Graell's Quest - The Rise Of Mordred free porn video

Graell's Quest - The Rise of Mordred Blink and move. Something as simple as a blink and a move; how long had it been? Frank flexed a bicep. He chuckled, immensely pleased by the sudden renewed simplicity of moving. The laugh echoed, there was something eerily disquieting about the sound of that chuckle, a low and evil, vaguely maniacal undertone, completely missed by Frank, because chuckling was a regained capability too. He was quite pleased by the way it sounded. What else could move? Somewhat unsteadily, Frank stood, surprised, and not, to actually *be* standing on what had formerly been unresponsive limbs; surprised that 'stand' had actually happened at all. Other commands followed. Frank was soon in a very recognized bedroom. A frown fixed itself to his face. 'What's it been?' Frank growled at the thought. 'Years?' he answered himself, recalling indignities and frustration; impossibilities and outrage. "All those fuckers are going to get theirs," Frank muttered. There was no answer; there was no one else there. Had Frank had any imagination at all, then the step from 'not very well adjusted' to 'madness' might not have been inevitable; but Frank had no imagination. When he caught sight of the big-boobed blonde in the bedroom's full-length mirror mimicking his every move, he flipped out; if he hadn't misjudged the distance to the mirror, he would have smashed it. Any clinical psychologist would have recognized the snap of a relatively feeble psyche and been able to describe it with any number of big words. The rage was eventually overcome by fear and incomprehension. Frank checked his pants, knowing in advance the horror that was down there, but unable to resist the compulsion to be certain. He could move again, but nothing else was back to normal. Frank paced the hall, his rage returned, simmering to a patient boil. Tom got home relatively late, to a dark house. Nothing terribly unusual about that though and he moved by rote familiarity from the entrance vestibule towards the kitchen to get a beer from the fridge. A movement to his left caught his attention. Far too late, he reacted, turning towards the movement. A terrible pain exploded in his abdomen, taking his breath, leaving his legs oddly weak. He collapsed to the floor, struggling to understand what was happening. The last thing his fading vision registered was the sight of the sex doll, but not the sex doll. For one thing, it was moving, but worse, was its odd giggling: Chortling, really. How could that be? Whatever - who - ever it was, was waving a long bladed kitchen knife in front of his eyes, slowly, with evident glee. Tom tried to crawl; to get away, but that was not his future. He felt his trousers being lowered, and while he had thought the pain in his stomach was bad, it was nothing compared to the pain that came next. The last fleeting thought that crossed Tom's mind before the final darkness overcame him, was the wish that he could warn Vivian. A number of benefits resulted from K's decision to frequent the university campus. For a semi-recluse, it was a novelty just getting out of the condo on a regular basis. The most important thing though, was the conception of a plan to establish a formal identity. K had realized, while it was interesting to gain more information about the odd bracelet, it was of paramount importance to deal with the precarious pseudo-existence. Almost every day was a reminder that 'Kei' had no identification; no identity beyond that which was self- professed. The germ of the plan K envisaged was risky, but the potential rewards were astronomical. To date, everything indicated that 'Kei' was in her late teens, a young looking early twenties maybe, apparently in the prime of health and therefore presumably a full life-span to live. The freedom and potential of this was priceless to K, understanding that a few months ago the medical community had advised one Keith Grail was in the last few years of life. The gender switch took some adaptation but was easily accepted as a minor issue in consideration of the reward. 'Truth be told,' K had decided while looking in the mirror brushing out the long dark locks of hair after a shower, 'it's interesting to see the world from an alternate perspective.' In preparing the plan, K had had the thought, 'We're going to need correspondence, lots of correspondence,' and smiled. 'Did guns ever solve anything, or just end it?' The university administrators had constantly berated Dr. Graell about keeping records and responding to correspondence in a timely fashion. K grinned while reviewing a letter, 'If they only knew the skill wasn't one that didn't exist, I just considered it a waste of time.' The various texts being drafted now, on university letterhead, were ingeniously bureaucratic; matter of fact documents - offer of early admission, offer of admission - that would be sent to any prospective student. The document replying to these was artlessly optimistic in its pleasure to accept. All of the ones purporting to be sent from the University, in some way, referenced Dr. Keith Graell's personal university identification number while the one accepting the offer of admission quoted it in return. The goal was simple: Create an administrative mix up to be sorted out. The administrative creativity helped to occupy K's mind. True to her word, Wanda was thinking, and K heard, nor saw, naught of her, regardless of the fact that when thoughts strayed, they inevitably turned towards their shopping excursion. It had been the most fun and personally rewarding day K had had in years. But every time K's thoughts strayed to that day, they inevitably focussed on the end of the day. As a consequence, K was becoming more and more sexually frustrated. K wasn't used to being distracted by sexual tension without having any normal outlet; a further source of frustration, the self-help option was still being elusive. So, that Monday, K was back on the path to the University for a meeting with Dr. Szekeres and Rajesh Jain. Today, K had chosen to wear a loose blouse, belted at the waist with a hem not quite as long as a miniskirt, over a pair of form-fitting straight-legged jeans. Casual, but sophisticated, Wanda had said. The pumps that Wanda had recommended for this particular combination had more heel than K was accommodated to causing a slower pace and a bit of a back and forth hip sashay. The movement and slight lower leg extension was causing heads to turn, as Wanda hand known would be the case. The sun was out, things were moving forward; life was good. K had chosen to carry a sling bag today to transport the bracelet. It wasn't that Kei truly believed there was any worry of danger from wearing the artefact; danger was just a convenient excuse if asked 'why the bag' and it was necessary to carry a bag large enough for the envelopes and paperwork. Today's first stop was the Administration building. Climbing the stairs to the second floor General Office, K was relieved that there was as large a volume of traffic as memory recollected. A quick survey of the office layout provided further comfort as all of the various clerks and managerial staff were more or less in the same workstations as ever. K got into line, and patiently waited. Waiting at the counter for the next free clerk, the next person in line, K casually slipped a couple of letters into the "put away" basket. It was one of the riskiest parts of the plan, and a release of pent up breath accompanied the realization the job was done without anyone noticing. Then, it was K's turn. "Yes?" "Hi, I'm, uh," K deliberately stammered to appear confused and in need of expert assistance, "looking to apply for a scholarship?" "Oh?" The clerk looked K up and down, partly in jealousy, partly in bored indifference. "You have your paperwork?" "Not really," K strove for an embarrassed appearance. "I want to apply for the Asian Fellowship Award, but I'm not sure I qualify." "Asian Fellowship?" The clerk frowned. "I'm not sure that's one you apply for, let me check." She motioned for K to follow her around behind the counter to a workstation. As they passed a row of filing cabinets, K slid another piece of correspondence down between two of them, disguising the "whish" of falling paper with a cough. No one noticed. The clerk sat down at her workstation and started keying in information. She frowned, maneuvered and clicked the mouse a couple of times and her face brightened. "Well," she flashed a hollow smile at K, "you learn something new...." She swivelled the screen so that K could see. "There's a major award based on committee selection, but there are also a bunch of minor awards that eligible candidates can apply for - it seems that as long as one parent or two grandparents are naturalized citizens from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Vietnam with the appropriate GPA you can apply." She looked at K. "Does that apply?" "Yes." K nodded eagerly. "Is there an application form?" She nodded. "I can print it for you." "Thank you." K smiled. "That'd be great." The clerk manipulated the mouse and the whir of a laser printer started in the distance. She got up to retrieve her document from the shared resources. K smiled, but as soon as her back was turned, slipped a letter into the bottom of her outbox under a couple of other pieces of correspondence. On reflection, K realized, in another couple of years this sort of subterfuge probably wouldn't be possible. Thankfully, for now at least, the law still required that paper copies of contractual documents with signatures had to be transmitted and retained. "Here you go," the clerk returned. "You'll note that certain background information has to be provided by notarized copy or original." "You're too kind," K smiled. "When I get it together, do I bring it back here?" The clerk responded with a negative nod, and pointed to an address at the bottom of the form. "No, when you have it together you mail it direct to the sponsors." "Thanks." K managed an ear to ear appreciative smile. "You've been very helpful." Two envelopes containing 'real' correspondence from Dr. Keith Graell went into the inbox on the way out. K had debated actually mailing these, but decided that the risk of someone noticing a dated postmark was too high. Interestingly enough, the signature on these had been problematic: 'Kei's fine motor control was better than 'Keith's. It had taken several tries to convincingly mimic Dr. Graell's sloppy signature. K skipped down the stairs at once relieved and apprehensive, it had gone too well. Hopefully all of the various letters would be found and make their way into the appropriate files. However, there wasn't time to dwell on it; the meeting in the Engineering building was next. K skipped down the stairs and out the door to cut across the commons grounds to get to the meeting. "Kei." Dr. Szekeres smiled when the brunette entered the room. "Hi Dr. Szekeres." K returned the smile. "Hey," Rajesh added. K returned the greeting with a two fingered wave of one hand, although looking somewhat hesitantly at the other two people in the room Dr. Szekeres caught Kei's apprehensive expression and nodded at the other two people. "This is David Hogshead, and Tina Meyer." The two newcomers nodded greetings. "Tina will be operating the Ultrasound. I asked David to observe, he's a doctoral candidate in Electrical Engineering," Szekeres explained. "I didn't want any more equipment to, you know." He made an exploding 'poof' gesture with his hands. "Wouldn't want to get a reputation." K nodded gravely with a hint of a smile. "Reputation; bad," while thinking, 'okay, that makes sense.' Rajesh smiled, it was a good working environment and the reason why he'd asked Dr. Szekeres to be his Advisor. In too many places damaged equipment would have meant anger and recriminations. Dr. Szekeres was not only joking about it, he'd made it clear to Administration that he'd been supervising and responsible: No subtle hints to finger- point, no blame-shifting; just let's put a team together and see if we can't figure out what happened, particularly since a surface examination indicated that what had happened *couldn't* have happened. "Did you bring the piece?" Dr. Szekeres asked. K nodded. "Keith is okay with this?" Szekeres revisited the question, still somewhat surprised by his erstwhile friend's change of heart. Again, K nodded. "Great." Dr. Szekeres made a head gesture to Rajesh. "Would you mind giving it to Rajesh and coming into the back room? There are a few things to go over." K hesitated, uncertainty over losing control of the bracelet returned. Nevertheless, when Rajesh approached, K handed over the bracelet. Rajesh smiled, and turned to David to show him the artefact and explain the earlier accident. K followed Dr. Szekeres into the inner lab, then through the door into the attached office. Dr. Szekeres turned to the young woman. "Kei, I'm sorry for springing that on you, I should have sent you an e-mail or something - it slipped my mind." His tone was genuinely apologetic, as was his body language, but there was also an indication there was more to follow. K's head tilted to one side expectantly. "I haven't told Tina and David any of the background of the piece, and I was hoping you wouldn't either. I'd like to keep their minds open; no preconceptions, okay?" His eyes were searching for compliance, and seeing a bit of hesitation still, continued. "All I told them was that you brought a family heirloom to us to try to have the metal content identified: Not far from the truth, no? I'd really rather they didn't know - I've already said as much to Rajesh - about it being found in the Amazon. Rajesh has told them that now we're looking into the cause of the equipment malfunction." "Okay." K nodded, but added, "I'm sorry to have seemed hesitant. I'm just a little uncomfortable with crowds." "Really?" A sort of perplexed twitch crossed Dr. Szekeres' face, from his point of view, Kei dressed like she wanted to be the centre of attention. "I never would have guessed." He spread his hands in a gesture of magnanimity. "I'll keep that in mind. Solved then. We're okay?" K nodded. They went back into the inner lab, rejoining the two doctoral candidates and the lab tech. Tina had just finished securing the bracelet to a cylindrical "blank" and was getting ready to start the ultrasound. The two young men were watching the ultrasound's screen waiting for the image to resolve. K noticed a meter attached to the "tail" end of the bracelet and looked from Rajesh to David. Rajesh smiled. "David's suggestion, stupid simple really but brilliant - a voltmeter," the smile broadened into a grin. "At least we might get a little warning before we all start sporting afros." K and Szekeres laughed with Rajesh, the other two grinned, but it was clear that it was more a 'you had to be there' joke. Tina made a pass, stopped, and then repeated the motion more slowly, a frown appearing on her face. "What is that?" Rajesh pointed at the screen. "Not..." Tina paused. "...sure." She repeated the sweep a third time then pressed a button. A laser printer whirred into life. The tech went over to the printer and took the sheet of paper it spit out over to Rajesh. David was crowding in to get a look at the same time. Rajesh frowned and put the paper down so that everyone could look at it. Szekeres' curiosity was peaked. He walked over, picked it up to take a closer look and then handed it to Kei. Kei looked at it, but not being sure of the import of the image, handed it back. "It looks like it has internal organs?" K's tone betrayed a misunderstanding of the image. The more the piece was investigated, the more mysterious it became. David laughed. "I can see where you're coming from." He indicated a section of the ultrasound picture. "but if you look at this part here, it's clear. This is circuitry." "Circuitry." Szekeres nodded, it had to have been of course, but nothing like having evidence to back up an hypothesis. There had to have been some sort of internal structure to generate the feedback loop that had fried the satellite dish. "We need a better machine," Tina said quietly when it was apparent that none of the others were going to say anything else; each lost in their own conjectures. Szekeres nodded to Tina. "What do you suggest?" As a "mere" technician Tina was used to being ignored by the "smart" people, not having her opinion solicited. She started, and shifted uncomfortably. "Um." She looked in growing nervousness from one set of expectant eyes to the next. "I was thinking maybe a phased array ultrasound - C-scan imaging? It'd have a motor drive and mount?" Szekeres nodded thoughtfully at the suggestion. "Yes," he paused for a moment of contemplation and then continued, "the motor drive you're thinking would allow for precision mapping?" Tina nodded eagerly in relief, grateful that the older scientist had followed her thinking. "Yes, because it looked to me like there were a lot of areas like that one - that was just the one that I could get the best focus on with the hand-wand for an image." "Does the University even have one?" Rajesh asked. Tina nodded. "The Faculty of Medicine. But it's in high demand. We might be able to use it for a couple of days since we're in between semesters, but after that, I don't think so." "Okay." Rajesh nodded. "So we've got no more than two weeks to get this done." Frank waited, looking patient; but crouched in the closet alternately flicking the knife into the floor and wiggling it free, he was anything but. The rage that seethed behind his eyes would have been apparent to anyone looking into them. He'd arranged Tom's naked body carefully on the bed, it was almost like artwork. Frank was very pleased with the effort, but nevertheless, impatient. He'd retired to the closet to ambush the woman. Frank was comfortable in the closet, after all, it had been "home" for who knew how long? But, he was also aware that as an ambush site it had its problems. As his impatience grew, so did his rage. He wanted the woman to get home. He wanted it now. He'd been too quick with the man; he'd realized that after the fact. That mistake wouldn't be made a second time, he wanted his revenge; but he wanted it to last. He had no idea how long they'd been messing around with him, it was payback time. Frank froze at the sound of a door opening, and was rewarded in sensing the vibration of it closing firmly. The import was clear: At last, she was home. This part was the touchy part, Frank knew, but he was counting on his prison experience to make the difference. He wanted her unconscious, not dead, and he didn't want any screaming... ...at least not yet. When the bedroom light went on, Frank pounced. There was a second of silence, protracted by Vivian's reaction to the movement out of the corner of her eye. Frank's fist drove into her solar plexus to cut short any screaming. Her knees collapsed and she sank to the ground. Her hands scrabbled ineffectually against the hand that had fastened around her neck, chocking off her air supply. In seconds, she went limp. Frank maintained his grip for a 30 count, just to be sure. He was annoyed at how unexpectedly difficult it was to lift the woman; his strength wasn't what he thought it should be, but he managed, taking her to the basement. Vivian opened her eyes. The face directly in front of her was familiar, and yet not. Frank smiled. "You know who I am, don't you?" He was playing with a knife, sliding it back and forth against his palm, occasionally testing the point. Vivian tried to move, but her arms and legs were restrained. She tugged, futilely against the bonds. Panic, fear, disbelief and finally confusion clouded her thoughts. The image of Tom on the bed returned to her, and she started to whimper and choke; tried to beg. Frank looked, with some satisfaction, at the bound woman. He was familiar, very familiar, with the basement: The special room, the sound-proofing, the specially adapted exercise equipment, the toys. Oh yeah, very familiar. Vivian looked at her captor. She recognized the face. It was, yet it couldn't be, the sex doll. She'd always considered the expression on the doll's face to be sly; sexy, seductive and knowing. Now, that same expression on an animated face looked evil. She shivered, unable to resist pulling at her bonds, knowing it was futile, knowing it was probably exciting her captor, but the impulse to escape was uncontrollable. Vivian realized she was fastened to their "St Andrew's Cross;" a homemade device. Tom had been immensely proud of building the device, particularly the gimbal which allowed it to be fixed in any position from upright to flat. Vivian froze. Frank had commenced to slowly slice the garments free of her body. Frank was being careful not to nick anything, not even a little bit. Not yet. It was enough to see the growing panic and horror in her eyes. When Vivian was naked, Frank took a good look. He'd seen her naked before of course, but only from a limited and fixed vantage point. He thought her too skinny, but that was because he preferred big breasts, kind of like the ones that were on his own chest now. The thought made his rage grow hot. He didn't know what had been done to him, he didn't know who had done it to him, he didn't particularly care about the why. He'd get them, whoever they were, and they'd pay. But first things first, he dropped his drawers. Time to get a little relief. For the next two weeks, K's days were occupied by the work at the University's metallurgy lab. Tina had quickly developed an efficient scan routine and was churning out high quality images of the interior of the bracelet. The three engineers had argued the merits of various depth settings before agreeing on a fairly conservative step. Tina had set the machine so that each image was accompanied by a printout containing frequency responses of the material composing that "slice" of the object. In her experience, it was always better to over- anticipate the information that would be needed. It was easier than trying to go back after the fact. After the first two days, it was clear the complexity of the interior of the bracelet was even greater than they had suspected. It was David that first appreciated that they didn't have the expertise to evaluate what they were seeing. He asked Dr. Szekeres if he could bring another member into the team. Szekeres had deferred an answer. Of course, from the University point of view he was the team leader, and if anything developed from the work they were doing it would be his pen that apportioned the credits and therefore it was his decision if another person was brought on or not. But Dr. Szekeres had made promises about confidentiality, and the more people the harder maintaining confidentiality became. Moreover, Keith Graell had at one time been not just a colleague, but a very good friend. Szekeres had felt bound to propose the decision on involving another person to Kei. Once again he had her alone in the back room. "Kei," Szekeres started delicately. "David wants a computer science engineer brought on board. Preferably one that was able to use a CAD suite." He paused. "From an Electrical Engineer point of view he thinks that it would be useful to use the individual images to create a three dimensional model of the bracelet." Kei waited patiently, the need was not yet apparent. Szekeres could see that Kei wasn't swayed. "The idea is to figure out what the apparent circuitry does." Kei blinked. "They can do that?" "David seems to think so," he affirmed. Kei thought about it, weighing the potential of discovery against the potential gain in understanding. "Okay." Kei nodded agreement. "Same conditions though - it's just a family artefact." Szekeres was pleasantly surprised the young woman had agreed. She was a lot like her Uncle, caging and individualistic. He'd noted Kei tended to gravitate to one corner of the lab, out of the way, unobtrusively observing the others at work, like she was evaluating the group dynamic, in the group, but not part of the group. He was also impressed at how much Kei understood the requirement to capture information. He'd watched Kei take it upon herself to make sure the image files Tina produced were saved as jpg's and then type the notes David and Rajesh were making on each image, correlate and file them with the frequency response data. He'd concluded Kei was a born researcher. Szekeres had given Hogshead the green light and Rudyard "No Relation" Kipling was brought on board. Kipling had been brought suspiciously quickly up to speed on their progress, a fact that didn't go unobserved by Szekeres. On viewing the images they'd taken so far, Rudi had instantly gotten excited. He'd also quickly exposed himself to be very much an alpha male. At the end of the second day of Kipling's involvement, Dr. Szekeres returned from his office to the lab to see how the day's work had gone to interrupt what was becoming a heated discussion between Rajesh, David and Rudi. "C'mon," Rudi was saying in response to something Szekeres wasn't privy to. "You can't keep this a secret." Szekeres noted that Kei was in her habitual seat in the corner. Tina had pulled up a chair off to one side and a little apart from the young woman as she too was content to simply observe at this point. Rajesh was shaking his head in frustration, looking from David to Rudi and back. "You agreed to the terms; no background information is available, no invasive testing." David interjected on Rudi's behalf. "You can't hold us to that; we didn't know what you had when we made that agreement." So, Hogshead was indeed on the computer guy's side, Szekeres noted, thinking himself lucky to have gotten there when he had; Rajesh could use some support. "Now, now, people," Dr. Szekeres said with a disarming grin. "What's gotten everybody so excited?" "I want to know where it came from," Rudi said with more than a trace of frustration colouring his tone. David nodded. "I don't think the secrecy is serving any purpose." "What is it, Chinese?" Rudi continued, looking from Rajesh to Szekeres, and seeing nothing by way of confirmation continued. "Russian? C'mon. Even our stuff is better than theirs. It can't be American, we would've known about it by now. A trade show, a Journal; this kind of innovation would have shown up somewhere." Szekeres maintained a poker face. He liked poker and was fond of saying that academia was a perfect training ground for the poker table. Except this time, ignorance wasn't a bluff. He truly didn't know where the two young academics were coming from. "You're going to have to bring me up to speed on this one." Szekeres turned to his doctoral student, deliberately using a familiar to make him comfortable and elevate his status in the group. "Raj?" "As we've been saying all along, it appears to be complicated circuitry," Raj explained with some exasperation. "But, the more pictures we take, the more the internal structure of the piece looks like it has a three dimensional structure." He paused. "According to David and Rudi that sort of advanced microelectronics is years, maybe decades, ahead of where we are now - or the Americans. "What's got Rudi here bothered," he continued with a trace of disdain. "is that he thinks we're engaged in some kind of espionage deal on behalf of the government. He doesn't like the government." Szekeres raised an eyebrow. "Okay, that's ridiculous. Aside from the fact that the government is essentially paying our salaries, what's the heartache with a little research?" Rudi pointed an accusatory finger at Kei. "It's hers. Look at her. She's some kind of sleeper agent. Jail is jail folks." Rajesh smiled, David guffawed. "You're kidding right?" David turned on his erstwhile ally. "I want to know where this came from just as much as you, but, get real, okay? Look at her. She's a mutt, not a purebred." Rudi fumed. K blinked, not sure whether or not to be offended by the "mutt" reference. Szekeres cleared his throat. "Yes, well." He paused to let his tone of underlying displeasure at the slant of the conversation sink in, then switched to a cool, light and matter of fact voice. Calming. "What exactly brought this to a head?" David nodded, regretting his comment. The last thing he'd meant to imply was that Kei was a 'dog' - he thought quite the opposite, as would any hetero-male. "I'm sorry about the drama." He inclined his head towards Rudi. "3D circuitry is cutting edge stuff, power savings, space savings. Essentially the next gazillionaire is going to be the guy that solves heat issues." He pointed at the bracelet. "If it IS circuitry - and I think the chances of it not being electronics pretty astronomical at this point - in the scans, then this thing is light years ahead of anything I've heard of. It isn't layered; it looks more like it was printed." "What?" Rajesh looked at his former antagonist in sudden understanding. "Yeah, printed." David nodded. "Like with a 3D printer. Except, 3D printers aren't printing metal: At least not yet really. The only machines that can are big bulky and expensive and - typically - are printing guns. Nothing like this kind of resolution." "Okay." Szekeres nodded in dawning understanding. "So integrated circuitry." He paused. "What does it do?" He turned to Rudi, his expectation of an answer clear. Rudi's angry expression remained angry, he'd been fuming for his chance to speak, but now that he was being asked to comment on what was supposed to be his area of expertise, he didn't really have an answer. His response had a sheepish overtone. "I don't know. Some elements," he made a vague circling gesture on an area on one of the images on the workbench in front of him, "are similar to some chips I've seen, but I've got no idea what the sub-routines do. It's incredibly complex and the beyond-ultra micro engineering makes it that much more difficult to trace. It isn't any machine language I've ever encountered before and the resolution isn't really good enough." He paused, seeing a way to advance his agenda. "What we should do is take a cross section and do scanning electron microscopy to determine how intricate the circuitry overlays are." "We've promised not to compromise the piece," Szekeres said lightly, all the while looking at Kei to judge reactions. "so I'm afraid that's out of the question." "That's absurd." Rudi was only just preventing his irritation from exploding. "We should be using every means at our disposal to figure this out. Not preserving some trinket out of stupid sentimental value." He jerked an arm up in frustration. "This could be worth a lot of money - not to mention prestige - even if we only figure out how the heat baffling works." "Not our call," Szekeres responded, again looking to Kei, but the implied slight had rolled off her just like the last one had. The juxtaposition of wisdom on youth had him intrigued. But this time, Kei felt impelled to answer. "Cross section means cutting doesn't it?" Kei asked rhetorically, before finishing. "I can't allow that." Rudi looked from the older man to the young woman, trying to figure out what to say to make them see reason. They were obviously on the same page, but he found it difficult to accept that the young woman was calling the shots. A potentially huge advancement in miniaturization lay in front of them and he didn't know where it came from, or what it did. Anger getting the better of him, throwing up his arms in an exaggerated gesture of disgust, he stomped dramatically towards the door of the lab but stopped short of exiting, his instinct for self- preservation was very, very good. He whirled, waiting for a reaction. "Well." Szekeres kept his tone light after Rudi's dramatics. "We've got the machine for two more days;" he turned to Tina. "Will we at least have a complete map?" Tina nodded. "Just about finished, Dr. Szekeres, I'm way ahead of the analysis." Rudi slowly drifted back to the group. "Great Tina, good job." Szekeres smiled at the Technician, he was fond of people that did what they were supposed to do without drama, but added value in non-proprietary suggestions when they thought something was being missed. He'd be writing a nice letter to her supervisor at the end of this and would look for her if he ever needed an ultrasound operator again. He was quite impressed by the information provided by the c-span scans. David and Rudi on the other hand... ...he shuddered. The last thing the academic community needed was two more prima donnas; they were bright though, so he'd just leave well enough alone on that front. "Okay, then." Szekeres clasped his hands together. "Notwithstanding the debate on where the piece came from, we're going to know as much about it as we can by Friday. That's a good thing." He looked around the room with a smile before continuing. "Just a reminder." He pointed at Rajesh. "The Faculty mixer at my place on Saturday." His eyes and one hand swept the room, it was always easier to get the one you were after if you invited everyone. "I'd like it if you all could come." A pause, knowing this would seal the deal for Rudi and David. "The Dean said he'd make an appearance, the Chancellor said he'd try." He turned to Kei. "And I know this is a little 'above your pay grade' as they say, but it would be nice if you could make it? On behalf of your Uncle? I was thinking it might be a moment to try to get some funding for more research into your piece." K had been watching the personality interplay with interest: Looking at the power imbalances and the hidden group dynamics. When Dr. Szekeres extended the invitation to the faculty mixer, K was caught flat-footed. "I, uh." A hand went up to rest flat just below the neck in a 'me?' gesture. "Well, I don't have any plans." K was stalling, not really knowing what to say. "I'll take that as a yes," Dr. Szekeres beamed, taking the opportunity to decide on Kei's behalf. With all kinds of ulterior motives, David and Rudi quickly chimed in with, "Count me in," and, "Me too," respectively. "I'll be there," Rajesh confirmed. "Bringing Devika?" Szekeres' question sounded rhetorical. Raj nodded confirmation, just as rhetorically. Frank looked at the ruined corpse of the trucker and tried to catch his breath. The rage he'd felt when the guy had copped a feel was slowly fading, but the underlying anger remained. He'd hoped that he'd lucked out when the guy had said he was going up to the border, but now, despite his relatively limited intellect, Frank new that he needed to be more careful. He was losing track. The first two had deserved it, no doubt about that, and he felt a slight stirring as he remembered giving it to Vivian: How fucking fantastic it had been to actually feel being in her, instead of being mostly insensitive and unable to really do it. 'Oh yeah,' he thought, 'she'd squealed, that's fer shur... ...but this jerk. All I wanted was a ride.' Frank thought as he wiped the blood off his knife on the trucker's jeans. '...all I want is to get back to that cunt and get things back to normal...' He'd fallen asleep. The next thing he knew, the truckers hands were all over his chest. The rage had been intense, the knife had been right there in his boot. The poor schmuck had never had a chance. Nothing he could do about it now, the damage was done. Besides, sticking him had felt good, really good. No more being pushed around for one Frank Blumfeldt. He was good with a knife that was for sure, the trucker wasn't just a loser, now he was truly a dick-less loser. Frank almost felt remorse - maybe would have felt some remorse if he wasn't so incensed at being mistaken for a woman... ...the truck was in a rest stop off the 476, not such a bad thing as it could go for a few hours or maybe even a day or two without being overly conspicuous. After rifling the cab and the body for money, Frank got down out of the sleeper cab and took a quick look around. The place was deserted. With a satisfied grin, Frank set off down the maintenance road without a backward glance, trying to figure out how to continue on his northward trek. He felt big. He felt unstoppable. He felt in control... ...and he felt like getting himself a woman. 'Nothing like a good fuck to take the edge off,' he smiled at the thought. Friday morning saw K sitting at the table in the morning sun reading the newspaper. There was a particularly lurid and horrible piece on a string of sex slayings in Philadelphia. Originally intending to skip the piece so as not to ruin the day, a stray observation brought K's attention back to the story. It had been the vague perception of a name: Something that had seemed familiar. K read the story in its entirety. There were few details on the more recent victims, but pointedly, the story was releasing the names of the original victims. K froze. One by one the dots were connected, ever so slowly, almost unwillingly. Philadelphia. Tom Rydell. That's where the 'Killer Klown' had gone. It had to be a coincidence. A shiver of dread ran up K's spine. It had to be coincidence. Putting the feeling aside, K put away the breakfast things and headed off to the University. The team would be packing up today - shredding documents and saying good-byes. The academics had one more accomplishment for their resumes; K had one more mystery to add to a growing pile. Still feeling disquiet from the newspaper article, K decided to stop for a 'traveller' on the way. At the very least, the aroma of 'Bean to Heaven' would brighten the day. There was a line up, which almost dissuaded K, but coffee was needed, so the wait was endured. As is so often the case, the line up resulted in one of life's odd synchronicities. "Kei?" K recognized the voice and turned. "Wanda." K fought back a blush. "Can I help you?" the barista interjected at just that most awkward moment. "Large bold," K replied automatically. "Make that two," Wanda added hastily, handing over a bill. "Wanda," K tried to give the barista a bill, "what are you..." "I insist." Wanda smiled at the barista and motioned for her to take the bill. The barista gave the blonde's friend another moment to protest and then proceeded with the transaction. She'd been eyeing the brunette for a few days now, trying to figure out how to start up a conversation. She was becoming a regular. In an effort to impress, the barista was faultlessly efficient, their coffees appeared briskly. The two young women moved off to the bar to add their fixings, betraying to anyone with eyes that they were especial friends. Wanda passed Kei the no-fat milk, and then waited to add some herself. "Got a minute?" Wanda asked, trying to sound casual. "Not really," K responded, waving the coffee cup in the general direction of the University. "I have a meeting." "Oh." Wanda was curious, and somewhat anxious to keep the conversation going, Kei hadn't been far from her thoughts and the cause of more than one sleepless night. "You decided on a program?" "Not really." K was vague. "My Uncle had something that needed researching." "Oh?" Wanda prompted. "Yeah." K decided it couldn't hurt to share. "This engineering guy, Rajesh, was helping me out." K smiled in recollection of how easily the contact had been made. "Anyway, it morphed into a sort of mini- project for them." "Cool." Wanda motioned to two comfy chairs that were just being vacated. "Tell me about it?" K looked at the two armchairs with indecision, and decided there was time. "Rajesh," an affectionate smile crossed K's face, "is this metallurgical engineer - I met him on line on a forum. Jealousy tweaked at Wanda. "On a forum? You vixen." K laughed. "It's not like that - besides, he's engaged." But K had caught Wanda's jealous tone and was a bit surprised to feel a hint of satisfaction at the thought and at any rate, Rajesh was "Bollywood" handsome as anyone that wasn't blind could see, whatever their persuasion. K went on to explain in vague terms how the investigation had developed, describing how the various players had been brought on board and their interactions. "...so," Wanda ventured when Kei had finished, "you've been surrounded by eligible young men trying to impress you with their brilliance for the last two weeks?" K laughed. "Well, you could put it that way." And then looked at the expression on Wanda's face and couldn't resist. "Of course, you *would* put it that way. But it wasn't like that. Mostly I watched their egos sparring and tried to figure out what the heck they were talking about." Wanda was somewhat uneasy at exactly how uneasy she was in reaction to Kei's news. She hadn't had a particularly good two weeks herself, having had several rows with her boyfriend. Now, finding out that Kei wasn't sitting at home and pining was adding not particularly welcome information. "Anyway," K stood, picking up the remains of the coffee to bring along, "it was really nice running into you, but," K hoisted a finger over a shoulder, "I have to get going." "Yeah, absolutely." Wanda nodded. "I need to get to the store too." She paused. "But we should get together?" K nodded and smiled, throwing over a shoulder. "Yeah, that'd be great," in leaving. But as Wanda followed Kei to the exit, she realized with some dejection that she had no way of getting in touch with Kei except by showing up at her door. And how desperate was that? The meeting wasn't what K expected. Dr. Szekeres had arranged for a cake and coffee. K was the last to arrive, and was greeted by a toast of cups. "Here she is," Rajesh smiled. "Our raison d'etre." He slipped an arm around Kei's waist in a half-hug. Kei felt awkward, and that translated to a facial expression, but it wasn't the first such hug. Rajesh was more demonstrative than Kei was accustomed, hugging was a ritual greeting. After they'd met and Rajesh had gotten over his surprise that his on-line contact really was female and an attractive one at that, when he realized the hugs were an issue for Kei, he'd carefully made it clear along the way that his fianc?e was foremost in his thoughts. Szekeres smiled. "We were just discussing our findings." He raised his cup. "Rudi has a paper that he's going to float on hypothetical uses of 3D printing in circuitry design." He saw a poorly concealed look of alarm on Kei's face. "All hypothetical. Really." To retrieve the mood he turned to a shoe box. He'd enjoyed working with the little group; a short, but special time. "And, in that theme, I had some friends of mine produce some keepsakes," he pulled a smaller box out of the shoe box. "and first, Tina." He handed her the box. "Without you, we wouldn't have had anything to look at to form conjectures," he nodded encouragement for her to open the box. Tina blushed, but opened the box. Inside was a small figurine; a replica of the serpent amulet entwined around a quarter-note. She beamed, getting the analogy right away. "It's wonderful." She laughed. "I don't know what to say." She was smiling broadly, but there were tears in her eyes. 'A shame,' Szekeres thought, seeing Tina's emotional response, 'that simple kindness reveals how shitty the universe has been to someone.' "Rudi." He turned to the most difficult member of the team. "Not easy coming up with one for you," he handed the computer engineer the next box. With a little hesitancy Rudi opened the box to reveal the same serpent device wrapped around an abacus. He paused for a moment before he put two and two together, as it were, and then smiled in appreciation. "Thanks. That's clever." "David." Szekeres paused. "you were easy, and you can probably guess..." David opened his box with a nod and then a knowing smirk that widened into a smile, holding up the serpent wrapped around a lightning bolt. "My friend, Raj." Szekeres smiled handing over the second last box. Raj took the box with a grin; opened it and held aloft his keepsake, the serpent wrapped around an anvil. "Last, but definitely not least." Szekeres turned to Kei with a kindly smile. "Our young instigator." K started, enjoying the proceedings to that moment, but taken aback by being included. Taking the box and opening it revealed an exquisite rendering of Venus on the Shell, one arm raised aloft, with the serpent wrapped around her forearm. It was beautiful, but also disquieting as it possessed an unintended, personal, meaning. K forced a smile, trying to focus on the beauty of the small statuette. About two inches tall, but with incredible detail. "How did you do this?" K asked, instantly deflecting attention back to the statuettes, but Szekeres had noticed the disquiet and was upset to have caused the young woman distress and not certain as to how, what he had thought was a genuine compliment, had caused it. David answered for him. "This is a good example of what cutting edge 3D printing can do." He smiled. "unless I miss my guess Doc?" Szekeres laughed. "You would be correct: Scans, 3D rendering, a 3D printer and voila instant keepsakes. Remarkably easy to do. There's a future for you in academia." "Anyway." Szekeres looked around at the younger academics. Each of them had been diligent and hard-working, he could see a bright future for them all and he was happy - whatever misgivings related to personality - to have had the opportunity, however short, to have had them on a team. "I have to go. Finish the cake," he admonished, and then added, "and don't forget; my place tomorrow. Directions are on my desk." Rajesh waited for the door to close behind Szekeres before saying. "you guys are all going, right," and then turning specifically to Kei. "right Kei?" Without intending, Rajesh had put Kei in the spotlight. K noted, with some discomfort, that not only David and Rudi, but Tina also, waited expectantly. Without previously having meant to make a commitment, K nodded an affirmative. The other three following suit immediately afterwards. When K arrived at Dr. Szekeres' place the gathering was in full swing. Keith Graell had always envied Czaba Szekeres his "estate." An older home, built between the World Wars the large manor style house backed onto crown lands. As the city had expanded in the ensuing decades, suburbia had encroached upon the enclave of large homes on large lots, but could not engulf it because of protected forest. The house had been meticulously cared for and updated, and over the years, the grounds lovingly kept and manicured. K hadn't seen it in more than a decade now, not since Szekeres' wife, Renata, had died. Szekeres had answered the door, smiling when he saw that it was Kei. She was dressed in a pair of navy blue slacks that were made out of a light material that accentuated all the right curves, and a loose white blouse, open to the navel where a wide belt fastened around her waist held it in place. Underneath the blouse was a bright turquoise tube top. "Glad you could make it." Szekeres greeted Kei warmly, escorting the way through the kitchen to the backyard. There were more people than Kei had expected. A group of eight or so were playing croquette on the flat sunny part of the lawn. A spattering of people surrounded the swimming pool, some at two tables with umbrellas, the others talking in small groups. About an equal number of people were at the other end of the pool where the BBQ and wet bar were located near a large out-building that Kei didn't remember. Szekeres saw hesitation in the young woman's face and smiled as reassuringly as he could, pointing to the small group of younger people with whom she was familiar. "There's Rajesh," Szekeres said. "Would you like me to bring you over?" "No." Kei returned the smile gratefully. "I can manage, thanks." Kei moved off over to the small group of acquaintances off to one side of the patio which surrounded what for a back yard, was a large pool. Szekeres returned to the group he'd been with when the doorbell had rung. "So, Szekeres?" Szekeres turned at the sound of the voice. "Chancellor." Pointing at the receding figure, Chancellor Evans continued, "Bit young for this crowd?" It was a fair comment, as Kei looked to be about ten years younger than the next youngest people, Tina and Devika. "Keith Graell's niece," Szekeres said by way of introduction. "Really?" Evans was still openly admiring the retreating figure. "Didn't know Graell had a niece." "Me neither," Szekeres admitted, shame creeping into his tone that he'd gotten so distant from his old friend. "Brother's daughter, I believe." "Really?" Evans took a pull from his beer. "Not much family resemblance." Evans used this statement as a pretext to continue looking. From this distance, the young woman appeared taller than she had up close; he decided that that was a result of her legs being longer than her torso, or maybe because her shoulders were wider than her hips, but the sharp inward curve beginning just below her ribs still created a nice flare from the waist. She carried her shoulders back, as if to draw attention to her high pert breasts. Evans decided that further exploration was warranted. "Student?" "Starting this fall." Szekeres nodded, trying not to be overly informative as he was suspicious of Evans motivations for the conversation. The Chancellor's look was predatory, and he had a reputation amongst the faculty of being a lecher. "Engineering?" Evans continued to fish. "Anthropology, I believe," Szekeres corrected. "Really," Evans let a suggestive smile course over his face, "so you're not her *faculty* advisor..." Szekeres warmed at the insinuation. "She approached me on behalf of her uncle - Graell's in New Guinea you know - to have a piece examined. Rudi's got a paper out of it." He pointed towards the Computer Science PhD candidate with his glass. "Very interesting stuff..." He continued on to explain their findings, grateful to be able to divert the topic and deflect the conversation away from Kei Graell. Besides, he really would like some additional funding to pursue studying the artefact. However, the Chancellor continued to look over towards the small group of younger people. Szekeres was inwardly cursing his spur of the moment decision to invite the young woman, but he had hoped to use the social occasion to convince her to approach her Uncle to allow more invasive testing. Rudi may have gotten a paper out their work so far, but he was in agreement with the pushy young man that there might be something a little bit more important yet to be discovered. 'At least,' Szekeres thought, following the Chancellor's gaze, 'she seems to be having a good time....' Kei had taken an instant liking to Rajesh's fianc? Devika. Devika on her part, saw with some envy and relief, that Kei was just as attractive as Rajesh had said. He'd been honest with her and that was a good sign. When she was done being smug with the security of her own relationship, it only took her a moment to recognize that Rudi and David were both vying for Kei's attention and in her view not to good ends. As soon as her instincts told her that Kei wasn't interested in any of the three, she made it her 'job' to intercept many of the drinks the two men floated Kei's way and in general act as blocker. Kei didn't really pick up on what she was doing, but Tina did and subtly entered into the game too, she hadn't much liked working with Rudi and happily contributed to thwarting his goals. As the afternoon wound down, Kei had had more alcohol than intended, but the two "older" women had never been far enough away for long enough to enable David or Rudi to make an advance. As the various groups of guests gave their thanks and said good-byes, Kei was last, eyeing the clutter left behind from the successful gathering. "Let me help you pick up?" Kei offered instead of the farewell that Szekeres had been expecting. Kei was feeling a bit unsteady from alcohol and didn't want to leave just yet. "That's okay," Szekeres said warmly. "I can manage." "It's no trouble," Kei shrugged. "The next bus doesn't come for 45 minutes and the stop is close." Szekeres had forgotten that Kei was bus-bound. "Okay, fair enough. But keep an eye on the time; I wouldn't want you to miss it." The two started picking up the dishes and glassware and sundry other serving items that were spread out over the expansive back yard on various tables. Quickly developing a system of Kei roving and bringing armloads to the service table Szekeres had set up by the patio door and Szekeres moving the items indoors to the kitchen. Shortly, Kei was making a final sweep to make sure that everything had been bussed. Seeing an errant glass, Kei pushed a chair into the round table by the pool to pick it up. Absent mindedly looking around for anything else, Kei took a careless step backwards, unfortunately, right onto a wayward croquet ball. As balls do, it rolled, pitching Kei backwards off- balance. It would have been okay, but in a hurry to get balanced and under control, the foot came down on the curved edge of the pool and slid into the water. Szekeres looked out the kitchen window just in time to see Kei's head strike and bounce off the rail on the dive board. For all the world, it looked just like someone had cut all the strings on a puppet. With limbs visibly limp, Kei pitched sideways into the water with a surprisingly small splash. "Shit." Czaba froze for a moment, then recovered and ran for the patio door, stripping off his shirt as he went. When he got to the pool, seconds later, he could see Kei lying face down at the bottom of the deep end. Not bothering to stop, he carried on and into a dive which took him down to Kei's side in a heartbeat. As he knew it would be, the water was cold, but nothing in the way of rational thought was going on, just reaction to the command, 'get the girl.' He got his right arm under Kei's arm and slid it around. Taking a firm hold, he pulled Kei upright and against his chest allowing him to get his feet flat on the bottom of the pool giving a good push off towards the surface. A second later, they were up with a splash. Szekeres turned onto his back to make sure that Kei's mouth and nose were clear of the water, but he couldn't tell if she was breathing or not. Instantly, he realized that he had to get to the shallow end; there was no one else around. Kei wasn't moving, she didn't seem to be breathing, so if he let her go, it would be straight back to the bottom. He did a modified backstroke, scissor-kicking to move them along. Along the way, he realized with some embarrassment, that in securing a firm hold, his hand had settled over Kei's breast. 'Very nice feeling breast,' he thought when he realized what he was holding, 'one bet that Rajesh won, definitely real,' referencing an over-heard conversation between the three PhD candidates one morning before Kei had arrived. He admonished himself angrily for the thought, trying to concentrate on the emergency. When he could stand, he turned Kei slightly to get his other arm under her knees. As he lifted Kei, her head tilted back, and her right arm dangled limply. Extremely thankful he'd opted for the extra cost of the crescent steps rather than going with the much cheaper ladder, he started the climb out of the pool. On the top step, Kei's head turned to one side coughing up water. 'Thank god,' Szekeres breathed the words. Immediately, on realizing Kei was alive, the shakes set in. He set Kei's legs down, but they buckled. Taking the weight, he had a moment of indecision, before lifting her again and heading for the bathhouse. The sauna was hot, had benches, and was closer than the house. As he walked, Kei's free arm came up over Szekeres' left shoulder to hold on; head resting on the right, face turned inwards, eyes closed. Szekeres managed to get the door handle with the hand at the leg end and butt the door open. Moving through the change room, to the sauna, Szekeres knew opening the inner door would be easier as it was closed by a return spring and did not automatically latch. Once inside, he again lowered Kei's legs, taking care to maintain support, wondering if he should just lay her down. Although Kei's legs again buckled, Szekeres had hold of an arm, preventing another fall. He looked into her eyes to try to assess the injury, but after a moment, she seemed to be able to stand on her own. Szekeres thought that Kei's pupils were dilated, and unfocused, but wasn't certain. Turning away, trying to brush a stray lock of hair behind an ear, Kei shivered and then pulled at clinging, sodden garments. Szekeres noted the shiver and wondered about shock. "Cold," Kei muttered. Szekeres' arm dropped, although he was not certain whether or not Kei's equilibrium had returned. Head trauma was always worrisome. The sauna was hot; Kei shouldn't have been feeling cold. K was uncertain as to what exactly had happened and had a sudden flashback to the jungles of the upper Amazon basin. The memory was vivid, hallucinatory, and true to that memory, Kei started to strip off the wet clothing, not being overly aware the surroundings didn't match the memory. The slacks and underwear went first, kicked unceremoniously to one side before the belt, blouse and tank top followed. Szekeres blinked, it had only taken an instant for Kei to get completely naked. "Um." Szekeres cleared his throat. "Kei?" Kei jerked, thinking, 'I'm supposed to respond to that name,' and came back to the here and now with an embarrassed headshake. "Remember falling into the cistern in the Amazon?" Kei asked over a shoulder, trying to place the current surroundings within the hallucinatory illusion. "What..." Szekeres stammered a puzzled look on his face. "...how?" Of course he remembered; the incident was the beginning of Keith finding the snake bracelet. Graell had dragged him off to one forlorn overgrown area insisting that it hadn't been adequately assessed. He'd gone along because he feared Keith's absent-minded determination would get him lost. As they hacked through overgrown creepers, the ground had given way and they'd fallen through a maze of roots and decaying organic matter into a stinking pool of stagnant water. Only later had it been identified as a cistern, and one of the most important finds of the site. The two of them had eventually gotten out of the thing, stinking to high heaven. They'd both torn off their clothes because of the putrid decaying stench, almost exactly as Kei had just done." A confused look crossed Kei's face, remembering that that was "Keith's" memory, not "Kei's." Thinking of the dichotomy set off another chain of distracting hallucinatory images. "That was... ...a favourite story..." Kei tried to explain, turning to face Szekeres, aware that there'd been a miscommunication and needing, at a very primitive level of thought, to assess his reaction. "Are you okay?" Szekeres asked, trying to focus on Kei's eyes and ignore the show. Disorientation wasn't a good sign, but his concern was fighting a losing battle with the attention he was giving to appreciating Kei's body. Kei closed the distance between them and looked up with a perplexed expression. "How?" Kei paused, clearly unsettled by having to look up. "When did you get so tall, Czaba?" Szekeres didn't know whether it was the use of his first name or the question that was more disconcerting. "I, uh, you, um," Szekeres faltered then continued, nodding his head affirmatively. "Hospital: I should take you to emergency, yes?" "No, no," Kei replied with evident alarm, which struck Szekeres as odd. "no hospital." Kei paused, authorities *bad* that seemed to be an imperative, and continued. "I'll be fine, just a little woozy." An expression of mixed concern and puzzlement was on Szekeres' face. Kei was acting very oddly, but he didn't know enough about concussion to decide if it was typical or he should insist on visiting an emergency ward or clinic or something. 'Why is he looking at me like that,' Kei thought, face flushing. Kei was feeling very peculiar. Everything felt not quite right to Kei, for some elusive reason, not really aware that it was a short term memory loss issue. Trying to decide if the perceptual difficulty was because this was a dream, Kei reached up a hand to rest on Szekeres' upper arm, seeking reassurance he was really there. Szekeres searched Kei's face. He thought Kei looked disoriented, definitely perplexed, both weren't a good sign. "My head hurts," Kei's voice had a rising inflection, as if that should be something odd. 'Was that a question or a statement?' Szekeres thought and asked again, "Are you okay?" Szekeres was concerned but with each passing moment less so as Kei's voice strengthened. He tried to keep his tone light and added. "You bounced it off the dive board rail. Your head should hurt." He looked down at Kei. Big mistake, as he got a great big eyeful of lovely young naked woman. The view and proximity started to have predictable results. Kei swayed. Off balance, and leaning inwards, Kei's other hand came up to grip Szekeres' shoulder. The gap between their bodies closed, leading to full length contact. A flurry of conflicting sensations whirled in Kei's head: first was the dull throbbing pain, but the physical pain was being supplanted by something else: Arousal. Kei questioned the observation, because overshadowing that physical reaction, was disorientation from partial memory loss. Szekeres felt the situation was past the "getting dangerous" stage and tried to ignore that which was rapidly exerting control. "Let me look at your head," he said desperate to focus on something other than the growing discomfort in his shorts. However, further exacerbating the situation, to offer support to the still unsteady young woman, Szekeres had reached his right hand around, to rest flat on the small of Kei's back, holding them closely together while the other gently stroked through Kei's hair searching for damage. As Szekeres' fingers combed through Kei's thick, dark hair, towards the back he found a good sized lump. Kei gasped, but Szekeres' mind was on other things. He could feel the hard points of Kei's nipples against his body, and that wasn't doing anything to help his self-control. Kei vainly tried to order still chaotic thoughts and memories. While grateful for the supporting arm - woozy was an understatement - there was something not right with the sensations accompanying it, even though they were vaguely familiar too, as if those not quite right feelings shouldn't be unusual. K had always been taller than Czaba, when had that changed? For that matter, it had been ages since K had been to Szekeres' house, what was the occasion? K was certain it wasn't a mystery, but the reason for the visit was elusive. The head pain, okay, diving board, check, that was sorted, K figured, but there was more to the disorientation than a bump on the head, and then, what was up with the odd feeling of excitement? K thought hard on that one: Excitement at escaping near drowning, or arousal from skin contact? K's confused gender- identification and misfiring memories were overpowering the ability to think the situation through. There was a good deal of sexual tension between the two now, a f