Special Forces 01 (21 page)

“Affirmative.”

“Great galloping good Guardians!” She ran the ramifications through her mind like quick silver, thinking up more facets the longer she considered the notion. “Wait, so that’s how Jason contacted you, isn’t it? He just literally called out to you for help, by using that chip in his head.”

“Affirmative.”

“Well, thank goodness you’re not a telepath, which was my first guess…” her voice trailed off as another thought struck her. “Why didn’t they incorporate it into more soldiers? I mean, only twenty of you possess this cutting edge chip. Considering how desperate Fourth Colony was, why didn’t they put it into
all
of their soldiers?”

“That is more difficult to explain.” His smile suddenly drained away, leaving him with a much older and more serious demeanor on his face. “There was one side effect to the chip that no one had anticipated while it was being created. It was necessary to integrate the chip prior to a certain developmental threshold, before the subject’s brain became too rigidly set in its thought processes. Anyone beyond the age of ten years old just wasn’t able to
adapt
to the chip, and use it successfully.”

“Older than ten,” she repeated numbly, reeling at the implications.
He said he went into the academy at eight years old.
“By all that is pure, that’s why you went into the academy at eight, isn’t it? You were young enough to accept the chip.”

He just nodded, eyes focused on the hands in his lap, avoiding her gaze.

That part of their conversation was simply too painful for him, she could see that now. Not wanting to hurt him anymore, she abruptly changed directions with her questions. “So what are the other benefits of the chip…wait…” Her brain wasn’t idling in neutral, waiting on her mouth to catch up, quickly advancing its own suggestions, “…your photographic memory wouldn’t happen to be an enhancement of the chip too, would it?”

“It is, actually.” Emerging safely from a train wreck in the making, he looked up with a casual hitch of one shoulder. “I also have an audiographic memory for the same reason.”

Anne let out a low whistle. “That’s very impressive. What about your eye? Do you control it because of the chip? That part of it has always puzzled me.”

“Only a portion of the eye’s functions depends on the chip,” he corrected. For some reason Ann couldn’t understand, he was looking at her with growing respect, gratitude, and almost awe, which was decidedly unnerving. “Anyone could use this eye to restore sight after an accident, maybe even the zoom function as well. But the infrared sensor and the ocular camera are much more complicated, and are controlled by the chip.”

Anne nodded in understanding. “That definitely makes more sense. Rys, would you mind explaining why you are looking at me like I am sitting here preening my wings and buffing my halo?”

“You are beyond textbook incredible, that’s why.” His voice was a little husky, charged with emotion, and the sound of it sent shivers resonating up her spine.

“I’m incredible?” She was grateful she had a solid reason to look away from him, at the road she was currently driving down too fast. Anne was certain that the way he was staring at her would make her blush bright red, from head to toe. “What makes you say that?” she inquired weakly, keeping her eyes averted.

“You’re just…Anne. I’ve thrown a lot of
very
creepy stuff at you in a very short amount of time. The average person would disappear screaming into the night, never to be seen or heard from again. But it doesn’t seem to faze you. You just accept it, as a matter of course, and move on. Don’t you realize what a priceless gift that is to me? You know how to accept people as they are, and genuinely value them for themselves. That kind of acceptance,” he blew out a breath, searching for the right words to convey his feelings, “it’s a gift beyond measure or price, that’s what it is.”

She could feel her cheeks burning at his unabashed praise, sure the glow could be seen from space on an infrared detector. In an effort to exclude herself from being the next case study on spontaneous human combustion, she tried to make a joke of it. “Maybe I just haven’t exceeded my ‘creepy stuff’ tolerance level yet.”

After a startled gawk, he allowed for a tentative chuckle, and then broke down into a full-fledged belly laugh. “Oh, is that what it is? How close are you to your saturation point, before you freak out and fall off of the edge of the world? Just so I know, and can arrange to have some professional help standing ready, you understand.”

“Would that be on a scale of one to ten?” she asked in an off-hand manner, trying to judge her mental state of mind. “I’d say we’ve hit about a seven point five.”

“Well, fortunately for you and your sanity, I don’t have anything else to add…unless you consider being invisible creepy.”

Anne stared at him in shock for a moment, and then caught the slight tick in his right cheek. She punched him hard on the arm. “Praise the Guardians!” she responded, not entirely in jest.

When she glanced in his direction, she saw that he was smiling, and gingerly rubbing his arm. “On to other more weighty matters,” he continued, sounding more serious, “what can I do to repay you for your timely rescue? Calvary horses don’t come cheap!”

“Before we discuss repayment for mission transportation, I still have a question, if you don’t mind,” Anne began, hoping she had earned an answer.

“After the timely service you have rendered to both me and my team, that seems only fair,” Rys responded.

“I was wondering why Jason was so shaken by being locked in a closet? If you don’t think he would mind me knowing.” Anne looked at him with steady eyes, hoping he felt she could be trusted with such personal information.

“I think Erksome would be okay with it. During that last big engagement with Nova, he was in the forward part of the ship, picking up some supplies and equipment we would need if an EVA became necessary. That is part of his responsibility on the team, logistics and supply. The ship took a hull shot, and the area he was in was opened to the vacuum of space. He only had time to dive into a side compartment, and slam the air tight door shut behind him. The whole section was without power or life support, due to the damage from the explosion. He was in the dark, with only the air that was trapped in the compartment with him at the time, and it was getting cold fast.” Rys paused, eyes darting to her face, clearly judging how Anne was taking this revelation.

“Because of all of the damage to the ship, we had a very difficult time fighting our way through to him. The fact that we could stay in constant communications with him using our chips, keeping him apprised of our progress to reach him in time, was the only thing that kept him going. When we finally breached the adjacent wall, he was drifting in and out of consciousness due to the cold and the low oxygen levels in the compartment. He has been seen for post-traumatic stress since the battle, and it seemed to be helping. This situation was so similar to his being trapped onboard ship, I guess it set him off. That’s why I had to keep him talking and focused, and why I needed to get to him as soon as humanly possible.”

“Jason is lucky to have such good friends to support him when the chips are down, no pun intended.” She didn’t know what else to say, although she did make a mental note to watch out for enclosed spaces for Jason in the future. “Now, back to your question, why do you feel the need to pay me back? We’re friends, Rys, and friends can depend on each other for help whenever it’s needed.”

“Yes, but friends are also supposed to show appreciation for that help,” he replied patiently, not letting her wiggle away. “Thank you doesn’t seem to be enough. Can’t I at least take you out to dinner to demonstrate my appreciation?”

A charming, sweet, painfully handsome man was asking to take her out to dinner. Anne would have been insane to turn him down, and there was no evidence of insanity in her family. “When you put it that way, of course you can.”

He sat back, satisfied. “Good.”

An annoying little alarm had been going off in her head for the past hour, ever since Rys had dragged her out of school with him. It finally became loud enough that she couldn’t ignore it any longer. When she did allow herself to listen, it started rambling off all of the trouble that she was going to get into for ditching school, in alphabetical order. It was really unfortunate that, for once, one of her parents was actually home. Anne winced, wishing it was just Rosalita, as she would have understood. “Um, actually, if you want to do me one seriously large favor…”

“Name it,” he responded immediately, alert to the opportunity and listening.

“Could you come home with me, real quick, to explain why I rolled out of school with you today, without bothering to check out officially?” Anne pleaded. “Otherwise I don’t think they're going to believe me.”

A slow, deep rumble resembling a chuckle started to build in his chest. “I think that is only fair!”

“Good, thanks, you are a life saver.” Perhaps Anne wouldn’t be polishing the gravel in the driveway with a toothbrush for an undetermined period of time after all.

***

They took the detour to Anne’s house before heading over to the Bloch house. Rys had already checked in, via his com link, to make sure that Erksome was still stable and recovering from his trauma. He knew without asking that Sara would ensure his Lieutenants were well looked after. The priority for the moment was extracting Anne out of a large vat of boiling mayhem with her parents for charging to their aid.

Typically, Anne wouldn’t have to worry about this. Her father was usually traveling on government business, out of town. Her mother was always involved in several projects, in support of her husband’s work. It was just one of those inconvenient moments when one of the two parents was actually home. “Which one of them is home right now?” Rys inquired, preparing for battle

“That would be my mother, fortunately. My father has no sense of humor about these sorts of things, but Mom will give me a fair hearing, without jumping to conclusions.” Anne pulled into the driveway with the typical screech of tires. “Are you allowed to tell her the
whole
truth? I have no idea if she has a clearance like mine, or not.”

“I assume so, but let me double check her records to make sure.” Rys frowned as he accessed the net and hacked into Angela Dorian’s file. There wasn’t anything classified in there—he hadn’t expected there to be—and it was easy to confirm that she did indeed have a Secret clearance. “Yes, she does.”

Anne stared at him in amazement, holding both of her hands to her face. “That took you less than ten seconds!”

“Yeah, the security on these files is shockingly pitiful.” He shook his head in disapproval. “Amateurs! Remind me to tell Gremlin to send the network administrators a few pointers.”

She gave him a lost smile, as if she had no idea how to respond to that. “Right, let’s go in and face the music, shall we?”

As Anne walked through the front door she called out in a loud voice, “I’m home! Mom…are you here?”

“I’m right here; you don’t need to blow all of the windows out of their frames.” A very classically attractive woman, with thick blonde hair and a familiar shade of blue eyes, appeared in the living room doorway. Rys could see where Anne picked up her good looks. “The school just called me. Anne,
what
are you doing skipping school?”

Rys figured that was his cue, so he stepped forward. “I’m afraid that’s my fault, ma’am. I needed to be somewhere as quickly as possible, and I knew that Anne could get me there.”

“Indeed,” she responded, her eyes shifting from her daughter to focus on him, like the tracking computer of a laser turret. For some reason, fortunately for him, she looked more amused than upset for the moment. And she really looked at him, as if she were actually weighing him physically with just the assistance of her eyes. “And who might you be?”

Anne cleared her throat. “Mom, this is my friend, Rys. Rys, this is my mother, Angela Dorian.” With a mischievous smile she tacked on, “Mom, you helped Dad with the Fourth Colony Citizen’s Settlement Plan, didn’t you?”

Mrs. Dorian’s eyes narrowed perceivably, trying to determine where her daughter was heading with this. “Yes…”

“Then you probably know Rys already, by his reputation if nothing else. This is Captain Arystair Savar of Special Forces 01.” Judging by the victorious glint in Anne’s eyes, she thoroughly enjoyed just rolling that name off of her tongue.

Mrs. Dorian did an excellent impression of a quick dip in a pool filled with ice water for a few moments. Then she took in a deep breath and seemed to recover her composure. “I see. Yes, Captain, I
did
have the privilege of reading your service record, as a matter of fact. I have the feeling this is going to be quite an interesting story…”

“Yes ma’am,” he admitted ruefully.
You have no idea.

“Let’s come into the living room and sit down,” Mrs. Dorian suggested. She shot her daughter a pointed, narrow look, which Rys couldn’t quite decipher. There was an element of amusement in it, but something else, too, just beyond his limits of understanding.

Rys had already discovered on previous visits to this house that the living room was meant more for company than comfort. He took the lone chair that he knew wasn’t fragile, being paranoid about accidentally breaking a valuable antique, and sat down facing the two women. Mrs. Dorian touched a small communicator, that looked like a piece of jewelry, fastened to her wrist and murmured, “Rosalita we have company. Would you mind rustling up some refreshments, and join us please?” With her request passed along, she looked up calmly, and settled in to hear a fascinating explanation for her daughter’s absence from school. “Now, Captain Savar, you simply must tell me how you became friends with my daughter.”

“Sheer good fortune, ma’am,” Rys answered honestly. “We have a few classes together at school. I badgered her with several bone headed questions, and she took pity, filling in some embarrassing gaps in my cultural knowledge.”

Anne sighed, sounding exasperated. “That’s your version.
My
version is that this extremely polite, good-looking guy offered to help me with a mountain of unruly books. And then he bought me lunch. The only thing he asked for in return was a quick crash course on how to talk to kids in high school.”