David Dun - Unacceptable Risk

"I will go to Universe Rock and make prayers."

"I am trying to stop the man I told you about. I believe he has a very dangerous technology that could be used against many people. I don't know what he is doing with it."

"This is the man that you have been hunting?"

"Yes, this is the one."

"And you are sure he will hurt many. Kill many people?"

"I believe that, yes. I am convinced, although I don't have the proof yet."

"Even Anna might suffer if he is not stopped?"

"Yes. Definitely."

"But you have fallen in love and she needs you," Spring reminded him.

"Yes."

"Who else is with her?"

"Her mother. She doesn't much like me, but she is a good woman."

"She doesn't know you. You are uncertain about marriage?" she sincerely asked.

"I… I… don't think…" That one stumped Sam. "I guess I'm not sure if I'm uncertain." He could sense his mother's smile at that one.

"Anna has no Indian in her and I think it worries you that she will not accept you because you are Indian. Perhaps you question whether you will be good for her. You worry that you are not right for her world."

"It's partly what I do for a living. Worry. I compare myself to Grandfather."

"Grandfather's life force was very focused and it was focused on teaching young men and on understanding. Your life force is very focused as well."

"Yes. It's focused on catching assholes being assholes. Perhaps that is why I can never be like him."

"You can't conclude that you will never be like Grandfather. Each man has only so much he can give and he has to decide where he will give it," Spring advised.

"My mother drops the whole load."

"Normally, I would never drop the whole load as you put it, but you are on a cliff's face trying to decide which way to climb. You can't stop to cook a meal or build a house. This man you hunt kills your friends and your family and you are wondering… where has God gone… where is justice… and somehow you wonder if it is all because you haven't done it just right."

"If I felt bad before, it's even worse now. But I don't think I'm a head case."

"Your father killed himself and hid your heritage from you. And yet you are a very good man, a caring man, a strong man." Spring was consoling her child.

"But a strange man."

"You should know what you are up against. It is not just this evil fellow. It is what is inside you. I understand why you have called me. You need someone you respect to give you permission to leave Anna and to devote yourself to hunt ing this nemesis. You tell yourself that you are the only one that can do it. And it might be true. But maybe, you ask yourself, you are leaving her side because you are not strong enough to do the right thing. Many days from now, when Anna is better, and swollen with your child, when you look in her eyes and put your hand on her stomach… will you know that you did the right thing and will she know it too?" Spring counseled.

"That is what I don't know." Sam lost it for a few minutes and then put himself back together.

Jean-Baptiste marveled at Benoit's self-assurance. Although he was on top, her legs were tightly gripping his thighs and her pelvis was perfectly fitted to his and she controlled the friction of their movements and the rhythm of their sex so that her excitation steadily mounted. Sweat from her belly felt good under his, and the strain and tension in her body had a sensuous quality that magnified his lust and it was all he could do not to climax as he observed her passion building. The woman was to sex as the Rolls-Royce was to automobiles. Then her breaths became very deep and her voice high pitched as she began to moan and mutter her incanta tion: "In… in… in… in."

Her back arched and she nearly screamed and it made him feel very much the bull man as he worked his way up to his own orgasm.

They were back in the Hotel International, back in the same room with the same pastries. For a moment he wondered if it was bugged and then dismissed the idea.

When she rolled off, he lay beside her, admiring her body and wondering at his good fortune while he tried to stifle the guilt. His life was becoming ever more confusing. He was a good public servant in the service of a government that was as soft as it was inept. He was a man of talent who had been passed over and now he was making sure that he was not entirely without good fortune. Like rules about monogamy and sex, which he was stretching some, he was also wreaking havoc with the rules of his profession. But it seemed necessary and not unlike the things done by other men who had escaped doormat status-a life spent under the boots of the arrogant and wealthy.

She went to shower, and even when he was spent she fascinated him. He sat on the toilet seat and watched her, still thrilling at the sight of her lithe body. He never had enough of looking. It was possible to watch by pulling back the edge of the shower curtain and he enjoyed the water pouring over her skin and the droplets beading over her.

"So, tell me about Gaudet. What will he do after Cordyceps?"

"Plastic surgery. I'm sure he already has the new identity and no one really knows the old one. I know what he looks like, but that is about it."

"What will it be like when I meet him?"

"You won't really. You won't see him and you won't be close enough to touch him and he will disguise his voice. He will give you nothing of himself."

"I can see why you worked for the company-why you practically ran it."

"You know Thomas Edison, the American inventor? He said that people miss opportunity because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work. That is the biggest compo nent of success-work. But there is another component. When the Wright Brothers invented the airplane, the world was ready for a flying machine. When Edison invented the electric light, the world was ready to escape the soot. I am telling you the world is ready to master the body. I can see that you are a man with the vision to be part of that."

"You know how to inflate a man's ego."

"I can feel ambition in a man. I feel ambition in you. And you know that France will pay for Chaperone. Likewise, you know there are people who will make a killing when the market falls. You can take a big bite out of both apples. But now you need to ask the admiral to let me go to the United States."

"You think I can just snap my fingers?"

"Ask him or we are through. I will go back to the dun geon."

"Relax. I will ask him. He will say no, but I will ask just the same. Benoit? What made you dream up this whole idea?"

"Prison has a way of focusing your thoughts. Liberation is a powerful incentive."

Baptiste nodded.

"I will have to tell the admiral about Cordyceps and, of course, France will have to appear to try to stop it."

Baptiste opened his mouth to protest.

"Don't worry. The admiral can try all he wants, but he won't be playing with a full deck. I'll see to that."

She stepped out of the shower and onto the tile floor. Moving the towel over her body was like a peep show. When she glanced down and saw his erection, she reached for it and pushed him back a bit; then she settled on him and she hunkered down very tight and began to move. In minutes the tightness of her and the softness of her aroused him near to orgasm. Her back became taut and he could feel the muscles like steel bands above her buttocks as she orchestrated the level of friction with her pubic bone. God, it was as if her body were a suction cup pulled tight to his. Her breathing became strong and he tasted the new sweat between her breasts. When her nipples were hard, and the size of thimbles, he took the right one in his mouth and used his tongue so that she shuddered and moved even harder down on him. The slickness of her made a giant quivering in his thighs and he could feel her perfect rhythm, now like a galloping horse hard onto the finish line, and then she moaned deep and long and he let himself come and he felt strong. So strong.