Corrupting Power
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Quaranteam 2:10
🕑 Added 2023-06-11 01:01:14 +0000 UTCChapter Ten
December 15th, 2020
“Andy, we need you to get up,” Niko’s voice said to him, pulling him from his slumber. “We may have a problem.”
He never liked to hear that, especially as he was waking up, but he knew trying to go back to sleep and ignore the problem would probably only make things worse, so he moved to sit up, looking at how all his partners were awake, everyone staring at Melody, whose face was scrunched up a bit. Nothing seemed direly out of place to start, but the fact that everyone was watching Melody made him wonder what the hell was going on.
“Thank you for giving me a second chance, Andy,” Melody said, before a second sentence was already leaping from her lips, one much shorter and even more frustrated. “Fuck! I tried so hard not to say it, but it was like I was fucking compelled to do it until it was starting to hurt! I wanted to pull other words to my mouth, any other words, but that was all I could bring myself to say! ‘Good morning, Andy!’ ‘Can we fuck, Andy?’ ‘Get your lazy ass out of bed, Andy!’ It was like I suddenly lost every word I knew until I said that phrase!” She looked a little nervous, staring down at her hands. “Something’s fucking wrong with me.”
“Huh,” Andy said, which suddenly made everyone turn and look at him. They were all incredibly nervous and jumpy, but Andy seemed to be taking it in remarkable stride, and that made most of them even more uncomfortable, unfortunately. He’d learned that getting too worked up in advance only upsets everyone and never gained anything, so he was doing his best to remain calm and look at everything logically. He’d gotten better at tracking through logical progressions, no matter how flimsy the data or the theory. Living in a post-apocalyptic world had a lot of effects, but one of them was that Andy’s mind was always waiting, watching, wandering. And from one single data point, he’d built a quick hypothesis. Maybe he was right, maybe he wasn’t, but it wouldn’t be hard to do a fairly conclusive test. “I’ve got a theory. We could test it pretty quick, I suppose, although it might make us a little bit late for breakfast.”
“We’ve got an hour before that, Andy,” Lexi said. “Is that enough time?”
He nodded. “Should be fine. Five to ten minutes for the sex, ten minutes for the shower to follow. We’re just going to have ourselves a little dosing for Melody, but during the whole time, Mel, I want you to try and be as quiet as you can. In fact, I want you to not say a single word during all of it. If I’m right, and I have a worrying feeling that I might be, you won’t be able to, and I don’t want you to feel bad about it, okay?”
“Am… am I going to be okay, Andy?” the Asian woman said to him, her eyes tearing up a little with concern.
Andy smiled, taking her hands into his, giving her his most confident look. “If I’m right? 100%. There’ll be a few hiccups here and there, but nothing you can’t handle. If I’m wrong? Well, we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it. Anyway, let’s see if I’m right. I think that I am.” He reached his hand up and smoothed along her arm. “How fast do you want to—”
“I want you to fuck me stupid right now,” Melody said, pulling her shirt up and over her head. “Nothing gentle.” The bra was next. “Nothing tender.” Her pants and panties were off her ankles in moments. “Flip me. Fill me. Pound me. Hammer that thick dick of yours into my tight little snatch until I feel like you’re ripping me open from the fucking inside.” She crawled up onto the bed on her hands and knees then turned around, lowering her shoulders down to the top of the mattress as one hand reached back between her legs to smooth two fingertips across her pussy, which was already damp and slick, even to his eyes.
“I thought he told her to be quiet,” he heard Sarah mumble.
“Shhh!” Emily said to her, as all the women moved to form most of a circle, wrapping around the bed, as Fiona cautiously snapped some pictures on her camera, like she wasn’t sure if either of them minded, although Melody didn’t seem to mind if Andy didn’t.
“You can have anything you want, Andy,” Melody whimpered at him. “You want to have my ass? It’s a tight fucking fit, but it’s yours, I’m yours, your hot little slut ready to be used.” She was teasing the pucker of her asshole with one digit, whining in impatience. “I don’t even fucking care where you stick it, but I need that fucking dick and I need it fucking now…” Her fingertips moved down and she pushed two long digits inside of her cunt before sliding them back out, glistening as she curled them in Andy’s direction. “Please, baby, daddy, Master, whatever the fuck your hot little slut’s supposed to call you, Andy… can you please just fuck me already?”
The one downside of the position was that the tattoo Covington had put on Melody was staring him in the face, but he moved and put his left hand on her hip and his right hand over the tattoo, covering as much of it as he could as he shifted his torso to press his cock against her slit, sliding up inside of her as her head leaned back and she let out an utterly pornographic moan. Like many of his partners, Melody seemed to orgasm as soon as he was inside of her, although it wouldn’t be the only orgasm she’d have this session.
“Fuck yes, you glorious motherfucker, drill that cunt! Fuck me like you own me! Fuck me like you hate me! Fuck me so hard I feel it for fucking days!”
Andy’s hands tried to hold her in place, but Melody was thrusting back into him with each push of his body towards hers, and whatever tempo he was planning on setting, her body was only going to push the tempo even faster than that.
“Do it! Fuck me! Fuck me Andy! Fuck your whore! Fuck her to fucking death!”
He did his best to batter his cock in and out of her, but it was remarkable how tight Melody’s pussy was, and somewhere around her third orgasm, his own started to overload him, and he spewed a searing load of cum inside of her, and the two of them shared the intense moment together before they both rolled onto their sides, her body nestling in against his, his cock starting to soften inside of her, but mostly staying enveloped by her cunt.
She’d been talking the entire time.
“I’m so sorry, Andy,” Melody said, breathless and sorrowful. “I tried—”
“Hey,” Andy said, stroking Melody’s hair tenderly. “Relax. I don’t think you could’ve been quiet if you tried. It fits in with my theory. So, I’ve got good news and bad news, but we’re going to have to call Phil.” He chuckled a little bit, noticing that literally all the other women were standing around staring. He turned Melody’s head, so she was looking at him and then leaned in to give her a very soft and tender kiss. “So do you want the good news first or the bad news?”
“The good news first, please,” Melody said. “I don’t think I can take any more bad news.”
“The bad news isn’t all that bad,” Andy said. “So the good news is that what’s happened to you, I don’t think it can ever happen again, so nobody can fix it, but nobody can make it worse either. The bad news is that every morning, you’re always going to say thank you, and every time we fuck, you’re never going to be able to be quiet. But that’s it. That’s the total extent of everything that’s happened to you, and you don’t need to worry about additional changes.”
“Oh shit,” Piper said, moving to slide up onto the bed, sitting next to Andy and Melody, her hand sliding over Melody’s hip. “I did this. I did do this, didn’t I Andy?”
Andy sighed, reaching over to put his hand on top of Piper’s. “You didn’t do it intentionally, Piper. You didn’t know this would happen. And consider how much worse this could have gone if you’d said something else.”
“Andy, love,” Ash said, sitting down on the bed, putting her arm around Piper’s shoulder, not sure why she needed comforting, but instinctively just moving straight to it. “What are the rest of us missing?”
Andy gave Melody a hug, folding his arms around her as she flipped herself in his arms, her chest to his. “When we went to reimprint Melody, between the time Melody took the reassignment pill and her first contact with my semen, Piper talked to her a little.”
“I don’t remember that at all,” Melody said quietly. “Why don’t I remember that?”
“You were, uh, a little out of it,” Piper said. “I said… what did I say? I told you that you would start every morning thanking Andy for giving you a second chance, and that whenever you and him were having sex, you’d talk dirty to him, because he likes that. I’m pretty sure that’s all I said.”
“And right before she said ‘imprinting,’ I swear I thought I heard her say something in Russian,” Andy said. “But in all the chaos of my regeneration, I’d forgotten all about it.”
“I think we all did,” Niko said. “I was there at the time, but, no offense Melody, you weren’t my biggest concern at that point. And that’s my fault. I should’ve been better, more observant. Andy trusts me to keep the family safe, and…” She sighed, rubbing her eyes for a second before looking up. “And I need to get used to the idea of you being part of the family now. I can’t be so laser focused on just Andy all the time. I’m a protector of the whole family, and I’m going to have to wrap my head around that pretty fucking quickly. I think… I think you’re right, Andy; it was Russian. But the whole thing was on tape, and I’m sure Phil can get the tape without too much hassle.”
“You remember what it was?” Andy asked.
“I think… I think it was… кодировка… My Russian isn’t great but, I think that’s… is it similar to imprinting?”
“Similar, but not the exact same,” Lexi said. “It’s more… it’s like… encoding?”
“Why wouldn’t anyone notice this sooner?” Sarah asked.
“When women are reassigned, they’re… practically feral,” Niko said. “They’re not thinking clearly and above all else, they’re impatient. As soon as they get that hit from the reset, they’ll do anything to get reimprinted. So it’s extremely unlikely that there would be time for most women to be given instructions. And it certainly wouldn’t be a common thing. We aren’t doing reassignments on a large scale. Not yet. And we need to make sure nobody else gets this done to them.”
“Shouldn’t it be tested or some such?” Emily said.
“I bet Phil can find someone who needs to be reassigned who wants to cure herself of some bad habit – smoking, nervous eating, something minor that they can give a final test over, to make sure it works like we think it does,” Niko said with a soft laugh. “You going to be okay, Melody?”
Melody sighed, looking up at Piper. “Every morning?” But there was a hint of a smile there that showed she understood how much worse it could’ve been. “I don’t mind talking dirty – I kinda like it that way myself – but what happens if I can’t start a morning that way? Do I have to write him a note or something?”
“Guess we’ll see sooner or later,” Andy said.
“Suck it up, buttercup,” Piper laughed, as if coming to accept the weight of what she done, and realizing exactly how much worse she could’ve accidentally done. It wasn’t good, being ‘encoded,’ but the potential for greater damage was so much larger than what had actually been done. “Being part of Team Rook involves a little bit of chaos for everyone involved.”
Andy grinned as he kissed Melody’s cheek. “You going to be okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be okay,” Melody grumbled. “I just don’t like the idea of there being some kind of standing instruction in my head that I’m not allowed to disobey.”
“Consider it part of the penance you’re doing for your time under Covington,” he said, slowly pulling away from her to get out of bed. “Why don’t you go hop through a shower while I call Phil and tell him what’s going on?”
“Don’t take too long, Andy,” Piper said, handing him his phone. “We’re doing lunch with my family before the signing and then having dinner again with them afterwards before flying out.”
“How long’s the flight?” he asked Alexis.
“To Cincinatti? Couple hours, tops,” she said. “Nothing to worry about. We’re already on top of getting everything prepped for our arrival, with the hotel already picked out and prepped. The Embassy Suites RiverCenter already has a suite set up for us where we can all share one bed again.”
Niko giggled, shaking her head slightly. “Thank god they did, too, otherwise we were going to be staying at a hotel called the Covington, and I just don’t think we could bring ourselves to do that.”
As Melody headed into the bathroom for her shower, Andy tapped the first name on his contacts list – his old friend Phil Marcos, as he walked over towards the covered windows. For the next several minutes, Andy detailed to Phil what they’d learned about what happened to Melody during her reassignment, and Phil’s reactions had run the gamut, thinking Andy was kidding at first before growing intensely concerned to immediately planning how to manage the issue for the time being. As always, Phil moved towards the practical as quickly as possible, and was already taking notes on what he needed to test for and new protocols they were going to need to implement during the reassignment process. Leaving people alone during the time was, at least for the foreseeable future, clearly out. By the time Melody was coming out of the shower, they were wrapping up their phone call, with Phil having a plan of attack on what he needed to do next, and Andy feeling like he’d helped some. And then he headed straight into the shower himself.
By the time he was out of the shower, everyone else was ready and they were fully packed up. Andy had to admire the almost military-like precision with which the family had taken the process of setting up and tearing down camp, although his part in the matter was pretty small. He only had one roller suitcase and his laptop bag, and that was basically it. Even his charger gear – phone, tablet, watch – all fit into his laptop bag.
Breakfast went by quickly, as Andy let the women of his family do most of the talking about how the hotel business needed to adapt to what the new family unit looked like – bigger bedroom sections, bigger bathrooms, more electrical outlets – and what the cheapest possible solution to the problem would be. Fiona, who had been taking photographs during the meeting, suggesting simply combining rooms together, two or three single rooms being connected by removing the dividing wall, letting a big room have two bathrooms and a center space with room for a bed that could hold large families in their new configuration. It was however Andy who pointed out that not all rooms should be retrofitted that way, as it wouldn’t be uncommon for women to be travelling solo, which meant they would really only need a double or a queen-sized bed and a single bathroom. The hotel management thanked Team Rook for giving them their time and thoughts about how to reconsider their business moving forward.
Andy hadn’t realized how tired he must’ve been the night before when they’d got in, because it didn’t dawn on him until they were walking out to the parking lot that Lexi had rented two SUVs for the family to use here, instead of hiring a driving service. They loaded up the vehicles with stuff then people, and before he knew it, they were on their way driving southwest to Gainesville to meet Piper’s family at their home.
The whole family had talked a little bit to Piper’s family over the phone during the last month, but nobody had expected the whole Brown clan to come out in force to meet all of Team Rook when they’d decided to show up last minute to say hello. Andy had hoped that the short warning time would’ve kept things to a small family get together, but it seemed like Piper’s parents had invited not only any of the family that happened to be nearby but the neighborhood as well. Both Lexi and Niko seemed a little annoyed at first, but Melody had teased both of them about the odds of one of Piper’s parents’ elderly neighbors being a secret member of the Taliban, and both women had immediately lightened up a little and laughed.
Andy had expected the hardest grilling to come from Piper’s parents, but both of them had been remarkably warm and friendly right off the bat. No, the person who’d been the most intense around him had been Piper’s older sister June’s husband Declan, and his Team. It wasn’t that Declan was mean; he was just intense. They definitely didn’t run in the same political circles, of that much Andy was certain. Declan had seen the interview and had talked to Piper a couple of times since then when she and June had been talking over the phone. Dec had a lot of questions, but since he and Andy were close to the same age, they at least shared a sort of cultural common understanding, even if they were miles apart politically.
“I just want to make sure my wife’s baby sister isn’t going to be marrying a jackass,” Declan said to him while he was sipping his scotch. “You didn’t seem awful on television, but it’s not that hard for people to look good on tv when they’re, in fact, horrible.”
“Go easy on him, Dec,” June said. “Andy seems like a great guy.” June looked a lot like Piper, just older and not anywhere near as tall, although she wore her hair incredibly short, and the two couldn’t be any further apart in terms of dress sense, as Piper was always about sportswear casual, and June looked like she’d pulled out her Sunday’s best dress for this. But both were brunettes, both in good physical shape and both certainly easy on the eyes.
“I’m a normal guy, June, just like anyone,” Andy laughed, sipping from a rum’n’coke that Lexi had brought him. “What do you do for a living?”
“I’m a 911 operator down in Tampa,” June said. “Which, I have to say, has been pretty fucking weird for the last year. Once lockdown started, it was totally quiet almost all the time, for the first few months, although we started getting a lot of calls to pick up dead bodies after that.”
“Jesus, June, that sounds fucking brutal,” Andy said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. How is it these days?”
“Mostly back to quiet again,” June said, her smile almost completely devoid of joy, as if she was dealing with exhaustion on a cellular level. “But that’ll pass soon enough, I’m sure, and I’ll look back at this as the time I got a paid vacation and was told to just sit around all day waiting for something to happen. Which is better than Dec, who’s had to go and actually collect the dead bodies constantly.”
“Being a paramedic’s been brutal during this time, but we’ve learned to adapt,” Declan said, rolling his glass in his hand. Andy had suspected the man was law enforcement of some kind, as he had that sort of look about him – crew cut hair, perfectly pressed trousers, dress shoes polished within an inch of their lives – but he could see paramedic now that it had been pointed out to him. “And the disease has been weeding out those that can’t take their health seriously.”
“A couple of our other partners are floating around here as well, but most of them didn’t want to do the drive up here considering they might be at the wedding soon enough,” June said. “Don’t suppose you’ll be lending out that plane of yours to ferry people to and from the wedding?”
“Ha, no, afraid even if I could afford to do that, which I really can’t, my security team would bust my balls for even thinking about letting other people fly around in our jet,” Andy laughed. “But we’re making sure that the accommodations nearby will be excellent, no matter how big or small your Team is, and that nobody feels overly burdened to come if they don’t want to. If you just want to come as the two of you, I promise you, nobody will mind. The size of this wedding is already more than a little terrifying.”
“What’s your headcount at for guests?”
“Basically the same as an outdoor festival?” Andy said, rolling his eyes. “I think we’ve capped attendance at two thousand people, although we still aren’t entirely sure if we’re being crazy optimistic or if everyone’s just going to pass if they can’t bring their entire Team with them. We’re allowing a handful of people to bring their full Teams, but we’ve suggested to most people only showing up with a few of them, more for their own sanity than for our convenience.”
“We’d love for everyone to come, sis,” Piper said as she stepped over to join in on the conversation, sliding her arm around Andy’s shoulders almost protectively. “But we get not everyone’s feeling comfortable traveling yet, and learning to move this many people at once? It’s a challenge.” Piper turned Andy’s head up so she could lean her head down and kiss him. “My sister’s not giving you too much shit, is she?”
“Just the right amount,” Andy said with a chuckle, thinking to himself that June had been lovely, but her husband had been borderline antagonistic.
“Hey Dec. Good to see you again.”
“Pipes,” Declan responded quietly.
“So I take it you two are a pre-DuoHalo match?” Andy asked. He really hadn’t had much time to talk to Piper’s sister over the preceding month, and he now had so many partners with so many details that nobody expected him to remember much of anything. He and June had gotten along fantastically the one conversation he remembered, though, and he wasn’t sure how June and her husband could be so very different.
“Married ten years last April.”
“Kids?”
“Two daughters, Natalie and Abigail, 8 and 5,” June said with a smile. “They’re both running around here somewhere. I think our partner Esparanza’s keeping tabs on them.”
“She is,” Piper confirmed. “They wanted to play ‘Cling To Auntie Piper’s Legs’ for a while, so I obliged them.”
Andy smiled back a bit more comfortably at that, as both girls were safely within the pre-DuoHalo zone, and clearly still alive. He remembered Piper telling him that June had been married before DuoHalo, and that she was sort of acting as queen bee of their household while new women were added to the mix. “Glad to hear they’re keeping old traditions alive.”
“It’s best that way, don’t you think?” Declan said. “Sticking to old traditions, the way things used to be?”
Andy’s head turned a little bit, his eyes narrowing. “I’m more of a forward-thinking guy myself. Traditions usually hold people back from evolving.”
“Moving too far forward too fast is what gets people into trouble,” Declan said. “All this focus on identity politics, it’s all walking away from family values, good Christian family values.”
“Well, I’m not a Christian,” Andy said with a devilish smirk. “I’m an atheist. But knowing right from wrong isn’t based on any religion – that’s simply treating others as you want them to treat you. And you know who complains about identity politics? People whose identities haven’t ever been threatened. It’s easy to claim people should stop talking about how their oppressed when they’ve never been oppressed.”
“Is this the point of the conversation where you call me racist?” Declan said.
“I dunno,” Andy shot back. “Are you a racist?”
“The facts are the facts, Andy,” Declan said, his temper starting to flair a little. “If there’s a crime committed in America, it’s far more likely to have been committed by a person of color.”
“No, if there’s someone arrested in America, they’re more likely to be a person of color,” Andy corrected. “That’s not even close to the same thing. And considering how much more damage white collar crimes do to society, it’s surprising how few white-collar criminals get arrested or do hard time. And funny how all the white-collar criminals are white skinned too.”
“We have a legal system in this country for a reason, Andy,” Declan said, his voice starting to get raised a bit. Now Andy knew exactly where the tension had been coming from.
“Sure, for the wealthy to abuse as they see fit, and to ensure they don’t ever see the inside of a jail cell,” Andy countered. “If you want to convince me you believe in equal justice, I want to see you demanding the death penalty for the bankers who’ve repeatedly and illegally crashed the economy.”
“How soon before you’re thinking about having kids, sis?” June asked, trying to pull the conversation away from politics. “I know the government’s leaning pretty hard on this ‘Repopulate the country’ plan of theirs, and the tax breaks they’re offering are a little crazy, but I know you want to go and do the Olympics again.”
Piper nodded, nudging Andy in the ribs, as if trying to get him to back down a little. “We’re going to go and lock in a second gold medal, but after that, I’m probably going to start trying. Well, we’re going to start trying,” she said with a soft giggle. “There are days where I can tell Andy is completely over all these gorgeous women having sex with him.”
“Can you blame him?” Ash said as she moved to slide in against Andy’s other side. “It’s basically two to three a day, at his level. Most people have smaller scales than Andy, but Andy’s a giver and he’s always putting other people over himself. Some people think it’s a flaw, but we think it’s what makes him the most special man we’ve ever met. Anyway, I need to borrow him for a bit to help me rescue Em and Sarah from your father, Piper. I think he’s been talking to her about Dahlia Hairtrigger since we got here, and Em’s doing her absolute best to stay polite, but she’s really really tired of talking about it. Think you can lend me a hand, babe?”
“No problem, love,” Andy said. “Excuse me.”
Andy and Ash pulled away and slowly made their way across the room. It was a busy party, but he could see Niko, Lexi and Melody were stationed in a triangular pattern, so that each of them was covering the entrances and exits, and he knew they wouldn’t let anything happen to him. But that didn’t include protecting Emily from overly enthusiastic fans. But as they approached, Andy was a little surprised, as both Emily and Sarah were laughing, with wide smiles on their faces.
“I thought you said we needed to rescue Emily,” Andy whispered to Ash.
“No no, we just needed an excuse to make Piper, her sister and her sister’s husband spend some time alone chatting, so that we know they’re okay,” Ash said. “So, we wanted to pull you away from them. June’s beau has been a little short-tempered with Piper about you. Declan’s not convinced that Piper isn’t stuck in Stockholm Syndrome, and the two of them have been fighting about it. June and Dec keep bickering, and so Piper wanted to help. We wanted you to have a little bit of time talking to Dec first so he could see you truly do love Piper. Dec’s just having a hard time wrapping his head around this, around all of this, no matter what June thinks. We’re going to let’em hash it out.”
“I shouldn’t—?”
Ash shook her head. “Let’em talk through it. Piper’ll make him come around, or at least back down. Family knows family best. And once Piper’s had enough time to smack some sense into her sister’s husband, she’ll be back over again. Even if Dec doesn’t like you, he needs to learn to respect you, and that you’re not going anywhere, no matter how much of a fuss he puts up.”
“Andrew!” Em said, a laugh rolling from her lips. “I was just telling Piper’s father here about the time we turned half a dozen cats loose on the set of the third Daggerfall Academy film. We got in so much trouble, but it was so, so, so worth it, to see all of those old, stodgy actors scrambling to catch felines who were starting to demolish the carefully constructed sets.”
“You were a hellraiser as a child, weren’t you, Em?” Andy said, joining in the laughter.
“Still am, thank you very much!”
“We’re not going to let you have any animals on the Neon Stonehenge set, Ems, otherwise the director’s going to throw a shitfit,” Sarah said with a giggle.
“I’ve not read any of your books, Andrew,” Piper’s father, “but if Em here’s going to be in it, I’m going to have to start in on them, I guess. I do hear they’re… a bit more adult, though?”
Andy laughed, shrugging a little bit. “I leave the sex on the page, Mr. Brown, and figure that my audience is grown up enough to handle it. But I never let it get in the way of a good story.”
As the conversation carried on, Andy noticed something he’d not had a chance to really see before – his partners were being territorial, almost possessive of him. During the entire party, at least one fiancée had been pressed against his side all the time, and they’d been making sure it was clear he was with them, as if they didn’t want anyone to entertain the idea they might be able to draw Andy’s eye away, something he thought was patently ridiculous, but then it occurred to him that the girls might not have even known they were doing it. They’d been having conversations and always making sure to establish their place with Andy first and foremost, and almost immediately dropping in the fact that they were a closed Team right afterwards.
He didn’t mind.
By the time they were leaving the party, it seemed like Piper and June had smoothed things over, or at least established what was and wasn’t fair game for conversations, and how he and Declan could navigate not killing one another.
Declan wasn’t really that bad; he was just misguided. Andy’d known a lot of people just like him growing up. It was hard getting people to look past what they’d been taught and get them to understand systemic fundamental underpinnings that could lead them to bad conclusions. They’d been taught to follow the basic logic – cops arrest criminals, and if most criminals cops arrested weren’t white, then most criminals must be not-white. But usually they didn’t stop to see the bigger picture, how large scale criminals often weren’t punished because they used their wealth to protect them from consequences, which let them continue to commit crimes.
His entire life, underpinning anything he’d ever written, Andy was always writing about systems, how easy it was for a pattern to become a system and for a system to just blend into the background until people didn’t even notice they were doing it. Malice was rarely intended, but confronting systems was hard, because people often felt like they were being judged, and Andy was just as guilty of coming across overly harsh as anyone. He and Declan were never going to see eye-to-eye, but they didn’t have to be at each other’s throats about it the whole time either.
The signing back up in Jacksonville was much smaller than the one in New York had been, but the fans were no less enthusiastic, and the reading portion of the event had gone over especially well. Piper’s parents had come up from Gainesville for a short dinner after the signing, and before Andy knew it, he was back at the airport already, climbing back into his private jet.
While his encounters on the jet so far had been slightly on the wilder side, Niko and Ash had wanted to keep it as soft and tender as they could, almost like a reminder of how the early days had been (excepting, of course, Lauren’s absence), and while Niko certainly got off with Andy, the cuddling they did afterwards was far more important.
On the drive from the airport to the hotel, Andy made it a point to check in with Melody, to be sure that she was taking her new situation okay, and it seemed like she’d mostly made peace with it. She’d thought about it and realized that as long as she either said thank you or texted him thank you first thing, she’d probably be okay in managing the compulsion, and thinking about how much worse it could’ve been had made the whole thing much easier to swallow.
When they made it to the hotel, Andy was already starting to get nervous about tomorrow. It would be the first time he’d seen his nephew since his brother’s passing, and out of all the things that scared Andy, that scared him the most. The ladies were trying to be optimistic, trying to keep Andy’s spirits up, but everyone sort of understood the weight he was carrying around with him.
His partners were also nervous, but for entirely different reasons. Tomorrow they were also going to meet Andy’s mom (and the Team she’d been saddled up with), and other than Fiona, none of them were entirely sure what to expect. She’d been hospitalized for months, but had been released a few weeks ago, and hadn’t really been in a state to talk to any of them, even over the phone. But she’d insisted that she get a chance to meet all of Andy’s soon-to-be wives in advance of the wedding. Apparently after getting imprinted a week ago, her health had completely rebounded and she felt like she was in the best shape of her life. Andy knew they’d all do fine, though.
With all that weighing on them, they were glad to have one giant bed they could all crawl into and pile on top of one another in a sea of arms and legs, Ash snuggled in against his left, Piper tucked in on his right.
Right before he was about to fall asleep, Ash whispered quietly into his ear, “Wonder if any of your old flames are going to be at the signing tomorrow. Won’t that be fun to show off for them.” That certainly woke him up for a little bit longer, but eventually he drifted off to sleep, realizing that if he could make it through tomorrow, everything else would seem easy by comparison.
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EG42
Pretty sure Niko said the every morning thing
Admiral Ale
Goodbye??? Great chapter. I just wonder if it is the end. The last 2 Weekly Updates have no references to QT whatsoever, guess something has to go when there are to many other money makers pileup. Stay safe
Edward Becerra
Simplest solution to this "encoding" problem? Earplugs. You can't hear a command if you can't *hear*. I suppose that could be gotten around using visual commands, but then things get a bit complex. And given the apparent cunning of the SOB who did the programming, I expect he's left further traps to be discovered.
Cynthia Parker
loved the last chapter can't wait to see what happens when he sees his family and old friends in the next chapter.
J.D.
I think that Declan having the short sighted bad taste to bitch to Pipers sister that she shouldn’t marry Andy and that it is Stockholm Syndrome shows me exactly what type of person Dec is while throwing in that America needs to return to good old Christian family beliefs. If Declan would stop and pull his head out of his ass and maybe do some learning about how marriage makes no difference if your paired to the person then it is just usually a religious ritual that involves most,y outdated vows and rituals along with the bride dressing her best friends hideously and no wedding is complete without the required cake. When I hear Christian family values it somehow comes out of a mouth of someone who harkens back to the white male (usually) in charge of the family and he makes all important decisions since they know womenfolk aren’t capable of anything more than cooking, cleaning, fucking, birthing and raising kids. The future of family interaction outside of team rook should be very interesting and especially so at the wedding.
Krysm Phoenix
Good chapter, though I notice that in this book there has been a bit of a shift to glossing over conversations. Theres a lot of characters and scenes to include so I get it, but I cant help but notice it being more of a trend.
JC
no, don't feel bad! awesome that you spotted it!
Dennis McNulty
Here's a thought; Andy and Declan's arguments illustrates the eternal story that you can pick your friends but you can't pick your family. I think that in a, now somewhat apocoliptic, world in which a significant portion of the male population has been killed off, surviving charachters would strive to figure out how to solve obvious problems, i.e. feeding the population, power production, ect. rather than clinging to petty ideas. I love the character developments in this wonderful ongoing world and I'm curious to find out what or how CP thinks survivors will adapt.
Hugh Peeble
Sorry… didn’t mean to spoil. Now I feel bad.
Corrupting Power
Man, and I hoped I was going to sneak that by until the next chapter... ;)
Corrupting Power
Telamonster - my comment about "Ohio is a pretty red state" is just meant to say you're going to see a wide spectrum of people Andy doesn't agree with, from those who are hyper competent to those who aren't as well-versed. Andy's argument about identity politics is meant to show how easily conversations like this get derailed. Hell, Andy even *knows* he's taking the bait when he does it, but he does it anyway, and I thought it was kind of obvious that Andy isn't painted in the most flattering of light by that exchange either. The point he was trying to make was that people use catch phrases like 'identity politics' because they often don't want to engage in the bigger issues behind it. Had he been less on the back foot, Andy probably would've pointed out that the people arguing 'for identity politics' are generally just arguing 'I want my identity to be as valid as yours, and have the same rights' and... that's it? The next few chapters are meant to be a little heavier on the political stuff, just because Andy's out in the world, touring through people who all reacted differently to a global crisis. I mean, to some extent, the protestors have a fair point -- Andy *did* get special treatment. This chapter was meant to be the start of a longer examination, but Declan was by no means meant to be painted as a bad guy, just someone who feels like an attack on his argument is an attack on him personally, and while I'd argue that's a flaw, it's certainly a very human and relatable one, and something both sides need to learn how to deal with. How? Shit, if I knew that, I'd be happy to share...
Todd Garrison
Very good, interesting reveal kohnpobka and how it effected Melody. Where are you going with the Rook Family women establishing dominance over other women in regards to Andy?
TM
My reading of the "Quarenteam" novels is that they contains themes about the very high cost of disinformation and religious sexual morality on our society. That is an inherently political point of view. Is Declan a straw man? I feel like he is a lot more reasonable than a lot of American conservatives that I encounter every day. I think these readers who are upset about Andy's politics might be missing the point. Telling an author to silence their main character's political point of view is to shape that character's personality in a way that contradicts what he is all about, and what has been important to his character and personality from the jump. Andy has strong opinions. I figure you will probably keep it that way, considering how well defined he is.
Hugh Peeble
I live near Cincinnati and the Embassy Suites Rivercenter is in Covington Ky directly across the Ohio River from Downtown Cincinnati. You can walk to the Reds and Bengals stadiums across the Suspension Bridge from there…
Kodenkan
Although since I agree with Andy‘s point of view, I almost assuredly am opposed to parts of yours, I have to commend you on an excellent articulation of a potential threat looming (and potentially weighing) upon the series. Debate requires two similarly armed sides to be interesting, and it does seem that Andy’s opponents are phoning it in and portrayed as less intelligent, and or worldly.
Telamonster
At this point, you’ve presented Andy as willing to engage with opposing views several times. Earlier in book two he publicly sparred with a US representative in the hearing - in book time that was, what, a week or two ago? In real time it was only a few chapters ago. My point is that this aspect of his character, and/or the entire character of this opposition, is already well established and as such further reinforcement in support of future development is redundant. Of course, I don’t have knowledge of where the plot is going, so it may be that you feel the need to beat this dead horse to serve the plot later. That said, “Ohio’s a pretty red state, and I don’t intend to shy away from that” is telling me that you aren’t trying to present this opposition as a chance for character growth, but rather as a simplistic ego stroking for like-minded readers. This is entirely within your rights as the author of this content, of course; I just wanted to push back a bit on what I perceive as you stepping into a trap that will limit your ability to have Andy grow as a character without requiring obvious cognitive dissonance or some manner of retconning.
JC
bookmark
JC
I just wish you wouldn't straw-man opposing points of view, or let Andy make bad/false arguments without being challeged.
JC
Totally agree - any view other than Andy's/CP's gets stereotyped and turned into a straw man. > And you know who complains about identity politics? People whose identities haven’t ever been threatened. Aside from the logical fallacy here (the people who complain about a viewpoint has nothing to do with its accuracy or truth), it's simply false, as there are many minorities who complain about identity politics.
JC
where are you getting that?
J.D.
Ever since the vaccination and pairings, Andy has not been the sit around and let others make his life decisions without learning as much as possible, talking things out with his family and his friends who are not only intelligent but also tend to have more information than is available to the regular citizens. When he found out the truth about how many people were killed and how the government was covering it up, he wanted to anonymously release the information without thinking it through but he had his family and friends reel him in. I look forward to watching his anger and his thought process while he weighs the pros and cons and talks it out with team Rook, Eric and Phil since they always bring the interesting info that usually blows Andy’s mind.
Corrupting Power
We'll be seeing a lot more of the other side moving forward, but the book is told from Andy's perspective, so he's always going to have thoughts on it. Keep in mind, Andy's been pretty insulated in New Eden for a while, and the pit vipers there are rather unrepentant. But Dec shows Andy's more than willing to engage with people on all sides of the spectrum, as long as they're willing to make the effort. There's be more of that as we continue onward. Ohio's pretty red state, and I don't intend to shy away from that.
Telamonster
Good stuff, and I’ve enjoyed reading this since the start. I hope that you consider either leaving the politics out entirely, or giving Andy a thoughtful opposition rather than the angry/frustrated caricatures that you’ve presented thus far. Even if it’s just Andy’s internal thoughts rather than an attempt at exploring the different perspectives, the lack of effective challenge feels like plot armor; it reduces the depth of his character and risks stagnation in his growth without some other form of challenge in the story.
Hugh Peeble
LoL… they didn’t want to stay in a hotel named Covington so they are going to stay in one in the city of Covington, Kentucky… irony at its finest.
Kaywye
Totally awesome. I love how you honor the entire spectrum of political territory, and yet still have Andy plant his flag where he believes it should be without compromise. (And like every person, he can still catch himself being aggravated by those that disagree with him, even if he catches himself.)
