Return to Duty

by Elizabeth Hollows

  His gaze lingered on Vicente. Jay could see the light of settlements, and somewhere among them would be the once-smoldering diner. Things had been simple before the Kada’rah had attacked. His gaze tracked to Bizantha, the other, larger moon. It was close enough to pick out the spaceport. Jay had been there prior to Vicente—living it up, pretending to get drunk and taking meaningless flings back to his hotel room. He’d come to Vicente for a change of pace.

  He’d never visited the other two moons. They were farther away and not as full, but they only added to the beautiful backdrop of space. It was a breathtaking sight. No wonder Tristan was admiring it.

  Jay looked back at the man to find he hadn’t moved. His expression was awed and peaceful. He looked younger and not as harsh. It could have been Jay and Bryce, off on a whirlwind trip to Asam for some sex in the sand. Yet, for all that it would be easier with the hapless waiter, Jay liked his time with the capable Tristan Fox more. It was dangerous, but Jay still wanted to know more about him.

  “What did you think it would look like?” Jay asked.

  “Like a normal sky.” He chuckled. “I don’t think I’ve looked up at the stars since my academy days.”

  “Dreaming of where your assignments would take you,” Jay agreed, remembering the feeling all too well. “Picturing the universe at your feet.”

  Tristan flashed him a brief look of understanding before his gaze was back on the stars.

  “It reminds me of a meteor shower,” Tristan remarked. “It was my second year at Bayview and—”

  “You were at Bayview?” Jay interrupted with surprise. “What years?”

  Bayview was one of the top four military academies in the galaxy and where Jay had trained. It was one of the newer facilities, with high circular towers. They were filled with winding staircases and classrooms that overlooked the grounds. The academy was on a large property with lakes, grassy clearings and forests. It was picturesque, if not for the ever-changing obstacle courses, traps and non-active soldiers camping on the grounds waiting to capture unsuspecting students. The school’s unorthodox methods had helped it to train some of the best stealth operatives in recent decades.

  Bayview had a simple system. If someone wanted to visit the nearby city when they didn’t have classes, they were welcome to—but there was a catch. They couldn’t take the front door. They dared everyone to prove that they had what it took to be a soldier. They wanted anyone who wished to leave to make their way through the grounds without being caught. Jay had spent some of his best nights at the academy flushed with the success of evading or capturing the soldiers who were keeping him and his friends from leaving the academy.

  It had all been in good fun, and making his way through undetected or imprisoning opponents gained a person higher marks in class. It could even help someone get specialized placement when their training was finished. It was how Jay had ended up in extraction.

  “I was there from eighty-six to eighty-nine,” Tristan answered, bringing Jay back from his thoughts. “Your records stated you were there from eight-five to eighty-eight.”

  It didn’t surprise Jay that Tristan had memorized his military file. It made him wonder if Tristan had brought up Bayview deliberately. But did it matter? What ulterior motive could Tristan have for talking about their training days?

  “Yeah,” Jay confirmed. “And I remember the meteor shower from eighty-seven. I watched it from the grounds with my classmates. It was impressive.”

  Tristan’s expression was smug. “I watched it from the roof.”

  Jay jerked his head to the other man. “The roof? That’s impossible! There were more than a dozen locks and passcodes to get onto the roof!”

  “And much like the grounds, you could get in and out of anywhere if you tried hard enough.” Tristan grinned. “And making my way in and out of places without detection made IA interested in me.”

  Jay narrowed his eyes. “You couldn’t have been undetected if they knew about it.”

  “You’re right,” he laughed. “The instructors were always watching to see who succeeded, who failed and who continued to try again, regardless.”

  “And they spotted you.”

  He’d seen it firsthand. After his third successful run through the forest, his instructors had met with him after class. They’d offered him alternative courses to what he’d already chosen. They were invitation only and for the specialized training they believed Jay would excel in—and they had been right.

  “Yes, they spotted me,” Tristan agreed. He was watching Jay carefully. “And they spotted you too. A man brilliant at making his way through enemy lines undetected to achieve his goal was a true extraction specialist.”

  Tristan’s gaze held respect and admiration. Jay knew Tristan could be pretending, playing him for some secret mission, but Jay couldn’t keep thinking like that. They had to trust each other. Second guessing, doubts and distrust would get them killed. Jay couldn’t trust the UCAFD again and he had his doubts about IA, but out in the field, he could let himself trust Tristan.

  “And you must have been just as good yourself,” Jay replied. “Catching IA’s attention and getting your way onto the roof was no small feat.” Jay remembered his own attempts with amusement. “I once planned to scale the building with my friends, but we could never figure out a way to get past the locks without breaking them.”

  “You needed an infiltration specialist,” Tristan advised with a grin.

  Jay laughed and winked at the other man. “It seems I needed you.”

  Tristan’s eyes danced at the tease. Jay expected him to make another mocking comment about Jay’s attempts at flirtation, but he side-stepped it entirely.

  “I doubt I would have interested you back then,” Tristan said. “I was very self-assured.”

  “And you aren’t now?”

  Tristan didn’t deign to acknowledge that with a comment, saying instead, “I was also fast-tracked and two years younger than those in my year.”

  Jay winced. Tristan was whipcord thin, toned and tall, but all of that came with growth spurts and training. He would have been just out of his teens when he had been at Bayview, scrawny and knobbly-kneed until he’d filled out. In comparison, Jay had spent his youth playing sports or flying his hoverboard into places where he wasn’t supposed to be. He’d had muscles and strength long before his training had kicked in. Jay had been popular with friends all over Bayview, both in years above and below him. He didn’t think Tristan had been as lucky.

  Maybe that’s why it’s so easy for him to lose himself in a role and work alone, Jay thought, saddened to realize that the brotherhood of a platoon might be something Tristan had never experienced.

  “Bayview had to have been tough,” Jay said quietly. “Did you have many friends? People you trained with?”

  Tristan laughed. “I might have been a brat, Jay, but I still had friends.” Jay grinned, pleasantly surprised to have his assumption turned on its head. “But training for IA meant that my pool of friends was composed of people pre-selected by the agency.”

  “Soldiers and spies,” Jay summarized.

  It was a divide Jay hadn’t noticed back in his academy days. He’d assumed it was the typical friendship groups forming rather than everyone either subconsciously of deliberately sectioning themselves into different organizations.

  “Like-minds,” Tristan corrected. His attention was locked on Jay. “But we can still find them in the oddest places.”

  “I think you’re flattering me again, Tristan,” Jay teased, a pleasant rush of warmth going through him at the look in the other man’s eyes. “Has the desert heat been getting to you?”

  Shaking his head with amused exasperation, Tristan turned his gaze back to the sky.

  “I liked our conversations at the diner, Jay. I liked them today too. We proposed honesty and trust.” He turned to Jay. “I can honestly say I’m enjoying the novelty of working with someone I consider capable.”

  That surprised Jay, but
the warmth in his chest grew and spread.

  I liked our conversations too, Jay thought, but I like these more.

  The words should have been easy to say, but they felt slippery on his tongue. He cleared his throat but they still wouldn’t come out, so Jay changed tracks to something easier but no less true.

  “It’s been a while since I’ve worked with someone capable too,” Jay admitted. “Not a lot can be said for the company of thieves.” Jay’s eyes drifted to the fire, seeing a dozen faces he’d never forget. “And it’s been a long time since I’ve had a mission.”

  The quiet lingered before Tristan asked, “Why did you leave the UCAFD?”

  Jay jerked from his thoughts, his shoulders tensing. Friendly talks. Ulterior motives. Information gathering. It all became perfectly clear.

  His voice was bitter as he said, “I thought that would be in my file.”

  Tristan stiffened from his relaxed sprawl. The lightness and good humor of their conversation disappeared in the blink of an eye.

  “They redacted your records,” Tristan explained, his voice cautious, as if he were wary of a fight. “It wasn’t information they gave me, so I thought I would ask you.”

  Of course they redacted it, Jay thought spitefully. They wanted to pretend it never happened.

  Fury rushed through Jay, but he knew the emotion wasn’t helpful. It would cloud his mind and keep him from thinking clearly. He gritted his teeth and took calm breaths, trying to push his emotions aside and be impartial.

  What had happened would cause untold damage to the Universal Collective if the public learned about it. He’d gained an honorable discharge, kept all his medals and gained compensation. His contract had been terminated with no complications. Major Heath Chapman remained a war hero and no one outside the need-to-know had learned the full story. There had been hundreds of missions running at the same time as Jay’s. Soldier’s names were rarely revealed in reports so that the men and women could be protected. There was no way for Tristan to know that Jay had been part of what had amounted to a massacre, where he’d been one of the few left alive to bring the traitors to justice. There was no reason for IA to entrust Tristan with such information—just like there was no reason for Jay to explain.

  He wouldn’t pick apart old wounds just to sate an agent’s curiosity. Tristan’s career might involve working out what he wasn’t meant to know, but Jay wouldn’t hand it out on a silver platter, not even for the sake of building trust.

  “If IA didn’t give you clearance, then you don’t need to know,” Jay said, his voice hard and unyielding.

  Tristan’s eyes narrowed, studying Jay, but if he tried to push it, he wouldn’t get anywhere. Tristan might be like a dog with a bone, but Jay wouldn’t break easily.

  “I asked about it to get to know you, not for the sake of the mission,” Tristan said, “but I won’t press you.”

  Jay still felt agitated and on edge. Tristan backing down surprised him, but Jay’s ease with the conversation had evaporated. How long would it be until he was asked again?

  “So was that your side mission while we’re here?” Jay asked. “To work out why I left? Why I became who I am?”

  He’d been questioned a hundred times over why he’d left. Soldiers he’d trained with had recognized him and wanted to know what had happened. He never explained, no matter what they’d said or offered. Once he’d thrown himself into becoming Jaybird, the questions stopped. They were either disgusted to find out that he’d become a thief and wanted nothing to do with him or they stopped recognizing him.

  “As I’ve said,” Tristan said softly, clearly trying to remain unthreatening, “it’s more of a personal interest than an assignment.”

  Jay couldn’t trust it. He turned his back to Tristan, focusing on the desert surrounding them. It was calm and peaceful, with not another soul for miles. The quaggas were sleeping after a long day and the crackling of the fire and faint sounds of nocturnal wildlife were all he could hear. Jay looked at Vicente once more, letting the beauty of the sky and surrounding landscape soften the hackles that Tristan had raised.

  It took him a few minutes before he was finally willing to speak. “I don’t like to talk about why I left, Tristan.”

  “Yeah, I noticed that,” Tristan drawled.

  Jay’s lips twitched, and he looked over his shoulder at the man. The light from the moon shadowed Tristan’s skin, but his wry smirk was still visible.

  “If you want to work me out,” Jay advised him, “do it a different way.”

  “Noted,” Tristan answered—and just like that, they both relaxed.

  The silence returned, but Jay shifted so that his back wasn’t to the agent. He poked at the fire and Tristan turned back to the stars. When Jay spoke again, it was almost by accident.

  “I’ve missed this,” Jay murmured, the words slipping free. “Camping on different worlds and looking up at an unfamiliar sky…” He ran his stick through the sand, creating patterns with no meaning. “I’ve missed relying on myself, rather than my ship.”

  There was a beat where nothing happened.

  “I’ve missed being around someone who knows who I am,” Tristan replied. “I’ve missed being able to work with someone and not only rely on them, but like them.”

  Jay smiled at the mutual understanding.

  “It helps that we liked each other before either of us knew who the other was.”

  “Yes,” Tristan agreed. “It’s a pity we’ll only have one mission together.” Jay finally turned to him. Tristan’s eyes stayed fixed on the stars. “I think we complement each other well.”

  We do. It’s only been a few hours and I know that already.

  Jay didn’t want to think about how well they slotted together. They lived in different worlds and neither of them would give up the lives they’d created. This was a brief crossover and a desperate partnership, nothing more.

  I’ll be leaving the moment we’ve got Zanik back, Jay reminded himself. Don’t get attached.

  “Maybe we do,” Jay answered. “Too bad our real lives get in the way.”

  Tristan sounded disappointed when he acknowledged, “Jaybird the thief.”

  “Agent Fox,” Jay answered.

  Two worlds that were too different to ever align for long… Tristan would never drop his career in IA to slum around as a thief, and Jay wasn’t about to throw himself into the rules and regulations of an agency that wouldn’t want him anyway.

  He liked Tristan—and that was a hard pill to swallow. He hadn’t liked anyone in years—but that wasn’t enough. Jay wanted to kiss and undress him and press in close, but desire didn’t cut it either. Real life sure as hell wasn’t a fairy tale and Jay had to be prepared to walk away when their assignment was finished. It was the way it had to be.

  “We should rest,” Jay announced into the silence. “We’ve got an early morning.”

  He could feel Tristan’s gaze on him like a physical weight, but eventually he heard the man shift. Jay glanced over to find Tristan dusting down his clothes and moving to his bedroll. Jay used some sand to douse the fire and keep it from smoking before using the light of the moons to make his way to his own bed. Tristan was using the additional light of his glowtorch to check for any creatures that might have crawled into his bedding and Jay did the same.

  When he knew it was clear, Jay lay down and did his best to get comfortable on the thin cushioning. He hoped sleep would be quick to find him and that the only thing to wake him would be the morning sun. This was the only chance they’d have for an uninterrupted sleep. They were making good time, better than Jay had expected. It meant that tomorrow night they would be in Kada’rah territory and would need to keep watch over their campsite.

  Closing his eyes, Jay did his best to fall asleep and not think about Tristan Fox.

  * * * *

  The next morning Jay woke before sunrise. He checked the perimeter but found no hint of the Kada’rah. He returned to their campsite to make a fire. Tristan
was already climbing out of his bedroll and they shared a nod of greeting. Tristan packed up their bedding and secured it on the quaggas while Jay started cooking their morning’s rations. Within twenty minutes they’d eaten and tidied the last of their campsite. Once finished, they confirmed their direction of travel and removed the hobbles from the quaggas. They were already on their way before daylight broke over the sand.

  Unlike the previous day, they didn’t fill the silence with conversation. They had crossed into Kada’rah territory and the additional tension left them both wary and on edge. The likelihood of being spotted by syndicate patrols increased and they had to be careful. They took things slower and changed their course if their sensors picked up any indication of Kada’rah technology. Jay often dismounted, using the cover of the high sand dunes to scout the area on foot. Tristan led both quaggas in his wake. The increased care caused slower progress, and by the time night fell, they had veered farther to the east to avoid patrols and weren’t as close to the compound as they’d hoped. It was frustrating, but there was little to be done about it.

  They established their camp in the shelter of a dune to keep them hidden from nightly patrols. The risk of discovery meant they couldn’t afford a fire, so they used the light of the moons to help them set up. They placed their bedrolls closer together, with the quaggas positioned behind and downwind from them.

  They prepared their meal in silence. It was when they were eating that Tristan broke the quiet to announce, “Cooking it definitely helps.”

  He was glaring at his meal and his displeasure made Jay grin.

  “A downside of remaining undetected,” Jay said.

  He decided not to mention the others—like even with thermal blankets, if it got much colder, they might have to huddle together for additional warmth. They couldn’t risk any heating technology with the Kada’rah so close. Jay squashed the part of him that was hopeful for that outcome. It was stupid and dangerous to give in. They needed someone to maintain watch, and a lack of sleep due to the cold would be a hindrance, not a help.