The Dark Edge Chronicles - Hardwire

Accessing the Banks

Again it was several hours before Mordecai found himself thinking about the information possibly contained in the second wet bank. Turning away from Jeriko's sleeping form, he carefully sat up. A glance at the window yielded that evening had once again found them. Mordecai's lips pursed with disapproval. A whole day, gone and with them no closer to the key than they were when the day began.

"Couldn't resist checking the second bank, could you?" Jeriko's voice rose huskily from the bed and Mordecai glanced over his shoulder at the blonde hardwire.

She was lying on her side, the blankets pulled off her stunning body, her blue eyes regarding him with a curious mixture of affection, desire and curiosity. Her shoulder length hair was tousled and a smile played on her full lips. She reached out with a hand to caress his side and lower back as his eyes fell upon her loveliness.

"We need that key, Jeri," he replied softly. Jeriko's smile widened slightly.

"I know, Marty. I just wish, . . . just wish that, . . . ."

Mordecai's own smile tightened.

"I hear you, Jeri. So do I," he said, mentally filling in what his lovely companion couldn't verbalize. Wish they could have this time together without the curse of being a lone gunman pulling danger towards them at high speed.

"Maybe some day." Then he was sliding from the bed to stride towards the bathroom, intending to shower his exertions from his body. "I'm gonna grab a quick shower. The results of my sweep through Lisa's data base are in the recording crystals on the couch." He stepped into the bathroom and, shortly afterward, the sounds of running water rose to compete with his voice.

"Why don't you take a look at them while I'm showering? That way we'll both be on the same page when we take a look at the data on the second bank." The hiss of the shower activating announced the beginning of Mordecai's shower as Jeriko slid off the bed.

"You're the boss," she sighed, stepping to the couch. A thought drew Excaliber from her clothing, across the room and into her hand. Slumping into the couch, she inserted the first crystal into the slot on top of the silvery box.

"Excaliber, read mode," she commanded in a soft voice and, with a flicker of blue light, the holographic screen appeared.

By the time Mordecai was done and stepped from the bathroom, toweling himself off, the blonde hardwire had almost worked her way through all of the crystals. As he strode towards her, drying his short-cropped hair, he could see a frown on her face.

"Pretty intense stuff, hey?" he commented softly and Jeriko slowly shook her head.

"Damn," she rasped. "They've been around for over two hundred years?? How have we missed them? Wait, I don't think we've missed them. I just don't think we knew it was the Brotherhood we were working against."

"My thought, exactly," the big man replied, stepping past her to his bag where it sat on the chair. He quickly pulled out clean clothes and began to dress as he went on. "I can see the Brotherhood in almost every situation the lone gunmen have responded to in the last ten years, easily. And if you want to take it in context with the Armageddon Project, the pieces fit even more tightly together."

"I see what you mean," Jeriko wryly acknowledged, deactivating the reader and putting Excaliber down beside her on the couch. "Like the maneuvering of chess pieces on a global scale; all meant to put them in a better position to strike at the Normals come time for the coup."

"Which means finding the key has even greater importance." Now dressed in a black tee shirt and shorts, Mordecai dropped beside Jeriko. "Time to check out that second bank." He directed a look at the black, velvet-lined bag that sat on the nightstand beside the bed where the two diamond brains were now resting. Forming a probe with his mind, he began to reach for the second bank.