They? It took her a minute.
But then she understood. Sunny held out her hand and placed it tentatively on his shoulder. “Pierce, and your sister?”
“Yeah.” Hunter breathed. He lifted his chin and met her gaze again, raising his eyebrows. “Why do you always surprise me?” His face dropped again. “My parents were so wrapped up in my career development that they missed the warning signs for Lucy’s condition. She could have had surgery that would have saved her.”
“And Pierce?”
“If I hadn’t… if I didn’t lose it, if I didn’t let my emotions get the better of me, I would have followed proper procedure. I wouldn’t have gone rogue, and the other agents could have done the rescue. Instead, I tried to take down the insurgents myself, and they shot Pierce to spite me.”
God, this was sad. “So why did you stay in the unit? Can’t you leave?”
“I’m not good for anything else.”
His words weighed heavy in the air, and Sunny considered them for a long moment. Did he think that he couldn’t have a normal life? Could he have a normal life?
Yes, she decided. His feelings were understandable. But he was surprisingly well adjusted for such a carefully-crafted war weapon. He had an extraordinary amount of empathy, which was probably a curse in the espionage game. He’d been through a lot of trauma, but he hadn’t switched his emotions off.
He was starting to care about her, she could tell. That’s why he was telling her this.
That thought made her brave.
“Hunter, that’s ridiculous. I know I haven’t known you for very long, but you’re not that damaged.” Sunny squeezed his shoulder for emphasis. “I think you know exactly who you are. You have too much heart to be a very good spy.”
It wasn’t what Hunter was expecting. He glanced up to stare at her.
She went on. “I think your big heart is probably hurting you. I think you’re still with the unit as penance. For Pierce and Lucy. You want to follow orders, because you didn’t when you lost Pierce. And you want to be a good agent, because you think you owe it to Lucy’s sacrifice.”
Hunter opened his mouth, his expression thunderous, but Sunny held up her finger to stop him from speaking. “And I think you know exactly what Pierce and Lucy would say about that.”
His eyes narrowed. “You don’t know them. You don’t know anything.”
“Nope, but I’m a pretty good guesser.”
He glared at her.
She stared benignly back.
“You’re just a schoolgirl,” he whispered. “A schoolgirl who doesn’t even answer her phone to debrief after a mission.”
But he didn’t sound angry. Just surprised, and a little resigned.
She smiled, just a little bit. “Let’s change the subject. I’m not going to push my luck. You might be a big softie, but you’re still a trained assassin.”
Hunter smiled back very softly. “Don’t ever forget it.”
She turned her attention back to the brie. They munched on the cheese and crackers for a few minutes in silence, and Hunter boiled his kettle and made them both cups of tea.
“Chamomile?” Sunny said curiously, examining the label on the teabag in her cup. “Why chamomile?”
“It’s supposed to relax you,” he replied. “I’d like for you to try bringing me into your Alternate again. I think going to the cabin was a mistake.” He smiled tightly. “I wasn’t that relaxed out there. I’m far more comfortable here, in my apartment.”
“Amen to that,” Sunny raised her hands in the air. “I love this place. It’s far less spooky, and it has the world’s most comfortable sofa.”
“You love my sofa?”
“It’s the best sofa I’ve encountered so far.” He raised one eyebrow at her. “No, really,” she went on quite seriously, “a comfortable sofa is quite hard to come by; I’m a bit obsessed with it. It baffles me that a piece of furniture that was designed for relaxation could possibly be uncomfortable, but so many of them are. I have a system for rating their comfort levels, based on fabric, width and depth, squashiness, pillow density, all that sort of thing. Your sofa is amazing.”
She expected him to mock her, but he replied softly. “It’s my favourite thing too. It’s very old, but it wasn’t used much. My parents bought it in the seventies, my father had it in his study, but he never sat on it. We weren’t allowed to either, but my sister did anyway. She loved it. She would lie on it when she was very sick, and snuggle into the cushions. I took it with me when I moved out, and I love it just as much as she did.”
She looked down at the counter, touched that he could share such a lovely memory of his sister with her.
Sharing the story of his childhood and Pierce and Lucy wasn’t going to have the effect that he thought it would, Sunny thought with satisfaction. He wanted to scare me off. It’s not going to work.
She gave him a moment, and cleared her throat.
“So you’re going to get comfortable, then we’re going to try this again?”
“Yeah.” Hunter looked like he regretted lowering his guard so much, all at once. He became business-like again. “I also think that we should try holding hands while I meditate so that I’m not distracted when I feel your touch,” he said brusquely.
Holding hands while he meditated. Hell yes, Sunny thought, slightly manically, ignoring his tone.
Out loud, she said: “So you’re not ready to try the drugs yet?”
“That’s our last resort,” he said, as he leaned on the counter with both elbows, propping up his head in his hands. The tight knot of muscle at his biceps bounced out, distracting her.
She averted her eyes. “I think I’d love to see you off your head on mushrooms.”
“Well, it’s not going to happen if I can help it,” he smiled at her. “I’m not that keen on relinquishing control. Plus, from what you’ve told me, it will be very disorienting anyway. I would quite like not to freak out in front of you.”
Sunny gulped down the rest of her tea.
“You said something about how I have no espionage training?” Sunny remembered something that had piqued her interest. “Do you think I need some? I mean, I’m kind of invisible most of the time, so it’s pointless, isn’t it?”
“It’s the times when you’re not invisible that’s the problem. For example, when you disappear and reappear. Do you make sure there’s no one around?”
“Of course I do!”
“Do you check for cameras?”
“Every time.” She wasn’t stupid. “I usually head out from a ladies’ bathroom.”
“Then you need to check for hidden cameras, then. Ones in vents, under toilet seats, that kind of thing.”
“What? Oh, gross, really?”
“Some people are sick, Agent Mouse. You can’t take any chances.”
On impulse, and since they were sharing secrets today, she decided to confide in him - something stupid she had done that had been worrying her ever since. “In Colombia, on my first trip, I got caught on camera. I don’t think they got a good look at me though. Tell me, has facial recognition got so good that they might find out who I am from footage on a dodgy security camera?”
“Yeah, it’s very possible,” Hunter nodded his head gravely. “But if they were really after you, they would have gotten you by now. Luckily, all that footage was accidentally destroyed in a raid on the mansion of that particular drug lord a couple of days ago.”
Sunny stared at him. “How… what the…” she spluttered. “How did you find out?”
Hunter laughed. “What do you think I do for a living? You described the whole story to me the first time we met, remember? I gave the info to an opposite number in South America, who used it to take that guy down. The mansion was pretty much destroyed when the militia went in, and all the security footage with it.” He stopped for a moment when he clocked Sunny’s incredulous face. “He was a very bad guy, Mouse. The little girl he abducted was the daughter of a Peruvian Cabinet Minister, an
d he was using her to force the minister to lean on the government to get his drugs exported.”
His face softened. “What you did was incredible. He and his goons were some of the worst people to walk the earth. Most of them were killed in the fighting when they did the place was raided, but I believe one of them was eaten by a tiger a couple of weeks before that.” He winked at her.
Sunny groaned and put her head in her hands. “I was convinced I was going to get a pillowcase over the head and hustled into a blacked-out van by South American gangsters at any moment. I could handle that, I guess, I could just buzz out.” She put her head up and met Hunter’s eyes. “But I worry about what someone might do to my family if they found out about me. To my dad, and my little brother. And, I suppose, my stepmother. But only because my dad would be bothered,” she added lamely.
“I won’t let that happen,” he promised her. “No one will find out about you. I’ll do whatever I have to, to make sure that you stay safe.”
“Thanks.” Her face grew a little red.
“As long as you don’t do anything stupid, like tell one of your mates what you can do,” he went on.
“Oh God, never,” she said. “I’d have nothing to gain by revealing myself, and I’d have everything to lose.”
“Good.” Hunter picked up the last of the crackers and popped it whole into his mouth and crunched for a moment. “Okay, are we suitably chilled out?
“I think so.” They walked to the dark lounge, and he sank down on the sofa. He motioned for her to join him on the seat beside him. She sat down slowly, convinced that he might be able to hear her heart beating loudly at the proximity.
They jostled around for a bit, getting comfortable, then he turned to her. “Okay, same as before, but this time let’s hold hands from the start. Then you try and pull me in as soon as you think that you can.”
“Okay.” Her voice sounded fainter to her, or she might be finding it hard to hear above the roaring in her ears.
Hunter settled himself down and placed both hands on his knees, palms up like before, staring straight ahead. Sunny reached out and put her own shaking hand in to his warm brown one, and squeezed lightly. She risked a quick peek at his face, and thought she caught a very quick smile on his beautiful mouth before he composed himself and closed his eyes gently.
In repose he was magnificent. He looked a lot younger, so much more peaceful here, dressed in his most comfortable clothes, on his beloved sofa, in his personalized enclave. He was completely and totally relaxed within seconds. She imagined that this was what he looked like when he was asleep, and dreaming of beautiful things. Sunny was glad not to have to make any excuses to stare at his face and hold his hand. She wished she could stay here forever.
But, she had a job to do. She waited a few more moments, and then tugged at the vibrations in her fingertips of one hand, pulling them all over her and entered the Alternate, leaving one hand out – the hand that was gently resting in Hunter’s. Now that she looked at him with her Alternate eyes, he was even more beautiful than before. His brilliant golden light burned brightly within him, swirling, illuminating him from within. She watched him carefully, waiting for him to enter a deep meditation.
After a few more minutes his aura started to change. It was the strangest thing to watch. She could sense his vibrations speeding up, yet they were more soothing and softer than before. He resembled a tiger that had just finished eating a gazelle; his soul growled, paced, then settled down and started to purr.
Sunny gave him a little tug. He stayed put, and his internal motor spluttered a little and slowed down, but soon sped up again. He was getting better at this, getting used to entering a deep meditation quicker. She tried a few more times, but it was always the same, he wasn’t coming with her when she tried to pull him in.
It wasn’t working. She needed to try something else. Sunny closed her eyes and tried to feel the essence of his vibrations, to taste the ebb and flow of him. He felt receptive to her, ready to move into the higher level with her, but she just didn’t know how.
For a while she sat holding his hand, trying to think of how it was with the English officer. He came with her so easily. What had she done differently? He had been at death’s door, wholly and entirely open to moving into a different world, in fact, he was so eager to get out of there, he pushed her into it. She’d hardly had to do anything. But she had done something; she’d manipulated her power somehow, to include him in her energy so she could push him into the Alternate. She was distraught at the time too, and not thinking straight. Hell, she wasn’t thinking at all.
Maybe that was it. Maybe she just had to stop thinking. Maybe it was her that had to try meditation.
Sunny sighed and involuntarily squeezed Hunter’s hand very hard, startling him and breaking his meditation. She thought they deserved a break, so she moved into reality, reappeared to him and pouted.
“It’s not working.”
He gave her a smile. “We can keep trying. Look, it obviously works, you’ve been able to take one person with you before, so we just have to figure out what you did and recreate it. Hopefully without me having to be close to death.”
“Well, I’ve been trying to retrace my steps and think of what I was doing when I took that guy with me.”
“And?” He turned to her and pulled his legs up on the sofa so he was sitting cross-legged.
Sunny involuntarily mirrored him, sweeping both legs up underneath her and sitting face to face, trying not to think about how intimate this was. “Well, the thing is, I wasn’t thinking. At all. It was all very natural. He saw me, he wanted to come with me, he reached out and touched me, and I took him with me. I wasn’t trying at all. And I definitely wasn’t thinking.”
“So, do you think maybe you should stop trying so hard?”
“I’m guessing I’m going to have to meditate along with you. Or just try and clear my head of all thoughts, at least. I think I’m getting in my own way.”
“We’ll take a break then. Do something else for a bit.”
“Like what?” She wondered wildly for a moment if he was going to suggest making out.
“Do you play cards?”
As ridiculous as it was, she couldn’t help the disappointment that surged through her body. “Yeah, I guess so,” she replied sullenly.
He reached over and opened a small drawer in the coffee table and pulled out a deck of cards.
“Do you know how to play twenty-one?” Hunter asked, expertly shuffling the cards.
“No. Do you know Asshole?”
“Uh, no. How about Baccarat?”
“Come on, isn’t that the same as twenty-one?”
“If you know that, then you must know how to play it,” he countered.
“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t.”
“Wow, you might make a decent agent after all,” he raised his eyebrows appreciatively.
Sunny giggled girlishly, and then shut her mouth quickly. The last thing she wanted to appear in front of him was girlish.
Hunter was shuffling the cards like a pro, cutting and flicking them so fast they were a blur. He paused, raising one eyebrow at her. “Bridge?”
“Nope.”
“I could teach you…”
“You need four players for bridge anyway,” Sunny smirked.
“So you do know how to play!”
“Well, yes, but all your games are just far too boring. Sorry.”
“Well,” he sighed, “I guess the point was to stop thinking for a while. I thought it might be good to concentrate on something boring.”
“Puh-leese. We could just sit here and watch your yucca grow.”
“Hmm.” Hunter flicked the cards in his hands a couple more times, looking sideways at Sunny. Finally, he sighed and started dealing the cards, one for her, one for him, one for her, one for him, until the pack was split between them. He palmed his cards, face down, flicked the top one over and placed it on the couch between the two of them. The ace of spades s
at there, looking up at the two of them as they both stared at it.
After a heartbeat, Sunny followed suit. She flicked over her top card and placed it on top of the ace. Two of clubs. He slowly peeled off his next card and plonked it down on the pile.
“So,” he said. “How is the play going?”
“Awful,” she groaned, flipping her next card over. Queen of diamonds. “The rest of the cast is terrible; the director is a complete asshole. It’s going to take some of my free time up, and I don’t think I want to do it anymore.”
“Why don’t you just quit?” Hunter asked, slapping down the four of diamonds.
“Well,” she started, dropping the ace of hearts down on the pile, “I would, but the teacher – the asshole I told you about – he would make my life hell. And everyone would think that I quit because I didn’t get the role I wanted.”
“But that’s not that bad,” Hunter said, as he flipped over the two of hearts onto the pile, “who would care?”
“It’s been a while since you’ve been at high school, right?” Sunny raised her eyebrows and slapped down a card. “These things are big, in the gossip stakes. I would like to avoid that, if possible.” Six of clubs.
“So do the play then. Do the hell out of it, and everyone will think you’re the bigger person,” he said, getting into the spirit of high school politics and dropping the jack of spades on the pile.
Sunny groaned. “Yeah. I just… it’s just… well, there’s this guy…” she began as she flipped over the jack of hearts onto the pile. Hunter’s eyes went from the cards to her face, and he watched her for a moment.
Sunny screamed and her hand shot out. “SNAP!” She looked triumphantly at Hunter, who was still frozen, looking at her. “Sorry, that is what we’re playing, isn’t it? Snap?” She looked worriedly into his face.
He was soon jolted out of whatever thoughts he was having. “Yeah.” He gave a small half-smile as she gathered up the cards and handed them to him. “You got me.” Hunter moved the new pack with his remaining cards. “Carry on. There’s this guy?” He flipped over a new card.
“Yeah,” Sunny sighed as she put one of her cards down. “He’s a real creep. He’s the one playing Othello, and you know what that means.”
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