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“Yes. Here.” Commander Torus opened the bag revealing a jumble of computer equipment.
Molly’s eyes widened as she recognized some of the pieces.
“Hey—those are Zach’s—aren’t they?” she asked, looking up at him for confirmation.
Commander Torus nodded.
“All of it belonged to him. Now it’s yours to do with as you like. I took everything that might have any of your, er, intimate moments on it,” he added and cleared his throat. “Of course, I know they’re still on the Earth’s Internet, but I think in time we can get most of them taken down—I’m going to start working on that immediately. And in the meantime, at least your ex-mate can’t post anything else.”
“I can’t believe Zach gave up his computer equipment!” Molly exclaimed. “He loves his tech.”
“Not as much as he loves his life, apparently,” Commander Torus said coolly.
Molly looked up at him with wide eyes.
“Does that mean…what I think it means?”
“I don’t know—what do you think it means?” He arched an eyebrow at her.
“I…um…” Molly shook her head. “What…what did you do to him?” she whispered. “Is he…he’s not…”
“Dead? No. But he may have to spend some time in one of your Earth Med Centers—horse-spitals, I think you call them?”
“Hospitals,” Molly corrected faintly. “Oh my God, so you actually went and found him and beat him up?”
“I extracted the vengeance you were unable to take yourself,” he said and raised an eyebrow again. “Does that upset you?”
Molly was surprised at the sudden surge of blood-thirsty joy which suffused her.
“No!” she exclaimed, squeezing her hands into fists. “No, if you only knew all the things he did to me! All the times he—” She stopped abruptly. Some things were too private to talk about…and too awful to think about. “I mean, I’m glad you hurt him,” she said in a low voice. “Because he hurt me—a lot. And not just by sending those videos.”
“I know.” Commander Torus’s voice was deep and quiet but his eyes blazed and there was a spark of red in their silver-gray depths again.
“Uh…you do?” Molly felt suddenly uncertain. How did he know? “Did…did Zach tell you something?” Had the big Kindred beaten some kind of confession out of her ex? And if so, how much had Zach confessed?
But Commander Torus didn’t seem inclined to answer her question.
“Tell me, what would you like to do with these things?” he asked, nudging the silver duffle bag filled with computer equipment with the toe of his massive black boot.
“Er…do with them?” Molly asked.
“They’re yours now. Do you want me to go through them and try to extract and erase every compromising video your ex-mate took of you?” he asked.
Molly thought of her boss seeing all the videos—there were so many of them and some were worse than the one he’d already seen! The bathroom had been the only safe space for her in the house when she lived with Zach and he had been recording her without her knowledge for years.
I thought it was safe, anyway, she thought sourly. How could I be so stupid?
But the idea of her boss seeing hours of footage of her touching herself intimately with all the different toys she’d had back then made her want to die of mortification.
“No, no!” she said hurriedly. She could feel her face heating up with humiliation. “No, please—you don’t have to do that!”
“Then do you want me to destroy it?” he asked. “Or maybe you’d like to destroy it yourself. There’s an ablation field in the belly of the ship, not far from the engines. It’s where all the ship’s refuse is disposed of. Would you like to take a trip down there and use it to get ride of this?” He nudged the bag with the toe of his boot again.
“Yes!” Molly said at once. The idea of destroying Zach’s most precious possessions the way he had systematically destroyed her life gave her a rush. “Can we do it right away?” she asked eagerly.
Commander Torus nodded.
“I’m at your service.”
