Project Enterprise Bundle 2 by Pauline Baird Jones

Author:Pauline Baird Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781942583141
Publisher: Pauline Baird Jones

Chapter Twenty-seven

“I always thought he needed his head examined,” Chameleon said, when they were once more back in the conference room. “But Shan is a diplomat, a freaking Ambassador. We can’t just knock him out and open his skull no matter how much we might want to.” Her gaze narrowed to laser points. “And it won’t happen unless you tell me what you don’t want to tell me, because I know you can assess that device using nanites.”

There was an ancient Earth saying about confession being good for the soul. Whoever said it hadn’t met Chameleon. More likely it was a good way to get shot.

“The device appears to be protected. It,” Ashe paused, but there was no diplomatic way to admit it, “deleted the drone from my assessment team before it could report.”

“Deleted?” The Chameleon’s man asked the question. “Permanently? Was it sentient?”

What did the worried look he sent his woman mean? Not a shock when Lurch didn’t respond or even twitch.

“An assessment team is always non-sentient. A sentient nanite won’t enter a human without permission.” Sending in an assessment team was on the edge of dubious, but necessary under the circumstances. It didn’t lessen the shock of a deletion and there was the data loss added to all the other troubling nanite attacks. “It might be recoverable if we open the device, but Lurch thinks it unlikely.” Ashe stared at the man, but it didn’t help dilute the intensity of the Chameleon’s gaze boring into the side of her head like Ashe was the one who needed her head examined. A deflection seemed in order. “When I touched him, he tagged me with a tracking mineral.”

Chameleon made a face. “It’s annoying but harmless. We’ve altered the settings so he can’t transport anyone off planet.”

Ashe felt that gut twitch again. “How many women has he tagged?”

“Anyone he’s managed to touch who is under thirty? We have discussed it and decided to let him think he’s getting away with it for now.” Her brows arched, then descended. “It bothers you?”

“Minerals are one of the few things that can be tracked in the stream.” She gave Chameleon a few seconds of simmering, before adding, “The amount he used is too small, of course—”

“Of course.”

“But a concentration of the mineral in one place could be considered in the nature of a beacon…” Ashe shrugged.

You should not enjoy this quite so much.

I know, but she’s so smart, she should have figured out it makes no sense for him to do this when diplomacy is working. Ashe stiffened. Did he do this in the alternate timelines?

His assent came without words. You believe this is part of a larger plot?

I don’t know what I believe, but I need to know what happened with this man in the alternate timelines. The download of information was immediate, she’d give him that, and nice after all the withholding. She frowned, as she absorbed the data, taking the question to the room.

“Smith tried to remove the Chameleon from the timeline.

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