Friction

by R S Penney

  He spoke carefully, delivering each word in a tone cold enough to freeze a grown man's blood. It was best to remind her who stood highest in the eyes of the Inzari. “You came here to chastise Leo.”

  She lifted her chin, and the holographic imaging systems allowed him to see the faintest outlines of a face. “What of it?” she asked, arching an eyebrow. “The fool was in need of an object lesson.”

  “It seems you are in need of a similar lesson.”

  “I warned you both not to involve him,” Isara growled. “But you insisted on using a broadsword where a scalpel would do.”

  Slade forced himself to remain calm, forced himself to maintain perfect composure. Anger was always a sign of weakness. People feared you more when you spoke without violent displays of emotion. “You will not come to Earth again,” he said. “You will not interfere in my work again.”

  “Your threats mean-”

  “If you do,” Slade went on without the smallest trace of heat in his voice. He was a man relaying important information: nothing more and nothing less. “I will kill you. Do we understand each other, Isara?”

  “Perfectly.”

  The hologram vanished before he could say another word. Not that it bothered him. Grecken Slade had spent most of his life fending off people who tried to circumvent his authority. Isara was no different; Jena Morane was no different. He would cow them as easily as he had all the others.

  Perhaps he would even bring Jena into the service of the Inzari. She would be a remarkably useful agent if she could only be made to see the light. Slade held out some small hope for her conversion. After all, such things were not without precedent.

  This latest turn of events was not even a setback. Not really. It was only the latest twist of fate. The world forced a man to adapt or it destroyed him; there were no other possibilities. Slade had been adapting to changing circumstances for quite some time.

  He had no intention of relenting anytime soon.

  Each step caused a flare of pain in his right leg, but the wound was healing. His doctors told him that the wound was healing; so it must be true even if the pain signals that flew through his nervous system said otherwise.

  Harry hobbled across the patio in gray pants and a brown coat, hunched over and grunting his displeasure. “I feel like an old man,” he said, shaking his head. “And can I just say that I object to someone else using my barbecue.”

  Just past the edge of his patio, an old wooden picnic table stood in the grass, and beyond that, he saw the wooden slats of his back fence under an overcast sky. The harsh sounds of a jackhammer echoed in the distance. It seemed the crews had resumed work on the new high school.

  Jack sat at the table in jeans and a thick gray sweater, turned so Harry saw him in profile. “You'll be fine in a week or so,” he said, glancing over his shoulder. “And if you think that's bad, maybe you'd like to try living without hands.”

  Harry smiled, closing his eyes tight. “Point taken,” he said with a curt nod. “But I still object to somebody else operating my grill. It just doesn't feel right to let a guest do the cooking.”

  “Sit down,” Jack replied. “I'll get you a burger.”

  The kid got up and made his way over to the barbecue where Anna stood inspecting her work. Seeing them together actually brightened Harry's spirits. It reminded him of the good old days.

  Lenai was very much as he remembered her, dressed in blue jeans and a sweatshirt that she left unzipped, her blonde hair tied up in a ponytail. She was more of a strawberry blonde now, but still Lenai.

  The others were present as well.

  Gabrina Valtez stood at the patio door in a pair of black pants and a dark red blouse, her hair left to tumble over her shoulders. She was speaking with a young man Harry barely knew, some other intelligence agent.

  With a beer bottle in hand, Tanaben Lorani smiled and shook his head. “Wait, are you telling me he just stood there?” the man exclaimed. “He just stood there and let you walk out of the room?”

  Gabrina nodded.

  Catching fragments of a conversation usually left you wanting to ask for context, but Harry wasn't so sure he wanted to know what that was all about. Maybe it would be best to check on his girlfriend.

  Harry slipped his hands into his pockets, making his way through the grass with his head down. “You know, it's kind of annoying having to limp,” he said, rounding the back of the house. “Think I could borrow that symbiont of yours?”

  Jena stood in the backyard with her arms folded, staring up at the overcast sky. “I'd love to help you out,” she said, eyebrows rising. “But since doing that would actually kill me, it might not be a good idea.”

  “Can't blame a guy for asking.”

  Jena rounded on him, marching through the grass with a big smile on her face. “Sorry, no symbiont for you,” she teased. “But if you have to spend a few days just sitting around the house, I can think of several very nice ways to pass the time.”

  The heat in his cheeks was so intense that Harry had to look away. “I'm sure you can,” he agreed. “But as nice as that sounds, my house tends to get a little crowded.”

  “You could always come up to Station Twelve.”

  Jena seized his face in both hands, then leaned in to give him a soft kiss on the lips. “Did anyone ever tell you you're a very sexy man?” she asked. That left him feeling just a little bit awkward. He appreciated the gesture, but he wasn't sure how to behave in light of the fact that his new colleagues were right around the corner.

  “They're ready!” Lenai called out.

  It occurred to him that he was going to have to start thinking of her as 'Anna.' She was his friend, after all. Or at least, she wanted to be his friend. The other day, she had paid him a visit to keep him company. Turns out a cop – or a Keeper in this case – could have a few interesting adventures out there among the stars. He wondered if he'd ever go himself one day.

  Around the corner, he found the others sitting at the picnic table with Jack and Ben on one side, Anna and Gabi on the other. Harry took a seat next to the young dark-haired woman. “Detective,” she said.

  Harry smiled into his lap and forced a chuckle. “That's not my title anymore,” he said, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. “From now on, I'm a… a… Jack, what's my title now?”

  The kid frowned at him, squinting as though he expected to find some very tiny print on Harry's forehead. “I don't know,” he said, shaking his head. “But you screwed up the whole sixth-grade dance vibe we had going here.”

  “Huh?”

  Jack gestured to Harry's side of the table. “Guys on one side, girls on the other,” he said. “You totally killed my nostalgia vibe. I was about to put on Stairway to Heaven and hide by the wall for six awkward minutes.”

  “Yeah, it's official,” Anna said.

  She held a burger in both hands, lifting it slowly to take a bite. “You're the Ross,” she said with her mouth full. “You are so totally the Ross of this group. Congratulations on your fine achievement.”

  Jack flinched, his face turning several shades of crimson. He looked away to hide his shame. “I am not the Ross!” he insisted. “If anybody, I'm the Chandler of this group. You know. Quick quips!”

  “Harry,” Anna said. “As the only other person here who knows what we're talking about, you wanna chime in?” She leaned over the table to cast a bright beautiful smile in his direction.

  “He's Ross.”

  “Damn it!”

  While they bickered, Ben leaned in over the table with a hand pressed to the side of his mouth. “Do you understand any of this?” he whispered to Gabi. Of course, she replied with a firm shake of her head.

  “So what does that make you?” Jack asked with a glare that could have melted the polar ice caps. “If I'm Ross, are you supposed to be Rachel?”

  Pressing her lips together, Anna looked up to blink at the cloudy sky. “Well, isn't it obvious?” she asked, eyebrows rising. “I mean, if you think abo
ut it, you have to realize that I'm the Phoebe.”

  So they laughed, and they talked, and they found amusement in Jack and Anna's playful bickering. As the afternoon wore on, Harry realized that this was the first time in a very long while that he had felt like he was part of a team. He still had his kids, his ex-wife and the looming threat of whatever strange piece of alien tech would find its way into his city next week, but for now…

  For now, he let himself believe that everything would be all right.

  Dear reader,

  We hope you enjoyed reading Friction. Please take a moment to leave a review in Amazon, even if it's a short one. Your opinion is important to us.

  The story continues in Entanglement. Click here to read the first chapter for free.

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  R.S. Penney and the Next Chapter Team

  Contact the Author

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  E-mail me at keeperssaga@gmail.com

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  Questions, comments and theories are welcome.

  Books by the Author

  Symbiosis (Justice Keepers Saga I)

  Friction (Justice Keepers Saga II)

  Entanglement (Justice Keepers Saga III)

  Relativity (Justice Keepers Saga IV)

  Evolution (Justice Keepers Saga V)

  Dirty Mirror (Justice Keepers Saga VI)

  Severed Bonds (Justice Keepers Saga VII)

  Dark Designs

  Desa Kincaid: Bounty Hunter