Theodore

by Marcus LaGrone

  Any confusion amongst the strike team was short lived as the rest of the gunmen were quickly and expertly subdued. The only immediate consternation of Theodore's action was they found they could not break the seemingly wooden arrow. With a bit of a grin they just yanked the man off the wall, pulling the arrow clean through his hand and shoulder.

  “Toni! Watch your damned six next time!” screamed Alicia as she bound the wounded man's arms tightly. Only after searching him for more weapons did she start to address the man's wounds.

  “Turpin bolted,” blurted Jax. “He was in the elevator coming up when we rushed the place.”

  Patricia was beyond irate, “I was told the nest was full! Jax, you with me!”

  “Cops say he's in the parking garage.”

  Patricia screamed and ranted as she reversed and ran back to the edge of the balcony and looked over the side. “Don't fail me now little brother...” She pulled out her binoculars as she cued her com link, “John, we need everything you got on that car!”

  “Understood, we'll do what we can. It's coming into the clear: Brixton V, black with silver trim.”

  She snarled as they all watched the vehicle in question appear from beneath them and pull out onto the road. “Jax, can you get a shot off? Don't care if you wing him, just don't put the car into a crowd or anything...”

  Theodore didn't catch any of the rest of the conversation, he was too far away. And falling. Fast. He had never dropped his armor all the way and that was a good thing. He had been nervous about a hundred and fifty meter drop just minutes earlier, and now here he was on a three hundred and fifty meter plunge without a second thought in his mind. There was one odd thought: gravity was too slow. He should have jumped earlier. On the positive side was the fact he'd land behind the fleeing car and not have to risk being rammed on the heels of recovering from his fall.

  Theodore snarled as he looked up from the smashed pavement. The black luxury car was pulling away at high speed and was a repulsar lift car: no wheels or tires to shoot out. That didn't mean he didn't have a clear shot at the man inside. No, they needed to take him alive... time to trash the repuslar coils.

  Three arrows in blindingly fast repetition struck home along the thin edge of the car on the left hand side. The fields collapsed almost immediately and the car lurched as the left side quickly struck the ground. The car pivoted and then flipped, crashing down on its roof, pinning its occupant.

  Theodore just stood in the street and growled, growled something truly primeval and hateful as all around him the men and women of the Sheriff’s department quickly closed and secured their prey. “College student to crazy lady, I need a lift back to the dorms. I have class tomorrow,” barked Theodore over the comlink.

  39

  “Can't have enough of the news?”

  “Nope, living in the lime light, he is.”

  Theodore glared as he looked up from bed at the d'Evelston twins. “What are you two doing here?”

  “Malice! Malice in his voice, you hear that?”

  “Malice indeed, and ‘ere we are trying to help the poor lad...”

  “Help?” asked Theodore honestly confused.

  “Late for fencing class!”

  “Never happens! Not you, so the coach called us to check on you.”

  Theodore looked at his clock, “Crap! I overslept the alarm! Thanks guys!”

  “Now we get a thanks,” laughed Marcel as Theodore bolted past and into the bathroom.

  Theodore was still soaking wet from his shower as he ran into his fencing class. He struggled to put on his vest over his wet shirt and fur as the coach came over and just laughed.

  “Hey, you had a busy night out. You can sit out today if you need the rest. I was just worried about you. I didn't mean for you to get bent out of sorts.”

  Theodore nodded his thanks as he collapsed into a chair. “If I can give today a miss...”

  His coach laughed again, “No problem! Just make sure you tail is all combed for your next classes. 'Tail combed,' that's a good use of it?”

  Theodore let loose a proper laugh, it was always nice when people used Taik or Highland expressions around him. “Yes, sir. Need to comb my tail and get ready for dance class!”

  Theodore survived the rest of the day's classes without any more problems and was actually looking forward to the weekend, maybe even going to the canteen with the d'Evelston twins, and then Patricia showed back up at his door.

  “Oh crap! I am so not interested in any of your little plans!” barked Theodore as he caught her eyes.

  She grinned at Theodore, “And you, young man, never apologized for calling me 'crazy lady' last night.”

  Theodore dramatically swished his tail in front of him before deliberately grabbing it by hand and carefully biting his tail leaving a long tuft sticking out the far side of his mouth. He folded his arms across his chest and just glared at her.

  Patricia laughed, “I take it that is a Taik's way of saying he isn't going to retract his words. Oh... you are so fun to work with. Getting my cultural education!”

  Theodore just glared and didn't budge.

  “Okay, okay. Maybe it was a good description. Honestly 'crazy' was one of the nicer accolades I received this morning.”

  Theodore finally spat out his tail, “Governor mad?”

  Patricia cringed, “Governor, Home Office, Foreign Office, the DSS... all sorts of people. But hey! we got Turpin and we got all of his computers from his suite. Data completely intact and bound over by the warrant. All nice and tidy.”

  Theodore glared again, “I didn't think to ask if you had a warrant... next time I'll be sure to ask.”

  “We petitioned the warrant and served it within thirty seconds,” she grinned. “Too many ears at the courthouses so we pulled a judge downtown and got things squared away.”

  “Courthouse bugged?”

  “Oh definitely! It's a sad joke how many they find every day. Between lawyers, news hounds and organized crime... They get really clever with them, too. But enough of that: Albert Francis Turpin is ours! My only concern is that someone doesn't bump him off.”

  “They'd kill one of their own? I figure he'd be a tough nut to crack...”

  “Very tough! But he's also very screwed! Enough of him... Come on, I'm here to introduce you to the fine people of the DSS. Seems that my little paperwork was brushed aside and the Home Secretary took care of things directly... Shall we then? To the canteen?”

  Theodore laughed; well, he was going to make it to the canteen regardless.

  “Well, not the normal DSS...” she grinned, “seems they pulled a few strings for a combined unit... That way they could work across multiple planets if they needed to... You'll get one familiar face out of the eight at least.”

  Theodore's curiosity was instantly addressed as he stepped out into the hall, “Cadet Burges?”

  Bill Burges' face melted while the others with him let out a short cruel laugh, “I graduated, you furball! It's Lt. Burges now!”

  Theodore grinned as he sat in the canteen with Burges and the rest of the team, “And this is where it all went down about a half a year ago...”

  “And you drank lemonade then, too!” teased Bill.

  “Hang around until nine and you may actually catch me going a round with the d'Evelston twins. It's been a long week!”

  Bill grinned, “Then I think I may stick around, just for that! Tim is the lead for our unit; I'm just the young pup cross training with them. The group is cleared to operate across almost fifty systems. I think I just got brought along as a pretty face.”

  Tim grinned, “And a very good shot, too!” He politely shook hands with Theodore, “Commander Tim Richardson. Our ranks and titles are all messed up: we span too many governments and agencies. The plus side is all of us have been working together for almost five months now. Got the pleasure of watching Bill in action many times: he holds his own on the team.”

  Bill just grinned, “Tim also handles the PR fo
r the group; don't believe a word of it!”

  They all laughed hard at that. “We're an all volunteer group and we work hard and we play hard. As soon as you are taken care of, we'll probably block in with a Shukurae unit for a rotation.”

  Theodore let out a long sigh at that, “Um, you guys may be stuck babysitting until I head back home come summer.”

  Tim laughed, “We all saw your files as well as the insanity last night. I'm not sure if we are babysitting you, or protecting the bad guys from you!”

  Theodore let out a feeble laughed and then sighed, “I can't believe I let Patricia talk me into that...”

  Tim nodded, “Agent Tamilton is quite the character. One of our jobs is to make sure she doesn't invite you along for anything else.”

  Theodore let loose an honest laugh and it felt good, “You won't hear me complaining. I do hope they censored my dialogue before I jumped from the news craft.”

  They all laughed at that. “Actually never heard any of it, but I can guess,” grinned Tim. “If we can be serious a moment, I want to make sure I understand things as they are and then I have a few questions about some various video clips.”

  Theodore squared himself away in his chair; time to be professional, “Go for it.”

  Tim nodded, “Current speculation is the Bella-Shoana got interested in you because some math paper you wrote could tell when casino houses were fixing the tables...”

  Theodore's tail swished, “Okay, that's not quite my understanding... But it does sort of make sense...”

  “That is why we call it 'speculation,'” Tim grinned.

  Theodore grinned back, “Fair enough!”

  “You are engaged to two girls, Anna Westmore, who was plucked off the streets once before and the other is Meagan Rose whose father is Edward Rose of clan Silverglade, formerly of the Shukurae 517th CSOG. Not so worried about Meagan...”

  Theodore nodded, “Her father is quite the serious man. I understand her uncles are too.”

  “You have no idea...” Tim recentered himself, “Things are going well with Anna's mother but not her father, but things with him have seemed to have mellowed. No other objections floating around?”

  “Not a one. Quite the opposite back home: very well received. Getting married this coming summer.” Theodore grinned at Bill Burges.

  “Shut up! I can hear it from here!” laughed Bill.

  Tim grinned, “All-righty then! We have questions about last night and then the various fiascos last spring...”

  “I have a quick question,” interrupted Theodore. “The grenade shot last night, was it just a dud?”

  Bill fielded that one, “Actually, no. Rifle grenades have a minimum distance they go before they arm so the blast doesn't hit the user. He just fired way too close.”

  “Oh! Very practical!”

  “Indeed,” began Tim. “There on the balcony of the penthouse you... you put an arrow through a guy’s weapon and then into a wall. How does that work?”

  “Um, Live Steel... Well...”

  “I know all about Live Steel swords and things,” interrupted Tim. “What's with the arrow thing?”

  Theodore nodded, “First time I did that was last summer. Nocked an arrow and when I fired, I managed to push the arrow back over the realm and it just appeared on target. I was surprised I was able to do it so easily last night. Was kinda hard the first time...”

  “Launching a Live Steel arrow from a Live Steel bow makes sense... but...”

  “But what?” Theodore was confused, the man seemed to get all the basic points, how hard was it to connect the dots?

  “Watch the video... you never invoked a bow!”

  Theodore sat with the group and watched the video over and over again. There was never a bow to be seen. Him in armor turning and then an arrow sparkling into existence right where needed. He was flabbergasted. No bow?

  “I've been around Highland Taiks,” began Tim. “But I've never seen anything like that.”

  “'Focus on the goal, not the method...'” mumbled Theodore absentmindedly.

  “Excuse me?” asked Tim.

  Theodore just shook his head, “I don't know... something my father always kept trying to teach me: focus on what you want to happen and don't worry about the how.”

  Tim nodded, “Well. Apparently you made good study of your father's instruction. The shot on the balcony and then the three on the street below: no bow. Perfect shots, I mean perfect shots... but from what?”

  “I... I don't know... I mean Live Steel obviously but... um...” He was confused... very confused.

  “At the spaceport, your father raised a wall rather than simple armor...” Tim laughed to himself, “'Simple armor' I said! Wheee!!!”

  Theodore let a small smile escape, “My father is probably the best at Live Steel in the village. Probably for miles in any direction.”

  “I've seen only one previous reference to a blue wall like that from a Highlander and that was the aforementioned Edward Rose-Silverglade.”

  “That is so cool! You mean my dad is actually up there with Meagan's dad? Dad never served off planet or anything!”

  “I would not want to sell your old man short!” grinned Tim. “But this is kinda cool to watch...” He fired up his tablet and played back the moment when Aidden threw a hand ax that pierced a metal beam in route to its target.

  “Yeah, that was pretty wild to watch,” grinned Theodore with pride.

  “The interesting part is he invoked it and then threw it,” observed Tim.

  “As opposed to your arrows, that just showed up,” finished Bill.

  “Don't sell yourself short,” grinned Tim. “I think if pushed you may be better than your father!”

  “Our job,” grinned Bill, “is to make sure you never have to find out.”

  Theodore laughed and enjoyed their enthusiasm, “So first and foremost, stay away from Patricia!”

  40

  Theodore grinned at his Monday morning 'shadow' Bill Burges as he left his fencing class and headed towards his dance class. “If you ever want to go a round with the rapier again...”

  Bill laughed, “You kicked my butt last time and it looks like you are getting even better! I think I can do without the humiliation, thank you.”

  “You could always join in on the dance class,” he teased.

  “I can see why Maurice took the class, he does seem to do well with the ladies,” laughed Bill.

  “Actually I thought it was Marcel that took the class...” Theodore laughed, “easy to get those two confused!”

  “So why are you taking dance? You've already got a couple girls lined up...”

  “Ah! But Meagan really likes to dance! Last time out I was tripping over my own tail trying to keep up with her. This is all about practicing timing and rhythm. It's also good aerobic exercise!”

  Bill just laughed, “I'm still trying to find one girl much less trying to make two happy! You've got your work cut out for you... ah crap...”

  Theodore's tail swished nervously, “Hmm?”

  “Campus security cameras are offline... odds of that just being bad luck?” grinned Bill.

  “Low,” frowned Theodore. “What do we do? If someone is getting ready to come sweeping in with a machinegun, dance class is a crappy place to be...”

  “We continue on but we take the 'safest route,'” he grinned back.

  “By that you mean you think we'll be walking into an ambush...”

  “And Tim has our people in place to ambush the ambushers... come on... one way or the other...”

  Theodore nodded nervously as Bill directed him on a protracted and serpentine path towards the next classroom. Visibility was not what he had expected, things were a lot more difficult to thread through, but he finally started to get the point: it wasn't so much that the path was safe for him, but rather fewer bystanders who might get mixed up in the firefight. It seemed that their efforts were going to go down as just another exercise in paranoia when he ears cringed
at the ever so faint tell-tale sound of Live Steel being summoned. The sound came from both in front and behind then at the same time!

  Theodore's own Live Steel armor burst around him, more out of reflex than anything else. But even with his armor out in the open, Bill still shoved Theodore to the side interjecting himself between Theodore and the attacker from behind.

  In the ease of motion born of thousands of repetitions and drills, Bill swung his weapons out from under his otherwise unassuming backpack and fired off a pair of rounds, one at the front target, one at the rear threat. Tangle grenades, but unlike the electrified ones that Patricia's team had used, these grenades suddenly started to ooze a sticky expanding foam along the length of the entangling snares.

  The first target quickly became mired in the grenade, but the second... oh! the second was a far more experienced felon! Two quick cycles of his own Live Steel armor and the sticky tentacles were nothing but a pile of still expanding goo behind him. With his sword glinting in the sun, he was ready to close and take out Bill Burges!

  Bill grinned; he had other ideas. Dropping his spent riot grenade launcher, he shouldered an almost comically small carbine and fired a quick three round burst into the attacking Taik.

  Theodore cringed as he watched Bill's body stress and flex under the recoil of the weapon. Bill was a big man, very big. For him to be under that much stress, that little carbine had to be a monster!

  The Taik fell over backwards from the assault, but his armor held fast. Bill used the pause to spin back to the first attacker, still fighting the foam and the lines, and fired a shot square into the ensnared Taik's head. The Taik's armor shimmered and faded from view as he fell over backwards unconscious... now the foam was clinging to his fur not his armor.... shaving his fur may be in order...