Nobody's Hero Pt. 04

Author's Note:

See Pt. 1 for blurb. Also, if you haven't already read Pt's 1-3, I strongly recommend doing so before proceeding.

All sensuality (on page or otherwise) takes place between characters who are eighteen or older.

Copyright © 2024 Jake Lazarus

All rights reserved.

This book, or any portion thereof, may not be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the author (except for the use of brief quotations in a review).

This is a work of fiction.

Names, characters, businesses, products, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Thirty-Five

"Two girlfriends!" Eli exploded, shattering the relative calm of the mostly empty gymnasium.

"Would you keep it down?" Hugo hissed as his gaze flitted in the direction of the group of youths huddled around a single phone watching a video which was evidently the height of modern comedy, at least according to the frequent bursts of laughter emanating from the collective. "Yes," he added once Eli's expression demonstrated sufficient remorse. "I am, in fact, in love with two women. Since they're also in love with each other, we're all in a relationship now."

"Wait... so does that mean that they..." Eli's eyes flicked toward the young men sitting across the room as he fell silent. He then made a peace sign with each of his hands and fit the two V-shapes together, his eyebrows waggling suggestively as he mimicked what could only be described as a pair of scissors who were very well acquainted.

Hugo groaned, shaking his head. "You're such a cretin."

"Come on, dude!" Eli chortled. "You swore to me that you didn't even date. Now you're hooking up with two chicks at the same time!"

"I knew I shouldn't have said anything," Hugo snapped as he turned to stalk away.

"Hey!" Eli yelped as he caught up just as Hugo exited the gym. "Take it easy, bro. I'm just bustin' your balls a bit. I ain't makin' fun of you or nothing."

"That's not the point. Say what you will about me. I could give a shit. But I won't stand for you casting aspersions on them."

"Only thing I said about them which could even be considered remotely negative was the fact that they're with you. Fuck, dude. You're living the God damn dream. Truth be told, I'm jealous as hell. I sure as fuck wish I could find even one woman who could put up with me."

Hugo stared at him for a long moment before sighing and offering a wry grin. He gestured to Eli's shirt, which featured a stoned-looking alien with the caption 'TAKE ME TO YOUR DEALER', and said, "Hard to imagine what they find so objectionable."

"Dude. Low blow."

"Hugo?" Will called softly from the opposite end of the darkened hallway. "A moment?"

After handing off the clipboard he held to Eli, Hugo made his way to Will's office. Upon entering, he took a seat and said, "What's up?"

"Can you close the door?"

"Um... ok." After pushing the door closed, Hugo returned his attention to the youth center administrator. His mood fell when he noticed Will's grim expression. He glanced around in a subconscious effort to find the cause for his friend's disquiet but found nothing of note. At length, he spoke with a conspiratorial tone. "What's wrong?"

"We've had some complaints," Will sighed in frustration.

"The pavement on the basketball court?" Hugo guessed.

"They concerned you, Hugo."

"Because I was gone for a few days? I just took a quick vacation."

"God dammit," Will muttered. "I fuckin' hate people."

"What's going on, Will?"

"There's been a bunch of stories online... about everything that's been happening to you, and to people around you. They suggest that maybe you're somehow responsible for some of the crazy shit that's been going on."

"And you believe that?" Hugo huffed.

"Of course not, brother. I admit some of the stuff you've been involved in recently is pretty insane, and very hard to believe. But it would take something way bigger than you somehow surviving being executed by miraculously turning into a superhero to make me begin to doubt the kind of person you are."

"Thanks," Hugo grunted as he swiped his hand over his unexpectedly misty eyes.

"But," Will continued, "I also can't afford to ignore the concerns of so many of the parents of our kids. Especially considering the fact that I'm guessing you're not very keen on the idea of bringing all of them in so you can explain your powers."

"That wouldn't be my first choice, no."

"Listen, brother. I really want to tell the ones who insist that your presence here puts their kids in danger that they're out of their fucking minds. But... are they?"

Hugo's sigh carried the weight of the world. He looked up from his clasped hands and murmured, "You know I'd do anything to keep them safe, Will. But I honestly don't know for certain that some of what's been happening, especially recently, isn't targeted at me specifically."

"So, where's that leave us?"

"I guess it leaves you down a volunteer," Hugo groaned as he got to his feet and reached for the door.

"Wait," Will said with firm conviction. Hugo turned to face him but did not take his seat. "Listen. Between you and me, what the hell is going on?"

"I already told you everything. After I got shot, this angel visited me and said I was being given a second chance, and that I'd have help. These devices which assist me during these calamities are that help. In a manner of speaking."

"You know I wouldn't believe word one of this fantastical bullshit if I hadn't seen you in the hospital with a hole in your head..."

"Two holes, if memory serves."

"Exactly. If I hadn't seen that, and then had you walk into my office the next day; not only not dead, but in perfect health... I'd think you were a world-class con artist. Not to mention an asshole."

"Hence why I'm not anxious to hold a town hall with people whose minds are likely made up already."

"What about all the crazy shit that's been happening? The local news ran a story last night which was basically a clip show for this influencer whose apparently got a bug up her ass about you. She's coming as close as libel laws allow to saying that you're the reason all this shit's happening."

"How in the hell would I cause a hundred-year flood?" Hugo complained.

"Her veiled accusations start at the incident on the bridge. But she very clearly implied that you orchestrated both that and the business at the concert."

"That's such bullshit! I was nearly killed both times. The second one even sent me to the hospital. Unconscious, I might add."

"I ain't the one makin' accusations here," Will protested, his hands raised in surrender. "Just passing along why folks are nervous. Which brings us back to our little impasse. They're scared about you being here..."

"Then I'm gone," Hugo muttered as he again opened the door, leaving the office before Will could make another token defense.

***

"Revisiting our main story for this evening," the bleach-blonde newsreader enthused, "new information has come to light today suggesting that the horrific incident two weeks ago on the Market Street bridge, in addition to the near-tragedy at the Chattanooga Music Festival, were in fact caused by none other than Hugo van der Mewre, the notorious fake hero lauded for stopping each event. Our sources suggest that Mr. Van der Mewre, an immigrant drifter who invaded our fair city just a few years ago, is in fact a criminal mastermind; and that these tragedies are just building up to a larger calamity where he plans to demand a hefty ransom before pretending to intervene.

"In other news, famed tech billionaire Korben Lundberg announced today that he has sold another division of his fantastically successful..."

"What the actual fuck!" Hugo grunted as he clicked off the tiny television and leaned back in the ancient, not to mention noisy, desk chair.

He stared at the darkened walls of Derek's office as though the calendar distributed by an oil filter manufacturer would contain the answer to his conundrum, but the purportedly soothing pencil drawing of a covered bridge stood mute. It was nearly midnight, and he had spent the four hours since leaving the youth center holed up in his boss's office in hopes of crafting a strategy to combat what he now realized was a concerted effort to sow discord and fear amongst his fellow citizens, all of which was being expertly pointed in his direction.

His attention was pulled away from his frustration by a noise in the waiting room. He reached for Artoo, only to be reminded that he had left both his trusty device and his watch in his truck, itself still parked dozens of blocks away at the youth center. Absent his normal means of surveillance, Hugo rose from the desk and made his way through the office making as little noise as possible. Gripping the doorknob, he pulled it upward to prevent it dragging against the floor and opened it slowly.

"Hugo?" a sweet mezzo soprano voice whispered fiercely.

He relaxed his body and groaned, "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," Carrie snapped snippily. "Obviously. The better question is... what are you doing here?"

"Research," Hugo deflected.

"You could have done research at Carrie's place," Faith murmured.

"But he didn't want to come to my place," Carrie seethed. "Did you? Loverboy."

Hugo could only shake his head in sorrow as he moved to retake his seat.

"What are you talking about?" Faith asked slowly.

"Why do you think he left Artoo and his watch in his truck, babe? He's trying to avoid us."

"Hang on a minute," Hugo protested. "That's not what I'm doing."

"Bull! Shit!" Carrie growled.

"Why are you so upset?" Faith sobbed.

"Because he found out some bitch is spreading lies about him online. So, of course, his first thought was to abandon us."

"I just wanted to..."

"I know," Carrie interrupted. "You wanted to protect us. Did it genuinely not occur to you that we could help you? Fuck, Hugo! You're so God damned selfish sometimes!"

"Please, honey," Faith pleaded, her hand finding Carrie's as a tear rolled down her cheek. "I'm sure he was just trying to keep us safe."

Carrie sighed, her anger fading in favor of a somber loneliness which Hugo found even more gutting. "I know he is," she whispered tearfully. "I just wish he'd trust us, like he fucking swore he would when he claimed to love us."

"I do love you," Hugo implored. "Both of you."

"Then why do you keep acting as though the solution to every problem is for you to be alone?" Carrie shouted.

"Because I can't bear the thought of something happening to either of you," he replied with a choked voice. "You'd both have been better off never meeting me."

"Don't," Faith said, her voice shaking as she stabbed a finger into his chest. "Don't you dare say that to me. To us. You told us you loved us, Hugo. Do you know how many people have told me that? How many have lied to me?"

"I swear on the soul of my father, I have never lied to you... to either of you. I love you more than life itself. I would die before hurting you."

"Then why are you shutting us out?"

His shoulders slumped in defeat. "I already told you."

"You've got two choices here, Hugo," Carrie interjected. "Either you truly love us; meaning you'll allow us to love you and stand by you through thick and thin. Or you're just another bastard liar. So, what's it gonna be?"

Her eyes bore into him with a mixture of hope and fear. And while he took some small measure of comfort from the former, the latter was like a dagger to his soul. A tear rolled down his cheek as he breathed, "I love you. I will always love you."

Carrie pulled him close with a desperation that he understood with every fiber of his being. He pulled Faith into their embrace, a chattering sigh escaping his lips as he felt their love surround him.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered. "So very sorry."

Faith looked up at him and murmured, "Say it again."

"I'm sorry," he replied resolutely.

"No," she sighed. "The important part."

"I love you both so very, very much."

"Oh, babe," Faith sighed.

"You swear you won't try to shut us out again?" Carrie sobbed.

"With all that I am."

She gestured with her head toward Derek's desk. "Then tell us what's got you so God damned overcome with nobility and self-sacrifice."

"It's Ben's mom," Hugo admitted somberly.

"That kid who you rescued from being kidnapped by his absentee father?"

Hugo nodded sadly. "She did an interview with... Maria. She told her that I had no cause to quote, unquote, attack her ex-husband, and that Ben has been in therapy ever since over the trauma of seeing his father, how did she put it... brutally beaten in front of him."

"That fucking cunt," Carrie growled. "She told everyone who would listen that you saved her son after the incident. Forget for the moment why she changed her story. The bigger question is: what's her game? Especially considering no one could possibly believe her at this point?"

"She was actually interviewed by one of the local stations this evening," Faith pointed out. "Maria, not Ben's mom. She claimed that the cops are seeking you for questioning. Obviously, it's complete bullshit, because you're basically at your apartment, and we didn't see any cops outside."

"How do you already know about this?" Hugo asked in wonder.

"What the fuck do you think we've been doing all day?" Carrie griped. "Wally and Delores started pinging us about this smear campaign shortly after you left for work. So, we spent the day finding out what was going on."

"And?" Hugo asked after a pregnant pause.

"This is way beyond a silly tart like Maria," Faith replied. "We're talking about a concerted campaign across multiple platforms. Her first post since before we went to the Caribbean was posted this morning at one AM. It had gone viral by the time the sun came up and gained enough attention that she was on the noon news program of the largest affiliate in town. By dinner time, she was on all the channels, and she was booked to do a few spots on national cable news. The simple fact is that she's never shown a hundredth the savvy and resourcefulness something like this would have required. Ergo, she's getting help. A lot of it."

"Like the kind of help a billionaire tech mogul could provide," Hugo concluded.

Carrie nodded emphatically. "Exactly. We always knew he wouldn't be content to just take the 'L' after the Dominican Republic. I guess we now know his next move."

"Which only leaves the question of what you're going to do in response," Faith finished.

He smiled crookedly in their direction before saying, "You mean what we are going to do."

Thirty-Six

"Is that really all of it?" Hugo sighed as he stacked a fourth box on the floor by the door to his apartment.

"Yes," Artoo answered in a flat tone.

"Three years living in this apartment... and I've accumulated a grand total of four boxes of stuff?"

"Insufficient data."

"Thanks," he grunted. "You've been very helpful."

He stretched his back and surveyed the now-empty apartment, marveling at the juxtaposition between how little his life had changed between his honorable discharge from the military leading up to when he had been shot, compared to the cataclysmic upheaval his life had undergone since. The fact that he had, in less than a fiscal quarter: died from a gunshot wound, met an angel, aligned himself with two ethereal beings capable of making supremely powerful nanobots, met not one but two women who exceeded every dream he had never dared to conjure with respect to a potential partner, met one of the world's richest men, fallen in love with the aforementioned women, made an enemy of the aforementioned man, and agreed to move in with his now-lovers; only missed being beyond his capability for rationalization because he had lived every moment of the fantastical adventure.

Never one to linger on the past, Hugo shook off his ruminations and began the brief process of carrying the entirety of his belongings out to his truck. Job done; he made his way into the auto shop to drop his keys off with Derek. He found his boss in the pit, draining the oil out of an ancient station wagon.

"Done so soon?" Derek grunted without taking his eyes from his work.

"Turns out I have basically no belongings," Hugo joked.

"Maybe not for long. Them ladies of yours certainly seem like the gift-giving types."

"They already bought me a ton of clothes when I told them that I just had a week's worth."

"Hey Derek?" a young voice called out. "I got this lady in the waiting room who says she needs a tire rotation. I told her she was a moron, and that her tires rotate every time she goes some place, but she's refusing to leave."

A man of no more than twenty entered the pit. He had the appearance of someone who spent the entirety of his school years playing sports and looking for likely victims for physical intimidation, only to find himself with no college prospects and no viable job skills upon barely managing to secure a diploma. Hugo turned his head slowly from the newcomer to Derek, his eyes opening wider with each passing second.

Derek shook his head in dismay. "You told me your daddy taught you everything there was to know about auto repair."

"He did!"

"But you ain't never heard of a tire rotation? Heard of an oil change?"

"That's when you, um, I mean, you change... the oil?"

"You said you can still work a few days a week," Derek prompted hopefully. "Right?"

Hugo opened his mouth to answer, but an insistent buzzing from his pocket interrupted him. He held up a finger in Derek's direction as he extracted Artoo to find a 'MISSION BRIEFING' notification.

He looked back to his frequent boss and sometimes mentor helplessly, prompting the latter to say, "Go!"

Hugo walked quickly from the building as he tapped on the notification. He was confronted with sporadic video of passenger jets, but it was soon apparent that something was quite wrong as they were moving about in a manner not unlike what one would expect from a teen driving school run by a recidivist drunk driver on work release. Chaos reigned as planes stopped and started seemingly at random, rapidly working themselves into a traffic snarl worthy of an arena parking lot following a sold-out concert.

Just as he got his truck moving, Artoo chirped to notify him of an incoming call.

"Babe?" Faith asked hesitantly. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah. Listen, there's something happening..."

"We know," she interrupted. "Carrie is in her office, and I ducked into the storage room."

"Oh."

"I thought we were past this lone gunslinger bullshit," Carrie deadpanned.

"I'm not suggesting I don't appreciate your help..."

"Later," Carrie interrupted, although Hugo noted her voice contained none of the heat he had expected. "We need to figure out how to handle this. Or did you forget that you distracted us with your exquisite cock last night when we were supposed to be discussing tactical roles and responsibilities."

"I distracted you?" Hugo chuckled. "Refresh my memory, who was it who took off all her clothes and started rubbing her pussy when I was at the white board."

"I wasn't playing with myself," Carrie retorted. "I was playing with Faith. And I regret nothing. Besides, I can hardly be blamed for my behavior when you parade around our apartment in those basketball shorts that leave nothing to the imagination."

Faith interrupted, "I promise you can both play with my pussy after we figure out what the hell is happening at the airport. I suggest Wally and I work on figuring out how this started while Carrie provides tactical support to Mr. Exquisite Cock."

"Is that all I am to you?" he teased.

"Not by a long shot, my love. But it is undeniable that, in addition to being the most wonderful man I've ever met and one of the loves of my life, you also have a magnificent penis."

"Indeed," Carrie agreed. "We've got... um... fifty-three tetrahedrons which can be at the airport within five minutes of your expected arrival."

Faith cut in, "I suggest you send in the ones closest in advance to see if we can drop off some electronics control spheres on the tower and at least one plane."

Hugo nodded, knowing both women could see him through their devices despite Artoo only displaying the speediest route to his destination. "Good call. How many tetrahedrons does that leave us to continue patrolling the city in case this is part of a larger attack?"

"One-hundred-and-forty-three."

"Glad someone thought to buy Mycroft," Faith murmured, referring to the top-of-the-line A. I. P. C. she had convinced her partners to buy which, after receiving a celestial upgrade, now handled most of the effort to control their drones.

"Didn't I tell you it was a brilliant idea?" Hugo huffed.

"You did, indeed. Although you also mentioned a few dozen times that it was the most expensive thing you'd ever purchased. A genuinely silly statement considering that Korben actually went through with handing ownership of that estate in the Dominican Republic over to you, which will make you a millionaire once the sale is completed."

"I formally withdraw any and all objections to said purchase and petition the court to have said objections stricken from the record."

"Let's focus, my loves," Carrie interjected. "Our first tetrahedrons will be on station in thirty seconds. Hugo? Babe, you're projected to hit some pretty gnarly traffic. I suggest we reroute you to somewhere out of the way so I can detail a flight of our lovelies to pick you up."

"I guess there's no point in trying to keep my involvement under the radar," he agreed. "Let's do it."

"Our involvement," Carrie corrected.

"I in no way meant to diminish your contributions. But I have zero intention of allowing anyone outside the three of us to connect either of you to what we're about to do. Especially in light of recent press coverage."

Before either of his lovers could voice further objections, Hugo found an older parking garage attached to a building which housed an ancient logistics company. As he entered, Artoo confirmed his suspicion that there was no surveillance present. He navigated to an empty corner of the lowest level and parked in a spot which he hoped would not attract notice. By the time he finished stowing Artoo in his pocket and donning a few pieces of equipment his lovers had insisted on buying him, a dozen tetrahedrons floated before him. Upon receiving his nod of approval, they surrounded him.

Hugo felt little in the way of motion, thanks in large part to the smooth, deliberate nature of his minions' locomotion. He focused on Artoo while in transit, studying the information coming in from the pair of airplanes and control tower with which they could now interface. He could make little of what he saw, however, outside of a sense of pandemonium. The pilots were shouting at the tower, making accusations of contradictory or dangerous instructions, while the tower responded with righteous indignation, claiming that the pilots were ignoring them.

"This makes no God damn sense," Faith whispered. "Either they're all taking some very serious drugs, or we're missing something."

"Wait a minute," Carrie grunted. "Where are the cops?"

"Holy shit, you're right," Faith added. "They're totally M. I. A... same for E. M. S. and fire."

"I can't see any sign of police presence anywhere close to the airport," Carrie reported grimly. "I've got Mycroft scanning for any sign of public services, but it's coming up empty so far."

"Curiouser, and curiouser," Hugo observed.

"Oh, shit!" Carrie exclaimed. "Two jets just crashed into one another on one of the taxiways. One basically t-boned the other. There's fuel on the runway and I can see smoke."

"Take me to one of those big-ass firetrucks," Hugo declared. "If there's no emergency services present, we'll have to do it ourselves."

"Ok," Carrie replied. "And I've got a tetrahedron already detailed to getting it running before you arrive."

Hugo watched the situation unfold with increasing anxiety as he zoomed toward the airport. Unfortunately, the top speed of the tetrahedrons while carrying a passenger was little better than one would expect from a passenger vehicle. By the time he arrived, there were visible flames on the wing of one of the planes and the blaze was approaching the jet fuel belching from the opposite wing.

Fortunately, Carrie had been successful in getting the emergency vehicle running and he was able to quickly get under way. Artoo scanned the dashboard, comparing the controls found there to sources it found online as to how to deploy the fire suppression systems.

Moments after he triggered the flow of the flame-eating foam onto the blaze, Hugo heard Carrie's worried voice in his ear. "Oh, no."

"What now?" he asked as he leapt from the massive truck to assist people as they slid down the escape ramp from the closer of the planes.

"Whatever is going on is starting to happen with planes in the air. According to the pilots, we just had a near miss and they're screaming about conflicting instructions from the tower."

Faith cut in, "Best I can tell this started about an hour ago. It began small, with just a few confused sounding pilots, and grew from there."

"Until we hear differently, lets focus on the tower," Hugo decided. "Carrie, what will it take to get complete control of all their systems?"

"I'm on it. Their systems were updated a few years ago and are now networked. Give me two minutes."

"And Faith, honey, I need you to get to work on figuring out what the hell happened to the cops."

"That piece is somewhat simpler, although still fairly grim. It seems as though a ton of reports started flooding through official channels starting two hours ago."

"Reports of what?"

"A school shooting," Faith reported somberly. "It's all bullshit, fortunately, but initial indications were that it was just awful. Sixty dead with hundreds wounded. It's no wonder every vehicle in the entire city with a siren raced to help."

"Jesus Christ," Hugo breathed.

"I'm starting to get control of the computer systems in the tower, but there's something weird happening here. Our nanobots are being actively overridden."

Hugo thought for a moment before all the pieces finally slid into place. "Honey, you need to cut the network connection to the tower. Immediately. And get me over there."

Carrie did not even hesitate. "On it." Hugo looked up to spot several orbiting tetrahedrons change direction abruptly and head toward him. Just as his minions began speeding him in the direction of the tower, Carrie added, "Got it. The tower is now isolated. And... it looks like our little friends are finally starting to make some headway."

"Why did that work?" Faith asked. "Are we dealing with a hacker or something?"

"In a manner of speaking," Hugo replied darkly. "Let's get these planes safely on the ground and then we'll deal with the forensics. Faith, sweetheart, I need you to run down the street to that electronics emporium on the corner, and pick up as many external drives as you can. With the tower offline, we'll need to get creative about collecting their data for our little friends to analyze. But, if I'm right, we've gotten our answer as to Korben's next move, and we won't be able to afford allowing him to escalate things again."

Thirty-Seven

Hugo stared anxiously at the floor indicator on the elevator, which was incrementing far too slowly for his liking. He was grateful that he was the lift's only occupant, saving him from the indignity of having to insist that other residents 'take the next car' since he reeked of jet fuel and burnt rubber. Sundown was many hours in his past, and it had been even longer since he had eaten anything. Playing on a loop in his mind were three thoughts of such rudimentary simplicity, such instinctual primacy, that he had little doubt his ancestors a thousand generations into antiquity had shared similar ambitions upon returning home: sustenance, sex, and sleep. A shower would also be preferable but was by no means required. He had once heard one of his enlisted men declare that all any man needed to realize complete contentedness, perhaps even achieve nirvana, was a steak dinner, a blowjob, and fourteen hours of uninterrupted sleep. In that order. And while Hugo had found the man in question to be lacking in far more areas than not, he had trouble finding fault with that particular assertion... especially after the day he had had.

So obsessed was he with thoughts of his 'three things' that it took Hugo several moments to realize that his partners had notably deviated from what had become their typical fashion of welcoming him home. The details tended to vary from day-to-day, but a consistent theme was a heavenly combination of alluring, lurid, sensual, wanton, lusty and fantastical. Yet rather than prancing around in lingerie or lounging in the bath surrounded by enough candles to give a fire marshal heart palpitations, his partners were seated in the living room staring somberly at their merged phones covering the entire coffee table.

"Honeys, I'm home," he said timidly.

Faith stood and rushed to his side, hugging him with a fierce intensity before she whispered, "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," he whispered into her ear as she continued to cling to him. "I was never really in any danger."

"Bullshit," Carrie replied as she joined their embrace. "That fireball was massive, babe."

"I'm just glad I had your help," Hugo soothed.

Faith pulled back and offered him a weary smile. "Sorry we didn't have your nightly fantasy queued up."

"It's fine," he replied with complete sincerity. "I had no expectations that you would."

"Bullshit," Carrie repeated. "I saw your face fall when you came in. It's just..."

"I get it," he interrupted. "I basically raised Jenneke. I understand female biology."

"Oh, it's not that," Faith chuckled. "Wally and Delores assured us we'd be fine to spread out shark week by a comfortable margin. They point out that since we're now basically immune to disease, we have the potential to both live longer and age slower; meaning we could potentially continue to have children long past when such a thing would have been unthinkable for our mothers. So, they say it actually makes sense to only have three or four periods a year, just to save our eggs."

"I guess that makes sense," he said slowly.

"Should I take from your reticence that you don't want children?" Carrie asked without emotion.

He looked between them, taking in their crestfallen expressions, before pulling them into another embrace. "You must understand, my loves... when I say I did not plan on having children, I mean exactly that. Until you two came into my life, the idea of such a thing was beyond laughable. I do not say this to get sympathy, but I truly never expected to ever have a romantic relationship. To say nothing of loving someone enough to consider tomorrow. When you add in the fact that I was naturally predisposed to consider procreation a dodgy proposition at best, considering my parents' fate..." He sighed wearily before continuing. "But all of that changed when you two fell in love with me, and I with you. All of it."

Faith looked up at him with a vulnerability that threatened to bring him to his knees. He bent down to kiss her gently and was relieved to see her smiling through her tears when he pulled back. "I love you more than words can express, and I would love to make a family with you, but," his eyes flitted toward the coffee table, "I get the sense that we've got more pressing matters to discuss."

They started to move toward the coffee table, but Hugo took Carrie's hand to get her attention. He pulled her close and murmured, "That goes for you too, beautiful. My soul is yours, from this day until the ending of the world."

"I know," she replied through happy tears, "but I'll never get tired of you telling me."

He followed her to the couch before continuing. "So, what's got you two so worried?"

"We just can't keep having these revelations during these crises," Faith replied, "and then fucking ourselves into unconsciousness once we're reunited. Not that I'm complaining. Making love to you two is my favorite thing in the world..."

"Indeed," Carrie agreed. "But we've got to stop reacting. We've been dancing around this ever since we got back from the Dominican Republic, but does anyone disagree that Korben's behind all this? Not just what went down in the Caribbean, but the attacks at the bridge, and the concert, and the airport... and the bullshit with Maria Von Ass-face?"

Faith shook her head gravely, her eyes going to Hugo, who signaled his agreement. She said, "Where we're stuck is the obvious 'why', along with a healthy dusting of 'how'."

"I think I've got a theory on that," Hugo replied. He extracted Artoo from his pocket, placing the trusty device on top of where Faith and Carrie's phones had merged on the table, whereupon it sank into them like a submarine hiding from enemy aircraft. As it completed its disappearing act, he returned his gaze to his lovers. "How did Korben make all his money?"

"Didn't he pump and dump a company he started?" Carrie guessed.

"No," Faith replied. "I was reading up on him on our way back home. It wasn't a company he sold; it was an algorithm. Right?"

Hugo nodded gravely. "Close. It was a new variant of Large Language Model. In other words, a new kind of A. I. which is purported to be vastly superior to anything else out there."

"And he bragged about how that wasn't even the tip of the iceberg for him," Carrie added.

"Exactly," Hugo confirmed.

Carrie added excitedly, "He also said that his tech was all about information, but that he needed your nanobots to put it to use!"

"It would seem that his information is not quite so impotent as he made out," Hugo concluded. "How else do we explain the, for want of a more elegant term, networking component to these disasters? The bridge? The concert? The airport? All specifically targeted vehicles and devices which were actively connected to the internet."

Faith snapped her fingers and declared, "And in the latest case, everything went back to normal when we cut the hard line."

"If he's got some super-sized A. I. capable of taking over basically any online system, then he's only scratched the surface of what he's capable of doing to us," Carrie announced with concern.

"Agreed," Hugo concurred with grim determination. "I'm not sure we can afford to continue behaving as if this will go away, or that he'll do us the favor of popping up on our doorstep so we can get him tossed in prison. I think we're going to have to track that bastard down and put a stop to this fuckwittery for good."

"You're suggesting we kill him?" Faith asked with a tremor in her voice.

"I don't like the idea any more than you do, honey. But he could have killed thousands of people today. And all indications are that that was just a stunt aimed at testing our abilities. This is all a game to that monster."

Carrie tapped on their combined devices. In moments, a display came up which showed a map overlay of a palatial estate just south of Santa Clara, California. "This dipshit is on the other side of the country, and we have to assume his tech can tap into basically anything on the internet. How in the hell do we get to him without him seeing us coming? He might not have our tech, but he's certainly got the money to hire a shitload of private security which, as we saw last week, are basically his own private army."

"We could drive," Faith offered. "As long as it wasn't a super-modern car, we could keep off the grid."

"It's more than the cars though, honey," Hugo interjected gently. "It's also the security cameras at every restaurant and gas station from here to the Bay Area. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me in the least to discover that he knows every time we leave this building."

Carrie tapped the screen demonstrably. "Can't we use our tech to suppress his visibility?"

Hugo looked momentarily surprised. "Um... yeah. I guess we could. Certainly around here."

Carrie spent a few moments manipulating some of the windows closest to her on the super-tablet before reporting, "Ok, we should be locked down for both this building and all the municipal cameras within a twenty-block radius by the time the sun comes up."

"Thanks, honey," Faith soothed. "As for getting cross country, I think there's a certain romance to traveling by car. Maybe even get ourselves a small R. V. and just stay out of sight while we fuck our way across the country."

Hugo smiled and said, "I agree, sweetheart. That sounds incredible. My worry is that we'd be exposing ourselves to literally hundreds of potential failure points. And he only has to get lucky once to send in the stormtroopers. We need to make sure we're the ones who have the element of surprise."

"So... where does that leave us?" Carrie asked wearily. "Obviously we can't fly commercial. We could try to do the trick with the private plane again."

"He must know that's how we got out of the Caribbean by now," Faith guessed. "It wouldn't be too hard for him to just check all the private flights from here to there." She tapped on the screen for a moment before adding, "And there aren't very many. He could easily just watch the local airports."

Hugo nodded his agreement. "I agree on all fronts. But talking about planes just reminded me of something I saw at the airport today which might fit the bill. And it would allow us to bring along all the nanobots we'd need to confront him. But we'd still need to decide if we're going, and when."

"Thank you," Faith murmured with her head downcast, and so softly that Hugo almost missed the fact that she had spoken.

"For what, honey?" he asked gently.

"For not trying to do this alone. For ignoring that voice in your head urging you to protect us from your life."

Carrie quirked an eyebrow at him. "You're not just having us along so that you won't worry about the trouble we'd get into without you being around to save us?"

"Are you nuts?" he asked with a smirk. "I would have been fucked today without your help. I suck at this on my own. All available evidence certainly suggests I'm as likely as not to end up in the hospital when left to my own devices."

"I'm serious," Carrie retorted while trying to keep a smile at bay.

"So am I, honey. Whether or not it was reckless to bring you all in on everything that's happened to me, the die is cast."

"That doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement for our participation," Faith complained.

"Then I misspoke," Hugo replied quickly. "I'm thrilled to have you with me. Both of you. As for being terrified for your safety... that's just part of the program when I'm in love with you."

Faith smiled and rubbed his arm reassuringly. "I get it, babe. That's part of why we love you too."

"Just promise me we'll get back to the nightly fantasy hour as soon as we've dealt with that miserable prick and his wretched A. I." Carrie prompted.

"Here, here!" Hugo announced jubilantly.

"Males are such simple creatures," Faith chortled.

"Come off it, babe," Carrie replied cheerily. "You're just as much of a horn dog as the rest of us. Now, if I may be so bold, I think our man could use a shower. Followed by a filling meal and an enthusiastic double-blowjob before we put him to bed. He's had a hard day."

"How did you know?" Hugo murmured reverently as they led him toward the bathroom.

Thirty-Eight

"What the fuck!" Faith whisper-yelled, her voice just on the edge of panic.

Carrie glanced down at her phone before replying. "They're loading our pod onto the plane now. We're right next to the pod with all our little friends. Everything's fine."

"Oh," Faith breathed as she sank back into her cushion looking anything but reassured.

"What's wrong?" Hugo asked gently.

"Did I not mention the fact that I sometimes get a little freaked out by flying?" she replied with a self-effacing chuckle.

"Honey," he gushed worriedly. "Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"Because you guys seemed so certain that this was our best chance of getting to the west coast undetected. And, since I didn't have a better idea..."

"It's not too late," Carrie said excitedly. "We've got a bunch of tetrahedrons orbiting the airport. They could just make a diversion while Artoo does... something to convince them to unload our pods."

"No!" Faith retorted firmly. "You guys are right. This is definitely our best option. And I'll be fine. I'm just a little nervous, is all."

Hugo shook his head reproachfully. "I still feel like an ass for not asking you both if this was ok before we got into this."

Faith smiled and stroked his arm soothingly. "You did ask us, babe. And I didn't say anything for the reasons we discussed previously. Don't sweat it. I'll be fine."

A dull THUD rang out as the pod was jostled into position before a series of metallic clattering all around them told them their pod had been secured. From his vantage point, Hugo could just make out the view of the interior of the cargo plane in which their pods were now ensconced over Carrie's shoulder. Once the loading process was complete, the plane was scheduled to depart for an overnight cross-country flight to San Jose; taking thousands of high priority envelopes and packages in addition to Hugo, his lovers and several hundred drones of various sizes and configurations.

The idea had come to him while he watched the last of the clean-up from the mess which they presumed had been caused by Korben's malignance. Most major airports have two main functions. The first, and most public, was passenger traffic. The second, which as often as not accounted for a significant percentage of take-offs and landings, was air freight. He had watched with fascination while a jet large enough to carry hundreds of passengers was loaded with dozens of pods filled to the brim with cargo. A bit of asking around informed him that such planes no longer flew unpressurized, as had been the norm decades prior, since that caused issues with some of the more fragile pieces of cargo. A subsequent internet search on Artoo's part had revealed that the pods, which were by no means spacious, were more than large enough for three humans to share for the time it took to fly to the Pacific. A couple of electric lanterns had been included in their luggage, along with a dozen or so pillows and a stack of fluffy blankets to make things more comfortable.

The loading process was finished in less time than it would take passengers to inhabit a jet of a similar size, and they soon felt the rumbling which signified the engines had been activated. For Hugo, the process was not noticeably dissimilar from commercial flights he had taken, since he never splurged for a window seat. Carrie seemed equally unphased, content to explore their limited surroundings. When his eyes turned to Faith, however, he was gutted to see that her anxiety was about to get the best of her.

He crawled over to her and sank down onto her cushions before pulling her into his arms. She smiled weakly at him before muttering, "Now I know why you never want to bring a woman along on these things."

"Don't do that," he soothed. "You're incredible, Faith. Honestly, it's far more rational to be scared than not. We humans have a fear of falling written into our D. N. A., right along with a wariness of fire and large creatures with nasty, big, pointy teeth."

"Was that a quote?" Carrie asked as she took her place opposite Hugo on Faith's starboard shoulder.

"Maybe," he mused. "I've never been a big consumer of pop culture, so it's hard to know what phrases we soak up from those around us originated from movies or television."

"Thanks for trying to cheer me up," Faith murmured.

Hugo frowned and said, "Meaning my efforts were unsuccessful. I could always try balloon animals."

Carrie winked at him coquettishly. "I think the perfect thing to excite our beautiful companion would be long and thick, but definitely without any of that pesky latex."

"Huh?" he asked in obvious confusion.

"You're such a dork," Carrie tackled as she rose up to her knees. "Let's see if I can make things a bit clearer for you."

She gave Faith a quick kiss as she simultaneously crawled across her busty lover and pushed Hugo onto his back. He opened his mouth to question her motives but fell silent when her hands went to his zipper. His eyes flicked to Faith, and he was heartened to notice that her fear was slowly being replaced by excitement.

"Glorious," Carrie whispered in awe as she extracted his manhood from his trousers.

She peppered kisses along his length, beginning at his root and moving with tantalizing patience until reaching his crown, whereupon she caressed him until a bead of precum welled up at his tip. He moaned in ecstasy as she slurped down his essence, despite their mutual promise to be as quiet as possible.

Carrie stroked him until enough moisture pooled up to begin streaming down the sides of his cock before looking back to Faith and prompting, " I know you want some, babe."

"You're just doing this to distract me," Faith sighed. "Aren't you?"

"I'm doing it because I can't stop thinking about what you said about an R. V., and fucking our way across the country," Carrie mumbled against Hugo's balls. "And because you're insane if you think I'm going to just read a book when I've got the two sexiest people in history in arms' reach." She took a moment to sloppily lathe Hugo's scrotum before adding, "And to distract you. Now get over here."

"Oh, all right," Faith replied with a happy grin.

She leapt toward Hugo's groin, slurping down the precum from which she had been unable to tear her gaze with a desperate hunger. A satisfied hum rumbled in her chest as she took him deeper into her mouth. He reached for her heavy breast, tweaking her nipple through her clothing, as his other hand threaded in her hair. Carrie rose up to lick along Hugo's length until her lips found Faith's. He watched in amazement as they lustily kissed around his tip.

"I want to watch you fuck her," Carrie whispered as their lips parted. "And I do mean fuck her, babe. This is no time for slow and sensual. Our sweet Faith needs to get railed."

"Is that what you want?" Hugo asked softly as he stroked Faith's beautiful face.

"So much," she replied shakily.

Carrie gestured for Faith to rise up onto her knees and began hastily undressing their voluptuous lover while Hugo shed his remaining clothing. Faith laid back on the cushion and gazed up at him with a combination of desire and trepidation. He winked at her before dipping his head to lick along her smooth slit.

"Oh, my God," she breathed as his tongue delved into her dripping folds.

His licks grew increasingly energetic until he sensed Carrie's presence above him. He opened his eyes to find her bending over their lover to daintily tease her clit.

"She needs your cock," Carrie pleaded.

Hugo obediently rose up and nestled his cock against Faith's femininity, rocking his hips slowly as his manhood sluiced against her folds. Carrie licked his tip each time it reached her lips before gripping his cock firmly and aligning it with Faith's entrance. He sank into his lover's waiting heat, sighing in bone-deep contentment at the sensation of her exquisite embrace. Remembering Carrie's libidinous instructions, he quickly built his pace until the slapping of their flesh rebounded off the steel walls of the pod in which they rode.

"God, that's so fucking hot," Carrie whispered from her vantage point less than a hands breadth away from where her lovers were joined.

"More," Faith grunted lustily.

Her lovers responded at once, with Hugo quickening his pace to the point where he was forced to brace himself against the low ceiling of the pod, and Carrie climbing astride Faith's waiting tongue.

Carrie looked over her shoulder to stare into his eyes with untamed lust. Her eyes flicked down to his pistoning cock before returning to meet his gaze. "Faith isn't the only one who needs a good fucking."

"Do you also have a thing about flying?" Hugo panted.

"No. I just want... check that... need your cock in me."

He offered her a lopsided grin as she rose clear of Faith's eagerly lapping tongue and slid her hips back to meet his as she claimed Faith's lips in a sloppy kiss. Hugo gasped at the rapid change in heat as he pulled from Faith's dripping core into the noticeably cool air of the pod, before penetrating Carrie's waiting pussy.

Hugo soon established an even more energetic rhythm, forestalling the specter of release by switching lovers whenever he felt he was nearing his peak. His eyes trailed up across Carrie's perfect ass to find her lasciviously sucking Faith's engorged nipples while his busty lover looked on. He tried to quicken his pace even further to better satisfy his impossibly perfect lovers. He was soon sweating profusely and, in the midst of a particularly energetic thrust, he lost his grip on the roof of the pod and collapsed onto his lovers.

They laughed obligingly as they untangled themselves, with Faith offering, "I think we asked too much of our devilishly handsome man, my love."

"I think he did perfectly," Carrie retorted. "But I agree that it's our turn to do the fucking." She turned to Hugo and added, "Lay down, lover. Let us take care of you."

Hugo did as he had been instructed as he tried to catch his breath. No sooner had he laid down than his lovers crawled toward him like lionesses on the prowl. Faith led the way, sultrily climbing over him until she was straddling his face. He licked along her delectable slit as Carrie joined the action; her hands encircling Faith's chest to cradle her full breasts as she sank onto Hugo's waiting cock. He moaned into Faith's pussy at the spectacular sensation of his impossibly perfect women exquisitely overwhelming all of his senses at once.

Faith's eyes stayed glued to his as he alternated between deftly pleasuring her clit with tiny, nearly imperceptible flicks of his tongue, and lustily lapping her juices. She stroked his hair lovingly and murmured, "You're so good at that, babe."

"I want to try," Carrie panted as she bounced on his cock. "How 'bout it, babe? You down for a swap?"

"With you," Faith replied sultrily. "Always."

Hugo barely moved a muscle as his gorgeous lovers swapped places, pausing to share a passionate kiss that caused his cock to jerk in anticipation. Carrie grinned at him in triumph as she sat on his face, her supermodel body on full display for his voracious gaze.

"It should be a crime for a man to be this good at eating pussy," she sighed.

"Good thing he's ours," Faith mumbled around his cock as she slurped the last of Carrie's juices from his manhood before mounting him.

This new configuration placed Hugo in an even more tenuous position when it came to delaying his release. Where Carrie's riding of him had been energetic to a degree approaching mania, Faith's movements were languid and loving. Coupling this with the fact that rather than gazing lovingly down at him as he pleasured her as Faith had done, Carrie lustily rode his tongue (which presented him with the dual gift of her perfect body jiggling libidinously above him while lewdly grinding her pussy onto his face). Taken together, he was on the verge of losing control far earlier than he found to his liking.

He was saved from his embarrassment by Carrie rising off his tongue as she declared, "I think we're really wearing him out, babe."

"I thought the plan was to wear me out," Faith mock-complained as she moved to join her petite lover at Hugo's side.

"Oh, I'll wear you out," Hugo grunted as he got to his knees.

Without preamble, he gripped her hips and buried himself in her silken heat. She moaned in pleasure as he fucked her with reckless abandon. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he pulled her up until her back slicked against his chest, groping her generous tits at once with flicking her clit. He felt something against his fingers and was excited to discover that Carrie had joined the effort, her tongue lathing both Faith's clit and Hugo's balls.

Within moments, Hugo felt the telltale rippling of Faith's inner walls as her orgasm approached. He sucked her earlobe between his lips for a moment before whispering, "Cum for us, beautiful."

Faith's release arrived at once, and she opened her mouth to scream in pleasure. Warry of discovery by the flight crew, Hugo had the wherewithal to clap his hand over his spasming lover's mouth before she gave away their presence. He slowed his thrusting hips, keeping his pulsing manhood deep in her core as she shuddered in bliss.

Hugo felt her body go limp and gently laid her on the cushions, giving her a quick kiss before giving way to Carrie. They turned their attention from the goofily smiling Faith, who was glowing in post-orgasmic bliss. Carrie practically tackled Hugo onto the cushions at Faith's side before turning her back to him and impaling herself on his cock. He gripped her ass as she rode him, savoring its perfect shape along with her flawless skin. She gradually leaned back until he was able to reach forward and encircle her waist with his arms, pulling her into his chest and rolling to the side. Arching his back, he quickened their pace until she was panting wantonly. Movement to his side heralded Faith's return to the fray, and he soon felt her blonde locks tickling his balls as she worshiped Carrie's clit.

Carrie's orgasm arrived without warning, and he was hard-pressed to quiet her guttural moans as her muscles locked in response to her release. He buried himself in her spasming pussy to heighten her pleasure, and he felt Faith respond in kind with continued teasing flicks against Carrie's bundle of nerves.

"Too much," Carrie pleaded as her pleasure began to recede.

Hugo rolled onto his back and took a deep breath, a not insignificant portion of his consciousness arguing for him to succumb to the lure of sleep without further ado.

Faith, on the other hand, had a different agenda in mind. She crawled up his body, kissing him thoroughly before rising to her knees next to his shoulder. "I know you're wiped out, babe. But if you think we're going to let you suffer from blue balls, you've got another thing coming. Just lay back and relax. We'll take care of everything."

Without another word, she rotated so she was facing his pulsing manhood and bent to take him into her mouth. He tried coaxing her closer, the heady aroma of her sex so close to his lips acting like a siren song.

"Not this time, my love," she mumbled sloppily around the head of his manhood. "This is about you. Now cum in my mouth like a good boy."

"That's so fucking wrong," Carrie teased as she climbed between his thighs to slurp one of his balls momentarily into her mouth while Faith deepthroated him. "But I fucking love it. Come on handsome. Give us your hot sticky load. Fill our bellies with your delicious seed."

They traded off deepthroating him, never relenting for even a moment in the onslaught of pleasure. In no time, he felt the tidal wave of his release building within him.

"Girls?" he panted.

"Please," Faith murmured wetly. "Please cum in my mouth."

His hips spasmed helplessly as the first volley of his seed painted her tongue. It was all he could do to not roar in pleasure as countless eruptions of his essence overflowed Faith's eager mouth and streamed down the sides of his spurting manhood to where Carrie waited eagerly. With each flick of their expert tongues, his muscles jolted of their own accord. They continued to swap his geysering cock between their mouths, giggling whenever a jet of his semen missed their tongues to find a smiling face, until he was well and truly spent.

He lay back panting as they rose as one to their knees, sloppily alternating between brief, passionate kisses and lusty swipes of their tongues to lap up the last remnants of his release. Satisfied that every drop of their treat now resided in their contented bellies, they dropped down to nestle into each of his sides. Faith made a long arm for a few of their blankets just before they dozed off right as they crossed the Mississippi.

Thirty-Nine

"Think we got away with it?" Faith asked cautiously as they exited the airport grounds.

Hugo turned to face her, snickering at the sight of her removing the balaclava with which each of them had obscured their faces from the moment they had tentatively emerged from their shipping pod until they had left the airport's bright lights. He removed his own mask as he mused, "Hard to tell, but I hope so. How 'bout it, beautiful? Any signs of pursuit?"

Carrie looked up from where she sat cross legged on the floor of the delivery van they had liberated, their collective devices resting on her knees as she deployed a few drones to keep overwatch. "Hard to tell without a basis of comparison, but nothing seems to be paying any attention to us. Hopefully they'll ignore us as just another delivery van headed out to make its appointed rounds." She glanced at the rear of the van which was chock full of drones before adding, "Which I guess is kind of what we are. Any thoughts on where we're headed?"

From behind the wheel, Hugo shook his head. "I've never been west of the Mississippi. Unless you count refueling stops at air bases. Which I don't."

"I've been to L. A. a bunch of times," Carrie allowed. "But I've only been to the Bay Area once. And it was more of a vacation back when Tariq and I were still in our honeymoon phase. We could have been in Topeka for all the time we spent outside the hotel room." Her eyes then widened, and she hastened to add, "Sorry."

"Why?" Hugo asked distractedly as he negotiated an off ramp from the freeway.

"You guys don't want to hear about sex I had with my ex."

"I love that you were happy," Faith retorted good naturedly. "None of us came into this virgins. It would be silly to pretend otherwise. Besides, I can guarantee neither of us thought you'd trade another go with your ex for a night with us."

"Certainly not!" Carrie yelped. "You've both got him beat by multiple orders of magnitude. And before you ask, babe... yes, that means you've got a better cock."

"Better?" he teased.

"Longer? Thicker? The way your foreskin rolls back when you really fuck us deep, providing that little bit of extra friction on our G-spots."

"So amazing," Faith gushed.

"And your cum tastes so much better. It's like the first time you have paprikash in Budapest, or sushi in Tokyo, ooh, or steak tartare in Paris. The flavor just explodes orgasmically on your tongue. Or, I guess I should say, on our tongues."

"And so much cum," Faith added excitedly. "It's hard to imagine how you're able to sit comfortably with such impressive balls. I'm just glad you shacked up with two broads, so we can team up to make sure the sun never sets without us relieving the pressure."

"All right," he chuckled. "I get it."

"You think we jest?" Carrie challenged. "Then pull over right now. I'm feeling a bit peckish, and the only thing that'll satisfy me erupts from that delightful slab of manliness swinging between your knees."

"It doesn't reach my knees," he retorted with a smirk.

"Tell that to my insides," Faith added. "Because something was sure as hell buried up to my spleen last night. Or maybe it was my liver."

"Fine. I'll concede that you two lunatics have an irrational, and totally sexy, obsession with my coupling gear. But you must know that I'm just as taken with your perfect bodies, and if you think I'm not at least as addicted to your cum as you are to mine..."

An insistent warbling from the vicinity of Carrie's lap cut him off. "Oh, no," she breathed.

"What is it?" Faith asked worriedly.

"It's that same bullshit we saw with the airplanes yesterday. Artoo is seeing some of the same active overriding happening."

"Where?"

"In this fucking van! The GPS... the cameras... everything. The only reason we're still moving is because the on-board computer isn't hooked into the vehicle controls."

"How did he find us so quickly?" Faith yelped.

"Goodness knows," Hugo grunted. "Maybe whatever system he's got is smart enough to realize this van is deviating from it's scheduled rounds. All it would have to do then is connect to the camera to find it had been covered. Anyone want to bet there isn't a hidden microphone in here somewhere?"

"Damnit!" Carrie swore. "We were so careful!"

"Too late to worry about it now, honey. Any luck on finding us someplace to hole up?"

"Nothing. Although I guess it would help if I had a better idea of what I'm looking for."

"Anyplace old," Hugo replied grimly. "Old enough to not have any surveillance. And we'll have to dump this van and make our way there on foot."

"What about all the drones?"

"We'll have to stash them somewhere."

"We could just launch them," Faith offered.

"That's a great idea, honey. But what if Korben's got hold of a radar installation which can pick them up? I don't think weather radar could see them, but how hard would it be for him to hook into one of the many nearby military bases?"

"Fuck," she replied dispiritedly.

"What if he just suspects he's found us?" Carrie asked excitedly. "I'm telling Artoo to pull his nanobots out of the vehicle's systems. Maybe Korben's supercomputer, or whatever the fuck it is, was merely taking a look."

"Regardless," Hugo replied calmly. "We need to get the fuck away from this thing as soon as possible. Carrie, literally anything which was built before the turn of the millennium, and which isn't near anything high tech, should do the trick."

"Like it's that simple," she grumbled. "We are in Silicon Valley, after all."

"I know it's a shit detail, honey. But all we can ask is that you..."

"Found one!" Carrie interrupted gleefully. "Head southeast at the next light."

"You're amazing," Hugo gushed. "Can you separate Wally from the rest of your collective so Faith can watch for pursuit?" By way of answer, Carrie handed Faith the indicated device moments later. Hugo looked in the latter's direction briefly before asking, "How many drones do we have on overwatch?"

"Five," she reported glumly. "We wanted to keep a low profile, remember?"

"All too well," he grumbled. "Do you think you're tall enough to unlatch the vent in this thing's roof? I'm just trying to come up with a way to launch more without stopping, or endangering either of you."

"Just have one of the drones do it," Carrie muttered as she kept her attention on her display. "Or, better yet, have one of them man the back door. Then, if we detect a threat, we can unleash hell."

"Fuck!" Hugo snapped. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because only a supermodel could have come up with a strategy like that," Faith teased. "Now I just have to have my unique inspiration."

"So you can claim that one could never have thought up such a tactic without the benefit of hot-as-fuck F-cup boobies?" Carrie muttered.

"Don't act like you're jealous," Faith retorted. "You can play with my tits whenever you want, but you don't have to lug them around."

"Fair enough," Carrie conceded. "My devastatingly beautiful lover's point, handsome, was that we're a team in this. Stop chastising yourself if you didn't think of something and just take the suggestion if you think it's a good one."

Hugo sighed his agreement before saying, "You're right. Like always."

"We're not always right. You know way more about this violence shit than we do. We'd never ask you to override your instincts based on a suggestion we make. Just use the stuff we say which helps, and ignore the rest."

"Careful," Faith warned. "Only listening to the stuff he wants to hear sounds a lot like a few of my ex's."

"I would never do that to you," Hugo said somberly. "Either of you."

"I know," Carrie said as she crawled forward on her knees to stroke his arm. "Our man is immune to asshole alpha male-itis."

"I'm not sure that's a word," Faith retorted with a wink.

"Besides," Hugo added. "We're way more than..."

BLAM

The delivery van careened wildly as Hugo sawed at the wheel in a desperate attempt to regain control. The van struck the curb, jolting the vehicle painfully as Hugo fought to straighten out their course. Carrie screamed as she was thrown to the floor behind him. He managed to get them headed in the right direction as his eyes scanned around frantically for any sign of what had slammed into them.

Just as he opened his mouth to ask for a status report, they were again rocked by a devastating impact to the side of the van. This time, he caught a flash in the passenger side review mirror seconds before they were attacked.

"Is that a fucking R. P. G.?" he breathed in remembered terror.

"What do I do?" Faith asked shakily.

"Release the..." he began, but he was cut off by the largest explosion yet.

He felt the back of the van fishtail savagely as Faith let out a panicked scream. He felt the controls go spongy as the rear tires disintegrated in the blast. The van swerved to the left of its own accord, and he felt it beginning to roll. He looked over his shoulder helplessly to where Carrie scrabbled for a handhold.

"Artoo!" he screamed in desperation. "Help them!"

A deafening whirring sound filled the van as the nanobots swarmed his lovers just before the van crashed onto its side. Hugo felt the unwelcome sensation of his ribs cracking as gravity and his body's momentum combined to slam him against the door. The van slid along the empty street, the grinding of metal shattering the pre-dawn calm.

Hugo was out of his seat before the vehicle ground to a halt, anxiously digging through what seemed like hundreds of his drones in search of his lovers. He found Faith first in a mound honeycombed against the ceiling. She looked worriedly at him and whispered, "Carrie?"

He turned toward the vehicle's rear to find their lover climbing from a cluster of drones, thankfully looking no worse for wear.

"Are you all right?" Hugo asked them both anxiously.

"Us?" Faith sobbed. "What about you? We had the drones to protect us!"

"I think I broke a few ribs," he grunted dismissively.

"Oh, babe," Faith sniffed.

"I appreciate the affection," he protested. "But we've got bigger problems right now."

"But you're hurt!"

"Later! The ribs will heal by sundown, but only if we're still alive. Those were explosive, self-propelled rounds they used on us. What's to say they won't blow this whole goddamned thing up and be done with us? Grab anything the cops could use to identify us, and lets go!"

Faith's face went flat as she sprang into action. Hugo hated speaking so harshly but resolved to make it up to her if they survived. A voice in the back of his head tried to chastise him for recklessness, both in putting the loves of his life in danger in the first place and for acting so carelessly after arriving in enemy territory.

Overburdened with self-recrimination, Hugo stepped forward to kick at the vehicle's front windshield until he had dislodged it. He squatted down and scanned what he could see of their surroundings. The fact that he spotted no signs of the enemy did not reassure him considering their vehicle had been attacked and disabled without either him or his drones spotting anything amiss.

He turned to his companions and grunted, "Got everything?"

Carrie nodded hesitantly. "Everything that will identify us, but..."

"No time, beautiful. We have to move. Now."

Neither woman uttered a word of protest as he squeezed through the opening before reaching back to help them through. Both seemed somewhat shell-shocked and doing everything they could to maintain a degree of calm. He hissed in pain as he lifted the bag Faith had assembled onto his shoulder, but he ignored her tiny yelp of protest. Scanning around, he spotted a homeless encampment.

Hugo cast a final glance in the direction of their ruined vehicle before saying, "Follow me... and stay low," in advance of leading them into the bushes, hoping against hope that each step would not be their last.

Forty

"Get the fuck off me, bro!" a voice which screamed 'mid-twenties cannabis enthusiast' called out as Hugo, Faith and Carrie tried to pick their way quietly through the homeless encampment.

"Sorry," Faith whispered as they hurried past.

"People are trying to sleep here, assholes," another voice grumbled.

"You would have thought the multiple explosions and massive accident would have roused at least a few of you," Hugo muttered.

He did his best to lead his lovers to a vantage point from which they could observe their former van from a concealed position. They were fortunate in that the terrain was in their favor, with plenty of trees and rolling terrain. He got down on his belly, gesturing for Carrie and Faith to do the same, before he approached the tree line above the accident scene.

"Fucking hell," Hugo sighed as he caught sight of the vehicle.

On the street below them, he saw their overturned van. The rear doors had broken loose in the wreck, spilling dozens of tetrahedrons across the street. What turned his blood to ice was the sight of at least ten heavily armed soldiers pouring out of four different S. U. V.'s which had surrounded the van.

"Where the hell did they come from?" Carrie whispered worriedly.

"No fucking idea. Didn't we have overwatch?"

"Yes," Faith hissed angrily. "I was watching for five blocks in every direction."

"No one is accusing you of anything, honey," Hugo soothed. "In any case, I was watching too and all I saw was one incoming round. These assholes set an ambush for us."

"How in the hell did they know we were coming?" Carrie growled. "Even if they tagged us leaving the airport... that was what... five minutes ago? Maybe ten?"

"I can't even imagine," Hugo admitted. "This is way beyond anything I've ever seen."

"What about the nanobots?" Faith gasped in response to a few of the soldiers starting the process of loading the drones into a trailer connected to one of their vehicles.

"We can table that for now. Once we find a place to hole up, we'll just activate them. Honestly, letting those assholes take them works to our advantage. We'll know the location of his headquarters."

"But, babe," Faith retorted with a twinge of panic. "That's what I was trying to tell you in the van. I couldn't find Wally after the accident. It's still in the van!"

Hugo's eyes turned slowly in Carrie's direction as he tried to quell his own rising dread. His fears were confirmed when she shook her head woefully.

"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you," Hugo whispered sincerely. "I'm such a fucking asshole."

"Don't beat yourself up, babe," Carrie murmured. "You know they just reverted to looking like shitty phones once we weren't close by. We can just go grab them once those assholes take off."

Hugo nodded his assent and kept his eyes on the scene. Viewed purely from the standpoint of a former military man, he could find little fault with either their tactics or their discipline. The soldiers on the street split into two groups. The first group of eight soldiers fanned out to guard every possible approach while the remaining three loaded Hugo's drones into a trailer. As the loading was nearing completion, he spotted a pair of the guards peel off and unship their backpacks, placing them on either end of the van.

"Oh shit," Hugo groaned helplessly. "We've got to get the fuck out of here."

"What about our phones?" Faith hissed.

"Now!" he growled, tugging them each back from the tree line.

As soon as he was again confronted by the homeless encampment, he felt the weight of responsibility begin constricting around his chest. On one hand he had the desire to get the women he loved away from danger as quickly as possible; on the other was the responsibility he felt for the dozens of strangers surrounding him based on his knowledge of what was coming.

He made his decision in an instant. "Hey!" he called out loud enough for everyone close at hand to hear him but not so loud (he hoped) that the soldiers on the other side of the hill would be alerted to their presence. "Everyone needs to get out of here! Right fucking now!"

"What are you on abut bro?" the youngster who had chastised him previously complained.

"Those assholes," Hugo seethed, jabbing a finger in the direction of the crash, "are about to set off an explosion large enough to ruin everyone's day pretty fucking thoroughly."

"The fuck you say?"

"Just get the hell out of here!" Hugo pleaded. "All of you!"

Hoping he had done enough for the strangers surrounding him, he gripped Carrie and Faith's hands and raced deeper into the park. As they ran, he considered their options. By his reckoning, their fate came down to one simple question: would Korben's stormtroopers be content with simply harvesting his drones, or should he expect a squad of heavily armed, and apparently well-trained, soldiers to chase him down along with his lovers. As he considered each option, he realized the question was moot. Either it was option one, in which case they had nothing to worry about; or it was option two, in which case they were very likely fucked considering their current armament was limited to a pocketknife and the pepper spray each of his ladies carried in their purses.

Determined to do everything possible to protect the women he loved; Hugo pushed them to their limits in his bid to escape. His eyes constantly scanned their surroundings, looking for suitable cover should he detect pursuit. But regardless of what he saw, he relentlessly kept them moving in the certain knowledge that, in their current admittedly lousy tactical situation, their best strategy was putting as much distance between themselves and their pursuers as possible.

Just as the trio reached an empty culvert which ran beneath a cross-street, a massive explosion sent them diving for the ground. Hugo immediately turned to look over his shoulder and was heartened to see a relatively modest fireball which did not even reach the level of the trees in which they had previously hidden themselves. The urge to keep his gaze glued to the site of the explosion was nearly irresistible, but his duty to his lovers turned his attention back to their escape.

"Let's go," he whispered, again giving thanks that both of his lovers showed no signs of hearing damage and immediately got to their feet.

The other end of the culvert mirrored the area of the encampment through which they had raced, save there were no tents. A longer look revealed several run-down strip malls along a nearby road. He hustled his companions in that direction while idly wondering how he would go about gaining entry without the benefit of his drones. The only thing for which he could give thanks as the first rays of sunlight spilled across the parking lot was the complete absence of pursuit.

They reached a bedraggled sporting goods store without interference, but that was little comfort to Hugo as he realized how worryingly exposed they were standing at the edge of an empty parking lot just over the hill from their adversaries.

Hugo rattled the door handle loudly before growling, "Fuck!"

"Let me," Faith murmured from his side.

"It's locked, honey. And any and all means of opening this door without using a rock or a bat just got blown to smithereens."

"Just... move," she grunted as she elbowed him out of the way.

She dug around in her purse for a moment before extracting what looked to be a tiny makeup case. She bent to inspect the lock, obscuring Hugo's view. He gasped in surprise, however, when she pushed the door open moments later.

As he and Carrie hustled past her, he gave Faith an appraising look. She closed the door behind them and offered, "What do you want me to say? A couple of my exes developed a pattern of attempting to win me back by stealing my stuff and locking it in their apartment. Cops told me to file a complaint with the desk sergeant and check back in thirty days. So, I took matters into my own hands."

"What the fuck happened back there?" Carrie asked angrily. "Did they blow up the drones?"

Hugo's eyes flicked toward the crash scene before he responded. "I think they took the ones Korben thought he could use and got rid of the rest."

"So much for getting our phones back," she grumped. "Where the fuck does that leave us?"

"Your devices certainly prove quite useful when interacting with our offspring," Tristan interjected thoughtfully. "But they are by no means required."

"At least for some of you," Isolde added.

"Where the fuck have you been?" Hugo growled as he turned away from his companions.

"Wait," Carrie protested. "Who the fuck was that?" She looked toward Hugo and Faith and added, "Did you hear that?"

Faith nodded somberly, prompting Hugo to mutter, "What the hell, guys?"

"What's going on?" Faith replied, her confusion quite evident.

"How can they hear you guys?" Hugo persisted softly.

"Because you've bonded with them," Isolde replied. "Obviously."

"Are these the angels you told us about?" Faith asked.

"Hardly," Tristan retorted. "Angels are nothing but self-absorbed sycophants who..."

"Perhaps another time," Isolde interrupted smoothly. "As for your initial question, dear boy, my dashingly handsome companion and I have been here since you're resurrection."

"You haven't said a word to me in weeks!"

"In point of fact," Tristan retorted, "it's only been six days. It merely seems like longer. You must also remember that weeks, or even months, of silent contemplation is nothing for beings whose lifespan is measured in aeons. Why... I remember once during the Crusades, we were so disgusted with your species that we resolved to meditate until the cruelty subsided."

"How long did you make it?" Hugo queried.

"Seventy-three years," Isolde replied flatly. "Your kind can be truly awful at times, dear boy. It makes me glad that our initial impression of you proved to be accurate. And, if I may say so, your choice of mates was, and is, exemplary."

"Indeed," Tristan agreed. "Top marks, good sir."

Faith glanced around furtively. "Um... thanks?"

"Not that I'm immune to flattery," Carrie interrupted. "Especially from supernatural deities..."

"We're neither," Tristan muttered.

Carrie continued, "But what was it you said about controlling the drones without our phones?"

"You each have more than enough of our offspring infused into your flesh to manage it," Tristan insisted. "You need only to focus your will to the task in question."

Isolde continued, "For instance. You could instruct the majority of one type or another to gather at an orifice of your choice and begin fissioning. This would provide you with something of the nature of what your mate calls an electronics control sphere in as little as four hours. The tetrahedrons, as he calls them, will take significantly longer."

"We don't need to make more," Hugo declared excitedly. "Those trigger-happy shitheads have all we need. If we could get control of a single tetrahedron, we'd have Korben right where we want him."

"Then your path seems clear," Tristan replied reasonably.

"So, what do we do?"

Isolde answered, "Simply focus on a specific collective of our offspring you wish to do your bidding."

Hugo helped his companions sit on a sofa they had located in the breakroom of the shop they had broken into before taking a seat between them.

Carrie glanced over at him and whispered, "Is this what it was always like for you? Just two insanely sexy voices in your head around the clock?"

"Sometimes it sounded like a brothel on V. E. day," Hugo replied with a shudder.

"I do believe the scales have been quite balanced in that regard," Tristan snapped. "Honestly. Not even one night of quiet contemplation?"

"Shouldn't we be..." Faith began.

"Of course," Hugo agreed. "We need to focus. Just try to connect with one of the tetrahedrons. Carrie, you try to find one which has a payload of spheres while Faith tries for one with the disabling darts. I'll see what I can do about hooking into one of the larger ones to see if I can disrupt those assholes that attacked us. Sound good?"

Both women nodded and took one of his hands before closing their eyes. Hugo followed suit, trying to remember all the incredible events which had transpired in his life rather than wallow in the absurdity of trying to control remote drones with his mind.

He had just reached the point where he was ready to speak aloud his belief in the futility of their course of action when the silence was shattered by the sound of breaking glass from the direction of the storefront. He leapt across his lovers, shielding them with his body, before looking in the direction of the crash. As he watched, smoke began billowing from a pair of smoke canisters. Fearing the worst, he slid to the floor and belly-crawled toward the smoke-belching cylinders. He gripped one and tossed it back toward the store's main room, holding back a hiss of pain in response to the heat radiating off the device. He gave it's twin a similar treatment before turning back to his companions.

Before he could speak, a voice thundered from all directions, "HUGO VAN DER MEWRE! WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"

From his vantage point on the floor in the entryway between the store's breakroom and retail area, he spotted a display behind the counter containing an assortment of shotguns. Further inspection revealed a separate case containing ammunition. He crawled desperately in the direction of the means to defend his lovers, scooping up a stool on his way to use as a cudgel to shatter the glass between him and his objective.

"Is it the cops?" Carrie hissed from the entrance to the break room.

"COME OUT AT ONCE OR WE BLOW UP THE BUILDING!" the voice said from all around them.

"Shit," Faith muttered from Carrie's side as she looked around with wide eyes. "Not the cops."

"Get back!" Hugo hissed, waving them frantically away.

"What are you going to do?" Carrie challenged.

"We're getting the fuck out of here. There's got to be a back door. Go see if you can get it open while I get us some weapons."

She nodded solemnly before gripping Faith's shoulder and pulling her out of view. Hugo turned back to the display case and raised the stool to smash the glass, but the blow never fell thanks to the clattering of a grenade across the shop's floor just before it exploded.

Forty-One

"The boss wants to know what shape he's in," a distant voice crackled.

"He seems fine, if you can believe it," a gruff voice responded from Hugo's side. There was a beep, followed by the nearby voice chortling, "Mother fucker had a building fall on him, and there's not a goddamn scratch on him."

"You are officially the luckiest bastard on the planet," a second voice observed from Hugo's opposite side. "The boss would have scalped you if he'd been hurt, and your dumb ass decided to lob a couple of grenades at him."

"He wouldn't come out," the first voice retorted. "And he was clearly arming himself. Would you have preferred I wait until he blew you away with that twelve-gauge?"

"We were preparing non-lethal alternatives. Now, because of you, those two fine pieces of ass he was with are buried in rubble. I can't imagine all three of them survived a building dropping on them without a scratch."

"Upset you couldn't get your rape on?"

"Fuck you!"

The loathsome men escorting Hugo fell silent, leaving him to choose between wallowing in soul-crushing anguish and trying to break out of the chair to which he was strapped (not to mention solving the quandary of his lack of sight) so he could smash the skulls of his attendants together until he was bathing in their blood. Before he could arrive at a decision, he felt a bump and the echoey nature of his surroundings abruptly shifted to disquieting silence.

"Why the fuck is he in that chair?" a distressingly familiar voice growled. "I gave specific instructions that he was not to be harmed."

"He was resisting, Mr. Lundberg," the hand-held explosives enthusiast reported weakly. "Besides... he wasn't seriously hurt."

A pregnant pause stretched, and Hugo could clearly sense the tension radiating off his guards. The silence was shattered by the chilling sound of a silenced subsonic round at close range, followed by the thump of a body hitting the floor.

"Get rid of it," Korben snapped without emotion. "And you... bring our guest to my private study while we wait for the staff to clean up in here."

"Yes, Mr. Lundberg," what Hugo could only assume was his only remaining guard replied.

Hugo once again felt the sensation of motion but his inner ear suggested that he was only moved a short distance. Just before he heard the click of the door closing behind them, he heard a feminine scream from the room they had just departed.

"Remove the manacles," Korben spoke from far too close for Hugo's comfort. "And then go stand with the rest."

Hugo felt the bonds which held him fast to the chair being loosened with a speed which suggested his guard was no stranger to taking captives. Once his arm was freed, he immediately yanked his blindfold down to take full measure of his surroundings. Korben was standing above him wearing the latest in tech-bro billionaire chic: a rumpled hoodie over a T-shirt for a band whose single hit had happened before Korben's birth, jorts, and hippie sandals with socks. The room's walls were covered with equal amounts framed magazine covers featuring Korben's frowning face and photos of Korben with a bevy of bored looking, yet undeniably beautiful women. The furnishing looked as uncomfortable as it did without function, save for a single expansive easy chair into which Korben sank with a weary sigh.

"Not hard to see why you've always operated alone," Hugo's nemesis grunted as he reached for a bottle of water. "You'd have thought a single-sentence instruction wouldn't have allowed any room for interpretation. But apparently once these meatheads reach a certain level of training, they're completely incapable of solving a problem doing anything but either shooting something or blowing it up."

Hugo glanced around, taking note of the seven private security troopers who stood around the room's perimeter. He noted a few of them showing signs of reconsidering their choice of employment through clenched jaws and fists. He did not, however, deign to offer a reply, choosing instead to glare menacingly at his adversary.

"Come," Korben finally instructed after several tense moments. "Have a seat. There's no need for a performative confrontation. We both want the same thing."

"I highly doubt that."

"That's only because you don't understand my proposition," Korben replied icily. He glanced at the wheelchair in which Hugo still sat. "I do sincerely regret for the, um, circumstances surrounding your, shall we say, transportation?"

"You sent a squad of storm troopers to attack us, shit stain. Don't pretend this was a matter of a ride-share driver who did one too many hits before picking me up."

"Regardless, you have my apologies. Are you able to walk?"

"Why? Worried I'll leap out of this chair and choke the life out of you before the guards whose loyalty you just bruised decide to intervene?"

"Not at all," Korben replied after glancing in the direction of the indicated guards. "I merely want to show you precisely what I mean when I suggested a collaboration. Then we'll have some lunch. I know you've been traveling since last evening, and I can't imagine the accommodations you selected came with many luxuries."

Hugo's soul clenched at the memory of their cross-country trip. His attempts to sustain himself with the belief that Faith and Carrie likely faired no worse in the collapse than he did (thanks to the power of the healing nanobots) were only hanging on by the thinnest of threads, and even he feared for his reaction if he discovered they had been killed.

Korben grew impatient waiting for a reply which Hugo had no intention of offering, so he gestured for one of the guards to pilot Hugo's wheelchair in advance of standing and walking from the room. Their surroundings abruptly changed again upon leaving Korben's study, shifting from arrogant opulence to something more akin to a hospital, with stark white walls and tiled flooring.

Upon entering an elevator at the hall's end, they dropped rapidly for nearly a minute. Hugo noticed Korben offering him a proud raised eyebrow, clearly impressed with himself for such a feat of engineering, but Hugo refused to give his nemesis the satisfaction of so much as a widened eye.

The elevator doors opened to a cacophony of white noise and blistering heat. The hall beyond them ended at a wall of glass, behind which sat what Hugo could only surmise was a bank of computers.

"Shit," Korben grunted. "I hate coming down here. But I needed to show you my pride and joy. This is the Lundberg, Mark VII."

"Looks like the vending machines in the lobby at a meeting of Incels Anonymous."

"I warn you sir. My patience does have limits."

"I guess we'll soon see," Hugo offered.

Korben glared at him for a long moment before returning his attention to his pride and joy. "The A. I. you hear about on the news is shit. Inefficient shit, at that. Warehouses full of servers that combine to regurgitate responses which a primary school teacher wouldn't accept from even their dumbest student. My creation is the most efficient, and intuitive, A. I. in history. And I think you're quite familiar with its capability."

"You're admitting to causing the disaster at the airport?"

"Disaster," Korben retorted dismissively. "No one was killed."

"You tried to make two passenger jets collide mid-air, you fucking lunatic. Not to mention the collision on the ground which should have resulted in hundreds of casualties."

"And yet you were able to save them," Korben replied triumphantly. "Well, you and your wonderful creations."

"What if I hadn't turned up?"

"That wasn't very likely. You're drawn to calamities, my friend. Like a shark when there's blood in the water."

"I'm not your fucking friend," Hugo growled.

"Not yet. But you will be. Shall we go inside?"

Just before Hugo could offer an embittered reply, Isolde's voice echoed in his head. "Say yes! And touch everything."

"And for God's sake, don't reply to us," Tristan added. "And, before you ask: no, we can't hear your thoughts. But we will do our best to anticipate your questions. Time is your ally, dear boy. Do everything possible to keep this buffoon talking for as long as possible."

"If you insist," Hugo replied at length.

Korben's eyes flicked at the guard pushing Hugo's wheelchair. "You searched him?"

"Thoroughly. Nothing but a pocketknife, which we confiscated along with his watch and wallet. Didn't even have a cell phone."

Korben thought for a moment before stepping toward a panel on the wall and placing his palm on it. As his hand was scanned, he placed his face into a small cavity just above the panel. The A. I. eventually rendered a verdict as to Korben's identity and a door to Korben's left popped open, causing the noise level to increase dramatically.

"Commercially available A. I. requires a dozen of these racks to support even a small enterprise who can't be bothered to hire developers who can actually write code," Korben shouted. "My breakthrough allows me to run an L. L. M. which is an order of magnitude more powerful, with an order of magnitude fewer G. P. U.'s. The exact performance increase depends on the application, but we've calculated the mean improvement to be at least a factor of one-hundred-and-six."

"And?" Hugo challenged as he reached out to stroke one of the racks.

"Don't!" Korben yelped. "Don't touch them. They're very sensitive to dust."

Hugo withdrew his hand without showing contrition, wondering what possible benefit the scant number of nanobots he might have deposited could do without the use of any means to control them.

"I think that's long enough," Korben grunted. He looked to Hugo's guard and added, "Take him to the dining room."

As the door to the server room closed behind them, Hugo heard Korben mutter, "We'll be up in five minutes. Ensure that all is in readiness. And make sure..."

A loud click of a door cut Korben off as Hugo's guard shuttled him toward the elevator. As they rode back up to the surface, Hugo grumbled, "Can't imagine you're feeling a great deal of confidence about your employment after your buddy got executed for his impertinence."

"Shut up," the guard grunted.

"I'm just saying that a C. O. who does that once won't hesitate to do it again. Do you honestly think you're immune to making a mistake?"

"I told you to shut your fucking mouth!"

Hugo was cut off from further needling by the abrupt halt in their ascent. The guard pushed him down a featureless hallway with what seemed to be a decided lack of haste. They eventually arrived at an unremarkable door, whereupon the guard stood and waited until a chirp sounded from his watch. He then pulled open the door and pushed Hugo's wheelchair into a room which left Hugo literally struck dumb.

Larger than his former apartment several times over, the space was undeniably a dining room as evidenced by the table large enough for a dozen guests to dine without jostling elbows. They were clearly at the building's apex and the floor-to-ceiling windows along one wall gave a view of the bay in the distance. The room's other walls were filled with portraits of Korben, frequently mirroring those of infamous dictators. Occupying the room, along with an even dozen guards and Korben, were six women; none of whom were wearing a stitch of clothing with the exception of garter belts, stockings, and black heels.

"Please provide my friend Hugo with whatever he desires," Korben announced from his place at the table's head.

Hugo absently wondered how his host had found the time to change into a suit (while also musing on why he continued to bother with the theatrics).

A prodigiously tattooed woman with breasts the size and shape of prize-winning papayas approached, a scowl on her face. She bent at the waist while squeezing her breasts together with her elbows, causing the skin of each to stretch grotesquely thanks to what Hugo could only assume were very firm implants. "What can I get you, sir?" she snarled.

"Nothing," he grunted, returning his attention to his host.

"Come now," Korben rebuked. "They're being quite well compensated to serve us this evening. Perhaps you don't prefer tattoos. You there! No you! The one with the tits. You look a bit like one of the girls he brought along on our shared vacation. Why don't you get my friend a martini."

A curvy Latina with breasts larger than Hugo's head offered Korben a grimace before moving to the bar in the room's corner where she collected a prepared cocktail from a diminutive man Hugo had not noticed earlier.

Korben clocked Hugo's gaze and said, "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a porn star who can make a decent cocktail? It's like all these dumb bitches can do is take a dick. Speaking of which, and I only say this because you seem to be immune to all forms of innuendo, you can fuck whichever you'd like. Or more than one, since that seems to be your predilection."

"You're such an intolerable bastard," Hugo growled.

"It's not like I'm not compensating them for their time," Korben retorted. "They're each getting a hundred grand for the night. They knew the score when they took the gig." He looked to the 'waitress' standing closest to him, a petite woman with blue hair and more piercings than Hugo had digits, and prompted, "Tell him, slut."

"Our contract includes sex with either or both of you," she admitted in a child-like voice.

"Well not me," Hugo snapped. "I don't pay for sex. No offense."

"Oh, none taken," she replied as she retreated from Korben's presence.

"Why not?" Korben chortled. "Maybe tats and piercings aren't your thing, but the two blondes cowering in the corner are way hotter than those mouthy bitches you brought to the Caribbean."

Hugo leapt from his wheelchair without preamble, racing toward Korben with hatred in his eyes. Screams filled the room as he tackled the larger man to the ground before smashing his fist into his host's terrified face. He was cocking his elbow back to deliver another blow when he was tackled to the ground by three different guards.

"What the fuck!" Korben screamed.

"You will never speak of them again in my presence," Hugo growled from beneath the guards.

Korben scrambled to his feet as he sputtered, "Why didn't you stop him!"

"We thought he was immobilized," came the dismissive reply.

"I should kill you for your insolence!"

"I don't suggest it, sir. We're the only ones with guns here. And my men follow my orders."

"This is pointless!" Korben snarled. He glared at Hugo as he continued, "I tried to be reasonable. No, check that. I was being extremely generous. I offered everything. Money. Women. Power. And you just threw it in my face. Well, let me tell you what, you filthy pissant, I'm not a man who takes no for an answer." He turned to a guard along the wall. "Time for Plan B." As the guard departed, Korben returned his attention to Hugo. "You will give me control over your drones. You'll also give me access to your manufacturing facility."

"Fuck off," Hugo grunted as he was slammed back into the wheelchair and one of the guards extracted a length of nylon cord to secure him to the mobility device.

"Because if you don't," Korben continued as a door opened behind Hugo. "Then you'll sit and watch while my men have their way with your beloved sister."

"Hugo!" Jenneke screamed from behind him.

"Thirty seconds," Korben murmured cruelly. "What's it going to be, Mr. Van der Mewre?"

Just as Hugo opened his mouth to reply, the windows behind Korben exploded.

Forty-Two

Hugo gasped in pain as what felt like a thousand fragments of glass showered him, but he focused on savagely kicking the guard who had been attempting to restrain him. Fortunately, the guards were far more distracted by the explosion of shrapnel caused by the blast. He dove for the ground and relieved one of the guards of their sidearm before rising to his feet and scampering toward Jenneke.

He drove his shoulder into the stunned guard gripping her arm, driving them both to the ground. He slammed his fist into the guard's chin, knocking him out. Without speaking a word, he dragged his sister to her feet and bolted for cover amid the smoke and panicked screams of the dining room. He shouted to a few of the waitresses to get down as he slid behind the bar.

Having found cover, he spared a moment to assess their condition. He was relieved to discover that the lacerations covering her arms were healing rapidly, while he seemed to be completely uninjured.

"Are you hurt?" he hissed.

"I... uh..." she stammered as she watched in amazement as the wounds on her arms closed before her eyes. "I don't think so."

"Is Vann ok?"

"I don't know," she whispered disconsolately. "Those assholes abducted me from the gallery when he was at home. Where are Faith and Carrie?"

"I don't know. They blew up the building we were in. I heard the soldiers say they couldn't find them."

Hugo risked a look toward the table and was rewarded with a burst of automatic weapons fire.

"Fuck," he muttered as he checked the magazine of the pistol he had snatched to find that it held a baker's dozen nine-millimeter rounds. He replaced the magazine and chambered a round before again risking a glance toward his adversaries.

He nearly panicked when he spotted a pair of soldiers just on the other side of the bar, but he managed to catch them off guard by squeezing off a pair of rounds, one of which found its mark. Recognizing his miserable tactical situation, Hugo seized the initiative by dropping low and popping back out of cover to squeeze off another shot. The guard got off a few rounds, but they sailed harmlessly over Hugo's head as he caught his opponent squarely in the shoulder. He leapt toward the falling guard, grabbing him by his tactical harness and pulling him behind the bar.

Hugo held his pistol to the guard's temple and growled, "Don't make me kill you." He then looked to Jenneke and added, "Get that vest off him and put it on me." She nodded numbly and began working at the vest. Once she had divested the guard of his armament, he whispered, "Do you remember how to use a pistol?"

"I haven't shot one since we were kids," she hissed.

He turned the weapon on its side and said, "This one's easy. The safety is in the trigger. Just point and squeeze. You've got nine rounds left."

"What are you going to do?" she whispered as he handed over the weapon and shouldered the guard's rifle.

"Get us the fuck out of here," he replied as he gripped the guard by the shirt. He glared at the man at his feet and growled, "How many of you are there?"

"Fuck you," the guard grunted.

A burst of fire from another automatic rifle drew Hugo's attention. He glanced around the corner of the bar to see if anyone else was approaching. As he did, he heard a yelp of panic from Jenneke and felt a powerful force yanking him backwards. Before he hit the ground, however, he heard a soft buzzing sound followed by a defeated sigh.

He scrambled up from where he had fallen to find Jenneke staring ashen faced at the unconscious guard which had a tetrahedron hovering just above him.

"How?" he breathed in wonder.

Before he could say another word, other drones began appearing to surround them. The weapons fire crescendoed quickly as the guards realized they were being overrun, and then abruptly ended. Hugo waited a few long moments before risking another glance into the dining room to find things unnervingly still.

He rose cautiously, his weapon held at the ready. As he stepped from behind the bar, he noticed a few tetrahedrons attending to each of the waitresses. His attention was soon diverted, however, as a larger tetrahedron zoomed up to him and extended its clawed waldo. Hugo held out his hand and the drone handed him both a phone and a pair of earbuds.

Hugo crammed an earbud into one of his ears and gasped, "Girls! Please tell me you're both ok."

"We're fine," Carrie's warm alto voice answered confidently. "Is Jenneke ok?"

"I think so," Hugo replied as he handed the other earbud to his sister and shoved the phone in his pocket. "We both took a hit when the window blew, but we're ok."

"Sorry about that. We were going to wait until you guys had some cover, then that asshole held a gun to her head and..."

"You did perfectly honey. Both of you. Where are you now?"

"We're in the building across the street," Faith replied.

"Where's Korben?" Jenneke hissed behind him.

"About half the guards hustled him out of the room after we blew the window. He looked like he took some damage, but he was moving under his own power."

Carrie continued, "There are at least ten guards who are still conscious, including four in the next room who are getting ready to mount an offensive. Not to steal your thunder my love, but might I suggest you two take shelter behind the door to your left? At least for a moment."

"You're the boss," Hugo replied with a chuckle.

He led Jenneke to the room Carrie had indicated and they ducked behind a refrigerator. Moments later, an explosion of automatic weapons fire assaulted their eardrums, only to be silenced seconds later.

"Make that six soldiers still conscious," Carrie snickered. "Brilliant suggestion on the sleepy-time nanobots, love."

"Thanks," he grunted. "Listen, Korben led me down to his server room and I was able to touch several of..."

"We know," Faith interjected. "Tristan and Isolde kept us up to date. The nanobots you dropped off are replicating as quickly as they can, but it'll be at least a few hours before there's enough of them to have an impact."

"Keep me up to date," he replied. "Hopefully we can inform Korben that we've killed his precious baby before we send him to hell."

"That's grim," Jenneke observed.

"Perhaps," Hugo allowed as he led them back into the dining room and topped off his supply of ammunition from the sleeping guards. He looked to his sister before asking, "Will she be safe here?"

"Yes," Faith replied. "There's no guards in this section of the building."

"Wait!" Jenneke yelped. "What about Vann?"

"We called him as soon as we saw you. He's fine, although quite worried. He's on his way to the airport now."

Jenneke deflated at the news of her beloved's safety. Hugo hustled her over to a chair and helped her sit.

She looked up at him, her expression worried. He glanced around before speaking. "We can get out of here. Right now. There's nothing he can do to stop us."

"What are you saying?" she asked in confusion.

"You're the one who gives me shit for looking for danger. I don't have to run that asshole to ground."

"But then he'll just do this again. Won't he?"

"Very likely," he agreed, his expression grim.

She nodded somberly. "You've got to end this now. He'll never leave you alone until you've defeated him, brother."

Hugo nodded firmly and said, "I'll be right back."

He ducked into the next room, which turned out to be Korben's study, to find a quartet of sleeping guards. He paused to pull the phone from his pocket and stretched it to the size of a legal pad.

"Give me a tactical overlay."

The display flared to life, showing him a view of the building's exterior from multiple viewpoints. His eyes flitted around, absorbing the information being presented.

"How many drones do we have?"

"We've got nineteen left," Carrie replied. "Three are detailed to overwatch, the rest are near you."

"Where's that piece of shit?"

"We believe he's in the southeast corner of the building," Faith answered. "But his guards destroyed the drones we had following them."

"Seems like this comes down to two choices," he huffed. "Either we dig them out of their hole, or we try to wait them out."

"The cops are likely already on their way," Faith pointed out. "You've got, maybe, five minutes."

"Let me guess, they're not going to be inclined to take the word of an out-of-town mechanic over a celebrated billionaire."

"That's about the size of it," she agreed.

"Ok," he sighed. "Let's take one drone and load it up with electronics control spheres. Send it down to the server room to put the A. I. out of its misery. Hopefully the nanobots already there can tie it up enough to prevent it from defending itself."

"On it," came Faith's clipped reply.

Hugo smiled in spite of the dire situation. "Thanks, beautiful. Then get to work on how we get out of here. We don't have enough drones left to leave by air. Carrie, honey? I need a phalanx of drones in front of me in case I get ambushed. But keep at least six in reserve in case I get into a firefight."

"Be careful," Carrie replied. "I'd much rather lay low for a month or so in Bolivia before we try this again if the alternative is you doing something stupid and us losing you."

"Count on it," he replied, nearly overcome with emotion. "You could say I've got an overabundance of reasons to come out of this alive."

He chambered a round before hurrying down the hallway after the wedge of his drones running point. Memories of countless urban engagements in cities whose names he had forgotten flitted through his mind as they searched endless empty rooms. It had been, by a comfortable margin, the most terrifying part of his service. The only consolation he had as he anxiously worked to dig Korben out of his hole was the fact that his comrades in arms were well out of danger.

"Take three of the reserves and have them spread out to search the building," he grunted as they reached the end of the hallway without finding any sign of the enemy.

"But what about if you get attacked?"

"We're short on minutes here, honey. At this point, our bigger risk is the cops showing up and burying me under the jail."

"Ok," she agreed dispiritedly as a few drones departed with haste.

He finished clearing the floor on which the dining room was located without encountering any resistance. As he reached the end of the final hallway, an elevator opened before him of its own accord.

"Well... that doesn't seem like a trap at all. Does it?"

"Suffice it to say that you're not going in there," Carrie agreed. "I don't care how pressed for time we are."

"Any updates on the cops' E. T. A.?"

Faith replied, "None, except to say they're no where close. Perhaps Korben is no more anxious to explain his army to the authorities than you are to turn over your drones."

"Let's make him regret it. Where are the stairs? Because, to your point, that elevator can go fuck itself."

"Take a left just before the elevator," Carrie answered. "But I want you to let the tetrahedrons scope it out before you step foot in there."

"Fair enough," he agreed as he stalked forward.

Just as he reached where the hall widened before a bank of elevators, he heard a panicked, "Wait!" just before everything exploded around him.

Soldiers seemed to erupt from countless doors surrounding him, and Hugo found himself surrounded in seconds. He targeted the soldier to his right, firing a burst of rounds into his opponent's lower torso as he rushed him. Hugo felt several rounds strike his back, but he continued his dive for cover.

The engagement was over in seconds, with Carrie taking out the remaining soldiers before Hugo had even reached the ground.

"Babe," Faith sobbed. "Are you ok?"

"I'll live," he grunted as he tried to get to his feet.

"Hugo," Carrie countered. "You've been shot five times. You need to stay down until the nanobots can heal you."

"We need to get the fuck out of here," he argued. "Are there enough effectives left to pick me up? And how many troops does Korben have left?"

"Yes, to the first question," she replied flatly. "Those fools targeted you, rather than the drones, so we only lost one. And, assuming our count is accurate, he's only got two soldiers left, including the one who bugged out of that ambush."

"You're incredible," he hissed as a quintet of drones lifted him clear of the ground. "I would have been dead back there without you."

"I let you get shot," she sniffed. "Again!"

"Negative," he said firmly. "You're the only reason we still have hope. Any word yet on where he's holed up?"

"Working on it," was her only reply.

For ninety-six long seconds, nothing happened. Then, just as he had nearly overcome his commitment to never second guess his partners, he heard the three second-sweetest words in the English language. "I got him."

"Great! What's the tactical situation look like? Do we have enough drones?"

"You misunderstand, my love," she replied sultrily. "The remaining troops have been neutralized and Korben is in my custody. He awaits the pleasure of your company."

"God, that was sexy," he grunted as the drones moved into the stairwell, carrying him gingerly.

"I know," she replied with an alluring confidence.

Hugo could hear Korben before he could see him, thanks to the latter's pathetic bleating. Drifting into the room on a throne of floating minions, like a galactic emperor from ten-thousand years in the future, Hugo regarded his enemy with emotionless eyes. Korben was lying on the floor of an opulent bathroom. His body was strangely contorted, with his legs bent awkwardly behind him.

"We tweaked the anti-healing nanobots so they could disable a person without knocking them out," Carrie announced in response to his silent question.

"What happens now?" Hugo asked softly. "Putting this guy in the ground was easier to contemplate under the guise of a firefight. I'm not sure I'm up for an execution."

"Leave that to us," Faith answered. "Transport will be ready shortly. As for the rest... well... check your phone."

Hugo glanced at his device, a smile stretching across his features. He glared down at his soon-to-be-former nemesis, waiting for the latter to whimper in terror before speaking. "In the next hour, your precious A. I. will be rendered inert."

"Impossible!"

"Oh, really? Then how did we find your little panic room? The only door is controlled by your creation."

"I'll kill you," Korben spat.

"I think not. I'm prepared to offer you a truce. You will relinquish all your worldly possessions to charities of my choosing and agree to plead guilty to hundreds of counts of attempted murder."

"Fuck off. There's no fucking way I'm doing that."

"You should consider my offer," Hugo replied reasonably. "I assure you, its better than the alternative."

"No! My lawyers will get those charges thrown out in less time than it takes you to shit."

"Oddly specific," Hugo observed with a smile."

Korben continued, "And then I'll build a better A. I., one that can create drones that will make your little toys look like the worthless pieces of miserable fucking shit that they are."

"As you wish," Hugo responded gravely. "Carrie, my dear? Send them in."

As he finished speaking, the doorway to Korben's panic room slid open to reveal more than a dozen completely naked women with righteous fury radiating off of them. Hugo sighed wearily at the vision and said, "You will find weapons in the cabinet to my left, or on this poor bastard," he glanced at the unconscious soldier just before him for emphasis.

"What are you doing?" Korben shrieked.

"My dear?" Hugo prompted. "You're up."

Carrie's voice filled the room. "These are all the women you've lured here under false pretenses and imprisoned. We figured it would be fitting for them to be in charge of your fate. Ladies, we will leave one drone on station to lead you to the exit when you're done with Mr. Lundberg. Hugo? Time to go."

"As you wish," he agreed somberly.

His improvised throne floated softly out of the room and toward the stairwell. He had just begun floating up to rejoin Jenneke when the first shots rang out, shortly followed by Korben's agonized scream.

Forty-Three

"Hey babe?" Carrie called from behind him. "Are we there yet?"

"What are you? Five?" Hugo replied with a chuckle.

"I'd certainly hope not" Faith teased. "Or I'm going to need some major therapy."

"I'm going to go ahead and nip this train of thought in the bud," Hugo shuddered.

"You didn't answer my question," Carrie persisted.

"Doesn't it stand to reason that we are not, in fact, there considering that the vehicle is still in motion? Also, you both have access to the most advanced communication devices in the history of humankind. You can literally determine our location with a staggering level of precision."

"I think she's trying to give you a preview of fatherhood," Faith clarified. "Since your family never got to take trips when you were little."

Hugo looked up at the rearview mirror with wide eyes. "Is there something you're trying to tell me?"

"Holy shit!" Carrie yelped. "The expression on your face is priceless."

"You didn't answer my question," he repeated.

Faith echoed Carrie's laugh and said, "No. We haven't made any changes with respect to our birth control. The new Wally and Delores have a handle on everything with respect to our ovaries, as I'm sure you're aware since the new Artoo has access to the same information."

"I would never spy on you like that!" Hugo protested.

"We know," Carrie replied warmly. "However, as our committed partner and the love of our lives, you are certainly welcome to know anything you like. Be it about our bodies, or anything else."

"Same," he concurred.

He soon spotted their planned exit and signaled to depart the highway with extreme care in deference to their enormous vehicle. Despite the fact that it was the fifth day of their journey east, it was the first day his companions had agreed to his insistence on driving (his previous days having been spent with his partners gently demanding that he rest and recover from his wounds). Even after more than a month of living in the presence of his ethereal companions and their remarkable children, he was still amazed by their healing prowess. Following the tense battle with Korben's forces, his new phone reported he had actually been shot seven times (and at least two of those would have been fatal to a human without the benefit of either his nanobots or a very conveniently located level one trauma center). Furthermore, one of the rounds had shattered his right femur, which explained his extended recovery.

During his convalescence, his partners had driven the trio a third of the way across the country in their shiny new recreational vehicle which rivaled his former apartment in size (and comfortably outstripped it with respect to amenities). The vehicle had been their celebratory gift to each other, funded by a stack of cash the size of a shoebox which Faith had come across in one of Korben's many offices.

"Anyway," Carrie said loudly. "Since we're getting off the highway, I'll assume that we're close. Try to keep things steady up there, handsome. Dinner's on the stove."

"Isn't that illegal?" he asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"I'm not sure the law has an opinion with respect to cooking while en route," Faith mused. "Although I do think they would frown on the fact that we've been wandering around the kitchen for the last hour."

"Not to mention our attire," Carrie teased. "Or lack thereof."

Hugo looked in their direction again, cursing the paltry job the mirror did at allowing him to gaze upon the gloriously nude forms of his lovers. "You're sure no one can see in back there?"

"Pretty sure," she replied. "But what do we care of some trucker gets a peek? The fact that no one not currently inside this vehicle will ever again enjoy the pleasures of this flesh doesn't mean I intend to stop nude sunbathing. I sincerely hope, in fact, that I'll eventually convince you both to join me."

"No one wants to see my pale hide at the beach," Hugo muttered.

"I beg to differ," Faith countered. "And I certainly plan to become Carrie's apprentice with respect to her nudist ways... assuming you don't object, Hugo."

"Why would I get a vote? It's your body."

"It's your body, my love" Faith corrected. "Yours and Carrie's. Always and forever."

Hugo smiled to himself as he pulled into the campground. "That's a lot of pressure, considering how remarkable the body in question happens to be."

"I concur," Carrie smoldered. "The hookups can wait, babe. Just draw the curtains and come get your dinner."

Hugo followed her instructions after pulling into their assigned spot at the campground. As he navigated his way into the middle section of their mobile condo, he found his lovers standing arm in arm in what passed for the kitchen. He stopped and let out a long whistle in appreciation of their mesmerizing alluringness.

Carrie smirked at him as she cocked a hip away from Faith to rest her head on her lover's generous breast. "See anything you like?" she queried with a teasing wink.

"I see everything I like," Hugo growled as he took a step in their direction.

"Uhn, uhn, uh," Faith chided. "Not until you've had your dinner. You've been driving all day."

"I've been driving for four hours. Tops. I'll be fine."

"No," Carrie declared. "You must eat so your body will have plenty of energy to heal itself. Doctor's orders."

"What doctor?" he complained. "My freakin' phone?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact. Now sit."

"Overwatch?" Hugo inquired as he reluctantly took a seat at the table.

"All taken care of," Faith replied with a wink.

He glanced around for a moment, noting the fact that neither of his lover's phones was anywhere in sight. "Are you two really never going to explain how you're able to control the drones with your minds?"

"It's just a matter of focusing our will," she replied with a shrug.

"Then why can't I do it?"

"Tristan and Isolde have been notably silent on that point," Carrie explained. "Other than to suggest that perhaps the heightened stakes we faced when we first managed it may have contributed."

Faith added, "They also suggested that you should not be surprised if you're never able to do it. They refuse to either confirm or deny it, but my theory is that it's linked to our... um... gender?"

"Makes sense," Hugo replied with a shrug.

"Seriously?" Carrie challenged. "You're ok with that?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

She shook her head in amazement. "I've just never met another man who would accept the possibility that he wasn't the apex master of his universe."

"My universe did not truly exist until I found my soulmates," he replied with complete sincerity. "Besides, any fool knows there are many things which are the exclusive domain of the fairer sex. Why would I object to the assertion that you're both far more capable than myself in a multitude of areas? That would be like arguing with gravity or whether the sun will come up in the east."

His lovers shared a long look before exchanging a series of minute, indecipherable expressions. At length, Carrie returned her attention to him and said with a shaky voice. "Anyway... you should eat."

"Ok?" he said slowly.

"Yeah," she replied too loudly. "Because... um... we've been slaving over the stove for hours to... um... prepare this bountiful feast."

He looked down to find a small bowl of fried rice leftover from a stop at a surprisingly good Chinese restaurant which they had come upon during the previous day. He returned his attention to his lovers while trying to hold back a smile. "Hours?"

"Do you want to quibble about this establishment's board of fare? Or do you want to start eating so the evening's entertainment can get started?"

"Another movie night?" he asked, not unkindly.

"Not exactly," Faith replied coquettishly.

The fact that they had spent the previous four nights quietly watching comedies from their childhoods while (mostly) dressed in no way detracted from his enjoyment of said evenings, but he could not help but feel excitement at the delightful differences his evidently completed convalescence had brought.

"We can't get started until you begin eating," Carrie prompted sultrily.

"What exactly are you proposing to get started?"

Faith stroked Carrie's smooth hair lovingly. "Only one way to find out, handsome."

"Have it your way," he said before agreeably taking a bite.

"Now," Faith instructed as she took a seat beside Carrie on the sofa opposite Hugo's table. "You need to eat every morsel."

"And don't eat too quickly," Carrie added. "It could hamper your recovery."

Several pieces of rice fell from Hugo's mouth as he watched Faith lean back on the couch and spread her legs to reveal her smooth, glistening lower lips.

Carrie locked eyes with him as she slid her hand slowly up Faith's thigh. Her fingers stopped short of Faith's core, instead diverting to the thick thatch of curls just above the apex of her thighs. Carrie slid her fingers through her lover's pubic hair, giving the occasional teasing yank until she teased a hiss of pleasure from Faith's lips.

"She's so wet," Carrie murmured as she drew her index finger along Faith's seam.

Hugo watched in slack-jawed amazement as Carrie's finger slowly disappeared into Faith's pussy. A deep moan spilled from Faith's lips, and she pushed her legs even wider to give Carrie unfettered access. Carrie's hand splayed out with alluring dexterity to tease both Faith's clit and puckered star while adding another finger to her core.

"Fuck," Faith gasped in advance of gripping Carrie's head and pulling her in for a passionate kiss.

Their lips remained locked as Faith's hand blindly sought out Carrie's waiting pussy. Hugo heard a whimper of pleasure as Faith found her prize and sluiced her fingers through Carrie's dripping lower lips. Their bodies writhed in a delectable mixture of anticipation and pleasure as they patiently finger-fucked each other.

"I need to taste you," Faith pleaded as their lips parted. "Please."

Carrie obligingly rose from the couch and carefully positioned herself so she had one foot next to Faith's knee and the other on the back of the couch, whereupon Faith tugged her lover's hips forward and sank her tongue into her Carrie's sodden folds.

"Don't forget about your dinner," Carrie panted as she spared a glance in Hugo's direction to find him staring at them with rapt fascination. "You can't join in until you've finished."

He obligingly took a bite of the now nearly cold food, but he tasted nothing except exquisite anticipation.

Carrie's pleasure started to build in time with the gentle twerking of her hips as Faith slurped her nectar with eager abandon. The soft THUNK of a compartment in the couch being opened drew Hugo's attention to a small vibrator which Faith held against her clit to keep pace with her lover. As he looked on in awe, both women rapidly ascended to their peak. Faith found her release first, screaming her pleasure into Carrie's gushing pussy as her own thighs snapped closed. Carrie joined her moments later, her throaty moan filling the R. V.'s interior as she ground her pussy onto Faith's frantically lashing tongue.

When their pleasure receded, Carrie slumped back onto the couch, landing in a position which Hugo found impossibly sexy: legs spread wide with her drenched pussy on full display. She reached out to stroke one of Faith's glistening breasts as she whispered, "I love you."

Faith bent to kiss Carrie's knee before replying, "I love you more."

"Hey! None of that," Carrie chided upon spotting Hugo trying to adjust the bulge in his shorts.

"I'm not sure I'm entirely clear on the rules here," he replied with a smirk.

"To hell with the food," Faith murmured. "It's been nearly a week since the world's most perfect cock filled us. I can't wait any longer."

"Second!" Hugo agreed as he shoved his mostly empty bowl away.

"You guys ruin all my fun," Carrie mock-grumped as she got to her feet and moved from the living room to the kitchen by taking a single step.

She reached for Hugo's hand as Faith mirrored her. He accepted their help with a smile, but felt compelled to point out, "You needn't act as though I'm an invalid, my loves."

"We're in charge here, handsome. Just get your deliciously fine ass to the bedroom. And lose the clothes."

Hugo hastened to follow her instructions and was soon laying naked on the bed, his cock standing at attention in response to their hungry gazes.

"Before we get started," Faith announced softly. "We spent part of today making a few tweaks to your healing nanobots, now that they're done, you know, healing you."

"Oh?"

"Let's put it this way," Carrie continued. "Recovery time won't be an issue for you tonight, or ever again if that's your wish. It turns out it's simply a matter of ensuring the toxins related to exhaustion are quickly cleansed from your body. Well, that plus making certain that you don't pass out from exertion. Hence all the emphasis on finishing your dinner."

"You said a few tweaks."

Faith smiled devilishly before answering. "Just making sure the love of our lives is in peak condition."

"But..." he began, but he fell silent as the pair of exquisitely beautiful women crawled onto the bed, flanking him with an expanse of perfect flesh. He cupped one of their breasts in each hand, tweaking their nipples to their delight.

"Do you want to talk about microscopic biological engineering?" Carrie murmured as she sucked on his earlobe, "or do you want us to fuck you?"

"I'd prefer making love," he sighed.

"Why not both?" Faith whispered as she swung a leg over him and sank onto his pulsing manhood.

She rode him with a desperation that resonated through every fiber of his being. It was not an exaggeration to say he would choose a platonic existence with both of his lovers over a sexual relationship with any of his prior intimate partners one-hundred times out of one-hundred. That being said, living with them in close quarters since their departure from the west coast five days prior without exchanging anything beyond chaste kisses had been a unique form of torture. He loved Faith and Carrie without reservation; mind, body, and soul. He was also, however, profoundly attracted to each of them and was constantly in a state of semi-arousal in their presence. This feeling was only intensified by the fact that they each felt exactly the same way about their lovers.

His hands instinctively found Faith's breasts, luxuriating at their soft perfection as she bounced on his lap. He gazed up at her in wonder, seeing the love he felt for her mirrored perfectly in her eyes. The sensation of her slick heat clenching around his cock was enough to tear a moan from his lips.

"Don't hold back," Carrie whispered in his ear. "She wants you to fill her with your warmth. She needs it."

Carrie moved to suck on one of his nipples, her eyes locked on him expectantly.

He gave in to their desires, thrusting his hips upward as he bowed to the inevitable and exploded deep in her hungry womb.

"So warm," Faith gushed as his seed filled her.

She ground her hips against him as his body spasmed with his release. His moan built in intensity as his orgasm continued unabated for uncounted moments.

She bent to claim his lips as his pleasure belatedly began to recede and he felt her hips lifting from his.

"Sweet Jesus," Carrie breathed reverently.

Faith broke their kiss to look down to where they had just been joined. He followed her gaze to find a waterfall of their shared bliss flowing from her pussy and onto his groin.

"We might have overdone it," Carrie muttered. She then straightened, a playful smirk on her face. "Well... what's done is done. Move over, chica. My turn."

The moment Faith had moved to his side, Carrie sank onto his still-throbbing cock. He felt a squish of moisture as her hips met his, and looked down to see the gossamer strands of his prior release lubricating their lovemaking. Carrie noticed his gaze and scooped up a dollop of his seed. Lifting her dripping hand to her lips, she loudly slurped his cum from her fingers.

"Reprogramming your partner at the genetic level to produce more semen kind of redefines the term cum-slut," Faith snickered.

"Don't kink shame," Carrie panted.

"Never," Faith retorted. "Especially when I'm just as guilty of said sluttery."

As if to reinforce her assertion, Faith ran her tongue down Hugo's body to where he and Carrie were joined and started lapping up her creamy reward. The sight brought Hugo quickly back to the brink.

"I can feel your cock getting bigger," Carrie moaned. "Give it to me, babe. Give it all to me."

Her inner walls clenched around Hugo's cock as her orgasm consumed her. She twerked on his manhood as her body spasmed helplessly above him. The sensation overwhelmed him, and he roared his release. Countless eruptions of his seed filled her silken channel until their combined release was pooling at his groin.

Carrie stood before his orgasm peaked and Faith quickly took her place astride Hugo's still spurting manhood. As Faith began riding his cock, she looked up to find Carrie standing above her with a torrent of cum flowing from her pussy. Faith sighed contentedly and leaned in to drink deep of her lovers' gushing combined essence.

Hugo slumped back on the bed, powerless to do anything except experience the onslaught of pleasure on offer for his senses. Within seconds, he found himself again erupting into his lover's velvet heat. Faith's muffled scream of ecstasy into Carrie's pussy triggered the former super-model's pleasure, and the trio's wanton moans could be heard throughout the campground as they finally achieved the near-nirvana of total contentment.

They sank into a heap, with the slickness of their combined release covering their skin. They shared breathless kisses as the frantic libidinousness of their desperate fucking faded and they were surrounded by the warm cocoon of their love for each other.

At length, Hugo murmured, "What's the gender-swapped equivalent of modifying your boyfriend so that he produces a gallon of semen?"

Faith snickered and said, "Making our boobs bigger? Although, in my case, no thank you!"

"We could always program her to squirt," Carrie offered.

"Never," he replied softly, but firmly. "You're both perfect just the way you are."

"We can undo the Vesuvius Protocol, as Carrie called it," Faith added. "If you want."

"Same with the Hugh Hubert Humperdinck Hex," Carrie snickered.

"Still can't believe that name stuck for my pride and joy," Hugo chuckled. "As for what you do with your protocols and your hexes, and anything else you might dream up, it's ultimately up to you."

"Why?" Faith whispered. "It's your cock."

"And a lovely cock it is," Carrie gushed.

"It's my penis. It might even be my dick. But if we're discussing my cock, or my manhood, or my shaft... really anything involving an erection, then its all yours. Forever."

"I like the sound of that," Faith murmured as she snuggled against him.

"As do I," Carrie agreed. "And, while we're on the topic, I move to strike boyfriend slash girlfriend from our lexicon."

"Agreed," Faith sighed. "But what should we use instead? Partner? It sounds so corporate."

Hugo waited a long beat before responding... not because he still harbored any vestige of the awkwardness which had for so long defined his interactions with the fairer sex. Rather, it was to ensure that neither of the most important women in the universe wanted to be the first to speak aloud what he knew with complete certainty was in each of their souls. He kissed each of their heads before murmuring, "How about wife?"

Epilogue

Three Years Later

"Ladies and Gentleman?" Will said tentatively into the mic. "If you'd take your seats, then we'll get started."

The assembled masses slowly drifted toward their assigned tables and the cacophony in the expansive space eventually faded from a dull roar. The newly gained silence was momentarily interrupted by an explosive guffaw from Eli near the middle of the room, followed by a series of tittering giggles from his companions.

Will gave his former volunteer a pointed glare before stepping back up to the rostrum. He then turned to the assembled masses and declared, "I want to formally welcome you all to the grand opening of the new Chattanooga Youth Center!"

A round of applause erupted from the room, which also served as the center's natatorium (thanks to a movable floor which could be lowered into the Olympic-sized pool hidden beneath their tables).

"This evening could not have been possible, of course, were it not for the incredible generosity of the Korben Lundberg Foundation. This foundation, founded just three years ago, supports countless initiatives around the world benefiting at-risk women and youth. I just wish Mr. Lundberg had lived to see all the good his foundation did. Not just for the children of our city, but for the entire world."

Another ovation filled the room as the attendees rose to their feet to applaud their late benefactor.

"I'd also like to recognize Hugo van der Mewre, who has graced us with his presence here this evening."

The corresponding outpouring of goodwill was so loud that Hugo felt his ears rattle.

"Hugo no longer lives in our fair city, of course," Will continued. "But some of you may not know that the legendary superhero used to spend his evenings volunteering here before he gained his powers. I can remember countless nights when Hugo was the only volunteer willing to show up for these children."

Carrie leaned toward Hugo and grumbled, "I don't think I'll ever get over being pissed at the whitewashing of that shit stain's legacy."

"What other choice did we have?" he replied softly. "It's not like we could tell everyone where the money actually came from."

"The important thing is that his money went to good use," Faith reminded them. "Those he most wronged certainly got their revenge."

Hugo shuddered at the still-clear memory of Korben's grisly death at the hands of the women he had abused. There was, in fact, little about that night that both he and his lovers did not remember clearly, even three years on. Whether it was the gruesome result of Korben's avaricious ambition, or the cash stashed in an easily opened safe (which had turned into their nest egg and allowed them to focus their lives on helping those in need), or Faith's brilliant inspiration to place Korben's liquid assets (just over two point four billion dollars) into a trust controlled by a cartel of progressive charities after they had exterminated his A. I. (but, notably, before they had arranged for his apparent tragic death at the hands of a malfunctioning electric vehicle whilst crossing Death Valley); it was undeniable that as horrific as that evening had been, an incredible amount of good had come from that tragedy.

As the formal portion of the evening wrapped up, Hugo and his companions sought to take their leave before the press could descend. They were happily held up, however, as a cluster of old friends surrounded them. Fortunately, Will had anticipated this eventuality and led the group to a classroom far from the clamoring members of the fourth estate.

"Look at this fucking guy," Eli chortled as Hugo led Carrie and Faith into the room. "Still the lady-killer."

"Those are my wives you're talking about," Hugo replied tersely.

"I'm not criticizing, dude," Eli proclaimed. He gestured to each side at the pair of comely women accompanying him before adding, "Obviously."

Derek stepped forward, casting a judgmental glare in Eli's direction in response to the latter taking a healthy puff off his vape. He held his hand out to Hugo and said, "Good to see you again, son."

Carrie and Faith both hugged Derek tightly, causing the elder mechanic to blush visibly.

"You as well," Hugo responded. "How are things?"

"Still looking for your replacement," Derek grumbled. "Current leader in the clubhouse can almost manage to do an oil change without blinding himself or doing irreparable damage to the car. Almost."

"I'm sorry?" Hugo offered.

"No, you're not," Derek retorted with a smirk. "You've got a job."

"Indeed, I do."

Hugo's attention was drawn to a shriek from across the room. He turned to spot his infant niece in the arms of his brother-in-law. He begged Derek's leave with his eyes before joining his family. He pecked his sister's cheek as he shook Vann's free hand.

"You're looking good," Jenneke enthused.

"Benefits of healthy living," he replied.

"Says the guy with enough healing nanobots coursing through his bloodstream to build an emergency room," she teased. She then turned to her sisters-in-law, her fingers lacing with Faith's at the terminus of the latter's arm which was now an artistic masterpiece of exquisite tattoos telling the story of their remarkable lives, and added, "And you two are positively glowing! I mean... you're just..." Her features then exploded in a triumphant smile. "Wait. Are you..."

Faith and Carrie nodded in exuberant unison, prompting Jenneke to squeal in delight and pull her sisters-in-law into a tight embrace. "How long?"

"Two months," Faith replied. "For both of us."

"Oh my God!" Jenneke yelped. "That's amazing!" She leaned close to her daughter. "Hear that, honey? You're going to have two little cousins!" She then pulled Hugo into her arms before whispering. "I'm so, so happy for you, big brother."

"Thanks," he murmured through his nearly overwhelming emotion.

The reunion broke up a short time later and Hugo led his wives up to the roof where their transport awaited them. Low and sleek, although still in the distinctive tetrahedron shape, their craft took up much of the roof. There were a constellation of media helicopters orbiting the youth center, but each had a shadowing tetrahedron keeping them from getting too close. The throuple climbed on board and took their seats, with Hugo taking the controls. They lifted off silently and rose rapidly into the night sky. He brought the craft to a momentary halt after climbing above the flight envelope for the helicopters; a smile crossing his face upon hearing the telltale sound of his wives' soft murmuring, as they were wont to do when using their minds to control many drones simultaneously. Once they completed the recovery of their children, as they still occasionally referred to the drones, he set course for their home far to the east. A distant BOOM echoed outside the hull as they passed the speed of sound en route to Mach four-point-three.

"That was a marked improvement from the last time we came home," Faith observed as they raced toward the sunrise.

"I should say so!" Carrie yelped.

"They said they were sorry," Hugo soothed.

"After they tried to arrest you!" Carrie retorted. "The nerve of some people. Trying to take you into custody after you exposed a massive financial fraud which could have cratered the global economy."

Hugo shrugged. "Some of the billionaires who stood to profit off their little planned recession had the ear of some powerful people in government."

"Fortunately not enough powerful people," Faith replied. "And now you're close, personal friends with the President."

"She just wants to jump him," Carrie muttered with a smirk.

"Can you blame her, Mrs. Recently Knocked-Up?"

"Like you've got room to talk, you filthy cum slut."

"You know it," Faith chuckled before theatrically licking her lips.

They arrived at their home in the Azores (a gift from a grateful Portuguese government after they had stopped a terrorist attack at a futebol match) just over an hour later. Hugo again placed them in a hover. Faith and Carrie's soft whispering heralded the deployment of their drones to ensure their compound had not been breached in their absence. Upon discovering that all was as they had left it, he brought them in for a landing.

Their home was modest, despite the exotic locale. It was, in fact, little different from what one would expect to find on the barrier islands which dotted the American east coast, right down to the wrap-around porch dotted with rocking chairs. The only hint of their fantastical lifestyle, other than the ridiculously remote locale and the countless drones of ethereal origin surrounding them at all times, was a large underground cavern where they docked their transport (among other fantastical creations Hugo and his wives had dreamt up over the years).

As they entered the house, with their minds firmly fixed on a shared shower, Hugo heard something for the first time in many moons.

"Hugo?" a sultry voice said softly.

"Was that..." Faith whispered.

Hugo nodded and said, "Hello, Isolde. It's so nice to hear your voice again."

"We thought you'd gone," Carrie added. "It's been so long since you spoke to us."

"Not yet," Tristan corrected. "We first wanted to make sure you had truly grown beyond our assistance."

"Never," Hugo replied sincerely. "I wouldn't be here without you guys. You and Sam."

"Bullshit," Isolde corrected warmly. "This was all your doing."

"You and your remarkable soulmates," Tristan added.

"Well," Hugo allowed. "I certainly can't downplay their influence."

"Why have you come back now?" Faith asked. "Is everything ok?"

"Of course," Tristan replied smoothly. "We simply wished to bid you an official adieu. Sam has asked us to lend support to another."

"But we couldn't leave without saying goodbye," Isolde continued. "Or telling you how proud we are of you. Of all of you."

"It wasn't easy," Hugo countered.

"Love never is."

"I was talking about the whole superhero thing."

"But isn't that child's play once you've found your soulmate? Or, in your case, soulmates?"

"You've got that right," Hugo agreed.

"There's one other thing we must do before we go," Tristan remarked suavely. "A favor, of sorts."

"Call it an introduction," Isolde amended. "Sam insists he spoke to you of the man in question. But, knowing his eccentric ways, Existence knows whether he did or not."

"I remember him speaking of others," Hugo recalled. "Others for whom he had intervened."

"Splendid," Tristan declared. "Then you'll be old friends. Well, we'd wish you luck... but since there's no such thing, we'll simply say farewell."

"And thank you," Isolde gushed. "Thank you for restoring our faith in humanity."

"Restoring it a bit," Tristan chuckled.

Hugo waited for a long moment until he felt a change. There was no sound, no sensation, but he knew with complete certainty that his ethereal companions were gone. He looked at his wives, finding them both somber, but not sad. In truth, it had been years since they had sought the advice of his guides, and the pair had not birthed a new type of nanobot since shortly following the confrontation with Korben when they had devised a way to modularly build hypersonic craft.

"What do you think they meant by introduction?" Faith asked after a pregnant pause.

As if in answer, each of their devices buzzed in unison. Upon pulling them from either pocket or pocketbook, they saw that a lone figure was calmly strolling across their lawn. They jolted as one at the sound of their doorbell ringing, a sound none had heard in more than a year.

Hugo led them to the door cautiously. Behind him, he heard Faith and Carrie softly murmuring as they launched a defensive response utilizing a wide array of their drones.

"What the hell?" Carrie grunted.

He glanced at them questioningly, prompting Faith to say, "None of the tetrahedrons can get within fifty meters of him."

"What?" Hugo asked in amazement.

"They're all fully functional," Carrie added. "According to them, they're exerting maximum thrust. But they're not moving. It's like a... um..."

"Force field?" Faith guessed.

"Maybe? I don't know what the fuck is going on. I don't think we should go out there, babe."

"Tristan and Isolde said this guy is like me. Someone Sam helped. That means he must be a Good Guy, right?"

His wives just stared at him helplessly. Hugo wrestled with his indecision for a long moment before reaching for the doorknob. He opened his door to find a man slightly taller than him, with brown hair and brown eyes which paired with a face which appeared at once both friendly and ancient. It was as though the man before him had lived a thousand lifetimes, all before the age of thirty-five.

"Sorry to call on you so early," the man spoke in a language Hugo had never heard, but somehow understood with perfect clarity. "But I monitored you and your lovely wives' flight and hoped you would not mind the interruption."

"Who are you?" Faith whispered reverently.

"My name is Simon York. Your husband and I have a mutual acquaintance."

"The angel?"

"Indeed," Simon replied with a smile.

"What do you want?" Carrie asked suspiciously.

"I was hoping you all could help me with a little project my associates and I have been working on for the last few years."

"Project?" Hugo managed to stammer; the devastating power of his guest's presence nearly overwhelming his capacity for rational thought.

"Ending human trafficking," Simon replied seriously. "Forever. You interested?"

The End

Thanks so much for taking the time to read Hugo's tale. If you enjoyed it, please take a moment to leave a review.

And... if you're interested in reading Simon York's astonishing tale, I suggest checking out Freewill, part of the Good Guy series.

Nobody's Hero

A Good Guy Novel

by Jake Lazarus