Wallace grabbed a chair and tilted it in the mirror image of her.
"What's on your mind," she asked.
He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. "You sure it's him?"
Tabby shrugged and said, "Not my call, but the Grand Master thinks so. That's enough for me."
He chuckled. "Is it that, or something else?"
"Like what?"
He leaned back in the chair and crossed his legs. "I may be a guy, but I'm not clueless. I can tell what you feel for the guy. You sure that it's the Grand Master's assessment that matters?"
She smiled. "First, that's none of your business. Second, his assessment is his own. My feelings? Those are my own. The two have nothing to do with one another."
He turned and looked into the fire. "If you say so."
"I do."
"So," he asked, "just hypothetically, if it was your call, what would you say?"
She took a deep breath, considered for a moment, then said, "Everything fits. His dad's military time, what he said about his mom, all of that."
Wallace seemed lost in thought before finally nodded. "Probably. I guess we'll find out soon enough, won't we?"
"Yes, we will."
** ** **
Rick and Mal lay prone on the hill, looking out over a valley between TVA territory and what had once been North Carolina. Unlike most of the Rangers, they didn't get a chance to celebrate the victory. There was work to do, and both were fine with that. They'd done their jobs. That was all either really needed.
A flag fluttered in the breeze, a black field with a white cross and a gold crown at the top. "Looks like intel was right," Rick said.
Mal nodded then raised a set of binoculars to his eyes. "Not a lot of folks down there. Looks like an outpost or something. Maybe thirty or so men?"
"Yeah, but this is just the start of very bad things coming supposedly."
Mal nodded as the two Rangers crawled out from under the brush until they were out of sight of the outpost. "This will make a lot of people unhappy," Mal quipped.
Rick looked at the other man and grimaced. "Count me among them."
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Author T.L. Knighton began his love affair with science fiction in a dark movie theater in 1977. That was when he saw the opening scene to the original Star Wars. A ship crossing the screen, laser blasts rocking it. He was hooked.
He had written off and on since early elementary school. As an adult, he served as a Hospital Corpsman in the United States Navy. Honorably discharged in 1996, he returned to his home town of Albany, Georgia.
After working a variety of jobs, Knighton took up his pen again (metaphorically) as a blogger. He attained a level of notoriety for his writing, then made headlines when he became the first blogger to purchase a newspaper.
Through it all was a dream of writing fiction. While non-fiction was enjoyable for him, the allure of writing about fantastic world and the brave men and women who tame them was too much to miss out on forever.
You can find him on his blog at http://tlknighton.com or follow @tomcat1066 on Twitter.
If you enjoyed this book, please take a few moments of your time to post a review so that others who might agree can find and enjoy this book as well.
MORE FROM THE AUTHOR
New Eden Books
After the Blast
Bloody Eden
Short Fiction
Exodus
Drift
Bad Moon on the Rise (Soldiers of New Eden Book 3) Page 18