Chapter Forty-Four

August 27 ^th, 2021

"You know, when people talk about 'catching strays,' this isn't what they mean, babe," Piper told Andy with a tender grin, as she adjusted his shirt for him. "You don't have to accept every woman who throws herself at you. You get that, right?"

"I think this one's a lot more political than it is personal," Andy countered.

"So you're saying you're not into her?" Fiona asked.

"She's gorgeous," Andy said. "Nobody's arguing that."

"In a very German sort of way," Emily added. "Very sharp, very angular, very..."

"Very confident," Sarah said. "I mean, that's sexy, but it's also a little scary, you know?"

"I'm into her, if that helps any," Fiona laughed. "But Piper's right. At some point, we're going to have to put down a hard 'no' policy to anyone comes looking to join Team Rook."

"I thought we were there already," Piper said.

"We were," Andy grumbled. "At least I was, but the last several have been exceptions to the rule. So we just need to stop making exceptions."

"But it's like Bill told Phil - it's not exactly easy to say no when the President of the United States calls and tells you it's for the good of the country," Fiona said. "I'm not sure I'd have the strength to tell her no, you know what I mean?"

"You heard me trying to push back," Andy sighed. "But yes, arguing with the President of the United States about the what's best for the country is not exactly what anyone would call an 'easy sell.' Remember when she said Ming-Yue was going to be our last? Yeah, I'm starting to think I should've gotten that in writing."

"Hey, the President didn't have anything to do with your two most recent additions, Mister," Melody said. "You took those two on entirely of your own accord. You could've said no."

"Not really, no."

"No," Melody chuckled. "I expect not. The idea of you denying someone asking for shelter is like... well, let's just say I have great trouble imagining it."

"Our own Don Quixote," Fiona said with an affectionate smile. "We wouldn't want him any other way."

"Let us just make sure you are not being taken advantage of, my love," Em said to him, giving him a soft squeeze, hugging onto him closely. "And we want to keep you safe."

"Which isn't exactly easy, but I suppose having one more spook in the detail will make things safer," Lexi said. "And I know Zelda's good at what she does. I can't really talk about the assignment we had together, but she acquitted herself admirably, and I think she'll be excellent at security. And it seems like it's important we get some relations going between us and Germany, so this'll be a good way to do it."

"The President certainly wasn't happy to hear they have Adam McCallister, but she also understands why they're reluctant to give that sort of technical advantage up," Andy grumbled. "But her anger didn't hold a candle to Phil's. There's a good reason we didn't bring him here. He'd probably start throwing things again."

"I don't recall having ever seen Phil so cross," Fiona said. "You've known him a lot longer. That seemed... wildly out of character for him."

"Yeah, I don't think I've even seen Phil yell before," Andy said. "At all. It's certainly not a thing that happens every day." It wasn't surprising. Phil has been left holding the bag for all the shit Adam McCallister had done in creating the Quaranteam serum, and Phil was itching to yell at the man, but that clearly wouldn't be happening.

Phil had been so angry, he hadn't even wanted to see anyone from the German government for the rest of the trip, and he was back at the hotel, basically pouting. Andy had understood his friend's mood and hadn't wanted to push him into accidentally starting an international incident.

Andy and his travelling Team were waiting for things to start happening at the American Embassy in Berlin. Zelda had been meeting with members of her government to finalize the last few steps earlier in the day, but they had just arrived at the Embassy and were on their way up to the medical room where the Rooks were waiting.

Andy had expected Zelda to show up by herself, but there were two members of the German army with her, and they took a bit of time running Zelda's large suitcase through the metal detector, which surprised Andy to see until he realized - she wasn't planning on coming back, and had brought everything she wanted to with her.

(He would, of course, find out later that all her personal weapons and munitions had been left with the German Army, who delivered it to the US Army, who would eventually pass it on to Zelda herself when she was at New Eden.)

"You brought an entourage," Andy said with a laugh when Zelda walked in the room. "You having second thoughts?"

"No, Mister Rook," one of the handlers said, "but we want to ensure the words spoken to our agent are from us, and controlled by us, so we can be precise in what they are, and make sure they cannot be misused."

Zelda offered a little shrug and a smile. "It is what it is, babe," she said. "We want to make sure the language is agreed upon by everyone."

"Good," Lexi said, "because I want to put in an addendum, and it's non-negotiable, although I think it's also probably unnecessary."

The two members of the German army, a pair of Valkyrie like women, bristled a little bit, but then turned to look at Lexi with frowns. Their name tags identified them as "Böhmer" and "Schicker," even though neither woman identified themselves. "We were not informed about this," Schicker said.

"We do not like surprises," Böhmer said.

"It's not a big deal. I want you to include, 'You will put Andy Rook's health and safety above your own,' into whatever else you're going to tell her. That guarantees she'll be a perfect bodyguard, and at no detriment to herself."

The three women conversed in German for a moment, unaware that Andy was watching an overlay in his eyes translating it all for him in real-time.

"Is that fine?" Schicker asked the other two.

"I am okay with it," Zelda replied. "It makes sense and is a reasonable request. It is a bodyguard's main responsibility, and if he is killed, chances are good I would die as well. The Dead Man's Switch is... dicey. We know this."

"It seems a lot to ask," Böhmer said.

"They want to be careful, just like we do," Zelda said. "I accept, and it's my brain we're talking about."

"Alright then," Schicker said.

"We agree," Böhmer said, switching back to English. "The other thing we are going to tell her is that 'While you do not have answer every question Andy Rook asks you, you may never directly lie to him.' We assume this is acceptable to you as well?"

Andy tilted his head to one side. "I still think this is a lot of pressure to put on yourself, Zelda," he said to her. "Are you sure you want to do it?"

"I don't ever want you to question my motives or intents, Andy," Zelda said to him. "I want to live as honest a life as I can after a lifetime full of lies and cover ups. So I should probably admit now that Emily's presence in your Team is just as much of a draw for me as establishing this partnership between our two countries is. Dahlia Hairtrigger is how I realized I was bisexual growing up, seeing you discover that in the last few movies, like she does in the books."

Emily smiled, almost blushing a little bit, but made no efforts to move further away from the German woman. "I have heard such sentiments before, but thank you, and I hope I made you feel seen on screen."

"I won't rush you into anything, Mrs. Rook, but just know that option is open for you if and when you want it," Zelda said. "But I assume you've gotten the greenlight from your government about the offer, Mr. Rook?"

"Zelda, if this is going to work at all, I'm going to insist you call me Andy."

"Or 'Boss,'" Lexi added.

"He likes that," Melody agreed. "Or sir. Hell, even Master."

Both members of his security detail started giggling as he glared at them, knowing it would have little to no effect. "I would tell you to ignore them, but Lexi's the head of security, so that won't fly. I'll just have to stress you take what she tells you when it comes to me with a good handful of salt."

"Are you trying to tell me you don't get a little excited when one of us calls you Master? Or Nicolette or Whitney for that matter?"

"I've tried dissuading Nicolette of it," Andy sighed. "It made her double down on it, so I've decided to generally avoid giving her orders as much as possible. Not that that's helped all that much. She's... quite spirited."

"Do I hear admiration in your voice, sir?" Zelda asked him. "Of your house maid?"

"Begrudging respect, if nothing else," Andy said. "She's earned it."

"You're going to be astonished at how good that girl is at personal stealth," Melody grumbled. "She's going to disappear in front of your eyes when you're looking right at her, and you're going to wonder how, I promise you this..."

"Normally, I would take that bet, but the look on my friend Lexi's face indicates to me that it would be foolish of me to do so," Zelda said with a smirk. "Any other concerns, or can we get on with this already?"

"You said never to question your motives, Zelda, but you didn't answer my question," Andy replied. "You're talking about leaving everything behind to move to California with a guy you barely know and--"

"Andrew Ian Rook, you have a file about two centimeters thick, and I have read it back to front so many times, I've lost count," Zelda sighed with a smile, as if she was trying to be patient and answer a question she'd answered several times already. "Yes, I've made my mind up. I'm in. I've given it all the thought and research I've needed - I've done all my homework. I've even read your books."

"Oh yeah?" Andy laughed. "What did you think?"

"I think they started a little amateurish, but that you got better and better with each one, with the exception of your misstep, and you have a real talent for conveying dialogue naturally," she said. "I think it would be interesting to see you try and write something in a different genre. For example, have you ever thought about writing a political thriller? Or action-adventure science fiction?"

"I've been puttering away on and off at a science-fiction book," Andy admitted, "but being where we are now, and knowing what we know? Writing science-fiction seems a little bit harder to do, unless I set it in the far, far future..."

"As patient as we would like to be regarding this matter, Mr. Rook," Böhmer said, "we do have lives of our own to get back to, so if we could move this along? Is this happening, or isn't it?"

Zelda reached over and grabbed Andy's hand, and there was a sense of tender imploring that he hadn't expected from the sharp looking military woman, an attempt to communicate without speaking aloud. There was something almost pleading about her expression, and Andy took that as his final nudge to accept her into his Team.

"Alright," Andy said. "Let's get her strapped in and you can administer a reset to her. Melody and Lexi will remain in the room, but all my other partners will go wait outside."

"We would prefer if your security crew waited outside," Schicker said.

"Then this isn't happening," Lexi said, her voice cold and calm. "You think I'm leaving you alone in a room with my principal? I don't care that it is our Embassy. I don't trust you people as far as I can throw you. I get you wanting to minimize people in the room, but I am in this room, whether you like it or not. If that means you're packing it up and heading home, so be it. Andy may have his orders from the President, but I sure as shit don't, and even if I did, nothing supersedes rule numero uno - Keep Your Man Alive."

"How about this?" Zelda offered. "Lexi and Schicker stay here, from security forces, and Emily stays here for emotional support. But other than those three? Andy's the only other person with me in the room while this happens."

The two German security forces officers looked at her, then at Lexi, then nodded. "We can agree to these terms."

Zelda turned to look at Lexi, who scowled a little bit, but it was Melody who jumped in. "We agree. Lexi's not happy about it," the Asian woman said with a chuckle, "but that's the sign of a good compromise - everyone's satisfied and nobody's happy. We've agreed upon what will be said, but let's get it written down real quick, so you can read it exactly as it's written."

After a few more minutes, they had the sentence that would be said to Zelda while she was in the impressionable state: "You do not have to answer every question he asks you, but you can never lie to Andy Rook, and you will always place his health and safety over your own."

With the sentence on paper, the majority of Team Rook moved to exit the room, with each of his wives stopping to reassure him quickly that he was doing the right thing for the right reasons. Piper, who was the last to go, leaned in and whispered in his ear, "you better fuck that girl proper... her face shows a whole lot of unhappiness in her past."

Once it was just the five of them in the room, Zelda started to strip down, and Andy could see her torso and chest were a litany of scars, scrapes, pockmarks and gunshot holes that had been healed over, but clearly not regenerated. They continued down her thighs, and Andy saw her shoot him an apologetic look. "Sorry Andy. Perhaps I should've specified that once you look under the hood, there's a lot of surface damage. I know it makes me... less attractive."

"I disagree," Andy said to her, moving over to take her hand, holding it in his own. "It gives you character." He could see her eyes starting to water up a little, so he leaned in and kissed her, tenderly, their first kiss, and that seemed to make her cry more, but with a smile affixed to her face.

"You really mean that, don't you, Andy?" she said, her voice a little trembling.

"Of course I do, Zelda," he said reassuringly. "It's a catalog of a life well-spent, doing the right things to help the right people. I'm sure there's a story behind each and every one of them, and I'm looking forward to learning all of them." He paused and saw the look in her eye. "You're hoping for a regeneration, though, aren't you?"

"I am," she admitted quietly. "Is that so wrong of me?"

"Not at all," he replied. "I understand that. We understand that. Lexi better than anyone. Apparently you didn't know her past the accident."

"There was an accident?"

"An incident, more like," Lexi said. "I was doing some ill-advised hero shit, and ended up getting pretty badly burned for it. But when I partnered up with Andy, well, I went into a couple of days recovery regeneration, and now I'm back to my old self, good as new. Well, better than, probably."

"We have good reason to believe that Frau Sohns will get a regeneration as part of this new partnering," Schicker said. "One of our working theories is that regenerations are much more common for those entering larger Teams, if there's physical or otherwise environmentally caused damages."

"The eggheads tell us that there's something about Team composition and structural integrity, and how a larger Team wants to improve anyone being brought into it," Zelda offered. "I don't understand the science; just repeating what I've been told."

"We just had a few new additions to our Team," Emily told her, "and I'm afraid neither of them went through the regeneration process."

"Ah, but did they need to?" Schicker asked. "If they didn't have any major problems, they wouldn't regenerate, because their bodies are up to snuff according to the general physical standards held by the swarm on the whole. Most of the damage to Frau Sohns is superficial, but some of it runs a bit deeper, and your swarm may decide it wants her back in optimal condition, since you've made the decision to add her."

It was at this moment that Andy decided to see how useful his supposed 'scanning' abilities were, and if other people could detect when he was using them. He looked at Schicker first and found that she was, in fact, Dr. Schicker, but also a member of the German army, part of a twelve-person Team, and the man she was paired onto was a high-ranking military official named Christof Lubbock, someone deep inside of the German research arm.

By contrast, Zelda came from a relatively small team, one of only seven people, and none of whom it seemed like she had an emotional attachment to. One of the irregular pieces of data that showed up on her virtual profile was that she tended to go as long as possible between top-ups, and that she wasn't particularly fond of the person she was paired with, a military scientist named Tobias Meier, simply because she wasn't often nearby him.

The thing that intrigued him the most, however, was that he could see what version of the serum she'd been given in the little overlay floating in front of his eyes. It was the second generation of the German version that had been derived from the original Quaranteam serum, which meant that its resistance to DuoHalo and other viruses had been amped up a little. There had, however, been reports that the German tampering with the serum had left the orgasms a little less intense.

All of the information that was being relayed to him seemed to be being translated on the fly, appearing in German first before shimmering and translating into English. He had to wonder how accurate the translation library was, but figured it would be good enough for the time being.

The language stuff that had been packed in, in terms of translation, was rather remarkable, as it seemed to be able to decipher intent and subtext and convert that across from one language to another. He'd actually told it to delay its Spanish translation in an attempt to learn the language better himself, but he'd found out that whatever language libraries it had, it could translate Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, German, Hebrew, French and Farsi, at the very least.

He wondered if Zelda knew about any of that. Since the Germans had kept their cards to their chest, Andy's country had done the same. Information had been extremely tight-lipped. But perhaps they could start a new page now.

"If you're expecting a regeneration," Andy said to her, "I hope you had a big meal earlier today. Regenerations tend to consume a lot of raw resources so the more full you feel, the softer the impact it'll have on you."

"Huh," Schicker said, making a note of that in her notebook. "We did not know that."

"There's probably a lot both sides know that the other doesn't," Andy said. "We should get back into the habit of sharing development details."

"Yes, I'm hoping for one, Andy, but if not, I've made peace with that."

"The sharing of information is more of a military concern than it is up to us, Mister Rook," Schicker told him.

"Well, you pass it back up the food chain and we'll see if we can get some cooperation going on our side," he said. "Keeping secrets from one another is partially how we got ourselves into this mess."

Zelda smiled and nodded but Schicker frowned a little and sighed. The two women clearly weren't in agreement with the actions their country had taken over the past year, but neither wanted to rehash or relitigate it, especially in front of people from another country. Andy suspected he might get more of the story later. "Let's get me strapped into this thing. I've seen what people are like when they go through this. They can be... dangerous. To themselves and others."

She began to climb into the St. Andrew's Cross, as Schicker moved to strap Zelda's wrists, arms, ankles, thighs and waist down. The American embassy in Berlin, like all American embassies now, contained a St. Andrew's Cross, for emergency reassignments. It was a strange thing to see, but they were necessities now.

"You ready to change allegiances, my friend?" Schicker asked Zelda with a soft smile.

"My body may belong to Team Rook, but there'll always be a German heart inside my body," Zelda said with a smirk. "That'll never change. I mean, the man doesn't even drink beer, Elsa. I can't abandon myself fully to the savage."

"Oi!" Andy said sharply in between laughs. If he couldn't laugh at himself, how could he expect anyone else to? "I heard that! I'm right here! And just because I'm a rum'n'coke man doesn't make me any less German in heritage than you. Yours is just more recent."

"I'm gonna get you into beer no matter what it takes," Zelda said, giving him a little wink. "A'ight, gimme the capsule."

Schicker opened a small metal case and took a single pill out from it, placing it between Zelda's teeth. The blonde took it into her mouth and bit down, making sure to swallow all the substance contained within. Her blue eyes rolled back in her skull sharply before she snapped them open and looked straight at Andy with a feral intensity that almost made him nervous, especially as she started thrashing against the restraints with all the strength in her body, and the cross itself creaked in response, as if the metal was threatening to bend.

"You do not have to answer every question he asks you, but you can never lie to Andy Rook, and you will always place his health and safety over your own," Schicker said, reading off the sheet of paper, as Andy fished his cock out, giving it a few tugs to make sure it was stiff enough to get the work done. At this point, Andy had trained his body enough to be able to push it into work.

The cross was tilted and lowered to be brought into a manageable angle for him to work at, but despite having done this numerous times, this time would turn out to be significantly different. When he thrust inside of her, he heard her hiss and seize up, her pupils widening a little. That much, at least, was within the realm of norm and how things normally happened. What was unusual were the words floating in front of his eyes, in clear, silvery text:

System mismatch detected. Options: Update/integrate, alter or replace.

Update/integrate - safest option, offers guaranteed regeneration. Recommended.

Alter - can offer regeneration, but outcome uncertain.

Replace - can offer regeneration, but risks database corruption. Not recommended.

Selection?

Andy felt the pressure of time ticking down on him, and knew he couldn't ask anyone for advice, because anything spoken aloud might be misinterpreted as a command, so he was going to have to determine for himself what to do. So far, the nanobots had always been acting in the best interests of their hosts, and he had to trust they would be consistent in their actions.

He wasn't sure how to respond, but he noticed that when he focused his eyes over one of the three options, it started to glow, with the glow expanding, so he focused on Update/integrate as the golden glow around the luminous white letters started to expand and finally the words flashed and the rest of the text disintegrated and flew off his eyesight like dust.

Update/integration beginning. Regeneration protocols enacted. Add Guardian Protocols to enhancement package: Y/N?

Andy's eyes hovered over the Y and the letter glowed brighter and brighter before it too burst, marking his acceptance of that. His best guess was that it would include the shot tracking and enhanced reflexes that Lexi, Melody and Niko all seemed to have.

Guardian Protocols being added to continuity graft. Caution! This puts Team Rook count at 26-to-1. Strongly advise against additional Team expansion in later days. Message repeats. Exceeding 29-to-1 cap strongly advised against.

"No shit," Andy thought to himself. "I can barely keep up with the number of partners I have now."

User recovery not primary concern. Team cohesiveness primary concern. Team safety secondary concern.

"Safety? What the hell does that mean?"

Teams of 30+ risk cohesion collapse and may result in immediate mass pregnancies to forcibly strengthen emotional cohesion and bonding.

"Wait, are you telling me that if a Team hits 30 people, you're just going to start making all the women get immediately pregnant, in order to dissuade fighting?"

Correct.

"Jesus. Well, let's not do that then, shall we?"

Affirmative. Do you wish to impregnate new addition now?

"No! I mean, no. Let's not jump to any conclusions here. Fuck, it's getting harder to think like this," he thought to himself, his hips still thrusting in and out of her, trying to keep a rhythm, as her feral form roared beneath him.

Shall we increase sensitivity to hasten orgasm? This is a momentary change, not a permanent one, and will revert back in minutes.

"You can do that?"

Affirmative.

"Okay, do it."

Suddenly, his entire body felt a rush of euphoria, every nerve in his cock singing out a thousand times stronger than it ever had, and despite him not wanting to immediately pop off, the choice was completely out of his hands, as he started to ejaculate inside of Zelda's trembling snatch, and both of them spasmed in an intense, shared release, her howl loud enough to rattle the walls. Zelda slumped against the pads on the cross and mumbled the two expected words, one, then the other.

A minute or so later, he felt the enhanced sensitivity pass and he pulled his softening shaft out of her quivering slit as he moved to try and stand on his feet. "Go ahead and get her out of the restraints and wrap her in a recovery blanket. She's going to be out for a day or two. She's getting her regeneration, and then some."

"How do you know?" Schicker asked as she started to unstrap Zelda's body.

"The nanobots asked me if she should be regenerated, so I told them to give it to her."

The German woman stopped what she was doing and looked up at Andy in complete shock.

"They... talk to you?"

"Sort of," he admitted.

The German Valkyrie sighed, shaking her head, and muttered in German, "I'm getting too old for this shit..."