Chapter 23 Rut

Chapter 23 Rut
Andrea sat across from Gabriel in the sedan as it drove through the busy Arclight streets, her gaze fixed on him with a teasing smile on her lips.

Since that day when he experienced a glitch, she had noticed one change about Gabriel that she could not stop herself from exploiting. He just would not tell her what happened or anything about the woman who was all over him, and for some reason, he seemed guilty whenever she mentioned it and this inexplicably pleased her.

"If you meet her again, remember to use protection," she said. Gabriel impassively glanced at her then turned to the window as if he hadn't heard anything.

His mind drifted to Cici, and he felt a mix of anticipation, confusion, and fear. They had gone through his codes but for some reason, they were no longer traceable even with Andrea's skill. There was no way to predict which way he would evolve or tell how much he had already changed. Somehow, Cici was the only clue they had. Why she had such an effect on him was unknown, but she did.

"Did you resolve the issue with the ORC?" Gabriel asked.

Letting out a small scoff as she recalled the trouble they had given her for leaving that day, Andrea felt a headache coming on.

"Apparently, they have come into some new evidence that Adam's accident was a murder and need me to confess," she replied.

"What?!" Gabriel growled, his features hardening and his eyes frosty.

Andrea was his inverse scale and someone was pocking around right there.

"It's okay," Andrea said, her expression still unbothered.

"It's not" Gabriel replied immediately.
"We need to shut this down right now before it goes any further"

"No" Andrea shook her head.
"Let your enemies fight and battle where your wall is tall and strong lest they move and accidentally find the weakness you do not know of" she replied.

"Is that a book?" Gabriel frowned.

"Nope, made it up" Andrea shrugged back.

Gabriel stared at her for a while but did not say anything more.
The car pulled to a stop at a stretch of empty land in the countryside, and the door was opened from the outside.

"If things get out of hand, you let me know," Gabriel said, and Andrea nodded in affirmation. She watched him head off towards the center of the field where a few figures stood.

Lucia jumped into the car, shut the door, and the engine started again.

"Tony did a great job acquiring this land" Lucia commented as she looked out the window at the receding scenery.

"He did" Andrea nodded.

"So we have a problem," Lucia started, and Andrea looked up from her tablet.

"Another one?" she asked.

Lucia simply shrugged and continued.
"Someone is trying to find you. They are targeting every Orphanage Home in Arclight, proposing to destroy them and reconstruct. They are also requesting records for the last thirty years"

"So they don't actually know much about me," Andrea commented and returned her attention to her tablet, seemingly disinterested.

"We'll counter, when Tony gets back, put him on it. Better to have them wondering than help them eliminate locations" she ordered.

Lucia nodded and they continued the car ride in silence.

The car eventually pulled up to a small country home in a quiet urban environment and Andrea got out with two small packages in both hands. She marched to the front door and pressed on the bell.

After nearly a minute of waiting, the door was opened from the inside and an old, grey-haired man stepped out wearing a t-shirt and brown trousers.

"Andrea" he smiled excitedly, his exposed teeth revealing two gaps in the front.

A moment later, an elderly woman stepped out as well and smiled warmly at the sight of Andrea.

"Good morning, Mama," Andrea greeted with a small, polite bow.

"Oh, stop it, come, come. Ann made your favorite cookies" the older man waved at her and led her towards the dining room.

On the table was a large tray holding a few cookies. Andrea's smile brightened at the sight of them.

"I came just in time" she grinned and made herself comfortable at the table.

"Indeed, I was going to call you too," The old man said and joined her at the table as the woman Ann brought over a gallon of milk and two cups.

"Someone came over the other day, a day or two ago, and was asking so many questions about Adam's childhood. They said you were his childhood friend and were trying to trace your genealogy. We knew instantly it was bad people, and I wanted to call to warn you, but Ann said no, they could be on the phone."

Listening to the old man talk, Andrea's expression flashed with solemness but she smiled again.

"Thank you for keeping me safe, Rich," she smiled at the man who simply nodded enthusiastically.

"Of course! The things you did for our boy, turning that piece of shit into a human, cannot be repaid. We're not ungrateful people" Ann joined them at the table.

"Did you try the cookies yet? Gabriel would love them. Shame he won't come back" she asked.

"I'm sorry, Rich, Ma. He misses you both for sure" Andrea replied apologetically.

"Well, we understand, given the circumstances, nothing he can really do, and it's good," the older man nodded.

As Andrea conversed with the old couple, within the headquarters of Extra Technologies, in a small lab sat two men.

One blonde-haired man and an older man who had a cigarette in his hand as he smoked.

"I really do not appreciate that thing in here, it disturbs my focus," The blonde-haired man, Adam, said.

"Oh, relax and do your work," the older man scoffed.

The corner of Adam's lips twitched as he frowned. But he seemed to observe something in the monitor in front of him and he stopped talking.

"These codes. . . "he muttered in clear astonishment.

"I have never seen anything like this, these are just too ...perfect" he exclaimed.

The smocking man threw off his cigarettes and lowered himself to check out what Adam was seeing.

"This is insane, what language is this? How can a person actually work with this?" he commented.

"There are billions and billions of lines inside each stroke," Adam explained.

"He's evolving very fast" he muttered to himself as he stared at the work before him.

Meanwhile, on Gabriel's front, he and Zina stood in the middle of the empty field watching as the engineers began to break ground on it.

"Is the underground area necessary?" Zina asked looking at Gabriel.

"Absolutely, it's a contingency" Gabriel replied.

"Let's sit somewhere, unless you know how to do this too?" Zina proposed.

They walked together towards an open tent set up by the corner of the site from where they could watch the workers work.

"So we never found out what happened there, our systems were doing fine, the breach was sudden, and all it left were those odd-looking codes." Zina started to talk about the glitch at her office during Gabriel's evolution.

The news carried it, and along with all that coverage came a lot of conspiracy theories that could make one chuckle.

"Tell me about you and Miles Oswald," Gabriel suddenly asked, turning to Zina.

Zina looked back at him, hesitating for a moment.
"Well, we grew up together," she started.

"We were actually going to end up together, but I have an obligation and a responsibility to the Lynch Family, so when Adam came around, I knew what I had to do. Unfortunately, it meant he would get hurt. Perhaps revenge fuels all of his actions" Zina explained.

Gabriel simply nodded in response; he already knew all of this, but wanted to see how Zina would explain it.

"You still haven't said much about how you know Adam and Andrea," Zina countered, seizing this rare opportunity that had popped up before her.

"I can only tell you about one" Gabriel offered.

"Andrea" Zina replied without missing a beat. Adam was gone for long enough now, but Andrea was still here, and there were many questions about her she wanted answers to.

"I can't tell you much, Andrea is a secretive person." Gabriel shrugged.

Just then, Zina noticed a bug on Gabriel's neck and reflexively reached out to pick it.
Before her hand could pick it though, it flew away and she was left pinching on Gabriel's neck.

Gabriel stared down at her in surprise, and Zina, for the first time, kept his gaze.

As he looked down at her, memories suddenly overwhelmed him, and with them a host of emotions, of which the foremost was desire. It was a dark desire for conquest and Zina was the target.

Hessitating slightly, he reached up and gently touched the back of her hand, slowly picking it from his neck. He lowered her hand again and looked into her eyes.

"What's stopping you?" Zina asked, her gaze fixed on his lips and her tone gentle and sultry.

"It wouldn't be appropriate," Gabriel replied, still baffled at the contrast. How did they skip from a conversation to this without even the slightest undertone?

He felt within him a very cold but ambitious desire; it was not fondness, and Zina was not a person. Just prey. This cold, unfeeling feeling felt like a horrifying dream trying to sneak into reality, and for a moment, his mind seemed to glitch.

Zina, on the other hand, found herself spellbound the moment she looked into his eyes and touched him. That familiarity, that trust, that fluffy feeling in her heart that danced to being desired, it tickled her very much and now she wanted this moment to be real.

An impulsive thought came over her, and she rose to her tiptoe and planted a soft French kiss on Gabriel's lips, then turned away like a shy teenage girl.