Rising Tomorrow (Roc de Chere Book 1), Mariana Morgan [epub e ink reader .TXT] 📗

a key expert, Elite Eloise Moretti.’ Rivas paused to let Gonzalez assimilate the news, but when his CO showed no surprise he continued. ‘You are also believed to have fried their security system, crippling their effectiveness and response times when dealing with other investigations. Commissioner Wagner is apparently screaming bloody murder, and with support from High Commissioner Brau-Hastings he is demanding your surrender for interrogation. Apparently, they have combed your old computer and found enough to justify their claims and demands. In the absence of a statement from you or any evidence to the contrary, the MIS had no choice but to acquiesce in the name of co-operation between the military and the police.’

Gonzalez nodded. His adrenaline levels were rising, not quite as significantly as they had the last couple of days spent at the 4th but enough to make him feel alive again.

The news Lieutenant Rivas had brought wasn’t that unexpected. It was okay, in fact. He had planned for this contingency. He had prepared this contingency, leaving on his computer carefully compiled and very compromising data. He had always known that one day he would have no choice but to incriminate himself. At least this way Megan was able to take advantage of that. With any luck, that was enough to get her into Wagner’s good graces, and soon they would all benefit from it.

‘Megan?’ he enquired, waving his hand at another armchair, inviting Lieutenant Rivas to sit.

‘I have no information on Megan, sir. Nothing has come out of the 4th since they dropped the bombshell about Colonel Larsen, aka DCI Gonzalez. Her name hasn’t been mentioned anywhere, although they did say that they had an internal source who helped Wagner identify you so quickly.’

Gonzalez nodded again. It was impossible not to contemplate what Megan might be going through at that very minute. He had spent enough time watching Wagner to realise that the man liked to play his games long-term. He wasn’t only interested in the casual brutality that had become a hallmark of Elite officers; he liked to take his time. He liked to promise what was about to happen and then dish it out one step at a time. It wasn’t just physical—it quickly became mental torture as well.

The intermittent attention Megan was likely to receive from Wagner would give her ample opportunity to plan her own escape, but Gonzalez knew she wouldn’t do it. Unless she knew Wagner was coming gun in hand specifically to kill her, she would stay at her station, hoping for yet another snippet of information she could deliver.

Gonzalez didn’t know what he had done to deserve that kind of loyalty. It went beyond the gratitude the young woman had felt when he saved her life and improved her living conditions so considerably. He couldn’t offer her the transformation into an Elite she deserved so much, but he had arranged for nanogenbot-guided therapy—or nano-drug birth therapy (NanoBTher), as it had been known since the third generation of nanogenbots was created. In fact, the money had come directly out of his own pocket, though the young woman didn’t know that.

Every Elite, upon birth, was given multiple shots of carefully designed nanobots that fixed any defect that could be dealt with at a genetic level. Some modifications, like the one for the now virtually eradicated cystic fibrosis, were simple; they only required the modification of a single gene. Other modifications, like those that made people more resistant to developing depression, rheumatoid arthritis or diabetes, were far more complicated, as they required the manipulation of a number of genes without affecting overall personality and the body’s functions. The nanogenbots in the NanoBTher knew how to do just that. They also protected the body from other types of damage known under the not-so-fancy name of wear and tear.

Basically, any newborn who was given the new, improved fourth generation of NanoBTher could expect to live about a hundred and fifty years of damn near perfect health, with a robust immune system and without developing any of the diseases associated with ageing that had once plagued the human race. An average Leech didn’t have access to the NanoBTher, for obvious reasons; it simply cost too much. Each newborn had to have the NanoBTher specifically designed to suit their particular case, and that meant that the nano-pharmaceutical companies could charge a hefty price to compensate their skilled scientists for their expertise and time.

Before such sophistication had been available, the first generation of the nano-drug birth therapy, known back then simply as a nanoboost, hadn’t been tailored to a particular individual and simply fixed the most dangerous and lethal problems en masse. Because the nanoboost was uniform it could be produced cheaply and in great quantities. If anyone bothered to make the effort it could still be produced easily to cater for the Leeches.

However, since the primitive nanoboost was of no value to the Elite, who now enjoyed the privilege of the highly advanced fourth-generation NanoBTher, its production had ceased over a century ago, leaving millions at the mercy of random genetic mutations predisposing them to all sorts of problems later in life.

So when Colonel Larsen saved Selissa Bassett, now known as Megan O’Haress, and recruited her for his own team within the MIS, his first assignment for her had been to take a month off to undergo the therapy.

While the NanoBTher had been primarily designed for newborns, with appropriate modification and the addition of nano-smoothers it could be used at any point in life, though it tended to be less effective the later it was given. It was also lengthier and more complicated when used in adults as the smoothers had to undo any damage that had already developed, and the whole therapy could sometimes be deeply unpleasant. Even so it was worth it. It had extended Megan’s life by about four or five decades, fixed a wide range of poorly healed physical traumas from earlier years and offered her body a better toolbox to deal with