Fearless Leader (Juxtapose City)

by Tricia Owens

  "The captain filled me in on some of the details of the Wyatt Street bust," Black said tentatively. "The way you adjusted your methods at the last minute when you found out that the deal had been compromised -- it wasn't textbook but it was inspired."

  "It was a stroke of luck," Sundhill said with a self-deprecating laugh. "If I hadn't found that side stairwell we would have been cornered like mice. No inspiration there, just pure survival mode."

  "You tricked the perps into circling around on each other and then you surrounded them. You apprehended everyone."

  Sundhill tilted his head to the side. "So I did." He looked at Black and Black sincerely hoped none of the admiration he felt for the other man showed on his face. "You study a lot of the other teams' work, don't you, Lieutenant Black? Dickerson has mentioned that you're something of a scholar of strategy. I'm impressed with how much you do know. Far more than I. And you're so much younger--"

  "I've got a lot to learn," Black cut in, disliking any mention of his age and by extension his limited field experience. "I'm doing the best I can. It seems to be working."

  "No need to get defensive," Sundhill said, smiling. His blue eyes gleamed as they looked over Black. "What I was going to say is that you're far younger than I was when I received my first command and yet you're doing considerably better than I did. There's no question in my mind that you should be the captain's prodigy. You have a natural aptitude for this stuff. If you weren't already his I'd make you mine."

  Black was suddenly very, very glad that Starr was nowhere in sight. He felt heat in his cheeks and immediately scolded himself for responding like a girl with a crush. Not for the first time his eyes flicked to Sundhill's left hand. Of course there would never be a ring there -- letting a criminal know you were married was an impossibility -- but Black couldn't help looking for a tan line, an impression, anything to hint that Sundhill was anything other than available. Like always, he found no such thing.

  Not good.

  "You should come down to our side of town," Sundhill went on. He looked amused but Black didn't trust anything he was reading from the other man while his own senses were in disarray. "I think I'd enjoy spending a couple of hours with you going over a few of the tricks I've picked up here and there. Would you be interested?"

  Black swallowed. "My time is limited, as I'm sure yours is--"

  Sundhill took a step closer. Black had to look up slightly to meet his eyes. "We kill bad people for a living, Lieutenant Black. We need to make time for the more pleasant aspects of life or else we'll end up as little more than walking corpses. I would enjoy having you at my place. Or don't you feel the same about me?"

  Black refused to read more into that statement than he should. "Of course I'd like to. I'm honored but--"

  Sundhill's handsome face definitely held amusement as he watched Black try to back out. "Don't insult me by refusing. I could use a nice diversion. After the events of late I'm sure you could too." He raised a hand to Black's shoulder. "Let me entertain you. It will be instructive as well as fun, I guarantee it."

  "Well, well. Should I be jealous?"

  Black reacted instinctively to the sound of Starr's voice: he imagined steel walls slamming up in his head. If he was too late to hide what he'd been feeling Starr's expression didn't show it. Black moved to the side, letting Sundhill's hand slide from his shoulder. Black could have indulged himself and pretended that the other lieutenant had turned the touch into a caress but Black didn't believe in fooling himself if he could help it.

  "Call my PRU," he told Sundhill calmly. "Leave me your schedule and we'll work something out."

  Sundhill's eyes glinted with pleasure. "I'll do that. Just don't tell the others, right? They seem to enjoy believing that you and I are at each other's throats."

  As the other lieutenant laughed, Black cleared his throat nervously. Sundhill winked and turned to face Starr and Captain Dickerson.

  "Everything go alright, sir?"

  Dickerson looked at the blond lieutenant with an odd smile on his face and nodded. "Everything went perfectly. Agent Starr is progressing nicely." He glanced at Starr but the empath’s attention was focused doggedly on Black.

  Black returned the empath's intense look, wondering at its source. He doubted that the other man could be jealous. Starr didn't strike him as the type to grow attached to any one person in particular much less him. He'd given the empath every reason to believe he wasn't interested. Black wanted nothing to do with an empath. That was a road he knew better than to travel.

  But Starr didn't seem to appreciate the determination of Black's thoughts. Green eyes were narrowed slightly as they jumped between Black and Sundhill.

  "It's probably time that we return to the house," Black said, breaking the awkward silence. He turned to his captain. "Anything else you need from us, sir?"

  Dickerson waved him off. "Lieutenant, you need to take some time away from everything. I'm ordering you and your team to take a break for the remainder of the week. I don't want to see you anywhere near the department facilities, do you understand?"

  Black ground his teeth together. "Yes, sir."

  Dickerson studied him much like a teacher would a stubborn student. "Lieutenant, I mean it."

  "I understand, sir." He saluted and pretended not to see Sundhill's conspiratorial grin.

  Once the other two men had left the cubicle and headed towards the front doors Black grabbed the range gun. "Let's go."

  "Oh, but don't you want to follow the shiny Lieutenant Sundhill?" Starr asked, batting his lashes innocently. "I mean, since the two of you do have that secret relationship he was referring to."

  Black abruptly confronted the empath. "Don't tell me you're jealous. Just don't. You and I have a working relationship. Despite your delusions to the contrary -- which I don't understand at all since I did nothing to contribute to them -- you and I are not equals with the possibility of engaging in a relationship. I am your commanding officer. I have the power to put you back on the street if you don't obey my orders. Is that clear to you, Agent Starr?"

  Starr looked about to argue. Then the empath lowered his head and shook it as if mocking himself. When he raised it again the beautiful lines of his face were smooth and worry-free. "Answer me one question, sweetheart, and I'll leave you alone for the time being."

  "This isn't negotiable, Starr."

  The empath continued without care. "If you weren't an officer in the JCPD and if I weren't an empath would you still choose Lieutenant Sundhill over me?"

  Frustration made Black take a deep breath. "You just don't get it, do you? There is no choosing. You don't know me and I don't know you. You're panting after me like a dog in heat but that's just lust."

  "What's wrong with lust?" Starr challenged, his green eyes flashing with unexpected passion. "It makes me feel alive. When was the last time you felt alive? When was it, Darkness? Was it on the street with your team when you thought you were going to die? Was it when you were about to have sex with Sergeant Cole? I'll bet it's the first and that's sad enough to bring tears to my eyes. But I can change that for you, sweetheart. I can reawaken everything you've buried. I can bring you back to life. I'll tell you this a hundred times until it finally pierces that thick, beautiful skull of yours: no one will ever know you better than I can. That I can promise you."

  But Black just shook his head. "You think that's an offer. I hear it as a threat."

  Starr's eyes widened. For once he looked without a smart retort. Black didn't give him time to recover. "We're going home. I don't trust the others not to have killed each other by now."

  He expected a sarcastic comment but Starr remained silent. Black didn't know which was worse: the knowledge that Starr had succeeded in goading him to reveal a weakness or the fact that he'd pretty much guaranteed that the empath would eventually act on it.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Black was thankful that the team had traveled to the funeral that afternoon in two electro-crafts. The thought of hav
ing to ride his bike with Starr wrapped around him was enough to make him cringe. As it was, the silence in the craft was sharp and taut as Black drove them back to the house. Starr stared at Black's profile the entire time, obviously still upset about what he thought he'd seen between Black and Sundhill.

  Black ignored him. He didn't care if Starr was jealous. He didn't care what Starr thought at all beyond how it affected the way the team functioned. Starr struck him as the high-maintenance type, demanding attention with either his flamboyant appearance or his in-your-face sexuality. Black didn't have time to coddle that type of personality. The last thing he needed was someone insisting on a level of interest he simply couldn't muster.

  Their boxy gray housing complex was a sight for sore eyes. Starr didn't wait for Black to shut off the engine. He bolted inside the house leaving the other man to hook up the charging unit. That was fine with Black. If Starr was being petulant that meant he was thinking about himself and not thinking about ways of taking advantage of what Black had revealed to him. Black would just as soon pretend that his inadvertent challenge to the empath had never been uttered.

  The Clubhouse was silent when he entered it. He assumed that the other men were in the Dugout watching T.V. or playing video games to take their minds off of what had happened this morning. Black hesitated and then jogged upstairs to his room to change. Starr's door was already shut.

  Dressed more comfortably in jeans and a blue button-down shirt, he entered the Dugout and headed for the living room. Sure enough, Jake, Haney and Bee were sprawled across the sofas, watching a baseball game.

  "Where's Sola?" he asked.

  "In the computer room," Jake replied. He studied Black, doing his best to look casual. "So, uh, how'd it go at the range? Are we down one teammate?"

  Black heard the hope in the other man's voice. He shook his head as he swatted Jake's feet to make room on the sofa. "Starr did fine."

  Jake scowled. "Too bad. Means I'll have to find some other way to get rid--"

  Black glared at him.

  "--of the cockroaches I saw in the kitchen the other day," Jake mumbled, returning his attention to the game.

  Black looked at the other men, not missing the way Bee had removed his hand from Haney's knee to return it to his own lap. Black sighed inwardly. A problem, that. He didn't look forward to addressing it. Maybe later.

  "How did the training session go?" he asked Bee. "Did you do the drills I outlined for you?"

  "Volume: ten," Bee said in a clear voice. The television quieted. He nodded at Black, satisfaction beaming on his cherubic face. "Yes, sir. Did the Cat's Tail, Southwest Turn and Wide Scatter," he said, ticking off the various maneuvers that the team regularly employed during missions. "Sola's quick. He picked up the 'Tail right away and he fell right into Wide Scatter after the third try. He said R&R does a similar move. He'll be a real asset in the field, Black."

  Black felt a relieved smile touch his lips. "That's good to hear," he said quietly. Actually, it was the best news he'd heard all day.

  "Except the asshole nearly broke my wrist," Jake grumbled.

  Black threw Jake an amused look. "Yeah," Bee said, chuckling softly, "I forgot to add that Sergeant Sola possesses an impressive knack for getting into the combat mindset."

  "If that's what you want to call it," Jake snapped, rubbing at his wrist. He glared nails when Haney began to snicker. "Yeah, laugh it up, kid. Be grateful that it wasn't your hand getting twisted off while Sola shouted 'Let go of the gun!' in your ear." He huffed. "I wasn't even fucking armed."

  "Big baby," Haney muttered, trying to suppress a grin.

  "Um, would you like to see the training vids?" Bee asked quickly as Jake started to growl at Haney. Bee raised his voice again. "Video: C26."

  The game on the screen disappeared, replaced by footage of the men doing their training maneuvers. In each corner of the screen was a shot of the same scene shot from a different angle thanks to the many embedded cameras around the training room. Black leaned forward to watch.

  ~~~~~

  Calyx Starr never ran away. Well, not until it was absolutely necessary and that definitely wasn't the case in this instance. It was embarrassing to show jealousy -- hell, to show any emotion at all. He was an empath, master of emotions. He wished he could his reaction back. But hiding away from Black wasn't going to help improve matters much. Annoyed with himself, Calyx left his bedroom and coasted down the stairs. If anyone should be running it should be Darkness. Calyx had to keep reminding himself that he was the one holding all the cards in this situation.

  Downstairs it was quiet, most of the lights off. He guessed that the rest of the team was in the Dugout. As he passed the computer room he noticed light shining from beneath the door. Calyx immediately opened it and entered.

  He expected to find Black's lush sable hair bent over the computer monitor not Sergeant Sola's crisp buzz cut. Calyx inwardly groaned as the man spun around in his chair.

  "What are you doing here?" Sola demanded. One hand flew to the back of his ear, checking for the Bliss tablet.

  Calyx didn't need his empathy to tell that the other man was feeling panicked at having been caught doing something he shouldn't. It was written all over Sola's face.

  "What're you up to?" Calyx said lazily, leaning against the doorframe. "Trying to hack into the JCPD computer system? Or something more mundane? Renewing your subscription to Psycho Babes Monthly?"

  "Ha-ha," Sola said, peeling his lips off his teeth into a close approximation of a grin. "Psycho Babes Monthly -- yeah, that's good, Starr. What do you subscribe to -- Freaks Weekly? Or can you even read? You were probably raised in some alley."

  Calyx smiled. "Why don't you ask your mother?" He backed up, hands raised innocently when Sola started to rise out of his chair. "Just a little joke between teammates. We are teammates you know. You watch my back, I watch yours."

  "Yeah, we'll see about that won't we?" Sola snorted, turning around to click something on the computer. The screen changed to the JCPD logo screensaver. Sola stood and approached Calyx in the doorway. "Sure, I'll watch your back, freak. You'd better hope that no one tries to bury a knife in it though, because I may be looking the other way when it happens."

  Calyx sighed, rolling his eyes. "So dramatic. If I didn't know better I'd say you're suffering from a classic case of homosexual denial."

  Calyx ducked beneath the fist that swung towards his head. Dancing back into the computer room with a wide grin, Calyx wagged his finger. "Temper, temper. You're trying to get on our leader's good side aren't you? It wouldn't help your case if you beat up the resident empath."

  Red-faced, Sola glared at the other man. "It's just a matter of time, Starr. One of these days Black won't be around. Too bad if the freak gets accidentally taken out by friendly fire, yeah?"

  With a last dark sneer, Sola left, slamming the door behind him.

  Calyx shook his head. He would have to make sure that Black gave the psycho an emergency supply of Bliss tabs to ensure he never ran out. The empath shuddered to think what feeling Sola 'naked' would be like now that the man had given free rein to his prejudice.

  His eyes fell to the computer Sola had just vacated. Eyebrow quirking, Calyx sat down at the terminal and checked the browser. Ah, Sola had been too distracted to clear the cache. Calyx brought up the department's human resources page. Sola had been looking at his new teammates' personnel files. No surprise there.

  Calyx looked at his own file. "Need to upload a new picture," he sighed, gazing with disgust at his fuzzy, less-than-flattering mug shot. Honestly, it looked as though someone had hosed him down with water before taking the photo. That had definitely not been the case. Calyx remembered quite clearly looking especially hot that night because his new dealer friend was an attractive, blue-eyed red-head. Too bad said red-head would later turn out to be an undercover officer. What a waste of a good outfit.

  Tsk-ing, Calyx scrolled through the long list of his dubious 'offenses'. Petty theft...
mmm, maybe. Calyx couldn't quite remember that incident. Assault on an officer... yes, he supposed kneeing a cop in the balls who'd tried to force Calyx to give him head counted as assault. Dealing a controlled substance, under the influence of the same... absolutely, guilty as sin. Prostitution... not always. Calyx grinned. Sometimes he gave it away for free.

  He looked through the rest of his stuff and found nothing new. Captain Dickerson hadn't altered anything despite their 'arrangement'. Boring.

  Sola had brought up the other men's files as well and Calyx briefly scanned them. Nothing exciting there either. Bee had been in the marines for a few years before joining the JCPD. Haney and Cole had both followed the usual progression from the Academy up through the department's ranks. Calyx scanned the brain-dulling letters of recommendation that led to each man being selected for JC2. Calyx found one little tidbit of notice: Bee had been suspended once for assault on a fellow officer. Interesting, but not exciting. Calyx found more entertainment snickering at Cole's Academy photo. Cole looked like a hick from Nebraska. Come to think of it he still looked like a hick from Nebraska.

  Calyx gave the rest of the files a cursory glance but his main interest, as he was sure was Sola's, was the smallest file. Unlike the other men's files Black's consisted of only a medical record, his proof of graduation from the Academy and a handful of recommendations from some bigwigs in the department. These citations, Calyx noted curiously, all managed to cite Black's commitment and dedication to the job without referring to any specific accomplishment whatsoever. If Calyx didn't know better he'd say they were fudged.

  Calyx read a little further. On paper Black appeared to exist only at the Academy. Nothing before, nothing after. Calyx found nothing about Black's parents, where he'd been born, his schooling. Nothing in the files hinted at what Black had done after leaving the Academy -- the man could have left the country for all the information that was available on his whereabouts. Black appeared out of nowhere to complete his training and then vanished again. To Calyx it was as though Black had attended the Academy to prove that he was real and for no other reason.