Authors: David Archer
Noah grinned and pointed at a chair. “There’s plenty,” he said. “With Neil around, I’ve learned to make sure there’s lots of food available.”
SIXTEEN
T
rue to her
word, Allison gave Noah and his team two days to let themselves prepare mentally for going out on their first mission. Ironically, they spent most of that time together, talking and gradually forming themselves into a unit.
It began the same evening as Allison’s announcement. After the fight, Moose was making an obvious effort to be friendly, but Noah could tell that it wasn’t easy for him, and so could the others.
“My God, Moose,” Neil said, “you don’t have to kiss Noah’s ass just because he kicked yours. He just wanted you to knock off the bullshit, not become his new BFF.”
Sarah giggled at Neil’s comment, but looked at Moose. “He’s right, Moose, lighten up a bit. If you stop being a surly asshole, no one will believe you’re you.”
Moose shrugged. “What, all I’m doing is being part of the team,” he said. “And I’m going to tell you something else, just so you know, but anybody who can kick my butt the way he just did, that’s somebody I want as a friend. Plain and simple.”
“As long as we can put whatever differences we had behind us,” Noah said, “then we’re good. I think that the best thing that could happen here is for the four of us to become as close as we can. Granted, I’m not the greatest in the friendship department, myself, but I can tell you that I’m one of the most loyal friends you can ever have. The one thing you can be certain of is that I’ll never deliberately let you down.”
The others looked at him for a moment, but Allison smiled. “I was a little surprised,” she said, “to see you two duking it out when I got here, but whatever method you had in your madness, Noah, it seems to be working. I gotta commend you for pulling it off, even while I want to reprimand you for risking damage to two of my assets.”
“There wasn’t much risk,” Noah said. “I wasn’t going to let Moose hurt me, and I wasn’t about to do him any serious harm. It didn’t take me long to figure out that we belong to E & E, which means you’d take a dim view of us breaking each other’s bones in a recreational setting. This was more of a psychological exercise, getting the power struggle between me and Moose out of the way so that we can focus on our missions as they come.”
“Wait a minute, hold up,” Moose said. “I just want to go on record that there’s nothing psychological about the swelling around my eye. Can I get a witness?”
“Hear, hear,” Neil said. “That looked pretty damn physical to me!”
Allison tipped back her beer bottle and took a long pull. “Whatever it was, it seems to have solved a major problem, so you get a pat on the back, this time.” Another drink finished off the bottle, and she tossed it into the trashcan behind her, then got to her feet. “Okay, children, it’s getting late and I got a busy day tomorrow. I’m going home, but I’m going to put the word out tomorrow morning that you’ve all got the next two days off. I strongly suggest you use it to make sure that any other differences between you are worked out as effectively as this one has been. As I said earlier, I decided on your first mission, and you’re going to need each other.” She turned without another word, and walked off toward her car. The rest of them waved and called their goodbyes, but all they got in response was a wave of her fingers over her shoulder. Her car started a moment later, and she was gone.
It was Sarah who broke the silence. “Okay, all BS aside, would you really have let Moose go if he had kicked your butt?”
Noah nodded solemnly. “You all heard me, that was the deal I offered.” He looked at Moose. “Don’t misunderstand me—it wasn’t that I wanted to get rid of you, because I didn’t. One thing I’ve already figured out about the Dragon Lady is that she’s pretty sharp, so if she decided you’re the best man for my team, then I’ve got to figure she’s right. This whole thing tonight wasn’t about trying to get you off my team, it was about trying to make you want to be a part of it.”
Moose stared at him for a good thirty seconds before he said a word. “Couple of things happened here tonight,” he said. “First off, Neil kind of got to me when he said he found proof that you told the same story all the way through, about what happened back in Iraq. From the articles that I read, it sounded like you only came up with that story after you were court-martialed, so that made me feel a little better about you.” He took a drink out of his bottle of beer. “Then, you made me your offer. If you had made that offer before I heard what Neil had to say, I probably would’ve tried even harder to whip your ass, but after that, I wouldn’t have quit the team even if I had won the fight. Just the fact that you gave me that chance, that said a whole lot about you. I’m with you, now.”
Neil waved a hand in the air. “Hey, just to make sure nobody has the wrong idea, I have been on your side the whole time, Noah. You don’t need to beat the snot out of me, we good on that?”
All three of the others laughed. “We’re good,” Noah said. “No problem.”
“If we’re going to have a little confession time, here,” Sarah said, “I should probably get in on it, too. I’ve been a little less than enthusiastic about having you for a team leader, Noah, because like everyone else, I heard about your—emotional issues?” She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t think it was the same kind of thing, but I grew up with a father who had absolutely no idea how to show emotion. It was like being raised by a machine, and that can really mess with a girl’s self-esteem. I had some issues, especially back in my early teens, but I loved the old sonofabitch. When I heard about your problems, I was scared to death that it was going to be like going back home, again.”
Noah smiled. “I think there’s a big difference between not feeling any emotion, and just not being able to show it. You see me smiling, joking, laughing—sometimes you see me acting sad—what you all need to understand, if this is going to work and we’re going to become a real team, is that all of that is an act. There is no emotion behind it, there’s no feeling of any kind.” He let the smile slide away. “I don’t think like one of you. Here’s how my thought processes go on our team. I’m looking at three people sitting here with me, and I know that each of you brings talents and abilities to the team that will make it far more likely that we can succeed in whatever mission we’re sent out on. That makes each and every one of you extremely important to me, and in a normal setting that would mean that I considered you each to be my close friends. For me, what that means is that keeping you safe is the most important thing on my mind, second only to completing the mission. When it comes to the mission, we are soldiers, just like the ones I served with in Iraq, just like the ones Moose served with in the Navy, and the sad fact is that soldiers are sometimes expendable. I will always, and I mean always, do everything I can think of to keep each and every one of you safe and healthy, so that we all come home from the missions. That I can promise you.”
The three of them sat there at the table and looked at him for a moment, and then Moose raised his bottle into the air. “To the team,” he said. “Let’s make it the best one there is.”
Sarah clinked his bottle with her own. “To the team,” she said.
Neil let out a long sigh, then sat forward and clinked as well. “To the team.”
Noah raised his own bottle and they all toasted again. “To the team,” he said. “We’ve all got to have each other’s backs, every minute when we’re out there. Are we all on the same page?”
All three agreed that they were, and they drank to their new union. When the bottles were back on the table, Sarah looked at Noah.
“So, I’m just curious, but if you don’t have emotions, have you ever had a girlfriend?”
Noah nodded. “Yes, a couple. I dated some in my teens, and I had a couple of girlfriends even since I joined the Army. I’m good enough that my human act keeps them happy for a while, but I don’t ever let anyone get too close. Wouldn’t be fair to them.”
Neil winked at Noah. “Sounds like Sarah might want to apply for the job,” he said, and a moment later Sarah pushed him out of his chair on to the ground.
“No, I don’t! God, Neil, why do you have to be such an ass?”
Neil laughed as he got back up to his chair. “Excuse me, but have you seen me? I’m a stretched-out beanpole with zits! Being a smart ass, and you can take that any way you want, is all I’ve got going for me.”
They sat and talked for another hour, and by that time, each of them had consumed enough alcohol that Noah wasn’t happy about them driving. With Moose backing him up, he managed to convince them all to simply go upstairs in his house and choose a guestroom for the night.
He went to his own room, took a quick shower and dried himself off, then walked naked out of his bathroom. He stopped just past the doorway, when he realized that Sarah was sitting at the foot of his bed.
“Sarah? Did you need something?”
She didn’t answer, but simply stood up and looked at him. She hooked her thumbs into the waistband of her shirt and pulled it off over her head, dropping it onto the floor. The rest of her clothes quickly followed, and she walked over and put her arms up and around his neck. She pulled gently, and he leaned his head down so that their lips met.
When the kiss ended, Noah pulled back and looked into her eyes. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
Sarah looked into his eyes for a moment, then said, “I do. You know we’re not allowed to have any real relationships, right? I figure we need to find ways to help each other out. Sometimes, I just need a little intimacy, just to be close to someone, but the last thing in the world I want right now is to have any real romantic feelings involved. That makes you the safest game in town. As long as you don’t mind being used that way, we can have a little fun, now and then.”
Noah put on a friendly grin. “Sounds like you thought that out logically,” he said. “My only concern might be that the other guys would get jealous. Should we keep this quiet, just between us?”
She shook her head, then kissed him again. “Moose is into big women, and he’s just not my type, anyway. I prefer a man with a brain, but Neil is just a kid. You might not consider yourself human, but at least you are intelligent, and a man.”
Noah lowered his eyebrows, squinting at her. “According to the dossiers they gave me on each of you, you’re only two years older than Neil. There’s a bigger age difference between us than that.”
Sarah giggled. “I wasn’t referring to his age, I’m talking about his whole attitude, the way he acts. He reminds me of a twelve-year-old boy who lived next door to us a couple years ago. He’s just too much of a kid for me, but the whole point of that was that I don’t think we need to keep any secrets.”
Noah shrugged, and kissed her once more, then took her by the hand and led her to the bed. He tossed back the covers and pushed her gently onto the mattress, then slid in beside her.
Like always, Noah woke at five thirty, this time to find himself tangled around the blonde girl in his bed. He managed to extricate himself without waking her, then quietly got out clean clothes and went to take another shower. When he came out of the bathroom fifteen minutes later, Sarah was still sleeping, so he woke her gently.
“Hey, it’s morning,” he said when her eyes were opened and focused on him. “I’m going down to the kitchen to make breakfast, but I wanted to wake you up before I start yelling up the stairs at the guys.”
She yawned, stretched and then smiled at him. “Sounds good,” she said. “Can I use your shower?”
Noah pointed toward the bathroom. “Right in there, help yourself. I’m gonna go make some coffee.”
He went down the hall to the kitchen, and started a pot of coffee, then went to the base of the stairs. “Hey, in case you haven’t noticed, it’s morning time,” he shouted. “Breakfast will be ready in thirty minutes. Anybody who isn’t here then doesn’t get to eat!”
He went back to the kitchen, opened his refrigerator and took out a dozen eggs and a package of sausage links, and set about making breakfast for his guests.
Neil and Moose found their way to the kitchen ten minutes later, and Sarah joined them ten minutes after that. Neil’s eyebrows shot up when he saw Sarah, because she was wearing one of Noah’s polo shirts, and possibly nothing else.
“But you’re not the least bit interested in being Noah’s girlfriend, right? I mean, that’s why I got tossed on the ground last night, isn’t it?”
Sarah smiled sweetly at him, then pointed at the tile floor under the stool he was sitting on. “That would hurt worse than the ground did,” she said. “We all know we can’t ever have a real relationship, so don’t give me any shit about this.”
Neil glanced down at the floor, then smiled at Sarah. “Point taken,” he said, then turned back to the cup of coffee sitting in front of him.
Noah’s kitchen featured a bar that was big enough for several people, and had six stools. Since it was close to the coffee maker, everyone had gravitated to it. Noah set a cup of coffee in front of the stool Sarah had taken, then poured a second cup for himself as he cooked. His range had a large griddle right in the center, which made frying a dozen eggs at once pretty easy, while the sausage was sizzling in a skillet.
“Anything I can do to help?” Sarah asked.
Noah looked up at her and grinned. “Plates are up in that cabinet,” he said, pointing, “if you wouldn’t mind getting them down. This is almost ready.” The toaster popped as he was speaking, and he quickly buttered four more slices of bread.
Sarah got the plates and set one in front of each of their stools, then got lucky and opened the silverware drawer on the first try. She got out forks and knives for each of them, and set them near the plates. “Nice kitchen,” she said.
“Yeah, all this was here when I moved in,” Noah said. “Looked like it was all brand new, too.”
She nodded. “Yeah, they gave me an apartment in Kirtland, and it was the same way, looked like it was all set up just for me. Even the colors and furniture were the kind I like.”
“Me, too,” Moose said. “I got a house in Kirtland, and it’s all set up the way I’d want it, as if I had chosen it myself. They do seem to know a lot about us, don’t they?”
“It’s called quantitative psychology,” Neil said. “It allows them to create mathematical models of human attitudes and psychology, even down to preferences and emotional behaviors.” He looked at Noah. “I bet you’re driving them crazy. Somehow, I can’t see them being able to predict you all that well.”