Read The Tracker's Dilemma: (A Mandrake Company Science Fiction Romance) for Free Online Page A

from the fact that they had green eyes and their parents had insisted on cursing their children by naming them after plants? And that their—his—planet had been destroyed by the government a decade earlier, he thought grimly. But that wouldn’t account for any strange mental quirks, surely. He had been billions of miles away from his planet when that had happened.
    Tick knocked again—there hadn’t been an answer.
    The door slid open, accompanied by an exasperated, “What? I told you, you’re not getting any of my specimens.”
    Tick walked in, not daunted by Lauren’s exasperation, assuming it wasn’t for him. “Not looking for any specimens, ma’am. Just needing to report some… oddness.”
    Lauren had been standing at a lab bench, her station fenced in by all manner of microscopes and computerized equipment that Tick couldn’t identify. As soon as he spoke, she turned and said, “Oh.” A moment later, she added, “I thought you were my sister.”
    “No, ma’am.” Tick would much prefer to use her name, as he did when he thought of her in his mind, but she had never invited that familiarity, so he stuck to ma’am or Dr. Keys. “I reckon your sister is missing some equipment I have and vice versa.”
    Lauren’s dark eyebrows twitched, but she did not look him up and down, the better to assess his equipment. Tick reminded himself that he had come for a reason that had nothing to do with sex, so he shouldn’t be disappointed.
    “What kind of oddness?” Lauren picked up her tablet computer and also a scanning device that reminded him uncomfortably of a medical doctor’s repair kit. He wasn’t injured, and he shifted uneasily at the idea of some device probing him.
    “Down on that moon, I knew something was happening when there was no way that I should have known it. There was a shuttle hiding in a lake, aiming to attack the captain. I knew it was there before there was any sign. And then once we captured the woman who’d double-crossed us, I was able to… I know this sounds odd—” He certainly was using that word often. “I know it sounds odd, but for a minute, I knew what she was thinking. I remembered something she remembered.”
    Lauren peered into his eyes. He had a feeling it was because she was wondering if he was drunk or drugged, not because she found their clear green depths alluring. After she’d had a good look, she propped her fist on her hip.
    “Have you been talking to my sister?”
    Tick shook his head. “No, ma’am.”
    Not since she had commented on his nickname and eyed his crotch, that was. He did not bring up either moment to Lauren.
    “First Hemlock and now you,” she grumbled and turned back to her workstation. She laid her tablet on the countertop, called up a display, and swiped her finger a couple of times to bring up charts of data.
    Tick didn’t know if he was supposed to come close and take a look or if he had been dismissed. “Others are having… oddnesses?”
    “Everyone who’s had two or more dosages has had measurable increases in their physical and mental prowess—Hemlock has only had one dose, and he’s already had improvements. But do you remember those brain scans we did?”
    “Yes.” He scooted closer when she pulled up a picture of a brain. Was that him ?
    She murmured a couple of commands to the computer, and areas of the brain lit up with different colors. Tick found himself noticing her scent, a floral blend that must be from her shampoo, and there was also a hint of orange that he’d encountered around her before. It was probably from a hand sanitizer or something distinctly unsexy, but he found it appealing, nonetheless.
    “The Grenavinians receiving the alien intestinal microbiota have shown increased activity in the right posterior cortical and hippocampal regions.” She waved to what were presumably the aforementioned spots.
    It all looked like blobs and squiggles to Tick. “What do those regions do? What’s this mean?”
    “I