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

was less emotionally stable than she was used to; they both knew that. And stress would only make it worse.

‘Yes, sir.’ Her eager agreement and a lurking smile were all the confirmation Gonzalez needed to know that she was not off on pleasant jog.

CHAPTER 22

Roc de Chere

Lac d’Annecy

Afro-European Alliance

Sunday 26 April 2725

DAY 7

In her room, Eloise tripped over the hospital-like gown she had previously dropped on the floor.

‘Tilly!’ she snapped. ‘Get Jeff to tidy up in here. Why aren’t the lights…’

Her voice trailed off as she realised she’d done it again. There was no Tilly. There was no Jeff.

She fumbled for the light switch with deep annoyance. She was a competent person, dammit. She had written hundreds of bestselling VRPs. Her IQ was outstanding. She was a successful entrepreneur and Elite, and—she couldn’t find a damned light switch. Tears of frustration rolled down her cheeks, and she leant her forehead against the rough stone wall.

‘Computer? Lights?’ she called, trying her luck, and sighed when her small compartment was flooded with warm yellow light. The spartan decor and furnishings didn’t bother her. In fact, the undecorated walls, lack of daylight and simple bed reminded her strongly of home.

Home. She missed it. The world was scary. At home she knew everything. She understood everything. She had her VRPs. And she had Tilly. And Jeff.

‘Computer, do you have a name?’ she asked, stripping off and letting her clothes fall to the floor. She kicked them and the hospital gown against a wall.

‘Input unrecognised,’ a disembodied voice replied.

‘Figures,’ Eloise mumbled. The acid was starting to hurt her throat and she rushed to the bathroom for more water.

‘Computer, how am I supposed to drink from this?’ She looked at the tap; there were no cups or anything to hold the water.

‘Input unrecognised,’ the disembodied voice repeated.

Eloise stared dumbfounded at the tap for a while, then tilted her head and stuck it under the running water. Most of the liquid tried to go into her ear, eyes and nose, but enough found its way into her mouth and she was able to rinse the foul taste out.

Her shower went without any major misadventure. Of course, Tilly failed to make the water hot enough to the near scalding Eloise preferred, but that no longer counted as major misadventure. Eloise was resigned to being a confused child in the big, scary, unknown world. Even tears wouldn’t come anymore as she fumbled cluelessly around her small compartment.

When Gonzalez knocked on her door on time, she was only half ready.

The door opened upon her acceptance and revealed her half dressed, clutching a plain sports bra in her hand, and Gonzalez felt himself blush for the second time in as many hours. The Elite woman had an irritating effect on him. Neither men nor women in his line of work had much privacy when it came to changing their work-day uniforms for an n-suit or armour. It came with the territory and you just got used to it.

This was totally different.

Maybe worst of all, Eloise seemed totally unfazed. She had obviously just instructed the nanobots to create some size-matched clothing for her, and it hadn’t even occurred to her not to open the door until she finished dressing.

She was about to put the bra on when she noticed Gonzalez’s discomfort and paused to look at him. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to understand, and her head cocked to the side in a characteristic motion Gonzalez had noticed before. Her VR-designer brain was on.

‘Traditionally, we get dressed before we admit strangers into a room,’ he explained finally, willing the blush off his face, his eyes fixed lower down on her trousers. Which was also the wrong place to look, he realised, and blushed more.

‘Why?’ Eloise asked. She had changed hundreds of times in front of Jeff and never thought anything of it.

Gonzalez blinked. Not the type of explanation he particularly wanted to provide.

‘People usually feel uncomfortable being seen naked by someone they are not close with.’

‘Why?’ Eloise repeated, head still cocked, bra still in hand.

He wanted to lift his head up to look her in the eyes, but her naked upper body was in the way, so he continued staring at her feet.

Why the hell is this so awkward? he chastised himself.

‘They just do, Ms Moretti. They just do. Humans are… funny like that. They just value their privacy. Their own body, especially the intimate parts, is high on their priority list.’ Part of him felt as if he were taking to a five-year-old. Again.

‘Like my home,’ Eloise said quietly.

‘Excuse me?’ Gonzalez lifted his head in stunned surprise, forgetting about Eloise’s nakedness. She looked so small and lost.

‘Like my home. It is… It was my private sanctuary. Your Lieutenant Rivas violated it. If I understand you correctly, my home and the secure comfort it provides—I mean provided—was as important to me as avoiding nakedness and the protection of intimate privacy are to others.’ She tossed her head as if shaking some unpleasant, persistent thought away, and worked her way into the bra and then a plain blue top.

‘Take me to your VR lab,’ she demanded, treating the conversation as done and dusted. Suddenly, whatever sympathy and warmth Gonzalez had felt towards her evaporated.

Entitled bitch.

***

Her body ached, but in a familiar, relaxing way as she stood under a torrent of hot water. The jet-like stream was battering her muscles hard, and the massage felt great.

Rinsing the thin film of salty sweat off her face, Ingram smiled. It was good to know she still had it in her. There had been a little tightness in her ribcage for the first few kilometres of her run, but then it eased off nicely. Her body had bounced back from the physical trauma and exhaustion, but that wasn’t surprising. Modern nano-medicine was exceptionally good at dealing with that.

No, what Ingram was worried about was her stamina. She worried that the weeks she had spent at the 4th might have eaten more into her