Dusk became night as we drove the distance from the port to Alexsi’s estate. By the time we passed through the heavily guarded gates, the party was in full swing.

Our doors were opened for us, and staff told us to freely indulge in whatever our heart’s desired. That phrase had a new meaning once we stepped inside the palatial home. The home, nearly ten thousand square feet of Spanish style with high-tech touches, had been transformed into a hedonistic gateway to hell. Colored lights spun and music thumped heavily. People were nude or barely covered, having sex everywhere.

We walked slowly into the estate. The sharp crack of whips could be heard above the music and screams of pain and pleasure abounded. People writhed next to each other and upon seeing us, tried to pull us apart or to have us join their mini orgies. We would have none of it.

“I thought we would stand out wearing these outfits, but clearly, I was mistaken, Nova.”

“What will we do?”

“Let’s move to a more open location. It would make sense that we should try to blend in more. You could make mad passionate love to me on the couch over there.”

“My senses are being assaulted. Perhaps a touch of wine would help, Adaline.”

“Lead the way, Mrs. Ivanov.”

Food, drink, and illegal drugs were everywhere. We sampled more of the blue wine before finding a location near the swimming pool to sit down. The slight buzz from the wine and sex going on all around us was enough to lure us into each other’s arms.

Adaline sat back in a chair, and I straddled her. My black wings unfurled and flapped slowly as I kissed her neck and collar bone. We were doing a good job of ignoring everyone else, when a hand ran across the back of my thigh.

Without thinking, I grabbed the hand thrust hard with my wings, and spun, tossing the man into the pool with relative ease. Guards were immediately there to help the man and surrounded Adaline and me.

“It’s all right. Stand down.” Alexsi pulled himself out of the pool. “I should have remembered to be more cautious.” He looked down at his dripping clothes. “Does your offer still stand, Anna? The one where I could join you both?”

Adaline nodded.

“Then come with me to my bedroom. I would not want others to interrupt us, and I am feeling rather guarded over anyone else getting close to either of you.”

Alexsi led us through the house and passed people completely naked having sex all around us. Adaline kept her hand in mine. When the bedroom door was closed, Alexsi pulled off his dripping shirt.

“Come, ladies. Indulge me. Let me watch you both before I join you.”

Adaline began kissing me and I kissed her back. We opened our wings as we kissed.

“We do this for a little while, then we get close to Alexsi, Nova.”

My hand reached for her breast as hers found my butt and pulled me against her. I slid my thigh between her legs, and she moaned, all the while kissing me nonstop. It would have been easy to forget Alexsi was in the room, but I could see him stripping out of his clothes while watching us. He was handsome and well endowed, causing me to shudder slightly.

Thankfully, he slipped on a robe and leaned back against the headboard of his bed.

“That’s our cue, Nova. Let’s head over to him. We need to press one of our rings against his neck.”

“Okay.”

“Leave your wings out.” Alexsi’s voice was dripping with lust.

I cupped Adaline’s face and French kissed her before leading her to the bed. We both crawled on our hands and knees up the bed towards Alexsi

“When we get the injection into him, we must hold him down until he succumbs to it.”

Slowly, painfully, we made our way up either side of Alexsi. Adaline kissed me, then moved close to kiss Alexsi.

“Now!”

We both used our speed to press our rings against Alexsi’s neck. Alexsi cursed and struggled, but with both of us using our strength to hold him down, he couldn’t get away. My hand covered his mouth until he slowly became less tense.

“Mmmmm. You ladies are so beautifullll.”

He tried to grab Adaline and I slapped his hand away.

“Where is the control code?”

“Ohhh! Yessss.” His voice was slurred. “Gooood iddeeeaa. Give the cooode to Annnnna first.”

“Where is the code?”

“Sssaafe. Be be behind dresser.”

“What is the combination?”

“Thiiirrty-sixxxx, tweeenty-twooo, thirty-sixxx.”

“I’ve got it, Nova. Hold him tight.”

Adaline moved the dresser and found the safe. It only took her a moment to open it and pull out a memory chip.

“We have the control code, Toby. Alert the team for getting us the hell out of here.”

“Let’s go, Mila.”

We left Alexsi in his stupor on the bed and rushed to his balcony. We stepped outside into the fresh night air and opened our wings. We flew into the night when a shot rang out. Searing pain ripped through my side.

“Nova!”

I floundered in my flight. My body was using too much energy to heal me, and I could barely stay hovering. Guards poured out onto the balcony and began shooting nets at us.

“I… can’t make it, Adaline. Go! Get out of here!”

“No!”

“Go! There are too many of them. Save yourself. Please.”

Darkness crept into my sight just as a net wrapped itself around me. I tried to rip through with my nails, but I fell heavily to the ground.

“Nova!!!”

***

When I came to, I was very hungry, and I was bound with chains to a bed.

“Your regeneration is impressive, even if it is a weakness, Nova.”

I shook my head and saw that my hair was still black.

“My name is Mila.”

“Did you seriously think I didn’t know who you are? You and Adaline?”

“It was all a trap. A ruse.” I spat angrily.

“I have been one step ahead of you the whole time.”

“The control code?”

“Was fake. What I let Adaline take was a virus. Hopefully by now, it will have infected the entire GSA. You should be thanking me.”

“For what?”

“I freed you from the very organization that would have controlled you. Your girlfriend left you. She is all part of the GSA plan.”

“Adaline!”

“I don’t believe you. What proof do you have that the GSA wanted to use the control code on me?”

“You would just be a start. They want to give it to everyone.”

“That’s your plot. You were developing it to control enhanced soldiers to take over the government.”

“You are well deceived, Nova. The GSA developed the code. It was my plant in the GSA that stole it and the mod. It was unfortunate that some of my employees got greedy and stole the mod from my man at the GSA. They traded it back and forth several times before you lucked out and received it. In case you are wondering, I have all communications from the estate blocked, but I will open a channel for you to access the code. You can review it yourself before deciding.”

I found the data and quickly scanned it. If it was real, then it was damning of the GSA.

“This could be faked.”

“Trace it. I know you can do that. Look at the digital tracks. Use your decryption skill to trace the lineage.”

I frowned.

“Yes. You see, I never created the code. They were going to use it on you.”

“I would have never installed it.”

The door opened and Fred walked in. I pulled against the chains. They groaned ominously but held firm.

I glared at Fred. “You were the mole.”

“Hello, Nova. Good to see you again.”

“Where is Adaline?”

“She escaped and went back to the GSA.”

“She wouldn’t leave me behind.”

“I’m sure we will see. If she doesn’t return, then you know she was using you. If she does, then maybe there is something to her relationship with you after all.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“To save the world from tyranny. The GSA is in league with the WMF and the leaders of the global government. Together they developed the control mod. They were planning on testing it on you first as you were deemed expendable. However, if it worked, then they would have a super-agent fully under their ability to use exactly how they liked.”

“Work for me, Nova.”

I shifted my eyes from Fred to Alexsi.

“You elicit so much trust with me being chained to wall.”

“You and Adaline are marvels of science. You represent the cutting edge of enhancements. I can give you so much more. I can protect you. I can pay you what you are worth and give you freedoms you never would have. You would live in luxury.”

I gazed at Fred. “Things just aren’t adding up. You wanted Adaline and me to limit our skills. You wanted us to leave ourselves open to code pushes. It was the director that allowed us to block incoming code.”

“I had to walk a fine line, Nova. I wanted you to limit your skills because I had no way of knowing which of them might include the control code. The director knows that your ability to block our pushes can be bypassed by a simple injection.”

“I don’t believe this. What evidence do you have that they want to control people? How would they even do that?”

“They would use a time-delayed free mod that contained the control code.”

I shook my head. “It’s implausible. What is the motivation?”

“What is the normal motivation for anything? Power and money. But let me show you. I gave you access to everything I have collected from WMF and GSA communications.”

I scanned the volumes of data. The rate that I could absorb information was astounding. The data was enough to lock the leaders of the WMF, the global government, and the GSA away forever. It implicated people at the highest levels of the global government.

Alexsi walked forward and stroked my cheek. It wasn’t sexual or predatory. It felt almost brotherly. “To show you I am being honest with you and that I bear no malice towards you, I am opening my skill library to you. Look at it. Check the code first. Download all you want. Only three people in the world can absorb these skills.”

“What about limitations?”

Fred shrugged. “Theoretically, there are no limits. Alexsi has them all.”

There were hundreds of skill enhancements. My own self-preservation might depend on what I had access to. I scanned them looking for control code or anomalies. There was nothing. I pulled them all. Languages, business acumen, computer skills, lock picking, more fighting and weapons skills, code creation skills, many so-called illegal skills, and so much more.

I slumped. “I’m so tired of being a pawn. Ever since I got this mod, I have had no ability to direct my own life. I have been shot at…” I looked down at my side, which was completely healed, “…shot, blown up, and now chained.”

“The world is a dangerous place, Nova. In a way, you feel what it is like to have your choices taken from you. Imagine what it would be like if you could not control your own body? You would be a prisoner in your own mind. The people in charge would own you.”

“I can’t believe they would turn the world into slaves.”

“The elites of the world would own everything. You saw the evidence. They are justifying this under the guise of reducing crime.”

“Why don’t you just go to the media?”

“Because the elites own the media outlets.”

I was grasping at straws. “Fred, tell me this is not true.”

“I have worked for Alexsi for five years, Nova. He is telling the truth. We are the last bastion of hope for humankind and freedom.”

“This doesn’t make sense. None of it. Why did you not try to capture Adaline as well? Why did we even have the mission to steal code from Alexsi?”

Alexsi paced with his hands behind his back. “You were the best target, Nova. Adaline has been with the GSA for many years. I thought if I could reach you, we might be able to reach Adaline. With your mods, I also did not think we could handle you both at the same time.”

Fred nodded. “The mission was never to get the code, Nova. The mission was to assassinate Alexsi. What you were not told was that I was ordered to put a lethal drug into the rings. Director Owens wanted Alexsi out of the picture. His plan was to take over Alexsi’s organization once he was eliminated and use the distribution network of Alexsi’s corporation to begin shipping mods with the control code. I replaced the ring drug with something that would have no effect on Alexsi.”

Alexsi leaned down and unlocked my chains. I stood warily, looking for exits. 

“You’re letting me go?”

“Yes. Although I prefer you to stay to keep me warm at night and save the world. I’m just jesting. Sort of. You need to come to me willingly.”

A planter exploded on the balcony followed by bullets flying everywhere. All hell was breaking lose outside.

“I suspect that will be Adaline. Go to her, Nova. I want to keep my place intact. I’m dropping the frequency blocks.”

“Nova!”

“Adaline! I’m coming out!”

I looked at Alexsi and flew up and away from him and Fred. I spotted Nova and flew straight for her. She was armed to the teeth, firing at anything that moved.

“Nova! Are you all right?”

“I’ve recovered. We need to get out of here.”

I grabbed her hand and tugged.

Adaline hissed as she randomly fired a few more rounds into Alexsi’s estate. I tugged again.

“Please, Adaline. We have much to discuss.”

She growled but relented. We flew to a secluded beach. As soon as our feet touched the sand, she pulled me into her arms and kissed me all over. She carefully checked my wound area.

“I thought I lost you! I thought I lost you forever!”

“I’m here, sweetheart. I’m all right.”

She pulled me down next to her and smothered me in kisses. “I was so worried I lost you. I couldn’t even think straight.”

“I’m fine. Confused, but fine.”

“What happened?”

“After I was shot, my body went into regeneration mode, and I was losing consciousness. I was out by the time I hit the patio. I woke up chained to a bed.”

“Did… Did he…?” Adaline gripped the rifle harder. The metal groaned.

“No. He wanted to separate us. He didn’t think he could handle both of us at the same time. Alexsi wants us to join him.”

“Join him? He shot you!”

“I’ve seen the code, Adaline. He gave me access to evidence damning the GSA and the WMF. I don’t know what to think anymore. Fred…”

“Fred went missing, Nova.”

“He is working for Alexsi. He was the GSA mole. He is here in Mallorca.”

“What?”

“He was there when I woke up. Between Alexsi and Fred, they shared the most damaging data about the GSA. I’m struggling to comprehend it all. What if the GSA is compromised? What if they are the ones wanting to use the control code on people?”

“No, Nova. That can’t be.”

“Let me show you what they shared with me.”

“It’s too risky, Nova. I feel you truly believe what was shared with you, but how do I know the data is not corrupted? How do I know they did not drug or brainwash you?”

“Adaline… If you think I might be compromised, what will the GSA do to me? Fred said Director Owens was preparing to use the control code on us, starting with me. He said this mission was not to get the code, but to assassinate Alexsi, the one person that knew what was really going on.”

“If Director Owens is compromised then why would he allow us to block upgrades, Nova?”

“Fred told me the director knows our ability to block code can be bypassed through an injection.”

Adaline put her head in her hands. “I can’t focus on these things… Nova, we need to get you out of here. I need to get you home.”

“Home?”

“Yes, my angel. Home. It’s too dangerous here with Alexsi’s people everywhere.”

“I don’t know what to believe, Adaline. I just don’t think it is safe for either of us to go back to the GSA yet. Let’s figure this out together. Please don’t hand me to over to the GSA who will put the control code in me.”

“Nova. I love you. I need to make sure you are safe and protected.” Adaline pulled me to my feet and wrapped her arms around me. “An airlift will arrive any minute.”

“Adaline… no. Please… Why am I not hearing the team communications?”

“It’s protocol. They cut you off in case you were compromised.”

I felt betrayed and was unsure of Adaline’s allegiance. She never told me she believed me. I stepped back from her and held out my wrists. I was still too weak after healing to get away on my own. I couldn’t stop the tears from falling. I was broken.

“Do what you need to do, Adaline. Cuff me if you must.” I could hear the airlift getting closer.

Fear and pain flickered across her eyes. “Nova?”

The airlift arrived and Craig jumped out, grabbed me by my shoulders, and hauled into the craft. I could tell his strength mods had been installed, but I never fought him. Craig grabbed some cuffs and slapped them on my wrists.

“It’s just protocol, Nova.” Toby shouted above the engine noise.

Adaline jumped in. “Stop blocking my private channel with Nova!”

Toby shook his head. “We allowed it for you to contact and find Nova. I can’t turn it back on without the director’s approval.”

“Then get him on the line!”

Adaline grabbed my hands. “Nova. Talk to me.”

I shook my head, and the tears just came faster.

***

It took an entire day to travel back to GSA headquarters. Instead of taking me home to our apartment, I was brought to an isolation chamber and chained like an animal with metal impervious to my claws. For the next day I was poked and prodded. I was analyzed for drugs. Adaline stayed close, but I was completely lost. She said she loved me and wanted to protect me, but she handed me over to the GSA. She could be part of the plot. How would I know?

Finally, they consented to letting me go home with Adaline. We were escorted to our apartment and locked inside. I was numb and walked straight to the couch, sat down, pulled my legs to my chest, and started to cry all over again.

“Nova. We’re home. Please talk to me.”

“This is not home, Adaline. Not with being locked in and guards outside the door.”

“Forget about them. Forget about the GSA. Why have you shut me out? I love you, Nova.”

I looked up into Adaline’s beautiful face. “We could have run away. We could have figured this out together. You don’t trust me. Did you even love me?”

“Gods, Nova. I love you with every fiber in my being. My first and only thoughts are for your safety.”

“You gave me up to the GSA who are treating me like some treasonous prisoner. What if what Fred and Alexsi told me is true?”

Adaline sat on the couch and reached for me, but I shrunk back.

Adaline sobbed. “Please, Nova. You’re breaking my heart. Just let me touch you.”

I couldn’t bear to see her in pain. My mind fought my heart and my heart won out. I reached for her and pulled her to me. We held each other and cried until we fell asleep in each other’s arms.

We woke several hours later. It was dark, but not very late. We sat up and Adaline pulled some hair from my face.

“We need to talk about all of this, Nova. Don’t shut me out. Please listen to what I have to say.”

I nodded.

“Please believe me that the decisions I made were to protect you. When you were shot, I could barely function because I was so crazed with fear and anger. I’m a highly experienced GSA agent, trained to withstand almost any situation. I was taught to think clearly no matter what was happening. All that training and experience vanished the moment you were shot. Protocols demanded I leave you behind and complete the mission. I started flying to the rendezvous point but turned back a dozen times.

“Director Owens talked to me and reminded me that the most important thing was for me to return to base with the code. We could not risk the code being released into the world. No single person was more important. As soon as I met the team, I grabbed the rifle and flew back to find you. I was so relieved you were all right.

“What you shared with me went against everything I know. I have worked with the director and the team for years. I trust them. In all my missions, I have seen agents get captured. I witnessed their confusion after being recovered. Our protocols have stood the test of time and our enemies are adept at manipulation and turning even the sharpest of minds.

“I never doubted what you saw and heard is what you believe. If I were them, wanting to turn an agent to their side, I could think of no better story. It’s just so unfathomable. If what you said is true, then I have been working for the enemy. The GSA is nefarious, and Director Owens is complicit. I… Maybe we should have run away.”

“Adaline… I saw the code. I saw the encrypted signatures and the history of ownership. I saw the communications between the GSA and WMF leadership. Volumes of communications. They were not forgeries. The WMF is working with the GSA and global government leaders to deploy the control code to the masses. In their minds, they want to control the world, take over the wealth, and create a utopia where crime no longer exists, and people are merely drones doing the bidding of their masters.

“My world, from the moment I kissed you, has been you, Adaline. When you handed me over to the GSA, I broke inside. Director Owens is going to inject me. He will come up with some reason to insert the control code into me. Run away with me, Adaline. Let’s leave the GSA. We will leave the world to whatever sinister organizations, plots and counter plots exist and live our lives in our own little utopia.”

“I’m so sorry this has hurt you, that I hurt you. I won’t let anyone harm you, Nova. If the GSA were to try to install the control code into you, I would fight them. No one harms my angel. No one. There must be more to this. More we don’t understand. We can’t just run away with guards and protocols. The GSA doesn’t simply let people go. They really mean that a job with them is a lifelong commitment. If we left and it was not mutually agreeable, we would become global criminals. Bounties would be placed on our heads. Like it or not, we are in a precarious predicament, and we need to keep our wits about us.”

Adaline pulled me into her arms and kissed me. “Let’s go to bed, sweetheart.”

***

I woke up just as the sun was rising. Adaline was not in bed, and I found her sitting in front of her GSA monitor. She looked tired. Things were still strained between us. We cuddled some before falling asleep, but that was it. Both of us had much on our minds.

“Good morning, angel.”

“Did you sleep at all, Adaline?”

“No. How could I sleep when I knew I hurt you? I miss your lips on mine. Please forgive me.”

I bent down, cupped her face, and kissed her. I slipped my hand into hers and tugged her towards the shower.

Our love making in the shower was feverish and helped return us to something closer to what we had. Closer but not all the way. I loved Adaline, but a part of my heart was still wounded and knowing I had to face the GSA and whatever else they threw at me today, lingered in the back of my mind. I was being brought back into the lion’s den.

We ate and were escorted back to GSA headquarters. It all felt a little surreal. Director Owens met us, and I was once again locked with heavy chains in an isolated chamber.

“Is this necessary, Director?” Adaline’s voice was clipped. “Why are we not allowing Nova to debrief with the team?”

“I am not yet convinced Nova has not been negatively influenced by Alexsi. Clearly, she is demonstrating a lack of trust since her captivity and as such we need to take every precaution.”

“You have her in chains! You handcuffed her! You have yet to listen to anything she has to say! No wonder you sense distrust coming from her because you are treating her like a criminal.”

“Do I need to remove you, Adaline? This is GSA protocol. There is no telling what Alexsi did to her.”

“Then how will you get to the truth? You can’t keep Nova locked up.”

“We will inject nanobots into Nova. They move to places in her brain to extract her memories, transmitting them to a device that will allow us to see and hear everything Nova experienced.”

“Adaline…” I barely whispered to her and shook my head slowly.

A scientist wheeled a cart with a display system on it. He opened a case and pulled out a large syringe. The scientist looked back at Director Owens who nodded. I looked back and forth between Adaline and the man with the syringe as he approached.

“Stop.”

Director Owens turned to Adaline. “This is the only way we can be certain Nova has not been compromised.”

“I want to see it done on someone else first.”

“That’s ridiculous, Adaline. This is expensive technology, and the longer we wait to extract the memories, the harder it will be to retrieve them. You want Nova to be released then this is the only way.” The director nodded to the scientist.

It was horrible watching the syringe get closer and closer to my arm.

“Please. Don’t do this.”

The scientist looked back one last time as he pressed the tip of the syringe against my skin.

“Do it.” Director Owens commanded.

In a flash, Adaline crossed the room and ripped the syringe from the scientist’s hand. “Back off!”

Director Owens pointed at me. “She could easily be a Trojan horse. We must know for sure.”

Adaline ignored the frightened scientist and stalked over to the director. “If this is safe and effective, then you will be happy to demonstrate it for us.” With blinding speed, Adaline moved to stab the director with the syringe.

I was astonished to see the director snatch her wrist and hold it firmly stopping it from embedding into his chest.

“I knew it was a mistake keeping you two together.” He hissed. He was clearly speed and strength enhanced.

“Nova was right, wasn’t she?” Adaline strained to keep the syringe from being turned back on her. “This isn’t a memory review protocol, it’s the control code.”

I struggled against my chains, but they were designed to keep someone like me bound tightly.

“You are both the perfect guardians for our leaders. You will be even more perfect when you stop thinking on your own.” The director growled and pushed Adaline a step back.

Adaline’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, hell no.” She switched tactics and pulled her arm back towards her while releasing her wings and thrust herself backwards. The combined effort caused the director to fall quickly towards her. She spun, let go of the syringe, twisted her hand around the director’s wrist, and used his own momentum to fling him into the wall.

She didn’t stop with that and smashed his face hard against the cement. “No one touches my angel!”

Director Owens pushed his bleeding face away from the wall using incredible strength. “You’re not stronger than me, Adaline. I made sure of that. It will bring me great pleasure to turn you both into my devoted slaves. I will trap your minds and you will watch helplessly, unable to control your body as I command Nova to have sex with me in front of you.”

“You’re sick!”

I was frantic as I watched them struggle. The scientist began shifting and then suddenly lunged for the syringe.

“Adaline, behind you!”

Director Owens used the momentary loss of concentration on Adaline’s part to take advantage. With a roar, what I first thought were wings erupting from his back, turned into something else entirely. Sharp, black spines lined his back and arms, piercing Adaline’s arm as she was holding him.

Adaline cursed, then thrust back while spinning. Director Owens came away from the wall and crashed headlong into the scientist. His spines skewered the man like a shishkabob. Director Owens laughed and pulled the scientist off him and tossed the already dead man aside.

Adaline was holding onto her bleeding arm as the director began stalking towards her. Adaline backed away but I noticed Director Owen’s steps getting slower. Finally, he stopped, looked down at his chest to find the syringe. He began to convulse. His spines retracted and he stood passively like a mindless robot. That could have been me.

Adaline kept an eye on him, and she ran to my side and started releasing my chains. “I’m so sorry, Nova. You were right.”

As soon as the chains were off me, I threw my arms around her. “You saved me, my love.”

I checked Adaline’s arm, but it was already healing.

“We need to get out of here, Nova, but we need to take advantage of the situation. The lab is nearby. Let’s get our suits and we are going to destroy their communication system to slow them down.”

She pulled me over to stand in front of the glassy-eyed director. She stared right at him, pulled me against her and kissed me. “I should kill you now, you ugly porcupine. We’re going to destroy you.”

Deep in his eyes, you could see the briefest of recognition. Not a finger moved. He might as well have been a statue.

Adaline and I slipped from the room and walked slowly towards the lab. Once inside, we changed into our protective outfits. I followed Adaline back into the lab, and watched as she grabbed explosives. She placed them on the primary computing systems and communication centers.

We stepped back into the hallway only to run into Kyle, Craig, and Toby.

“The director released you, Nova?” Toby’s ears twitched.

“He did.”

Kyle frowned. “He told us you were both compromised.”

Alarms sounded.

Adaline nodded to me. “Brace yourselves.”

My wings thrust out and I grabbed Adaline as she pressed the button. The doors behind us exploded outward. We were already flying down the hall but were thrown end over end by the blast. We scrambled to our feet, and I looked back. Toby, Craig, and Kyle were shaken but getting up.

Adaline pulled me around the corner and instead of heading for the exit, we entered the aviary. She pulled out her gun and fired at the glass ceiling. Large plates of glass shattered and fell to the pool below. We flew up and out, turned, and headed towards our apartment.

Adaline and I landed on the roof of the building.

“We don’t have long, Nova. I have a plan.” She pulled two bags from behind a vent and tossed me one. “We are going to fly south to a park, then we will go into the bathrooms there to change. Once there, we will change aliases. I’ll need you to wear one of the dresses I put in the bag, and you will become Anastasia Fleming with your brunette hair. I will be Caitlin Fleming with my red hair. We are a married couple. Last night, I activated our third set of aliases and transferred a large portion of my money into Caitlin’s account.”

“You planned our escape?”

“I couldn’t sleep last night and so I planned for every possible contingency. As of this morning, I still had hope that the GSA was on the right side. It wasn’t until Director Owens told me about the injection to unravel your memories. I have never seen that used or heard we had anything like that. You warned me that might happen. I expected we would go straight to debriefing, but he wanted you controlled. You were the test subject.”

“What now?”

Adaline dropped to her knees in front of me and held out a ring. “Will you, Nova Hart, make me the happiest woman on earth and marry me? I do not want to go through one minute more of my life without knowing we belong to each other forever.”

“Yes!”

Adaline slipped the ring on my finger. “This was my grandmother’s ring, when marriage still mattered to people.”

I kissed her passionately. “I love you. Forgive me for ever doubting you.”

“Of course, I forgive you. I am so sorry I hurt you. From here on out, we listen to each other and no matter where we find ourselves, the priority is always each other. I should have run away with you until we figured this all out. That’s what we are doing now.”

“Can you hear me?” I spoke through our private channel.

“Yes. We blew up their communications system. They will need to be near us to block our communications. Let’s go, Mrs. Wessex to be.”

“You sure you would not rather be Adaline Hart?”

“That does have a nice ring to it. We better get moving.”

***

Over the next few days, we used our Fleming aliases to traverse the country and then travelled to Italy. We kept our expenses to a minimum and did our best to stay away from surveillance systems. The GSA would eventually find us, but, for now, we had a small window of peace.

I smoothed out my white dress and looked up at the wisteria-laden archway at the top of a series of marble steps. Through the archway and between rows of flowers, waited Adaline. It had taken us a few days to find a venue, dresses, and then someone to officially but not officially wed us. Any changes to our primary aliases would set flags in the data system, including our current location. We decided we didn’t need the electronic document or official status, what we held in our hearts would be good enough.

We also knew we needed to keep moving, but we promised each other this was a priority, so we took the time to do it right.

A young girl handed me a small bouquet of pink roses and gave me a nod that it was time. I walked up the stairs filled with both excitement and nerves. Once I passed through the arch, I saw Adaline standing under a second arch. With my enhanced eyesight, I could see her eyes dilate and her chest hitch.

I walked slowly, torn between making the moment last and emblazoning it into my memory forever, and rushing to her side.

“I have never seen anything so beautiful, Nova.”

I unfurled my white wings and smiled.

“I stand corrected. Gods, you’re gorgeous, Nova.”

I retracted my wings and stepped up next to Adaline. I took her hand in mine. “You take my breath away, Adaline. I’m so grateful for my photographic memory. I will cherish this perfect moment for the rest of my life.”

We exchanged vows, kissed, then retreated to a vineyard cottage restaurant for dinner at sunset. We shared a wonderful dinner, fine wine, and danced under the stars to romantic music. We stayed for the night in a separate cabin on the property and made love several times before falling asleep in each other’s arms.

***

“I have a special treat for you, Nova.”

I looked down at my left hand and at the sparkle of light reflecting off my wedding ring from the mid-morning sun. My hand rested in Adaline’s.

“How could anything be more special than yesterday? It was perfect. Our wedding, the way you looked in your white dress, the setting, dinner, dancing, and making love through most of the night. I managed to forget about the world, GSA, and mind control code. I only wish my mod could turn back time so I could repeat yesterday over and over again.”

Adaline squeezed my hand. “Mmmm. I’ve been coming up with some plans, but we can discuss those tomorrow. Today, we are going to get on a train, travel down to Venice, and I have a mini honeymoon planned for us.”

“Venice… I have always wanted to go there, but we have limited money.”

“Sweetheart, please don’t worry about money. Let me treat you extra special for one more day. You can’t imagine how much joy it brings me to see the sparkle in your eyes and a smile on your lips.”

“It doesn’t matter if we live in a fallen down shack or have barely anything to eat. As long as I am with you, you will see that sparkle and smile. I do, however, love surprises. When do we leave for the train?”

“We should pack and head to the station right away.”

It took very little time to pull our things together and soon we were on the train heading towards Venice. The train ride was romantic as we snuggled close and watched the scenery speed by. The countryside of Italy still held a sense of old-world normalcy in a world turned upside down.

The high-speed train trip did not take long and within a few hours, we were waltzing arm in arm down the streets of Venice.

Adaline tugged my hand excitedly. “Come with me.”

She led me down to one of the many canals and pulled me into one of the hand-powered black and red gondolas. I had only ever seen these in movies.

“Baglioni Hotel Luna.” Adaline gave the man as our destination.

We snuggled in each other’s arms as we moved through the canals. There was so much to see. When we pulled up to the hotel, I simply stared at the façade in amazement. The place was stunning.

I leaned close to Adaline. “We can’t afford this.”

“Shhh. It’s my treat. Remember, we are on our honeymoon.”

We entered the spotless lobby and moved to the check-in counter. Adaline as Caitlin Fleming held her eyes up to the optical scanner. The man behind the counter frowned.

“I apologize, Mrs. Fleming. Your room was overbooked.”

“How can that be? Is there anything you can do?”

Another man came in from the back room and whispered something to the person helping us.

“I have just been told we have a room we can make available for you, but it will be several hours. This would be at no cost to you for the inconvenience.”

“We’ll take it.” I jumped in. “Are there any good places to eat nearby?”

The man cocked his head and smiled. “This is Venice, ma’am.” The answer was rather assumptive. In other words, of course there were good places to eat.

Adaline kissed my cheek. “I know the perfect place.”

We walked several blocks through expensive shopping areas until we arrived at Gio’s Restaurant and Terrace. We were given a table outside next to the water with unobstructed views of the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute.

We ordered our meals and held hands as we waited for our food and wine to arrive.

“All I can say is this is a surprise and experience beyond anything I could have ever imagined. It is so beautiful and romantic here. Thank you, Caitlin.”

“Anything for my beautiful bride. I hope our room will be nice, but you can’t be free.”

“Where do we go from here? With our skills, I’m sure we can find some kind of work.”

“I have some ideas, but for one more day, let’s pretend we have nothing to worry about.”

We ate a fabulous meal, then headed back to the hotel, stopping off at a street vendor for a gelato dessert. When we arrived at the hotel, the staff were extra attentive and led us to our room.

I paused when we stepped through the double doors of the massive suite that was likely reserved for dignitaries.

“This must be a mistake.”

“No, ma’am. The suite is yours.”

The hotel staff tipped their heads and slipped from the room leaving Adaline and I staring at each other in disbelief. The room was incredible with high frescoed ceilings, gold-painted trim, enormous flower bouquets, and stylish furniture.

We wandered through the living area and into the bedroom. On the large bed were two dresses that could have been designed for princesses.

“Did you have anything to do with this, Adaline?”

“No… There’s a note on the bed next to the dresses.”

I stepped over to the bed and picked up the note. “For your inconvenience. Please enjoy the suite and anything the hotel has to offer. There is a dance in the ballroom tonight, you are welcome to attend. If the dresses need adjusting, please call down to the front desk.”

“Seems a little over the top to me, Nova, but I was planning on taking you dancing tonight anyways.”

***

Adaline showered and changed first, then headed down to the ballroom. In her words, she wanted to recreate our first dance and wanted the joy of seeing me enter. No offense to the Excelsior Hotel, but there would be no comparison. That hotel, as magnificent as it was, just didn’t compare. The dress I slipped on was a Dior, and by the time I had completed making up my hair and putting on some jewelry, I almost didn’t recognize myself.

I stared in the mirror and gazed at my reflection. The dress was form-fitted to my curves. My hairstyle, which I got help from the virtual assistant, cascaded down my back and over one shoulder with gentle curves, made me look like a famous movie star. My brown eyes were stunning.

I ran my hands down the front of my dress and paused them to stare at my wedding ring. I was on the run from at least one global organization, had been transformed by a stolen mod, and married to the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I could not be happier.

I made my way down to the ballroom and stepped inside. My eyes found Adaline right away as she shooed one man after another away from her. Her eyes found mine and the tether she had on my heart tugged me forward.

My new skills allowed me to walk gracefully through the staring crowd. I looked up slightly into Adaline’s eyes and smiled.

“I heard my dance partner for the evening was waiting for me in the ballroom. I had no idea she would be so beautiful.”

Adaline leaned forward and kissed my neck beneath my ear. Her teeth brushed my earlobe as she whispered. “My heart all but stopped in my chest when I saw you arrive. You are breathtaking, my angel.”

She pulled back and slipped her hand into mine as we began dancing.

“No side mission tonight?”

She smiled. “I do have a mission tonight, but it will not involve breaking into offices or gunfights.”

“Is it secret?”

“It is, but I sense I can trust you, angel. I’m going to dance with you until we can no longer keep ourselves from removing our clothing, then I will take you to our room, slide you out of that exquisite dress you are wearing, and carefully examine every inch of your body for illegal substances.”

I pulled her close and whispered into her ear. “I’m not wearing any panties.”

“Ohhh. You naughty angel.”

***

The previous night had been so romantic and fun that I woke with a smile I might never lose. Adaline and I were dressed casually and taking advantage of the large balcony where we ate our breakfast. A knock sounded at our door.

“Is this when they come and tell us it was a huge mistake and give us a bill for a hundred thousand credits?”

“Don’t worry, Nova. We could always fly away.”

We both stood and Adaline moved to the side of the door as I opened it.

Alexsi walked into the room. “Hello, sexy ladies.”

Adaline glanced back into the hallway before closing the door. “What are you doing here? How did you find us?”

“I own the hotel. You seriously wonder how I found you? Two of the most beautiful women in the world walk into my hotel and you think I would not be notified? Your aliases are good, but you need to realize you are barely incognito. While most systems these days focus on eyes, I use a combination of retinal and facial recognition and your faces do not change, just your eyes and hair color. I hope you appreciate the upgrade to your room.”

I inched closer to Adaline. “That was you?”

“Of course. Think of it as a gift for taking care of Director Owens, although I understand the WMF and GSA leadership have new plans for him now that he has become their test subject.”

We followed Alexsi into the room as he sat in one of the couches.

Adaline moved closer to him and slapped him. “That’s for shooting Nova and far less than you deserve. Do you have snipers nearby to take us both out?”

“One day you might realize that my shooting Nova was what enabled me to get one of you the truth and ultimately what saved both your lives.”

“You had us alone! You could have talked to us. Shared everything.”

Alexsi rubbed his cheek. “Either one of you or both of you could have been compromised or already under control. It was a big enough risk just getting one of you alone. I assume you both realize the situation you are in?”

Adaline glared at him before sighing and pulling me down next to her on another couch.

I held her hand and leaned forward. “Of course, we do. The GSA and WMF are after us.”

“You don’t know half of it. Two of your aliases have been compromised and published worldwide. You are the world’s most wanted criminals right now. All agencies have killed on sight orders.”

Adaline shook her head. “Great. All that makes us unique will quickly expose our alternate aliases. We need to go into hiding in some isolated part of the world.”

I leaned into her. “I’m fine with that. If I have you, I’m good.”

Adaline stroked my hair. “It’s no way to live constantly looking over our shoulders.”

Alexsi smiled. “You don’t have to live like that. Join me. Together we will take them down, erase your aliases from their systems, and then you can live your life the way you want to.”

Adaline stood and paced. “For all the years I worked with the GSA, you were the epitome of everything I believed I was fighting against. I admit I do not trust the GSA and realize I have been duped, but how will we be certain you are not just as bad? Let’s assume the WMF and GSA are seeking ultimate control of the population. What’s your end game? Let’s say we take them down, who takes their place?”

Alexsi grinned and spread his arms out on the top of the couch. “I want to rule the world. King Alexsi has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? Isn’t that what all nefarious criminals seek?”

He intentionally paused to watch Adaline’s reaction before becoming serious. “Adaline and Nova, I will let you in on a secret. I have everything I need and more. I have no desire to rule the world, as quite frankly, it would be too much of a headache. The general population has become reliant upon a governing body to set the rules and provide structure for them to live within. The rest of us just want freedom to do what we want to do. If the GSA, global government, and WMF were eradicated, then the world would fall into complete chaos.

“Economies would crumble. Supply chains would stop. Like it or not, the current governmental agencies play a part in creating a sense of security. I’m a businessman. I like my lifestyle. I can’t maintain my lifestyle if the world is collapsing. Like you, I don’t want to be hunted for the rest of my days. My plan is to set the WMF and GSA back a few decades. I will systematically purge their data systems with a worm that will crawl through and delete all information regarding you both, myself, and my organization.

“Additionally, I will inject code that will destroy their ability to consistently track anyone, wipe out their control code, and siphon their funds to an offshore account making it more difficult to rebuild their infrastructure.”

“Sounds like you have it all worked out.” Adaline said sarcastically. “I’m all for not being hunted. I assume you are here because you need us.”

“There are only three people in the world that could pull something like this off and they are all in this room. Nova already has my entire library absorbed, including skillsets from the most brilliant technological minds in the world. You have the motivation to clear yourselves, the ability to help me do that, and you are exquisitely beautiful.”

I stood and walked towards the balcony. I inhaled deeply, smelling the aromas of Venice and the bakeries from the streets below. I turned back to them. “I think you are missing an opportunity and something that will set them even further behind.”

“What’s that, Nova?”

I smiled as Adaline came to my side.

“What’s your idea, angel?”

***

Several weeks later, I sat across the table from Toby. Adaline was across the street watching the front of the café and Alexsi was watching the rear. It had taken much effort to leave messages for Toby to meet me, but we needed an inside man.

“Thank you for agreeing to meet me, Toby. Were you followed?”

“I should haul your ass back to the GSA in cuffs for that stunt you played back at headquarters. You nearly killed us all.” He sighed. “No one from the GSA knows I’m here. I just don’t get it, Nova. Why did you do it? Why did you turn on us?”

“That’s a very complicated question to answer, but I want you to know I never turned on you or anyone else on the team except for Director Owens and the higher ups at the GSA and WMF. They are the ones that created the control code. The director was planning to inject me with that code.”

“We saw the footage. The director was debriefing you in the lounge and you launched yourself from the couch to attack him. You injected him with something. He only just came back last week.”

“I need you to be open minded, Toby. The video you saw was fake. I was a prisoner, chained and cuffed to a chair. The director came in and brought another man with him. He stated he wanted to review my memories and to do so he was planning on injecting me with nanobots to extract and project my what I had seen and heard. In truth, he was going to inject me with the control code.

“Adaline fought him to protect me. The director is heavily modded, with strength speed, and spikes. During the fight, the other man grabbed the syringe and was going to use it on Adaline. She spun away and pulled the director into the man. The director was accidentally injected with the control code.

“Listen, Toby. I don’t expect you to believe me. You’re smart. Look at the video they showed you. Look for telltale signs of it being a fake. Then look at these documents and communications.”

I handed him a data storage chip.

“You could be handing me a bunch of fake data.”

“Take your time with it. Examine the data carefully. Pull in Craig and Kyle to help you verify the authenticity of data if you trust them. Just avoid anyone else for now.”

“I’ve known you my entire life. I can’t wrap my head around what you did.”

“All I ask is that you trust your instincts.”

Toby’s gaze moved to my hand and the ring on my finger. “You’re married now? To Adaline?”

“As much as we can be with the world hunting us. Nothing can be official.”

“Why risk coming to me?”

“Because you deserve to know the truth.”

“I can’t promise the next time I see you that I won’t shoot you.”

“Let’s hope it won’t come to that. Be safe, Toby.”

***

Several weeks passed and I worried that Toby chose to ignore the data. What we were planning would be easier with his help, but we had alternate plans in case it didn’t.

Adaline wrapped her arms around me and kissed my neck. “How is the code coming, angel?”

“All done. I tested it on myself this morning.”

“We are going to change the world. This is going to work and when it does, we are going to have a real honeymoon. I wanted to let you know that Toby just reached out through our secure channels. He wants to meet.”

“What’s the venue?”

“He wants something very public. World Mod Expo in Tokyo.”

I smiled. “That’s perfect. We need to inform Alexsi.”

***

Adaline and I entered the World Mod Expo as Caitlin and Anastasia. There was still a significant threat to us traveling under any other aliases. We had several hours to kill before we met Toby and our plan was to scope out safe places to meet among the throngs of people and, according to Alexsi, make a stir to draw interest back to a conference presentation the three of us would give later in the evening. By us making ourselves known we hoped would draw the crowds.

The expo showcased every legal known mod and provided mod developers with opportunities to gain visibility to the WMF for approval. Thousands of people walked the aisles of the convention checking out developers and vendors. Almost everyone had their mods on display for all to see.

“Ladies!”

Adaline and I turned towards the man calling after us. We were wearing our GSA outfits that Alexsi had modified. Even though we were not displaying our wings, the body-hugging outfits and our beauty garnered much attention.

Adaline slipped her hand into mine. As the gathering crowd parted allowing us to see the man in his booth.

The heavily muscled man gave a bow to us and waved us forward. “My name is Jarod, and I must say, I have not seen anyone as beautiful as the two of you.”

Adaline smiled. “Thank you for such kind words, Jarod.”

“You both must be constantly bothered by people and afraid at times. My company has developed a new strength mod that outperforms most cybernetic enhancements. Having a gentleman around with such prowess, would be comforting for you, would it not?”

He seemed like a likeable fellow. The crowd was growing around us, and this was a good opportunity for us to show off a little.

I stepped forward pulling Adaline after me. “I have my beautiful wife to look after me, but you look very strong.”

He smiled as he flexed his massive biceps. “Let me show you, ladies.” He stepped over to a heavily burdened bench press. “Cybernetic mods can only increase strength so much. My mod enhances your DNA to improve muscle fiber strength.” He laid back and bench pressed nearly six-hundred pounds.

Adaline smiled large for the crowd. “I am impressed. That is an astonishing feat.”

“Would your wife feel more secure with someone enhanced like me around to protect her?”

Adaline turned back to me. The crowd was eating this up. “What do you think, darling?”

I shook my head. “Sadly, no.”

Jarod’s face faltered.

“It’s not that this isn’t amazing. You have created something quite remarkable, but my wife is very special. She has her own mods from ModGlobal Industries.”

Jarod stood a little taller. “Nothing they make is comparable.”

Adaline laid down on the bench press.

“Would you like a spot, love?”

“I’m fine, sweetheart.”

Adaline easily bench pressed the weight much to the astonishment of Jarod and the crowd who all cheered. She got up and faced the crowd. “My beautiful wife and I will be sharing a historical breakthrough at the conference tonight. It will change the world as we know it. We hope you can all make it. Just a hint, we will be giving away free mods.”

Adaline grabbed my arms and led me through the gaping crowd. Many tried to stop and ask us questions, but we merely said if they wanted to know more, they would need to attend the event.

We wandered the exhibit floor until we came to a large cage with a man and a woman egging on the crowd.

“Who will challenge us? You think you are tough? You think you have the right mods to take us on? We at Jujitsu Tech have the most advanced fighting mods available. Anyone that beats one of us, man or woman, will win one hundred thousand credits.”

Someone that was obviously a plant in the crowd shouted back. “I saw you fight earlier. No one could withstand either of you.”

Adaline leaned close to me and kissed my neck. “You’re up, angel.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me through the crowd. “My wife will challenge you!”

The man and woman pressed against the cage. The man chuckled. “She is far too pretty and small to challenge either of us.”

“Not either of you, both of you at the same time.”

The woman laughed. “You have training, darling?”

“Some.” I tapped on the cage. “I’ve never fought in a cage before.”

Adaline stepped up onto a small stage and shouted over the crowd. “What do you all think? Would you like to see my beautiful wife challenge them?”

Someone in the crowd shouted back. “I would like to see your beautiful wife do anything, but watch her in a cat fight? I’m in!”

I tried to look demure. “What are the rules?”

The woman shook her head. “I think you should reconsider, young lady.”

I looked into her eyes as I whispered to her. “My wife is proud of me. Win or lose, I still win in her eyes.”

She held up two targets. “We each wear two targets. A significant hit to the target will turn the target black. If both targets are black, then that person is out of the fight.”

I nodded as she opened the cage door and placed the two targets on me. One was on my chest, the other on my back. They each wore them in similar places.

“Are you ready, pretty girl?” The man shouted.

I held up my hand. “One second, please.” I stretched tall, then down, giving he crowd something to whistle at. “I’m ready.”

The man crossed his arms over his chest and stepped back letting the woman take the lead. I will give it to her that she was skilled and fast, but compared to all the training I had, my speed, strength, and enhancements, she was no match for me. Within seconds, she was on the floor of the cage with one of her targets black.

“Damn it!” She cursed as she rolled away. “Get in here!”

The man and the woman began circling me. He lunged while she tried to trip me up. The cage was tall, so I let my wings erupt from my back and I rose above them both much to the glee and cheers of the crowd. The two of them collided together as I lightly landed a short distance away.

The man growled. “What kind of mods do you have?”

“ModGlobal Industries mods.”

He frowned as my wings retracted and I dropped into a defensive stance. “Come on, big guy.”

He was clearly speed enhanced as he rushed me. I ducked low, smashed my open palm against his chest target and sent him back across the cage.

“You’re doing great, love!” Adaline shouted. “I’m getting hungry though. Can you speed it up a bit?”

“Anything for you, sweetheart.”

I moved to the offensive. I rushed them both, twisted, turned, ducked, and spun away from their attacks before taking out both their targets.

I moved towards the cage door when I heard the man rush me from behind. I snapped my leg back and up, stopping my foot mere inches from his nose as he skidded to a halt.

“Now, now. Play nice. I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

He growled but knew he was defeated. I handed them the targets they had placed on me. The woman handed me a credit chip, but I turned her down and stepped out of the cage. I silenced the crowd with a hand.

“I must say that their fighting mod is very impressive. Unfortunately for them, my mods are significantly more advanced and when combined with all the mods I have, they didn’t have a chance. Please don’t think less of their mod. My wife and I are presenting later tonight for ModGlobal Industries. We will be giving away free mods and introducing something new that will change the world as we know it. I would encourage you to be there.”

Adaline came up and kissed me in front of the crowd. “Well done, love.”

***

We gave several more demonstrations by the time we met Toby. As planned, we met by a specific vendor and moved to the food court. Adaline found an out of the way table that had fewer cameras pointing at it. We were not surprised when Kyle and Craig also sat down.

Craig frowned. “We chose to meet you today because this would be inconspicuous due to all the people and here you two go about making a huge commotion. Are you trying to get caught?”

Adaline smiled. “Nice to see you too, Craig. Let’s just say it was a necessary risk. We needed media attention on the event tonight.”

Toby leaned forward. “We reviewed all the documents, and you are both correct. Sadly, the three of us find ourselves at a crossroads. The very organization we work for has been lying to us.”

Kyle nodded. “We uncovered the real video of your fight with the director. We just don’t know what we can do.”

I looked from one to the other. “We have a plan, but need to know if you are with us. Are you compromised?”

Craig huffed. “We might be now. Every person here is snapping pictures of you both, along with us.”

Adaline looked up at a distant camera. “It’s really all part of the plan, Craig. Here’s what we need you to do.”

***

Adaline snuggled into my arms and kissed me. “I’m worried, angel.”

“Me too. If anyone had ever told me I would be a woman, married to the most beautiful woman in the world, trying to save the world several months ago, I would have laughed at them.”

“It’s almost over, but the most dangerous part is yet to come.”

“I know. I’m trying not to think about it.” I kissed Adaline passionately as Alexsi walked into the room.

“You two sure I can’t get in on that action? I seem to recall Anna inviting me once.”

“Who is Anna?” We giggled as we said it together.

Alexsi sighed. “Such is life. When will Caitlin and Anastasia be ready? We’re live in twenty minutes.”

My hair turned brunette and as Adaline became Caitlin with her red hair.

“We are ready now. We should go.”

I clung to Adaline and kissed her multiple times. I refused to let go of her as we made our way down to the largest conference hall in Tokyo. We were provided microphones as I peeked out to see the crowd. The place was packed.

A technician nodded to us. “You’re up.”

Adaline and I walked out onto the stage. People whistled and cheered.

“Good evening, ladies, and gentlemen of the world. We are thankful you can join us tonight.”

Adaline took over the next lines. “We are broadcasting live around the world tonight. Tonight, the world changes. We have the honor of introducing to you Alexsi Chernovik, CEO of ModGlobal Industries.”

Alexsi strode boldly out onto the stage and bowed to the crowd then waved a hand towards Adaline and me. “What do you think of my partners?”

The crowd erupted into cheers.

Alexsi put up his hand to silence the crowd. “We have limited time. Even as we speak to you, the World Mod Forum and the Global Security Agency are mobilizing forces against us. They deem us a threat.”

It was my turn, so I stepped forward. “Not long ago, I was a purebred. I had no mods, no altered DNA. I was an anomaly. What was frightening to me was that without mods and education, I could not compete with everyone else. The world has shifted, and the best jobs go to those that have the most expensive mods. How many of you can relate?”

The vast majority of the crowd shouted out.

Adaline paced back and forth. “For far too long, the global elites have controlled our lives. They took over our educational systems, designed our education, fed us revised versions of our history, and presented false narratives to us as facts.”

Alexsi waved to a large screen behind us. “Tonight, we take back our lives. ModGlobal Industries is making available to everyone a free mod. It’s a learning mod and comes with historical core education. By taking the mod, you will instantly be able to read, write, and speak fluent English, Mandarin, Hindi, French, Russian, Korean, Italian, German, Spanish, and Portuguese languages. In addition, the mod also contains complete competency in mathematics, history, geography, social studies, basic medical and first aid, and much more.”

“What’s in it for GlobalMod?” A man shouted out.

I walked to the front of the stage. “GlobalMod has a vast library of advanced skills we will sell for very modest prices. Before you ask your next question, let me answer it for you. We have provided the ability for anyone to expand the library. You can make your own skill mods and sell them through our platform.”

Adaline took my hand in hers. “This is what the WMF and GSA want to kill us for. They want to control what you learn and how you learn. They want to control the mod market.”

People’s communicators lit up across the room as Alexsi wrapped up our presentation. “That is the link to the mod core code. If you have any ModGlobal Industries mod already, you can simply install it from the link. If not, we are offering a free mod in any one of our outlets around the world.”

A woman shouted out. “I know math! I can speak Spanish!”

The crowd erupted with people accessing their new skills.

Suddenly the crowd went quiet as GSA agents rushed onto the stage from both sides. Alexsi, Adaline, and I were grabbed and cuffed.

Craig wrestled Alexsi’s microphone from him and spoke into the microphone. “This is the end of the presentation. The WMF and GSA warns against installing or downloading this mod.”

The crowd nearly became violent as they screamed vulgarities at Craig.

We were hauled off the stage to chants of “Down with the WMF! Down with the GSA!”

Craig grabbed Adaline. Kyle took Alexsi. Toby took me. They dragged us through the building to multiple transports.

“I love you, Nova!”

“I love you too. We will get out of this.”

As the transports pulled away from each other, each going in a different direction, our communications severed.

There were five agents in the transport with Toby sitting across from me.

Toby leaned forward. “We’re taking you home, traitor.”

“What about Adaline?”

“She is being sent to our Hong Kong headquarters. I hope you are proud of yourself.”

“What have I done wrong?”

“You conspired with the enemy to put control code in all the people of the world.”

“Really? I’m shocked you would think I would turn my back on the GSA and the WMF. I was undercover. I modified Alexi’s code to prevent such control from happening.”

Toby slapped me. “Enough! Do I need to tranquilize you?”

“And miss a ten-hour flight? Choices, choices.”

***

Toby woke me as we landed. I didn’t need the tranquilizer, but I managed to sleep anyways in the military cargo plane they used. I was dragged from the plane and to a waiting transport van. A media station was playing.

“Like wildfire. That’s how I would describe the spread and adoption of the ModGlobal Industries free mod release. At conservative estimates, over one billion people have installed the mods and it is not slowing down. The WMF and GSA have made public statements and have tried to block the transmission, but people were given the ability to transmit the mod from one to another without traversing the global network infrastructure.”

“Turn that off.” Toby shouted.

I smiled for the rest of the trip to headquarters. Once inside, a placid-faced Director Owens greeted us. Another man stood next to him and sent the other agents away.

“Toby. Your service is duly noted. The debrief is at 0800 hours tomorrow morning. Get some rest. Mr. Owens, escort our guest to the new lab.”

Director Owens grabbed my arm with a strong grip. I made note of my surroundings and saw that the old lab we had blown up was almost rebuilt. I was brought through a passageway into another building and a large conference room. Director Owens let go of me.

“Have a seat, Nova.”

I took a seat and used a claw to test the metal on the cuffs finding they had not used the proper metal to properly secure me. “Who might you be?”

“I am Grant Harrison. Administrator of the GSA. You have caused us many problems, Miss Hart.”

“Let’s see. I exposed Director Owens’ plot to control the masses and assisted in giving free education to the world. Why is that a problem for the GSA? Is that not my job? Was I not hired to protect the world?”

“Do not trivialize this. You have set us back, but you are a gnat.”

“When you say us, you are speaking about the leaders of the global government, the WMF, and the GSA?”

“You have seen the documents and communications. You know who we are and what we are about.”

“May I ask why you are doing this?”

A man entered the room with a large syringe.

“I think you know why, Miss Hart.”

“Enlighten me. Is it just for money?”

Grant stood. “You would not understand.”

“Try me.” I sliced through the metal cuffs with my claws, and they fell silently onto the seat behind me.

“The world is stagnating. We have technology, but no future. If we could control the people, we could drive them towards one goal. Look at Walter Owens. He is a slave to our control code. He will do anything I tell him without question. I could tell him to bake me a cake and he would. I could tell him to kill thousands of people and he would.

“The goal, Miss Hart, is to remake the world in our image. To design it the way we see fit. The useless people of the world will become slaves, as will you. However, I have special plans for you. I modified the control code to include modifications just for you. You will be fully aware, unlike Walter. You will be completely devoted to me. Ultimately submissive and skilled in every form of sexual pleasure.”

“You’re sick.”

I felt a sharp stab into my thigh, and I cursed. Grant smiled.

“You can leave us now.” He spoke to the man with the syringe.

I felt the nanobots coursing through my body, installing new skills and trying to embed themselves into my mind.

When the man had left, Grant moved closer to me.

“The process is a little slower than simple control code. The man with the syringe was a simple distraction. The real syringe was under your chair.”

I felt the burning of the nanobots as they fought me for control. I worked on my own code, adapting it as quickly as I could, but his code was not simple, and it was attacking me at multiple levels at the same time. I lashed out as a convulsion hit me and my claws fell short of his neck.

I fell to the floor shaking. Mentally, I threw everything I had at the code working its way through me. I gritted my teeth and screamed.

“Yes!” Grant chuckled.

The pain began to ebb. All my coding skills finally pushed back the nanobots, but not before some damage was done. They had touched the core of who I was, but I was still me. I softened my face and smiled as I looked into Grant’s eyes. I knew what his code wanted me to be and do.

I moved to my knees and looked up into his eyes. “Master.” I said with as much love as I could muster.

He grinned and looked over at Walter Owens. “I recall you telling me this was what you wanted to do with Nova. It was a great idea. Leave us.”

Walter silently left the room. When the door closed, he unbuckled his pants and dropped them to the floor.

“Please me, Nova.”

I smiled, leaned forward, and slashed his dangly bits off with my claws. I then stood and gripped him around his throat to stifle his screams.

“You pathetic piece of crap. You almost had me. I almost succumbed to your control code.”

“You will not get out of here alive.”

“Neither will you. But I do need one thing from you.”

I squeezed and extended my claws, slicing through the soft skin of his neck and bones easily. The moment of his death, the door exploded inward and Director Owens in full porcupine mode rushed towards me.

I thrust out my wings and flew backwards away from his attack placing me on the far side of the conference room table. With my wings retracted, I settled myself in for the fight of my life. Walter growled and began throwing chairs, Grant’s body, and parts of the table aside to get to me.

I placed my back to the wall and using both feet, pushed the conference table away from me with everything I had. The table crashed into Walter sending him flying towards the far wall. His spikes drove deep into the wall making him struggle to pull away.

Taking his battle to free himself from the wall as an advantage, I grabbed a chair and swung it against his head. I heard bones crack, but he was unfazed, and the force of the blow broke him free from the wall. Under the control code, Walter was more of a machine than a human.

He tore the chair from my hands and threw it aside before taking a swipe at me. I grabbed his wrist with both hands to stop his swing and the power of his hit nearly sent me flying. I extended my claws as he pulled his arm back through my claws for another swing causing his hand slice off and drop at my feet.

Even that did not seem to slow him down. If anything, he became even more enraged and feral. I dove across the remaining piece of the table to create some distance from him. I grabbed another chair to use as a shield, flipped it so the legs were pointing away from me, and extended my wings. I braced myself against the back wall, pushed with my legs as I thrust towards Walter. As I had hoped, the legs pierced Walter’s body and I continued to fly us towards the far wall. We crashed together, the legs of the chair plunging through him and deep into the wall behind. One of the legs had caught him in the neck and severed an artery. I stepped back expecting Walter to continue the fight, but he was dead.

I took in a deep, shaking breath and examined the room. It was covered in blood and gore. I looked down at myself to see that I was also coated in blood. I reached down, picked up Grant’s head, and knew I would have nightmares about this day for the rest of my life. I slipped into the hallway just as two guards turned the corner with their guns drawn. They didn’t hesitate and fired.

I felt the heavy impact against my chest. My ribs cracked and I was sent sprawling, but the suit stopped the bullets from penetrating. I rolled to my feet, threw Grant’s head at them, then rushed forward, being hit by one more bullet near my hip. My momentum kept me moving forward as I crashed into them. By the time I untangled myself from their bodies I saw they were both unconscious. I grabbed their guns and Grant’s head, and using some code I had written, redirected a portion of my healing energy so I would be able to function while I started to heal.

I was in a lot of pain by the time I got to the server room and held up Grant’s head to the eye scanner. The door unlatched and I pushed the door open and tossed Grant’s head to the side.

The server room was noisy, but I heard a slight shuffle of feet to my left. I turned and held my gun steady as Toby stepped from one of the server aisles. His gun was pointed at my head.

“I’m surprised you made it past the shot, Nova.”

Another shuffle sounded behind me and from my peripheral vision I caught a glimpse of Mark Wagner with his gun trained upon me. I put up my hands and slowly stepped back to get them both in front of me. Mark kicked at Grant’s head and grimaced.

“I thought we were on the same side, Toby. You saw what the control code did to the director. He was a slave. Is that what you want?”

Toby sneered. “That was the first prototype. They have since refined it. You were injected with the latest variant, and it would have allowed you to be much more human albeit a very compliant one.”

“We should shoot her now, Toby.”

Toby shook his head. “The guards are coming. We will just hold her here until they arrive.”

I glared at Toby. “Why, Toby? You’ve seen what the global government, the GSA, and WMF want to do. Why are you siding with them?”

“I’m not stupid, Nova. They have far more resources than Alexsi ever will. Your little stunt with giving away free mods won’t stop anything.”

“That’s where you are wrong, Toby. Those free mods contain control code blockers. Do the right thing, Toby.”

Toby tensed, turned, and shot Mark in the leg. Mark screamed and fell backwards clutching his leg. I ran over to him and slugged him knocking him out, then tore his shirt and wrapped it around his bullet wound.

Toby came up beside me. “I was aiming for his gun hand. He’s lucky I never killed him. He caught me coming into the server room and I had no choice but to play the part that I was ordered by Grant to secure the place. Mark was in on it from the beginning. He was the director’s silent right-hand man behind the scenes.”

“Do you still have the worm?”

Toby pulled out a memory chip. “Got it right here.”

“Let’s get it installed and get out of here.”

We moved over to the servers, and I quickly installed the worm. The code would crawl through the network and data system to eradicate any references to the control code, Alexsi, Toby, Craig, Kyle, and Adeline and me. It would periodically move and hide, only to resurface and cause havoc with the global identification system and purge any new data about us. New data would be inserted regarding our aliases, turning us into model citizens. If everything worked out perfectly and Adeline and Alexsi successfully infiltrated the data centers where they were held captive, then the worm would be installed at each major data center around the world, wiping out all backups and archives. The piece de resistance was that in the near future, the code would expose all the leaders in the GSA, the WMF, and the global government that had plotted the control of the world’s population.

“Let’s get out of here, Toby.”

“I should cuff you first in case we run into anyone.”

“Mmmm. I would love that. Oh my God! Where did that come from? Damn it! That bloody submissive code!”

“Kiss me, Nova.” Toby said gleefully.

The urge was there to obey him, but I fought it. “Not a chance, furball.”

***

I watched Toby hitting on a pretty girl with cat ears at Alexsi’s Palma estate. Kyle was drinking blue wine while lounging by the pool.

“Stop pacing, Nova.”

Alexsi and Kyle had arrived at the estate a day ahead of Toby and me.

“I can’t.”

“Adaline will be fine. We know the worm will take its time and we agreed to having no communications that might get intercepted. She will be here.”

“I can’t live without her.”

“That’s good sweetheart, because I can’t live without you.”

Adaline was limping and disheveled, but she never looked so good. I ran into her arms and kissed her over and over.

“I love you so much, Adaline. You’re hurt!”

“I’m fine, angel.”

Toby and Kyle came over to us.

“Where’s Craig?”

Adaline’s voice hitched. “He didn’t make it. I think by the time we got to the server room the GSA were onto us. There were nearly a dozen guards. Craig fought them while I installed the worm. They… they shot him in the head. I was very lucky to get away. The world will never know how much of a hero he was.”

I hugged Adaline tightly. “We can all share our stories and honor Craig later. Let me get you cleaned up.”

She nodded and I led her to our room. As soon as the door closed, she threw herself into my arms and began crying.

“It was horrible, Nova. So many people died, then Craig being killed. The worst part was not knowing what was happening to you. You went into the lion’s den. You were taken to headquarters.” She cupped my face with her hands to look me over carefully before kissing me. “Are you all right, angel?”

“Physically I have healed, but I’m not certain I will ever fully heal mentally.”

“Oh, darling.”

“Let’s get you cleaned up, love. Why are you limping?”

“The suit was taken from me before I arrived at the GSA facility in Hong Kong. During the fight, I was shot in the leg and using your coding suggestions blocked my healing so I could stay awake until I arrived here. Getting to you was more important than healing.”

“I adjusted my healing code. Let me give it to you so you can stay awake and heal while I tend to your needs. Can I get you anything, Miss?”

“Miss?”

I shook my head. “Sorry. Just a leftover from my visit to headquarters. Grant Harrison injected me with a new control variant.”

“He what?”

“He wanted to turn me into his sex slave. The code morphed as it tried to take me over. I managed to overcome it, but it left some lingering issues.”

“I’ll kill him! I will hunt him down and end his wretched life!”

“There is no need, sweetheart. I decapitated him, then used his head to gain access to the server room.”

“Oh God. That must have been horrible.”

“About as bad as when I killed Director Owens with a chair leg through his neck.”

I started unbuttoning Adaline’s top and she stopped my hand. She pulled me over to the bed and wrapped her arms around me. We shook in each other’s arms until we both fell asleep.

We woke up hours later, bathed, then slept again allowing Adaline to fully heal herself.

***

By the next day we were as back to normal as we could be. It was a beautiful sunny day as Adaline led me out to the open-air veranda. Toby, Kyle, and Alexsi were there as we took a seat.

“Glad you two could make it.”

Adaline nodded somberly. “That any of us are here at all is a miracle.”

“You are correct, Adaline. Tonight, we will be holding a celebration dinner for Craig at a nearby restaurant. I think everyone needs to know what has been happening and how we move forward from here. First, perhaps a little bit of news.” Alexsi turned and activated a media screen.

Images filled the screen with global government, GSA, and WMF leaders being taken away in handcuffs. Riots were taking place all around the world calling for the overthrow of the WMF and GSA. Government leaders were calling for peace and proclaiming that a splinter group within the government had tried to utilize mods to gain control. They were denying being complicit.

Alexsi turned off the media screen. “I have been using my organization to test how well our code has worked. You can see by the media that the communications and data leaks are having the impact we had hoped for. In addition, our identities are populated with upstanding records. Adaline and Nova, you are no longer wanted criminals in any systems we have been able to investigate.”

I smiled. “That is very good news.”

“Indeed. Before I share more, I want to offer you all positions. ModGlobal Industries is too large for me to run by myself. I have drafted up documents to make you all co-owners, each being responsible for a division. You can be as involved as much as you like, but it seemed the easiest way to bring you into the fold and compensate you for everything you have done for the world, and me.”

“It would be nice to have some income so I can take care of Adaline.”

Adaline giggled. “I will be taking care of you as soon as this meeting is over, angel.”

I ran my hand along her exposed thigh. “I did receive a little something extra from the injection. I have a full skillset on how to please someone. I have been looking forward to trying them all out on you.”

Adaline grinned. “Just how many skills did you learn?”

“Six thousand, seven hundred, and thirty-two.”

Adaline leaned over and kissed me. “Oh, angel. We are going to have so much fun.”

Toby tossed up his hands. “There is no justice!”

Alexsi got us back on track. “Are you all in to be a part of ModGlobal Industries?”

Everyone agreed before Alexsi continued. “Good, because what I am going to share with you should make you very happy. You are all extremely rich. As in buy your own island rich. Since our presentation at World Mod Expo, our free mod has been installed nearly two billion times. Our advanced skill libraries are selling so fast, we can barely keep up with the numbers.”

Troy whooped.

Adaline stood and kissed Alexsi on his cheek. “Are we done?”

“For now. We need to talk about your specific roles in ModGlobal Industries. Go make love to Nova and try not to make too much noise.”

Adaline grabbed my hand and pulled me to our bedroom.

***

Three months later, Adaline stepped up to the front counter of a gorgeous open-air hotel lobby in Fiji. The staff all snapped to attention.

“Mrs. Hart. We are honored to have you both stay with us. Your suite is ready, and everything is prepared for you. Is your stay business or pleasure?”

Adaline smiled wide. “How could anything with my beloved angel be nothing short of pleasurable? However, we will inspect the hotel and staff to make certain everything is as it should be, although we doubt we will find anything amiss. Thank you for your service.”

“The staff will show you to your room. If you need anything at all, please do not hesitate to contact me.”

I watched the interaction carefully even though I had stood back from the counter. Our security guards were discrete, so I had no fears. They were ever diligent in our protection and thankfully only had one incident to deal with a few months ago when the president of the global government sent assassins to kill us.

Adaline walked back to me and looped her arm in mine. “I do enjoy the perks of managing the hotel division.”

I leaned into her. “Someone’s got to do it. Travelling around the world. Seeing spectacular sights. Staying in the finest of accommodations. Finding new hotels to buy since we have more money than we could possibly spend in ten lifetimes. It’s rough.”

“Your room, ladies.”

The man opened the double doors then closed them behind us leaving us alone to stare breathlessly at the turquoise waters from the living room. The entire front of the suite was open to the fresh air of the ocean and private beach. Mahogany floors were polished to perfection. Elegant furniture was carefully placed to capture the breezes and views.

“We got the best division.”

Adaline kissed me and ran her hands along my side. “I am sure Toby would say he has the best division.”

“Toby was thrilled to oversee entertainment. ModGlobal Industries owns over five hundred clubs around the world. He always loves a good party whereas I love it when I have you all to myself.”

Adaline stepped over to the bedroom and dropped her dress to the floor. Her naked body called to me. “Shall we, Mrs. Hart? I think we are on number one hundred and three.”

“Anything for you, Miss.”

***

***

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I hope you enjoyed it. Please take a moment to leave a comment or a personal message. I love to hear from you and your comments give me energy and excitement to write more.

Blessings,

Avia