Chapter Twenty-four

"What's the matter, Mandi?" asked Andrea.

"Oh, I think my watch has been fried," said Mandi. "Its screen is blank."

"Open it," said Cade. "If the battery isn't swollen, it may just need to be taken out and put back in to reboot the watch."

"Would that really work?" asked Andrea.

Tapping his own watch, Cade said, "It might. It does when a computer power supply's field blanks my watch."

Mandi fussed with the watch for a few seconds, then said, "There's a notch on the back, but I can't get my fingernails under the edge."

Cade stirred the instant coffee as he walked toward her, then he put the coffee on the desk, reached for her watch, and looked at the back. Flicking his knife open, he used the tip to pry up the back of the watch and tickle the battery out of its holder, then he slid the battery back into place and checked the front.

Showing it to Mandi, he said, "There you go, ma'am. You've got numbers again," then he handed her the watch and its back and said, "I'm afraid to squeeze it back on. You do it," and slapped his knife shut to return it to its belt sheath.

"Thanks," said Mandi. "I never would have thought of that. I thought the battery was dead."

"May I see that knife?" asked Andrea.

Cade handed it to her closed. She took it and looked it over, then -- holding it rather gingerly, he thought -- unfolded the blade until it locked open with a loud 'whack' that seemed to startle her a little.

She looked up and asked, "Why didn't it sound like that when you opened it?"

"I was holding it like a tool. You're holding it like a delicate antique.

Things make more noise in a light grip."

Mandi snickered as Andrea studied Cade as if wondering if she were being teased, then her eyes fell back to the knife. She still held it rather gingerly as she studied the bra.s.s bolsters, the wood between them, and short serrated region on the stainless blade.

"It looks as if you must have put those serrations on the blade yourself.

Why?"

"They're better for cutting rope and thick stuff and I can use the last two notches to strip insulation off wires."

She glanced up again and said, "They make the knife look mean. Nasty."

Leaning on the desk, Cade sipped coffee and said, "Only if you're viewing it strictly as a weapon. Do you feel that way about serrated kitchen knives, too?"

Andrea shook her head. "No. I guess I don't. How long have you been carrying a knife?"

"Since I worked on a ranch when I was a kid. This knife or one much like it.

Back then oil came in cans and beer cans didn't have pull-tabs. I had to be able to dig things out from under horseshoes, pound wire staples back into fence posts, and cut rope and leather. Got a wild dog with it once when he came at me by the barn, and I got to where I could throw it and nail rats in the feed bin."

Making an 'eeewww' face, Andrea handed the open knife back to him as Mandi laughed and Andrea asked, "I trust you clean it really well now and then?"

Nodding with a grin, Cade said, "Yup, sure do," and put the knife away.

Mandi was poking b.u.t.tons on the watch, setting the time and date. She looked up at the alarm clock, then pushed a b.u.t.ton a few more times.

"Done," she p.r.o.nounced. "Only time will tell if it'll still tell time. I need to get moving, people. Cade, I'll turn you over to Andrea now and drop in on you next weekend if I can't find time during the week. Andrea, he's all yours if you're sure."

'Sure?' thought Cade. He'd thought it was a done deal.

"I wasn't absolutely sure before," said Andrea. "I'm sure enough now, I think. Enough so to deal with him for a week, anyway. Besides, if I have to, I can always dump him back on you and come back to Atlanta."

With a short laugh, Mandi said, "Oh, no. He's yours. I have to get an antique missile base ready to receive guests."

She stood up and held out her arms. Andrea got to her feet and Cade did likewise as she went to Mandi and hugged her.

"What?" asked Mandi, looking at Cade. "I don't get a hug from you, too?"

Going over to her, Cade said, "I just wasn't sure you'd want one from me.

I've been a bit difficult about things."

After she hugged him, Mandi held him at arm's length and met his eyes for a moment before speaking.

"Ed, I was worried about having made a mistake by converting you right up until you grabbed a stick and tried to save that woman. You kill people a little too easily to suit me, but you're just as quick to put yourself in harm's way for them. We'll work something out, I think."

Pulling him close, Mandi kissed him, then released him and turned into a blur for a moment. The blur became mostly red and white before she solidified wearing her uniform.

"You two stay put," she said with a grin. "I can find my own way out," then she blurred to the door, opened and closed it in a split second, and was gone.

"It still amazes me how she does that," said Andrea.

"Yeah, she's quick," said Cade.

As he picked up his coffee and moved to sit on the bed, bolts of agony coursed through his shins and thighs. When he leaned to rub them, more agony shot through his chest. He froze for a moment to let the sensations pa.s.s.

Moving to stand in front of him, Andrea said, "I saw that. I'm not asking you now, Ed. I'm telling you. I want to see how badly you were hurt."

Cade looked up into her eyes and got momentarily lost in them, as before.

She reached for his shirt b.u.t.tons and he leaned to set his coffee on the night table, then stood up and started undressing.

"I think I'm probably just bruised a bit," he said, opening his shirt.

Andrea gave him a mildly exasperated look and said, "As if you'd know," then sucked in her breath as she saw his chest.

Her reaction made Cade turn to see himself in the mirror and he saw the bruising that covered nearly all of his chest.

"Well, d.a.m.n," he muttered. "It got me good, didn't it?"

"Mandi said it hit your legs, too," said Andrea. "Off with the pants, too.

Do you know what electricity does to muscle tissue? It forms a cone of damage below the skin and..."

"Yes'm," said Cade. "I know. I was a medic once."

He toed off his boots and unbuckled his pants, then let them drop and stepped out of them. Andrea studied the livid bruisings on his legs, reaching to touch his thigh.

Cade asked, "Um... Will you be getting naked, too, anytime soon, do you think?"

With a small smile, Andrea said, "I want to check you out first. Does that hurt?"

"No, but it probably won't hurt for a while, anyway. I expect to really start feeling them later tonight or tomorrow, when I'm on the road back to Florida and don't have anything else to think about."

Andrea's gaze narrowed slightly. "You drove here?"

"Yup. Thought I might need my car and I don't want to go through the anti-terror hoops and barrels at airports."

She seemed to consider matters -- particularly the matter in the middle of Cade that was stiffly pointing at her by that time -- for a few moments, then she said, "We could stay here another night or two. I'd rather not take you home with me because the neighbors... well, I'd just rather not take a man home with me."

Shrugging, Cade said, "Yeah, here's good. Or I could drive halfway back and get a motel room, then finish the drive Tuesday. That will get the car and me home and still give us plenty of time to work on enhancing my conversion."

"Why use euphemisms?" Andrea asked irritatedly.

Cade stopped in mid sip and looked at her as he said, "I didn't. Isn't enhancing my conversion the reason she called you in on this? You don't know me from Adam, so..."

"Yes," snapped Andrea. "Sure. You're right. That's why she called me."

Striding to the desk chair and sitting down, she continued, "But it isn't the only reason I'm here now."

She leaned to reach in the fridge and took out a soft drink, opened it, and eyed Cade as she sipped for a moment before speaking again.

"You see, Cade, I like having s.e.x. I mean, I really like it. Finding ways to get enough of it is a problem, because none of the converted men are near enough to just drop by when I'm h.o.r.n.y and unconverted men are a waste of time. My women friends do more for me than unconverted men."

"Ah..." said Cade with a nod. "Okay. Gotcha."

"No, not yet, you don't. When Mandi told me that you'd -- achieved conversion -- and all on your own merits, as it were -- I was instantly interested; interested enough to take a week off and take over supervising your conversion for that reason alone. Then I met you and you gave me reasons to like you immediately. That doesn't happen all that often, either."

"Um. Andrea, I still don't quite understand what happened in that shower.

How did I get converted? I mean, I realize it had to be from nibbling on Mandi, but... then what? How?"

"She didn't tell you?"

"I'm asking, aren't I?"

Grinning, Andrea sipped her drink and simply gazed at Cade for some moments, then asked, "You really brought her off all by yourself? No... 'help'... from her?"

Tiring of the delay in receiving a useful answer as well as being the only naked person in the room, Cade said, "Yeah. All by myself. It's Standard Operating Procedure, ma'am; get 'em all wet and wound up and then lick 'em 'till they holler 'stop, please stop, I've had enough'."

For a moment Andrea's face was somewhat stern, then her small smile became a small grin and she snickered. The snicker became a giggle, then an outright laugh.

"I'll bet that last part can take a while sometimes."

"Yeah," said Cade. He shrugged. "Some women never seem to wind down. Can't tell you how many times I've d.a.m.ned near sprained my tongue trying to get to a woman's very last one."

Laughing again, Andrea said, "Tenacity. I like that."

"Great. If you aren't going to tell me what happened or at least get as naked as I am any time soon, I think I'll head for a hot shower."

"A shower might help those bruises. I'm getting to the answer, Ed."

"So what happened to me?"

"You triggered the release of a retrovirus. All women like Mandi have a small special gland that produces the stuff."

"Converted women, too?"

"Yes. We develop the same gland."

"So when I nibble you off I'll get another dose. What then?"

Shaking her head, Andrea said, "Nothing then. You've already been... dosed, as you called it."

"Then why will having s.e.x make the conversion better?"

"Energy, Ed. s.e.x seems to help a convertee soak up energy and makes the process better somehow. A convertee who just sits on his a.s.s during the first week will end up with maybe half the ability of one who screws his way -- or her way, of course -- through that crucial first week."

Cade decided that he'd waited long enough for her to join him in nakedness and said, "Thanks for the info." He thumbed toward the bathroom and added, "See you in a while, unless you want to come get wet with me."

Setting her drink can on the desk, Andrea smilingly said, "Sounds good. I'll be right there," and took off her jacket to hang it on the chair. Her skirt came next, then her blouse, then her half-slip and stockings, then her earrings and watch.

"You women sure do wear a lot of stuff," said Cade.

Mandi stood on the roof and watched Andrea poke Cade's bruises as she asked if her activity hurt.

'They seem to be getting along fairly well,' she thought.

Leaving them to their own devices, she lifted upward at barely subsonic speed until she reached fifty thousand feet, then she poured on the coal.

A scant few minutes later she backed her speed down to subsonic again for her arrival in Las Vegas and had a good look around the city as she landed.

'Well, nothing seems to be missing or broken,' she thought as she landed on the roof of a friend's office building and changed into the dress she'd been wearing in Atlanta.

A woman without a purse doesn't look out of place in an office building.