At My General’s Command

by Romeo Alexander

  Christian nodded. “Yeah. Transferred in about a year ago, and it’s looking like this will be my home for at least another year.”

  “At least? Sounds like you might not be sticking around,” Ethan noted.

  Christian shrugged. “I’ve been giving it some thought. I don’t regret my time with the military, and it’s given me a lot of good memories and skills. But I’m thinking I might take my life in another direction. I’ve got another year to decide, so there’s not exactly a rush to make up my mind.”

  “So, what do you do?”

  “Mostly administrative work, nothing terribly exciting. I was never going to be the person in the thick of things, and while pencil pushing isn’t the most exciting of jobs, it is important,” Christian said, making sure to stick very close to the truth without giving it all away.

  Ethan wrinkled his nose. “I’m sorry, but that sounds horrible.”

  Christian laughed. “Well, like I said, it definitely isn’t always fun, but hey, it pays the bills, and I don’t have to worry about being thrown into a desert and getting shot at either, so that’s a plus.”

  “So, what, you going to take that and go somewhere with it if you get out? Do more work like that? Or hey, I bet it’s given you a lot of experience with computers, you could do software or programming.”

  Christian shook his head. “Nah, my sister was the tech geek, not me. I’m thinking something in the mental health field. Maybe it’ll just be administrative work there too, or maybe I’ll buckle down and use that college pay we’re supposed to be given, get a degree and help people directly.”

  “Oh, that would be nice,” Ethan said, his knee brushing Christian’s as he took a drink.

  Christian pressed his leg closer to the other man’s. “I’m not completely sure yet, but it’s something I’m toying with, I think it could be good for me.”

  Ethan grinned. “And probably better money than you’re making now.”

  “I hadn’t thought of it too much like that, but yeah, you’re right. The military doesn’t really start paying all that well until you get up a few ranks...and then some. And it would be nice to not be beholden to Uncle Sam the whole time I’m working too,” Christian admitted truthfully.

  “That’s always a plus.”

  Ethan looked down at his martini glass, shaking his head. “These things aren’t very good. I’m pretty sure they didn’t use actual cream in it, just a mix.”

  Christian laughed. “That your way of inviting me to come get drinks at your place instead?”

  “Might just be,” Ethan said, sliding his leg a little closer.

  “Then I guess we should finish our drinks and head out,” Christian offered.

  Ethan winked, standing up. “Let me go to the bathroom real quick, and we can do just that.”

  Christian chuckled, watching the man go as he paced toward the bathrooms that lay just beyond the enclosed area where they sat. He waited until he saw the man disappear around the corner before looking at Ethan’s glass, which remained half-full. Knowing he didn’t have much time, he reached into his pocket. Christian had debated with himself for most of the day about how he was going to handle the situation and had finally settled on making sure that Ethan wouldn’t be a problem once they got back to the apartment.

  At first, he’d thought about sleeping pills, but then he realized he wouldn’t know the right dose, and he didn’t know how much alcohol would be involved. The last thing he wanted was to end up seriously harming or killing the man, and had nixed the idea. It had been Lily actually, who had given him the idea for how to get Ethan out of the way, as well as providing him a thumb drive’s worth of helpful programs.

  Taking the small baggy of crushed laxatives out of his pocket, he unwound the tie at the top of it and dumped it into the drink. Using one of the stirring sticks provided in a holder at the table, Christian mixed the finely ground pills in as quickly as he could. His heart raced furiously as he tried to get the powder to dissolve completely. He almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the fierce roar of the air dryer come to life in the bathroom. Trying to keep his breathing under control, he stirred furiously before finally giving it a quick stir in the other direction to stop the movement of the liquid and flinging himself back in his seat.

  Ethan emerged a moment later, smiling as he approached the table. Christian gave him a smile back, dropping the stirring stick out of sight onto the floor with a silent apology to the staff who had to clean.

  “Sorry about that, I’ve been drinking water non-stop today,” Ethan explained as he sat back down.

  “No worries. Not going to judge a man for keeping himself hydrated,” Christian said, waving him off.

  Ethan raised his glass. “Well, then cheers to a good night?”

  Christian smiled, praying that everything was dissolved. “A very good one.”

  Ethan tipped his glass back, draining the contents completely. When he set the martini glass back down, all Christian could see at the bottom was a bit of chocolate syrup and little else. Ethan, however, had wrinkled his nose in distaste.

  “God, that is the worst mixture they could have ever used. Just gets more bitter near the bottom. Remind me to stick to normal cocktails and beer when I’m here,” Ethan complained.

  Christian chuckled, draining his beer. “Like you said, there are better drinks at your house, right?”

  Christian wasn’t sure what the normal rate for a cocktail server was, but apparently whatever Ethan was making went above and beyond Christian’s normal rate of pay. The leather furniture looked like it had been bought recently, and definitely not from a resale shop. The white carpeting would have been expensive as hell to clean, but the apartment was lined with it as far as he could see and looked pristine. The tables and chairs all looked like they’d come out of a designer shop and had probably been made with the best cuts of wood. All in all, the display was a bit ostentatious for his tastes, but Christian had to admit it looked good.

  Though the same couldn’t be said for Ethan.

  “Wow, nice place you have here,” Christian mused as he looked around.

  Ethan winced, a hand resting on his stomach. “Yeah, thanks. Cost me a little bit, but it makes me happy to see.”

  “I bet it cost,” Christian agreed.

  Ethan gave a faint smile. “It’s alright, I make pretty good money. And I’ve got something on the side that’s going to bring me in a good load of cash too. I’ll be set.”

  Christian never realized how good his acting potential was until he flashed what felt like the most natural smile at the man. “Yeah?”

  Ethan nodded. “Oh yeah.”

  “Well, that must be nice. Not getting into trouble, are you?” Christian teased.

  Ethan winced again, stepping toward the nearby hallway. “Nah, nothing like that. I’m a good boy.”

  Christian’s lip curled but said, “Well, hopefully not too good.”

  Ethan chuckled, though the sound came out forced. “Not me, not ever.”

  Christian watched the other man for a moment, seeing indecision come over his face. Christian hadn’t known how long it would take for the pills to start kicking in, but apparently, it had taken the time it took them to leave the bar and walk to Ethan’s apartment complex. The man looked pained, and a little green, and Christian bet he was trying to find the most covert and least embarrassing way to excuse himself.

  “Something wrong?” Christian asked with concern in his voice.

  Ethan shook his head. “No, no, I’m okay. But uh, I think I need to go freshen up a little. You can make yourself comfortable, get a drink if you want. Everything’s in the kitchen.”

  “Oh, sure, go ahead,” Christian said, hoping he sounded the right level of politely confused.

  Ethan chuckled again. “Don’t worry, I’ll just be down the hall if you need anything.”

  From the look on Ethan’s face, however, Christian was betting that the other man hoped Christian didn’t need anything. Chr
istian had never taken laxatives in his life, but he’d done a bit of research before he settled on using them. Apparently, taking one too many in a short amount of time created an incredibly uncomfortable and messy result. Thankfully though, Christian had noticed that it wasn’t fatal.

  “Okay, take your time. I’ll just...chill out here,” Christian said, his eyes falling on the laptop sitting on the coffee table and the flash drive beside it.

  “Yeah, yeah. I’ll be right back,” Ethan said as he all but dashed down the hallway.

  From the rather loud fart that echoed out of the bathroom as the door closed, followed by a distressed moan, Christian was betting the man wasn’t quite as quick on his feet as he might have wished. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was privy to what Ethan was up to, Christian would have felt a genuine pang of guilt for what he’d done. As it was, he was able to push the nagging emotion out of the way and hurry over to the couch.

  Thankful that he not only didn’t have to hunt for the computer but that it was far enough away from the bathroom, where Christian’s paranoid ears could hear if the door opened, he plopped down. Opening the lid, he waited until the screen lit up and displayed only one profile to log into. Grimacing, he pulled out the small thumb drive in his pocket and tapped the spacebar to begin trying to log into Ethan’s computer. To his complete surprise, the login screen disappeared, showing a logo, and then flashing onto the home screen.

  “Seriously, no password?” Christian muttered to himself.

  Then again, he supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. He knew far too many people in his age group and younger who weren’t particularly careful about their security. That went double for people like Ethan, who lived alone. Since there was no roommate to snoop around his things, he probably thought he was safe. Which was odd, since he was not only obviously comfortable with bringing relative strangers into his home but was also currently trying to blackmail someone he was paranoid would find a way to get to him.

  “Alrighty then,” Christian said with a shake of his head.

  He’d honestly been dreading the moment where he’d have to try to get past a password screen. Having been spared that, he took the flash drive and pushed it into the computer’s USB port. It took a moment, but the laptop pinged to signify it recognized it. Absently, he opened the folder containing the files and then began digging through the drive.

  It took only a minute, but he quickly found the folder he was looking for. To his even greater annoyance, the folder was labeled ‘David’. Rolling his eyes, he opened it up, his brow rising as he found not only a video but a few dozen pictures as well. Almost before he could catch himself, Christian moved the cursor over one of the pictures, clicked, then paused. Grimacing, he moved the cursor away and opened up the video folder instead, remembering at the last second to hit the mute button as the video began to play.

  His heart leaped as the familiar video started. Apparently, Ethan had sent the first couple of minutes of the video instead of any specific part. Having confirmed it was the right video, he looked at the timestamp, cocking his head as he realized the full length was over an hour.

  “Damn, nice stamina, General,” Christian muttered.

  He transferred the full-length file over to his thumb drive and promptly deleted all the pictures. For good measure, remembering that the video had been edited, he found the folder for edited videos and deleted the copies there. After another moment’s thought, he decided to check if Ethan was a liar as well as a blackmailer. Moving the cursor to the taskbar at the bottom, he smirked as he saw a cloud icon sitting among the running programs.

  As he opened it, he jerked as he heard the toilet flush with an echoing din. He sat there, waiting, his heart in his throat. The sound of the door never came as he sat there for what felt like an eternity. Heart still hammering, he turned his attention back to the screen and snorted as he found a copy of all the files in the online storage.

  “An idiot, but not a complete idiot,” Christian mused as he deleted them.

  But also not bright enough to keep his things under lockdown. Christian chuckled, moving one of Lily’s files on his thumb drive over to the hard drive and activating it. It was a small gift from Lily, who swore up and down that, given an hour or so, it would scrub everything in the background of Ethan’s computer. If done right, it would make sure that nothing deleted or indexed would be accessible, no matter how good the person was with computer systems. Content to let it run, he closed the lid as the program ran in the background and put it back on the table.

  Pocketing the flash drive, he hummed contentedly to himself. His good mood didn’t stop when he heard the toilet flush again, this time followed by the sound of running water. Christian pulled his phone out, quickly opening a browser and idly scrolling as he heard the bathroom door open.

  Ethan, still green in the face, leaned out from the hallway. “Hey, uh, I’m really sorry about this.”

  Christian peered up, eyes wide with concern. “Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

  “I think I ate something...wrong. Sorry, I know that’s not what you wanted to hear,” Ethan muttered, looking away.

  Christian shook his head, pocketing his phone. “No, don’t be sorry. It happens to the best of us. Do you need anything?”

  “No, but I don’t...I know, nothing is going to be happening tonight, not with...this. Um, maybe another time?” Ethan offered hopefully.

  Christian smiled softly, nodding. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you probably don’t want company anyway. You just worry about feeling better, alright?”

  “Yeah, of course,” Ethan said with another grimace.

  Christian walked to the front door, opening it. “Text me?”

  Ethan put on a pained smile. “As soon as I’m better.”

  Christian nodded. “Looking forward to it.”

  The look of concern on his face melted away as he closed the door behind him. Christian jogged down the stairs that led to the street and hopped out onto the sidewalk. As he pulled out his phone to order up a ride back to the base, he also pulled out the thumb drive and stared at it with a wide grin.

  “Definitely looking forward to it,” he said.

  David

  Sunday night had found him staring at his ceiling rather than sleeping. It wasn’t as if Christian had told him he would contact him with regards to whatever he had planned, but David had hoped. He’d found himself checking his phone over and over again as he’d puttered around his home, and kept it on his bedside table while it charged rather than out in the living room.

  With only a couple of hours’ worth of sleep under his belt, David had been forced to drag himself out of bed on Monday morning. The first thing he did upon waking up was to check his phone and found nothing. Letting out a sigh, he made his way into the bathroom to begin his shower and get dressed. At least a dozen times, he considered picking up his phone and trying to contact Christian, only to put his phone away and tell himself to wait.

  The ride up in the elevator to the waiting room was probably the longest of his life, and David all but darted out when the doors opened. He paused as he spotted Christian waiting behind his desk, already at work on his computer. The blond looked up, smiling before looking off to the side. It was then that the general spotted someone else in the waiting room.

  “Good morning, General,” Christian called, his eyes settling on Reyes beside him.

  “Good morning, gentlemen,” David replied, nodding toward Reyes, who quickly stood to salute him.

  Christian chuckled, patting Reyes’ side. “Don’t start doing that, or your arm is going to give out. He’s in and out of his office all day long, and he gets grumpy if he gets saluted every time.”

  “And he speaks from personal experience,” David told him, still watching Christian.

  Christian chuckled. “That I do. If you’d like to get started on your day, General, I’ll be in with your coffee in a few minutes. You’ve got about an hour before you have any appoint
ments, so don’t feel too rushed.”

  David nodded, hoping that was a good sign. David didn’t normally take coffee in the morning, or at all really, preferring a good bottle of water or perhaps some tea once in a while. But if Christian was going to use that as an excuse to have the two of them be alone for a little bit, then David wasn’t going to argue.

  “That works, but spare me the cream and sugar,” David said, marching to his office.

  He heard Christian talking softly to Oscar as David closed his office door behind him. Taking a deep breath, he purposefully made sure not to hurry to his desk, taking his time to sit down and organize his thoughts. When that wasn’t enough time to burn before Christian came in, he powered up his computer and began to login. As the computer brought up the confirmation screen, old picture of him and all, his door slid open.

  Christian walked in with a huge, steaming mug in hand. He closed the door behind him, marching over to the desk and setting the cup down with a heavy thud.

  “Sorry about that. You looked like you hadn’t been sleeping all weekend, so I had to make it extra strong. Careful with it, I think it’s more sludge than liquid,” Christian said.

  David took the mug by the handle, sniffed, and took a sip. “Oh. Yes, you’re not kidding.”

  Christian smiled, reaching into his pockets. “And I’m sure you’re wondering what I got up to over the weekend.”

  David grimaced at the extremely bitter coffee. “You could say that, yes.”

  “I’m honestly surprised you didn’t get a phone call,” Christian said.

  “Why?”

  Christian reached out, dropping something on the desk before pulling his hand back. David looked down, blinking at the small memory drive sitting on the edge of his desk. Glancing up at Christian, David reached out to take the device.

  “Is this…” David began.

  Christian grinned. “The flash drive in question? That it is.”

  David pulled it closer. “You’re sure?”

  “If you’re asking if I watched it, then no. I opened the only file on there, and it was the same two minutes that I saw in the first video, but there was a total of sixty minutes left on the video I found. I stopped once I realized what it was, though I have to say, I’m impressed by your stamina.”