Page 90 of The Syphon King

Another eye meeting took place before the leader said, “We’re interested also. Project by project.”

“Astounding. Would the Creole and Marsh Kings mind if I brought my first three soldiers in for capability demonstrations?”

The room filled with murmurs ofhell-yeahaffirmatives, adding more bubbles to Harlow’s excitement while thinking his AI brother didn’t fully grasp the meaning ofsurprising.

“They will be arriving in thirty-two minutes. I have also reviewed the data sent from Dr. David regarding your Syphon King and have created a solution to his problem. Once I have it printed, we can test it.”

“Remarkable,” Nidev said, astonishment coloring the word.

“I’d like to see that before you go through the trouble of printing it,” one of the Creole Kings said.

“Uh-oh, somebody’s pissy,” Harlow said under his breath.

“I heard that,” the same one warned, confirming what he’d been feeling since they’d sat in that room. One barrage afteranother of various sensations, most of it aggression but some oddly...not.

“I’m gonna just come out and say it,” Harlow decided. “From the second I stepped into this room, there’s been a lot of...tension I can’t quite identify. How about we kick that around before we goonestep further on the wrong footsie into this wonderful friendship.”

“Agreed,” Quantum said.

“So you feel it too?”

“I do.”

“It’s my bite.”

The room turned to find the Marsh King with the heterochromia eyes, sitting with a sadistic grin. He aimed his gaze at Harlow. “I bit the Kings as a test and we’restillwaiting for them to tell us what they learned. Or tell us what I already know.” His smile went to one hundred watts while Harlow puzzled over thebitepart.

“I knew that muddy prick couldn’t be trusted,” one of the Creole Kings said.

“Why did he bite you?” Quantum asked, officially unwrapping the weird-as-fuck right there in their midst.

Another Marsh King with long black hair and dark eyes explained it, the intellectual jargon coming from his mouth its very own enigma.

“Do you have these test results?” Quantum asked Nidev.

“We do,” he said, his dreadful tone thickening this wonderful plot.

“What’s funny?” one of the Creole Kings asked him, bringing his full-blown laugh.

“I’m just so damn tickled to meet people who have weird ass problems similar to mine, excuse myFrench,” he apologized, still laughing.

“What sort of symptoms are you experiencing?” Quantum asked, his build-something-to-fix-it-mode cranked up.

“We’ve developed a range of them from least to greatest,” Nidev said. “Our initial intention for attempting it was successful. All of our gifts have been tremendously amplified.”

Harlow kept his eye on the grinning Marsh King, finding his amusement damn contagious as they waited for the fun stuff behind Nidev’s unspoken ‘but’.

“It’s not all we got,” another King accused at the Marsh King.

“You’re welcome,” Nitro laughed, making him Harlow’s official favorite while his leader reprimanded him sharply.

“Knowing the symptoms would aid me in helping,” Quantum clarified, getting to the solutions.

“Least to greatest,” the Nitro one couldn’t seem to help himself, implying lots of dick-wagging fun between these North and Southbrothers.

“Allow me to pull up the list,” Nidev reluctantly said.

“You do mean pull it up in your head,” another King said. “Since your ability to remember details is practically god-status.”

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