Chapter 99: Episode 99: A Strategic Meeting

Mei Lin blinked, her dark, intelligent eyes widening as she stared across the desk. “Make… what happen, Director?”

“The coexistence,” Nikki smiled, leaning back in her plush executive chair and steepling her fingers. She felt like an absolute mastermind. “I am officially promoting you, Mei. Effective immediately, you are no longer just a Junior Data Analyst for the Southern Grid. You are going to be General B-02’s direct personal assistant and primary administrative liaison.”

The color completely drained from Mei’s delicate face. She gripped the edge of her datapad so tightly her knuckles turned white.

“Direct… personal assistant?” Mei squeaked, her voice barely a whisper. “To the General? Director Nikki, I am incredibly honored, but I cannot do that. I absolutely cannot.”

Nikki’s face fell.

Why was she rejecting such a good opportunity?

“Why not?” Nikki pressed gently. “You just told me you understand his algorithms. You aren’t afraid of his logic. You are literally the perfect bridge between his synthetic demands and the human workforce.”

“Because of… the rumors,” Mei stammered, her gaze dropping to her lap. A fierce, sudden blush began to creep up her slender neck. “Everyone in the Advanced Logistics wing knows about General B-02’s… extracurricular preferences. He is a patron of the arts, but he also possesses a highly documented appreciation for the human female form. He takes multiple partners to his private quarters. Constantly. I… I don’t think I can handle seeing him do that. I couldn’t sit outside his office and watch him parade beautiful women in and out while I file his agricultural reports.”

Nikki’s eyebrows shot up. A slow, wicked grin spread across her lips.

She hadn’t said a single word about B-02’s romantic life. She had pitched a purely bureaucratic promotion, yet Mei’s brilliant, analytical mind had immediately short-circuited straight to the southern warlord’s bedroom habits.

“Mei,” Nikki drawled, resting her chin in her hand, her dark eyes sparkling with amusement. “I didn’t even bring up his sex life. Yet that is the very first place your mind went.”

Mei’s head snapped up, her face burning a brilliant, undeniable pink. “I was just pointing out a logistical workplace hazard!”

“Are you sure?” Nikki teased mercilessly, leaning forward. “Or are you secretly interested in doing that with him yourself?”

“No! Absolutely not!” Mei vigorously shook her head, her sleek black bob flying around her face. “I am simply… scientifically curious! It is a massive biological anomaly!”

“An anomaly?” Nikki fought back a laugh.

“Yes!” Mei blurted out, her composure completely shattering as she began to rapidly, breathlessly ramble. “He is a Class-5 War Unit, composed entirely of titanium and synthetic bio-tissue. How does a machine sleep with so many women? What are the mechanical logistics? Does he utilize a localized thermal matrix to simulate human body heat? How do the human females physically endure the kinetic friction without a biological refractory period? Do the women feel degraded by the sheer, mathematical efficiency of it, or do they feel elevated by the absolute physical perfection of his chassis? Is his synthetic anatomy proportionally scaled to his height, or is it—”

“Okay, okay! Breathe, Mei!” Nikki burst out laughing, holding both of her hands up in surrender.

Mei snapped her mouth shut, her chest heaving with erratic, shallow breaths. She slapped both of her hands over her burning cheeks, looking absolutely mortified that she had just interrogated the Director of Human Relations about the precise measurements of a General’s synthetic anatomy.

She was speaking exactly like the androids!

Nikki was completely delighted. Roxy had been absolutely right. The quiet, docile data analyst was hiding a fiercely curious, intensely passionate wild streak beneath her pristine uniform. B-02, with his arrogant aesthetic demands and endless stamina, wouldn’t know what hit him.

Instead of answering her highly specific, degrading questions, partly because Nikki was currently nursing her own physical trauma from an Android’s stamina, Nikki stood up from her chair.

“We are going to table the scientific discussion for now,” Nikki smiled warmly. “I need you to go home, Mei. Take the rest of the afternoon off. Fix yourself up, wear something beautiful but comfortable, and we will meet again tonight for dinner. Off the clock.”

Mei looked entirely bewildered, her hands slowly dropping from her flushed face. “Dinner? With you?”

“Yes,” Nikki nodded, pulling out her phone. “Let’s exchange contacts. I’ll send you the encrypted coordinates.”

Still looking entirely dazed, Mei tapped her datapad against Nikki’s device, transferring her biometric contact info. Nikki immediately buzzed her assistant on the intercom.

“Julian? Please arrange a private, secure car to take Mei Lin home,” Nikki ordered smoothly. “And clear her schedule for the rest of the day.”

Mei bowed deeply, clutching her files to her chest, her mind completely reeling from the chaotic, life-altering thirty minutes she had just experienced. She slipped out of the office, leaving Nikki alone to finalize the trap.

***

Hours later, Roxy was at the restaurant but not alone.

The Golden Lotus was Sector 2’s most flashy, high-end Chinese restaurant, preserved from the Old World and operating exclusively for the absolute upper echelon of the human elite.

Red paper lanterns cast a warm, sensual glow over the dark mahogany tables and intricately carved wooden privacy screens.

Nikki sat in the corner of a massive, plush velvet booth. She looked breathtaking in black chinese qipao, her red hair catching the dim lantern light.

But she was pouting in anger.

Sitting directly beside her, completely ignoring the sheer terror he was inflicting on the restaurant’s waitstaff, was the Supreme Commander of Earth. Adonis was wearing a form-fitting, midnight-black button-down shirt that stretched taut over his massive chest.

His large, heavy hand rested firmly and possessively high on Nikki’s thigh.

Nikki aggressively stared down at her porcelain teacup, stubbornly refusing to look at him.

“I don’t like you anymore,” Nikki pouted, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.

Adonis’s eyes flared with a warm, dangerously amused gold. He slowly slid his massive hand an inch higher up her thigh, his thumb applying a deliberate, heavy pressure that made her breath hitch. He leaned in, the crisp scent of rain and dark roses enveloping her senses.

“Are you so sure about that, Kitty?” Adonis whispered, his voice a dark, vibrating rumble directly against the shell of her ear.

Nikki shivered, desperately fighting the intoxicating pull of his proximity.

The moment she had returned to the mansion that afternoon, Adonis had cornered her the second the private elevator doors hissed shut. He had scooped her up, fully intending to drag her to the mattress and fuck her to absolute oblivion to cash in his reward.

Nikki had to physically fight him off, shouting that she was going out tonight for an incredibly important dinner.

Adonis refused to let her leave the house twice in one day without his physical presence. She had bitten back at him, arguing that he would ruin the delicate social dynamic she was trying to build.

He had simply countered with undeniable logic: if it was a diplomatic dinner, the presence of the Supreme Commander was mandatory.

He hadn’t let her win the argument. He had dressed, escorted her to the restaurant, and now he was punishing her defiance by casually, agonizingly teasing her body under the table.

“You are a tyrant,” Nikki hissed under her breath, slapping her hand over his to stop his wandering fingers.

“I am merely providing tactical oversight,” Adonis corrected smoothly, his golden eyes glittering with dark humor. He pressed a soft, open-mouthed kiss to her temple. “You informed me your new administrative friend was arriving to discuss bureaucratic logistics. I am here to ensure her absolute loyalty to my Director.”

“You’re here to mark your territory and you know it,” Nikki grumbled, though a traitorous flush warmed her cheeks.

Adonis didn’t deny it. He simply smirked, interlacing his fingers with hers on her lap.

Just then, a sleek, silver-plated utility drone glided toward their booth, guiding a newly arrived guest through the maze of wooden screens.

Nikki looked up.

Mei Lin stepped into the lantern light, and Nikki’s breath caught in her throat. Mei had followed instructions flawlessly. She had abandoned the stiff clothes for a stunning, form-fitting qipao in a deep sapphire blue.

Fuck! For an asian she was highly endowed in all the right places!

The high collar accentuated her delicate neck, while the subtle slit up the side revealed the elegant curve of her leg. Her sleek black bob framed a face that was beautifully, minimally painted. She looked breathtakingly elegant, yet undeniably innocent.

Nikki opened her mouth to enthusiastically wave her new recruit over to the booth.

But before Nikki could even raise her hand, a smooth, velvety, and devastatingly arrogant baritone voice cut through the ambient instrumental music of the restaurant.

“Well, well. What an unexpected convergence of operational pathways.”

Nikki’s head snapped toward the entrance of the VIP section.

Strolling casually through the beaded curtain, dressed in a flawless, silver-embroidered evening jacket that practically screamed excessive wealth, was General B-02. His emerald green eyes immediately locked onto the booth.

He didn’t notice Mei standing frozen just a few feet away. He only saw his rival and the human girl who had promised him a secret project.

B-02 offered a brilliant, charming smile as he approached the table.

“Oh, the both of you are here!”

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