“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 for 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 517
th
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!”
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...
The second attacker managed back to his feet as he
snarled, “Is that the best you can do, baldy human?”
“Maybe,” grinned Bill as he put a second three round burst
into his target. Bill grinned defiantly as his target was once again bowled
over onto the ground. “But it's a lot of fun in the meantime!”
The dance played out again, exactly as before. The Taik
seemed more angry than injured...
“He's trying to run you out of bullets,” murmured
Theodore, quite impressed at how well the Taik was handling the brutal
onslaught.
“I'm just trying to get him to back up two more meters...”
grinned Bill as he took the baited shot and put three more rounds into the
Taik’s armor. “Bingo!”
“Is that
seriously
the best you can do? I'm going
to enjoy gutting you... slowly...”
Bill just grinned and waved sarcastically as the crash of
a sonic boom and then the thunderous roar of a
truly
high power weapon
was unleashed. The boastful Tiak's armor shuddered under the assault and was
gone in a flash, sending its owner into a pain washed slumber. “Nighty night!”
beamed Bill as he reloaded his weapon.
“What was that?” asked a truly impressed Theodore.
“That's what you get from a 30mm pulse rifle. Half a kilo
of tungsten carbide at mach six. Normally used for opening up lightly armored
vehicles.”
“That's what, a megajoule?” Theodore asked flabbergasted
at the thought of someone firing such a weapon. “And the recoil?”
“'Bout that, yeah. Oh the recoil is thunderous; heck, the
entire weapon moves half a meter inside its mount... Peter had it specially
made...” grinned Bill. “Normally those things are mounted on repulsar
gunships. Needless to say, our version doesn't fire twelve-hundred rounds a
minute.”
“What were
you
firing? That thing is small, but it
was obvious it kicked like an elk!”
Bill grinned, “Custom 10mm pulse rifle. Horribly
inefficient and you have to throw away both stages of the barrel after about
three hundred rounds, but it puts a lot of firepower in a cute little package.”
“Silly me, when I think 'cute', girls come to mind...”
Bill laughed at Theodore and then turned his attention to
two of his teammates as they closed and inspected the unconscious Taiks while
he stood at the ready. The more recent target had his arms put in a set of
binders that ran from mid hands all the way to his elbows. Once in place, he
was administered a sedative. The first target, all bound up in foam, became
the source of local amusement as they
carefully
tranquilized him too and
then started hosing his body with a putrid smelling chemical that quickly
dissolved the foam. “Come on, let them finish their work, we have to get you
to class...”