"Delayed? Why?" Andi asked. "Carter, you need to heal, you don't need to be out there fighting."
"Come on bro, I can handle it," I said. "You know that."
Carter shook his head. "You'll need backup. That means Andi or Mark. And, not to put too blunt a point on it, with these ribs, there's a few things that I want to do during my honeymoon that I can't anyway. So until I can, we should delay things. Mark, you think Dad can get Vanessa to handle the press on that? Say I had a bike accident or something."
Dad nodded, then laughed. "Considering what Sophie and I did during our quick honeymoon, I guess a delay is warranted. But you're not going out on the streets before you get married."
"We'll see," Carter replied. He looked at Andi, squeezing her hand. "You okay with that, babe?"
Andi nodded. "Okay. I'd hate to hurt you on our wedding night, and I know how we can get."
"Well, you both can hold off on that for at least four weeks," Mom said. "Now Carter, you need to get sleep, and the rest of you need to get changed and debriefed. So shoo, all of you. I'll keep watch over Carter, he’s staying here tonight."
"Yes Mom."
* * *
"God damn those guys are fast," I said the next day, watching the video for the third time, this time in slow motion. Even with that, the two men who attacked Carter were hard to track. Tabby had enhanced the image to account for the low light, and I'd spent the past thirty minutes reviewing it with Dad and Patrick. He'd just gotten home from the press conference announcing the delay to the wedding. The official story was that Carter had hurt his leg falling down the stairs. We didn't want our enemies to know who Carter was, after all.
Now, the three of us were breaking down the film nearly frame by frame. I had a date with Janet, but I wanted to get this done first. "What in the hell causes this sort of power and speed?"
"Angel dust?" Patrick asked. "Dust heads have been known to exhibit great strength and damage resistance."
Dad shook his head. "No, PCP freaks usually display erratic behavior. These two were controlled, even if they were attacking. They were lucid. This is, this is something new."
"Shit," I muttered under my breath. "I hate new. First reports of those military rifles on the streets just before you took office and I come back into town, now this stuff. I hate new problems."
We heard a door close behind us, and the unmistakeable sound of high heels approaching. "Come on Riley, if you don't have new problems, what fun is life?"
I whipped my head around, surprised and pleased at the same time. Patrick spoke my exact thoughts as he got up and held his arms open for his daughter. "Barbara! I didn't think you were getting in until later."
Barb shrugged. She came over and gave Patrick a hug, then one for Mark. "Hi Dad, hi Uncle Mark. Riley, you've filled out some. Looking good."
"Not so bad yourself," I said, not lying in the least. Barbara was easily one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen, and considering my reputation, I'd seen a lot. Exactly one inch taller than her mother, Barb was built like a man's wet dream come to life. With rich auburn hair that reached all the way to her waist and a figure that put lingerie models to shame, she practically oozed sexuality. And she'd used it, too. However, with me it was always a sort of friendly rivalry. It was like we both knew the other was sexually attractive, but at the same time didn't feel attracted to each other. We were more like best friends than anything else. "So did you have a good flight?"
"Do you really want me to answer that?" she asked with a smirk. I rolled my eyes, and patted the couch next to me. "By the way, Andi said in her last e-mail to me that you've got yourself a girlfriend. Anyone I know?"
"No, and while I'll introduce you, you better be on your best behavior,” I replied. "Janet's not a short term thing I think."
Barb looked at me quizzically, then nodded. We'd talk about that later. "Okay. So I just got in from the infirmary, Carter and Sophie filled me in on what happened to him. Where's Andi and Mom?"
"They're out handling the delay in the wedding," Patrick said, "they should be back soon. It's good to see you baby."
"So this is the fight video, huh?" Barb asked, sitting down next to me. "Well, let me get eyes on the thing. Carter said the whole fight was less than a minute."
We restarted the video, Barb sitting forward with her elbows on her knees. Her face went somewhat slack as she watched the video once, then again. I'd seen her do this before, it was one of the ways she made connections.
You see, Barbara's not built quite like the rest of us. While Carter, Andi and I are nowhere near dumb, Barb's got a freaky sense of intelligence. If you underestimate her based off her looks or her upfront sexuality, you’ll get burned. Barbara is a sort of polymath, one of those people who picks up stuff quickly but gets bored almost as quickly as she picks it up. It’s my secret opinion that it was one of the reasons she was so interested in sex and seduction, it's one of the few subjects that doesn't bore her. She doesn't have Carter's eidetic memory, but she can notice details that would slip by others.
So when Barb's eyes went wide and her face slack, I knew she was seeing something we'd missed. After the second go-around she sat back, crossing her arms over her chest and sighing. "Shit."
"What is it, honey?" Patrick asked. He knew his daughter, and knew her tone of voice. She'd seen something.
"Those two, Carter said they were under control, right? And that they were breathing super fast, like they were winded or something?"
"You've seen something like this before," Dad said, more of a statement than a question. "What do you know?"
"It's coming out of Europe, I don't know the exact source," Barbara said. "They call it Amp. You guys remember that old movie, Limitless?"
"Sure," I said. "About that guy who took a pill, and it woke his brain up. Guy made Einstein look like an idiot sort of thing."
"Well, Amp is for the body, does the same thing," Barbara said. “From what I’ve heard, the stuff turns your average doofus into a super-athlete for a hour or more at a hit."
"Shit," Mark said. "What's the catch? If this stuff was so good, I'd have heard about it being used here in the States."
"The catch is that not only is it addictive, but it has quite a few side effects as well," Barbara said. "First, you can tell from the video, too high a dose will put you into cardiac arrest. I've also heard of people getting aneurysms too. On the low end, those guys will wake up with just about every muscle in their body feeling ready to die, like taking the worst workout that Mark ever put any of us through and magnifying it by ten. Oh, and the fact that their broken bones will now be felt."
"They don't feel pain?" I asked, not all that surprised. "No wonder it's addictive."
"Yeah," Barbara said. "I was going to tell you guys about it when I came back for the wedding. Wish I had told you about the rumors I'd heard sooner."
"Well, you're here now honey," Patrick said. "Let's get you unpacked, and all of us will talk later."
Chapter Twelve
Barbara
We didn't move Carter into his bedroom. Despite the fact that Andi would have been more than willing to be his nursemaid while she was home, Sophie’s deep den mother streak interjected. In the end, Carter walked his way from the infirmary to the entertainment room, and settled himself in on one of the reclining chairs.
"You know, other than getting up to use the toilet, I could stay here for the entire four weeks," he joked as he elevated his feet. "In fact, maybe we can invent one of these that has a toilet built-in?"
"Already been imagined by lazies ever since the Barcalounger was introduced," Mom said with a laugh. "So no Carter, you don't get to sit on your butt for four weeks."
Carter sighed, then grinned. "Worth a shot."
Andi made sure Carter was comfortable while I put together dinner. Besides studying overseas, I'd picked up a flair for cuisine, probably because one of my lovers was a trained chef. I enjoyed the process, and decided to display some of my skills for m
y family, as everyone else seemed busy. Well, except Riley, who’s almost never busy, but was getting ready for a date with his new girlfriend. I reminded myself to ask about her later.
While I was chopping some mushrooms, Andi came into the kitchen. "Whatcha making?"
"A chanterelle mushroom risotto," I said. "I'll pair it off with some pan-seared duck breasts that I saw in the fridge, and some of the broccoli rabe too, maybe sautéed in a bit of butter."
"You do that, and Riley won't want to take Janet out for a date. They'll just keep crashing dinner here," Andi said with a small smile. "Can I help?"
"Sure," I replied. "Grab another cutting board and a knife, and cut up the rabe into about one inch pieces."
Andi did what I asked, starting on the vegetable. While she cut, we fell into a comfortable silence. We'd grown up as sisters, and despite having periods of not really getting along, there was nobody in the world I was closer to. Even Riley and Carter were different in my relationship with them. Carter was always my big brother, but he and I were different enough that we just mutually agreed unconsciously to be different. Riley was the opposite in that we were almost freakishly similar, and therefore too close. We were friendly rivals, and yes, immediately comfortable with each other.
Andi was somewhere in between. Besides being a girl, there wasn't a lot we shared in common, at least spiritually. At the same time however, for some reason the two of us always tried to reconcile our differences and work together, succeeding more often than not. Andi was like my sister and my best friend. As such, we actually worked together better than I did with either Carter or Riley. "So Carter's doing good?”
"As good as he can be," Andi said. "Riley told me about the new drug, Amp. Is that what he ran into?"
I shrugged. Finishing the mushrooms, I set them aside in a glass bowl before starting on scoring the duck breasts. "I haven't seen it in person, but from what I've heard about, that’s what I'd guess. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it by e-mail or something earlier."
"You couldn't have known that this Mr. Clean is bringing this stuff into the city," Andi said. We fell silent, both of us working, before she spoke up. "Sorry if this screws up your vacation plans."
"I'm fine," I said. "Summer break is soon, like Riley. And I'm in the Master's program, I can even take a semester or two off and not suffer for it. I mostly just have my thesis to go anyway, and that I can work on in my spare time. I'm sorry your wedding is delayed. I know you and Carter have really been looking forward to it."
Andi chuckled, then shrugged. She finished the broccoli rabe and set her knife down. "Carter and I are together, regardless of whether the law recognizes it or not. The only delay is in me coming off the birth control pills."
I nodded in understanding. That was Andi, always the responsible one. "You know you don't have to," I said. "If you do the math, you and Carter both were conceived before our parents were officially married."
Andi nodded and shrugged again. "I know, but I guess I just want things to be as simple as possible for Patrick and all. We dance on the edge of disaster anyway with doing all of this, and we've gotten away with it. It wouldn’t really be a scandal, but you know how politics is. I wouldn’t want to hurt Patrick."
I laughed and set my knife down, giving Andrea a careful hug with my dirty hands. "Andi, this is what makes you so damn adorable. You worry about everyone else, when you should worry about yourself more often. I swear, I've only seen you act without worrying about how it'll make the rest of the family look only once."
"Oh? When was that?" Andi asked, looking at me curiously.
"When you finally did what I'd seen in your eyes and my brother's eyes for years, and get together. Seriously, you two were literally made for each other. It was like the universe righting a wrong or something."
"The universe righting a wrong?" Andi asked. "Have you been taking up theology as well as everything else over there in Europe?"
"Why not? Business is boring, and my MBA is a walk in the park," I replied. “Now, how about you get the chicken stock from the pantry, and I'll show you how to make the best risotto on the planet?"
"Canned or the boxed stuff?"
I shivered in revulsion. "Never, ever use canned stock, it tastes like the tin it comes in. In fact, tomorrow when you take me to the pistol range, remind me to bring those canned stocks. They'll make good targets. Guess I'm going to have to teach Sophie about food."
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about it too much," Andi said with a laugh. "I don't think this house is suffering too much in terms of food. But if you insist.”
"And she’ll promptly dismiss it if she doesn't like it," I said with another laugh. It was something Sophie and I had gotten used to. She wouldn't try to shut me up when I felt she was doing something wrong, but at the same time I knew she wouldn't accept everything I said. "I think that started when I tried to show her a better way to vacuum the living room rug."
Andi laughed, tension loosening from her shoulders as she did. "Thanks Barb. Having you around is nice."
"That's what I'm here for. Now, how about you tell me about this new girlfriend of Riley's while we get this dinner finished?"
Chapter Thirteen
Riley
Despite going on only a few hours of sleep after Carter's injury, I was jittery as I knocked on Janet's front door. After what happened to Carter, I’d spent every waking moment either analyzing the video tape and discussing things with Dad and Patrick, or thinking by myself. I'd gotten in a workout if for no other reason than it allowed me a chance to focus on something else, but still as I stood outside her door, I felt like my mind was going about ten million miles an hour.
All of those swirling thoughts stopped when the door opened, and Janet came out. She looked beautiful, her black hair done up nicely, framing her face while not covering it up. She's the sort of girl who doesn't need a lot of makeup to look amazing, and she didn't overdo it either, with just a hint that highlighted her pretty cheekbones and her full lips. She was wearing a blue one-piece that offset her skin perfectly, and was sexier than what she normally wore when she was around. It wasn't much, mostly a matter of the waistline being taken in a little bit to highlight the curviness of her figure, but it was amazing.
"Wow," I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "That is certainly the best thing I've seen all day."
Janet blushed, and took my hand. "You always make me feel pretty, Riley. Thanks. One of my roommates insisted I wear this one tonight, so I guess you need to give thanks to her too."
"I'll try," I said, chuckling as I saw the curtain twitch in the living room. At least one of Janet's roommates was obviously watching us, and I gave her a wave. "Thanks!"
The curtain twitched again, and I laughed. "Seriously, those three act like I'm some sort of leper or scary monster. What's up with that?"
Janet shook her head and led me off. "I think Gabby has a very jealous boyfriend, and I'm not sure about the others. But I'm not worried about that. Come on, let's go enjoy the park."
Instead of going out on a traditional date, we'd decided to enjoy something casual, so we went to the park.
"Hey, let's go to the duck pond," Janet said, stopping at the dispenser to get some crackers. "I love watching them."
"Really?" I said with a laugh. "Okay, if you want."
Making sure to avoid the benches on the east side of the pond, we sat down, crumbling up the crackers inside their little packet. "You know, my Dad said it used to be so bad down here in the park that there was no way they'd be willing to put out that cracker machine?"
Janet gave me a double take. "Really? I came to town after all that, so I never really thought about it. What was it like growing up here?"
I shrugged and tossed a few crumbs to the ducks. "I was born after the worst of the troubles were cleaned up, so I can't really tell you how bad it used to be. Just what I’ve been told. I mean, this town still isn't Mayberry, but it's a lot better than it used to be, at least according to Tabby and
Patrick."
"Mayberry? What's Mayberry?" Janet asked, amused. "Is that the town your Dad was born in?"
I shook my head, making sure to stick to Mathew Mark Bylur's official biography. "No, Dad moved here with Mom soon after they got married. Actually, Mayberry's a fictional town from an old TV show. I watched way too much of it growing up."
"I've come to notice that," Janet said, tossing the ducks some crackers. "Can I ask you something, Riley?"
"Sure. I mean, the ducks are fun and everything, but I came here to spend time with you."
Janet smiled that special little smile of hers again, and leaned her head on my shoulder. "Thanks. You know, when I told the other girls that I live with that I was having a date with Riley Bylur, a few of them were worried. One of them called you Pump N Dump Bylur."
Ouch. That one was painful. "I've heard that one before. I have to admit, I dated a lot of girls since I figured out how wonderful you all are."
"And? How am I different than the others?" Janet asked, nervous again. "I don't want to end up just another notch on your bedpost."
"Janet, I see you and go out with you because I like spending time with you. Not because I want a hook-up. If I wanted that, I'd have gone back to Boston after Patrick's inauguration."
"And if I said that I wanted to wait longer before doing what I can see in your eyes you want?" Janet asked, looking me in the face. "What if I said I wanted to wait a week, or a month, or longer?”
"Then I'll wait until then," I said automatically. It was true, too. I mean, sure it's not something men brag about, but I'd known how to satisfy my sexual urges by myself since about the age of fourteen. It's not as much fun as having sex, but it takes the edge off when needed. “As long as you need.”
Janet shrugged and patted me on the shoulder. “You know what?"
I turned my gaze to meet her beautiful brown eyes, my throat going dry. "What?"
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