Jess laughed so hard he almost fell off the last step of the ladder.
“Of course I'll still be around!” he said as he pointedly looked at Cindy's figure. Then he glanced down at the tent in his shorts before continuing. “There'd be no doubt of that Ya see, even if you weren't so kind as ta invite me. But I'm glad ta know Ya don't mind... Specially if Ya going ta be my boss.”
“What do you mean ‘going to be’ Jess,” Steve interjected. “Technically Jake's already your boss.”
Jess turned to face Steve and spoke in the manner of a long standing debate between friends.
“Was 20 minutes ago perhaps,” he said. “Will be again tomorrow when I'm back on duty, don't ya know? But when I'm on my own damn time, there ain't nobody me boss but me. And you'll note it's the white armband I be wearing at the moment.”
“That's not what you told Stephanie the last time I saw her give you an off duty order,” he rebutted.
The two men glared at each other with mock fierceness for half a minute before they both broke out laughing. Then Jess turned back to face Cindy.
“When your ready for that better look, try looking for me in the great hall,” he suggested. “Where with any luck, I'll still be reading ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’.” With that he turned toward the door on the other side of the room and started walking away.
“Hey Jess, I don't suppose that's a braille edition you got there is it?” Cindy called after him. Jess turned back, shaking his head as he held the book above his shoulder, with a quizzical expression on his face. Cindy pointedly looked a little lower as she finished. “I'd like to try my ‘hand’ at reading the bumps.”
Jess just smiled, turned on his heel and strode out of the room.
“I think it's time we moved on,” Steve said. “Next stop is the recreation room.”
Then he led them out the same door Jess had left by. This lead to another short hall. The door from the library was the only door on this side of the hall. Across the way there were two doors, Steve opened the one on the right. The walls of this room were lined with shelves full of various board games and a collection of card games. There were a couple of tables with chairs in middle of the room. One end of the room had a pool table. The other end had a ping pong table. Nobody was there and Steve didn't waste much time on it.
“Let me show you the computer study room next door,” he suggested.
Then he led them back to the little hall and opened the other door. This room was full of desks, there were 9 of them in all. Two of them had multimedia PCs on them. One had a Macintosh computer. The other six had a kind of computer terminal on them instead. There was a table in one corner with both a small printer and a much larger one on it. Steve pointed at one of the terminals.
“These house computer access terminals are surprisingly easy to use and can do so much more than the regular PCs,” Steve informed them. “That I'm surprised anybody ever bothers with the PCs. But unless one of you feel a pressing need to play a game, search the web or otherwise use them right now. I'd like to move on.” When nobody objected, Steve continued. “I don't know about you but I'm getting a bit hungry and I'll bet Mike's got them serving something delicious in the dining room about now. Shall we go eat?”
Cindy hadn't even realized she was hungry until Steve suggested it.
“Actually, I'm starved!” she said. “Lets go, please.”
Steve led them to the doorway directly across the Great Hall. He stopped and gestured at the doorway before them.
“That way lies the kitchen,” Steve explained. “Which is not a place I'd recommend going while Mike is fixing to serve diner.” Then with a gesture to the left, he continued. “The dining rooms are over there.”
Steve led them through the next doorway into a large dining area with a dozen tables. The far wall was 4 feet tall with the space above it allowing a view through some large windows in another wall about 12 ft further away. There was an archway in the middle of the 4 ft wall. Where a few steps lead down to a stone floor 3 ft lower than that of the main dining room. Here there were only four tables. The windows offered a pleasant view of the river. Which flowed at the base of the hill. They were unusually tall custom windows that started 2 feet from the floor and curved four feet inwards near the top. Until they merged with the ceiling.
“The small dining room here was originally supposed to be a patio,” Steve said. “However the view so captivated one of our research executives that she...”
Steve was interrupted by a dark skinned beauty with black hair and brown eyes, who had quietly walked up behind them.
“What have I told you about telling my secrets when I'm not there to defend myself Steve?” she said.
As she spoke all three of them turned to behold an imposing woman in a black unisex business suit.
“Ah but you ‘are’ here to defend yourself,” Steve replied smoothly. Then turning to Jake and Cindy, he added, “May I present our Vice President in charge of research, Sandra Amlee. Sandra, this is Cindy Kincade and of course you met Jake here last week. He has decided to accept my apprenticeship offer.”
“Good!” Sandra said with a smile as she looked thoughtfully at Cindy. “Then perhaps I'll get that rain check after all?”
Jake chuckled.
“It seems likely Sandra,” he agreed. “But just now I'm more interested in some food.”
“Why don't you sit here Cindy?” Steve said as he pulled back a chair from the nearest table. “The sooner we're all seated the sooner the food's likely to get here.”
Cindy took her seat without comment. Sandra immediately took a seat directly across from her. Jake sat down beside Cindy. Then Steve took a chair next to Sandra.
No sooner had Steve sat down then Mike came in through a doorway Cindy hadn't noticed at one end of the patio like dining area. He was whistling some lively tune Cindy had never heard before. There was a cute green eyed blond in a short black dress with a white apron trying to keep up with Mike as they quickly removed the remaining two chairs from the table. By the time the blond had her chair out of the way, Mike was back with a tray of wine glasses balanced in one hand while he used the other to push a cart carrying a collection of cold beverages all nestled in a bed of crushed ice. The tune appeared to reach it's end half a second before the cart came to a halt in front of their table.
“It would appear that you four will have the dining room to yourselves this afternoon,” Mike kindly informed them about half a second after the cart stopped.
Then as the blond returned with a push cart full of pump action hot beverage dispensers he seamlessly continued speaking.
“Let me introduce Erika,” Mike said. “She will be your waitress this evening. May I suggest my handmade beef and cheese ravioli tonight? If your not in the mood for pasta, I can always toss a steak on the grill. Or if you prefer I've some nice fresh catfish.”
There was only a brief pause before Erika picked up where Mike had left off.
“While your making up your mind about the main course,” the friendly blond offered. “Can I get you a hot beverage? Or breadsticks? Or perhaps you'd prefer one of Mike's cold beverages.”
At which point Mike stepped back in.
“I've got some home-brew, of course,” Mike explained. “Red and white wines, champagne and even some homemade root beer. I've also got a jug of that fruit punch you liked Cindy. In any case, whenever you make up your minds about the food or drink just let Erika know. Meantime I've something in the kitchen that needs tending.”
Then before anyone thought of anything to say, Mike whistled his way out of the room. After which Sandra was the first to speak.
“I for one will have some of Mike's fabulous punch,” she said. “And as much as I love Mike's pasta. I just can't resist what he does to catfish. Now Cindy, I think we need to talk. I do hope you won't mind if I dominate your dinner conversation tonight. But there are some things you really should know.”
“That's fine by me Sandra,” Jake int
erjected. “Erika, I think I'll go with the pasta. And some of that fruit punch would be great.”
Then he stopped talking and just looked at Cindy.
“While Cindy's making up her mind Erika,” Steve broke the silence a few seconds later. “I'll have a cold one and of course, anytime Mike finds the time to stuff ravioli, I'll have a double helping.”
Erika popped the cap off one of the home brews and handed it to Steve, then she poured a couple glasses of juice. Cindy noticed that Sandra exchanged meaningful looks with Erika as she was handed her glass of punch. Then it seamed to Cindy that Erika had an odd expression on her face as she handed the other glass to Jake. After which she turned to Cindy and smiled.
“Have you decided what you'd like yet Cindy?” Erika asked warmly.
Cindy decided to like Erika. So she looked squarely into her eyes as she replied.
“Yes I think I have Erika,” she said in a warm friendly voice. “I'll have the pasta and I think I'd like to try the root beer. But you can skip the glass.”
Even as Cindy stopped talking she heard Mike's whistling just before he burst into the room pushing another cart. Then as Erika handed a bottle of root beer to Cindy, Mike started dealing out plates that appeared to be overflowing with food. All four plates had a serving of broccoli florets smothered in cheese sauce. Sandra's plate also had a couple large pieces of breaded fish and a small pile of home-fries. The other plates each had a half dozen huge ravioli smothered in a chunky pasta sauce, over which was a layer of melted cheese. Except for Steve's, which barely contained a full dozen of the ravioli. Then Mike and Erika pushed the beverage carts against the wall a few feet away. By the time Erika had her cart parked next to Mike's, he was on his way out of the room with the empty food cart.
“If everything's OK, I'll leave you to enjoy your meal,” Erika said as Mike's whistling faded away. “But I'll be back in a little while to see if you need anything.”
Erika waited a moment to be sure nobody wanted anything right away. Then she quietly left the room. Sandra devoured a big bite of her fish before she started talking.
“Hmmmn I think Mike's the best cook I ever met,” Sandra began. “Can I ask you something personal Cindy?”
Then while she waited for an answer she snatched another bite of her fish. On which she almost choked when Cindy replied.
“Sure, just as soon as you tell me about that rain check you wanted from Jake,” she said.
“It's funny you should ask,” Sandra replied. As soon as she had safely swallowed all the fish in her mouth. “Just remember that you did ask.
If you must know, a little over a week ago your man turned down my proposition. So I asked him if I could have a rain check on his fucking my brains out. My question is, ‘Did you happen to notice that for the past week or so, that the sex life you share with Jake has suddenly heated up noticeably from whatever it used to be?’” Then she continued without waiting for an answer. “The reason I asked is because you deserve to know why everything heated up.”
“It's actually a bit of a tale,” Steve spoke up quickly. “You may find parts of it a bit hard to believe. But trust me it's all true. Perhaps we should start with Jake's accident. I'll not go into how it came about that I fell into the road in front of him. But when he somehow managed to avoid running me over, he lost control and crashed. Well he was hurt more severely in the crash than he has led you to believe. He almost died there. But as it happens we at Hillside have access to a secret medical marvel of technology. Have you ever heard of nanites Cindy?”
Cindy looked at him like he had three heads for a few seconds before she remembered where she had heard the word.
“Well yeah,” she said. “I think one of Jake's science fiction movies used the word for some tiny robots being developed by a mad scientist that wanted to make an unstoppable super disease that would kill everyone except those he programmed them to spare. Hey wait a minute, your not making biological weapons are you?”
“No Cindy!” Sandra spoke up. “We go to great lengths to make sure our technology can't be used that way. In fact, that's one of the reasons why we don't even tell the government what our nanites can really do. I wish we could offer the medical benefits to everyone. But the truth is we can't. Although when someone is in the right place at the right time, we can sometimes help them.
In Jake's case he happens to have a rare combination of genetics and psychological factors that made him a suitable candidate to host what we call a nanosymbiont. That makes him very special to us.”
“And we are here trying to explain it to you because your very special to Jake,” Steve interrupted. “Seriously you must have noticed the change in your sexual desires since Jake got back to your friend David's camp.”
“Jake's friend Dave you mean,” Cindy corrected him.
“Well he certainly looked like a close friend of yours, that night Cindy,” Sandra interjected.
“What do you mean ‘looked like’?” Cindy replied.
“Well you see Cindy, when I pulled Jake out of his truck, I fed his ID data into our super computer,” Steve spoke up. “Which quickly detected that his cell phone was located nearby. So I dispatched a camera drone, which found you, while you were sitting on a large rock in Mr Taylor's swimming hole. While he was doing something I'd call ‘very’ friendly between your legs. No, don't bother to deny it, we all saw the security video, including Jake.”
As he spoke the surface of the table seamed to quiver for a moment. Then it was covered by a large video image of herself sitting on that rock with her head thrown back in what looked like orgasmic bliss as Dave's face was buried in her crotch. Cindy looked horrified at the idea that they all knew of her indiscretion.
“The surveillance drone also followed you into Dave's camper, Steve continued. “As it happens none of us are inclined to hold that behavior against you Cindy. Though I'll admit that it would have made things a lot easier for me if Jake had decided to dump you that night. But like I said, you ‘are’ very special to Jake, so here we are.”
A puzzled expression crossed Cindy's face.
“Wait a sec,” she said. “That night? But Jake didn't get there till late morning. You mean Jake knew Dave and I were busy screwing our brains out all night and he waited till morning to come and catch us?”
“Yeah I decided not to interrupt you and Dave, Cindy,” Jake spoke up. “Truth be told I didn't want to be upset with you about that. Fact is I knew I'd never really have minded sharing you with my old buddy Dave. But I was already a bit upset with you for sneaking around behind my back.” Cindy just looked at him, so Jake continued. “When Bill Stark relieved me at the store so I could come back this way, my wallet was out on the counter because I was paying for a candy bar. Bill happened to see your picture. He almost choked on his coffee.
He'd been bragging for months about a hot girl he sometimes got to party with who's name he thought was ‘Betty’.”
As Jake spoke the table top became an image of Bill Stark's drivers license. Cindy recognized the face as one of the few repeat dates she'd had on her nights out.
“But really, I already knew something was going on,” Jake continued. “I also knew I wasn't always there when you needed me. So I guess I didn't try very hard to find out what. Funny thing was, the only part that really bothered me was that you were going behind my back to get it.”
“But getting back to the change in Cindy's desires,” Sandra spoke up. “I gotta ask if your familiar with the word ‘pheromones’ Cindy?”
There was a brief pause before Cindy found her voice.
“Isn't that some kind of scent a queen bee uses to control the hive?” she asked.
“Well yes...” Sandra continued. “But pheromones aren't limited to bees. And there's a little more to it than just a scent. Especially the kind that can be produced by the nanites that bonded with Jake here. He hasn't had time to develop a full rapport with his nanosymbiont. So the nanites take hints from his subconscious on how to ple
ase him. And the vitality he got from the repairs they made to his whole body is still new enough that it's like he has the raging hormones of a teenager. Which to be frank, makes him horny most of the time. So since his nanites are still listening to his subconscious, when he gets horny they send out these little nano-devices that work as human pheromones. Thus when he gets horny, so does everyone around him.”
“You mean the orgy and all the extra wild and kinky sex I agreed to this past week was because he used some kind of high tech aphrodisiac on me?” Cindy demanded hotly.
“I'm sorry Cindy but I really couldn't help it,” Jake replied. “Besides you were already horny enough to get it on with Dave.”
“Oh cut the shit asshole,” Cindy yelled at him. “It's bad enough you gotta find a way to turn me on whether I felt like it or not. But you just ‘had’ to make me have the hots for that fucking girl in the Music Hall!”
“Whoa!” Jake said. “‘That’, I didn't do. I got a handle on it on the way up the hill Cindy and I didn't lose control again until she danced up against me.”
“In any case,” Steve interjected. “It's because Jake cares about you and your feelings, that we are explaining all of this to you Cindy.”
“Wait a minute,” Cindy said. “If what you say is true, how come I didn't feel like having sex a little while ago. When I know damn well Jake was still hot to trot?”
“Well like Jake said, he's been trying to get a handle on it,” Steve said. “And I've been helping to counteract the nano-pheromones that get away from him. Unlike Jake, I do have a full rapport with my nanosymbiont.”
Cindy looked at Steve like she hadn't heard him right.
“OK so what ever this nano-freaky-shit is, your supposed to be infested with it too?” she asked.
“I wouldn't exactly describe it as an ‘infestation’ Cindy,” Steve replied. “Jake's problem is that his, ahem, ‘nano-freaky-shit’ is still learning to understand him. Look I'm getting the impression that you don't believe us about the nanites. Let me show you something.”
NanoSymbionts Page 7
