by David Archer
Charlie grinned his toothless grin. “Oh, come on, kid, ask me a hard one,” he said. “That's easy. First, you get the one that likes you to tell the others to knock off their crap. Then you get the girl who's afraid of you into what looks like a position where you can take advantage of her, but you don't. You walk her out the door, and let her go. Then you find the guy who hates you, get him alone, and challenge him. Tell him that if he can kick your ass, then you'll do everything you can to make sure he doesn't have to put up with you anymore. On the other hand, if you kick his, then he's got to shut up and back you up a hundred percent. Then you make damn sure you kick his ass all the way up to his forehead!”
Noah sat there and thought through what Charlie had said, and came to the conclusion that it warranted a chuckle. “That's a good one, Charlie,” he said.
“Now, I wasn't kidding,” Charlie said. “If there's one thing I learned the hard way in my years, it's that sometimes, the only way to get a man to be your friend is to whip him in a fair fight. The trick is to make sure the fight is more fair for you than it is for him, and I suspect you might be the kind of guy who could figure out a way to do that. Am I right?”
Noah grinned. “You might be.”
Charlie went to help another customer, and Noah thought about what he'd said. When he left a half hour later, he was already thinking of ways to put the old man's plan into action.
FIFTEEN
He decided to try to settle the issue all at once, and called all three of his team members that night. He told them that he needed to meet with them the following evening, and invited them over for dinner. All three agreed to come, but he could sense that Sarah and Moose were not happy about it.
Neil was, because the boy could put away more food than Noah had ever seen anyone eat! If there was one thing he knew was always going to get Neil's attention, it was free food.
Noah had bought a grill, and he was quite good at using one, so he grilled beef kabobs and put beer and soft drinks on ice, then set up a picnic table he'd bought and strung up some lights. The dinner was set for seven, but Neil showed up at six, and Noah took the opportunity to talk to him.
“So, Neil,” he began, “tell me what you think about our team. Be straight with me, dude, I want to hear what you got to say.”
Neil smiled. “Well, I'm not sure exactly what to say about you,” he said. “I mean, even by your own admission, you're an enigma. A man with no emotions? That's almost scary, except that in this situation, I think it makes you the right guy to have in charge. Then you got me—I'm just the computer hacker who has to try to figure out what it is you need to do before you have to do it. There, again, I'm the right guy for that job.” He took a drink of his root beer. “Now we get to the little hottie with the lead foot. Sarah's got some kind of issue with you, and I'm not sure what it is. She almost acts like she knows you, but I've dug deeply into her past, and I'm pretty sure there's no connections between the two of you anywhere. Maybe it's just that you remind her of someone, and if I had to guess, I'd say it's her father. From what I've been able to gather about him, he wasn't always the nicest man to be around, and I don't think he cared a lot about her feelings. If he wanted something done, she had to drop whatever she wanted to make sure it got done.”
“Really? That could explain a lot,” Noah said. “If you run across anything else, let me know, would you?”
“Of course, my King,” Neil said. “Now we got to look at the real pain in the ass, the guy with the stupid name. Who on earth names their kid Moose, for crying out loud?” He waved a hand. “Yeah, yeah, I know, it's just a nickname. Once again, I did a little digging and found out that his real name is Milton. What kind of parent does that to a kid, either, now that I think about it? Anyway, Moose has got it in for you because of what happened to you in Iraq. He wants to pretend he's some kind of super soldier, but the reality is that he punched out his commanding officer over something stupid. It's a wonder he didn't end up in Leavenworth, with you. Anyway, he didn't, and now he's been assigned to us. If there was one thing that Queen Allison did to us to really give us the shaft, he would be it.”
Noah nodded. “Okay, he doesn't like me, we know that. How do you get along with the other two?”
Neil shrugged, waving his bottle around in the air. “We all seem to get along fairly well, or at least we have on the few occasions when we've been together. Although, to be honest, it seems to be a little better when you're not around.”
“Yeah, I'll bet. Let me ask you a question, and I want a straight answer. Do you think it would do any good if you told them to back it down?”
Neil's eyes went wide, and he began to laugh. “Okay, now you're starting to worry me because you sound a lot like an idiot. Noah, they think of me as just some kid who happens to be good with the computer. They're not going to listen to anything I have to say.”
Noah grinned at him. “Okay, okay, it was worth a shot. I'm just trying to pull this team together, make it work like a unit. With Sarah acting like she's scared of me, and Moose wishing he could bury an ax in my forehead, I'm finding it pretty hard to do. Can't blame me for grasping at straws, can you?”
A car pulled in, and Noah looked around to see Sarah and her new Camaro. So far, the only time she’d even given him a smile was the first time he’d had them all to the house. He had opened up the garage and let her see the Corvette, and for a few minutes, he had seen an entirely different person. She definitely loved cars, and that one caught her eye. Unfortunately, it hadn't lasted. She had gone back to being her quiet, unfriendly self just moments after he closed the garage again.
She got out of her car and made her way over to where he and Neil were sitting near the grill. “Am I too early?”
Noah shook his head, and pointed to the cooler full of pop, beer and ice. “Nope,” he said. “You're right on time as far as I'm concerned. Grab a bottle, join us guys. We're contemplating the secrets of the universe over here.”
Sarah reached for a bottle, and Neil took advantage of the moment to lean close to Noah's ear. “Did you catch the eye roll?” the boy asked, and Noah tossed in a chuckle, right on cue. Sarah came over and sat down in another chair.
“So,” she said, “secrets of the universe, huh? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that I think that was probably a pretty short conversation. Am I right?”
“Ouch!” Neil said. “Do you always have to keep your claws out and sharp? Has it ever occurred to you that some of us might just want to be friendly?”
Sarah glanced at Neil, then flicked her eyes to Noah. “Sorry, Neil,” she said. “That wasn't necessarily directed at you.”
Noah looked her dead in the eye. “Okay, so what is it that I did to you in a past life that makes you so determined not to be friends with me in this one? Any chance you can let me in on the secret?”
Sarah shrugged and looked away. “Let's just say I know your type, and my experience has not always been a good one.”
“What's that got to do with me?” Noah asked her. “Just because someone else has done you wrong doesn't mean I would. And if this is some sort of relationship problem, let me make something very clear. I'm not in the market for a relationship, not of any kind. I don't mind being friendly, but my focus here is for us to be able to work together. That's all.”
Sarah looked at him, and Noah suspected that if eyeballs had laser beams, he'd have a couple of holes bored through him at that moment. “This isn't any kind of relationship problem, because this isn't any kind of relationship. As you say, we have to work together. I can assure you, right now, that's all it will ever be.”
Noah shook his head. He didn't have the slightest idea what he might say to make things better, so he decided to say nothing at all. After a moment, Neil spoke up just to fill up the silence, and he and Sarah began a lighthearted conversation.
Moose showed up at seven, right on time. He parked his car and walked over to the table, grabbed a bottle of beer, spun the top off of it, and took a lo
ng pull. He glanced at Noah, then pulled up the chair beside Sarah.
“So, great leader,” he said. “What made this meeting so all-fired important?”
Noah shook his head again, and leaned on the table as he looked at Moose. “Actually, I was hoping we could try to work out some of our differences. I've got a feeling we're gonna be looking at a mission sometime in the not-too-distant future, and I'd really like to get some of this crap out of the way before we end up out in the field ready to cut each other's throats.”
Moose glared at him. “Let me tell you something, Mr. Team Leader,” he said. “I do not like you, and I don't have any problem with you knowing that. On the other hand, I, unlike you, know how to follow orders and respect the command I'm under. You don't have to worry about me cutting your throat, because I'm quite sure you'll find a way to do that yourself before too long.”
Noah looked at him for a moment, and then got to his feet. “Moose, let me explain this to you. One of the standing orders that every soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere else like that is given is the order to avoid any assault upon a civilian, because such an assault can be taken as an act of war. My platoon leader, who was supposed to be on a routine patrol, stumbled across five young girls and decided that he and his men should have some fun with them. Unfortunately, that would mean that there were five young girls who could talk about what they did, so he then decided that these girls should also become casualties, and he ordered them all shot. I had been assigned as cover fire, a sniper position on a hill some distance away, and when he finally called me down to let me know what was going on, only one of those girls was still alive. Lieutenant Gibson asked me if I wanted to join in the fun, and I declined, so he shot that girl and killed her, right in front of me. Now, you tell me which one of us was actually obeying orders that day, would you?”
Moose sat there for a moment, and then took another drink from his bottle. “That's the story you told when they court-martialed you,” he said. “How come the story never came out before you were arrested and charged?”
“It did,” Neil said. “If you could use a computer half as well as you can drink that beer, you could go right online and read the original transcripts of Noah's case. He actually made that report the very day it happened, but his commanding officer decided to ignore the evidence and go along with a few men who told other, conflicting stories that made our illustrious team leader out to be the bad guy. Since Lieutenant Gibson's daddy happens to be a congressman who's being groomed for the next presidential election, a lot of pretty powerful people decided that our boy here needed to be swept under a big rug. Imagine how it would've looked for the congressman if the truth had come out.”
Moose sat there for a long moment without saying a word. When he finally did speak, he wouldn't look at Noah. “So maybe you got the shaft,” he said. “If so, then I'm sorry. Just don't expect me to suddenly become your best buddy. No matter what your reason, you still shot your commanding officer.”
“Oh, and you only punched yours in the eye,” Neil blurted out. Moose spun around, glaring at the kid, and started to get to his feet.
“You don't know anything about it,” Moose said, taking an ominous step toward Neil. “I got passed over, despite the fact that my scores were higher than three of the men who were accepted. The captain knew damned well what he was doing, and there was no excuse for him to pass me over. All I did was ask him why, and the next thing I knew, I had two guys holding my arms. I didn't swing at the captain, I was just trying to get myself loose from them, and he got in the way.”
Noah had stepped in between the two of them, and held up a hand to ask for a truce.
“Okay, look, Moose,” he said. “It sounds a lot like maybe there's been a big misunderstanding on both ends, here. What do you say we just put this behind us, and start over, right now?”
Moose shook his head. “I told you, don't expect me to be your friend.” He suddenly threw down his bottle, shattering it on the flagstones of the patio, and turned toward his car.
“Stop right there,” Noah said. “Moose, we cannot have this kind of problem between us. There's only one way I can see to fix this, so I'm going to give you one chance. You and me, right now, man-to-man. You kick my ass, I'll go to Queen Allison and ask her to transfer you away from me. I kick yours, you knock off this crap and back me up, show me you know how to be a loyal soldier. Deal?”
Moose stood there and stared at him for a long moment, and then he nodded. “Deal,” he said.
Noah nodded, and walked over into the grass. “Whenever you're ready, then,” he said, and he had no more than gotten the words out before Moose lowered his head and charged at him like a raging bull.
Noah waited until he was only two feet away, then spun to his left. Moose sailed right by, but Noah continued to spin and planted his boot in Moose's butt as he skidded to a stop. Neil burst out laughing, and Noah thought he heard a giggle out of Sarah, but he didn't have time to check. Moose was in a rage, and swung at him in a roundhouse that would have taken his head off, had it connected.
Noah ducked under it, and came back up with a fist into Moose's solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him with a single punch. The big man fell back, but he wasn't down for the count. He managed to suck in enough air to let him come after Noah again, this time more cautiously.
The two of them began striking at each other, and so skilled were they both that it began to look like a high-speed film from an old kung fu movie. They swung, struck, flipped and kicked like a pair of wild warriors, and soon each of them was marked and bleeding in spots. The fight went on for several minutes, but then Moose began to slow. Noah continued to block him more than strike at him, and then Moose left an opening that was too good to pass up, and Noah delivered a punch directly to the point of his chin. Moose went down, and didn't move at all.
Noah, gasping for breath, stumbled to his chair and sat while Neil and Sarah went to check on Moose. “Oh, good,” Neil said, “he's just gone to sleepy land. I sure hope he'll be in a better mood when he wakes up.”
“He'd better be,” Noah said. “I'm not going to put up with a whole lot more of his attitude, if he isn't.”
Moose groaned a moment later, and managed to sit up a minute after that. He was quiet, and so Noah got up and walked over to him. He extended a hand, and Moose reached up and took it. Noah pulled, and Moose made it to his feet.
“That settle it?” Noah asked.
Moose looked at him, and then reached up to rub his jaw. “It's settled, Sir,” he said. “You'll get no more static out of me.”
“That's good,” Allison said, and they all spun to see her sitting on Noah's back steps. No one had heard a car pull up, nor any footsteps, but she was there and had watched the whole thing. “It's about time you got your ducks in a row, Camelot. And not a day too soon, either. I'm going to give you a couple of days to recuperate, and then you'll begin specialized training for your first mission. We've got some detailed briefings planned and very special simulations set up to help you work it all out, but I'd say we're looking at a go within a couple of months. And don't ask, because I'm not giving you any details, tonight.” She got up and walked over toward the picnic table, as Moose came back to the others. “Now, somebody tell me, I've been hearing about these incredible kebabs. Please tell me there's enough that I can join in on this feast.”
Noah grinned and pointed at a chair. “There's plenty,” he said. “With Neil around, I've learned to make sure there's lots of food available.”
SIXTEEN
True to her word, Allison gave Noah and his team two days to let themselves prepare mentally for going out on their first mission. Ironically, they spent most of that time together, talking and gradually forming themselves into a unit.
It began the same evening as Allison's announcement. After the fight, Moose was making an obvious effort to be friendly, but Noah could tell that it wasn't easy for him, and so could the others.
“My God, Moose,�
� Neil said, “you don't have to kiss Noah's ass just because he kicked yours. He just wanted you to knock off the bullshit, not become his new BFF.”
Sarah giggled at Neil's comment, but looked at Moose. “He's right, Moose, lighten up a bit. If you stop being a surly asshole, no one will believe you're you.”
Moose shrugged. “What, all I'm doing is being part of the team,” he said. “And I'm going to tell you something else, just so you know, but anybody who can kick my butt the way he just did, that's somebody I want as a friend. Plain and simple.”
“As long as we can put whatever differences we had behind us,” Noah said, “then we're good. I think that the best thing that could happen here is for the four of us to become as close as we can. Granted, I'm not the greatest in the friendship department, myself, but I can tell you that I'm one of the most loyal friends you can ever have. The one thing you can be certain of is that I'll never deliberately let you down.”
The others looked at him for a moment, but Allison smiled. “I was a little surprised,” she said, “to see you two duking it out when I got here, but whatever method you had in your madness, Noah, it seems to be working. I gotta commend you for pulling it off, even while I want to reprimand you for risking damage to two of my assets.”
“There wasn't much risk,” Noah said. “I wasn't going to let Moose hurt me, and I wasn't about to do him any serious harm. It didn't take me long to figure out that we belong to E & E, which means you'd take a dim view of us breaking each other's bones in a recreational setting. This was more of a psychological exercise, getting the power struggle between me and Moose out of the way so that we can focus on our missions as they come.”
“Wait a minute, hold up,” Moose said. “I just want to go on record that there's nothing psychological about the swelling around my eye. Can I get a witness?”
