Rogues of Overwatch

by Dustin Martin

  Chapter 17- Date Night

  After leaving Arthur, Lydia ran into Jando and Aidan, and they cornered her immediately. “How did Whyte find out?” “What happened in there?” “Is there a way to stop Whyte?”

  She shut them both down. “I can’t talk about it,” she said. “Arthur’s orders.”

  “What?” Aidan said. “But we were out there. We helped.”

  Arthur and Sylvia passed by, eyeing Lydia. “I want you to check on our agents, see if anything is amiss,” Arthur told Sylvia. “And tell them to stay on alert.”

  “I know,” Lydia said, watching the adults from her peripheral. “I can’t though.” She gave a subtle shifty glance. Aidan caught on, but Jando missed it while he was checking to see that Arthur and Sylvia were out of earshot.

  “That’s not fair,” Jando said.

  “Yes, very,” she said. When Arthur and Sylvia had passed by, she dragged the two boys to the dormitories and up to her room. Once she checked that the connecting bathroom was clear and Wren was nowhere in sight, she said, “I can’t tell you everything. Arthur doesn’t want any leaks. I need you to trust me though.”

  “Yeah, of course,” Aidan said.

  She took a deep breath. “Remember that rumor about the BEP who was here only six months? The one who could see the future?” They nodded. “It’s Whyte.”

  Their jaws dropped. “No way,” Jando said. “For real?”

  “It’s very possible,” she said. “Whyte was here, probably has a bone to pick.” She quickly explained about his talk to improve the Cave, the agent rejection, and his instability.

  “So we’re up against a spurned psychopath who sees the future and has a massive ego? This is getting better and better,” Aidan said, plopping into a chair and putting his chin in his hands. “What else?”

  “Cooper is in danger. Don’t ask how, but I need you two to keep an eye on him and Nina, all right? Look out for anything suspicious. But don’t tell either of them about this.”

  “Why?” Jando said.

  “The safety of the Cave is at stake.”

  “Where’s all this coming from?” Jando asked. “From Heather?” She nodded. “How can we even trust her? She could be trying to save her own skin.”

  “I don’t think so,” Lydia said. “She really wants us to stop Whyte.”

  “I’m not buying it,” he said, crossing his arms. “This reeks of a setup.”

  “Well, I trust her. So will you please at least trust that I know what I’m doing?” she asked.

  Jando and Aidan exchanged glances and he sighed. “Fine. Only ’cause you asked so nice.” He added a quick wink and half grin.

  “What will you be doing?” Aidan asked.

  She considered telling them. However, having three people all tracking Harper and Morella, not to mention examining everyone with scrutiny, would attract too much attention. “I have to look into something else,” she said. “Try to keep Cooper and Nina out of trouble. I can’t keep an eye on them and do this, too.”

  As puzzled as they still were, they agreed nonetheless. “You can count on us,” Aidan said. He smiled, lifting a weight from Lydia’s shoulders.

  On their way out, Jando lingered behind and said, “Let us know if you need anything else.”

  “Okay.” He gave her a quick kiss, much to her surprise, but when he pulled back, he seemed confused and smacked his lips, as if he tasted something funny. “What?”

  “Nothing.” He waved. “Got people to save and you got stuff to do.”

  “Right.” She certainly couldn’t bring herself to face Cooper and watch over him. When she visited him the next day, at best, she managed only a grimace.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked during the visit. “Did something happen?” She wanted so bad to blurt out all she knew. But she bit her tongue, shook her head, and made an excuse to leave. She didn’t even attempt to see Nina. She had vowed to help them, to look out for their safety, and she had to focus on finding the mole. Nothing else.

  Thankfully, Sylvia suspended training until further notice. So Lydia had all the time she needed to follow Harper and Morella during the next few days. Harper was most active in the morning, gathering complaints or visiting with other people throughout the facility, from the kitchens to other offices. She stayed as close as she could, eating in the cafeteria while he berated the chefs, lingering in the halls as he argued with personnel, or pacing outside an office door as he screamed at whoever was on the receiving end of his wrath. Waiting and listening for any proof of his betrayal. Yet nothing came of it. All she learned were some interesting insult combinations and that he was ill-tempered to everyone, but no surprise there. “Incompetent” seemed to be his greeting and “useless” his farewell. She wondered how his secretary put up with it.

  Harper isolated himself in his office for the rest of the day after lunch, taking no calls and not coming out until he retired to his room. Lydia switched to Morella until then, but he yielded nothing either. Regular patrols of the Center and the Cave, checking in on other guards, and reporting to Arthur now and then. Once his shift was over, he’d hang out in an employee lounge, shoot the breeze with guards, or exercise. Afterward, he went off to bed about the same time as Harper. She stayed awake a couple of nights to confirm they didn’t leave their rooms until morning.

  Overall, she couldn’t find anything concrete on the two. But for now they might be laying low after the fight. If Whyte could see far into the future, he’d already know the BEP Division was onto his inside person. It may not even be Harper or Morella.

  The situation was agonizing to Lydia. It could be anyone. However, no one was jumping out at her besides Harper and Morella at the moment. Don’t start getting paranoid and seeing shadows everywhere. Try as she might, she viewed every person, every friendly greeting, every innocuous action with a little suspicion. The Center’s receptionist on the phone: was she calling Whyte and informing him about their operations? Was one of the security guards waiting for everyone to look away and shoot them in the back? Was a lab technician concocting a poison to dispense in their food? The fear shadowed her mind each night, causing fitful tossing and turning for a while before she went to sleep. And when she woke up, she always felt exhausted.

  She found it difficult to believe that people like Barrett or Brentle were traitors. However, she often saw Brentle cooped up in his lab, refusing any visitors these days, which didn’t stabilize her support for his innocence. “Sorry! Very busy today!” he told anyone. If she pressed her ear to the door, she heard him talking low to someone on the phone. Any other day, she would write it off as his normally erratic, frenzied nature, but she kept imagining Whyte on the other line, relaying instructions to him.

  Barrett was more or less the same as she always was. When she checked Lydia’s braces the day after the mill, she nodded with satisfaction that nothing had been damaged. “You’re getting better at that,” she noted.

  “Or Brentle is making them tougher,” Lydia said. As Barrett escorted her out and thumped a cigarette from her pack, Lydia stopped at the door, unsure if she should ask Barrett about the tracking device. If it was her, doing so would raise an alarm. But Arthur had faith in Barrett, and when Lydia thought about it, she did, too. “Hey, I can ask you something?”

  “Shoot.”

  “Has anything been stolen from your office lately?”

  The cigarette paused halfway to her mouth. “What?”

  “Or has anyone broken in?”

  Barrett slipped the cigarette into her mouth and took out her lighter. “You’re the second person to ask.”

  “Who was the first?”

  “Arthur. He asked me a couple of days ago. Wouldn’t say why. Just said to trust him.”

  “And?”

  Barrett leaned on the door frame. “I’ll tell you what I told him. I found my office door unlocked one day after lunch. Nothing seemed to be missing or out of place, so I figured I had forgotten to lock it. If you’ll excuse me.” She lit
her cigarette and closed the door.

  It looked more likely that the mole had been trying to recreate the tracking device. And while Lydia was confident that Barrett wasn’t the mole, that was one name off a list of too many. Lydia wanted to vent to Wren about it and her failure to find anything solid on Harper or Morella, but because she had to keep mum, she turned her roommate down when Wren asked what was wrong. “You can tell me,” Wren said.

  “Just stressed is all,” Lydia said with a weak smile.

  “All the secret missions taking a toll, eh?” she said. “What you need to do is relax. Cut loose and have fun.” She grabbed Lydia’s shoulders, mashing them against her torso. “This won’t do. You’re too uptight.” Wren released her and rubbed her arms downward, as if smoothing out a blanket. “Relax.”

  No, what I need is to find the mole, Lydia thought. She scheduled an appointment with Gary, figuring a talk with him might help ease her, at least enough for a good night’s rest. For a long while during the session, she said nothing. She clapped her hands, wondering where to start.

  “Still harboring hate toward Heather?” Gary asked eventually, tapping his pencil on his notepad.

  “This has nothing to do with her,” Lydia said. “I’m just exhausted, and after what happened during our transport I guess I’m worried.”

  “That whoever attacked you will come again?”

  “Yeah,” she said. It was like they were all heading deeper into a trap that would snap shut at any second. She could see the hand, but not who it belonged to. The only way to find out was to come closer, walk into the trap, and hope to see the face. Then hopefully jump out before it snared them. In her mind, that face was slowly taking shape as a two-headed Morella and Harper, leering at her.

  “They couldn’t possibly get us here,” Gary said, smiling like a reassuring parent telling a child there are no monsters under the bed. “No one out there even knows where we are.”

  They weren’t supposed to know where we were taking Heather either, Lydia thought. She nodded and looked up. “Thanks.” She rose to leave, feeling unfulfilled.

  Gary patted her back and took a deep breath. “Try not to worry too much,” he said on her way out.

  Taking his advice, she lazed about in the game room, sitting in a chair beside Aidan and watching a movie. It felt like months since she had been anywhere close to this comfortable. She pushed aside Harper and Morella, figuring the answer might come to her if she didn’t let it consume her mind.

  Aidan’s cheek had swollen and grown puffy and tender from the fight. He was careful not to touch it at all. “How’s the investigation into what happened at the mill going?” he asked.

  “Hit a dead-end.” He left it at that. Lydia kicked her feet up on a coffee table and asked, “How’s your face?”

  “Better,” he said. “Wish they would quit going for it every time. I look like I’m packing nuts for winter.”

  “Guess you just have punchable cheeks.”

  He snorted. “I’d rather they were pinchable.”

  “Oh, they are that.” She poked his cheek gently and grabbed it, jerking it a little. He winced and she said, “Sorry.” Yet, when she released her grip, her hand stayed on his skin. He raised an eyebrow and faced her. His cheek felt incredibly warm. Her fingers drifted down to his arm as her eyes followed to his lips.

  “Lydia, I,” he trailed off, yet his lips were parted ever so slightly, as if leaning in and waiting for her to close her side of the gap. She started to move, coming in—

  “Found you,” Jando said from the doorway behind them. Lydia dropped her hand. So close. Jando plopped down on the arm of her chair.

  “Yes, you did. Why are you looking for me?”

  “Well,” he said. “I figured you could use an easy night.” He massaged her shoulders, neither too hard nor too gentle. Exactly right. A little tension in her melted away. She had to give him credit. He was good with his hands. “Something to help with your stress.”

  “I don’t need a massage,” she said.

  “No, not that.” He bent down to her. “But if you want that, too, I’m happy to oblige. No, I figured we could have our date.”

  “Where at?”

  “A movie in my room. We recently got our TV back.” He raised his eyes to Aidan. “You don’t mind, do you?”

  “Nope. It has been over a week since you brought up the last girl, so you’re overdue,” he said.

  “He’s kidding,” Jando said, laughing the remark off while tussling Aidan’s hair and jerking his head around hard. Lydia caught the brief look of annoyance that passed between them.

  “Have fun then.” Aidan plopped his sore cheek into his palm and hissed, cursing his forgetfulness.

  Lydia was surprised that Jando remembered and still wanted the date. Then again, on another level, she should’ve expected this. She really didn’t have the energy for much, yet watching a movie would be easy enough. All she had to do was sit back and enjoy it. Relax, like Gary suggested. She figured she could handle that. May as well get it over with. “Okay,” she said with a yawn. “But let’s go to my room. We got our TV back yesterday and I might fall asleep.” It would also help to have their date there. Jando wouldn’t get too handsy if there was a risk of Wren showing up at any time.

  He seemed to catch onto her real reason, but he agreed. “Okay. Your room it is. Let’s just swing by mine first. I picked up a few movies yesterday from the video store.” He hooked his arm in hers and led the way to his room. Aidan kept his focus straight ahead as they left.

  On their way to the dorms, a group of girls waved and called out to Jando from the basketball court. Much to Lydia’s surprise, he ignored the catcalls. Wren had been right. He was taking this relationship seriously, and her heart wrenched itself into knots. I should end it before it goes too far. But this had to be how he was with every girl while dating them, right? He took them seriously. Then he would soon get bored and find another. Just don’t show much interest tonight and you’ll be fine, she told herself.

  After they stopped by his room, they went to Lydia’s. She detached from Jando and flopped onto her bed. “So, what did you rent?”

  He held up the first case, a romantic movie. That’s all she needed. An excuse for Jando to copy the on-screen action. She thumbed it down, to his disappointment. Next, a Robin Williams comedy. “Maybe,” she said. Finally, a superhero movie. “Protectors of the Milky Way?”

  “Yeah. It’s really good,” he said. “Although, it might be like chefs watching a cooking show.”

  “Fast-food chefs.”

  “Hey, we’re not that bad. But it doesn’t hurt to learn from the pros either,” he said, handing her the case. She flipped it over, scanning the pictures on the back. “We could pick up some new moves.”

  “Yes, because we have access to spaceships and fight aliens on other planets with all these superpowers.” She pointed to a space battle taking place between two ships in one picture and someone shooting laser beams out of their hands at a row of enemies in another. She threw him the case and nodded at the TV. “Put in the Robin Williams one.” She could use a good laugh after all that had happened recently.

  Well into the movie, Jando made his move. He and Lydia sat on her bed, and he slipped his arm around her waist, scooting to her side. She sighed and leaned on his shoulder, too exhausted and already close to sleep. If that was as far as he went, she was fine. Of course, that was wishful thinking. “You know,” he said, “I never did get that kiss for helping you out.”

  Raising her eyes, she said, “You got one earlier.”

  “Not a real one.”

  She huffed. "All right,” and pecked him briefly on the cheek.

  “Ah, ah.” He tapped the corner of his lips. She rolled her eyes and planted a short kiss there, too. Yet he turned his head at the last second, stealing a chaste kiss. She slapped his chest and he shrugged. “Couldn’t help it. Too tempting.”

  She played it off and pushed him. Inside, the kiss
felt wrong, weird to her. Jando grinned, then lowered his puckering lips to hers, going in for a full-on kiss. She bowed her head, letting him suck in a mouthful of hair. Undeterred, he spat out the strands, and then moved down to her temple and stole a little longer one before she spun the other way.

  “Not right now,” she said. “I’m pretty tired.”

  He stopped and looked sad, with a hint of that same puzzlement from earlier as he smacked his lips, as if tasting them. Was he catching on? Before Lydia could interpret its meaning, Wren chose that moment to burst in. “Lydia, you haven’t seen my—oh.” She froze and gawped at them and at the movie. Lydia realized how the scene looked and sat up straight, breaking out of Jando’s arm. Guilt bubbled in her stomach as Wren stared at her, as if betrayed. “What are you doing?!” her eyes said loud and clear. Jando appeared disappointed, yet kept a smile on his face as Wren teetered in the doorway.

  “Your what?” Lydia asked.

  “Uh, never mind. I’ll look for it later,” she said and exited quickly. Lydia would have to remember to thank her for ruining the mood. Jando didn’t attempt any more kisses, but he did embrace her again. She allowed it, yet couldn’t shake the strange feeling that when he did, she pictured Aidan wrapping his arm around her waist. If anything, Jando’s embrace made her long for Aidan’s even more.

  Wren’s shocked look lingered in her thoughts, and it made her feel awful and like scum. She knew her roommate would chew her out later. That was the last thing she needed: a disapproving lecture for stringing Jando along. Oh, no. I’ve turned into Jando. She was worse since her interest was fake. She groaned and buried her face in Jando’s shoulder.

  * * *