“So a black man was elected president?” Jack was stunned, although he wasn’t sure how, after all the things he learned tonight, something like this still amazed him. He had grown up in a poor neighborhood in California, and was not a racist by any measure. A good percentage of the men he had served with, and even some of his closest buddies, were black. He didn’t see their color as making them any different than him. He had, however, witnessed how hard of a time they had, compared to the white men, and that must be what made it difficult to see how a country whose majority population was made up of white men would elect a black man as their leader. It really put the differences between 2009 and 1966 into perspective. To think I might have lived to see that, if the cancer hadn’t gotten me... Of all the amazing things Wendy had told him tonight, that ranked high on the list of those he regretted missing.
“Yup. Two million people showed up for his inauguration. Of course, it wasn’t long after that I went down in the chopper, so that’s about all I have for you.” She had covered it all like a pro, from Vietnam and Nixon, to Iran and Disco, to Ronald Reagan and John Lennon, to Bill Clinton and non-sexual oral sex, to George W. and 9/11, and finally to Iraq and the crashing economy.
“Incredible. That’s all I can really say... just... incredible. To think I was in my garage less than a week ago, waxing my mustang, listening to some hippie music on the radio, and here I am, having missed such amazing things as the end of the Cold War, cellular telephones, and iced mocha chinos.” Wendy laughed, but it ended in a yawn.
“Crap, do you believe it’s four in the morning? I have to get up soon to finish fixing that damn heat exchanger on level four.” She yawned again and stood up.
Jack said, “Wendy, I’ve had an absolutely great time talking with you. I haven’t had this much fun in months. Thank You.” He was being sincere.
Wendy laughed at that and said, “Ha! If this is the most fun you’ve had in months, you must have been pretty damn bored!” She walked around the table as she said it. Jack stood up, looking a little sheepish. She was dead on, even if she was just joking with him. She walked right up to him, put her arms around his neck, pressed her bosom to his chest, and looked into his eyes. “You know, if you are looking for some real fun, I bet I can accommodate you.” She leaned in even closer and kissed him. Jack was instantly aroused and returned the kiss with passion.
He broke off the kiss, and said, “Isn’t this the part where I walk you to your room and give you a kiss goodnight?”
She pulled away, took his arm and said, “Let’s go see your room instead.”
Chapter 15
This time, when Jack woke up, Wendy was still in the bed, snuggled up against him. He smiled, and carefully stretched, trying not to wake her. He didn’t have a clock or a watch, but figured he had slept a little late. He lay there, enjoying the warmth of Wendy’s body and thinking about the night before. What an incredible night! He wasn’t just thinking about the sex, well, that was incredible too, he thought with a smile, but the whole evening just talking with Wendy, learning about her life and the history that he had missed. Is that the right word? History? He considered the question and decided if it had happened before now, so it was indeed history.
Back in the present he was sensing his bladder was full. Knowing the consequences of failing to reach a bathroom soon was barely enough to convince him to move. He carefully extracted himself from the bed and stood up. Just before he made it to the door, he realized the hallway was public. Even though he had not seen anyone other than Teague around here, he didn’t think it would be appropriate to run into someone while in his birthday suit. He sort of hopped his way into his pants as he made his way to the door, and they were about halfway up when the door opened automatically. Jack stopped hopping and looked up to see two women standing in the hall, mouths open, staring at him. He quickly finished pulling up his pants, flushing a deep red that covered most of his naked chest.
“Well good morning!” one if the women said. They both laughed in a giggly sort of way but neither turned to leave. One of the two women looked past Jack and then glanced at her friend, an almost disappointed look on her face. Something passed between them and they turned and started walking down the hall. They both glanced over their shoulders after a few steps and the one who hadn’t spoken said, “Nice to meet you, Jack. Very nice!” More giggles.
Jack leaned against the door frame, feeling like an idiot. “Smooth move Mad Dawg” he said out loud to himself.
“Jack what the hell are you doing?” He turned around. The voices of the women had woken Wendy up and she was leaning on an elbow in bed with an amused look on her face. The sheet had slipped down and exposed her breasts and his eyes wandered down to admire them before answering.
“I uh... I was going to use the bathroom and the damn door opened before I had my pants on all the way! There were two women standing there. I don’t know who was more startled, me or them.” Jack was still embarrassed but as he said it he chuckled. “Is there a way to make it so the door doesn’t automatically open like that?”
Wendy burst out laughing, laying back down on her back. “God I wish I could have seen the looks on their faces when the door opened. Did they get a good look?”
“Are you kidding? I had my pants at about my knees and was hopping on one foot trying to pull them up! I didn’t even notice the door opening, I just looked up and there they were with open mouths.” He was laughing now too.
“Good,” Wendy said, “gives them something to be jealous about. By the way, the switch next to the door is set to auto – change it to manual and you will have to press the button below it to make the door open.” He pressed the button and the door closed, then he changed the switch. By the time he turned back around Wendy was already out of bed walking towards him. She was stark naked and the sight took his breath away. She put her arms around his neck, and gave him a big kiss. “You know I have a little time before I need to get to work...”
Jack said, “Hold that thought, if I don’t hit the bathroom soon, we’re gonna need a mop.”
“Ewww” she said as he turned, hit the button, and ran down the hall.
* * *
They were lying in bed, sweaty limbs all entwined. The blankets were on the floor and the sheets pushed off to the side. “So I have one question Wendy, and I want you to be honest with me.” He looked over at her, and she adjusted her head on the pillow to look him in the eyes.
“What is it?” she asked, looking serious now. He could feel her body tense just a little in anticipation of a tough question.
“How do you shower around here?” She smacked him in the chest, but smiled.
“There’s a shower unit in the room next to the restroom. It’s too small for two people, so I will have to let you learn how to use it on your own.” She leaned over and kissed him, and then said, “I’m going to get dirty working on that exchanger anyway, so I’m going to skip a shower. Besides, I have your scent on me right now, and I rather like it. I better get going too, it isn’t going to fix itself.” She hopped out of bed and started to get dressed. He watched her until she was done, and then got up himself.
“Do I need a towel?” He was remembering the sink in the bathroom where the goop he washed his hands with dried itself. He really hoped that the shower didn’t spray that slime on his body.
She walked to the dresser, took out a robe and a towel, and handed it to him. “Thankfully, some things never change.”
* * *
After a rather refreshing shower, Jack returned to his room. He looked through the drawers and found a clean change of clothes (more scrubs), some boxer style underwear, and a device that looked like a small electric shaver without a cord. He thumbed the switch on it and it kind of felt like it was vibrating but not making noise like he was used to. He put the end that looked like the shaver head on his arm to confirm that it was indeed a shaver. It tickled a little and left his skin as smooth as a baby’s butt. He walked over to his mirror and ra
n the device over his cheeks. He was impressed, it was better than a good barbershop shave. He finished getting dressed, grabbed the datapad and pushed the icon the doc had shown him. He nearly dropped it when a voice came from the pad.
“Morning Jack, how about some breakfast?” He was staring at Teague through the pad, and judging by his smile, he was enjoying a laugh at Jack’s expense.
“Christ Teague I nearly pissed myself!” He felt weird talking to the pad, but Teague continued on like he heard him perfectly.
“Meet me in the kitchen on your level.” As quickly as he had appeared on the pad, he was gone.
Jack headed to the kitchen and was greeted by some new faces. They were all looking at him, and Jack, a little surprised, scanned each of them. There was a huge black man, easily six feet six and as wide as a car. A white man, about five nine, maybe one-sixty, blond hair, brown eyes, and a beard that partially covered a scar that ran from his ear to his chin on the left side. He looked to be in his late forties or early fifties, with just a touch of gray in his hair and a splattering of gray in his beard. A white woman, one of the women from the hall, about medium height and build, short-ish blond hair, fairly attractive, and smiling like a cat that had seen where the mouse lived. There was Teague, seated at the table looking a little weary as if he had been up late. Finally there was one more man, Caucasian but weathered skin that looked dark, especially in contrast to Teague’s pale skin. He had light brown hair worn a little long, looked to be about six foot tall, although he was seated and Jack couldn’t quite tell, and had bright blue eyes and a sharp face. “Uh, hello” Jack said to everyone.
The man sitting next to Teague spoke first. “Hi Jack, nice to meet you, welcome to our little slice of heaven.” He had a smooth voice, and Jack’s first impression was that he was a ladies man. “I’m Gabriel. Most people just call me Gabe.”
“The rest of us call him Slick.” That came from the woman, and when she said it everyone laughed. It seemed Jack’s first impression was right on. Gabe smiled too and shot her a glance that made it obvious he had... spent some time with her.
The woman spoke up again. “I’m Cathy, Jack, you can call me Cat like everyone else. We met earlier, in the hall, but I didn’t get a good look at your face.” There were some chuckles in the room, and Jack suspected she had been talking about their meeting earlier that morning. Jack colored a little.
Trying to roll with the punches, he said “I hope I didn’t startle you too bad, you looked a little scared for a second when that door opened.” Now the laughter was at her expense. Cat rolled her eyes, but smiled. He knew she could be trouble.
“Jack, it’s nice to meet you.” The voice was so deep he almost jumped. The large black man was the source, and his voice lived up to his appearance. This guy was BIG. “I’m Ezekiel, but please, call me Tiny.” Jack nodded at Tiny, not really surprised at his nickname. It seemed like every time he met someone really large they were either named Tank or Tiny. “This here fella next to me is Chin. His real name is Frances.”
“Goddammit Tiny!” the rather small man exclaimed. “It’s Frank, not Frances. Don’t let his cuddly teddy bear looks fool you Jack, Tiny is really just an asshole.” Tiny wrapped his massive arms around Chin, which all but engulfed the small man.
“Aww, there, there Frances, we all love you.” He said in his deep voice. Laughter all around at this.
Chin pushed Tiny off him and said, “Boy you better watch it or I will knock you on your ass!” He said it with a grin and everyone laughed again. “So you’re the latest corpsicle huh?” When he talked his jaw sort of moved a little to the side, apparently from the same injury that gave him the scar. It gave him a little bit of an old Chicago gangster accent.
“Oh Christ Chin, do you have to use that term? You ever stop to think that someone might be offended by it?” Jack got the impression that Cat was not very fond of Chin.
Before he could ask, Teague gave Jack an uncomfortable glance and said, “That’s what some of the residents here call those who… came from the same place you did. Some people find it a bit offensive.”
Jack wasn’t offended in the least, he had been called far worse in his life. In the army, everyone had a label of some kind, whether it was had to do with your race, your size, your personality, or your rank. “I guess I am, Chin.” Looking around the room he said, “Is everyone a ... corpsicle here?” More laughter. Either these people were all very friendly or there was some underlying tension that had everyone a little slaphappy.
Teague spoke up quickly, “No, Cat here is a refugee, we found her about 70 years ago.” Jack did a double take before remembering they could clone people and make them young again. “Chin is her grandson.” That one caught Jack completely off guard and all he could do was blink a few times.
Chin laughed and said, “Yeah, it’s kind of spooky knowing your grandma as a hot chick ten years younger than you are.”
“That’s enough Frances!” Cat yelled at him. She was a little red, both from anger and embarrassment. “And I’m about twenty years younger than you, thank you very much!” Jack tried to work out some of the logic with all the cloning and such, and was immediately confused. It would be very awkward to meet someone you are attracted to only find out they are the clone of your Aunt or something. At least now he understood the animosity between Chin and Cat.
Teague continued on. “Tiny here just about broke the incubator when we grew him.” Chin chuckled. “And Slick has been around for about two years. As most of the new reborn, they were both military. Tiny was a Gunnery Sergeant in the marines and Slick a Corporal in the Army. Gentlemen, Jack here retired as a Captain, so don’t forget that not only does he outrank you both, he has probably seen more conflict than either of you combined.”
Slick kicked in, “Hell Doc, before coming here the closest I had seen to conflict was on TV.” Jack was intrigued by this statement.
“I don’t understand Teague, are you at war with anyone?”
Teague didn’t really avoid the question, but he didn’t really answer it either. “The remnants of the EoS are not all on friendly terms” was all he said. “Jack why don’t we take a little tour and you can ask me some questions along the way.” It was not a request. “Besides, these folks probably have things to get done.” That seemed to put a bit of weight on the mood.
“I look forward to getting a chance to learn more about each of you.” he said to the other people in the room. He made brief eye contact with everyone but Cat, hoping to send the hint that he was not really interested. He was enjoying his relationship with Wendy and didn’t want to mess it up.
Cat was undeterred however and said, “I look forward to getting to know you better as well, Jack.” The meaning was not even thinly veiled, but nobody in the room even seemed to notice. That part probably disturbed him even more than the thought of women like Cat trying to… what would be the right word? Seduce? How long before he just accepted that every woman not already pregnant would be after his seed? He hoped he could retain at least some of his values and morals.
Dismissing that train of thought he asked, “Can I get a quick bite to eat first? I’m ravenous.” Teague nodded and Jack went to the cabinet and got a bowl, went to the dispenser and poured him a nice glob of slime. He got some water and sat down. Chin had wandered out and Cat was over by the doorway talking to Slick. Tiny sat down across from him, his huge hand gripping what looked like a small cup, but it was the same size cup that Jack had in front of him. He had seldom seen anyone that size before. “Damn you are not a little boy are you Gunny?”
“No sir, I guess I’m not. So you were an officer? Are you a ring knocker or..?” Tiny was obviously used to being called Gunny, being as it was a common nickname for his rank.
“Nope, I was a mustang; enlisted for almost ten years. I took advantage of a light bird that was in a tough situation and got nominated to OCS. I made it back to Korea in time to lead a few good men to their death, and after that I spent almost te
n years digging really big holes.”
Tiny was impressed, but he was confused about the last part. Officers didn’t dig holes, even really big ones. “What do you mean by holes, Captain?”
Jack absently rubbed his face, where the scars used to be, and smiled. “I had some experience in Korea with mortar fire, and when the war was over I had a few words with some higher ranking officers about the ineffectiveness of our bunkers. As a result, I was put in charge of a crew and sent to a few newer bases to build some better bunkers. I took the job seriously and when working with the engineers we were able to improve the designs of the bunkers we built. It got noticed, and I got put in charge of building some really big bunkers.” By nature, Jack wasn’t inclined to talk much about the details of the projects he worked on. He supposed it didn’t really matter now but it was habit.
Tiny mulled that over and then said, “Any chance you had anything to do with the Freezer?” He had no idea what that meant, and it must have showed. “The Freezer, you know, the ‘cryogenic facility’ we all came from.”
“Oh, yeah… I guess I built it, just didn’t know what I was building.” Jack liked Tiny. Gunnery sergeants were good at getting things done. “So what about you Tiny, how long were you in?”
“I was at eighteen years when I had my accident. I saw a little action in Iraq the first time we went in, but mostly we were chasing the front line, and the Air Force was doing most of the work for us. I led a recon platoon, and we did work wherever things were hot. Panama, Afghanistan, Kuwait, places like that. I was working a joint task force with the air base up in Great Falls, trying to figure out if we could help them set up a forward air base inside enemy territory without the enemy knowing. We were doing a live training mission where we moved in, painted the enemy with lasers, then the air support bombed the hell out of the target and we secured the runway for them to bring in troops and supplies. We had it down to a science and it was the last training mission before taking it live to the desert, to try to get ahead of the insurgents in Iraq. According to the records, there was an accident, something about a laser guided bomb malfunctioning. I guess it killed about half my team, and I was the only one to survive long enough to be a candidate for the Freezer. My last memories were from just before we called in the strike.”
The Freezer (Genesis Endeavor Book 1) Page 12
