by Dale Mayer
She shook her head and watched as Levi and Milo bent over the robber. They removed something, ran it through the computer, then grinned at each other.
“What are you doing?”
“He’s an escapee. Wanted for a long list of crimes. And there’s a bounty on his head.”
“A bounty?”
“That’s mine,” Charmin crowed. “I caught him.”
“Like that can happen. You don’t have an identity number,” she said. “Or a bank account.”
He glared at her. “First you steal my salmon, and now you want to take my prize money.” He sniffed, turned around, and curled up in a ball. “You guys work it out. After all that hard work, I’m tired.”
And he went off to sleep.
Dani turned her attention back to the men and realized that the robber was unconscious. “What did you guys do to him?”
“We’re implanting the suggestion that Charmin is a new robo-pet.”
She laughed. “That’s a great cover actually. He’s very unpet-like but hey, to each his own.”
Then they did something else that caused a series of bells and chimes to happen. She stepped closer to Levi as the house almost shook with the vibration.
“What’s happening?”
“Calling in the Combots to collect this guy. And Charmin, please don’t talk while they are here.”
Only snores could be heard from the orange fluff ball.
There was a flash of bright light. Charmin woke up, howled, and dashed into the bedroom. Dani wrapped her arms around Levi, trembling with the memories of the last time the Combots had arrived. This time however, they were polite and official. They quickly scanned Buck’s ID, then scanned Levi and Milo’s followed by Dani’s. She waited nervously, desperately trying not to show it. Levi kept her tucked up close while the formalities were done. The Combots grabbed the unconscious Buck and they were gone. Just like that.
“Wow. I’m glad this process was over quickly because those guys are still scary.”
“Not when you are on the right side of the law.” Levi turned to his brother. “Milo, do you want to check out the mess that Buck left behind and see if there is anything of interest? I’ll deal with this crate.”
She didn’t have a chance to ask what it was before he had it whisked off to storage. Since they had movable space, they never ran out of room anymore as the walls could shift to accommodate anything. She loved that. Need a bigger closet? No problem, just program it to make it bigger. Or keep stuffing it and it grew intuitively.
She turned when she realized that she and Levi were alone again. Finally.
She ran into his arms and hugged him close.
“I’m sure glad you know how this world works,” she said against his lips before she gave him a blazing kiss.
He laughed and said, “Me too. But I wish I knew how your world worked.”
*
Later that night, with Dani tucked up close to him, he realized he understood very little of how Dani’s world had worked. What mattered back then? What did her society believe to be worth fighting for?
He slipped out of bed and walked out to the living computer. And found Milo already on the unit. His kid brother looked up, a guilty look on his face.
Levi walked over, took a closer look at what he was doing, and laughed and laughed. “That’s what I came out to do.”
The two bent their heads together and got to work.
Chapter 14
Several days later, Dani rolled over in bed and stretched. The last few days had been good. Peaceful and loving. In the aftermath of the kidnapping, she’d gone back to being exhausted from all the stress. Still, it was over and life had slipped back to a normal pattern.
Half dozing, she lay there until finally something odd penetrated. Music. Not that music was odd, but this kind was.
Christmas music. What the…
She got up and wrapped herself up in a warm robe that was lying on the edge of the bed and then stopped. Gone was the Pacific island cottage. She glanced out the window and gasped. Snow. On the ground, on the trees, and there were no palm trees in sight. She ran out to the living room to find Charmin skittering in ahead of her. She stared. Was that tinsel clinging to his butt?
She hit the brakes at the living room in shock. The living room was gone. Instead, they were in a huge log cabin with a rock fireplace blazing in front of her. Her stunned gaze traveled from the fire up the fireplace to something that had her hand slapping over her mouth. Tears crept into her eyes. She dragged her gaze away from full stockings hanging on the mantle to sweep across the room. There was a huge tree to the left standing between a huge bay window with a window seat and the fireplace. She zipped around to look at the other side to find Milo and Levi, both sporting bright red and white Santa caps. She burst into tears, frozen in place. Both men lost their huge grins. Through her tears, she watched Levi take several faltering steps toward her.
“Dani?”
She shook her head, scrubbing her face with the sleeves of her robe.
Charmin rubbed down the side of her legs. “Is this for real?” he asked. “Do we get presents?”
She giggled, the sound huskier than usual. “I don’t know. Have you been a good boy?”
“I’m the best.” He puffed out his chest and strutted. Then he stopped and shot her a worried look. “They contacted Santa, didn’t they?”
“Did you write him and tell him what you wanted?” she managed to get out between the giggles.
Charmin stopped, his look frozen on her face. “That was your job. You know that, right? You had one job to do, did you do it?”
She couldn’t hold it in and burst out in big guffaws, her tears gone now. She snagged him up, twirled him around and around, gave him a huge noisy kiss – much to his disgust – dropped him on the window seat, and raced toward Levi.
He laughed and twirled her around like she had with Charmin. When he was done, she still clung to him. “Thank you. Thank you!”
His laughter rumbled up, making her laugh again.
“You’re welcome. Besides, we figured that before you got carried away with ordering stuff, we’d better step in and do it so no one would know.”
She turned to look at the tree decorated with tiny lights that twinkled, as if laughing in the dim light. There were tiny miniature carvings, little boxes tied up in bright ribbons. Snowflakes. “Oh my,” she whispered. “Where did you find all of this? I couldn’t get anywhere with my searches.”
“Just enough to trigger the bots,” he teased.
She flushed. “I thought I was being so smart.”
“You were. But it might take a little bit before you get the system down pat.”
“That’s all right. When I want something, I’ll ask for your help.”
She walked toward the tree. “You did this for me?”
“We did this for you.”
She glanced over at Milo, who looked mildly uncomfortable. She grinned. Then she ran over and hugged him – hard – before racing back to the tree.
“And not for me?” Charmin said in an injured tone.
“Absolutely for you too,” she said with a special smile.
“Humph.”
And then she caught sight of the presents under the tree. Two of them. For her. One from Milo and one from Levi.
She laughed and raced back to the bedroom, calling behind. “Wait, I have something to put under the tree, too.”
She dug through her closet, found the two gifts she’d managed to order with Charmin’s help, and ran back out to the living room. She was going to put them under the tree but couldn’t wait. She ran over to the men and handed them their gifts.
“You can open them now.”
The looks on their faces were hilarious. They didn’t know what to do with the odd packages.
“I had Charmin’s help,” she said then added with a sheepish grin, “I ran into a little trouble.”
Levi opened his first. His look of shock had her rushi
ng into an explanation. “It’s a cookbook. Of Christmas recipes. From my time. Or as close as I could come.”
His surprise turned to interest. He went to sit down, stopped, and kissed her passionately. “Thank you. It’s wonderful!”
She beamed. “You’re welcome. I was trying to figure out what to get the guy who can buy everything.”
“I think that’s one reason they did away with the holidays,” Levi said. “It became frustrating once everyone could make everything for themselves.”
He spun around as if just remembering and looked at Milo. “What did you get?”
Milo was turning the package around in his hand. He looked up at Dani and shrugged. “I have no idea.”
Yeah, she hadn’t been too sure about his gift. “It’s a hair paint set.”
For the blank look on his face, she walked over, grateful she’d read the instructions on the package, and opened it. Then she took out a large circle, which she held up against his wild red and purple swirled pants. She clicked the unit. Then she held the circle up to his Mohawk and clicked a second time. There were a few seconds of delay while he stared at her.
Then – poof – his huge Mohawk matched the color of his pants.
Levi gasped. He got up and walked around Milo as Dani repeated her actions on the other side.
“Oh my.” Levi howled with laughter.
Milo shot him a dirty look then walked over to the window. He let out a scream, stared at his reflection in amazement, then turned to stare at her. “Holy yowsers,” he whispered, turning once again to stare at his image. “This is the best thing ever.”
“I’m glad,” she said. “You’re a little hard to buy for.”
“Well, you found something that he’s going to drive us nuts with for a long time.” Levi came up behind her, his arms sliding around her ribs. “It’s so cool though. He’s going to set a trend with all his other geek friends.”
She turned in the circle of his arms. “That’s okay, too.”
He dropped a kiss on her nose. “Now it’s your turn.”
He led her over to the chair and sat her down. “Milo, yours or my gift first?”
Milo bounded forward. “Mine,” he crowed. He ran to the tree and picked up the smaller of the two gifts and came back with it in his outstretched hands. “For you.” After giving her the small packet, he stepped back, bouncing in place.
She turned it over, wondering what kind of tech gadget he’d gotten her. She ripped open the wrapping paper and stared. It was a small black box. She opened it and was no wiser. She raised a questioning look to Milo. “What is it?”
He grinned. “It’s enhancements for you.”
Her gaze widened, then she squealed, “Really?”
He nodded. “So you can have the tech savvy stuff.” He moved an arm to the Christmas tree. “You obviously need them earlier rather than later.”
She laughed. “Thank you.” She meant it. It had been so frustrating knowing that Charmin had gotten the enhancements with the time travel that had been meant for her.
Levi stepped up and handed her a larger box. She stared at it. She was so happy to know he’d bought her something that she didn’t really care what it was. Then she opened it.
And stared.
“Is it a clothing thing?”
“I realized that I was basically making your clothes and you had very little input.” He sat down beside her and tapped the box. “We’ll have to show you how to work this, but now you can make any type of clothing you’d like. Including designing your own styles.”
As gifts went, it was pretty special.
“I love it,” she whispered.
“Hey, what about me?”
Everyone turned to stare at Charmin. He was sitting on the window seat staring at them. There was hope in his eyes but also a sense of disgust. “You guys forgot about me, didn’t you?”
“No.” Dani grinned. She went back to the bedroom and pulled out the one gift she’d made with needle and thread and an old outfit of hers. She came out holding it in her hands. A tiny vest.
“Oh no. There’s no way I’m wearing that.”
She was ready for his resistance. Before he could figure out what she was planning to do, she caught him and wrestled him into the vest.
While the two men looked on, she plunked him back on the window seat.
“You look adorable,” she said in admiration.
“Ha. I look stupid.” But he was sniffing it and admiring himself in the mirror. “At least it’s my color.”
She laughed. The vest was as orange as Charmin was.
“We have something for you as well.” Milo went to the far cupboard and pressed a series of codes.
And damn if that huge pallet that the kidnapper had been trying to steal didn’t pop out of the wall.
She stood up. “What is that?”
“Mine! Mine. Mine!” Charmin bolted for the top for the case. “It’s all mine.” He did a flip in the air and landed perfectly.
“But what is it?” she exclaimed.
Levi laughed. “It’s something you apparently stole from him.”
Confused, she stared at the box and shook her head. “I’ve never stolen anything from Charmin.” At his snort, she glared at him. “Ever.”
“You stole one can.” He sat back on his haunches. “I snuck one back and then placed an order all on my own.” He cast a wary eye at Levi. “On Levi’s account, to replace it.”
And dimly she remembered the salmon incident. “You ordered a pallet of salmon because I took one out of the cupboard?”
Not possible. But from the look on his flat face, apparently it was.
And then she clicked. “And that’s the order that let the kidnapper realize we must have something worth stealing?”
Levi laughed.
Milo grinned.
Charmin snorted. “Like I was going to let him get away with stealing this. I told you. No more stealing.” He gave her a huge fat grin. “And now they’ve given the whole thing to me for Christmas!”
“Oh Lord,” she said in fascination, walking closer. “You can’t possibly eat all that yourself.”
He reared back on his legs. “Get back. It’s mine. All mine.” But he misjudged the edge and tumbled backwards.
They broke out laughing. Dani walked over and picked him up. “You’re so round now, soon you won’t be able to climb on top of your box. If you eat all of this salmon, you’re going to get fat.”
He eyed her, eyed his own healthy size rump, then dropped his glance back to the pallet. And said, “Okay, you can have one can.”
With a snort, he pinned her with his huge orange eyes and added, “But only one!”
He flopped onto his back threw his arms open and yelled, “Best Christmas ever!”
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Broken Protocols 3.5! If you enjoyed the book, please take a moment and leave a short review.
Dear reader,
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Dale Mayer
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