Absolute (Discipline Book 1) Read online

  "Should we go and get the others first?" It was a pain, moving in a group all the time, but it really was kind of needed.

  Glenda looked at him like he was mentally challenged, but then moved in and slapped him on the back. Hard.

  "Good thinking. Also a pain in the ass, but they'll melt down if we don't take care of them for now."

  It might not be that bad. Lissa had mentioned that having the cycle broken, even occasionally, was really helping her keep things together. Micha had said something similar, the day before. She was the one getting the most practice at it so far, though Mags was second that way. She'd gone to her cabin for the night, which was well outside the effective area of Ben's dampening ability.

  His magic power that only worked on five people. It was still kind of a neat one.

  They collected everyone at a walk that was cruel to his aching body. Lissa was limping around a bit as well at least, and Mags, seeing them both doing it, smiled and shook her head.

  "You both look like you took it up the behind all night. Lube is your friend, people. Remember that."

  Glenda looked slightly scandalized by the words, and Lissa upset.

  Micha grinned though. With a gleam in her eye.

  "It's your turn tonight. We'll get something from medical for it. For the discomfort. After we all take a turn, I mean?"

  Ben wasn't exactly anti-sex, but that sounded a bit advanced for him. The closest he'd ever gotten to doing anything with a real woman was with Micha after all. Which counted, but wasn't gang-anal, or whatever she was suggesting.

  Mags, instead of pulling her knife and going in for the kill, just nodded.

  "No doubt. What's up for the day? I was getting a solid scene about medical earlier. Much Ben probing going on." She looked at him seriously, her pure black eyes alluring, but also making her seem alien. If with a better haircut and smelling much nicer than when they'd first met. "Don't worry, none of it will give you prison flashbacks. Just a lot of tests being done."

  It was, from the sound of her voice, her way of making him feel better. Feeling a bit pained, and trying to keep up, Ben looked back at her and locked eyes.

  "Good to know. I hadn't been planning on it for the day, and got nothing last night." Which made sense, his powers being pretty much turned off for that part.

  Glenda didn't mention the sexual banter, or that teasing the ugly new guy might be out of line. Instead she ran through the plan.

  "This morning we eat, get to medical and by the time that's done we need to turn around for lunch, I bet. Then in the afternoon, I want you all in brown eight, with Eugene. I want to see if we can find a mental state that will kick you out of psychic awareness on your own. That will take most of the day. Ben, no exercise today, other than stretching. Mags, you need to get a run in, and should hit the basic meditation set too. Lissa, do some walking? If you feel up to it? Your recovery index is about twenty times faster than Ben's right now, if I have that right?" It was clear she was asking a question, not stating a fact.

  The silver haired woman, who looked a lot younger now, the stress lines that had been there having faded a lot in the last few days, wrinkled her nose, playfully.

  "Something like that. We all do though. Ben is only what, ten days into his change? Plus, he's been starving himself. You know a little protein wouldn't kill you, right? Are you a diehard fruitarian or something? That's all I've seen you eat." Reaching out, she took his hand as they all walked. It probably seemed like they were together or something.

  "Well, you know, I have some weight to lose." He looked down at himself as he moved. It was better than before. His trousers weren't tight or anything, and his shirt wasn't pushing out too much at the waist. A little bit, which was enough to make him blush as the others looked at him.

  It was his mentor that spoke first however.

  "He has a history of binge eating. The idea isn't to starve him, but to slowly reintroduce food, over the course of several months. If we can get that right, it should fix most of the problems that could come up that way." Her words were firm, but Micha made a skeptical sound about the whole thing.

  "Really? The fact that he's going to need four or five thousand calories a day soon isn't enough? It's hard to keep myself fed all the time, and I'm not big. Is it the best plan to teach him iron willed control that way, when in three or four months he'll have to eat far more just to survive? Especially with the constant training going on?"

  That started a conversation about what he should be allowed to eat, which carried on even as they all got plates and trays and started to load them up. Ben stuck with half a cantaloupe, which had Glenda smiling happily.

  "That's my boy. Don't listen to these temptresses! There will be enough for you to eat, later. Now, let's dig in and get him off to medical? I planned the early part of the day around it. Clyde is missing his meditation for this, and you know how much he hates to do that." The words seemed serious, which was interesting. The man was one of the spies after all.

  From the woman's face she wasn't joking about it however.

  Ben didn't hurry, since his melon wasn't going to take that long to eat. Glenda had a heaping tray of various things, which really did look tempting. Especially the large pancakes that were stacked in front of her. There were six of them, and Ben would have sworn that he'd eaten real cakes that were smaller than that. Which was Glenda's point. He'd done that kind of thing far too often to be healthy. At the time it had simply seemed normal though. Like what most people did. At least if no one else was looking.

  Back then it hadn't made much sense to lose weight or exercise that much. Looking good wasn't going to be a thing for him, so trying to capitalize on it wouldn't help. Now it was about something else. Taking the corrupt system down.

  That was one thing he'd gotten from his hours in jail. Ben really wanted to shut that kind of place down now. All of them, if it was possible. What they were going to do with the criminals he didn't know, but there had to be a better way. A more humane and sensible option than forcing people into that kind of rage and depression, then punishing them for having feelings.

  The idea was making him grumpy, but he tried to enjoy the melon. It was important to take pleasure in something. Ben couldn't prove that, but it sounded good. He tried to keep that in mind, while the others all sat there, eating. Lissa still picked at her meal, but ended up having more than he did. It wasn't fair. The idea got him to smile a bit and sigh, but not mention it. She needed to eat more, and possibly a lot more than she was. If he was prone to over eating, she was borderline anorexic.

  Glenda started to get up, and that got everyone else to move. Her plate had been efficiently cleaned, but the rest of them had food left. Not Ben, but everyone else.

  "We should wait a few minutes." It was hard to sit there and look at the yummy things to eat, but he could do it, if the rest of them needed time to finish. That got him glared at, by Glenda, but she sat back down, glancing at Lissa, who was still slowly munching away at things.

  Micha smiled, acting like he was flirting or trying to get Lissa to like him. Which would be great, but that wasn't going to be happening. Mags, looking at least as thin as Lissa, if for different reasons, hopped up and got more to eat. Then, looking at Ben like she was trying to be suggestive, the woman devoured two cinnamon rolls. Making eye contact the whole time.

  It was horribly sensual. Enough so that Ben had to look away, since the large, all black eyes were alluring in the right light. The woman didn't even giggle at him when he didn't return the gaze.

  Which was mean. Still, she needed the food, though if she kept that kind of thing up he was going to ask her over for sex that night. Ben knew that wasn't a great plan however, since the woman wasn't right in the head. That had to mean she was poor dating material. Making it worse, Lissa reached out then, not noticing the interplay, and took his hand. Ben shook it off, suddenly not feeling like being her safety blanket or whatever was going on.

  Glenda watched it all, and sa
w the hurt look on the silver haired woman's face, which wasn't hard to understand. She was afraid that Ben was getting tired of her. Which he kind of was. Not as a person, but as a chain around his neck all the time. Living with them all was going to be great fun, no doubt.

  "Brown one?" He looked at Glenda who shook her head.

  "Green one. It isn't a palace, but that way you can all be close when you sleep. It won't be ready for a few days. It's been sitting empty, but needs to be cleaned up and have some beds moved in." There was a look on her face. It was so subtle that he nearly didn't get it, but it carried with it a feeling of mild dismay.

  "Hey... When they did those changes to me, did my... I don't know what to call it, ability to read emotions on people and their body language, get amped up?" He looked around then, and saw Micha nodding.

  Glenda moved a strand of hair from her face that had fallen forward, and looked over at him, like he should know all of that kind of thing.

  "Yes. It's separate from the psychic stuff. It was in the briefing we gave you..." Annoyance replaced her other feelings for a bit, and she winced. "Which you didn't get because I had to leave for a bit. I swear it was scheduled. Damn."

  That information got Mags to laugh. It didn't sound exactly smooth or correct. Jangly and a bit like a VR villain, which a lot of guttural sounds involved to make it seem richer and more obscured. Except for the point that with this woman it wasn't fake. She was just showing amusement.

  "You mean the basic briefing? The thing that everyone gets their first or second day, where they get to learn what we're really doing here, and how the whole thing works? That briefing? You let them make genetic changes to you and didn't even ask what was done? Are you stupid?"

  Ben nodded at the words, not wanting a fight, even if Mags was being bitchy about it.

  "Naturally. I thought everyone knew that already? They told me that it was going to be the basic changes that everyone gets and pretty much every psychic thing that has ever been suspected. I haven't started growing an extra eye or anything, so that's about all that I need that way. Maybe a bit more of a breakdown, but I don't have a medical degree. Odds are I wouldn't understand it all anyway." He was serious, and even Mags didn't laugh at that, she just snorted and glared at Glenda.

  Then she rolled her eyes.

  "The rest though? About what we have planned? I mean even the outline. Or about why we aren't just allowed to undo the genetic work, if it starts going wrong? We can't talk about it out here, but that has to have crossed your mind, right, Ben?" She looked at him, her large black eyes shining. It wasn't with tears, either. She had whites, which were clearly visible in the morning sun, but other than that, there was just a black disk in the center.

  Which even given her plain face was kind of hot.

  So Ben lied, not wanting to seem like an idiot.

  "Sure. I just figured that there would be some kind of biological reason that things couldn't be changed back, or to something else. That really isn't my field." He paused and sighed, since it was time to come clean, it seemed. At least if he had to work with these people for years. "I'm a high school graduate who lucked into a job running a coffee shop. If you need an espresso machine cleaned and serviced, I'm your man. Genetics is a little weaker, as far as my knowledge base goes."

  Instead of mocking derision, Mags shrugged. Her thin shoulders pulled her gray top around, but her neck was corded with muscle, where he could see it.

  "Well, that's most people. I actually got into college, but amazingly my political science degree didn't cover that either. Still, they should have told you all of it. Even if you needed a bib to keep the drool off your new clothes."

  Glenda snorted a bit, though it was very soft. At first Ben thought it was her laughing at the joke. Where he was so mentally challenged that he needed that kind of thing. It wasn't though, and the powerfully built woman waved toward the medical building. The place where Ben had gotten his shots originally.

  "Like everyone here his basic intelligence is at least average. We can't afford to let in anyone that isn't. Ben is actually a bit above that. Not a genius, but bright enough. Not everyone that deserves it gets an education, Mags." There was a bit of a dark cast to go along with those words, but Mags wasn't paying attention to her, dashing ahead to get the door for them. She even held it open.

  "That's true. Half the people I went to school with were idiots. Rich idiots, or at least their parents had money, but that's the real metric applied to who got in."

  Which everyone in the world knew. If you wanted a top job, you needed a degree, but to get one of those you had to either get scholarships based on being brilliant, or have someone willing to pay for you outright. He smiled at Mags on the way past and tried to seem happy, even if he didn't really feel that way. Ben was far too sore, and emotionally torn up still, for that.

  "Wow, so you have really rich parents?" He managed to brush against her with his shoulder, tapping hers, on his way past. To try and show he was joking. It was playful, but it was hard to know if Mags could take it that way.

  "Oh. Yes. They definitely aren't poor. Not that my dad is wild about me being here. Let's get in and force whoever is running this place now to give up the good drugs? They lock them all up at night, so I haven't been able to steal them for a while now."

  She followed them in, her hand on his shoulder from behind. Then both were, which got him to shake his head.

  "Nope, it's your turn for that. Later though."

  The woman, who was probably younger than she seemed, bounced ahead of of him, wrapping her left arm over his shoulders as she did it. Skipping and pulling him in to a dead stop.

  "Ooooh, right. So drugs and lubricant. Good thinking."

  Her voice was half dead still, but held a glint to it. One that, he realized, he could see. It had been happening, but in the slightly dim interior space, it occurred to him that it was actually in his head. That was something else to ask about.

  The sour faced man behind the desk looked up, having been reading from a tilted holo-display that was being projected from the desk in front of him. The small units that did the work were spread out, so that the three beams could cross without other interference. It was pretty high end though, since it wasn't VR, or requiring special contacts or glasses be worn.

  That got Ben to think. Since he'd been there, he hadn't seen even one unit that wasn't close to top of the line. It was hard to imagine that as being real, since they all lived in little log cabins, but, when he thought about it even that popped out as strange. No one lived in the country, in separate little cabins like that. There had to be a lot of funding behind the whole thing for them to have all of what they did.

  Clyde sneered a bit, his psychic impression barely readable at all, given all the people with him that were nulled out.

  "I wasn't aware that we had a group coming in for this. Just Mr. Epson. Very well. Ben, we need to get some readings from you, if you'll come this way. Then we can do the others. Basic health and welfare checkups for the rest of you? They've all been long stabilized genetically. I can take a sample, I suppose... Yes. We'll do that. Come along. I don't have all day." There was a strange twin quality to what the spy was saying to them. Half of it really sounded like he was much put upon and wanted them to leave.

  The other part seemed nearly gleeful for the extra work to have come up.

  Ben's part wasn't hard, though he had samples taken, and was put in a scanner that, if he was right, would have cost more than most major hospitals could afford. Unless they were the secret private ones that the rich used. It was in what seemed like a supply closet at first, at the back of the building. The door was plain, and made of white painted wood, or a composite of some kind. Inside was only a machine, and what seemed like a faucet with a drain and a small raised concrete area to act as a sink. For buckets, or washing things on the ground. It didn't fit, since the machine was rather sparkling and seemed new.

  His job was to go into the middle and stand stil
l for ten minutes, while the others left the room. That wasn't for safety, but he had to be naked in it, so they all left. Except Mags, who was pulled out by the arm. Glenda did the honors there.

  When it was done, Clyde gestured at Mags first, his face actually softening. So did his tone and body language.

  "Would it be all right to get some readings on you? We won't need this scanner, just a smaller hand unit." He didn't really seem to think that one was going to happen, but the thin woman looked at him, her face hard for a bit, and then she moved to sit on the table that was probably used for that kind of thing. Lying back on it, she seemed no more than a bit annoyed.

  "Hurry it up. I want drugs when this is over, too. The good ones. No holding out on me."

  Ben figured that for playful banter, but Clyde got the small hand wand and started to play the glowing front piece over the clothed woman. It was different technology, so she got to keep hers. Then, this thing didn't check the cellular level at all, as far as what they were being told. When it was over, a few minutes later, Clyde brought up a display, which showed a credible likeness of Mags. This one did go under her clothing, but any thrill of seeing her nude was instantly stripped away to show her muscle and bone structure. Inside her skin.

  The display marked out several things in glowing red, which got the medical man to read from a screen again. After a while he nodded.

  "Malnutrition, chronic dehydration, a few minor breaks that weren't treated right. Your neural patterns are solid, which surprises me. That doesn't mean you're stable, mentally, but you're clearly bouncing back fast. So, eat more, drink at least three liters of water a day... and increase your exercise. You aren't in horrible condition, given the rest of this, but you're nowhere near your genetic potential. Next?"

  That was Lissa, who got a similar pronouncement, but didn't have any breaks and needed more work on the exercise part of things.

  Clyde smiled though.

  "Of course you spent most of the last six months bedridden. It will take a bit of time for you to recover. Micha?" His voice was a bit disapproving when he spoke the name.