“There must be some other way to help you suppress your memories. But…I don’t want to stop touching you.” She reached up and cupped his cheek and K-lx felt like his heart might melt. “I don’t want to stop sleeping with you or being close to you.”
“I don’t want that either, baby,” he said gently. He frowned, as a sudden thought hit him. “I wonder if there’s anything in the old lab that could help with this? With my old memories, I mean.”
“The old lab?” Corinne furrowed her brow. “Actually, there was a mention of the lab in your manual. But wouldn’t it be gone by now? Bombed or looted or torn down?”
“I don’t think so.” He shook his head. “The main part of it was located underground—deep underground. And we Kindred are second to none at building protected structures with plenty of power backups. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s still intact.”
Corinne looked thoughtful.
“Maybe we could take a little trip to Old Earth. I’m sure Silas would be glad to get rid of us for a while.”
“You think he’d let you go?” K-lx raised his eyebrows skeptically.
“Probably.” She sighed. “If that little snake hadn’t stolen my job, I wouldn’t have to ask him for permission—I’d just go.”
K-lx frowned.
“Wait—he stole your job? What do you mean?”
“Oh…I used to be the Director of the Cybernetics Division here on the station,” she explained. “But then my protégé—a good friend I loved very much named Isla—was killed when her Cyborg went Rogue. Silas used her death as leverage and claimed I was incompetent or I never would have allowed her to be matched with C-17 as his Handler in the first place.” She shook her head. “I was so upset about her death, I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on. Before I knew it, Silas was the new Director and I was stuck in a Cleaning Detail. That’s one reason he was so mad when I Linked with you—it gave me Handler status and got me back into the lab when he wants to keep me out.”
“That fucker!” K-lx growled, feeling a surge of anger and fierce protectiveness. “Stabbing you in the back while you were grieving—that’s fucking low!”
“That’s Silas,” she said matter-of-factly. “He hates women and thinks we all belong ‘in the kitchen or in the bed.’ Not that he can find a woman who’s willing to sleep with him,” she added dryly. “He couldn’t stand that there was an ‘inferior female’ in a position of authority over him.”
K-lx shook his head.
“I’ve never understood the attitude that human men have towards human women. Always trying to put women down and make them feel weak and inferior. What the fuck is wrong with them? Males and females should be equals.”
She looked at him in surprise.
“Is that how the Kindred feel or is it just you?”
“That’s all of us, baby,” K-lx told her. “I might have forgotten a lot, but that I remember. We Kindred believe that every woman has a little piece of the Goddess inside her—a little spark of divinity. And every woman is worthy of love and respect and equal treatment.”
“I like that.” She sighed and snuggled against him. “I wish the Kindred hadn’t left the Earth, though I can’t say I blame them. We really fucked things up, I’m afraid.”
“We could still go find them,” K-lx remarked. “I bet if we found the old lab and got into their database we’d find some wormhole charts and star maps too. They might have even left some coordinates we could follow to get to them.”
He felt a surge of interest from her…followed by guilt again.
“I really can’t, K-lx! I’ve still got a year left on my contract. And if the Company caught us…”
“They wouldn’t catch us if we went through a wormhole,” he pointed out.
She shook her head, regretfully but firmly.
“No, we can’t. It just wouldn’t be right…and it wouldn’t be safe. Let’s just try to ride out the year and then maybe I can get us reassigned to a different post.”
K-lx wanted to get off the station and away from the shadow of the all-powerful Company that owned it. But he wasn’t going anywhere without his Mistress.
“Whatever makes you happy, baby,” he murmured and leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead. “Go or stay, I don’t care as long as we’re together.”
And he really meant it…but he had no idea what was about to happen.
25
CORINNE
