Free Bianca D'Arc by King of Clubs Page B

the whole back of the tiny closet compartment opened to
reveal a small passageway.
    “Well, I’ll be damned.”
    “Della has this compartment and the one next
door too. That’s the fortified one with the surveillance gear.
Among other things.”
    “Should you be showing this to me?”
    It was clear that Lila’s sister was in the
spy game up to her neck. On a station where the bar should have
been the main covert operations point, this set of quarters had
been built into the station’s structure totally independent of the
bar’s hidden pathways and private information loops. Chip sent a
silent query to his implant and found no trace of this secret,
armored compartment anywhere. Not on the private station schematics
and not on the secret ones either. Interesting. Maybe Della had
been set up to spy on the spies?
    “It’s my call. Della can get mad at me later.
Right now, we need to see what happened here last night and the
means are in here.” Lila led him to a small console that appeared
to house a closed system.
    She punched up the outside surveillance feeds
and then scrolled back to the night before. Sure enough, Beezus
could be seen loitering outside her hatch soon after a small pellet
whizzed by and struck the station’s camera, coating it in opaque
goo. Chip wasn’t surprised at all when the man started trying to
hack his way into Lila’s private quarters with little success.
    The anger on his face though, that gave him
pause. Not just anger. It was more like rage. A demented looking
rage that indicated bad things to Chip, who had made detailed a
study of human nature.
    “Oh, boy.” Lila took the seat in front of the
console and sort of deflated as she watched the rage being acted
out on the screen.
    “Yeah,” Chip agreed as they watched Beezus
make a few calls, kicking at her door every now and again. “Aren’t
you glad you stayed with me last night?” Chip put his hands on her
shoulders and rubbed gently. He hated the tension in her small
frame. He wanted to take all this turmoil away and take her
somewhere safe where Beezus or anyone like him could never find
her.
    One of Lila’s hands rose to cover his. “For
more than one reason.” She turned and smiled up at him. The
universe froze for a moment out of time as he caught his breath.
She squeezed his hand and everything started spinning again. Damn.
He had it bad.
    “I’m glad you think so.” He dragged a box
over and sat next to her before the console. “I can tell we’re
shielded here and I have a few things I’d like to say to you before
we go back to the bar.”
    “That sounds serious.” She turned to face
him. The box put him a little lower than her, but it would do. He
had made a decision when she’d shown him this room. “How do you
know we’re shielded?”
    “I’ve got…” He hesitated, never having told
anyone about his enhancements before. It was harder than he’d
thought. “I’ve got internal sensors.” That was putting it mildly,
but he’d see how she dealt with that idea before he told her the
full extent of his cybernetics.
    He’d thought long and hard about this moment
over the past hours. He didn’t want any secrets between them. Not
if they were going to take this to the next level. He knew he was
moving fast, but his heart wouldn’t be denied. He didn’t want her
getting closer unless he was sure she could accept him for all he
was.
    “Really?” She looked at him for a moment, her
gaze curious. That was a promising sign. “That must be so cool.
What kinds of things can you sense? Is it a direct brain interface
or something else? I thought that tech was still experimental.” Her
questions tumbled out one on top of the other. The questions were
eager and she had a smile on her face, which boded well. She didn’t
seem repulsed by the idea and that last question…
    “You know about brain interface tech?”
    That stilled her questions and she reached
for his hand. “I guess now is the time to tell you