A Break in the Sunlight

33. Zero Stream

--Hold still! 

--If we hold still, we're gonna get iced, Jaren sent back hotly, there's a zerostream headed our way, and it looks pissed.

--All right fine, Jeremy replied, and tossed a decoy in the path of the sweeper, this way, then.

The sweeper passed on, spiraling around them and following the other program away. And Jeremy led them deeper into the static layer.

In Jeremy's room, lying on the bed beside him, Jaren sucked at her cheek. That was close. And it wasn't the first time. Couldn't Jeremy see the security progs pooling up around them, before they surfaced? She'd never been this close to the static before, and they'd already had two close calls.

She'd told him about Gennwrugh a few hours ago, as they lay together on the bed after sex. He was curled up behind her, and it was becoming hot and uncomfortable where their bodies touched.

Jeremy was aloof about a lot of things, Jaren had found. He was pretty much always ready to go, but usually he waited for her to make a move. He'd lightly touch her breast, or her ass, but then wait for her to shove her tongue down his throat before he went any further. Once she did, though, he'd have her clothes off and be pushing her back in an instant. It had taken her some time to show him the benefits of slowing down—a dynamic she still found a little ironic.

Once they finished, she'd expected he'd be the type to pull his clothes back on and move on, but he was a surprise there, too. He liked to talk. Today, it had been about his time on Arden--how crazy he'd been to get away, how much he'd hated it.

"Not you, though," he amended quickly, his arm draped over her, fingers plucking at her nipple. "I always liked you."

"Really?" she'd smiled back, twisting to look at him, "I couldn't tell... I thought you just considered me an annoying little sister."

"Well," he grinned, "I guess there was that... But I don't think that, *now*!" He kissed her ear, pulling her back against him in something like a hug.

She laughed a little, and dropped her hand to give him a pornographic squeeze. When he yelped, she said, tartly, "I should hope not."

She felt him smile, close to her ear.

"You're something special, Jaren," he said, "I wish I'd--"

"Maggie," she interrupted, correcting him. Why couldn't he seem to remember that? She peeled herself off of him, her skin pulling unpleasantly where his moisture had gripped her, and slid closer to the wall.

"Sorry," he answered clumsily as Jaren pulled the blanket from under him. "I was only going to say, I...." he trailed off.

"It's not that hard to remember," she murmured crossly, folding the coverlet over her.

"Right," he sounded distant. "Sorry."

The moment turned awkward. So, as much to fill in the silence as anything else, she'd told him about Gennwrugh.

So here they were, two hours later, with Jeremy's deck jacked into her bioware, his avatar visible ahead of her, and Jaren digging her own fingernails into the palms of her hands as he led her deeper into the static than she had ever gone.

--Be careful, Jem.

--I'm being careful, he sent back, shit Ja--Maggie, this is necrotic!

--It's serious, Jem. They didn't fuck around when they rigged it.

--Come on. This way.

His avatar, a black spider, moved laterally into a layer of blue static, weaving among the columns of code, and she had no choice but to reluctantly follow.

--Do you see this code, Jaren? A-friggin-mazing.

--I think we should back out, she sent. Something's onto us.

--We're fine.

--No Jem. Now.

--Wait. I'm not finished.

--NOW!

It hit them, then. She'd seen it on approach, but hadn't been able to send, fast enough. It knocked into her, exploding in a lightning storm of black and red.

Somewhere, far away, she felt Jeremy pull out of her. She heard his voice in another dimension, calling her name. She felt his hands on her shoulders. But all she lived, for those moments, and well beyond that, was the feeling that her brain had been flash-seared and squeezed through a sieve. An ultra-fine sieve.

The dark explosion subsided, eventually. The throbbing heat sometime after that.

And a few hours later, as she laid wake in the darkness, she was left only with a dull aching pain.

Pain, and a nagging sense of disappointment.

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