The Android and the Thief

by Wendy Rathbone

  “Fuck, bro. You are clearly one crazy fuck!”

  Trev grinned. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  “You know we’ll be tracked as soon as Dad finds you and this flier gone.”

  “All this time working for Dad and you don’t know how to disable a tracker?” Trev leaned forward and had the job done in under a minute.

  Next, Trev entered coordinates into the flier’s console. “Drop me there, and that’s it. You can take yourself and the flier home. Maybe Dad won’t even notice you were gone.”

  “Likely chance,” Breq replied sarcastically. “But I’ll do what I can to keep Dad from finding you again.”

  Resigned friendliness from two of his brothers and sisters was like full-on sibling bonding for their family. Trev took what he could get.

  “You’re soaking wet,” Breq pointed out.

  “Yeah. It helps me evade detection with some security systems.”

  “I’ll have to remember that.”

  “Not all security systems. I just got lucky.”

  Breq turned the flier and dived toward the planet, out of view of the house and any more prying eyes.

  The flier spoke. “Twenty-nine minutes to destination.”

  “I hope you aren’t staying at those coordinates. That’s too close to home,” Breq commented.

  “Right under Dante’s eye, but he’ll never see us. Trust me,” Trev said.

  “Whatever you say, bro.”

  STARLIGHT LOST itself in the waves, and streaks of gray cloud smeared the black horizon. The waterfront sand looked white in the twin moons’ light as the flier crested a small, weed-topped cliff.

  “Here is good,” Trev said.

  The flier came to rest on a shiny shore in front of a wide ocean. Trev looked out the windows but could see no one. The moons reflecting the water made enough light that if anyone had been around for a quarter of a mile in either direction, they could be spotted.

  “He’s not here,” Breq said.

  “It’s okay. I’ll find him. Or he’ll find me. This is the spot.”

  “Are you sure? You want me to stick around?”

  “No. You need to get back. And make sure you buy that android.”

  “I’m not forgetting something like that.”

  Trev reached out and touched Breq’s arm. “Thank you.”

  Breq reached back. A shoulder grip. “Get outta here.”

  The door of the flier slid open—not a gull-wing like the one he’d stolen from the prison, but Breq’s flier was still a prime piece of equipment.

  Trev jumped onto the sand, smelling brine and salt foam. He heard a night bird cry, its tone skittering the air. The flier door closed. Breq took off. Trev stood in the warm afterburn, a dark figure on a lonely beach.

  The waves rushed, white-tipped, the current pulling back almost as soon as it came in. Wet sand gleamed. The moonlight shimmered silver on the water’s tossed and torn surface.

  Above the beach rose sandy cliffs that were only five feet tall in some areas, almost fifty feet farther down. The unevenness of the landscape gave the area a wild, unkempt feel.

  Trev looked down at his handheld. A breeze blew over him, making him shiver, though the night wasn’t cold. His bodysuit was still damp and clung to his chilled skin.

  The coordinates he’d given Khim were a little way off, and he began to walk in the direction his flickering screen indicated. Trev strode along the beach between dry sand and waterlogged silt, where the terrain was wet but hard and his feet didn’t sink.

  Patches of beach ahead were dark, streaked with clumps of seaweed. As he came closer, something moved. He slowed his pace as a dark shape rose up from the ground and took the form of a man. Tall, hair catching gold from the glow of the moons.

  Khim stood facing him.

  Trev increased his pace until he could make out Khim’s features—the wide forehead, the high bones of the cheeks, the strong chin. He was still dressed in that white shirt from two days ago and the dark trousers that had obviously belonged to Renn. When he was about thirty feet away, Trev stopped.

  He saw Khim’s mouth curve up. Khim held up his hands as if in question, but Trev knew it was an invitation. Permission.

  Trev let out a soaring laugh and ran the rest of the way to him, leaping forward at the last moment as Khim swept him up into a tight hug, holding him easily off the ground. Trev wrapped his legs about Khim’s waist, pressed his face to his neck, and squeezed his arms about him, breath coming fast.

  For a long time they embraced like that, chests pressed, hearts drumming against each other. Trev kept saying Khim’s name over and over like a prayer.

  Khim whispered into his ear. “I’m sorry I pushed you away, but your father was hurting you.”

  “It’s okay. It’s all okay.” Trev’s body, which had been chilled, was rapidly heating up now.

  Finally, Khim put him down. “You’re wet.”

  “Had to get past my father’s security. Seems all the best systems have this loophole about water.”

  Khim let out a soft laugh, a sound Trev rarely heard from him. “Well, now that the hard part is over, here we are. Nothing around for miles. Where to from here?”

  “The part about nothing around for miles isn’t true. Come on.”

  Side by side, they began to slog across the dry, sinking sand toward the cliffs.

  After a while they came to a set of wooden stairs that climbed the cliff face, the rails weathered and warped by the sea wind and weather. They took the stairs all the way to the top and came to a path lined unevenly with rocks. A short distance away stood a V-roofed house. It looked like a gray shadow in the night, with no lights, an abandoned cottage.

  As they drew closer, they could see it was neither neglected nor a cottage. An elaborate porch ran across the front, with huge glass windows on the first and second stories and no weathering to its gray-and-white frame.

  “I’ve got the entrance code here,” Trev said.

  “What is this place?”

  They walked up steps rippled in eddies of soft sand and approached the front door. “It’s in some estate trust of Arch’s from way back when he was a kid, and generations before him. He doesn’t actually own it, the trust does, although he’s the only name left on it. The trust is the kind that can’t be touched, not even by lawsuits. Arch wasn’t lying when he said he had places to go. Arch is like my father in that way. Those kinds of men always have contingencies. And more contingencies on top of those.”

  “Why didn’t he and Renn come here when they left two days ago?”

  “He didn’t say. But they are coming. Next week.”

  “And then where will we go?” Khim asked.

  “Nowhere for now. I’ll be working on our new lives for some months. Until then, we stay here.”

  “With them?”

  Trev could tell by Khim’s stance and the way his metal hand clenched and unclenched that he was uncomfortable with the idea. “Yes. With them. I checked out the schematics. This place is pretty big.”

  Khim just grunted.

  Trev smiled as the front door swung open after he entered a code into a box on the wall.

  The inside smelled somewhat dank, and as the lights came on at their entrance, Trev saw motes of dust swirling. He moved forward without hesitation. “I think the kitchen’s through here.”

  Khim followed, and the feeling of that was familiar and wonderful.

  Trev glanced around, then went to a group of cupboards and started opening them. He heard Khim behind him, tugging on a drawer here and there.

  Khim said, “There’s food in cans and boxes.”

  “There’s power to the heater and the freezer. It’s all working.”

  “How long has no one lived here?”

  Trev shrugged with a slight shiver.

  “Cold?” Khim asked.

  “I want something hot to drink. I’ve been wet for too long now.” He pulled some mugs from one of the cupboards, the ceramic painted with colorful b
lue and green flowers.

  “Tea?” Khim asked, holding up a canister.

  “Perfect.”

  Boiling water came from a red spigot by the sink.

  Khim opened the tin of tea bags. “Fancy,” he said.

  Trev was already shrugging out of his bodysuit. Underneath he had on a white top and thin cotton drawstring pants.

  Khim looked him up and down. “There have to be towels around.”

  “Just a blanket would be nice.”

  It took Khim only seconds to find him one from somewhere in the parts of the house they had yet to explore. It was small, plaid, and soft. Khim draped it around Trev’s shoulders.

  Just that gesture was warming to Trev. Khim handed him one of the mugs already steeping. Steam rose to warm Trev’s face. He put his lips to the edge of the mug, and as he took a tiny sip, the burn of the tea washed through his mouth.

  They sat at a square white table with a chrome frame. The bodysuit lay in a puddle on the floor, so thin it looked like just a scrap of black cloth with legs and sleeves.

  In such a short time, they had come from unbelievable, unwanted horror and excitement to this single quiet moment. An ordinary setting. Two men drinking hot tea as darkness cocooned house, land, and sea.

  Trev drew the blanket closer. Sipped. Could not take his eyes off Khim.

  Khim, it seemed, felt the same. His eyes wandered over Trev, intent, almost hungry.

  Trev gave him a sidelong smile. “I haven’t slept in thirty-six hours at least.”

  “We should locate the guest bedrooms.”

  “Bedroom. Singular. You’re staying with me.”

  Khim raised his brown-gold eyebrows. Too polite, perhaps, to say anything.

  A breeze blew about the house, rustling at the eaves.

  Trev finished his tea and rose.

  Khim picked up the mugs and took them to the sink, rinsing them out and putting them on an old wooden rack on the counter to dry.

  They wandered through the first story, finding two bedrooms down a long, dim hallway. They were pristine, as if just made up. Both had attached bathrooms.

  They took the bigger room.

  Trev said, “A hot shower, then sleep.”

  Khim nodded, going to the closet, opening it, looking inside. It was mostly empty. Trev could see some boxes on the top shelf. Some framed holos stood stacked on the floor on the left.

  Trev turned away before curiosity kept him from his much-desired shower.

  Chapter Thirty

  KHIM TOOK off his shirt but kept his trousers on. He pulled back the plush covers, all solid reds and pinks and blues, and got in under the crisp white sheets, leaning back against a luxurious stack of four pillows.

  He did not remember when he’d ever slept in a bed like this. For him it was always bunks—military, dungeon cell, prison. Or bedrolls on alien worlds in the middle of nowhere. Their one night at the motel had had a decent bed, but nothing as plush and soft as this one.

  He had found paper real-books in a drawer, old, the pages silverfish-nibbled, and stacked them on the bedside table. Ballads from the Planets of the Twelve Realms. A novel of adventure and time travel from the thirty-first century called Plus Plus Light. And ancient Earth classics, some familiar to him from his blurred, implanted memories—Gulliver’s Travels, Oliver Twist, Time Enough for Love, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. And one more he knew Trev would like, which he now took up and opened, supporting the bottom of the book on his chest and beginning to read.

  Trev came from the bathroom with a dark green towel around his shoulders and another, twin to it, wrapped around his waist. “I hung my clothes to dry. I don’t suppose you found any in your room search, did you?”

  “Better. I found these.” He pointed to the stack of real-books.

  Trev came over and got between the covers with the towel still wrapped around his waist. “Oh, wow.” He put his still-wet head on the pillow and turned onto his side, facing Khim.

  Khim glanced down at him, saw his eyelids flutter half-closed. “I’ll turn out the light,” he said quietly.

  “No, wait. I love that one you’re reading.”

  “A Bradbury. I know. That’s why I picked it up first.”

  “What part are you on now?”

  “I just started. This part, page four. ‘Crossing the lawn that morning, Douglas Spaulding broke a spider web with his face….’”

  “Go on. Keep reading,” Trev said.

  By the time Khim got to the “bee-fried air” on page six, Trev’s breathing was deep and even, as if he’d come a long, long way and only now could stop and rest.

  Khim set the book aside, turned out the light, and pulled the soft covers over Trev’s shoulders. He scooted closer to him, then lay on his back staring at the white ceiling for a while before he fell asleep.

  HE WOKE suddenly, scared. Something was chasing itself on the air.

  It was only Trev’s breath against his cheek.

  Where were they? Then he remembered. A house on a cliff by an ocean, by a beach.

  Trev shifted sleepily. “What?”

  Khim did not answer.

  Trev reached out and pulled him closer under the covers. Khim’s flesh hand, as if on its own, trailed down Trev’s naked hip, and fire sparked up his arm to his chest.

  Trev said, “Now I’m awake.”

  At once embarrassed, Khim moved his hand away, but Trev caught it with his own, pressing it against his skin, and said, “Kiss me.”

  So Khim did. And thought how lucky he was to have this man beside him a second time. It was a second chance for them both. When did anyone have such fortune as that?

  Trev’s mouth curved in a smile and opened to Khim’s. Turmoil of heat. Blue sparks in his vision. Sweet like air in a first gulped breath.

  Trev was lean and warm against him. Khim was fully hard in seconds. This man in his arms was a magician that way, made of fire commanding the brightness within them both.

  The air crackled around them, between them. Their arms and legs and bodies wove together. And their minds as well, as Trev whispered, “I want you. I want you,” and Khim said, “I missed you.” Then Khim added, “I only want you. I’m here. Only for you.”

  They rolled under the covers until they finally tossed them away. Trev pushed at Khim’s pants until Khim had to pause, reach down, and undo the clasp, pulling them off until there was nothing between them but skin.

  Trev writhed in his arms, and Khim’s desire heightened. He wanted to touch him everywhere at once. Stroke. Kiss. Lick. He found his mouth straying to Trev’s neck and shoulders, chest and sternum, found a hard nipple and licked it.

  Trev’s body went slack, almost boneless, so Khim repeated the gesture on the other side. He whipped the last of the sheet away, and in the dimness of the room, with only moonlight seeping about the curtains, saw shadows upon shadows, the darkest of them pooling between Trev’s legs where arousal fiercely rose. Khim leaned up and over him now, tracing his tongue in a line down his body. His metal hand held Trev in place at the hip, his flesh hand stroked his chest. His knees were bent at Trev’s thighs, and he scooted farther down.

  Trev moaned, reaching for him. Khim’s palm rose from Trev’s chest and clasped one of Trev’s flailing hands, holding tight. His metal hand trailed from hip to cock and drew up the underside. Then he lowered his head and followed that line with his tongue.

  Trev arched, then almost sat up, but Khim took his hand from his grip and pushed him down. Trev turned his head so that shadows made his face into contours of need, the whites of his eyes and his teeth flashing, his chest heaving. He brought his hand up to clutch at Khim’s bicep as Khim bent and kissed him on the stomach. Khim lifted his head to move downward again and looked at him. Trev was astonishing in his beauty, more beautiful than anyone Khim had ever seen.

  He wanted this. All of Trev, laid out before him in agonizing and pleasured splendor.

  “Let me,” he whispered against his thigh, and he took t
he tip of Trev’s cock between his lips.

  Trev’s clutch on him let go. His arms and body fell back. He groaned Khim’s name and burrowed his fists in the pillow at either side of his head.

  Khim’s tongue found the texture to be everything he craved, and he took more of Trev into his mouth, reveling in the clean taste, the smoothness, and found the supple and hard juxtapositions of arousal fascinating.

  Trev’s body rocked side to side. His hair pooled in deeper shadows on the white pillow. His tan skin rippled against cool white sheets. The air smelled of the ocean.

  Khim had had a fleeting thought two nights ago that he would mess this up, the touching part, the sex part, for two reasons. The first was because he’d always waited, his whole life, to be told what to do. The second was because he’d never done this with another person before. Their night at the desert motel had been his first time.

  Of course he knew what was what—the hows, the whys—and had witnessed others in the barracks having sex, although never looking closely, telling himself to never mind. But now he didn’t need to know anything except how he felt and what Trev’s responses communicated to him.

  Khim hadn’t known how devotion could inform someone of things they thought they were ignorant of. How love itself became a language made fluent when you allowed it purchase in the heart.

  He moved his mouth down on Trev, and even his metal hand felt the tremble in Trev’s hips. His lips sensed the way Trev’s core became electrified, how the blood rushed to strain and swell. He moved his mouth off, then lower, tongue caressing the velvet sac, the nodes within. Back up to the damp cock, he took it fully in his mouth and his mind blazed with the exhilaration.

  What had Trev done to him to make him burn so? Nothing, except be kind and generous and never use him against his will. That had never happened before. The caring. The unquestionable adoration.

  It did not take long. Trev was so eager and lost inside his own body’s responses. He cried out a warning, “That’s it. I’m going to—” and pushed gently at Khim’s shoulders.