A Wish the Heart Makes: Fornever in Blue Genes

by Tigger

Chapter 7:  The Big Cat

At that precise moment, Catherine Brenda Donovan, Security
Executive, looked much more like the combat-ready Captain
Donovan, United States Marine Corps, than BioCybernetics Chief
of Security.   Adam had seen the volatile Big Cat in an angry
mood before, but never anything quite like this.  After all,
Cat Donovan's temper was legendary, both in the Corps and at
BioCybernetics.  What was unusual in this particular case was
that, this time, she was not making any effort to either
control or hide her displeasure from the two individuals she
currently held responsible for that state of affairs.

Cat Donovan considered permitting her temper to show outwardly
to be a weakness and she did not ordinarily tolerate such
human responses in herself.  Still, she reminded herself, this
was a unique situation.  A saint would lose her cool given
what she had just been told and Cat had never aspired to
sainthood.

Still, she wasn't going to get the answers she needed and
wanted unless she got her rage under control and began acting
like the competent and extremely dangerous professional she
was.  Taking a hard grip on her emotions, she sat back down
behind her desk to face Adam and Robert once more.  It made
their damned necks just that much farther away.  They might
just need that tiny extra edge before this interview was over. 
Cat gave a short bark of laughter at the ludicrous mental
image of her holding each man by the throat.  It helped calm
her, at least momentarily.  "Okay, I want to make sure I
really did hear what I think I just heard.  Please, do not
hesitate to interrupt and correct me if I get any of these
details wrong." 

It was a measure of the relationship shared by the trio that
the two men didn't pale or squirm under her the steely gaze of
Cat's ice cold gray eyes.  For all her current fury, Cat was
their friend and their partner, and would have reacted in much
the same way had either of them been the one attacked by their
still-unknown foes.  But, neither would interrupt her just
then and all three of them knew it.  Cat Donovan was in a
highly volatile mood.  

"Matthew has not been changed into a younger, slimmer,
healthier version of himself.  Matthew is not Matthew anymore. 
Matthew," she spat out the name with increasing emphasis and
emotion each time she said it, "is not even *male* anymore. 
Do I have this all right so far?"  She stopped and stared
harder at the two men across from her, then gave them a "come
on, give" motion with her hands.  Robert made the mistake of
nodding and trying to frame a verbal response.

Cat exploded out of her chair and slammed her palms on the
desk.  "And you believed that he wanted you to do that?  Are
you two crazy or just so smart you are stupid?  What on god's
earth ever gave you the idea that Matthew Sorenson wanted to
be a woman?"  The force of her bellow made the acoustic tile
that soundproofed her office seem to vibrate.

Robert looked at Adam, who only scowled impatiently before
nodding for the doctor to answer.  West gave the lawyer a
"thanks loads" look and turned back to face Cat.  "Umm . . .
Well, his wish file was pretty specific, Cat.  It was encoded,
and the comments were Matt's style."

"Oh, bullshit!" Cat snorted in disgust.  "You *ARE* that
stupid."

"Dammit, Donovan, I've had just about enough from you!" Adam
snarled, slamming his own fist on her desk hard enough to
knock Cat's communicator askew.  "You will treat us and this
problem professionally or by god, I will bounce your ass right
out of this company."

"You can't do that!" Cat growled back even as she recalled
that while Matt was officially incapacitated - a judgement
rendered by the other man she had just been berating - that
the lawyer really *did* run the company.

Adam saw that recognition in her dark eyes, and though there
wasn't the least sign of weakness in her posture or bearing,
he knew he didn't need to press that point any further. 
Instead, he switched gears from threats to logic.  

"Remember that we had damned little time to make this
decision, okay?  We did our best.  We even ran a computer
analysis on the documents that Matt had supposedly generated
in that file and got a 90-plus percent probability that they
were his work.  We didn't account for the fact that a longtime
personal secretary can usually forge more than just her boss'
signature, but we damn well did our best and what we *THOUGHT*
our friend wanted.  So lay off, okay?"

The normally mild mannered attorney did not often lose his
temper, either, and even more rarely raised his voice, but
when he did, people, even Cat Donovan, listened.  Adam Jacob
was still the number two man in the company for very good
reasons like intelligence, integrity and personal courage. 
Adam quietly looked into Cat's eyes, and saw her reconsidering
her words.  Nodding his head, Adam resettled himself back into
the seat leaving Cat still leaning against her desk.

Robert quickly took up his explanation again, "As Adam pointed
out, Cat, the file had all the supporting documentation we
decided to require all those months ago, and it all checked
out - or at least, seemed to check out to the best of our
ability to check them."  Then Robert's face brightened as he
added, "And we asked him - twice!"

"When he was so spaced out on drugs and stress from living in
that cyborg-surreal world he was in that he probably didn't
understand the question and couldn't answer completely
anyway," Cat replied in soft, silky and disgusted voice as she
too sat back down.  

Adam shook his head.  "What other choice did we have, Cat?" he
asked more reasonably.  "We had, or rather, we *thought* we
had the agreed-upon documentation, we had circumstantial
evidence and we had his answers when we questioned him.  Maybe
we could have asked the questions more carefully - like, "Good
god, Matthew, why in hell would you EVER want to be a girl?"
but we didn't ask it that way and he went into coma so quickly
we never got another chance."

Cat obviously wanted there to have been another choice, and
for that reason, she wanted to stay angry at Adam and Robert,
but it was also obvious that Cat's sense of fair play was
kicking in and her temper was cooling.  *I think I agree with
Adam,* Robert thought, glad that Cat's fury wasn't really
directed at him, *I almost pity the sorry bastards who did
this to Matt when Cat gets her claws into them.*  Then he
thought again.  *Like hell I do!*

Cat's still unhappy growl snapped Bob back from his private
thoughts.  "You haven't answered my question, Robert.  Why did
you *ever* think that Matt wanted to become female.  I would
really, *really* like to know the answer to that question."

*And I really, *really* don't want to answer that question,*
he thought unhappily.  A lump formed in his throat, and he
swallowed hard several times to clear it so that he could
answer.  "You," he finally managed to cough out.  "You were
the reason, in the documents he purportedly left behind in his
Wish File."

Cat's brows curved in shocked surprise as she fell back down
into her chair, stunned.  "Me?  What did I have to do with
this idiocy?  What could possibly make you think that I was in
any way involved in that?"

"We knew you two are friends, ummmm . . . good friends.  We
also knew that Matthew would have liked to become . . . better
friends, but you don't . . . uhhhhhhhh . . . "  Robert
stuttered and a blood red flush crept up his face.

"Dammit, Robert," Cat screamed in frustration, "will you just
spit it out."

"You don't take males as lovers.  The documents indicated that
Matt was hopelessly in love with you and had decided that the
only way he could have you was to be a woman, too.  That is
why we did not tell you about it.  We had been directed not to
tell you because Matt, or rather, the setup was that Matt did
not want you intervening and trying to stop him."

Cat lowered her hands down to her desk very slowly and
deliberately.  Her mouth worked several times as she sought
words to say, and then rejected them unsaid.

Adam tried to help.  "It seemed to fit the data we had at the
time, Cat.  We all knew that Matt was very fond of you."

"Fond, hell," Robert snorted, "he's been head over heels in
lust, and more than a little in love with you since the first
day he set eyes on you."

Adam stepped into deflect a brewing Cat-storm at Bob's ill-
chosen words, "Whatever.  But the key point is, Cat, that he
*liked* you too much to press you about it, and potentially
lose your friendship and trust. It was not such a great leap
of belief to assume that he might consider taking such a step
if he was really in love with you.  You know he isn't a man to
quail at doing what he thinks has to be done if he has decided
the ultimate goal is important enough."

"And so, you took this huge risk, endangered the life of your
best friend with an unproven and risky procedure?"

Robert was feeling braver now.  Catherine was merely disgusted
now.  "Like Adam just said, Cat, we didn't really have a
helluva lot of choice.  We had to use the procedure on him in
any case.  You know him well enough to understand how he'd
feel about that living death.  Both transitions were equally
risky once I had done enough actual tissue culture tests to be
able to predict his survivability probabilities for each new
genome."

"That, at least, will keep you alive, Robert," Cat said
gruffly.  "So now *he* is a nearly super human *she*?  You
made her into some computer's idea of the nearly perfect
female human?"

Robert blushed again.  "Well, we did do that, but there is
just a bit more to it than that.  Since we thought he was
doing it to be with you, and since we like both of you so much
and wanted you to be happy . . . we . . . ahhhh, well, we sort
of stacked the deck a bit."

"I am getting very tired of pulling things out of you by hand,
Robert.  Do you want me to get some pliers?  DAMMIT, talk to
me!"

"We_made_her_in_to_your_ideal_woman!"  Robert spit the words
out so quickly that no variation, inflection or separation
could be heard between the individual words.

"I . . . don't . . . think . . .  I . . . understand . . .
that," Cat responded, ice dripping off each word.

Robert pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his brow.  "We used
the computer to correlate genetic similarities among the women
you have been close to in recent years - at least in the ten
years we've known you.  Then we did an analysis among those
correlations to identify the physical and mental
characteristics you find most attractive in a partner.  We
used that data to partially constrain our optimization
program.  Essentially, if there was a choice to be made among
a set of "good traits" that were equally acceptable otherwise,
the computer picked the one most likely to appeal to you."

"And all that worked?"

Adam answered her.  "She is really beautiful, Cat."

"Great!" Cat sputtered, as she dropped gracelessly back down
into her chair.  "That is just great.  Here I have to be a
twenty-four-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week bodyguard to the
woman of my dreams.  Do you know how tough unrequited lust is
to deal with when you have to be alert?"

Robert muttered, "As if it is likely to remain unrequited."

"I heard that, Bobby," Cat's head snapped back up to glare
indignantly at the old doctor.  "No WAY would I take advantage
of my best friend that way.  She is safe from me."

"You may as well know, that it may well be the other way
around, Cat," Robert replied, his voice back in his
"professor-mode".  "The very characteristics that make her
physical self so impressive will likely carry over into her
sex drive.  And she has no experience dealing with a feminine
sexual need and physical reactions that would be merely in the
normal range, but that is not what she will have.  Matt has a
99.5%-plus probability of having a highly sexed libido."

"Well, that ought to give poor Matt fits.  But hell, most
girls like boys.  I should be safe from her."

"Matt's body may be that of a fully fertile female, but her
thinking is still all-male.  That might change over time, at
least somewhat, but just today, her own body aroused her.  I
think it is far more likely that she will end up completely
indifferent to the gender of her potential partners.  And
besides, she already likes you, and lusts for you, Cat.  More
than that, she wants you to help her train physically and to
teach her self defense and fighting techniques."

Cat's mind flew to the image of her hands and body in close,
intimate contact with another woman's sweaty body while locked
in the throes of primitive, physical competition.  Her dream
lover's wet, sweaty and sexy body.  She groaned.  "Oh, shit. 
Can't we get anyone else to do this?"

"Do you want anyone else to do it?  She's your friend, too. 
Is there anyone else that would be better for her?"

"Damn you, Robert," she sighed, admitting defeat.  "Okay, what
is the plan?"

"I wanted her to get some more rest, so I snuck a bit of a
sedative into her meal.  She will be out for at least another
eight hours.  I think it best if you are there when she
awakens."

"And if she makes a move on me?"

Robert considered that and shook his head.  "As I said
earlier, I don't think there is any "if" about that.  It is
definitely going to happen.  So, do you care about her?  Are
you going to hurt her?"

"Of course I care about him . . . errr . . . her.  And I don't
hurt people I care about."

"Then follow your instincts.  We have to protect her.  Whoever
did this will have to try again once they find out they failed
to kill her.  They have to know that Matt Sorenson won't rest
until he gets to the bottom of this.  They must know him
pretty well given the intelligence his 'loyal' executive
assistant would have on him.  They have to know that their
only chance is to take him, now her, out permanently."

"They will have to come after him again," Cat growled.  

Adam would have sworn he could see hackles rising on the
Amazon warrior.  "That's how we see it, Cat," he replied
steadily.

Cat nodded.  "And we have to assume that they still have
people on the inside.  It would be stupid to assume that all
of their people left with that bitch of a secretary."

Adam nodded.  "Someone with very good cyber skills has been
tracking project progress through our computers.  We've found
bits and pieces of lost webs of data in the data banks
indicating that someone has been in them without permission. 
The change in security status for the computers only happened
after they made their takeover play.  I don't think Martha, if
that was her real name, was that skilled."

"Okay.  I will get on it.  I am only going to bring selected
people into this.  People I *know* I can trust.  What about
your people, Adam?  Robert?"

"Only my longtime law school friend is privy to any of this in
the legal offices, Cat," Adam replied.  "All the records are
already sealed and copies are being held for us by three
different institutions of impeccable reputation.  Corporately,
we are safe."

"The processes and records associated with the transition are
now under DNA coded computer lockdown.  As to the people, all
are Code 1 Security cleared."

"Wasn't Martha Code 1 cleared?  Of course she was, so that
restriction isn't enough.  The three of us need to approve
anyone who gets access to that data personally.  Lock out
everyone but the three of us, and set up the new protocols,
Adam.  Now, what about the people who are treating her?"

Robert answered this time. "All have been with us for at least
three years."  Cat frowned.  "Yeah, I know. Same as Martha. 
Well, the treatment is controlled by what I authorize in the
computer.  No one else can access those controls.  They can't
do anything to her, medically anyway, that I don't approve
before hand."

"Okay.  First priority is to upgrade her security.  Second
priority is to recheck the background of everyone with direct
access to her.  We will dig deep this time."  Both men nodded
their assent.  "All right, gentlemen, I need to get the ball
rolling and get some rest.  See to some accommodation for me
near her, Robert, and get some exercise gear installed in
there, too.  Until we have her on her feet, I want her inside
that facility.  It is built to resist anything short of a
direct plasma burst."  

Interlude:

The holograph of Freuda blurred into existence.  "What is it,
Florence?  Did you forget something in your report?"  The tone
of voice was haughty and arrogant.  Sternly, Teri reminded
herself just how much she owed this woman.  Still, the woman's
peremptory manner set Teri's back up.

"No, Freuda.  My relief just called to tell me that Security
Chief Donovan will be on board twenty four hours a day
starting with my shift tomorrow.  I will have to be careful
with my advances."

"Donovan is a female lover.  I don't see where she should pose
a problem.  Seduce her, too."

Teri wanted to shake her head in disgust, but did not.  This
woman was too powerful, too dangerous.  "I will try, Freuda,
but you have to insure that contingencies account for her
presence.  She is a very smart and dangerous woman.  You have
seen the dossier on her.  We have no one in her organization
and she is going to be trying to find us."

"She will try.  However, the fact that we were unable to
infiltrate her group is moot.  She will naturally assume that
her security is, in fact, compromised.  That will force her to
move much more deliberately than she might otherwise.  Very
well.  We will consider this in our plans.  Proceed with your
orders."  Without another word, the holograph shimmered and
evaporated.

Stunned at the woman's arrogance, Florence/Teri just shook her
head.  She wanted to say, "Bitch," but feared that she was
still under monitor.  She satisfied herself by thinking it.  

Twice.