“Yes, that would be ideal.” He added a touch of humor to his voice, so she wouldn’t think that he believed it.
Portia didn’t reply immediately. Instead, she studied their linked hands and started walking. He kept pace with her, confident that she would speak when she was ready.
“I don’t think it will be that easy,” she said finally.
“Getting Dizzie to Sweden?”
“Sure, that’s part of it. But getting Mrs. Solveig to believe anything other than the pretty picture she’s painted in her head.” She paused, her forehead creasing in concentration. “Would she try to force Dizzie to go?”
Dammit. This was exactly what he’d been trying to avoid. Apparently, he’d been too busy mooning over Portia and hadn’t focused enough of his attention on keeping control of the conversation.
If she’d already figured it out, he wasn’t obligated to keep it from her, right? Balancing his loyalty to his employer and his infatuation with Portia was harder than he’d expected. “Do I believe that the Solveigs will try to force your sister to go to Sweden?” He sighed. “I wouldn’t put it past them.”
The smile completely disappeared from Portia’s face. “Will you be the one to do it?” Her tone was dead serious.
Would he? He thought of the many distasteful things the Solveigs had required of him over the years. Yet, whenever it was a truly dirty job—murder or kidnapping or torture—they had called in those they deemed more trustworthy than him. “No, I don’t believe that’s something they would trust me with.”
“I’m both glad that it won’t be your job—not that I’d let it get that far—and angry on your behalf.” Her expression was a mix of horror and curiosity and something that he really hoped wasn’t pity. “Why wouldn’t they trust you to kidnap my sister?”
Chapter20
This wasn’tthe strangest conversation he’d ever had, but it was close. That didn’t negate the little rush of pleasure that came from her indignation on his behalf. No one ever stood up for him. His appreciation of her deepened.
“They think I’m defective.” Now it was his turn to look away from a difficult conversation. He didn’t want to watch her indignation turn to pity. “I joined the Solveig Consortium’s security services right after graduation. During my training, they offered a super soldier program and I signed up.”
“Super soldier? Like faster and stronger?” She squeezed his hand, drawing his attention back to her. Her grip was warm, compared to the cool air around them and the even colder memories.
He nodded. “They implanted chips in our brains that were supposed to create new connections, ones that would give us faster reflexes, that kind of thing.” Aleks swallowed hard and ignored his racing pulse. He hated talking about this. “My chip failed.”
“They can’t possibly blame you for that!” Her voice rose.
Aleks surveyed the street around them, thankful it was still deserted and that they hadn’t drawn any attention.
He continued walking. “They didn’t blame me for the chip failure,” he said. “The chip rewired my brain, all right, just not in the way that they expected. Because I didn’t get the super-soldier attributes they wanted, it’s considered a failure.”
Portia gasped. “That’s not fair!”
A bitter laugh escaped him. “You of all people should know thatfairdoesn’t exist in the corporate world. There are the people who call the shots and there are the people like me who take their orders.” It was the way of their world.
She opened her mouth to speak, but he continued because he really wanted this conversation over with. “Whatever the new wiring did, my brain isn’t the same. It’s like my brain can’t stop gathering information and when it overloads, I make bad decisions or I get terrible headaches.
“The security team still gave me a chance after the tests showed I didn’t get the physical improvements. They thought that maybe I could harness the rewiring to make on-the-spot mission decisions.” That had been a debacle. “Not long after the surgery, I fucked up a simple test mission, because my brain basically short-circuited. It’s broken. I’m broken.” Except he didn’t feel that way, not when he was with her.
“They’re wrong,” Portia said. “That wasn’t a fair test.”
He pulled his hand away and started walking. There was more. So much more that she wouldn’t want to hear.
Portia kept pace with him, her presence both soothing and abrasive. His brain poked at the dichotomy, intrigued with her many facets.
Aleks slowed his pace and studied the unfamiliar architecture around them. Maybe it would distract his brain from its current dangerous path.
The buildings they passed were a mix of tall brick structures and mammoth towers of glass and steel. The tallest ones disappeared into the fog that hung over the city. Aleks preferred the smaller, older brick buildings tucked here and there amongst the skyscrapers. They reminded him of home.
“What happened after the test mission?” Portia asked.
He sighed. She wasn’t going to let this go. “They booted me from the security program. I should’ve ended up at one of the company’s factories, but the Solveigs found my new skills useful enough to keep me around.”
He’d been given a second chance that day, but sometimes he wondered whether it had been worth the constant insults and indignities.
