AI - Alpha Part 36

She was quiet for so long, he thought she wouldn't answer. Just when he was about to ask again, she said, "We have two jets-and two pilots."

He tensed, astonished. "You would give me the fighter?"

"No. The Winchester. Charon's private jet." She spoke with difficulty. "You could go home. Take it to your Air Force. Let them crack its mesh and find out what they can about Charon. I get the Banshee.

And my freedom."

Thomas closed his eyes with relief. It only lasted a moment, though. She hadn't agreed to this option. If he was too enthusiastic for option three instead of option one, she might get angry and take two instead.

With Alpha, he could never be certain.

"So where does that leave us?" he asked.

"I've spent a lot of time going over the records in my internal library, both the fiction and nonfiction."

He didn't know what to make of her new topic. "And?"

"In matters of intimacy, consent plays an important role for your species."

Your species. Not hers. At least now he could see where this was going. "That's true."

"If I force you to go to Brazil, you probably won't be happy."

"I would go nuts being kept that way."

She began to ma.s.sage his shoulder muscles. "You would never have to work again."

"I would be bored crazy. Why do you think I never retired?"

"We would find things to do." She leaned close, and her whisper tickled the sensitive ridges of his ears.

"You would have me. Any time you wanted."

Thomas almost groaned. "You don't debate fairly."

"I want you to be happy." She sat up and continued working on his muscles. "I don't understand why you have become so important in my programming, overriding even my codes for self-preservation.

Nevertheless, it seems to have happened."

Thomas put his hand over hers. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know." She turned her hand over and curled it around his fingers. "In a few days, you will be well enough to fly the Winchester home."

"Yes, I think so." Two days might be pus.h.i.+ng it. If he had trouble while he was alone in the jet, he could end up in the water. He doubted he could force himself to stay here any longer, though.

"Take that much time to decide," Alpha said.

His hand tensed around hers. "Decide?"

"If by the time you're well enough to fly the Winchester, I haven't convinced you to take option one, you can go home." Quietly she added, "We will each have our own life and we will never see each other again, unless your Air Force or NIA catches me, a possibility I will use all of Charon's resources to avoid."

He could well imagine. "It's my choice?"

"Yes."

Thomas let out a silent breath. "Thank you."

Her voice lightened. "I get two days to convince you."

Intrigued, he tilted his head back. "What did you have in mind?"

Alpha slid out from behind his chair, her body brus.h.i.+ng his, her leather smooth on his skin. She came

around in front of him. Taking both his hands, she tugged. "Come on."

Thomas stood up carefully. "Alpha . . ."

She regarded him like a sleepy black cat. "That's me."

"Last year, after my first heart attack-" He hesitated.

"Yes?"

"I didn't want to touch a woman for months."

"Why?"

"Well, at the time I thought it was the drugs."

"Is that how you feel now?"

"Right now," he murmured, "I am very glad to be alive." He put one of his hands behind her neck and

kissed her, savoring it. Then he spoke softly. "I've wanted to do that all morning."

"Good," she murmured.

"I don't want you to expect more than I-"

She stopped him by putting two fingers against his lips. "Whatever you need, whatever you want, is fine.

If you just want to lie together, fine. If you want more, that's fine, too."

She took his hand then, and drew him into the station.

Thomas stirred and rolled onto his side. He watched Alpha in the moonlight sifting through the window.

She was so quiet, lying next to him with her eyes closed. He wasn't sure what she was doing, something about maintenance on her matrix, but it resembled sleeping.

It was so easy to forget she wasn't alive. Perhaps the problem was his definition of life. She could be soft or wicked, as gentle or as misbehaved a lover as he desired. She could make him feel twenty years younger at night and become his bodyguard during the day. She would never grow old, yet she didn't seem to care about his age. Was he crazy to give that up?

No, he wasn't crazy. She was one of the greatest threats he knew to the security of his country, possibly to the world. Her primary purpose wasn't as a pleasure toy, however much Charon had included that in her design. She was the prototype for a new generation of warriors, one that would change warfare forever. He had a responsibility to bring her back with him, and if that wasn't possible, he had to return with whatever information he could about Charon's plans, including the Winchester and its secrets.

Admit it. You want her to come with you. He hated giving her up. But could he protect her? He couldn't guarantee her political asylum even if she agreed to cooperate with the NIA and the Pentagon. He thought of contacting Sunrise Alley. One of their purposes seemed to be advocacy and protection of formas. They had helped Pascal. They had let him into their shadowy realm, and Sam as well, and that led to the negotiations between the Alley and the Pentagon. Thomas didn't know where those discussions would lead, but if Alpha became a factor in them, it would be that much harder for anyone to take her apart.

They might refuse her. Charon had been the one threatening Pascal, and Alpha had worked for Charon. If the Alley didn't turn her away, it could precipitate a completely different problem. Who knew what might evolve if Sunrise Alley added Alpha to their EI mix?

He ran his hand over her side. Her curves were velvety and toned with muscle. She stretched next to him, long and languorous, and her eyes opened, sensual in the dark. When he reached for her, she pulled him close and her kiss blanketed his worries. Then she nudged him onto his back and got up to kneel over him. She sat back, straddling his hips, and slid her palms in a caress over his chest.

"Come back to D.C. with me," Thomas said.

"I can't."

"Listen." He caught her hands. "Ask for political asylum."

Her forehead furrowed. "What?"

"Crazy human leap of faith. Ask my people to give you asylum from Charon's people. In return, you'll

tell mine about his organization."

"Crazy is right," Alpha said. "Political asylum applies to people from other countries. Two strikes against me. I'm neither people nor the citizen of a country."

"That's the point." Thomas released her hands and pushed up on his elbows. "If you ask for asylum, we

will have to figure out what those concepts mean for biomech formas. As long as we're looking for

answers, you're safe."

"And if they decide I'm neither? Then I'm just a prisoner. Again. How is that different from me hauling you off to Brazil?" She shook her head. "At least I'm offering you a good life. I'm not threatening to take apart your brain."

"I've no guarantees if I go with you, either," he pointed out. "This could all be a ploy to get information

out of me."

"It's not." She leaned over him, bracing her weight with her hands on either side of his head. "In either case, one of us has to trust the other. But I have more to lose. If your people decide I deserve the rights of a human being, what then? Do I go on trial for kidnapping and almost killing a general?"

"No. Bargain with them."

"They might refuse. Or lie."

"I can't give you promises." He couldn't bring himself to lie about it, however much he wanted her to

come with him. "But I have almost no doubt that they'll bargain and do it honestly."

"Your government will go after Charon's finances."

"Possibly. I take it they're rather extensive."

"Rather," she murmured. "Twenty billion."

Thomas stared at her. "Good Lord. He's worth that much?"

"It was more before he started building androids." She s.h.i.+fted her weight in a way that would have

seemed unconsciously seductive had she been human. Could an android seduce without intent? It could be deliberate, but he didn't think so.

"Charon is dead," she said. "He has no known relatives."

"What happens to his money?""I control his finances." Her voice turned sultry. "Twenty billion dollars, Thomas. Ours."That stunned him into silence. Theirs? No."Yours and mine," she said."I don't believe you." He couldn't believe it, because if he did, he didn't know if he could walk away from that temptation.