"I'm not at my peak either. I had to use a fair amount to deal with Carl de Bellisle. But I don't intend to fight Nuru. I don't want her job!" she exclaimed.Sigrid snorted in amusement, and the phone chirped. Camila pressed the button. "Yes?""Your 9 AM is here," Felix said."Thank you. Please send them in."Sigrid stood to face the door as Camila joined her. "Remember our visit to Walter's cavern?" the blond asked quietly, and Camila nodded as she smiled at Nuru, who strode in with her bodyguards at her sides. They shut the door.The waves of energy radiating from the leader confirmed Camila's guess that she'd been overfeeding in preparation for this meeting. She sighed, as in contrast, Camila held back on her output the best she could. She forced a smile onto her lips."Greetings, Nuru Onwudiwe," Camila began and bowed her head to the other woman."Camila Villamor, you are not presenting the excess of power you did the other night," Nuru snapped.Camila looked up and nodded. "As I
Gordon took in the ribbons pinned to the marine's dress uniform. He'd done some pretty impressive things in his career. He stepped forward and returned the man's salute. "I'm Colonel Gordon Crane.""Gunnery Sergeant Christopher Endale."Gordon smiled and gestured to the soldiers, who were now all smiling at him. "I suppose your security clearance has been escalated to allow you to witness this, so let me introduce you to my squad. Up until yesterday, they were a group of highly trained human soldiers. We were charged with capturing a small group of Silver People. Instead, my people got turned into Silver People themselves. They're still the same soldiers, but you can't really call them human any longer. Not that they've complained.""We can run so fast!" Yablonski gushed.The squad burst into chuckles, and the marine's eyes widened at the odd sound."Maybe discipline has been affected," Crane grumbled, and his squad snapped to attention as the argument was over and the two men returne
They stopped at the guardhouse where a startled looking soldier stared at them, then just waved them through. They returned to the building with the auditorium. The Colonel, the General, Hugh, and the lab coats were waiting for them. Corporal Dane handed the camera back to the technician, who accepted it excitedly. He immediately reviewed the recording and made excited sounds to his colleagues.The General was trying to school his expression but wasn't too successful."How... how are you feeling, son?" he asked softly from his tight throat.The big marine saluted him with a wide smile. "I feel really good, sir! So much better than I was after the explosion and maybe better than my best day."Hugh's expression was satisfied. "I know a lot of other soldiers who might appreciate the same chance."Mick stepped forward. "Sir, what we saw today was just short of a miracle. His body rejected the conversion, and we almost lost him. The injury he sustained created a break in the flow, and he a
Stanley Garin was a serious young man. He wasn't a big man or a powerful man or even a particularly handsome man but he was intelligent and passionate.What was he passionate about? Not sports. His 5' 7" slimly built body and lack of athletic abilities made him despise team sports as he'd always been excluded. Politics? Boring! Women? While he yearned for female companionship, he did so in silence as his tongue betrayed him around women he found attractive.No, what Stanley loved most was computers. He loved programming them. He loved building them. He loved connecting them together. He just... understood them! He knew what to expect from them and for him, they behaved in rational, expected ways. That wasn't to say he'd never encountered a faulty piece of equipment but he had an innate ability to quickly identify the flaky bit, replace it, and restore order to his life once more. Simple! Much simpler than relationships with people.Having such a serious nature, he'd struggled with the
The elevator stopped and they stepped off into a lobby. The woman nodded to the two large men in dark suits standing on either side of double doors. They nodded and opened the doors for her. Stanley looked at them with wide eyes as they trained their eyes on him the entire time he walked past. He got the impression they were watching for just the slightest hint that he was a threat and they'd take him down. Hard.Ms. Villamor led him down a long hallway and stopped before an opaque glass door with another sensor. Once she tapped her access card to it the liquid crystal in the glass cleared and he could see a large board room table and many chairs around it. The room was empty otherwise. She opened the door and walked in. Stanley followed. When the door closed there was a sudden hush as the room was soundproofed."We are on the top floor. This room is in the center of the floor away from all the windows. It's used once a month. Otherwise it remains empty. If we were to build the new ne
"Welcome aboard, Mr. Garin," the woman said with a smile and she gave the CEO a questioning glance. Villamor shook her head almost imperceptibly but Stanley caught it and Gunderan's raised eyebrow response. He wasn't sure what that was about but he was in a bit of a daze. The woman's voice was surprisingly feminine. He had been expecting a much deeper octave that comes from body building and possibly taking enhancers. On closer examination though there was nothing masculine about Gunderan. She was lovely, just big!"Th-thank you," he stumbled and she grinned at him."I'm not scaring you, am I?" she asked sweetly, ignoring the scowl from her boss."N-no, I get like this around puh-pretty women," he forced out then froze, wide eyed at what he'd just said. To the head of HR none-the-less. AND the CEO! He closed his eyes and put his face in his hands."Oh, I like this one!" Gunderan chuckled happily."Sigrid!" her boss snapped."Fine but I can't help it if he's so cute," she chuckled at V
Stanley was a little worried about what that might mean when he did his visual inspection and inventory of the network and systems equipment which he would have to rely on without the documentation.He turned to look into her lovely dark eyes as she pushed the drawer closed. "Can you get me an org chart? I n-need to know the size of the c-c-company and how many wuh-workstations I can expect we'll be su-supporting." He looked away with a scowl.He felt a hand on his arm and looked back in surprise."You don't have to be nervous around me. I'm here for you one hundred percent," she said gently, her compassion showing in her eyes.He did feel himself calming a little and smiled at her gratefully.She bit her plump lip and pulled her hand back from his arm reluctantly. "What do we do now?"He cleared his throat and nodded, feeling his nerves settle down. Now he was in his comfort zone. "We do an inventory manually. We start at the bottom and work our way up!" She smiled at his enthusiasm
Seeing the older man was unsettled Stanley saw an opportunity to go on the offensive. "I noticed that all of the workstations on this floor are current where all of the lower floors are struggling with ancient equipment. Can you explain that?" he asked.The man wasn't really paying attention to him as he fussed with his rings. "Their workstations are perfectly functional. There was no need to upgrade them."Stanley looked at the man in surprise. "That decision falls under the purview of the CIO."Mr. Pfister was beginning to look a little desperate to get the rings off but they looked stuck. He was also beginning to look a little... green. "Yes, but the PO's are approved by me so nothing is purchased without my say so. So, I decide."Paloma took Stanley's arm and quickly pulled him away as she could see he was starting to get angry.She got him into the elevator and they rode it up to the top floor. "We need to speak with your mother," Stanley grumbled to Paloma. She nodded and they m