by TR Cameron
Sirenno added, “I think pity dating is the most likely reason. Or, you’re simply so bored from the lack of options at the Academy that Jax, for some insane, incomprehensible reason, looks good to you. Let me tell you; you can do better.”
Marshall offered, “If you want to date someone other than him, for the sake of comparison, I’m certainly willing to take you out to dinner.” Verrand and Sirenno echoed the offer.
Kimmel, who carried a not-so-secret torch for Cia, bobbed his head. “I’m sure that Cia or Trianna can find you someone better, or at least someone whose, uh, intellectual abilities are at least as fully developed as their physical capabilities.”
Juno laughed with a broad smile but didn’t reply. Jax said, “You all wound me. Deeply. If you weren’t so predictable, I might even be hurt. Now, go rest or do whatever the hell it is you people do with your free time. Juno and I have some training to do.”
Verrand lifted an eyebrow. “That’s what you’re calling it nowadays?”
Sirenno said, “Aha. That explains it. It’s not pity, so much as she saw how deficient he is and feels the need to help him improve his courtship skills and such. Definitely an appropriate doctor move.” Jax didn’t reply, only waved at Juno, and led her into the training area in the back.
When they arrived and were finally alone, he said, “So, it seems like pity is the consensus.”
She shook her head. “I’ll never tell.”
“You, too? The universe is such a cruel, cruel place.” He shook his head and dropped out of flirty mode. “I don’t think it’s likely that we’ll find ourselves in any fights, at least not if we do our jobs right. If combat does occur, your main plan should be to get to the back and let the overly physical people like me, Marshall, and Verrand handle it. But, I thought we could go through some simple locks, blocks, and escapes in case.”
She nodded. “I have some martial arts experience, but certainly nothing like what you all have.”
“Any foundation is better than no foundation, generally speaking. So, let me see you deliver a punch with your dominant arm.” He stepped into a back stance, and she did the same before advancing and throwing a slow cross with her right hand. Jax lifted his left arm and intercepted it. “Okay, now watch this.” He slid his block down to grab her wrist, then twisted it and brought it across his body, which forced her to bend over from the pain of the locked-out joint. He did it slowly enough that it was neither damaging nor particularly painful. “What do you do?”
Juno pivoted on her front foot and tried a back kick with her left. Jax circled out of the way and maintained the lock. “Good instinct, but won’t work. Once I have you like this, you’re pretty much toast. Let’s go back and try it again.” They repeated the punch and block, and this time as he grabbed her wrist, he instructed, “Now, strike my hold away with your left fist before I can establish it.”
She correctly delivered a blow with the bottom of her fist, not the knuckles, and forced him to release his grip. He nodded. “Good. Good work. Now, same thing with the other side.”
They practiced it several times, then Juno observed, “Your right arm is faster.”
Jax, always cool and suave, replied, “Huh?”
She laughed. “The new prosthetic is faster than the old one. That makes sense, as the muscle fibers are more advanced. But it also suggests Athena is as fully integrated with the new limb as with the other.”
Jax spoke out loud. “Athena, is that true?”
The voice in his head replied, “It is. I’m now fully connected and am learning how best to complement your movements. Sometimes it’s a little extra speed, and sometimes it’s assistance with aim. But all our efforts so far have shown that we’re better working together than you are working alone.”
“Athena agrees with you and says we’re more than the sum of our parts.”
Juno laughed. “Interesting way to put it, but yes, that sounds right. Do you have any negative side effects, physical or mental?”
“None that I’m aware of, although I could’ve used a longer rehabilitation time under the direct care of a doctor, I think. Perhaps once this is all over, we can rectify that on a resort planet. I’ve been to one, and it was nice. Might be fun to be there for pleasure instead of business. I mean, for health reasons, rather than business.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “So you can streak through the place naked again?”
Jax groaned. “I wasn’t naked, and it was a role I played for the mission.”
“Sure it was. You keep saying that. Also, a little talk therapy might not be a bad thing for you.”
“Okay, whatever, smartass. Let’s get on with the practice.”
Chapter Six
They landed at a spaceport that served several small domed cities and took a train into the one that was the home to Quentin’s parents. Jax dispatched Kimmel and Sirenno to secure a hotel room, and the remainder of the team headed for the city’s main commercial area.
Athena, have you found them?
“They’re still in position at the restaurant.”
Normally he would have devoted more time to watch the pair and find the perfect moment to make his move. But the AI had spotted them on the city’s ubiquitous cameras during their descent, out in the open for an afternoon of shopping. That would’ve made an immediate strike an appealing option in its own right, but when Mr. and Mrs. Foster moved to a local café and took a seat at an outdoor table, the opportunity was far too optimal to pass up. Okay, vector us in.
The café was crowded, with only one outside table still unoccupied. Verrand and Marshall secured it while Juno, Cia, and Jax stayed around a corner a block away. He slipped on his display glasses, and Athena fed him an image of the scene from the nearby cameras. Quentin’s parents were spry and healthy-looking. The data the Academy had pulled indicated they were in their early fifties, which meant they must’ve had their child pretty young. Jax pictured them playing tennis, or on the golf course, or doing some other couples-friendly recreational activity that got them outside and exercising. They seem the type. I wonder if Mars has golf courses? He snuck a glance at Juno and thought, Maybe that’ll be us one day.
Athena snorted. “At the moment our chances of survival aren’t conducive to imagining such a future. Plus, there’s no way this relationship is going to work out. She’s too smart for you.”
Hush. Since we’re symbiotes and all, how about you make me smarter, then?
“Impossible. You lack the raw potential.”
He shook his head in defeat and focused on the image again. The couple was eating, and each had a pair of beverages, one positioned above and to each side of their plates. Their original plan had been to shoot dissolvable capsules at them with the small air pistol hidden in Jax’s pocket. But the situation that presented itself now offered different, more precise possibilities.
He said, “How about this? Cia goes up and creates a scene with Verrand and Marshall, and we use the distraction to spike their drinks.”
Juno nodded. “Jilted lover. An affair, I think.”
Cia laughed softly. “With which one?”
He grinned. “Your choice. Whoever will make it more dramatic.”
She tapped a finger against her chin thoughtfully. “Marshall, I think. I don’t want to mess up Verrand’s pretty face by punching it.”
On the camera that showed the café, Maria Verrand smiled, and Kenton Marshall gave a small scowl. Jax hadn’t been concerned about anyone hacking their comms here, so everyone wore a transparent earpiece connected to their wrist devices so they could hear the rest. Jax added, “Juno and I can be lovers out for a stroll.”
The woman in question raised an eyebrow. “Oh, you think, do you?” Her tone was just frosty enough to almost be real, and it drew a laugh from Jax and Cia and smiles from the others. “I don’t have a better plan, though, so we’ll hope everyone understands that I’m with you out of pity.”
Jax shook his head and put a palm over his heart while mouthi
ng the word “Ouch.” Then he tapped Cia on the shoulder. “No time like the present.”
She wandered around the corner and walked down the street while idly peering into the windows of the stores on the right. The moment when she supposedly spotted her alleged partner in the romantic triangle was obvious. Her body stiffened, she paused for a second, then strode forward with growing agitation. Jax commented, “Our turn,” and offered Juno his arm. She linked her left through it, the two tiny capsules that would dissolve when they touched liquid palmed in the other. Fortunately, Juno and Athena had planned for several possibilities, so they already had the liquid version of the capsules in addition to the gun’s ammunition. It was a given that the doctor had the best hands for the operation, so she’d be the one to deploy the drug.
Jax increased their pace a little as the pilot reached the table and screamed, “You bastard!” She smacked Marshall with an open hand that dumped him onto the pavement, his chair tipping over to one side. A little overacting, but whatever works. Every head turned, and every eye locked on the unfolding drama. Cia stood over him and shouted about how he said he was leaving his wife, all the promises he’d made, and what about the baby?
Jax kept a steady pace as he guided Juno past Quentin’s parents, who both stared at the scene. Marshall had fallen inward toward the restaurant, drawing everyone’s gaze away from their path near the street, and it was a simple matter for Juno to drop the small pellets into the Fosters’ glasses. They continued walking as they blatantly looked at the commotion with disdainful expressions and loudly discussed the weirdos yelling at each other. Verrand rose to her feet, then shouted and pointed at both Cia and Marshall, the latter still sprawled on the ground under the continuing barrage of insults from the pilot. Finally, Cia quit yelling, and Jax’s display showed her following them down the block. They turned the corner and waited, and she joined them with a grin.
Athena noted, “The restaurant called the authorities. We should move.” Verrand had prepaid, as they always did when in the field, so the duo could leave the table without a problem, still shouting at one another as they headed in different directions.
Jax grinned at the sight. “A success. A definite success. Let’s get to the hotel.”
It was Juno’s turn to steer as they made their way to their home base on the planet. Jax kept his eyes glued to the view of the outside of the café. The parents had gone back to their meals and shook their heads as they talked. Each of them drank from the spiked glasses several times. He narrated the scene to the others, including the ones waiting at the hotel, as they walked. After about ten minutes, as the Fosters lingered over coffee, the man suddenly put a hand on his chest and went pale. A waiter bustled over immediately and lifted his fingers to the headset he wore. Athena said, “Medics have been called.”
Jax shared that information with the rest, and Juno nodded in satisfaction at the quick response. He said, “Good, we don’t have to make the call ourselves. One less thread leading back to us.” Although they were all confident Athena could effectively spoof the call, it was always better not to need the tricks, for fear that some random chance would intervene to their detriment. The woman reacted to the drug moment later as she also grabbed her chest and slumped in her chair. The waiter knelt beside her and held her steady, and the medics arrived shortly after.
When he shared the information, Juno observed, “Good response time.”
Athena said, “I called in a fake report to draw them near beforehand.”
Jax frowned. Are you sure that was smart? Or, do you think that was smart to do without informing the rest of us?
“The risk was minimal, the reward high, and I consider it my job to improve our chances where I can. Besides, you were busy with your end of the operation.”
We’re going to talk about this.
“No, we’re not. Because when you think about it, you’ll realize that if you had thought of it first, you would’ve asked me to do it.” Jax blinked in surprise as the AI continued, “The medics are taking them in. They called ahead for a team of doctors to be waiting.”
Jax said, “Okay people, they’re on the way to the hospital, which means Phase One is complete. Let’s get to the hotel and work on Phase Two.”
By the time the team had checked into their rooms, the call had gone out from the hospital to Quentin. He’d said he would be there within a day, and they’d told him to hurry. Everything was going exactly to plan.
They’d split up for a while, Jax taking the opportunity to rest while he could, then met as duos and trios for a meal in the hotel’s restaurant, making sure not to arrive or leave at the same time. Their cover was as competitors for a business contract who were in town to visit a corporation. The meetings were already scheduled, and as before, other Academy students or staff would show up for them if his team was unavailable. If everything went right, they’d be off-planet before it happened.
Now, they were gathered in his mini-suite to plan for the next day’s operation. He’d gotten the largest room available, which featured the separate living area that held couches, chairs, and a small table, all of them currently occupied by him and his team. Athena had confirmed that their target’s parents were stable but still critical, as they’d expected. Jax remarked, “That’s some impressive stuff you came up with, Juno.”
She nodded. “I couldn’t have done it without Athena. She has a lot of useful information stored away.”
Athena, who had taken over the room’s screen to display her avatar after ensuring all the interior surveillance was nullified, replied, “Nor I without you, Dr. Cray. Once again, we’re greater than the sum of our parts.”
Jax requested, “Athena, bring us up to speed.”
Her representation, which wore her blonde hair short today and had on a silver necklace and what looked like the lapels of a suit covering her shoulders, nodded. “Our target has checked in twice already. The communications are encoded and routed through multiple systems, so I can’t locate him, but he says he will arrive tomorrow morning.”
Cia whistled. “Either he wasn’t very far away, or he has a seriously fast ship.”
Kimmel shrugged. “We’re probably lucky he wasn’t already on Mars when the call went out.”
Jax growled, “The inability to know where the hell Arlox is at any given moment is a source of great frustration to me.” The others laughed and confirmed that it was to them, as well.
Athena continued, “In any case, we have confirmation that he’s on the way. I’ve located the Intelligence Division agents present in this city. According to the Academy’s information, there are only two, and I have surveillance on them through the city’s systems. Both are currently at home.”
Jax said, “I think it’s safe to assume that one or both of them will be our boy’s handler tomorrow. Pick him up, take him to the hospital, keep an eye on him, that sort of thing. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Sirenno cracked his knuckles. “Now, I wouldn’t mind putting the beatdown on them, assuming that they’re not also senior citizens.”
Verrand replied, “I’m in as well, but knocking them around does seem a little less than subtle.”
Jax nodded. “We have a couple of different options. First, Kimmel here can try, along with Athena, to provide some misinformation that suggests he’s arriving later than he should. That would be the simplest solution, and probably the least easily traced back to us.”
Cia frowned. “Why Ethan? Can’t Athena handle that herself?”
Jax smothered the grin that wanted to reach his lips. I guess maybe that torch goes in both directions. Athena explained, “It’s likely that given the encryption on their comms, any attempt to send misinformation will need to happen from short range.”
Kimmel nodded. “Basically, we can’t get through on the main line, but all comms, even ours, have a near field connection. I might be able to lock onto that. If I can, Athena can use my comm as a repeater to do the work.”
&nbs
p; Jax added, “Before you ask, no, Athena can’t be the local one. I need to be there for our move against Quentin.”
Cia frowned. “And if the misdirection isn’t successful?”
“I’m pretty sure this is when the whole ‘being part of a team’ thing becomes valuable. Who has a plan?”
Marshall said, “Well, Arlox already knows the Academy is onto him, and Mars is pretty close to Earth. What if Cia, Sirenno, Verrand, and I make ourselves obvious? Those two post outside the agents’ homes so they notice they’re being watched, and Cia and I go to the next town over and do the same with the agents there. That should keep them inside, at least long enough to call back for instructions, which should be plenty of time for us to make our move. Worst case, we neutralize their vehicles if they try to head out.”
Jax drummed his fingers on the table he shared with Cia and Kimmel. The others had scattered around the living room on the couches and comfortable chairs. “I don’t love it, but I also don’t have a better option. At least with a visible presence in more than one city, it might leave some uncertainty about what’s going on. Any arguments against?”
None were forthcoming, so Jax announced, “It’s done, then. Everyone have a good night’s sleep, except for Cia and Kenton, who will head on over to Tramal and settle in there. Athena, please contact the Academy and have them book rooms and a cover story.”
The avatar nodded. “On it.”
Jax smiled. “Okay, all of you get out of my room. No carousing or spending the night on the town. We need to be ready to go first thing in the morning, in case we discover that our boy Quentin has some surprises up his sleeve.”
Chapter Seven
Jax had realized shortly after they’d broken up the night before that he would need another person for the pickup in case something went wrong, and Cia was the one he trusted most. That left Trianna to go along with Marshall in her place. Jax had fallen asleep laughing about the notion that they’d pass the entire trip in silence. Athena, of course, had suggested that since the other man wasn’t nearly as big an idiot as Jax, that their backup pilot would probably enjoy talking with him.