Forge of War (Jack of Harts) (3 page)

Jack shrugged.  “When I fish, sometimes I catch Crappie or Bass.  I don’t like them so I throw them back.  Northerns I like.  I keep them.  I wouldn’t like you the way you are.  And you wouldn’t like me unless you changed yourself so much you probably wouldn’t like you either.  So I’d throw you back and we’d both be happier.”

The silence lasted another thirty seconds this time before speaker five spoke again.  “Three has left.  I’m your last chance,” she finally said.  “Convince me to choose you or you will be escorted out alone.”

Jack swallowed this time, eyes flicking over to speaker three.  He licked his lips, wondering if it was true.  He wondered for a moment if…no…no.  He shook his head.  “I don’t accept your premise.   I don’t think Three is gone.  I think you’re testing me.  Even if I’m wrong though, it wouldn’t change things.  You’re too bound up in rules for you and me to ever work well.  We’d be fighting each other as much as the Shang, and that would kill us both dead in the end.”

“You are correct,” speaker five said.  “We would fight each other.  Goodbye, Jack.  Enjoy your escort.”  The speaker went silent.

Jack leaned back in his chair and waited for the door to open.  When it didn’t after a few seconds, he tapped the crystal and the jazz music began to play again.  If he was wrong, he had just gambled everything and lost.  No, he hadn’t really gambled actually.  He really
wouldn’t
have enjoyed working with Five.  But if Three had left already…or if none of the others were here either, it would be all she wrote.  He shut his eyes and breathed in and out, willing himself to be calm.  A minute went by, the jazz bubbling in the background, and the door did not open.  Two minutes.

“So you think I’m a Northern?” Speaker three asked with the tone of a quizzical aunt asking why he’d thought it was fun to toss rocks into the water.

Jack smiled.  He’d played his cards right.  He left the music on in the background since the cyber liked it.  “I think you’re a lot more likely to be one than Little Miss Tightypants over there,” he said with a wave towards speaker five.

Three let out a hearty laugh.  “I will have to tell her you called her that,” she continued in a wry tone.  “Later of course.”

“Of course,” Jack echoed with a chuckle.  “I’m glad Five was lying by the way.”

“Five wasn’t lying.  Five was testing you,” came the response.

“Ah.” Jack placed brought his hands up behind his head and interlaced his fingers, affecting a pose of relaxation.  “Did I pass?”

“I’m still talking to you.”

“I guess that means I’m still fishing then?” Jack asked.  It was hard to gauge if he was going too far without a face to look at, to measure his words against.

“Indeed,” Three answered, the amused tone back.

“I guess that makes it my move them.”  Jack’s forehead creased in thought.  “Can I ask you two questions?”

“Proceed,” Three said, the tone serious.

Jack paused, trying to form the questions just right.  “The first one is, ‘Why did the others decide
not
to choose me?’  And the second is, ‘Why are
you
reconsidering?’”

“Those are very good questions.  Let me answer the second one first.”

“Actually,” Jack interjected.  “I’m really curious about the first one.  Could you tell me it first?”

The speaker went silent for several seconds.  Jack did not swallow.

“You are trying to make me end with what is most positive about you, hoping that it will make a positive outcome more likely.”

Jack shrugged, giving the speaker a very large smile.  “I’ll take any advantage I can get.”

“You declined with Five.”

“There was no advantage to working with Five.”

“True.”  The speaker went silent again.  “Very well.  The others decided against you because your psychological profile is wrong for us.  You seem pathologically incapable of having a long-term relationship with anybody.  Ever.  And the only reason you are here now is because you are obsessed with killing Shang and getting your revenge on them for killing your father, your mother, and most of the people you knew in International Falls.  They are unwilling to choose a partner like that.”

“Oh,” Jack said, dropping his hands down into his lap.  He blinked, considering the verdict, replaying the conversation with Bruce.  He was going to find out how he was going to kill Shang.  Jack sighed.  She was right.  He pulled in a deep breath.  “And you?  Are you willing?” he finally asked.

“No.”  The old voice held no equivocation at all.

Jack swallowed.  It was time to get Three away from this line of thought before she chose to leave.

“So what makes you think I’m worth considering then?” he asked.

The cyber waited a few seconds before answering, probably measuring him for something.  “You played with the dogs,” she finally answered.

Jack blinked in confusion.  “Wha?”

“Please.  Do you really think a military training facility designed for someone like you would give you so much free time with no tests in the middle of War?”

Jack grunted.  “Well, I
was
wondering about that.”  He considered his words for a moment.  “So you were watching us to see what we would do when we…wanted to?”

“Yes.  And every candidate who played with the dogs except you has already been chosen.”

Jack frowned in thought.  “Why did you pick them?”

A chuckle came from the speaker.  “Jack, I’m not going to reel myself in on your line.  It’s time for
you
to answer
my
questions.”

Jack returned the chuckle, leaned back into the chair and interlaced his hands behind his head again, relaxing his posture and kicking his feet out.  “Go fish.”

“
Why
did you play with the dogs?”

Jack swallowed.  He barely stopped himself from uttering the amazingly idiotic phrase of “Uh…wha?” by the skin of his teeth.  It really wouldn’t have helped.  He slid back into the seat and leaned forward, bringing one hand forward to rub his chin as he thought.  Finally he shrugged.  “Well, Annabelle came over with the ball and wanted to play.  And Bruce…well he wanted to fight so we did.  They started it really.”

The cyber sighed.  “I know they did.  They always do.  It’s their job.  But why did you
play
with them, not just toss the ball and forget about it?  Why did you find out that Tony liked sugar cubes?”

Jack looked at the speaker for almost fifteen seconds, trying to come up with a good answer.  “Well, I grew up with dogs,” he finally began with a wave of his hand.  “Most of them like sugar so I figured it was worth a try.  And I guess I just
like
dogs.  They’re fun to be around, whether they are normal dogs or uplifted dogs.”

The cyber remained quiet again for a long time and Jack began to wonder if he’d blown it.  “So let me get this straight,” she finally said.  “You spent four hours at a time outside in an environment you clearly detest, eating or playing with the dogs because you like
dogs
?”

“Well, yeah,” Jack answered.

“You gave up study time for the classes because you like
dogs
?”

Jack raised an eyebrow at the speaker.  “Like the
classes
were really difficult enough to require
studying
?” he retorted.  The speaker did an amazing imitation of grinding teeth and Jack winced.  He’d probably gone too far with that one.

“You’re smart enough to pass the tests without studying and yet you are so blinded in other ways.  We truly do not know what to make of you.”

“I guess that makes me special then?” Jack asked.

“And so quick witted…sometimes,” the wry tone uttered.  “Fine.  Once more.  What makes you the kind of person who can never commit to a relationship, who wants nothing more than to kill every Shang you see, and yet at the same time be the kind of person who will not turn away a dog who wants your attention?”

“You know what they say,” Jack continued with his sly smile.  “When a five year old hands a toy phone to even the biggest and baddest gangster, he picks it up and answers it.”

A sigh came out of the speaker.  “I ask a serious question and you joke.  Goodbye---”

“Wait,” Jack interrupted, realizing he had made a tactical error there.  He let out a long breath as the light under speaker five remained on, and shook his head.  “Look, it’s stupid.  Just…stories.  You know how things are, right?  Your parents teach you something and it just sticks.  It’s nothing big or important or anything, it’s just how things
are
.”

“Our families are not exactly like yours,” the cyber answered, an interested tone back in her voice.  “But we have similar relationships.  I understand how the wishes of a parent can still influence a child even after you have parted ways.”

Jack gave the speaker a hard glance.  He and his parents had
not
“parted ways.”  They had been
murdered
.  He took in a deep breath and released it, relaxing.

“Now, what are these stupid stories that you talk of and how do they influence you?”

“They are
not
stupid stories,” Jack growled.

“But you
said
the reasons were stupid…and stories,” the cyber said, digging for more information.

Jack shook his head.  “Don’t confuse me with the facts.”

The cyber did not answer for several seconds.  “Was that another joke?” she finally asked, her tone noticeably cooler again.

“A bad one,” Jack admitted.  “But…not entirely a joke either.  I don’t know.  Maybe they
are
stupid stories.  But my
parents
told them to me….”

“Ah.  I understand,” the cyber said, a smile in her tone of voice.  “You are conflicted.  I wish I could give you time to work it out, but I cannot.  Our time is valuable and I must decide soon if we are to work together.  I must insist that you tell me now.  If you do not, I will leave and you will not see me again.”

“Wait,” Jack nearly gasped out.

Silence answered him for several seconds, but the light remained on.  “I will wait,” the cyber finally said.  “A very short time.  It is better to say something imperfect now rather than the perfect thing after I have gone.”

Jack sighed in reluctant agreement.  He composed his thoughts, breathed in, breathed out, and began to speak, thinking this was all very stupid.  Surely, the cyber didn’t want to hear a story.  But she had asked.  She had demanded.  “Look, there’s a bunch of stories, but there’s one about this
really
rich old man that probably says it better than I can.  I’m talking he’s rich enough to buy
planets
if he wanted to.”  Jack looked at the speaker for a moment before continuing.  He didn’t want to lose his nerve part way through.  “This guy hadn’t let the fortune get to his head though, and he was a nice old man to everybody he met.  He even talked to God every night, and God talked back.

“Well, one night the rich old man asked God to come dine with him the next day.  He wanted to really
meet
God face to face and spend a long time talking with him over a table.  God said he would come and the man was all kinds of happy.  The next day, he ordered his servants to spare no expense, to buy the best food in the town and to make the largest, most amazing banquet ever made at his house.  He’d had some real amazing banquets too, so this was saying something.  God was coming though, and that was worth his best stuff.

“Well, word started to get around that he was doing this, and some people thought he was crazy but didn’t say much.  He was a good guy and treated everybody well, even if he was a bit odd.  A beggar, hearing about the banquet, knocked on the old man’s door and asked for some food.  Well, the man was getting ready for God, so he didn’t really want to let the beggar in, but he could see the man needed food.  So he let the man in, and told him to eat whatever he needed and to take what he needed when he left.  And he talked to the beggar, as a host should, even as he marked the time and tried to hurry the man off as quickly as he could without being rude.  Finally the beggar left, and the old rich man felt he was ready.

“A knock came, and it was someone else needing food.  It wasn’t God.  The old rich man smiled and let them in, and shared his food, and talked with them, and let them out.  And more people came, and he let them in, and let them out, and all the while he wondered when God was coming.  The night came, and he still hadn’t seen God, and he went to pray and asked why God hadn’t come.

“And God said he’d come, that he’d been there all day.  He’d been the first beggar, and all the other people the old man had welcomed into his home, had talked to and fed, and spent his time with.  That everything the old man had done to those people he had done to God.”

Jack sighed and leaned back in his chair, chewing his lip.  He looked at the speaker.  “He’d been busy, preparing to meet someone very important, but when someone else came along and needed his time, he gave it.  He…”  He gave up with a shrug and fell into silence.