Coincidence
Adam
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Thank you everybody for reading! Special thanks for the reviews and P for the betaing!
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chapter 16: Adam
“Dress yourself! Ryo has set out the clothing I specially picked out for you.”
Moments later, Raven presented himself in the thin garment to the Blondie.
“You honestly have to revise your dressing style for me.”
Raoul looked the boy over. The blue turtle necked bodysuit revealed the muscles of Raven's belly and back.
Pliable silver rings connected the upper with the lower part of the garment.
“Delightful.”
He fastened a silver collar without further prelude around Raven's neck.
The boy's expressions betrayed exactly his feelings about it. Raoul gently stroked his cheek,
“a pet-ring is required by law to be worn in public. It means too that I want you. Come on now, it's getting late. “
Raven stumbled behind the Blondie.
How can he say such a thing and get back to business as usual?
~
Raoul looked more tensed than ever. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Raven casually brushed his hand to get his attention and smiled at him.
Raoul traced the line of his lips with a thumb, surprising him further and he didn't reprimanded him to be on his best behaviour.
“I'll be…e...”
The opening door interrupted Raven. A Blondie with an exceptional dressing style cut him short:
“No need to, little black.”
Little black?!
The Blondie chuckled: “Raven than?” He walked to Raoul and pulled him into a warm embrace, “Welcome.”
“Good evening, Adam.”
Raven's mouth nearly fell open - the Blondie kissed Raoul on the forehead, hooked him under and ushered him in.
He followed in silent wonderment. Adam looked stunning. He wore his hair short asymmetrical and dyed it in different colours –
Raven even spotted black strands.
Rebellious.
The Blondie chuckled again. He fell into a casual tone with Raoul, “you neglected me, Raoul.”
“I apologize.”
“While I enjoy your company, I don't believe you only stopped by to say hello.”
They got to a laboratory with lots of computers. Old-fashioned paper-records buried several desks and some of them were buried under coffee-mugs in between all sorts of electrical appliances.
Cool.
“I like it that way.”
Raven's gaze fell on a short laboratory-coat. He had liked to dress himself a little more decently.
The coat would be welcome. Adam took it and handed it over,
“I rather like your outfit.”
“Thank you.” Raven didn't look all too happy. He asked with a suspicious expression, “Are you...?”
“Telepathic.”
“How...”
“I devote myself to solitude.”
Raoul took seat and pulled Raven gently into his lap. Adam's interruptions caused the boy disturbance.
When he was about to cut him short again, Raven begged,
“please, let me end my sentences.”
“I'm sorry, little black. That would mean hearing everything twice. I can't shield against you.”
“Oh.” Raven's mouth fell shut, 'I will try not to talk.'
“Thank you Raven, that's much, appreciated.”
Adam turned to Raoul, popping a cocktail of a tranquilizers, painkillers and liquor. The cheap one. The original toxic stout.
“I heard that, Raven. ... Would you mind taking a walk?”
He pointed to an elevator in the back of the room and handed Raven a portable com-unit, “I have a feeling Raoul has plans for you.”
A feeling? Don't you know?
“Please, go. “
Adam heaved a sigh and downed another pill-cocktail.
“You will overdose yourself once.”
“Not today ... you brought him here for a purpose?” He relaxed and closed his eyes, “What do you want to know, Raoul?”
“How is he?”
“Delightful.” Adam chuckled, "Let's try. I got mixed signals ... oh ... What a beautiful mind. If he had the training...”
Adam's eyes darkened. He inhaled a few times. An enormous bulge formed in his trousers and he licked his lips seductively,
“Oh Raoul that's a memory to behold, although ... strong feelings...”
The Blondie played with his nipples and chuckled again, “He can be so tempered.”
His style went to using key points, “Confused, mortified, many secrets...”
His fingers clenched and he gasped, “What a cruel thing to do.”
Raoul knelt down in front of him and positioned his hands over Adam's,
“Patch him up but don't break him. I want him the way he is.”
Adam nodded and inhaled deeply, “The crack is deep. I can patch him but you have to convince him.”
Seconds later he retracted from his mind-walk and looked up into Raoul's anxious eyes. He was exhausted.
“He wants to desire you. He wants you to want him but he hasn't made up his mind. If you want him the way he is, let him go.
He is at the point of breaking and you already left a crack in his shell.”
Raoul dropped his gaze to the ground, “I can't.”
Adam patted Raoul's hair, “pets are supposed to be forgettable. Don't get too attached to him. It will tear your heart open, my Raoul.
They die soon. Your little exotic is no exception to the law of nature.”
He smiled at the younger Blondie,
“I recognize your handiwork when I see it. No one, except you, creates such a blue. I would like to hear the story behind his origins, but I suppose we have matters to attend to.
What's so important that Lambda decided to tug me out of my cave?”
“I'm sorry, Adam.”
Adam caressed Raoul's face, “It gives me peace to know that you are the one to temper with my mind but don't leave me alone in the dark for forty years again.”
“I apologize.”
Raoul pulled a pill-cocktail of his own out of his pocket.
Such an insignificant look and such powers.
He swallowed, propping crossed arms against Adam’s lap to cushion his head.
“I apologize, my Raoul. I wronged you.”
~
An impulse to back away, sprouting from the depths of his heart, took possession of Raven. He shivered.
It was not the creatures behind the glass chambers that frightened him; it was the sterile dead clinical silence.
“Adam's creations. “
Raoul rested his hands on Raven's shoulders. The warmth was comforting.
“Why are their eyes open?”
“The colouring is Adam's specialty. They look as if they were alive, incredible.”
“They aren't?”
“No. They are only shapes. Adam wasn't able to bear their presence if they had consciousness, even when they are deep frozen like this.”
“I feel sympathy for him.”
Raoul pulled him back to his chest, “you truly are special. Usually Adam draws nothing but terror.”
“Don't get me wrong. I am but I wouldn't want to be in his place.”
He was about to continue but Raoul looked really exhausted. He reached up and touched the Blondie's cheek, “are you alright?”
“Yes, I have a task for you.”
He walked them back to the laboratory, “I want you to transfer Adam's files to a remote-system in Eos.”
He walked Raven to a workstation, “Adam is asleep but your presence is still disturbing for him. Try to only concentrate on your task.”
“Yes, Master.” Raven sat down and eyed the screen, “I'd be a whole lot faster with a VR, you know.”
Raoul pulled a unit out of a drawer. Raven fastened it to his neck and connected the unit via cable to the workstation,
“you don't need to watch over me. It's an easy going.”
He closed his eyes and counted backwards. A pleasant tingling crept down his spine and his breathing evened out. He started his ride into the stream.
~
Three ... two ... one
Raven came back to his senses with a satisfied smile on his lips. Adam sat next to him.
“Done.”
The Blondie pointed to his lips.
Sorry. I forgot about it.
Adam pulled the unit from Raven's neck, “it's a shame you haven't been trained.”
Not bad for a mongrel, hm?
“Your style is unique. To herd encrypted data through the streams is risky. I had never allowed it. I have no backup-files.”
THAT is risky.
“Please get your master and leave? I'm tired.”
Of course.
Raven spotted Raoul sleeping on a bench. Apparently the transfer took long.
That was one of the perils of the stream. You loose all sense of time.
He gently woke the Blondie. Raoul didn't look good, in fact he looked horrible. Raven helped him up, seriously worried.
The Blondie faked a smile and braced himself on the boy's shoulders.
“Promise me to take care of my Raoul.”
I will.
~~
“Are you better?”
“Yes” Raoul rose into an upright position. Raven served him a cup of tea.
“Thank you.”
“What did Adam mean with 'my Raoul'?”
“I wondered when you were going to ask.” The events of the day pierced into Raoul's very marrow.
He felt open and exhausted. He pulled Raven into an embrace and played with his hair,
“when Jupiter created me, Adam changed my genetic structure.”
“Why?”
“You saw him. His skills are unattainable, but he is highly unstable. To prevent me from his destiny,
he risked Jupiter's wrath and doomed himself to that fate.”
A heavy lump formed in Raven's throat, “what is Adam?”
“He is Jupiter's great-inquisitor.”
“I thought you...”
It was common knowledge that Raoul Am operated as Jupiter's number one cleanser and usually he was regarded to be its judge.
His abilities were highly-feared and he was notorious for his intransigence. Next to Adam, he looked like a saint.
“Jupiter created me to replace Adam. I serve this purpose as far as possible.
Due to Adam's modifications my mental abilities are inverted. Adam uses drugs to keep them in,
I get them out but it leaves me drained and I'm limited. I can't go behind a certain level.”
“Is Adam unable to read your mind?”
Raoul nodded, “he wanted someone to keep him company but it didn't work out.”
“I can't imagine what Jupiter leads to sent out the great-inquisitor, but I'm damn sure it must be bad. Are you in danger?”
Raoul sighed heavy, “To be honest, I don't know.”
“What happened?”
The Blondie forced Raven to look him directly in the eyes, “you must never talk about this. Understood?”
“Yes, Master.”
“The genetic samples from Jupiter's sanctuary were stolen.”
On first account it sounded not so big a deal, “that means...?”
“Maybe sample is the wrong term. They are anvils out of which every combination of abilities and physical appearance can be created.
They are multi-potent.”
“That's playing god.”
“I can't imagine what will happen when whatever is grown from the samples is unleashed.
Without proper balancing the progeny will become unstable.
Highly intelligent, dazzling beautiful, strong and aggressive but uncontrollable. Psychopathic.”
“Is there any chance they still become normal?”
“No, it's a side-effect of the genetic manipulation. I can fix minor problems,
but only Jupiter is able to adjust a complex personality situated on an intelligence-level so high above.”
Raven clenched his fingers around Raoul's. The explanation gave him a chill, “that scares the shit out of me.”
“Language!”
“Sorry ... how much time do you have to find them?”
“It takes twelve months to copy a sample, twenty to grow the brood to sucklings.
After this time period everything depends on the accelerator. We are running out of time.
If Adam and I don't come up with results soon...” He fell silent.
Raven looked up at him with such worry in his eyes that the Blondie melted away, “Don't worry about me. I will be fine.”
“Can Adam stand it?”
“I will take care of him.”
“So I feared.” Raven draped himself over Raoul's chest, “Promise me!”
“I do.”
Suddenly all weariness abated from Raoul. Maybe it was the physical closeness. He wanted and probed his luck,
“you promised Adam to take care of me. Will you ... now?”
Raven mused about his voracious appetite for sex. He turned his head, “I will,” and kissed the Blondie.
The tenderness in Raoul's eyes carried him away. Just because of it, he was able to give.
The Blondie did him deliberately slow, caressing, kissing him all in the process.
Raven felt cherished, felt loved. He rocked his hips against the Blondie.
A boiling heat licked all over his skin, numbing his mind to a pleasurable fog.
He held his breath but Raoul insisted,
“Don't hold in! I want to hear your voice.”
The little bit of sense that the boy still clung to, fought with the intense wish to surrender to Raoul;
to cry out his pleasure and moan openly.
The muscles in his belly contracted painfully before he let go of that little bit of control.
A decisively erotic and masculine moan wriggled free from the depth of his throat that sent Raoul into his final ascent.
Their cries mingled filling the room with an oddly pleasant melody of sexual desire.
Both of both of them sank down into the bed, exhausted to the point where neither of them cared for a shower anymore.
The last thing, Raven remembered was Raoul's question, “was it good for you?”
~
The world intruded around three o'clock in the form of Katze. Raoul picked up the call.
“The space-port closed for traffic”
It begun.
“and the highways are under police-control. Everywhere is chaos.”
Raoul placed Katze on hold to check his electronic mailbox. The syndicate received countless requests.
The mailbox contained also Raoul's formal exemption from his duties per Jupiter's direct order
and the summons to its chamber immediately after sunrise.
Raoul looked at Raven. The boy was fest asleep.
“What am I going to do with you?”
He transferred a file to Katze and picked him up again.
“Read this! It’s the back door I offer.”
The dealer’s self-control was remarkable. Except of a slight clenching of muscles in his jaw nothing betrayed his emotion.
'Uncontrollable changes in behaviour, overleaping to surrounding subjects … three cases of death … chemical unbalanced …
to be seen as ‘failed’. We strongly recommend the immediate cessation to prevent further damage to the customer.
The subjects are to be taken to death….’
Raoul interrupted, “You agree that lately none of us has been his usual self?”
Katze swallowed hard and nodded.
“Very well, I have been lenient to that point. I consider you a … friend. Don’t probe me, Katze! I don’t know myself what I’m able to.
Back down!”
Friendship with a Blondie? Such things never existed.
“You would do that to Raven?”
“Yes and he would never know.”
No hesitation, no doubts and icier than Iason ever. Katze squirmed under the intense gaze,
realizing the extent of his foolishly being in denial. Raoul truly put him in his place.
He moved his palm over the scar on his cheek.
He would never forget again. What have I been thinking?
“We have an understanding?”
“Yes, Master.”
“You have had your chance, Katze. I leave you the memories. That has to be enough.”
He woke Raven, “Come here!”
One of the things, the boy disliked about the Blondie was his unpredicted switching into Master-mode.
Raoul positioned him on his leg,
“You are allowed to return to the market. You will spend the nights in Apathia. I expect you to be back at 10 p. m. every evening -
no exemptions unless you got my personal permission.”
Raoul took hold of his chin. A hint of the tone, he threatened Katze with still clung to his voice, “No intercourse.”
Both mongrels flinched. Katze dropped his gaze to the ground and Raven would have done the same.
His cheeks reddened and his voice was nearly inaudible,"Yes, Master."
“This is a temporary arrangement.”
“Yes, Master.”
That’s the end of it? Something cracked again. Becoming like Katze – maybe that’s the way out.