Path of Ranger: Volume 1 (47 page)

“What’s that?” he asked turning the thing in his hands.

“A government agent’s credit card. Unlimited resources, tracking proof.”

“Wow, nice. That’s all that I’m paid?”

“It’s not yours. That one is for emergencies. You were wired one hundred thousand galls today to your own account. This money you can use for personal expenses.”

“Is that a lot?”

“Enough to not worry about money for quite some time. The GU appreciates its agents very highly.”

“So I can invite a girl I like for dinner now?”

“Really? You’ve found a girl already?” Nea smiled.

“It was more like an accident.”

“And you’re that confident that she’ll agree?”

“Well, I sure hope so…”

Their eye contact lasted for quite a while. It felt right.

“Okay, I know an excellent place not far from here.”

“Awesome, let’s go,” JB smiled widely and they walked to the car.

It was a small cafe. Just about fifteen tables inside. A long bar with a dozen more seats. And the interior was in a form of half circle, where the arc windows opened to a great look over the night city. Most of the walls were made of that yellow material, just like the rest of the city. The tables had a round shape and they glowed with dimmed whiteness.

The bartenders were humans, a man and woman. But most of the rest of the personnel were acleemans. Everyone who worked there was wearing a uniform: fitting white suits with short sleeves and high collars. In general, the place had its balanced dark light theme and felt very comfortable. No wonder Nea liked it, JB thought. There was not that eye eating brightness, as over the rest of the city.

“I thought that a retro style bar would make you feel at home,” Nea said when they were coming in.

“It looks more like Grid,” JB commented on his impression.

“Excuse me?”

“Oh, nothing. It just reminded me a cartoon I saw once.”

The restaurant was half full, there were humans as well as beings of other races. JB got used to them by that time. It all became part of a blurred background.

The couple took one of the tables near the window. They sat close. The mutant wouldn’t let her out of his sight. Nea was beautiful that night. JB was also very interested in getting to know her better. The woman of the future world was still a mystery to him, especially since she was from a distant planet. The more JB thought about her, the more he felt her. He could sense her curiosity and sympathy towards him. That feeling seemed real, no lies. It was a unique thing in the world where he had come from.

On her side, Nea watched JB carefully too. When the sun went out, his eyes gained that slight blue glow. She couldn’t have enough time to stare at them. The difficulty in reading the mutant attracted her even more. She felt sadness in his eyes, but at the same time there was a sweet promise of something new, unknown and refreshing. His brutality and overall confidence might have seemed strange at the beginning, but now it felt right. As if the man was meant to be like that.

A two and a half meters tall acleeman waitress had brought some refreshments and took the orders from the couple. Their talk came to the morning events.

“You know, I’m grateful for what you’ve done today,” she said.

“My pleasure,” JB smiled lightly. Then he made a sip of the glowing beverage and looked at her more seriously. “Did that surprise you?”

“I know very few people who might act that selflessly. And there is no precedent for a human to take down a froll in close combat. Please, tell me about your world. How was it?”

JB took a second to think.

“There is not much to tell, actually. I didn’t like people much, then. They were greedy, narcissistic, blinded by ignorance. The wars were within us. And with each new generation life got more and more disvalued.”

“What did you do for a living?”

“I was a criminal. Haven’t I told that?”

“A pirate?”

JB laughed.

“No, not a pirate…” he said genially.

Then the mutant realized how different the locals imagined right and wrong compared to ancient people.

“So what happened?”

“I traded a heart for a cold brain. Never felt love in my life.”

“Isn’t that too much to give up?”

“I’ve never given much of a thought about that, actually.”

“What about your family? Are they around?”

JB’s eyes widened for a moment, he took a deep breath. It took a few seconds for him to think.

“I can’t really remember my father. Most of my childhood I lived with my mother and a step-brother. A second marriage wasn’t her favorite Idea, but she thought I needed a father.” An uncertain smirk grew on JB’s face. “Huh. The irony, he never was around. Military. He was always traveling. I was eleven when my mom left him and we came back home, to America. She died two months later. A car accident. Then I moved to my granny.”

JB got a bit sad  telling that story.

“What about your step-father and brother?”

“Never heard from them since. And my mother had never told me anything about my real father. So, here I am. I didn’t really have anyone when we crossed over.”

JB took his time when narrating. He did it slowly. Occasionally he interrupted to drink, but he almost didn’t eat anything.

“You’re an interesting person, JB. I’m sure no matter what you did in the past, you’re a good guy,” with those words Nea laid her hand on his.

Wondering once again about the absence of that painful contact of his, he felt a great pleasure holding her hand.

“You know that I’m not exactly human anymore.”

“Yeah, but I can feel that you are…”

Those last words Nea was saying practically whispering. She leaned towards him slowly. And right before their lips touched she stopped. They could feel each other’s breath. Slight trembles went through JB’s skin, from the neck to the fingertips. He felt something like that for the first time in his life. She closed her eyes and kissed him gently. At first their lips touched lightly, then the motion froze for a second. JB kissed her back. When kissing, he moved his hand along her arm to hold her by the elbow. The kiss lasted for several seconds, then she moved back and smiled. No matter how hard JB tried to keep steady, his face deformed into a smile too.

Being utterly clueless what would happen to his life afterwards, JB wanted to give those feelings everything he had. For the first time in his life, his mind stepped back before his heart. In two months, he was supposed to start his five year mission. Most likely he wouldn’t come back to Earth for quite a while. Rationally, the idea of falling in love with his contact agent wasn’t good in any scenario. She was the one who was supposed to know about all of the danger he had to go through. But despite all of the enormous strength that JB had, he couldn’t resist it anymore.

The next day, after school, JB came to the military training center. It was a court on the top of the Ministry of Defense building. One of those four giant mushroom structures. There was a niche on the roof, in a form of a pool. It was the highest spot in Atlantis. One of few places where one could see the night sky, free of the city glow that blocked the view everywhere else.

By the time the cadet arrived, Nea was already waiting for him there. She didn’t wear her typical uniform that evening. It was a combat suit this time. The colors were the traditional white-blue, but the material looked much denser. And the armor plates in it made the overall look very impressive. A few spherical droids hovered near the woman, another few bipedal robots stood by behind her. It looked like some kind of preparation. But all that JB could think of was that beautiful reflection going over Nea’s hair and the soft light falling on her skin. Gradually changing his point of view, JB got to Nea’s eyes. That deep green color wouldn’t let him go easily. She was busy in the process of tuning one of the droids. Her slightly shaking cheek revealed an upcoming smile that appeared the moment he came out of the lift. As soon as she finished with her mechanical toy, she looked at the mutant and their eyes finally met.

“Are you ready, ranger?” she asked playfully smiling.

“Ready? For what?” JB watched as Nea walked closer. Then she stopped a few meters away. “No kiss?”

“Catch!”

With one swift move, she took out a sheathed sword from behind and tossed it to the mutant. The big guy caught it quickly.

“Katana? What am I supposed to do with it?”

JB took the blade out to take a good look at it. It was thin, mostly straight, one side was sharp, the other one – dull. Then he put the sword back into the scabbard.

“Katana? Never heard of it,” Nea replied. “This is standard forty-six-inch combat sword. A piece from a trooper’s weapon set.”

“What’s wrong with phasers?” JB wondered. He was a bit surprised by such an ancient weapon being used in the future.

“When you get into a close encounter with an enemy and the battery runs out, the phaser will be useless.”

“I’ve met a few… Remember?” the mutant joked. They had a fair share of laughs about that, but watching Nea’s eyes, JB thought that it still was too soon to kid on that subject. “All soldiers are skilled in using these?”

“It’s the only thing they are good at…” she implied clinically.

The woman came closer to stop in a few steps from him.

“What now?” he asked putting the weapon down.

“Defend yourself!”

With that shout, Nea took out a second sword from behind and made an abrupt swipe towards JB’s face.

His flash reaction hadn’t let him down, the cadet dodged the hit. The blade went over his bald top just by a few millimeters, and his hands bore up his own weapon at the same time.

Seeing readiness in JB’s stance, Nea loosened up her own. She straightened up and moved closer softly. She kept it quiet for the time being. She just looked in his eyes occasionally, lowering the look down each time and leaving a barely noticeable trace of a smile. It all was a play. Then the woman began walking around him, scanning his heavy strong body. JB on his side hadn’t flinched a muscle yet, waiting. When Nea finished her walk, she got very close in front of him.

The woman took off a device from her belt. It was a small white box of elliptic form. She pointed it at the mutant as if she was taking a selfie. Then, when the scan was done, Nea pressed the button and put that thing into JB’s hand. The next second a bunch of mechanical micro-bugs started to come out of that box. Crawling over his skin in all directions they got under clothes and in shoes until his whole body was covered. JB still didn’t move, not even when the tickling was too intense. Their eye contact went on.

“It’s going to be a little unpleasant now,” Nea warned him when the bugs stopped moving.

Then, in one exact moment, JB felt an enormous flash of pain in every inch of his body at once. His right knee loosened up at some point, but soon it got better.

“A little? That hurts like a bitch!”

“Those are microbots. They will tune your muscles,” Nea started explaining. “Their main purpose is to develop and adapt your muscle tissue. When you hit or dodge, they correct your movements. This way your muscle memory will be programmed to the right combat technique. Every warrior has to know how to handle a sword. It’s time for you to start learning.”

The golden haired beauty distracted the cadet with her charm once again. Suddenly, an unexpected hit went to JB’s neck. While his mind was still on the phase of realizing that such a hit couldn’t be intercepted, his body did the job by itself. His legs shifted the mass sideways and his arms lifted up the blade to counter the upcoming hit. That half second of action showed JB how that system worked better than any explanations possibly could. It was clear to him now what was waiting for them for the rest of the night.

“Babe, you really wanna fight me?” the big guy smirked.

Nea saw that she really had to give him a real lesson. Her next move hit him on the back of the head with the dull side of the blade.

“Shut up and learn something,” it was her turn to smile now.

The next few tries went smoothly, JB dodged each hit. He started to take it seriously. Then on another hit from above he blocked Nea’s sword with his and held it in that position. His head moved towards the woman under the hanging blades.

“How can I hit a lady?” JB asked, looking into her eyes.

“Why can’t you hit women?” she wondered.

Nea escaped from that block and swung towards his legs. The mutant jumped over it. Then he backed off a bit to look at her. She wasn’t kidding with her last question.

“Damn, a thousand years passed and that feminist shit is still around… Now you wanna fight men.” JB got fully ready for the game. “Okay, girl! We’ll do it your way! Get ready!”

“Finally! I don’t have to be easy on you now,” she said. “Show me what you got!”

It took just the one single word ‘easy’ to make JB change his arrogant expression. This time he got a bit scared even.

Nea ran sideways over the court.

“Activate program!” she shouted to that small drone of hers.