Chapter 15 #2
"Are you a clone?" he asked, unable to help himself.
She shrugged. "They don't tell us."
"That's just not right." He grabbed her arm and pulled her further up the street, stopping beside a building and away from the flow of traffic. "Is this why you're working for them? Because you don't know anything else?"
She shook her head. "We're indebted for the cost of our implants. We aren't asked if we want them, not really, but we're billed for them. We have to pay it back, plus the cost of our care. We have no other option."
"That's fucking indentured servitude," he gasped. "Riss, why haven't you told anyone about this?"
She dropped her head and stepped a bit closer. "If we act outside of our programmed manners, they wipe us and start again."
"The same kind of wipe you do to dump data?" he asked, trying not to show his concern.
She nodded. "That's why I'm not allowed to respond to your comments when we're monitored. I don't want them to know I've broken protocol."
"Fuck," he breathed. "So why the hell did they hire me?"
She reached up and touched his chest, her hand resting on the symbol of his position imprinted into his armor. "Because I survived a wipe. I'm the only one to do so undamaged."
"You know about that?"
She nodded.
"They told you?" he asked, pressing the issue.
She froze, reverting to doing the thing she was best at: nothing. "Not exactly."
"C'mon, Rissa. Don't freeze up on me now. What the fuck is going on in there?"
She shook her head. "I'm just here to answer questions, Legate."
"And solve problems." He sighed. "Girl, I'm sworn to protect those weaker than myself. I think you fucking qualify."
Her fingers traced the outline of the stylized wings on his chest. "The last three times it happened, I've remembered.
I wake up with my memories clouded, but they're still there.
Three years of them. I'm just not sure I can do another wipe.
" She paused, her swallow audible. "It hurts more every time. "
"Then we'll make sure that doesn't happen. You're going to have to trust me though."
She nodded. "I'm trying, Sin. I'm terrified, but I'm trying."
"Yeah," he said, rubbing his hand across her shoulder. "I don't bite, though."
"No, but you speak a lot. The wrong joke, and..." she glanced away, letting him imagine how that would play out.
"Yeah. Gotcha. How long until your solution is complete?" he asked, checking in. She tensed, her eyes darting across the people on the street behind them so he rubbed her shoulder again and looked for her. "There's no one paying any attention to us at all."
"The problem was unnecessarily simple again. The data is massive," she whispered.
"What does that mean?"
"My mind is off the net. There's no way to track what I carry, except to jack it. The questions lately have been too easy for a Primary Ingénue and the data they're wrapped in is too big."
"You're carrying black-market data?"
"Whatever it is, has been encrypted," she whispered. "If I look at it, other than when transferring it, they'll know."
"When did this start?" He leaned over, looking in her face. "Think, Rissa. When did this start happening?"
"Four days before my last wipe."
"The day before the jackings started," he said. "You want to revise your assessment of why I was contracted?"
She shook her head. "I took that into consideration. The Praetor's knowledge of this would have resulted in a media scandal, which could have shut down the Ingénue Project. It didn't. That means he has something else he wants. Otherwise, he would've refused the assignment."
"Shit," he breathed, realizing he'd all but forgotten about the question. "Yeah, but I think my religious issues can wait. Right now, this seems to be a little more important."
She tilted her head slightly. "But the Legion's involvement is the only variable I cannot account for. The church's power in New Cincinnati is influential. All of the possible outcomes are skewed without that data."
Which meant he really didn't want to ask her right now. "Riss, you're verging on accusing my faith of being corrupt. That's right up there with me making jokes about your mind. It hurts."
"The answer isn't always desirable," she said gently. "You should also know your faith is not the same as your religion or your church." She looked away, her demeanor completely changing. "Legate, the solution is complete. Would you like to take me to SiSec LLC?"
"Yeah," he breathed, aware she'd just shut him out again. "But every time you do this, I'm gonna call you Princess."
She smiled again. Twice in one day he'd seen those eyes light up. It had to be a record.
"I don't mind," she admitted.
He chuckled as he grabbed her arm. Placing her hand on his elbow, he tucked his arm against his waist. "Then I might even start treating you like a princess too."
"Sin?" she asked, ignoring that completely.
"Yeah?" He looked down at her.
"I don't hate you." She made it sound like a gift.
He smiled down at her, knowing it must've been hard for her to say. "I don't hate you either, Rissa."
She said nothing, just followed beside him, looking more relaxed than he'd ever seen her. He didn't rush, taking a leisurely course so she could walk slowly and keep her feet out of the filth on the streets.
She even seemed to enjoy the trip, her eyes jumping around quickly.
Once, she reached out to touch a stone wall as they passed, her fingers sliding along its surface.
He couldn't imagine what was going on in her mind.
Not because of her intelligence, but because she'd never experienced even the most basic things like stone walls and sunsets, so he wanted to give her the chance to see it all.
While she completed her download, he wondered if she'd found a correlation in the questions and locations related to the black-market data she thought she was carrying.
If she could give him a lead, maybe he could stop the hijackings from the other side by preventing the material from being taken.
He also wondered if it really did tie back to the Legion.
For a moment, he considered asking her to answer the Praetor's question.
He should've brought it up days ago, but he kept putting it off, terrified she'd say Benedict was up to something—because he'd believe her.
Sin knew there was something underhanded going on in his church.
He had a feeling the Censor was doing his best to shift the Legion toward a corporate benefactor rather than helping all of their followers.
That was what he'd initially thought his contract with OutLink was about.
Unfortunately, he wasn't sure how Benedict, the man who'd been a father figure to him since his own had died, fit in—and he was terrified to find out.
Only Sin and four other priests suspected this was more than an ideological problem.
It seemed to be a financial one, and it could destroy the trust the people of New Cincinnati gave the church!
The five of them kept their fears closely guarded.
Even worse, they had no idea how to stop it and bring the Legion back to being a place of worship and community for everyone.
He'd become a priest to help others, not to hurt them, but the Legion was no longer interested in charity.
The Fallen, as the five of them had taken to calling themselves, had stolen their name from their local bar.
It made for a good excuse if anyone heard them use the name.
They all lived in the same massive apartment complex, and they'd previously worked on the same or similar duties.
It wasn't shocking to anyone that they occasionally ran into each other, and they used it to their advantage.
His fingers felt for the thin steel chain at his throat.
Rissa emerged from the transfer room, walking on her own this time. Sinclair still tucked her hand on his arm, pleased to see her eyes sparkling brightly, then he escorted her from the building. Stepping into the fresh air, she lifted her head as if tasting the breeze.
"Did you need another smoke?" she asked hopefully.
"Usually," he laughed. "You sure you don't mind?"
"No, Sin. Sometimes it even clings in my hair and reminds me of you later. I only wish I had a taste to go with the scent."
"Ingénue?" he asked, all too aware her words made his heart beat faster.
She shrugged. "I want to understand everything about you, like why you enjoy smoking, because you're the only person who is mine. I don't share you with the other Ingénue like I do everything else."
He reached up to touch the veil across her cheek. "No, Rissa, you don't have to share me with anyone but God."
Those silver eyes bounced between his as if waiting for the joke. "Makes me feel pretty important to be second."
"Riss…" he groaned.
"I was being truthful, Sin. I can't compete with your God. I wouldn't want to. He's important to you, just like being able to think is important to me. I understand."
"And I'm starting to think I'm not worthy of being your friend," he admitted. "You're actually a really good person."