"Yeah, in the cabinet," Sin said. "What do you mean,personal?"
"It's fine," Rissa said.
"She's gonna put her mental hands all over my brain," Zan told him, tapping the port at the back of his head. Then he grabbed the cables and returned his attention to the machine. Once everything was plugged in, Zan lifted his head and met Sin's eyes. "The storage is bio-linked, so she has to connectthroughme—and the connection goes both ways."
"Do we have another option?" he asked the kid.
Zan just ignored him. "Ok, Rissa. This won't be bad." He pointed at the bed where Sin was still sitting. "Lie down. We're gonna take this nice and slow, and you're in charge. We stop when you want, ok?"
She timidly made her way across the room, tugging at the edge of her sleeves. Sin grabbed her hand and eased her down beside him, helping her get comfortable.
"You don't have to do this," he told her. "You can just delete the file."
"No," she said softly. "This won't stop until you can see it."
"Ok, lie back," Zan told her. "Trust me. Just say stop or no, and we stop."
"I'm ok," she insisted.
"I dunno about this," Sin said, all too aware this woman was so vulnerable lying across his bed. "You aren't making me think this is a good idea, Zan."
The kid shrugged. "It's not that big of a deal for most of us, but it's her first time. She's nervous, and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm also willing to bet no one's ever taken it easy with her mind."
"She said it's in her frontal cortex," Trent said.
Zan held up the cable. "I swear I'm not gonna look, ok? You'll know if I do. I'm JXTA bio-linked with that box, so it's not a true peer-to-peer, just a simple network." She nodded and he smiled. "And you know Sin would kill me if I did anything bad to you."
"Are you a priest too?" she asked.
"Nah." Zan chuckled. "I want to be, but these jerks think I should get my degree first, and I'm almost there. I also live next door, and Sin helped me out a while back, so now I kinda handle all of his tech stuff."
"Oh."
"But he's a good guy," Sin assured her. "I trust him, Riss."
She nodded, and looked at the cable. "What now?"
"Plug that in," Zan said. "When you're ready, I'll connect you to the box, since you don't have wireless or..." He paused and looked at Sin. "Can you imagine what she could do with wireless?"
"Right now, we're just worried about that one file," Sin reminded him. "Focus, Zan."
Chapter Twenty-Two
Rissa lay back, resting her head on Sin's pillows. When Zan passed her the cable, she carefully inserted it into a port beneath her hood. Sitting beside her, Sin watched. It looked like it was near her left ear. With a twist, she locked it into place.
"Ok," she said.
Zan leaned over and took the other end, glanced at the box once, then he slid the plug into place at the back of his head, pushing the second prong into the case. Nothing happened for a moment, then his eyes went wide.
"Holy fuck," he breathed.
"You ok?" Sin asked, the question for her, not him.
"Yes," she said, sounding surprised. Then she smiled at Zan. "Your storage setup isn't efficient, and that's a lot of pornography."
Zan just laughed. "Isn't against the sixth precept. Delete it if you need space."
The priests all chuckled, understanding completely. "Just tell me it's good stuff," Rob joked.
