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

It made some sense for Gonzalez to use his own wrist-comp to verify the diagnostics Eloise had run. She could understand why he wasn’t about to trust the diagnostics Tilly’s double had performed on herself. She didn’t doubt Tilly, of course, but given how stripped her program was of certain subroutines, it might have been a prudent action. What was not prudent, in Eloise’s opinion, was to double-, triple-… heck, quadruple-check each step as he went along.

Under the outward boredom, she was also tired. The trip into Tilly’s system, the absolute focus it had required, had proven to be surprisingly draining.

‘No, not enough,’ Gonzalez replied. ‘Ingram, let’s try it again with your comp.’ He turned his attention to the slightly flushed woman who had returned to Roc de Chere only a few minutes ago.

Physically recovered and with nothing to do, she had taken over Rivas’ daily job of flights to Lyon. Now, she was still on the tail end of a pilot’s high, her cheeks reddened and her eyes sparkling. It was the first time since she had assumed her role as Sergeant Carlotta Ingram that she’d had the pleasure of flying something more sophisticated than a police-issue XST, a rather primitive toy when compared with a Stealthy.

Barely a minute out of Roc de Chere she had asked permission to do some aerobatics, ‘to refresh her skills’, and Gonzalez had smiled with fond indulgence. She didn’t need to refresh her skills; she was a natural. But there was no reason she couldn’t have some fun, and all things considered, training was always useful.

Some pilots said flying was better than sex, and truth be told, it did reduce some of the sexual frustrations she had felt earlier. The fact that she had found nothing useful in Lyon had done nothing to spoil the experience. There was no change around Eloise’s residence and the slums were back to normal, with the crash site now a heap of ash and the Leeches going about their usual business.

‘What?’ She brought her attention to the room, mentally letting go of her Stealthy’s joysticks, when she sensed Gonzalez’s eyes on her.

‘Your wrist-comp, Carlotta. Let me have it.’ He shook his head with a smile.

‘Why?’ Eloise interjected.

Gonzalez’s facial expression changed considerably when he looked at Eloise. The woman was as brilliant as she was annoying.

‘So that I can verify that everything is good with the security system. We’ve been through this before. We have integrated two complicated systems together. We did it on the fly without being able to switch them off into maintenance mode. I am not familiar with your Tilly, so I will continue my checks until I’m satisfied.’

‘That’s fine. You can perform whatever checks are required, Colonel Larsen,’ Tilly said patiently, if a little bit stiffly. ‘Erm… would you rather I addressed you as DCI Gonzalez?’

‘Colonel is fine, Tilly,’ Gonzalez replied. Despite his need to verify the results in front of him, he was warming up to the new system fast. The levels of deduction and induction Tilly displayed were sweet.

Eloise huffed with irritation as she listened to the friendly exchange. She couldn’t correctly identify the sensation bubbling inside her, due to her lack of previous experience, but there was definitely an edge of jealousy there.

Funny, Ingram thought, taking her comp off and passing it to Gonzalez. If she was annoyed because the colonel has challenged her competence, I could understand that. But she’s simply confused. She doesn’t understand that the colonel is about to let an alien computer system into our confidence. He’s not going to ignore his instincts just because some damn light flashed green.

‘You don’t have to stay here. Go and get some rest, sleep for a few hours.’ Gonzalez looked at Eloise, his eyebrow cocked. He could do with a couple of hours of peace himself, without the Elite woman’s annoying interruptions and even more annoying questions. ‘Or relax in a VRP if you want,’ he added, hoping that a familiar VR enviro might do her some good.

‘Tilly, have Jeff prepare… Never mind.’ Eloise sighed loudly, realising her mistake, but not before Tilly’s programming kicked in.

‘I’m sorry, Eloise, Jeff is unavailable. I am, however, detecting that your blood-glucose level is below optimal and you are mildly dehydrated. If you want I can—’

‘No, Tilly, I don’t want anything. Just sit tight until all the diagnostics are completed,’ she instructed, and left the room without another word. Her chest was tightening again, and she wanted to be alone.

Ingram watched her go, feeling confused herself. The fact that a computer program had to inform Eloise that she should eat and drink made her want to laugh; that was so typically Elite. But the scared and defeated tone to Eloise’s voice had actually made Ingram feel sympathetic.

She lived an utterly spoilt and privileged life that made her ignorant and complacent, but things have changed. Her whole world has been turned upside down, and it must be freaking the hell out of her. Yet, she is still an absolute whizz at her job.

‘Sir, do you nee—’ Ingram turned to look at Gonzalez and stopped mid-word. The colonel was still staring, deep in thought, at the door after Eloise. Finally, he sighed and looked at Ingram.

‘You were saying?’

‘I was going to ask if you need me, sir. I could do with a couple of hours’ rest myself.’

‘Go,’ he replied instantly. ‘Just grab a spare comp—I don’t want anyone without one, just in case.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Ingram nodded, but Gonzalez didn’t even hear her; he was lost in thought yet again.

He wasn’t used to not understanding other people. Even the evil, vile excuses for human beings were people he could understand. Just because he didn’t share their greed or brutality, it didn’t mean he couldn’t get where they were coming from. Eloise was different.

She was more like a computer program than a person. In a way that should make her easy to understand, but because she had never