Depths of Chaos Ch. 07

Depths of Chaos Chapter 7

This story is part of a series. Although it can be read on it's own, parts of the story may make more sense when read in order. I highly recommend reading the story "The Demon" in order to discover the origins of our beloved Kali. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy.

Kali was lost. There was no sensation but pain; unimaginable pain. Every nerve screamed that it was being destroyed. It overwhelmed her other senses. How could she see, or taste, hear or smell when the cells in those organs screamed the warning that was pain.

The only blessing Kali was afforded was that she could not even think. Her brain hurt most of all. Neurons, overwhelmed as they were, could not fire properly. Although she had no concept of such, she would never be able to remember the pain. She would know that she had hurt, but be thankfully unable to relive the experience in the same way that Tral'zla'thor never remembered the pain that it thought was Hell.

Kali didn't know why she hurt. She didn't know how long it would last. Time was irrelevant beneath the onslaught. Every second was an eternity.

Slowly, awareness returned beneath the pain. That only added to her torment, as she began to panic and wonder what she had done to deserve such a fate. She felt something tug at her. It wasn't anything physical, for every nerve still screamed, or even mental. It was as if something tried to pull her very soul from her body and the force of that intrusion screamed from every cell.

The pull began to lessen. Unseeing eyes suddenly held a vision. A rope was tied around her neck; a noose. Simon stood before her and gripped the rope with all of his might. His muscles strained as he tried to keep the rope from strangling her, as if she were the anchor in a twisted game of Tug-o-war. Off in the distance, invisible to her sight, their enemy fought Simon's skill. She could not see him, but as with all of their shared visions, she knew something about him. In their language, they fought a Sorcerer.

Kali could do nothing. Even her powers refused to obey. As Kali watched Simon fight for her life, she had a revelation. This was why demons never escaped Hell on their own. While they had ample power to break any bonds that held them there, they could never concentrate enough to use them.

Instinct drew Kali's gaze upward. She needed to scream. She had to warn Simon to flee. Not content with the stalemate, the enemy had decided to drop a building on them. She knew the whole scene was metaphysical, merely a symbolic representation of the spells being cast. She didn't know what the building was, but she knew the rope was an attempt to summon and capture her soul.

In her pain enhanced reality, the building fell with the speed of a feather but the grace of the stone structure it resembled. It fell inevitably towards them. In the last moments, Kali realized that the center of the building was hollow. As it crashed around them, it tugged briefly at the already too taut line. The vision faltered as pain dragged at her consciousness once more.

As suddenly as it had begun, it ended. New pains erupted throughout her body. Her eyes burned as she tried to blink moisture back across them and they once more recorded the intense points of light that were aimed directly at her. Her muscles struggled to sort themselves out, many cramped after what seemed like years of ill use and sudden tension. Her body was one giant charlie-horse. Someone tried to speak to her, but the sound simply ricocheted about her skull like lightning.

One sensation she recognized. One thing cut through even the pain and tension; the slow rhythmic sway of her body as it pressed against someone. She knew, even before her eyes or ears worked, that it was Simon who held her. The molten voice was also Simon as he spoke the same soothing tones that helped her to let go and ride her power.

Simon's tone changed, became harsh, but it was turned away from her. He aimed that most powerful of his weapons, his voice, at someone else. Instantly the blinding suns disappeared. Kali managed to remember it had been very late at night when she went outside. There must be someone there with him. Two people with flashlights, or perhaps a car. No the lights were too small and too close to be a car.

With the flashlights off, her eyes immediately began to clear. Simon held her tight. He knelt on her left. His knees supported her lower back and his arms wrapped protectively around her shoulders. Even in the low light Kali could see the trails down his face where tears had dried. His mouth continued to move, and the sound no longer pounded into her skull, but she still couldn't quite make out the words. But the eyes that locked on hers begged, pleaded with her, to show some signs that she was with him and unharmed. She smiled weakly. The first was true, the later she wasn't so sure of.

Simon looked away briefly. Kali began to get her bearings and realized he looked past her, towards the street. Before she could turn her head to see what had drawn his attention, he began to carefully lift her. She hadn't realized how strong he was. Oh, she'd certainly appreciated his muscular body, and even supposed he could press her, but that had been mental knowledge. Now, as he carried her, without the slightest sign of strain, she was amazed. She could barely feel his footsteps. It felt as if she simply floated, pressed against and surrounded by the solid warmth that was Simon.

Kali finally brought her head around, in order to see where he carried her. Instead of back into the comfort of her dorm, he carried her towards a car. It was a police car.

Well, maybe they're trying to get me to a hospital?

She wasn't sure how useful that would really be, but she was willing to try anything. In truth, she didn't know how much physical damage having a person's soul yanked from their body did to them. She rather assumed it wasn't a good thing, but the only people she'd ever heard of had either been dying already, or knew the trick before they succeeded. Besides, someone else hadn't done it to them; unless she counted the Grim Reaper.

Simon gently lowered Kali into the back seat and moved around to the other side. The moment he slid into the car, an arm wrapped comfortingly about her. "I'm sorry sir, but I don't think we can take her to the scene." One of the two cops in the front seat said that. Although painfully loud, she had understood it.

"Call Michaels. Even if he doesn't want her at the actual scene itself, which I'm not sure I do either, I won't leave her behind, especially not after an episode, or attack, or whatever it was we just saw. She can stay in the car with one of you to watch her, but I need to be close by in case something like that happens again."

The last suggestion seemed to satisfy the cops. The lights flashed and the car pulled into the sparse population of the street. Kali snuggled more comfortably against Simon. He looked down and his smile seemed to warm her world. His hands absently rubbed her arms as he continued to hold her.

Kali's eyes began to drift closed. She knew she had just expended a tremendous amount of energy in her resistance. Now that the pain had dulled, it was time to begin to rebuild some of that energy. She let her mind begin to wander. As she began to slip into unconsciousness, she swore she was surrounded by a tower, and not in the back of the police cruiser.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What had started as a relatively simple and quick investigation had ballooned to nearly mythic proportions. Simon found himself very glad he had accepted the series of slaughters. Now, between Kali and the killer, he had two completely unknown circumstances at work. Very few other agents in the PIA were equipped to deal with such enigmas. Simon was honest enough with himself to admit that he wasn't entirely certain he was qualified to figure out what was going on. The only remotely comforting thought was that if any field agent could handle it, it was him.

The moment he saw Kali doubled over in pain, he knew it was mystical in nature. Most likely it had been the memory of her in the alley, but this had been far worse. The moment he activated his other-sight, he understood what was happening. Unfortunately, he didn't have the slightest idea of the other important 'w' questions.

The 'why' could be guessed fairly easily; someone wanted Tral'zla'thor's power and attempted to summon him. Unfortunately, it shouldn't have worked. Simon knew at least a dozen different spells designed to summon Demons, but they rarely worked if the Demon in question was under a compulsion. And they never worked if the spirit managed to possess someone. The spell should have simply failed.

It was the 'who' and 'where' that troubled Simon the most however. A spell of that magnitude, powerful enough to compel a greater demon, should have left residuals that could be traced instantly back to the source. While he had seen the spell clearly, the moment it stopped, the rope-like image had vanished. Even more importantly, every summoning should leave residual traces on Kali. That was how demon's could always find the diabolists that had summoned them. They kept the memory of those traces and used it to hunt down former 'masters.'

To the best of Simon's knowledge, only an Akashic could clear all traces of a spell signature from a spell. Unfortunately there were two immediate problems with the hypothesis. The first was that Akashics had only a very limited connection to the spirit world. Most had been unable to even call on other-sight, much less a summoning of any kind. In fact, it seemed the more powerful the Akashic, the less capable they were with spirits. Researchers had pondered the reason for this for centuries, but never had figured out why. However no Akashic on record ever held more than a minuscule ability with spirits.

Then there was the minor complication that the last of the Akashics had been exterminated nearly a century ago. PIA records were a little hazy on details, but it seemed that the Sidhe were largely responsible. The few researchers who studied the Fae society all seemed to assume that the Unseleigh Sidhe, the chaotic nation of elves, were responsible. Supposedly, it had been vengeance for the human mystics' role in a fairy civil war.

This purely mystical attack was a third unknown. Any of these variables would be curiosities on their own, but together they screamed connection. The most telling evidence was the lack of mystical signature. Whoever, or whatever, was behind the attacks had just sent Simon a clear message, whether it was intentional or not.

Soft hands tightened around Simon's arm. He looked down at Kali and smiled. She had drawn her feet up to half-kneel, half-sit on the police car's back seat. From her shallow breath, closed eyes and serene expression, he guessed she had already fallen asleep. He envied her. He wanted to curl up and sleep for a month at this point. He certainly did not want to visit another scene like the one he had witnessed earlier. He slid his arm loose of her hands and wrapped it around her shoulders. Kali adjusted so that her head lay in his lap, but didn't seem to wake.

The trip didn't take very long at all. Simon wasn't surprised. The killer seemed bound to the area around the clubs. Undoubtedly, the story would be all over the news in the morning. Lieutenant Michaels was going to be looking to Simon for a solution. He needed one quickly.

Simon gently climbed out from beneath Kali and left her curled up on the back seat. A quick confirmation with the driver made sure that he be staying with the car, and would notify Simon, via the lieutenant, the moment anything out of the ordinary occurred.

The other cop left the car and walked beside Simon. As the two approached cordoned area, his function became clear. Another cop stood by the tape, a rookie unless Simon misjudged drastically, and moved to block him. The officer with Simon simply waved towards the scene and the rookie simply raised the tape for the two. A quick duck and they were into another alley.

It always surprised Simon that anyone would willingly cut through alleys in the darkest depths of night. Even without the supernatural threats, many of which did prefer darkness in search of an expedient protection, humanity was more than willing to prey upon those members of the herd which strayed. Alleys were out of sight, and most would not follow the sounds of trouble to investigate too closely.

"So what exactly is your field of expertise Mr. Pie? I mean, you've never flashed a badge, so you're likely exactly what Rich says you are." Simon assumed 'Rich' was Lieutenant Michaels. He'd never actually caught the man's first name, however. "So what is your specialty for consulting?"

"Psychology, particularly in highly traumatic events." It was a simple question to answer, and one which Simon was asked virtually every time he was brought in to work with the police. The answer was actually even true. He held a degree in psychology. What he failed to tell most people was that it specialized in para-psychology. Most PIA agents, and every field agent, ended up with at least a Bachelor's degree in the study. It was a requirement for field agents, in order to lend credulity to just such inquiries.

The officer looked like he was about to ask more when Lieutenant Michaels approached. Immediately he waved away the uniform and dragged Simon into a nook in the alley. "You don't have to see this one if you don't want. It's pretty much a carbon copy of the other two."

"I do, unfortunately. Incidentally, which of the two?" The lieutenant's eyes narrowed in uncertainty. "Was the perp disrupted in the middle like the second or did it complete the process like the first?" Simon stopped for a second, in thought. "For that matter, we don't know that it wasn't forced to cut things short in the first attack. It could be that it sensed the intrusion before being spotted, unlike the second time."

Lieutenant Michaels nodded. "I hadn't thought of that, actually. It could intend more than what it's already doing to these poor people?"

Simon shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe we've gotten three killings simply because it still hasn't gotten what it needs. You have to understand that a lot of things out there aren't actually evil. Sure, they do horrendous things by our standards, but is a hawk evil to scoop up a rabbit? How about a lioness protecting her cubs?" He held up a hand to forestall comment. "I'm not saying it doesn't need to be stopped. It's killing people. Either we need to get it to move on to other prey, other methods, or we need to destroy it."

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but what could it want?"

"Well, I'm still not exactly sure what it is. I've discovered some evidence which opens up a few possibilities. It could simply be looking to feed. If it does, it could stop with the first successful meal or could empower it for quicker and deadlier kills. It could be looking for a specific body part, entrails or the like, for a spell. Or, like the mother lioness, it could be protecting its territory. All of the attacks have come within a few blocks of each other, after all."

Lieutenant Michaels nodded and led Simon towards the scene itself. Simon had already shifted his vision entirely into other-sight in an effort to mitigate the effects of witnessing the gruesome sight. Unfortunately, while the blood was lessened, what had been done to the woman translated into the spiritual realm as well. Even more unfortunate, was the fact that this scene, like the previous, held no mystical residue. Simon simply turned around and shook his head, as he returned his vision to normal.

"By the way, Chu never told me. How exactly do I mark you down in the records and reports?"

Simon began to walk back towards the outer line. "Well, bill me as a consultant. You don't even need to jump through any hoops. Just put down that you contacted the PIA and the clerks will take care of billing."

He wondered how long it would take Michaels to figure out that the PIA's legitimate front was the Psychological Institute of America? They had the name and various websites all locked up so that no one could steal them. Occasionally a legitimate Psychologist or Psychiatrist would discover them and try to join. Usually, only a casual mention of parapsychology drove most of them off. Those that remained interested were carefully screened and evaluated. Many of the ones who passed became research agents, but it wasn't all that surprising how many people with some form of psychic ability ended up interested in that field of study. Quite a few had the requisite other-sight potential to become field agents.

The two were almost to the car when the lieutenant stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. When he turned, the hand rested more comfortably. It quickly became a friendly gesture.

"I talked to the coroner. He says the claws seem to be highly curved, but very thin for their length. He's currently brushing up on his biology and zoology trying to figure out what kind. The one thing he was sure of was that they were independently manipulated with an opposable digit. Given that, he's still leaning towards a unique weapon. Some kind of claw glove."

Simon shook his head. Very few creatures had the ability to do that in nature. That meant that the options still pointed towards a demon. And Simon suspected one either controlled by a powerful mystic, or aided by one. Whoever it was, they weren't content with just one either, they were after Kali as well.

"Any word on the strength it takes to rip someone's arms off?"

Lieutenant Michaels chuckled. "Nope. He's conveniently going to leave that part out of his report. He likes his job, morbid as it can be, so he doesn't want someone reading 'superhuman strength' and having him fired for insanity."

Simon nodded. It was pretty much as he predicted.

"If he can figure out about the zoology angle then so much the better, but you might want to steer him towards the weapon angle. Besides, if you never find the weapon, not too many people will question this as an unsolved case."

"Officially, I hope." Simon raised an eyebrow, so the lieutenant clarified his comment. "I don't care if this goes down officially as an unsolved case, but I want to know if you catch the bastard that's doing this. I don't just want to make sure this stops, I want the thing that's responsible to be punished."

Simon understood the motivation. The lieutenant took these killings, in his city, personally. Simon agreed.

"I wish I could promise you that. I really do. The only thing I can say is that I'll get to the bottom of this. I'd be lying, however, if I said that none of the bad guys find a way to slip away unscathed."

"Like the demon." Simon didn't understand and it clearly showed in his expression. "I talked to Myn, Lieutenant Chu, earlier. He said you people never could figure out where the demon went after the attack last year." Simon burst out laughing. "What's so damned funny?"

Simon managed to reign in his laughter, despite the glower the lieutenant leveled on him.

"I've recently discovered new information on that case. Seems the demon got hit with one of its own tricks. Let's just say, it paid the ultimate price for its crimes. And for a Demon, that's saying something."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Someone was watching Kali. She jerked awake. There was more than a brief moment of complete confusion, as she tried to understand her surroundings. She wasn't in her room, or any room she recognized. In fact, she was in a car, not a room at all. One look at the separator let her know it was a police car.

Kali freaked. Had she finally done something heinous, while under the influence of the demonic powers? Pressure seemed to build in her. Her heart raced and her breath quickened. She knew she was on the verge of a full blown panic attack.

"Ma'am? Ma'am! Calm down ma'am! You're safe. Your friend should be on his way back by now. He's with Lieutenant Michaels, but it shouldn't take too long."

The officer in the front seat got out of the car and quickly opened the side door. She flinched, slightly, as the door opened and the cop was smart enough to keep back from the door. He was trying to be nonthreatening.

Kali focused on her breathing. Deep, slow, breaths. Her heartbeat slowly came back under control. She vaguely remembered the two men that had been with Simon, and the police car he carried her too. They must have been cops. This must be one of the two. Her deep breaths seemed to relax the cop as well. His hand, completely unnoticed, had crept to his sidearm. That wasn't a natural reaction to a panicked woman was it?

The cop looked up, over the car, and relaxed even further. Kali glanced out the window, in the direction he looked, and smiled. Simon walked out of the alley with another man. The man wore a nice suit and smoked a cigarette. He was an inch or two shorter than Simon, which would put him just between Simon and Kali's heights. He had short, well groomed brown hair, and was clean shaven. Although slightly overweight, the man looked as if he took the time to work out regularly. All in all, he looked downright homely as he stood next to Simon.

The man's deep bass voice sounded odd coming from a relatively short man. "Please take them back to his hotel, or wherever they need to go." The cop nodded and ushered Simon into the back with Kali. He smiled the moment he realized she was awake. Kali felt her heart flutter at the sight.

The car pulled back into traffic, this time without the lights. Simon gave the name of his hotel, but the officer looked to Kali. She nodded and confirmed that she intended to stick with Simon. She didn't miss the way the man's gaze flickered between the two of them. He obviously suspected there was more between the two than a simple client/patient relationship, but he shrugged and turned to drive. It was none of his business and he knew it.

Kali leaned closer to Simon. "I think I found something out during the attack."

His eyes flashed with pride as they glanced at her. But he simply brought a finger to his lips to indicate silence. They were probably being recorded, and he was working with the police on a murder investigation. It wouldn't be good for him to be heard discussing supernatural things. It wasn't too long until they reached the hotel, but she was anxious nonetheless.

They thanked the policeman when he dropped them off and headed into the overwhelming lobby. She started to try again when they reached the elevator, but Simon simply shook his head. Kali didn't mind. She simply leaned into the hand he's placed at the small of her back and rested against his solid body. She knew he didn't mind. He seemed to soften slightly, to mold to her. If he'd been uncomfortable with all that had happened, so quickly, between them, he would have stiffened in tension. This was a very good sign.

As the door opened and she stepped into the hallway, his hand left her back. She expected him to pull out the key-card to his room, but instead, the tips of his fingers caressed her palm. He found the gaps between her fingers and slid his comfortably home. Although he didn't look at her throughout the action, he seemed nervous.

There was a part of the strong, capable, agent that knew fear. It wasn't a fear of what Kali was, or what she was capable of. He was afraid of himself. Or, more specifically, he was afraid of the possible results of the vulnerability he had just demonstrated. She shifted so that the bulk of his arm was between hers and her body. Her other hand rested on his biceps and she hugged that arm to her as she pulled herself closer to him. Her answer was clear, 'he had nothing to fear from her.'

The moment the door was open, she sprinted in and leapt to the bed. Kali didn't know why the bed drew her so, but it was one of the softest, more comfortable mattresses that she had ever felt. She rolled onto her back and threw her arms wide. When she finally looked up, Simon stood at the foot of the bed, sideways to her, and watched her with a bemused expression. She propped herself onto her elbows and mock-glared.

"What's so funny?"

Simon's smile widened. "Your average businesswoman tends to take such trivialities, as a soft mattress, for granted."

She looked at him in confusion. His hand waved to indicate her body. Kali glanced down and blushed. With the attack, she'd forgotten how thoroughly she had attempted to blend in with his own attire. Apparently, it had been successful. Simon's smile was warm, with the slightest hint of darker thoughts.

"You look very nice in that. And I'm sure it helped the police accept that you were my protege."

"Your protege?"

Simon's smile turned into a grin. "When I saw you collapse, I ran over. The cops wanted to push me aside, per their training, but I assured them that you were my assistant. It certainly helped explain why they let me handle you, but also why they let me bring you anywhere near the crime scene."

"Another murder?" Kali wondered if there was a connection between the timing of the murder and her little episode. Most likely Simon would have mentioned it if there had been. She stopped the train of thought and realized that he probably would not have mentioned it. He hadn't come out and stated that he thought she might have done it in the first place. "When was the first murder? You said a couple of nights ago?"

Simon had set about taking off his trademark suit. When she asked the question, he stopped and looked at her in confusion. "Yeah, why?"

Kali was a little nervous and somewhat embarrassed. She flipped herself over on the bed. She still propped herself on her elbows, but at least this direction she didn't have to look at Simon as she spoke, especially since his shirt was now half unbuttoned to reveal his very well built chest. "Well, it might be nothing, but that would be the morning I had a bitch, rather, I had a tough time waking up. My RA said the alarm went off for like five minutes. When I did wake up, I was exhausted. I felt like I'd only just fallen asleep."

Simon didn't immediately dismiss it as baseless or coincidence. That improved her already high opinion of him to stellar proportions. "What could that have to do..." She felt his weight shift the mattress. Kali was fairly sure that he only sat on the edge, but didn't want to look over at him to see. "You said that today was the first time you've ever woken up with the power manifesting, right? Well, if your powers are normally quiet when you sleep, then maybe whoever tried to summon Tral failed because the power was dormant."

"Right. From the sounds of it, there have been three murders, and each fell very close to an unexplained incident with me or my powers. What I'm thinking is that the Sorcerer has tried that soul lasso thing a couple of times now, and each time the strain caused him to lose control over whatever is committing the murder."

Simon's hand softly stroked her back and leg. With each pass, he gently squeezed her butt and sent a delightful thrill through her. Even better, the sweeps had begun to work their way across her back. The result was that each grope worked closer and closer to being directly between her legs. Now that she had tasted his fruits, both literally and metaphorically, she couldn't get enough. Unfortunately, his action stopped very suddenly, about halfway through her comment.

"Did you just say Sorcerer?" Kali nodded absently and tried to subtly shift her body into his hand. The action reminded her of a cat when it pushed it's body for further petting, but she figured it a relatively apt analogy. "Shit! I should have thought of that!"

The weight of the bed shifted again, and Simon was headed to the chairs. Kali's hips ached slightly. She desperately wanted more. She rolled to her side and was about to entice him back into the bed when she realized what he was up to. His simple action spurred a lust almost as powerful and infinitely more complex than the purely physical.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Simon cursed himself as he tried to figure out the damned contraption. Logically, he knew that technology was not the work of the Devil, but sometimes he thought that minions of the Devil wrote all of the user manuals. He pressed the button that was supposed to turn his laptop on, and nothing happened. He wasn't really frustrated at his inability to figure out the supposedly idiot-proof machine, but rather that he'd failed to think of Sorcerers.

Akashics were supposed to have been the powerhouses of the mystical world. They could tap raw power and convert it for others to use. They could manipulate any kind of elemental energy. They could even grab a hold of someone else's spell, metaphorically speaking, and directly alter it, perhaps, according to legend, even take direct control away from the caster. And Sorcerers were like their kid brothers.

Sorcerers had the ability to cast any spell without the aid of ritual. Where most mystics, of any species, tended to have a preferred type of spell, one in which they excelled above all others, Sorcerers were equally skilled across the board. This made them very dangerous opponents as they could easily exploit the weakness of an opposing mystic, without the subsequent lack of their own.

In fact, through the centuries, it had only been the intervention of the Akashics which had kept many dark Sorcerers from attaining control of entire nations. The PIA had been fortunate in that it had only found a few low level Sorcerers since the annihilation of the Akashics. Simon wasn't positive how much it would take to stop one of the higher order ones. Fortunately, they only seemed to come around every few generations. Unfortunately, that implied humanity was about due.

Now that he thought about it, Simon supposed that everyone assumed this generation's Arch-Sorcerer had come and gone in relative obscurity. It happened, as often as not, that they would never discover their own abilities, or simply deny them due to religious beliefs or fear of persecution. Also, a good many had been as altruistic as others had been tyrannical. One thing he was sure of, only an Arch-Sorcerer would dare to try to maintain and control a full fledged Demon, while attempting to summon another.

Everything made sense to Simon now. The Sorcerer had somehow broken Tral'zla'thor's containment spell. When he lost track of his intended demon, he summoned another for his uses. But he never gave up trying to access the more powerful demon. Only, when he tried to summon Tral, not only did he fail, he ended up temporarily losing control of his standard demon. It also explained the lack of a trail. If they chose to hide their signature, only an Akashic could find the minute traces they actually left.

Simon's fist hit the laptop's keyboard in frustration. A light hand rested on his shoulder, and suddenly he found it much harder to concentrate as Kali moved into view beside him, his eyes at level with her navel. The perfect vantage to see both her chest and hips made it impossible to care about the computer. "Mind if I help?" He stared dumbly and nodded.

Kali's laughter bubbled free. She slapped him playfully on the cheek, and then his perfect view changed. Simon caught a fleeting glimpse of her butt as she spun and slid onto his lap. His body reacted instantly to the warmth of her body and the soft weight. She grinned playfully and wiggled in his lap. That only prompted him to grow more. She winked but turned her full attention to the computer.

All she did was pick it up, but already she nodded ruefully and glanced at him. "You haven't charged it have you?" Simon tried to think of the last time he'd even pulled the device out of it's case. The hesitation was enough to answer her, apparently. She clucked her tongue at him and plugged in the adaptor.

"I was wondering, I've got a friend who wanted me to try out a new circuit, could I try it out on yours? He really wants to run it with a different package of software, but most of us run about the same type of stuff, and I figured you'd use a whole different set of programs."

Simon shrugged. She had chosen the perfect moment, or perhaps the perfect method, to make such an unusual request. Even her unintentional shifts rubbed delightfully against him. His thoughts were so fogged with lust that it was difficult not to just concede on the spot. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, simply that he didn't know the full ramifications of the request. The PIA wasn't much for active secrecy, but security was ingrained in every agent.

"I don't know what exactly I run on this. I know we have some sort of database program and some standardized report forms, but that's about all I know of. And I'll be honest, I don't really know how to use them."

Simon knew the smile she leveled on him. It was that of a parent when they humored an obstinate child.

"I can teach you to use this thing you know. If your people have set up a d-base then undoubtedly someone thought it would speed things up for you agents. In the meantime I can run this thing," Kali held up some kind of microchip, "though it's paces. It's just a new processor, not top of the line but probably equal to what you've got in there, if not a little better."

Simon couldn't think of a reason not to so he nodded. In this case, he was fairly sure he wouldn't have been able to come up with any potential issues, even if his body hadn't filled his attention with the pillowy breast that pressed against his chest the moment she turned sideways to talk to him. He knew only a little more about computer security than he did astrophysics.

Somehow, Kali managed to pop the plastic casing open and expose the electronic entrails in seconds. In less than a minute she set the computer back on the small table, with the chip that she had replaced in a small case right next to it. She now sat sideways on his lap, after more nerve-wracking, intentional, wiggles, with her arms looped around his neck.

"Since you let the thing run pretty much all the way down, we should really let it charge back up a bit before running it off AC."

Simon shuddered as she leaned forward and nibbled on his earlobe. Kali's voice was a breathy whisper that shot straight through his body to coalesce between his legs.

"Can you think of anything we can do to pass the time?"

Copywrite May 2007, by Deathlynx