The Facilitator Read online

  “Through here.”

  Together they stumbled from her living room, hands touching and stroking, lips meeting and then parting, only to meet again.

  They collapsed on her quilt, a tangle of limbs and soft moans, becoming still only when Martine’s robe fell away and Johann stripped off his tunic.

  Naked at last, they met in the darkness…a blend of hot skin, soft curves and hard ridges, each of them releasing a sigh of delight at the sensation. Their facilitator neck rings scraped together slightly as they shifted, rolled and learned each other’s bodies.

  So lost in the pleasure, Martine almost missed the finger that was insistently tapping her elbow. Casually she drew away from him.

  “Wow.” Her breath was coming in short gasps, as was his. There was nothing faked about their interaction, she knew. But he had something in mind.

  “Yeah. Wow.” He leaned over and nipped her shoulder. “You’re something else, Martine. So hot. So fucking hot…I want your mouth on me. I want to suck you while you’re sucking me. I love being here with you in the darkness. I get to touch you. I can smell your heat…”

  He was making her squirm with his words, but his eyes were steady and his hand took hers, bringing it to his chest and pointing her finger. While he continued to seduce her and tell her all the things he wanted to do, he drew a tiny square on his chest. “God, I’m going to die if you don’t suck me. Please…”

  She got the message. Her head dipped, her tongue outlined the little square just above his nipple—and she had a hard time not gasping when a tiny panel flipped down exposing a glowing blue bead.

  “Mmm.” He moaned loudly and the bead rolled into his hand. Once out of its niche, Johann’s skin flap returned and sealed itself into oblivion. He curled his fingers around the blue glow and then opened them, putting it carefully on Martine’s bedside table.

  “Now we can talk.”

  “We can?” Martine stared at the shiny bead then back at the man beside her, not sure if she wanted to hear what he had to say or fuck him blind first, then hear what he had to say.

  “We’ll get back to it.” His grin told her he’d read her thoughts. “I’m not leaving here without this, Martine.” He tweaked her nipple. “You’ve driven me insane too many nights for me to walk away now I’ve got you naked and touching me for real.”

  She sucked in air. “It is you.”

  “Yes, it’s me. But here, in this reality, I’m Johann, okay?”

  “Okay.” She paused. “In this reality?”

  “Long story.” He shifted, pulling her even closer, moving his body half over hers. “The blue bead is a jammer, but it doesn’t last for too long. It creates an artificial soundtrack for listening devices based on a variety of recorded data and sensory inputs. It won’t do much for visual surveillance, only audio, but it’s all I could bring in with me. That’s why we’re here in the dark.”

  “Oh.” Distracted by the feel of his skin, the scent of his body and the hard length of his erection against her tender inner thigh, Martine struggled to keep up. And almost did until he moved once more and her hips automatically lifted toward him. “Is there going to be a quiz later? Because I’m having a real hard time here…”

  “Me too.” He laughed and nudged her with his cock. “No pun intended.”

  “So who are you and what’s going on? How are you in my dreams? Or more importantly, why are you in my dreams?”

  “I don’t have time right now to answer everything. I will. I’ll come to you again in dreams, but they’re limited, Martine. Neither of us can control much of the conversation. This is better. If they think we’re sleeping together, that will help.”

  “Understood.” She nodded. “What can you tell me?”

  “Something’s happening. Something bad. And it involves us facilitators.”

  She stilled. “Bad as in…”

  “Just bad. As in not good.”

  “Well that’s a huge fucking help.” She made to roll away, but he held her tightly.

  “Don’t move. I like you just where you are.” He licked and sucked a nipple, making her squirm. “Before coming here I worked for a federal facility. Nowhere near as plush as this, but same sort of facilitation work. I’m good at what I do, so when a few hiccups in the system caught the feds’ attention, they asked me to consult.”

  “And?” Held close in his arms, listening to him talk, Martine realized she was as close to content as she could remember being in many years. It was as if they were designed to lie like this, to share thoughts like this—and to be a part of each other’s dreams. All pretty crazy shit. She focused on his words and pushed the more emotional stuff aside.

  “There were rumors about the Shanxi Corporation and the companies they invest in. When they became more than rumors, an investigation began, started from one of the most secure agencies. Nobody outside their walls knew about it.”

  “Okay…Shanxi capital is definitely part of Eternal Tranquility’s funding. That’s public knowledge.”

  “Yes. Which is why I’m here.”

  She gripped him. “Shit. You’re a spy, right?”

  He snorted. “No way. I don’t have any of the fancy spy stuff or extra superhero-sense enhancements. I am what I am, what you are. A facilitator.”

  “But you’re here. Shanxi has sent up a blip on the federal radar and all of a sudden you’re here?”

  “Yes, I’m here. I’m here more because recently this agency lost one of its men in the line of duty.”

  “Jesus, that’s bad.”

  He nodded and breathed out roughly. “I knew him. Not as a friend, but I’d seen the guy around. Company man all the way. Devoted to serving his agency.”

  “And you think somehow Eternal Tranquility or Shanxi was responsible?”

  The little blue light on the bedside table began to flicker. “Yes. Shit.” John’s head whipped around and he took one look and rolled on top of Martine. “No more time for talk. Spread your thighs for me. Quickly.”

  Doing as she was bid, she parted her legs and groaned as she felt John’s arousal thick and hot against her pussy. She was wet for him—the mere fact they were lying naked together would have done it, let alone the way he’d touched her.

  The blue bead flashed and then winked out of existence. “Fuck, you’re so hot, baby.”

  Johann was back, the rookie who had cost Eternal Tranquility a lot of money was now fucking one of their prime facilitators. No eyebrows would be raised, and probably it would be noted somewhere in some report by whoever was listening in. If anyone was.

  The fact that John had jammed them into their own private world for a few minutes spoke volumes to the level of security and surveillance. She’d been right to be cautious. But caution flew out the window when John’s cock slid past the slick ruffled folds of flesh between her legs and into her heated darkness. All she could think of was how well he fit, how wonderfully he filled her and how she could orgasm right this second if he kept up that slow penetration he’d begun.

  He didn’t. “Fuck, woman. This is extraordinary.”

  She nodded. “Yeah.” Shifting her hips fractionally, she wanted to smile at their simultaneous moans but was afraid she’d come if she did. “You feel so good inside me.”

  “Likewise.” He shuddered as she reflexively gripped him. “Lord above. Do that again.”

  “I can’t or I’m gonna come.” Her nails were digging into his butt, adding to his movement by urging him into the perfect rhythm.

  “Then come. I can’t hold it much longer.”

  Neither, it turned out, could she. With a deep breath, she arched into his thrusts, biting down on the whimpers erupting deep in her throat. Two—three more pounding movements and she was there, exploding on a scream, shaking around him, clamping around his cock and milking it as he too groaned loudly and began pumping into her body, a syncopated release that fed her orgasm even more.

  They rode together, a jumbled pile of trembling flesh, heated skin and fev
ered breaths—and they collapsed together, sated, exhausted and limp from the maelstrom. After a few moments, Johann awkwardly detached himself. “You’re something else, you know?” He kissed her.

  “Back at you.” She touched his face. “But I get the feeling you’re about to leave.”

  “Yeah. I still have things to do and I want to get some sleep if I can. I have my first facilitation tomorrow. I want to be fresh for it.”

  “I understand.” She sighed and drew the cover up over herself. “Do you need me to see you out?”

  He smiled. “No, I can find my way. I’ll meet you in the morning for coffee in that rec-room place. 0800 hours.” He picked up his clothes and slipped them on, then leaned over and kissed her. “We’ll do this again you know. Sweet dreams.”

  She grinned. “You too.”

  She heard the door to her apartment close and click itself secure. After that there was no sound but the hum of her environmental systems and the steady beat of her heart. Her body was pleasantly tired, her limbs heavy with the lassitude that followed really great sex. Her mind was wandering in circles, wondering how the hell she’d just ended up in bed with a dream character.

  And for good measure, she also wondered how the hell he’d ended up at Eternal Tranquility. From there she moved on to the Shanxi Corporation and what their interest could be in ET. Why would a major financial power be interested in the processes of facilitation?

  All she could come up with was the enormously lucrative potential of the patents on any or all of the large variety of equipment used during neural interface. Although nothing was possible without the interaction of a human facilitator, it was also true that no human facilitator could have accomplished anything without the technology.

  It had to be about the money. It was Martine’s experience that pretty much everything was about the money.

  On that depressing thought, she fell asleep.

  And to her delight, John was waiting for her in that other reality they shared.

  “Hello, beautiful.”

  “Hi, handsome.”

  They smiled at each other, slow intimate smiles—the type exchanged by lovers who have bared skin, shared sex and moved past the fucking stage to the involved stage. “I missed you.” John held out his hand.

  She took it. “I missed you too.” Looking around, she tilted her head in query. “Where are we?”

  “As far away from the world as I can get.” He tugged her to a fallen log and they sat next to each other.

  Martine stared out at the vista in front of her. It was a mountain scene, and they were high on the side of a hill. High enough to see out across several valleys, a river and all the way to more tall mountains lining the horizon with vague blue shadows. Lush, painted in all the pastels of nature, it was peaceful and silent but for the occasional trill of a bird.

  “I like it.” She breathed in dream air, which smelled of green and living things.

  “You did some research.” His fingers tightened on hers. “Tell me.”

  She watched wisps of white mist wreathing around fir trees. “Strange. It felt unreal. This is unreal and it feels real.”

  “I know. Tell me what you learned.”

  She found words coming from her lips, a recitation of information flowing effortlessly between them. Rimsky-Korsakov, Antin’s Syndrome, flying at the mere suggestion of a thought and touching tiny spheres containing the universe…

  And then she stopped.

  He shifted and let their intertwined hands rest on his knee. “What happened then, Martine?”

  She closed her eyes and frowned. “I don’t know…I-I tried—he wasn’t there.”

  “Who?”

  “Taber.”

  There was an instant of complete stillness. “Who is Taber?”

  “A strong man. It was bad—bad that he was so ill and wouldn’t let me help him pass. He didn’t want to let go. I had to…I had to push him. First time I’ve been so drained in a long time.”

  “I see.” That strange stillness surrounded them again. “You couldn’t find him in the data-storage division?”

  She struggled with images that shifted and faded as she tried to stare at them. “No. I tried… I wanted to know about his disease, but he wasn’t in the medical section. I finally found him…”

  “Where?”

  “Where you told me to look. 12-19 B. A door. There was a huge door and it had something on it. A symbol. It slammed in my face.” She leaned back on a sigh.

  “Do you remember the symbol?”

  “Yes.” She half-closed her eyes as light brightened over the horizon. “Dawn’s coming.” How do I know that?

  “Tell me about the symbol, Martine.”

  John sounded serious so she tried to describe it. “Round…no…a long oval. With a sort of dash in the middle…it could have been ancient. Greek perhaps?”

  “Did it look like this?” John picked up a twig, leaned forward and drew some markings in the sandy path beneath their feet.

  She stared. Then nodded. “That’s it. That’s what I saw on the barrier.”

  “Theta.”

  John barely breathed the word, but as soon as it passed his lips, Martine’s dream began to crumble and she awoke chilled and startled, as if somebody had moved in her bedroom.

  She even sat up and activated the low light. Her room was, of course, empty. And the silence in her apartment was a normal kind of silence that told her she was alone. Leaving the light as it was, she lay back and tugged the covers around her neck.

  What was this theta symbol? What did it represent? And how did she know what dawn looked like or even that it was coming?

  She’d never seen the real sun rise. For generations, nobody had. The atmosphere had become discolored by too many decades of careless pollution. Although it was improving, it was still nowhere near the point where the sun’s rays could be discerned through the murk. Occasionally there was a brief sighting of a glowing disk. That was it.

  The planet had evolved and adapted to what mankind had done to it. But those precious moments just before dawn were now only memories. Or video reproductions. What she’d seen…well, it felt like the real thing.

  Martine found herself trying to grasp an alien concept, one that involved reality. And exactly what reality she was living in.

  But her brain couldn’t work around that idea, and although she didn’t realize it, she once again fell asleep.

  This time, she didn’t dream at all.

  In his lofty apartment on top of the Eternal Tranquility facility, Williams Jr. stared out of the functioning windows into the murk of the predawn hours. He knew people envied him the specially reinforced glass holes in his wall.

  He wasn’t sure they were on the right track, since all they showed was a world gone to hell and back. Mostly the atmosphere was dark, a result of the permanent discoloration and deformation within the thermosphere levels. He didn’t understand the science, but—like everyone else—had learned to live with the result.

  They were now little more than cave dwellers on the surface of their own planet, and would be for some time to come. Some tech eggheads estimated a four-generation recovery time, and Williams had sighed when he’d read that. Yes, he was rich enough to take advantage of the existence-elongation experiments and anticipated another fifty or seventy-five years on top of the eighty he’d already seen. He was active, possessed of the latest in heart replicants and monitored constantly for any changes in either of those conditions.

  And yet, even with all those extra years of living and all the technological advances humankind had made, up to and including the ability to cater one’s own death…there would soon be no one alive who’d seen the sun shine in a blue sky.

  Many lights twinkled in the murk, of course, catching his eye as he stood and stared out. There were people all over the place, not as cluttered as in past generations, and probably better off. There would always be a war going on somewhere. And always people who took the easy way to what
they wanted. Crime hadn’t disappeared. But the poverty levels had diminished, most people had a job of one sort or another, and he liked to think the human race was improving as time passed.

  He certainly felt that Eternal Tranquility was doing its part. He was looking forward to spending some of those additional years he’d bought for himself in a rather nice little enclave in the Caribbean, one area where there was rumored to be an occasional sighting of the sun, and the waters were a lot less polluted than anywhere else. Yes, Eternal Tranquility was turning out to be his private golden goose and he was happily anticipating devouring the omelet made from its golden egg.

  A discreet chirp drew his wandering thoughts away from esoteric considerations of life and back to the job at hand. He walked to his desk and touched the intercom screen. “Yes?”

  “President Chan calling from Shanxi Corporation, Director. He would like to know if he may speak with you?” His monitoring program made him smile. He’d programmed her to his own specifications, knowing he’d be more likely to work well with the gentle tones of a well-educated woman.

  “Please tell him it would be my honor. And then put him on.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Wendy, make sure all security protocols are in place? This is an A-4 level priority call.”

  “Very good, Director. Please hold for President Chan.” The program’s soft voice faded away.

  Within seconds the perfectly groomed image of the president appeared on the screen, the logo of his corporation prominently displayed behind him, watermarking his image. “Greetings, Director Williams. I apologize for the lateness of this call.”

  “Good evening, President Chan. There is no need for apologies. I am always happy to speak with you.”

  There was a moment’s pause, an unusual occurrence, realized Williams. The President of Shanxi seldom hesitated about anything.

  “You have acquired a new facilitator, we understand.”

  “That is correct.” Williams nodded. “He’s extremely talented, plenty of experience on his resume and comes directly from a federal facility where his skills weren’t fully explored. We’re proud of being able to recruit him. Quite a coup for Eternal Tranquility.”