Page 13 of Seductive Architect (Grunts of Vanguard #2)

I glanced up at the giant letters, surrounded by blinking lights.

“Skye’s Arcade.” It had been an institution in Vanguard for as long as I could remember.

Windows made up the front of the building, letting kids passing by see the hundreds of video games inside.

My parents avoided this street when we went to the grocery store.

They knew if I caught sight of the hundreds of flashing screens, I’d beg to go inside.

“Don’t get mushy,” I reminded myself. “You’re here to do a job.”

If I could figure out Hudson’s tie to Synergy, or the senator, or anything , I could scratch a dozen projects off the wall.

“Which first?” I spun about to see Hudson staring at the sign high above the door. “Games or food?”

I let my powers flare and thrust them at Hudson.

Unlike before, I couldn’t keep up with the code.

Millions of calculations were happening at once.

Just because I could talk to machines didn’t mean I always understood their language.

Simple machines spoke with simple functions.

Hudson, on the other hand, existed because of intelligence that made Connie look like a calculator.

I took a step back, legs trembling. My powers met their match.

I’d have to rely on good ol’ detective work.

“Games,” I said. “Always games.”

When he held out his hand, I hesitated. Last night, those hands had roamed along my chest, and if I thought too hard, it’d be followed by an ache for more.

As much as I wanted to refer to him as an it, and focus on the things that kept him from being human, I came back to the slobbery kiss.

I had let my personal life intersect with my professional, and now I couldn’t unravel where one ended and the other began.

I took his hand, letting my fingers lace with his. He gave my hand a squeeze… a very human squeeze. This made him dangerous. Too easy to forget what I was here to do. Programmed or not, he knew exactly how to lower my guard.

Before I could open my mouth, he lunged forward, dragging me along. Maybe I could balance this… all of it. I’d get the information, challenge a handsome man to some video games, and kiss him. Just because he was not quite human didn’t mean he’d turn into a villain I’d need to wrestle with.

Inside, Hudson’s expression didn’t look much different from mine as a kid. I fed money into the token machine. I scooped up the handful of coins, dropping a bunch in his hand. He hardly noticed as he glanced between the pinball machines, fighting games, and Skee ball.

“What first?” I expected fighting games, or maybe one requiring shooting targets. A super soldier with the ability to decimate a team of goons? He’d want to test his metal against? —

“That one!” Skeet ball? “How do you play?”

While we waited for a couple of kids to finish their game, I explained the rules. When the child cheered, grabbing a long rope of tickets, Hudson’s eyebrow went up.

“You play for tickets. When you’re done, you can cash them in for a prize.” If he were the perfect killing machine, he certainly didn’t act like it. “Don’t get too excited, the prizes are horrible.”

He dropped in a token, and the balls came rolling down the side, ready to test his hand-eye coordination. Hudson picked up a ball, wrapping his fingers around it as he closed one eye as if he were taking aim.

“So, what did you do before working at Synergy?”

His first pitch had so much energy, it missed all the holes.

If he were a super soldier, sinking it in the hundred-point hole should have been child’s play.

This required less skill than hurling a car door like a boomerang.

He pouted until a small blue ticket appeared from the machine. “I worked in a lab.”

“Really? What type?”

He took aim with the second ball. “Tech stuff. They created machines.” I suspected he told the truth, or at least enough, it’d be impossible to detect the lie. “I prefer the mailroom. People are happy when the mail shows up. Much better than scientists.”

The ball landed in the twenty-five-point hole. Was he programmed to be reserved? If Connie had a body, she’d have calculated the amount of force, the curvature of the lane, and the impact of the temperature. I doubt she’d do anything but get a perfect score.

“How long have you lived in Vanguard?”

“My whole life.” Too neat. Too easy. It sounded programmed.

The next ball came close to the one-hundred-point hole, but fell into the fifty.

When the tickets spit out, Hudson’s hips moved in a circle.

Killing machines didn’t do victory dances.

Or at least, that’s not how I would have programmed them.

“Me, too,” I said. “I went to elementary school down the street.” I hadn’t thought about those early years in a long time. “We used to have talent shows every other month. It gave the kids a chance to show off their hobbies.”

“Did you take apart the toaster?”

My companion was observant enough to notice that I had an affinity for machines. I wonder how much of that information had been stored and correlated? Had he figured out what Secret Identities did, or worse yet, who I was on the street?

“I did magic.”

He stopped mid-throw. “Magic?” My unpredictable response caused him to raise an eyebrow. I wish I could reach inside his brain and hear the machines struggling to make connections. While they frantically attempted to tie a red string between non-sequiturs, I had to chuckle .

“I used to show up at school with a cape and top hat. My dad even made me a magic wand. You can say I was the odd one as a kid.”

“Odd isn’t a bad thing.” He flashed that grin, and my brain slowed, and my heart surged. “It makes you unique.”

“I still have the wand.” I froze. This was the first time I told anybody about my adventures as a miniature wizard. I thought I’d go to the grave before admitting I kept the wand hidden in the back of my bedroom closet. “If you ever tell another soul?—”

He held his fingers to his lips, turning the imaginary key. “Your secret dies with me.”

Hudson defied expectations. If he were a super soldier, he possessed more humanity than actual humans.

Or maybe this part of his programming is what made him the perfect soldier.

Every time I got lost in my head, he’d say something that put my head and heart at odds with one another.

Did he excel in psychological warfare? That’d be downright diabolical.

“What about you? Any embarrassing secrets from grade school?” I genuinely hoped he had an answer, programmed or not.

He stared over my shoulder, his face going slack.

I followed his line of sight to two young kids at the ticket counter.

Three boys jumped up and down as they pointed to Styrofoam swords.

The man behind the counter took their tickets, counting them out.

When he finished, he turned, handing them each a sword.

Seconds later, they dueled as if they were gladiators.

“I don’t remember.”

It was the first time he didn’t brush off a question.

I wanted to demand more. Instead, I let it go.

His face had a moment of pain, as if he had come across a bad memory.

As much as I wanted to push, I didn’t want to be a source of misery.

I took the ball from his hand. Walking up the side of the skeet ball ramp, I dropped it in the one-hundred-point hole.

“That’s cheating!”

He might be programmed to follow the rules. I, on the other hand, preferred to break them. “Let’s see if we can get you a Styrofoam sword.”

Biting his lower lip didn’t stop him from grinning.

He snatched up the next ball and lined up his shot.

He still didn’t have an aim worth mentioning.

Instead, I gave the mechanics in the machine a little extra push to double the number of tickets it produced.

It might not be ethical, but I’d pay back society by stopping an extra supervillain.

While I tried to keep my mission objective at the forefront of my mind, Kiki’s voice continued to haunt me.

If she were here, I’d be receiving a lecture about how I need to exist here and now, and not drown in my theories.

I argued with her in my head. For an imaginary conversation, she remained persistent .

“I’m trying,” I mumbled.

“What’s that?” Hudson asked.

I had grown used to having “imaginary” conversations ever since I discovered I could talk to machines. Lying about my abilities had become second nature.

“I’m trying to make sure we add to your list.”

“First arcade,” he said. “First arcade with a handsome man.”

I wouldn’t let myself forget this handsome lug held a place on the board, but I could enjoy myself while researching.

Right? What could go wrong mixing pleasure with business?

Everything… and yet, something about Hudson made blurring the line easy.

I’m sure I’d regret this, but right now, I wanted to savor this handsome man.

“Grab your tickets,” I said. “I’m going to introduce you to whack-a-mole.”

I’d regret this. But that was tomorrow’s problem.

I should have walked away.

Fine, Kiki. You win.

“She didn’t?”

“She did!”

Hudson snorted. “What did Arthur say?”

“We are never allowed to have casual Friday again.”

While we waited for our pizza, I shared a long list of hijinks caused by Janet’s reign of terror.

If I didn’t work there, I wouldn’t believe it.

As I delved into the outlandish stories, I couldn’t figure out how we ever accomplished work.

When I joined Secret Identities, I thought it’d be a solid cover and perhaps I’d be able to use my powers to do some good.

I didn’t realize I signed up for a gentle warfare between siblings.

“You’d look good in a leather harness, I’m sure.”