The Strangeness Within Pt. 07

"OK," she said, kissing him again on the cheek. "Do it slowly. But don't stop unless I tell you."

He had to shift and use his hand to position himself. He was feeling strangely detached from his cock, the way he often had with Samantha. It probably meant he was nervous or distracted. But that was OK. She wanted him to last, and this way he would. His cock felt as unyielding as the rock Esther lay on.

The head would be the hardest part. He pressed and pressed, feeling her quivering against him.

Esther held her breath, her chest flushing and bringing out the contrast with her blue freckles. She was obviously trying to help, but she was just so tight.

Another idle piece of advice from Kat drifted into his head.

"Just pretend you're taking a shit," he said.

Esther snorted half of a laugh, and apparently that was what was needed. His dick pressed forward, and then with a pop the head was inside.

"Oh," she groaned, in pleasure or pain. He was sliding in further, so much more easily now, and she didn't tell him to stop. He kept waiting, but instead she grabbed his hips and pulled, unexpectedly hard. His dick slid faster even as she started to contract around him. And then his balls bumped into her little ass. He was all the way inside her.

She was so tiny. A jewel, a nymph, with his engorged dick up her ass. Her muscles were clamping desperately around him, but there was easily enough lube to fuck her. Both their bodies strained for just that.

"Stay there," she told him, with a kind of desperation. "Stay. Don't move. Just hold me."

Just as well. She'd told him she needed him to last, and with his nervousness melting away, he felt a powerful need to bury his cum deep inside her.

He carefully lay his weight on her, getting his hands under her head. She kissed him desperately, her eyes opening to look at him with a kind of distant wonder, as she sometimes did when she was near orgasm. But then she was looking beyond him at things only she could see, shuddering and lying nearly still, her breath quick but steady, her lips quivering against him. He stroked her and held still as the minutes stretched. When he thought his muscles were going to give out, he shifted a bit and she sighed, but she didn't open her eyes. There was nothing in the world but his massive cock, buried deep inside the ass of the woman he loved. She was traveling somewhere he couldn't follow, but he'd be here when she came back.

* * *

Javier's penis was impossibly huge, stretching her open until she had to hold back a cry. But it was shock, not pain. He'd been so careful, and now he was implacable as he pressed inside her, just as she'd asked. Just as she'd imagined many times, but nothing had prepared her for it. Maybe she should have approached it slower, but part of her knew this was what she'd always wanted. He was splitting her open, and the shock and slight discomfort were just enough to keep her from sliding over the edge into a blinding orgasm.

She opened her eyes and pulled him harder against him, feeling how he wanted to move, how carefully he was having to hold himself. She loved him so much. She couldn't explain that she had exactly what she needed. This sense of opening up. Everything was waiting for her, behind and between and in directions no one could name.

The sky darkened and stars began to shine. Winter stars, the ones the sky's brightness ordinarily hid from her. Orion's belt sparkled and wavered in the daytime air currents. Smells and sounds around her froze, sorting themselves into their component chemicals and wavelengths, everything happening so slowly that she could almost understand. Vast shapes emerged, the connections and sheets and geometries that were beyond anyone's understanding. But she knew what she was looking for, and with a painstaking effort she began to feel for the pieces she needed. She didn't truly know what she was doing, but she filed away every new thought, every fragment stolen from the flotsam of the vast universe's own calculations.

Her body tugged at her, a quivering need for release, and she fought it, holding out for as long as she could. But her own body was a bundle of geometries, a locus of points that had its strangely beautiful needs and hopes and fears, and her mind was inexorably bound to all of it. She felt muscles contract once, then again, and then she stared at the stars in wonder as her body shook with a pleasure unlike anything she'd ever felt.

Long after her cries had stopped, she gazed at the glittering stars. And slowly the rest of it came back to her. Javier's body heavily lying on top of her, his penis beginning to soften. She found the memories of his orgasm and played it back, again and again. He was so beautiful, and he'd given her a gift she could never forget.

She listened again to the memory of his groans, the spurt of his immense penis inside her, and she held to the sensations with a desperation, as though it were a talisman.

Javier couldn't follow where she went, but at least they could share this. It was more than enough for her. And someday perhaps she'd believe him when he repeated how happy she made him.

* * *

Raj looked up from the computer, and she blushed. She should have joined Javier in the shower. Surely he could smell the sex on her. He was so polite.

But she had to keep her mind moving. She had her fragmented memories, and the drawings she'd made, and now she needed to assemble them into a coherent picture.

"Raj," she said. "I think I have it. It's something in the correlations, you see. I think we can break that encryption much faster than we thought."

His eyes lit up in that way that made him so beautiful. She saw how his nostrils flared, the way his pulse quickened. Her senses were still so sharp. They began to talk, and his mind grasped faster than hers the meaning of the mathematical artifacts she'd brought back from her journey. By the time Javier joined them, he'd filled a dozen sheets of paper with dense formulas, working more systematically than Esther ever could have. But of course, he'd had years to hone this skill. They talked even as he worked, and at some point Mark joined Javier, bustling around to prepare them dinner.

Javier shook her shoulder, and she realized it was time to eat. She stood up with a groan and gave him a huge hug. He kissed her on the head and they sat down to dinner.

"So," said Javier eventually. "I gather from all this that you and Esther might have broken RC4 encryption."

Raj smiled deferentially. "Not broken, exactly. There's a flaw in the way it's usually implemented. The output hashes have statistical correlations of a sort that are very useful if you're trying to brute-force guess passwords. Essentially, we can put our guesses in a much more useful order. Instead of years, we might do it in a day."

"But only for RC4," amended Esther. "This isn't a general cryptography breakthrough. I'm not sure that's even possible given all the different algorithms in use."

Raj nodded. "But it is a minor mathematical breakthrough, due entirely to Esther. The fragments she was able to explain to me hint at some broader theory vastly more exciting than mere codebreaking. It feels almost sacrilegious to use them this way. And now we'll have to actually implement these ideas in code. Do you have some spare time, Javier?"

Javier smiled, no doubt happy to finally feel of use. Esther kissed him and stepped outside.

The air was cooling quickly, as the late-summer sun hung low in the west. It was another hour before sunset.

That was all right. Esther settled back against the cabin wall, turning her eyes upwards. High overhead, Hercules wheeled slowly across the blue sky.

...*** Chapter 44 ***...

Kat was appropriately astonished when they sent her the decrypted passwords a few days later. And that evening, she let them know she'd broken into the Unit's computer.

It's not very exciting, she wrote. Not connected to anything important. I think perhaps this was more a test than anything.

After discussion, they agreed she should send confirmation to Lukas. In the end even Raj agreed it was better that Lukas consider them useful and on his side. Kat wasn't about to explain the help she'd gotten breaking in, but it didn't seem to matter much. Lukas couldn't know exactly what they had stolen on the Fresno raid.

What they didn't expect was the next message Kat received from Lukas.

He's desperate, Kat wrote. Apparently they've lost more agents, and they've had to move yet again. He thinks their window to do anything is closing, and so he's planning a massive raid on The Unit in DC. But he says he needs my help. Or maybe he needs a scapegoat if something goes wrong on the hacking end. And he instructed me specifically to tell all my friends that Nicola is going to be part of the raid.

Javier, Esther, Mark, and Raj digested this news. For once, Mark was the first to speak.

"We have to help them," he said. "Nicola can't be captured by Franklin. So we have to help."

"Yes," said Raj, "that's why he told us about her. He knows something about our group and correctly predicted that reaction. But he's not a fool, and he must know all this is a dangerous risk. Even telling us about the raid. I'm inclined to think he really is that desperate."

"Why would he send Nicola on a raid?" Esther asked. "She's very sensitive. Surely he knows she's at risk from Franklin, more than most. It seems a foolhardy way to extort Kat's cooperation. And what exactly does he want Kat to do?"

Javier relayed the last question, and Kat responded promptly.

He plans to wipe their computers as a first strike. He passed to me a truly nasty virus someone else wrote, so nasty that I could barely make any improvements on it myself. Apparently they've had no luck getting any agents to slip it inside, or to break in from afar. And before you ask, I already tested all those passwords you guys decoded, and none of them works to access the system he named. This one may be beyond my tremendous abilities, sad to say. But I haven't replied to Lukas.

In the silence, Esther spoke up.

"I might be able to do it."

The others stared at her, and she elaborated.

"If I were nearby. Close enough to listen to the communications among their computers. I might be able to pick out a password in the time before it was encrypted."

Javier nodded slowly. "Over the wires from a dumb terminal, perhaps. Or from the keyboard itself?"

She shrugged. She had no idea what the easiest way was to accomplish something like this. But she had a growing certainty she could manage it.

"That sounds far too dangerous," said Raj. "Esther, you can't get anywhere near Franklin. I know you expect you're resistant to the influence of his talents, but you aren't immune to being arrested or kidnapped by his people."

"Neither is Lukas," she said, and she saw Raj's face fall. "Lukas and Nicola, and anyone else he's bringing along. Mark is right. Nicola would kill herself rather than fall under Franklin's influence. I can't understand why Lukas is risking that, but we have to help her. In the end he's right about that."

Javier nodded. "But Raj can't go," he said. "He's the one they already tried to kidnap. We can hope they've given up on Esther, and me."

"And I have to go as well," said Mark.

Javier shook his head. "You're in as much danger as Nicola if you get near Franklin."

"Then I won't get near him. But I will protect you and Esther and Kat. I have to help somehow. Please."

"You should keep Raj safe here," said Esther, but Mark shook his head.

He was stubborn through all their arguments. In the end, no one could force Mark to do anything. No one but Esther, and she would never do that.

"I guess it's decided then," said Esther finally. "I always wanted to visit D.C."

* * *

Javier distributed the plane tickets, bought at the last minute by his newly wealthy alter ego, José Santillo. Lukas had offered to take Kat and her assistants on one of his private planes, but the further they stayed out of his influence, the better.

"Never been to the East Coast," said Kat. "Can't say I imagined it would be under these circumstances."

Mark was extremely uncomfortable with all the people in the airport, and things only got worse when they piled into the plane. Esther motioned him to a window seat, and she sat in the middle next to him, taking his hand and stroking his shoulder. She shared a glance with Javier, who smiled and nodded. Anything it took to keep Mark from having a panic attack in a crowded plane. He was starting to think he should have figured out how to charter their own plane.

To everyone's relief, once he recovered from take-off, Mark was entranced by the view out the window.

The Unit's headquarters was a dull-looking office park in a run-down area of D.C.

"Security by obscurity," Kat said with a snort. "Never really works. But I guess they've got it well-protected inside."

They'd picked the closest motel to the place, a quarter mile down the road. It felt perilously close, and Javier's skin had itched when their taxi had passed it on the way. Yet perhaps it still wasn't close enough.

"Do you think you can do it?" Javier asked when they had a moment alone.

Esther sighed unhappily.

"I'm terrified," she said. "Trying to keep myself looking ordinary while I listen for trouble. I hope for all our sakes I can do it."

They'd hardly had a chance to settle into their dumpy motel room when Esther announced that a livery car had pulled up outside.

"Lukas," Javier said. "Of course he knew where we went. I guess it's time to talk."

Kat had expected as much. When they'd made the arrangements, he'd simply said he would be in touch.

As they'd agreed, Kat and Javier walked out together. A nondescript man in a suit opened the door for them.

"I hope you're with Prime," he joked, but the man didn't even change expressions. Swallowing, Javier got in the back. If the Unit had found them already, there was nothing they could do.

Lukas was staying in a hotel across town, one so fancy that Javier felt conspicuously underdressed when they walked through the lobby. They were ushered quickly into a plush suite near the top floor.

Lukas was sitting at a computer across the room, and he turned shortly after they entered.

"Hello again, Javier. And it's a pleasure to finally meet you, Kat. I've heard so much about you."

Javier looked around the suite nervously. There were only two others here: a large, muscular man who looked like security, and a slim young woman who was staring intently at him.

"Ah, have you two not met? This is Nicola, Javier. She is a remarkable young woman."

Nicola nodded slightly at him, seemingly uncomfortable with the entire situation. Javier's heart pounded, and not just because he didn't understand what Nicola was doing here. Esther hadn't told him how attractive she was. Not in so many words.

She was vitally important to Esther. That was enough for him to do whatever was necessary.

"So, Kat," said Lukas. "Would you like to explain now why you required such proximity to try your methods?"

Kat swallowed and shook her head. "You know I can hack into telephone lines. The fewer switches between me and what I'm looking for, the better. Beyond that, sorry. Trade secrets."

Lukas didn't change his expression, but nodded slightly.

"Ah. Well, I did wonder what you were planning to tell me. Suppose I suggest a different explanation. Suppose you have a sensitive person with you, one so sensitive that they have a chance of eavesdropping on the goings-on over there. And suppose you are trying to hide that fact from me, because you do not entirely trust me."

Javier froze, trying not to give anything away. They'd made a terrible mistake coming here. Lukas had deduced Esther's strengths, and he was not going to forget.

Lukas nodded again placidly. "It's all right. Janelle already explained to me what a remarkable person your friend Mark is. Nicola's close friend as well, if I am not mistaken."

Javier let out his breath, but he tried to look appropriately unhappy. Lukas quickly continued.

"Please, you must understand: I would never harm a person with the changes, or expose them to more scrutiny than they wish. Mark's secret is safe with me. But I must warn you, there have been others with high sensitivity who have tried what he is planning. None of them have succeeded, and at least one was captured afterwards. The Unit is well aware of our abilities, and I am sure they take precautions."

"Lucky we don't have anything so simple as that planned, then," said Kat.

This time Lukas broke into a genuine smile. "Oh! Well, I do love being surprised. But so you understand what is at stake: we will be entering the facility no later than tomorrow just before midnight. Having the computers down beforehand would be a tremendous help with the raid itself, and also because the Unit is a foolish hoarder when it comes to data. There is much intelligence which we might simply eradicate before they can save it. Intelligence about people like me in this country and around the world. Destroying that is exactly the kind of blow we need to strike."

"That and capturing Franklin," Javier said.

For a moment a terrible expression flitted across Lukas's face. Then he blinked and was neutral again.

"Yes," he said. "That is the most important thing by far. And I must give heartfelt thanks to you both for securing us allies with inside information. That partnership is the only reason this attack might succeed at all. Now, here is a phone number where you can reach me. Inform me before tomorrow evening if you have succeeded in transmitting the virus. After that, keep well clear of the facility. If Mark is smart, he'll distance himself as soon as he can. Even having him near is a terrible danger to us all, given what Janelle told me."

Lukas turned back to his computer, and presently the door opened: the escort for their ride back.

"I'm going with them," Nicola said suddenly.

Lukas nodded, as though he'd expected as much.

"Please take no more than two hours," he said. "We need to assemble at the staging site this evening. I'll have the car pick you up."

Nicola gave a tired half-nod, and then she followed them out the door.

She didn't say a word the entire drive back.

* * *

Esther gasped and took Mark's hand.

"Nicola is with them," she said. "Nicola's coming. She's fine."

Mark started to cry, and he hugged her so hard she thought he'd crack a bone. But then he put her down and wiped his eyes.

When they arrived a few minutes later, Nicola was the last to enter. She hung back at the door, as though unsure of the reception she'd find.

Mark was having none of it, though. He shouldered past Kat and Javier, and then he grabbed her in the same kind of hug he'd given Esther. The same, except for the kiss.

When they finally pulled apart, they were both crying. Nicola gave Esther a shaky hug, and then she sat down on the bed, breathing heavily.

"We can take you home," said Mark. "You shouldn't be here. Why are you going into that terrible place? Is Lukas making you do it?"

She shook her head vigorously.

"No, I'm important for the raid. Important enough that it's worth risking. You see, it turns out I'm amazing with locks."

In fits and starts she began to pour out her story.

She'd hoped to meet others with the changes, and she had. Not as many as she'd hoped, but over time she realized that Lukas's organization had many more members without the changes. People who had lost loved ones to the Unit. Lukas remembered every person still imprisoned inside, and he had searched out their family and friends as recruits. A selection of those ordinary people made up a good part of the raid, along with a larger group of InfoCorp dissenters, headed by none other than Myra Jackson.