She signed heavily, trying to put her feelings over the last week into words. “We just don’t know what’s going to happen. I know there’s no point being reckless, but if there’s an enemy out there, it’s likely that they’re so close to home that I can’t see them. So there’s almost no point being so careful, when I’m probably going to be stabbed to death by somebody I already know. It’s like telling women to not walk alone at night, and to avoid dark alleys, when they’re far, far more likely to get killed in their own homes by their husbands.”
Hunter lifted his shoulders and let them drop. “I see what you’re saying.” He stared at her thoughtfully for a moment, running his dark eyes over her. “Alright.” He held out his hand.
She reached out and took it, at the same time pulling the vibrations all over herself and pushing her energy into Hunter. He came with her so effortlessly now, as if his aura had gotten used to the taste and feel of her, and welcomed her eagerly.
His eyes sparkled when he opened them in the Alternate. “I’ll never get used to this. It feels amazing.”
She smiled, and gave his hand a tug. “Where to?”
“You decide.”
“Right. Hold on tight!”
She took off from his living room, straight up into the air and over the east coast of Australia. Sydney twinkled below them and was soon lost from sight as she flew quickly north east. She had no idea where she would take them, and she didn’t care. She just wanted to drag this night out for as long as possible before she said goodbye for good.
They flew for a while, coming in low to check out some mountain ranges and stunning coastlines. They found a beautiful lagoon, shimmering and sparkling in the moonlight with bright oranges and pinks. Hunter pointed out a particularly bright group of lights in the water coming out of the mouth of the lagoon, blue-silver and moving very fast. They went down closer, and watched one light leap up out of the water, spin in a circle, and dive back under. The rest of the lights slowed and started circling around Sunny and Hunter as they came right down to the water. They swam around the two humans for a while, playing games, flipping and spinning out of the water.
“They can obviously see us,” Hunter said, as the dolphins chattered and splashed around them.
“Well, if something as thick and malicious as Angus can see us, then I’d say dolphins stand a pretty good chance of being able to.”
They shot further north, Sunny realizing at once that she was going to have to stop somewhere soon so they could have a proper conversation. She wasn’t looking forward to it, but she did have some burning questions that needed to be answered.
She spotted some activity below, so she went closer to investigate. Amongst some huge mountain ranges and vibrant jungle, the scenery was interspersed with crumbling stone temples. There was a crowd of human lights down there. They could hear sounds of revelry from up high.
Sunny brought them closer, and settled the two of them on a big grey stone that was once part of the disintegrating temple behind them. It was beautiful, the rocks were covered in vines and living night creatures of all kinds, and they shone and sparkled like fireflies.
In the small town below the people were swarming. There were lots of robes and bald heads, people chanting and clapping their hands, children singing and dancing, and a few white faces bedraggled and bohemian-looking joining in the dancing and fun.
Sunny withdrew her hand from Hunter’s, and they moved into reality. He looked sideways at her, and she raised her eyebrows, daring him to rebuke her.
But he didn’t. He turned, and smiled down at the festival in full swing down below.
“Amazing, isn’t it? So different from how we’re used to spending our Saturday nights,” Hunter said.
She surveyed the scene below, taking it all in. “I’ve no idea where we are,” she admitted.
“Chiang Mai,” Hunter replied, “in the mountains of Northern Thailand. Down there I think we’re looking at the celebrations for Wisaka Bucha Day. They’re commemorating the day on which the Buddha was born, became enlightened, and died.”
Sunny was watching him, instead of the festival below. “How do you know this?”
“I’ve been here before.”
“Oh.” Sunny couldn’t think of anything else to say.
Hunter slumped a fraction. “I guess I should explain myself.”
He took a deep breath and began. “Since I met you, I’ve been trying to investigate Hellix’s movements, as discretely as possible. When you came to me, I immediately thought you might be a target of theirs. We’ve had an open case to investigate what happened to that little girl with the hair, so I picked it up. I found that there was some evidence to suggest that someone from our military had something to do with it.”
“Okay,” Sunny had already made the connection, but let Hunter continue.
“So on a hunch, I monitored some electronic chatter, and intercepted some communications from someone in the Sydney Military Intelligence office, to what I believed was a Hellix contact. The person was ordering a pick-up of an asset, from Cape Hawke in Forster, on Tuesday afternoon. I immediately knew it was you.”
“Right.”
“I couldn’t trace where the communication was being sent, and I couldn’t stop it from being sent, but I could send a follow up with updated instructions. So while I was driving like a bat out of hell towards Cape Hawke, I changed the pick-up location to Newcastle. I knew you’d still be in trouble, because whoever had you probably was hurting you.”
Hunter paused, but she stayed still and quiet.
“So I came,” he said simply.
She stared at him in silence.
He carried on slowly. “I’d had my suspicions about Richard for a while. I’d seen him around the Military offices in Sydney, and he always struck me as particularly… avaricious. I wasn’t surprised that it was him on the cliff up there.”
Sunny finally spoke. “But you knew about Simon. You probably looked into all my friends.” She paused, and looked down at her hands in her lap. “You promised me that you wouldn’t try and find out anything about me. But you did. You knew where I lived, you knew where to find me. You knew my name.” She looked up and met his eyes; she could see herself reflected back. The hurt was written all over her face.
She was surprised when he smiled. “No, I promised I wouldn’t try and find out any more about you. And I didn’t.”
“You said that on the second night I met you. You must have researched me after that.” She looked down again, resigned. “I guess I was being naïve. You’re an intelligence operative, after all. You must have all sorts of tricks to try and find someone. Facial recognition software, satellites…Oh!” She suddenly realized something. “I gave you my phone number. What an idiot.”
Hunter laughed out loud. “Sunny, on the night you first came to my apartment, you were wearing your school uniform. The logo was pretty clear. When you darted off to North Korea, I googled the school, checked out the webpage, and found your name straight away. Then I got onto social media.”
“Oh.” She said quietly, slightly dazed. “I suppose I’m not very good with my security settings then.”
He shook his head. “You are, actually. I sent you a friend request, and you accepted it, so I could access your whole profile.”
“You did not!”
“In a false name. I got one of my agency buddies to pose for the photo. I couldn’t believe you would accept a request from Isla Vaynal without even questioning the name.”
They chuckled together for a moment, until the red in Sunny’s cheeks died down a bit.
“I kept my promise,” he said softly, looking out towards the bright lights of the festival below. “I didn’t find out any more about you. I didn’t have to, I already knew the basics, and you told me the rest. I knew about your mother, and how she died. I knew about the rest of your family, Ben and Steph and Archie. He’s a pretty cute little guy.” He paused and looked back at her, smiling crookedly. “I though
t I had you pegged into a box. But you keep surprising me.”
Her cheeks flushed again. “I told you that you were too judgmental.”
They both turned to watch the scene below, and watched as hundreds of people on the streets lit lanterns on the ground, lighting up the night around them. The songs and chants carried up the hill clearly to Hunter and Sunny, as they sat in the balmy night air with the ancient temple closed in around them.
Sunny wanted this moment to go on forever. But she knew what was coming, and was suddenly anxious for it to be over.
She metaphorically stuck her head willingly on the executioner’s block. “So, what happens now?”
Hunter cocked his head, seeming unsure what to say. “I don’t know,” he finally muttered.
Sunny had been holding her splintered heart together for too long, and she was tired. She sighed heavily. “Look, I know that I make you uncomfortable. I’m sorry. I thought I could just put up with it, and you wouldn’t mind. But I can see that you do mind.”
It was clearly not what he expected and he turned towards her, confused. “What are you talking about?”
“You said that my feelings were inappropriate,” Sunny flinched at the reminder of that conversation. “That we can’t go on like this.”
Hunter looked confused. She carried on in a rush, trying to get this moment over with. “I’m sorry that I was so obvious, but you must be used to girls having crushes on you. I didn’t think that it would make you so uncomfortable that you couldn’t be around me.” She couldn’t help it; a tear escaped her eye and slid down her hot cheek. “But I understand. I know you were trying to spare my feelings.” She looked down, unable to meet his searching gaze any longer.
Hunter slowly reached up, and softly put his hand on her cheek. He gently pulled her face towards him, and forced her to meet his eyes. The dark chocolate of his iris was hypnotizing, and she was drawn completely in. He slowly and gently used his thumb to wipe away her tear, and he gave a tortured sigh.
“I’m sorry,” she said again quickly, ducking her head.
“No!” Hunter cupped her cheek again, harder this time, and drew her face towards him. “Hey. Sunny.”
She avoided his eyes. “Mouse…” he tried, and she looked up, quickly caught in the trap his eyes set. “I didn’t mean that your feelings were inappropriate. I meant that mine were.”
“Wha… what?” she stammered. “You don’t… you don’t care that I have feelings for you?”
Hunter gave a quick, short laugh. “Well, I do.” Her face fell again, and she was suddenly angry. Why is he torturing her? Is he trying to finish off the job that Simon started?
Hunter smirked when he realized what he said, and lifted his other hand and put it on the back of her head so she couldn’t escape. “What I mean is; it’s fine that you have feelings for me. It’s not fine that I have feelings for you.”
She couldn’t process it. It was as if the moon and sun had swapped places. His statement felt completely alien to her. When she next spoke, her voice shook like a twig in a hurricane.
“You… you like me?”
“Too much,” he growled, dropping her face from his hands and staring back out on Chiang Mai.
She was stunned. She literally couldn’t take in what he was saying to her. Several questions formed on her lips, each more fantastical than the one before. Her head swam, her vision blurred.
It was a few moments before she could choke any words out.
“Why?” She finally said.
Hunter turned again and looked at her as if she were crazy. “Are you kidding? You’re so brave, and you always think of something funny to say at the wrong moment. You’ve been given an amazing gift but you seem to be virtually incorruptible.” He shook his head, a tender expression on his face. “Nothing seems to scare you – in fact the only thing that seems to bother you much is when you see other people suffering. You make a mean smoked salmon bagel. And just look at you.” He waved his hand over her body.
She looked down to see what he was referring to.
“What?” She couldn’t see what he was talking about.
“You have no idea how beautiful you are,” he said softly.
Sunny felt her heart within her expand to breaking point, it was almost overwhelming. This was all too much, she couldn’t believe it.
Before Sunny could revel in her new realization that Hunter returned her feelings, his face turned dark and he stared back out to the night. “It doesn’t matter, though. Nothing can happen between us.”
“Why?” she breathed out, as happiness was snatched out of her grasp.
Hunter turned to look down at the crowd below. “You’re seventeen, and still at school. I’m twenty-three and responsible for you. It would be… taking advantage.”
“Responsible for me?” The words drawled out of her mouth incredulously. “You arrogant bastard. You’re practically a teenager yourself. You’re not responsible for me. I’m my own boss, thank you very much. I just needed someone to help me with what I wanted to do, so I came to you.” She shook her head scornfully. “You’re not my superior, dickwad.”
Hunter pressed his lips together hard. “Okay, okay. That was a stupid thing to say. I guess we have a partnership. But it’s not just your age, Sunny.” Hunter said softly, turning to meet her face again. “It’s…it’s impossible. It’s unprofessional. If we were to get involved, it wouldn’t just complicate our working relationship. It could put both of us in danger.”
“That’s ridiculous. Why would it put both of us in danger? I get that someone might see me with you and decide I’m worth investigating, but I don’t have to be seen. And let’s face it, Hellix probably already knows about me.”
Hunter shook his head angrily and turned his head away. For a moment he didn’t speak, and Sunny waited impatiently.
This was ridiculous. He was making excuses, and refusing to tell her the real reason he couldn’t get close to her. If he thought he was too damaged, he was being stupid. No doubt he thought that his spy-kid upbringing had ruined him, but that wasn’t true. The trauma of espionage and warfare hadn’t made him cold. He was compassionate, intelligent. He cared about innocent people. And he knew that. And he knew she knew that.
“Why, Hunter? Why won’t you let me get close to you?”
He whipped his head back to face her. “Because when you let your heart get in the way, you make mistakes!” He burst out furiously. “Do you think it was proper procedure to alter that communication to Hellix? What I should have done was get a team ready to wait for the Hellix chopper, and go in and seize them. We could have captured Richard, and gotten some information out of him. We’d have brought you in, debriefed you, and introduced you to the team. You could be working for us, properly.”
He stopped, and took a deep breath. “But I couldn’t let that happen,” he said gruffly. “I care about you too much.”
In the silence that followed, Sunny listened to the tiny insects buzzing benignly around them. The night had gotten darker while they sat there, and they were enveloped in the warm hum of nighttime life.
Slowly, Sunny reached out and took Hunter’s hand. “You know that I don’t want that. I don’t want to be a prisoner.”
He didn’t flinch away. Instead, he pulled her hand over to him so he could sandwich it between both of his, cradled in his lap. “You see what I mean. I’m already endangering both of us. This – us – we can’t go on like this.”
“I’ve already told you, I won’t work with anyone else anyway. So this discussion has no point at all.”.
“What we’re doing… what you’re doing… it’s dangerous. You’ve almost been killed a few times, and you’ve only been in possession of your powers for what, three weeks? I just…” Hunter trailed off.
“What? What?”
Hunter shook his head angrily. “You don’t get it. I’m already doing it again. Disobeying protocols, putting people in danger. All because of my feelings.”
�
�You’re doing it… again?”
He didn’t answer her.
“What do you mean, again?” She remembered something. “You mean the thing with your buddy Pierce? When you went rogue and tried to save him?”
There was a long, long pause. Hunter’s mouth open, and he breathed out the word softly: “Her.”
“Her?”
“Pierce. Darla Pierce. She was my girlfriend.”
“Oh.”
There was an awkward silence, but suddenly Hunter turned to face her and pulled her hands back into his lap so she had to face him. “I didn’t mean… I didn’t want that to be a secret. I wasn’t trying to pretend that Pierce was a guy… I just…”
“I got it,” Sunny murmured. “I understood the story. I understood that you loved your friend very much, and they were killed. And you think it was your fault.”
Hunter smiled at her softly. “Me and Darla were sixteen. We were each other’s first loves – we’d both been in the Unit since we were four. She was incredibly gifted, mad as a cut snake, and so funny she could have me in stitches for hours. But she was unpredictable and reckless. I broke all the rules to try and save her. I failed, and she died.”
“Hunter,” Sunny whispered, “it wasn’t your fault. You didn’t kill her. Some asshole insurgents did.”
He hung his head. “I know that, but…. I never really got over the pain. It wasn’t long after my sister died, and my grief was compounded a million times over. It’s the worst feeling in the world, and Sunny…”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t ever want to feel that again. I’m sorry, but I just can’t.”
Sunny squeezed his hand gently. The rough pads of callouses his fingers felt so comfortable underneath her fingertips. She stroked the back of his hand gently, wishing with all her might that this wasn’t the last time she would hold his hand like this.
“I understand, Hunter,” she whispered to him. “I do. I hope we can still be friends.”
The Mouse Page 31
