Read Online The Bloodlight Chronicles: Reconciliation by Steve Stanton - Free Book Online Page B

continued to embrace, and Rix felt his body respond with a weird mix of lust and protective responsibility. God, she felt good.
    â€œI just want to help,” he said. “I want to be part of the family.”
    â€œBe careful what you ask for,” Niko murmured. She rubbed his back and sighed into his ear, barely a whisper.
    â€œWell, you seem quite healthy, Helena,” Dr. Silus Mundazo said from behind his clipboard. His head was shaved, his hands in latex gloves, his white lab coat clean and pressed. “Some indications of chronic stress, some weight gain in the upper body—nothing to write home about. However, you do seem to be exhibiting an unusual pattern of brainwave activity in the frontal and temporal lobes, no doubt from the extensive rewiring you’ve recently undergone.”
    â€œCould this be debilitating in any way?” She felt uncomfortable in her clothes again after being probed and measured by cold instruments. She preferred to dress slowly in front of a full-length mirror and check each layer for proper fit, not throw her clothes on hastily while leaning against a chair in a drafty cubicle.
    He shrugged. “Heaven only knows, Helena. We didn’t have this case study in medical school. For what it’s worth, your partner exhibits much the same symptoms, along with elevated electrical activity throughout the cerebellum. His corpus callosum looks like a six-lane freeway.”
    â€œHe’s a special case. Flying with Zak is like riding a roller coaster. One is filled with dread and promise at the same time.” Her button-up collar felt uncomfortable at her neck and her bra strap pressed awkwardly into her back. She wondered if she had twisted it while dressing.
    â€œAny feelings of nausea, weightlessness, or stomach trouble after you unplug?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œAny dissociative thoughts? Any voices?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œAnd how do you feel about him emotionally?”
    â€œEmotionally?”
    â€œSharing your thoughts, sharing your intimate secrets, that sort of thing.” Silus Mundazo held his pen poised over his clipboard. His eyes stayed downcast.
    Helena felt a wave of embarrassment and bristled in defence. “Zak and I have a business relationship, Silus. We’re not sharing secrets. We’re working.”
    Dr. Mundazo looked up, tilted his head slightly to the right. “The young hacker and the wealthy heiress?”
    â€œOh, spare me the innuendo.”
    â€œAre you having sex with him?”
    â€œCertainly not. Good heavens, I can’t believe that question is even relevant.”
    He pointed his pen at his clipboard, holding it up for her view. “It’s under psychiatric profile.”
    â€œAre you studying to be a shrink at night school, Doctor?”
    â€œLet me remind you of your history in the area.”
    â€œOf course I have a history, Silus. I’ve been having sex for seventy years.”
    â€œWith younger men, I mean.”
    â€œThey perform better.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou heard me.”
    â€œFine. Duly noted.” He dropped his clipboard to his side. “I have grave concerns about your situation, Helena.”
    â€œThat’s your job.”
    â€œI must caution you professionally, as a physician and friend.”
    â€œGo ahead, but I need Zak to get to the Source. I can’t do it on my own.”
    Silus Mundazo sighed with a show of exasperation. “The side effects of this new synchronous wetware could be significant. You should be under close observation, not heading off into hyperspace with a known criminal. As you know, I am on record as being against the whole procedure. Well, the surgeons have come and done their white magic, and now gone back to their dolphins and baboons. I am left to shoulder the responsibility for a human guinea pig, and I don’t like it.”
    â€œI’m sorry you feel that way, Silus, because I’m leaving you