2
My eyes snap to the giant and kid. “No.” I don’t say more because every job I did was classified black ops.
“This is Cort Masters and Alder Ford. Cort is Territory President for Badass West, President of Phoenix Rising and my boss. Alder is President of the Alpha-Bit Security Zone Club that keeps him and the other hundred or so grown Ford’s safe, he’s one of Cort’s seconds, a doctor, pilot, architect, computer whiz, Protector and a million other things. Harper is my ol’ lady and was on her way but she bounced back to Bravo to help out at rehab. My boys like hanging out at the lab with Juan so she isn’t pissed with the callback then cancel. Juan gives them shit to do for a couple of weeks.” The colonel smiles showing his patchwork markings on one side almost as white as the albino kid. I replay what he said not sure I took everything he said in.
I feel my face tighten and wonder if it’s as white as his patchwork. Doctor, pilot…the kid isn’t a kid. “Enhanced?” I look at the pink eyed, white-haired kid looking over the giant’s shoulder.
The whiz kid gracefully slides off the giant and nods walking my way. “Grown by CIA. Only number seven to make it.” His eyes tell the story of his age, intelligence, trials and the determination that got him here.
I nod. “We’re the first with the chip. Others lost control, then humanity and didn’t make it. It didn’t stop them, Light found two more K-9 that are chipped. The program was supposed to be shut down.”
“Fuckin’ CIA crazy. Military no learn to stop trust to CIA dickass.”
I laugh slapping a hand on my chest quick. The unexpected intake of breath causes a cough and reminder of my unused sore throat.
My new little friend is on the bed with his hand on my wrist while his eyes are on the monitor screen up on the wall that shows stat numbers. “Mask you need it. Boss Harper X-ray show paralysis, I tell to stop more test.” He shrugs looking cute while talking like an adult. “You wake, you tell us. Respiratory, other issue you need me to help?” He makes me smile.
“Thanks for stopping more testing. I’m paralyzed and it’s not new to us. No movement means my muscles are weak. We were discharged a year and six, no eight months ago. That’s from the hospital in Germany. I was still healing, building strength. Whatever happened stopped that two months and three days ago.”
“How you know number day you here, VP Chris?” The little not-kid is quick.
“The chip. Shadow told me.”
He nods once like I do. It’s weirdly comforting. Maybe the only seven understands me better than most. A new connection would be good for me, us.
“Pres Cort have question. He leave, you rest, I stay to you. Scan to skeleton, brace.”
Like hell.
Shadow is up with his body in between me and Alder. Alder doesn’t react but the colonel is held back from a second step by the giant. Light is between them and the bed. I see it all but I’m surprised the giant isn’t stopping my partners, but Shadow is facing me so he’s not a threat to the albino not-kid .
Like hell I’d let anyone fuck with us again and my partners will help stop that.“No. I’m not taking the enhanced shit to walk. They said they could do it without messing with the chip but they chipped us without asking. I’m not part of the cyborg legion. Those guys can’t even think for themselves anymore.” Not to mention they sent paper to offer me legs after they tried killing us in Pakistan and hunted us through Scotland. They were definitely not the military that trained me as an operative for different branches.
Alder holds my arm with his little hand. “I no enhance anyone, ever. I grown to crazy fuckin’ CIA lab. You understand skeleton, you make decision. Pres Jinx come to see you, show you skeleton, new eye. You no like, you say no. Badass no live you life, Badass make life better to more. To me, Badass save me, my Ford Brothers, slaves, Indian, kids. Badass give me choice, help or not. Badass give Security to live best me. I take Pres job, help to more. Alpha-Bit Brothers not same to me, they grow food, train, work IT. Badass give Security to all, keep Alpha-Bit safe same to big Brothers, we happy.”
What? My brain snags on one thing. Possibilities are in there. “There’s a President that has the skeleton? He’s not enhanced?” The CIA didn’t offer that but I wouldn’t believe it if they did.
“Enhance outside. Skeleton outside. Boss Andrew have chip to back it transfer signal, muscle to skeleton. Same to Boss Maiyun. No enhance brain… Badass protect you…body, life. CIA work to better CIA, no care to life they use.”
It’s a good way to put it so I nod. “We can talk later. I need more information but Colonel Graywolf is nervous.”
My new friend turns his pink eyes and white head toward the colonel, then back to me fast. “Dog show to you?”
“Yeah. Luz, Sombra .” They both relax hearing their names in that order.
The giant laughs when Shadow jumps off the bed. “I like the light and dark.”
I smile at him. “I got them in Brazil. My uncle died before I could ship them home.”
Alder moves but not off the bed.
“What’s your name?” The colonel asks.
“Captain Seamus MacGregor. Last deployment was Green Beret Specialized Tactical.”
His head turns. “Not CENTCOM? You were an operative?” He’s holding the Delta out so I give him more.
I wish we stayed in CENTCOM but wishes I can’t control rarely come true. “Not for my whole time but that wasn’t told to me until later. They changed but didn’t inform us. I found out three years too late and planned to finish my tour as Green Beret dodging the orders I could without charges filed.”
He waves a hand toward his face. “I found out the hard way too.”
I nod not sure what to say.
Luckily, the giant has more to ask.“So, the dogs are linked to you?”
“Yeah, we’re all chipped. They’re partners.”
“Can we do anything for them while they’re here? We put a dog station in and they use it but they won’t sleep on beds, eat at the table we brought or with the other dogs.” None of the questions I expect come out. The giant runs the west with an empathy that I see starts with him. He’s a good one to build relationships with if I could get him to see they aren’t just dogs.
“Thank you. They wouldn’t unless I order it. They don’t understand discharge or don’t want to and have protocols to fly under radar if I’m incapacitated. They wouldn’t draw attention by showing too much until they trust their new partner.” I turn toward my partners standing together. “Downtime until I’m out,” I say in Greek.
My new little buddy is surprised and his little white head rears back. “Greek.”
“Yeah, we have a protocol to follow. They’d stay in alert if I don’t use it. It shows my focus and ability to keep me safe.”
Shadow sends me a salute through the chip and walks out.
The giant laughs looking at Light. “He’s on while the other is off. Just sayin’, that K-9 Brother is jacked like a cartoon character.”
I smile. “They both are but Shadow has no way to hide it. Light needs to be shaved.”
Alder nods. “Boss Piper say to ask flea, tick, worm, blood aversion okay to them. Granola bar all-natural plant all grow to ABSZ. No enhance to mind. Plant in bars change blood same to vaccine. Basil, garlic, blood aversion plant no change to mind.”
“You didn’t give it to them?” This has me hoping for honest to God good people to be real. Everything this not-kid says is good and shows respect I’ve always given but found wasn’t reciprocated. The chip was put in us because someone decided they owned me, gassing us and dropping us in a different country, trying to stop us from getting home, burning my uncles house and chasing us through three countries and that’s just the military in the worst examples of my adult life. They were supposed to be the good guys.
The little guy looks at the giant.
“It’s not a call we had to make. Copper said maybe the worms but we haven’t gone past three months and we know they don’t have worms now. They have a shower that uses dog soap so they don’t really need the bars for that, it’s more for if they’re off the compounds or on jobs. The blood aversion is a plant Harky uses for his enhanced dogs.”
That gets my attention. “K-9 jobs?”
“The enhanced dogs.” Chris comes through the door answering me with Shadow and a huge black shepherd I’ve seen before, along with a soldier that looks familiar.
“Orion, Perses?”
“Zeus. I’m Harky. Zeus has been keeping your dogs in procedures but he says they know them. You’re not a Marine?”
“Never that one, but reassigned to Green Beret. We were based out of Brazil until they brought us over to an EU base. My K-9 was reassigned and I was going to retire but found Shadow and Light. They offered to train them for my next four but didn’t mention the chips, changing my command, or hunting us when they found out we survived.”
He shakes his head. “Jesus. South America, you know Perses?”
I nod. “I worked with him but only for a couple of months. Before that was Nike and Aeolus. They were good partners but moved to different units. Orion was on a JASOC base.” He was the only one I worked with in the EU because I had my own partners for jobs.
“You’re a K-9 trainer?” The giant asks.
“Cort Masters, we call him Cort or Boss,” the colonel says and I realize two things, Chris meant Cort, not court, earlier and the colonel is a seer.
I look at Chris, our young VP. “Seer?”
He smiles with a quick nod that tells me he knows of my judicial gaff from earlier. “ Reader we call it, but, yeah.”
“Boss it is. No, I’m a black ops operator but worked alone or with a K-9 partner for a couple of months at a time. It could have been me training them but no one ever said. We got orders and dropped over borders. When we were done, we’d make it back to base.”
Cort looks at the colonel. “That’s normal shit?”
The colonel isn’t happy but nods. “I had a team but knew two operators that ran with small teams. Delta Force does highly classified ops that are known only to a few. Smaller team Black Ops operators are few, highly specialized, focused and deadly without carrying shame or blame. They’re multi-use. Meaning some operatives were trained for use by other branches and agencies.”
I nod my head. Delta isn’t a job we talk about. I give him what I can. “We weren’t ever that big. I only ran classified, never a team. It was me and a K-9 until they pulled me to EU then it was me and my two in training. We had one year of training but that was while working. They were trained in all I had through the chip.
Harky nods. “Our training was on the job too, Boss. They’re fucked-up but we made it. Some dogs and handlers didn’t make it out.”
I nod raising the bed higher. “We saw a whole unit implode before they shut it all down. I was hit then discharged but remember 22 K-9s and eleven handlers died from some kind of overload or something. My partners helped me piece it together. We all kept memories but until we put it together, not one of us had it alone. We were gassed and left in Pakistan. A French SF team got me to a plane headed to Germany with my partners. We owed time but they let us go with honorable discharges instead of medical leave. They figured they’d get rid of us in private but we didn’t make it easy.”The new teams had Delta Operatives that shouldn’t have been mixed in with their untrained turncoats. Those operators helped us out when we needed it.
“Brolin?” Harky asks. It takes me a second to realize he means the French GIGN.
I shake my head no. “I heard of him but no. Bastille was the Commander. He was GIGN too, I think, everything is hazy from then. They transferred me at an airfield and had to get back for a mission.”
Harky nods but doesn’t add whatever he’s holding. At a guess, he’ll be here to talk again.
“All the dogs you named are here. We run regular rescue missions for them and with them.” Cort has me turning back his way.
“I’m glad they made it out. Zeus was a name I heard but didn’t know he was cyborg.”
Alder shakes his head. “Cyborg wrong. Prosthetic. No change to mind. Change to fix injury.”
Harky catches my attention with his nod. “He was caught in a blast and lost his leg. Alder fixed him up with the leg and more technology geared for him. He was my second in, so he made colonel and is the Lead for all K-9s here.”
I smile down at the K-9. “Glad you made it back for this.”
He huffs at me. “ Chuff , Harky calls it,” Chris corrects me.
“Okay.”
The giant doesn’t care. “So, you’re not from here? You have no accent at all.”
I smile at Cort. “It was trained out of me. I was born here but raised in Scotland with my uncle who was military. My parents died when I was young. I went to Stanford and joined as an officer doing basic in California then Virginia, North Carolina and Florida for different agencies and branches, but I was shipped out before the ceremony every time.”
The Commander laughs. “Wheeler had that experience. I made the ceremony but not the party after.”
Cort shakes his head. “The party is the most important part. Badass does it better, Brothers. So, someone is looking for you or your dogs. Brekan saw the dogs protecting and only letting who they approve of close to you. The dark one had a memory hit Brekan so he pulled you here. You’re in Colorado and Brekan gave his protection so you’ve got Badass West behind you. You can stay or go, take a skeleton or not, become a member or not, work for the Club or not. Your protection stands no matter what you do. Living here makes our protection easier for us to give, but we have Clubs all over. You weren’t far from one in Texas.” Respect is wrapped in there and I feel the need to jump in but remember similar words from my command that didn’t deliver on that promise. Elite military take oaths and make promises for life. Twelve years in meant I was moving on but would work my training for different purposes. They lost that when they chipped me, then dropped us from a chopper. They reneged by my way of thinking and my partners agreed. We made other plans.
“Why would you do this?” I ask knowing he can hear the emotion in there. I feel every word he said. I want to believe every word he said, but have two partners that need me to take some time here. They’re both relaxed and not throwing red flags at me so it’s got me hoping this is real. I don’t give a shit that these bikers see it. Graywolf puts his hand on my arm so he must feel it from me.
“You served the fucked-up government and us while you were in. You were taking care of native workers who didn’t have some form proving they are who their other form and ID says they are. To me, you’re already Badass. Making it better for more is the point, Brother. You were doing it without the protection. You may never need it again, but we’re here if you do.” Cort Masters has me considering this seriously.
Shadow and Light have thumbs up signs showing to me. Where the hell did they learn that? They’ve been awake here longer than I have and know these people. They’d pick up malicious deceptions so I have to believe they’re all telling the truth.
My head drops and eyes close while I take in a deep breath. Good people are hard to come by, it’s high time to believe they exist again, my old workers and partners believe. Opening my eyes on the giant, I nod once. “Thank you. We request a job, some intel on the Badass Club and a line on a home. If it’s not what you do, the name of the person who does that, please.” I used all the words the military taught us so I get what we need right up front.
The colonel laughs and gives my arm a bit of a squeeze before letting it go. “He learned Green Beret building relationships from the bottom up, Boss. He’s more Saber with Delta than me and Wheeler but they’d be assets to any Club they’re part of. One thing he won’t do is give up. Delta and Green Beret especially, but all elite don’t recognize it as an option.” The colonel is a national hero because he wouldn’t give up. He knows.
I smile at Harky and Zeus’ obvious offense and shake my head. “It’s never an option and my partners agree and mastered all my training.”
The giant smiles with his blue eyes sparkling like he’s amused. “Another Club in a Club. What problems do we have pressing?”
They all laugh. I don’t understand why until my new little whiz not-kid friend tells me about Badass crazy.
I laugh when the others, including the enhanced K-9 do a show and tell about Badass crazy. I think I’m going to like our new options, the best being that we don’t have to go back to the inferno they call Texas.