In the previous episode, Claude has finished digging through the information his parents even hid from him. An exploding package and then aNagjan man trying to gun him down when the bomb didn’t do the job, interrupt everything. Now he had more reason to assume his parents were murdered.
Cyborg Claude Main Page and Table of Contents
Claude stepped onto the bridge. He wiped sweat from his face. If it weren’t for his status in the Droeken Armada and the agreement that gave the Universal Alliance jurisdiction over the incident in his neighborhood, others above the sergeant on the scene would have kept him on Droeken far longer. His run through the station this time had allowed them to disembark on time to keep their delivery schedule. At least he had no security checks once on the station, and his status ranked him as auto-checked at the spaceport below.
His gaze went to the bank of monitors filling the wall of the communications and information side of the bridge. A chart linking all his parts to approval documents caught his eye. He let out a low whistle.
Salindra turned to look at him, but her gaze bounced to the screens and back to him. She clasped her hands.
“That’s quite the organizing schema of all my parts.” He wanted to give her a reassuring smile. Instead, he blew out a slow breath. Coming to terms with it all would take some time, and seeing it all laid out so plainly punched him in the gut. “Sorry.” He waved at the screen. “Seeing it all—” He let his hand drop to his side where it slapped against his leather coat.
She took a moment that stretched into an awkward silence. Maybe to let him have time to digest. His gaze dropping from the screens let him focus on how she stood with weight on one foot, head tilted slightly and loosely clasped hands. She had information to share when he was ready.
He smiled and gave her a nod.
She returned the smile. “If it makes you feel better, all those parts are registered as approved regardless if it is part of a study. Quite a few are used across the universe. Some of yours have innovative upgrades created by Stefen and Quelin. You might see her as his nurse, but she’s actually a doctor set to oversee the trials, like the nanobots, and report to the proper universal authorities.” One corner of her lips curled up more and her eyes narrowed slightly. “I knew you healed too fast not to have something augmented.”
“I know the goeks are probably wondering about that, too.” He took in the screens again. “Stefen ordered this?”
“Yes. Both our defense and offense have to be backed up with solid evidence.”
Claude sighed. If only they had that for his uncle’s part in his parents’ deaths and the stupid bomb package attempt the day before. Too bad he had to shoot the guy before he got more out of him. Only a moment of shock had shaken the guy enough to make him reveal he had been hired to off the nephew of a businessman. At least it got recorded. He had only one uncle, but someone else could have wanted to off more of the family. Uncle Derrik smacked too much of shrewd arrogance and disdain for his brother not to be the one behind it all.
He pulled out of his thoughts to find Salindra patiently waiting. “Which is why I went home.” He pulled a thumb drive and paper notes from an inner pocket of his leather trench coat. “It was rather fun running through security without a scan because of my Droeken Armada rank and universal authority this time.” He chuckled with a little humor in it, but the information in his hand sobered him. “Now to make my uncle cry.” He offered the items to Salindra.
She took them carefully and unfolded the papers. Her lips pursed while she read.
Claude looked around the quiet bridge. Those who caught his gaze ducked back to work as if they were not eavesdropping. Not that he had kept the conversation private. Soon his life, with all the raw details, would be plastered across the universe. Once he stepped out as the missing heir of Nagjan Trillium, nothing would be the same.
“I couldn’t care less about inheriting one of the biggest businesses in the universe, but Uncle Derrik doesn’t deserve it. If I had some indication he was different from what I knew as a kid, I’d let him have it.” He pointed at what Salindra held. “The paper notes are where to find further proof. Some of it is on that thumb drive, and those are marked on the paper.”
Salindra nodded and finished reading the notes. “And you filed your claim as heir?”
“Yes, but I definitely need a lawyer.”
Min said behind him, “My father would be perfect for the job.”
“Perfect.” Claude grinned and turned to face Min.
“Why do I feel you have other reasons to talk to my father?”
He had meant to email her father since the day they had confided their love, but one thing led to another. Life couldn’t march on much longer without him doing something about it. He winked at her and turned back to Salindra.
“Parse all of that as well as you did my biomechanics. I believe it can lead us to proving how my uncle took over Nagjan Trillium beyond what he should have. He may have caused my grandfather’s untimely demise. I don’t even remember him other than what my dad shared.” His hands clenched. “The sooner we have all this mess sorted out, the sooner we aren’t distracted from what we are supposed to be doing.”
“Yes, sir.” Salindra stuffed everything into her left hand and snapped a salute.
He returned it, but his chest ached remembering the last time he had done that with the crew who had gone down to Telna with him. Survivor guilt slammed him in the gut. He blew out a breath, forcing himself not to yell in frustration.
A hand on his arm brought him back to the present. He blinked at Min.
Min said, “We’ll avenge them by finding the answer.” Her dark eyes watered.
He nodded. They both had lost close comrades in arms that day. The rebuilding of the agency was leading to the same closeness. Hopefully, they would not suffer any losses as they worked to complete the mission left undone, no thanks to a mole in their ranks.
He scanned those he could see. So far, no one had been flagged as a double agent. Most were much like he and Min had been at the start of the agency, members of various system armadas within the Universal Alliance. He did not expect problems from within this time. No, they would come if Conrad figured out what was going on with their janitorial plant in the hospital.
He pointed at the notes and thumb drive in Salindra’s hand. “Let me know if you have questions and tell me as soon as you unravel anything.”
“Yes, sir.” Salindra gave him a nod and turned back to her crew.
He let Min lead him off the bridge. A shower and some sleep, if he could relax his thoughts enough, were in order.
He stepped into his suite with Min on his heels. Several large boxes sat in a cluster in the middle of the room, stopping him short.
Min bumped into him.
“Computer, how much of my order is this?”
“Most of it, thanks to coordinating shipping to match our time at this station.”
Min stepped around him and examined the label on the closest crate. “You never told me you went shopping for your suite.” She turned to face him. “We need to talk.”
He rubbed his jaw. “It’s all been work, health, and the craziness of my family history.” Maybe things would slow down once everything sorted out. He snorted. Probably not.
She tilted her head and arched a brow.
“I had a stupid thought about life slowing down. When has that happened for either of us?”
She took a moment. Her fingernails clicked against the crate’s framing. “I would say never. I’m not sure I would know what to do with free time.”
“Me neither, but I stayed busy for all the wrong reasons.” He stripped his leather jacket off and tossed it on a crate as he walked around them toward the bathroom.
“I’m guilty of that, too.” Her quiet voice stopped him at the bathroom door.
Claude took in her widened eyes that glistened on the verge of tears. He froze.
“Do you think we can make a deeper relationship work and still do this?”
He shrugged. “We won’t know unless we try.”
She rushed to him and flung her arms around him. “I don’t want to lose you because I selfishly turned you into a bio lab to keep you alive.” Her body shook with sobs.
He wrapped his arms around her, and one hand rubbed her back. His gut clenched at the reminder of what could happen if they had to remove something deemed illegal. The goeks would love that. The only way he knew how to fix any of this was head-on, like running at the car the day before.
A loud sniff and hands pushing on him brought him out of the dark thoughts. His loose hold allowed her to lean back to gaze up at him. She blinked, and a tear ran slowly along the side of her nose.
“I want a really long hug, but you need a shower.” Her lips twitched toward a smile. Her gaze took him in, and she bit her lip.
Claude gently took her hands and gave them a squeeze as he stepped back. “Right, and then we can talk.” He smiled, but he shivered with the desire to grab her and kiss her hard. He let go of her hands and strode into the bedroom. This relationship had to lead to that far differently than all the others. Those had wound up being confusing messes or consensual flings. His parents’ relationship was the example he wanted to follow, but he only had hints of how theirs came to be.
He coughed to clear the constriction in his chest. As a teen, he hadn’t wanted to know. Now he would never hear about it the way only they could tell it. He pulled out a change of clothes and closed the drawers of the built-in bureau harder than required.
“What’s wrong?”
He blew out a breath. “I’ve wasted too much time, but it has to be done the right way.”
Her brows furrowed and then flew up. “You want to talk to my dad about dating me or more? What difference will that make now?”
“A lot.” He narrowed his eyes. “You don’t want something different cinched with more formality?”
“You could just ask, you dolt.” She gave him a teasing wink. “My dad gave up having a say in my relationships long ago.” She paused and then pointed at him. “That’s the point.” She slapped her hands to her face. “Did I just make this awkward?”
He shook his head and chuckled. “It already was because of me not doing what I should have done, but I have a plan.” He winked at her.
She mock-pouted and stomped her foot. “How long does a girl have to wait?”
“Depends on how the universe devises to interrupt things.”
She nodded, and her stance returned to the straight-backed military one. “Yeah, so many unknowns and work to do. We’ll get through it like we did all the other things.” She crossed her arms. “But did you have to add all this heir to billions confusion?” Her military facade broke when her lips twitched.
He wagged a finger at her.
“And that changes how we must add formality to our relationship?”
“That’s not the reason I had a plan.”
“Oh?” Her head canted to the side.
They needed to talk, but skating into discussions about feelings put up danger signs. Only his mother had coaxed his true feelings out, but Min held second place. His grip tightened on the clothes he held. She deserved nothing less than all of it.
“You know some reasons based on how we finally confessed we love each other.”
She nodded.
“It can’t go the way of all my other relationships. Those were a foolish teen in rebellion or a man wanting distractions from grief. I want this to be—”
“It will be different, and special.” She stepped close and put a hand against his cheek. “I knew it had to be. I’m glad we have always confided in each other, but now we can take that further. You are the only one I have loved. I’m not sorry I did what I did to keep you alive. Losing you again at the whim of a court because of it scares me, but I wouldn’t change it.”
Her other hand slid to the back of his neck and pulled him down so their noses nearly touched. “I’ve waited too long to be honest with you. It won’t happen again.” She planted a hard kiss on his lips.
The moment he joined in, she pushed away. He smirked.
“That should tell you my answer, but don’t take too long to ask.” She gave him a head to toe look, flipped her hair, and walked out of the tiny bedroom.
His cheeks hurt at how wide he grinned.
“Hurry with the shower. You stink, and we can talk over all this insanity while unpacking all this stuff you bought. I better like it.”
Laughter burst out of him. He should have known. It just proved he should have asked years ago. He still hadn’t formally asked, but he would do so extravagantly. She deserved no less, but she had just incited the need for it to be done publicly. She never liked personal things going too public, and at this stage, his whole life would lie in the public domain all too soon.
That thought sobered him. He rushed into the bathroom to shower because he had a lot to do and not much time to waste.
Claude quietly closed the door to the bedroom, leaving Min sleeping on the couch they had unpacked. His jaw ached with how hard he yawned. Instead of sleeping, they had unpacked over half of the crates. He chuckled, remembering her playful teasing of the things she would not have picked for him. Then he had put things in places that set the room off just to see what she would do with it. It had felt like their early years together.
He pulled up the time for where her parents lived. Her father would be heading to his office if not there already. Hopefully, he did not head to court. He placed the call and included the video. He ran his hand through his hair, which would require wetting to get it into place.
“Hello.” Mr. Matsukura’s round face appeared on the screen. “You look like you’ve had better days.”
Claude grinned. “Should have combed it after showering.”
“And get some sleep.”
“After I talk to you. I have a couple of things.”
“Min stated the need for a lawyer if things came to a head. Have they?” His brows drew closer together with concern.
“As for all the fun of biomechanics, not yet. No, I have two other reasons to call. One of them requires your lawyer brain to help with an inheritance that includes a business. I filed the preliminary documents yesterday, but I have five days to pull everything together.”
“I thought you already sorted out your family inheritance.”
“Oh, that was just the Droeken side of things. I would have figured this part out sooner if I hadn’t avoided digging into my parents’ personal effects at the townhouse.” Claude blew out a breath. “I’m a Burnsheklon with a direct line to owning Nagja Trillium. Now, if I trusted my uncle, I would let him have it.”
Mister Matsukura whistled. “But you don’t know him, do you?”
“Just toddler memories of a guy, but my adult interpretation of those portrays a man who did his best to usurp everything my dad had. My toddler self did not like him.”
“All right, but that is a pretty tight turnaround.”
“I know.” Claude sighed. “I have foolishly pushed off things I had to do for years, which includes the second thing I need to talk about.”
“Okay, I’m sending you a link where you can put all the information about this further inheritance, and I’ll know by the end of my day, eight hours from now, if I can help. It will cost you.” His smile reminded Claude of a scheming lawyer with something up his sleeve. “What’s the second thing?”
“I want to have your permission to ask Min to marry me.”
A loud squeal confirmed that Min’s mother was in the car.
“About time.” Min’s father leaned closer to his phone. “If my wife doesn’t get at least one grandchild due to you marrying late, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Min’s mother squeezed into the picture. “I have her grandmother’s ring that is yours to give to her.”
Claude did his best to keep a smile on his face while he contemplated this twist. “Oh!” He chuckled. “A tradition, right?”
“Yes,” said Min’s mother.
Mister Matsukura pointed at him, and it felt more compelling seeing the large finger on the screen rather than sitting across from the man. “I bet you want the ring just as soon as this job I’m likely to take.” The finger lowered out of view.
“Yes, sir.”
“If you wait until the last minute on anything else, young man, I’m charging you double.”
“Copy that!” Claude gave him a salute, though he knew his smirk ruined the effect when Mister Matsukura laughed heartily.
“So, can you be here without delay, or are you going to make me meet you somewhere?”
Claude pulled up their schedule. “We have a set schedule, but you’re in luck. I can grace you with my presence if we meet at Zen Shifuku station three days from now. Here’s the timing of our portage there in their local time.” He quickly put the information into a message.
“Got it. My daughter better come, but we’ll figure out how to slip you the ring without Min knowing.” Min’s father winked.
Claude shook a finger at the screen. “Yeah, I bet that is tradition, too.”
“I have a busy morning, but I’ll be able to look at your inheritance issues when free. After all, I’m sure it would pay me far better than a couple of other options on the table, even with the family discount.”
Mister Matsukura ended the call while laughing once more.
Claude shook his head. I’m not sure what I’m getting into, but I sure wish I had done this years ago.
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