Absolute (Discipline Book 1) Read online

  Everyone looked at that, and the woman seemed embarrassed by it.

  "Sorry." She didn't explain why it had happened, or even think about it, just righting the chair and moving off at better than average speed, leaving her plate on the table half eaten. It wasn't a restroom emergency either. Ben would have gotten that. So something different was going on with her than he could understand. That probably meant it was a woman thing, since he'd probably get the idea, otherwise.

  Since he was trying to avoid Kent the spy, the man naturally moved over and sat right across from him. That made sense, given how the man had a time schedule for his planned framing of people there. He had mere weeks to either find something real, or to set a person up for a crime.

  That would be for terrorism, of course. In fact, the man had a plan for it, that would probably work pretty well. He was going to get Ben to either make a bomb himself, or do it for him, then have him detonate it at a federal building. Some people might die, but if the stupid kid could be gotten to do it, then the rest of the place could be shut down and everyone there indicted for it.

  Interestingly, the man didn't seem to know that anyone else there was a government agent. As far as he was concerned, the entire fiasco was all his and there would be no one around to nay say his bit of creative crime fighting. All he had to do was seduce the ugly guy into thinking he was in love and use that to get the job done. If they were lucky a few dozen people would be killed, making the whole thing big enough for Richard to make the rest of his career off of.

  As a plan it had so many holes in it that it was hard not to call the fellow on it as he sat there, smiling at Ben. His look was supposed to be charming, and showing attentiveness, which would melt the heart of the no doubt lonely young man sitting across from him. After all, society alienated young men so often that it made them malleable that way. If they weren't great looking, almost no one had time for them outside of what they could do, work wise.

  In this case, that would be taking a bomb in and setting it off. Probably not dying when he did it, since the Cymeds didn't really accept morons.

  Ben sat there, trying to eat a pear in peace, as Kent nibbled some homemade bread. It looked good, but he didn't stare at it, even if it had a buttery spread on top that smelled a bit like garlic. The worst part of the whole thing was that he could literally taste it, picking that up from the man across from him. The texture of it was incredible too, though Kent didn't understand that, just eating normally.

  Then he hadn't been fasting and eating fruit and nothing else for nearly two months.

  "What are you doing after this?" The words weren't sexy, thank god, since that would have truly gotten a laugh in response.

  "Meeting up with Micha. Hanging out for a bit, then maybe going and seeing about a third set of muscle contraction exercises with the machine for today." It sounded real enough to him.

  The man across from Ben snorted.

  "The little psychic girl? She's cute enough. Think she'll put out?" It was blunt, and a little mean, but the man had been counting on him being alone, and feeling homesick. If he was making friends, even ones that weren't going to have sex with him, that would make it harder.

  Ben shrugged. She would, he knew. If he demanded demeaning things of her, she'd do it just to hold his hand after. It was kind of creepy, now that he thought about it, but he didn't tell the man across from him about it all.

  "Probably not. I mean, look at me, right? She's been nice though. That probably means she wants something from me. I can't imagine what. Maybe just a pal to go climbing with?" That... Actually sounded nearly reasonable to him.

  Even Kent smiled at it, feeling like his plan might be back on track.

  "You like guys though, right?"

  That was moving too fast, but again, the man really did feel pressured. If he wasn't there to hang them all out to dry, Ben would have felt sorry for him.

  "For sex? Not really. I'm a bit backward that way. Not that I'm probably getting anything from anyone for a while. Well, that wasn't what I signed on for, you know?"

  The thing there was that the man didn't know. Not really. His experience of the place had been very different than Ben's. All about the meditation and exercises, which they'd really taught him, and the genetic improvements and drugs. All of which they'd delivered on.

  They'd even given him a modified version of the combat training program, which while not perfect, was better than what the government had for their own people.

  Looking up he noticed that Carlos was staring off to the side, listening to them from across the room. Ali was next to him, but she was just eating, and fuming a bit internally about Ben, which he caught a bit of. Glancing up at him she gave him a tight smile however, and that became a bit more real when Carlos mentioned that Ben had plans to get more practice that night.

  Suddenly it was all too much, so he tried to focus on his food, needed to eat and not wanting to run from the room, feeling overwhelmed.

  Kent reset, internally, deciding that being the boy's friend could work too. Sex was faster, but no one there would be more open to doing violence than Ben was.

  "What did you sign on for?" He managed to sound interested in the response and actually was, since it would tell him a lot about the place.

  Ben blinked, and then nodded.

  "The meditation. My dad... He died in jail. The charges were dropped, since they weren't real, but he was beaten to death. The other inmates... They thought he was a child trafficker, you know? He wasn't, and was about to be let out when they got him. It was horrible. I... you know; I haven't been right since then. Angry about it? So I came here to learn to calm my mind. To find real peace."

  His goal was to drive the man away, since that was the plan. Being peaceful and soft like that would be enough to get that done, he figured. Instead the man smiled and nodded, actually feeling happy about the whole set up.

  "Peace is good. I mean, if you can't punish the people that did that to your old man. Were you close? Most people are closer to their mothers, right?"

  Ben shrugged and ate for a bit. When his mouth was empty he just told the truth, not being a very good liar.

  "I wouldn't know. I'm a clone. My dad, David, he didn't really go in for the whole relationship kind of thing. I used to wonder what it would be like having two parents, but most people don't, so it isn't that strange, right?"

  Even in school it hadn't been. Most of the kids weren't like he was, but there had always been at least a few in each class. Clones made up about twenty percent of the population after all.

  Kent nodded and did some eating of his own then.

  "I hear that. I was raised by my mother. Regular birth, but my dad, whoever he was, managed to get away without having to be part of my life. I always wondered who he was. I guess, in a way, you had that, didn't you? You knew the score from the start. That's not so bad." There was a bite of crusty bread, as if to accentuate what he was saying and silence for a while as he chewed, working out the best approach.

  "Still. I bet you'd like to send a message to the government, for killing him. I mean, those charges were false you said? Who else could have set that up?"

  Carlos stiffened in the background, and so did several other people. Not because they disagreed with the statement either. They basically did, but also knew the whole thing about Richard. Not Kent, they knew it all, and were trying to keep tabs on the man, even as he attempted to get the new kid to mess up and do the wrong thing. They just didn't have any way of letting Ben know about it, at the moment, that wouldn't be a dead giveaway. Carlos was about to come over and interrupt them, but had to think of a reason for it. He was about to move when Ben shook his head, slowly.

  "No. Look, of course the feds locked him up. Yes, the charges weren't real. My dad... He was kind of a loud mouth about some things. Freedom of speech and rights to privacy. All that stuff. Harmless, but people were starting to listen to him. So someone along the chain of things did the wrong thing and set him up. Ev
eryone else realized it though and were getting him out almost immediately when a few bad people decided to take things into their own hands, not knowing what the truth was. Yeah, it pisses me off, but I can't blame the government as a whole for it. They didn't force those men to do what they did. They probably couldn't have. Those men... They're paying for what they did now. I just have to... Let it go and move on. You know?"

  The words got a mixed reaction from the room. Kent was disappointed, but more or less agreed with his take on things. It probably really had been as Ben had said, and while that didn't lead to bombings, it was nice to hear that he was that sensible. Carlos was pleased with the response, but worried that Ben might be more pro-government than he'd thought.

  Ali was just sad that his father had died like that. It was a simple thing for her, and not tied to anything else. Then it was clear she wasn't in the loop as far as who Kent really was. To her it was just one of the familiar faces having a meal with the new one.

  Kent nodded then and ate for a while.

  "Sensible. So you came here for the discipline? That... Well, it's what people here are good at. If you work at it hard enough, they'll help you get there." He glanced at Ben's plate, which had the remains of four pears sitting there. It was kind of clear that the meal was done, and while they could sit and talk, asking a young man to not go and see if the attractive woman was interested in doing more than wall climbing was asking a lot.

  In a way it left the spy feeling a bit annoyed and distracted. If these people weren't up to anything, it really would be bad of him to frame some of them for things. Terrorism was apparently not going to happen either. Not if this kid was that into peace and all that garbage. How he was supposed to get anything to happen in time he didn't know.

  Ben got up then, and smiled, trying to make it friendly.

  "I enjoyed the talk. We should do it again sometime? I might not have much time for a while, but..." There were limits to what he could say that way. Kent would know that, having been around for so long like he had been.

  "Yeah. Well, you gotta eat, right? See you around."

  On the good side by the time Ben was walking out, the other man had decided to pretty much write him off as far as a person to use. Who Kent was going for next was hazy, but there did seem to be a plan involved. He used the washroom near the door to clean his sticky hands and face. Like his own room had, there were actual faucets in the little, tile covered, room. Old things that were made of metal, and had bits of tarnish on them. The sink there was interesting, since it was made of real glass and was nearly see-through. The tint it had was off of being amber in color. A tiny bit more orange than that. The pipes could be seen through it as the water ran down the drain.

  When he was dried enough, using the air vent on the wall for that, he left, figuring that he'd need to look Micha up. That or ditch her and not bother with the whole thing for the time being. The only thing that stopped him from doing that was how he'd felt at the meal. That sense of being overwhelmed by all the people there, being hit by too much data all at one time.

  Plus, he didn't get that choice since she was waiting for him, just outside the door of the dining hall. It was raining, but she was tucked in under the side of the roof, near the soft green siding. Her face beamed at him when she realized he was there.

  "Hi! I didn't know where we were supposed to meet up, or when. I said after dinner though..." She didn't wait, moving directly toward him, and touching his hand, causing the world to go dim in a certain way. It was like the pressure of the world was turned off, even for him. She actually sighed at it. "There."

  His hand was taken, which he allowed, though he did pull her along.

  "I need to try and get better at some things. Want to come? You can give me tips." Not that it would be interesting for her. She'd been there for years, and was probably an expert in the area of muscle contraction already.

  "Sure. Let's hurry, I don't need to be all wet." There was rain, but it wasn't hard, and she let go of him so they could jog. They didn't go fast, given that he really wasn't able to yet. Still, less than three minutes later they were inside brown seven, and he had the whole thing set up before his breathing had evened back out again.

  Then he got the pleasure of spending nearly twice the time that he had on things so far, being growled at and told he needed to do better. Much better. Or else. There was no actual hitting involved, but Ben was driven by the tiny Hitler without mercy or chance to rest. If Ali had seemed pushy and annoyed, Micha just seemed angry about something. Even as he slowly improved she didn't seem happy about the whole thing.

  By the end he was pushing nearly seventy-six percent efficiency, and all she did was shake her head at him.

  "Not good. If you weren't shaking so badly I'd suggest going on right now. You probably need to rest. Not that you earned it here." Then she glared at him and started to walk away, to show how upset she was with his poor performance.

  He got the idea, but also didn't think she'd actually do it yet. Not until they got back to the cabins. Then she could pull her little storming off routine. It really wasn't helping him to like her at all. It was strange, but the whole thing felt wrong to him. Which clicked in his head, as they sealed up the building and headed home. The ground was damp, and the world smelled different, being clean and natural, but the rain had stopped.

  Ben understood what was happening however. It had, most likely, hit the woman that she needed him. Someday he might need her, for the same reason, to make it all stop and go away for a bit. At present that wasn't true however. For the moment he could send her away and there was very little she had to offer him. She'd know that he understood all of that, and would get that she just wasn't all that into him. As a friend, maybe, since she wasn't that shallow, but she really was using him. She even wanted to do more of that using, so was trapped, and that did not leave her feeling good or happy.

  So this, helping him do better, was her way of trying to be his equal.

  Ben had to take all of that from context, and really might have been wrong about the whole thing. It could have been her being mean to him so he wouldn't want a blowjob before bed. That was insane though, since of course he did. Even if she didn't like him that much and it felt a bit clingy, he wanted that. Blinking a bit, he smiled at her back, since she was still storming away.

  That kept up until they got to the porch of his place, and mounted the steps. She turned then, and suddenly seemed lost.

  "I don't know what to do now."

  "Well, normally you'd come in and we'd do some stuff. Sex or whatever, so you don't have to feel bad about not liking me?" He was blunt, and blushing about it, but realized from her face that he'd read her correctly on the whole thing, or at least close enough. "Which is fair. I'm feeling suddenly smothered after all. I get it, but we need to be honest about the whole thing, since we need to make this work on a functional level. You're willing to do the sex things right? I mean, I'm ugly, not gross or anything?" He tried to be clean and wasn't exactly hideous. He knew that much.

  The ugly part had come from Kent, who also wasn't interested in him that way. Also willing to use him to his own ends, so Micha and the man had that much in common.

  "Um, sure. I don't think you're that bad." She looked away, which could mean she was lying, but might not.

  "Great." He'd been planning to send her away, but shrugged. He didn't really feel like being used, if he could help it. The whole thing was uncomfortable to him, but Ben also felt really trapped at the moment, by her need.

  If she had to touch him, then he might as well get something out of it. Plus, he knew that she was willing to trade that way and had been, even before she knew what she stood to gain from it all. Just to have a friend. That left him feeling a bit better about the whole thing.

  Friends that did things together that helped them both wasn't as dark as all that.

  "Come in then? I need to clean up." He really did, being soaked from the work out the the woman had put him
through. That didn't take him long, but he dressed in a pair of shorts, which is what he'd been sleeping in. When he came out she was still clothed, but was on the bed, which he took as a promising sign.

  "Here, take your shirt off." Ben wasn't exactly an expert with women, but people seemed to enjoy backrubs on occasion. He'd actually done that with some girls before, even though it had normally ended the night for him. It wasn't hard to do really, given that the tension from Micha told him what she wanted pretty plainly. It was all in her reaction and not psychic, but he was still able to feel his way through the whole thing, and when he got to her lower back she moved and took her gray trousers off. What she had on under them, too.

  He worked his way down, knowing that was what she wanted from him, not really feeling comfortable with the whole thing yet. As in, down to her thighs, and then calves. She pulled her feet up enough that it was clear she wanted those rubbed, too. Then, tracing his way up, he reached between her thighs, and focused, trying to read her. She was ready enough, but turned over, even as he felt her wetness.

  "Here... I'll..." What she did involved her mouth and took long enough that he didn't have to feel bad about it. Then, as she had earlier, she got up to leave. This time however, she smiled, and seemed to mean it.

  "Hopefully this works and I can sleep in my own bed. Thanks. I..." She sighed and looked at him, then cringed a little but went on anyway. "Honesty. Okay... Um, yeah, I'm really not that attracted to you. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you though, all right? I'm not being traumatized doing things with you or anything like that. I know it's... I'm making this a lot more awkward than it should be. We can do thing like this and be friends still. Is that good enough? I don't know that I can love you or anything. Is that enough?" She seemed scared.

  Like it wouldn't really be. That he was going to send her away, as if being a friend that was willing to suck him off every night wasn't good enough for him.