Rising Tomorrow (Roc de Chere Book 1) by Mariana Morgan (essential reading txt) 📕

vocal subroutines. Background operation only.’ She had never thought she would need those directives. They were there purely to simplify upgrades and deep maintenance modes, but there she was, delivering a crippling blow to a mere computer program and actually feeling satisfaction.

An eerie silence followed, interrupted only by the rustle of clothing as Gonzalez double-checked on his wrist-comp that their security perimeter remained unaffected. That done, he could no longer avoid the inevitable. What he really wanted was to walk away, because so many things Eloise had said had hit home. She was right in more ways than she realised, but that didn’t absolve him of his responsibility.

‘I can assure you, Ms Moretti, that nothing would give me greater pleasure than to take the place of the next person I will have no choice but to send on what you would call a suicide mission. If I could I would turn back the clock and face Wagner myself, but even if I did, I know that I could never make it as far as you did.

‘In an ideal world we would have had a trained operative take your place. But one thing I learnt years ago is that we do not live in an ideal world. Far from it, in fact. I realise this is of no comfort to you, but if there had been any other way, I would have taken it. You were our only—’

‘You mean I was the only one dumb enough not to see how you set me up? How you lied to me? You could have told me the truth. You could have told me you never expected Wagner to believe me. You could have been fucking honest with me!’ It was embarrassing to realise what a naive fantasy it was that she had thought she was going to live out when she went to see Wagner.

‘No, I couldn’t have.’ The words came out flat, but strong. There was no attempt at evasion, no desire to sugar-coat.

Eloise only stared at him, robbed of her anger. His honesty was brutal.

‘You are not a trained operative, Ms Moretti. If I had been honest with you, you would have had a hard time playing your role. It was important to keep Wagner guessing for as long as possible.’

‘So you used me…’ The words came out hushed, the person behind them deflated like a burst balloon.

‘Yes, I did. But I didn’t send you in defenceless. I had two of my best Special Forces officers covering your back.’

Rivas inhaled sharply. Gonzalez was one of those COs who never held back on expressing his approval of the performance of his subordinates, but this was the first time Rivas had heard him being so explicit. He knew just how highly the colonel valued Ingram, but he had never thought he was in the same league. He saw himself as too inexperienced, too new to the MIS, to even consider it.

‘And your two officers did nothing when the stupid shutters activated! You promised I would be safe. You promised! And in the end I had to fend for myself, because they did nothing!’

‘That is not correct. They did a lot. You are welcome to review the recordings to see that for yourself.’

For a few seconds she just glared at Gonzalez, unable to find words, and then the taps turned themselves on again and she felt tears overwhelming her. The mental and physical pains merged, and she instinctively rolled into a ball, her knees high up her chest as she rocked herself soothingly. The emotional roller-coaster was killing her, but she had no intention of begging Gonzalez for any meds. The man could go fuck himself.

The rocking continued in silence, broken only by Eloise’s occasional sniffles.

It was all too much. She remembered emptying the mag into that bodyguard, his face and brain turning to mush, the gory splatters all over the floor, and she felt like puking. She had actually fired on another person, and killed, without even remembering the moment she made the decision to pull the trigger.

Before she could fully agonise over that, her mind rewound the image to when she had stood naked, knife in hand, and she shuddered even more violently.

‘He was going to make me mutilate myself,’ she sobbed, the words coming out wet and distorted. She sniffled and coughed, but her voice became stronger afterwards. ‘You put me there—within his arms’ reach. You knew what he was capable of. You knew he was a sick predator, a sadist. A rapist. And you sent me there anyway. You are just like him!’

Gonzalez winced internally.

One of the few things about the World Government’s draconian policies that he unequivocally agreed with was gender equality in all things. The concept was expounded so mercilessly that people in the 28th century took it pretty much for granted that one’s gender meant nothing by itself.

But however much one might attempt to hammer such a concept in, it was impossible to ignore certain factors that made unconditional gender equality impossible. Hormonal development between men and women differed, leading to pronounced changes in body development from puberty onwards. It was a fact, unless someone used nano-tech to modify their physiology, that men on average had higher bone density and more robust musculature. It was also a fact that male and female genitalia were different. While no one would attempt to suggest that sexual violence was limited to men being the only perpetrators anymore, the nature of said genitalia had a profound impact on what sexual violence entailed. While coercion, blackmail and psychological abuse could, and did, take very similar forms regardless of gender, it was rather different with physical, penetrative rape. Whichever way one wanted to look at it, man-on-woman, woman-on-man, man-on-man and woman-on-woman rape took different forms, by necessity.

On the whole, the NanoBTher given to all newborns whose parents could afford it carefully eliminated any mutations that might facilitate them becoming violent and aggressive predators in their adult life, whether men or women. However, as