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  As I made my way down the hall, I wondered if Robert had the same connection to me as I had to him. I’d have to ask.

  I followed that emotional link to a set of double, sliding wood doors. Hearing Robert’s voice, I decided to be polite, gently sliding open one of the doors and slipping through. Warm sunlight lit up what any sane person would have called a full-on dining hall, large bay windows facing the sun as it rose over the estate. While there was a full-sized table complete with settings in the center of the room, there was also a cozier, little table set up by one of the windows.

  That was where Robert was, standing next to the table and looking out the window. A slim cellphone was to his ear, a hand casually stuck in his suit pocket. Oh, yes, he was dressed to the nines, even this early in the morning, in a tailored business suit that accented every best quality of his perfect body.

  “What a horrific way to pass,” he said, concern and sympathy growing inside him. “And most unusual. I thought Dr. O’Brien was happily married.”

  That made me arch an eyebrow and instinctively reach for the pencil and notebook I didn’t have on me. Walking across the room in quiet steps, I came up behind Paragon as he nodded at the reply in his ear.

  “Assist the New Harbor PD with anything they require for an investigation, and yes, press for one.” A moment’s pause as I came around to Robert’s side, a comforting hand at the small of his back. He glanced sidelong at me, his eyes softening as he replied to a question. “I don’t care about the negative press. The truth is more important. Just keep me apprised.”

  As he thumbed the phone’s screen, I pursed my lips. “That didn’t sound good. What’s wrong?”

  Robert turned towards me as he slipped his phone into his pocket. “I would hate to ruin the beauty of the day with bad news, but I already know that you won’t stop asking until I tell you.” He smiled as he ran a finger along the curve of my cheek and the surge of electricity in my core told me all I needed to about my lingering desires, still not sated fully. “But let’s at least eat as we talk. We have a lot to talk about.”

  “I can agree to that.” A rumble in the pit of my stomach spoke with me. “I’m famished.”

  A proper gentleman, Robert pulled out a chair at the cozy table for me, which I gratefully accepted, before taking the one opposite me. “When Benedict heard the shower running, he started preparing some food for us. He should be up shortly.”

  “A butler? A housekeeper?” I asked as I leaned over the table, chin propped in one hand as I reached across the table.

  Paragon took my hand in his, almost glowing in the morning light. “All that and more, I would say. He started working for my family shortly after I was born, and he has been like a second father to me. With my parents passed on, you could argue that he has been my last tether to the past.” I could almost imagine the unspoken addition of ‘to humanity’ from the tilt of his bearded chin.

  “Then I’m happy he has been around for you.” I squeezed his hand. “Just as I’m happy to be here for you now.” I arched an eyebrow. “Now, about that phone call …?”

  “Straight to the point.” Robert chuckled, a hint of amusement swirling with the mists of worry and warmth of happiness. “That was Dr. Archimedes, the head of S.O.S. Labs here in New Harbor.”

  I nodded. “I’ve interviewed him a time or two.”

  One of the premier super-geniuses on the planet, the main thing that kept the eccentric Saul Archimedes from being a superhero in his own right was his bad back and his utter disdain for going out into the field. Robert’s father wisely hired him to run S.O.S. Labs when Robert and I were kids, and he’d run the research labs ever since.

  “I should have known,” Paragon nodded. “Well, he was delivering the unfortunate news that David O’Brien, the lead researcher of the robotics department, died last night.”

  “Under unusual circumstances,” I added. Robert arched an eyebrow, and I smiled. “I’m a good listener. Go on.”

  “He was found in his office, dead of a massive cerebral hemorrhage combined with a heart attack. There were no immediate signs of foul play, yet there was some … disarray in the office and with the doctor himself.” Robert cleared his throat carefully, and I sensed a hint of embarrassment from him. “It was obvious that he had been in mid-coitus when he died.”

  “Death by sex?” I let out a low whistle. “That explains what you said about him being married. I take it that his wife wasn’t involved?”

  Robert shook his head as the nook’s door slid open across the room. “No, she was at home. As Dr. O’Brien often worked late, Mrs. O’Brien thought nothing of his disappearance until this morning, but by then it was too late. One of the morning cleaning crew found the body before the crack of dawn.”

  An older gentleman, still cutting a trim figure despite his advanced age in his full butler’s regalia, pushed in a serving cart laden with covered dishes. Well-styled silver hair topped his head while knowing blue eyes twinkled with youth that belied the wrinkles on his weathered skin. He looked quite happy, something I could confirm as true, a feeling that spiked when he saw Robert and I holding hands. This had to be Benedict.

  “Don’t mind me,” Benedict said as he maneuvered the cart around the table. “I know how you people are with business.”

  Robert smiled warmly at the older man, and the waves of familial love between the two made me smile as well. “Thank you, Benedict. We’ll try to finish this sordid tale quickly, so we can eat and, more importantly, so that you can be properly introduced to Christine here.”

  I waved at him. “Yes, thank you.” I sniffed the air, the domed dishes unable to keep out the mouth-watering aromas. “And thank you for breakfast. It smells amazing.”

  “This one has good taste, sir.” The butler winked at Robert. “Now, please, continue.” He busied himself with sorting and setting the last dishes on the table as I looked back at Paragon.

  “Any suspects? What about the security cameras?”

  Robert’s lips pressed into a vague frown as he snapped open his napkin from the table to settle on his lap. “As yet, we have none. There are no discrepancies in the laboratory’s check-in logs, while the security cameras had been disabled temporarily along a route from the main entrance to Dr. O’Brien’s office by someone using his clearances. Whoever did so used a clever, cascading program that only shut down the cameras for a short period, no doubt just long enough to for someone to come and go along that route.”

  Benedict clucked his tongue as he set the platters on the table. “That certainly sounds like foul play, sir.”

  “I have to agree, Benedict,” I added. “While it might have been something the doctor set up to cover up an adulterous affair, it’s a hell of a lot easier to rent a cheap hotel room in Happy Heights for that sort of thing.”

  “It is one more tech-related crime atop so many in the past week.” Robert stared hard in thought, his focus somewhere beyond the room. He glanced up, eyes moving first to me then to his butler. “I fear that before the day is through, we will have work to do.” Those deep, hazel eyes glanced back at me.

  “Yes,” I nodded fiercely. “You’ll never be alone again.”

  Benedict clapped his white-gloved hands and smiled broadly. “It’s about time, sir! I’ve only been waiting to hear something like that for a decade!”

  14

  “But that is for later,” Robert said as he laid his palms on the table. “Benedict will start to chide us for placing business over necessity if we put off eating for too much longer.”

  “Not to mention, sir, that you have a considerable day ahead at the office,” the butler added as he pulled the domes off the trays on the table, unleashing the heavenly scent underneath. Maybe it was still the afterglow of last night’s activities, but every sense of mine seemed stronger. The scents of the eggs Benedict (apt dish, considering who made it), bacon, fruits, and a few dishes I wasn’t familiar with were almost orgasmic on their own. “Or perhaps I should go ahead and c
all Mrs. Poulis? Tell her that she will need to handle your meetings for the day?”

  “I hope this doesn’t sound out of turn, Benedict,” I butted in before Robert could say a word, “but I think that’s best. We have a lot to discuss on a lot of different fronts.”

  Benedict’s amusement was plain. “I do believe the lady knows best, sir.” As he set the domes on his cart, he cast a sidelong glance at me. “Perhaps you would like me to contact Mr. Cabe at the Sentinel as well, Ms. Klein? Inform him that you may be delayed from checking in at the office?”

  It was my turn to be amused as I nodded, spreading my own napkin on my lap. “That would be great. Jackson knows, well, everything about the hero side of things with me, so if he asks you about that sort of thing —”

  “I shall feel free to be as open as necessary then.” Benedict finished his preparations by setting an old-fashioned chrome coffee pot on the table with a bowl of sugar cubes. “I hope you enjoy your coffee black, ma’am, but if you need cream, I shall deliver it right away.”

  “I’m good, thank you,” I nodded, as he pulled the cart away from the table.

  “Then I shall let you enjoy your food and your discussion.” The butler nodded to Paragon as he headed towards the door. “I will make the necessary calls, sir, and if you need anything else …”

  “I won’t hesitate, Benedict,” Robert smiled. “As always, I am in your debt.”

  “As we all are in yours, sir.” Benedict bowed his head with a wink before disappearing with his load.

  I found myself laughing as I plunked two sugar cubes in my coffee cup. “He managed to escape without introductions, you know.”

  “Benedict has the knack for saying exactly what needs to be said and then disappearing before you know it,” Robert chuckled. “He knows we need to talk, and we need to eat, not necessarily in that order.”

  “Let’s do the second, then, and have it done.” I picked up the coffee pot. “How do you like it?”

  He arched an eyebrow, a spark of last night’s fire in his eyes as that continual undercurrent of desire spiked. “I believe you know the answer to that question at this point.”

  “Please,” I smirked, feeling the heat rise in me, “let’s not make the workmen renovate another room.”

  Robert’s smile warmed. “At least not yet. Black for me.”

  It seemed as if he was as hungry as I was. Considering how much of a work-out fighting mutant dinosaurs was, not to mention our post-battle activities, I supposed we both needed it. As we tucked in, I discovered that Benedict’s cooking tasted as good as it smelled, and being a Yankee girl, I’d never had cheese-and-shrimp grits before. I’d have to get the recipe for that, though I felt I could maybe give him a few tricks on making fluffier croissants.

  Despite temptation on both sides, we managed to restrict ourselves to small talk as we ate. I talked a bit about the newspaper business, how I started at the Sentinel as a copy girl straight out of college, and Robert explained a bit about the life of an executive in one of the largest conglomerates in the world. Though I wasn’t an economics major, I caught onto enough from some of my corporate investigations to realize that he really did try to keep tabs on his businesses. Frankly, it was a miracle he hadn’t snapped from the strain of juggling so many responsibilities.

  I noted to myself to speak with Benedict about this later. Maybe we could conspire to lessen some of those.

  As we finished, sipping coffee in the late morning sun, I smiled at him over the table. “So, we are refueled and refreshed. Do you want me to pick back up with the questions from last night or …?”

  He set down his coffee cup and steepled his hands, elbows on the edge of the table. “I believe that’s quite fair, Christine. I am certain your curiosity has barely been fed with how … swiftly we progressed last night.”

  “Hey, we both wanted it.” I nodded reassuringly. “And I think we’re both happy because of it. I certainly feel, well, miraculously well, if that isn’t too cheesy to say?”

  “Admittedly, so do I. Again, it may sound, as you put it, cheesy, but I cannot say I’ve ever felt better in my life.”

  I arched an eyebrow. “Have you ever felt bad?”

  “An odd question. Of course, I have. Well, emotionally. Mentally. Physically, no, I suppose not, yet I feel even more invigorated today than any other.” He raised his index fingers together and tapped the top of his lip. “I would have thought you would be curious as to how I deduced your secret identity?”

  “Oh, that.” I finished my coffee in one straight slug before nodding at him. “I was going to ask, but it wasn’t near the top of the lists. While I’m happy you won your bet or wager or whatever with Fortress,” – I shook my head with a smile – “I should have known you would have figured it out quickly enough if you wanted to. Considering I gained these powers in that explosion, even with the damage done to the security system, I had to be your top suspect from the start.”

  “Ah, yes, you would be correct. I suspect he wanted to throw me a ‘softball’ for this first little, well, test? To call it a wager feels wrong in retrospect.” Robert shrugged his shoulders slightly. “Whatever you wish to call it, I understand the point Fortress is trying to make. That I could do so much more good if I could better focus all this raw power with deductive reasoning.”

  “I’d say you do pretty well for yourself,” I pointed out. “Your knack for seeing ahead on things has saved the day more times than I can count. Still, we can all improve. I sure have a long way to go myself.”

  “For your fifth day, Christine, you are doing remarkably well. No doubt your years investigating and reporting on the heroic community has prepared you well.”

  “I guess it has,” I hummed as I looked off out the window, amazed all over again at the vast bounds of the Washington estate. “But it’s not a substitute for actually, you know, punching dinosaurs in the face.” I focused on him, catching his eyes with my own. “So, how long has it been? How long have you been this … alone?”

  Robert’s brow wrinkled as he unfolded his hands, leaning back in his chair. “Do you mean sexually or emotionally?”

  I managed not to laugh at the clinically blunt way he put it forward. “Either? Both? The second is probably more important though. You could be a celibate monk, as much as that would pain me, but if you were still, well, connected to the world, I’d be happy enough.”

  “Considering that I’ve found you now, I’m not sure if this is really important to discuss.” When my gaze didn’t relent, something that even the mightiest hero in the world couldn’t seem to stand for long, he sighed. “But you think it is important, and I should look past my own preconceptions on the matter.”

  “Look,” I said softly, holding a hand out to him again, “I know it must feel stupid and painful to think about it now, but you of all people should know that the fastest way for things to go wrong in the future is to ignore the past.”

  A vaguely strangled look passed over his face with a wave of embarrassment at having his own futurist ideas turned on him. Still, he took my hand in his. “Of course. It has been three years since I last met someone who I decided to let in, through the doors of the fortress, as you might say. Most women, well, many are good people, yet I have found most of those that had the spiritual virtues I look for didn’t have the, well, physical requirements for a … well … an active sexual relationship.”

  “And let me guess, those that could survive a night in the bedroom fell short morally?” A sympathetic frown crossed my lips as I squeezed his hand. “I can’t imagine how horrible that had to be. I could sense your loneliness, see it in your heart of hearts, but even that isn’t the same as experiencing it first-hand.”

  He let out a slow, cleansing breath, through the nose and out of the mouth. “Yes, exactly.” He arched an eyebrow slightly. “Interesting. You are an empath or telepath of some kind?”

  “I hadn’t thought of it in technical terms like that, but I suppose so. It’s been both pai
nful and wonderful at the same time, seeing how people around me feel.” I tilted my head and bit my lip. “It’s nice when people surprise you, are better inside than they seem, but I’m finding a lot of people fall short. Still,” - I turned my eyes back to him with a smile - “it led me to you, let me know you needed help, and it’s about the best trouble detector I guess you can get.”

  “As multi-talented as a heroine as you are a reporter.” Robert nodded, admiration and satisfaction swirling in his heart. “I hope that what we started last night will continue. I … need you, but at the same time, I know that human hearts don’t work like they do in some dime-store romance novel. I know that what I feel for you, what I hope you feel for me, isn’t quite love yet, that it has to be nurtured and …” He frowned with that vaguely strangled look again. “Now I’m talking like someone in a romance novel myself.”

  I started to laugh, and after a few seconds, he joined me. Our laughter mingled like music, point and counterpoint, and my heart felt like it was flying. As we quieted, I fell into a soft smile.

  “I understand what you’re saying though. Trust me, this is like some modern fairy tale to me, but we both know we’re going to have to work at this. We started off strong, and the only way we’ll keep it strong is to keep at it.” Letting go of Robert’s hand, I made myself another cup of coffee. “Speaking of work, I’ve been doing research into Hardware.”

  Paragon nodded slowly. “Considering you helped put him away, I can understand your interest in the case. If we consider that it’s likely that some of these other high-tech shenanigans may be attributed to him attempting to reassert his dominance on the streets, he has my interest as well. Last night’s attack wasn’t something Magnetaur could have done alone. Those ‘dinosaur Terminators’, as you put them, are far beyond his technical skills.”

  My eyes widened as a thought occurred to me, my reporter’s gut instinct twitching in response. “Hey, so Hardware has a known M.O. of stealing and improving research from others, right? That was how Omnitech was throwing blame away from them after the Omniarmor affair.”