FSE

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Chapter-15

Theo didn't move, the mongoose's arms around his neck and tear's wetting his fur. This couldn't be Marcus, there was just no way... He breathed in the man's scent and confirmed who he was, and as a response, Theo lost track of where he was.

Was he still on the Mercury? Had he imagined his time on Mars? A dream maybe?

He looked at the room beyond the man. It wasn't a cabin, and the silence in his head was another confirmation this was Mars. Cass would be commenting on the situation if he was there.

He moved forward, getting them into the apartment, and then two more steps to move out of the door's sensor's range to close the door. "Marcus." His voice was hollow. "What are you doing here?"

The mongoose let go of him and dried his eyes. "We were only two days in when the ship had engine trouble, big ones. I heard we were lucky it didn't just blow up." He grabbed Theo's hand and pulled the tiger into the kitchen. "They barely managed to slow the ship down and then we had to wait for a few of days for a puller to get to us. They tried to fix it, but didn't manage it, so they pulled us back to the station."

Marcus indicated the chair at the table. "Sit." He then went to the food preparation unit. Theo remained standing, as the mongoose continued. "We finally got in yesterday afternoon, Mars time, and instead of being stuck on the ship while they figured out what to do with us, I decided to come down to spend time with you." He looked over his shoulder and beamed at Theo. "Come on, sit, I'm prepping us something to eat." He focused back on the unit

Theo still didn't move.

"Well, as I went through the custom sensor, they pulled me aside and sat me in a room without any explanation. When I tried to find out what was going on, the officer told me to sit back down. It was four hours before someone talked to me. Can you believe that? They had me wait for four hours like I was some common illegal immigrant or something. And it didn't end there, oh no. Then they told me I was already on Mars, only Marcus Bowfinger was really a tiger, like you, not a mongoose. I'm telling you; it was all I could do not to explode on her."

He paused, tapped the unit impatiently. "I guess my time on the Orr ship was good for something, other than meeting you. I learned to endure annoyances like that. Still, it took until a couple of hours ago for me to be able to prove I am who I am. Did you know ID tags could be faked? They did a full DNA scan, looking for any sort of inconsistencies, they queried Titan station, Luna, and even the Mercury, which is still at the station. I'd have expected them to be gone by now. The Mercury answered first, confirmed there was only one Marcus Bowfinger, and that I was it, but it wasn't until Luna also confirmed my identity that they finally allowed me to come down. I tried contacting you while I waited, but they must have had me in a quarantine field. I had nothing to do for all that time. You can't imagine how dreadfully boring it was."

He pressed buttons, making the unit beep in complaint. "Can't this thing work any faster? I did contact you as soon as I was out, but I couldn't reach you, so I went through my memories and found where you're staying and left a message with your apartment. When I got here the lock wouldn't let me in. I had to get the building's manager and go through everything again. And then the place hadn't been cleaned after the previous occupant was here. I even found a bag of clothing under the bed. I'm telling you; I left a scathing message with the management company. I can't believe they left this place in that state."

Theo had enough. He grabbed Marcus by the shoulders and spun him around. "You're not making sense. What are you doing here? You're supposed to be on your way to Luna."

The mongoose watched him worry in his eyes. "Are you okay? I told you, the ship broke down and was towed back here. It's going to be a few days before it's fixed." He finally took in what Theo was wearing and made a face. "What's with the getup? Were you at a party?"

Was this a trap? Was Marcus here to capture him? Did he work for SolGov Security? He shook his head. That made no sense. The mongoose didn't have the psychological profile for a security agent.

"If it wasn't a party, why are you wearing that?"

"Huh?"

Marcus indicated Theo's bright clothing. The tiger looked down at himself and was surprised by what he wore. He almost told Marcus about taking them from Rodrick's closet. That's how tired he was. "It's been a long day," he finally managed to say. "This was the only thing I had left."

Marcus looked in his eyes. "You do look tired. I don't remember ever seeing you tired before, even after the all-nighters of sex we've had. I thought you ran on fusion power or something." The mongoose smiled.

Theo did have a lot of stamina, but even he had his limits. "It was a bad day. I'm going to grab a shower."

"Okay," Marcus started undoing his shirt.

Theo stopped him. "Alone. I just need to wash the day out of my fur." He needed to get himself awake, start thinking again. He almost coded Cass to give him a stimulant, but decided he would be okay with the shower. Only then remembering Cass wasn't there.

Marcus' face fell.

"We'll have fun afterward, okay?" Theo said. "It'll just be a quick shower." He headed for the bathroom as Marcus said a weak. 'Okay.'

Once there he coded Cass to lock the door and looked at his reflection. Marcus being here could screw up everything. Mars security now knew he was here under an assumed name. Fortunately, illegal entry was so common they didn't task all the systems to find them, and he still had Marcus' DNA ID tag, so those scans wouldn't pick him up as illegal, so long as they didn't then query the database.

He cursed silently. He didn't have any way to get the database modified. Without Cass he was stuck.

He took the gun out of the waistband and hid it under the sink, among the cleaning product. That was one thing he didn't want to have to explain to Marcus. Then he turned to the shower and stared as nothing happened.

He just looked at it for a time, then almost punched the door in frustration. No, after the day he'd had he wasn't going to be denied a shower. He found the access panel on the wall next to it and opened it. It wasn't quite like picking a lock, but with the tools he had access to, and some trial and error he did get the water flowing.

It was cold when he stepped under the jet, but that was the best he managed to get. The shock did wake him up enough to realize that if he played this right, he could use Marcus to move about the city, search for Cass.

He washed quickly, and when he left the stall, shut down the water and put the cover back on, he felt like he actually had a chance at finding Cass. A slim one, but it was more than he'd had moments before.

He didn't dress before leaving the bathroom. As the door opened, he caught sight of Marcus, seated at the table, slumped down. He straightened at the sound and Theo could see the smile was forced when he looked at him.

Theo answered with his most genuine smile. He nodded toward the bedroom. "Let's get to bed."

Marcus' eyes lit up and he ran there, pulling clothes off as he went. Theo followed him, climbed on top of him, fully indenting to fuck the mongoose like he hadn't been fucked in his life, but for the first time in his life, Theo instead fell straight asleep.

* * * * *

Theo came awake slowly to the sound of his own moan. There was a hot mouth moving up and down on his cock, and it felt great. Waking up to a blowjob wasn't the best way to do it; that was waking up to the smell of his mother cooking pancakes, and her hot blueberry syrup. This had to be a close second.

"Of fuck yeah." Theo placed a hand on his partner's head and began thrusting, taking control of the situation. The guy didn't protest, tightening his lips around the shaft. Theo thrust slowly. He was in no hurry and this guy, no, Marcus, he remembered who he'd gotten into bed with now. Marcus wouldn't complain. Marcus would take whatever Theo gave him so long as Theo gave the impression he wanted the mongoose around, that he cared for him.

Theo didn't have to force the sounds of appreciation. He was fucking someone's mouth, moving closer to orgasm. What was there not to enjoy? He gasped as Marcus slipped a well lubed finger under his tail and inside him. He grinned around a moan. The mongoose did know what he liked. He'd paid attention during their time together.

Marcus finger fucked Theo, which made the tiger face fuck the mongoose faster, his moans increasing in intensity until they became a scream and he pushed his cock deep in Marcus' muzzle, deep throating him for a moment and emptying his balls.

The mongoose pulled up a little and suckled on his cock head, causing Theo's descent to slow, and plateau before he started getting soft. Something else Marcus had learned. If he kept being stimulated, Theo could perform multiple times.

The tiger looked down at the mongoose, and gave him a lazy smile when Marcus opened his eyes and looked up. "I hope you haven't been jerking off while sucking me, because now that you've lubed me, You're going to fuck me."

Marcus didn't need any other encouragement. He moved forward, raising Theo's legs up as he did. He didn't pause. Pushing his cock in the tiger's ass as he leaned down to kiss him. Theo kissed him back, and with the ease born of months of intense sex together, Marcus fucked him to a second orgasm.

* * * * *

Theo lay in bed, Marcus spooned against him. The mongoose had fallen back asleep after his third orgasm. Theo was still good to go, but then he was always ready.

Marcus had looked content when he fell asleep, which made what Theo was planning to do difficult. Now that he was rested, he realized he couldn't simply have Marcus help him. It wasn't that he'd have to explain what was going on, who he really was and what he'd done, he was going to have to do that anyway, but if SolGov Security thought for one moment that Marcus was an accomplice they'd make his life hell. SolGov dealt harshly with any spies, but they were hardest on those who turned their back against their own government to work for someone else. That's what they'd think Marcus had done if Theo didn't play this right.

But he didn't have to do that right now. He could give Marcus a few more hours of peace. He could let him believe for a little while longer that he'd finally found a guy who could accept him with all his flaws and needs.

* * * * *

Marcus stirred when Theo disentangled himself from him. "Good morning," the mongoose said, smiling. Theo didn't reply, getting out of the bed. He saw the mongoose stretch, then close his eyes again. He wasn't looking forward to this, but it had to be done.

He grabbed a change of clothing then had another shower, still cold, before putting those on over the white shirt and pants and retrieving the gun. He looked it over. He didn't recognize it, but it followed the basic designs all guns had. The grip, the trigger and the barrel. It took him a moment to work out how to remove the battery to check how much power it had left. He wasn't going to use it on Marcus, but there was no telling who he might have to shoot in the coming hours and days.

He looked at himself in the mirror again and with a sigh he formed his face in a mask of forced neutrality, then headed to the bedroom again.

"Time to get up Marcus. We have work to do."

The mongoose smiled without opening his eyes. "Maybe you need to work, but I'm still on vacation until I reach Luna." He yawned. "I think I'm going to stay in bed so I have all my strength for when you come back."

Theo placed a foot against the mattress and gave it a shove. He made his voice hard when he spoke. "I said, get up."

The mongoose sat up in surprise. "Jeez, what's your problem today?" He glared at Theo, but then noticed the gun the tiger was holding at his side. He tilted his head quizzically. "Theo, what are you doing with a gun."

Theo tightened his grip on the gun. "Marcus, don't make repeat myself again. Get up, get dressed."

Marcus looked like he'd say something, but shrugged and got out of bed. "Fine, fine. I'm dressing. You know, if you're trying to play the part of a Bondo villain, you should have stuck with the clothing you wore earlier. You look too normal right now to pull it off."

Theo waited for him to be dressed before pushing him against the wall and pressing his gun in his stomach. "Let me make something clear. I'm not playing. I'm not trying to play off a fantasy. The time's done for that. I gave you one last night of fucking because I needed it. You're not supposed to be here. You're supposed to be on your way to Luna, out of my way, but since you're here, I'm going to use you, but I don't need you. You cause me any trouble and I'm going to kill you and dispose of your body."

Fear crossed Marcus' eyes. "T-Theo, please stop, you're scaring me."

Theo leaned in and lowered his voice. "Good, you should be scared, because if you don't do what I tell you, you're going to die." He grabbed Marcus by the arm and pulled him to the kitchen, shoving him in a chair. He went to the food preparation unit and pulled out the simple meal of meat potatoes and vegetable Marcus had set to be made last night, no, this morning. What time was it? With exaggerated disgust he threw that in the sink and set it to make bacon and eggs. He got the coffee maker going. Then turned and leaned against the counter.

Marcus was watching him wearily. "Theo, what's going on?" he asked softly. "Please just explain this to me. Are you in some sort of trouble?"

"And what if I am?"

"I can help. I have influence."

Theo laughed. He made it harsh. "Is that what you think? You're nothing more than a bureaucrat with an inflated ego. You think I'd have picked you if you had any kind of influence? You had access to something I needed, that's it."

The prep unit dinged. Theo retrieved the food and placed it before Marcus. He added a fork and knife. "Eat up, you're going to need your strength."

Marcus just looked at the food. When he looked up his face was hard. "Theo, I demand that you stop this right now! This isn't funny!"

Theo slammed the gun on the table, making Marcus jump. "This isn't supposed to be funny, Marcus," he growled. "This is supposed to scare the shit out of you so you'll do what I tell you. And now that things are probably starting to sink in, don't even think of contacting someone about this. I'm going to know and then I'll have to kill you."

"Theo, you can't want to do that." Marcus' voice as trying to be firm, but the plaintiveness seeped through.

"No, I don't. Disposing of a body in this place is more hassle then I have time for."

The shock froze the mongoose.

Theo grabbed one of the coffees and placed it next to the plate. He sipped the other. He wasn't worried about Marcus contacting anyone. So long as Theo didn't physically hurt him, the mongoose would continue to cling to the hope that this was a joke, or that he could do something to talk sense into the tiger. He would force himself to go along no matter what Theo said, how painful it got because someone like Marcus didn't think he could survive what Theo indicated was happening.

Marcus slowly looked around the apartment taking in the signs of someone having lived in it before he arrived and then looked at Theo.

"Yeah," Theo said, sipping his coffee. "I'm the one who's been living here."

"The border said I'd already entered Mars, that a tiger had my name."

Theo nodded. "I've been you from the moment I landed. That's why you're not supposed to be here. Having two Marcus Bowfinger on Mars is going to be a problem."

Marcus eyed the gun.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to kill you for that. Like I said, too much hassle."

"But why?"

Theo's ears canted on their own, he didn't have to act the surprise. Marcus was smart enough to know what it all meant. His denial couldn't be running that deep.

"Why do you think?"

"You're here to steal from my government." The words were small. His eyes were getting wet. "But the Mercury? Our time there?"

Theo made his laugh mocking. "You have got to be the most naive mark I've ever had to deal with. It was all a trick."

"I don't believe you. I'd have been able to tell."

Theo steeled himself for this part. He'd broken many hearts, it came with the job, but he wasn't normally around when his marks realized what had happened. He wasn't there telling them to their face they'd been used. He didn't relish doing this now.

"Let me tell you something about yourself Marcus. You're needy. You tell yourself stories about how you can't afford to be in a relationship because guys want too much of you, but you're the one who wants. You played hard to get, but the moment I smiled at you during our first dinner, the moment I showed you I might want to spend time with you, you couldn't wait to be with me. You were willing to do anything just so I'd spend time with you. You had sex in public, for fuck's sake, just so I'd think you're a guy who can play on the wild side, just so I'd stick around."

Theo finished his coffee and put the cup on the counter. "When I said I loved you, I could have asked you to come down here, steal Councilor Highlanding's personally access code for me and you would have done it. You're just lucky my orders were to send you away from Mars."

Marcus had shrunk upon himself as Theo spoke. "That isn't true. I'm not...." He looked up, tears falling. "Please Theo, don't do this. Tell me this is a joke, a cruel one, but please tell me that's what this is."

Theo's face remained neutral.

"I love you. Doesn't that mean anything?"

"Marcus, that was the fucking point. Can't you get that through your thick skull? I was to make you fall in love with me, get what I needed from you, then send you away so I could get on with the rest of my job."

"But you said-"

"I lied."

Marcus broke down, and It took all of Theo's willpower not to go comfort him. No one should have to suffer like that, but the alternative was even worse.

"Did you even like me?" Marcus asked.

Theo sighed. "Does it even matter?"

"Please?"

Theo sighed again, and made his tone conciliatory. "Look, Marcus. You're not a bad guy. I did enjoy my time with you and you're fun in bed, but that's all that was. It's going to be a lot easier for you if you accept that."

Marcus nodded, but Theo knew the mongoose was grasping at hope. Making a rope of threads. Taking every little concession that Theo had liked him and turning them into possibilities that somehow, if he did the right thing, said the correct words, he could rebuild what he thought they'd had.

Casanova would have liked this. Under everything else, Marcus was a romantic.

"Who do you work for?"

Theo fixed his gaze on him.

"Please, Theo, I just need something."

Theo sighed. "Ameritech."

"Is Theo even your name?"

"I'm not telling you that. You've called me Theo for all this time. You can continue to do so."

"And when it's all over?"

"I don't know." He'd almost said he'd leave, disappear never to be seen again, but he thought that could have been too much for Marcus. He needed to let him hope he still had a chance. As distasteful as it was, Theo had to string him along. "The job's on a flexible time frame, my handlers can't arrange anything until it's done."

"Will we be able to stay together while you wait?"

"Marcus, we're not together right now."

"I know. I just...."

"Look. Once this is done, I'll see what I can do. Understand that we're not going to be anything but fuck buddies, but I should be able to hang out with you."

There was so much hope in Marcus' eyes Theo thought it was sad. The man was convincing himself that he'd be able to get back into Theo's good graces, rekindle a romance that had never been and that when the time came, Theo would pick the mongoose over his life as a spy.

Theo wouldn't leave this life so long as he could do the work, and then he'd probably move on to directing, like Anderson had done.

"Okay. What happens now?"

"You need to eat. I can reheat that if-"

* * * * *

The Delta merged with Casanova and new information bloomed through him. He smiled at the Soromis node he was rubbing himself against. But addressed Angel, who was rummaging in her. "Angel, can you be gentle with her for a short time? I need to deal with something."

She looked up at him. "Something more important than this?"

"My part only consists in pleasuring her while you work, if you can reign in your impatience and proceed slower, I'm sure you can continue without causing her any discomfort." He looked at the node. "Oh, I'm sorry. I hadn't noticed." He nuzzled him. "The node is male now."

"No it isn't," Angle grumbled. "Fine, you go deal with whatever you have to, but I better not find out you went out just to write something. Time is of the essence."

He kissed the surface of the node and he shimmered. "I'll only be gone a moment." Slowly he untangled himself from the node.

"Please put that away," Angel said indicating Casanova's erect cock.

"Angel, I can't help how much pleasure I get from pleasing such a handsome node."

She glared at him, and he felt his form change. She'd imposed her view, and he was now wearing gray slacks, brown loafers and a beige cardigan. He made a copy of himself and walked around it. It was a little bland for his taste, not that he was one for clothing, but it wasn't a bad ensemble.

Just a little too loose. He made the pants tighter, so it hugged his ass and hinted at what he was packing. The loafers became sandals and the cardigan a translucent shirt showing his pecks. He studied it for a moment, then undid the top two buttons.

He turned to look at Angel. "What do you think?"

She glanced at him and shrugged.

"Maybe I should get into designing clothes."

"Oh please don't. Your books are bad enough, I don't think I could deal with people wearing what you think are decent clothing. Now if you're just going to stand there, how about you get back to keeping this node pliant?"

"In a moment, this isn't what I need to take care of." Casanova left. In moments he was out of Angel's influence and was naked again.

The Delta's information had been simple. 'find me in the living world.' And then it had provided a network address with the instructions 'put that information on that terminal, mark it 'Cass is here.' Casanova didn't question why his Beta needed him to do that. He wouldn't have asked him for it if he was in a position to do it himself.

Finding out where the Delta had entered the network was simple. Find out where that corresponded to in the living world took a little longer. He had to find a node that had a database of what the network addresses linked to in the living world. It was pleasurable, but Casanova had to charm a dozen nodes before he found the information. Angel would have known, but he didn't want to disturb her work.

He assembled the information into a form living people could work with, then sent a Delta with it to the destination address.

* * * * *

"-you need me to." Theo looked at the living room. It was now lit by the screen. A white light reflecting on the floor and seats. He couldn't see what was on it from this angle, but he didn't think Marcus was the one who had turned it on.

He stepped in the living room, and on the screen was a map of the city. At the bottom of the New-York dome was a red dot with the words 'Cass is here' next to it.

Theo smiled. "Cass, you wonderful partner, I love you," he whispered. "Marcus, get in here."

The mongoose joined him.

"Zoom on the New-York zone." Theo held his breath as the image changed, and released it when the dot didn't change size.

"Who's Cass?" Marcus asked.

"Zoom on the building."

The building became the only thing on he screen. The dot was in the south west corner of the building. "Which building is it?"

"That's a storage building. It doesn't have a name. I can give you the name of the management company if you want."

"No, show me the street names at this corner." The names appeared; Werthiem and Morose. "Three dimensional view. I need the floor number."

The image didn't change. "It's unit 465. The information's right there, why are you going through all that to get it?" His eyes went wide. "You're not from Ameritech. You're an Independent. You don't have an Implant. That's why I couldn't contact you when I got here. But how? We talked while on the Mercury."

Theo spun, aiming his gun at Marcus. "I have more important things to deal with than how I was able to do that. I need you to-"

"Theo, please put the gun away."

Theo had a moment of surprise at Marcus' calm, then narrowed his eyes.

"I'm not trying anything stupid. You made it quite clear what you're going to do to me if I do, but you don't need to threaten me anymore. I'm going to help."

Theo didn't like this. He'd wanted Marcus afraid for his life so the GovSec wouldn't have been in a position to consider him an accomplice, but the mongoose had worked out Theo needed him. It gave him a secure place at Theo's side. Now Marcus was confident he'd be able to convince the tiger they should stay together.

It couldn't be helped. Theo had to hope that when the GovSec went through Marcus' memories they'd see it was his misguided love for him that made him act this way. His reaction when Theo dumped him when all this was over should help cement that.

Theo Put the gun in the waistband at his back. "Fine, but if you try anything. I don't need the gun to kill you."

Marcus nodded. "I believe you." His tone said he didn't, but Theo couldn't help that either. "What do you need me to do."

"I need you to turn off the screen, but don't erase the buffer." The screen went dark. "Now I need you to change the apartment's answering message to-"

"Why?"

"Marcus, don't start asking questions. I need you, but that doesn't mean I'm in a mood to humor you."

"Sorry. What do you need it to say."

"Sorry I missed you, I had to go out. If this is my dear Angel, I managed to track down my friend, and I'm joining him. He's having a party so you're welcome to join us, but be sure to bring party favors."

Marcus didn't react. "Don't you want to tell that Angel where is it?"

"No, she's going to be able to work it out." He didn't know why Patricia hadn't contacted him already. Hopefully those Independents hadn't caught her too. If they had, she might be with Cass. If not, when she contacted the apartment, she'd be able to get the information of the screen buffer.

The thought that she might have been caught brought back Rodrick's ashes. And raised the question again of why Theo was still alive.

He grabbed Marcus' arms and pulled him for the door. It didn't open as they reached it. Theo glared at Marcus.

The mongoose nodded to Theo's hand, holding him. "You can't hold me once we're outside. We're going to attract attention."

"Marcus, I don't have time for that."

"Do you have time to deal with security? Holding someone in public is a fining offense. How are you going to explain your lack of an Implant to her? Theo, I'm not going to do anything. I want to help you."

Reluctantly Theo let go of Marcus, and the door opened. He'd definitely preferred the mongoose when he was scared.