I didn’t think Rys could ever be scary. Boy was I was wrong, very, seriously wrong. Right now, he’s scaring me down to the core of my soul. I intend to make it a point to stay on this man’s good side.
For her sanity’s sake, Anne decided to focus on something besides the dressing down Rys was delivering at the end of the hallway. She approached Jason and Dave, with her right hand extended, intending to pat him on the shoulder. “Jason, are you all right?”
“Anne!” The Lieutenant spun away from her, his surprise and chagrin at being caught without a shirt on in front of her almost comical. “I’m fine.”
Snails immediately shucked the coat he was wearing and handed it to Jason, who quickly accepted it with a grateful nod.
“I’m very glad to hear it.” Anne had witnessed seeing him being dragged out of a closet by Rys. In that moment, Jason had possessed all the color of a recently revived corpse. He did seem to be more composed now, however. “Has anyone contacted Admiral Bloch yet?” Rys had been so focused on just getting here she wasn’t sure if it even occurred to him to inform his superiors of the situation.
Both men blinked back at her in a blank manner.
“I’ll take that as a no,” she intoned wryly. “I think one of you better call him, ASAP.”
“Jason, Dave!” Gremlin burst through the door, eyes taking in the still damp teenager with concern and relief. “Jase, you okay, buddy?”
“I’m improving rapidly, now that I’m out of that closet,” Jason replied with a shaky grin. “Did you think to update Admiral Bloch?”
“No,” Gremlin admitted, smacking himself on the forehead.
“I’ll update the Admiral,” Dave said firmly. And then Dave’s expression went completely blank, like he was already a million miles away.
Anne recognized that expression. Rys had worn one identical to it most of the ride over here. I’m obviously missing some key information. These guys act like they can somehow communicate with anyone, without having a phone in their hand. How? They don’t have one of those miniature ear-phones. I checked! Besides, they’d have to speak out loud to respond to someone.
Or would they?
Obviously I have not been as fully briefed as I thought.
It took a second for her to realize that she had just come to a conclusion using military terminology, and then she rolled her eyes. I think I’ve been hanging around Rys too long. It’s rubbing off on me, fast.
Rys was still going strong when Admiral Bloch showed up some ten minutes later, looking irate and actively searching for a live target. Rys turned, and braced to attention, as if he had just somehow been alerted to the Admiral’s arrival.
“Sir.”
“Lieutenant Snelson read me in on the situation,” Bloch clipped out. “Is there anything you want to add?”
“I believe Lieutenant Sharpe should answer in his own words, sir!” There was absolutely no humor in Rys’s smile. Arctic water, trapped inside a thousand year old glacier, would have been warmer.
Admiral Bloch stepped in and resumed where Rys left off, only he employed a considerably higher volume, and with more expansive gestures. Rys made a bee line for them, and for an eerie moment, Anne could visualize the outlines of a uniform on him with no problem. Never before had she seen him with such disciplined bearing that was so obviously military.
“Erksome, pack up,” Rys ordered.
Jason paused. “Sir, is that really necessary?”
Rys uncoiled enough to reply, “Jason, Mrs. Sharpe failed to do two important things. First, she didn’t notify me or Admiral Bloch when her son went ballistic on you, and second she made no attempt to stop him. She has lost my confidence, I don’t trust her anymore. Pack up. I will find you a better home.”
“Yes, sir.” Jason actually looked relieved to receive those orders, and headed off to comply with them as expediently as he could manage.
“Snails, go with him,” Rys shook his head, reconsidering that order. “No, on second thought, Gremlin, you go with him, we need this done today.”
“Sir, I’m not that slow!” Dave protested.
Rys didn’t even respond to that, just looked at him with knowing eyes. His expression spoke volumes; he obviously didn’t agree.
Gremlin and Jason were fighting smiles as they went to pack up.
Anne felt a little tense as a pair of cool grey eyes pinned her in place next to the door, like a rare bug in a collection. “Didn’t I instruct you to remain in the car?”
“I don’t take orders, Captain Savar,” she replied tartly, not backing down from the heat of his gaze an inch.
His eyes narrowed slightly, the two of them locking lethal stares, seconds oozing by in slow increments. Anne held steady, refusing to blink first. If he thought she was going to back down, he obviously didn’t know her well enough. It was time she schooled him up.
He finally took in a deep breath, and when he let it out again, he was more like the Rys she knew. “No, you never do, do you?” he murmured. “But Anne, next time, you might consider this: it could have been dangerous in here. I didn’t have a good read on what the situation was. I don’t want you to get hurt because you were trying to help me, and I don’t want to get hurt trying to protect you.”
She relaxed. This Rys she understood how to respond to. “Your point is taken. Try to have a look at it from my perspective for a moment. If something had gone very wrong in here, I wouldn’t be aware of it just sitting in the car, looking decorative. If there was serious trouble, at the very least I could have called for backup.”
For a long moment he studied her intently, his eyes so piercing that she almost believed he could read her mind. Perhaps the technology existed, like communicating without talking. And then his eyes suddenly crinkled up in that familiar way she loved. “Am I never going to win an argument with you, Anastasia?”
“Oh, I might let you win one…eventually, just to keep you off balance and guessing.”
That observation made him throw his head straight back and laugh out loud, breaking the tension surrounding them like a block of ice.
If he could laugh, then things were still all right between them. Anne figured that she was forgiven and reinstated to his inner circle. She stayed out of the way as he swung back into Captain-mode, answering Admiral Bloch’s questions, and directing his men to take Jason to the Admiral’s house.
One part of this exchange of orders had her clamping a hand over her mouth to stifle her own laughter. Admiral Bloch demanded, “Lieutenant Sharpe, why are you here at this moment in time?”
“I’m on leave, sir,” the Lieutenant replied defensively. Apparently he didn’t want an AWOL charge on top of everything else.
The Admiral’s frown went a shade darker. “You were on leave, Lieutenant, a condition that will be nonexistent in your immediate future.”
Anne had the feeling that his cancellation of leave was going to be least of his concerns. Bloch obviously thought of 01 as his men and like any good commander, he wasn’t amused when someone threatened one of his own. Lieutenant Sharpe’s punishment was going to be that much more severe because he stomped on the Admiral’s turf.
It didn’t take more than fifteen minutes to get everyone moving. Anne and Rys were the last ones to leave the house. She was proud of herself for waiting until they were in the car and retracing their route back to the Admiral’s house, before she started reeling off her questions. “All right, Rys, time for my explanation. How did you know Jason was in trouble?”
He rubbed the back of his head absently, searching for the right words. “I am uncertain where to start…”
She waited, not particularly patiently. Her left hand beat an impatient staccato against her steering wheel.
“There is a reason they call us Special Force 01. It’s because we have all been …upgraded.”
“You make it sound like you’re a computer,” Anne said slowly, rolling his words around inside her head.
“That’s not too far off,” he ad
mitted ruefully. “About eight years ago, some top scientists and engineers — including Doc — developed a cranial chip. The chip was designed to be inserted directly into the human brain, and allows for a number of different interface connections. By using the chip, the user could access any computer, any network, and any communications device that they wanted to.”
“What you mean is,” she rephrased with slow incredulity, to make sure she hadn’t misunderstood, “is that you can access any computer, network or communication device that you want to.”
“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 a
lso 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.
Special Forces 01 Page 16
