Driven Read online

  "Do you have another mate in mind?" his mother asked hopefully. "Perhaps Jeena or Tella?"

  They were just as bad as Nia. All lovely, all perfect. All boring.

  "You want to go rogue?" his father had spat when Del asked why he needed to choose someone at all. "You want to spend the rest of your life fucking your own fist instead of choosing a partner? You'll never get be accepted as a melek that way."

  "I don't want to be," Del had replied evenly.

  "Then what do you want?"

  He hadn't had an answer then and he didn't have one now. He knew what he didn't want. He didn't want to drive a hovertaxi in Newcity any longer.

  He needed, wanted, a woman who thought for herself. A woman with intelligence and beauty, as well as kindness and a sense of humor. Someone he could spend the rest of his life making love to, not resenting.

  Someone like Linna.

  But that was just stupid. A non-Xanderran woman might be flattered to learn her Xanderran lover could never be unfaithful to her, but when they realized that just because their man couldn't physically fuck another woman didn't mean their man wouldn't want to, the relationships usually turned sour. Non-Xanderran women didn't understand the complexity of being behsherit. Monogamy was sexy only when it sprang from desire, not lack of choice.

  Linna sighed beside him and turned. Her buttocks brushed his leg and Del's body tensed. Even the most casual of touches made him hard for her. He wanted to kiss her again. He wanted to feel her body arch beneath him when she came.

  He settled for the torture of feeling her warm flesh next to his. The flat was still too hot for clothes, even if he'd have preferred that small barrier between them. Then again, he supposed his reaction had made a high enough wall.

  She'd offered to be his friend, but he hadn't even treated her that well. Harah, he thought. It's the sex. For Newcitizens, fucking was as simple as breathing. It wasn't supposed to be so complicated.

  But for him, it was. He couldn't do it the way they could. The way she could.

  "Attention all residents of Caldyx Heights, units A-1 through ZZ-250. Prepare documentation for citizen census verification." System's smooth voice cut through the blackness.

  Linna came awake with a start beside him. "What did it say?"

  "Get ready for the census." Del got up and turned on the battery lantern again. The light was weaker and he fiddled with the knobs until it shone a bit brighter before dimming again. The battery was dying.

  "You mean a physical census?" Linna asked. Her hair tumbled over her shoulders in a riot of sex-tangled curls he wanted to dig his fingers into. She stretched, and his eyes riveted to the way her full breasts lifted. He could remember all too well the feeling of their soft weight, the taste of her nipples....

  "Del?"

  He shook himself mentally. "It didn't say."

  "Query," Linna addressed System. "Census procedures?"

  "SecOps and R.I.Ops have been dispatched to attend each unit in this domicile. All residents must have proper identification, licensing or verification of residency permit."

  Linna gave Del a worried glance. "Query. Physical inspection required?"

  "Affirmative. Physical inspections include, but are not restricted to, visual verification, cellular verification and serial number scanning."

  "In other words," Del said, "if your face matches your picture, they can still check your blood or the numbers tattooed on your circuit panel."

  "I don't have a circuit panel," Linna replied. She bent and got her discarded jumpsuit. As she slipped it on, she addressed System again. "Query. Estimated time of arrival to this unit?"

  "Unit MH-33 will be entered in approximately one hour, thirty-five minutes. Power cycling remains in effect. Emergency lock-down remains in effect."

  "We can't go anywhere until they get here."

  Del nodded as he put on his pants. "Yeah."

  "And when they get here...." She sighed and her shoulders slumped. "I'm a goner."

  "Query," Del said. "What are they trying to prove?"

  "Query not recognized."

  Del cursed. He'd never gotten the hang of the stilted Newcity speak System responded to. "What...damn."

  "Command not recognized."

  "Let me try. Query. Expected outcome of census procedures?"

  "Discovery and arrest of non-registered mechos, rogue Pleasurebots and Offworld citizens with expired visas."

  "That would be me." Linna's gaze held his. "You're okay, right?"

  Del shook his head, thinking of the way Adar and the Ruling Council were likely to think. "Query. Penalty for harboring unregistered mecho?"

  "Further information required to process your request."

  Even System followed the Newcity motto of "to thine own business attend." If you asked the right questions in the right order, you might find out what you wanted. If not, you were shit out of luck.

  "What do you need to know?" he asked.

  "Status of offender."

  "Offworld."

  "Offworld citizen harboring an unregistered mecho penalty is immediate revocation of resident visa."

  "Penalty for Offworld citizen with invalid visa?" Linna questioned.

  "Arrest and trial."

  She was much better at working System than he was. "Probability of guilty ruling?"

  "Probability of Offworld citizen with invalid visa being found guilty, 98.99 percent."

  "Sentence for that crime?"

  "Termination."

  "Shitdamnpissfucktits." The current trendy curse rolled off Linna's tongue in a way that made Del smile despite the circumstances. "I've got to get out of here."

  "Where are you going to go?" He reached out to snag her arm as she passed. "The doors to the outside are locked. The building is crawling with Ops. You'll never make it."

  "I can't stay here and let them catch me!" she cried. "It's bad enough what they'll do to me, but I won't let my mistake hurt you, Del! If they find me here with you, they'll revoke your visa. You'll be arrested, tried and terminated! I won't have it! I won't!"

  She flailed at him, but he caught her arm easily. She yanked it from his grip and flailed again with the force of her enhanced muscles behind it and knocked him back a couple steps.

  Instantly, she stopped. "Oh, Del, I'm sorry."

  "S'okay." He waited to see if she was going to punch him again. When he saw she wasn't, he came closer. Took her hand. Pulled her toward him until her cheek rested on his bare chest. "It'll be all right."

  She let him hold her; something he was grateful for and hated at the same time. She clutched him almost desperately. Her shoulders heaved as she tried not to cry.

  "I shouldn't have come here," she whispered.

  "Shut it. If you hadn't made it here, you'd have been dead already."

  Her laugh was forlorn. "Now we're both going to be dead. Adar isn't kidding around about this social cleansing business."

  His arms tightened around her. "He's a bastard and a liar. His son didn't get kidnapped by any rogue mecho. I saw his son with my own eyes and he loves the R.I.Op. They ran for it and got to Oldcity through a zip in the Dome. They escaped. We can, too."

  She tilted her face to look at him. "What are you talking about?"

  Quickly, Del ran through the story of how he'd helped Adar's son, his mecho lover, the other R.I.Op and the Keanican escape. When he was done, Linna looked stunned.

  "The Adar's story was that Caldyx nearly died in that accident, but survived with injuries so severe he was crippled for life. They used that story over and over to prove that becoming mecho doesn't need to be an option. They said the Recreational Intercourse Op who kidnapped him did it for the ransom and when she didn't get it, she killed him before they terminated her."

  "It's a bunch of shit," Del said. "I got them to the zip myself. Caldyx Adar was mecho too, no matter what his father said."

  She stepped out of his grasp. "They got out through a zip in the Dome? They went to Oldcity?"

  He n