by Wyatt Kane
It was enough to add some levity into what had turned into a very serious evening.
Lilith grinned very broadly. “I did miss you guys last night,” she said. “Just let me tell my father where I’ll be, and I’ll meet you back here in a moment.”
◆◆◆
When Lilith reappeared, the four of them headed not to Dinah’s room, but to Tempest’s. The blonde superhero had the biggest bed, and being able to speak to her father, even indirectly, seemed to have made Tempest more relaxed about her room having once belonged to him.
Despite the weariness which came with working so hard through the day, Ty felt himself becoming more alive as they entered the room. He looked about and saw that Dinah was grinning like a Cheshire cat, looking very pleased with herself, Lilith was already starting to blush, and even Tempest’s lips quirked up at the corners.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Ty had slept mostly alone in his tiny room in the crappy apartment he shared with Brad. And now, here he was, about to get naked with the three most spectacular women he’d ever known. It was a reality he wouldn’t trade for the world, even if it came with unexpected dangers.
Dinah seemed more than eager. She stripped off her clothes without hesitation and dived into the bed, then turned to watch the others with a truly gleeful expression.
“Hurry up!” she said. “Let’s get this party started!”
Ty laughed out loud and did his best to match her, but Lilith was quickest. She teleported from where she stood at the door to a spot beside Dinah in the bed, leaving her clothing behind.
Dinah responded with a squeal of surprise, then attacked the demon woman with gusto, kissing and biting for all she was worth. Lilith found herself pinned on her back, and it was all she could do to laugh out loud.
Ty had never seen the deerkin act like this before, and raised an eyebrow at Tempest.
The blonde superhero laughed. “She’s been holding back,” she said. “Didn’t want to scare you off.”
Ty was more aroused than afraid. He shrugged out of his shirt and kicked his pants aside. “Come on. Let’s give Lilith a hand,” he said.
Tempest gave him a nod, peeled out of her clothing, and then the two of them joined Dinah and Lilith in a riot of naked fun.
◆◆◆
After everyone was fully sated and starting to drift off, Dinah clambered over Tempest to be closer to Ty.
“I’ve been thinking,” she said, her voice low far more relaxed than usual. “About your little problem.”
Ty knew at once what she was talking about. He roused himself enough to respond. “And?” he said.
“And I think I might have found a solution.”
Even in the dark, Ty could make out Dinah’s beautiful face, although her deerkin markings were a little harder to discern. She was smiling at him from just a few inches away.
“What solution?” Ty asked.
“Well, there are plenty of megacorporations that offer tech in various guises, right?”
Ty nodded. “Yeah. They have entire departments full of engineers. I wanted to get a job like that at one point. But it never happened.”
“Yes. But here’s the thing. Even with the resources they have, there are often problems that the megas can’t solve. Technical issues that they either didn’t notice, don’t know how to fix, or just haven’t prioritized.”
Ty studied the deerkin in the dark. That was something most people only found out when they bought something that didn’t quite work. But it was interesting that Dinah would bring it up.
“And?” he said.
She walked her fingers up Ty’s belly to his chest. “And many of them pay good money to find solutions to those little problems.”
Ty forgot to breathe for a moment. “They do?”
“Of course they do. But only if it makes good business sense. Like, they won’t care about a solution to a problem they’ve described as a ‘feature’. But they will pay if they’ve kept a problem secret because it could open them up to legal issues, or if it’ll give them an advantage over a competitor, or if it fixes a bug that has been actively costing them money.”
Ty thought about what the deerkin was saying. As much as he didn’t really like the idea of working for the mega corporations, it did sound very much as if it would solve his financial issues. And he could pick and choose what he did, and when he did the work.
There was just one problem he could see. “How would I find out what the mega corporations needed?” he asked.
Even in the dark, he saw the deerkin’s grin become even broader.
“That’s where I come in. Information control, remember? There isn’t much I can’t find out, if I look hard enough.”
Of course, Ty thought.
He went to sleep thinking of the possibilities, and wondering if his life might be on the verge of taking another leap in the right direction.
38: Inevitability
It was almost inevitable that they would be woken by yet another of Dinah’s alerts.
Ty had been dreaming of uncountable riches gained through solving technical problems in the mega corporate world, when all of a sudden Dinah was trying to climb over him to get to a tablet computer she’d left on Tempest’s bedside cabinet.
Somewhere in the dark, Tempest groaned out loud, and Lilith made an inarticulate noise of concern.
“Sorry,” the deerkin said as a stray elbow caught Ty in the side hard enough that he let out a grunt.
“What is it?” Lilith asked in the darkness. She sounded on edge, and Ty understood why. Every time one of Dinah’s alerts had gone off in the past couple of days, it had signaled the start of one of the Master’s gambits.
He could only dread what this one might be.
“Give me a moment,” Dinah replied, and an instant later, her tone grew serious. “It’s Concussion,” she said. “Looks like he’s recovered from the AZT-407 hangover. He’s up to his old tricks again.”
This time, it was Ty’s turn to groan. He still had some of the drug in his system, and had wanted to see if he could use it to positive effect in the workshop. But it looked like he would have to spend the time rummaging through ruins once more.
He breathed a sigh of disappointment and was already starting to get out of bed when he felt Dinah stiffen. Before he could ask what was wrong, the deerkin turned to him in the dark.
“Ty,” she said, her voice full of shock. “It’s your building. Concussion has torn it apart.”
At first, Ty didn’t understand what Dinah was saying. His building? The remnants of his dream of uncountable riches hadn’t quite left him, but he was almost sure he didn’t own any buildings.
Then he understood, and the other part of what the deerkin said hit him.
His building. His apartment. Where he used to live.
“Brad,” he murmured in the dark. Then, as the awful possibilities hit him, louder. “Brad!”
Here ends book 4 in the Enhancer series.
Author’s Note
Here we are again, at the end of another book in my Enhancer series. As always, I very much hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please do leave a review. You’d be amazed at how important those are – they really can mean the difference between a series being able to continue, and not.
I really want to continue with Ty’s ongoing adventure, and I hope you’re having as much fun following along as I am doing the writing. So, please pop back to where you got this book and let others know what you thought. And, as usual, please remember not to include any spoilers. :-)
Here’s the generic bit about reviews I typically include: I understand that Amazon is making it harder for people to leave a review, so if you can’t, I understand, but if you can, a short sentence or two is as useful as a full-on, in-depth analysis.
Other than that, I’m already in the planning stages of book 5, and hope to have it out … soon!
As usual, if you have any questions or just want to say, “Hi!” drop me a line at:
[email protected]
One more thing. If you want to keep up to date with my latest releases, sign up to my newsletter here:
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Until next time,
Wyatt.
