her depthless black pools. She was very cute, looking as though she was waiting for something bad to suddenly happen.
“I need to digest the fact that you’ve beaten me to the punch. No worries, see? I want to spend the rest of my life by your side. I’m not sure you realize that traditionally, I’d be the one asking you.”
“Earth has many odd customs, not least of which are your marriage traditions. Why should it matter who asks whom?”
“It’s…oh, never mind. You’re right.” He thought of a certain ring, one made from Ethiopian opal set in black gold. He’d been ‘thinking it over’ for nearly a year, and now…it seemed like an irrelevant notion. Perhaps it would be better for the wedding, anyway. “What was the other thing you wanted to talk about?”
Sa’andy grimaced. This was what had caused her to blurt out her proposal; fear of the unknown. She wondered how he would react to her confession. Breathing in deeply, she tried madly to sort out how to say it, and let it come out in one big rush.
Tark sat quietly for a few minutes. Part of him wanted to laugh aloud, while the rest of him sat in dazed bewilderment. Sa’andy had always seemed so straightforward and uncomplicated. Instead, she was turning out to be nothing short of a spook.
“Are you a spy, then?” She laughed at him, not without a touch of unease.
“Not a spy. At least, I don’t think so. I was asked to help, so I did.”
“Dare I ask who approached you?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea yet. I’m sure they’ll come to you before long.”
He was at a loss for words again. She had kept secrets from him. Even now, she was keeping a secret. The question was what he would do now. His random coincidence, finding six frozen people in the middle of nowhere in space? Sa’andy had known all along why she was volunteering to scan and catalog Jupiter. She’d just needed the excuse to go looking. But why? Why bother waking these people up?
“Why?”
“There’s not a quick answer. I don’t know all the details anyway.”
“I’ve got to know some of it, if I’m going to make a decision. Life around here may get a little crazy during the next week or so, and I need to be able to be ready for it.”
“I know. We’re not talking about the end of the storm season though, are we?” His forced smile answered for him. “They have a task ahead of them. It will be dangerous, but they are the only ones who can accomplish it.” She wanted to tell him the rest, but she’d been compelled to remain silent. It was essential that he remain ignorant of certain things for now. They had promised he would be briefed fully when the time came.
Until then, he could not know that these people were the only ones…because they did not exist. Because they all contained the essential part of their conditioning and training. Sa’andy had asked her handler whether there was a trigger. Would they simply begin their mission once a signal or cue was given?
But she was not authorized to have that answer. That alone was enough to convince her not to tell Tark everything. Perhaps these people were simply time bombs. She did not want to think of them that way, but it was already in her mind. She could spare Tark that doubt for now. She smiled at him, hoping that he trusted her enough to let it lie for now.
“Well, we should make the most of our fleeting free time, then.” No words exchanged. Just the quickening of heartbeats, and a mutual need for each other. It was love born of certainty, and had been from the first. Instinct drove them together, rather than apart.
۞
The stranger slept as he usually did, half-awake, reviewing the day’s events while his body recharged. Knowing a great many more things than he had at the beginning of his stay, his rest was calm. Most of these details had been gleaned within the past twenty-four hours or so. He’d seen several of those walking meatsicles, and knew with whom he wanted to start.
It would be the beginning of the solution to the problem of their existence. Heat of divine inspiration blossomed in his mind, as it was flooded with plans and the promise of blood. The mission was to go forth and bend the arms of justice with his righteousness. Purity would be restored because of these steps, the first of many in the coming days.
Should be careful about getting ahead of oneself, he thought. Overconfidence tended to bring down hubris and wrath. Then progress would come to a dead halt. Emphasis on the dead. All in good time, that was his motto, patience was the key to success. In the meantime, there were other women.
That thought in mind, he rousted himself from his short nap, and ambled out in search of a date. Hopefully someone appropriate. He could buy her dinner, and laugh or frown at the right moments while she talked. During this time, he would really thinking about the power he would exercise, just out of the realm of her perception.
Oh, he wasn’t a god. That job was better left to the man who had sent him here. He was the type of monster who enjoyed bringing to life the chaos that Robert Warden envisioned. An artist with appalling talent, he would carefully exact the tempests of his master, precision all that mattered. Like a destroying angel, a nephilim, with outward beauty and only decay within.
The ship he’d arrived on had already departed, naturally. He had a whole replacement host of unsuspecting cherubs, nymphs, and seraphim. So many assorted hues and textures, all living on board this military base and civilian city. So many possibilities in tastes and turn-ons. Who knew where the night could take him? At last, an object of his usual desires crossed right in front of him. She saw him check her out, blushing just enough to tease his sensibilities. Just his type too; long blonde hair, modestly endowed, excellent taste in clothing.
Someone you’d bring home to mother, except, well, his mother was dead. Just the same, he knew she’d have approved. Like the last two, but now he knew he’d have to proceed with discretion, and not have this one discovered the way the last one had been. He’d been skillful with the one after that. He couldn’t afford to get lazy and careless now. If there was nothing to be found, there was no trail to lead back to him. He approached her with his usual disarming smile lighting up blue-grey eyes and perfectly white, straight teeth.
“Are you waiting for somebody? No? Do you mind if I join you?”
۞
It was deep into the night when Tark dragged himself from bed, leaving behind the enigmatically smiling woman who would soon be his wife. He didn’t really want to be up, or do any of the work he’d set himself up for, but being in his office at this hour ensured quiet and privacy.
No prying eyes to tell tales. The officer of the day probably wouldn’t make much of an appearance, and the couple of people watching sensors or comm would ignore him. He wanted to make a call back earthside on a secure channel. It would take a little bit of finagling, breaking of protocols, but he had to try to get some information.
He tiptoed around, getting dressed. The frogs watched him carefully, hoping that it was mealtime. They were to be disappointed. The distraction of purpose sent him out the door without even a glance in their direction.
A toe ached from where he’d stubbed it fumbling around in the dark. Sa’andy hadn’t stirred. Maybe all that stuff she’d gotten off her chest had freed her up to sleep completely for once.
A few minutes later, he had slipped into his office, and was bypassing security to obtain an outside connection. It was an older method of communication, without the nice hi-res of current visuals, but it would do. Hopefully, he’d get through.
“Jorge? Is that you?” An older woman came into view, her silvery hair wound tightly up into a regulation bun. Even with a terrible connection, he could see her dark eyes twinkling. She was pleased to hear from him.
“Ma’am. Sorry to contact you on the low band.” Why did he always felt like a schoolboy in her presence?
“I would imagine that there is good reason.” She resonated with the dignity and authority she’d been practicing for some thirty years.
“I…need to know some things.” He gave as detailed an account as he c
ould, given his own role in the hiding of all this information from official record. “General, you know I wouldn’t call you unless I couldn’t get what I needed some other way.”
The older woman was silent for several moments, her dark eyes closing in consideration. He had already asked a great deal. But he was kin, after all.
۞
“I realize that it’s probably been a while….”
“You could probably stop talking.”
“I like a little banter, don’t you?”
“Maybe next time.” She pulled him back close. “Are you having second thoughts?”
“No.” In reality, the moment was so powerful, he felt strangely inebriated. The way she watched him overwhelmed his senses and thoughts. It wasn’t merely a physical attraction. He’d had plenty of experience with that. It had always proved to be temporary and disposable. This was different.
“Then what?”
“I don’t know what you’re doing to me.” He still couldn’t figure out what color her eyes were.
“The feeling is mutual.” She put a wondering hand up to his cheek, as if to punctuate the thought. They had made it halfway across the small living room in a circuitous manner. Her heart felt excruciatingly tight. “I’m going to complicate the hell out of you.”
“I don’t care.” He carefully worked off the shirt she’d put on, the dampness of her skin hanging onto it reluctantly. His hands moved from her neck, down her arms, finally resting on her hips. Briefly, he noted the jagged scar that ran from her hipbone to her navel. She seemed to sense it, and tried to cover herself. Angry tears rose, but did not fall. He kissed them away, taking hold of her hands. “I know what I said before….”
“I trust you.” She laughed dryly. “I just don’t trust me.”
He ignored the bait, not wanting to lose the moment, and pulled off his own shirt. Placing her hand over a scar on his chest, the one that had almost taken him into the next world, he smiled at her shock.
“I told you. We all end up in the dark at one point or another. It just seems like we’re alone, because we can’t see past ourselves.” He held her hand on his chest and let his body take the lead. The floor was as good as anywhere. They moved together as if half-starved, each trying to fill a vast emptiness.
۞
“Well, I am your mârraine, Jorge. And you never ask for anything.”
“Can you help?”
“I will see, jenn jan. This is a strange story indeed, one I have never heard before.” His godmother pursed her lips at him. “You are looking thin, is not that girl of yours feeding you?”
“Yes, ma’am, she is. And I know it’s a crazy story. If I wasn’t here, living it, I would never believe it.”
“Hmph. That is how we may know its truth, perhaps. It will take me some time to ask questions without stirring up the bees, you know this.”
“I do. Since we don’t know what we’d be stirring up, I have to assume it would be bad. Sa’andy said that whatever these people have to do, that it would be dangerous.”
“But she won’t tell you any more?”
“I don’t know that she can. She’s not telling me everything, that’s for sure, but I don’t think she’s on the wrong side of this.”
“And you, what happens if she is? Can you make the right decision then?”
“I’ll have to let Dmitry take the lead on that, I guess.”
“Il est vraiment bête. Don’t trust him to do what you cannot.”
“I trust him with my life.”
“Well, be ready with a shovel for him to dig you a hole.” The general was not one to forgive bad judgment yet, clearly.
“Passer l'éponge, Madame. He’s certainly paid for his mistakes to my mind.”
“As you say. Let us hope, anyway.” She made her farewells and signed