by Randal Sloan
Because of all that, the Sarge had deliberately taken the young recruit to task over some small thing, so he could be out near the target range this evening. Nodding at the young man as he passed, he continued working with the recruit. He could swear he heard a lot of automatic fire, even though he hadn’t seen the boy carrying anything that looked like a full automatic. Nevertheless, he waited patiently until he saw the boy exit from the shooting range. Instructing the recruit to move out of sight, he waited until the young man passed by again. The Sarge gathered his charge to assist him. In the old days he would have done this alone, but his leg was hurting him tonight so he had brought the recruit along to do his legwork.
As they walked to the shooting range, the recruit talked about what he had heard happened that morning. Some ultra rich teenage girl had bought the mercenary school and had fired the colonel on a phone call from the same young man they were spying on. Of course, the kid exaggerated the details, but the core of the story was true as best the Sarge could determine. The part that neither the kid nor the young man in question knew was that not all of the students were happy about that, because the Colonel had had his favorites and they had gotten special treatment. With the previous second now in charge, all of that was gone. The Sarge knew that he was going to have to watch them.
Instructing the recruit to retrieve all of the targets from the trash, he awaited the results. When he laid them out in front of him, they both stared in total disbelief. Every target was hit exactly in the center of the bullseye. Even the first target which was used to test multiple shots had exactly one hole in it. The sniper targets were all the same way, with one exception, probably due to a scope mis-alignment. When they checked the targets from the obstacle course, every bad guy had one shot exactly between the eyes and not a single civilian was touched.
Now understanding why Zeke had demanded exclusive access to the shooting range, the Sarge felt a little bad about spying. He told the kid that he had heard that the young Lieutenant had been testing special equipment. Of course, he knew that was bullock because he had checked Zeke’s weapons out beforehand. But the kid appeared to believe him. He immediately put the fear of God into the youngster, telling him not to tell a word about it. Looking the kid in the eyes, he told him he would skin him alive if he even had an idea that it had gotten out. The kid believed him because he saw the fear in his eyes. Good, he still had it.
#
Walking back from the shooting range, Zeke called Julie and told her, “I am now ready to challenge you to a shooting contest. I nailed it one hundred percent at the shooting range.”
“Good for you,” she told him. “And then we will go for knives.”
Remembering the two assassins with the knives in their eyes, Zeke shuddered and respectfully declined her challenge. He then told her about his experience with the Sarge when they were practicing self-defense. “I think he knows I was holding back and that I threw the fight.”
“Why don’t you see if he is willing to spend some alone time instructing you. You don’t get to be an old sergeant without some common sense. I’m sure you’re right, without a doubt he knows, but he doesn’t know why and won’t act without a reason. But he could be a big help to you, and then you can teach it to me. I bet he fights dirty too. Someday that may mean the difference to one or the other of us if we know his dirty tricks.”
“I already saw one. Hey, I wonder if I can send the moves to you mentally. Hold on a minute, let me get in a spot where I can’t be seen.” Slipping behind a building, Zeke concentrated, walking through the move he had seen the Sarge do, trying to send it to Julie.
“Wow, I did get that. That is a dirty trick. You, love, are better at sending stuff than I am. I’m going to have to practice.”
“Finally, one thing I am better at than you. Well, I had better get inside. It’s lights out in a few minutes, PT at five am.”
“Have fun,” Julie told him with a smile. PT, “Physical Training” but called “Pain and Torture” by most military students, was the one thing she really didn’t miss from her days at the Space Academy as Miranda, even if she had excelled at it after a lot of hard work. Now Mama Kash’s way, that was fun. When Zeke disconnected the call, she went through some of Mama Kash’s training in her office, needing a distraction for a few moments. When Zeke got back, she should show it to him. It would be a dance they could share together.
#
The next morning did indeed start early, but Zeke didn’t mind except he missed his coffee. Thanks to Julie, he was addicted to it now. At least the swill they had in the canteen was warm, but that was all that it had going for it. PT was not fun but to him it was easy. He breezed through the classes, this time managing to not get called on for daydreaming. A couple of times some of the group he had decided were trouble managed to “accidentally” run into him. He avoided full contact with them, knowing they were just looking to cause trouble.
When they went to the self-defense class, Zeke concentrated on learning the moves and staying in the background. A couple of times he saw the Sarge watching and he decided Julie was right. But he didn’t get a chance to talk to him before the class ended.
They were supposed to study that evening, but Zeke sensed something was up. He wasn’t surprised when they were called out for a late evening exercise, but he was not happy when one of the guys from the group he had been watching was put in charge. The final straw was when Zeke was sent on a “mission” away from the rest of the students. He knew that they were up to something. So he was ready when several of them surrounded him, including the big guy Olson that he knew was the ringleader of the bunch.
“You’ve given us a lot of trouble. Now we are going to give you some trouble,” Olson told him.
“You don’t want to do this,” Zeke tried to warn them. He knew he could defend himself, but he also knew he didn’t have the control he would need to keep from hurting them. Julie had taken several weeks to get to that point and he had had only a couple, even with their connection helping his nanites.
“Yeah, well your girlfriend is not here to protect you this time. You two should have left everything alone. This was a good gig before you messed it up.”
“She’s my fiancée, not my girlfriend, and if she was here you would be better off. You don’t understand. You try to do this, I won’t be able to hold back.”
The idiot just laughed. He pointed to his companions. “Enough talk. Get him.”
Two of them started forward, planning to move to either side of him. To Zeke, it was like they were moving in slow motion. Zeke didn’t wait for them to get there. He faked to the right and then without hesitation, he delivered a kick to the knee of the man on the left. Hearing the crack, he knew the kneecap was broken and that he wouldn’t be bothered by him. He spun back to the other guy and gave him the same combination he had used on the Sarge, only this man didn’t manage to block even the first one and fell to his knees. Zeke finished him with a kick to the head. Zeke quickly dispatched the other two similarly. That meant that he was only left with the big guy, who was totally enraged by this time. He rushed toward Zeke, planning to crush him in a bear hug. To Zeke, the man was still moving slowly, so he simply sidestepped his rush, giving him a kick in the back, knocking him to the ground.
Knowing that wouldn’t be enough to stop the big man, Zeke waited for him to get up. But the man drew a knife, causing Zeke to realize he should have just finished him. The man was slashing wildly, but Zeke easily dodged the first couple of slashes. He then delivered a savage blow to the man’s wrist, breaking it, and causing him to drop the knife. Before he could react other than grasp his wrist, Zeke finished him off with a uppercut to the face, crushing his nose bones and slamming him backwards to crash to the ground unmoving.
All of the men down, Zeke came back to normal time. Only a few seconds had passed. He could hear Julie screaming in his head, obviously having picked up on his mental distress. He finally was able to concentrate enough to answer her.
“It’s ok, love. I was just attacked by big ugly and his friends, and I had to hurt some of them badly. But I’m fine. Better call for emergency personnel, the big guy may not make it. He pulled a knife on me and I had to take him out fast.”
“I’m on my way,” Julie told him. “And don’t even think about arguing with me.”
“I won’t. This is going to hit me in a few minutes and I’m going to fall apart. I think I’m going to need your touch to settle me back down.”
Hearing a sound, Zeke turned around to see Sergeant Orick come running up. Almost out of breath and limping, the Sarge told him, “I saw most of it and I know it was all self-defense. But I have never seen anything like that. Who or what are you?”
“I will tell you later, but I need your help. I want to tell them that this was the two of us, that you arrived and tried to stop them, but it was too late and you helped me. I really need to keep my abilities under cover.”
The Sarge nodded, but looked at him intently, “Ok, but I’m going to need some assurances that you are going to explain this to me.”
“I tried to tell them. This is the reason I’m here. I know how to do all this, but I’m still learning to control it. With the five of them, there wasn’t any choice but to go all out and end it quickly.”
“I would have done the same thing.” The Sarge gave him a grim smile. “Just not as efficiently.”
Their conversation was interrupted as emergency personnel arrived. The Sarge directed them to work on the men, especially the big guy, who obviously would require surgery. He was the first they loaded up, but they assured the Sarge that he would survive. Turning to Zeke, Sergeant Orick said, “We best go to HQ and wait there until all this can be worked out.”
Zeke almost smiled. Any other time it would have been funny. “Yeah, we are just getting started. My fiancée is on her way, and if you think I’m bad, you just wait until she gets here.”
The Sarge gave him a look at that, but he didn’t argue, simply leading the way back to the headquarters building. Zeke and the Sarge waited in the conference room there, talking with Major McPherson and a couple of his security detail. The Major was demanding answers, but Zeke was happy that the Sarge went along with Zeke’s request. Luckily, they were able to satisfy him without going into great detail. It wasn’t very long before the Major received a VR call, stepping out of the room to handle it. When he came back in, he told them, “Our new owner is on her way, and she is furious. None of us may have a job after this is done.” Zeke gave the Sarge a glance, and for the first time saw him get a little nervous. He couldn’t help but smile at that. The Sarge saw his smile and sweated even more.
#
Julie must have set a record time with the X-plane. He wondered if she had taken over the controls. Because it was well less than an hour when she arrived with her mercenary team accompanying her. They were also armed to the teeth.
Zeke rushed to her arms. He could feel her shaking. “I’m fine,” he told her. “Really. Not a scratch, see!” He held his arms up. Turning to the others, “Major McPherson, Sergeant Orick, meet my fiancée, Julie Randolph, CEO of Space Tech and also, bad for you, your new owner.” Zeke released her and moved out of the way. This was going to be interesting.
Julie faced them, fire in her eyes. “So who wants to tell me how you guys let this happen. You better be glad Zeke wasn’t hurt. You don’t want to know what I am capable of doing.”
The Sarge finally spoke up. “I take full responsibility, ma’am. I knew those guys were trouble, and I just screwed up. I almost got there in time, but I didn’t.”
Julie looked at him and her face softened a little. “Yeah, you screwed up, Sarge, but it wasn’t your fault. Those guys shouldn’t have been there to start with, but the school doesn’t have good enough controls in place to prevent this.”
Turning to the newly appointed commander, Julie told him. “I’m shutting this place down for a month. I know it’s not really your fault either. You haven’t had time to fix this kind of stuff. I want you to tell me what controls you need put in place and what else you need to make it happen. Money is no object if that’s what you need. Hire whoever it takes. But it’d better be right when it’s done.”
“My fiancé and I are going to go talk awhile, so I can get it through to my heart that he is alright. You guys better wait here until I get back.”
Zeke knew she still needed to feel him up close, so he followed her out. She saw him turn and whisper to the sergeant just before he left, “I told you,” and that brought a little smile to her face.
“What would you have done if it had been me?” she asked Zeke as soon as they were alone. Julie actually thought she had handled it pretty well.
“Exactly the same thing, more or less. I’m not sure I would be as much in control as you are now.” Zeke had his own memories of when Julie had been in danger. He knew for a fact he wouldn’t have been able to handle it.
Julie finally gave him a real smile. “Only because you’re here in front of me and ok. But I can tell you right now, no way you’re staying here tonight. Do you want to come back tomorrow?”
“Only to work out with the Sarge if he agrees to it.”
“Hold me a minute then, and we will go back and see. And then you’re not leaving my sight the rest of the night.”
#
Julie and Zeke spent several minutes together before they finally went back inside. In between, the mercenary team had arranged for them to stay in the VIP guest quarters, really a house that the school had purchased just outside the campus. The sergeant easily agreed to teach him if Zeke promised not to kill him. They also decided to let the remaining students finish the week, but Julie arranged for a second mercenary team to come in the next morning as a little insurance.
The two spent the night at the cottage, with the mercenary team camped outside, acting as their security team. They actually stayed the whole time huddled together on a large couch in the main guest room in the house. Zeke could feel Julie finally calming down. Her calmness spread to him, so that they were finally able to get a little rest.
The next day Zeke and Julie were back early for Zeke’s workout with Sergeant Orick. It would be a change for Julie just to be an onlooker and not a participant. The Sarge had requested that they allow the other students to watch. He thought they should have the opportunity to learn what was possible if they worked hard enough. After some discussion, Julie and Zeke agreed.
Arriving in the gym reserved for the workout, Zeke met the Sarge, who was waiting in the sparring area. Since it was an informal session, Julie would call out the points when they were achieved, but they wouldn’t keep up with the points like they would in a competition.
Smiling, Zeke bowed to the Sarge and told him, “Sarge, I need you not to hold anything back today. I am here to learn, just like I told you before.”
Sergeant Orick laughed. “After what I saw last night, no way would I try to hold back with you. Just remember, you promised not to kill me.”
The two warmed up, and then with a slight bow to each other, they went at it. At first Zeke was mainly concentrating on keeping everything at about half speed and blocking so he could get more familiar with the Sarge and learn his moves. He quickly spotted a couple of apparent weaknesses in the Sarge’s motion, but he knew an old sergeant without a doubt would never show such obvious weakness. So he recognized that it had to be a trap. But that was sometimes how one had to learn. Zeke nodded to him, and then attacked, pretending to take advantage of the feigned weakness. He was ready and easily adapted to the trap the sergeant had waiting for him when he took the opening. If he had been just a little slower reacting, he would not have been able to block. Both men stepped out for a moment, to signal a pause in the match.
When they stepped back in, Zeke went back on attack, but this time he ignored the “hook” that was the trap and did it all the hard way, constantly working against the sergeant’s defenses until he saw a real opening, and got his attack thro
ugh to score a point. They continued for several minutes until the sergeant used another of his moves that would be illegal in competition, allowing him to get a partial hit in on Zeke. That triggered another of the full speed automatic responses from Zeke that sent the Sarge back across the floor.
“That’s enough,” Sergeant Orick said as soon as he could get to his feet. Thanking the students for coming, he sent them on to their next class.
Once the students were gone, Sergeant Orick turned to Julie, asking her, “How about you and Zeke spar together? Just us and no one else here. I’ve seen the VR of the girl in Kinza and I know it’s you. She doesn’t look like you, but you are her. I can see it in the way you move. The two of you sparring has to be something to see.”
Looking at Zeke and seeing his smile, Julie agreed. “Believe it or not, we have never sparred together. I think it would be fun to try. But Sarge, you are going to show me that VR video when we are done.”
Turning to Zeke, Julie said, “I don’t know what will happen when we try this. Let’s start slow and see what happens. I know I can’t let myself hurt you, and I know you feel the same. And we are only doing it for fun, but I think we can both learn something from it.”
Zeke liked the idea. He had been wondering himself how much he could do. “Looking forward to the dance now that I know enough of this to be able to dance with you.”
Julie warmed up and then nodded to Zeke. When they began, it really was a dance. The Sarge was absolutely amazed watching, and that was just when they were going slow. At some point the two went to full on. He couldn’t even see all their moves, they were so fast. They were completely in sync with each other as if each one already knew the other’s moves and was already there with the response. The Sarge knew he would never see anything like this again in his life, but he decided that he needed to leave them alone, because he had sensed that this had become very personal between the two of them. Like a special dance that a couple would have alone. So he slipped out the door, closing it softly behind him.