by Tasha Black
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m reaching out to a friend who can help us make it invisible.”
“How can you do that?” Hawkeye had been under the impression that things could not be removed from the internet.
“That site requires articles to be up-voted in order for them to gain visibility,” she said as she typed. “My friend can mobilize an army of white-hats to down vote it.”
“White hats?” he asked, completely lost.
“Most hackers manipulate news sites or hack into websites to do harm, or to get money or power,” Trinity said, her fingers never slowing. “White-hats, like me, do it only for good - to protect people.”
“So there are computer hackers who help people,” Hawkeye mused. His understanding of hackers was overwhelmingly negative. This was an interesting idea.
“Yeah,” she said. “My friend, who I play video games with at night, she’s got a whole group she’s part of. She’s on now, thank god. She’s got the link.”
But Trinity didn’t stop typing.
“Now what are you doing?” he asked.
“Comments,” she said. “If the comments say that the video is a hoax, that will help prevent up-votes from the rest of the online community, which will keep it from gaining any traction and possibly getting noticed by the wrong people. But comments will be more helpful if they’re in English.”
“So who are you communicating with now?” he asked.
“Another friend,” she said. “A whole bunch more, actually.”
He watched as she worked.
“Check the site,” she told him, pointing at the computer next to hers. “Just refresh the page.”
He refreshed the page and the video had disappeared.
“Is it there?” she asked.
“No,” he said.
“Search for it,” she advised with a smile. “Type alien in lake” in the search bar at the top.”
He followed her instructions and the video reappeared.
“Check the comments,” Trinity advised.
There were now 295 comments. He clicked on the link.
Comments moved across the page angling one way and then the other.
FAKE
This is so fake, look at the clip at 1:18, clearly spliced.
SO many wannabe aliens. I’d still do him. LOL.
U sure it’s fake?
Um, yeah!
Fake. Fake. Fake.
Trinity straightened and looked up from her screen for a moment.
“So what do you think?” she asked. “Is it invisible?”
“It is,” he said, nodding slowly.
“Well, it isn’t yet,” she returned to stabbing at her keyboard. “But it will be by the time we get done with it. That was a close call, by the way. Your brother is lucky we caught it when we did.”
He watched her, in awe.
Trinity was many things in Hawkeye’s view. She was kind, she was quiet, she seemed younger than her two best friends. She worked hard and didn’t complain. She was deeply private.
He had never seen her like this - totally engaged in what she was doing, abrupt, confident, and deeply pleased with herself.
This was Trinity’s passion. This was what drew her to computers. Not the tedium of organizing data storage, but helping people.
And she was networking with others to do it. Those people she was typing to, they were true friends - her brothers and sisters in arms. And shy, quiet Trinity was respected among them.
Hawkeye felt a fierce pride burning his chest as he watched his digital warrior protect his family.
9
Trinity
Trinity was having a heck of a day. She’d been bogged down removing a virus from the academy servers from the moment she arrived at work.
Poor Hawkeye. They’d had a great day together yesterday saving his brother. He’d been helpful as he could and even snuck off to bring her back coffee without her asking.
The big hunk had looked like a homeless kitten when she’d told him she wouldn’t be able to work with him today.
But that was nothing compared to the faces she was about to see now.
“Okay, cadets,” she said in a commanding voice.
She’d come to the dorm to speak with them in one of the common rooms during their lunch break.
They gathered before her now. Some looked confused, while others had already begun to cringe.
“I’m going to level with you,” she said. “You’re watching too much porn.”
There were a few gasps but way more giggles, and more than a handful of red faces.
“If you’re going to look at porn, you cannot do it on the academy server,” she continued after the reactions died down. “You need to use the proxy server that I set up. Does everyone know how to do that?”
No one wanted to admit that they didn’t know how to do it. Or that they wanted to learn how to do it.
Basically they all just stared at her, wild-eyed, clutching their hands together to keep from raising them.
“I’m going to show you guys, just in case,” she said, taking pity on them.
Though they hardly deserved it. Proxy or no proxy, they were watching way too much porn. How they had time for anything else, she had no idea.
Everyone watched her demonstrate. Then she dismissed them.
One cadet hung back.
“Um, you can’t, uh, see who looked at what, can you?” he mumbled.
“I could if I wanted to,” she told him. “Lucky for you I’m not interested in anything except keeping the academy servers clean.”
“Oh,” he said in a relieved way and wandered off.
She sighed and headed back to the desk where she’d been working all morning.
It was taking longer than she’d thought. There were some strange artifacts in part of the code of the virus - stuff that didn’t really belong in a simple malware program. But she didn’t really have time to digitally dissect the whole process. Once she was sure the server was clean, her job was done.
It was late afternoon by the time Trinity finally headed back to the chapel to work on digitizing records.
The whole day had been super frustrating.
She hadn’t been able to trace the exact purpose of the virus, but she pushed that aside. There was too much other work to do.
On a whim, she decided to walk the long way through the labyrinth. It might take more time, but she hoped it would improve her mood.
The sun was hot overhead but the fresh air tasted good and it was nice to hear the birds singing, even if they took flight as she drew near.
When she emerged at the chapel on the other side, she was feeling more relaxed.
But that feeling was short-lived.
As soon as her feet hit the marble floors she could see that something was badly wrong.
The chapel was like a Christmas tree farm lately, with stacks of boxes of files growing up to chest level at intervals through the room. But Trinity knew what was in each stack.
Now she stood frozen, gazing at the room in horror.
Someone had been moving the boxes.
Whole stacks were out of place. And a new row of boxes was in an area that was reserved for finished work.
Hawkeye came into view with a box of files in his hands.
“What-what’s going on?” she asked.
“I didn’t want you to get behind,” he explained. “So I got as much work done on my own as I could.”
Trinity’s heart dropped to her stomach.
He was trying to be nice - she knew that.
But the amount of work she was going to have to redo was staggering. And she had no idea how much of it was ruined and what could be saved.
“Thanks so much,” she said as politely as she could. “Let’s see what you did.”
“I started where I left off yesterday,” he said, showing her two full stacks of files.
She opened the hard drive on her computer.
T
hey were all there, neatly labeled in digital folders.
“Then I finished your section,” he said, indicating the second stack in the newly finished row. “When I looked at the hard drive I could see how it was labeled so I continued.”
She opened the digital file and checked the top docs in two of the boxes - again everything looked like it was expertly done.
Finally, he showed her the new section he had just begun.
“I hope you don’t mind, I labeled it Temporary Tag 1 so that you could properly rename it when you arrived,” he said.
“You set this up?” she asked.
He nodded.
“I even read the manual for the scanner and realized we could save some time by adjusting the default resolution in the settings instead of having to choose it every time we start a new batch.”
She stared at him, amazed. He had done a really good job, even on the stuff she had been working on.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she said, standing. “I just…”
“Didn’t think I could handle it?” he teased.
“Oh, no, I…”
“You know, I did build and man an interstellar craft using technology the human race hasn’t even dreamed of.” He smirked at her, one eyebrow slightly lifted. “I can handle some data replication.”
Damn.
Maybe it confirmed that she was a nerd, but Trinity was pretty sure that sexier words had never been spoken.
“Are you satisfied?” he asked.
Maybe it was just the relief after a long, hard day, but Trinity suddenly felt as though her heart was light as air.
She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a hug.
His body felt so good against hers that it almost took her breath away. He smelled like heaven. She tried to breathe him in, just a little.
He held her carefully, as if he were afraid she was going to bolt. The contrast between his intimidating size and his excessive gentleness was intoxicating.
She soaked in the feeling for as long as she dared before pulling back slightly.
Hawkeye gazed down at her, his eyes twinkling.
Without thinking about it, Trinity went up on her toes and kissed the smirk right off his mouth.
10
Hawkeye
Hawkeye’s world shifted on its axis as Trinity pressed her lips to his.
Her mouth was so soft. Her body pressed against his so that her breasts were crushed to his chest. He could feel her heart beating.
The temptation to mate with her was overwhelming, but he fought the instinct to push further with everything he had, instead kissing her back as tenderly as he could bear.
In spite of his careful restraint, Trinity pulled back after a few seconds, leaving him panting, his entire body straining for more.
Trinity laughed in an embarrassed way, her eyes wide and her lips still slightly parted.
“Thank you,” he told her, hoping she would not be embarrassed for long. She should be proud of her skill at kissing.
She turned away, rummaging around on her desk as if trying to change the subject.
“What should we work on next?” he asked, trying to show her that he would not forget his duty just because she had kissed him.
She looked around the room a moment and smiled up at him.
“You know what? You got enough done today that we can do something fun instead,” she said.
He hoped beyond anything that it was more kissing.
“How about laser tag?” she asked, her eyes sparkling.
“That sounds dangerous,” he said.
“Oh, it’s not real lasers, just lights,” she explained. “You wear a vest and you carry a light gun and if you can shoot someone else’s vest you get a point.”
“I see,” he said, though he didn’t really see. He loved her excitement too much to slow her down with explanations.
“We play on a team though, so hopefully the others can play too,” she said, grabbing her bag from the table and heading to the door. “Are you coming?” she asked with her hand on the light switch.
He jogged after her and they headed back to the old academy through the field.
“Brooke and Conan are probably teaching tonight, but maybe Veronica and Lobo can join us,” Trinity said. “Veronica’s spectacular at laser tag, but she’s really competitive, so stay out of her way when push comes to shove.”
“Do you play this game often?” Hawkeye asked.
“Not as often as I want to,” she replied. “I guess we’ve played two other times. But when I get this project out of the way and Brooke has her gym up and running we want to take a night off together on a regular basis to go out and do fun stuff.”
“You work very hard,” Hawkeye observed.
“We all care about what we do,” she said. Then she got an odd look on her face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing, it’s just that the virus I was trying to scrub today was really odd,” she said. “It had some unusual artifacts.”
“What does that mean?” he asked.
“Well,” she said. “It’s almost like it was designed to do more than one thing. But damned if I have any idea what that might be.”
“Oh,” he said. He didn’t really follow. Maybe if he knew more, he could find a way to help.
But they had arrived at the old academy, and his curiosity got lost in the excitement of inviting the others to play laser tag. Besides, if it had to do with computers, he was confident that Trinity had the situation well in hand.
Trinity took the stairs two at a time and he followed her up to the shared living spaces.
An hour later, four of them were in the dark lobby of an enormous building. As Trinity predicted, Brooke and Conan were busy with their martial arts students, but Veronica and Lobo had joined them.
Each of them looked spectacular in their military-style vests. Trinity had advised them to wear dark clothing so as to be better able to hide. She had even sent Lobo back because his first black t-shirt had white lettering and she said the white would be too noticeable in the black light.
Teams were in groups of six, so the four of them were joined by two small boys. The slightly larger one was called Sam, and he held the hand of the littler one, Jack, his brother.
Although Trinity had rolled her eyes and muttered something about babysitting, Hawkeye was fascinated with these fledgling humans and determined to guard them against the attacks of the opposing team.
“Listen up,” Trinity said in a clear, firm voice. “When we get in there don’t be the first to leave the start point, or the last - try to file out in the middle somewhere. When you do, find a place where you can get your back to the wall and hide.”
“Why do we need our backs to the wall?” Lobo asked.
“Your vest has two sensors, one on the front and one on the back,” Trinity explained. “If you can cover the one in back you’re removing almost half your risk.”
“Would that not be exactly half?” Hawkeye ventured.
“There’s another sensor in your gun,” Trinity said. “But it’s harder to hit.”
“Run out in the middle of everyone, hide, put my back to a wall,” Sam said nervously to himself.
“That’s right,” Trinity said. “For those of us with more experience, we’ll be playing offense.”
“Like Football?” Lobo sounded completely mystified.
Sam and Jack stared up at him.
“Ha. That’s a good one,” Trinity pretended to laugh.
Lobo stared at her blankly.
The kids looked suspicious.
“Anyway, we’ll try and hit the other team,” Trinity said. “When you’re on offense try and move constantly so you’re harder to hit.”
A buzzer sounded and they all went into an even larger, darker room.
Everyone gathered under a huge arch with neon lights flashing on it. A recorded voice spoke, explaining the rules.
; Hawkeye watched the two little humans holding hands. They were very pleasing to observe and they seemed to be listening to instructions as best they could. He could not understand why Trinity didn’t want them around. He wished with all his heart that he had a treat for them, though he wondered if it was good manners to offer a treat to a small human the way you could with a pet. In any case, he felt the same sense of delight in them as he had when Veronica brought him to see the K-9 officers.
He wondered if this could be a paternal instinct. He knew his body should come equipped with some basic human instincts, but so far, the only one he’d been aware of was the almost overwhelming desire to claim Trinity as his mate.
“Let’s go,” Trinity cried, holding her laser gun aloft and looking like the illustration of the angel of death in one of Rima’s comic books back at Stargazer.
Hawkeye abandoned his wayward thoughts and followed his fearless female into the fray.
11
Trinity
Trinity was panting, laughing and utterly impressed by the time the final buzzer went off. The place was always a sauna by this point of the night. But somehow, every time they regrouped tonight, a wave of cool air seemed to envelope them like a bubble. She wondered if the owners had finally sprung for a new compressor for the AC.
She surveyed her team as she removed her gear.
In spite of Hawkeye and Lobo being new to the game, they’d been valuable teammates. Hawkeye had Trinity’s back literally the entire time.
And she’d forgotten how much fun it was to play with little kids. When Sam and Jack finally came out of their shells they’d been shouting and scurrying around like crazy, distracting the enemy, yet too fast to be good targets.
It reminded her of the good times with her little brothers, of which there had been so many - the games of Ghost in the Graveyard on summer nights, the stories they made up around the campfire, the way they would run squealing away when she pretended to be the tickle monster… As a teenager Trinity had been exhausted and embarrassed by them, but it wasn’t all bad having little boys around.